The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a piece of propaganda published in 1903, claiming that a Jewish conspiracy was behind criticisms of the Russian Imperial order.
Exposed as a fraud, it still spread to the west.
Hitler and Goebbels praised Henry Ford’s publication of it.
For hundreds of years, “blood libel” propaganda - the claim that an evil cabal was drinking the blood of children - has been used to demonize, scapegoat, and persecute Jews.
Today?
Q claims that Dems are raping and killing children for “adrenochrome.”
The first concentration camp was not built to exterminate Jews.
It was built to imprison socialists and marxists, because reactionaries believed that their “agitations” were part of an insidious conspiracy to destroy the motherland.
I'm not claiming that someone is about to start building concentration camps. Not the point.
The point is that defending and restoring the "sanctity" of the homeland from shadowy conspiratorial groups only leads to worse places, because it's a goal that can never be achieved.
The other point is that, no matter how wild and divorced from reality they are, viral stories that demonize and blame others for nebulous conspiracies that "caused all our problems" can spread, even to sensible and intelligent people in the right conditions, if left unaddressed.
If a person/acquaintance/family/friend believes some of these things, comparing them to Nazis isn’t helpful.
But understanding *why* they believe them is important - so we can show them that some of the lies we’ve been told about each other aren’t true.
I’m not one to “visit the sins” of a man on his brother, but no one will ever convince me that it’s a good idea to have someone in a position of power when his siblings are in extremely compromising situations.
Not to mention his own unanswered questions around Jan 6 & DC riots.
To be clear, this was already in the works before Biden took office.
Trump promoted Charles Flynn at the end of November.
A thread warning about the “authoritarian theater” Trump and the GOP were about to use, complete with describing their Covid strategy targeting Dem states, and warning about the way the Antifa bogeyman would be used.
While everyone talks about the Roe and J&J cases at SCOTUS, they are quietly hinting that they may uphold some voting restrictions.
There are three issues at play here - two are specific restrictions on voting; another regards the VRA more broadly.
/1 nytimes.com/2021/03/02/us/…
In a democratic republic, institutional structures are designed and created to balance the inherent risks that a purely direct democracy would pose to a nation’s stability.
The EC is one example of this (although it failed to stop Trump, and is arguably no longer useful).
Philosophically speaking, the majority of the nation would agree that every single eligible citizen should have the opportunity to freely cast their vote, to have a voice in the direction of their government; and the constitutional structures will act as the balancing force.
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Susan Collins’ PAC is under investigation for what the FBI calls a “massive scheme to illegally finance” her re-election bid.
The GOP uses her to pitch these things, because the media continues to allow her to pretend that she is a “moderate,” as if she is materially different.
Now, one important thing that Asha didn’t mention (probably for brevity), is that Barr didn’t act alone.
Tweet 4 in her thread leaves out a huge part of the story, which is what all of the Garland/DOJ/Court talk is about today.
Instead of “I’ll do it,” what Barr really did..
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Barr actually *conspired* with Rosenstein and the OLC (who is supposed to just provide legal counsel), to fabricate a memo that would *justify* his plan to mislead everyone about the Mueller report.
Judge A.B. Jackson realized this & ordered DOJ to release that memo.
I am not a lawyer, but after viewing Judge Amy Berman Jackson's unredacted memo, I think it is pretty clear that Merrick Garland is not protecting Bill Barr.
The parts that I have highlighted here are the parts that were previously redacted; Garland agreed to unredact this.
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Unredacted: Jackson's clear opinion that Barr's DOJ was intentionally dishonest, concealing the content of the OLC memo and misrepresenting its purpose to the court.
Recurring theme here: Jackson exposed the OLC memo for what it was - part of a political PR strategy.
Unredacted: The memo was crafted - at Bill Barr's request - to "recommend" that Barr make a judgement call about Mueller's report.
Why? Because the underlying motivation behind the memo was, "getting a jump on public relations."