Yesterday, I published my #Festivus waste report, which highlighted $54 billion in truly outlandish waste in government.

Remember this the next time they tell you there’s “nothing to cut.”
I’ll give you some examples of it here:
Researchers used federal funds from grants worth $1,327,781.72 to see if you’ll eat ground-up bugs. Read more here: https://t.co/BU1CjiZdgS
The National Institutes of Health is spending $3,452,234.00 to test if social media messages will get moms to stop their adolescent daughters from using indoor tanning salons. Read more here: https://t.co/BU1CjiZdgS
U.S. Agency for International Development is spending $37,500,000.00 to help deal with truant Filipino youth. Read more here: https://t.co/BU1CjiZdgS
Researchers spent funds from National Science Foundation grants worth $1,557,083.00 to walk lizards on a treadmill. Read more here: https://t.co/BU1CjiZdgS
Those are just a FEW of the worst. There are many many more. And of course Congress ADDED dozens more examples in just one hellish Bill this week.
Here’s my full waste report again, and I’ll be back with a few more later. https://t.co/BU1CjiZdgS
and while you’re here, check out my speech on the senate floor this week against this 5593 page wasteful monster of a bill, an early, live #Festivus airing of grievances: https://t.co/FYN3BblBb6

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Interesting thread, but I don't think ecosocialists or degrowthers are arguing that if German socialists had come to power the world would be green by now. Socialism is not automatically green. Eco-socialism is what it says - a green version of socialism - to be tested /1


The historical counterfactual also in not totally convincing. So let's assume Germany and Europe went socialist. The world economy would have evolved exactly the same way it did? 🤔 I doubt it, this is too deterministic. Examples: /2

We do not know if the transition from coal to oil would have taken place when it took place, the way it did. From Timothy Mitchell we know that oil was a fix for capitalism to bypass the labour strikes of coal workers. One would think that socialists would treat workers better /3

We also do not know if socialist governments would strong arm the Middle East the way capitalists did, starting wars to secure cheap oil, and setting up puppet governments. One would want to think that Rosa Luxembourg would not go down that path..../4

We also do not know if they would have continued colonial unequal exchange, extracting raw materials as cheap as possible from the rest of the world. Without cheap oil and cheap materials, it is anyone's guess if GDP and CO2 would be where it is now. /5

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