Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Will Beaman

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 5h

The "anti-woke" backlash was always about white collar labor competition from nonwhites, not hr bullshit. bsky.app/profile/phil...

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 6h

NBC News has reportedly eliminated its NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino and NBC OUT teams

NBC News’ 150 Layoffs Gut Black, Latino, Asian American and LGBTQ+ Diversity Teams

The cuts affected teams across the NBC News operation and came as the network no longer needed to support two different news operations. MSNBC has begun growing its own newsroom, hiring swaths of tale...

www.thewrap.com

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 7h

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“For the present political moment, such a reading re-credits the recent historical archive, stages usable contradiction in the present, and opens a near-future move: a democratic bond drive built from today’s coalition habits.”

moneyontheleft.org/2025/08/11/c...

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 12h

…we commit the errors that Democratic leaders commit when they assume that loyalty games and withholding political capital to extract concessions from coalition partners are just the currency nowadays. Loyalty without accountability or shame is a right wing currency, it doesn’t work for Dems.

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 12h

…but this form of accountability has developed in forms and styles that can hold disappointment and shame, withhold support if there’s no accountability, but still remain ready to crown someone like Mamdani with star power seemingly out of nowhere.

When we just focus on Trumpian shamelessness..

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 12h

…taking it all for granted as a reflection of Biden or Harris’s innate charisma, rather than a whole spectrum of practiced charisma- and authority-forms made conditionally available to political leaders. It’s a massive, rehearsed *capacity* that is protean and durable. And shame is a part of it..

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 12h

…among leftists and progressives for accountability. The potency of the latter gets overlooked because Democrats seem to be losing left and right, but I’d argue that’s a sign that the Dem base WANTS accountability, and its leadership misreads e.g. Dark Brandon and Brat Summer for Trumpian loyalty…

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 12h

I’ve appreciated all the articles in this exchange (except Ezra Klein’s), but I think this response to Táíwò’s essay fails to make an important distinction between Trumpian shamelessness and unaccountability—a desire rehearsed before Trump since the Tea Party—and an equally rehearsed desire…

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 12h

"And yet Táíwò’s own position misses something fundamental about the world we now inhabit. Shame does not operate in a vacuum...today, the sturdy ground that once formed shame’s foundation has collapsed."

Helpful response by @eric-reinhart.com in @newrepublic.com

newrepublic.com/article/2015...

Why Shame No Longer Works in American Politics

While it once played a role in binding society, shame has lost its power—and so have the liberal tools that depend on it.

newrepublic.com

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Money on the Left @moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 1d

"Words and the concepts they express have complex histories and any account of sovereignty must attend to the history of the term itself."

Money & the Limits of Sovereignty

by Scott Ferguson Money on the Left is proud to republish this talk by Scott Ferguson. It was initially presented at the request of Real Progressives on September 4, 2021. We reproduce the presenta…

moneyontheleft.org

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Money on the Left @moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 16h

"Call the present moment of democratic weakness and collaboration a paradox of political thrift. The hoarding of endorsements—treated as a form of scarce political capital rather than a renewable public surplus—has steadily weakened the immune system of democratic politics."

The Paradox of Political Thrift

By Will BeamanDemocratic endorsement politics around Zohran Mamdani continue to bend in ways that feel at once familiar and strange. A spokesman for House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries brushed off Senato…

moneyontheleft.org

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Money on the Left @moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 15h

"[E]ven within MMT, the picture is more complicated than is suggested by the T-account’s clean offsetting lines."

Accounting Identities or Accounting Analogies?

by Will Beaman Most people’s first exposure to Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) comes with a gentle promise: It is just accounting. The government’s deficit is the non-government sector’s surplus, by s…

moneyontheleft.org

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Money on the Left @moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 16h

"[Democratic Public Finance] discloses previously invisible possibilities for communal well-being and denaturalizes the impoverished suppositions that legitimize fiscal obstruction by establishment liberals, conservatives, and right-wing demagogues alike."

Democratic Public Finance: A Radical Vision for Mamdani’s New York City

Summary This document elaborates an emerging economic paradigm that is already latent in Zohran Mamdani’s plans and practices. The paradigm, which we call Democratic Public Finance (DPF), reframes …

moneyontheleft.org

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 23h

Fascism is such a fundamental attack on wonder and the human imagination and I think everyone should have the opportunity to let their imagination wonder as it wanders — doesn’t matter what you do for a living. Your mind matters! Your relationship with the universe is meaningful!

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 1d

Open fiscal sabotage.

It’s not *if* Democrats will issue bonds and repeal balanced budget amendments to stay alive; it’s *when*.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Trump Halts Billions in Grants for Democratic Districts During Shutdown

The Trump administration has frozen or canceled nearly $28 billion primarily located in Democratic-led districts, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

www.nytimes.com

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: Politico reported on a group chat of young Republicans. Does this just reflect some bad apples?

HOCHUL: Some bad apples? These are the future of the GOP. This is so vile it's hard to find the words to put into context ... there's gotta be consequences ... this bullshit has to stop.

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Money on the Left @moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 1d

In this episode of the Superstructure podcast, Scott Ferguson is joined by independent film scholar Jonathan Haynes to discuss Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed new film, One Battle After Another.

One Battle After Another

In this episode of the Superstructure podcast, Scott Ferguson is joined by independent film scholar Jonathan Haynes to discuss Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed new film, One Battle After Another. T…

moneyontheleft.org

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Katie Cannon @katiecannon.bsky.social · 1d

Also, since the Fascists have seized our national currency, we should create fiscal insurgencies everywhere

bsky.app/profile/mone...

Money on the Left @moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 1d

"If money is the ongoing process of issuing and deleting credits, it cannot be solely understood as an inert quantity that reflects past accomplishments. Money cannot be something we need to hoard to create a livable future. And it certainly cannot be scarce unless we make it so."

Democratic Public Finance: A Radical Vision for Mamdani’s New York City

Summary This document elaborates an emerging economic paradigm that is already latent in Zohran Mamdani’s plans and practices. The paradigm, which we call Democratic Public Finance (DPF), reframes …

moneyontheleft.org

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Reposted by Will Beaman

Money on the Left @moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 1d

"If money is the ongoing process of issuing and deleting credits, it cannot be solely understood as an inert quantity that reflects past accomplishments. Money cannot be something we need to hoard to create a livable future. And it certainly cannot be scarce unless we make it so."

Democratic Public Finance: A Radical Vision for Mamdani’s New York City

Summary This document elaborates an emerging economic paradigm that is already latent in Zohran Mamdani’s plans and practices. The paradigm, which we call Democratic Public Finance (DPF), reframes …

moneyontheleft.org

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Reposted by Will Beaman

Bright D Limm 임대중 @bdlimm.bsky.social · 1d

Healthcare, childcare, care for elders and disabled people. Guaranteed jobs, incomes, homes. Mass transit. Green energy.

We were taught we can't afford to provide these to everyone. But somehow we've known that's false.

Let us now unlearn the old neoliberal ways by learning how to provide for all.

Money on the Left @moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 1d

"If money is the ongoing process of issuing and deleting credits, it cannot be solely understood as an inert quantity that reflects past accomplishments. Money cannot be something we need to hoard to create a livable future. And it certainly cannot be scarce unless we make it so."

Democratic Public Finance: A Radical Vision for Mamdani’s New York City

Summary This document elaborates an emerging economic paradigm that is already latent in Zohran Mamdani’s plans and practices. The paradigm, which we call Democratic Public Finance (DPF), reframes …

moneyontheleft.org

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Reposted by Will Beaman

⚡️ 지영 ⚡️ @jiyoung213.bsky.social · 1d

how to make money serve the people

Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 1d

And we make recommendations in these four areas:

Reframing Debt Issuance and Taxation

Mobilizing People Differently

Creating Public Banking and Payments Infrastructure

Challenging the deep structure of neoliberal finance in municipal, state & federal law

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 1d

Read the document. Download the PDF. Share it with the organizers, staffers, comrades and frenemies in your life.

moneyontheleft.org/2025/10/10/d...

Democratic Public Finance: A Radical Vision for Mamdani’s New York City

Summary This document elaborates an emerging economic paradigm that is already latent in Zohran Mamdani’s plans and practices. The paradigm, which we call Democratic Public Finance (DPF), reframes …

moneyontheleft.org

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Reposted by Will Beaman

Money on the Left @moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 1d

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 1d

Read @moneyontheleft.bsky.social's "applied primer" to heterodox economics as a flexible policy framework!

We are used to hearing about Modern Monetary Theory as an inert list of axioms about federal finance, with limited relevance to anything else.

This document pushes further.

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Money on the Left @moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 1d

"Mamdani has already displayed unparalleled political expertise in debunking myths about public spending. We build on this expertise, equipping the mayoralty with tools to openly and comprehensively challenge what we call Neoliberal Public Finance."

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 1d

And we make recommendations in these four areas:

Reframing Debt Issuance and Taxation

Mobilizing People Differently

Creating Public Banking and Payments Infrastructure

Challenging the deep structure of neoliberal finance in municipal, state & federal law

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 1d

When we connect familiar neoliberal chokepoints around the acquisition of public funds "How are you going to pay for it?" designed to stall progressive politics with Trump's fiscal shakedowns and open political sabotage, that's DPF.

When we stop justifying our very existence in $ terms, that's DPF

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 1d

When we point to unemployment, unpaid work, and cultural life as capacities to be activated rather than costs to "the taxpayer," that's DPF.

When we recognize human beings, education, childcare, recreation, as gifts and assets rather than costs, that's DPF.

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Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 1d

Not only are there creative openings everywhere one looks for endogenous money to stabilize and expand state and local governments, universities and hospitals, and campaign infrastructures, but there are RHETORICAL openings everywhere too.

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