ex-GWB aide Gerson:
"Nearly every phrase of Carlson’s statement is the euphemistic expression of white supremacist replacement doctrine. The Democratic Party means liberals, which translates into Jews. new people from 3rd World black and brown skin."
/1 washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
"Those kinds of people, in the racist trope, are obedient, meaning docile/backward/stupid. Their votes aren't real democracy because they're replacing the current electorate — whiter and less docile. Truer Americans are thus deprived of their birthright of political dominance"
/2
"fighting back — making sure the new 3rd World people have less power — becomes defense of the American way.
This is what modern poll-tested mass-marketed racism looks like. Carlson provides his audience sophisticated rationales for their worst, most prejudicial instincts"
/3
"The brilliance of Carlson’s business model is to reinterpret moral criticism of his bigotry as an attack by elites on his viewers.
"Public outrage is thus recycled into fuel for MAGA victimhood.
"And so the Fox News machine runs on and on."
4/4
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Council on Foreign Relations head @RichardHaass defending Biden on MBS:
“US isn’t in position to prevent his ascension to the throne. Any attempt would almost certainly fail, triggering a nationalist backlash, domestic instability, or both”
“US has many reasons to maintain working relationship w/an individual who’ll likely lead for decades a country critical to setting world energy prices, containing Iran, frustrating terrorism, and, if it elects to, promoting Mideast peace. realism might lead to opportunity.”
/2
“promise of meetings w/Biden admin should be traded for firm commitment to never again target a political opponent this way and release imprisoned human rights advocates.
“Bringing Saudis into diplomacy might preserve possibility of two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution”
/3
now that it’s all over, Senate Republican leader McConnell acknowledges everything Trump said after the election was a lie and everything the Democratic House managers said in their impeachment case was true
in other words, the vast majority of Republican members of Congress won’t/can’t act in accordance with the truth even when they recognize it
from Smithsonian historian Felicia Bell: Enslaved Black craftsmen helped build the U.S. Capitol that a mob fueled by racist rhetoric stormed washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
“The sandstone used for the original walls of the building was extracted from the earth by enslaved men forced to do this backbreaking work in the isolated quarries at Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia.”
/2
“In the aftermath, we saw the images of Black maintenance workers sweeping debris from the halls of the Capitol and learned the stories of Black police officers who prevented the attack from being much worse than it could have been.”
/3
“As President Trump prepares to leave office in days, a lucrative market for pardons is coming to a head, with some of his allies collecting fees from wealthy felons or their associates to push the White House for clemency.” nytimes.com/2021/01/17/us/…
“One of the lobbyists closest to Trump and his administration, Matt Schlapp, who was tapped by Trump last month to sit on the trust fund board for the Library of Congress, has been lobbying for a pardon for a major Republican donor convicted of securities fraud in November.”
/2
“After stepping down as the president’s lawyer, Dowd marketed himself as a potential conduit for pardons because of his access to Trump and aides like Kushner, saying the president was likely to look favorably on petitioners investigated by federal prosecutors in Manhattan”
/3
“Trump has instructed aides not to pay Giuliani’s legal fees, and has demanded that he personally approve any reimbursements for the expenses Giuliani incurred while traveling on the president’s behalf to challenge election results in key states.”
“Trump was upset generally that virtually nobody is defending him — including press secretary McEnany, senior adviser and son-in-law Kushner, economic adviser Kudlow, national security adviser O’Brien and Chief of Staff Meadows, according to a senior administration official.”
/2
“One of Trump’s few confidants these days is Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.)
“Trump asked Graham to lobby fellow senators to acquit him in his eventual impeachment trial, which Graham did from Air Force One”
/3