Let's be clear on something: the Jan 6. insurrection was NOT Donald Trump's only attempt to retain his hold on power. It was the culmination of years of (luckily, mostly incompetent) attempts to corrupt the 2020 election. 1/12

First, he tried to use the power of his office to pressure a foreign government to discredit the person he perceived to be the most likely to beat him, Joe Biden. 2/12
When that failed, he tried to make voting harder, especially voting by mail. (And: He did this during a pandemic. We still don't know how many additional deaths from Covid were caused by in-person voting.) 3/12
When that failed, and it became clear he'd lost, he pressed his case in the courts, losing 60-odd lawsuits. 4/12
When the lawsuits failed, he called up election officials in various states and pressured and threatened them to "find" thousands of new votes for him. 5/12
When that failed, he pressured members of Congress to object to the votes in their own states -- the very ballots that had resulted in *their* election! -- and claim, somehow, that they were fraudulent. 6/12
And when it became clear that wasn't going to be enough, he pressured Vice President Mike Pence to somehow cancel the election result and call for a "revote." 7/12
When that didn't work, as his last resort, he summoned his fringiest and most violent supporters to DC, told them again the election was "rigged" and a "theft," and directed them to march on Congress, to "fight" and "be strong." 8/12
And that's when and why a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol: to violently coerce pressure "weak" Republicans into unlawfully overturning the result of a free and fair election and reinstalling defeated loser Donald Trump. 9/12
While only a tiny fraction of Trump's supporters invaded the Capitol building, a majority of the GOP believes the hallucination that the election was a fraud. Nearly half think the invasion of the Capitol was fine. 10/12
How does our democracy come back from this? Only by telling the truth and holding the liars accountable. That starts with impeaching, convicting, and shunning Donald Trump. 11/12
We need to expel the lie of election fraud from our body politic. Because what if the next demagogue is actually competent? 12/12

More from Trump

1. Yes, Trump will claim to intend to target GOP senators up for reelection in '22 (like he did to Thune with Kristi Noem) if they don't join in @HawleyMO's sedition on Jan. 6, but the fact is, it's not clear whether Trump will be successful in ANY of those efforts & voting yes


2. to hedge off these threats will also create fissures & fractures for these incumbents among other elements of their party that could complicate their renominations. Indeed, what worries me the most about the potential for the country to slip into @anneapplebaum territory is

3. that what should be robust and intense push back from the party establishment against actually ending democracy- bc that's what Trump's request would do, if it was granted, is fairly muted. What we SHOULD be seeing from the mainstream of the party is threats to strip committee

4. assignments, chairs, privileges, even reelection funds, if anyone gets involved in this bullshit- in the House & the Senate, and the fact that you don't see it is more than a story of McConnell & McCarthy being afraid of Trump & his base. Its a story of receptivity, of the

5. level of receptivity the congressional and party leadership is dealing with both within the rank and file membership of the party and within its donor class, and THAT, my friends, is why you find me so concerned. That, and my decision to finally pull @anneapplebaum's book
OK, #Squidigation fans, I think we need to talk about the new Wisconsin suit Donald Trump filed - personally - in Federal Court last night. The suit is (as usual) meritless. But it's meritless in new and disturbing ways. This thread will be


Not, I hope, Seth Abramson long. But will see.

I apologize in advance to my wife, who would very much prefer I be billing time (today's a light day, though) and to my assistant, to whom I owe some administrative stuff this will likely keep me from 😃

First, some background. Trump's suit essentially tries to Federalize the Wisconsin Supreme Court complaint his campaign filed, which we discussed here.


If you haven't already, go read that thread. I'm not going to be re-doing the same analysis, and I'm not going to be cross-linking to that discussion as we go. (Sorry, I like you guys, and I see this as public service, but there are limits)

Also, @5DollarFeminist has a good stand-alone thread analyzing the new Federal complaint - it's worth reading as well, though some of the analysis will overlap.

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॥ॐ॥
अस्य श्री गायत्री ध्यान श्लोक:
(gAyatri dhyAna shlOka)
• This shloka to meditate personified form of वेदमाता गायत्री was given by Bhagwaan Brahma to Sage yAgnavalkya (याज्ञवल्क्य).

• 14th shloka of गायत्री कवचम् which is taken from वशिष्ठ संहिता, goes as follows..


• मुक्ता-विद्रुम-हेम-नील धवलच्छायैर्मुखस्त्रीक्षणै:।
muktA vidruma hEma nIla dhavalachhAyaiH mukhaistrlkShaNaiH.

• युक्तामिन्दुकला-निबद्धमुकुटां तत्वार्थवर्णात्मिकाम्॥
yuktAmindukalA nibaddha makutAm tatvArtha varNAtmikam.

• गायत्रीं वरदाभयाङ्कुश कशां शुभ्रं कपालं गदाम्।
gAyatrIm vardAbhayANkusha kashAm shubhram kapAlam gadAm.

• शंखं चक्रमथारविन्दयुगलं हस्तैर्वहन्ती भजै॥
shankham chakramathArvinda yugalam hastairvahantIm bhajE.

This shloka describes the form of वेदमाता गायत्री.

• It says, "She has five faces which shine with the colours of a Pearl 'मुक्ता', Coral 'विद्रुम', Gold 'हेम्', Sapphire 'नील्', & a Diamond 'धवलम्'.

• These five faces are symbolic of the five primordial elements called पञ्चमहाभूत:' which makes up the entire existence.

• These are the elements of SPACE, FIRE, WIND, EARTH & WATER.

• All these five faces shine with three eyes 'त्रिक्षणै:'.