Let me remind you of the events of Friday, October 7, 2016. I bet you've forgotten all but one of these--or, at the least, you've forgotten they all happened on the same day.

There's a =reason= they all happened on the same day. And there's a reason you forgot.

1/19 Now bear in mind, Friday is usually a slow news day. Few people are paying attention to the news on Fridays. People who have some news to release, and that, for one reason or another, =have to= release it--but don't really want anyone to notice it--often do it on Fridays.

2/19

Voting for Biden in November isn't a personal favor for Biden or for the DNC.

It's about how if you don't, two or three more Supreme Court Justices will be replaced with 35-year-old Nazis.

It's about stopping Benedict Donald's second term.

It's about keeping America.

1/7 Ask any of the 1,200,000 dead Covid victims (so far) if Joe Biden has to "earn your vote." Trump killed them, Ask their families.

Ask the three million Black voters Republicans cut from the voter rolls under Trump's watch if it's ok with them for Republicans to get control.

2/7

Article in Politico by Nicholas F. Jacobs objects to the idea of "white rural rage".

See, for some reason, whites in rural areas really hate Democrats, Biden, "wokeness", Black people, immigrants, education, LGBTQ, and, well, normalcy.

1/8
politico.com/news/magazine/… A recent book, "White Rural Rage," by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman, attempts to explain (as the title says) this rage felt by whites in rural America. (See the excerpt from Jacobs' article below ⤵️).

Jacobs objects to this view.

2/8

On January 6 2021, the Republican Party staged a violent coup attempt. Their armed mob invaded and seized the Capitol Building, the temple of democracy, held it for five hours, threatened the lives of every Senator and Congressperson, and tried to install a fascist dictator.

1/5 They called for the death of the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. They spread urine and feces on the floor and walls of the Capitol. They desecrated statues, smashed windows, killed a policeman, and injured over a hundred Americans.

2/5

Everyone, calm down a little.

Trump was found guilty of fraud, and owes the State of New York nearly a half-billion dollars. That still stands. He gets to appeal, but for every day he waits to pay, he owes nearly another $150,000 in interest.

1/3 A 5-judge appeals panel in New York ruled that he can take an additional 10 days to put up a bond (that's almost another $1.5 million he'll owe in interest), and he "only" has to post $175 million in bond rather than $454 million. But he still owes the whole amount.

2/3

I want to remind everyone of the fear we all felt four years ago, as Trump's intentional mismanagement fed a terrifying pandemic. Here are some random news stories from the period Mar 20 - Mar 25, 2020.

1/8 First, dire forecasts of what the world might look like after the plague had torn through. Some have proven accurate. Some, not so much. But the point is the horror that Trump's inaction rightfully inspired in us all.

2/8
foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/20/wor…

Some folks object to comparisons between modern Republicans and the early years of the Nazis' rise to power. They may have a point. We're already far past the "early years". The Republican Party is well into its campaign of expanding fascism.

1/10 We have, however, two advantages over 1930s Germany:

1) America has a nearly quarter millennium-long tradition and culture of (admittedly imperfect) democratic self-governance. The Weimar Republic, which Nazi fascists ended, had been around for only fifteen years.

2/10

In 1998, Republicans in the House were desperate to impeach President Bill Clinton, thinking that would be a spectacular issue for them, and make them wildly popular. They did impeach him, and the Senate trial was held after the midterm election starting Jan 7, 1999.

1/5 The whole reason Republicans wanted to impeach Clinton, and spent the 1998 campaign season doing it, was to create a fake issue to take into the elections, thinking it would win them seats in a closely-divided House. They went into the election with a 227-206 majority.

2/5

Trump's people just took over the RNC. They immediately fired 60 people.

This can make you happy that Trump is destroying the Republican Party. But it should also terrify you.

He's converting one of the two major US political parties into his own private protection racket.

1/4 No Republican can disagree with him, or they will be done away with.

More: it's a preview of America if he ever again gains power in our government.

The US Treasury will become his piggy bank.

DOJ will become his personal hit squad.

The Pentagon will be his armed goons.

2/4

I bet you've all forgotten this.

Four years ago TODAY, Trump recommended eliminating the FICA payroll tax completely and permanently.

He recommended that because health experts said the economy was on the verge of collapse from Covid...

1/9 ...
Then-president Trump wanted to avoid an economic collapse, because he knew that would harm his reelection chances. So he proposed eliminating the FICA tax to put more money into consumers' hands--RATHER THAN doing anything at all about Covid.

2/9

A common psyops technique is to find a strong emotional trigger word or phrase, something that brings you up short, and shuts off your rational thought processes. Then link unrelated ideas to that phrase.

Someone dropping the phrase into a conversation derails everything.

1/14 Whatever you were talking about--that ends. You are forced to think about the unrelated concept linked to the trigger. You have no answer, no proper response, because continuing rationally will tell everyone you're an inhuman monster.

I'll give you two examples.

2/14

There is a logical fallacy called the "slippery slope", wherein someone condemns an idea or a action by projecting it out and pretending that it would inevitably lead to increasingly absurd actions or indefensible conclusions that no one would embrace.

1/7 Republicans, unfortunately, take the slippery slope as a how-to manual, while denying that's what they'll do.

For decades, Republicans said their restrictions on abortion providers would only "protect the life of the mother", and no they wouldn't ever outlaw abortion.

2/7

Never forget the horror that was Trump.

Four years ago today, Trump was trying to convince us the deadly Covid pandemic was no worse than a mild flu.

His strategy was to stop all testing for the virus, so he could claim there were no more known new infections.

1/5 While Trump told us the virus would magically go away if we ignored it, other countries were shutting down schools and workplaces, and stopping air travel.

The Dow dropped over 3000 points in a single week, so Trump toady Mike Pence had the bright idea...

2/5

It was never merely anti-abortion. It's also anti-IVF, anti-birth control, anti-divorce. Opposed to "women in the workplace". Not long ago, women couldn't have credit cards or bank accounts. They don't really need to vote, do they? But there's more

1/9
newrepublic.com/article/179185… Yes, it's about controlling women. But the same legal arguments that underpinned Roe also were used to legalize mix-race marriages, same-sex marriages, LRBTQ rights, legalized birth control--and Miranda rights.

2/9

I was reminded of a known psychological syndrome that explains what we see in today's Republican Party. It's the same thing that happened to Nazis. It happens sometimes in war, and it is common among the ruling class in most authoritarian regimes.

1/14 Once one's acts have gone beyond a certain point of inhumanity, it's necessary to keep going lest the realization takes hold that one has become a monster. Each act of depravity demands another that is worse still, to justify the previous one.

That's why there's no bottom.

2/14

The legacy of Trump in images.

Baby cages. Concentration camps.

1/11

Insurrection. Covid burial pits.

2/11

In the 1950's, the top marginal income tax rate on very high incomes was over 90%.

No millionaire EVER said, "I don't think I'll bother to make another million dollars, because my taxes are too high." Not. One. Ever.

1/9 In the 1950's, the corporate income tax rate was over 50%.

No corporate CEO EVER said, "I don't think I'll bother to reinvest in my company, because corporate taxes are too high." Not. One. Ever.

2/9

It's simply hilarious to see trolls objecting when told that a vote for a third-party candidate is really a vote for Trump. They don't deny that, just just (almost always) say something like, "Having only two choices isn't democracy!"

Uhm, yes it is.

1/9 You know it's "democracy" because the word "choices" is in that sentence. If you don't have a dictator, if the citizens can have a free and fair election--even if there' "only" two choices--you have a democracy.

2/9

Every election since 2008, red states threaten to secede from the Union if they don't get their way. They're never serious, so they never do it, because their economies would utterly collapse if they they tried. Not to mention, they'd lose, after a really bloody war.

1/8 You know they're not serious, because they never do any of the stuff people do if they're serious.

They don't make moves toward creating an alternative government or currency.

They don't draw up a new Constitution.

They don't assemble a provisional Congress.

Nothing.

2/8

I had a discussion today with someone who didn't realize--and still doesn't accept--that EVERY election includes the risk that the nation could descend into fascism.

EVERY SINGLE ELECTION we could elect fascists to high offices. They could dismantle democratic institutions.
1/15 We grew complacent over the years, because most Republicans, as well as Democrats, respected democracy, and we forgot that ANY democracy could fall at any moment, simply because the public decided to elect people who hated democracy.

The public has that power.

2/15

It is hard to imagine an attitude more privileged, more self-centered, more blind than this. "Don't tell me what will happen if I throw a tantrum! That's bullying me!" and "I expect YOU to protect me from the consequences of what I do!"

1/4 The idea that if bad things happen to this dweeb it's because WE "let" them happen, rather than because she eagerly put her own head into the oven--despite being warned not to--I mean, damn. How much white privilege does that take?

2/4