A layperson-friendly introduction to MMT, a heterodox school of economics that could finance a Green New Deal

Modern Monetary Theory (AKA MMT) is the latest incarnation of a long-running current in economic thought, once called Chartalism, which has gained prominence in recent years as an alternative to austerity economics, whose dictates have immiserated millions, destabilized world politics, and threaten the extinction of the human race thanks to climate inaction in the guise of "fiscal restraint."

On Fire: Naomi Klein's book is a time-series of the shift from climate denial to nihilism to Green New Deal hope

My latest LA Times book review is for Naomi Klein's new essay collection, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal, which traces more than a decade of Klein's outstanding, on-the-ground reports from the pivotal struggle to begin the transformational work needed to save our species and the rest of the Earth's living things from a devastating, eminently foreseeable, and ultimately avoidable climate catastrophe.

All weekend, California Democrats booed neoliberal would-be presidents who talked down the Green New Deal and Medicare for All

John Delaney (a finance friendly millionaire) wants to be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, and he thinks he knows how to win: "Medicare for all may sound good but it's actually not good policy nor is it good politics." It's an idea so unpopular with California Democrats that it attracted a full minute of heartfelt boos when he assayed it last weekend.

"A Message From the Future": short film about the "Green New Deal Decade," narrated by AOC, drawn by Molly Crabapple, presented by Naomi Klein

The Intercept has just released "A Message From the Future," a short science fiction movie narrated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and drawn by Molly Crabapple, describing the coming "Green New Deal Decade," when Americans pulled together and found prosperity, stability, solidarity and full employment through a massive, nationwide effort to refit the country to be resilient to climate shocks and stem the tide of global climate change.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez schools Republicans on the true costs and beneficiaries of the Green New Deal

AOC's two minute speech in response to Rep Sean Duffy's [R-WI] characterization of environmental concerns as a matter for coastal elites is inspired and heartfelt, and entirely on point: the people at greatest risk from environmental degradation are the poorest and most vulnerable in society, and moreover Duffy — a wealthy lawyer and TV commentator — has no business lecturing AOC (a working class New Yorker who was working in a taco joint a year ago and got her first-ever health insurance plan when she was elected to Congress) on what is and isn't of concern to working people.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has a plan to pay for the Green New Deal: a 70% tax on the super-rich

How can America possibly fund a radical transformation into a carbon-free economy, centered on preparing for the coming centuries of climate crises? ACO knows: a 70% tax on people with more than $10,000,000/year in earnings: "I think that it only has ever been radicals that have changed this country…If that's what radical means, call me a radical." — Read the rest

The Red Deal calls for climate solutions beyond the scope of state action

In 2019, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats, announced the Green New Deal as a significant policy issue. As reported in the New York Times, House Resolution 109, a non-binding agreement, "calls on the federal government to wean the United States from fossil fuels and curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions across the economy. — Read the rest

Very stable geniuses are blaming 10,000 cattle heat deaths on President Biden, who apparently poisoned them to force us to eat "fake toxic meat"

A TikTok video ostensibly showing footage of thousands of dead cattle, accompanied by a dark, instrumental version of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," is currently making the rounds on social media. According to Progressive Farmer, approximately 10,000 head of cattle in a Kansas feedlot have died in the last few days from the excessive heatwaves sweeping across the country. — Read the rest

A beautiful timeline of a future in which the climate crisis is met and overcome

Eric Holthaus is a meteorologist who has grown weary of the inadequacy of scientific discourse as a means of conveying the urgency of the climate crisis; instead, he's written an inspiring future history in which he traces the year-by-year steps that lead to a just climate transition: "a vision of what it could look and feel like if we finally, radically, collectively act to build a world we want to live in."

When Republicans say "How will you pay for Medicare for All?" Democrats should answer: "Mexico will pay for it"

The "pay-for game" is that gotcha game that Conservatives like to play, wherein the ridiculous boondoggles favored by the right (billions for Trump's wall, more than a trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy, massive increases in Pentagon and intelligence agency spending, even a $16 million bomb used for no military reason) can be financed with infinite amounts of deficit spending, while any program that benefits the majority of America needs has to be "fully funded," generally by making cuts in other programs that benefit the majority of America — something that the idiotic Democratic establishment has bought into.

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