"the" message.

One person decides the message. They all dutifully repeat it.

That's what they do in place of governing to improve the lives of their constituents.

All they really want to do is control "the message" (create their own truth).
It's so much easier to create your own truth than it is to deal with reality and facts, but you need everyone on board.

If a tree didn't fall in the woods, but everyone thinks it did, the tree really did fall, right?
Ooops. I meant to quote this in the first tweet.

"The message"

I fail Twitter this morning.
Here's how it works. There is a designated "leader," the one who has seized power by bullying everyone else into submission.

The leader signals the message.
Everyone else repeats it.

Michael Cohen explained in his testimony how this works. . .
Here he gives an example how Trump signals the lie: During the 2016 campaign, Trump would ask Cohen how the negotiations with Russia were going for Trump Tower Moscow. Then he turned around and told a reporter that "I have no business dealings in Russia"
nbcnews.com/politics/polit…
Cohen then understood that the lie he was supposed to tell was that Trump had no business dealings in Russia.

We know what happens next: People who repeat the lie are in Trump's good graces. People who refuse are viciously attacked.

GOP leadership is fine with this 🤷‍♀️
Because it's a way to grab and maintain power.

Everyone stays on message, which then becomes the truth.

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More from @Teri_Kanefield

2 May
The Radicalization of the Republican Party

I recorded another YouTube video here:

If you prefer to read, I’ll link to an [edited] transcription in the next tweet.

Some people like to stay on Twitter with threads, so after I take a break ☕️ . . .
. . . I’ll come back and see if I can post the material as a thread.

(I may find that it’s too long. I like to keep threads under about 20 tweets).

The edited transcription is here: terikanefield.com/the-radicaliza…

Meanwhile, it's still morning in California, so time for more ☕️.

1/
2/ Okay, Video Summary as Twitter Thread.

A few days ago, Ted Cruz published an Op-Ed in the WSJ, and Tweeted the conclusion:

Yes, he's admitting that he takes corporate money in exchange for doing their bidding. (But we knew that.) Also: Ted Cruz turn away corporate money? 🤣
Read 26 tweets
30 Apr
It looks like the House Democrats were right, and
@RudyGiuliani was up to no good in 2019.

(But we knew that) Phony impeachment 🤣

Remember what was happening then? I do . . .

1/
November 25, 2018: Russia attacked and seized Ukrainian military vessels heading to a Ukrainian port.

Christopher Anderson (State Department Foreign Service Officer since 2005) prepared a statement condemning Russia.

Trump wouldn't release it. pbs.org/newshour/polit…

2/
About this time, Ambassador Yovanovitch first became aware Giuliani was trying to make contact and communicate with officials in Ukraine.

She knew Giuliani had Ukrainian clients, so at first she wasn’t sure why he was interested in Ukrainians.

Yovanovitch = 🤔

3/
Read 10 tweets
25 Apr
(Thread) Fascist Lies

This thread started out as a 10 minute YouTube video:

I'll offer a Twitter summary here.

What I think struck all of us this week was the stunning audacity of some of the lies coming from Republican leaders.
1/ For example, Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted this after the Derick Chauvin verdict

Her tweet proven false in real time as residents of DC read her tweet, looked around, and posted photographs and testimonials to social media.
2/ A few other breathtaking lies:

Kayleigh McEnany chided Biden, saying presidents shouldn't "inflame tensions."

A keynote speaker at a Minnesota County GOP event told attendees that George Floyd’s murder was a hoax.


Or how about this one:
Read 27 tweets
23 Apr
Today, April 23, is the day to remember Barbara Johns and the Moton student strike.

What? YOU don’t know who she was?

(Well, new followers might not)

On this day in 1951, in Farmville, VA, she led a walkout to protest the deplorable conditions of her segregated high school.
1/
She was 16. She led her walkout more than 4 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus, and before MLK, Jr. embraced nonviolence as the way to equality.

After she and her classmates turned the rural town of Farmville upside down, she called in the NAACP.

2/
The NAACP took their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Barbara and her classmates became plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that ended segregation in America.

Their case was combined with cases from other states.

3/
Read 8 tweets
20 Apr
Every every criminal defense appellate lawyer knows that appeals rarely succeed.

In California, the "success" rate is about 20%, but that includes "wins" that don't actually change the outcome much for the defendant.
There's also "harmless error." On appeal you have to show error, plus you have to show that the error might have actually changed the outcome. law.cornell.edu/wex/harmless_e…
Errors are common.
Errors that were not "harmless" are rare.
Actually, now that I poke around, that 20% is high. I haven't done appeals for about 6 years now.

I think the number is more like 10-15%, but again, that includes "wins" on something small that doesn't change the outcome.
Read 4 tweets
20 Apr
This is because so far we have only indictments and pretrial motions.

We haven't yet had any trials.

Prosecutors never put all their evidence into indictments. There is a lower standard of proof for indictments.

Moreover . . .
.. they are putting evidence of planning into the pretrial detention motions.


Indictments require only probable cause that a crime was committed. At trial, the standard is "beyond a reasonable doubt."

Moreover, investigations are ongoing.
A few people asked me about this. nbcnews.com/politics/justi…

You can see how the headline is based on speculation⤵️

Also, the prosecution has presented such evidence—but only when necessary. Image
Read 4 tweets

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