MINI-THREAD

1) This week we saw one of the most disgustin' aspects of Trumpism rear it's ugly head. In Texas, an armed MAGA caravan of vehicles intercepted a Biden-Harris campaign bus and attempted to run it off the road.

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")...

...literally, to so much of this country, including people who are supposed to be smarter than this like @RichLowry, politics is a game of self-affirmation, having to do with imprinting fantasies of democrats without a care about the real world. This "team" mentality is what...

...is destroying us. It is why, no matter how terrible everything Trump did was, his numbers never budged. The more upset those who opposed Trump became because of his abject incompetence and stupidity, some on the right saw the dem upset at objective reality of chaos as an...

...affirmation that Trump is "great." If you put a chimp into the White House, running under R, and he started wrecking the place, if dems got upset, too many republicans would support it. They hate half the country.

*The multi-billion dollar effort by wealthy conservatives...

...to create a media bubble of an alternative reality to deceive viewers that tax increases for the rich are tax increases for everyone, and that the money raised would go to "undeserving" poor people. Then they harp on all the other lies, solely to secure tax cuts and judges...

1/Zach has the history right (again). I doubt the current political leadership read the book where Summers et al explained what they did, unless they look at borrowed copies. Here it is: https://t.co/4gyFiagaj3

2/ But the summary is that Summers, Geithner, Orszag, Emanuel agreed on telling Obama and Biden in December 2008 that about $800b was an adequate stimulus. Would lower unemployment just below 8% by late 2010. Romer thought $2.1T or $1.7T was needed to achieve full employment.

3/ They wouldn't let her make the case in writing for $1.2T because her number could leak. The reasons for $800b were: they wanted the bill passed by February, so they could move on to health care reform and cap and trade; they had no ways to spend more;

4/ spending more might kick off inflation or cause markets to fall for fear of inflation; that might lead to more bank runs; more bank runs might require a second TARP so they couldn't ask Congress for too much for recovery; Pelosi would give them whatever they asked

5/ for but they didn't think they could get the needed 1 or 2 R Senators quickly if they asked for more; they wanted 60 but had only 58 D Senators; popular "moonshots" or signature items in the package would take too long (Biden asked for that);

So let's look at some of @JoeBiden BS

Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, claims to be a "leading Epidemiologist" oves to bash @realDonaldTrump in his Biden commercial. So who is this guy really.

Well he's a democrat hack of course. He's a failed candidate in the 2018 Democratic primary for PA's 10th congressional district. He's a Harvard Grad but actually Feigl-Ding's work focuses on nutrition, health economics. He thinks Vegan's are less susceptible to COVID-19

Dr Nancy Beth Barr claims to be the Medical Director or Family Health Center. USC Grad in Family Medicine. Her focus is:

Abdominal Cramps
Abdominal Migraine
Abdominal Pain
Abnormal Bowel Movement
Abnormal Stool

This is her before she got her makeover to be on Biden commercials and give her expert analysis on how badly Trump did with COVID-19

Dr Thomas Fishbein Claims he's a Surgeon and Executive Director of Transplant Institute.

He Treats

Abdominal Abscess
Abdominal Adhesions
Abdominal Wall Defect
Advanced Heart Failure
Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia

Loves to Bash Trump's lack of contact tracing

17 December 2020 #MAGAanalysis #Overturn

It Is @POTUS' Job To Secure The 2020 Election

There is NO President Elect Biden. That is a lie. We face a stolen election. Maybe not the first. But, certainly the first landslide obliterated. #Brazen. Or maybe better: #BrazenTheft.

2) We've discussed The Big Lie before. We've discussed my beloved Shaggy video, It Wasn't Me. In the war between Truth and Lies, it is often, sadly, the most committed who wins. Truth does not uniformly defeat falsehood. That is sad.

3) No intelligent, honest, and grounded person could possibly conceive of HRC getting away with her crime family leadership at the helm of the Ship of State in America. Email scandal? No. Information crime blatantly in your face. This is The Swamp, The Cabal. And yet...

4) And yet she parrades herself...HERSELF...in evil, corrupt pride across the land. Forgive my foul language, but no other can convey her message. Fuck you, America, she says with her every public statement. I win. You lose. You thought you could catch me? Never going to happen.

5) Obama and Clinton hate each other. I have no doubt of this. But they are best of friends against America. Well, they love America as victim. They detest America as world power. They detest the Constitutional Democratic Republic of America. They want to delight in its fall.

RAJINIKANTH's POLITICS

I have tried to answer many questions individually through DM, but looks like it's better to do a thread and post it publicly.

This thread only looks at TN Politics through Rajini's entry angle. Will do a detailed post on the whole of TN pitch later.

Rajini's political entry can be analysed from 4 angles.

1. Why is he in Politics?
2. What will be his strengths?
3. How will the pitch change?
4. What will be his challenges?

Thread 1 - Why is Rajini in Politics and What are his strengths?

1. Why is Rajini in politics?

24 years ago, when he first considered politics, TN was a nasty scene with both Dravidian parties neck deep in corruption.

That was the first time Rajini openly participated in the political process, voicing against the corrupt regime of JJ.

Since then, he has been studying politics keenly. However, a decision to enter was not taken for reasons best known to him.

When JJ died, he saw opportunity to reset the fate of TN. His intentions seem to be great.

2. What will be Rajini's strengths?

A. Sharp organisational acumen, leadership, vision, deep intelligence, and astute character.

He has done a lot of homework and organisation build in the three years from 2017.

This letter is... something. But, it illustrates two points. First, most Americans don't realize that the majority of of the GOP base thinks this is a religious war for the soul of the nation. They're willing to abandon democracy FTW. 1/n


The other illuminating part is where they insist Trump is a Christian. I agree with @C_Stroop the "real" vs. "fake" Christian debate is unhelpful. However, if someone thinks religion is "b******t", they're not Christian regardless of how you define it 2/n

It always amazes me how strong the cult of personality is. They're completely willing to rearrange their beliefs to support Trump (grab 'em by the pussy). They're willing to ignore the evidence he regards them as rubes, suckers, and morons. 3/n

Of all the awful things he's done, bilking his followers with fake raffles somehow stuck with me as just about the sleaziest. He's already rich. Even Rand Paul, Hannity, Carlson, Cruz, Cotton, and Hawley don't stoop this low. 4/n

On February 26th last year, I predicted that the US would handle the pandemic poorly for a lot of reasons: poor scientific literacy, bad employers, poor laws against endangering employees, lack of hospital beds, lack of preparedness. But, I whiffed badly on one thing... 5/n

Patriots,
Here are a few of the Key Concepts of the New Political Party I am looking to form:
1) No Donations from anyone other than "REAL Human Beings" Confirmed Identities
2) Term Limits (3-2 yr for House 1- 6 yr Senate, 13 year Max for Judges, 17 yr Max for SCOTUS

1. Sat. 16 Jan. Twenty Points of Why America is Transitioning Corporate to Republic and B*iden Will Not Be President: https://t.co/ciWkYV4VuO

Trump was not running for just another 4 year election in 2016 – Trump was approached by the military to run & his entire win has...

A central tension in our politics is this we have 1 political party that cares about upholding democracy, whereas the other party's aims can only be achieved thru undermining democracy. This is coupled w/ the fact that 1 party cares about people's well-being & the other does not

These 2 facts lead to a situation in which, in order to both uphold democracy & advance well-being, 1 party is dedicated to a functional gov't & the other party is well-served by a dysfunctional government. Such dysfunction is both instrumental & ideological (anti-government)

And then, of course, we have gerrymandering + a cap on the House of reps, 2 Senators per state, & the electoral college. A set of circumstances that gives massively disproportionate power to the anti-democracy & anti-well-being party.

Taken together, the structural issues in our electoral system, deep ideological divides about government/democracy, & the differential investment in advancing citizens' well-being does leave Democrats at a perpetual disadvantage.

A firefighter who is looking at a burning house & trying to decide whether to concentrate on stopping the fire from spreading or to save a child at the expense of a grandmother is facing a fundamentally different set of choices than the person who lit the fire in the first place

Congratulations to Jacobin for, the day after Lula's defense team filed it's 2nd motion to dismiss due to illegal US involvement in Lava Jato, its timid reference to the US DOJ partnership. This relationship has been public knowledge for over 5 years but better late than never.

When William Barr, from the US DOJ, responded to the 13 democrat's congressional inquiry into US involvement in in Lava Jato last year, he responded that they have been posting information about this partnership on their website since 2016 and linked this.

I think about the reports that Trump was excited by the invasion of the capitol because he thought it would derail the count, and it makes me think of a quote from the movie Boondock Saints: "Television. Television is the explanation for this. You see this in bad television."

In reality, there was zero chance that a violent assault on the capitol would have changed the outcome of the election, unless it was our own military doing it. An actual *physical* coup without military support? No.

And in fact, in reality, the more "successful" the assault was, the less likely it would be to affect the outcome. Had they succeeded in executing a congressperson on TikTok or whatever? They'd have killed their movement.

I believe that if they hadn't interrupted the process, the objections and debate would have been more successful in prolonging the process. But because of them, half the senators got cold feet and the remaining ones didn't even use their debate time.

Because they were attacked in their own chambers, because they were interrupted, it became a point of patriotic pride for Congress to finish the vote last night. Without that push, the objectors could have stretched it out, potentially for days.

At my office in Congress I have an original ballot of Mandela’s election as reminder to never take democracy for granted. After yesterday’s senate vote, I turn back to Mandela’s first speech when released from prison 31 years ago this week. Here’s what we can learn (THREAD)

GRACE: “I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all.”

Robbed of 27 years of his life, no one would have faulted Mandela if he emerged from prison with anger. But instead, with his first words of his first speech in decades, he chose grace. 2/13

HUMILITY: “I stand before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people.”

Mandela was revered by millions as a leader of conscience. But in his second sentence, he made sure to set the tone for humility and service. No individuals stand above the people. 3/13

SOLIDARITY: “I salute the working class...religious communities..the endless heroism of youth.. the mothers and wives and sisters of our nation”

He focused on the contributions of the many and showed respect to those often overlooked. He showed the vitalness of coalitions. 4/13

URGENCY: “Our struggle has reached a decisive moment.”

Mandela used the speech to set the tone for the work ahead. His release was not the climax, but instead just the possibility of change. No assumptions could be made of what comes next. 5/13