TheLastRefuge Profile picture
Aug 16, 2022 20 tweets 6 min read Read on X
I'm going to reemphasize x infinity, because it's the greatest thing I have seen on Twitter in years. @ellencarmichael deserves a follow, because her earnest political outlook is so authentic (it saves a million words). THIS is the authentic outlook of the republican party.
Please do not disparage her or ridicule the perspective. Instead, absorb -genuinely- what Carmichael is saying, along with the replies to her suggestion from the professionally republican followers she maintains.

It is the greatest visible example of the GOP disconnect in years.
The only other moment that comes close to just sitting there as a representative example of the professional political disconnect, was the 2016 South Carolina republican primary debate; and the audience reaction to MAGA Trump as presented. Image
In 2016, President Trump first introduced the professional republican class (the GOP betters) to the concept of America-First economic nationalism.

They were clueless. The audiences sat puzzling their puzzlers wondering what was this jibberish.. what was this odd policy.
In New Hampshire, then Candidate Trump introduced China as a geopolitical and economic threat.

Jeb's infamous and incredulous "c'mon man'... represented the GOP audience view. WTF are you talking about, they said... China? What is this nonsense.
Until Trump, the catchphrase from the GOP "betters", this is generations of outlook talking points, included the acceptance of:

..."The United States is a service driven economy"...

Bush Sr.
Clinton
Bush Jr.
Obama

30+ years of the same mantra. Until Trump.
It's funny in retrospect, but even today the professional political class of Republicans do not understand the basic inflection point that Trump represented.

That incredulous disconnect is still so brutally visible as to surface in the Carmichael tweet.

That's the value of it.
Bush, McCain, Romney, Jeb, et al,... none of them connected to the issue of, or even the concept of, "economic nationalism."

The entire apparatus of the GOP as a professional political party couldn't fathom what was at the nucleus of middle-class voter pain. Trump did.
What is this attraction?... said dozens of the best paid political consultants and Wall Street cocktail party invitees.

It must be because Trump's a TV reality media star they reconciled in their echo-chamber. Yeah, yeah, that's it, the rubes know him from TV.

Gottabe... Image
That disconnect I am describing, still permeates the professional GOP apparatus to this very day.

Hedge funders, Donors, Wall Street, Multinationals, the apparatus that supports the architecture of one wing of the 2-party club dynamic, just can't fathom the appeal of Trump.
Sacrilegious words like "tariffs", "reciprocity", "trade equity", "protectionism" had long been banned from better conservative circles.

Books burned. Mention amid Wharton School lesson plans strictly forbidden. By the time of Trump, an economic code of Omerta existed.
But like the flickering flame of liberty, the embers of economic nationalism still existed.... barely alight, but smoldering.

Here's comes Trump with the bellows, and BOOM, just like that, YES, it reignites.... America-First is introduced. Worse yet, it comes without apology. Image
Trillions, on a global level, suddenly at stake. Billions on a corporate and even personal level suddenly at risk, for the professional political class.

Wait, he,.... what,... tariffs?

Oh, hell no, they thought. Hell no. This system he speaks of is unimaginable. The horror. Image
Peel all the skin off the onion, and even though they (like Carmichael) might not be able to understand it, that's the core of the disconnect.

Economic nationalism is the unifying theme of MAGA.
Economic nationalism is what creates the largest populist tent in the history of republican politics.

Blacks, whites, latinos, asians, all colors all creeds, all races, all united.... because the "working-class" is the unifying element.

MAGA is the voice of the working class.
The working class is what keeps all the shit working. We are the binding of our patchwork quilt of a constitutional republic.

The working class that had been beaten, put down, isolated, disconnected from policy, ridiculed for not having pedigree, all of it. United in MAGA.
It's a massive political tent. The biggest political coalition in the history of American politics.

However, you have to be in the working-class in order to understand the working class. That's the GOP problem. Image
Candidate Trump introduced the professional GOPe to economic nationalism.

President Trump then initiated economic nationalism.

The MAGA working class immediately felt the benefits of economic nationalism. Image
This is what unifies the MAGA base and attaches to President Donald Trump.

This is what the GOP professional political class just do not understand, and even more dislike. DeSantis, Noem, Haley, Pence, Cheney et al.

None of them carry a multiracial working-class coalition. ImageImageImageImage
/END Image

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More from @TheLastRefuge2

Jul 3
1) You guys know the background.  You know the context. You know the history.  You know all the nuances and Machiavellian manipulations that have brought us to this very specific moment. Image
2) Now, you are President Donald Trump and you are in a conversation with Vladimir Putin; a geopolitical ‘adversary’ whose current status was created by the same intelligence system operators that created your defined ‘enemy’ status within your own country.  You and Putin were both targeted by the same intelligence system, the CIA.Image
Image
3) Vladimir Putin does not view Americans as his enemy. Vladimir Putin views the CIA as his enemy.

President Putin is essentially ambivalent to your targeted position, but defines his adversary as your Central Intelligence Agency.  

You want to cut the Gordian knot, change the geopolitical world, create a strategic alignment; but to do that you need Putin to accept you do not view him as the enemy.  You also need to prove you have control over the apparatus he views as a threat. 

How do you prove you have control over the agency?Image
Read 7 tweets
Jun 19
1.) As DNI Mrs Tulsi Gabbard has:

♦ chased down intelligence community leakers,
♦ released the JFK files,
♦ released Joe Biden’s domestic terrorism surveillance plan,
♦ intercepted an NIC plot to impeach President Trump (confirmed by Rubio),
♦ taken control of the Presidential Daily Briefing,
♦ and more recently begun to confront the weaponized corruption within the IC Inspector General organization.

These are actions, not words, and those actions speak boldly.  Suffice to say, her effectiveness has placed a target on her back.
2) Chased down intel community leakers.

theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/05/0…
3) Released the JFK files and released the Joe Biden domestic terrorist surveillance program.

theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/04/1…
Read 8 tweets
Jun 9
1. At sporadic times of inconsequential normalcy, on the streets of Russia you will see two distinct types of people asked for identification, Asians and middle eastern males. When asked why, the average, ordinary grey-person in Russia going about their business, ambivalently has no idea.

Russia is a massive country.

To the southeast they are bordered by China, Mongolia and Asia, they even have a small border with North Korea. To the southwest they have the “stans,” most notably Kazakhstan; this region is the source of most domestic terrorists who attack inside Russia. To the West they have Ukraine and the EU nations.

From the standpoint of Russia, they have Asians on their East, Turks/Arabs on their South and EU supported Nazis on their Western flank.

Keep in mind, despite the breakup of the Soviet Union the muscle memory from World War II is still very much a part of their social compact.Image
2. Consider Arlington Cemetary for scale. If you were to build an Arlington type cemetery for all the Russians killed in World War II, the 27 million gravesites would envelop a landmass bigger than Washington DC. These realities underpin Russian perspectives.

Russia is drawn into an alignment with China not by desire, but rather by necessity.  Most ordinary Russians do not like China, and they would prefer not to purchase Chinese industrial or manufactured goods.  Russian President Vladimir Putin is well aware of this, and I believe U.S. President Donald Trump is aware also.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said publicly it should be U.S. policy to support separating the two biggest nuclear powers, China and Russia as a matter of strategic U.S. interest.  President Trump said, “I’m going to have to un-unite them, and I think I can do that, too,” shortly before his election in November. “I have to un-unite them.”

In a very downplayed statement earlier this year generally hidden/ignored by media, the former Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and current Secretary of State -also National Security Advisor- Marco Rubio, said “Ukraine was a proxy war for the United States against Russia.”  Despite the U.S. media intentionally hiding the statement, Moscow immediately noticed and affirmed the accuracy.Image
3. Ukraine launched a covert attack against Russian air force bases last Sunday June 1st.  President Trump was not informed of the attack in advance and was unaware it was going to take place.  In the aftermath, President Trump and Secretary Rubio stayed quiet.

Three days after the attack, Wednesday, June 4, President Trump held a 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Last week the New York Times received “an eight-page internal F.S.B. planning document” … “that sets priorities for fending off Chinese espionage.”

[…] Ares Leaks, a cybercrime group, obtained the document but did not say how it did so. That makes definitive authentication impossible, but The Times shared the report with six Western intelligence agencies, all of which assessed it to be authentic. The document gives the most detailed behind-the-scenes view to date of Russian counterintelligence’s thinking about China.

[…] Russia has survived years of Western financial sanctions following the invasion, proving wrong the many politicians and experts who predicted the collapse of the country’s economy.

[…] The Russian document describes a “tense and dynamically developing” intelligence battle in the shadows between the two outwardly friendly nations.

[…] Read one way, the F.S.B. document lends credence to the theory that, with the right approach, Russia can be cleaved away from China. The document describes mistrust and suspicion on both sides of the relationship."

nytimes.com/2025/06/07/wor…
Read 4 tweets
May 29
From the New York trade court ruling:

"...[...] in 1962, Congress delegated to the President the power to take action to adjust imports when the Secretary of Commerce finds that an “article is being imported into the United States in such quantities or under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security.” Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Pub. L. No. 87-794, § 232(b), 76 Stat. 872, 877 (codified as amended at 19 U.S.C. § 1862(c)(1)(A)). This delegation is conditioned upon an investigation and findings by the Secretary of Commerce, and agreement by the President. See id. Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, requires that the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) take action, which may include imposing tariffs, where “the rights of the United States under any trade agreement are being denied” or “an act, policy, or practice of a foreign country” is “unjustifiable and burdens or restricts United States commerce.” 19 U.S.C. § 2411(a)(1)(A)–(B). The USTR may impose duties also where the USTR determines that “an act, policy, or practice of a foreign country is unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restricts United States commerce.” Id. § 2411(b)(1). This power is conditioned on extensive procedural requirements including an investigation that culminates in an affirmative finding that another country imposed unfair trade barriers under § 2411(a)(1)(A) or (B) or § 2411(b), and a public notice and comment period. See id. § 2414(b)."...

This is one reason why the ruling can be overturned. The Sec 301/302 investigation was completed by the USTR, with extensive citation.

NY Court citation:

cit.uscourts.gov/sites/cit/file…

USTR Citation 400 pages:

ustr.gov/sites/default/…Image
The court literally ignored the USTR investigation, AND the Dept of Commerce review and investigation of the same based on the USTR published findings.

This ruling will not pass inspection by a higher court, and as to the motive of the 3-judge panel.... follow the $$$, there are trillions at stake.

This is a ruling to the benefit of the multinationals.Image
USTR Citations for lengthy review:

ustr.gov/issue-areas/pr…
Read 4 tweets
May 19
1. The original agreement between Clinton and Obama going back to 2008 was for Obama to take the nomination, the presidency and then eventually support Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election bid. 

Obama would be President. Obama would appoint Clinton to Secretary of State, Hillary would then use her office to build wealth for herself and her family, and then HRC would exit the Dept of State to begin her presidential run.

John Podesta would enter the Obama administration as Hillary left in 2013.  Podesta would look out for Hillary’s interests from his position inside the Obama White House.  The Clintons and Obamas never fully trusted each other. 

Barack Obama would put all the mechanisms into place that would transition his administration into Hillary Clintons’.  That was always the plan running in the background.Image
2. In 2015 Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had a check-in meeting; just touching base to firm up the goals and objectives as Hillary began her campaign launch.  Podesta left the White House to take up position inside the campaign, and Team Obama would maintain Clinton’s interests as planned without an insider.

All of President Obama’s appointments in after 2015, were essentially through the prism of assisting Hillary Clinton to win in 2016.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch (tarmac meeting), Deputy AG Sally Yates, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and FBI Director James Comey were all part of that.

This is a key point missed by many. In the last two years of Obama, the cabinet and top-tier members of the administration would align their institutional interests to that of Hillary Clinton.

Technically Hillary had eyes and ears all over the White House at the time, and with Hillary Clinton being a foregone conclusion per the expectations of Washington DC, everyone would fall in line during the transition from Obama to Clinton. 

Again, this was the general plan.  Obama would show up in 2016 to campaign for Hillary and all would be seamless.Image
3. The FBI was aware of the plan for transition from Obama to Clinton, hence their role in eliminating the threat later presented by the Clinton, as Secretary of State, laptop scandal and the subsequent issues of classified information. 

Remember, Clinton’s motive as Secretary of State was to sell her position for material wealth; that’s why she used a personal email, maintained her own servers, and generally controlled how her activity could be monitored and tracked. [Also, she didn’t fully trust Obama]

The FBI activity was to support, defend and facilitate the Clinton effort. This is again a key to understanding "Russiagate"...

After March 2016 (Super Tuesday) it became obvious Donald Trump was going to win the Republican nomination. Trump would be Clinton's opponent.

Using access to the NSA database, the U.S. Govt., specifically "FBI Contractors", began doing political surveillance of Donald Trump's campaign. This intel was then sent to the Clinton team. Clinton would benefit from knowing the communication inside the Trump campaign. All of that intel was in the metadata captured by the NSA and searched by the FBI contractors.

All of this activity was political surveillance, using govt resources to feed the Clinton team the info.Image
Image
Read 5 tweets

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