U.S. Army (Ret.). Poor, white, rural appalachian foster care kid who enlisted. Formative years spent with other white folk. No supremacy observed.
Jul 20 • 25 tweets • 4 min read
"For Trump and his cronies, the prospect of losing power could prove to be catastrophic because of their reasonable fear of being held accountable for criminality that dwarfs Trump’s first term. Unlike January 2021, [Trump & Friends] will have new tools to carry out a coup." 1/
"Six months into the second Trump administration, two things are becoming clear: First, the president remains a nearly entirely non-strategic actor, motivated only by an abiding desire to accumulate ever greater power, adulation, and wealth."
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Jul 14 • 25 tweets • 4 min read
"Trump presents himself as strong, indomitable, and always forceful. But when disaster strikes—whether hurricane, flash flood, or pandemic—he’s oddly helpless.... 'Nobody has any idea how and why a thing like this could happen,' he insisted [after the flood in central Texas]." 1/
When a reporter asked what his message is to families who say earlier alerts about the flooding could’ve saved lives, Trump responded that 'only an evil person would ask a question like that.'"
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Jun 27 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
"[T]he Supreme Court has sided with the Trump administration and will allow what’s known as third country renditions — snatching immigrants from American streets and sending them to countries where they have no ties...[while granting agents] sweeping immunity from being sued." 1/
"[I]n downtown LA...a street vendor was taken down by several immigration agents.... One agent — who had just put his taser to the man’s head as he lay on the ground underneath two other officers — pointed the weapon at the face of a woman who was recording the scene."
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Aug 9, 2024 • 25 tweets • 4 min read
"Vance's dark vision for higher ed would...slam the door on any future 'hillbillies' looking to better themselves, and end all efforts at campus diversity - an odd dream for a man who met his Indian American wife at Yale." 1/
"Walz's college story harks back to a now nearly lost moment in America when higher education was affordable, accessible, and a clear path for young people from all backgrounds to do a little better than their parents did."
2/
May 6, 2024 • 25 tweets • 4 min read
"The oligarchs are on the move, and they know who they want leading America." 1/
"[A] group of billionaires got together in Hollywood last week to support Trump's hatred for Joe Biden and Democrats. The crowd included...immigrants Elon Musk (South Africa), David Sacks (South Africa), Peter Thiel (Germany), and Rupert Murdoch (Australia)."
2/
Apr 12, 2024 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
"Republican Montana Senate candidate Tim Sheehy spent last week confirming that he's a liar.... Sheehy is a former NAVY Seal and millionaire business owner with no record in politics...and now that the vetting is finally happening, things are getting weird." 1/
"[I]n October 2015, Sheehy was visiting Montana's Glacier National Park when he was injured. He told a Park Ranger at the time that he had discharged a pistol and shot himself in the right arm."
2/
Mar 14, 2024 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
"A Democratic president had picked up where his conservative predecessors had left off in rolling back some of the safety net and social justice programs in [FDR's] New Deal and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society...'trickle-down economics,' but with a fresh name, 'neoliberalism.'" 1/
"From that period came virtually all the economic consequences that have haunted us for more than 20 years - the offshoring of jobs, the hollowing out of domestic manufacturing...the celestial wealth of the .01 percent and according to some thinkers, the rise of Donald Trump."
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Jan 17, 2024 • 21 tweets • 3 min read
"[T]hose who want voters to forget the insurrection are getting help from a mainstream press that's proven increasingly unwilling to call them out." 1/
"The January 6 insurrectionists are not 'hostages' by any definition. They either pleaded guilty or were tried and convicted for crimes committed in broad daylight and broadcast on national TV."
2/
Dec 2, 2023 • 25 tweets • 4 min read
"Pizzagate shows the resilience of disinformation narratives fueled by conspiracy theories. Pizzagate evolved into a wider QAnon conspiracy theory and now is getting back to its roots." 1/
"Disinformation can become impervious to facts and take on an almost religious framework where common belief in the lie ties the community together."
2/
Nov 5, 2023 • 18 tweets • 3 min read
"Trump...plans [to use] the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term... [and] to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations." 1/ wapo.st/49mZXWU
"To facilitate Trump's ability to direct DOJ actions his associates have been drafting plans to dispense with 50 years of policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations. Critics have called such ideas dangerous and unconstitutional."
2/
Nov 5, 2023 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
"Let's get rid of one important misconception: the past is not a good guide to this election... [but] all the forecast models, pundits, pollsters, and analysts that opine on the subject are basing their evaluations almost exclusively on past data to make future predictions." 1/
"But, as the Scottish philosopher David Hume explained centuries ago: ...you get into trouble if you rely too much on 'the presumption of a resemblance betwixt those objects, of which we have had experience, and those, of which we have had none.'"
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