1/ Outraged by the brutal murder of an unarmed black man by a preening racist cop—whose ACTUAL LAST NAME, Chauvin, means “overly aggressive patriot”—hundreds of thousands of people in cities and towns across America begin to peacefully protest.
2/ Agitators—some from the alt-right, some from the alt-left, some from the ranks of the police, and some just assholes—co-opt the peaceful rallies and start looting & burning stuff. This is condemned by everyone, including the peaceful protesters.
3/ Cops use this as an excuse to fire rubber bullets and teargas canisters in the face of peaceful protesters, journalists, and civilians on the way home from the grocery store. Some of them drive police vehicles into crowds of protesters.
4/ Although 99% of the protests are peaceful, and 99% of those involved legit, the media reports focus 99% of the attention on the 1% who are assholes.
5/ Joe Biden goes to a protest. Kamala Harris goes to a protest. Donald John Trump decides not to address the nation, because he has no plans and nothing to say beyond his “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” and “violent dogs” tweets.
6/ Protesters in front of the White House show up in vast numbers and get testy, tussling the barricades with the Secret Service by the fence. This freaks out President Braveheart, who immediately repairs to the underground bunker beneath the building.
7/ Dick Cheney was whisked to this bunker on 9/11. From what I gather, he did not want to go, but Secret Service insisted. On 9/11. When airplanes may well have been trying to fly into the building. But Trump got spooked by a few protesters, turned tail, & took shelter. Coward!
8/ In the bunker, Trump didn’t know what to do. The situation was desperate, and he was out of ideas. So what does he do? He rings up his owner, Vladimir Putin, for instructions.
HE. CALLED. PUTIN.
9/ A few hours later, Trump has jackbooted goons fire teargas & light charges at people peacefully protesting in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church. As soon as the smoke has (literally) cleared, he “bravely” walks to the front of the church.
10/ This is the most he’s walked since taking office. I guess golf carts were not available?
11/ With him on the walk are Bill Barr, whom the House should immediately detain for contempt of Congress, and someone named General Milley, who looks to be the Vichy GOP version of Marshal Pétain.
12/ Once at the church, Trump is given a Bible, which he fumbles with, as if he has never before held a book in his entire life. He then poses for one of the most pathetic photos ever taken of a US president, mistakenly believing he’s projecting strength.
13/ Putin! He called f—king PUTIN!
But this was supposedly the idea of [reads notes] Hope Hicks?!?!
14/ How is this even happening?
15/ This is the scariest moment in this country in my lifetime. But take heart: Trump is only doing this out of desperation. He knows he’s going to lose, and he wants to do as much damage as possible on his way out the door and into the squad car.
We outnumber them. We are legion. And WE SHALL PREVAIL!!!
[END]
PS
The Hitler/Bible going around is Photoshopped. That so many people (including me initially) fell for it, is itself an indictment of Trump and all he stands for.
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Like many leaders of the reactionary right—Mike Johnson, Mike Davis, Stephen Miller, and so on—the current head of the Heritage Foundation has a dull, forgettable name: Kevin Roberts.
[THREAD]
2/ Roberts has a winsome smile, a PhD in U.S. history, a background in academia, & a well-earned reputation as a nice guy. Who could have imagined that this bright, friendly Gen Xer would be leading a Christian conservative counter-reformation—a crusade to end American democracy?
3/ In 2013, Roberts, who is Catholic, became the second president of Wyoming Catholic College, a strict, almost monastic institution est. in 2007 that provides “a rigorous immersion in...the spiritual heritage of the Catholic Church”—and that will throw you out if you hook up.
If action is character, as F. Scott Fitzgerald proposed, then it is instructive to look at the life of Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson in reverse, Benjamin Button style. . .
[THREAD]
1/ It is the night before Veteran’s Day, 2021. On his primetime Fox News program, Tucker Carlson argues that the U.S. should back Russia, and not Ukraine, in the escalating conflict between the two countries. “Why would we take Ukraine’s side and not Russia’s side?”
2/ He insists that choosing Putin’s dictatorship over Zelensky’s democracy is a no-brainer because of “energy reserves.” This is either breathtaking ignorance of the region’s history or straight-up Kremlin propaganda. Or, I suppose, both.
Should the media try to present Elise Stefanik (R-Machiavelli) as a moderate, throwback, Paul Ryan Republican and not the ruthless, power-mad opportunist in league with Dear Leader Donald that she is, please consider her career trajectory:
[THREAD]
1/ Carpetbags her way to a House seat
Sidles up to Nunes (her doppelgänger) and to Jim Jordan (which makes that hateful troll look tall)
Comes out against impeachment
2/ Usurps Liz Cheney in the GOP House leadership structure
Supports conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen
Joins Ken Paxton’s treasonous lawsuit attempting to overturn the election results
Last week, Leonard Leo’s Supreme Court handed down a bevy of wretched decisions that are now the law of the land. These decisions have two things in common: All of them will cause more harm than good. And all of them are wins for Leonard Leo.
[THREAD]
2/ As many legal scholars have pointed out, the internal logic of the Leonard Leo Court is functionally nonexistent. Nothing holds. There is no rhyme or reason to these decisions.
3/ The Leonard Leo judges will dredge up some anti-witchcraft statute from medieval England, while ignoring the last 50 years of settled law in the here and now; “Starry Decisis” may as well be Sam Alito’s drag name.
This @propublica article is something. Among the choice quotes:
"On June 9, Arkley’s group [which included Alito] chartered a boat, the Happy Hooker IV, to tour Yakutat Bay."
@propublica Leonard Leo, a Knight of Malta-level gaslighter, called the ProPublica piece “bait for reeling in more dark money from woke billionaires who want to damage this Supreme Court..." (b/c there are SO MANY woke billionaires)