Oh, mercy, the White House is at it again! I have 2 bits for you – one is hilarious and the other is worrisome. Both are about nonsense people – one in QAnon, at least for the time being (maybe), and the other about the new White House “press corps”. However, they need a closer look because the trend is growing and not in a good way. We don’t have just FauxNews talking heads in the Cabinet. “The entire administration is dependent on what crackpots, ‘influencers,’ and chasing conspiracy theories as truth!” (Thanks for the great line to Kathy Anderson!) Let’s get started.
“MAGA’s Premier Conspiracy Theorist Becomes the Target of One,” and this is delicious! Mike Flynn has long pushed QAnon. But now, the conspiracists are coming after him.
Few Americans have done more to mainstream conspiracy theories than Michael Flynn, the retired Army general who served as national security advisor for the first few days of Donald Trump’s first term. After being indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Flynn became a martyr for the MAGA right. QAnon believers, in particular, came to revere him—a reverence that Flynn eventually embraced.
Flynn posted a video of himself and his family members taking the QAnon oath and appeared at a QAnon convention, where he helped auction off items like a QAnon quilt. He did all that, it’s worth noting, despite privately saying that the conspiracy theory was “total nonsense.”
But now, after having spent years fanning political conspiracies, Flynn finds himself the victim of one: a yarn woven by a group of Trump supporters that Flynn’s family and associates actually orchestrated the January 6th attacks on the Capitol.
The conspiracy theory currently targeting the Flynns revolves around Earl Matthews, a former lawyer for the D.C. National Guard who’s been nominated to be the Pentagon’s general counsel. Ok, now we walked away from funny and right into worrisome. Mr. Matthews has been nominated to become part of tRump’s Cabinet. BUH????? Please, lawd, no, let him NOT be confirmed….
And the theory that they orchestrated the attack? That’s right into whack-a-doodle territory. TRUMP orchestrated the attacks on the Capitol – telling them to let people into his speech even if they had guns on them. Telling his supporters to fight. “Stand back and stand by”. The election was stolen (and of course, we all know it wasn’t). Then there was the inflammatory speech and “walk to the Capitol” sort of thing, which he wanted to do with the crowd and was told NO.
*ahem* where was I? Oh, yea, Mike Flynn accusations. Ha. Matthews’s embrace of the unsettling stories against Flynn irritated Flynn’s MAGA allies. On X, right-wing media figure Jack Posobiec asked why Matthews was “attacking a patriot like Gen. Flynn?” So, Matthews isn’t managing to rile up everyone, and that’s something. Just leave him alone now. Try to think. But the best is yet to come!
Two days after a listless White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the Trump administration unveiled a sort of shadow White House press corps crafted in its own image. Instead of reporters, this group was stocked with MAGA influencers. And, surprise! – they all had really friendly questions for Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. “It’s so great to see you!” Leavitt said at the inaugural “new media briefing” Monday. One of the attendees, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, was included. The former Newsmax TV host (Spicer & Co. ended in 2023) even got to ask a question.
Trump officials have been excessively cozy with social-media influencers, frequently inviting them to the White House to interview cabinet officials and creating a “new media seat” at the regular press briefing. But this latest “briefing” seemed like a test run for something bigger—perhaps a chance to ditch the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room entirely, or at least diminish it further. But not everyone was pleased. Once more, Laura Loomer found herself irritated. The right-wing activist wasn’t invited on Monday and still hasn’t managed to get into the “new media seat” at the regular White House briefing.
My heart breaks for her. (NOT) So, the bit about Flynn was more or less funny. But this is about a new, improved press corps of influencers? That’s disturbing. Taking over from the *real* press is disturbing. Some of us (probably a *lot* of us) don’t follow influencers and have no desire to. But I’ll bet a bunch of MAGA people do – or rather, they do now! And this really is concerning. They have no problem still believing in their god, even though they have started to wish they hadn’t voted for him. Add in following influencers and they’ll have a much broader audience and place to drum up extra support for him. They’ll find thousands of people who think just like they do. The abuse levels will grow exponentially greater. How much could the influencers start up? Protests for *bad* causes? More of them would come out than ours get. The possibilities are endless. That’s even worse. Is there a way to stop this? I don’t know. Does anyone? Thanks for sticking with me!
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🤬😫🤣 I wish I could laugh at “New Media” influencers (or as Kathy Anderson said, “crackpots”) having a seat where truth is supposed to be important!!
I have heard some of the things these people “report” on. In October 2024, Kambree Nelson got her 625K followers riled up because “the moon has disappeared! I haven’t seen it in seven days! Why is no one finding out what happened to the moon?!” OMG! I presume she was worried because she hadn’t had anything to howl at, like the loon she is, for awhile! Nelson didn’t pay attention when people tried to explain new moon and moon near horizon or other reasonable explanations. She moved on to being frightened about “why is the sun white? It used to be yellow! Why has someone turned the sun white?!” I guess someone could take the time to explain Earth’s atmospheric coloration or times of day or any number of factors, but maybe we should just try to get Kambree to stop staring at the sun because it is burning up her brain cells and she should protect the few she has!! 🤪
But, what do I know? Kambree’s the one being listened to by the Prez!! 🙃🤨
*gigglefit* indeed!