Rick Petree Profile picture
Jun 24, 2022 6 tweets 1 min read Read on X
Thread. A cautionary thought: the GOP can read polls. They *know* that a solid majority of Americans intensely oppose them on abortion, gun control and insurrection (to name but a few). They know these are big losers, in national electoral terms. Yet they persist.
The extremity of GOP positions reveals their intent. These are *not* positions that are viable in any normal political calculus (on a national level). No party 'playing by the rules' would push them as far as the GOP is doing.
They are acting, instead, like a party freed of the natural constraints imposed, in a democratic system, by the need to reconcile conflicting points of view. They are acting like they're not in that system any more. Because they are not.
We shouldn't indulge the comforting thought that the GOP, in a heedless fit of ideological fervor, has blundered onto the 'third rail' of our political system and will now incinerate itself in November.
It's more prudent to assume, rather, that they know full well that they're a minority party with unpopular policies, and are making preparations to see it through. How do they think they can make these unpopular policies stick ?
First, by subverting the popular vote. We see it in many places. Second, by brute force. Jan. 6 was the 'tell.' Not what Trump did but the acquiescence of virtually the entire GOP. Many have said J6 was a 'dress rehearsal.' The truth of that needs to be fully understood.

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More from @RickPetree

Oct 20
🧵On Sept. 2, 1987, exactly two months after returning from his first ever trip to Russia (arranged by the Russian Ambassador to the UN), Trump spent over $100,000 to publish a full page ad in three major U.S. newspapers.
The ad, a letter to Americans, inveighed against the 'unfairness' of disproportionate U.S. spending on multilateral defense structures. He said our allies, a bunch of free riders, were taking us to the cleaners, and that the U.S. needed to 'show some spine' in dealing with them.
This intervention, from someone not then in public life, came out of the blue. He had no history on the issue, and almost no profile on any other issue of national significance (other than having put himself forward to Reagan as a candidate to lead nuclear disarmament talks !).
Read 5 tweets
Oct 15
🧵I was active in the anti-South African apartheid movement as an undergraduate at Oxford (1970-73). The post below brought back a memory.
In those years, we held many large, noisy protests in Trafalgar Square, opposite South Africa House. Image
At one of those protests, I was standing next to a dear friend, an American Jew. He started talking about his experience of working on a kibbutz the previous summer. Surveying the scene around us, he concluded: “And you know what ? Israel’s as apartheid as South Africa.”
Read 8 tweets
Oct 13
🧵My read: GM's pressuring Trump, as I wrote she would. If she were quiet and happy in the cushy digs she negotiated w/ Blanche, they'd leave her be, at least till after mid-terms, and there'd be no need to parlay with her. That they're meeting w/ her suggests she's got demands.
From GM's pov, there's no upside in delaying her power play: (i) she knows Trump's a treacherous jackal whose promise of a pardon can't be trusted, (ii) even if Trump could be trusted, his shelf life (physically and politically) is probably short, and (iii) she's impatient.
Also: (iv) she's leveraging the feverish interest in the 'Epstein Files.' With the battle over the discharge resolution (w/ stakes so high that Trump's ordered Johnson to keep Congress on shutdown), does Trump really want GM leaking more stuff like the 'birthday book' ?
Read 7 tweets
Oct 12
🧵My take on the Homan story and a general problem in our laws:
Homan's obviously dirty. There were undoubtedly more of these 'transactions' (that's how FBI got onto him originally). He's been revealed as a slimy, dishonest person and a betrayer of the public's trust. But ...
The Vance/Bondi line that Homan 'did not commit a crime' and didn't take a 'bribe' rests on the fact that the payoff occurred during the campaign and *before* he held an official position. He was soliciting money in *anticipation* of being in a position, later, to bestow favors.
On its face (putting aside that it was a sting), the $50,000 was a 'bet' that Homan would take office and then be able to perform the services he was advertising. It was a 'bet' because his taking office wasn't certain. Can you 'bribe' a private citizen ?
Read 10 tweets
Oct 11
🧵As @SpeakerJohnson extends the House recess amid a full government shutdown, all to forestall a vote on a discharge resolution that would order the release Epstein files by DOJ, my thoughts turn to August 1974. Bear with me.
On Aug. 5, 1974, Nixon's 'secret tapes' leaked, proving he'd directed the Watergate coverup and lied about doing so. It detonated in GOP Senate and House ranks with powerful force.
On Aug. 7, 1974, Sens. Barry Goldwater and William Scott and Rep. John Rhodes journeyed to the WH to tell Nixon they no longer had the votes, in either Senate or House, to forestall impeachment and conviction. Nixon resigned the next day.
Read 17 tweets
Oct 10
🧵Trump's demented Peace Prize quest has revealed some interesting things:
1. He really does *not* understand how thoroughly he's despised and disrespected internationally or the reputational damage sustained by any person or institution aligning with him.
2. His neediness is uncontrollable. He grasps desperately for affirmation and adulation, even to the extent of publicly avowing his hunger for an honor in a way that any other statesman would consider demeaning and dishonorable.
3. What he wants, he takes (or does everything in his power to take). He and his claque have, for all intents and purposes, demanded that the prize be awarded to him.
Read 4 tweets

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