Do you know what a "motte-and-bailey fallacy" is?

I will give you a definition from Wikipedia. The definition is accurate, but may be difficult to understand. So I will then give you an example.

Wikipedia says:

1/12 "The motte-and-bailey fallacy (named after the motte-and-bailey castle) is a form of argument and an informal fallacy where an arguer conflates two positions that share similarities: one modest and easy to defend (the "motte") and one much more controversial...

2/12

I remember growing up hearing my grammar school teachers talk about the importance of the "peaceful transfer of power." It thought it was silly to worry about that. Elections happen, the one elected is sworn into office. What's the big deal?

1/11 We now know the answer. It's a very big deal.

Before America, no nation had peaceful transfers of power other than hereditary transfers from a newly-dead monarch to a relative. Never before did leaders voluntarily, peacefully and under the rule of law hand power to rivals.

2/11

We used to have nightly news, and daily newspapers, that sought to inform America with accurate facts about real events.

Then networks decided to make "news" into a profit center rather than a public service. To do that, it had to be entertaining, not necessarily accurate.

1/6
Rupert Murdock decided to create a propaganda station on cable, that pretended to be a news network. He had to go to court to defend telling outright lies. His defense was that Fox isn't "news", it's "entertainment," so no one should take it seriously. That defense worked.

2/6

I want to remind you of something Trump did in his first term.

When running for president in 2016, Trump declared he was smarter than all the Generals, and he had a secret plan to end the war in Afghanistan, much better than plan the Generals could come up with.

1/7 After being elected, Trump revealed his secret plan to end the war in Afghanistan.

His plan was:

He ordered the Generals to come up with a plan to end the war in Afghanistan, and have it on his desk in ninety days.

I'm serious. That was his secret plan.

2/7

I'm suspect Trump is creating the Epstein Files controversy on purpose. It's a distraction from his rapid mental decline, and the incompetence of entire administration, and the horrors of ICE, and the stupid tariffs, and the wars he hasn't ended, and his constant criming.

1/6 He pushed the Epstein thing for years as a campaign issue, as a club to beat up Democrats, and just as a conspiracy theory to rile his base.

Remember, Epstein died in 2019, while Trump was still president, and Bill Barr was Attorney General.

2/6

Some trivia. Not sure what made me remember this.

Germans voted in 1933. Hitler was named Chancellor that January. He quickly consolidated power, and became a dictator. Germans did not have free elections until 1949, after Hitler and about 80 million other people had died.

1/4 Oh, there were parliamentary elections in Germany in the 1930s. They were shams, and there was no chance Hitler would be removed as Chancellor.

And remember, Hitler became Chancellor only after leading an insurrection and being convicted of felonies.

Sound familiar?

2/4

The crisis of global climate change isn’t the first man-made climate disaster we’ve faced in recent history. In the twentieth century, America dealt with and solved a regional crisis of our own making. It almost happened again soon after.

1/12 We prevented a second disaster the same way we had resolved the first one. It was solved by federal intervention.

In the early 1930s, the American Southwest was engulfed by a serious drought, which was exacerbated by then-current farming and grazing techniques.

2/12

Here's a parable. (I tell stories.)

Imagine a room. Maybe it's an attic. It holds everything you ever valued. Your money, yes. Also hundred-year old pictures of your great-grandmother. You dad's wedding ring. That novel you read. The proof your children are yours.

1/5 It's got your retirement investments. The medicines you need to survive. Your memories of that special teacher.

All of it is in that room in the attic.

Imagine one day a bunch of chimpanzees get in there. Some of them have Tiki torches.

2/5

Republicans really don't like to be told they're wrong.

I honestly think they don't understand the difference between "facts" and "opinions."

This means they say and believe a lot of bullshit that simply isn't true. And they can't be corrected on that.

1/9 Showing them "the facts" has no effect, because they insist you're only telling them your opinion. They cannot differentiate between facts and opinions.

This is true in any subject, from climate change to vaccines, taxation and economic policy to immigration, crime, guns,

2/9

I'm pretty old.

I'm not middle-aged. I'm past that.

I don't worry about cancer, or damage to my liver. I love good cigars and single-malt scotch, and I don't worry about what that might do to my health. There's not enough time left for me to care.

1/4 I do worry about what the world will be when I'm gone. I worry about my kids and grandkids, and their children yet unimagined, and the growing fascism they will face.

I also worry about saying everything I need to say in whatever time I have left.

2/4

A factoid you may not have heard, and you may not fully appreciate its importance...

Musk created a company, xAI, which built the world's biggest supercomputer near Memphis, TN, to power Grok, his A.I. program.

He named the computer: Colossus.

1/13

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_… Why does this matter?

We all know the name "Colossus" is related to the word "colossal," and means "big," and we likely all have some vague memory of something from Greek myth or something.

But so what?

It's teriffying.

Look, we all know Musk reads science fiction.

2/13

On this memorial day, we should pause to remember those who died because Trump maliciously screwed up the response to Covid-19.

Below is a picture of the Michigan Stadium. It seats 100,000 people.

1/6 You would need 11 Michigan Stadiums to seat all the corpses of the Americans who died because Trump worked so hard to make the Covid pandemic worse.

I'm not going to list all the things Trump did, knowing they would kill Americans, from tossing out the pandemic playbook ...

2/6

The Trump Reich wants to end habeas corpus. (If you don't know what that is, go look it up. Now.) But Trump doesn't have the authority or power to do that.

The Constitution says habeas corpus can only be suspended by Congress.

1/8 The point of habeas corpus is specifically to prevent an executive or king from incarcerating people without due process.

Incarcerating people without due process is precisely what the Trump Reich wants to do, and is the reason they want to end habeas corpus.

2/8

Note: The new Congress gets sworn in on Jan 3. That's when the officers of the House and Senate are supposed to be elected. There are rumbles about Republicans having another prolonged Speakership battle.

Congress has to count the Electoral Votes on Jan 6.

1/7 The Speaker of the House is supposed to preside over the Joint Session of Congress to count the Electoral Votes. If there is no Speaker yet, it's uncertain whether Congress can be convened to do that.

If Congress can't be convened until sometime after Jan 6, it gets weird.

2/7

The far-right Cato Institute is feeding its poison to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramasmarmy, giving them advice on how to disassemble America and sell it off for parts. Here is their manifesto.

I'll summarize what they threaten to do to Social Security.

1/9
cato.org/white-paper/ca… 1. Raise the retirement age by three years. Currently, you can take early retirement at 62, and full retirement at 67. Raise that to 65 and 70.

2. Reduce the annual Cost Of Living Adjustments. COLAs are now figured on Consumer Price Index. They want to use Chained CPI.

2/9

Irony has died. Consider the following fact:

People who have guns in their house die from gunshot wounds at about ten times the rate as people who don't have guns in their house.

This makes sense in an obvious sort of way.

1/4 After all, you can't die from a gunshot wound unless there's a gun involved. If there are guns handy, it makes sense that you'd be more likely to die from a gunshot than if guns are not handy.

2/4

On Jan 21, 2017, the day after his first inauguration, Trump created his reelection committee and began formally campaigning for reelection in 2020.

He lost, of course, but the point is, he started his campaign the day after his inauguration.

I mention this for a reason.

1/4 We know Trump is Constitutionally prevented from running for a third term. We also know he wants to remain president forever--mostly to grift and to stay out of prison.

I expect Trump to take action immediately after his inauguration next month. I'm not sure what he'll do.

2/4

The problem with going into survival mode is that it is ultimately selfish. It says, "I will do what I must do in order to survive," which inevitably requires throwing other people into the mouths of the lions, and--then lying about who YOU are.

Then you become that.

1/2 And the even bigger problem with survival mode is that the oppressors don't care. They will come for you anyway.

Here is the truth:

"We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
-- Benjamin Franklin

2/2

My mother would have been 94 today.

As she aged, she grew increasingly leftist. She raised me on the Kennedys. She loved Barack Obama. She watched Rachel Maddow.

She died in January of 2015. She didn't have to endure the age of Trumpian fascism.

1/7 She would have been ecstatic if Hillary had been elected in 2016, and would have been devastated at the tragedies of what happened on 11/08/2016 and 11/05/2024.

She'd have loved Kamala Harris.

2/7

Wanna know how much Republicans care about free speech?

A bill protecting reporters' sources, and shielding reports from prosecution, passed the House UNANIMOUSLY. (You read that right.)

Trump just ordered Republican Senators to kill it.

1/4 Let's watch and see if they follow Trump's commands, or if the bill passes the Senate.

Senate rules allow one (1) Senator to slow a bill down. The Senate has a lot of work to do in the next few weeks. It will be easy for some Trumpsucker to kill it.

2/4

Trump and his people have exhibited no interest in the legally required transition process. I suspect it's for two reasons:

1) As of 2019, they have to sign certain ethics pledges, AND reveal all conflicts of interest. I don't think they want to do that.

But also...

1/6 2) The purpose of the transition process is to teach the incoming Administration what it needs to know to run the 400+ federal agencies in the Executive Branch. Trump expects to dismantle nearly all of them, so doesn't care how to run them.

I know I'm right about 1).

2/6