The larger issue is not simply the Supreme Court but making Washington function again. What a new administration needs to push is Washington reform. Washington is broken. Reforms to the filibuster, courts, voting/elections is about Making Washington Work Again.
The public is deeply frustrated that nothing gets done. Problems aren’t fixed; they just get worse. Congress can’t pass legislation. The courts are partisan and have no credibility. A reform agenda to get Washington to function again... and then passing popular bills would be...
Immensely popular! Enacting transformational reform is also necessary to get us out of our political death spiral and realign our politics. The notion that by doing nothing and offering words of reconciliation to GOP will transform Washington is - at this point - laughable.
To change Washington, change Washington. If the election goes well... that’s what Democrats can do. It would be foolish not to.
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I've been thinking a lot about Trump's potential October surprise and the possible impact... and I struggle to see how another Russian hack/email dump and Barr/DOJ release...has anywhere close to the same impact as in 16. Thread. 1/
For one, the press get it now. In 2016 the press missed the huge shocking story staring them in the face: Russia was intervening in our election. And instead saw the email dump as "leaks." The Sunday shows on October 9th 2016 were shocking. 2/ amazon.com/Cyberwar-Russi…
This gave Clinton a month of damaging stories, a kin to a daily shelling, with some having a real impact. Trump for example ginned up a whole campaign saying Clinton was anti-Catholic based off a warped reading of a Podesta email exchange. 3/ vox.com/2018/4/25/1721…
The whistleblower statement is broad and damning and highlights illegality by Trump officials.
The press need to take note: Trump has succeeded in turning the IC into a political tool, tainting its analysis, and can’t be taken on face value. Quick thread: 1/
Acting DHS Secretary Wolf “held” intel on Russian interference b/c it “made the President look bad.”... very curious what that was.
It is now clear they hyped the interference threat of China and Iran, claiming it was on par w/ Russia. DNI Official Willliam Evanina s/d be seen as a political actor, as his August statement is clearly BS. dni.gov/index.php/news…
So about that tape... and whether the Kremlin has Kompromat on POTUS...Senate Intel looked at the 2013 Moscow Miss Universe trip with meticulous detail and...
They found this really weird receipt that was billed to Trump’s room at the Ritz, especially for a guy who doesn’t smoke or drink. $720 to the hotel bar and $306 for shisha. Kinda sounds like he had some people over...
But who? Trump’s body man Keith Schiller said he was offered 5 prostitutes for Trump. Schiller says it was rejected. But the Committee has a very interesting footnote citing Cohen saying he is “the ultimate protector” and “keeper of Mr. Trump’s secrets” willing to “lie for Trump”
*Trump camp was colluding w/ Russia
*No non-nefarious explanation for the server has borne out
*Experts say it looks like a covert comms channel
*It was taken down abruptly and deleted when exposed
*Activity spiked during campaign
*Alpha Bank engaging in bogus rearguard lawfare
To elaborate:
We now definitively know the Trump campaign was actively colluding w/ Russia. Senate Intel report shows depth of correspondence between Manafort-GRU and Stone-WikiLeaks.
Report also says Manafort and Kilimnik may have been involved in GRU's Hack and Leak op
In passing along internal polling data, Manafort was passing along information that told the Russians where the Trump campaign was allocating “98 percent” of its recources, according to Parscale. In other words, this told the Russians where to target their interference efforts.
This means the data operations of both the Trump campaign and Russia were potentially working off the same playbook.
Prior to Manafort’s meeting w/ the GRU (Kilimnik) on Aug 2nd he asked Gates to PRINT an EXCEL spreadsheet w/ internal polling data on 137 target markets in key states. Presumably if it was printed and given to Manafort... it was given to Kilimnik.
I think this is a slight misreading. Economic calamity after 08 gave space for reactionary resentment politics to emerge as a driving force of democratic politics. Here w/ TeaParty/Trump and in Europe: AfD-Germany, Lega/5 star-Itay, National Front-France, Brexit...
Basically the 08 crisis destabilized politics in the center, creating problems for moderate parties on left and right. For ex. GOP “moderates” ala the Romney wing gradually lost control of the party. In France, the fringy National Front/Rally became leading party on the right...
AfD pulled from the SPD labor base. The left wing Syriza in Greece came to power after centrist parties failed.
But now with a major socio-economic calamity... a true oh s*** moment...populists everywhere are flailing.