Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State who Trump threatened and demanded “find” 11,000 votes is going to testify before the Jan 6th committee on Tuesday.

TPM alum Greg Sargent has a column up at the Post looking at the work of experts in the field of democratic breakdown. Not collapse — that’s a bit different. We hear a lot of predictions about a coming U.S. civil war. But if the analog is the civil war of the 1860s that’s never been realistic. If nothing else the political geography doesn’t work. This would rather be an era of chronic political violence and instability: with episodes of paramilitary violence often egged on by elected leaders, assassinations, bombings, political crises, claimed stolen elections and actual stolen elections.

You’ve gotten us off to a solid first week of our TPM Journalism Fund drive. We’re hoping to get to the $125,000 milestone by the end of today. That’s 5/8 of the way toward our goal. This drive is really important for TPM and, as I’ve said, if you’re already a member it’s just a single click. Super easy. If you’ve been planning on contributing or considering it, please make today the day. Just take a moment right now. Like this actual moment and click right here. As I said, it’s just one click. Super easy.

We truly appreciate it.

There he was, on tape if not in person: Bill Stepien, the very campaign manager of Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, explaining calmly and matter of factly that President Trump lost, he and the candidate knew he had lost and every conspiracy theory and false claim and desperate attempt to stay in power was in the words of Bill Barr, bullshit. It wasn’t even begrudging nor presented as an admission. Just matter of fact.

I’m not sure I agree with all of this. But TPM Reader JB captures an important part of what’s happening in these hearings.

Politically, the best thing about hearings is the optics.   So important.

Dems are in charge.  They sit on high and Trumpers come before them, either in person or video, and are asked to explain their behavior in public. 

I want to again thank everyone who has contributed so far to our TPM Journalism Fund drive. Just a few moments ago we hit a big milestone, half way toward our ambitious but critical goal of raising $200,000. So thank you. We know from experience that the second half is a much heavier lift than the first, just in the nature of things. But we feel good about being here on the third day after we publicly announced the drive. If you’ve seen our announcements and have been planning to contribute, please make today the day. If you’re already a member it’s literally just one click. Super easy. Just click right here.

Two new big stories out tonight (here and here) make even more clear that Ginni Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, was actively involved in the effort to overthrow the American republic. While they don’t say so directly they make it seem overwhelmingly likely that Thomas was feeding Trump lawyer John Eastman details of the internal deliberations of the Court. They also show that Trump lawyers hoped a show of violence on January 6th would cow the Court into accepting one of Trump’s challenges.

I know from past experience that when we do a drive of any sort there’s a large group of readers who’ve already decided they’re going to join or contribute. But only a fraction get to it, at least at first. It means stopping the progress of your day for a moment, maybe getting out your wallet. It’s easier to do it some time later. Believe me, I’m the worst offender on this front. If that’s you, if you’re thinking about contributing to our drive or have already decided that you probably will, please make it today. Just take a moment right now. Like literally right now. If you’re a member, it’s literally just one click. It will take you 30 seconds. Not exaggerating. Just click right here.

It’s easy. It will immediately boost the mood of everyone working at TPM. And it will provide a critical boost for our organization. Here’s more on what the drive is about and why it’s so important.

Thank you.

I hope you get a chance to read Matt Shuham’s feature piece today about “constitutional sheriff” Dar Leaf. It really brings together the current rage for Trump era “voter fraud” conspiracy theories and our much longer-term interest in far-right anti-government radicalism. When I got to thinking about this a few weeks ago it suddenly occurred to me that almost always when there was one of these figures it was a sheriff. In this case I’m not talking about the so-called “constitutional sheriffs,” though that’s a big part of it. I’m talking about Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona or Alex Villanueva in LA County, David Clarke in Milwaukee. Like I said, these guys are always the sheriffs.

I want to again thank everyone who contributed today to our drive. If you haven’t yet, please take a moment to do so now at this link if you’re able. Launching these drives is both a mysterious and oddly stressful process. It’s a bit like jumping out of a plane without knowing if you have a parachute. When do you find out? Well, when you pull the cord, of course. Or diving into a pool in the dark. You’ll find out if there’s water in the pool soon enough.