Despite the massive triumphs of the world's largest corporations and most rapacious billionaires during the covid crisis, neoliberalism is in ideological retreat: more people are more critical of the idea that "free markets" can solve big problems than at any time in my life.

1/

The Democratic nomination race was a fight between the neoliberal wing of the party and the Democratic Socialists, with the candidates representing a spectrum between those two sides (and the odd outlier on either side).

2/

Supposedly, the party grandees brokered peace between the two main factions, but the left is rightfully suspicious about whether Biden - and Republicans-who-sit-as-Dems like Joe Manchin - will deliver anything beyond symbolic gestures.

3/

One bright spot: Bernie Sanders is finally chairing the Senate Budget Committee, giving him enormous power over muscular covid relief packages, Medicare expansion, and rolling back Trump and Bush tax-cuts on the

This is where Sanders' long experience in the Senate, and his virtuoso work using its procedures to advance his position, will serve him well. As we saw with McConnell, the ability to wield procedure is a powerful asset in getting stuff done.

5/

So it’s starting to look to me like this is what’s gonna happen. Within 24 hours Biden will be declared the winner. Let’s face it he only needs 6 votes to “claim victory”. The MSM will of course spread this far and wide. The left will rejoice and cry tears of joy. Do you really..

Trumpism is no more a thing than Justin Bieberism. It's a fad. 5 years ago there was no Trumpist majority in the GOP. What's enduring is the GOP formula of exploiting the racism/nationalism of rural/suburban Americans to provide political fuel for policies that benefit the rich.

That formula--populism in the service of corporatism--has been with us for ages, was reshaped for the modern age under Reagan and has driven both the widening economic and political divides in America ever since. It will long survive Trump.

Trump weaponized it-fanning the flames of social division so that he could do even morefor a smaller & smaller percentage of the population. The reality was, he has not be very good at it. While he has GOP support, his popularity in polls has lagged all other recent presidents.

At the same time, growing recognition of shifting demographics in the US and the advent of social media have created new opportunities for the most extreme members of the GOP coalition to unite, mobilize and increase their voice.

That isn't just bad for the US. It's a problem for the GOP, particularly in terms of national elections. (The GOP has won the popular vote only once in the past eight presidential elections. While they benefit from electoral college advantages, this is a terrible trend for them.)

I worked late into the night on Election Day 2016. I remember the shocking news of Trump's victory reaching Clinton campaign headquarters, her supporters howling in anguish and sobbing. Many of those images have been sarcastically memed over the years since that night.

Aaron Rupar owning himself, a thread

@[email protected]

🧵 Thomas Wictor Thread 🧵

You told me that you heard Pelosi on the radio saying that Trump had to be removed, and she sounded like an escapee from a lunatic asylum.

1/ Political violence is NEVER an appropriate call to action. It is certainly not appropriate for a sitting United States Senator like @CoryBooker to call on Americans to head to the Capitol to "get up in the face of Congresspeople." #incitement

I'm reading through US Supreme Court filing in Texas
versus Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin. I'm on page 30 of 92 pages...

Wow!

Pennsylvania:
• Ballots with NO MAILED date. 9 005.
• Ballots Returned on or BEFORE the Mailed Date. 58 221.
• Ballots Returned one day after Mailed Date. 51 200.
"These nonsensical numbers alone total
118 426 ballots and exceed Biden’s margin of
81 660 votes over Trump."

Pennsylvania: CSV file from the state on November 4 depicts 3.1m mail in ballots sent out but on November 2, the information was provided that only 2.7m ballots had been sent out. "This discrepancy of approximately 400 000 ballots from 11/2 to 11/4 has not been explained."

Georgia: "Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, without legislative approval, unilaterally abrogated Georgia’s statute governing the signature verification process for absentee ballots. This unconstitutional change in Georgia law materially benefitted Biden"

Michigan: "Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, without legislative approval, unilaterally abrogated Michigan election statutes related to absentee ballot applications and signature verification. Michigan’s legislature has not ratified these changes..."

Much of Twitter is misunderstanding Bruce Castor’s speech at Trump’s impeachment trial because much of Twitter is absolutely NOT Bruce Castor’s audience.

This man is on it. He knows he only needs to keep *over 1/3 with him. Then more so, he needs the American nation on his side.

Honestly, Twitter misunderstanding what Bruce Castor is doing right now is like Twitter misunderstanding how Brexit & Trump won back then

“Why fear the people who were smart enough to pick you?” (*Listen*)

And yes, ditto for David Schoen. He knows who his audience is.

And he’s on target.

Two different audiences
1) Castor: public opinion
2) Schoen: the law

Oooooh, he held up the Red book. OUCH 😖😆

1/18 How Flare makes you richer by encouraging participation in the network, making it better over time.

(Video version @ https://t.co/KffCtIVVlo)

A thread. 👇

2/18 Imagine you lived in a country with a really high inflation rate, say 10%. That would be awful wouldn't it? Every year your money would be worth 10% less, so you'd have to hustle to earn at least 10% more each year just to break even.

3/18 But what if this country paid you to vote? Every month there was some kind of election, and if you participated by voting, you would get paid. Participating in all of the elections was enough to not only offset the 10% inflation, but get you a bit more buying power.

4/18 That's a pretty cool way to encourage people's participation in the democracy, right? But it wouldn't necessarily make the country better. A lot of people would probably just vote for anybody so they could get the reward and go home.

5/18 But what if the reward only went to the people who voted for the people that were most likely the best candidates? The people who got the most votes in the end are (democratically speaking) the best, and if you voted for one of THOSE people you'd get the reward.

Where are we at as of 1450 CET?

Talks continuing, could go on for a while longer. One informed source is suggesting that because the fish deal was agreed at the high political level (btn @vonderleyen and @BorisJohnson) it was left to officials to translate it into real numbers

2/ Some reflections from an EU diplomat briefed on the rest of the deal, which appears to be in place:

3/ "There is nothing particularly surprising. It is consistent with what we've been hearing all along. The UK red lines are respected. Our concerns are also respected. Of course we have to see the fine print, but in general there is a robust level playing field."

4/ The LPF mechanism is said to be a "complicated structure" which works both ways.

5/ "It doesn't mean that because you have these structures you necessarily have to use them. The mood at the moment is, do you want to diverge [from EU standards] for the sake of diverging? In reality, most likely, pragmatism will prevail."

💥Ted Cruz, Ali Alexander, and CJ Pearson.

The road to the January 6th insurrection.

Thread

This thread involves 3 main players:
1)Ted Cruz
2)Ali Alexander
3)CJ Pearson.

The first two you are aware of but let me give you a brief overview to give some context.

You've all seen the Stop the Steal clip by now with Ali Alexander.

But what you might not have known is that the person standing next to Ali Alexander on stage with Sidney Powell & Lin Wood is a young republican by the name of:

CJ Pearson

But we'll get back to him soon.

First, let's talk about Ted Cruz.

Cruz was one of the leading & most influential figures responsible for the Jan 6th insurrection.

I won’t go too deep into Cruz as we generally know his story. But @donwinslow does a good job of representing his

The second player is Ali Alexander (Formerly Ali Abdul Razaq Akbar) but what you may not have known is that Ali has been in this game for a LONG time.

Alexander actually got his beginnings in 2007-2008 during the Tea Party movement to which he claims he co-founded.

The Ballad of Larry, Moe & Curly

The Three Trump Attorneys

Let's talk about Michael Cohen, Rudy Giuliani & Chris Christie

Michael Cohen served as Trump's personal attorney for about a decade PRIOR to Trump coming to the White House

And whatever bad image you have of attorneys, to call Michael Cohen a lawyer, is unfair to attorneys. He acted like the worst thug, a despicable monster of a human being

Michael Cohen's 'method' was to bully and to threaten to sue and then to sue. And then to behave in all sorts of unethical ways. He acted ALWAYS like a monster.

It tells us enough, that Michael Cohen was BLOCKED from joining Trump in White House, as BEING TOO TOXIC

Even so, for first 15 months, Trump would use Michael Cohen (worked for 'free' ie paid by Trump organization, not Trump personally) - in GOVERNMENT matters. Trump would call Michael Cohen on the speaker phone - to JOIN the discussions (knowing Cohen would RECORD that discussion)

Michael Cohen's lawyer's office was raided by FBI in April of 2018. That RAID destroyed Trump's freedom, because the FBI got all the evidence it ever wanted, to put Trump away for LIFE. They have been patiently waiting for Trump to become Citizen Trump - to process those crimes

so my eldest brother, who is a moron, has been playing soldier with his moron friends in the deserts of texas for the last year preparing for the collapse of civilization if biden won (lol). they were burying food and ammo stashes out in the desert, running drills, crazy stuff

this included getting a cb license so he could be their lifeline to other groups of white idiots when the cell towers all went offline. wouldn't want to violate federal law while communicating with your resistance groups after the fall of the federal government i guess.

anyways, you would assume given that they've been prepping for the end of the world for at least a year they're well situated to ride out the rolling blackouts right?

wellll

their plan for cooking and heating during an extended power outage was natural gas, but like a lot of homes their gas service is out. the food in their freezer and fridge is already toast due to the power outrages, so they're down to canned stuff, but there's a catch.

they can get into the pull top cans just fine, but the ones that require an opener? their only can opener is electric. so a good 3/4 of his canned food store is inaccessible to him unless he goes after it with a knife, which i sincerely hope he does.

Time once again to demonstrate that "presidents have no mandate to wield power after close elections" is a scam directed solely and entirely at Republicans. By any objective standard, Biden has less of a "mandate" than anyone in memory, but no one in the media will say that.

The "mandate" narrative is silly as a matter of constitutional law. Nowhere is it written that a president's authority is diminished if the election was close, or people who didn't vote for him think his victory was illegitimate. But that's all we heard for years after Trump won.

Of course, not a single such complaint will be leveled at Biden. No one in the political/media class will insist he has an asterisk after his name and should be prevented from exercising the full powers of office, and then some.

Biden won't have to worry about "resistance" bureaucrats sabotaging his administration from Minute One or crazy Hawaiian judges stalling his policy agenda. If anyone tries it, the media will absolutely savage them, instead of cheering them on. Their very lives would be in danger.

As a matter of politics, it's fair enough to suggest that policies should be crafted with due recognition for the feelings of the opposition, and if the election was razor-close, extra care should be taken to recognize the divided electorate.

1/9 Impeachment fun fact: sitting Congressman #AlceeHastings, participating in current #impeachment, was himself impeached. He was fed judge convicted on 8 articles related to bribery/lying under oath. 4-years later, he was in #Congress. Following is from

2/9 “In 1981, a fed grand jury indicted Judge Hastings along with his friend William Borders, a D.C. lawyer. Hastings was charged with conspiracy/obstruction of justice for soliciting a $150,000 bribe in return for reducing the sentences of two mob-connected felons.” #corruption

3/9 “A year after Borders was convicted, the result of an FBI sting, Hastings's case came before the criminal court. Despite Borders’ conviction, and the fact that Hastings had indeed reduced the sentences of the two felons, he was acquitted...and returned to his judicial post.”

4/9 “Subsequently, suspicions arose that Hastings had lied and falsified evidence during the trial in order to obtain an acquittal. A special committee of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals began a new probe into the Hastings case.”

5/9 “The resulting three-year investigation ended with the panel concluding that Hastings did indeed commit perjury, tamper with evidence, and conspire to gain financially by accepting bribes. The panel recommended further action to the U.S. Judicial Conference...”