Sign in

David Burleson

@davidburleson.bsky.social
98 followers 65 following 2.7K posts

JD 2025; davidmburleson.com

PostsRepliesMedia
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Let's Talk About How We Got Here Some More In a post yesterday, I mentioned that former president George H.W. Bush served as the director of the CIA during the mid-1970’s. I noted that he was at CIA...
davidmburleson.com
Let's Talk About How We Got Here Some More
In a post yesterday, I mentioned that former president George H.W. Bush served as the director of the CIA during the mid-1970’s. I noted that he was at CIA “during...
000
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Let's Talk About How We Got Here They were trying to prevent a violent uprising the Nazi’s claimed. Emergency legislation was needed, according to the them, to prevent the Communists from perpetrating another atrocity,...
davidmburleson.com
Let's Talk About How We Got Here
They were trying to prevent a violent uprising the Nazi’s claimed. Emergency legislation was needed, according to the them, to prevent the Communists from perpetrating another atrocity, like the one...
000
Reposted by David Burleson
Keith Olbermann @olbermann.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
BELLA IS MISSING IN BROOKLYN: last seen at 49th and 5th, she's 11 pounds and chipped: 985113010684452. If you've seen or found her please call 888-466-3242 and PLEASE RT BELLA!
2180122
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Democracy does its job by making sure the administrators are ultimately answerable to their colleagues and that working conditions and broad questions of strategy have general approval."
000
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"This could be supplemented by committees and referenda as needed, but routine administration is best handled by specialist professional workers with expertise in accounting, logistics, and so on."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"In a socialist economic order where democracy had been extended to the workplace ... the standard for a midsize to large firm would involve representative democracy, with elected directors appointing and monitoring administrators who would be responsible for day-to-day management."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Workers are not inert “inputs” but agents with wills of their own, conscious subjects whose experiences and wishes should be taken into account. Liberal arguments for democracy in the political sphere apply also to the firm."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Democracy should not end when the workday begins. Workers deserve a say over how their workplaces are run — and a claim on the wealth they create."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Workers already bear the consequences of decisions about production, investment, and the distribution of income. They deserve more than the freedom to protest those decisions. They deserve to be the ones to make them." jacobin.com/2026/09/work...
jacobin.com
Economic Democracy Is at the Heart of Socialism
Democracy should not end when the workday begins. Workers deserve a say over how their workplaces are run — and a claim on the wealth they create.
101
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"Other polls show even self-described moderate voters holding stridently anti-billionaire views, and swing voters being more likely to back a candidate who wants to tax the rich, pass Medicare for All, and raise the minimum wage."
000
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"In Michigan, voters prefer a pro–Medicare for All candidate by 29 points. These voters also hate data centers and want them limited and heavily regulated."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"To deflect against the inevitable electability arguments, Ocasio-Cortez will be able to point out that her positions are broadly popular with the electorate. Voters nationwide, in Michigan, and in other battleground states all prefer candidates who oppose military aid to Israel."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"[T]he Liberal Currents survey [shows] she has strong support from young voters when matched up head-to-head with the rest of the potential field, [and that] she retains high favorables (+52) with voters over forty-five and white voters (+54) — a demographic that votes heavily in primaries"
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"In any case, whether or not she decides to run, Ocasio-Cortez is the socialist politician best positioned to capitalize on this transformation and not just because numerous polls show she’s now one of the party’s leading figures."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"On a policy level, the survey shows Democratic voters are strongly in favor of positions that [socialists' have long taken: expanding the Supreme Court, abolishing the filibuster, zoning reform to build more housing ... holding the line on trans rights, and taxing billionaires out of existence"
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"Senate leader Chuck Schumer has only a +3 net positive rating from Democrats, while ... Hakeem Jeffries is disliked by 22 percent of them. These voters agree with the statement that “criticizing the Democratic Party establishment makes you more likely to support a candidate” by a +19 margin."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"The Liberal Currents survey confirms what countless polls have told us over the past nearly two years, namely that Democratic voters have had it with their own leadership."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"We saw a similar result in the Times/Siena nationwide poll, in which white voters had the least favorable view of socialism (-26), followed by the “other non-white” category (-18), while black and Latino voters viewed it most favorably (+4 for each)."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"In fact, other than adults aged thirty-four and younger, people of color are the only group that views socialism more positively than capitalism."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"In the Gallup poll, socialism has more support from people of color and those earning less than $100,000 than from white adults and those earning more than that figure. And its support is about the same whether someone went to college or not."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"The Gallup results here track with several other recent polls that show voters are significantly more open to voting for a socialist candidate than a MAGA politician."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"[T]hough 43 percent isn’t a majority, recent history shows that may not matter. Less than a quarter (24 percent) of Americans viewed the MAGA movement positively in April 2023, a year and a half before Donald Trump and MAGA routed the Democrats and took total control of the federal government."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"To be clear, socialism still has a way to go. The same Gallup poll found that capitalism is viewed significantly more positively at 55 percent ... as is “free enterprise” at 77 percent ... On the other hand, “big business” is in the doldrums, hitting a new low of 35 percent this year."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"Maybe more significant is the reason for this uptick, which according to Gallup isn’t to do with the attitudes of Democrats — their roughly two-thirds positive view has effectively stayed flat ... — but thanks to independents, whose positive views of socialism have gone 8 points up to 45 percent."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"A new Gallup poll conducted over the month of August puts socialism at its highest positive rating, 43 percent, since the polling firm started asking Americans in 2010."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"You wouldn’t know it from listening to mainstream media, but socialism is more popular than it’s been for a long time, and both socialism and its most well-known leaders appeal to a diverse voter base." jacobin.com/2026/09/poll...
jacobin.com
According to Polls, Americans Like Socialism a Lot
A crop of recent polls shows that socialism’s appeal is surprisingly broad. They also reflect a transformed US political landscape that is ripe for a socialist politician to capitalize on — if they’re...
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Another would be to apply sanctions on UAE-based entities that form part of the air bridge and on the front companies and bank accounts that convert the metal into Toyotas."
010
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"There are steps that could be taken in response. One important move would be to complement the weapons ban with Kimberley-style certification for Sudanese gold at the point when it enters refineries."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Dubai’s refineries process the metal, and the same financial infrastructure enables the flights. The profit is not incidental to the war. A force paid from the mine, through Dubai, does better when the country is in pieces."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"The UAE is not just one supplier among others. It is the buyer of last resort for Sudanese gold and the logistics node for the air bridge into Darfur."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Russia’s Wagner Group arrived around 2017 for the same metal, exchanging military training and equipment for mining concessions in RSF territory. When the US Treasury sanctioned those operations in 2020, the networks reorganized through UAE-based intermediaries. The buyer did not change."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"There were real estate holdings across the capital, farms in Darfur, and a trucking fleet. The gold bought more than guns — it bought a parallel economy, booked in Dubai."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Investigators at Global Witness later traced RSF payments moving through UAE-based front companies into accounts at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and documented the purchase of more than 900 Toyota Hilux and Land Cruiser vehicles."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"n October 2019, people in Talodi, South Kordofan, set fire to one of its cyanide plants after the runoff poisoned their water and killed their cattle. Guards opened fire, but the crowd burned it anyway."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"With that gold, Hemedti built an empire that ran parallel to the state instead of through it. Al Junaid, the family conglomerate, became one of the largest mining and construction operations in the country."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"The RSF was not, by this point, a paramilitary force sustained by weapons. It was a mining and logistics operation that maintained an army. The weapons were evidence of its power, which derived from gold."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Fighters rotated home having been trained in urban combat and logistics. I remember the new trucks in Khartoum that year. I did not know the money was Gulf money, although I knew the men who had burned villages in Darfur were moving through my city as if they owned it."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"The pay was in dollars, which meant [the RSF] could recruit faster than the army, buy equipment, and build a buffer against any future rupture with Khartoum."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"[W]hen the Yemen war needed ground forces composed of men who could move fast and not ask questions, they called the RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti. Estimates of the deployment range from 14,000 to 40,000 fighters between 2015 and 2020."
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"From 2015, the [RSF] was sending men to Yemen for Saudi and Emirati pay. The UAE had been cultivating Sudanese military figures since the early 2010s"
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"From Dubai, it entered the global gold market, occasionally passing through European refineries that did not ask where it came from. Investigators later put the annual take at more than a billion US dollars."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"[After the RSF took Jebel Amer] they were extracting something like forty kilograms [of gold] a day. The metal was processed with mercury, then flown from Khartoum airport to Dubai — sometimes a hundred kilograms a flight, once a week — with no customs paperwork on the Sudanese side."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Those three numbers explain more about Sudan’s war than any map I have been shown since. What happened in Sudan was not primarily a story of people choosing violence. It was a story of people choosing the wage that was available."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"In Haj Yousif, where Iqbal lived, the rent for a single room was 30,000 pounds a month. You had to work twenty factory days just to cover rent. Meanwhile, the Rapid Support Forces [RSF] were offering people 15,000 a day, a uniform, and a phone."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"The militias wreaking havoc in Sudan also profit from plunder and can pay their recruits a wage much higher than any civilian job available to them. This simple calculation is one of the most important factors behind the country’s horrifying war."
110
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Sudan’s civil war is generating big profits for militia leaders and their allies outside the country. The profiteering is not an incidental feature of the war — it’s one of the main engines driving it." jacobin.com/2026/09/suda...
jacobin.com
Greed and Economic Desperation Are Fueling Sudan’s Civil War
The militias wreaking havoc in Sudan also profit from plunder and can pay their recruits a wage much higher than any civilian job available to them. This simple calculation is one of the most importan...
111
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"Presidential supremacy in foreign affairs should serve as a warning on the domestic front. The current imbalance suggest that the founders knew what they were talking about. On their view, the Constitution abhors a concentration of power wherever that concentration may occur."
000
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"With the Cold War and the rise of the national security state, however, the court hastened a long and uneven retreat ... The net result of such decisions over time has created a constitutional imbalance of power in favor of the executive that would have alarmed the founding generation"
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"For well over a century, the Supreme Court turned aside such claims. Especially notable in this regard was Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, which rejected President Harry Truman’s attempt to seize the country’s major steel mills in an effort to avert a nationwide strike during the Korean War"
100
David Burleson @davidburleson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"That development inevitably led to presidents of both parties making ever more aggressive claims concerning the extent of exclusive executive authority."
100