Thread by @FreedomFriesInc

(1) I think the lyrics of "Throwing It All Away" by Genesis, 1986 are a bit like how Pence must feel towards Trump. Or, how those who support Pence feel toward those still defending Trump's post election conduct.

Also, the story of Phil Collins...

(2) ... which isn't widely known, has some lessons in it.

Make no mistake, Phil Collins like virtually every other successful artist, actor and celebrity support the main left wing party in their country.

I'm past caring; I look for the human interest story behind that.

(3) Like me, as it happens, Phil Collins spent many years believing his life was essentially over, due to health issues.

How many of us have been through something similar? I'm betting that many of us have. Life can throw some nasty curveballs.

theguardian.com/music/2010/nov…

(4) Phil Collins survived and got back out there wowing audiences and expressing himself through music. I was thrilled for him.

So many celebs have succumbed to life threatening mental illness: Hemingway, Robin Williams, Anthony Bourdain, NZ's Greg Boyed & many more...

(5) Another survivor is Tiger Woods. Not only does he play golf in constant pain, he made the comeback of the century. I'll never forget the joy I felt watching that moment. What a legacy for his children.

Over 75 M Americans voted Trump-Pence in 2020. Where to now?

(6) The 75 million deplorables are still being called deplorable, despite any honest observer knowing that lawlessness is a minority sport among such a large group and, both sides have a violent lunatic fringe. Always have, always will.

(7) Until there is honesty by enough people on both sides, we're all stuck with this powder-keg level of division in the US, the most powerful country in the world, on whom we all depend for stability and peace.

The Dems' impeachment strategy is making it worse.

(8) This Turley piece makes that clear.

It has gotten me thinking... the power brokers in both parties don't want to turn down the temperature just yet. They benefit from it.

jonathanturley.org/2021/02/12/did…

(9) These power brokers use dichotomous reasoning (black and white thinking) to give their respective flocks the impression that there are only ever two choices within their party.

"Moderates vs radicals."

Both parties allowed radicals to take over.

(10) Radicalism is a much easier sell than moderation. Black and white thinking is an inborn survival mechanism for children, that normally is supplanted with more sophisticated tools by the time of adulthood.

We still have to be alert for it and fight it within ourselves.

(11) Pre 2020 election I like other Trump-Pence supporters often said the Dems would regret allowing their radicals to take over, and the best strategy for them long term would be to get back to moderation.

I didn't realize my side would end up facing the same thing, so soon.

(12) I don't agree that the signs were clear in 2016 that Trump would actually encourage a violent riot on the most important day of the Capitol's four year cycle in 2021.

At best, only at the start of 2020 was it becoming clear to those few with enough experience to see it.

(13) And even then, the pundits I have mind could not have known how badly off-track things would get.

I do think that now, however, there's no excuse for thinking Trump can go back to the self-disciplined broad-appeal candidate he used to be. It's over.

(14) I'm developing a working theory that *some* of those who didn't vote for Trump chose that because their own experience with the pandemic and its effects was fatally out of alignment with that of Trump.

I think it was fair to seek auditing of the election result...

(15) But ask yourself, honestly, if Trump's approach to contesting the election after 11/3 was any more competent and viable than the performance of his impeachment defense attorneys this week.

I wanted to see it contested. Competently.

(16) By the time I wrote this tweet on 12/28, we'd seen Trump devoting the majority of his tweets to the election result, & retweeting known lunatics, including a Lin Wood tweet saying Gov Kemp would soon be going to jail.

Yes, a sitting POTUS retweeted that.

(17) Gov Kemp had days earlier lost the young man who was likely going to marry his daughter. Lin Wood & many others tried to spread the notion a simple car crash had been a missile attack.

Trump has NEVER denounced Wood, or other similar loons.

(18) The Kemp family & numerous other GOP families never got due process when accused of vile things by the people Trump surrounded himself with in recent months. I think he wanted to have plausible deniability. He obviously believed that was even possible.

(19) So here's my little contribution for those of you daring to step outside the groupthink & try to make sense of it all. Prior to 11/3 the Trump-Pence partnership was popular, successful, & worthy of our trust. A 2024 win would've been possible if things had gone differently.

(20) Weirdly, I find 1980s breakup songs therapeutic now.

"Need I say I love you?
Need I say I care?
Need I say that emotions
Are something we don't share?

I don't want to be sitting here
Trying to deceive you
Cause you know I know baby
That I don't wanna go"

(21) "We can not live together
We can not live apart
And that's the situation
We've known it from the start

Every time that I look at you
I can see the future
Cause you know I know baby
That I don't wanna go"

(22) "Just throwing it all away
Throwing it all away
Is there nothing that I can say
To make you change your mind?
I watch the world go round and round
And see mine turnin' upside down
Throwing it all away"

(23) "Now who will light up your darkness?
And who will hold your hand?
Who will find you the answers
When you don't understand?

Why should I have to be the one
Who has to convince you?
Cause you know I know baby
That I don't wanna go"

(24) "Then some day you'll be sorry
Someday when you're free
Memories will remind you
That our love was meant to be

But late at night when you call my name
The only sound you'll hear
Is the sound of your voice calling
Calling out to me"

(25) When I saw this photo I detected some human emotion in the eyes of Kamala Harris. I don't know what she was thinking but when it all comes down to it, these are real people, just doing their job. Pence did this job. In tough circumstances.

(26) There is a lot of evidence to emerge in the coming months and years. We're all at different places on our journey to understand what happened.

I've always admired Mike Pence. He is Reagan's torch bearer.

END