Take aways of tape:
Lev Parnas is most politically savvy person in the room during this dinner.
He and Don Jr advocate for legalization of cannabis albeit differently. Parnas talks about it in terms of banking, committee hearings.
Jr. says less men will beat their wives.
Don Jr. says Comey sounds like a whiny teenager. In an unironically whiny teenager voice.
President says cable news would be dead if there were a normal candidate, declares magazines dead.
When the discussion turns to long haul truckers, he says soon we won’t need them.
This is a large constituency and his base. They listen to talk radio more than anyone else. So casually thrown away by their president at a dinner where a man complains the money he gave his 16 year old son to invest in the stock market hasn’t yet to yield a profit. Poor kid.
The president seems surprised to learn that Ukraine has oil. He begins to gather info. He asks Lev Parnas what about their leader? He asks Parnas how long Ukraine would last against Russia. The president is hatching his scheme. This is the beginning of the Ukraine ordeal.
He now knows Ukraine has oil. That they are dependent upon us for survival. He now has leverage. I bet they’ll do anything I ask them to. Earlier in the dinner, they discussed the topic of Biden polling in AZ.
Parnas tells the president there is an Ambassador, a left over from Clinton. She says you’ll be impeached. A man laughs and says “she’ll be gone by tomorrow.” But the president hears the laughter ringing in his head. How dare someone say I’ll be impeached? Like a joke.
This is a narcissistic injury. He must regain control. He says get rid of her. Take her out. Do it tomorrow. That phrase, the same referenced in the joke. He never asks the Ambassador’s name. He didn’t care about Yovanovitch. He never even thought of her.
Yet he says get rid of her because Lev Parnas, a man he says he does not know, asked him to. Does the Senate really think this was in our national interest? Do they want someone so frail of ego that he would sell out an Ambassador because someone laughed at him?
Parnas knew that telling the president the ambassador had slighted him would get his attention. As sure as he knew to tell the president the ambassador was a Clinton left over. She was an Obama hold over. Remember, Clinton was never elected? He knew the buttons to push.
Don Jr says the Russians got what they wanted with Ukraine. It is Lev Parnas that corrects him by saying “No! Russia wants Ukraine.”
Senators, I implore you. Look at what is right in front of you. #RightMatters
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
It’s been a while since we’ve used the wayback machine. Let’s see how it holds up on a short trip. We’re going to go on a journey back to a time before trump was president.
Don’t get too excited. It’s to do with aid to Ukraine.
A wee thread🧵👇🏻
On July 28, 2016, in Cleveland at the Republican National Committee, the GOP removed a single issue from their party platform. Essentially, it became trump policy to no longer provide aid to Ukraine.
A delegate said it was taken out by trump’s people.
But that’s a bit awkward because the newly minted GOP Nominee eventually ended up telling Robert Mueller he didn’t recall. Strange because trump, has like a great memory. And his uncle was like, a physicist or something.🤷🏼♂️
There will no doubt be a lot said by smarter people than I about this ruling in the GA v trump et al. case, but I would like to offer two important thoughts I hope they don’t miss.
Firstly, please understand the danger. Look at what just happened. The whole country has been on edge awaiting this ruling because it determined whether or not a former president accused of some gangster shit, might get away with it because of some more gangster shit.
This dude is so dangerous to prosecute, a former GOVERNOR declined to be the special prosecutor because of safety concerns. This dude is so dangerous because he has a dangerous crew. I don’t how to lay this out clearly for people to understand so please bear with me as I try.
Have you heard of Project 2025? It’s a ‘Playbook’. You can read the whole “Mandate” for yourself at this link and I encourage you to do so. *Please* know who you’re voting for in November.
First thing to know: There is a Project 2025. This is important to know. It exists. It’s a plan. It’s coming day one of the next conservative presidency. I am not being hyperbolic. If you are seeing this, it will have some impact on your life. It’s designed to.
This is a Heritage Foundation joint. There are roughly 386 ‘contributors’ to Project 2025 and at least 48 of them are Heritage Foundation. That’s 12% of all contributors give or take some bad eyesight, counting, and maths and unknown crossover organizational alignments.
I was thinking about my dad the other day. He’s still here, he’s fine. I was just thinking about him.
WARNING STRONG LANGUAGE
My dad would tell me stories about guys like his dad. Guys like his dad fought in WWII. Guys like my dad, revered those guys.
A wee thread🧵👇🏻
The only reason the tv set growing up didn’t have the History Channel logo burned into it was because occasionally, I’d watch sports. The history channel had documentary after documentary of WWII. My dad likes the air battles. He would talk about “Those Guys”.
“Those Guys,” he’d say, “Those Guys sat in a bubble OUTSIDE the airplane, Joey!’ “Can you believe that? Imagine how cold it must have been!”
He was referring to the tail gunners on the screen.
You guys…I think I’m going to call it a year. I will begin my final thread of 2024 as I mean to end it, and that is conversationally and with gratitude. Thank you for all your continued dedication to self-determination and democracy.
I’m tired.
A wee 🧵👇🏻
This year was more difficult than last year. Things are getting harder. My balance is getting worse and my body is getting stiffer. I’ve had more falls this year than last. Speaking of falls, it seems more leaves fell in the yard this year than last.
The time change this year and its underreported havoc it wreaks on my medication is worse this year than last. I’ve torn my Achilles and my hamstring this year as opposed to no injuries last.
This is a wee thread. I tell you that now because there is no clever preamble, no fun intro to pique your interest. Just a simple request that you know I lack understand on this topic and make no judgments. I share it so those who can make sense of it hopefully do so.
🧵👇🏻
On December 23rd of 2016, the United Nations adopted UN resolution number 2334. It is here for you to read. Please do so. If you don’t, know the gist is that this UN Security Council resolution stated that Israel’s settlements have no legal validity.
The history of this resolution is one that helps put into context some of what we may be seeing today. At the time, Barack Obama was President and Bibi Netanyahu was Prime Minister of Israel. vox.com/world/2016/12/…