This might be a good time for folks to take a deep breath before interpreting election results. We don't know how much of victory was due to Biden's campaign message, Biden's record, Kamala's boost to the ticket, hatred for Trump, Trump errors on the campaign trail...

...the enduring appeal of Trumpism, the effectiveness of GOP campaigns for the Senate or the House, the mistakes made in Dem campaigns for the House, vice versa on both the preceding counts, the role of the GOP disinformation echosystem, COVID, the economy...

...mobilizing progressives, mobilizing centrists, racism, anti-racism, the movement to defund the police, the use of the word socialism, media blunders, voter ignorance, the impeachment process, corruption in DC, campaign finance abuse, the power of the establishment...

...the power of the Murdoch's, the hard right, the evangelicals, the Russians, the young, the old, whites, Latinos, blacks, women, men or any of the other countless factors (divine intervention, etc.) that have been cited in the media, by pols, on social media, in the days since.

For Dems, this is definitely not the time for finger pointing and division. There must be a laser-like focus on winning the run-offs in Georgia. There should be a widespread effort to mobilize the broadest possible support for the agenda of the Biden-Harris administration.

THE PLAN CONTINUES (hypothesis)

1. Everyone knows the election was fraudulent.
2. The Deep State has everything on the line
3. Trump had to follow the process to show he wasn't a dictator later. That means
a) Challenge the election
b) Recounts
c) Try the Courts...

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..."

💥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.

THREAD: Why Anon?

1. Most of the social media world saw what @LLinWood posted to twitter recently. His post has drawn out much anger and much celebration.

He asked for prayer. He talked of potential death. He asked for protection.

He spoke of Isaac Kappy, who dared to speak.

A very interesting post by A⃠n0n H/T

1) Dems will lose 25%-50% of seats per 14th Amendment, Section 2, FOR TEN YEARS
https://t.co/qUE6h6NdZ2
This phase, < 24 hours for State Legislatures to do their Constitutional duty, before Electors vote on Dec 14th.

The #FOREIGN Run, Owned, Controlled, Hacked, Stored, Subverted, Stolen, Insurrected, Manipulated, International, Multinational, CCP China International Funding Facilitated #Elections infrastructure& #Election of #America. Brought to U by Terror States, Communists&Insurrectionists

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.

Good morning, friends.

So here's a question: How should journalists deal with baseless claims undermining the integrity of the election, given that these claims are cited as the reason that the President is refusing to concede?

A thread: 1/

This moment poses a challenge in terms of avoiding amplifying false claims on the one hand, and reporting on Trump’s failure to concede on the other.

Some background and some guidelines from political scientists and scholars of journalism and democracy:

President Trump has lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College. And yet, the president and many of his Republican allies are refusing to accept the declared outcome of a free and fair election.

However, his refusal to concede should not come as a surprise.

The administration and GOP elites questioned the results before the polls had opened. They falsely claimed that there is significant & widespread voter fraud through illegal mail-in ballots, & had already stated that the election would be illegitimate if the president didn’t win.

📢The New York Times investigated these claims, speaking with election representatives from every state.

The result was consistent and unequivocal: There was no evidence of voter fraud in this election.

PARDON ROULETTE

CHRISTIE: Donald, if you pardon your kids, they will be forced to testify against you. And they will. You've trained them to be selfish. You know them. They would bury you. You cannot be this stupid. It would be the dumbest thing you could do.

#PardonRoulette

PARDON ROULETTE

BARR: What idiot suggested you should pardon your kids? Was it Hannity? Don't tell me you're listening to Giuliani again? Hasn't he gotten you into enough trouble?

#PardonRoulette

PARDON ROULETTE

IVANKA: Daddy, don't pardon anyone who is not family. Not Manafort, not Giuliani and gosh, not that vile creep Stephen Miller. The more you pardon, the more there will be investigations. Keep pardons just within the family, Daddy.

#PardonRoulette

PARDON ROULETTE

IVANKA: Daddy, don't pardon the boys. Junior is an idiot. Eric is a moron and isn't even our blood. We all know his dad is Gary Busey, so fuck him. Just pardon me

#PardonRoulette

PARDON ROULETTE

TRUMP: What about Jared? Should I give him a pardon?

IVANKA: That's up to you, Daddy. Jared's a bit dense but loves you more than Beavis & Butt-Head, or Rent-A-Mom

#PardonRoulette

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...”

Panic has always been a valuable political resource, but 2020 was the year our ruling class perfected the art of harvesting it, renewing it, and refining it to weapons-grade purity.

The bitter irony is that one reason panic became so easy for politicians and grifters to sow and reap is the great collapse in confidence caused by their own incompetence and greed over the past few decades. The political class found a way to profit from its own ineptitude.

If public confidence in government and major institutions had not been so thoroughly shaken by years of rampant corruption and incredibly expensive failures, perhaps the public would not have been panicked so easily - and profitably! - when the coronavirus struck.

Even as public confidence collapsed and paranoia grew, social media came along to make our society more twitchy and neurotic. We argue constantly about the spread of "disinformation," but not enough about how social media rewards irrationality and performative emotionalism.

Panic and social media both nourish the human herd instinct, and herds respond to loud noises, not reasonable arguments. Our society was panicking over far less important and dangerous things before Covid-19 arrived. We were panicking over some bizarre social issue every week.

Thread 6: Brainwashing by Bannon

I mean literally brainwashing. Please see psychological and sociological theories. I mean literally building a cult - that CANNOT FIND THE TRUTH

It is like the Branch Davidians (mass suicide)

Steve Bannon built this cult for Trump

I mean literally brainwashing. MOST OF YOU have relatives or friends who are inside the cult. They cannot be reasoned with. They cannot find the truth. They believe in their brainwashing.

PERFECTLY SANE even intelligent people can be brainwashed. It is not 'stupidity'

Yes MANY of the Trump #cult45 are gullible and some are mentally simple, many are lowly educated. BUT plenty of smart, educated, successful people have fallen into the cult - and like any cult - they cannot get out.

They cannot find the truth.

Steve Bannon, with Mercer money, and Putin's KGB brainwashing experts in Europe, built the best brainwashing machine ever designed, called Cambridge Analytica in 2016. They stole user info, and then used Facebook as the broadcast platform to poison nearly half of Americans

Most of the GOP voters were fed brainwashing lies with Steve Bannon / Cambridge Analytica developed activating phrases like Drain The Swap and Deep State. Yes. These were DESIGNED (with the help of KGB brainwashing experts) to poison Republican voters. Anyone who uses those..

THREAD

It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have taken the decision to resign from the SNP.

I cannot in good faith ask people to vote SNP in the upcoming Holyrood elections. Those with the ability to make a difference, and make positive change have stood by and done nothing

1. I have tried to reconcile myself many times to staying in on the basis of wholly good organisations such as @YSINational, @SNPStudents and @OutForIndy. However, I have seen for myself the number of times that these organisations have been ignored.

2. However, every time these people try to do anything to advance equality, they have been left empty handed while TERFs have been pandered to.

3. In the 4 years I was in the SNP, I have met a whole host of good people trying to do good things. However, I cannot in particular feel that I can in good faith stand in the same organisation as those who want to roll back equality, and intimidate those who disagree.

4. I joined the SNP because I thought that I could advance my vision of independence. However, more and more it has dawned on me that the egalitarian Scotland that I want to see is not something that I will ever get from the SNP.

(THREAD) The main problem with that @DanDrezner piece in the Post is that it's an international politics prof writing about the field in which I'm a professor—communications. No one in communications would *ever* compare the blogosphere to either Twitter or Substack. Here's why.

1/ Back in the mid-aughts, I was a Koufax Award-nominated political blogger (I don't know what Drezner was doing then; I first heard of him about a year ago). So I was into the blogosphere pretty deep, as I also ran a second high-traffic blog that was focused on the art world.

2/ The "blogosphere" was an outgrowth of MySpace and LiveJournal, inasmuch as in the heady early days of the internet people suddenly realized that they could engage in private diaristic writing—a very specific subgenre of writing—in the public square, and it was suddenly "okay."

3/ So the blogosphere as such had *nothing* to do with journalism, which needless to say was in a different state just 15 years ago (note: unlike Drezner, I also teach writing and journalism at the university level, so this thread is squarely "in my area," unlike his Post piece).

4/ The blogosphere was a manifestation of the transformation of the public-private binary at the dawn of the internet—and *also* connected to the "creative writing" explosion (what I did a PhD on); in the aughts, creative writing was the fastest-growing discipline *in the world*.

1/12 Plan for today; we expect the #MOMA bill (Ministerial and Other Maternity Allowances) debate to begin around 12.45pm.
It is still not too late to email if you haven't already done so, but Tweeting about this and tagging MPs will raise more awareness on social media.

2/12 We have the names (in speaking order), of all those who are listed to speak. We suggest you Tweet these MPs (especially if you are a constituent) and make your views known. Use the #MOMA hashtag.

3/12 Minister Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North)
Shadow Minister Rachel Reeves (Leeds West)
Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North)
Kirsten Oswald (East Renfrewshire)
Cherilyn Mackrory (Truro and Falmouth)
Ms Harriet Harman (Camberwell and Peckham)

4/12 Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock)
Stella Creasy (Walthamstow)
Mrs Maria Miller (Basingstoke)
Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower)
Sir John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings)
Wera Hobhouse (Bath)
Dehenna Davison (Bishop Auckland)
Feryal Clark (Enfield North)

5/12 Shaun Bailey (West Bromwich West)
Sarah Owen (Luton North)
Mr Richard Holden (North West Durham)
Claire Hanna (Belfast South)
Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford)
Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West)
Kim Johnson (Liverpool, Riverside)

Tuning into the McCabe hearing.

Lindsey Graham is still boasting that CIA unmasked Hillary long before they unmasked Mike Flynn. He's legit complaining that Hillary ran a campaign and the CIA didn't

Whitehouse now explaining to Lindsey Graham that tying an opponent to a foreign country is not a criminal act. "If you look at CI investigation, obvious difference is that there were contacts bt RU intel operatives and campaign operatives."

"I don't think the FBI has any business interfering into that kind of campaign debate, you would be besides yourself with anger if FBI investigated Trump for trying to tie Biden to China."

Now Graham is talking about how Coffee Boy said working with Russia would be treason which 1) means that he thinks Roger Stone committed treason and 2) he demonstrably lied in that interview.

Now Lindsey claiming that the dossier created the impression that Trump was in bed with Russia, and not his open requests for Russian help.