David Atkins
@davidoatkins.bsky.social
Contributor @washingtonmonthly.com. Bylines @theprospect & elsewhere. Elected DNC Member from CA. Progressive reformist. Dad of two. I run a qualitative research firm.
WELKER: Can you pledge the DOJ will always act independently of the WH? BLANCHE: No, I'm not going to pledge that WELKER: So if the president asked you do to something that you feel crosses an ethical or legal line, would you do it? BLANCHE: He would never do that. He never has. He never will.
Any Dem would have lost in ‘24. It wasn’t about policy, I don’t get how you don’t get that. The median voter is barely sentient read some interviews sometime. 2024 was anti incumbent backlash worldwide. You can’t fight global trends. In fact Kamala replacing Biden is why we didn’t get wiped out.
Why do all the dumbest accounts on the left have anonymous post-ironic pun names with 4chanesque pop culture avatars?
Yes, record fundraising, record investments in state parties, rejecting insider RCV bans, crucial reforms to the primary calendar, calling for the abolition of ICE, but somehow Ken Martin is the problem instead of the actual truth, which is that he has been the solution.
Sam - the last shofet@sam-of-pnw.bsky.social · yesterdayYet Ken Martin is still the head of DNC, dragging the party down.
BREAKING: the Democratic National Committee just unanimously approved a resolution calling for the abolition of ICE! After terrorizing our friends, families, and neighbors, ICE has no place in our nation. I'm grateful @democrats.org agreed. Now we're onto the hard work to make that happen!
I mean, it did take significant organizing work to defeat the DNC ban, but because of state organizers, dogged DNC members like @davidoatkins.bsky.social and @michaelkapp.com, and the leadership of Ken Martin, the ban proponents backed down.
Abolishing ICE is now the official position of the Democratic Party
Dante Atkins@danteatkins.bsky.social · yesterdayHere are things that happened at the DNC today: 1) Resolution calling to abolish ICE unanimously adopted 2) Brand-new early state calendar that reflects the full diversity of the Democratic base 3) Rejection of insider efforts to ban RCV from being used in presidential primaries Great results here
Here are things that happened at the DNC today: 1) Resolution calling to abolish ICE unanimously adopted 2) Brand-new early state calendar that reflects the full diversity of the Democratic base 3) Rejection of insider efforts to ban RCV from being used in presidential primaries Great results here
Crypto might be where elite impunity meets elite decadence completely. There is no point to crypto except crime. You can't buy gas with it. No one takes their wages in it. Yet elites, and not just Trump, act like it's legitimate money.
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 3d agoTrump family crypto earnings: $1.4 billion $TRUMP meme coin: -98% $MELANIA meme coin: -99% “Perhaps the most blatant example of corruption in the history of American politics.” — Bilello
Quick thread on the DNC and ranked choice voting: With the resolutions behind us, the big issue remaining at the DNC meeting in Austin is about Ranked Choice Voting. /1
He killed about 230 fewer people than Trump & Hegseth have fishermen
NBC News@nbcnews.com · 3d agoBREAKING: Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO.
Of all the corrupt things Trump has done, this is in the top 3 most disgusting and crooked -- wiping out law enforcement's ability to track the money launderers who are helping the worst criminals (Trump and his friends included, no doubt) hide their ill-gotten wealth.
Trump’s Gift to the Money Launderers
Treasury isn’t merely shutting down an anti-corruption database. It’s deleting the data so future investigators can’t use it.
thebulwark.com
“Treasury announced this week that it … will also destroy all the data it has already collected, so that no future presidential administration or local police department can use it, either.” Hm — seems very legal, very cool. Totes up-and-up.
Dan Gillmor@dangillmor.bsky.social · 3d agoOf all the corrupt things Trump has done, this is in the top 3 most disgusting and crooked -- wiping out law enforcement's ability to track the money launderers who are helping the worst criminals (Trump and his friends included, no doubt) hide their ill-gotten wealth.
Must be great to work on an aircraft carrier right now. You get to hang out next to Iran without fresh food for months on end and meanwhile they're going to have to gut the whole ship to make the launch catapults work on steam like in the olden days because the president is scared of magnets
Sex trafficking investigations stalled and prosecutions declined in the past six months because of staffing shortages, funding cuts and immigration enforcement, according to Reuters interviews with 25 former prosecutors, current agents and victims' advocates. Read the special report reut.rs/4fWSJ1k
Companies are getting around the human subject research problem by just not talking to real people at all, and using "synthetic respondents" instead.
Jonathan Ladd@jonathanmladd.com · 5d agoA partial list of tasks that are getting harder (thus the effort required and the price will be bigger): all human subjects research, human identity verification by all entities (business, government, etc), education in general (because in-person instruction and in-class evaluation are necessary)...
Look, I like El-Sayed and I hope he wins. But I'm going to need him, I'm going to need the entire left wing and Democratic party, to do a LOT better on court reform. Because without it there *is no* progressive agenda. My latest in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/poli...
The Gaping Hole in El-Sayed’s Progressive Agenda
The Senate nominee has woefully undercooked ideas on Supreme Court reform—and that’s a problem.
thenation.com
Why would Trump remove federal reporting requirements this week mandated in a law authored by Marco Rubio in 2020 to identify domestic and international sex traffickers, money launderers and terrorists, and will Rubio comment on it?
Big vote on the Abolish ICE resolution here at DNC. It passes overwhelmingly by a margin of 25 to 12 with one abstention. The resolution passes out of committee!
When is the last a Republican was even asked to defend spending? The surest sign the GOP controls the media narrative is how predictably the debt becomes an issue only when there’s a Democrat in the White House.
You're going to be completely shocked that Matt Yglesias's advice to Abdul El-Sayed is to get way more transphobic. 🙃
donald trump says we control the strait and i say we take him at his word and point out that by not allowing traffic he is intentionally making your gas more expensive because he hates you
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4d agoStrait of Hormuz traffic falls to lowest level in three months @cnbc.com @barchart.com
Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act. Trump vetoed it. Congress overrode his veto on a bipartisan vote. So Trump has decided to simply not enforce the law. I do not understand the role of Congress anymore. I guess they just make suggestions?
Treasury Scales Back Scrutiny of U.S. Shell Companies (Gift Article)
The Trump administration will not enforce reporting requirements of the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act, which was intended to crack down on money laundering.
nytimes.com
Francesca Hong, like Haley Stevens last week, showing how it’s done
Francesca Hong 홍윤정@francescahongwi.bsky.social · 5d ago
The biggest problems with Woke 1.0 never even affected conservatives at all. Warped versions of standpoint theory at worst hobbled and petrified progressive orgs and NGOs that crumbled to uselessness with internal strife. Ironically, conservatives were most advantaged by it.
Counterpoint: Polls underestimated Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota about as much as they overestimated Hong in Wisconsin
Tom Nichols@radiofreetom.bsky.social · 5d agoI have defended pollsters and their work has been pretty darn accurate now for years. But I’m curious about how they have now twice vastly overestimated the support of progressive candidates.
single party RCV for primaries is the right way to go. fptp sucks. nonpartisan sucks. really striking that the best option is pretty obvious and also quite rare.
setting everything aside i don't think this is a major setback at all lmao? a squeaker in wisconsin is pretty fucking good. ideally everyone involved with the campaign learns from this and comes back stronger next time. abdul lost to whitmer by 20 points in 2018!
The Democratic primary for governor of Wisconsin is a really great example of why America needs to switch to ranked-choice voting in primaries. As of now it looks like the winner of the race will prevail with <40% of the vote! No good reason not to switch ahead of 2028.
