James Brandt
@jamesbrandt.bsky.social
1.3K followers 260 following 330 posts
Managing editor @lpeblog.bsky.social. Freelance academic editor.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
As a WMCW anthropologist, you have just stumbled onto a modern day Pompeii or Tutankhamun's Tomb. Did you see this other tweet?

x.com/Olivia_Reing...
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
"As with prior episodes of viral popular disobedience, students were met with incredible repression from police, as well as administrators and even Congress... What became quickly undeniable was that the academy is a core site of conflict: not separate and apart from society but embedded within it."
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
“The flag was placed so that it would touch me. When it fluttered and touched me, they shouted ‘Don’t touch the flag’ and kicked me in the side. After a while, my hands were tied with cable ties, very tightly. A bunch of guards lined up to take selfies with me while I was sitting like that.”
diplomatofnight.com
Greta Thunberg: “Israeli soldiers hit, kicked, starved, and tortured me”

• They placed a flag next to me, and anytime the flag touched me, they kicked me
• Whenever I raised my head to look at Ben-Gvir, I was kicked
• She was filmed while stripped naked

Aftonbladet: tinyurl.com/a33vxatc
Aftonbladet
Reposted by James Brandt
sandipto.bsky.social
Everyone should read the excellent debate between @gabrielwinant.bsky.social and @econmarshall.bsky.social
on the politics of anti-monopoly. Worth adding here Charles Maier's acute observation about the history of anti-monopoly pol. in the US as a replacement for a broader critique of capitalism
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
"collective action by small producers and consumers has been a crucial weapon in the anti-monopolist’s arsenal since the Luddites sought to protect their home production prerogative from the capitalists forcing them to deliver themselves and their children up on the factory floor."
Reposted by James Brandt
evanbernick.bsky.social
Now on @ssrn.bsky.social, forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review. “Alas,” I think Akhil Amar’s new book, “Born Equal,” is not a success and I explain why at great length. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Amar is an engaging writer and a splendid storyteller. Alas—to borrow one of Amar's favorite interjections— even at 736 pages, Born Equal omits too much of importance, even as it advertises itself as the definitive account of its subject matter. The result of Amar's attempt to fit an entire century's worth of American constitutionalism into a coherent narrative is never boring. But ultimately, it reveals more about the mapmaker than the territory. Despite Amar's professed commitments to democracy and equality, Born Equal slights the democratic work of multitudes of people who have transformed our constitutional order without sharing Amar's constitutional faith. And it obscures inequalities that will persist as long as the cult to which
Amar demands fealty.
Reposted by James Brandt
econmarshall.bsky.social
I have a new piece in @lpeblog.bsky.social

“Anti-monopolism as an Ideology of the Left”

responding to @gabrielwinant.bsky.social’s “provocation.”

lpeproject.org/blog/anti-mo...
Reposted by James Brandt
lpeblog.bsky.social
Week in review: @lookheron.bsky.social on neoliberalism and authoritarianism in higher ed, Beau Baumann on losing and regaining administrative legitimacy, and Matthew Dimick on the dreaded double distortion argument against predistribution.

Plus, the best of LPE from around the web! 🧵👇
Weekly Roundup: Oct 10
Luke Herrine on neoliberalism and authoritarianism in higher ed, Beau Baumann on losing and regaining administrative legitimacy, and Matthew Dimick on the dreaded double distortion argument against…
lpeproject.org
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
By engaging with "legal areas where distribution matters most, such as the minimum wage, collective bargaining, antitrust, intellectual property, and housing regulation.... we discover unique, even idiosyncratic, reasons why legal rules can redistribute more cheaply than the tax system."
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
"Opponents of MAGA have faltered, chanting 'expertise' like a spell that’s lost its magic. Knowledge-based authority was a historically contingent mode of governing authority that no longer resonates. This is evident in figures like RFK Jr., whose anti-vaccine stance rejects science outright."
beaubaumann.bsky.social
ICYMI, I did a blog post today at @lpeproject.bsky.social that’s really about the death of a 20 c mode of liberal/progressive politics. It’s about the need, as a first-order objective, to relegitimize the state around a representational legitimacy.
Rebuilding State Authority In A Post-Trump America
In the ruins of the administrative state after Trump, many on the left see an opportunity to design a New Deal-type reconstruction agenda. But building state capacity requires a government that is…
lpeproject.org
Reposted by James Brandt
beaubaumann.bsky.social
ICYMI, I did a blog post today at @lpeproject.bsky.social that’s really about the death of a 20 c mode of liberal/progressive politics. It’s about the need, as a first-order objective, to relegitimize the state around a representational legitimacy.
Rebuilding State Authority In A Post-Trump America
In the ruins of the administrative state after Trump, many on the left see an opportunity to design a New Deal-type reconstruction agenda. But building state capacity requires a government that is…
lpeproject.org
Reposted by James Brandt
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
My shelter buddy Nico has been waiting for someone to adopt him for 219 days.

I made a short video to help advertise him to New Mexico residents. If you want to do a small kindness today, consider liking or sharing the Reddit post, so that it reaches more people.
From the SantaFe community on Reddit: Santa Fe Animal Shelter volunteer James made a video to celebrate his buddy Nico (also featuring some aspens to stay on theme)
Explore this post and more from the SantaFe community
www.reddit.com
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
Critics are calling it "heartwarming," "a portrait of an absolute good boy," and "somewhat derivative of the Royal Tenenbaums."
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
I refuse to read either of these articles, but I really, really hope they are related to one another:
Top article headline: "Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say"

Second article headline: "A Harvard Professor Is Placed on Leave After Firing a Pellet Gun"
Reposted by James Brandt
rickweinmeyer.bsky.social
OMG I'M SOBBING 😭

SOMEONE ADOPT NICO!
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
My shelter buddy Nico has been waiting for someone to adopt him for 219 days.

I made a short video to help advertise him to New Mexico residents. If you want to do a small kindness today, consider liking or sharing the Reddit post, so that it reaches more people.
From the SantaFe community on Reddit: Santa Fe Animal Shelter volunteer James made a video to celebrate his buddy Nico (also featuring some aspens to stay on theme)
Explore this post and more from the SantaFe community
www.reddit.com
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
My shelter buddy Nico has been waiting for someone to adopt him for 219 days.

I made a short video to help advertise him to New Mexico residents. If you want to do a small kindness today, consider liking or sharing the Reddit post, so that it reaches more people.
From the SantaFe community on Reddit: Santa Fe Animal Shelter volunteer James made a video to celebrate his buddy Nico (also featuring some aspens to stay on theme)
Explore this post and more from the SantaFe community
www.reddit.com
jamesbrandt.bsky.social
"by pushing 'market logic' into higher education, these reforms have made the rich richer and the poor poorer... It seems to me that this increasingly unequal system did a great deal of harm to higher education’s standing in our society, opening the door to right-wing attacks."