Multiverse

The Multiverse with multiple timelines seems to have become more popular or salient in popular culture. Rick and Morty. Berlanti-verse's The Flash.

When Trump was elected, many people felt as if we somehow slipped into a crazy timeline.

Does it mean anything? The importance of choices; the focus on the individual and philosophical voluntarism in late capitalism and neoliberalism. The focus on the individual will. Do people try hard enough. The end of history. (Blaming the victim.)

Personally I don't believe any of this stuff has to be true. Maybe we live in Hellworld. Maybe things can get better. Some positive things: the election of socialist Ocasio-Cortez (who can be seen on Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel) the fact that Missouri voters voted down a right-to-work law in a referendum.

The direction the November 6th Midterm elections go could make some people believe we live in Hellworld or that things are getting "back to normal." I always thought things were heading in a bad direction after Bill Clinton's welfare reform (and everything surrounding it even though liberals thought they had it good with West Wing and then Obama.)

That's why it's refreshing to see Bennet-Brown's American Family Act in 2017 which doesn't help non-parents but does expand the welfare state for parents - even those without income.

Kamala Harris's LIFT act has the trapezoid problem which focuses on "rewarding work" but given the option to receive monthly checks based on last years income, it is almost a UBI (except it doesn't cover those without earned income and those earning more than 100k, so no not universal. But it does give monthly checks to most of those who could use it without strings attached.)

Still it's good to see. Things may be turning for the better despite the many bad things like Climate Change and a feckless liberal elite. Another sign things might change for the better: the Republican base no longer believes Republican economic orthodoxy.

The fact that different governments continue to legalize marijuana (Canada last Wednesday, on the ballot in North Dakota and Michigan) always made it seem to me like the Flash had kicked us over to another timeline (despite strong opposition from conservative racists like Jeff Sessions). The Drug War was always a racist endeavor. Nixon used it as a dog whistle (as the FX show Snowfall pointed out via a CIA drug runner.) Gay marriage. America electing a black man. Pleasantly surprised to see those things happen in my life time.

My personal life hasn't had as many lucky breaks, but I prefer to focus on the larger state of the world. No doubt my conservative, bootlicker friends consider me to be lazy, whereas I see their insult to mean that I don't kiss enough ass. Gotta brownose to move up in the world. That's what I would tell the kids. Ingratiate yourself. Socialize. Find a mentor to suck up to.

Still no matter one's personal problems, when Chapo Trap House's new book hits the New York Times best seller list and the New York Times Style Section tweets @ Taylor Swift to "go on Chapo," one get the vertiginous feeling that perhaps you're in the wrong timeline.

It's not just Trump who makes liberals feel like they have been moved around in the multiverse. Kavanaugh's recent nomination to the Supreme Court, making it safely Republican, has thrown many of them also even though it's a logical extension of Trump's election victory.

Listening to Doug Henwood's radio show/podcast on the Supreme Court, I was reminded of the many ways it's an anti-democratic institution and how even though the Republicans have a lock now on the court, gay marriage and marijuana legalization are moving forward.

Maybe it's social media that is making things weird?

The Wall Street Journ op-ed pages are attacking UBI and Matt Bruenig's SWF-UBD. The White House just put out a paper on why socialism doesn't work. As Jeff Stein tweets: "White House report on socialism cites @ryanlcooper, Piketty, and Jacobin's Meagan Day..."

Part of it is what Corey Robin talks about when he says the conservatives have won (with Macron, Clinton, Blair, Schroeder) and so they are sort of flailing around and hooked on griping about the culture war (which they are losing).

In some ways we've moved to a state of political economy reminiscent of the 1850s pre-Civil War period. A minority, property elite is gaining a lock on political institutions and power and using it to thwart the popular will. The Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision did not legalize slavery for all time. It led to the Civil War and the end of slavery.

Bennet-Brown from 2017: a return to pre-welfare reform welfare

per the discussion on the Bruenig podcast

Senate Democrats have a plan that would cut child poverty nearly in half by Dylan Matthews

The American Family Act of 2017

Avoid the Trap(azoid)

More on LIFT Act: Bruenig and Matthews

Do We Really Need a Second Earned Income Tax Credit? by Matt Bruenig

Kamala Harris’s new basic income-style bill is so frustratingly close to being great Harris almost endorses a real basic income, then doesn’t. by Dylan Matthews

Welfare for Everyone: interview with Matt Bruenig

Welfare for Everyone - an interview with Matt Bruenig (Jacobin)

She's running, Kamala Harris edition

"The lift the Middle Class Act would provide monthly cash payments of up to $500 to lower-income families, on top of the tax credits and public benefits they already receive."

Sort of a misnomer.

Kamala Harris’s Trump-Size Tax Plan by Annie Lowrey (via Neera Tanden)

Harris is offering as much as $3,000 a year for a single person or $6,000 a year for a married couple, on top of existing tax and transfer programs, disbursed either as a lump-sum tax refund or as a monthly payment. Working families making less than $100,000 a year would qualify, including those making close to nothing. As many as 80 million Americans would benefit, Harris’s office has estimated, with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calculating that the proposal would lift 9 million people out of poverty, including nearly 3 million kids.

...

Her proposal joins a growing number of aggressive plans coming from Democrats concerned with economic stagnation, competing to win over younger and more progressive voters, and emboldened by the success of President Donald Trump. They differ in their mechanisms, costs, and effects, but all point to the same Robin Hood goal: not just raising taxes on the rich, but shunting vastly more money to the working classes and the poor. In Harris’s case, that means something like $200 billion a year more.

Senator Harris Seeks To Raise Incomes Using A New Tax Credit by Elaine Maag (TPC)

via Josh Mound:

On one hand, Harris’s LIFT proposal is probably the best Dem tax proposal put forward in while. On the other hand, it’s still EITC-like (predicated earned income) and therefore excludes the very poorest. The front yellow line should be vertical IMO.

As Matt notes, Dems need to get out of the trapezoid trap. Just make it a UBI or make it a backdoor UBI by letting people declare a trivial amount of earned income. LIFT is better than EITC, but it still shares its work-centric problems.