While your neighbor who lives in the bad part of town is seriously considering taking out a payday loan just to get their kid their medicine, Kyrtsen Sinema is trying to figure out what type of grapes she'll grow in the winery she's buying with all that sweet, sweet bribe money from Big Pharma.

Because their hands are tied by the elites, who threaten to defund their campaigns if they step out of line , the Democrats push education and retraining as the only real way for regular people to get ahead, while not doing enough to support unions, end predatory lending and tax the wealthy.
The only solution is to get money out of politics. The morbidly wealthy, who need no services or safety net, should have no say in politics at all.

Psychologists have developed ways to test for racial prejudice through scenario-based questioning. Every cop should be forced to take that test, as well as a psych exam, before they're ever issued a gun. It's ridiculous not to do that. It's been proven time and again that there's no way to reduce police violence against minorities without making sure police are mentally fit for the job in the first place.

The big social media platforms continue to run misinformational "greenwashing" ads from oil companies and their lobbying firms, claiming that they're "taking steps" to solve climate change, even though those steps are way too small and basically accomplish nothing other than making viewers look away because they think it's being handled.

Some have suggested that there should be warnings displayed in the ads, telling people that it's all bs.
Not a bad idea, huh?

Pretty much all citizens know in their hearts that this country's core tenets - democracy and republicanism - have been replaced by the whims of a demented plutocracy, that Milton Friedman's "free market experiment" has proven to be a disastrous failure not just to America's citizens but to all humanity.

Kinda sucks huh?

@OldCountryDoctor - Lol yes, very.

On the subject of free education, James Madison wrote, “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.”

When Ronald Reagan declared war on universities, his administration's goal was keeping voters stupid and voting against their best interests.

In 2022, HUD calculated that 582,462 Americans were homeless. In 2020, a Housing and Urban Development report found that black people make up nearly half of the homeless population, yet comprise only 13% of the general population.

Yet another uncomfortable but unsurprising statistic. We cannot have a serious labor movement without ending system-wide racism. Fact, not opinion.

Yikes, we're trying that Twitter Space, tonight at 7 PM EST, click below to set a reminder if you haven't left Twitter yet like everybody else has!
The real purpose of these (recorded) chats is for me to compare notes with my buddy Jack Fortunati on topics that'll be in my next book (Feb 2024), mostly stuff about progressive-to-liberal politics, propaganda, MMT, unions, trolls/bots etc. This one will be about dark money, evil billionaires etc. Say hello if you're bored!
https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1rmxPkbNEEjJN/peek

I don't get why people are ok with all the nepotism that goes on in elite circles, like how the children of movie stars get the most desirable roles just because their parents were amazingly successful.
It's not about being envious, it's about depleted soil. Nepotism makes things stale and uninspired. I'm not cool with it, sorry, no.

@BlueCrossMovement - It was a server crash, looks like. Welcome to the Elon era, which will probably be pretty short with any luck.

@Rickbflony - Oh yeah!

Once again we're doing a Twitter Space, tonight at 7 PM EST, click below to set a reminder if you haven't left Twitter yet like everybody else has!
The real purpose of these (recorded) chats is for me to compare notes with my buddy Jack Fortunati on topics that'll be in my next book (Feb 2024), mostly stuff about lefty politics, propaganda, MMT, unions, bots etc. This one will be about dark money, evil billionaires etc. Pop in and say hello if you're bored!
#amwriting
https://twitter.com/esaeger/status/1621491145544011776

Democratic leaders need to stop being afraid of talking about class issues that aren't just the usual evils of the billionaire class. For example if you can't afford to buy the product sold by the company you spend 5 days a week working for, you're being exploited, and etc.
There is a neo-bourgeoisie, and Democrats need to ease up on catering to it so often with messaging about education and whatnot. It obviously annoys working class people. Some folks don't want to work in a cube all day.

What sucks is that ridiculous Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United just build on equally bad legal precedents that came before them, like Buckley v Valeo.
It'd take forever to fix these things through our legal system, which is totally owned by our oligarchs, too many of whom are insane right-wingers.
And it's just going to get worse while the SC is run by radical Christian fundies.

Other than that, everything's great, no complaints really.

Wow, I woke up today and had totally forgotten that I live in a glorified third world country whose elite, invisible, hyper-wealthy owners make sure that everyone in its working classes are treated as horribly as possible and whose laws are decided upon by a hilariously disrespectable Supreme Court whose majority members actually believe in witches and demons, it was kind of nice.

@Xfbxtwit - Any flavor of xenophobia seems to fit them just fine, yes.

Blackstone and other bulk buyers of mortgages are helping to destroy the middle class from within.

From 2020 to 2022, the average home price went up 30% to $524k.

20% down payment=$108k, so monthly mortgage=$2329.

Average monthly net salary in the US: $3,200.

Average student loan/mo = $393.

After student loan and mortgage, there's $478/mo left.

This is completely monstrous.

The Libertarians are simply the pro-greed half of the Republicans, widely considered to be crazies. They could never win the presidency on their own (Ron Paul, anyone?).
That's why they have to suck up to the GOP's other half, radical Christians, who are considered by most people to be the single biggest threat to America’s religious freedom.

tldr; the trick is to split the GOP.

So recently I ran into a conservative friend at a big box store. I can usually kid around with this guy, but he's hopelessly Republican. Anyway, I was wearing a mask, and he says "Are you immuno-compromised?" Took me a second to get what he meant, and then I gave him a deranged look and said "Actually I wear this to be a *fuckin asshole*."