No sane country can do what this one is doing, allowing dual narratives of basic reality to dominate the airwaves and you get to pick and choose what you want to believe is true, like facts are the same as columns in a Chinese menu. News isn’t a smorgasbord, it is simply a recitation of what is. Unsurprisingly, with all the ballyhoo about the farcical cyber symposium and the fact that at least a third of the Republican party is co-signing on the fiction of the Big Lie, there are people who are disappointed that by some miracle Donald Trump is not going back to Washington today. And of course it goes without saying that Trump himself could have nipped this in the bud long ago and simply told his followers to accept what happened in the 2020 election and that they would try again in the future. But that’s not in his makeup, as we all too sadly know.
So that brings us to today. Frank Figliuzzi, MSNBC:
This nonsense about a Trump return to the Oval Office would be at least mildly amusing if it weren’t so dangerous. And the Department of Homeland Security agrees.
As first reported by ABC News, DHS issued a bulletin Aug. 6 to its state and local partners warning that the agency’s intelligence analysts have observed “ an increasing but modest level of activity online” by people who are calling for violence in response to baseless claims of 2020 election fraud and related to the conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump will be reinstated.”
Significantly, it’s the “violence” part that has grabbed the attention of federal authorities and prompted DHS to alert the broader law enforcement community. “Some conspiracy theories associated with reinstating former President Trump have included calls for violence if desired outcomes are not realized,” the bulletin reportedly stated. […]
A deceived group of people turning violent when their imagined outcome never materializes is of course what we saw on Jan. 6 — but the problem goes back further than that. Daily Beast reporter Kelly Weill explained last December that Trump conspiracy theorists’ cult-like qualities mean yet another missed prophecy should have us concerned:
“Psychologist and author Robert Lifton uses the term ‘forcing the end’ to describe efforts to push a prophecy into reality. In his book ‘Destroying the World to Save It,’ Lifton describes a series of cults that initially believed Armageddon would happen naturally, without human intervention. But when significant dates came and went without revelation, and the groups perceived themselves to be under attack, members took drastic actions: mass suicides in the cases of the Heaven’s Gate and Peoples Temple cults, and mass murder in the case of the Manson family and Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo cult.”
So how did we get to the point where an impossibility — the reinstatement of a president who lost a duly certified election — premised on a lie that there was unchecked election fraud has law enforcement on high alert? Well, let’s start with the losing candidate himself. Trump has reportedly been telling people that he’s coming back to power in August. But where did he get the idea — and why is 30 percent of the GOP falling for it?
QAnon quackery is central to the reinstatement delusion. Attorney Sydney Powell helped feed that fantasy at a recent QAnon conference where she matter-of-factly claimed Trump can just simply be reinstated. Meanwhile, Mike Lindell, the wealthy purveyor of MyPillow, thinks he may have given the August date specifically to Trump. Lindell has publicly proclaimed his August prediction on Steve Bannon’s podcast, repeatedly on television, at conferences and with anyone who will listen.
And why Aug. 13? Well, it’s challenging to nail down a constantly moving conspiracy target, but one theory is that many people believed that the “audit” of election results in Maricopa County, Arizona, would be done on or about Aug. 13. That’s as good a guess as any; as of yet, we’ve not heard anything on that from Cyber Ninjas, the scammers searching for watermarks, bamboo fibers and secretly folded ballots in Arizona.
Trump continues to fuel the reinstatement conspiracy, and he’s fattening his campaign coffers in the process. That kind of money has to be spent on something, and it appears Trump intends to use some of it to pay for rallies across the country, where, of course, he can pump the promise of a return to pump cash from his fans.
And there you have it. Trump is only too happy to foment vigilante domestic terrorism as long as it results in an electronic credit to his ledger. The problem with this, of course, is that at some point Trump will have to abandon the reinstatement ploy and go totally to the Big Lie as a means of ginning up support for his 2024 run.
Don’t forget a few upcoming dates: August 21 Trump is in a pasture in Alabama for a big rally there. He’s hoping for Woodstock, let’s see what actually transpires. And then on September 18 is the “Justice for January 6” rally on the Capitol grounds. The purpose of this gathering is to gin up support for the so called “political prisoners” arrested in connection with the January 6 insurrection. There are lots of pockets to be lined and no lack of self-proclaimed martyrs to go out there and pull heartstrings.
Delusional diehards are difficult to persuade. And many of Trump’s most avid supporters don’t have a lot to lose, so don’t be surprised if they do something crazy, both now and in the future. Not trying to monger fear, merely pointing out that January 6 was foreseen. It did not come out of the blue. Forewarned is forearmed, let’s be that.
There is a word to describe a person who has to change reality to suit what he/she wanted to happen…the word is insane.
He’ll have to give up the Big Lie in order to run in 2024. Because he’ll be challenged to prove he *didn’t* win, as you can only win the presidency twice, and if he won in 2020 – he isn’t eligible to run after that, in any year.
Well that’s not entirely true. Even without trumpitis. If say you were elected, the reinstated you could theoretically get elected again. It’s like say a VP takes over partway through a term he could still possibly get elected twice. And there’s also a clause that says consecutive terms. This all hinges on lawful elections. And you also could have a scenario where they show up at the White House door and tell the president to get lost.
IF the DHS and the rest are so f*cking worried about this-DO SOMETHING. Just telling us all there is a danger from these RWNJ’s is not good enough. Go out and arrest the silly f*cks. Get them off the streets and in jail where they belong and guess what? Problem gone!