Kevin Elliott

Kevin Elliott

@kjephd.bsky.social

5207

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Political theorist studying democracy, ethics, & institutions at Yale. Author of Democracy for Busy People (https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo194847654.html); more at kevinjelliott.net. Generally tweeting my way through this thing

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agree and boy do i have the podcast for you if you feel this way

Extremely frustrating to hear legal experts analyzing the SCOTUS ruling on immunity like just another case - it's an inherently normalizing act. People need to stop playing constitutional Calvinball and treat them like political actors.

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This should be part of the Democracy reforms we put forward. America will love whichever party cuts elections down from 18 months to 3 months.

UK politics can be grim, but election night there with constituencies being largely ungerrymandered, losers standing next to winners of podiums, and the "election season is 6 weeks, not 2 years" default is incredibly wholesome

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You might call the SCOTUS ruling an Enabling Act…

Extremely frustrating to hear legal experts analyzing the SCOTUS ruling on immunity like just another case - it's an inherently normalizing act. People need to stop playing constitutional Calvinball and treat them like political actors.

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Remember how the "retail theft crime wave" disappeared as soon as companies had to do their annual reports? That's because it's illegal to lie to shareholders. AI is booming (if you're a pleb) but if you have money - Goldman Sachs will be honest with you instead web.archive.org/web/20240629...

🤷🏿‍♂️

There's a Small Problem With the AI Industry: It's Making Absolutely No Moneyfuturism.com AI is not making money for investors which may be connected to businesses having trouble adopting the technology.

web.archive.org

I was just looking at predictions and the projected outcome looks like the Tories and anti-immigrant Reform did considerably better, and Labour and the Lib Dems considerably worse than the last predictions indicated

I think this is going to be a moderately bad election for the polling industry which will be forgotten because it's essentially a blowout

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"Independence from Britain" is the world's most celebrated holiday.

"you're not American why do you care about the 4th of July" mate I'm Indian, any day someone got the Brits to fuck off back to their country is a national holiday for me

If you've heard it's flatly irrational to vote and wonder if that's right, this short piece is for you. The math doesn't check out

"Everyone with too much sense uses breath to say 'voting is irrational' a lot every two years." www.liberalcurrents.com/if-you-see-v...

If You See Voting, Say Nothingwww.liberalcurrents.com It’s an article of faith among some anarchists and authoritarians that voting is an irrational action. There’s a proof, somewhere, in a book—was it Democracy and Decision by Geoffrey Brennan and Loren...

The best of America is what's under attack by the reactionary right

just watched 74 people speaking at least a dozen different languages become american citizens in a ceremony at monticello, where the speakers were themselves children of immigrants. inspiring stuff and a vivid illustration of what reactionaries want to snuff out

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There's a Quiet New Deal going on...

Banning medical debt from credit reports. Cracking down on junk fees. Banning non-competes. Capping credit card fees. Negotiating drug prices. Expanding OT pay. These Biden policies don't make headlines, but this is what it looks like when government works for the people.

Seems like Kant endorses the principle underlying 'cancelling' people for being vile

Should you keep company with those who are wicked?, asks Kant. Guess what? His answer is no.

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Sometimes going to the museum is an escape, and other times

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the conservative theory of law in one headline

Seats on corporate boards reserved for labor representatives would be a major, arguably democratizing reform of capitalism's primary organizational form. A very interesting program being proposed here by the consolidated French left.

Glad to see this piece on the New Popular Front from Piketty and Cagé. While almost all the attention has been on the gains by the right, the success of a unified left with an ambitious program seems like just as an important story from the French elections. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Judicial amendments to the Constitution are by far the most common kind, but are not widely understood for what they are. It turns out the Constitution is highly malleable, despite--or even because of--the insuperable difficulty of formal amendment, as workarounds have been developed.

Six people did the thing that is supposed to require 2/3 of both chambers of Congress and 3/4 of the states to do

He's saying they're planning to seize power, by violence if necessary

Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court presidential immunity ruling: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be" www.mediamatters.org/project-2025...

Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court immunity decision: "We are in the process of the second American Revolution"www.mediamatters.org

This is why the fascism skeptics who emphasize the weakness of Trumpism have a point: the lack of persistent nationwide crises has made it difficult for the movement to co-opt widespread fear--so they have to gin it up out of whole cloth, which is an uphill battle in ~peaceful prosperous conditions.

I suppose no surprise in a fascist movement, but wild that *this guy* is their heroic ubermensch, and the crisis worthy of destroying 250 years of democracy is ... uh, some historically meager immigration and trans people drinking a beer?

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The States Project is one of the best bang-for-your-buck options for your campaign donations. Even beyond it, though, state legislatures deserve your attention. Next time you're tempted to send money to whoever's going to lose to MTG, send it instead to a contested state leg seat.

Looking for one person to join me today in donating to flipping both statehouses in Arizona to create a new trifecta for democracy. This is the smartest political donation we can make this year.

Flipping Arizona | The States Projectwww.grapevine.org Learn more about Flipping Arizona such as its mission, community impact, and how you can join or make a one-time online donation.

Great essay on the lessons of the Book of Job for a world on fire. The affirmative voluntarism reminds me of @jacobtlevy.bsky.social idea of justice in Babylon

Hope this helps a little

A Religious Fable That Confounded Scholars for Millennia Finally Makes Sense Right Nowslate.com The story is perfect for our harrowing times. But we’ve been reading it all wrong.

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The 14th Amendment says if you were involved in an insurrection you can't be president. SCOTUS said they won't allow anyone to enforce that because of reasons they made up. The Constitution doesn't say the president is immune from criminal law. SCOTUS decided he is because of reasons they made up.

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IMHO, every piece on #SCOTUS's recent radical decisions (especially those invoking "history and tradition") should emphasize the unprecedented nature of the Court's power in our history--power that was never intended by the founding generation these justices claim to revere. /fin

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As the author of something that once made people lose their minds, I am telling you that I was talking about exactly this. I was correct then and I am correct now and I am terribly sorry about that

Lol when Vox ran a piece to that effect people LOST THEIR FUCKING MINDS www.vox.com/the-big-idea...

Life in authoritarian states is mostly boring and tolerablewww.vox.com Americans have an overly dramatic view what the end of democracy looks like.

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Pwnallthethings

(then insert your big idea of how to change it, e.g.) "The Court has decided to become a political, partisan organization. That is a gross distortion of its role in the constitutional structure, and it is both sad and infuriating that they have chosen to do so. America needs to repair the Court"

Really important to remember that politics extends beyond the law and essential activities upholding democracy may occur outside the law as it exists at a particular (benighted) time

Pride BEGAN during a time of anti-sodomy laws. The first Pride was a riot against those laws. Pride is celebrated around the world in places where it is much more dangerous to be queer than here. Pride is not dependent on being ALLOWED to be who we are, it’s a promise that we WILL be no matter what

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/8 At any rate, congratulations to the Federalist Society for an achievement beyond the reach of the British, outside the grasp of bloody civil war, impossible to Nazis and Soviets and terrorists: defeating the American idea.

Well, one last election at least

SCOTUS is telling us that it has completely signed on to the project of a second Trump administration, which is establishing an elected autocracy.

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there's nothing wrong with having feelings of despair and futility, but i think it's most responsible to avoid airing all that out in public to the greatest extent possible right now. we need to cultivate a vengeance-driven, enraged espirit de corps right now, because we need people to fight

I really wish I knew less history right about now

trump just called for liz cheney to be prosecuted for treason which, according to john roberts, is an official act and would not be subject to criminal sanction

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b-boy bouiebaisse

Sending seal team six after scotus would be a bad idea but this is 100% legal now and Biden should ABSOLUTELY do it, publicly, on TV bsky.app/profile/lawn...

Per John Roberts, Joe Biden unquestionably can order the IRS to audit every single Trump appointed federal judge’s taxes, and order DOJ to prosecute every picayune error to the maximum extent permissible by law

The immunity case today is the latest "authoritarian green light" given by our fatally compromised constitutional system, what a great term for such a dire phenomenon

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The perfect crime...I mean official act