Just a little reminder: Most Republican officials know that he’s lying. The election was not stolen. They knew it then and they know it now. They are fine with this because they believe it benefits them.
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If I adopted MSNBC’s policies against showing Trump or his followers spreading lies, I wouldn’t post that. I have more respect for my audience. I think you’re all smart enough to be able to understand why I do it. These videos are an example of how cultists think and how some of them can possibly come to understand how illogical their thought processes are: “People do not deploy the powerful human intellect to dispassionately analyze the world,” William J. Bernstein writes, in “The Delusions of Crowds” (Atlantic Monthly). Instead, they “rationalize how the facts conform to their emotionally derived preconceptions.” Bernstein’s book, a survey of financial and religious manias, is inspired by Charles Mackay’s 1841 work, “Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.” Mackay saw crowd dynamics as central to phenomena as disparate as the South Sea Bubble, the Crusades, witch hunts, and alchemy.
The whole world watched in disbelief. And Trump did nothing.” Here are the first words of Biden’s speech yesterday: Today, the topic of my speech today is deadly serious and I think it needs to be made at the outset of this campaign. In the winter of 1777, it was harsh and cold as the Continental Army marched to Valley Forge. General George Washington knew he faced the most daunting of tasks, to fight and win a war against the most powerful empire in existence in the world at the time. His mission was clear: liberty, not conquest. Freedom. Not domination. National independence. Not individual glory. America made a vow: Never again would we bow down to a king. Months ahead would be incredibly difficult. But General Washington knew something in his bones. Something about the spirit of the troops he was leading. Something, something about the soul of the nation he was struggling to be born. In his general order, he predicted, and I quote, with one heart and one mind, with fortitude and with patience, they would overcome every difficulty, the troops he was leading. And they did. They did. This army that lacked blankets and food, clothes and shoes.
You have to watch whole thing. He is the dumbest man to ever obtain the presidency. He’s basically saying that Lincoln wanted to be famous and so he refused to negotiate and started the war. The entire comment is so incredibly ignorant, shallow and basically infantile it’s stunning: Any “negotiation” he would have entered into would have ended up allowing slavery to expand to the entire country. That’s how good he is. He cannot learn. This isn’t the first time he’s made an ass out of himself with this issue. Here he is from 2017: “People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why?” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Examiner, according to a transcript released Monday. “People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?” Trump ruminated after lauding Jackson, the populist president whom he and his staff have cited as a role model. He suggested that if Jackson had been president “you wouldn’t have had the Civil War.
I finished two more chapters this week in my book about ActivityPub. Chapter 2 is about Activity Streams 2.0, the social network data standard we use for ActivityPub. Appendix 1 is a reference for all the types in Activity Streams. Next up is Chapter 4, federation protocol, and Chapter 5, extensions. I’m on a tight … Continue reading Two more chapters
“History is watching” Weather has thwarted President Biden’s plans for a major reelection campaign speech. Biden originally meant to mark the third anniverary of the Jan. 6 MAGA insurrection with a speech using Philadelphia as a backdrop, as he did when he called out MAGA Republicans as “a threat to this country” at Independence Hall in September 2022. Biden’s speech will be framed to contrast Biden’s vision of America with that of his expected 2024 Republican opponent, Donald Trump. The White House has rescheduled the speech for Valley Forge today to get ahead of a winter storm. (I’m still trying to find a time for the speech. Update: It’s at 3 p.m. ET.) Politico: Biden aides had long considered holding an event near Valley Forge, famed as the headquarters of Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army during the American Revolution. Advisers during the media call Thursday said that the site has historical resonance not just as a venue for a battle for liberty, but also for the decisions Washington then made.
Will it be a story for more than a day? Yesterday I observed an exchange on CNN which perfectly illustrates our problem. While acknowledging that it’s important to report on it, Dana Bash said Trump did everything in plain sight “so how much of this is baked in and how much does that vs Joe Biden just cancel each other out. I’m not saying it’s not important I’m just looking at reality” I wanted to scream in frustration. But one of her panelists, Laura Baron Lopez of PBS had the right answer: That’s our job in the press to make clear the differences, not just “Republicans call Biden corrupt, Democrats call Trump corrupt and we don’t know what the truth is” when we do know there is no evidence right now at all that says that President Biden did anything wrong or benefited from his son’s business dealings whereas there is a paper trail and there IS evidence showing that former president Trump benefited from his business dealings while he was in office.” That’s correct. Sadly, it appears to have been a one day story and that’s the end of that.
Yesterday I wrote about Trump’s right hand gal, Alina Habba saying she’d rather be pretty than smart because she can fake being smart. She’s not faking it very well: Aaron Blake writes: There is saying the quiet part out loud, and then there’s what Trump lawyer Alina Habba just did. Addressing the Supreme Court’s looming 14th Amendment decisions on whether Donald Trump can be disqualified from state ballots for engaging in insurrection, Habba decided it would be a good time to remind people of just how much Trump has done for Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. “I think it should be a slam dunk in the Supreme Court; I have faith in them,” Habba saidon Fox News.“You know, people like Kavanaugh who the president fought for, who the president went through hell to get into place, he’ll step up.” She tried to clean it up but please. Let there be no doubt about what she was saying: [D]espite Habba’s cleanup effort, she was clearly pointing in the direction of Kavanaugh (and potentially others) being beholden to Trump; there is no other reason to invoke the supposed favors Trump did for Kavanaugh.
I finished it for him. This was the opening speech of Biden’s campaign and he is making it clear how he sees the stakes and he is 100% right. Unfortunately, we are clearly going to have to fight much of the media at the same time we will have to fight Trump and the MAGA cult. CNN’s commentary after the speech was dismal. Gloria Borger complained that it was “very personal” ignoring the fact that it’s a presidential campaign and Biden is running against Trump! Of course it’s personal. And all he did was use Trump’s own words. (He didn’t even call him old or fat or make fun of him, which I think is the actual definition of “getting personal.”) Then former Republican Charlie Dent said that people are sick of all the “extremistm” and are looking for something different than Trump who they think is crazy and Biden who is too old. Then he brought up No Labels at which point I changed the channel. *sigh* Some more highlights: Some other highlights: There’s a lot of work to do to get people to pay attention to what Trump has in store if he gets elected again. This was a good start.
There are no words Instigating an insurrection is not a deal breaker for Republicans. Nor is Donald Trump accepting untold millions from foreign governments during his presidency. (The reported $7.8 million reported comes from a mere handful of Trump properties.) Nor are felony indictments too many (91) to itemize here. Nor is screwing porn stars and Playboy models or sexually assaulting a journalist. Nor are threats by Trump to use the government to prosecute political enemies. Etc., etc. Nor is “bending the knee” to their abuser beneath Republicans. Nor is idolatry. What do Republicans offer prospective voters? Behold: Jess Piper is Executive Director of Blue Missouri and host of the “Dirt Road Democrat” podcast. Also, she’s one of those straight talkers Republicans claim to admire.