#ezra klein

[stupidjewishwhiteboy]

I am genuinely a fan of Ezra Klein (at least on issues unrelated to Israel, on Israel I largely respect his point of view but disagree with it) but this is such a copout!

1) “Well you keep telling us that our political beliefs make us racist, so I guess we’ll just be racist” is just not a defense of racism! You’re still choosing to be racist!

2) Antizionists claim that their objection is not that Israel is a Jewish state specifically, but to its actions and/or to it not being a binational state (“a state of all its people”). To address the second part first, there just isn’t a constituency for that. Even when both sides trusted each other (which at the moment they don’t) Jews wanted a Jewish state and Arabs wanted an Arab state, and members of the other group would at best be a minority with certain guaranteed rights (and let’s be fair, a wide swath of both groups weren’t that enthusiastic about guaranteeing the rights of the other group). This is why the 2SS has been so fashionable, because it gives both sides a little bit of what they want that they could (hopefully) live with.

Now, coming back to that first part, if their claim was that their hostility to Israel was due to its actions (and/or their objection to ethnostates) and not its Jewish character per se, then why have antizionists allied themselves with people (or even been the people) saying Jews’ ethnogenesis is not in Eretz Yisrael (or it’s irrelevant), Jews are not an ethnocultural group but a purely religious one, Israeli Jews are primarily or entirely European (this one isn’t just racist, it’s objectively wrong), Jerusalem and other Jewish holy sites aren’t holy to Jews (or their holiness has been superseded by Muslims and Christians), Modern Hebrew is just badly pronounced Arabic, etc. None of these arguments is actually relevant to Israel’s actions or even to its existence as a “Jewish state”, they’re just racism used to argue a Muslim/Arab supremacist point about how Palestine should be properly a part of the Islamic/Arab world. For people who purport to be binationalists, supporting (or being) Arab/Muslim nationalists would seem to be counterproductive!

(the actual article isn't much about Israel or antisemitism, if you were curious: https://x.com/admcrlsn/status/2043328262428869087)

[unsolicited-opinions]

I agree with Ezra Klein on this one.

In the last few years we've seen: - The plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer - The Storming of the Capitol and pipe bombs left at the RNC and DNC - The break-in to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and the brutal on Paul Pelosi - Multiple assassination attempts against Trump - The assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the shooting of State Senator John Hoffman and his wife - Luigi Mangione's assassination of Brian Thompson - The assassination of Charlie Kirk Political violence is contagious. It is spreading. It is not confined to one side or belief system. It should terrify us all. The foundation of a free society is the ability to participate in it without fear of violence. Political violence is always an attack against us all. You have to be so blind not to see that.

[federal-reserve-bonds-dog]

Mahmoud Khalil spouting Hamas talking points while being interviewed by Ezra Klein and platformed by the New York Times.

Not a surprise given everything CUAD has done.

Calling Oct 7 unavoidable because of the Abraham Accords and impending peace deal with Saudi Arabia is the same shit Yahya Sinwar was about.

Disgusting that mainstream politicians and media are embracing this guy. His views are odorous.

[contemplatingoutlander]

The New York Times | Opinion | Ezra Klein | Sept. 7, 2025

Stop Acting Like This Is Normal

In a few weeks the government’s funding will run out. If Democrats vote for a new spending bill, they will be funding Trump’s autocratic takeover — and I don’t see how they can.

Ezra Klein makes some excellent points about why the Democrats should shut down the government in a few weeks by not voting to approve an upcoming spending bill. This is a gift🎁link, so there is no paywall Above is the video found in the article, which is worth watching. Below are some excerpts from the article, and GIFs from the video.*

In about three weeks, the government’s funding will run out. Democrats will face a choice: Join Republicans to fund a government that President Trump is turning into a tool of authoritarian takeover and vengeance or shut the government down. [...]

Not a single argument Schumer made [in March about not shutting down the government] is valid now.** [...]

But something else has changed, too. We are no longer in the muzzle velocity stage of this presidency. We are in the authoritarian consolidation stage of this presidency.

I want to be very clear about what I am saying here. Donald Trump is corrupting the government — he is using it to hound his enemies, to line his pockets and to entrench his own power. He is corrupting it the way the Mafia would corrupt the industries it controlled. You could still, under Mafia rule, get the trash picked up or buy construction materials. But the point of those industries had become the preservation and expansion of the Mafia’s power and wealth. This is what Trump is doing to the government. This is what Democrats cannot fund. This is what they have to try to stop. [...]

And there is the reality that Democrats’ best issue is health care, and Trump looting Medicaid to pay for tax cuts is the kind of thing they should never let voters forget. I don’t think it’s impossible to turn this into one message.

Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia did a pretty good job of it back in July. “Corruption is why they just defunded nursing homes to cut taxes for the rich,” he told a crowd of his supporters. “Corruption is why you pay a fortune for prescriptions. Corruption is why your insurance claim keeps getting denied. [...]

“So Trump promised to attack a broken system,” Ossoff continued. “I get it. Ripe target. But here’s the thing. He’s a crook. And a con man. And he wants to be a king. Yes, the system really is rigged, but Trump’s not unrigging it. He’s re-rigging it for himself.”

But Democrats cannot pretend this is a normal Republican administration.

They cannot ignore masked agents in the streets, armed troops in the cities, billions of dollars of money going into the Trump family’s pockets, an administration that spins off several scandals in a week that would have consumed other presidencies for years. If Democrats cannot make an issue out of all that, then they are screwed and so are we. [...]

I’m not going to tell you I am absolutely sure Democrats should shut the government down. I’m not. At the same time, joining Republicans to fund this government is worse than failing at opposition. It’s complicity.

[See footnoted information under the cut.]

______________ *Note that the wording in the video & gif subtitles is slightly different than that of the article. Subtitles for gifs were AI-generated by Kapwing, with minor edits for accuracy. **Klein claims that Schumer's arguments against shutting down the government in March are no longer valid because:

Trump's autocratic policies have been "winning" in the Supreme Court, so we can't assume the courts will stop Trump.

Fear of how DOGE could take advantage of a government shutdown to further "gut the executive branch," isn't as likely given that DOGE's power has "shrunk." Furthermore, SCOTUS "has given Trump vast power to reshape the federal work force" without needing "a shutdown to do it."

"The markets have settled into whatever this new normal is, at least for now," and are not currently creating problems for Trump. Additionally, whatever political fallout there was from the tariffs has "already" happened or will take a while to manifest.

[leunusualsuspect]

The glutton for punishment has returned! Today we’re listening to the podcast episode from Ezra Klein that features… Morris Katz!

Bringer of the “Everyman’s Nazi Rapist”: Graham Platner.

Baruch Hashem for his campaign’s spectacular explosion huh? Let’s see exactly how accountable Katz is.

Nevermind the shande that a Jewish man of all people enabled that Nazi fuck, literal kapo shit

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Time To Play Hardball

It’s risky, but allowing Trump to remain unchecked is worse

Dan Rather at Steady:

Here’s hoping you are ready to pay attention, my Steady friends. You are about to read some ideas that may seem far-fetched, even radical, especially for Democrats. But the dissolution of our great democracy is happening faster than most rational Americans thought possible. Time to be calm and steady, yes, but also time to think tough and be smart.

For many who oppose Donald Trump and his race toward authoritarianism, the lack of a coordinated national effort to counter him has been frustrating to say the least. We face some tough truths. Democrats have virtually no power — not none, but not much. Trump holds the White House and both houses of Congress and rules his party with intimidation and actionable threats. The dearth of Republicans willing to stand up to his illegal measures is testament to that fact. He’s also got the Supreme Court eating out of his hand.

But Trump is not the all-powerful behemoth he believes himself to be. He is a very unpopular president with an even less popular agenda. Eight months into his second term, no modern president has been as unpopular as Trump, except for Trump the first time around. A majority of the American people don’t just dislike his policies — he is underwater on everything from immigration to the economy — but they deeply dislike how he is governing. All this means Trump is vulnerable if congressional Democrats can find an effective way to fight back. They will have that opportunity in the next couple of weeks. Back in March, Congress passed, with the help of Senate Democrats, a continuing resolution that funded the government for six months. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was vilified by many in his party for capitulating to Trump and getting him the votes he needed. Schumer had his reasons, but six months later, those reasons no longer hold water as the September 30 deadline looms.

The Republican-controlled Congress has three options: pass a full-year appropriations bill, which is extremely unlikely; pass another continuing resolution, for which they again would need votes from Senate Democrats; or shut down the government. Democrats are once again between a rock and a hard choice: fund Trump’s illegal authoritarian regime, or stand against it by shutting it down.

If they support funding, they will have the leverage to get measures into the continuing resolution that are popular with the American people, such as restoring Medicaid and food assistance funding, curtailing overreach by the Department of Homeland Security, and reinstating due process, for starters. But even if those provisions are in the CR, this Congress and this administration have proven they are not to be trusted to follow the law.

[...] If Democrats decide to vote against a new CR, the government will run out of money, causing a shutdown. This is where it gets interesting.

Ezra Klein in The New York Times brings a new argument and a new reasoning to this debate: “[J]oining Republicans to fund this government is worse than failing at opposition. It’s complicity. If there’s a better plan than a shutdown, great. But if the plan is still nothing, then Democrats need new leaders.” Klein is someone to whom Democrats in Washington listen. He’s finally saying enough is enough. Democrats should not be party to Trump’s lawlessness. He says (and the record bears him out) that Trump is corrupting the government the way the Mafia corrupts industries. To be effective, Democrats need a plan — one that would have the support of a majority of Americans. Shutting down the government is not something that should ever be taken lightly. Many government workers will be furloughed. National parks will close. Government payments will be delayed. Federal court proceedings will be disrupted. And Trump will blame Democrats for a debacle of his own making.

For national Democrats, who have virtually nothing to lose, it is an ace up their sleeve when it seems like Trump holds all the cards, according to Klein. For state Democrats, it’s a different and arguably rosier picture. Their multiple efforts are focused on navigating and circumventing the administration’s harmful policies, rather than trying to stop Trump.

[...] Some are calling these efforts “soft secession,” though that term makes more than a few Democrats uneasy. Secession is unconstitutional. And so far no one is suggesting any state unilaterally secede — except Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has said she wants a “national divorce.” Part of the quiet discussion of “soft secession”— or as Yale Law Professor Heather Gerken calls it, “uncooperative federalism”— is economic leverage. Most blue states are considered “giver” or “donor” states, meaning they provide more to the federal government in taxes than they receive in services. And conversely, many red states are “recipients” that are subsidized by the blue state tax base.

Democrats in both Houses of Congress should play hardball on the federal budget by shutting down the government to stop the Trump Regime’s lawless actions.

See Also:

Public Notice (Paul Waldman): It's time for Democrats to show some spine

Robert Reich: Should Democrats Shut the Government?

The Signorile Report (Michelangelo Signorile): Democrats should not vote to fund Trump's fascism

Stancil Culture (Wil Stancil): "You can't detain someone for being Latino" is a law worth shutting down the government for

The Big Picture (Jay Kuo): Shut It Down If You Have To

[saywhat-politics]

[probablyasocialecologist]

How to Blow Up a Planet | Trevor Jackson | The New York Review of Boo…

The political function of the abundance agenda is straightforward: with its preference for friendliness to corporations, market solutions, and technologically driven growth over redistribution, it is the only coherent alternative to the Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez left. By losing to Donald Trump a second time—after the felony convictions, after the January 6 insurrection, after everything—and losing so comprehensively, the Democratic Party stands revealed as one of the most incompetent, rudderless, and barren political forces in modern history. For decades Democrats have had no vision to offer beyond gentler versions of Republican policies: the same commitment to market-based social policy at home and militarism abroad. From higher education to health care to retirement policy, they have had no ideas to match the relentless Republican drive to privatization, and nothing to rival the terrifyingly comprehensive creativity of the Project 2025 agenda.

Barack Obama offered a vision of hope and change in 2008, a moment he hoped future generations would look back on as the time when “we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” Instead his administration presided over continually widening inequality, the destruction of about 30 percent of Black home equity, a fossil fuel boom, a steady increase in health care costs, sweeping domestic surveillance, extrajudicial drone murders, and seeming impunity for the architects of the Iraq War and the 2008 crisis. If you promise hope and change and fail to deliver, there is no way to recover from the consequent sense of popular betrayal, and no way to credibly promise change again. Since 2016 the Democratic Party has consisted of two things: the Sanders left and efforts to defeat it. Abundance is the latest effort, a closed parenthesis in the halfhearted sentence of contemporary liberalism.

September 2025