You're hearing a lot of talk about "irregularities" in the election of 1876 that led to a "disputed" outcome. What is being referred to in this hazy terms?

Across the state of South Carolina, white conservatives had used terror and massacre to deter former slaves from voting in 1876. Here's the story of an attack upon the small town of Hamburg in July

Hundreds of black South Carolinians were killed by white conservative militias. Blacks fought back in many places, but they were out-gunned.

The killings were not spontaneous outbursts. They were part of planned campaign of anti-black voter

Some of the elements of the conservative plan to suppress black votes in South Carolina in 1876 sound queasily familiar in our own time, adjusting for the antique language and technology.

But back of it all was terror and violence, more violence than could be contained by the limited federal forces in the area - who were anyway constrained by the white conservative Democratic House majority elected in 1874.

5 January #MAGAanalysis #Overturn

What Will Pence Do Tomorrow?

Both @annvandersteel and @KateScopelliti put forward this story, last night. It is an important story we must consider

Thread: Pence Power – What is it? Recently, I’ve read a lot about the powers of the president of the senate (that’s the VP). Many talking about this feel that for Pence to refuse to present the dem electoral votes on Jan 6, the Electoral Count Act must be ignored/set aside ...

The nonsense happening in DC last night is important for a lot of reasons, mainly two - it shows how Trump is different from Berlusconi, his probable inspiration; and is a textbook example of how chaos most often than not helps status quo/centrist/stability 1/

Our own Silvio went to power with large and stable support from NE right-wing industrialists who had felt excluded from power during the 1st Republic (1945-1992). He was also popular with the NE and Center professional and commercial middle classes 2/

Last but not least, while he was not amazingly popular with Italy's military, he never antagonized them, and he never alienated the Italian diplomatic corp (mostly a closed class). He had his own agenda, not always in line with "Atlantic interests," but played his cards well 3/

Berlusconi promised stability to center-right voters dismayed by the Democratic Christian party's collapse, "efficiency" to professional classes, keeping taxes down, etc. He acted as a virulent anti-communism, but by 1994 this was just a charade to keep his audience in line 4/

As by then, there was no credible "communist threat" around, and the splinters of the former Communist party were playing "who's more in love with the markets?". So you see, Berlusconi, for all his bluster, was you average conservative tycoon - just smarter than most. 5/

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I’ve rushed to finish this. Consider yourself warned.

In early 2016 I met with a political friend in South Florida. On my trips there we’d get together sometime for drinks and a meal. This time he was perplexed by the staying power of Donald Trump in the primaries.

Reason #3 why Biden should not rejoin the Paris Climate Accords: it is immoral. A moral international policy is one that expands human flourishing and human freedom. Paris is a path to outlawing fossil fuels, the way to provide affordable, reliable energy for billions of people.

Global CO2 emissions are rising, and not because of the US (1/6th and falling). They are rising because billions of people in the developing world are bringing themselves out of poverty by using fossil fuels to power factories, farms, vehicles, and appliances.

The developing world overwhelmingly uses fossil fuels because that is by far the lowest-cost way for them to get reliable energy. Unreliable solar and wind can’t come close. That’s why China and India have hundreds of new coal plants under construction.

The only moral and practical way to lower global CO2 emissions is to encourage innovation that could make low-carbon energy cheap for everyone. It is immoral and impractical to tell the whole world, especially the developing world, to stay unempowered and poor.

While many claim that our climate is less livable than ever because of fossil fuels, it is actually more livable than ever thanks to fossil fuel powered development. Rising CO2 levels will cause mild, manageable warming as well as significant global greening--not a crisis.

💥📢💥Here’s a breakdown of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 invoked by Trump. In signing the $900 billion pork-laden “stimulus” bill that was presented to him by the political establishment, President Donald Trump invoked a little-known law called the Impoundment Control Act

BREAKING NEWS: Trump May Be Planning to Leave Country 24 Hours Before He Loses Immunity From Prosecution

"Prestwick Airport has been told to expect the arrival of a US military Boeing 757 aircraft which has been occasionally used by Trump, on January 19."

(PS) With Scotland going into lockdown, I don't know if this is a realistic option for Trump. But every major media report we've gotten for the last 2 months has said that Trump is almost *preternaturally* obsessed with losing his immunity from criminal prosecution on January 20.

(PS2) I've repeatedly said that—based upon my experience with 2,000+ criminal defendants—I don't believe that Trump would flee the country unless he believed he was facing imminent arrest (which, to be very clear, I don't think he believes). But this story is real and intriguing.

(PS3) The proper course of action now is for media to find out if Trump will be leaving the country at the moment that he loses his immunity from criminal prosecution. That is *also* the proper frame for the story—given what we know to be Trump's state of mind and preoccupations.

(PS4) The other, concurrent news story to at least keep in mind here is that Trump is in a legal dispute with his neighbors in Florida over whether he can reside at Mar-A-Lago. It gives him the perfect excuse to say that he needs to spend a few months at his property in Scotland.

1. Justice Stephen Breyer was nominated by Pres. Bill Clinton on May 17, 1994 and has served since August 3, 1994.

2. "He (Breyer) insists that although decisions of foreign courts are not binding on U.S. courts, they could be “instructive,” and American judges should be free to cite and apply foreign law in cases which come before

3. Justice Breyer is married to Joanna Hare.

4. "Her family is also enormously wealthy, having started the Pearson group, which today is a media empire run by Joanna's older brother, Michael J Hare.. A Apr1994 financial disclosure statement, the Breyers list ownership of $2,324,958 in PEARSON

5. "The Breyers vacation at a rustic 320 acre retreat in New Hampshire, as well as having access to a house owned by Joanna Breyer's mother on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean."

A few people are suggesting that the impeachment delay is necessary and unavoidable because of the time it takes to whip votes (make sure that the votes are there and the shakier edges of the coalition are firmed up).

This may well be true.

But as ever, messaging matters.

#DeepStateHoroscopes #Scorpio

Please stop asking me what happens if Mike Pence calls for a "ten day window" or whatever. NOTHING happens. Nothing a fucking thing. He doesn't have that ability. It would be like me calling for giraffes to grow wings. Please stop asking me about obviously imaginary things.

Those of you who insist on fretting and panicking over imaginary bullshit are becoming a real liability to our side. You're ensuring that those of us who want to fight and win important battles, are instead stuck babysitting your panicky asses. PLEASE STOP. You're hurting us.

Some of you panickers have become such a gullible and pathetic joke, even Ted Cruz is laughing at you now. He knows he can't magically overturn the election with imaginary procedures. He's laughing his ass off at you for being gullible enough to fall for it. You're the joke now.

You fucking panickers are doing REAL HARM to our side. You make us weak. You hand the republicans leverage over us that they don't have. You derail our agenda. You make sure we get nowhere. You're my enemy. You always have been. Please go away, panickers, I detest you.

I do not want people in my audience who go around searching for imaginary things to panic over. I just don't. I never have. I never will. Sorry. That kind of shit makes me want to vomit. I will never be a babysitter for people who think it's cute to panic. Makes me nauseated.

Thread – Possible American Dystopias in 2021

1. Dystopia: an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.

2. I read an article the other day that predicted future dystopian possibilities in the US given all that we have seen and what has transpired in 2020. Talk about thought-provoking and frightening! Here are some excerpts.

3.

The general election of 2020 will be the stuff of argument and analysis for many years to come, here and abroad.

3A. Suffice to say here that a panicky over-reaction to the onset of the COVID-19 virus produced economic hardship and social disorder, compounded by months of riots, looting and arson afflicting hundreds of cities (almost all Democrat-governed) beginning in late May 2020.

3B. All of this set the stage for an election won overwhelmingly on November 3rd by President Donald Trump and lost by him in the following weeks to his Democrat opponent.

.@JoeBiden’s ‘Dark Winter’ Is A Warning About His Economy, Not The China Virus

Should President Trump’s election challenges fail, it’s a certainty that bleak days are ahead. We’re staring into the barrel of 4 years of sclerotic economic

Six days after the election, Biden, employing the Democratic Party strategy of sowing fear whenever possible, warned that the country is facing a long night.

CNBC:

“‘We remain in the midst of one of the worst economic and job crises in modern history,” said the man who as vice president oversaw one of the weakest economic recoveries in U.S. history.

Apparently it never occurred to Biden and his handlers that government intervention, not the virus, caused 2020’s downturn.

Nor have they even begun to understand that Democrats’ economic policies, filled with steep, punitive taxes, and impossible-to-jump regulatory hurdles, are a slow-motion march of the economic lockdowns that almost instantly paralyzed the economy this year.

@NPR your story “Trump Supporters Storm U.S. Capitol, Clash With Police” is date-stamped January 6, 2021 at 9:30 AM, which is 2.5 hours BEFORE President Trump spoke at the Ellipse and 4 hours BEFORE any procession to the Capitol. #fakenews

January 6, 2021, at 11:44 AM Eastern Time: The President arrives to speak.

January 6, 2021 at 12:05 PM, an hour past the scheduled start time, the President took to the podium. Again, your story was posted before anything happened. Why and how?

The crowd was reverent, not violent, mostly taking photos to capture the historic moment after waiting in frigid weather for so long.

During his speech, @POTUS says “I will march with you to the Capitol.” Here are 4 images of the President during that speech. He clearly told the crowd they would go together, peacefully but firmly, to make sure Congress did its job.