This press conference with Texas officials about the latest mass shooting is amazing. They are all acting like it’s a natural disaster. Thoughts and prayers. Nothing else. No one has said the word “gun” or “we will do something“ at all… And they keep saying what a great thing it was that the police officer was there quickly so “even more people didn’t die.“ Which raises the question:
Why is it that one person can kill so many people so quickly — but only in America?

1/ Let’s put the House Ways and Means Committee releasing Trump’s tax returns in context. While Spiro Agnew was Richard Nixon’s vice president, he was taking bribes in the White House. Literally. People came to the White House with briefcases full of money for him. 2/ Agnew was taking bribes for years prior to that, when governor of Maryland. Nixon, the nation later discovered, was ALSO taking bribes. The milk lobby brought him a half million dollars in cash, as did Jimmy Hoffa to stop the DOJ from prosecuting him.

(1/24) Three republican presidents did it to hold onto a Republican Senate cuz back then the GOP represented democracy & the Democratic Party was the party of the slaveholders & their Jim Crow heirs. Lincoln did it. Grant did it. Harrison did it. It’s time for Democrats to do it. (2/24) Recently I saw Mitch McConnell was on TV telling wealthy donors at a fundraiser in Kentucky, “We’ve got a 50-50 Senate right now. We’ve got a 50-50 nation.”
An hour later I heard it again from a Republican, this time on CNN: “America is a 50/50 nation.”

Thoughts on Pence testifying before a grand jury against Trump:
If he’s going to challenge Trump & become the Republican heir apparent, he has to testify to convict & imprison.
But he has to put that off to Xmas weekend, when nobody’s paying attention, like GHW Bush did in 1992. Here’s George HW Bush and how did it in 1992, blowing up the Iran/Contra charges that he and Ronald Reagan conspired with the Ayatollahs to screw Jimmy Carter. Bill Barr was Attorney General in 1992, and he ran the whole thing. Pence will try the same…
hartmannreport.com/p/why-are-we-s…

(1/5) Is Herschel Walker in big trouble? I mean, beyond all the obvious stuff? Is he now caught between Donald Trump and the GOP? (2/5) Consider this scenario. Trump is going down in flames right now, being rejected by the Murdoch empire and mainstream Republicans. He’s desperate to regain the spotlight and to “prove” that he’s not a “loser.”

1/ The Reagan Revolution Changed America's Values to "Greed Is Good" - Can We Take Them Back? (A thread)
Many Americans, looking at the GOP’s position on the issues, find themselves confused. 2/ Why would the party claiming to be the last bastion of reverence for “life” in America also be the party that supports 50,000 American gun deaths every year, the leading cause of death among children and more than every other developed country in the world combined?

1/ What Will You Do When the GOP Comes For Your Wife, Daughter, or Sister? (a thread) 2/ Last week a Texas woman with an ectopic pregnancy — a life-threatening condition that never produces a baby — was forced to wait until it ruptured inside her, putting her life in danger. Imagine if that was you or someone you loved.

1/ Republicans have had a problem with women for a long time. (A thread) 2/ In 1974, When most states required men to cosign for a wife or daughter‘s credit card or any other contract,  Republicans voted against the Equal Credit Act.

1/ Yesterday was, by some media counts, the 309th terrorist mass shooting in America so far this year. No other country in the world experiences this so often or so severely. 2/ There are more car accidents in New York City than in Boise because there are so many more cars. That just makes sense. That’s also why there are more shootings where there are more guns.

1/ Dear Republicans: We Tried Your Way and It Does Not Work (a thread): 2/ The 1970s were a pivotal decade, and not just because it saw the end of the Vietnam War, the resignation of Nixon, and the death of both the psychedelic hippie movement and the very political (and sometimes violent) SDS.

1/ The Nightmare Scenario SCOTUS is Plotting For the 2024 Election Takeover: 2/ Six Republicans on the Supreme Court just announced — a story that has largely flown under the nation’s political radar — that they’ll consider pre-rigging the presidential election of 2024.

1/ If the 25th Amendment isn’t invoked, what will Trump do next? (THREAD) 2/ TS Eliot famously said that the world will end “not with a bang, but a whimper.” It’s also how strongman dictator reigns typically end, and Trump is no exception. He’s having his “Downfall bunker moment,” and it could be very dangerous.

1/ The Republican coronavirus relief negotiating position, over the past six months, tells you everything you need to know about why the modern GOP is so corrupt it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up or die. (THREAD) 2/ First, Democrats in the House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act, with $3 trillion for unemployed Americans, small businesses, and state and local governments. Republicans said that was too much money for average Americans, and refused to even hold a vote in the Senate.

1/ Americans must drive a stake through the heart of the NeoCalvinist Republican Party. (THREAD) 2/ Once again, negotiations over Covid relief show the stark differences between the Democratic and Republican Parties. That America isn’t shocked and horrified by GOP behavior is a testimonial to how well corporate media obscures these differences.

1/ Mitch McConnell wants to let corporations kill you without consequence. (THREAD) 2/ Probably the most under-reported story of the year has been how Mitch McConnell is holding Americans hostage in exchange for letting big corporations kill Americans without any consequence.

1/ Rebuilding trust in democracy and our American government requires both holding seditious Republicans accountable and restoring the protective functions of government. Here’s what Democrats must do and why. (THREAD) 2/ The reason tens of millions of Americans don’t believe Joe Biden won the election is a 40-year betrayal of the American public’s trust by Republican politicians, grifters, and con artists exploiting the once-good name of Lincoln‘s Party.

1/ It’s time to defund the GOP. In yesterday‘s rant, I laid out all the reasons why Democrats should put at the top of their priority list “defunding the Republican Party.“ Here’s a little background, and how to do it. (THREAD) 2/ Back in 1981, the Republican Party decided to defund the Democratic Party. While the Republican party had principally been funded by rich people and big business since the 1920s, the Democrats were largely reliant on the labor unions.

1/ How do we deal with a Republican Party that’s become a traitor to humanity itself? (THREAD) 2/ Politicians in New York State are discussing making Covid vaccination mandatory, and, predictably, Republican cultists are freaking out. “Freedom!“ they scream as they run around maskless, assaulting their fellow citizens with virus-laden breath.

1/ When will America wake up to the evil that has seized the Republican Party? 2/ We’ve seen it around the world and throughout history: when a political party or government exists solely to serve the very wealthy, and begins to lose power, they inevitably turn to authoritarianism and police violence.

1/ What most vividly shows the difference between Ron DeSantis and Xavier Becerra? The crusade, and then the failure of that crusade, to make America into a fully authoritarian nation, and the return to democracy. 2/ Donald Trump is a full-blown authoritarian; anyone who’s ever read a decent history of Germany, Italy, or Spain in the 1930s, or knows the history of Pinochet in Chile, knows this is an irrefutable truth.

1/ The GOP has been running a con job and grift on the American people for 40 years, and now Trump has added his own new and very profitable twist to it. He’s not going to let go of it any day soon. 2/ The Washington Post headline reads: “Trump raises $495 million since mid-October, including a massive haul fueled by misleading appeals about election.” He’s raised over $140 million just since he lost the election!