BC POLITICS
Saved by @Alex1Powell

1/ When will America wake up to the evil that has seized the Republican Party?

 2/ We’ve seen it around the world and throughout history: when a political party or government exists solely to serve the very wealthy, and begins to lose power, they inevitably turn to authoritarianism and police violence.
3/ We saw this in Florida when Gov. Ron DeSantis sent State police with guns drawn to intimidate the family of whistleblower Rebekah Jones, who he’d earlier fired for refusing to lie about Florida coronavirus statistics and is publishing a daily “Florida coronavirus dashboard.“
4/ We see it with Donald Trump committing a felony for which you or I would immediately go to prison, trying to tamper with the outcome of a legitimate election by threats, intimidation, and offering bribes to government officials.
5/ We see it in Michigan where the Macomb County GOP seems to share an address with the group that showed up, armed, to threaten and intimidate the Secretary of State and her four-year-old son as they were preparing to watch “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.”
6/ We saw it when armed Republicans with swastikas and Confederate flags invaded the Michigan capitol, and then tried to kidnap and assassinate Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
7/ We see it with Lindsey Graham threatening Georgia Republicans that if they don’t support Trump’s brutal authoritarianism, crimes, and coup attempt they won’t get Republican votes. Violence and the threat of violence are the new currency in the GOP realm.
8/ Because the Republican party only serves great wealth, when the Fed intervened in late spring to create $7 trillion out of thin air and use it to buy corporate stocks and bonds, reinflating the stock market, Republicans lost all interest in any kind of Covid assistance.
9/ As long as the stock market stays high, wealthy people are good and the GOP doesn’t care what happens to average people – unless they speak out to expose Republicans like we saw in Florida. Then they bring in the police, guns drawn.
10/ Now that Mitch McConnell‘s power in the Senate hangs in the balance in an election in Georgia, he’s suddenly willing to pass a tiny amount of relief for average working people, but the price he demands is to make it illegal for workers to sue their wealthy employers.
11/ Meanwhile, the Trump administration just quietly took an action to cut eligibility for Social Security Disability. They don’t give a rat’s ass about average people in pain; they only care about the rich. And most wealthy people right now are very, very happy with the GOP.
12/ For Republicans, it’s all about money and the political power which gets them that money and helps them avoid paying taxes on it. When their power begins to slip, they roll out the threats, armed goons, and the police, all while chanting “law and order!“
13/ The Republican Party neither represents law or order. Since Reagan’s election, they’ve exclusively represented the interests of giant corporations and billionaires, while using racism, regionalism and misogyny to manipulate working class voters.
14/ The question our republic now faces is, “When will the people wake up?“

More from Thom Hartmann

Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann
@Thom_Hartmann
1/ Mitch McConnell wants to let corporations kill you without consequence. (THREAD)

2/ Probably the most under-reported story of the year has been how Mitch McConnell is holding Americans hostage in exchange for letting big corporations kill Americans without any consequence.

3/ Mitch took you and me hostage back in May, when the House of Representatives passed the HEROES act that would have funded state and local governments and provided unemployed workers with an ongoing weekly payment.

4/ Mitch refused to even allow the Senate to discuss the HEROES Act until or unless the legislation also legalized corporations killing their workers and customers. To this day, he refuses to let it even be discussed in the Senate.

5/ We’ve seen companies fire people for refusing to take their lives in their hands, executives organize betting pools on which employees are going to die first, and companies lying openly to their workers and customers about the dangers of COVID-19.
FOR LATER READ
Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann
@Thom_Hartmann
How can America prevent Republicans from stealing the 2024 election and installing a fascist? /1

Republican threats to have individual states choose electors for Donald Trump even though their citizens voted for Joe Biden are not about this election; they’re about putting a fascist in the White House in 2024. /2

And the reason Republican elected officials across the country are letting this drag out, even though they know Trump has no chance because Biden‘s margin of victory is so large, is to see how far they can push this in anticipation of 2024. This is a test. /3

The next election will not feature a failed, indebted businessman buffoon at the top of the Republican ticket; instead, it will almost certainly be a very competent neofascist, someone like Tom Cotton or Ted Cruz. /4

And their strategy to put him in power won’t be to win the majority of the votes: it will be to take the electoral college, either outright or through Republican-controlled state legislatures simply making it happen. /5
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Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann
@Thom_Hartmann
1/ The Nightmare Scenario SCOTUS is Plotting For the 2024 Election Takeover:

2/ Six Republicans on the Supreme Court just announced — a story that has largely flown under the nation’s political radar — that they’ll consider pre-rigging the presidential election of 2024.

3/ Here’s how one aspect of it could work out, if they go along with the GOP’s arguments that will be before the Court this October:

4/ It’s November, 2024, and the presidential race between Biden and DeSantis has been tabulated by the states and called by the networks. Biden won 84,355,740 votes to DeSantis’ 77,366,412, clearly carrying the popular vote.

5/ But the popular vote isn’t enough: George W. Bush lost to Al Gore by a half-million votes and Donald Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by 3 million votes but both ended up in the White House. What matters is the Electoral College vote, and that looks good for Biden, too.
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Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann
@Thom_Hartmann
1/ We must stop Republicans from helping Trump “poison the wells“ and “salt the fields“ of America.

2/ Donald Trump‘s treason extends far beyond his efforts to damage Americans belief in our form of government, our elected democratic republic, that Trump’s oligarch buddies in Saudi Arabia, Russia and China also regularly disparage.

3/ Trump’s also actively damaging the ability of the incoming Biden administration to aid Americans during the Trump Depression, and to get the virus in check. In this, he has help from Steve Mnuchin and Mitch McConnell.

4/ While McConnell refuses to even allow a conversation in the Senate about the HEROS Act that already passed the House and would put money in unemployed Americans’ pockets, Mnuchin wants the Fed to return the CARES Act money that they’re leveraging to sustain the stock market.

5/ As Senator Ron Wyden said, “As the economy backslides amid skyrocketing Covid-19 cases, Secretary Mnuchin is engaged in economic sabotage, and trying to tie the Biden administration's hands.”
POLITICS
Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann
@Thom_Hartmann
(1/21) The Republican Party is an organized gang of sociopaths.

(2/21) Trump doesn’t care how many people in Omaha are stuck for hours in the freezing cold, over 3 miles from the nearest road or parking lot, after he’s left his rally, putting some in the hospital. And he clearly doesn’t care how many people die of Covid.

(3/21) One of the defining characteristics of a sociopath is that they view themselves as the only “real“ humans on the planet, and everybody else is basically a prop in the amazing story of their lives.

(4/21) Other people, they think, don’t feel emotions or pain or anything else with the intensity that they do. They believe they’re the only ones who matter, because they’re the only ones who truly exist.

(5/21) The Republican Party, starting in 1980, has brought that sociopathic worldview to politics, and made it a cornerstone of policy as well as a criteria for elective office.
POLITICS

More from Politics

Greg Olear
Greg Olear
@gregolear
Trump is a Russian asset, a mob money launderer installed by his mob whoremasters to sow chaos and weaken the US & our allies.

EVERY SINGLE THING HE’S DONE since taking office is to achieve those purposes—that and to enrich himself personally.

[THREAD]


1/ His entire family is part of this. Melania is a fucking crook. Ivanka is a fucking crook. Junior and Gums are fucking crooks. They will all die in prison, except for Kushner, who, if he really *did* trade US intel for money, should be executed for espionage.

2/ Why do you think Trump installs uniquely corrupt & awful people to Cabinet positions? Pruitt, Zinke, Betsy, Rex/Pompeo, Wilbur "Melting Nazi Face" Ross. They are not there to serve us. They are not there to drain the swamp. They are there to BURN THE REPUBLIC DOWN.

3/ Trump steals. He takes taxpayer money—your money and mine—and lines his pockets with it. He exploits his office to make himself richer. This is all he cares about. Why are Republican citizens, you “fiscal conservatives,” not more angry about this? Riddle me THAT, #MAGA.

4/ Matt Whitaker, the human dildo and “acting AG,” was illegally installed to throw a monkey wrench in the Mueller investigation. That’s why they won’t release his financials. He’s fucking bought and sold. He’s going to prison for obstruction.
POLITICS
Larry Schweikart
Larry Schweikart
@LarrySchweikart
1) FL absentees, early voting:

*Dems as expected ("souls to the polls Sunday") had a good day and FINALLY take the early walk-in vote lead by 6,100 votes.

Rs total: 1,151,593
Ds total: 1,092,547

Rs +59,046 combined lead. This is very good for this point in the campaign.

2) At this point in 2016, Rs only led by 40,000. I could be mistaken but I think yesterday was the last day polls were open on Sunday, so the final "souls to the polls" Sunday.

3) As of yesterday, four red counties were yet to report. That would likely boost the lead back to 70k

4) I don't think the FL Rs in their wildest dreams expected to lead this late in the campaign.

5) Likewise in NV:
Clark (with its union "encouragement" for members turned out big yesterday and added net 6,000 voters.

However---big however---neither Washoe nor the rurals . . .

(5) contd. . . were open yesterday. My guesstimate is that would slice that number in half.

While this helped, the NV Ds are still looking at a significant--to potentially massive--shortfall from their 2016 numbers coming out of early voting.

6) Gotta make sure you compare days to days. Calendars and voting days differ.
POLITICS
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cort...
@Ocasio2018
We’ve been getting calls and outreach from Queens residents all day about this.

The community’s response? Outrage.


Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here.

When we talk about bringing jobs to the community, we need to dig deep:
- Has the company promised to hire in the existing community?
- What’s the quality of jobs + how many are promised? Are these jobs low-wage or high wage? Are there benefits? Can people collectively bargain?

Displacement is not community development. Investing in luxury condos is not the same thing as investing in people and families.

Shuffling working class people out of a community does not improve their quality of life.

We need to focus on good healthcare, living wages, affordable rent. Corporations that offer none of those things should be met w/ skepticism.

It’s possible to establish economic partnerships w/ real opportunities for working families, instead of a race-to-the-bottom competition.
POLITICS
The Dude
The Dude
@JurisDudence
This is partly what makes it impossible to have a constructive conversation nowadays. The stubborn refusal to accept that opposition to Trumpism and GOP nationalism is about more than simply holding different beliefs about things in and of itself. 👇


It's fine for people to hold different beliefs. But that doesn't mean all beliefs deserve equal treatment or tolerance and it doesn't mean intolerance of some beliefs makes a person intolerant of every belief which they don't share.

So if I said I don't think Trumpism deserves to be tolerated because it's just a fresh 21st century coat of cheap paint on a failed, dangerous 20th century ideology (fascism) that doesn't mean I'm intolerant of all beliefs with which I disagree. You'd think this would be obvious.

Another important facet. People who support fascist movements tend to give what they think are valid reasons for supporting them. That doesn't mean anyone is obliged to tolerate fascism or accept their proffered excuse.


Say you joined a neighborhood group that sets up community gardens and does roadside beautification projects. All good, right? Say one day you're having a meeting and you notice the President and exec board of this group are saying some bizarre things about certain neighbors.
POLITICS
Reed Hundt
Reed Hundt
@rehundt
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);
POLITICS

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Great article from @AsheSchow. I lived thru the 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980's/early 1990's asking myself "Has eveyrbody lost their GODDAMN MINDS?!"


The 3 big things that made the 1980's/early 1990's surreal for me.

1) Satanic Panic - satanism in the day cares ahhhh!

2) "Repressed memory" syndrome

3) Facilitated Communication [FC]

All 3 led to massive abuse.

"Therapists" -and I use the term to describe these quacks loosely - would hypnotize people & convince they they were 'reliving' past memories of Mom & Dad killing babies in Satanic rituals in the basement while they were growing up.

Other 'therapists' would badger kids until they invented stories about watching alligators eat babies dropped into a lake from a hot air balloon. Kids would deny anything happened for hours until the therapist 'broke through' and 'found' the 'truth'.

FC was a movement that started with the claim severely handicapped individuals were able to 'type' legible sentences & communicate if a 'helper' guided their hands over a keyboard.
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Billy Bostickson \U0001f3f4\U0001f441&\U0001f441 \U0001f193
Billy Bostickson 🏴👁&👁 ...
@BillyBostickson
Tip from the Monkey
Pangolins, September 2019 and PLA are the key to this mystery
Stay Tuned!


1. Yang


2. A jacobin capuchin dangling a flagellin pangolin on a javelin while playing a mandolin and strangling a mannequin on a paladin's palanquin, said Saladin
More to come tomorrow!


3. Yigang Tong
https://t.co/CYtqYorhzH
Archived: https://t.co/ncz5ruwE2W


4. YT Interview
Some bats & pangolins carry viruses related with SARS-CoV-2, found in SE Asia and in Yunnan, & the pangolins carrying SARS-CoV-2 related viruses were smuggled from SE Asia, so there is a possibility that SARS-CoV-2 were coming from
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Erik Torenberg
Erik Torenberg
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1/ Someone emailed me asking how to break into VC, so I wanted to answer on Twitter where others could see and contribute to the conversation.

2/ “Being a VC” can mean a lot of different things, so it’s worth asking:

What actual activities do you want to do?

- Deep market analysis?
- Be in the flow of information and people?
- Make deals?
- Work closely w/ founders over time (e.g take board seats?)
- Manage capital?

3/ It’s worth specifying what type of VC you might like to become — as there are different archetypes. E.g.

- Benchmark (Lead series A/B - couple investments a year)
- First Round (Lead seed rounds, partner w/ a few companies a year)
- SV Angel (Make lots of seed investments)

4/ Continued:

Expa - Incubate companies

YC / Village Global - Build a platform to help entrepreneurs at scale

Do you want to join a firm or start one? There’s a lot to consider.

Different paths will require different skillsets & sets of experiences.

5/ Since the person who wrote the email is a young person trying to break into VC by joining a firm (and who doesn’t want to start a company), I’ll tailor this tweet storm to that goal. There’s some overlap.
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Respectable Lawyer
Respectable Lawyer
@RespectableLaw
There's been a lot of talk about the missionary killed by the natives of North Sentinel Island. They're probably so aggressive because of this weirdo, Maurice Vidal Portman. So here's a big thread about this creep and some facts from my decade-long obsession with the island.


The Sentinelese are often described as “uncontacted,” but this not strictly true. They had a very significant contact in 1880 with Commander Portman.

Portman, the black sheep third son of some minor noble, was assigned by the English Royal Navy to administer and pacify the Andaman Islands, a job he pursued from 1880-1900 with the full measure of his own perversity.


Portman was erotically obsessed with the Andamanese, and he indulged his passion for photography by kidnapping members of various tribes and posing them in mock-Greek homoerotic compositions.


During his 20 years in a sexualized heart of darkness, Portman measured and cataloged every inch of his prisoner’s bodies, with an obsessive focus on genitals.
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Anu Satheesh
Anu Satheesh
@AnuSatheesh5
Alathiyur Hanuman Temple
Malappuram, Kerala 🚩
#keralatemples

One of the Powerful Anjaneya Temples in Kerala. Hanuman temple is adjacent to Shri Ramar Sannidhi. Here Hanuman's head is tilted towards the left to hear Shri Rama's words. Shri Rama is entrusting Hanuman👇


Task of locating Mata Sita in Lanka.

Prathishta of Hanuman is done by Sage Vasishta. Eventhough this is Shri Ram Temple, importance is given to Hanuman
Shri Rama shares with Hanuman the Abhignana Vaakhyam, the words that would enable him to gain the confidence of Mata Seetha.


Hanuman stands leaning a little towards the left, showing how he hear Shri Rama's words and also assuring him Your Wish is my Command.
The Vigraham of Hanuman gives us the Strength, Confidence and Bhakthi.
There is a place marked here to show Hanuman’s leap to Lanka over sea.


Devotees run and leap over the stone for better health.Aval Naivedhyam is famous here. Those children who have nightmares are told to pray Alathiyur Hanuman. Mantra 👇

Alathiyur Hanumane
Pedi Swampnam kanarudhe
Pedi Swapnam Kandalo
Val Kondu Thattiyunarthename
🙏🕉🙏
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