Breonna Taylor's killers have gone free and the police have arrested Kentucky State Representative, Attica Scott, who created "Breonna's Law." This is how black women are treated in America. https://t.co/4WgsaGlENY
There was a video on previous thread about careful inspection of absentee ballots. I looked at who did the tweet and have searched every way possible to find it on twitter in order to share on Facebook. Cannot find. Anyone assist me?
Velveeta Voldemort is having a bad day. Not only is he still seething about the “vote him out” chant he was met with yesterday, he’s panicking about the most recent polls.
The amount of “they’re coming to take your guns” propaganda he Tweeted out this morning is almost sad.
It IS? I’m sorry. The fact that it was diverse precluded me from thinking GOP, plus my ignorance) . Ignorance sure is embarrassingly painful! 😳 My apologies for placing this here, everyone.
Dan Crenshaw is a Republican. Ad is good, but it appears to be a Dem group due to the diversity. In the ending frame I saw the word Republican in small print at the bottom and checked it out. GOP likes to trick their voters by not including their party in their ads.
I clicked on the ad and was puzzled because at the end I realized that it was a republican advertisement. Maybe the Tweet should be removed. No need to give it more clicks. Just a thought.
Good news re first part. Continue taking good care of yourself
I find it really hard to watch many of the videos pertaining to the second part, as the news stresses me out and ups my blood pressure. We can never get past the mistreatment and denigration etc etc no matter WHAT we do!
Here’s a sweet story – from Philly – I just ran across, about the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
I was so glad I remembered to watch the ceremony this morning for Justice Ginsburg, lying in state at the U.S. Capitol in Washington – the first woman and the first Jewish woman to be given that high honor. Through every tribute today and all the other days, we are reminded how much she did to bring justice to every man and woman in our country, during her entire career. We are reminded we can play a part, in our own lives. And when we see something that isn’t just, isn’t right, we can speak up, as she did, with meaning but never fanfare:
“I dissent.”
Had to wear my white collar for this story on @sophycurson’s moving window tribute to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her special connection to the iconic Rittenhouse Square boutique. The story on @cbsphilly @ 5:30 & 6pm #RBGpic.twitter.com/XoRuNkFhYG
“Outrage will drive us to action.” (Masha Gessen to Hayes)
Masha Gessen’s new book is “Surviving Autocracy”.
They wrote in their previous book: “Rule #1: Believe the Autocrat. He means what he says”.
Hayes: “He (Trump) has essentially been laying the groundwork for this, saying any election he loses is by definition not legitimate and tainted. But it was still striking to hear him say that yesterday.”
Gessen:
“You know he actually said that before the 2016 election as well.
Any election that he wins to him is also illegitimate. And he has always run against the system. He has always run on the platform of delegitimizing elections as such. So I don’t know that I would stress so much that he is afraid of losing and he is running on weakness. I think there’s been a simultaneous underlying understanding of a lack of legitimacy of this presidency that has been an undercurrent the entire time. But also of delegitimizing the entire system as he found it. The whole ‘drain the swamp’ rhetoric has always referred to destroying Government as it was constituted.”
Hayes: “To me there’s these twin imperatives here. One is to be clear-eyed about the danger, to take him seriously, to take the efforts to do profoundly dangerous things to American democracy. At the same time not imbuing him with more power than he has. There’s a kind of a projection of strong man-ness right here. The republicans think ‘we’re going to figure out how to take your vote away and send our own slate of electors’. Which I think is meant to kind of intimidate at a certain level. How do you interpret those competing imperatives at this moment?”
Gessen:
“My rule is always to try to zoom out and look at the larger picture. And the larger picture is that we’re at a stage in the autocratic attempt, when we probably face the last chance to try to stop this autocratic attempt. Before, I used this framework invented by a Hungarian sociologist called Bálint Magyar who says
there’s an autocratic attempt,
autocratic breakthrough,
and autocratic consolidation.
So I think we’re still in the attempt stage.”
Gessen:
“The breakthrough will happen if he wins this election.
Or even in spite of losing the election, succeeds in maintaining power. And so we really have to use this chance to get rid of Donald Trump. The elections are not a perfect instrument. There is rabid voter suppression. The opportunity to vote has never been equally distributed and it is sub-optimal at the moment. And yet this is currently our best instrument for stopping the autocratic attempt.
And that means he has to lose by an absolute overwhelming margin.”
Hayes: “The attempts, the breakthrough, and the consolidation,
is an extremely useful framework to think about. And it is interesting that you reference Hungary because when I think of Victor Orbán, to whom many people have compared him, and Orban is running what he calls and ‘illiberal democracy’ in Europe. Orbán and the Law and Justice party in Poland which is aligned – a kind of hard right party – you know Orbán has been fairly popular. It does strikes me that we would be in much worse shape if Donald Trump were legitimately polling at 60%. In rebuffing the attempt, if we think about this as the autocratic attempt, rebuffing the attempt is easier and you are in a stronger position when the person making the attempt is not actually popular.”
Gessen:
“I don’t think that we can accurately measure the popularity of an autocrat.
Orbán, or Vladimir Putin, or Erdogan, simply because when there’s a scorched earth policy of governing. When they almost completely dominate the information sphere, there’s no way to see an alternative. There’s no way to gauge popularity in the absence of any kind of imagination for what would happen if it weren’t…We’re not there yet. This week especially in the wake of the death of Justice Ginsberg, I think it’s super important to pull back and look at all the things we still have. We still have the opportunity for Donald Trump to not be popular because there are other options. Because we have media. Because we have actually still a robust public sphere that he has not come to fully dominate. Because it is actually possible for him to be unpopular.”
Hayes: “That is a great point. Because we are still in the attempt phase.
Because we are not in the breakthrough or consolidation phase. Because consolidation has not happened, because I am speaking to you right now in front of millions of people, right? Because we’re on this side of it we can beat it back….”
Gessen:
“Yes. And I seized up inside when I saw the figures that you were using at the top of the broadcast, showing how Donald Trump is trailing Joe Biden. Because of course he is trailing him nationally. But the Electoral College isn’t looking so great. And we have this hugely imperfect system that we have to try to use to stall this autocratic attempt. And then try to rebuild the system in a way that is actually much more democratic, right? And we have to have TOTAL mobilization for democracy. Not to protect a democracy that is under threat, but to even a chance of building a democracy.”
Hayes: “Yes and that is a guiding moment particularly amidst this catastrophe that we all continue to work our way through, that presses down on each of us of every day. One of the rules which I’ve remembered since my first interview with you on that election night is just “be outraged”…rage…borne of mourning honestly because of death and the illness and the death and the suffering and misery that didn’t have to happen. But also because I love my country deeply. And I feel like I’m watching someone try to take it away.”
Gessen:
“Someone is trying to take it away.
Someone is actively facilitating the deaths of more than a thousand people a day. It is very, very hard to maintain a level of rage. It is objectively hard. Because we’re not talking about normalization, we’re talking about normality. This has been normal. This response to the Coronavirus has been ‘normal’ for seven months. This way of shameless abuse of power has been ‘normal’ for nearly four years. This is our everyday reality. And so the only thing I would say is that is as difficult as our rage is to maintain, it is a much more constructive emotional state than anxiety. Anxiety is what makes us controllable and it is a natural response to what’s happening, but it makes us slow to act and unable to act.
And outrage will drive us to action.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was Jewish. Elena Kagen is Jewish. Stephen Breyer is Jewish. Chuck Shumer is Jewish.@MarshaBlackburn is antisemitic. https://t.co/03tgJs164I
Masha Gessen:
“Autocracy: Rules for Survival” (2016)
Rule #1: Believe the autocrat.
Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality.
Rule #3: Institutions will not save you.
Rule #4: Be outraged.
Rule #5: Don’t make compromises.
Rule #6: Remember the future.
“Trump will be only the fourth candidate in history and the second in more than a century to win the presidency after losing the popular vote. He is also probably the first candidate in history to win the presidency despite having been shown repeatedly by the national media to be a chronic liar, sexual predator, serial tax-avoider, and race-baiter who has attracted the likes of the Ku Klux Klan.
Most important, Trump is the first candidate in memory who ran not for president but for autocrat—and won.
I have lived in autocracies most of my life, and have spent much of my career writing about Vladimir Putin’s Russia. I have learned a few rules for surviving in an autocracy and salvaging your sanity and self-respect. It might be worth considering them now:” (Gessen)
(https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/11/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival/
Members of the House & Senate are coming together on the steps of the U.S. Capitol as we say goodbye to Justice Ginsburg for the last time. https://t.co/DVbCePSpix
Senator Sanders:
“What I will be discussing today is the danger that this country faces from a president who is a pathological liar, who has strong authoritarian tendencies, who neither understands nor respects our constitution, and who is prepared to undermine American democracy in order to stay in power.”
“There have been numerous studies done on the issue of voter fraud in our country.
They have all concluded essentially in the same way.
Voter fraud in the United States of America is extremely rare….
And let’s be clear. Despite what Donald Trump says, voting by mail is not a new or dangerous idea.
Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Utah conduct their elections almost entirely by mail.
Members of the United States military have regularly voted by mail since the 1800s.”
“Let us consider the following scenario,
a scenario which I hope very much never takes place.
On election night Trump is ahead in many battleground states based on the votes of those who voted in person on election day. All across the television screens people see Trump ahead before they turn in for the night. But as more and more mail-in ballots are counted Trump’s lead folds. Trump then announces with no proof that there has been massive mail-in ballot fraud and that these votes should not be counted and that he has won the election. In other words, Trump may well announce that he has won the election before all of the votes are counted and that large numbers of mail-in ballots should be discarded…..
Furthermore, in states where Republicans control the legislature, it is possible that the election results will be ignored because of false accusations of voter fraud, and that the legislature itself will use its power to appoint electors pledged to vote for Trump, overriding the will of the people.”
Sen Sanders gives us a guiding list of 6 things we can do. Then:
“Lastly, and most importantly, the American people no matter what their political view, must make it clear that American democracy will not be destroyed. Our country from its inception, and through the sacrifices of millions, has been a model to the world with regard to representative government. In 1863 in the midst of the terrible Civil War, Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg stated that this government “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” That was true then. That is true today.
Regardless of what Donald Trump wants the American people will preserve democracy in our country.”
Senator Sanders:
“Trump may well announce that he has won the election before all of the votes are counted.
In the United States, the President does not determine who can or cannot vote and what ballots will be counted. That may be what his friend Putin does in Russia. It is not, and it will not be done in America. This is an election between Donald Trump and democracy. And democracy must win.”
Senator Sanders and Rachel Maddow, 2nd half of their interview.
Maddow: “The Senator says he now plans to spend the next 6 weeks until election day,
urging the country to prepare for a “Nightmare scenario” in which Trump declares himself the winner of the Election regardless of the results and refuses to step down.”
Senator Sanders:
“Rachel, you know I mentioned in my speech that I get sick and tired of hearing Republicans tell us how much they love America. Well if they love America, then they love American democracy. And now is the time for them to stand up in a very forceful way. And say “hey Mr President, if you lose this election you are leaving office. No ifs, ands, or buts, and maybes”. Will Republicans do that? Some may, but I have my doubts. What we have got to do is among other things, put pressure on Republicans to demand that we do not lose our democratic heritage in this country. And that they’re going to stand, no matter how they vote, they’re going to demand that every vote is counted, and the winner is inaugurated.”
Maddow: “What else should we be on the look out for from you over these next five and a half weeks?
You obviously still command incredible support and loyalty from all the people who worked on both of your presidential campaigns, and supported you through all that. They really still see you as a leader of the progressive movement in this country who doesn’t really have any peers in that regard. What are you asking people who respect you and like you to do over these next five and a half weeks, and what should we expect to see from you?”
Senator Sanders:
“Well we are working very very hard, not only on this issue Rachel.
We’re working hard to see that Biden wins. We’ve already held 12 virtual town meetings.
I’m going to be on the campaign trail as best we can given the pandemic, as soon as we can. But I think that what all of us have got to do, and i say this to Republicans who are watching, I know you, you’re not going to vote for Biden. You’re going to vote for Trump or…but stand up!! If you were a veteran you fought, put your life on the line, to defend the Constitution of the United States. And now IS the time to demand that that Constitution be respected and adhered to. So one of the things and this may seem sound strange to people, I’m going to reach out to Republicans and say “hey we disagree on everything” but I hope that you respect the Constitution. People like Benjamin Ginsberg, people like Dan Coats, wrote a very good Op-Ed in the NYT recently. He is Trump’s former Republican senator from Indiana, conservative guy, former Intelligence Director under Trump. And he said ‘We need a bipartisan commission to oversee this election so that people will have faith in our democracy’. We’ve got to reach out to those folks as well.”
91 days since reports of Russian bounties on our troops. 91 days where Trump has proven his loyalty to Putin over American lives. 39 days until the election.#TraitorTrump#votepic.twitter.com/zfS6lRBVhr
“Lauren Nichols has been sick with COVID-19 since March 10, shortly before Tom Hanks announced his diagnosis and the NBA temporarily canceled its season. She has lived through one month of hand tremors, three of fever, and four of night sweats. When we spoke on day 150, she was on her fifth month of gastrointestinal problems and severe morning nausea. She still has extreme fatigue, bulging veins, excessive bruising, an erratic heartbeat, short-term memory loss, gynecological problems, sensitivity to light and sounds, and brain fog. Even writing an email can be hard, she told me, “because the words I think I’m writing are not the words coming out.”
She wakes up gasping for air twice a month. It still hurts to inhale.”
“Rep. Katie Porter On Trump Officials When They Testify In Congress”
“California Representative Katie Porter appreciates all her former students who showed up to class hungover, because it prepared her for how to question Trump officials testifying in front of Congress.”
(Colbert)
The path to the presidency goes through FL. That’s why we’re sharing the story of Trump’s failed presidency and why we need Joe Biden. The more voters that are engaged, the more likely Biden will win – and we’re going to work to ensure that happens. – Mike Bloomberg
Just think about how the right has for decades built and sustained a cottage industry dedicated to demonizing Black parents as irresponsible and unfit. It’s so sickening. https://t.co/rKmMHb4BxH
Lauding a parent who drove her teenaged son armed w/an AR-15 to another state to join a self-styled “militia” where he killed two ppl. This is how deranged and upside down thinking has pervaded this country. https://t.co/DgrXdtWVAz
Doug Jones is in an incredibly tough race in a deeply red state. The safe move would have been to support Trump's nominee. Instead – he's standing up for what's right.
The Chicago church where Emmett Till's funeral was held has made the list of the United States' Most Endangered Historic Places for 2020 https://t.co/rLNsqacFur
Don’t let Trump push your buttons. He's the one who's frantic a/b LOSING. His manufactured fantasy world ended. Insanity, dementia & threats he can't back up crush his support w/ independents. Don’t overcomplicate this. Biden will win big in WI, MI, PA & more & take office Jan 20
NEW: Sources familiar confirm to @ABC the authenticity of this letter from current AUSA James Herbert publicly speaking out against AG Barr. "The current attorney general has brought shame on the department he purports to lead." w/ @AaronKaterskypic.twitter.com/4jzDtk7Q0r
🚨BREAKING: Federal Court BLOCKS Texas' repeal of straight ticket voting option.
Court finds the GOP sponsored law "imposes a discriminatory burden of African-American and Hispanic voters" and is "likely to cause confusion among voters." @DSCC@DCCChttps://t.co/xg2reyze0A
Here is an unfortunate reality. There was no problem finding a a big pool of black and Latino homebuyers to usher into riskier and more expensive mortgages. But… when it comes to seeking black talent — suddenly there’s an alleged shortage. Stamping this with insufficient https://t.co/Da6QrM2seB
When I saw him do that while watching earlier today, I knew immediately he was her personal trainer. For him to do that in public, you can just feel the love he had for her. It was his last gift.
RBG's personal trainer honored the late Justice by doing push-ups in front of her casket at the U.S. Capitol https://t.co/OFJZpFIHHD
There is one best response to a SCOTUS with a strong ideological tilt to the right or courts filled with ideologues nationwide: A Congress that passes new laws that eliminate the role the courts play–with abortion, with ACA, etc. Win the Senate. Hold the House. Beat Trump.
There is one best response to a SCOTUS with a strong ideological tilt to the right or courts filled with ideologues nationwide: A Congress that passes new laws that eliminate the role the courts play–with abortion, with ACA, etc. Win the Senate. Hold the House. Beat Trump.
Mr. President, stop making illegal threats. Maybe you will wake up your DOJ.
You said yourself that the FDA was making “a political move” on vaccines. Surely Americans can't trust a political FDA. Don't you remember saying that? I guess it’s hard to keep track of all the lies.
FACT: Your Covid record: 203,000 deaths. More Americans die every day from Covid than in China, Italy, France, the UK, and Spain COMBINED. Are all of those leaders better than you?
I will not be a party to Mitch McConnell's power grab and I will not be a party to the further erosion of the Senate.
I will not vote to confirm any Supreme Court justice nominee until after the election is concluded. The American people deserve a voice. https://t.co/zVDMghdVNO
Thank you @thereidout for having me on your show tonight! The path to flipping the Senate runs through Georgia, and we’re gonna win. pic.twitter.com/UHgjpfIIll
🚨BREAKING: Federal Court BLOCKS Texas' repeal of straight ticket voting option.
Court finds the GOP sponsored law "imposes a discriminatory burden of African-American and Hispanic voters" and is "likely to cause confusion among voters." @DSCC@DCCChttps://t.co/xg2reyze0A
1. Michelle Obama 🇺🇸 2. Angelina Jolie 🇺🇸 3. Queen Elizabeth II 🇬🇧 4. Oprah Winfrey 🇺🇸 5. Jennifer Lopez 🇺🇸 6. Emma Watson 🇬🇧 7. Scarlett Johansson 🇺🇸 8. Peng Liyuan 🇨🇳 9. Taylor Swift 🇺🇸 10. Shakira 🇨🇴https://t.co/4nO3Jrs2Skpic.twitter.com/m2OqTtf2bq
Gearing up for tonight’s #TrumptyDumpty launch event! While you wait, here’s another limerick:
“Colonel Vindman, the POTUS’s nemesis, Bears a fearlessness right out of Genesis. Since he showed deeper fealty Than our titan of realty, Dumpty had him removed from the premises.” pic.twitter.com/3GcpTcmclc
I just learned that the OIC (officer-in-charge) of the casket team that carried Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg into and out of the Capitol today is CPT Shaye Haver, one of the first two women to graduate from U.S. Army Ranger School. How appropriate and powerful. pic.twitter.com/3tNYFMt5VM
It's happening again. Particularly with network news. The false sense of "balance" or "impartiality" or "fairness" that equates repeated falsehoods with actual facts. Here's a truth for you: there aren't two sides to a lie. https://t.co/kIpSUoIVc2
.@QasimRashid takes an intersectional approach to the #DigitalDivide + puts racial justice at the forefront.
poor connectivity doesn't just impact white/rural communities, it impacts BIPOC + working folks all over the country, any good broadband policy must reflect that reality https://t.co/RDSTaUG700
Happy #NationalPublicLandsDay! Today's a day for volunteers to help restore and improve our nation's public lands. #DYK President Carter designated more than a dozen national scenic rivers, recreation areas, and parks? POTUS in the Grand Tetons, 8/29/78, NAID 6783218 @NEEFusapic.twitter.com/186hLeeY0s
It’s #NationalPublicLandsDay. Public lands boost local economies, safeguard drinking water & clean air, & fight climate change. We’ll keep fighting to protect these places from the most anti-public lands administration in U.S. history: https://t.co/y6npNPuiFw#Conserve4Climate
When the weight of spectacle, evil, greed, betrayal, grief, etc wants to collapse my lungs- I remind myself I am a woman who found her way out of a firehouse upon hearing her daughter was killed at school.
I will not look for my peace here. But I will commit to doing everything I can. Even when nigh looms ahead. And we all should. Evil is having a field day. It will not have the final say.
Fab.
Discovering the colors of dinosaurs – melanin!!
“How They Looked Resurrectd in Color”:
“Melanosomes – cellular structures that contain the pigment melanin- help give feathers their color.
By comparing their shape and arrangement in fossils with those in modern birds, experts can reconstruct a
dinosaur’s color and see whether it was iridescent. ”
(National Geo, Oct 2020)
Obama White House.gov
The Obama Diary 
How dare they add insult to injury by arresting Rep. Attica Scott? Some day it’s really hard not to hate this country.
WHAAAAAT?!?!?!?!?!?! %^&*(+#@%$@*($%^+!@!!!!!
There was a video on previous thread about careful inspection of absentee ballots. I looked at who did the tweet and have searched every way possible to find it on twitter in order to share on Facebook. Cannot find. Anyone assist me?
SOON: Attorney, family of Breonna Taylor hold news conference in Louisville – https://abcnews.go.com/live/video/special-live-2
Velveta Voldemort:)
Is it me or is the makeup getting waaaaay worse? Take his makeup AND his phone!!
ReidOut: “Senate candidate Mike Espy is calling for medicaid expansion in Mississippi”
“A poll earlier this week showed Mike Espy one point behind Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Mississippi race. Espy says that health care is one of the biggest issues in his state and he thinks medicare expansion can address the health care of a quarter of million Mississippians: “We’ve had 8 rural hospitals to have closed in the last 8 years and that’s because of uncompensated care.”
(https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/senate-candidate-mike-espy-is-calling-for-medicaid-expansion-in-mississippi-92500037622)
—-12 states still have not adopted Medicaid Expansion.
(https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions-interactive-map/)
[deleted]
Something else that gave me a chuckle this morning.
Ha!
Made you smile? This is a republican ad!
It IS? I’m sorry. The fact that it was diverse precluded me from thinking GOP, plus my ignorance) . Ignorance sure is embarrassingly painful! 😳 My apologies for placing this here, everyone.
NerdyW, would you please help! Please.
Sure. It’s been removed.
👍🏿😘
Dan Crenshaw is a Republican. Ad is good, but it appears to be a Dem group due to the diversity. In the ending frame I saw the word Republican in small print at the bottom and checked it out. GOP likes to trick their voters by not including their party in their ads.
Hi, OG. Yes, I was fooled by the diversity. Sorry. I’m now hanging my ignorant head in shame and crawling back into my observation corner.
Yes, but aren’t they all GOP military like Crenshaw?
😦 Oh, Judith, I put my foot in it and have offered humblest apologies. Hopefully NerdyW notices, takes pity on me, and removes my gaffe.
VC you are so awesome! Don’t beat yourself up. We love you.
This video is totally Awesome!!!!! Absolutely love the diversity.
OMG, I take my comments back. Did not know they were Republicans. Yuk!!! 🙂
I clicked on the ad and was puzzled because at the end I realized that it was a republican advertisement. Maybe the Tweet should be removed. No need to give it more clicks. Just a thought.
Hey VC, that’s a cool ad!
I thought you knew Crenshaw is a GOP. But it is a cool ad. You get a pass. No harm/no foul. {{{hugs}}} 💖
TY, {{{GxG44}}} Sadly I don’t/can’t remember all the characters, and the diversity threw me enough to make me smile.
How ARE you?
I’m doing pretty good. The air has cleared so I have no breathing complaints. My heart breaks about how blatant my people are being treated
Good news re first part. Continue taking good care of yourself
I find it really hard to watch many of the videos pertaining to the second part, as the news stresses me out and ups my blood pressure. We can never get past the mistreatment and denigration etc etc no matter WHAT we do!
Here’s a sweet story – from Philly – I just ran across, about the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
I was so glad I remembered to watch the ceremony this morning for Justice Ginsburg, lying in state at the U.S. Capitol in Washington – the first woman and the first Jewish woman to be given that high honor. Through every tribute today and all the other days, we are reminded how much she did to bring justice to every man and woman in our country, during her entire career. We are reminded we can play a part, in our own lives. And when we see something that isn’t just, isn’t right, we can speak up, as she did, with meaning but never fanfare:
“I dissent.”
#BreonnaTaylor
“Outrage will drive us to action.” (Masha Gessen to Hayes)
Masha Gessen’s new book is “Surviving Autocracy”.
They wrote in their previous book: “Rule #1: Believe the Autocrat. He means what he says”.
Hayes: “He (Trump) has essentially been laying the groundwork for this, saying any election he loses is by definition not legitimate and tainted. But it was still striking to hear him say that yesterday.”
Gessen:
“You know he actually said that before the 2016 election as well.
Any election that he wins to him is also illegitimate. And he has always run against the system. He has always run on the platform of delegitimizing elections as such. So I don’t know that I would stress so much that he is afraid of losing and he is running on weakness. I think there’s been a simultaneous underlying understanding of a lack of legitimacy of this presidency that has been an undercurrent the entire time. But also of delegitimizing the entire system as he found it. The whole ‘drain the swamp’ rhetoric has always referred to destroying Government as it was constituted.”
Hayes: “To me there’s these twin imperatives here. One is to be clear-eyed about the danger, to take him seriously, to take the efforts to do profoundly dangerous things to American democracy. At the same time not imbuing him with more power than he has. There’s a kind of a projection of strong man-ness right here. The republicans think ‘we’re going to figure out how to take your vote away and send our own slate of electors’. Which I think is meant to kind of intimidate at a certain level. How do you interpret those competing imperatives at this moment?”
Gessen:
“My rule is always to try to zoom out and look at the larger picture. And the larger picture is that we’re at a stage in the autocratic attempt, when we probably face the last chance to try to stop this autocratic attempt. Before, I used this framework invented by a Hungarian sociologist called Bálint Magyar who says
there’s an autocratic attempt,
autocratic breakthrough,
and autocratic consolidation.
So I think we’re still in the attempt stage.”
Gessen:
“The breakthrough will happen if he wins this election.
Or even in spite of losing the election, succeeds in maintaining power. And so we really have to use this chance to get rid of Donald Trump. The elections are not a perfect instrument. There is rabid voter suppression. The opportunity to vote has never been equally distributed and it is sub-optimal at the moment. And yet this is currently our best instrument for stopping the autocratic attempt.
And that means he has to lose by an absolute overwhelming margin.”
Hayes: “The attempts, the breakthrough, and the consolidation,
is an extremely useful framework to think about. And it is interesting that you reference Hungary because when I think of Victor Orbán, to whom many people have compared him, and Orban is running what he calls and ‘illiberal democracy’ in Europe. Orbán and the Law and Justice party in Poland which is aligned – a kind of hard right party – you know Orbán has been fairly popular. It does strikes me that we would be in much worse shape if Donald Trump were legitimately polling at 60%. In rebuffing the attempt, if we think about this as the autocratic attempt, rebuffing the attempt is easier and you are in a stronger position when the person making the attempt is not actually popular.”
Gessen:
“I don’t think that we can accurately measure the popularity of an autocrat.
Orbán, or Vladimir Putin, or Erdogan, simply because when there’s a scorched earth policy of governing. When they almost completely dominate the information sphere, there’s no way to see an alternative. There’s no way to gauge popularity in the absence of any kind of imagination for what would happen if it weren’t…We’re not there yet. This week especially in the wake of the death of Justice Ginsberg, I think it’s super important to pull back and look at all the things we still have. We still have the opportunity for Donald Trump to not be popular because there are other options. Because we have media. Because we have actually still a robust public sphere that he has not come to fully dominate. Because it is actually possible for him to be unpopular.”
Hayes: “That is a great point. Because we are still in the attempt phase.
Because we are not in the breakthrough or consolidation phase. Because consolidation has not happened, because I am speaking to you right now in front of millions of people, right? Because we’re on this side of it we can beat it back….”
Gessen:
“Yes. And I seized up inside when I saw the figures that you were using at the top of the broadcast, showing how Donald Trump is trailing Joe Biden. Because of course he is trailing him nationally. But the Electoral College isn’t looking so great. And we have this hugely imperfect system that we have to try to use to stall this autocratic attempt. And then try to rebuild the system in a way that is actually much more democratic, right? And we have to have TOTAL mobilization for democracy. Not to protect a democracy that is under threat, but to even a chance of building a democracy.”
Hayes: “Yes and that is a guiding moment particularly amidst this catastrophe that we all continue to work our way through, that presses down on each of us of every day. One of the rules which I’ve remembered since my first interview with you on that election night is just “be outraged”…rage…borne of mourning honestly because of death and the illness and the death and the suffering and misery that didn’t have to happen. But also because I love my country deeply. And I feel like I’m watching someone try to take it away.”
Gessen:
“Someone is trying to take it away.
Someone is actively facilitating the deaths of more than a thousand people a day. It is very, very hard to maintain a level of rage. It is objectively hard. Because we’re not talking about normalization, we’re talking about normality. This has been normal. This response to the Coronavirus has been ‘normal’ for seven months. This way of shameless abuse of power has been ‘normal’ for nearly four years. This is our everyday reality. And so the only thing I would say is that is as difficult as our rage is to maintain, it is a much more constructive emotional state than anxiety. Anxiety is what makes us controllable and it is a natural response to what’s happening, but it makes us slow to act and unable to act.
And outrage will drive us to action.”
Masha Gessen:
“Autocracy: Rules for Survival” (2016)
Rule #1: Believe the autocrat.
Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality.
Rule #3: Institutions will not save you.
Rule #4: Be outraged.
Rule #5: Don’t make compromises.
Rule #6: Remember the future.
“Trump will be only the fourth candidate in history and the second in more than a century to win the presidency after losing the popular vote. He is also probably the first candidate in history to win the presidency despite having been shown repeatedly by the national media to be a chronic liar, sexual predator, serial tax-avoider, and race-baiter who has attracted the likes of the Ku Klux Klan.
Most important, Trump is the first candidate in memory who ran not for president but for autocrat—and won.
I have lived in autocracies most of my life, and have spent much of my career writing about Vladimir Putin’s Russia. I have learned a few rules for surviving in an autocracy and salvaging your sanity and self-respect. It might be worth considering them now:” (Gessen)
(https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/11/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival/
Senator Sanders’ remarkable speech yesterday:
“Trump’s Threat To Our Democracy.”
(Excerpts)
“This is not just an election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden,
this is an election between Donald Trump and democracy,
and democracy must win.”
(https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/bernie-sanders-speech-transcript-trumps-threat-to-our-democracy)
Senator Sanders:
“What I will be discussing today is the danger that this country faces from a president who is a pathological liar, who has strong authoritarian tendencies, who neither understands nor respects our constitution, and who is prepared to undermine American democracy in order to stay in power.”
“There have been numerous studies done on the issue of voter fraud in our country.
They have all concluded essentially in the same way.
Voter fraud in the United States of America is extremely rare….
And let’s be clear. Despite what Donald Trump says, voting by mail is not a new or dangerous idea.
Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Utah conduct their elections almost entirely by mail.
Members of the United States military have regularly voted by mail since the 1800s.”
“Let us consider the following scenario,
a scenario which I hope very much never takes place.
On election night Trump is ahead in many battleground states based on the votes of those who voted in person on election day. All across the television screens people see Trump ahead before they turn in for the night. But as more and more mail-in ballots are counted Trump’s lead folds. Trump then announces with no proof that there has been massive mail-in ballot fraud and that these votes should not be counted and that he has won the election. In other words, Trump may well announce that he has won the election before all of the votes are counted and that large numbers of mail-in ballots should be discarded…..
Furthermore, in states where Republicans control the legislature, it is possible that the election results will be ignored because of false accusations of voter fraud, and that the legislature itself will use its power to appoint electors pledged to vote for Trump, overriding the will of the people.”
Sen Sanders gives us a guiding list of 6 things we can do. Then:
“Lastly, and most importantly, the American people no matter what their political view, must make it clear that American democracy will not be destroyed. Our country from its inception, and through the sacrifices of millions, has been a model to the world with regard to representative government. In 1863 in the midst of the terrible Civil War, Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg stated that this government “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” That was true then. That is true today.
Regardless of what Donald Trump wants the American people will preserve democracy in our country.”
This got me teary
Senator Sanders:
“Trump may well announce that he has won the election before all of the votes are counted.
In the United States, the President does not determine who can or cannot vote and what ballots will be counted. That may be what his friend Putin does in Russia. It is not, and it will not be done in America. This is an election between Donald Trump and democracy. And democracy must win.”
Senator Sanders and Rachel Maddow, 2nd half of their interview.
Maddow: “The Senator says he now plans to spend the next 6 weeks until election day,
urging the country to prepare for a “Nightmare scenario” in which Trump declares himself the winner of the Election regardless of the results and refuses to step down.”
Senator Sanders:
“Rachel, you know I mentioned in my speech that I get sick and tired of hearing Republicans tell us how much they love America. Well if they love America, then they love American democracy. And now is the time for them to stand up in a very forceful way. And say “hey Mr President, if you lose this election you are leaving office. No ifs, ands, or buts, and maybes”. Will Republicans do that? Some may, but I have my doubts. What we have got to do is among other things, put pressure on Republicans to demand that we do not lose our democratic heritage in this country. And that they’re going to stand, no matter how they vote, they’re going to demand that every vote is counted, and the winner is inaugurated.”
Maddow: “What else should we be on the look out for from you over these next five and a half weeks?
You obviously still command incredible support and loyalty from all the people who worked on both of your presidential campaigns, and supported you through all that. They really still see you as a leader of the progressive movement in this country who doesn’t really have any peers in that regard. What are you asking people who respect you and like you to do over these next five and a half weeks, and what should we expect to see from you?”
Senator Sanders:
“Well we are working very very hard, not only on this issue Rachel.
We’re working hard to see that Biden wins. We’ve already held 12 virtual town meetings.
I’m going to be on the campaign trail as best we can given the pandemic, as soon as we can. But I think that what all of us have got to do, and i say this to Republicans who are watching, I know you, you’re not going to vote for Biden. You’re going to vote for Trump or…but stand up!! If you were a veteran you fought, put your life on the line, to defend the Constitution of the United States. And now IS the time to demand that that Constitution be respected and adhered to. So one of the things and this may seem sound strange to people, I’m going to reach out to Republicans and say “hey we disagree on everything” but I hope that you respect the Constitution. People like Benjamin Ginsberg, people like Dan Coats, wrote a very good Op-Ed in the NYT recently. He is Trump’s former Republican senator from Indiana, conservative guy, former Intelligence Director under Trump. And he said ‘We need a bipartisan commission to oversee this election so that people will have faith in our democracy’. We’ve got to reach out to those folks as well.”
“Lauren Nichols has been sick with COVID-19 since March 10, shortly before Tom Hanks announced his diagnosis and the NBA temporarily canceled its season. She has lived through one month of hand tremors, three of fever, and four of night sweats. When we spoke on day 150, she was on her fifth month of gastrointestinal problems and severe morning nausea. She still has extreme fatigue, bulging veins, excessive bruising, an erratic heartbeat, short-term memory loss, gynecological problems, sensitivity to light and sounds, and brain fog. Even writing an email can be hard, she told me, “because the words I think I’m writing are not the words coming out.”
She wakes up gasping for air twice a month. It still hurts to inhale.”
Have repeatedly tried to post link to the important Atlantic article: “Long Haulers Are Re-Defining Covid”.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/08/long-haulers-covid-19-recognition-support-groups-symptoms/615382/)
We need Obamaare now more than ever.
This reminded me of my Uncle…
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10160032434422506&set=a.10151335892537506
“Rep. Katie Porter On Trump Officials When They Testify In Congress”
“California Representative Katie Porter appreciates all her former students who showed up to class hungover, because it prepared her for how to question Trump officials testifying in front of Congress.”
(Colbert)
Mnuchin tries not to hear it when Senator Tester asks Mnuchin:
“What measures have the Treasury put in place to prevent another tribal data relief breach/”
(https://www.indianz.com/News/2020/09/24/coronavirus-relief-fund-allocations-for-tribal-governments/)
Spreadsheet made public by indianz.com:
“Coronavirus Relief Fund Allocation for Tribal Government”
(https://www.indianz.com/News/2020/09/25/spreadsheet-coronavirus-relief-fund-allocations-for-tribal-governments/)
—Despicable racist Mnuchin and Trump caused COVID -19 deaths via delay, delay, delay, neglect.
The path to the presidency goes through FL. That’s why we’re sharing the story of Trump’s failed presidency and why we need Joe Biden. The more voters that are engaged, the more likely Biden will win – and we’re going to work to ensure that happens. – Mike Bloomberg
Per CNN. JUST IN: USPS reaches a settlement and will prioritize election mail.
Van Morrison – Come Here My Love
TOD in DC popped up in my “memories” today. Four years feels like a lifetime ago…
Enjoy!
https://link.shutterfly.com/AQ7BMtON49
https://link.shutterfly.com/sBJ5mRVN49
🙂 🙂 It is a lifetime ago in many ways; terrific memories. Thanks for sharing!
We all need to do our jobs and vote
😲😮🤔👀
When I saw him do that while watching earlier today, I knew immediately he was her personal trainer. For him to do that in public, you can just feel the love he had for her. It was his last gift.
PENNSYLVANIA! 4 TWEET THREAD…
That is so cool!
yes it is
I heard from Meta and she’s just taking a social media break for a while, but is okay and says hello!
We love you, Meta!
Go glad to hear this:) Thanks for letting us know
Very glad, too!
Thank you Job. Glad to know Meta is okay.
Woooohoo! 💃🏾🕺🏾Go Georgia!
Beautiful!
Joke du jour …
Fact Sheet…
Click to access fact_sheet.pdf
Awesome!
enjoyed this episode…thanks for posting
New post.
https://obamadiary.wordpress.com/2020/09/26/volunteer-as-a-poll-worker/
Oh my goodness. I could sob for hours – for her and her loss – reading that. What a brave woman.
But I’ll do my tiny part, right along with her, to not have evil have the final say.
Fab.
Discovering the colors of dinosaurs – melanin!!
“How They Looked Resurrectd in Color”:
“Melanosomes – cellular structures that contain the pigment melanin- help give feathers their color.
By comparing their shape and arrangement in fossils with those in modern birds, experts can reconstruct a
dinosaur’s color and see whether it was iridescent. ”
(National Geo, Oct 2020)