Good King Trump

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Speaking of giant egos and as an aside, Musk seems quite angry his factory is closed.

423EB4E5-0656-4F13-B7BA-2984CCD405EC.png

lol

pic.twitter.com/FL6jzNfnzM

— Tam Pico (@ClearParadox) April 30, 2020

[JoeP]

omg kam take the hint

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by BrotherMan

That's way too optimistic. If anything, he'll be caught in an alley behind a hospital that just burned down proclaiming a triumph of modern tremendosity that hugely brought the Invisible Enemy to its knees.

Genius invisible enemy, don't forget

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by JoeP

omg kam take the hint

im in bed tho

[Stormlight]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

Speaking of giant egos and as an aside, Musk seems quite angry his factory is closed.

Hey, it's the future US president!

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

JOHN ROBERTS: The Director of National Intelligence put out a statement saying they think the coronavirus was naturally occurring

TRUMP: Who?

R: It was a statement from the DNI office

TRUMP: Oh, he would know that, huh?

R: That would be your Director of National Intelligence pic.twitter.com/ihBTp9HxVe

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2020

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Week 180: Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember.

[SR71]

It goes so far beyond that too. The lock he's putting on the courts is going to codify the normalization of gerrymandering and voter suppression.

A Federal Judge Has a Plan to Let Politicians Manipulate Elections With Impunity

The Supreme Court’s 5–4 decision in Rucho v. Common Cause opened the floodgates for lawmakers to draw egregious partisan gerrymanders without fear of federal lawsuits. By declaring that gerrymandering presents “a political question beyond the competence of the federal courts,” SCOTUS ensured that the 2020 redistricting process will be infected with extreme partisan bias in most states. That ruling was harmful enough on its own terms. On Wednesday, however, an influential federal judge suggested that Rucho’s rule should be expanded to prevent judges from intervening when lawmakers manipulate the outcome of elections through voting laws. If more courts adopt that theory, it will become harder than ever to challenge partisan prejudice in the administration of elections

.

In other news, holy crap, his new spokeswoman is formidable. Full of shit, sure, but really good at selling it. Watching her press brief now. She went for the throat on the WHO and the Flynn defense. The press is going to have to adjust from the easy meat bozo stomping they're accustomed to.

[SR71]

And here it is. Predictions that he would do to states what he did to Ukraine prove good,

Trump Is Weaponizing the Nice Things He Forced Democratic Governors to Say About Him – Mother Jones

President Donald Trump has been open about the fact that he saw aid to blue states as a transaction: He’ll send supplies like masks and ventilators to combat the virus if the governors say nice things about him. The not-so-subtle message for over a month has been that if blue states hit the hardest by the pandemic want government help, they should offer something in return. As it turns out, what their governors have provided is fodder for campaign ad footage.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Part of a much larger thrad on the topic or conspiracy nuts and white terrorist cells:

To discover the history of the white terrorist problem in modern America, we have to start with the Cult of the Shining City, which I've written on extensively.

It's Neo-Confederate Christianity with apocalyptic, paranoid conspiracy theories.

10/https://t.co/JJCBYjZgsz

— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) May 1, 2020

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Mild hunch Trump drops Pence for VP and adds in one of his kids.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

https://t.co/FPVQamPpJl pic.twitter.com/xriPiNhdpd

— Patrick De Klotz (@patdeklotz) May 2, 2020

[Basset Hound]

Originally Posted by Stormlight

Hey, it's the future US president!

He can't be US President. He was born in Pretoria, South Africa of South African parents. Hy is 'n Afrikaner.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

So I was looking for a thread to post a recap of the Bush years and found a really great blast from the past thread. I would have bumped it but it got hostile in places so I figure I’ll just link it here. Why here? Because here we are struggling by the best we can and it’s insights on how we got here.

As for what I wanted to post, long depressing Twitter thread:

Thread

In no particular order, but the Bush years pic.twitter.com/5ENrrXropR

— Esha 🌹 (@eshaLegal) October 1, 2017

I already posted in thread this bit about New World Order conspiracy as a more detailed history, but I’ll repeat with this unrolled version for easier reading:
Thread by @JYSexton: So. We need to talk about the white terrorist movement, how apocalyptic evangelicalism and NRA/GOP propaganda fueled them, and why they see…

And a special fuck you to Rick Wilson and Bill Kristol for eagerly paging the path to Trump, then behaving all Not Me. Trump, the symptom of a much deeper rot in the, for lack of a better word, “western world.”

*Rereads before pressing Reply, ugh what a rambling mess, presses anyway in hopes it’s useful

Eta: Reading postmortem thread about 2004: America's 50 Million Informed, Intelligent, Sane People - Freethought Forum

I also miss sleep.

[beyelzu]

damn, that cover of Time was prescient, electronic populism threatens to short-circuit representative democracy indeed!

[beyelzu]

The protestors have learned to not bring Confederate flags. However, the Illinois protestors need to work on utilizing less Nazi rhetoric.



Hundreds join Capitol protest to Reopen Illinois

The German phrase translates to “Work sets you free” and carries a dark significance as the slogan notoriously posted at the entrances of several Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz in Poland, where an estimated 1.1 million people were killed.

“‘Arbeit macht frei’ was a false, cynical illusion the SS gave to prisoners of #Auschwitz,” the Auschwitz museum tweeted. “Those words became one of the icons of human hatred. It’s painful to see this symbol instrumentalized & used again to spread hate. It’s a symptom of moral & intellectual degeneration.”

Auschwitz Museum condemns protester’s sign at Reopen Illinois rally - Chicago Sun-Times

The governor of Illinois is JB Prizker of Jewish descent, his family came to America fleeing pogroms in Kiev.

[ChuckF]

Isn't that just crazy how the swastikas and Nazi slogans so consistently feature in the same crowd as the Trump-Pence signs?

Probably economic anxiety again, dang it.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

In today’s round of Everything These Guys Say Is Projection:

The Federalist on Twitter: "Examining these financial ties may explain why China is receiving such glowing coverage during a pandemic of their own making. https://t.co/VwOjttXU1G"

[beyelzu]

A federal scientist who says he was removed from his post after disputing the efficacy of an unproven malaria drug to combat coronavirus has filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that his warnings were dismissed by the administration.

Coronavirus whistleblower says Trump administration ignored warnings and drug dangers before he was removed | The Independent

This covers a lot of ground that we were all probably aware of in a general way.

[beyelzu]

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I bet someone get mad.

NEW: Former Pres. Barack Obama will deliver a nationwide commencement message to the country's high school seniors on Saturday, May 16. https://t.co/SEYZ4Pq3Qx pic.twitter.com/UHUEKBv7KV

— ABC News (@ABC) May 5, 2020

[JoeP]

[Zehava]

Originally Posted by ChuckF

Isn't that just crazy how the swastikas and Nazi slogans so consistently feature in the same crowd as the Trump-Pence signs?

Probably economic anxiety again, dang it.

It's almost if there is some sort of cross over between Trump supporters and racist shit-nozzles.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Mail in ballots anyone?

SCOOP: Major Trump and RNC donor Louis DeJoy will become the next Postmaster General, putting a top Trump ally in charge as Treasury takes unprecedented control of the US Postal Service via @JDawsey1 @Reinlwapo @JacobBogagehttps://t.co/oNjFVycmqT

— Matt Zapotosky (@mattzap) May 6, 2020

[JoeP]

Seems perfectly innocent.