There is one card left to play to save America; but it is a trump card. President Trump, as a private citizen is the most powerful man in America. He retains a committed following of 74 million patriots; who are also 74 million consumers. On his word, they will do whatever he

I get that there are good and important libertarian arguments against the tech companies’ Trumper ban. But here’s a thread in its defense … 1/14

It’s a thread on why conservatives and liberals (as opposed to insurrectionists who would topple American democracy if they could) should favor banning speech that encouraged or cheered on Wednesday’s obscene events. 2/14

They should favor the ban because the lunatic agitator ranting on the street corner has no *right* to be given a megaphone that enables him to be heard by every potential lunatic follower of his cause in the country. 3/14

This isn’t a goddamn game. It’s not a reality show. And neither is it an Oxford debating society event. 4/14

This week the virtual world of combat many of us marinade in online burst into the real world. 5/14

As Parler disappears from the Android and Ios app stores and faces being kicked off of Amazon's (and other) clouds, people who worry about monopolized corporate control over speech are divided over What It Means.

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There's an obvious, trivial point to be made here: Twitter, Apple and Google are private companies. When they remove speech on the basis of its content, it's censorship, but it's not GOVERNMENT censorship. It doesn't violate the First Amendment.

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And yes, of course it's censorship. They have made a decision about the type and quality of speech they'll permit, and they enforce that decision using the economic, legal and technical tools at their disposal.

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If I invited you to my house for dinner and said, "Just so you know, no one is allowed to talk about racism at the table," it would be censorship. If I said "no one is allowed to say racist things at the table," it would also be censorship.

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I censor my daughter when I tell her not to swear. I censor other Twitter users when I hide their replies to my posts. I censor commenters on my blog when I delete their replies.

Dress is up as "content removal" or "moderation" if you'd like, but it's obviously censorship.

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As a) a highly trained movement organizer and b) a professional researcher of the violent far right, I cannot roll my eyes enough at everyone from law enforcement to CNN personalities being like "we're trying to figure out who organized this."

I thought often during the latter Trump years about the contrast with Barack Obama's "stray voltage" strategy, which involved saying provocative and often flatly untrue things to prompt discussion of Obama's preferred topics for political gain.

Four years ago, I started saving the best of the incredibly bizarre, stupid and bad vibes photos being rapidly produced by the Trump administration to cathartically post today. Here is my Surreal Trump Photo Dump

Hell Dinner

these are in vaguely chronological order, most are of trump, but some are of other related weirdness. It's been played to death, but this was definitely a tone-setter

Another early banger, a sensible oil of this should be his white house portrait

probably the GOAT, my mind still reels when I think about seeing the ORB for the first time

The Threat of Authoritarianism in the U.S. is Very Real, and Has Nothing To Do With Trump

The COVID-driven centralization of economic power and information control in the hands of a few corporate monopolies poses enduring threats to political

Asserting that Trump is a fascist-like dictator threatening the foundations of US democracy has been a virtual requirement over the last 4 years to obtain entrance to cable news Green Rooms, sinecures as mainstream newspaper columnists, and popularity in faculty lounges.

Yet it has proven to be a preposterous farce.

In 2020 alone, Trump had 2 perfectly crafted opportunities to seize authoritarian power—a global health pandemic and protests and sustained riots throughout American cities—yet he did virtually nothing to exploit those opportunities.

Early in the pandemic, Trump was criticized, especially by Democrats, for failing to assert the powers he had, such as commandeering the means of industrial production under the Defense Production Act, invoked by Truman to force industry to produce materials for the Korean War.

In March, The Washington Post reported that “Governors, Democrats in Congress and some Senate Republicans have been urging Trump for at least a week to invoke the act, and... Joe Biden came out in favor of it, too,” yet “Trump [gave] a variety of reasons for not doing so.”

Seriously people. Executive orders mean exactly nothing to what Trump legally can or can't do to fuck with the election results (which is zero). Stop letting idiots make you crazy

There are two very simple, very basic reasons executive orders are meaningless here. Understand them, please

1) the president cannot issue an executive order that grants himself a power he does not already have. For example, the president could not issue an executive order saying that from now on he can make laws they don't need to pass Congress

(I mean, he could sign an executive order saying that, but it wouldn't have any legal effect)

2) the president can issue executive orders at any time.

Since everyone is still talking about how successful of an evil genius henchman Bill Barr was, let's catalog all the times he corruptly tried to help Trump but fell flat on his face:

Barr tried to get the case against Michael Flynn thrown out, but this effort failed entirely. Trump ended up having to pardon Flynn, to clean up Barr's failure.

Barr tried to get Roger Stone's prison sentence reduced to the minimum, but Stone ended up getting the multi-year sentence he was always going to get. Trump had to commute Stone's sentence, to clean up Barr's failure.

After Michael Cohen was let out on house arrest due to the pandemic, Barr tried throwing him back in prison to prevent him from publishing his anti-Trump book. But a judge quickly freed Cohen, who succeeded in publishing his book.

Barr tried to install his own guy as head of the SDNY, presumably to stop the arrest of Steve Bannon. But Barr blew it, the SDNY remained in proper hands, and Bannon ended up getting arrested.

President Trump is taking us into a Golden Age. Your vote hasn’t mattered for a long time, but that is changing under Trump. Trump and Sidney Powell are going after the big kahuna, the Central Banking System.

The law is whatever the powers that be say it is. Humans are word controlled creatures. The reason why most politicians don’t go to jail for doing things that we would put in jail for life is because they only go by Maritime Law. We are controlled by the law of the land.

The law of the high seas is the law of money. Anytime you use money you are under the law of the water. The law of the land is different everywhere because it’s the law of different cultures.
The Statue of Liberty had to be put in water because its not the Statue of Freedom

its the Statue of Liberty. Liberty is what a sailor gets when he pulls into port on a ship. He is not free, he is given liberty. Words are not picked by chance. Words are very important. When you break the law you have to goto court. Why is it in a court?

Because it’s a game for them!!! They really believe they own you! If you do not know the rules of the game you must hire a lawyer to represent you. Hire because they are higher than you in the eyes of Maritime Law.
All ships are female because they are carrying items for money.

1/ 🚨The END GAME! -- President J. Donald Trump is a SIGNIFICANT figure in Human History!...Leading a massive campaign to AWAKEN the CORE of every RIGHTEOUS human being on the planet!...Extending CHARITY to the Good and wielding UNMATCHED FURY to the Evil!...Let's WALK!!😎🇺🇸

I said 3 years ago if anybody thought in his fight with the Deep State Trump and Co. were being completely frozen out of using LEO/Intelligence apparatus and so he's been flying all this time absolutely blind...

You're about to find out how very wrong you are about that.

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Imagine for a second this:
1) Trump has Declassified everything, but not released it to the public
2) He or his lawyers or someone has everything
3) They try to impeach Trump but there is no conviction in the Senate

Reading this piece from last summer by @normative, I realize that there is a parallel here between Qanon's "Storm" and the Cold War cults that sprang up at various times, but especially in the 70s and the 80s. Bear with me.

"The Storm" is a moment, like nuclear war, after which everything is different, even if there's bloodshed. It's purgative, restorative, resets all the social relationships, ends all traditional and normal social structures. It's shaking society like a huge Etch-A-Sketch.
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Why is this so attractive to so many broken people? Precisely because it *is* a reset. It's awful, but it's an awfulness that sets everything - including all social differences - back to zero. The high and mighty are smited, and the Common Folk live by their superior wits. /3

The Cold War pulp literature is what one scholar calls "Radioactive Rambos," men freed to be Warrior-Kings of the Wasteland, with all rules about sex and society out the window in the name of a greater good: America, Civilization, Killing

The sexual element of Cold War survival cultism was omnipresent. (Dr. Strangelove and "breeding prodigiously" in the mines, etc.)
But the other undertone is status. And how the low rise up and rule after the pinheads blow all that shit up.
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Impressions of today's Walter Reed presser:

a) Conley's mea culpa: “I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude of the team. Didn’t want to give any information that would steer the course of his illness.” Trump's fingerprints.

But even so, today was only slightly better. (1/8)

b/ Biggest news is that T had 2 episodes of hypoxia (down to 93-94% O2 saturation), & Conley evaded whether sat was ever <90. "Never in low 80s" is all he offered.

c/ Re: Chest CT: "There were some expected findings but nothing of concern." What the hell does that mean?...(2/8)

...To be clear, the "expected findings" on a chest CT is NORMAL. If it was normal, he should say that. Anything else should have been described.

(The only semi-benign interpretation would be if the prez has a known chronic finding – like a benign nodule – that was seen)...(3/8)

... But it seems far likelier that they found evidence of pneumonia or other manifestations of Covid lung involvement or inflammation, which is serious and raises the level of concern and risk. (4/8)

d/ They pulled trigger & started dexamethasone. So they were clearly concerned. Given documented low O2, dex definitely was indicated.

e/ Said they're starting to plan for possible discharge, as early as tomorrow. Even w/ WH's medical capacity, that seems like an awful call. 5/8

I live in a community that never took their Trump signs down.

The kind of place where they hope Trump starts a second government.

I need you to hear me when I say this—these people believe the assault on the Capitol was a great victory for

Early polling after the terrorist attack shows that 45% of Republicans approved of it.

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More alarming is that nearly 70% of Republicans don’t think a terrorist attack at the US Capitol is a threat to democracy.

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And more Republicans would call those who stormed the Capitol “patriots” than “terrorists.”

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For those holding your breath, thinking Trump or Josh Hawley or Ted Cruz will resign—don’t.

There is no incentive for them to do so.

If they manage to stay in power after an attempted coup—they win.

If they are forced out by the “elite Washington establishment”—they win.

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The Thursday installment of Trump's #ImpeachmentTrial begins with a Baked Alaska clip

Rep. Diana DeGette is using quotes like this to try and establish that rioters were taking orders from Trump

"We were invited here! ... We were invited by the president of the United States"

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As our national civics lesson continues to unfold on its march toward our 59th Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2021 & 45’s 2nd term, I write today not of his unmasking exercise but of distraction, evolution & Trump’s battle for a return to the Constitution.

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By the President of the Senate.

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As a 3L in the FSU College of Law, I almost single-handedly produced an “African Americans and the Law in Florida” conference.

It was a futile attempt to give our Black Law Students Association a substantive event annually revolving around our chosen profession.

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The following year, our BLSA chapter could not have been less interested in sustaining it and reverted to the same ole, same ole.

Fluff.

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My subsequent failure on the Florida Bar examination is worthy of a novel. Not from a bitch and moan perspective, although incredible institutional mistakes were made that crippled my legal career.