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Joshua Cypess Profile picture
@JoshuaCypess
Oct 12, 2020 • 70 tweets • 24 min read • Read on X
13.01new/ I'm experimenting with a new procedure for my #RandomThoughts thread (linked below), which has gotten enormous and difficult to navigate. Each week I will make a separate thread & embed/link it in the original monster. Let's see if this works

13.02a/ We subscribe to the local NJ paper (Support Local News! Another Slogan!) & they invest heavily in Kings Feature & Creators Syndicate comics. As an amateur comics historian/artist, I have issues with the quality of both groups, but esp. with The Lockhorns & Andy Capp
13.02b/ I collect comic strip books (comics were a road not taken), my kids have a youth filled with some of the best (Calvin & Hobbes, Far Side, Cul de Sac, Citizen Dog, Peanuts) so the two martial strife comics are a jarring contrast.
13.02c/ I may try to see how these two comics still survive. I mean, how can 'women driver' jokes still carry any meaning? From the wiki I did learn that the original name was "The Lockhorns of Levittown" which says SO MUCH

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lockh…
13.03/ Since the SCOTUS hearings today are (1) illegitimate & part of a fascist junta & thus (2) infuriating & an insult, I won't say much. Except: the GOP's only complaint about Donald is his rude demeanor, so *of course* they're fine w/the same ethics just in a "nice" exterior
13.04/ Quick thread about the calumny of 'do nothing dems' I keep seeing. I get the frustration, but I also can't abide by victim-blaming and/or employing the rhetoric of the oppressors

13.05/ Bingo
13.06/ GOP in Oct 2020 is like hearing Jefferson Davis plea in March 1865 "if we lose, we still get to enslave people, right?"

The effective GOP platform is theft, injustice, pro-plague, white supremacy and outright fascism... and I'm not exaggerating!
13.07b/ For an example of being in favor of theft, injustice, cruelty etc. see here:

It's now well reported that GOP voters don't believe what their party actually stands for b/c it's incomprehensible how evil it is.

All thanks to the propaganda bubble

13.08a/ Just thinking about how the GOP is shrieking that the Democrats may be able to catch & undo all of their crimes vis-a-vis SCOTUS or the "norm" of letting presidents go unpunished (see Nixon, GWB). It's the same reason they shriek about how Kavanaugh was "treated"
13.08b/ Kavanaugh's "treatment" amounted to trying to hold him accountable for his terrible ethics, abusive behavior, and dishonesty. His response, BTW, was to act more dishonest & abusive.

GOP hates what they're most frightened of: consequences for evil.
13.09/ This is brilliant and true
13.10/ Excellent!
13.11/ I remember the morning of the election 538 gave around 35% & being scared out of my mind. What Krugman's pointing out implicitly is that most people don't know how statistics & probability work. A 1/3 chance is WAY too high but ppl saw it as 0.

13.12/ Winning an election against the GOP is like playing football against the NFL Patriots: never let up, keep the foot on the gas, because our opponent always plays the refs and ALWAYS cheats
13.13a/ One reason "we got Trump (ym'sh)" is b/c the halls of power are filled with utter cowards & people with no moral compass. Sadly, I include many pundits & news leaders in the MSM who slavishly repeat whatever GOP talking point they're handed (see: 'CourtPacking')
13.13b/ MSM is called 'corporate media' by the RedRoses & it's not wholly wrong. So they may never shift away from singing the GOP hymnal, however their cowardice could be a greater pull. If the Dems crush the GOP in Nov, maybe the 'conventional wisdom' will shift
13.13c/ That could mean the MSM may assume there's wide support for ethical policies (e.g. green energy, universal health care, untainted courts) because - like all cowards - they'll shift with the wind

A blue wave crushing Trump (ym'sh) could make the MSM start acting ethically
13.14a/ While it's been useful to know which public figures openly don the RedHat and embrace fascism, cruelty & oppose science, the SCOTUS battles have shown me how even many anti-Trumpers can't tell bad-faith arguments, which means they can't tell when someone is lying
13.14b/ So many of these goofuses who swoon over Kavanaugh & Barrett are implicit demonstrations of the success of the civilization they're trying to dismantle. B/c ppl this impaired have ironically been protected & allowed to thrive despite their own efforts to enshrine cruelty
13.14c/ Of course, they subconsciously know that they're unfit for a meritocracy & so fear the rise of "undesirables" who will topple their illicit perch. They cling to their supremacy & cruelty in order to avoid their deserved fate & dress up their beliefs in stolen slogans
13.15/ Rav Mayer Twersky's lecture about the Chillul Hashem of the Boro Park violence has been written up. I highly recommend it

torahweb.org/torah/special/…
13.16/ Excellent use of visualization/graphs. It's true, the 3 biggest parties in the US are Democrats, Republicans, and Nonvoter

13.17/ Right now there are 3 groups (1) anti-DJT (2) cult-45, & the "undecideds" (aka very low info voters) who sadly will decide the election. That group needs to be convinced that the GOP constantly acts in utterly bad faith. To that end, see here:

13.18/ Libertarianism is a worldview built either on indifference/negligence or cruelty but even the "nice" guys are #literalists who can't see the structure behind the freedom.

13.19/ We're going to find out that the music guy for his rallies knew what they were doing, like choosing "Fortunate Son" or "YMCA" as below

(Also, periodic reminder that he is SO WEIRD)

13.20/ Barrett is smart enough to know that all she needs to do is deny & defer, never answer a factual question, lie about her intentions and she'll be able to hurt as many people as she wants when she puts on the robe

13.20b/ Here's another great example. Evidently Judge Barrett doesn't have enough info to answer a simple answer of "fascism is illegal, yo"

How can she not answer the question? Because she isn't there to say anything substantive. This is a sham

13.20c/ The Lindsey Graham SCOTUS hearing is the equivalent of the #MoscowMitch impeachment trial: they know the answer ahead of time, so why call witnesses? Barrett's contempt for all of us in her lack of answers is palpable.

See this tweet for my mood:
13.21/ This is an illustration of #1 of my 4 Comforts (still my pinned tweet): that Trump (ym'sh) is incompetent and his plans are Wile E. Coyote-esque. I'm surprised The Wall isn't a giant catapult that hits him when he pulls the cord

13.22/ Again, he is just so unbelievably strange. Stone cold weirdo
13.23/ This video has the right idea in dealing with the malignant personality disorder people. I've learned how to do this just out of instinct and it works!
13.24/ When I was there, Princeton's culture seemed built around Wilson veneration. It's a BIG deal they're doing this & I'm proud they are. Wilson was a terrible racist (ironically that should make him a GOP hero now)

13.25/ Just as the GOP calls their passive genocide a "herd immunity" strategy, the Far Left exercised a passive accelerationist strategy in 2016 when they refused to vote for HRC. Well, it worked: the country may embrace socialist ideas now. IMO 200K+ deaths is not worth it.
13.26/ This is amazing from the satirical "New York Times Pitchbot" who was able to predict the punditry of NateSilver, who's a good quantitative guy but is pitiful as a qualitative analyst. And quant is blind w/o qualt

13.27/ If Biden wins, he needs to find a place to elevate the stature of all these red state Democrats like the heilige Stacy Abrams (GA), Buttigieg (IN), @JasonKander (MO), the Castro brothers & Beto (TX), Mitch Landrieu (LA, former mayor of NO) etc.

13.28/ Oh look, the NYPost has a bogus story about Burisma... obvious scam is obvious.

See here for a good way to analyze this stuff
13.29/ A good start. Again, good to see Princeton do good things. Now, more & everywhere

13.30/ Conservatives on SCOTUS are always hyped up as "brilliant" yet their work is merely twisting words to find the answer they want, which just takes evil not talent

However, it's worth acknowledging that these goobers may actually be the best they have. I believe that.
13.31/ Here's a self-recursive thread (which makes sense since I just got the complete works of Escher for the family) with my, uh, critique of the 'accelerationist' political philosophy

13.32/ In my defense I would have put 2+2 together on this as well but each day feels like a week, so I got the timing messed up

That said, yes, this is likely what happened

13.33a/ The Court packing of #MoscowMitch since he took over that culminates with Barrett is so very similar to the last gasp of the dying Federalist party. Adams' power grab echoes down to the current GOP (Alien & Sedition Acts anyone?)

13.33b/ In my youth, I preferred Adams over Jefferson b/c JA was a short Northeastern nerd & TJ was a pompous hypocrite who wrote about liberty while violently keeping people in bondage. But it's hard to defend Adams' actions in his bid to retain power. Still can't abide TJ tho.
13.34/ I'd enjoy this more if Ben Sasse weren't a huge pompous fraud in his own right. He's a rancid dorm-room philosopher who believes his excreta is gold.

He voted against witnesses to impeachment so he's as much a criminal as his bosses Mitch & DJT

13.35/ As a sociologist, I'm a social constructionist (which is almost like saying "I believe in math") and the view @tashakaminsky is pushing against is another good example of a #literalist, or materialist, fallacy. (See my comment on her post as well)
13.36a/ This was an excellent piece about why the filibuster must go. His best point IMO is: even if GOP gets control & passes terrible legislation (when they have a trifecta) that will allow them to be exposed to the voters for their real beliefs

vox.com/21424582/filib…
13.36b/ An implicit point is that it's in the retrograde revanchists (aka the GOP) interest to destroy the Senate, destroy government & make people so frustrated with the system that they won't vote, become cynical & reject democracy. I.e. what they've done since Gingrich
13.36c/ It's in the Democrats (and democrats) interest to make government work. Saying we can't risk losing the filibuster b/c the GOP will do terrible things ignores that the filibuster IS one of the terrible things that helps the GOP

"Make Government Work Again" 2020
13.37/ The GOP's open cartoonish evil incompetence is a good sociological case b/c the hermetic media bubble of Fox/FB allows them to escape the social stigma normally engendered by public scrutiny. The result is they can't control their open contempt (see the Bible & blank pad) Side by side images of (1) ...
13.38/ 538's simulations give the following as the most extreme Blue map. Gives an idea of the most red states: UT, ID, WY, ND, SD, NE, OK, AL, MS, KY, WV. Image
13.39/ Good thread re: the shallow mediocrity of the modern conservatives on SCOTUS, culminating with the correct Greek-epic epithet "nitwit" for Scalia. As in "the beer-lusting abuser Kavanaugh follows the teachings of corrupt nitwit Scalia"
13.40/ Oh, yes, what a coincidence that the conservative mediocrities on SCOTUS were instrumental in the Bush v Gore case which destroyed the court's credibility & led us into the current hellscape

13.41/ Wow! What a great presentation of data. This is a map of America showing the COVID case reports over the past year. Just look at the wave of red blanketing the South despite knowing how bad NY etc was hit

13.42/ Originalism is hard to argue against because it's not a real philosophy; it's a bad-faith ruse & thus immune to counter-argument & mutable to whatever pretext is needed to fool opponents. It's patent nonsense.

(As an Orthodox Rabbi, I'm so grateful for lo b'shamayim hi)
13.43/ Welp, extra-judicial killing can be added definitively to the list of fascist actions by the Trump (ym'sh) regime.

[sn: If there's an anti-Semitism cow & racism dog, maybe there should be fascism animal too. Maybe a rat? Hyena? Maggot?]

13.44/ If BE"H Biden wins in Nov., it will be the only time I wished that Trump (ym'sh) would have made a statue of himself just so we could get together and pull it down Jan 20, 2021

But we gotta win first! Vote! Volunteer! Use Exclamation Points!
13.45/ My brother, Dr. Dr. @acypess, just clued me in about SeeSay, which allows voters to report problems and prospective voters can see upcoming issues (and possibly, in some areas, wait times)

twitter.com/SeeSay2020
13.46/ Does anyone who knows Rabbi Prof. Sperber personally have an idea if he made this title on purpose to get a 17 minute song in our heads? I wouldn't put it past the certain Venn diagram of Torah u-Maddaniks (like me, heh)

biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng…
13.47/ So the above tweet was supposed to go out when twitter crashed. And, like many of you, I thought I caused it. Same way I thought my use of a home printer caused the 2003 NYC blackout (That was a fun time, 2 yrs after 9/11, in a blacked out Manhattan in August)
13.48/ Oh no! Rav Sacks is sick. May there be a speedy recovery for Harav Yaakov Tzvi ben Liba

13.49/ (Rounding up stray tweets before I seal this week's writing) I made a comment here about how the long lines are anti-democratic vote-suppression but thank God this year it's spread out over weeks & not all on one day

13.50/ #MoscowMitch enjoys being evil more than any other Republican, it's kind of weird. The other poltroons are oily & cowardly (Cotton, Hawley, Cruz, Rubio) while Barr & Cheney had the low toned denials. But Mitch just cackles with glee

13.51/ A thread I just sent out as part of this 'erev Shabbas recap'
13.52/ I don't live in Pittsburgh any more, but during football season I listen to the local radio (to get my #Steelers fix), so I feel a sympathy with my culture of the en-rivered land of my birth
13.53/ A restatement of the most basic - yet stupefyingly overlooked - principle of understanding The Big Dummy: he's a malignant narcissist who craves adulation even at the cost of his life

13.54/ We often compare 2020 to other terrible years, especially 1918 & 1968. Both those years had wars, but 1968 had devastating assassinations as well. It's something I'm very worried about this year (e.g. McVeigh trained w/MI terrorist 'militias')

13.55/ This user, on their own, identified a factor in what I've been describing as a #Literalist mentality often found in 'conservative' thinkers. Outside of cruelty, it may be the major cognitive marker of the right-wing

13.56/ Made this point about the GOP fawning over Barrett's large family, and her over-the-top feminine deferential act, that it's all part of the "blood & soil" (aka "Kinder, Küche, Kirche") platform of the RedHat fascist party

13.57/ A great concept when analyzing bad spectacle movies, the "haunted house" plot: just a series of unconnected things that make sense only because of the unspoken, lazy, recognition that they'll make money even without an actual narrative

13.58/ Candle lighting is getting earlier and earlier, so I will try to end this thread now. #ShabbatShalom everyone

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More from @JoshuaCypess

Joshua Cypess Profile picture
Apr 16
196.01/ Week one-hundred and ninety-six, April 13-19, 2024, thread begins here.

Week 195 below.
196.02/ Still holds true (from last year)
196.03/ #NachasAlert: My son has a big article (pages 4-6) in this week's Torah journal from his high school #Metzora-#HaGadol. Enjoy!
drive.google.com/file/d/1uNKU5O…
Read 5 tweets
Joshua Cypess Profile picture
Apr 7
195.01/ Week one-hundred and ninety-five, April 6-12, 2024, thread begins here.

Week 194 below.
195.02/ Happy #Eclipse2024 Day for all who celebrate. Here's an interesting article about the halakhic implications of an eclipse by Rabbi Dov Linzer:
blogs.timesofisrael.com/solar-eclipse-…
195.03/ #Eclipse2024 My extended family went to a place of 100% totality and took this picture a few minutes ago. For me its 90% and can't be photographed (which is one reason I said shehechiyanu). Not paskening for anyone else, but for me this is a religious experience. The total eclipse of April 8, 2024
Read 10 tweets
Joshua Cypess Profile picture
Apr 2
194.01/ Week one-hundred and ninety-four, March 30-April 5, 2024, thread begins here.

Week 193 below.
194.02/ #ChochmatNashim for #Shemini 5784.
@ChochmatNashim
Downloadable PDF with working links to Divrei Torah by Orthodox women scholars on the parsha and other topics of the week. #Shmini #HaChodesh
drive.google.com/file/d/1bFHTfW…
194.03/ This is, 'how you say?, "awesome sauce"
Read 5 tweets
Joshua Cypess Profile picture
Mar 24
193.01/ Week one-hundred and ninety-three, March 23-29, 2024, thread begins here.

Week 192 below. #HappyPurim!
193.02/ This is now my preferred pshat
193.03/ #NachasAlert: Final (so far) tally of times my son leyned Megillah seven times; 3 last night, four times today. Including once for a home-bound Shoah survivor. So proud.
Read 9 tweets
Joshua Cypess Profile picture
Mar 17
192.01/ Week one-hundred and ninety-two, March 16-22, 2024, thread begins here.

Week 191 below.
192.02/ So today is #ZayinAdar and Saint Patrick's Day during Ramadan. What could go wrong?
192.03/ There's a resonance in having a fast that commemorates a community sacrifice for soldiers fighting a defensive war against raging antisemites. #TaanitEsther

And, hey, it's working already!
"IDF says 650 terror operatives captured at Shifa..."
timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry…
Read 14 tweets
Joshua Cypess Profile picture
Mar 10
191.01/ Week one-hundred and ninety-one, March 9-15, 2024, thread begins here.

Week 190 below.
191.02/ Last #MotzeiShabbatMovieNight of the season. How to top last week, and with a movie my youngest hasn't seen yet? "Fletch (1985)" en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletch_(f…
191.03/ I agree with Prof. Simkovich, re: the Oscar guy.

Also, I see people wrestling to make sense of his convoluted phrasing, but I'm not inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to a declaration that inherently refuses to give others the same benefit.
Read 6 tweets

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