politics
Twitter is an ephemeral medium. You scroll through tweets just fast enough for them to register in your head, and then they’re gone forever. If you want to find something again, you can go to somebody’s profile and scroll through, one tweet at a time, until you find what you wanted.
This is a lousy way of capturing history. That’s not great, because Twitter does such a good job of capturing important moments, as they happen. If you want to save that moment, though, what can you do? What do you do if you think a day’s tweets are important? Print them out?
Well, I did. Here is what I tweeted and retweeted, on a page. Tactile. To be read.
i wonder what will happen
Fri Jan 01 00:21:56 +0000 2021
(edit 2021-01-11: added a few more tweets in here)
What would we do without the police?
Cops are taking selfies with the terrorists.
Wed Jan 06 20:42:54 +0000 2021
"wow the police must be overwhelmed"
Wed Jan 06 20:56:09 +0000 2021
the police: twitter.com/bubbaprog/stat…
.@DCPoliceDept just claimed they don’t do mass arrests in dc
Thu Jan 07 01:25:17 +0000 2021
I’ve been mass arrested once, charged with felonies from a mass arrest, and then there was swan st mass arrest
Three in 4 years
Replying to AthertonKD: If police as currently constituted are unwilling to hold the line against an armed takeover, then they have failed in their most justified reason for existence. That these same police forces kill with impunity against far lesser intrusions highlights that today was a choice.
Thu Jan 07 02:00:45 +0000 2021
D.C. police only arrested 13 people today. twitter.com/Public_Citizen…
Wed Jan 06 23:09:32 +0000 2021
Pentagon leaders installed as part of Trump purge last month blocked DC National Guard from getting riot gear and ammunition as protesters descended on Capitol. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Fri Jan 08 02:30:09 +0000 2021
Now that we know for sure (lol) that the conservative movement was infiltrated by terrorists, it’s going to take years to unravel republican policy and filter all the evil bits out, if they even try to do it.
Thu Jan 07 22:55:47 +0000 2021
waving the blue lives matter flag as you openly disobey law enforcement is extra cool because it illustrates how your flag never meant "pro police" in the first place it literally just meant "anti black"
Wed Jan 06 20:41:12 +0000 2021
There are two Americas.
There are two Americas.
Wed Jan 06 20:01:40 +0000 2021
For the record this was the US Capitol during the BLM Protestors
Wed Jan 06 19:49:52 +0000 2021
For reference, there were 14,000+ arrests at the George Floyd protests.
Wed Jan 06 22:09:42 +0000 2021
Black people have been killed for just existing. Black children have been killed for just playing. These people stormed the U.S. Capitol and they were told they were special and loved. Its so blatant and maddening.
Wed Jan 06 23:25:51 +0000 2021
One of the pro-Trump rioters on the Capitol steps gets a hand down the stairs from a D.C. police officer.
Wed Jan 06 22:34:07 +0000 2021
Remember the old guy who got shoved into the ground because he walked toward a cop twitter.com/therecount/sta…
Wed Jan 06 22:44:13 +0000 2021
that's cool. when i was arrested for standing on a sidewalk while i was on my way to cover a protest that hadn't even started yet, i also faced a maximum penalty of one year in jail. twitter.com/ABC/status/134…
Fri Jan 08 22:29:20 +0000 2021
I'm really having trouble reconciling this new FBI that is suddenly bound by due process and red tape with the one… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Sun Jan 10 06:54:14 +0000 2021
I don’t think it’s wild that the republicans and Blue Lives Matter people don’t care that a cop died. I do think it… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Sun Jan 10 15:30:10 +0000 2021
Trump incited it
NEW: Trump initially rebuffed and resisted requests to mobilize the National Guard, according to a person with knowledge of the vents. It required intervention from White House officials to get it done, according to the person with knowledge of the events.
Thu Jan 07 01:18:45 +0000 2021
Trump told his supporters on the Mall that Republicans have been too nice, like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back, & now needed to “fight much harder” against “bad people.” He told them to walk to the Capitol and … /1
Wed Jan 06 20:10:02 +0000 2021
Replying to charlie_savage: “demand” that Congress “confront this egregious assault on our democracy” (that is, his loss to Biden), & kept exhorting them that “you have to show strength and you have to be strong” and “you will never take back our country with weakness.” /2
Wed Jan 06 20:10:30 +0000 2021
Well that escalated steadily for four years.
Wed Jan 06 20:33:04 +0000 2021
"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" wasn’t just a joke
Thu Jan 07 01:26:43 +0000 2021
Trump takes the turbulent priest thing to a new, more dangerous level by providing these little (plausibly deniable) tidbits for his extremist base to organize around twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
Thu Jan 07 03:01:52 +0000 2021
I wrote about why Trump's latest—threatening a Republican electoral official to try to get him to “find 11,780 votes" for him isn't performative. None of this is, because this isn't theater and that gun pointed at our democracy isn't a prop. It's loaded. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Wed Jan 06 00:11:15 +0000 2021
.@SenatorDurbin leans hard into Trump's call to the GA SoS and slams Trump: "This mob was invited to come to Washington on this day by this president….He wanted this mob to disrupt the constitutional process.”
Thu Jan 07 01:59:55 +0000 2021
Per source, White House counsel Pat Cipollone told west wing staffers today not to help Trump stage a coup or else they could be prosecuted for treason. My latest:
Thu Jan 07 02:58:43 +0000 2021
vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/a…
Well, I'd like to see the QAnon community rationalize THIS new development instead of facing reality.
Fri Jan 08 00:47:45 +0000 2021
*The QAnon community rationalizes this new development instead of facing reality easily*
Ah! Well. Nevertheless,
If you listen to his speech, Trump goes out of his way not to mention Biden or conceding. It's carefully chosen language designed to encourage people like this. twitter.com/travis_view/st…
Fri Jan 08 01:05:52 +0000 2021
Replying to Olivianuzzi: Donald Trump was annoyed by the violent siege on the Capitol Wednesday — which left several dead — because it looked “low class,” according to his adviser. “He doesn’t like low class things.”
Fri Jan 08 01:42:20 +0000 2021
Replying to Olivianuzzi: The adviser confirmed that he was watching television coverage of the siege enthusiastically, but noted that the sight of his own supporters forming a violent mob and destroying property and lives offended him on aesthetic grounds.
Fri Jan 08 01:45:54 +0000 2021
Here’s Alex Jones admitting the orders were coming from Donald Trump.
Sat Jan 09 16:24:37 +0000 2021
This shouldn't surprise you.
I am legitimately baffled by anyone who is surprised by today’s events.
Wed Jan 06 21:07:18 +0000 2021
Replying to giovan_h: What did you think antifa has been protesting about? Why did you ignore years of police showing extreme bias in their use of force? What did you THINK was going to happen?
Wed Jan 06 21:09:52 +0000 2021
Replying to giovan_h: I’m glad this is the last straw for SOMEBODY, but it shouldn’t have been. People have been warning about this exact danger for years. To be surprised today is to be ashamed that it took you this long.
Wed Jan 06 21:16:54 +0000 2021
Replying to giovan_h: At this point anyone involved in policy or nat. defense should drop everything they’re doing, run to antifa, and plead “How did you know this was coming? Please, teach us”
Wed Jan 06 21:24:13 +0000 2021
Replying to giovan_h: Because today we learned that antifa — whatever political theories they use, whatever assumptions about human nature they made, whatever dangers they saw in institutional racism — were right.
Wed Jan 06 21:26:13 +0000 2021
Again—the ppl who didn't see this coming a long ways off, who didn't appreciate that Trump needed to be removed from office long before now for exactly this reason, are the exact ppl who need to stfu right now & listen to the folks who've been calling it correctly from jump.
Wed Jan 06 23:45:22 +0000 2021
People keep giving me credit for "predicting" this.
Wed Jan 06 23:17:07 +0000 2021
I predicted nothing. I read what these people wrote online about what they PLANNED TO DO and I tried to warn people.
This was not prediction. It was basic reading comprehension. twitter.com/IwriteOK/statu…
White House officials were shaken by Trump's reaction to a mob of his supporters descending on the Capitol today. He was described to me as borderline enthusiastic because it meant the certification was being derailed. It has genuinely freaked people out.
Thu Jan 07 03:34:56 +0000 2021
There is a small contingency of people who wouldn't let themselves see it until now. There's an "oh my god, I've been serving a monster" moment. twitter.com/kaitlancollins…
Thu Jan 07 04:32:18 +0000 2021
i joined the leopards eating people's faces party for their economic policy. i never expected this
Thu Jan 07 22:40:08 +0000 2021
If you spent time in pro-Trump, Back the Blue, Reopen, or QAnon Facebook groups over the past 9 months, this will be less surprising.
Sat Jan 09 19:04:14 +0000 2021
Respectable white people may not be open about their views when sitting for interviews in diners, but the rhetoric has been in the open on FB. twitter.com/lpdonovan/stat…
Rewriting history in real time
CNN has begun calling these individuals anarchists and the events an insurrection
Wed Jan 06 20:27:23 +0000 2021
Ah yes, "anarchy," the thing where you want to keep an incumbent president in power forever. twitter.com/TalKopan/statu…
Wed Jan 06 20:35:01 +0000 2021
anarchist does not mean "anyone opposed to the current government" and people attempting a coup on the behalf of the sitting president are not anarchists and CNN is either fantastically ignorant of basic politics or is lying.
Wed Jan 06 20:41:11 +0000 2021
Lindsey Graham says he doesn't support invoking the 25th Amendment right now but “if something else happens, all options would be on the table."
Thu Jan 07 20:06:25 +0000 2021
For some reason the phrase “moving the goalposts” springs to mind twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/st…
Thu Jan 07 22:13:21 +0000 2021
Here's Lou Dobbs and Rep. Mo Brooks baselessly speculating that the hundreds of insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol today actually may have included antifa false flag elements.
Thu Jan 07 00:39:23 +0000 2021
Replying to MattGertz: Now Sarah Palin, on a Fox "news" show, says "we don't know who all were the instigators in this of these horrible things that happen today, I think a lot of it is the antifa folks" per "pictures she was sent, no response at all from Martha MacCallum.
Thu Jan 07 00:47:35 +0000 2021
There is no Fox "news" side.
Replying to MattGertz: "Maybe there were antifa infiltrators" just jumped to Tucker Carlson's show.
Thu Jan 07 01:21:56 +0000 2021
Replying to MattGertz: Fox's senior political analyst.
Thu Jan 07 02:05:55 +0000 2021
Replying to MattGertz: Laura Ingraham says the insurrectionists were "antithetical to the MAGA movement" and "there are some reports that antifa sympathizers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd."
Thu Jan 07 03:04:56 +0000 2021
All three Fox primetime shows have now pushed this baseless rumor.
Stop saying history will judge them. Judge them now. With judges.
Thu Jan 07 04:00:06 +0000 2021
History is famously bad at judging. Let judges do it. In courts. This is why we have them twitter.com/JoeSondow/stat…
Thu Jan 07 05:58:26 +0000 2021
Replying to Mike_Pence: Officer Sicknick is an American hero who gave his life defending our Capitol and this Nation will never forget or fail to honor the service and sacrifice of Officer Brian Sicknick.
Fri Jan 08 18:37:05 +0000 2021
If he died defending the capitol, that would make what happened an “attack” on the capitol twitter.com/mike_pence/sta…
Fri Jan 08 19:34:37 +0000 2021
I can tell you what IS Orwellian: the characterization of yesterday's events as involving "antifa" in any way is a deliberate attempt to destroy the meaning of language and rewrite history.
Fri Jan 08 02:33:40 +0000 2021
The Undesirables
falling back on “terrorists” to describe people who committed acts of war against their own country
Fri Jan 08 03:33:40 +0000 2021
Take this in: Never once, in the years 1860-1865, was this flag ever paraded in the halls of the American capitol.
Wed Jan 06 21:41:33 +0000 2021
Journalists still asking if this was planned or it just "happened" somehow.
Wed Jan 06 22:28:40 +0000 2021
they had fucking merch twitter.com/willjennings80…
Thu Jan 07 00:22:09 +0000 2021
Replying to igorbobic: Several people got on to a scaffolding outside Senate, took it to second floor, which looked like the area where McConnell’s office is located, and started banging on windows
Wed Jan 06 19:57:21 +0000 2021
He…threw the American flag to the ground to make room for the Trump flag. That's it…that's the whole metaphor. twitter.com/igorbobic/stat…
Wed Jan 06 20:03:47 +0000 2021
Replying to MalcolmNance: @MalcolmNance They were planning to take hostages.
Wed Jan 06 21:00:45 +0000 2021
a protester in the Capitol with what appears to be a handgun on his hip and zipties, to take congressional hostages. hundreds of people were talking about doing this openly, online in places like thedonald.win
Wed Jan 06 22:30:28 +0000 2021
They were also talking about executing elected Democrats twitter.com/Rebexem/status…
I heard at least 3 different rioters at the Capitol say that they hoped to find Vice President Mike Pence and execute him by hanging him from a Capitol Hill tree as a traitor. It was a common line being repeated. Many more were just talking about how the VP should be executed. twitter.com/andrewfeinberg…
Fri Jan 08 15:01:35 +0000 2021
SCOOP-
Thu Jan 07 14:31:42 +0000 2021
The devices found near the RNC and DNC headquarters on Wednesday were actual explosive devices, not phonies, according to a senior federal law enforcement official briefed on the investigations.
They brought real bombs, and then the cops just let everyone go.
Thu Jan 07 14:49:27 +0000 2021
The bombmakers are out there, free and clear, and there's an inauguration in 13 days. twitter.com/JakeBGibson/st…
the "anti-woke" mocked AOC for tweeting "im okay" as if she's some self-obsessed selfie-millennial stereotype and not one of the biggest target for the magas who were hoping to take hostages
Thu Jan 07 18:42:26 +0000 2021
“This is not America,” a woman said to a small group, her voice shaking. “They’re shooting at us. They’re supposed to shoot BLM, but they’re shooting the patriots.” bit.ly/2LbkWpp
Thu Jan 07 17:22:39 +0000 2021
Oh look, the quiet part out loud again. twitter.com/thenation/stat…
Thu Jan 07 20:07:21 +0000 2021
It really doesn't get starker than this, laying out this particular worldview twitter.com/thenation/stat…
Thu Jan 07 18:31:28 +0000 2021
Decades of careful propagandising and doublespeak to hide the exact same intent this white woman just blurted out in full view of the press twitter.com/thenation/stat…
Thu Jan 07 18:26:51 +0000 2021
Source close to the VP says Trump pressured Pence to engineer a coup, then put the VP and his family in danger. cnn.com/2021/01/07/pol…
Thu Jan 07 18:17:03 +0000 2021
Terror attacks by people worked up into a violent frenzy warrant an examination of the technology* that incited the emotional frenzy.
Fri Jan 08 00:09:40 +0000 2021
*A broad category including Facebook but also broad ideas like advertising campaigns and the quality of journalism
Replying to giovan_h: “Why angry people staged a riot” doesn’t interest me. It’s trivial. The interesting question here is “Why did they believe the lies that made them angry?”
Fri Jan 08 00:14:13 +0000 2021
Replying to giovan_h: Some platforms made an attempt to combat disinformation campaigns (because they realized disinfo campaigns lead to people believing legitimately dangerous lies) but didn't have a coherent approach for systematically preventing them
Fri Jan 08 00:17:57 +0000 2021
Replying to giovan_h: (A coherent ban on disinformation, of course, leads to all SORTS of other extremely hard problems which, if you're a giant tech company, are terrifying. Half-assing it irritated everyone on both sides but wasn't as offensive as taking an actual position.)
Fri Jan 08 00:19:59 +0000 2021
Friend just texted me, horrified, after realizing that her ex was a part of the violent mob in the Capitol today. He’s a well-spoken West Point grad w/an MBA who lives in Navy Yard and works as a bizdev exec. We’ve gone on double dates. These terrorists are hiding in plain sight.
Thu Jan 07 01:30:49 +0000 2021
I wonder what all the people who ransacked the US Capitol yesterday are doing today.
Thu Jan 07 14:21:45 +0000 2021
Half of them put their uniforms back on and returned to patrol duty. The other half went back to being your doctors, your lawyers, your baristas, your bus drivers, your coworkers, and your “quiet” friends and neighbors. twitter.com/liamstack/stat…
Thu Jan 07 14:57:20 +0000 2021
This may be the lasting image of today
Wed Jan 06 20:20:44 +0000 2021
For me, the striking thing about so many of these images of rioters in the Capitol is that what they're doing - all of them - is creating content for social media.
Thu Jan 07 05:29:59 +0000 2021
At least in their minds, the true seat of power is not actually in that building. It's online. twitter.com/Bencjacobs/sta…
Replying to dynamicsymmetry: And here’s what really gets me.
Sat Jan 09 04:14:46 +0000 2021
Do people like Cruz and Hawley actually think they would have been safe?
They probably do, don’t they?
But the people who stormed the building didn’t seem interesting in drawing fine distinctions.
Meanwhile, this what’s happening on Parler
Sat Jan 09 17:24:30 +0000 2021
Bad news for the economic conservatives who are rightfully outraged by Trump’s mob: as of this week, when people say “conservatives”, they are no longer talking about you.
Sat Jan 09 19:32:33 +0000 2021
Trump supporters chanting 'HANG MIKE PENCE' at the Capitol Building
Wed Jan 06 23:33:46 +0000 2021
The insurrectionists were attempting to kill the first and second people in line to succeed the President and to prevent Congress from certifying the President’s electoral defeat.
Sun Jan 10 00:16:38 +0000 2021
Sorry Republicans, but we’re not “moving on” from this anytime soon. twitter.com/macfarlanenews…
The mob beat an unconscious Capitol Police officer in full uniform to death.
Sun Jan 10 20:45:19 +0000 2021
What do you think they would have don… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Chilling
Sat Jan 09 19:58:28 +0000 2021
"They had a map of the tunnels [in the basement of the Capitol], and they were talking about how they're… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Now I’m thinking about all the ppl finding out their coworker Scott, from accounting, got arrested for going in the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Sat Jan 09 15:46:22 +0000 2021
tech companies
well it took three years and 351 days, including three months of explicitly fostering violent insurrection against the us government, but twitter is finally on the ball twitter.com/TwitterSafety/…
Thu Jan 07 02:16:08 +0000 2021
In the past 48 hours:
Sat Jan 09 01:16:32 +0000 2021
-Twitter banned QAnon accounts
-Twitter banned Trump
-Reddit banned r/donaldtrump
-Reddit banned the head moderator of r/conspiracy
-YouTube banned Steve Bannon's show
-Discord banned TheDonald dot win's channel
-Google banned Parler from its app store
It's been possible to do this all along. People knew it. The dangers had been explained backwards and forwards. They only waited until now to do it so they could keep profiting off these people for as long as possible. twitter.com/AlKapDC/status…
Sat Jan 09 03:05:02 +0000 2021
The twitter ban and the white house resignations etc over the past couple days just makes you all the more aware of how everyone let that guy do whatever as long as it was profitable and now that he's on the way out the value prop isn't there. Anyway lots of people are dead
Fri Jan 08 23:42:36 +0000 2021
Replying to mcclure111: Does monopolist corporate control of speech venues restrict freedom? Yes!
Sat Jan 09 19:28:12 +0000 2021
Up until recent, conservatives were *benefiting* from this, because it let them lobby Facebook for special algorithmic treatment & freely harass/mass-report enemies off Twitter (2/3) twitter.com/libcomorg/stat…
I like how he tried to correct himself 13 mins later and still has no idea what’s going on.
Sat Jan 09 18:59:24 +0000 2021
i see a lot of people celebrating trump being banned, but i for one am very concerned about what this means for freedom of speech. imagine: a corporation exhibiting influence over a politician. sounds impossible, no? not any more. welcome to the new cyber reality
Sat Jan 09 02:20:39 +0000 2021
Impact
please enjoy the nauseatingly weaselly email you got today from your boss about how america is better than the things it regularly does and it's important both sides respect each other because divisiveness is the real terrorism
Thu Jan 07 18:51:12 +0000 2021
Replying to MEPFuller: @MEPFuller @lyman_brian Someone on reddit mentioned that there are bullet holes in the door and suggested that the door remain as is, as a reminder.
Thu Jan 07 02:21:47 +0000 2021
Some people ask: Why would you impeach and convict a president who has only a few days left in office? The answer: Precedent. It must be made clear that no president, now or in the future, can lead an insurrection against the U.S. government.
Fri Jan 08 19:26:35 +0000 2021
I can't stress this enough: From the top down, if the people responsible for today's events face no consequences for what they've done, the next time will be much worse. If a political line is crossed, either enforce its existence or accept that the line no longer exists.
Thu Jan 07 01:50:55 +0000 2021
"This isn't who we are!" is the "Not ALL men" of political rhetoric; it's who ENOUGH of us are that it's a problem. There are enough of them to overthrow the federal capitol. There are too many to hand-wave away.
Thu Jan 07 05:57:46 +0000 2021
America is so much better than what we’re seeing today.
Wed Jan 06 21:30:00 +0000 2021
Wed Jan 06 21:55:22 +0000 2021
"This is not America"? Have you watched the news ever?
Thu Jan 07 01:48:29 +0000 2021
They might as well just say "Hail Hydra" twitter.com/navybook/statu…
Sat Jan 09 19:48:00 +0000 2021
Republicans calling for unity after being caught red-handed inciting a failed coup run by a seditious demagogue the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Sat Jan 09 23:21:46 +0000 2021
When you supported the entire 9/11 security state in all of its relentless, humanity-destroying evil and then
Sun Jan 10 22:50:42 +0000 2021
Replying to attackerman: Notice it’s “tHeY wAnt tO caLl *ME* a tErroRisT” and not “for 20 years they put innocent people, my own neighbors,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Sun Jan 10 22:53:51 +0000 2021
Unsorted
Watch @robertmooreitv's report from inside the Capitol building as the extraordinary events unfolded in Washington DC
Wed Jan 06 22:50:37 +0000 2021
itv.com/news/2021-01-0…
oh shit i wonder how much it costs to read the conspiracy websites
Thu Jan 07 03:42:37 +0000 2021
Replying to dynamicsymmetry: The main reasons offered by scholars tend to be aggrieved nationalism, backlash against the ineffective Weimar government, and both enthusiasm for and tolerance of antisemitism, but I think we shouldn’t discount the overwhelming human bias toward normalization.
Thu Jan 07 19:47:36 +0000 2021
Replying to mattblaze: The violence at the Capitol yesterday will rightly be a source of outrage that we should remember. But we also must not forget the lies being told to cast doubt on the outcome by elected officials who should know better. They have forfeited our trust.
Thu Jan 07 16:27:57 +0000 2021
At This Time I’d Like To Resign From My Job Working On This Death Star
Fri Jan 08 21:28:19 +0000 2021
don't think it's been stated clearly often enough that President Trump tried to have Vice President Pence killed
Sat Jan 09 05:14:06 +0000 2021
