Henri 🇺🇸🦅

World explorer, bad golfer, seeker of good. Neither Dem nor Rep, Country over party #CountryFirst #ProDemocracy #AntiFascism

[Henri 🇺🇸🦅 @hsmithson_]

All of these. #7Rules

[Trygve Olson @trygveolson]

Before you attack @Mike_Pence for any past appeasement or enabling remember the seven rules for dealing with autocrats, particularly the Stalin Rule.

Seven Rules for Dealing with Autocrats and their enablers.

I wrote these when working with those worldwide fighting for Democracy in their nations, and they are just as applicable today with what we face in America in the coming months.

- Rule #1: Play the Game You Are in, Not the One You Wish or Want to Play - This means when one side is playing the zero-sum, illiberal game, there is no win-win to be played. You will either win, and democracy survives, or you lose to the autocratic forces.

- Rule #2: Always Speak Truth to Power Because You Never Know the Tipping Point - You must confront the Big Lies of illiberal forces by speaking truth to their base of power -- the people. There is a tipping point where your Truth or the Big Lies prevail.

- Rule #3: Don't Hand the Autocrats Battering Rams with Which to Beat You - The game you are in, the battle you are fighting, isn't about policy or ideology. They will use what you say to divide you from your allies, who you need to win the battle for democracy.

- Rule #4: Understand Authoritarians Must Live in a Truth-Free Present - The past presents truths about the big lies and fear the illiberal forces use. The future for autocratic forces only matters for maintaining power at the moment. They only care about keeping/gaining power.

- Rule #5: Practice Zero-Sum Judo - Use their tactics against them -- Big Truths, Marginalization, make them dependent, mock the disinformation, divide and conquer their power structure. Use their desire for the legitimacy of democracy against them.

- Rule #6: The Stalin Rule: Stand Together with Anyone Who Will Join You to Disturb, Disrupt, and Diminish the Illiberal Structures. Even if you share nothing in common beyond a love of democracy and how much you loathe their politics in normal times, you fight side-by-side with them.

- Rule #7: Wake Up Every Day Thinking Where Can the Vertical Power Structure Be Exposed, Confronted, and Destabilized - Each of us and all of us on Team Democracy must wake up every day and ask what can I do to be on the side of restoring faith and confront the fear they use.

Ultimately, I am an optimist. When the fear of the illiberal autocrat erodes because people show they are not afraid, faith takes hold, and others want and will join the fight. It is one we must win in America. It is one we will win because more Americans stand for Democracy that has made us great than Autocrat who is constantly tearing us apart and down.

[Henri 🇺🇸🦅 @hsmithson_]

@IngrahamAngle Those are some very good drugs you're on. It's not like he could run for a 3rd term. If he could've, no doubt he'd have been re-elected.

Trump-numbers going down every day. Americans HATE him. Hate MAGA. Hate all of it.

[Henri 🇺🇸🦅 @hsmithson_]

and @speakerjohnson - we fucking reject you, your Handmaid's Tale view of America, Trump's corruption, and MAGA politics. All of it needs to be eradicated from our political system an democratic republic.
#EndMAGA #TrumpCorruption #HandmaidsTale

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Mike Johnson: "This is not a joke. We are in a fight right now to save the republic and every American needs to take this seriously. You need to wake up. This upcoming midterm is not the midterm elections of years ago. This is gonna decide the direction of the country. Are we gonna maintain our status as a constitutional republic on our 250th anniversary?"

[Henri 🇺🇸🦅 @hsmithson_]

@TOLake1 @ChrisMurphyCT The GOP would NEVER have allowed any corruption from the Biden & rolled out the red carpet for Trump's. You seem ok w/Trump corruption even though it's robbing you & your family blind. And if Biden had been corrupt (he wasn't) that doesn't mean Trump corruption should be allowed

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Trump has turned the White House into a 24/7 corruption operation. This is a national crisis.

Trump thinks the public will stop paying attention.

So I went to the Senate floor to call his bluff. I told the ENTIRE STORY of his 500 days of corruption.

1/ Here it is - in one🧵

[Henri 🇺🇸🦅 @hsmithson_]

Yo @seckennedy - irony much? Trump pardoned fraudsters and he treats taxpayer dollars like his own personal bank account AND YOU KNOW IT. Start with him, jackass.

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

RFK Jr: If you treat taxpayer dollars as your personal bank account, we will investigate you, build a case, and bring you to justice.

[Henri 🇺🇸🦅 @hsmithson_]

@PressSec Sleep deprivation is really getting to you now, isn't it.

[Henri 🇺🇸🦅 @hsmithson_]

@RapidResponse47 @DAGToddBlanche @POTUS @VP Then why does Trump continually pardon those who committed the fraud in the first place? Oh, that's right, silly me, they're his donors and ego-flatterers. Quid Pro Quo anyone?

[Henri 🇺🇸🦅 @hsmithson_]

@foxandfriends And if you did this poll during Biden years it would be the same. And Bush years, any other administration. Is MAHA doing it and is this poll reflecting MAHA - nope, that's some bullshit spin on your part. Your mega donors don't want any of this - cuts into their profits.

[Henri 🇺🇸🦅 @hsmithson_]

@WhiteHouse Always interesting that of all the leaders, Trump is the only one who needs to be surrounded by a curated crowd. Just tell the (would-be) emperor he has no clothes.

[Henri 🇺🇸🦅 @hsmithson_]

@RapidResponse47 That's some hysterically funny bullshit. His numbers are abysmal and saying they aren't doesn't make your point of view true.

[Democratic Governors @DemGovs]

CAUGHT ON TAPE: Billionaire and Georgia GOP candidate for governor Rick Jackson reveals he believes women should prove they were raped before getting an abortion.

[Sulkhan Metreveli @Sulkhan]

I never understood the Western fascination with Russia. I was a Soviet citizen and lived under that system. I’ve also lived in America and Europe. Compared with the West, Russia is a shithole in every practical, moral and political sense. What exactly are you admiring?

[Steve Schmidt @SteveSchmidtSES]

"How could the United States Senate confirm Tulsi Gabbard? How could it confirm Pete Hegseth? How could it confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? How could it confirm Kash Patel? The answer is as depressing as it is obvious because courage has become scarce."

https://t.co/6A3SJVW0W8

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

The Trump regime has killed at least 210 people by bombing boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since last September.

Remember: no judge or jury has found these boats were trafficking drugs. We're simply taking Trump's word for it.

This is a danger to us all. https://t.co/rQOadGfmzZ

[James Henry @Jameshenry1970]

As a DC9 union painter with 30+ years in coatings, I’m looking at the failure not a conspiracy theory.
When a coating is lifting off in large sheets like this, that points to an adhesion failure: improper surface preparation, contamination left behind, the wrong coating system, poor recoat timing, or water introduced before the system fully cured.

A quality two-part epoxy system can perform well but the product is only as good as the prep and application. The substrate has to be properly profiled/cleaned, the specified primer or first coat applied correctly, recoat windows followed, and the full system allowed to cure before being put back into service.

That is not “vandals.” That is a coating failure that deserves a real independent inspection and an explanation of exactly what system was specified and how it was applied.

#Coatings #Epoxy #SurfacePreparation #PaintFailure #UnionPainter #QualityControl #Accountability #ReflectingPool
#Properpreperation #Elonmusk
#DonaldTrump #Donaldtrumpjr
@krassenstein @EdKrassen @eddsmitty @LucasSa56947288 @adammocklerr @harryjsisson @acnewsitics @Acyn @Bakari_Sellers

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

The Trump administration just paid Invenergy $765 million to cancel four wind projects. That brings the running total to roughly $2.5 billion in taxpayer money spent to stop energy from being built.

Think about that.

At a time when electricity demand is rising, the Trump administration is spending billions to reduce the amount of power that could reach the grid.

Trump has spent years attacking wind turbines as ugly and inefficient. He is entitled to his opinions about how they look. He is not entitled to make taxpayers finance those opinions.

Seven states have already sued over earlier agreements. Federal courts have repeatedly found legal defects in this administration’s efforts to halt offshore wind development. The administration has cited national security concerns while providing little public evidence to support them, and judges have said they were not convinced.

Strip away the politics and what remains is hard to defend.

Billions in taxpayer money paid to private companies to cancel planned energy projects during a period of rising demand.

Governments usually spend money to build things.

This administration is spending billions to make sure some things never get built.
https://t.co/rB2naxc27j

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

James Talarico: “Real men don’t lie and cheat their way through life. They don’t enrich themselves by stealing from other people. They don’t sell their soul to the highest bidder. Real men serve others, weak men serve themselves”

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

Scientists in Atlanta were stopped from criticizing the Trump admin at a scientific conference, so let me do it here:

Trump is destroying biomedical research in America, and it will take decades to get back on track. 

Spread the word. Stand up for science.

[Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew]

Anyone else still outraged that President Trump managed to get immunity from IRS audits for himself, his family and his businesses?

And he did it by suing and settling with his own government.

It's so blatantly corrupt we don't even know where to begin...

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

Trump wants to create a national database of every registered voter in the country.

Then, he and the GOP want to decide who gets to stay on it.

“It’s a way of essentially taking over the voter registration process,” Marc Elias says, “or, more precisely, taking over the results.”