The right wing has a very deliberate strategy behind its endless cries of victimhood, suppression & liberal bias: to bully powerful institutions into granting it special privileges & establishing double standards for their benefit.

In sports, it's called "working the refs." 1/
One of the most successful targets of this long-time campaign to "work the refs" was James Comey.

@Comey began the Clinton email investigation for fear the FBI would look political if he didn't.

He publicly criticized Clinton even as he exonerated her due to the same fear. 2/
Comey didn't go public about the investigation into evidence that the Trump campaign was coordinating with Russia for fear of right-wing accusations of bias if he did.

Comey went public about finding "new" Clinton emails 10 days before the election for the same fear. 3/
Clinton was far ahead in the polls after the Access Hollywood story and after she demolished him in the debates.

Comey's letter created a flurry of negative speculative stories about her in the last 10 days and her polls cratered; she lost by 77k votes in 3 states. 4/
When Pres. Obama reached out to Mitch McConnell in fall 2016, hoping to make a joint cross-partisan statement about intelligence on Russian efforts to help Trump, McConnell not only refused, but threatened to scream partisanship if Obama made the efforts public. So he didn't. 5/
James @Comey's total submission to fears of accusations of anti-conservative bias helped ensure years of right-wing dominance of the WH, Congress ans the federal courts.

And the right continued full-steam w/the same playbook against social media & weak execs like Zuckerberg. 6/
Throughout the Trump presidency, the right wing ran amuck on social media, making Facebook particularly unbearable & flooding it with fake news that enraged white voters with made-up controversies. FB also allowed extremist groups to fester & plot violence.

FB did nothing. 7/
Despite FB's inaction, right-wing media figures & right-wing politicians continued a concerted effort to accuse the platform of a conspiracy to "silence" conservatives, keeping FB locked in a fearful stasis as hate festered & extremist conspiracies grew on its platform. 8/
@Facebook ensured extreme right-wing voices had more protections on its platform than everyone else, allowing far-right extremist lies to spread across its platform unchecked (systemic white supremacy in action).

This helped set the stage for the Jan. 6 insurrection. 9/
It's no coincidence that many of the insurrectionists organized Jan. 6 on Facebook and that some even used it to communicate with each other while storming the Capitol.

Despite and due to accusing FB of liberal bias, FB had largely become a safe space for the extreme right. 10/
The right used claims of liberal bias & oppression to establish & maintain for itself special privileges on social media—privileges that white Americans had always been accustomed to.

The fever only broke at FB after hundreds stormed the U.S. Capitol & people literally died. 11/
What if the insurrectionists had succeeded & Trump stayed in office?

Would FB & Twitter have snapped out of their fears of being accused of silencing & oppressing the right in that case?

Their cowardice helped make the attack—& Trump's presidency—possible from the start! 12/
But it's not just social media.

The national mainstream media establishment has spent decades reacting to right-wing victim-mongering and adjusted its coverage in response, treating manufactured b.s. faux-scandals as serious stories to avoid accusation of bias. 14/
Even as the MSM obsessed over Her Emails in the last days of 2016, they barely peeped about sworn federal affidavits in NY by a woman who said Jeff Epstein & Trump raped her at a party at 13 & another woman who swore she recruited the girl for Epstein & witnessed the rapes. 15/
These were sworn affidavits in federal court by 2 women, incl. one who was willing to incriminate herself as having recruited underage girls for Epstein and his wealthy friends to rape.

The MSM treated that as speculation, while breathlessly covering mystery "new" emails. 16/
Part of the motive was mainstream media feared being accused of bias & speculation if they said too much about affidavits alleging Trump raped a 13-year-old at Epstein's party.

But they'd been reporting baseless speculation on @HillaryClinton for 25 years & kept doing it. 17/
Days before the 2016 election, the woman who alleged in federal court that Trump had raped her when she was 13 cancelled a planned press conference and withdrew her lawsuit, citing threats against her life & safety. 18/ google.com/amp/s/www.deep…
The alleged threats against Trump's accuser's life that cowed her into silence went largely unnoticed in the mainstream media, which was breathlessly speculating on "new" Clinton emails.

Now, imagine a different scenario...
19/ google.com/amp/s/www.deep…
Imagine if in 2016 a woman had filed a lawsuit claiming Bill Clinton had raped her at a party when she was 13 and even had a witness swear in federal court to having recruited her and seen it happen.

Then, imagine she pulled out, citing threats against her life. 19/
Does anyone really think that, though the accusations would've been against Hillary's husband and not her, these federal affidavits wouldn't have been a huge story?

That the media wouldn't have been demanding HRC answer for the alleged threats against her husband's accuser? 20/
This is how the right has manipulated "the refs" thru claims of culture oppression to establish a separate set of rules for itself as others get held to higher standards.

The fact that this often coincides with preserving privileged status for white men isn't coincidental. 21/
Trump even tried this strategy against GOP election officials (eg: Raffensperger in GA), accusing them of bias against Trump to try to bully them into a pro-Trump result.

But unlike malleable institutional policies & practices, the vote totals are the vote totals. 22/
We could also talk about the moderate & liberal officials at public universities who are extra sensitive to grievances by some wealthy right wing donors who say the schools are too liberal or not sufficiently oriented toward their views. But I digress. 23/
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More from @ashtonpittman

22 Feb
THREAD: Eddie Lee Howard, a Black man, is free after spending 26 years on death row at Parchman for a rape/murder DNA now proves he didn't commit.

The primary evidence against him?

INVISIBLE bite marks an alleged expert found using "special glasses." 1/ mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
"Bite mark expert" Dr. Michael West's 1994 testimony ensured Eddie Lee Howard's death sentence.

Later, West testified that bite marks on a 3-year-old's body were those of Kennedy Brewer—her father.

The real culprit? Crawfish, a forensic panel found. 2/ mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
Thanks to Dr. Michael West's testimony, Kennedy Brewer, who is Black, spent seven years on death row for the murder of his three-year-old child before advanced DNA testing excluded him from the crime.

As @11_mcgee's reports, he wasn't alone. 3/ mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
Read 16 tweets
19 Feb
NEW: After Marc Davis, a Black man, called 911 to report he'd been in a car crash, a responding police officer shot Davis three times, killing him.

Petal's Chamber of Commerce just declared that officer, Aaron Jernigan, Petal's "2020 Officer of the Year." mississippifreepress.org/9455/petal-off…
Petal Mayor Hal Marx is a director with the Petal Chamber of Commerce that gave Officer Jernigan the award.

Last year, Marx drew hundreds of #BlackLivesMatter protesters after mocking George Floyd's death: “If you say you can’t breathe, you’re breathing." mississippifreepress.org/9455/petal-off…
Petal Mayor Hal Marx's remarks about George Floyd and the claim that George Floyd died of an overdose drew renewed attention to Marc Davis' death.

State investigators and a federal judge ruled the shooting "justified," but Davis' family challenged that. mississippifreepress.org/9455/petal-off…
Read 14 tweets
19 Feb
NEW: Moss Point Mayor Mario King & his wife Natasha told contributors for the 2019 "Mayor's Gala" that proceeds would support a mental health program for K-12 students.

Prosecutors say they used the money to buy a Volvo & pay off personal debt instead. 1/ mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
The Kings plan to plead guilty to at least one charge each on Feb. 24. But Mayor King has signaled no plans to resign despite facing 14 federal charges and up to 20 years. His term ends in June.

An alderman is calling for him to "immediately" resign. 2/
mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
The Kings told gala attendees that their contributions would “support the efforts of mental health in the City of Moss Point with a focus on the Moss Point School District, converting spaces into a therapeutic and innovative learning environment." 3/ mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
Read 10 tweets
18 Feb
Later, we'll probably hear some contrived excuse like, "He was just accompanying his family to see them off safely and always intended to return."

But the long silence and failure to communicate that sooner will refute that.
Well, call me Miss Cleo and lay down a Benjamin. (h/t: @CCarter520) Image
A statement from the senator:
"With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, so flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon."

His return flight was originally for Saturday; it changed this morning. Image
Read 5 tweets
16 Feb
NEW: U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker voted for more than $3.6 trillion in stimulus spending under Trump last year.

But he says he'll vote 'No' on Biden's stimulus because it “would add to the mountain of debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay.” mississippifreepress.org/9294/sen-wicke…
In 2009, Sen. Roger Wicker cited concerns about the debt as he voted against Obama's stimulus $830billion stimulus, calling it "the most expensive piece of legislation in the history of our republic.”

Under Trump, he voted for the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. mississippifreepress.org/9294/sen-wicke…
Since he joined the U.S. Senate, @SenatorWicker has twice voted against stimulus bills when under Democratic presidents, calling them "Spending Bills," and twice voted for stimulus bills under a Republican president—Trump—calling them "relief packages." mississippifreepress.org/9294/sen-wicke…
Read 9 tweets
10 Feb
NEW: University of Mississippi Police are pursuing a criminal investigation into Ole Miss Information, the anonymous whistleblowers who tipped @MSFreePress off about racist emails between UM officials and prospective wealthy donors. #UMEmails mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
The emails revealed how, even as University of Mississippi officials condemned racism publicly, they privately catered to and coddled donors like the one who referred to Black students as "African hookers" or using ape emojis to describe Black women. mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
Now, the UM Emails whistleblowers, who obtained the emails following an official and legal public records request, are facing a criminal investigation as officials and some faculty members accuse them of "creating a hostile work environment."mississippifreepress.org/9134/um-pursui…
Read 13 tweets

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