July 22, 2022

He's in a dark place. 🎻

https://twitter.com/universalshow/status/1550485847228776454?s=20&t=0LEMgKZDGmBVxaZ0U9YeJQ

July 22, 2022

We are a nation tiptoeing around men's anger

July 22, 2022

If Trump had won in 2020, they'd still be working for him.

"I was totally with Trump until Jan. 6 when I quit" means you were okay with all the lies, racism, incompetence, and chaos until the moment you finally realized you weren't part of a presidential administration but you were part of a criminal enterprise.
https://twitter.com/rudepundit/status/1550437844585414665?s=20&t=8RixwXytVZggXIb-tsZMLw

July 22, 2022

GOP self-realization

https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/gop

July 22, 2022

Hawley, From now on,

?w=600&h=228

https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1500w,f_auto,q_auto:best/rockcms/2022-07/220721-josh-hawley-2up-2x1-v2-ac-956p-796717.jpg

July 21, 2022

American "exceptionalism"

?w=600&h=215

July 21, 2022

Bannon lacks the courage to say to the jurors all the stuff he says on the courthouse steps.

Bannon will NOT speak to the jury. No witnesses on his behalf. No evidence. No exhibits. Just a closing statement from defense lawyer

We are in recess til 1p

Seems possible the jury gets the case today.

https://twitter.com/svdate/status/1550142861945049092?s=20&t=A3Lb4AVtFwSrJlWv7y7Upw
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/07/21/jan-6-steve-bannon-attorneys-call-no-witnesses-contempt-case/10115721002/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatodaycomwashington-topstories
https://www.yahoo.com/video/steve-bannons-judge-says-refuses-152506261.html
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1550154855276318722?s=20&t=hBO4S4u7T8Gec6Ae1QpFVg

July 21, 2022

"Even today, too many think of Trump more as Sarah Palin in 2012 rather than Viktor Orbn in 2022."

American democracy is dying.

............

Our current situation started with a botched diagnosis. When Trump first rose to political prominence, much of the American political class reacted with amusement, seeing him as a sideshow. Even if he won, they thought, he’d tweet like a populist firebrand while governing like a Romney Republican, constrained by the system. But for those who had watched Trump-like authoritarian strongmen rise in Turkey, India, Hungary, Poland, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Venezuela, Trump was never entertaining. He was ominously familiar.

At issue was a classic frame-of-reference problem. America’s political culture is astonishingly insular. Turn on cable news and it’s all America, all the time. Other countries occasionally make cameos, but the story is still about us. (Poland is discussed if Air Force One goes to Warsaw; Iran flits into view only in relation to Washington’s nuclear diplomacy; Madagascar appears only in cartoon form, mostly featuring talking animals that don’t actually live there.) Our self-obsession means that whenever authoritarianism rises abroad, it’s mentioned briefly, if at all. Have you ever spotted a breathless octobox of talking heads on CNN or Fox News debating the death of democracy in Turkey, Sri Lanka, or the Philippines?

That’s why most American pundits and journalists used an “outsider comes to Washington” framework to process Trump’s campaign and his presidency, when they should have been fitting every fresh fact into an “authoritarian populist” framework or a “democratic death spiral” framework. While debates raged over tax cuts and offensive tweets, the biggest story was often obscured: The system itself was at risk.

Even today, too many think of Trump more as Sarah Palin in 2012 rather than Viktor Orbán in 2022. They wrongly believe that the authoritarian threat is over and that January 6 was an isolated event from our past, rather than a mild preview of our future. That misreading is provoking an underreaction from the political establishment. And the worst may be yet to come.

More:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/american-democracy-breakdown-authoritarianism-rise/670580/

July 21, 2022

Tonight's Episode: "Only Coup Plotters in the West Wing." (*Not series finale.)

Getting Donald Trump to repudiate the Jan. 6 violence he so gleefully watched on his West Wing television was like getting an infant to eat his strained vegetables. He fussed and batted away the spoon the next day. Metaphorically. There wasn’t a White House plate handy to throw against the wall as staffers insisted he suck it up and make the statement, responsible adult-style.

The Washington Post reports:

He struggled to do it. Over the course of an hour of trying to tape the message, Trump resisted holding the rioters to account, trying to call them patriots, and refused to say the election was over, according to individuals familiar with the work of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

The public could get its first glimpse of outtakes from that recording Thursday night, when the committee plans to offer a bold conclusion in its eighth hearing: Not only did Trump do nothing despite repeated entreaties by senior aides to help end the violence, but he sat back and enjoyed watching it. He reluctantly condemned it — in a three-minute speech the evening of Jan. 7 — only after the efforts to overturn the 2020 election had failed and after aides told him that members of his own Cabinet were discussing invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

“This is what he wanted to happen,” Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), who is scheduled to lead the questioning Thursday along with Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), said in an interview this week. “You might have earlier on said, ‘Was he incompetent? Was he someone who freezes in a moment when they can’t react to something? Or was it exactly what he wanted to have happened?’ And after all of this, I’m convinced that this is exactly what he wanted to have happen.”

...............

Only after it became clear the insurrection he inspired would fail did Trump issue a call to his “very special” mob to go home, Luria notes.

By then 187 minutes had passed. One rioter had been shot and killed by Capitol security, two others of natural causes, and a third of accidental acute amphetamine intoxication after collapsing amidst the violent assault. Hundreds of police officers were injured, some severely. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick suffered two strokes during the fighting and died the next day.

https://digbysblog.net/2022/07/21/you-know-he-loved-it/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/20/even-day-after-jan-6-trump-balked-condemning-violence/

July 21, 2022

Trump turned the watchdogs into lap dogs.

Trump fired ethical inspector generals and replaced them with his stooges, one of whom was this man, Joseph Cuffari who neglected to tell anyone about the deleted SS texts
https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1550085037667786752?s=20&t=xfrH3IiLZgJjrI_wm3X3Sw
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/20/secret-service-national-archives/