Please listen to this informative interview of Rob Reiner by @funder Rob has a great deal of insight on trump and a realistic take on what’s occurring as well as what we can expect going forward. Let’s hope he’s correct in his assessment. In a normal world he would be 1/ <thread>
2/ The problem is that we’re not operating in an environment that is even close to normal. Start with trump. trump is not normal. Any argument there? Aside from clear evidence of mental disorders, his conduct is criminal. And so are the actions of all those he surrounds himself
3/ himself with. Their actions are all consistently antithetical to “making America great again”. Their actions are about destroying our institutions, a norms, our way of life, even to the extent of shutting down the federal government for the third time and threatening to
4/ continue this shut down for months in order to supposedly get money for a bidet wall that all reasonable people agree is not needed and is too expensive. Their pattern and I believe their goal is to destroy America from within while stealing everything they can for their own
5/ personal profit. Early on, although many knew trump was a criminal, @FBI @ericgarland @LincolnsBible @BarackObama @ninaandtito @JamesFourM @20committee and many more, the general public had no idea. trump lied and conducted a misinformation campaign with the help of Russia
6/ to get elected POTUS in order to use his power to enrich himself, his family, and his associates. None of this is normal. We’ve had bad presidents, we’ve had criminal presidents, but we’ve never had a President who conspired with an enemy power to be elected and continues to
7/ to further his criminal goals and solidify his success. This is not normal. If you objectively look at what he has said and done, he follows the pattern of past and present dictators whose common goal is to solidify power with themselves and a small trusted circle of family,
8/ friends and criminal coconspirators, see @sarahkendzior to further their self serving goals of personal enrichment while preemptively taking away the ability of the general population to check their advances which occur at the expense of our personal enrichment, safety, and
9/ and our freedoms. You see this with the Republicans efforts to gerrymander voting districts to favor Republicans. You see it with other efforts to keep people of color from being able to vote at all. They refuse to count ballots that are casts or change the votes in machines
10/ which are intentionally purchased by them to allow this cheating to take place, see @jennycohn1 and @mikefarb1 They have even been so bold as to have outgoing governors like Scott Walker, change laws to take away power from incoming Democrats. This is not a normal environment
11/ that were now living in and that is the problem with anticipating a normal outcome. It would be nice. It would be best. It would be desirable. But it would also be normal and this is anything but normal. So the elephant in the room that nobody is talking about is what if....
12/ trump and his coconspirators continue to do what’s not normal? What if their actions continue to be criminal? What if they continue to lie, cheat, and steal in the furtherance of their now obvious criminal goals which they seem to be willing to continue pursuing at all costs?
13/ What if they continue to do what’s NOT NORMAL? Odds makers will tell you that what is most likely to happen next is what has happened before. That’s how gambling works. That’s how logic works. That’s where the expression about walking, talking, and looking like a duck comes
15/ Global warming or climate change shows the world that we can not continue conducting our lives on this planet the same way we have been with respect to carbon based fuels, EVIDENCE and FACTS show US all that trump and his administration of criminal coconspirators will likely
16/ continue down their same path. If you still doubt this, there is more logical, unemotional, non aspirational evidence in the form of documented history that further supports this likely outcome. There are three paths to choose and they’re all applicable. One path is trump’s
17/ personal history. You know it so I’ll give a brief recap. He has run several businesses into bankruptcy, his scammed money from customers, partners, and contractors, he’s violated numerous crimes since being elected, and he lies non stop about all of this despite the facts.
18/ that he’s a criminal. If you need more detail, please read one of many books on the topic, here are only a few. Or check out @SethAbramson ‘s many excellent threads on trump, #TrumpRussia particularly the later ones where he begins to focus o the enormity of this conspiracy. 
19/ The second historical path that you can take is the international one. Merely look into the history of past dictators like Hitler and how his rise to power or look at current history of Erdogan in Turkey or Putin in Russia. Look at the many similarities in them and their
20/ methods along with trump and his methods. They stole power, lied, misinformed, took advantage of s corrupt system and dissatisfaction of a segment of viters that could be manipulated due to their personal beliefs, some factual and most only perceived to be true. Research any
21/ of these people or others back through history and the story is the same. History tells us what happened and that is evidence of what is likely to happen again unless we recognize the elephant in the room and admit to ourselves that none of this is normal. In fact it is very
22/ dangerous, frightening and potentially life altering for all of US. Finally, if you’re still not convinced, take the third path of investigation and look at the facts with respect to our national history regarding what has occurred within the Republican Party to get Us to
23/ this point in time. To do this, again you don’t need to take my word for it but research other scholars and experts who have spent years studying and writing in the subject. Read books like Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money” , Nancy Maclean’s “Democracy in Chains”, or Craig Unger’s
24/ “House of Trump, House of Putin”. What you’ll learn is fascinating! You’ll realize that Democracy in America has always been under attack, both from external enemies and internal enemies. All of the political differences that lead to the Civil War and it’s eventual end, did
25/ not end when the war ended. It continues in fact to this day. You’ll learn that there are many people like the Mercers and Kochs who have spent their lives attacking Democracy, attacking the Constitution, attacking our laws and norms like people’s right to vote, free speech,
26/ environmental law, and the very rules by which we govern, all for their personal gain. All to further their goals of personal wealth and power. You’ll learn that they, like trump, had family members closely associated with the likes of Hitler and Stalin. Not so shocking then
27/ to see then how they put themselves and their personal desires for power and wealth ahead of America or Americans. They are criminals. They don’t care about US. In fact their doing everything in their power to minimize our impact on their lives in every way possible. Once one
28/ understands this and understands the odds and the history and the facts, you can understand why I can no loner in good conscience ignore the elephant in the room. The elephant that clearly shows these are not normal times and therefore we cannot COUNT ON or necessarily expect
28/ normal outcomes. We must anticipate other potential outcomes and risks based upon facts and trust that science, truth, and logic will continue to hold true. The truth is that we need a backup plan. Why? The facts are telling US that we’re on a dangerous path to a totalitarian
29/ style of governance led by a dictator posing as an elected official ala Putin or Erdogan. A government installed by illegitimate means, not by free elections. A government only concerned with consolidating their personal wealth and power (@sarahkendzior ) at the expense of
30/ ALL else, including our rights, our freedom, our ability to govern ourselves or even to know what the truth really is. We cannot let this happen. That TRUTH should be self evident. I’m imploring MSM, those 20 Senators that Rob talked about and all of you to do anything you
31/ you can do do address the elephant in the room and fight like hell to fix this problem and save Democracy. First step is getting people on board to understand and help. So if you agree with me and these other experts, than please Retweet this thread and let’s save America! <>
