seanchouston

@JustinTrudeau Trudeau has a ton of faults and blame, and can be really irritating, but he isn't in it for the money. Trump will leave office in 2028 ten times richer than he was before November 2023. And that's what it's all about.

Good to have you back.

@GiuseppinaCelia ciao come va?

@Tyler_A_Harper M4A? In 2020 it was supported by 87% of Dems and 74% of Independents. The DNC killed it. Preferred risking a defeat to running on M4A. I care less about Sanders than about M4A. 100 million Americans are desperate for it. I'd vote for anyone running credibly on M4A.

It’s almost as if it would be prudent for one of the political parties to embrace the political stances supported by the most popular political figure in America. I am just spitballing.

@tomhfh The CONSERVATIVES are to blame. Obviously. They were in power the last FOURTEEN YEARS. More concerned with Brexit, enriching their ultrarich handlers, gutting the prosperity of non-rich Brits. They did almost nothing. In 14 years. What little they did was destructive.

Wow. Brutal from the Royal Bank of Canada. "The UK is a country with the reserves in the North Sea to be self-sufficient in gas for many years to come. Yet oil companies are being stymied in developing new fields due to a nihilistic climate agenda. Nihilistic, in that such obstruction means that the UK is forced to import LNG from far afield – only adding to Scope 3 emissions in the process."

@krystalball In the US we have millions of progressives on social issues who are rightwing and often reactionary on economics. They might have gay friends and support reproductive rights, but their portfolio yields and property values are sacred.

“The “woke” era was explicitly engineered by neoliberal elites (like Hillary) to block material progress…and it was successful

@RnaudBertrand "Left" should be used for political economy. "Progressive" for social issues and policy. The US has lots of progressives who are rightwing on economics. Bernie Sanders is "Left" on economics. Would be centrist in Europe. Eisenhower too. Unions, public investment, taxes, etc.

None of these people are even remotely on the left. The real important story that happened since the Cold War is perhaps best illustrated by this Margaret Thatcher anecdote: in 2002, she was asked for her greatest achievement. She replied: "Tony Blair and New Labour. We forced our opponents to change their minds." And guess what: she was right, that was indeed her greatest achievement. That's what happened throughout the West: the ideological takeover of the "left" by "social democrats" who had no substantial difference to their opponents across the aisle. And in order to maintain the pretense that they were different, they decided to focus their platform on cultural and identity issues while abandoning any challenge to economic or imperial power - reducing civil rights struggles to convenient diversions from questions of class and systemic change. It's not the left that's unpopular, it's this sanitized ersatz of it. Voting essentially became a choice between the same product with different packaging, the illusion of choice. Even more contemptible: candidates who emerged who were actually on the left, who wanted to drive actual substantial and meaningful change, were endlessly demonized with some of the most dishonest and disgusting tactics in politics. Jeremy Corbyn in the UK is a perfect example of this - smeared as a national security threat (and an antisemite) not just for his economic program but for questioning the wisdom of NATO expansion and opposing Western imperialism. In France we're currently seeing much the same playbook being applied on Jean-Luc Mélenchon. This ties back to the concept of "extreme center" described by thinkers such as Tariq Ali, Pierre Serna or Alain Deneault. A radicalized form of liberalism that presents itself as moderate and reasonable while actually taking extremist positions in defense of the status quo - whether through unwavering support for imperial adventures abroad or the suppression of democratic alternatives at home. This centrism is 'extreme' in how viciously it reacts to any genuine left-wing challenge to the established order, whether through media smear campaigns, lawfare, or the cynical weaponization of identity politics to defend both domestic inequality and imperial power. The irony and the situation we today find ourselves in is that this "extreme center," in its zealous defense of neoliberal orthodoxy and its refusal to address fundamental economic grievances, ended up creating the very conditions of social instability and political polarization it claims to stand against. And, ultimately, the conditions of its demise as we're currently seeing throughout the West. The sad result though is that because the actual left has been so thoroughly demonized, legitimate popular anger and resentment largely get directed towards nihilistic movements that, far from solving our fundamental problems, channel these sentiments into scapegoating and division. These movements won't solve our fundamental problems - while they may break with certain aspects of neoliberal orthodoxy, they mostly offer the aesthetic of rebellion while dropping even the pretense of serving the common good. That's where we are: the victory of the 'extreme center' over the left has proven to be simultaneously absolute and self-defeating. Thatcher's boast about Blair might have been premature - her true legacy may not just have been making the left compatible with neoliberal economics, but creating a world where our only choice is between the plague and cholera.

@ninaturner Neoliberals. ie. rightwing reactionary on economics and geopolitics As to popularity, I'm no Starmer fan, but he just won a landslide majority in the UK.

Who here is the “left”?

@austinahlman M4A. As simple as running credibly and forcefully on M4A. M4A was the most popular policy plan in decades. 87% of Dems, over 70% of Independents, a majority of Repubs. 100 million Americans have no or inadequate healthcare. The Dem party killed M4A. And lost twice to Trump.

@krystalball M4A. As simple as running credibly on M4A. A program desperately needed by 50 million and urgently by another 50 million. No other program was and is more vital and more popular. The gutless, greedy, corrupt, self-interested and anti-democratic Dem party killed M4A. And lost.

Bernie would have won and achieved FDR style majorities

@SocialistMMA Why not run for office instead?

Bernie Sanders isn’t an inspiration. He wasn’t a hero who advanced left causes He is a grifter who wasted $400 million of working class money while betraying us There is not enough anger at Bernie. He did more damage than good and I’ll debate this with anyone

@davidsirota The worst was the part where incompetent or dishonest speculators were given TRILLIONS of OUR dollars on the "condition" they lend them BACK TO US at non loanshark rates... but then just kept the money and started speculating all over again. US capitalism at its purest.

@itsolelehmann And yet.... The quality of life of NON-RICH people in the EU is higher than for non-rich Americans. There are 100 MILLION Americans desperate for healthcare; they either have none or inadequate healrhcare and/or mefical debt. 100 million would be the BIGGEST nation in the EU.

I'm German. 16 years ago, the EU and US economies were neck and neck. Today, the US economy is 50% larger than the entire EU combined. Here's the devastating truth behind Europe's ongoing economic suicide 🧵:

@samhaselby Obama matter of factly said he ran as a "moderate 1980s Republican". On political economy, Eisenhower would've been to the left of Hillary and of every Dem party candidate in the 2020 primary. What now? If you don't run on M4A, you don't earn my vote.

Harris ran to the right of Hillary who ran to the right of Obama, so, yes let's be sure to keep trying this.

@LittleMammith As a former incel told me, real gals can't hold a candle to porn gals. They do get tired of jerking off after a while, he said, and they sometimes venture out into the world and occasionally get laid. But it's hard work, time consuming and, he said, surprisingly expensive.

@BladeoftheS Don't get lost in the everyday details of the everday lives of everyday people. 2 trillion to 10 trillion. The rich paid 2 trillion for 10 trillion worth of everyday people's stuff. Conservatives' ultrarich handlers are not everday people.

Margaret Thatcher failed at everything, unemployment, inflation, the economy, all did dreadful under her. But she gave 2m cheap houses, and gave the rich $10tn worth of your stuff for $2tn. So she fooled the fools and pleased the billionaires and their Media.

@RpsAgainstTrump MASA Make America Strungout Again

RFK Jr.: "I was at the bottom of my class. I started doing heroin and I went to the top of my class. Suddenly, I could sit still and I could read."

@PopCrave Jesus was killed to enact change. CEOs could aspire to heaven.

Ethel Cain says she supports the idea of killing CEOs to enact change: “I genuinely mean what I say….It’s simple, you make them fear for their lives and hit them in the only place they hurt or nothing will ever get done…”

@NicholasTyrone People who see a chance to make a quick buck. Most Brits live on an island, but a select few follow the money to wherever it takes them and their principles.

Why would people who never shut up about the importance of British sovereignty and how Brexit was our “declaration of independence” be happy to sell Britain to America?

@davidsirota Medicare For All. Didn't have to be about Sanders, but Dems lost those two elections because they opposed the most popular (and badly needed) policy in decades. Dems had 2 anti-majority principles in play. Opposing M4A itself and opposing its popularity. Hard to win like that

@KemiBadenoch 🤡🤣🤡🤣🤡🤣🤡🤣🤡🤣🤡 The BEST UK economy in DECADES... FOR BILLIONAIRES! The other 99.99% didn't get the memo. P.S. Why did CONSERVATVES in office for 14 years let those girls get raped by gangs?

Labour inherited the fastest growing economy in the G7. In 6 months they’ve 🔴taken Britain to the brink of recession 🔴the highest borrowing costs since 2008, (highest since 1998 for 30yr-gilts) and 🔴mortgage rates are about to spike. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are making everything worse. inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyl…