It's become apparent that Republicans don't actually understand how power works.
They think what they're doing with Trump, Kavanaugh, etc., shows that they're powerful.
It doesn't. It just shows they know how to *abuse* the power of institutions that took decades to accumulate.
Power for any government is derived from the legitimacy the people have given it.
Congresspeople, Presidents, Supreme Court justices, etc, are caretakers for governmental institutions. The best ones increase the legitimacy of those institutions, giving them more power.
Sep 30, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The reasoning being used by Kanye—likely with the support of right-wingers—that the 13th Amendment somehow legalized prison labor and so must be repealed is frankly horrifying.
I get it: there are too many laws and too many people—especially minorites—end up in prison for too long.
Repealing the 13th Amendment—or even excising the bit about being convicted of a crime—won't do anything about this problem.
Sep 25, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Kavanaugh, in the yearbook message HE WROTE, called himself an "alumnus" of a girl (along with other friends of his) and asked Mark Judge if he had "boofed"?
Unfamiliar with the term "boofed"? Per Urban Dictionary, it means having had anal sex.
He doesn't regret any of this.
This man is a disgusting AF frat boy who doesn't regret his history of drunken misogyny, cruelty and sexual assault.
Meanwhile, a Black woman who voted when she honestly didn't know she wasn't allowed to was sentenced to jail for five years.
This country is fucked.
Sep 25, 2018 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
When recently confronted with the fact that what he wrote in his high school yearbook hurt the feelings of a friend of his, Kavanaugh refused to apologize. Instead, he essentially blamed her for feeling the way she did.
That's all you need to know about this man.
This friend had ALSO signed the letter bearing witness to his "good character". This is how he repaid her.
He's just a shitty person.
Sep 24, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Um... going on Fox News doesn't seem like a good way to convince the country you're not a sexual assaulter.
I wonder if Bill Shine, who spent much of his time at Fox News before he was fired covering up sexual harassment, helped Kavanaugh land this interview...
20-30 feet is also enough to flood huge swaths of our largest metro areas outside of Florida: New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle, Bay Area, San Diego, etc.
Sep 16, 2018 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Public Service Announcement:
ATTEMPTED RAPE IS NOT A YOUTHFUL TRANSGRESSION! IT'S A FUCKING CRIME!
Seriously: 17 year olds are *regularly* charged with sexual assault and rape and TRIED AS ADULTS! It's that fucking serious.
They don't get a "oh, it's not like the rest of us had 'spotless lives' at 17" get-out-of-jail free card.
Sep 16, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The people in the tri-county area around McKenzie, TN, voted for Donald Trump by a 3-to-1 margin in 2016.
As Republicans like to say, elections have consequences.
Want to expand Medicaid? Don't want rural hospitals to shut down?
DON'T. VOTE. FOR. REPUBLICANS. Yes, it's that fucking easy.
Sep 10, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
If you think "we as a society should have homeless people sleeping in the streets arrested and thrown in jail" instead of "we as a society should make sure there are no people desperate enough to sleep in the streets", you're a fucking psycho.
There are no "both sides" to this. Arresting homeless people is simply vile, not a "policy idea" that should be debated.
People shouldn't be thrown in jail merely for being poor and desperate. End.
Sep 5, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Brett Kavanaugh got himself $200K in debt in a few years. How? Supposedly by buying himself and "friends" Nationals tickets.
He was able to pay off much of that debt in less than a year. How? Supposedly because "friends" paid him back.
We have no idea who these "friends" are.
Why was a federal appeals judge giving loans to "friends" for baseball tickets when they clearly could afford the expense?
At the very least, this shows Kavanaugh is stupid with money; at worst, there's something else going on.
Aug 30, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Just a couple weeks ago, Trump found $8 billion for Space Force.
There's also the $5 billion Trump found to subsidize farmers hurt by his stupid trade wars.
Aug 30, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Hey, remember when it was "alarmist" to claim that Trump would try to deport natural-born Americans?
Yeah, well... he's doing that. And it's barely making a ripple in the news.
Those shouting down legitimate concerns about the direction of Trump's policies months ago as "alarmist" share blame for US citizens currently awaiting deportation proceedings in South Texas.
And, yes, it will happen to you, too.
Aug 30, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
US citizens are being held in immigration detention centers because they tried to renew their passports and Trump's Admin claimed their US-issued birth certificates weren't sufficient to establish US citizenship.
Remember when we said it was never about "illegal immigrants"?
It was only ever about one thing and one thing only: defining "American" to mean a white conservative Christian.
They started with people with no political power: undocumented migrants.
Then they moved to legal immigrants.
Now they're on Latino-Americans in GOP states.
Aug 22, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
White House staffers apparently believed Paul Manafort wouldn't be found guilty.
Anybody with an ounce of reading comprehension ability could have seen Manafort was screwed when the indictment was first filed months ago.
And these deluded idiots make US government policy.
Did they think Trump's personal endorsement of Manafort's character obviously directed at the unsequestered jury would make a difference?
Or that Manafort's obviously-perjured tax returns was somehow a "Deep State" conspiracy?
Aug 15, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Conservatives, today: "Trump saying the n-word will really make me rethink my support of him."
Tomorrow's news: "Here's a Tape of Trump Saying the N-Word!"
Conservatives, tomorrow: "What's the big deal? Black people call each other 'n***er' all the time!"
We all know that once there's a tape of Trump saying the n-word, that'll just give license to white conservatives to say it, too... like they've always wanted to.
Seriously... it's been blatantly obvious Trump for DECADES hates Black people, especially Black women (none of the three Black people appointed by Trump have been women).
He reserves his vilest criticisms for Black people (Maxine Waters, Don Lemon, LeBron James, Omarosa, etc.)
Aug 8, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
That minority neighborhoods today are synonymous in USA with "high-crime" is a function of this country's deeply racist legacy ("redlining", discriminatory employment practices, etc.).
Instead of trying to mitigate that legacy, Chicago police enforce it. vox.com/2018/8/7/17661…
Blacks and other POC were shut of out the best schools and jobs, forced to live in areas where they wouldn't be seen by whites, and the jobs they were forced to engage in were criminalized. That legacy lives on today.
Jul 31, 2018 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Reminders:
—racism and bigotry are not a "differences of opinion" that should be tolerated, given a platform, nor in any way normalized in society
—you can hate and shun racists and bigots
—you should not be friends with racists and bigots
—yes, it is that simple
The fact that racism and bigotry ARE being normalized in our society currently is a fucking travesty.
And yes... I do blame white people. Too many "liberal" white people tolerate their racist, bigoted, white supremacist and outright Nazi friends. No, that's not okay.
Fortunately, I have no reason to be gracious to Ms. McCain.
Jul 28, 2018 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
@tedcruz Facebook is a private company. It can restrict speech however it wants.
If YOU don't like the way Facebook restricts speech, you can stop using it. It's the "free market", something the GOP used to care about.
And don't give me "but I have to use Facebook to do X". You don't.
@tedcruz Facebook isn't the Internet; the Internet isn't Facebook.
Alex Jones's hate-filled lies can still be broadcast on the Internet to his heart's desire; just not on a single platform on the Internet... for 30 days.
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