Jake Grumbach

Jake Grumbach

@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

policy, $, political economy of race // 70-80s soul, 90s hip hop // #DubNation // proud product of miscegenation // Berkeley prof (formerly: Princeton CSDP, UW)

37.4K followers856 following4.9K posts

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Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

New working paper w/ @hannafolsz.bsky.social In 2025, Trump targeted US law firms for their political opposition Some firms resisted by suing Trump. Others folded by agreeing to support the administration w/ pro bono work Resisting firms took a short term financial hit but improved reputations

Jake Grumbach reposted

David Kaye
@davidakaye.bsky.social

look, nothing is simple and i have no parsimonious explanation for anything here, but a student protest movement, focused on corruption & authoritarianism, just won a major european election. a big deal.

David Kaye@davidakaye.bsky.social

wow, really, vucic concedes

theguardian.comWild scenes of celebration in Belgrade as Vučić concedes Serbian election – Europe liveStudent List movement projected to have 138 seats in the new parliament, well clear of the 126 required for majority, to Vučić’s 104

Jake Grumbach reposted

Laura Bassett
@lebassett.bsky.social

Bolsonaro-friendly mayors appear to be sabotaging public transport on Election Day. Buses aren’t running in Lula-friendly areas, flights and ferries mysteriously canceled. Traffic lights have gone out and people’s power cut in Salvador, indigenous people’s travel restricted

Rafa Sales Ross@rafiews.com

We are watching a coup d’état attempt unfold in real time in Brazil. I’m consumed by desperation.

Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

Parties have always faced tradeoffs, like between swing voters and activists in the base. But the consultant class isn’t a tradeoff. It’s, to use an econ concept, rent extraction You’re being asked to sacrifice to save democracy. We’re just saying that the consultants should too.

Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

Thanks everybody for the engagement. A couple responses to good Qs: Better to donate directly than in response to text/email. But perverse incentives will remain absent systemic reform in the party 73% is from text/email blasts. Overall rate (including megadonors) is 45%, still 4x more than 2000s

Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

This one is especially funny. He talks about a nonprofit that trains women and LGBT people how to be welders. But he sees a trans flag at the welding school and suddenly the welding is a “professional-class insurgency” alienating the working class

collie.bsky.social@collie.bsky.social

Guys you’re never going to believe this but Tyler Austin Harper thinks Democrats are out of touch with the working class

Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

going after violent criminals and gangsters like the founder and director of a large food bank

Raider@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social

There is outrage in the Bronx following the arrest of a beloved immigrant in the community by ICE. Aleksander Nilaj, founder of the Open Hand food bank in the Bronx, was detained last Monday while attending an immigration court hearing. He was taken to the Delaney Hall Detention Center in New Jersey

Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

@gabrielzucman.bsky.social: So let met get that straight: paying a wealth tax is impossible (“billionaires have no liquidity”, “it would be taxing unrealized gains”, “their wealth is virtual”) but one man paying half a billion to influence elections is possible. Did I understand well?

Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

Many pundits and strategists are basically denying that this blatant Islomophobia is even happening. They're trying to argue that Abdul El-Sayed will perform a few points behind other Democrats because he's Too Far Left. The GOP isn't even attacking his policy positions! It's entirely about identity

Jake Grumbach reposted

jamelle
@jamellebouie.net

scott galloway and jessica tarlov held an event here in town yesterday where “don’t impeach or waste time on investigations because ‘28” was the consensus position of the panel. so yeah, this is something to anticipate.

Schooley@schooley.bsky.social

If Democrats actually win big because people want a check on Trump corruption I expect every move to do so will be covered in the corporate media as being risky to their 2028 position.

Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

For real, the allegations aren't good Also looks like a royal flush of selective enforcement. The classic racially biased enforcement of cannabis entrepreneurship under changing state legalization law. Plus the totally politicized federal targeting since 2025, only increasing ahead of the midterms

Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social

The biggest danger to this administration is being a non-white person who is funnier and better at posting than them. That's why they're arresting this woman's family members for running a weed store two weeks before an election. She has the juice and that's dangerous.

Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

A helpfully clear exchange here Hasan: "So your argument is that [Minnesota ICE protesters] should stay at home because immigration is a salient issue for Donald Trump. Opposing ICE is only going to help Trump. Wait until we win the election in 2028." Yglesias: "Yes that is what I would have said"

Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

Can’t have free elections, equality under the law, and freedom without that balance of power. Great interview.

Perry Bacon@perrybaconjr.bsky.social

Democracy is about elections, rights, and freedoms. But it also requires a balance of power---and that's the problem caused by billionaires today, says @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social. newrepublic.com/article/2169...

Jake Grumbach reposted

Adam Sheingate
@adamsheingate.bsky.social

This is such important work. The role of the consultant class is key to understanding money in politics and remains vastly understudied in political science.

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

Just as a private equity firm buys out a corporation and strips it for parts, a consultant class is raiding the Democratic Party and getting “generationally wealthy” along the way New from me and @adambonica.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2163...

newrepublic.comHow the Consulting Class Is Eating the Democratic PartyFundraising costs gobble up most of the funds raised. Billions are spent on TV ads that have virtually no impact. Candidates may win or lose—but the consulting class always wins.
Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

lemme see if I get it GRU hacks Kushner's iPhone Dutch intelligence (MIVD) then recruits GRU spy, gives them hacked phone MIVD discovers that Kushner has 2 bank accounts (one Azerbaijani, one Israeli) where Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Emirati ruler Mohammed bin Zayed deposit money

Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social

This is one of the most holy sh*t stories I’ve ever read in my life. www.vanityfair.com/story/jared-...

vanityfair.comThe Art of the Deal: Jared Kushner’s Hacked Phone Revealed More Than $700 Million in TransfersAn exclusive excerpt from ‘Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East’ examines how bank accounts linked the president’s son-in-law—and former sen...

Jake Grumbach reposted

derek guy
@dieworkwear.bsky.social

US garment workers helped pioneer multi-ethnic labor unions, which united people across racial, religious, gender, linguistic, and cultural divides. Also native-born citizens and immigrants. I think about that sometimes when I see people suggest such divides are unbridgeable.

Jake Grumbach reposted

Hakeem Jefferson
@hakeemjefferson.bsky.social

So happy that @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social and @adambonica.bsky.social finally got this piece out. For too long, the consultant class has influenced Democratic Party politics without much scrutiny. Not anymore. The article is well worth your time.

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

Just as a private equity firm buys out a corporation and strips it for parts, a consultant class is raiding the Democratic Party and getting “generationally wealthy” along the way New from me and @adambonica.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2163...

newrepublic.comHow the Consulting Class Is Eating the Democratic PartyFundraising costs gobble up most of the funds raised. Billions are spent on TV ads that have virtually no impact. Candidates may win or lose—but the consulting class always wins.

Jake Grumbach reposted

Don Moynihan
@donmoyn.bsky.social

Important piece: Republicans already strip-mined their donor base, and now are deeply dependent on billionaires. Unless Dems change, they will go the same route, or become electorally uncompetitive.

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

Just as a private equity firm buys out a corporation and strips it for parts, a consultant class is raiding the Democratic Party and getting “generationally wealthy” along the way New from me and @adambonica.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2163...

newrepublic.comHow the Consulting Class Is Eating the Democratic PartyFundraising costs gobble up most of the funds raised. Billions are spent on TV ads that have virtually no impact. Candidates may win or lose—but the consulting class always wins.
Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

There is little meritocracy or competition when it comes to Democratic consultants—they get paid the same regardless of how their candidates perform in the election.

Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

Conflicts of interest abound. This extraction is draining the Democratic base rather than investing in the party’s long term health, biasing candidate positions in favor of factions with big money, and weakening the party’s stance against corruption. Tough to beat authoritarianism in this situation

Jake Grumbach
@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

We found that as of right now 73% of your campaign donation goes back to the consultants and vendors (!!!), four times more than just 20 years ago. Only 13% to ads. Even I was shocked.

Jake Grumbach reposted

Radley Balko
@radleybalko.bsky.social

ICE causes man to wreck while his children are in the car, then tries to pry his kids from his arms. They got the wrong guy. Toward the end of the video, an ICE officer says law requires the person recording to back up 25 feet and threatens with pepper spray. (There is no 25-foot law.)

facebook.comfacebook.com

Jake Grumbach reposted

Don Moynihan
@donmoyn.bsky.social

LMAO - questioner asks about corruption, giving Alina Habba as an example. The Attorney General, standing behind Vance, was at her wedding, which took place as the graft was happening. They both got their positions because they were Trump's personal defense lawyers. It is all the same club!

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

JD Vance: "There is no person who hates the idea of people enriching themselves fraudulent over access to the government than Donald J Trump"