MARCH: 4% of American adults didn’t trust 2020 election results and were prepared to join a protest that might turn violent. That’s 10 Million Americans. @ProfessorPape@TheAtlantic@bartongellman
🧵/1
JUNE: 8% of American adults agreed “the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president” & “use of force is justified to restore Donald Trump to the presidency.”
More extreme; 2x support.
21 million American “committed insurrectionists”
/2
This needs to be repeated, daily:
Trump et al have convinced millions of Americans (including 68% of all Republicans in a Nov 2021 PRRI poll) of #TheBigLie : that Biden stole the election from Trump.
/3
“‘January 6 wasn’t designed as a mass-casualty attack, but rather as a recruitment action’ aimed at mobilizing the general population.” @Kathleen_Belew, historian, @UChicago
/4
“Trump has built the first American mass political movement in the past century that is ready to fight by any means necessary, including bloodshed, for its cause.”
@bartongellman essay is must reading. I’ve highlighted what resonated or scared the 💩 outta me.
/5
What’s the playbook? (No surprise, not original)
Who’s his target?
The #January6th demographics were atypical:
Median age, 41.8 (older)
Jobless: 7% (low)
“The last time America saw middle-class whites involved in violence was the expansion of the second KKK in the 1920s,” Pape said. (Same fear of “the other”, White men lighting tinder)
/8
What’s the driver?
Fear of losing majority privilege.
“Other things being equal, insurgents were much more likely to come from a county where the [W]hite share of the population was in decline.”
Replacement propaganda drove the insurgency.
/9
Of the 21 Million committed insurrectionists, about two-thirds agreed that “African American people or Hispanic people in our country will eventually have more rights than whites.”
Not EQUAL rights.
MORE.
/10
Believe Replacement Propaganda?
Then you’re about ~4x as likely as those who do not believe to support Biden’s violent removal from the White House.
About 15% who believe had served in military, considerably more than the 7% of the adult population who has.
/11
I agree:
“The charlatans and cranks who filed lawsuits and led public spectacles on Trump’s behalf were sideshows. They distracted from the main event: a systematic effort to nullify the election results and then reverse them.” @bartongellman
/12
Not enough attention paid to states, although GA is shaping up as 2022 bellwether.
Brad Raffensperger “who refused to ‘find’ extra votes for Trump? Formally censured by his state party, primaried, and stripped of his power as chief election officer.”
Then there’s the leg:
/13
In MI, currently in the spotlight due not to pollution but Trumpster parents in jail along with their son.
Aaron Van Langevelde certified Biden’s victory and has bern “[h]ounded off the Board of State Canvassers.”
/14
In AZ, Gov. Doug Ducey signed the state “certificate of ascertainment” for Biden. Trump has endorsed Kari Lake, former Fox 10 news anchor for governor.
The legislature passed a law prohibiting Katie Hobbs, the D secretary of state, to participate in election lawsuits.
/15
In PA, New Jersey resident, media star and Trumpster Mehmet Oz is running for US Senate, claiming he’s moved from his self-designed NJ mansion overlooking Manhattan to his in-law’s outskirts-of-Philly home. *cough*
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has urged Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature “to take over the running of federal elections in the state and direct local officials to ignore election guidance issued by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.”
/17
Returning to @TheAtlantic :
“In at least 15 more states, Republicans have advanced new laws to shift authority over elections from governors and career officials in the executive branch to the legislature.”
/19
I did NOT know this.
If it does not make your hair stand on end, go talk to someone who has worked for county elections board.
What's causing inflation? Might it be record profits?
A jaundiced view on Wednesday's SCOTUS news; a question for the NRA; US reported the most daily COVID cases since September 15th and about 1,800 deaths
The past few weeks, TV news and newspapers have run lots of stories on inflation. On the political pundit side, those stories have a common theme: inflation up, Biden approval down. What seems totally missing from mainstream news > @business
Because the NW probably isn't as familiar to most folks as the Gulf coast, I've annotated this satellite image. That dot in the pink county is approximately where we live (Snohomish County, Lynnwood WA). Seattle is south of us in King County.
This is the strongest storm system to ever hit the Pacific NW (942.5 MB). The third most powerful was Thursday. We have rain and wind gusts; the coast has lots more of both; mountains will be getting snow. Heaviest rain/snow in CA.
@washingtonpost quotes his asinine legal opinion about Pence having “constitutional power” to refuse to certify the election. They provided minimal bona fides for the Russian-born ultra-conservative with financial ties to Russia. washingtonpost.com/investigations…
Epshteyn was managing director of *business & legal* affairs at West America Securities Corp until the firm was expelled from the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency in 2013 for holding $24B in unverified Brazilian & Japanese bonds implicated in *fraud*.
Reported wife of Robert Westbury (MN), who is charged with storming the Capitol, falsely claims: “A million people attended January 6th for one purpose…to pray.”
Republican state senator Mark Koran has encouraged $ donations for legal fees.
Only eight Minnesotans have been charged for alleged involvement in the insurrection, including Robert Westbury, 62, and his sons Jonah, 26, and Isaac, 19. Aaron James is part of Rosemary Westbury’s fundraiser.