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I'd actually put Eastman at the top of the list because he laid out the blueprint for essentially disregarding the votes of 81,000,000 voters and installing this country's Orange dictator wannabe as the President. It took Dan Quayle's (!!!!!!) advice to save the country (words that I never in a million years thought that I would write).

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Sep 30, 2021Liked by David Lat

Lawrence Lessig had Eastman on his podcast to talk about the memo and the election. It is an interesting listen: https://equalcitizens.us/discussing-the-john-eastman-memo-with-john-eastman/

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Sep 28, 2021Liked by David Lat

Great job David. This is good. Can you clarify something about Dershowitz? Has he always argued that presidents must commit a crime for them to be impeached? That view is risible.

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Sep 27, 2021Liked by David Lat

Hugo Chavez died in 2013. Unless he returned from the dead, it is unlikely he had anything to do with the 2020 election. Birthright citizenship is a strange creature, though it is enshrined in the US constitution. Few countries have it. If you're pregnant and HSBP thinks you came to the country to give birth, they will exclude you.

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When someone commits a mass murder (if they are white) we often describe them as "crazy". The idea is to excuse their crime by denying mens rea. Of course, some mass murderers do suffer with mental illness, and may be deserving of sympathy, while others do not.

I put TDS in the same category -- a supposed mental illness that can be called upon to excuse criminal behavior. And, I am a skeptic with regard to this diagnosis, except in the case of Rudy Giuliani. Occam's Razor suggests that they are simply grifters who are making a desperate bet that Trump eventually succeeds.

And, what of Trump's own mental state? Grifter or TDS sufferer? Some cult leaders clearly do believe their own ranting, while others are just cynically exploiting their followers.

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