Thread by @FreedomFriesInc

This is true. But also, Ivanka Trump has broken the law of her own accord, multiple times. Trying to count them all would be a huge task.

On 1/6, failing to raise the alarm with any of the LEOs or Pentagon liaison personnel inside the WH is among the worst.

No impunity!

https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1491049943729164288

If I know someone has committed or is committing a crime, and I choose asking them nicely not to, instead of reporting it to law enforcement, I would be complicit in that crime.

Yet this is the narrative Ivanka Trump is trying to sell people. That she did all she could.

Everyone in the administration who had knowledge of what the defeated former president planned and carried out that day had a duty to report it *at the time* and to *fully* and voluntarily cooperate with any and all law enforcement and Congressional investigative bodies.

And that includes Ivanka Trump, her husband, and among countless others: the defeated former vice president, Mike Pence.

Not one of them has any valid excuse for not reporting what they knew to law enforcement at the time, and properly dealing with the consequences since.

They are all craven and, IMO, beyond human forgiveness.

I am incensed at the increasing destruction of law and order, national security, and the peaceful conduct of a centuries-old democratic system in the USA.

Both for the people of the USA, and for the rest of us.

Things have gotten worse in the past 14 days especially.

We who value the health and expansion of democracy everywhere, and who want to live in a rules-based world, need to summon the will to keep up the fight no matter what* it takes. Our opponents have done so.

By "no matter what it takes" I'm talking about doing that lawfully & peacefully, unless & until this global fascist network leaves us no other option, as they did in 1939.

IMO there's enough that requires our attention rn, before we'd have to cross that bridge if we come to it.

The lieutenants of the far right fascist network assailing the US from the inside routinely speak as if the last-resort solution should be on the table right now.

They've been doing that all along in US history, but what used to be a lunatic fringe is now in control of the GOP.

The Republican party & (in a different way) the Democratic party are tolerating a miasma of complacency & wishful thinking, instead of putting on one's big boy/girl pants & facing the urgency of this moment.

Actions have always spoken louder than words, & they always will.

I think there is a clear difference between the two parties in their approach to the rule of law (which should never be in question, should it?)

The only party with the power to resolve this crisis with minimal loss of life are the Democrats. If they don't do it, no one can.

It is manifestly clear by now that no current Republican party office holder at the national level has the desire or ability to right the ship. And heroes at the state level are pretty thin on the ground, too.

People talk a lot about why, and here's my current thinking on that:

Saying Rs stay silent in fear for their families' safety is a copout.

Actual American patriots never did that: Not at Lexington, Gettysburg, Belleau Wood, or Normandy.

“It is foolish & wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.” -Patton.

Rs may claim they are complying with the Trumpian ideology out of fear, but we don't have to accept that as an excuse. The ideology is here to stay in the GOP, regardless of what happens to the current chief messenger.

Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus handed the party over in 2015.

When TFG threatened to take his fickle "base" with him and run as an independent in 2016, Ryan and Priebus should have called his bluff. They would've succeeded.

IMO, they weren't motivated by potential R-friendly tax cuts. They did it for the SCOTUS & other federal judgeships.

And on that, I have come to support the idea of Biden increasing the size of the SCOTUS just enough to keep the Republic going. The damage being done by "Republicans" is severe enough to warrant such a step, & sooner rather than later.

Rs abdicated a position of trust long ago.

I think that Rs who refuse to even allow Cheney and Kinzinger to have a different opinion do so because they want power at any cost, and they believe the ends justify the means.

Watch this 12 minute clip closely. It's quite revealing:

To me, Kinzinger in that interview sounds tired, but of course not completely hopeless about the country's future. I think he is disappointed by how badly things are going in general, but he has a very healthy approach to facing that fact and remaining effective in his role.

And by Kinzinger's role, I mean current and future. The legacy he has created, as someone with a ringside seat during all this, who stood up for what is right when hardly any of his peers did. No one can ever take that away.

I find Kinzinger's example a useful one to emulate, whether it's on a personal or public issue. Almost all of us have had to face the challenges of the pandemic, & still have to, for an indeterminate period of time.

To me, Kinzinger is like the Serenity Prayer in human form.

The Trumpian ideology is a mind virus, that has infected people at every level of society, around the world.

It is very hard to help a loved one accept reality, and let go of the beliefs and and everything that goes with them.

1/6 opened many eyes.

I see it as a spectrum: At one end are the politicians and others who know it's all a lie, and dangerous, but they're in it for themselves. Their empathy or, moral compass, is broken. At the other end are the fully brainwashed targets. Most people are somewhere in between.

I personally know several individuals, even here in New Zealand, who are at the deeply brainwashed end of the spectrum. And some of them are highly intelligent, accomplished professionals with successful careers. They don't know they are brainwashed.

The American politicians, however, do know how dishonest and dangerous their ideology is for the country and the world.

Don't cut them any slack. They are leading people astray, at the cost of even their lives. If you are reading this, you have a duty to fight. We all do.

The far right fascist movement has been allowed to grow in the US to such an extent that RW parties around the world are kind of activating their sleeper cells. People want to be found on the inside of the authoritarian tent if they do attain sufficient power to kill again.

I am just not wired that way. I was blessed with the opportunity to gradually see reality between November 2020 and January 2021. Yes, I do feel bad about my previously held views. I changed them, which is what normal adults do when presented with info that's new to them.

For Americans, this will be a battle of wills. The RW criminals have every interest in self preservation, so their devotion to the cover-up project is extremely strong.

Those who love democracy need to show at least as much will as the fascists are showing.

Yes, we can.🇺🇸