(Thread) Before the whole #ForceTheVote spectacle disappears in the usual ways that these things do in the Eternal Sunshine of the Very Online Left, something it might be worth taking a beat to think about:

So much of the discourse about this has treated it as a debate between insidery incrementalism and something more outsidery and confrontational--I've seen a few people describe it as a challenge to "electoralism"--but that stops making sense if you think about it for 5 seconds.

I know that some sort of spark to grassroots action was allegedly on the other end of the parliamentary Rube Goldberg machine:

"play hardball" in bargaining about the leadership vote --> get a floor vote that would have been defeated in a landslide making voters take M4A less seriously than ever as a real world possibility --> supposedly somehow get ammunition for this for primary challenges

...but about the most generous thing you can say about that is that it's *extremely* speculative.

Trump is speaking but the mic isn't working.

Trump: "We will never give up. We will never concede--it doesn't happen. You don't concede when there is theft involved."

Trump: "Rudy, you did a great job."
Narrator: But, in fact, Rudy went 0-60.

Trump: "If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election."

The Anabaptist Option:

Neo-Calvinist Cornelius Van Til was a lifelong Republican voter, but couldn't crack the application of Reformed theology to politics. How does the Christian worldview manifest in the political realm with regard to particular parties and politicians?

Van Til's student, Francis Schaeffer, motivated by his postmillennialism in the Cold War context, promoted Christianity as antithetical to communism. Fundamentalist friends like Jerry Falwell found political motivation in the moralist message of Schaeffer's A Christian Manifesto.

The aforementioned mindset put the Moral Majority (1979) into motion right around the time of the Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention (1979) and the presidential run of Ronald Reagan (1981). Similar rhetoric and results followed in the years to come.

Politicians, knowing they had to secure the votes of the Moral Majority, or 'Values Voters,' or 'evangelicals' as a voting bloc, pandered to them by citing their 'Christian faith' and 'pro-life' positions which ran counter to Roe v. Wade (1973), another Schaefferian target.

Those left unpersuaded by the aforementioned project were no longer merely political opponents, but morally inferior people, most likely owing to a lack of true Christian faith and practice. Clearly, the moral failings of Bill Clinton weren't consistent with his Christian faith.

Just doing an exercise in

Scott Morrisons Image VS Donald Trump Image

#ThumbsUP

Thread of Comparative Images 👇👇

Dark Images appear to make you more important?

#LeaderBeingChauffeured

Business on a Plane

#SoBusy

#BlackAndWhite

#WalkingThroughAnArch

At least Trump had Clothes on.

Thread

I'm supposed to be taking a break right now from Twitter. I was getting really frustrated by the Left, and the things they were saying about us, and more specifically about Ashi Babbitt. It seemed that once the vote happened, something clicked... the Left realized ⤵️

Took leave from work to take care of myself (as much as I could, all considered) this week for the first time in as long as I can remember. To see everything I’ve worked on for years — fighting disinfo and the radicalization of veterans — with death of vets in the Capitol... 1/x

It’s been crippling. It’s all that I can think about. And I’m angry. Angry at those who didn’t listen — particularly those on the Hill who I’ve been warning for years. Angry at those who avoided responsibility, could have been proactive, and refused to seek solutions. 2/x

After a two-year investigation on behalf of @VVAmerica, I wrote and published a report on the way veterans were being targeted online. My mandate at the time was to focus on foreign entities seeking to take advantage of, defraud, and radicalize troops, vets, and our families. 3/x

I discovered during my investigation that Macedonians stole "Vets for Trump" FB pages, and were using them to spread hateful, racist, and xenophobic rhetoric **MORE EFFECTIVELY THAN THE ORIGINAL OWNERS.** 4/x

As @craigtimberg explained: The saga of Vets for Trump is a case study in how misinfo +political activism can become intertwined, and how the line between domestic and foreign actors can blur in an online world where social media accounts can be bought, sold and even hijacked 5/x

Thread:

My predictions for US politics in the next 4 years.

No unity, more division, economic crash, war against crypto, charges against Trump, President Harris, the new Republican Party, Don Jr running in 2024.

The division in America will grow. The tech sector, news media and social media will be split even more between left and right. New alternatives will rise and the anger between left and right will escalate.

Over 30% of all US dollars were created in 2020 to stabilize the markets and pay for the Covid pandemic. The US economy will crash and USD currency will see a steep decline in value.

As a result of economic turmoil and failing fiat currencies crypto will rise around the world and governments will make a stand against it to protect their supply of printed money. Crypto will succeed because the people will accept it as new money outside of government control.

Donald Trump will fight tax evasion charges amongst other legal battles as he will be punished by the left and parts of the right for years to come. They will do anything in their power to prevent a comeback of Donald Trump.

I see a lot of fantastic discussions, papers, threads, and op-eds about the insurrection from experts from various fields.

As a social scientist, I want to add that it's important to understand that collective action like we saw yesterday is due to *many* factors.

Yes, the leadership of Donald Trump played the central role in instigating the anti-Democratic effects--from his initial attempts to dismiss and discredit state votes to fomenting the insurrection yesterday.

Leadership matters a great deal for motivating collective action.

Of course, leadership doesn't occur in a vacuum. Trump was supported, enabled, validated and empowered by Republican elites for his entire term.

This came to head with the concerted efforts by GOP members of the Senate and House who tried to overturn the election certification.

The main attempt to overthrow a democratic process was by spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories.

This was primarily spearheaded on social media, which is why freezing Trump's social media accounts is such a big deal.

These social media account accounts were used to spread misinformation and organize, but this misinformation was laundered and legitimized by right wing media figures to millions of people.

From Fox to OAN to Newsmax, these false messages were spread to millions of homes.

THREAD 📌Those of us whose lives have been made a living hell by Trump's presidency have a right to ask those of you who voted Trump/Trump proxy (yes, your Stein votes threw the election to Trump in PA, WI & MI), to have the decency to just STFU. Not everything is about you.
1/

And FGS everyone stop applauding GOP who put us here for their belated mea culpas or one tweet you agree with. If you want to applaud, applaud folks who were doing the work of the past 4yrs, not coming in at the end to say they wouldn't make the same awful mistake again.
2/

And if you want "healing," don't demand it of people who have been hurt. Let the folks who skimmed through the past 4yrs painlessly do that work. Some of you don't even know that Betsy DeVos was one of the most effective Cabinet members--destroying thousands of young lives.
3/

This is a tenuous time. People are wounded--and I do not mean Trump folks because I honestly could not conceivably care less about them. I mean people I have been interviewing over 4yrs: BIPOC, women, immigrants, LGBTQ, poor and disabled people, Muslims. SO MUCH SUFFERING.
4/

22k people died this week and that is because 77k people out of 130M just couldn't bring themselves to vote for a brilliant life-long public servant because something something vagina emails speeches and whateverthefck you lied to yourself about in 2016 to "show" Hillary.
5/

With the @WhiteHouse as the backdrop, @POTUS about to take the stage at the #SaveAmericaMarch.

As 'God Bless the USA' plays, @POTUS now on stage.

"We have hundreds of thousands of people here," claims @realDonaldTrump. "These people are not going to take it any longer. Turn your cameras please."

"The media is the biggest problem we have," says @POTUS. "They rigged an election...Last night they didn't do a bad job either if you noticed."

#Election2020 being stolen by radical Democrats" and "the fake news media," claims @realDonaldTrump. "We will not take it any more...We will stop the steal."

Anthony Weiner's laptop.
John Podesta's laptop.
Hunter Biden's laptop.

All conveniently lost or hidden away.

All with Pedophilia / Crimes Against Children.

But sure, try to convince me @LLinWood is a nutjob while I laugh at your wilful

1 of 10
THREAD

Lin Wood posted on Parler last night that Trump flew to the National Defense Command Center near Abilene, TX.

https://t.co/6lJSwWQlsb

1/

In light of GA's election results, and what's likely a flipping of the Senate, a quick thread recapping some key provisions of the Biden Tax Plan...

(No GIFs. Proposals don't get those)

On the income tax side, the Biden tax plan sets a clear, bright-line mark at $400k...

2/

If you're below that, you'd be pretty 'safe' from seeing your tax rate(s) increase under his plan.

For those w/ income of $400k or more, he proposed returning the top rate to 39.6% (though whether this is for single filers, joint filers, or both, was never made clear)...

3/

Biden also proposes eliminating the QBI deduction for anyone with income more than $400k (today, non-specified service biz owners may be able to continue to benefit from the deduction if they have sufficient wages or property).

The $400k mark is also the proposed cut off...

4/

for taxpayers who want to do a 1031 exchange. Income higher than that? You wouldn't be able to do one under the plan.

Deductions for high earners would also take a hit under Biden tax plan, as the max benefit would be capped at 28% instead of at the taxpayer's actual rate...

5/

Biden also proposes replaced IRA and 401(k) deductions w/ a flat credit. Would be a big benefit for those w/ more modest incomes, while hurting those with higher incomes.

Would also flip SOP for high earners, making Roth accounts FAR more likely to be the better option...

1/ The areas Trump won (Republican areas) Are were the scam was planned and ran on election night.

Example 1: Georgia
37 Votes for Trump went to Biden

Example 2: Wisconsin
6000 Republican votes went to Democrat candidates. (The Glitch)

2/ The realization the steal would fail:

The Florida vote. FOX news calling Arizonian was a key word that Florida was lost big time.

Here is why. The States who shut down counting. All did so when Florida results poured in showing Democrat areas were voting Trump BIG TIME

3/ You see like you I watched election results in real time. But I went further then most. I kept open a 2016 county by county map as well the 2020 map. And I compared 2016 to 2020 as the election took place.

And I found something crazy. Red areas in Texas and Florida.

4/ Were voting for Biden way more then Hillary. And Even more specifically in Texas. Oil areas voted for Biden a shit ton more then Hillary. Look at Pennsylvania Fracking areas, Again Biden killed Hillary in Republican areas. I was like WTF is going on ?

5/ Back to Florida as the Trigger.The Pan Handle Biden kills Hillary. And Nation wide or were Dominion is used this pattern applies

Trump wins his red areas , But Biden over performs while losing in areas he could never win anyway

Thats how they were padding Biden's vote Total

One Facebook worker to me on Trump's indefinite suspension from the platform: "All it took was an armed insurrection of the cap building and two weeks left of his presidency."

With just a few days left in a turbulent year, we are looking back at some of the key discussions in European surveillance politics in 2020. A central theme were attempts to regulate & roll back existing, possibly undemocratic practices of industry & state security actors. (1/57)

One of these practices is big-data or predictive policing, a method of algorithmic risk mapping that has increasingly been used by law enforcement departments around Europe. Concerns include limited effectiveness & reproduction of bias with a veneer of objectiveness. (2/57)

So is predictive policing really a good idea? What advantages does it bring? How does it sit with the right to presumption of innocence and civil liberties? We asked academics, politicians, police chiefs & business leaders these questions:

Jamie Grace (@SHULawCrim) argues that data-driven policing can only be as good as the data feeding it. To ensure high data reliability & make predictive policing fair & ethical, a code of practice for data analytics in criminal justice is needed.

An independent ethics committee to mitigate the risk of bias is also endorsed by @ChrisToddWMP (@WMPolice). He says that with high quality data, predictive policing can be used for the public good & fight crimes like domestic homicide.

Immediately after the 2016 election, I wrote a piece on Trump's victory. Like other JOCs, I pointed to racism as the center. It's striking to me how so many mainstream journalists 4 years later still struggle to deal with the realities of this country.

FROM 2016: "Trump clearly sensed the fragility of the coalition that Obama put together — that the president's support in heavily white areas was built not on racial egalitarianism but on a feeling of self-interest."

"A recent study by sociologists from Harvard and Tufts found that white Americans believed that they experienced more discrimination than black Americans. Trump spoke openly to those Americans, articulating what many Iowans felt but could never say. It was liberating."

"There has never been a moment in America in which black people’s gains have not been perceived by some white p as their loss. History is littered with ex of how economic and racial anxieties can create a wedge with which to destroy interracial political and economic alliances."

"White supremacists overthrew the biracial fusion party in NC in the late 1800s and, with the support of the white population in the state that had once supported the sharing of power, worked to disenfranchise black North Carolinians and usher in seven decades of Jim Crow."

Lots of stuff happened on Capitol Hill yesterday.

All sorts of reflexivity and fertile fallacies.

And, if you haven't figured it out yet, you are only allowed to believe one version of the story and are allowed to only have one response.

Just like in late May.

(2) Any "takes" that were outside of what the established majority had prescribed would instantly brand you a racist, a bigot, a white supremacist.

And you were hedged, deleted, and banned if you thought for yourself.

Just like in March.

.
🗳️ ELECTION CRIME FLASHBACK- LEFTISTS BLOCK POLL MONITORS

Criminal Leftists in Philadelphia Preventing Poll Monitors from Entry into Voting Locations

.
@SidneyPowell1 @realMikeLindell

1. Thread.

In light of tomorrow's congressional session to record the electoral votes, and for conservatives and Republicans who claim to look for guidance to the Founders, a short thread from Federalist #68.

2. "It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided. This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any pre-established body...

3. "...but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture...It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder...But the precautions which have been so happily concerted...

4. "...in the system under consideration promise an effectual security against this mischief...As the electors, chosen in each state, are to assemble and vote in the state in which they are chosen, this detached and divided situation will expose them much less...

5. "...to heats and ferments, which might be communicated from them to the people, than if they were all to be convened at one time, in one place. Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption...