Last night one of the big MAGA accounts (I forget which one) was tweeting about how Trump should make a 15 minute campaign speech from the courthouse steps every day of his trial. At first I laughed and rolled my eyes, but I kept thinking about it, and now I like this idea. 1/2 I think Americans really need to see Trump ramble for 15 minutes every night. Let them hear him going on about how he's the victim, the judge is corrupt, it's all Biden's fault, etc. (With fact checks of course.) Remind folks who he is and they'll get tired of him quickly. 2/2

Justice Alexandre de Moraes noted that Musk began waging a public “disinformation campaign” regarding the top court’s actions, and that Musk continued with comments that his social media company X would cease to comply with the court’s orders to block certain accounts. 1/4 Musk will be investigated for alleged intentional criminal instrumentalization of X as part of an investigation into a network of people known as digital militias who allegedly spread defamatory fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices. 2/4
pbs.org/newshour/econo…

Mike Johnson's stepmom calls out his 'extremist stance' on religion: 'It's crazy' 🧵

rawstory.com/mike-johnson-r… Patrick Johnson joined a local community environmental group working to fight a federal government plan for an open-air burn of 15 million pounds of toxic munitions, which would have sent massive amounts of known carcinogens into the open air, but his son did nothing to help.

How the GOP muzzled the quiet coalition that fought foreign propaganda

The FBI put a pause on briefings with tech companies due to an ongoing lawsuit, adding to a broader breakdown in a system meant to guard against influence operations and to ensure election integrity. 1/ "A once-robust alliance of federal agencies, tech companies, election officials and researchers that worked together to thwart foreign propaganda and disinformation has fragmented after years of sustained Republican attacks."

2/
nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…

Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan attempted to block public view of more than 1,400 texts he traded with a Michigan lawyer tied to data breaches in four states.

He blacked out texts, but The Arizona Republic was able to digitally remove his redactions and view the messages. 1/4 The Arizona Senate hired Logan to lead a hand count of 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County's 2020 election. Former Senate President Karen Fann in 2021 said the review was non-partisan and had nothing to do with Donald Trump or overturning the election. 2/4

ABC News has identified several assertions in the book that appear to be contradicted by what Meadows allegedly told investigators behind closed doors.

1/

abcnews.go.com/US/chief-staff… According to Meadows' book, the election was "stolen" and "rigged" with help from "allies in the liberal media," who ignored "actual evidence of fraud, right there in plain sight for anyone to access and analyze."

2/

abcnews.go.com/US/chief-staff…

Damnit, everyone please stop trying to put a time limit on abortion because you think it sounds more reasonable.

Voluntary abortions happen early, as soon as a woman knows she's pregnant. Late term abortions are almost ALWAYS medical emergencies, & banning them means we die. 1/ The only way the right can excuse controlling women's bodies and lives is by making us seem like we have extreme positions on it and want to kill babies.

Believe it or not, the MAGAs think @kwelkernbc was the one lying about no abortions after birth, not Trump. 2/

Expect this to get worse.

The Environmental Protection Agency and US Army on Tuesday released a new rule that slashes federally protected water by more than half, following a Supreme Court decision in May that rolled back protections for US wetlands.

cnn.com/2023/08/29/pol… The rule will invalidate an earlier definition of what constitutes the so-called waters of the United States, after SCOTUS ruled Clean Water Act protections extend only to “wetlands with a continuous surface connection to bodies that are waters of the US in their own rights.”

There seems to be some confusion among even well meaning folks that being "anti-war" means not supporting sending weapons to Ukraine.

Let me explain why the exact opposite is true.

A 🧵

1/x I hate war. I hate it passionately. It makes me feel sick to know of all the truly horrible things human beings have done to other humans. The stories out of Bucha, Mariupol, Syria, and all the other places that have suffered atrocities break my heart.

2/x

Here's a familiar story. You guys heard this one before?

Young idealistic people enthusiastically vote for the party that offers them progress & things they believe in.

A couple of years later, they're outraged & disappointed because they've only gotten part of what they want. They have no concept of how extremely difficult and time consuming it is to make changes in a democracy, or how truly historic recent changes are. And they are oblivious to the inevitable backlash change always brings.

They expected instant change, and now they're mad.

"The plan that Giuliani and Trump put into operation was simple. Giuliani sent me to collect compromising information that the Eastern European oligarchs had on Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine to use against Joe Biden."

time.com/6255090/lev-pa… It was my job to convince the new Ukrainian government to announce an official investigation into Hunter Biden. If they didn’t, the U.S. would not send Trump or Mike Pence to Zelensky’s inauguration, threatening Zelensky’s domestic stature and his ability to stand up to Putin.

Gosh @MSNCB, let's spend the entire day speculating about a speech that hasn't happened yet, and polls for an election nearly two years away. A whole two minutes for the probably tens of thousands dead in Turkey and Syria is surely enough, right?

Yes this is sarcasm. JFC.🤦‍♀️🙄 If anyone thinks this is hyperbolic or an exaggeration, it's not. Since I turned the news on it's been segment after segment of drivel about tonight's speech and terrible polling, and a brief two minute mention of the earthquake and victims.

This is journalistic malpractice.

This is a thread of tweets I think have the kind of messaging we need to win.

https://twitter.com/TheDemocrats/status/1574525473203314706?s=20&t=__f55iXVbymbnhBc_Z5Dfw

You guys, I'm starting to panic about all the ads I'm not seeing. Not sure what the DNC is up to. I don't have the skills to make videos, so this is a call out to all of you who do: can we all get on the same page and make this happen?

@ReallyAmerican1 @donwinslow @MeidasTouch? We need to stop worrying about individual races and run against the whole party, with the same consistent messages. These are the ones I think we should focus on. Crazy culture war extremism, the myth that the GOP is better for the economy, fascism & the plot to take away votes.

Shell escaped liability for oil spills in Nigeria for years. Then four farmers took them to court -- and won

edition.cnn.com/2022/05/25/afr… When Nigerian environmental lawyer Chima Williams launched a lawsuit against oil giant Shell plc, he did not envisage a 13-year battle that would lead to a landmark ruling and land him a prestigious environmental award.

edition.cnn.com/2022/05/25/afr…

With the midterms just a few months away and Democrats signaling that they intend to make this a major issue, Republicans are scrambling for a political strategy to make their mandatory childbirth policy seem not as bad of an idea as it obviously is.

rawstory.com/republicans-ar… The strategy that the GOP group suggests is to lie. A lot. Lie every chance you get. Lie about everything, all the time. Lie so often that the media stops bothering to fact-check you and your opponents grow exhausted trying to disprove your lies. It's a tried-and-true trick.

A winning Dem primary strategy is for all the candidates to praise each other & build each up. This is not contradictory; Trump will be trying to tear everyone down. We shouldn't help him. The candidates should consistently say true & complimentary things about each other. Besides being infinitely more pleasant than the alternative, this is powerful because it defines the narrative as a Dem field just overloaded with amazing, talented, qualified people. An abundance of riches. The final nominee coming out of that will be strong, powerful & admired.

There's a reason Trumpeters are so angry & hate-filled:
Some greedy clever & unscrupulous people have been training them to be that way for over 40 years. In the 1970s a guy named Limbaugh started bragging to powerful people, including political trickster Roger Stone,
1/ 2/ yeah, the same Roger Stone who's in the news a lot again lately. Rush claimed he could get people to vote against their own best interests by appealing to their fears & prejudices using his show. He had a system down. The trick was to get them angry & foster hate & fear.