First Thread: Before Trump

So my Ph D treaties on Twitter, about how Trump split up the GOP. We start with history of course. And we go to the political era before Trump. To the origins.

No. Not Sarah Palin.

No. Not Newt Gingrich. The origins:

George Wallace, the last racist

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

Many do not know what crime is 'Sanctions Busting' (Weisselberg 3, Giuliani 3) because is so rare. I believe only one conviction of it in USA in past century

It is a crime against the United States of America

It is INCREDIBLY serious, federal life remaining. Life without parole

Sanctions are imposed by USA against a foreign government. Because USA is world financial center, that is VERY damaging to foreign payments. Because US dollar is most used international payment currency, it limits any other country's financial activity enormously

Current Iranian sanctions were imposed by USA in 1987 (Reagan) when Iran supported terrorism against shipping. Were expanded in 1995 (Clinton) & in 2006 (W Bush). Trump has circumvented these with Turkish bank, and Trump properties in USA It is money laundering crime for a NATION

When Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014 and annexed Crimea, Obama slapped biggest sanctions in US history against Russia. Trump then worked with Putin to circumvent these, partly with Putin's bank with offices conveniently in Trump Tower.

Sanctions busting is a financial activity where a US citizen helps a sanctioned country bypass the sanctions. So it is a crime against the Unted States of America

Legally, it is not 'treason' but is a 'treasonous' crime, somewhat similar. Assisting America's enemies illegally

The Garland Thread 1/

Some fear the Department of Justice (DOJ) is not going to prosecute Trumpomobsters, in particular January 6th seditionists. Some think Attorney General Merrick Garland is protecting Trump and his criminal gang

That is madness

Let's do this once & for all

The Garland Thread 2/

The US Department of Justice has 113,000 employees of which more than 10,000 are attorneys. It is BY FAR the largest law firm on the planet. Five times larger than largest private law firm of America

They are all PROSECUTORS

They ENFORCE THE THE LAW

The Garland Thread 3/

These are not DEFENSE attorneys who try to get criminals off on technicalities

These are not CONTRACT lawyers who try to find wiggle room in a contract to screw a partner

These are career professionals who want to ENFORCE THE LAW

To prosecute CRIMINALS

The Garland Thread 4/

Some people on TV chat shows, and some here on Twitter, are suggesting that because Trumpomobsters are
Republican
or rich
or white
or men
or powerful

that they can escape justice. I hear you. You have SEEN injustice on TV, often racially biased

But note..

The Garland Thread 5/

Do you remember this dude? A chap named Trump. Was a Republican President just a coupla years ago

He selected as his Attorney General an ultra-conservative, senior Republican Senator by the name of Jeff Sessions. He ran the DOJ from Feb 2017 to Nov 2018

Path 6 - Mark Meadows First Thread/1

This is the Sixth Path to take Trump to prison for life. It is named Mark Meadows who is a key player to get Trump convicted in espionage, related to stealing 325 classified documents in Trump's attempt to sell US secrets to US enemies

Path 6 - Mark Meadows First Thread/2

Donald Trump faces 6 paths that EACH take him to prison for life

1. Weisselberg (NY taxes)
2. Giuliani (Ukraine)
3. Matt Gaetz (selling Presidential pardons)
4. Roger Stone (Jan 6th)
5. Tom Barrack (UAE & Qatar)
6. Mark Meadows (Espionage)

Path 6 - Mark Meadows First Thread/3

Note: Mark Meadows is a KEY player on Path 4: Roger Stone, which is about January 6th. And Mark Meadows seems to have flipped against Trump (now in August)

This Path 6 is SEPARATE from those crimes of Jan 6th. This is entirely ANOTHER crime

Path 6 - Mark Meadows First Thread/4

The INITIAL crime in Path 6 is THEFT of Classified documents. Ms Reality Winner went to prison for 4 years holding ONE classified document. Trump stole 325. Even if we ONLY give Trump 4 years on each of those it would be 1,300 YEARS in prison

Path 6 - Mark Meadows First Thread/5

Path 6 goes from theft of 'Classified' documents (up to 5 years prison per document) to theft of Top Secret documents (62 of them were Top Secret = add 620 years)

It includes obstruction of justice, on AT LEAST 103 counts (= add 824 years)

READ AND RETWEET AS THOUGH THE LIFE OF YOUR NATION DEPENDS ON IT. WHICH IT DOES. Citizens, I am going to add to the picture with more information. I am not going to let this pass while keeping information to myself. I am going to walk you through 2 narratives.

A printing shop in Michigan prints ballots for Delaware County, Pennsylvania and as Lancashire County, Pennsylvania (this is normal). But along with the ballots it prints on contract and delivers to those counties, it prints some ballots that get diverted to Bethpage, New York.

There, a boiler room of folks fill in "Biden" (often without even voting downballot). The ballots (which are forensically legitimate, given that they come from the same print shop as the good ballots, ) then get trucked into Pennsylvania and mailed. Hundreds of thousands.

We have all of that documented. Texts, statements, affidavits, everything.

We also know that this same ballot printing company (and other firms in the same family) also print for Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia.

As usual is maddening how easy this is to understand and how much everyone refuses to understand it. There are two things happening here, and they aren't super hard to understand. There's the asshole administration and the asshole reporter.

The court said asshole administration revoked asshole Jim Acosta's press pass without due process. WH deemed him press, gave him a press pass, then they kicked him out without even being able to say who made the decision or on what grounds.

We want hostile, combative reporters. We **want** that. **You** want that. We want that because the press secretary of every single administration is a liar. Even the ones you like. Lying is their job. They show up to avoid answering, but give the appearance of being answerable.

It shouldn't be easy for government to just refuse to be answerable. It should be hard to dodge. Hard to kick people out. Hard to control the narrative. That shouldn't be easy for the gov't. Not even your most favoritest president.

You, the American citizen, want the truth. Reporters should be there to get it. That means asking questions doggedly, demanding answers. This is not an obscure idea. It should be obvious to anyone who's experienced having a president you didn't vote for. Super rare right?

Here's a quick thread on the chronology leading up to today's vote in the Scottish Parliament on whether ministers should go to court to investigate the finances of Donald Trump's Scottish resorts via a legal mechanism known as an Unexplained Wealth Order.👇

Intrigue surrounding the source of Trump's finances here is by no means new. An editorial in @TheScotsman questioned where the money was coming from back in *2008*. But the UWO issue came to prominence last Feb during exchanges in the Scottish Parliament.

The issue returned to parliament last November, when First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said any consideration or application for an UWO were "properly matters for the Crown Office, not for the Scottish ministers."

This argument went against the explicit definition of who is able to apply for a UWO, as set out in the Criminal Finances Act 2017 / Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which states that "the Court of Session may, on an application made by the Scottish ministers, make an UWO"

The leading advocate, Aidan O'Neill QC, has also said Scottish ministers alone are responsible for decisions around UWOs, and that transferring responsibility to the Crown Office or Lord Advocate "does not and can not" change its legal responsibilities.

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