THREAD: I am convinced there's an op against our justice department designed to divide us and exhaust voters in the interest of advancing authoritarianism. Sit back, pour a glass of wine, and allow me to explain. As always, I have receipts. 1/
There are strong forces at work, and millions in dark money being spent to steal your vote. The GOP and foreign bad actors do this in two ways: the first is by physically blocking or intimidating voters. There was a LOT of this in 2020. 2/ nytimes.com/2020/09/19/us/…
The second and more sinister way is to convince you to throw your vote away. They accomplish this in multiple ways. 1. Telling you that both major party candidates are equally bad. Here's an example from Russian State Media: 3/
2. Exploiting your vulnerability through issues that emotionally impact you. 3. Persuading you that a 3rd party vote or a write-in vote will teach the establishment a “lesson” while insisting your vote doesn’t matter. 4. Making you believe voting is too hard. 4/
And 5. Blaming institutions (SSCI, Mueller, DoJ, DNC, IC). Which brings me to my point: I think there’s an effort in the news and on social media to exhaust you out of voting by pitting you against government institutions, and I think Merrick Garland is a target. 5/
First of all, DoJ is an easy target. We're all exhausted by covid, the trump crime syndicate, the big lie, the insurrection; we're all ready for some accountability and that's the job of the DoJ. 6/
The DoJ is also duty-bound to keep quiet, and what they do takes a long ass time. What a PERFECT set of circumstances for baddies to slip in, rile us up with some hashtags, and divide us even further. 7/
And that's the goal. Divide democrats, because a united democratic party is the only thing standing in the way of autocracy. We have examples of this. The Russian Internet Research Agency did it with Black Lives Matter. From the Mueller Report: 8/
And of course no one is suggesting Russians or the GOP started BLM or the tea party or the progressive caucus or the NRA, but boy did they exploit the shit out of those causes to divide us. Some issues to divide GOP from dems, and others to divide dems from other dems 9/
There are valid criticisms we can make about the DoJ & Garland, and I've made some. He only released half of the Bill Barr Memo. He is defending the office of the president in the defamation case brought by E Jean Carroll. Here's a rant from me: 10/
But take a minute to search hashtag FireGarland and you'll see there are a handful of accounts that seem to spend their entire day hurling insults at Garland and the DoJ. There are some super-obvious Russian memes and hashtags like "MagaGarland" 11/
Those are well-known RU hashtags modeled after similar ones used in 2020 to get us to hate Biden such as "blueanon" and "blueMAGA". These accounts even blame the DoJ for not doing things it can't do or has already done. 12/
One example I've seen is accounts demanding Garland be fired for not handing over the unredacted Mueller report which has been out for a while. Which brings me to the media. They aren't trying to get your vote tossed out like political operatives, but they want you angry. 13/
Did the media blast the mostly unredacted Mueller report across the airwaves? NOPE. They need anger and division if they're going to get clicks and eyes now that donald is out of office and the war in Afghanistan is over. 14/
Remember the media coverage of the withdrawal from Afghanistan? Something most Americans wanted, not to mention nearly 130,000 were airlifted out of Afghanistan in one of the largest mass evacuations in U.S. history, yet the media divided us over it. 15/
They divided us over infrastructure, too. Back when Biden gave his first 100 days speech to a joint session of congress, he laid out a plan for two bills that would total $3T. We were all starry eyed over the prospect, yet here we are with $3T and somehow pissed about it 16/
To the media, you're not the consumer. You're the product. And think of the BRASS BALLS it took for major media conglomerates bent on pissing you off to report on Facebook's transgressions giving more weight to the anger emoji in their algorithms than the like and love emojis 17/
The media knows, as do the socials, that hate and anger are where the money is. You are the product, and your anger is their bottom line. Same with the forces trying to steal your vote: apathy and division are the way autocrats win. 18/
They did it to Mueller, and they're doing it to Garland. Valid and constructive criticism of the DoJ has turned into an all-out assault on the institution, which is something Dr. Timothy Snyder warned us about in "On Tyranny." 19/
"It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. So choose an institution you care about and take its side." 20/
In 2017 it was the Mueller probe. Now I'm going to defend the DoJ. I can hold two thoughts in my head: It's possible to criticize Mueller & the DoJ AND defend them as institutions. I've done both for years, and I will continue that effort in the face of looming autocracy. END
PS: OH HEY! And not four hours after I post this thread, we get this news:
I hate to break it to you, but even if Garland had appointed a special counsel in 2021 and trump was indicted a year earlier, there still would not have been a trial before the election. Let me explain. 1/
We know that last year, donald filed for immunity. That's interlocutory, which means it has to be solved before trial. That whole appeal and oral argument process from district court to circuit court to SCOTUS, took nearly a year. 2/
The way SCOTUS set up the process is that they sent it back to the lower court to determine what's immune and what's not under their new immunity rules, and then THAT second immunity decision is interlocutory, too. 3/
Allow me to go through Tim Pool’s sad excuses for why he’s quitting two weeks before an election. 1/
1. “It’s not a financial thing. We make a lot of money.”
Okay, but you want to start a family and you’re gonna quit the big ol’ money maker? Or is your wife the bread winner? Kinda woke, isn’t it? 2/
2. “The structure becomes bigger and bigger and bigger until it becomes impossible to manage.”
Then you expand and hire people and pay them well and give them benefits. Sorry you’re unable to run a small business. I started at my kitchen table with 10 downloads. Now I run a network and have over 50M. But I don’t get millions from Russia. 3/
THREAD: Despite the overwhelming support for telling my story, I want to address some of the pushback I've received from Republicans on this site. First, "This is pure propaganda. Florida has exceptions for rape. You support killing babies so much you’re willing to lie to unsuspecting people about it." 1/
Let me address the "Florida has an exception for rape" point first. Florida does have an exception for rape if you provide a "police report, restraining order, medical record, or other court order." That requires the service member to report their rape. Let me tell you what happened when I tried to report my rape. 2/
I was wrapped in a blanket and bleeding because my rapist's friends had stolen my clothes. It was still dark, around 0400. I snuck out and went to the on-base law enforcement office to report the rape. I was seated in an interrogation room under one of those fluorescent lamps at a metal desk, where I waited for about 30 minutes. 3/
Um, wow. The evidence and testimony Jack Smith has is DAMNING. For instance, the government has testimony that Donald said of the voter fraud claims that the "details don't matter." There is also testimony that trump said it didn't matter if he lost, he would just declare he won. 1/
There are also multiple conversations Pence had with his running mate that they'd lost and it was time to "take a bow". I'm just digging into this, but Trump is cooked. None of this is immune (or the presumptive immunity can be easily rebutted.) 2/
HA! When Trump was on the phone with Michigan, lying to them about voter fraud, Trump was corrected and reminded he lost two counties becuase he "underperformed with educated females", which pissed him off. 3/
NEW: THREAD: A new ruling from Judge McBurney in Georgia overturning the abortion ban and allowing the procedure to continue has some REMARKABLE quotes. Let's take a look at just a few. 1/
"While the State’s interest in protecting “unborn” life is compelling, until that life can be sustained by the State -- and not solely by the woman compelled by the Act to do the State’s work -- the balance of rights favors the woman." 2/
"Women are not some piece of collectively owned community property the disposition of which is decided by majority vote. Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted, not-yet-viable fetus to term violates her constitutional rights to liberty and privacy, even taking into consideration whatever bundle of rights the not-yet-viable fetus may have." 3/