"A European Union Commission report last wk, says when X-Twitter, got rid of its safety standards, Russian disinfo took off. Lies about Russia’s war against Ukraine spread to at least 165m people in the E.U. + allied countries incline the U.S., garnering 16b+ views. It found that Instagram, Telegram, & Facebook, all owned by Meta, also spread pro-Kremlin propaganda that uses hate speech & boosts extremists."
#HeatherCoxRichardson

A beautiful articulation of our present moment, living as we do at the pleasure of Harlan Crow's and Justice Roberts' SCOTUS, where Labor struggles each and every day to assert its standing in their capitalist worldview, and articulated wonderfully all the way back in 1859!
#heathercoxrichardson
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/september-2-2023?r=2qih1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/august-19-2023?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=lvmc

#HeatherCoxRichardson puts this in historical context - a reminder that our history informs the present.

"Now the two have made a 126-page originalist case that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits Trump from running for president. Their interpretation is undoubtedly correct. But that interpretation has even larger implications than they claim."

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/august-19-2023?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=lvmc

#HeatherCoxRichardson puts this in history context - a reminder that our history informs the present.

"Now the two have made a 126-page originalist case that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits Trump from running for president. Their interpretation is undoubtedly correct. But that interpretation has even larger implications than they claim."

#HeatherCoxRichardson:
“Democrats are taking a victory lap on the anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a law that has transformed the U.S. economy & for which not a single Republican voted… Republicans have been eager to take credit for IRA investments in their districts without mentioning either that they voted against the IRA or that they are still trying to repeal it.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/august-16-2023?r=1k4nht&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/august-15-2023?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=lvmc

"It appears the Trump Republicans have fully embraced what Russian political theorists called “political technology”: the construction of a virtual political reality through modern media."

#authoritarian
#AntiDemocracyGOP
#HeatherCoxRichardson
#USpolitics

“[Fulton Co DA Fani Willis, responding to Trump’s allegation of partisanship:] ‘I make decisions in this office based on the facts and the law. The law is completely nonpartisan. That's how decisions are made in every case. To date, this office has indicted, since I’ve been sitting as the district attorney, over 12,000 cases. This is the eleventh RICO indictment. We follow the same process. We look at the facts. We look at the law. And we bring charges.’”
#FaniWillis #HeatherCoxRichardson #Trump

“Those operating in Georgia to push the scheme to manufacture a false slate of Trump electors to challenge the real Biden electors include lawyer Ray Stallings Smith III, who tried to sell the idea to legislators; Philadelphia political operative Michael Roman; former Georgia Republican chair David James Shafer, who led the fake elector meeting; and Shawn Micah Tresher Still, currently a state senator, who was the secretary of the fake elector meeting.”
#HeatherCoxRichardson #trumpindictment

“Those charged fall into several categories. Trump allies who operated out of the White House include lawyers Rudy Giuliani (who recently conceded in a lawsuit that he lied about Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss having stuffed ballot boxes),  John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenna Ellis, and Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.”
#HeatherCoxRichardson #trumpindictment

“That is, while claiming to investigate voter fraud, they allegedly committed election fraud. And that effort has run them afoul of a number of laws, including the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which is broader than federal anti-racketeering laws and carries a mandatory five-year prison term.” #HeatherCoxRichardson #trumpindictment

“The indictment alleges that those involved in the ‘criminal enterprise’ ‘constituted a criminal organization whose members &associates engaged in various related criminal activities including, but not limited to, false statements & writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state, acts involving theft, &perjury.’” #HeatherCoxRichardson #trumpindicted

“[J]ust before midnight the state of Georgia indicted former pres Donald J.Trump & 18 others for multiple crimes committed in that state as they tried to steal the 2020 presidential election…A regular grand jury took the final report of the special grand jury [of Fulton Co citizens] into consideration & brought an indictment.
“The defendants have until noon on Aug 25 to surrender themselves to authorities.”—#HeatherCoxRichardson #trump

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-14-2023

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/august-11-2023?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=lvmc

I read Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter every day for concise news with important historical context. This one is about the decline of the Republican Party into a group of chaos agents, Trump's latest indictment and his use of public lies to manipulate opinion about it and how this all overshadows stories about regular, competent governance.

#HeatherCoxRichardson
#USpolitics

Today’s “Letters from an American” illustrates the Republican Party’s contempt for democracy. #GOP #USpol #HeatherCoxRichardson

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/august-10-2023?r=r2em&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

@Barbramon1 Did you read #HeatherCoxRichardson’s latest?
“Tuberville, who didn’t serve in the military, likes to say ‘there is no one more military than me.’ Yet thanks to him & the R conference permitting him to hold the nominations, we’re down two chiefs of staff tonight.
Meanwhile,…when soldiers took charge in Niger, 🇺🇸 had no ambassador there. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was blocking confirmation of >60 State Dept officials the same way Tuberville was blocking conf of military officials.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/august-4-2023?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=lvmc

"The attack on our nation by individual Republicans seems to be a theme these days."

#AntiDemocracyGOP
#HeatherCoxRichardson
#USpolitics

"That #Trump will be tried for his #coup attempt is not a violation of his rights. It is a fulfillment of his rights. It is the grace of the American republic. In other systems, when your coup attempt fails, what follows is not a trial.” -Yale history professor Timothy Snyder

"The grand jury’s #indictment agrees that Trump had the right to lie abt the election charging him instead w/ illegal attempts to overturn the election results, not against his right to free speech." #HeatherCoxRichardson

' #Trump just became the 1,078th person charged w/ federal crimes connected to #Jan6 events -according to the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington, DC.' #HeatherCoxRichardson

"#NYT study on Fri notes tht #ElonMusk has steadily come to dominate #satellite internet tech thru #Starlink tech made by his #SpaceX rocket co, & using tht dominance to restrict Ukraine’s #military activity like: leaving troops w/out communication capacity...which conflicts w/ US #FedGovt Ukrainian support initiatives...who btw contracts w/ SpaceX. Since 2019, Musk has positioned 4,500 of 42,000 satellites planned to control more than 50% of the 🌍 ’s working satellites." #HeatherCoxRichardson

“As former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said this evening: ‘Like every criminal defendant, the former President is innocent until proven guilty…. The charges…must play out through the legal process, peacefully and without any outside interference…. As this case proceeds through the courts, justice must be done according to the facts and the law.’”—#HeatherCoxRichardson #trump