THREAD: To cap off the Trump era, I interviewed a politically diverse group of constitutional scholars, presidential historians and experts on democracy to put together a definitive list of Trump's ten most egregious abuses of power. Here's what we found.

1) SUBVERTING THE 2020 ELECTION. There is broad agreement that Trump's worst abuse was his relentless effort to undermine the vote and overturn the legitimate results. No POTUS ever tried a political coup like this. It's simply un-American, experts said.

2) INCITING AN INSURRECTION. We all saw what happened on January 6. Trump incited a rally supporters in DC to attack the US Capitol while electoral votes were being counted. He got impeached for it. A permanent scar on his legacy, experts said.

3) ABUSING THE BULLY PULPIT. Different than other abuses because it's speech, not actions. But still, experts said this was a very big deal. His nonstop lying, attacks, racist rhetoric, and fanning of flames was deeply corrosive to our political culture.

4) POLITICIZING THE DOJ. Trump repeatedly crossed lines and violated norms that have been in place since Watergate to create independence between the WH and federal law enforcement. Wielded DOJ as a weapon against enemies and shield for himself and allies.

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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."

One thing you see a lot on here is people pointing out the contradictions in the putative views of Trump’s GOP. COVID is a Chinese plot but also a hoax. The insurrection was antifa but also a tour of patriots.

What people need to understand is that these contradictions aren’t a SYMPTOM of Trumpism.

They point to its very core - its emotional, psychological appeal to millions of America. The ability to sustain these contradictions is why Trump was elected, how his movement exists.

Ultimately what Trump offers - what fascism offers - is a philosophy of total emotional and psychological indulgence. Believe whatever makes you feel best. Live your politics examined.

Don’t want to take credit for the insurrection, but want to claim its dead as your martyrs? Go ahead! Say it! The Capitol was attacked by antifa but Ashlii Babbit was a hero patriot.

Hate China, but annoyed by the scolding liberals and their masks? Call the coronavirus a Democratic hoax - and at the same time, a deadly foreign bioweapon.

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.”

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!!😎🇺🇸

Thread tweet 1

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

@Nick_Carmody @NBCNews @BandyXLee1 @Narcopath_UK @narceducator The same tactics used with Trump were used with Hitler by the Evangelicals to set up someone who exhibits qualities as an AntiChrist into a role of a Saint but this time targetting Muslims as Killers of Americans & still using gay people as abomination of God to con churches...1/

@NBCNews @BandyXLee1 @Narcopath_UK @narceducator This was by design and process that developed over 60 years of psychological influencing through a collaboration of the entertainment world, religious broadcasts, oil/gas loyalists who bastardized the US Constitution, and #KochNetwork #DarkMoney orgs connected to DeVos...2/

@NBCNews @BandyXLee1 @Narcopath_UK @narceducator Judeo-Christian America never existed. 1A was designed to removed Roman Catholic Church of England hold over the newly formed US Government. It demands zero influence of religion over law or government decisions. The Virginia Baptist insisted on it w/ Thomas Jefferson...2/

@NBCNews @BandyXLee1 @Narcopath_UK @narceducator Judeo-Christian is coined from Nitzche's book "The AntiChrist" that means Jews converting to Christianity. It is used in the context we see today to tie in a Jewish Jesus into the Torah so that the strict rules of the Torah are elevated to a Christian philosophy. A paradox...4/

@NBCNews @BandyXLee1 @Narcopath_UK @narceducator It is a paradox because Jesus was a rebel Jew. He defied the teachings of the Torah which pissed off the Pharisees - Jewish religious leaders. He elevated poor & people society condemned to same level as leaders. He is nothing like what we see today as American Christianity...5/

Does anyone find comfort that Donald Trump’s father had a middle name of Christ his mothers name was Mary and his uncle’s name was John. Oh and by the way the winter solstice is at 8:30 AM on 21 December RTR Reminded me today that the star of Bethlehem appeared on the 21st and

Second Thread: The incurable SPD

Looking at the coming split of the GOP, next up is the era right up to Trump announcing his run in 2015. What happened in the decades right up to that moment. We get SPD, Sarah Palin's Disease. Alas, there is no cure

I like to joke that the GOP got infected by SPD Sarah Palin's Disease but many have pointed out that no, the GOP became sick well before Sarah. And the root cause is Newt Gingrich.

The first corruption of GOP as a politically viable party came via Newt

When the GOP came off its immense power era (2 terms of Reagan, record-national support, leading to rare 3rd term by one-term Daddy Bush) - then came suddenly the populist Bill Clinton - who stole the Republican thunder and stole the MIDDLE GROUND of politics

Newt Gingrich poisoned the GOP political minds that instead of contesting for the middle of the nation - the GOP should instead fight for the base. Poison the middle, enrage the base, and win that way.

Since Bill Clinton won in 1992, GOP has only once won 50% of the election

That once exception was 2004 - when W Bush got the benefit of the 9/11 terrorist attack good will. He was NOT a popular President. It was a sympathy vote. Apart from that, GOP has not gotten over 50% of popular vote once, since Newt Gingrich's mad political 'strategy'

1. To folks, and especially my Israeli friends, who are wondering why I’m questioning this Morocco deal and the Sudan deal. Let me try and explain my concerns. It’s not sour grapes or instinctively criticizing Trump. It’s about other US interests and policy.

2. First the UAE and Bahrain deals i entirely support. And I think connecting Israel with the Gulf and also putting off annexation are all strategically valuable and positive for the US. Though I have reservations about the UAE F35 sale.

3. But in the Morocco and Sudan case there is a cost benefit for the US. For the Israelis there is no cost benefit. It’s just all benefit. So of course they support it and don’t understand why any American may have concerns.

4. On Morocco - recognizing Western Sahara as Moroccan territory when it has been in dispute for years and combining that with the decision on the Golan has broad international consequences.

5. Since 1945 the US has stuck by a basic international principle of not recognizing acquisition of territory by use of force. This norm is now eroding and it could have dangerous long term consequences and lead to more conflicts.

FIFTEEEN DAYS

You & I would've been arrested 15 days ago if we did what Trump did;

— incited a riot that escalated into a lethal terrorist attack on our nation's Capitol

You & I would have been arrested 15 days ago.

Denial of reality is unacceptable. T is a terrorist threat.

The media spent years pretending Trump could magically pardon his co-conspirators, consequence-free, at any time, even though nothing works that way. Now the media is pretending the GOP can magically filibuster, consequence-free, at any time. Nothing works that way. It gets old.

Every media pundit understands that there are always consequences to every move in politics. Yet they always frame the Republicans as being able to magically do anything they want, with no consequences, to try to scare/enrage you into staying tuned in.

"But the Republicans are indeed getting away with it all..." No they're not. They lost the Senate, the House, and the presidency. Their top leaders in the House are at each others' throats. They're out of power, adrift, losing donors. These are the consequences for their antics.

The catch is, it's just not the consequences you want. Because even as TV pundits convinced you that republicans were magically winning, liberal Twitter pundits convinced you that republicans could be defeated by imaginary simplistic magic wand solutions.

So now the pundits have spun you around to where you don't even realize your side won the election, you don't realize the Democrats are going be able to pass everything they want to pass, and you're pissed at Democratic leaders for imaginary reasons.

NEW: Before he left office, Trump filed his final financial disclosures with @OfficeGovEthics. I’ve had a read through them. The income he is claiming in respect of his Scottish resorts is entirely divorced from the reality set out in black in white in his UK accounts. Thread 👇

Firstly, Trump lists his income from ‘golf related revenue’ at Turnberry as $9.8m. Which is interesting, given the latest UK accounts for Turnberry's parent company registered losses of £2.3m ($3.1m) for the 12 months to 31 Dec 2019.

Even the turnover in the UK accounts - listed as £19.6m ($26.8m) is a country mile off that income figure listed in Trump's OGE filings. Comparing like for like, even accounting for that weird 'golf related revenue' descriptor, it's not even close.

If you drill down in more detail, and subtract the administrative expenses at Turnberry's parent firm from its turnover in order to get closer to whatever that 'income' figure entails, the number is still £12.5m ($17.2m).

And if you go deeper, and account for the gains the company made in foreign exchanges, and deduct depreciation and amortisation costs, the figure is £9.9m ($13.6m). Still a way off the OGE number.

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.

1/

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.

2/

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.

3/

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.

4/

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.

5/

Some thoughts from the update on the President’s condition:

They said illness for 72 hours? Seems to be a different timeline than we heard.

They also said he got antibodies 48 hours ago. That’s Thursday morning.

Also they said not on oxygen NOW. Repeatedly. Which suggests he had been on at some point.

Won’t talk about date of his last negative test. This is a BIG question.

And now Bye Bye Trump, the intruder who brought wealth to the US and some peace to the world.
By Maria Giovanna Maglie

"We did what we came for and that is to establish that power in America belongs to the people."
The legacy of President Donald Trump should be an important..1/

Hate to break it to you but if Trump had won, there would have been violence on Wednesday, and it most certainly would have been worse. How do I know? Because Democrats have been endorsing violence as a political tactic throughout the Trump Administration.

In 2018, @tedlieu threatened “widespread civil unrest” if Trump fired Mueller. This wasn’t a fluke, either. He repeatedly said people should “take to the streets” if Trump did so (which as we know he didn’t).

James Clapper echoed Lieu — and many other Democrats — saying Trump firing Mueller would result in a “firestorm … in the streets”

Also in 2018, Sen. @CoryBooker told activists to “get up in the face of some congresspeople”

@CoryBooker .@HillaryClinton specifically said “you can’t be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for”