🚨

Re what happened yesterday re Cheney….remember what Trump demanded of Zelensky in that phone call—an announcement of an investigation.

That’s the Putin tactic.

And for Trump, the big win. Does most of the damage whatever the law is, and whatever the ultimate result…

1/ I explained this in “2025”:

“Remember, the president’s top priority is publicly announced investigations. Right-wing TV repeating the words ‘treason’ and ‘abuse of power’ in every segment. That’s the victory. Everything that follows is the gravy.

2/

🚨 🚨 Happening So Fast

In my book “2025,” as well as our podcast “Trump’s Project 2025,” I captured what would happen to media in the event of a Trump victory.

The entire book is an attempt by a Magazine to cover the Trump agenda. But their coverage is censored over time:

1/ “The pressure came immediately after January. The day after the first story.

We were fake news, the new administration warned our publisher.

Too one-sided.

The criticism grew louder after February—the IVF story. Show both sides, they demanded.

2/

🚨

Day 13 — December 13, 2024

Arguably the most successful part of Trump’s first term was Operation Warp Speed—the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines that Trump happily took great credit for late in his fist term.

1/ More broadly, humans did few things more effectively over the past century than develop and disseminate vaccines for a wide variety of ailments and diseases:

2/

🚨 🚨

Day 11: Chris Wray Obeys in Advance

A 🧵

After J. Edgar Hoover towered over the FBI and Washington for 48 years, Congress passed a law to create a single, ten-year term for all future FBI directors.

A Committee report at the time made clear

1/ that the goal was to strike a balance: the ten year-term ensured that no director would accumulate too much power or overstay his or her welcome.

But that set term—longer than the tenure of any single president and separate from the four-year presidential cycle—

2/

🚨 🚨

Day 10: December 10, 2024

While not a Cabinet-level post, one of the most important positions in the federal government—both practically and symbolically—is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

1/ This post has been at the vanguard of the most important progress the federal government has forged since the 1950s—lifting voting rights, equality and democracy, while tearing down segregation and discrimination.

2/

🚨 🚨

A Simple Tactic To Stop Propaganda

A 🧵

Donald Trump sat down for his first broad-ranging interview (“Meet the Press”), and it featured an endless stream of lies and disinformation. In just a single interview, the man who will soon occupy the White House

1/ disseminated untruthful and often uncorrected propaganda on: the economy in his first term; birthright citizenship; January 6; the level of crimes by immigrants; inflation; NATO funding; the 2020 election; his record on health care; and his personal medical records.

2/

🚨 🚨

Jobs Up, Election Loss

Why?

A 🧵

The American economy in November exceeded expectations, gaining 227,000 jobs, including 26,000 manufacturing jobs. Wages also grew by .4% in November, stronger than expected—lifting the annual increase to 4%.

1/ With only two months to go in the Biden administration, November’s numbers take the total number of jobs under Biden (since January 2021) to more than 16 million, and extending an impressive streak: a net positive of jobs created every month of his tenure.

First time ever.

2/

🚨 🚨

The Common Theme of Comebacks

A 🧵

Remember this Time Magazine cover?

I sure do. It came out right around the time I agreed to run statewide in Ohio, for State Auditor.

And it came a few months after Obama crushed McCain—

1/ part of an election cycle where Democrats won across the board.

The GOP was dead, the pundits announced. So much so, Time featured the demise on its cover.

And of course, when I was approached about running for State Auditor (from my perch as a County Commissioner),

2/

Day 3 — December 3, 2024

More Trump nominations woes only weeks into the process:

A second Trump nominee withdrew his nomination outright. A Florida Sheriff whom Trump had picked to lead the Drug Enforcement Agency...

1/ ...stepped aside, stating cryptically that the “gravity of this very important responsibility set in.” What he didn’t explain was why he concluded he was not up to that responsibility.

In the meantime, @JaneMayerNYer of the New Yorker uncovered even more damning facts

2/

Day 2

A 🧵

Yesterday, I announced I will be providing a contemporaneous account of attacks on democracy amid the Trump era, and efforts to fight back.

Here’s Day 2–Dec. 2, 2024

The California legislature began a special, emergency session

1/ to enact laws and allocate funds to resist Trump’s promised attacks on the laws and the people of the state.

In North Carolina, the GOP-gerrymandered State Senate overrode the outgoing Governor’s veto of a series of last-minute legislative measures…

2/

🚨🚨

The Dangers of No Accountability

A 🧵

With today's dismissal of the Jan. 6 cases, I am reminded of a past struggle over a disputed election result, and the deep damage when there is no accountability for lawless and violent efforts to overturn the election results.

1. The clear lesson from the past: political and racist violence must face swift and decisive accountability, or the violence only continues. And wins

We ignore that at our peril

(Much of what follows is drawn from the outstanding book by Charles Lane,"The Day Freedom Died"):

2/

🚨 🚨

NEW WHITEBOARD: Mass Deportation

Now that it’s clear that Project 2025 IS the plan, it’s time to understand all of its, and Trump’s, promises.

Start w mass deportation. It will clearly tank the economy. The scale alone promises a humanitarian disaster.

WATCH, RT…

1/ For the facts behind the plan, go here:

2/open.substack.com/pub/davidpeppe…

🚨 🚨

PRESERVING OUR LIVED MEMORY

A 🧵

One of the most dangerous aspects of the passage of time amid dark moments like now is how quickly the collective memory of Americans evolves, and can fade entirely.

This adds an especially weighty responsibility on those of us..

1/ of a certain age: to preserve and pass on our lived memories of how liberal (the classic definition of the word), representative democracy operates in its best days.

Younger generations in our country have

2/

Resolute: 8 Reasons that Keep Me Going

A 🧵

An email arrived in my inbox early this week, from a friend I’ve come to know in recent years who also happens to be an expert in democracy and the rule of law, in the United States and globally:

1/ “Hi, David--

I am in a state of deep sadness--but more than that, fear. I think the [T]rump guys are totalitarians--even madmen.  I have never felt anything like this before. It's like the end of the world as we have known it..."

2/

🚨 🚨

This week, I wrote a 🧵 about my trip to Robertson County, KY, where I asked people why Kentucky’s smallest county (which also voted 80-20 for Trump) also was the most opposed to a referendum to bring school vouchers to Kentucky.

Here were the 2 big lessons learned:

1/

Lesson One: On the attacks on public schools:

“One town, one school.”

How clear is that?!

Robertson County School is the prized centerpiece of this small community. Its beating heart.

And the people of the county feel connected to it in deeply meaningful ways:

2/

🚨 🚨

ROAD TRIP: The Most Anti-Voucher County in Kentucky (and it voted for Trump 80-20)

A 🧵 on lessons learned (way beyond education)

The Kentucky Amendment to add private school vouchers was absolutely routed: 65-35. (Trump won Kentucky 65-34).

1/ It lost in all 120 counties. And by 60-40 or worse in all but 9 of those counties.

And—it did the worst in Kentucky’s smallestcounty: Robertson County. Population, 2,033 (as of 2023). It lost there 74-26!

2/

🚨

About a year ago, I wrote a review of Erik Larson's "In the Garden of Beasts," an account of the US Ambassador to Germany's tenure there in the early-mid 30s.

I shared lessons from the account that feel more relevant now than ever.

Here is a snippet of them:

1/ 1) Do not allow everyday acts of violence to become normalized;

2) Do not allow increasingly vile & inhumane and violent and disturbing rhetoric and ideas to become normalized. Call them out (ie. thank you to those who marched in response to the neo-Nazi march in Columbus!)

2/

🚨 🚨

To those who just ran and didn’t succeed:

Thank you.

You just performed the highest level of service you can in our democracy.

And if you ran in a tough/gerrymandered district, thank you even more.

1/ Running in a one-sided district in order to engage voters, lift turnout and hold an incumbent accountable is an act of patriotism of the highest order.

Your entire run for office was an act of public service. And courage.

Again, thank you.

2/

🚨 🚨

A 🧵 on appointments

In my book “2025,” I try to capture the mindset that will drive Trump’s selection of unqualified loyalists to the top jobs in his administration.

It’s bearing out so far, and will only get worse for the less high-profile jobs:

1/ ““JJ, they want you, dude,” Blake said. "They want you.”

“Who wants me?”

“The president does. And his people. They love that you were willing to take one for the team. No apologies. No remorse. That’s fucking loyalty—willing to give up 10 years for the president. 

2/

🚨 🚨

The Long Battle — a 🧵

Meet Rhoda Denison Bement.
She was at Seneca Falls. But it’s complicated.

Rhoda Denison Bement was actually a regular parishioner at the Wesleyan Methodist Church, where the historic convention took place.

1/ But she was only a member there because, 5 years earlier, she’d been banished from the Presbyterian church down the street.

It seems the ferocity of her abolitionism erupted into a showdown w that church’s pastor, who put her on trial for disorderly “unchristian” conduct.

2/

🚨 🚨

What Would FDR Do/Say About the Billionaire Takeover

A 🧵

So…

Elon Musk (who has had multiple calls with Putin) was on Trump’s call with President Zelensky!?

Jeff Bezos sent Trump a fawning, congratulatory note after spiking a Washington Post endorsement.

1/ JD Vance rose to be VP, from nowhere (and hardly a moment in Ohio) and with no real experience, largely due to a single billionaire backer.

Trump is talking about another round of massive tax cuts at the top, while Musk suggests an era of pain for everyone else.

2/