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I created this to counter establishment propaganda about Jill Stein and the Green Party: JILL STEIN: FACTS & FALSEHOODS (1/5)

FALSE: Jill Stein and the Green Party “show up every four years.”

FACT: Jill Stein is a Harvard-educated doctor and environmental health advocate who has helped win victories in campaign finance reform, racially-just redistricting, and the clean-up of incinerators, coal plants, and other toxic threats. The Green Party runs candidates at every level of government, from school boards to presidential races. Greens hold elected office across the U.S.

🧵IMAGINE: Destroying Chicago in "self-defense"

Chicago and #Gaza have roughly similar population sizes. Let's substitute 'Chicago' for 'Gaza' to describe the scale of events:

Imagine in 1948, Chicago's residents are forced from their homes and subjected to brutal occupation...
🧵Substitute the word "Chicago" for "Gaza"

Between 2008 and 2022, more than 6,000 Chicagoans are killed, mostly women and children, compared to around 300 occupiers. The occupiers also imprison thousands of Chicagoans (including kids) often without legal recourse.

The fact that #Israel feels so free to annihilate the Palestinian people while the world watches should terrify all of us. To every Zionist troll spewing propaganda at me:

I grew up in Beirut during war. With a Lebanese Christian father and a Jewish American mother. I see how #Palestinians have been dehumanized. Which is why I vigorously stand up for them in the face of this Israeli massacre.

🇺🇸 BALLOT ACCESS

The fight for ballot access IS the battle for democracy. The ruling parties actively restrict ballot access, in violation of the Constitution.

#CornelWest2024 was already planning to gain ballot access in 30+ states where the Green Party is NOT on the ballot. 🇺🇸 BALLOT ACCESS

Now that @CornelWest is running as an Independent, we will also work to get on the ballot in the fewer than 20 states where the Green Party is on the ballot line. It is a central focus of our campaign, to give voters a better option than the duopoly.

🧵THREAD: Is Biden an improvement on Trump?

I am vehemently opposed to Donald Trump, a bigot, sexist, and criminal. That said, I want to challenge the liberal assumption that Biden is vastly superior. In fact, there are metrics by which Biden is objectively worse than Trump. COVID CATASTROPHE

Biden has presided over far more Covid deaths than Trump. He declared 'independence' from the pandemic a few months after taking office and never looked back, methodically dismantling the Covid safety net. By his own Covid standards, he shouldn't be president.

Looking objectively at the Dem field, @RobertKennedyJr is a MUCH better general election candidate than Biden.

#RFKJr has high net favorables, independent and cross-party appeal, and would trounce any Republican.

The establishment claim that Biden is more electable is absurd. Now let's follow up with some facts from today's NYT:

"Polling conducted in May found that only 22 percent of Latino voters and 33 percent of Black voters were aware of 'any specific thing' Mr. Biden had done in office to improve their lives."

nytimes.com/2023/06/19/us/…

RELEASED FROM WILLIAMSON NDA -

@marwilliamson's campaign has agreed to let me speak freely about recent media stories mischaracterizing the campaign's inner workings.

Outlets including Politico and The Daily Beast have published anonymous quotes that are categorically false. For example, this article falsely suggests that at least 10 staffers left the campaign because of Marianne's personality.

In fact, when I joined as campaign manager, I restructured the team, equalized pay across the board, and began plans to unionize.

https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1664062557798408194

PROUDLY INDEPENDENT ✊🏽

I quit the Democratic Party in 2020.

I am part of the largest voting bloc in America: Independents.

I am anti-establishment and anti-duopoly.

I believe Americans deserve better than this corrupt, oppressive 2-party system. Democracy means MORE choices, not fewer. So I will occasionally help a progressive Democrat whose platform aligns with my values and who challenges establishment hegemony.

But my primary focus is building an alternative to the oligarch-funded, corporatist system we suffer under.

As Marianne Williamson's campaign manager, I'm curious to know how many polls will be released that ignore her declared candidacy. 🤔

https://twitter.com/USA_Polling/status/1646648772745650177

While EVERY other potential candidate fell in line waiting for Biden to decide who gets to run, #MarianneWilliamson declared her candidacy.

I joined her campaign because I've known her for years and deeply appreciate her lifelong dedication to helping people.

HUNTER BIDEN: FOLLOW THE MONEY 🧵

I'm writing this thread as a former Democratic insider who is sick of double standards.

The #HunterBiden story is REAL.

He leveraged his father's high rank in the duopoly to rake in millions. Pure corruption.

Same goes for the Trump kids... HUNTER BIDEN 🧵

Hunter used his proximity to Joe Biden's power to secure millions in foreign $. It defies logic his father was unaware.

And how about the Trump family grift:

"Donald Trump exploited loopholes to build a White House rife with nepotism."

apps.bostonglobe.com/opinion/graphi…

Hey Elon -

Extremists on far right:

"KILL BLACK PEOPLE, GAY PEOPLE AND JEWS!"

'Extremists' on far left:

"GIVE EVERYONE HEALTH CARE AND A HOME!"

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1598718904830132225

To elaborate.

Musk is repeating the tired corporate media trope, "If I'm pissing both sides off, I'm doing something right."

Here's why that's a moral cop-out:

The extreme right in U.S. politics controls the GOP and has significant influence. It is violent and racist.

THE DIRTY SECRET 🧵

As a former adviser in the belly of the establishment, I can tell you that Democratic leaders prefer a Republican Congress.

Allow me to explain...

#ElectionDay #Election2022 Dem party leaders have one overarching job:

Uphold the current system -- which keeps them funded and reelected.

That involves enriching and protecting their big donors.

But they have to maintain the appearance of "fighting" the GOP to appease their voters...

PLEASE NOTE: I've renamed my newsletter Direct Daou from Direct Left.

In all honesty, the Ukraine situation has made me realize I just don't know enough to understand/define leftism.

Going forward, I'll identify as 'independent' so that I don't contribute to leftist divisions. I welcome your feedback.

With all sincerity, I thought I could get a handle on defining leftism enough to self-identify as a leftist.

But I realize I'm just adding to the confusion rather than helping.

As I've said recently, I'm probably closest to anarchism in my views...

How would the world react if the U.S. whipped #Ukrainian refugees from horses and locked their children in cages? Spare me the bullshit "they weren't whips, they were reins" retort.

I know exactly what I'm looking at.

Do this to a blond, blue-eyed asylum seeker and see how the world reacts.

FOR THE CHILDREN OF #UKRAINE

I just wrote and played this as a prayer for peace and healing.

thesanctuary.substack.com/p/innocence MUSIC HEALS

Playing piano is what helped me recover from the emotional scars of a childhood in war. (And the Yamaha piano I learned to play on doubled as a barricade during the war.)

Here's another piano meditation I wrote and played for you...

thesanctuary.substack.com/p/illumination

I was Jake Sullivan's colleague at the Clinton campaign. And I know half the senior people around Biden and Harris.

And I'm concerned as fuck tonight.

Interpret that as you will.

#Ukraine #RussianInvasion I'm not trying to be cagey. I don't trust these people to handle a crisis like this.

BREAKING: Nancy Pelosi calls for a strong Republican Party.

Pelosi says America "needs a strong Republican Party. They've made great contributions to our country."

Here are previous quotes from Democratic leaders supporting the GOP instead of a leftist party.

directleft.com/p/joe-biden-pr…

PIANO FOR YOU - THE SANCTUARY

As part of @DirectLeft, I've created a peaceful space where you can get a break from politics. It features my original piano meditations + @leeladaou's beautiful photos.

May it bring you some tranquility and healing 🙏🏽❤️

thesanctuary.substack.com/p/reflection-1 thesanctuary.substack.com/p/simplicity

THREAD - Money Over Lives: America's Deadly Pandemic Policy

#COVID19 is killing Americans at much higher rates than citizens of other wealthy nations. Blame the capitalist criminals of the ruling parties.

directleft.com/p/money-over-l… Democratic propaganda calls this a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” to conceal the Biden administration’s horribly inadequate vaccine-only strategy and its reckless claim that the pandemic would end by July 4th, 2021.

Nazis on the streets in Florida.

REMINDER:

#ANTIFA = ANTI-FASCIST

directleft.com/p/antifa-means…

Was doing a show with my band in Paris (part backing track, part live). Lost power on all the gear except the piano so had to play solo until it was fixed.

#musicianstories

https://twitter.com/ThreatNotation/status/1485033207380729861

Played one of the first ever raves in LA, at the Shrine. Late 80s or early 90s.

#musicianstories