“It’s easier to fool people than to tell them they’ve been fooled.” — Mark Twain
The MAGA cult was having a revival Friday in San Antonio, Texas. Everything was going fine and then gears had to be switched suddenly when Steve Bannon got indicted. Michael Flynn headlined this extravaganza. He stopped lying and grifting momentarily to do a “media hit” on Tucker Carlson’s show and then returned to the flock, to preach the new gospel of the day.
In San Antonio tonight, Michael Flynn says that Steve Bannon’s indictment is “an abuse of freedom of speech.” He says this is part of an “insurrection crucifixion and Nancy Pelosi is the Pontius Pilate.” pic.twitter.com/trTIUReQNz
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 13, 2021
Interesting how this is all couched in religious terms and now here’s the collection plate.
The Disinformation Grift-o-Rama Tour headlined by Michael Flynn, Seth Keshel, and Clay Clark rolled into San Antonio today. Here, they tell people in the audience that they need to raise $100K now to put up anti-vax billboards, and ask them to come down and put cash in some bags. pic.twitter.com/pVXjHX7Txs
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 12, 2021
This is exactly how religious cults work. The charismatic leaders are the only ones with the real answers and you need to fill the coffers of the church so that they can save you. Take a look at this movie trailer about tent revivals and if you see a difference between this and the San Antonio grifting fest, please do share.
They used to do this kind of thing in tents in the South…
Here's the trailer for Marjoe
It's probably directly transferable
Minute 3 and a little into 4 is especially relevant to the bags of cashhttps://t.co/tAQ0TtsTs7
— Starky Rubble (@RubbleStarky) November 13, 2021
Get those bags filled up with cash. Gotta got those anti-vaxx billboards up so that more people can die and who cares, as long as it provides a channel for right-wing stars like Flynn, Lindell and the lot of them to line their pockets?
This is pure Jim Jones, this isn’t Billy Graham. I knew people who went to the Billy Graham Crusades and he was sincere in his desire to get people to return to the teachings of the Bible. That was a legitimate quest on his part. But as philosopher Eric Fromm has pointed out, “Every great cause starts out as a movement, becomes a business and eventually degenerates into a racket.” Except in the case of Donald Trump, where it started out as a racket, because he had failed in business multiple times and so he had to start some kind of a whacky movement to have something to monetize.
Trump, Mike Flynn, Mike Lindell and the rest of them are selling salvation. Incredible but true.
And of course it gets worse. Here’s Roger Stone, without a trace of irony.
Projection of the Week award goes to Roger Stone, who denounces Ronna McDaniel as a grifter. pic.twitter.com/6e48SZMxb8
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 13, 2021
Wash it down with plenty of kool-aide.
Now parse through the bare facts of this for just a moment: Steve Bannon incites an insurrection, where the lynching of Mike Pence and others is contemplated. A gallows shows up at the Capitol — but Bannon is the martyr here? Seriously?
That’s what Mike Flynn is selling. Bannon is supposed to turn himself into the authorities on Monday. Maybe he’ll carry a giant cross on his back while doing it. I would not be surprised. And maybe Marjorie Taylor Greene can trail behind him, playing Mary Magdalen to his Jesus and Lauren Boebert can play Rebecca. If something that insane happens, remember you heard it here first. Because I am dead certain that the Bannon as martyr narrative, persecuted as a political enemy of Joe Biden is here to stay.
And here’s a piece of irony for you: the first Christian martyr was St. Stephen.
It looks like there’s going to be a LOT of fundraising for various Trump enablers. I’ll bet even Bannon creates one. Here’s the thing I’m starting to wonder about. Any one of the cases (Bannon’s, Meadows’, Flynn’s and others that are coming – all will need first class legal representation even if some of them cooperate) will cost into the millions to defend. This will likely wind up diverting tens of millions of dollars (maybe many tens of millions) away from Trump’s own fundraising and given all the legal fronts he’s already fighting on Trump needs every dollar. You know Trump is pissed about it.
Here’s the fun part though. Trump might be making noises about running in 2024 but it’s likely just a fundraising scam. Even if he does, what has wounded his ego is that he got seven million fewer votes than Biden. And two million less than Clinton. With Clinton he got lucky and threaded the EC needle but he’s a con artist and like all of them he sometimes coldly weighs his situation – and whether a con can safely continue or if it’s time to cut and run. He needs money and a steady stream just to keep his own head above water and he needs lots of money for more than his considerable legal problems. And that’s where the fun part comes in – he is capable of throwing any and everyone under the bus to save his own ass. That includes wannabe Princess Ivanka, especially because for all his attempts to get her to do so she won’t fuck him. That’s a side issue however. The point is that Trump can’t now, nor he knows deep in his heart when he’s in con man mode will be able to in the future be able to dangle pardons to people he wants to keep their mouths shut. Worse (for him when he’s in con man mode and rationally assessing the situation) those people might want, hope and even fantasize about Trump running and winning again they too sometimes in the middle of the night realize that the only thing Trump can do for them is encourage people to donate to their own legal defense funds. And they KNOW hell will freeze over before Trump would do such a thing!
Both Trump and all of these folks are between the proverbial rock and hard place and the squeeze has only begun. I’m going to enjoy watching it. It will be like holding a nice, juicy grape in my mouth pinched between my thumb and forefinger and gently increasing the pressure as I squeeze. At some point it’s going to pop and provide a delightful pleasure!
A shitload of (very high dollar) billable hours are I believe going to be getting racked up in the days, weeks and months ahead as various witnesses the House Committee (and prosecutors too) try to figure out a way to provide just enough cooperation to avoid charges or at least plead to something that will provide minimum punishment while avoiding the wrath of Trump and that of the MAGAts he will incite to complete the task of what they tried to do to his own VP (not to mention Pelosi and others) by giving up Trump completely to avoid serious jail time and fines.
As I’ve said many times I’ll take my entertainment where I can find it. And I think I’m going to find a fair amount watching these people scurry about like cockroaches running to hide when the lights get flipped on.
If Flynn had stuck with his guilty pleas, he’d have been out of prison long ago.
You’re right. And now maybe he’s looking at prison again. You remember the incendiary documentaries he started producing? He’s a seditionist. So is Bannon.
And the fun thing about getting all those “cash donations” is that you can get around the IRS. It’s likely no one’s going to get a receipt (because the donations themselves won’t be tax-deductible) and since there’s no paper trail, there’s no way to prove that the group missed their target or exceeded their target.
He’s now advocating for establishment of religion: one nation under one god.
It must please the real God to have one religion. But which one?
LORD did say to Moses I am a jealous God. But the Hebrew word Jealous in the Bible is the same word in spelling as zealous. You can understand man is made in the image of God. That is why a man cannot stand his woman play harlot with other men.
So when Moses promised the children of Israel “… Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” (Dueteronomy 31:6)
The LORD told Moses later in the same chapter : “…Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; …..” in the ninth of AV (or AB).
Until Jesus said this to the Father on the cross ” And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27) That is the ninth hour of Abba to fulfill the LAW for me.