Populists put the funk in functionalism
12.03.2026 23:35
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Populists put the funk in functionalism
But Dale, what's good for rich people is ALWAYS good for small business people!
I see we're back to the "forgetting that global commodity prices are set globally" level of stupidity discourse.
off topic, but this reminds me of the set-up of an old joke...
Oh, you guys are so close...
Some of us are old enough to remember when 2008 mean "we are all socialists now"...
Aging like fine wine, dude.
You're right, but the sample size of "politicians who are unpopular in an anti-racist way" is *awfully* small in US history.
I was a) selling a condo at a loss; b) having a second kid; c) finishing a dissertation on a *different* economic crisis; and d) staring down the business end of a particularly gnarly academic job market
I teach a course on the 2008 crisis. The oldest student in the class was 5 that summer. I routinely have to say "well, here's what I was doing...", thereby breaking every rule of historical objectivity...
I am very excited to announce that over the holidays, my first ever paper (w/ @samiyousif.bsky.social) was published in Cognitive Science! Here, we describe a new illusion of *number*: The Crowd Size Illusion!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
All that was avoidable if Congress had impeached and tried him immediately, ON January 6.
But they wanted normal procedure. Normal politics.
Instead, they got the end of normal politics. For the foreseeable future.
There's no need to impeach a president who has already left office.
So Trump got off. And then staged a comeback. And here we are.
So the Schumers and Pelosis and McConnells and Bidens and McCarthys of the world all wrung their hands and gripped their pearls. But they did not ACT.
They waited.
And that allowed the dust to settle and the term to expire.
And that was all it took for some spineless Republicans to say...
Again, any other country would have responded to an unprecedented act with unprecedented action. Not because their politicians are more principled, but because they would not be hidebound by a sense of "normal politics."
After 4 years of Trump, that's what liberals AND conservatives alike wanted.
But *immediate* impeachment and removal, which would have been totally normal in any other country, was OFF THE TABLE in America.
Why? Because that was "not how things were done." It wasn't NORMAL.
Congress required "process." "Deliberation."
Members had to "see what their constituents thought."
A majority clearly existed in the House *at the time.*
A supermajority of Senators would have voted to remove.
Mike Pence would have supported it, and he would have been president for the last 2 weeks of the term.
On the anniversary of January 6, 2021, we should remember a little discussed issue:
An overwhelming desire for NORMAL politics wound up DESTROYING normal politics.
Here's what I mean...
Congress could have impeached, tried, and removed Trump BY DAWN on January 7. It didn't.
If your system is only as good as the virtue of the people running it, maybe your system isn't very good.
This dumb idea was brought to you by the same people who have claimed that the "liberal media" (aka, giant for-profit corporate conglomerates) is "anti-capitalist" and "socialist" for the past 50 years.
Periodic reminder that the U.S. Constitution doesn't need to be "defended" or "interpreted correctly." It needs to be changed.
Sure, but recognize symbolism for what it is.
What the candidates should really pledge is to dismember the entire imperial presidency that got us to this point.
But they won't.
Because they think the system was basically fine until Trump showed up.
Well, if anyone is equipped to do so, I suspect it would be the folks at Cal Tech.
Historians of Bluesky: a query--
Is CalTech out of their minds?
networks.h-net.org/jobs/69483/c...
Brave people in central New Jersey with access to the Mudd Library, anyway.
Or you coud, you know, just read Larry's thesis: catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/dsp0...
UNC-Chapel Hill has THREE Rhodes Scholars this year!
Congratulations to Tiana, Rotimi, and Gabrielle!!
Big thanks to Dr. Marc Howlett, Executive Director of our Office of Distinguished Scholarships, and to all faculty and friends who helped in the process.
www.unc.edu/posts/2025/1...
Trippy experience today when the hotel elevator opened up and I was face to face with Britt Lower, aka Helly R.
I was a little worried about losing my memory before the elevator got to the bottom floor!
Among other things, today's news is making me very smug about my polished email grammar and style.
