Politics

Trump and the Media

[View here as a Twitter thread] @ezraklein explains what he sees as the media’s lose-lose situation: They can’t ignore POTUS’s lies and outrageous behavior. The public needs to know. But when they respond, they play into Trump’s hands. 1/ @ezraklein understands Trump has deliberately turned the media into his enemy and attacks them relentlessly. The …

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Using troops at the border

[View here as a Twitter thread] Q: Can Trump use troops at the border? A: It depends on what the troops do there. I’ll explain. Meanwhile, remember: this is a PR stunt & manufactured crisis. Trump wants a cultural war about the caravan. Let’s not give him one. 1/ The Posse Comitatus Act makes it …

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Looking evil in the eye

[View here as a Twitter thread] 12 package/bombs have been sent to former presidents, a secretary of state, leading Democrats, CNN & others. Trump turns the incident into another way to criticize the media. 2/ Trump gives no indication that he’d care if, say, Obama was assassinated. Okay, so, what does Trump do when he …

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“Trump is cynically using a set of fascist tactics to gain and maintain power.”

[View here as a Twitter thread] Info from Jason Stanley’s book and this lecture. The main skill required is to be able to lie big. Trump lies naturally. He doesn’t hesitate to tell easily disproven lies. He doesn’t hesitate to lie even when he knows that the people he’s talking to know the truth. He …

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What the heck is Giuliani doing in Armenia headlining a pro-Putin conference?

[View here as a Twitter thread] The conference is to promote the Eurasian Economic Union—which makes the answer obvious. He’s moving the US closer to Russia—which has been Trump’s aim all along. 1/ Russia created the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) because they couldn’t join the European Union (EU) The EU requires that members uphold the …

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No Trump can’t overturn the 14th Amendment with an executive order. Sheesh.

[View here as a Twitter thread] As soon as I explained that the “send troops to the border” is a PR stunt, guess what happened? 1/ Following Trump’s highly effective strategy of governing by crisis and spectacle, also known as “keep everyone reeling with cultural wars and lies” he does it again. He claims that …

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My takeaways from the DOJ Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova document.

[View here as a Twitter thread The DOJ filed this to make us aware of an “ongoing” Kremlin-backed plan to conduct “information warfare” against the US, including attempts to influence the midterms. The complaint is here. 1/ A goal of the Russian operation: To spread distrust toward candidates and the political system in general. Basically, …

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[Click here to read on the Slate Magazine site] President Donald Trump has been bending and breaking laws all of his life. Michael Cohen, his longtime personal lawyer, stated under oath that Trump directed him to violate federal campaign finance law; the state of New York has evidence that Trump and his family have been cheating on their taxes …

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