[View here as an (uncorrected) Twitter thread] Jan asks: Graham— as a Trump ally—is behaving according to script. After the house voted overwhelmingly to release a Mueller report, Graham blocked the Senate from voting & insisted that the Senate vote to look into alleged DOJ/ FBI misconduct, particularly misconduct in the HRC investigation. This kind …
[View here as a Twitter thread] A new indictment has been brought against Paul Manafort. The NY DA charged Manafort with 16 counts of Residential Mortgage Fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. Evidently he falsified business records to illegally obtain millions of dollars. While we don’t learn much that’s new about Manafort, the larger picture …
Manafort’s crimes, presidential pardons, and GOP cynicism Read More »
[View as a Twitter thread] The same thing happened in California. During the years it took to correct the situation, people were frustrated. The point of this story is to keep our current situation in perspective and tamp down panic—and to address some of the outrage over Nancy Pelosi’s statement yesterday. California used to be …
[View as a Twitter Thread] I started reading this book: And I got stuck in the preface, where the author explains why Trump won: It seems to me that these concerns can’t be economic: Those in Trump’s base who aren’t wealthy vote against their own economic interests. The author of this (excellent!) WaPo article on …
[View as a Twitter thread] I’ve written about why Masha Gessen’s book, The Future is History, left me with the sense that Putin’s methods won’t succeed in the U.S. Time to talk about why Putin’s methods succeed so well with America’s far right wing. From Gessen, I understand that Putin & the U.S. far right …
[View as a Twitter thread] I’m seeing anger and cynicism over Paul Manafort’s light sentence. (If you missed the news, a judge sentenced Manafort to less than four years and said he lived an “otherwise blameless life.”) This is to remind you that cynicism destroys democracy. Click here for a thread about cynicism, the GOP, …
Defending Rule of Law (even when we don’t like the results) Read More »
[View as a Twitter thread] First, some background on RICO. Prosecutors were finding it hard to bring down mobs partly because bosses had ways to insulate themselves. They could only try mob-related crimes individually. RICO (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Law) was passed in 1970. RICO lets prosecutors take down the entire organization, and makes …
Trump claims he plans to cut off federal funding, at least in part, to colleges that do not protect views across the political spectrum. To make his point, he called Hayden Williams, a conservative activist, onto the stage. Williams alleges that he was punched at the University of California Berkeley when he tried to express a conservative …
[View as a Twitter thread] I finished Masha Gessen’s stunning book, The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, and I am left with two distinct thoughts. First: I see why Putin methods work on America’s far right wing. Second: I see why Putin’s methods are unlikely to succeed in the U.S 1/ By “succeed” …
[View as a Twitter thread] In light of Cohen’s testimony in Congress last week, I updated my general crimes page. I also put a red star next to the crimes in which Trump himself is implicated. The page is here. That’s the page where I keep track of possible crimes committed by Trump, his family, and …
