"As through this world I travel, I meet lots of funny men. Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen." --Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd"
Trump is what he acts like: A racist schoolyard bully. A 7-year-old in a 70-year-old body. He never grew up & he never will, an expert who's dealt with such leaders abroad explains, his "antisocial personality disorder" fits a common pattern
The Nazi take-over of Twitter is going much faster than you realize.
Twitter has suspended probably the first & longest-running blogger, economist Dean Baker. He's co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research & his "Beat the Press" blog started in the 1990s.
Reporter: Who should be held accountable for [Jamal Khashoggi's murder]?
Trump: Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a vicious place. The world is a very vicious place. (via CBS)
On the de-Trumpification of America: Alongside working to defeat Trump, we need planning to defeat Trumpism, too. A harder task. Lessons from history & psychology from
@disorderedworld
&
@yourauntemma
added to
@johnfeffer
:
How the New York Times helped Republicans win the House: The Gray Lady told America that rising crime and worsening inflation were driven by Democrats. None of it was true.
@ScottHech
&
@equalityAlec
had the goods on crime,
@DeanBaker13
on economics.
Impeachment's real stakes: Saving democracy from Trumpian pathocracy.
What's happening in US follows well-known pattern.Lessons are clear,
@yourauntemma
&
@disorderedworld
explain:
Evangelicals closest to Tump are part of the New Apostalic Reformation [NAR], a dominionist movement radically transforming Christianity. Canadian bible scholar
@andre_gagne1
provides an inside guide in his new book, he & others discuss: 1/15
The Sociopathic Imagination--A like of a comment by
@yourauntemma
reminded me of this 2014 piece, which says a lot about the preconditions that made Trump's rise possible:
Let's be clear: If Trump is released from hospital, he *WILL* infect others.
His psychopathy makes this a virtual certainty.
If doctors allow his release, they will be in violation of the Hippocratic Oath: "First, do no harm."
Caretakers of young psychopaths experience pervasive depression. It's a micro-model of what's happening in the US under Trump, also seen elsewhere around the world. But it can be overcome: 1/13
When psychotherapists & clinical psychologists tell you the President is a malignant narcissist, EVERYONE should really listen & act accordingly. This ostrich routine is REALLY not working.
I can't even try to describe the depravity of a president who is just watching deaths from Covid-19 spike back up to 9/11 numbers every day as he decides if he wants to try to destroy democracy or just start a worse Fox News.
"Hey! Hey! LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?" I chanted 50+ years ago.
But he was EASILY the best POTUS of my lifetime.
What's a better, pro-active plan?
Correct the mistakes of the Cold War & actually live up to our values. What that means: 1/20
.
@DavidPepper
's "Laboratories of Autocracy" is arguably the most important book re democrtic erosion.
Why? 1) it brings the subject down to earth 2) connects it to corruption & declining quality of life & 3) gives 30 ways to fight back/protect democracy.
In 2018,
@RachelBitecofer
predicted a 42-seat blue wave 4 months in advance, understanding election as referendum on Trump. In 2022, Dems need to make election a referendum on GOP brand--starting with attack vs democracy. Her new super PAC shows how:
Today is a dark day for this chamber. It will be a day remembered as a time when a political party tried to not only change the results of the LAST election, but also influence the NEXT one.
BREAKING: GOP House Speaker in PA is resigning, after
@BrianSimsPA
exposed him for hiding from Democrats that a GOP Rep had coronavirus. Some of the Republicans even quarantined themselves, yet they never told Democrats. This is beyond disturbing.
Mike Johnson's extremism is off the charts: a DW-Nominate score 24.5% to the right of McCarthy's.
But what's far worse isn't measured: his bibical views are rooted in dominionism, with Christians ruling every aspect of society:
Executive orders are likely to face implementation hurdles in courts & states, with much more economic impact from the expiring provisions (PPP, unemployment top-ups) & state & local gov cuts than any late gains from best-case implementation
Just think, if GOP Senate had convicted Trump one year ago, ~300K Americans who died of Covid would probably still be alive. Their blood is not just on Trump's hands, but on EVERY LAST GOP Senator, too.
Republicans over last year have removed or are trying to remove the elected Dem prosecutors of Tampa, St Louis, Orlando, & are passing laws to have authority to do the same anywhere in Georgia and Texas. They’ve also expelled or suspended Dem lawmakers in Tennessee and Montana.
"Fact-checking" has a long, troubled history of obscuring facts that make Repubicans look bad. In 2011 fact-checkers attacked Dems for highlighting GOP attempts to privatize—& thus end—Medicare.
It was Politifact's "Lie of the Year" 𝒃𝒖𝒕 it was 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆!
The Post could have said, "While it's extremely difficult to confirm stories of this nature, we know that Ohio's abortion law guarantees they will occur."
By trying to debunk this one story, the "fact check" left readers less informed than if it had provided context.
"
#GreenNewDeal
combines two things voters love: the environment and jobs,” Data for Progress co-founder
@SeanMcElwee
told
@Salon
. “Pundits are trapped in a framework in which the environment is pitted against jobs, which is silly”:
With Trump's low-40s appoval there's no way for him to be elected without the help of reactionary centrists—a term coined by Aaron Huertas for supposedly fair-minded moderates who routinely punch left. I explore why/how—including Israel/Gaza: 1/23
Plus, "violated an accounting rule" is a great euphamism for hid an affair with a pornstar in order to win a presidential election. I know that's not original, but the lies always work in ensembles.
I know the “What happened to the party law and order” bit is tired already, but this is the first I’m seeing a conservative claim in explicit terms that even if Trump did violate the law, “prosecuting him undermines the rule of law.”
It’s strange that the folks attacking progressives for demanding new voices in the administration just can’t wrap their heads around the fact that, yes, experience helps, but the clock’s almost up and experience, to date, hasn’t gotten a goddamn thing done. And now here we are.
ICYMI: Two Models of Freedom: "It's not government tyranny that's keeping us from living normal lives. It's the virus that's doing that. Those who are demanding their freedom to spread the virus are just prolonging its tyranny over the rest of us."
New book a secret decoder ring for rightwing/corporate propaganda. 6 sequential categories make sense of everything. My Salon author interview:
Lies, damned lies and "corporate bulls**t": A consumer's guide to bad-faith arguments 1/9
Trump generates so much chaos it's exhausting, impossible to follow much less understand. A clarifying lens is needed, and physician/scholar Fred Burkle gave me one, as he'd done before describing Trump as a schoolyard bully: 2/13
"And here I sit so patiently,
waiting to find out what price
you have to pay to get out of
going through all these things twice."
-- Bob Dylan, "Memphis Blues Again"
From HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: "Autocratic consolidation is a matter of power, not protocol, and if you cannot tell the difference between the two, you have no business leading an investigation. You cannot go by the book while the book is burning."
The spread of depression can't be understood apart from the spread of the psychopathic leader's power.
@yourauntemma
explains that "Tyrannies are three-legged beasts"—tyrant, his supporters & society as a whole—aka the “toxic triangle”: 5/13
But the minority who *do* share the leader's pathology amplify & normalize his behavior. They've helped accelerate the craziness in recent months & weeks: 9/13
There's tremendous denialism re GOP's Southern Strategy, twitter historians like
@KevinMKruse
push back against mightily. New book, *The Long Southern Strategy*, shows MUCH bigger picture: race/gender/religion. Interview w/ co-author
@AngieMaxwell1
1/12
Those with mental illness internalize depression & other ill effects, while those character disorders externalize them onto others around them. That's the basic dynamic we're experiencing, Burkle explained: 4/13
ICYMI, The Guarantee Clause is a sleeping giant to protect democracy. It doesn't just grant power to Congress, it REQUIRES action. A thread on my
@Salon
interview with law prof
@cshaplaw
who explains.
For 40 years conservatives have weaponized a reactionary view of the Constitution, paving the way toward potential destruction of US democracy. To save democracy we need to reclaim its true promise. The Guarantee Clause is key, per law prof
@cshaplaw
: 1/8
“Separation of powers” is not a reason for Roberts NOT to testify, it’s the reason he NEEDS to testify. Because his illegitimate court of religious extremists that is plagued with scandal continues to go UNCHECKED by him or other branches of government. Subpoena Roberts. Now.
Friendly reminder: Republicans have NEVER been capable of running FEMA properly.
The idea that government competence is somehow non-ideological simply does not stand up to historical scrutiny.
If you think gov't is bad, you ARE bad at governing.
Puerto Rico, Day 192:
—More than 200,000 people still w/o power (7% of the island)
—Tens of thousands of people still w/o clean water
—For these people, Hurricane Maria is still a humanitarian emergency
.
@GeorgeLakoff
described a 4-fold taxonomy of Trump's tweets. Scientists have now shown large-scale evidence of two of them in action, as I report for
@Salon
: 1/6
Stop saying the indictment "tests our democracy."
The actual "test" we face is Trump's apparent crimes and the unhinged GOP defense of him, which effectively posits that any/all law enforcement activity involving Trump is inherently illegitimate, no matter what the facts show.
Mike Pence is a drab, pedestrian liar. Trump lies to such spectacular excess, this is all too easily overlooked. But his role in the ecosystem of lies is essential.
This is a flatly false depiction of what happened.
In reality, Trump agreed to reopen the government after Dems said No to his hostage taking.
Republicans demanded that Trump capitulate and give them a shot at negotiating the real compromise that Trump refuses to consider.
This is what Trump calls "turning the corner":
"The US is in the midst of one of the most severe surges of the coronavirus to date, with more new cases reported across the country on Friday than on any other single day."
We hit 85,000 cases yesterday.
@MattMedina6
@bzref
He didn't break the rules. Musk is a thin-skinned wanker.
Probable reason for
@DeanBaker13
suspension (since reversed):
"OMG, a Right-Wing Jerk Can Buy Twitter! Media Concentration Matters"
@victorerikray
@donmoyn
John Lewis was that rare example who was venerated while alive--by people working actively to bury his legacy right in front of him.
A+
@MondaireJones
on
@mehdirhasan
talking about including jurisdiction stripping in bills that SCOTUS would strike down. He proposed it for voting rights in the past & will do so for abortion protection next. EVERY Democratic in office should be on board.
People are attracted to criminal impunity if they feel it’s transferable. They’re repulsed by it if they feel they can be its target. Govt refusal to enforce accountability for criminal elites has emboldened ordinary people to commit violence knowing they’ll get elite protection.
Reminder: Every time you see "Soros," not only is this anti-Semitic conspiracism, but his "globalist" agenda involves DECADES of funding democracy from below. No one did more to support Eastern European dissident civil society in 1980s vs. USSR control.
.
@disorderedworld
added nuance to how the toxic triangle works, distinguishing between those sharing the leader's pathology and those temporarily swept up in it under stress, a majority amongst supporters: 8/13
@RepRaskin
@steve_vladeck
What's awful about this story is not that McCarthy thought about telling Trump to resign and changed his mind.
It's that McCarthy thought Trump committed offenses so heinous that he should resign, then spent the next year minimizing and covering them up:
Might also note that "centrist Dems" who tanked Biden's agenda screwed the vast majority of voters in favor of tiny elite....also without ever saying what they were for, playing a guessing game with folks trying to negotiate.
The best response to the centrists quoted by Axios is to point out that they refuse to come clean on what policies and stances Democrats should change and/or renounce in order to achieve this "distancing from the left." Their "advice" is meaningless.
Most 13-year-old boys don't have a lot of actual beliefs they act on. Rather, they have impulses they act on & beliefs they impulsively adopt in the moment to pretend to explain themselves & the world.
Musk is demonstrably no different.
It's a waste of time to try to pin down Elon Musk's actual beliefs. The more important point is that he is very consciously using the tools of right wing information warfare. The coin of this realm is the Triggering. Outrage and backlash serve his ends:
Pay attention to this new warning from
@ChrisMurphyCT
:
If Republicans win the House, you can kiss any future US military funding to Ukraine goodbye.
"The MAGA wing of the party says and thinks a lot of nice things about Putin," Murphy tells us.
As happpened with Solidarity in Poland, courageous leaders may come from all social groups—and have already done so—from
#BlackLivesMatter
to
@sunrisemvmt
: 11/13
There's 2 battles taking place over American democracy. Defenders—believing it's stable—focus narrowly on key elections. Attackers—knowing it's not—attack constantly. We must change,
@DavidPepper
argues in "Saving Democracy". My
@Salon
author interview:
"What kind of country does nothing when its elections are attacked by that same syndicate and when voting rights are destroyed by that syndicate’s court appointees?
"The kind of country whose elites do not care if it exists anymore." --
@gaslitnation
Illuminating 🧵re NYT copaganda piece. Most damning single bit is where Alec details who the sources are. The lack of viewpoint diversity has been so normalized most don't see it. Highlight it, and you can't unsee it as state propaganda. Carceral state propaganda.
THREAD. This weekend, the New York Times published misinformation it knew to be false. Because the stakes are so high, I try my best to explain what the paper did why it is so dangerous.
"Pelosi is arguably the most effective Democratic legislative leader of the modern era. But we’re in the postmodern era now, an era of worldwide democratic backsliding, and the very existence of our own democracy is up for grabs."
America is in a much different place from full-blown pathocracies. The bulk of my story looks at where we are—but with an eye to where we may go—and where we need to go instead: 10/13
Using the resources of corporate media to stoke anger about poor people riding public transit for free would be almost as bad as running a news station that never covers wage theft, tax evasion, toxic dumping, illegal eviction, job discrimination, or safety code violations.
@ASFried
@DataProgress
@reclaimuc
How is it loaded? Away from hysterical warmongering? Some would say that's loaded toward sober long-term thinking. Isn't that what democracy is supposed to do? Produce more sober, reliable decision-making?
Don't give Trump credit for this corrosion. The GOP has been working on this for *DECADES.*
Iran/Contra was a nakedly impeachable multi-faceted violation of law. GOP cannonized Reagan in its wake. And Bill Barr finalized the clean up.
& then: *Bush v. Gore* was a flat-out coup.
But it shows how badly Trump has corroded the rule of law and our constitutional norms that something that would have gotten any other president removed immediately - actually talking about a military coup in the Oval - is just waved away with embarrassment by the GOP. /2
62 million Americans made less than a living wage before COVID. They were the first to go back to work, first to get sick w/ COVID, first to die. And now they're last to get vaccinated & the last to get relief. This tells me a whole lot of people don't really love all the people.
One of the most difficult things about the ongoing pandemic is seeing how the oligarchs, the ruling class and even so many members of the petit bourgeois refuse to acknowledge that we don't need a return to "normal"; we need to live differently.
Increasingly clear there's a "DO SOMETHING!!!" contingent in Congress with a reasonably clear sense of perils we face. But also clear they face enormous hurdles...not least the filibuster.
IF we luck out, survive midterms & gain a couple Senate seats, we just might have a chance.
@RepRaskin
Also key from
@RepRaskin
:
We now know our system is vulnerable to future efforts to rerun the coup memo scheme.
Raskin tells me we need reform to protect ourselves.
I think the 1/6 committee is likely to recommend reform of the Electoral Count Act:
The primary mission of journalism, the REASON it's protected in the 1st Amendment, is to make the world legible to the public, so that we can act coherently in our shared public interest.
What we're confronting is the exact opposite: 🧵
"I'm worried corporate CEOS are trying to create a media landscape that is indecipherable -- indecipherable even to people who study it for a living, who've worked in it."
From the latest
@gaslitnation
:
Trump's acting like a dictator, because he IS a dictator. Experts like
@yourauntemma
have been telling us this for years. He's not fully realized, because it takes time to destroy a democracy, but not *nearly* as long as you think, and things are rapidly speeding up.
Trump is openly and explicitly declaring absolute authority to solicit foreign interference in an election on his behalf.
But that's not all.
He's also corrupting large swaths of the federal government in service of that goal: