@kurteichenwald@GOP@TexasGOP 1/ I saw the moment it happened. It was 1992 and I worked for wealthy Republican attorneys who were moderately important in state politics. It seems Bill Clinton had the temerity to be a Republican president they loathed and tepidly supported merely by getting the most votes.
@kurteichenwald@GOP@TexasGOP 2/ Their response was shocking. Blind, frothing rage, outrage, instant demonization of Clinton as the most corrupt man ever to become president. The "Gingrich Revolution" was born of that rage. Gingrich was a guttersnip POS deemed barely fit for the whip's position...
@kurteichenwald@GOP@TexasGOP 3/ ...but he intrigued Bob Michel out of the minority leader's position based on that outrage. The Arkansas Project, the endless hearings and, above all, Fox News, were all born of the Great Crazification that resulted from the inconceivable victory of Bill Clinton in...
@kurteichenwald@GOP@TexasGOP 4/...in violation of the Divine Right of Republicans to rule in perpetuity, of the laws of God and man.
Why the election of a Democratic president somewhat to the right of Dwight Eisenhower was radicalizing them, I do not know. I suspect a big part of it was how many of them...
@kurteichenwald@GOP@TexasGOP 5/ ...had become Limbaugh listeners in the preceding years, chuckling and chortling over his "humor," even as he turned their minds into fever swamps. And certainly, it was born of strains of Republican thought going back decades. But that's what caused it and when it happened.
@kurteichenwald@GOP@TexasGOP /1.1 "to beat." I could really use that edit button that some people seem to have now.
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1/ Alright folks, let's get real. The Atlantic story is damaging. It may cost him a few of the confounded knuckleheads who are still, somehow, undecided. But it is not going to meaningfully affect his core support. They'll still stick with him because fear.
2/ The 42% are, above all, what conservatives always are: pants-peeing afraid of change. And credit to where due, the one thing conservatives have always been better at than liberals is seeing where the change they fear will lead, even as moderates and liberals scoff.
3/ Conservatives feared that the agitation against the Stamp Act and molasses taxes were the prelude to revolution. They feared that the ability of northern states to elect presidents without them presaged the total domination of the abolitionist faction.
@kramer_susan@CheriJacobus@gymag6 1/ We really need to stop freaking ourselves out. Ivanka doesn't have patents on voting machines. Ivanka reportedly got trademarks, i.e. the right to sell "Ivanka!" branded voting machines in China. Stupid, worthless, useless, and meaningless here. Like Ivanka.
@kramer_susan@CheriJacobus@gymag6 2/ A patent is the exclusive right to use or make a specific type of device, substance or process for 20 years. A trademark is just branding. No U.S. voting machines are made in China. A voting machine made of plutonium would be easier to sell here than one with her name on it.
@kramer_susan@CheriJacobus@gymag6 3/ Florida uses 100% hand marked paper ballots. Because 2000 embarrassment and humiliation. There might be opportunities to monkey with machine counted totals, but they can be hand recounted and there would be no basis for stopping it under Bush v. Gore.
@dreibcats@MikeScarcella@NatlSecCnslrs 1/ Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals have many (6 to 29 depending on the circuit) judges. Appeals are heard by a randomly selected three judge panel. This is the only appeal that is heard as a matter of right. The loser may petition (ask) all of the judges of the circuit ...
@dreibcats@MikeScarcella@NatlSecCnslrs 2/ ... to rehear the case. If the majority of the regular judges vote to do so, the original ruling is vacated (set aside) and the case is reheard before all of the regular judges. I say "regular" judges because courts also have judges on senior status.
@dreibcats@MikeScarcella@NatlSecCnslrs 3/ Senior status is a form of semi-retirement. They are basically allowed to work as much or as little as they want to while drawing retirement pay. When a judge goes on senior status, a regular seat is freed up for appointment. Some senior status judges carry a full workload...
@SallyAlbright 1/Gonna have to thread this one. Apologies. No Democrat should be sending them money. They don't need it. Plenty of country club Republican money behind them. All they need. And people are badly misunderstanding what they're doing. They are not running an ad campaign. ...
@SallyAlbright 2/ They are running a psychological warfare operation against Trump, making "ads" that push the limited number of buttons in the head of someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. They're causing him narcissistic injury and provoking bad campaign decisions. ...
@SallyAlbright 3/ Every ad is targeted at Trump's sick mind specifically, not at persuading voters. If he watches them, and he will because people with NPD are obsessed with enmity, they push him to demand ads that give him narcissistic supply rather than persuade voters.
1/ Am I the only one who sees what Barr did here? Berman implied that he was being fired because Barr wanted to shut down "investigations." Barr falsely says Berman implied they want to stop "cases now pending."
2/ A criminal *investigation* is not the same thing as a pending case. "Cases now pending" means an indictment has been obtained and a criminal case has been filed. It is a matter of public record; you can see the names of the accused and all the filings and orders on PACER.
3/ A criminal investigation, is, or is supposed to be, secret. In this context, it could mean an the AUSA is working with the FBI in a criminal investigation could mean it's moved on to a grand jury proceeding by the AUSA.
1/25 This morning, listening to NPR, I snapped at how utterly surreal major MSM outlet coverage has become. Not because it is faithfully covering a surreal presidency, but because it has become profoundly disconnected from reality.
2/25 The surrealism of the coverage is the result of the sheer number of what I have come to rather sarcastically call in my head the Forbidden Truths of the Cult of the Savvy and the VSP's that have accumulated under this aberrant administration.
3/25 The "Forbidden Truths are manifestly obvious facts that the MSM erases from its coverage. They are not merely things that cannot be stated explicitly, but also things that cannot be referenced implicitly by subtextual incorporation into prevailing narrative frames.