Why I was constantly urging caution about being too confident:
* People underestimate how much Fox-induced hate of democrats drives decisions now. (Look at @RichLowry who argued - even with NATO near collapse and Covid exploding - to vote Trump to give dems "the finger")...

Dems are correct in not calling witnesses, which is obvious when you think this through. First, the case has been made. Any GOPr or delusional Trump fan who doesnt accept that - or care - never will. The country knows/sees what happened. 2nd, if dems called witnesses.../1

...it will add next to nothing. Statements are being admitted into the record from some witnesses. Third, & most important, the GQP is a monstrosity that only cares about power. Once the witness door opens, they'll turn the trial into a farce, calling anyone and everyone.../2

...to muddy up the case. Since their entire case is whataboutism, they will try to call Obama, Hillary Clinton, Holder, Waters, and on and on. If the presiding officer holds the testimony irrelevant before allowing it, there will be weeks of rage about cover-ups, etc. The.../3

...actual case - already strongly proven by the House Managers, even using the criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt - will get buried as the days and weeks pass with hundreds of irrelevant witnesses are fought over. Finally, bringing those witnesses.../4

...could interfere with a possibly more important proceeding if it happens: The criminal prosecution of Trump by District of Columbia for inciting a riot, which is a crime in DC. As in the Oliver North case, the public Congressional testimony of North led a court to throw.../5

For those of us suffering & dying in Texas, the sociopathy of @GOP that leads to an astonishing lack of concern about our lives by evil folk like @GregAbbott_TX @GovernorPerry @TuckerCarlson @DanCrenshawTX et al who blatantly lie about what’s happening...1

...just to score political points - and protect the profits of energy companies - is almost incomprehensible. These are people who would claim Social Security caused 9/11 if it was convenient. What caused this catastrophe is vast vast majority from gas, then coal/nuclear...2

...then wind. The ONLY source of power that is delivering more than expected in budgeting is wind. But that’s not convenient to say for the oil/gas/coal industry, so the @GregAbbott_TX @GovernorPerry @DanCrenshawTX stand atop our dead bodies lying to protect the companies...2

...shockingly, the ONLY people in a position of state/national strength are the executives with the company that manages electricity in the state, @ERCOT_ISO. But they can’t tell the whole truth, because that would entail revealing how much stupidity was done here for profit...3

...of industry by Texas @GOP. If gas/nuke/nuclear/wind had been winterized - as they are everywhere else in the country - this would have largely been prevented. But it would have cost companies money, and that would cut into profits. If the gas lines has been buried deeper...3

When liars like @HawleyMO scream "Cancel Culture!" and "WOKE!" because they are discovering liars and those who attack democracy are in a Consequences Culture, remind them of all the people they tried to cancel for opinions or mistakes, not lying or attacking democracy:.../1

...
1. Dixie Chicks
2. @kathygriffin
3. @Toure
4. Chis Matthews
5. Graydon Carter
6. Bill Maher
7. New York Magazine
8. New York Times
9. Washington Post
10. CNN
11. MSNBC
12. CNBC
13. Dallas Morning News
14. Arizona Republic
15. Univision
16. Apple
17. WSJ editorial board.../2

...
18. Jonah Goldberg
19. NFL players who kneel
20. Harley Davidson
21. Paul Krugman
22. Chuck Todd
23. Facebook
24. Twitter
25. Nordstrom
26. Bed Bath and Beyond
27. TJ Maxx
28. Estee Lauder
29. AT&T
30. Bloomingdale's
31. Rep Tim Rice
32. Cindy McCain
33. Jeff Flake.../3

...
34. Doug Ducey
35. Simon & Schuster
36. French Fries (yes. French fries.)

...the majority of these "cancels" arent because the targets engaged in lying or attacks on Democracy. Many are because they had a political opinion that didn't express fealty to GOP's God King.../4

...or because they expressed an opinion that proved right (France didn't want to be part of the Iraq War, Dixie Chicks criticized Bush for engaging in Iraq War) - a war that the GOP NOW agrees with France and the Dixie Chicks about (And do their best to blame dems for it).../5

How to not run/and run a business:

In 1976, my family was Big Thompson River flood. 2 hotels survived -locally owned one we were in, which let people stay free & doubled up rooms, & Holiday Inn, which tripled rates. I’ve never again stayed in HI for 45 years because of that..1

...we’ve seen the opposite in Texas disaster - a community minded business that wins public affection & is better managed than the state. @HEB is beloved in TX, more so since the recent crisis. In a town where people were in financial trouble, HEB gave away groceries for free...2

...literally, you would walk into the store, head to the cashier, and they would thank you and send you on your way. They were prepared for a disaster. Why? Because at the beginning of the pandemic, this grocery store chain -GROCERY STORES! - commissioned John’s Hopkins to do...3

...a pandemic report that correctly predicted how things would go (badly), consulted experts on how best to keep their workers and customers safe, and then spent the money required to get it done. They shared all of their information with mass killer Governor @GregAbbott_TX.../4

....a man they did not know how already deep-sixes a report put together specifically for the state to show how to open up safely. Just like his ignoring the 2011 warnings about an electricity collapse and the need for Abbott’s bagmen at the energy companies to spend money to...5

It's infuriating to watch conservatives continue to misrepresent/misunderstand basic scientific findings for the purpose of portraying Trump as a genius. Once again, they're misrepresenting the findings of a study on hydroxychloroquine, putting out disinformation that harms.../1

...those who actually need the drug - people with autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis -by creating a run on the drug with their disinformation. Nothing has *ever* even suggested that hydroxy is a prophylactic that prevents COVID, that it keeps infected.../2

...people who are not hospitalized from getting worse or that any possible benefits outweigh the risks except for very severe situations where doctors do not need an uneducated reality TV star to tell them how to treat. The first, since retracted, study showed that with.../3

...people who were severely ill & hospitalized from COVID, with hydro and an antibiotic used in tandem, saw a decrease in the viral load. That was it. The meaning was next to nothing. It was based on a handful of people, observational. Trump took that, based on an tweet he.../4

...saw, and declared hydro to be a miracle cure, causing a mass rush from people who wanted to use it to prevent infection. Trump did not understand the difference between preventative (like a vaccine), treatment for bad cases (steroids, blood thinners) and remdesivir.../5

Again, at such a key moment in UK and at such high political levels, evidence of deep misunderstanding of EU: The PM is under pressure in some quarters to delay #Brexit vote to allow her first to “improve” deal in Brussels BUT EU is determined not to budge at this stage

2) All EU leaders watching tomorrow’s vote. Of course they want to avoid a no deal #Brexit BUT they feel the deal - so painfully negotiated between EU and UK - is too fresh to re-open. Clarifications, yes but fundamental renegotiations, no.

3) The EU’s international reputation as a tough deal-maker is at stake here too. If Brussels now suddenly “gives in” to U.K. on EU red lines (eg backstop) then that would weaken the EU’s reputation in future trade negotiations with other non EU countries

4) Also on backstop the EU is unlikely to cave in to favour a relationship with a leaving member state (UK) against the explicit wishes and ignoring the deep concerns of a continuing member: Ireland.

5) Both the EU and the PM signed up to a guarantee to protect the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. If either the U.K. or EU can leave the backstop unilaterally then this clearly is no longer a guarantee.

"these people are not going to take it any longer..
do not want to see our election victory stolen by a bold and radical left Democrats.
We will never concede.. when there's theft involved...had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about."
1/

"We will not let them silence your voices. We're not going to let it happen.

Not going to let it happen.

CROWD: Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump. Fight for Trump.
TRUMP: Thank you."
2/

"those tens of thousands of people ..
..the military, the Secret Service and we want to thank you and law enforcement ..you're doing a great job..
..but I would love it if they could be allowed to come up with us. Is that possible? Can you just let them, please?"
3/

"if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.
..he has the absolute right to do it..States want to revote, the states got defrauded..they want it back. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify, and we become president"
4/

"I actually I just spoke to Mike. I said, Mike, that doesn't take courage, what takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage, and then we are stuck .. and we have to live with that for four more years. We're just not going to let that happen. "
5/

Transition, 'inclusion' etc all have political ramifications. Instead of buying into the remarkably masculinist assumptions of queer theory that the dissolution of boundaries is always good, we should be examining them from the point of group power relations.

Transactivists try to conflate identifying as trans with gay marriage, in attempts to demonstrate the progressiveness of their cause, but the comparators are actually transracialism, trans-abledness, identifying as w/c etc.

The diagram shows the asymmetrical nature of such identifications. Identifying down is colonisation. Identifying up is impossible. The most you can do is improve your individual status relative to your class of origin, which leaves everyone else behind.

It also shows that the classes are occupied. If you identify as disabled, or as a woman, or as black, you are demanding access to spaces and facilities which were set aside for people based on a characteristic which you don't share.

How well tolerated this is gives us a clear insight into which oppressions are tolerated. We're rightly paying a lot more attention to racism, so Rachel Dolezal was fired by the NAACP. Other white women in the US who've tried this have been heavily criticised.