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Brian Cook

@2ndadminstate.bsky.social

320 followers 160 following 1.2K posts

Tinkering with the Constitution has failed. The American commercial republic must be reconstructed. Professor Emeritus of Public Administration & Policy, Virginia Tech. Constitutionalism and administration, administrative ethics, environmental policy.

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Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · Feb 25

Here is the essence of the American republic’s dilemma. Those with considerable wealth and control over productive assets do not necessarily need a regime of self-government to sustain their lifestyle and wealth-generating pursuits. But the republic needed them if was to prosper over time.

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Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 57m

Great explainer, as usual, from @pkrugman.bsky.social, with the added value that he recognizes that 'data' is plural of 'datum' as in "these data show..." paulkrugman.substack.com/p/leprechaun...

Leprechauns, Effective Tariffs and Inflation

Yes, tariffs are hurting us. No, Trump wasn’t right.

paulkrugman.substack.com

Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 18h

[we are obliged] to confront the paradox of the contribution of lawbreaking and disruption even to democratic political change."

Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 18h

foot-dragging, sabotage, poaching, theft, and, ultimately, revolt.....
Owing to the concentration of property and wealth in liberal democracies and the privileged access to media, culture, and
political influence these positional advantages afford the richest stratum...

Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 18h

"Under authoritarian rule it seems patently obvious that
subjects who have no elected representatives to champion
their cause and who are denied the usual means of public
protest (demonstrations, strikes, organized social movement,
dissident media) would have no other recourse than...

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Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 18h

Dispatch #3, from James C. Scott's book Two Cheers for Anarchism, Princeton University Press, pp. 16-17.
[So as not to begin violating 'fair use' under copyright law, I will have to stop posting long block quotes from the book. I will post occasional paraphrasing and interpretations going forward.]

Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 19h

I should add that based on Luke Kemp's new book Goliath's Curse, across the early and longest expanse of modern human history, such resistance and 'voting with their feet' was how people forced the dissolution of many attempts at domination.

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Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 19h

That is Scott's point certainly. And thanks for the reminder. I will post dispatch #3 later today.

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Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 1d

Artists and writers should not shrug and capitulate. We can keep the pressure on. I filed a claim as part of the settlement against Anthropic for one of my books that was pirated. Even if I realize only a tiny monetary payback, it's being part of the class demanding accountability that matters.

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Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 2d

Dispatch #2 from James C. Scott's Two Cheers for Anarchism:
More regimes have been brought, piecemeal, to their knees by
what was once called "Irish democracy," the silent, dogged
resistance, withdrawal, and truculence of millions of ordinary
people, than by revolutionary vanguards or rioting mobs.

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Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 2d

The Republican Congress and the Trump administration made this bed; they, across all three branches, are fully responsible for the crash of our constitutional system.... @vermontgmg.bsky.social
www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/there-is-n...

There is no budget "deal" to be made

President Trump has so broken the constitutional framework as to make joint normal, responsible government impossible.

www.doomsdayscenario.co

Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 2d

that can have have massive political effects. Multiplied many thousandfold, such petty acts of refusal may, in the end, make
an utter shambles of the plans dreamed up by generals and heads of state.

Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 2d

Acts of disobedience are of interest to us when they are
exemplary, and especially when, as examples, they set off a chain reaction, prompting others to emulate them. Then we are in the presence of less of an individual act of cowardice
or conscience--perhaps both--than of a social phenomenon...

Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 2d

That leaves opposition in small ways. To that end, and to help those looking for ideas and possibilities that suit their circumstances, I will be posting short daily excerpts from James C. Scott's little book, Two Cheers for Anarchism.
Here is the first one.

Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 2d

So the question now, as it has been since the fascist destruction, is what we are going to do about. I don't know about you, but I lack the physical courage and mental toughness to lead, or serve on the front lines, to consolidate a counter movement and engage in direct action to fight back.

Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, some pockets of legal and organizational fight and resistance continue. Some even still talk as if regular politics may still pull us out of this.

But it really is now as the poet long ago said,
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 2d

The US Constitution is now completely trashed, no matter how much you may protest that it is still functioning, albeit in a seriously damaged state. The real state of the economy is hidden behind oligarchic insanity about idiotic 'AI', and financial and equity market fantasies about big paydays.

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Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 3d

Brutally honest:
"If we decide to play it safe because it’s better to tend one’s own garden rather than engage the world around us, then we deserve to become slaves.... [Arbitrary power means there] will soon be no private gardens left to tend."
jneem.substack.com/p/this-is-no...

This is no time for self-care

It is a time to act

jneem.substack.com

Reposted by Brian Cook

Flying Pace @flyingpace.bsky.social · 6d

Don’t just fantasize about Trump & Co. facing justice “when all this ends.” Demand justice now so THAT all this ends.

citizensimpeachment.com

Citizens' Impeachment

Citizens’ Impeachment is an organization powered by American citizens with a single goal: to get Donald Trump impeached, convicted, and removed from power.

citizensimpeachment.com

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Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 6d

It's going to hurt us, but economic and financial pressure and non-participation are our best tactics. Find any way you can to grind the economy to a halt. But we also need leaders to take big actions. www.bannedinyourstate.com/p/the-point-...

Reposted by Brian Cook

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 6d

The legitimacy of the power of courts depends on their giving of legal reasons for their decisions. Lacking any democratic authorization, the absence of reasons means it's naked power being asserted, which relieves us of any obligation to obey. We may comply for prudence's sake, but we don't have to

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 6d

Justice Jackson is obviously correct. SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE are now illegally going to have their status terminated early — as every court other than the Supreme Court has found so far.

Not a single word of justification from the Justices in the majority to justify this. NONE. Not one.

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 6d

Sotomayor and Kagan would deny the application.

Jackson, alone, writes, accusing the majority of "privileging the bald assertion of unconstrained executive power over countless families’ pleas for the stability our Government has promised them."

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Reposted by Brian Cook

Paul Gowder @gowder.io · 6d

I just told ABC that I'm not particularly convinced that any minority set-aside program (currently being used as a pretext for Trump to halt CTA funding, when we know it's political retaliation) would actually be unconstitutional. While this seems to fly in the face of cases like Croson and (cont)

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Reposted by Brian Cook

Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 6d

The flip side of this exceptionalizing is to erase and excuse the slow and less spectacular violence of American political life. When ICE agents raid homes, when Medicaid is stripped from millions, both politicians and media speak of “policy” rather than “violence.” @eric-reinhart.com

What Is Political Violence? - Boston Review

Pundits and politicians conceal the truth: it’s all around us, perpetrated by our political system itself.

www.bostonreview.net

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Reposted by Brian Cook

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 6d

One thing to remember: Trump may have criminal immunity for official acts but Hegseth doesn’t….

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 6d

Don’t believe anyone who tells you that intelligence shows anything “without a doubt,” but even if the intelligence was water-tight, this strike was still murder. No law permits the deliberate, premeditated killing of civilians.

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Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 6d

@brianbeutler.bsky.social delivering the goods: "The modern conservative movement . . . [an] invasive, predatory organism"

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 6d

The modern conservative movement (or far right, or whatever you call it) has always been a invasive, predatory organism, but until Obama's election, the GOP itself hadn't tipped over into total zero-sum thinking. www.offmessage.net/p/they-radic...

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Brian Cook @2ndadminstate.bsky.social · 6d

Far more successful when it is a mission-oriented public agency with broad public support than through a private contractor who mostly cares about the public treasure he captures through endless rent seeking.

Blake Emerson @blakeprof.bsky.social · 6d

We did this already like 60 years ago.

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