1. For people mad at Dems. Can we try to understand how politics (not justice) works? Here are some things: the Dems simply wanted the phone call information to be added to the record. They threatened to call witnesses as a negotiation tactic - thus getting the Republicans to

2. do what the Dems originally wanted - enter the phone call on the record. If witnesses were called - the trial would have gone on for weeks - in the middle of a pandemic when relief HAS to be sent out now. And Merrick Garland has to be confirmed so the DOJ can get to work.

3. However, I WANT WITNESSES CALLED. I want them to have such explosive testimony that the whole world once again knows what it knows - that Trump is guilty. I want more Republican Senators to change their mind and vote to convict. The problem is? We would NEVER GET 17 to do so.

4. It fucking SUCKS. It SUCKS that the Democrats can't just call witnesses and make the Republican Senators appear to the world even more cowardly than they were - hearing that testimony and STILL voting to acquit. BUT that's the fantasy version where the media doesn't once again

5. start blaming Dems during this fantasy-witness-calling-trial for not getting Covid relief out, etc. The issue here is that NO MATTER WHAT - if Trump himself with Jesus back from the dead as his witness says, "I did it" the Republicans will acquit. The issue is that the GOP

NEW: Ken Griffin gave $2 million to a Loeffler super PAC on Oct. 9, the day after the WSJ reported that his company made a major buyout that needed to be approved by the NYSE, which Loeffler's husband owns. Me @Salon

A month prior, Griffin gave her $1M. The day the sale went through, he gave to her & Perdue's runoff. No evidence of illegality, but Loeffler's conflicts of interest are inescapable: her husband owns NYSE, she used to work in the industry, & sits on the committee that oversees it

What's more, Griffin donated millions to the super PAC even though Loeffler didn't need the money: She was self-funding. (She loaned her own campaign $23 million — compared to raising a total $3.8 million from everyone else in the world not named Kelly Loeffler.)

The only other person to give more to Loeffler than Griffin was her husband — again, who owns the NYSE. And Griffin's $2M donation was the Republican megadonor's tenth-largest of all time. And this was after MONTHS of headlines about Loeffler's stock trades and conflicts.

Next, Griffin threatened to sue Salon for defamation if we pointed out the arrogance and ignorance of Wall Street on full display. Again, after months of headline reporting about this exact senator and this exact issue.

💥🔴💥 The war between China and the United States has already begun, and America is the battleground.

👉 A confidential report on foreign election interference that was supposed to have been released late last week was delayed after John Ratcliffe, Director of the National

Joe Biden is winning the election and Donald Trump is trying to pull a literal coup.

Let's talk about where we are, what we know, and separate the things we shouldn't be worried about from the things we absolutely should be worried about.

1/

First and foremost, this election has largely played out as some of us expected it to. There hasn't been some cataclysmic loss. Biden made in-roads, including in Arizona. We're still looking at a possible 300+ electoral college victory if votes are counted.

2/

Last night felt AWFUL for a variety of reasons. Lingering trauma from 2016. A desire to watch the country reject Trump in a major way. The bizarre feeling of watching the race not get called on Election Night as the networks have trained us to expect.

But that was a feeling.

3/

Trump's attempt to steal this election is predicated on that feeling last night and the feeling that somehow this thing is lost even while Biden is winning in a big way.

Trump is determined to use that anxiety and uncertainty and spin it into his own chosen reality.

4/

For months Trump and his goons have told us what they planned to do. Counting would not be finished on Election Night and Trump would use the appearance of momentum to undermine confidence and hopefully stop the counting before momentum swung.

That's what he's doing.

5/

💥💥💥Situation Update, Dec. 29th – Extensive evidence of foreign interference in the US election is now surfacing.

Today’s Situation Update for Dec. 29th covers the new outpouring of extensive evidence of foreign interference in the US election.

CITATIONS FOR COUP TIMELINE

Barr authorizes investigations into election fraud: https://t.co/h7MSjSYblJ

Pilger resigns: https://t.co/lR9iS1Z7g2

Esper’s firing: https://t.co/ADh5PxZ4t4, https://t.co/EgKUX05qYq

Pentagon firings:

1)Georgia.”More than 1,700 Georgians illegally cast 2 ballots in the 2020 elections, but their fraudulent votes weren’t canceled out, according to State Election officials. So far, NONE of the cheaters have been prosecuted,” raising concerns about fraud...

The initiatives of Congress are to come in two areas. One within the party and the other with other parties.
First Congress has to Improve its communication with people, cadres, leaders and supporters.
Rahul is mainly shouldering this responsibility. But why not other leaders.
/1

It may be argued that some leaders are doing it within their areas. What about other areas, other leaders?
There will be many contenders for posts, maybe even for President’s if given a chance.
Why not leaders volunteer to propagate views, counter the Modi regime on the field?
/2

Some leaders give out statements in media, write their views on social media. Are they enough? Are they doing justice to their potential?
Even during elections, they limit themselves to their constituencies/ state.
Why should they not extend it beyond & even between elections?
/3

The statements of Congress leaders with few exceptions are bland, insipid, prosaic, not interesting and attracting enough to percolate to the people.
How many of their messages reached the people?
Can they not make it more attractive or find other ways to reach the masses?
/4

Some may say there are limitations of age, barriers of territory, egos, invitations, interference.
Most of them are artificial, self-imposed and can be sorted out.
These leaders do not devote themselves to the masses.
If Rahul does it, expected to do it why not others?
/5

It takes guts to truly face hard truths. But facing them is the only way to protect oneself going forward. This is why I keep reminding people that the Republican Party is beyond repair. 1/

The Republican Party’s internal structures, at the state and federal level, are dominated by people actively opposed to democratic pluralism, rule of law, and U.S. constitutionalism. 2/

Once a political party refuses to drop its support for a leader, in this case Donald Trump, who constantly and consistently betrayed the country throughout his time in office that party cannot be salvaged as a player in U.S. constitutional democracy. 3/

Everybody else, from individual rank and file Democrats to President Joe Biden, must radically overhaul how they deal with people who do not disaffiliate from the Republican Party. 4/

Anybody who remains a Republican at this point must be presumed to be an enemy of U.S. constitutionalism, rather than as somebody with right wing policy views. 5/

THREAD: Following multiple defeats in the 2020 election, Georgia Republicans are returning to their voter suppression tactics to hold onto waning power. #HB531, presented by voter suppressor Rep. Barry Fleming, includes several rollbacks on voting rights. ⬇️ 1/ #gapol

#HB531 could:

❌Eliminate Sunday Voting
❌Slash 108 Total Available Hrs of Early Vote
❌Remove 1 of 2 Saturday Vote Options
❌Force Counties To Raise Taxes To Pay For Elections
❌Slash Time Counties Can Mail Ballots
❌Prohibit Early Voting on Holidays

2/ #gapol

Slash Mail Ballot Application Window By 113 Days
Require Photocopy of ID for VBM App If No Driver's License
Set Restrictive Ballot Return Deadline of 11 Days Before Election

3/ #gapol

Allow Counties To Set Arbitrary Time For Ballot Return On New Fri Deadline
Require Counties To Pay For 24/7 In-Person Drop Box Security Official
Limit Drop Boxes To Only In EV Locations Only During Voting

4/ #gapol

Ban Use Of Drop Boxes After Early Vote Has Ended
Reject Every Single Out of Precinct Ballot
Allow Problematic Precinct Splitting That Will Confuse Voters
Ban Mobile Voting Used Primarily At Nursing Homes During Pandemic

5/ #gapol

1/25 ELECTOR CHALLENGE THREAD

Each state governor sent their slate of electors by registered mail to Senate President Pence. By tradition, he will count these votes in a joint session of Congress tomorrow. If he simply counts those votes Biden will become president. But...

2/ Traditionally states have empowered their governors to certify and transmit the votes of their electors to the Senate President but this year at least six GOP-controlled legislatures acted to revoke this authority and count the votes of electors for President Trump.

3/ The first question is whether or not the state's legislatures have the constitutional authority to rescind the governors' traditional authority to transmit the 'official' vote of the electors to the Senate President.

4/ Article II, Section 1, Clauses 2 and 3, gives the state legislature the sole authority to determine the manner of appointment of electors. While a state has the right to outsource this to the governor they do not lose the right to change their mind at a later date.

5/ Six state legislatures changed their minds and voted to send alternative electors to the Senate President. These electors were loyal to President Trump and cast their ballots for him. So what is the problem?

Post-Trump Career Thread 1/

BTW all GOP politicians who were on national stage in 2016, have developed a 'strategy' to survive the Trumpomess. They KNEW he will burn this down. They've all thought they had the perfect way to have a career beyond Trump. Here are a few examples:

Post-Trump Career Thread 2/

Some were Trump friends before his 2015 run for President started, and have remained with him until now. Like notorious serial pants-grabber & alleged attorney Rudy Giuliani.

When I say 'old friends', I mean these are criminals who need pardons

Post-Trump Career Thread 3/

Some opportunists jumped onboard early in 2016, but were smart enough to see Trump is setting up a kleptocracy, and JUMPED OFF before the inaugration to avoid all legal stench. Like failed Bond Villain, the Chrischristie

Post-Trump Career Thread 4/

Some with a spine, said No Trump and remained steadfastly away from him, not even appearing at the 2016 convention. Like then convention HOST Governor, John Kasich

Post-Trump Career Thread 5/

Some opportunists jumped onto the Trump train late (convention 2016) and hugged Trump ever since, hoping to take his voters into the 2024 cycle. But Ted Cruz is the most hated man in America, even this lunatic strategy won't make him President

The errant Christian participation in the Capitol insurrection has its roots in the apocalyptic craziness espoused by the likes of the late Hal Lindsey and Tim Lahaye. Their 'end of the world' mania misled many, laying the foundation for conspiracy theories...

... and the horrid view of the civil government so many trapped in the maze of this nonsense espouse. In an odd-couple marriage, Christian post-millennialism was then married this movement to a 'save America', all in the name of a mythical 'lost' Christian America and hopes for a

... future Christianized state, a theocracy in the Christian sense. Opposition to Christian positions on moral issues was equated w/ opposition to God. How? Paul Weyrich and the Reagan-era GOP saw this as an opening to win the Evangelical vote for themselves & beat Carter in 1980

EVs had voted for Carter in large numbers in 1976, Carter identifying with them as a Baptist and Sunday School teacher, a humble, gracious, country boy. The GOP wrangled that support to itself by taking up the fearful millennialism of the EVs and making the Democrats...

... an embodiment of the Beast of Revelation. American could be a Christian Republic, saved from evil - from the Democrats in particular - and, later, from the swamp, the deep state, or whatever label worked best. Because a majority of people would never accept these wild views

No, Mike Pence can't magically do anything on January 6th. No, Louie Gohment can't force the courts to give Pence magic powers. Trump has literally zero chance of magically overturning the election. Stop panicking over imaginary things. This is getting incredibly boring.

There won’t be a civil war. No one will pull off a coup. There won’t be martial law. None of these things are real.

It’s over. But the more clear it becomes that it’s over, the fantasizers on Trump’s side, and the panickers on our side, become more hallucinatory about it.

We have a pandemic, people dying, an economic crisis, people starving, and a runoff election that’s for all the marbles. Yet you’re going to focus on IMAGINARY doomsday scenarios? None of what’s going on is real enough for you? You have to go invent more bad things? Come on.

Those of us who have fought so hard for four years, deserve better than to have our agenda derailed by the doomsday panickers on our side. They don’t care about winning, they’re just addicted to the adrenaline rush of telling themselves they’re going to lose.

In fact the panickers on our side, and the fantasizers on Trump’s side, deserve each other. Both completely removed from reality. Neither interested in helping their own side. Just a shared interest in hallucinating over laugh out loud imaginary scenarios. And of no use to anyone

By supplying that idiot Hunter Biden with whatever sick requirement he asked, China was able to set up a series of global business deals through Hunter, ultimately gaining power over the Biden crime syndicate.

"Trump has been saying that Biden’s son has some sort of global foundation. Have you noticed that? Who helped [Hunter] build the foundations? Got it? There are a lot of deals inside all these," he

"Now that the election is over, the media have at last been forced to admit the troubling truth: That Hunter Biden has been a willing asset of China’s communists, enriching himself and likely his family, including Joe Biden, in the process, is now

"Footage from a meeting of Communist Chinese party members late last month shows party elites are eager to open up financial markets to Joe Biden, after the TRUMP administration defied their

"...Di’s speech was the history he set forth of how Beijing has long successfully managed to protect its interests in the halls of American power: namely, by relying on “friends” in Wall Street and other U.S. ruling class sectors — which worked until the TRUMP presidency."