Coup, Coup Summer

Sown in the fires of Armageddon, or some such nonsense. Can’t even with these guys…

So.

So… sigh…

About the coup that General (retired) Flynn, Sydney Powell, Mike Lindell, Donald Trump, and pretty much all of Qanon is calling/praying/screaming for.

Ain’t gonna happen. At least not the way the way the Qer’s think it’s going to happen.

The military is not going to arrest Joe Biden, round all the mean ‘ol Democrats, and re-install Donny as president. In fact, I’m betting the leaders of the military were relived when Trump lost so decidedly. While Trump pretended to ‘respect’ for the military, he really has respect only for those named ‘Donald J. Trump’, or those at the heads of other countries who wield ‘ultimate’ power (murderous dictators). This is why he sucked up to Putin, to Kim, to MBS and Saudi Arabia, to China, (until his advisors told him to knock it off during covid), he likes those who strut and those who kill. Who kill reporters and protesters, that is. He’s just mad he can only strut. No, he has no respect those he can’t understand, those who seem to be sacrificing for others with nothing in it for themselves. If the answer to the question ‘what’s in it for me?’ is ‘honor and duty to country’, that’s a hard pass.

So, no, I really don’t fear the military rising up to help a man who insulted them as “losers” and “suckers”, no I fear the followers. The army of the deluded dead-enders, the ones still holding boat parades, still plotting on Parler and Telegram, the people who have been going on a four-year gun buying spree to arm themselves for the day when their particular ‘skills’ would be needed. Call it ‘boogaloo’, ‘race war’, ‘Armageddon’, or just ‘Civil War’, they’re down will alllll that. They desperately miss their guidance from Donald and especially from ‘Q’, and have been wandering around, seething and straining, fighting any battle they can (masks, vaccines) waiting for the bat-signal that will allow them to descend on America and ‘take back their country’. They’ve been waiting for a long time.

Trump, Flynn, Powell, Lindell (the Three Stooges and a spare), are giving it too them. They’ve giving them a date, a month at least; August. Don’t worry, Trump will be back in August, now please give us money. The Qanoners believe this stuff, like they believe Tom Hanks kills babies to drink their adrenaline. They think the military and Trump are actually running the country and that Joe Biden is either a clone, a doddering old man who has no idea where he is while Kamala Harris runs things, or was illegally installed and will be forced out. Or all of it, or bits of it. They’re nuts, what can I say?

Many Trump supporters are waiting, wanting, eager, and trembling to be part of a violent act in his name. Encouraged by Trump they have already committed violence in his name and are ready to do it again. It wouldn’t take much to do it again. Powell and Lindell, two people loved and respected in the cult, say Trump can be re-instated in August, Trump (the God of the Cult) repeats the August date, Flynn endorses a military style coup. If the military won’t step up to do its duty, the ‘anoners are very excited to do it for them.

 They are already plotting now. They haven’t really stopped in four years.

Trump gave them a month, they can figure out a day, a place and a time. He thinks with his announced rallies, his constant firing at them with fundraising emails, the constant repeating of the Big Lie and telling them he’ll be re-instated only if they ‘fight’ (you know that is coming) that his followers will bring about ‘the Storm’ (TM) (see video below), he’ll be back in power (and safe from prosecution) and they can round up all the ‘pedos’ together. They’ll all be the shining heroes they always knew they were. Jesus might even come back.

All they have to do is fight.

“Fight For Trump!”

Oh good, another summer made interesting for all the wrong reasons.

Crazy Qanon video below, shown at their conference last week where Flynn made his coup endorsement.

Michael Flynn Goes Full-Traitor

General Flynn as a cowboy. Hee-ha.

"I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can't happen here?"

The questioner from the audience at Dallas, Texas Q-Annon conference asked former National Security Director and confessed felon, General Michael Flynn.

The audience cheered and applauded.

"No reason. I mean, it should happen," said Flynn.

They cheered and applauded even more.

In Myanmar, a democratically elected government was overthrown in a military coup, the leaders of the government seized and imprisoned. When the people protested, the military then turned on their own citizens, killing some 800 Burmese people, including at least 40 children. This is according to Myanmar's Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. More than 4,000 citizens people have been arrested and are being held in the continuing aftermath.

This is what Flynn, and the right, are now calling for here in America. Demanding that the United States military install Q-Anon’s favorite ‘strong’ man, presidential loser Donald Trump as a dictator-in-chief.

This is, simply, treason.

And Flynn called for this during the weekend reserved for memorializing and remembering those we have lost in our nation’s wars. He either forgot about honoring them, or didn’t care.

It should be no surprise to anyone Flynn decided to go full-on traitor, he’s been dancing on that line for years, especially since joining Donald Trump on the Trump campaign trail. He was bound to fall over the line sooner or later. He worked behind the scenes with foreign entities to advance the Trump campaign, and lied to the FBI about it. He confessed, and then (once Sydney Powell stepped in to start spewing right wing conspiracies about Flynn) withdrew his thrice confirmed confession. Then AG Barr tried to undermine the case, and several prosecutors resigned in disgust. The fight over Flynn’s guilt and sentencing continued until he was pardoned by Trump.

During the last days of the election, and in the months after, Flynn was a man unleashed and unhinged. He, Powell, (who had briefly joined the Trump defense team before being pushed out for being too crazy even for them) and Trump advisor and some-time lawyer Lin Wood during the post-election lying seemed to compete with one another over who could be the craziest and make the biggest, most treasonous statements. He even took the Q-Anon ‘pledge’.

Flynn in December was pushing Trump to declare martial law and seize the reigns of power, regardless of the election outcome. As news of this push leaked out, Flynn stated on NewsMax (one of the Trumpier of the right-wing ‘news’ pushers):

"People out there talk about martial law like it's something that we've never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times." (68 times actually, never in an election)

No big deal, nothing much to see here, just taking over the government with the military and installing a dictator. Please, go about your business.

Calls for outright violence have been louder, shriller and more desperate and Trump’s lies of a ‘stolen’ election were absorbed and amplified until they spurred the violence of January 6th at the Capitol. That violence, that attempt to overthrow the election is celebrated by Q-Anon and many on the right, and new violence is constantly advocated, constantly escalated. Again, as if the most outrageous statement wins.

This new statement is Flynn being more explicit about violent overthrow. As a retired general, as a former Trump official, Flynn is a rock star to Trumpers, one they listen to, believe, and follow. To call for a military coup from this platform is irresponsible and utterly dangerous. We’ve seen where this shouting ends. During the last five years we have all seen what the overheated lies and violent rhetoric can do to a crowd ready and willing to do the bidding of those yelling the loudest.

All they need is to believe.

The Stolen Steal That Must be Stopped

We must stop the steal that isn’t actually happening. Poor, deluded souls, almost feel sorry for them, but nah.

Stop the Steal.

Really?

What the actual fuck with these idiots. Do they believe this? Some do, god knows. I think most Republicans in the leadership don’t believe it, and are pushing this crap for their own motives (like being white-faced scared of Trump’s cult) they have shown, over and over to be brimming with bad faith. So, yeah, screw those guys hard. But the down market ‘Republicans’ (really, a lot are there for Trump and Trump only) actually believe it. Go on Parler (a ‘free speech’ site, but really full of whiny Trumpers, screaming, crying and threatening over the 2020 loss) and glory in the insanity; the people claiming Trump couldn’t have lost because of ‘crowds’, because of ‘boaters’, because of the ‘Trump Train’ truck rallies. It mystifies them that Trump’s super-spreader events didn’t somehow translate to a Trump win. Something musty be wrong! Trump must have won, and all evidence to the contrary must be wrong. Because! There cannot be any other result. can’t! Yeah, the crazy is thick and slimy with these desperate people, but the problem with desperate people is they do desperate things.

Like the ’Proud Boys’.

This is a group of idiots looking for an excuse for a fight. They’re that bully in Junior high that would get in your face, poke you in the chest and yell ‘What you gonna do about it’ while spraying spittle all over you. They want a reason, and if they can’t get one, they’ll just make one up. ‘Cuz, Trump, mofo!

Yeah.

We are in a dangerous time. We are in a time were the leaders of our government (126 of the bastards) are pushing a ‘lawsuit’ brought by an indicted Texas AG (who would like one of those pardons Trump is writing out, BTW) whose motives are questionable, and a majority of the Republicans in the House have signed out to it. They want to throw out the votes of tens of millions of Americans for the crime of not voting for Donald Trump. This is utterly un-American. This is a delectation of duty and a denial of the oath they took to defend the Constitution.  

Not that they care.

They hew to power, not to ‘truth’ or ‘rightness’, antiquated concepts that get in their way. Arguing in bad faith is second nature by now. Of course, that doesn’t make them any less the traitors than they are. Again, either they believe this nonsense, (they don’t) or they are pushing complete nonsense for they’re own benefit. It like they’re waving to Trump and saying ‘Hey! Donald! Look at me kissing your ass! See me kissing your ass? Tell your friends on Twitter…please..?

Yeah. Traitors for hire. The whole GOP is like this. Why people still vote for these grifters who lie to them election after election I will never understand.

Nuts.

321,094+ lost to covid, as of Saturday December 19th.

We may take as many precautions as we can but those who think the whole thing is a 'hoax' (as pushed by the president) refuse to take even the most basic measures continue to fuel the huge spike in numbers. We keeping falling into the pit because people insis it isn’t there. It's Insanity, utterly.

Those same defenders of Donny aggressively ignore the hundreds of thousands of deaths under his watch. They will point to the vaccine (not created by Trump) that came out while he was president that he seems to think he forced into being with his own mighty will. Bullshit. This is the idiot who denied the science, who tried to muzzle the scientists who were warning him how serious this pandemic would be.

321,094, I don't understand those who think this is acceptable, those who believe wearing a mask is somehow a horrible encroachment on their 'freedoms'. People are dying. If we had listened to the experts, if we had not allowed our 'leaders' to politicize the precautions to this damn virus, we could have been out of this by now. We are suffering, over and over, the arrogance of the minority.

We are chained to the least of us.

We await the coming of Biden/Harris not as a ‘savior’ but as sanity. The GOP already making plans so he won’t be able to fix anything (I said they were traitors, but we saw this behavior under Obama as well), and he will have a huge uphill stuggle just to do the basics of governing. That’s where we are, even simple agreements, like allowing the lights to stay on at the State Department is politicized. Everyday we have to fight the insanity because it’s important, because if we don’t turn on a light, the world sits in darkness.

January 20th cannot get here soon enough.

They Can Run, But the GOP Can’t Hide from Trump

Trump, probably lying. Again.

We all have a lot of hope that the new Biden/Harris administration will bring some sanity, dare I say ‘normalcy’ to the country, but we also are staring at a Republican party determined to stop them from doing, anything, that will actually help the country. Mitch McConnell and the Republicans under Obama made the recovery from the Bush crash longer and more painful than it needed to be, simple as that, and did so deliberately knowing they were hurting people. As McConnell said, his job was to make Obama a ‘One-Term President’. It wasn’t to legislate, it wasn’t to help right the country after eight years of ruinous leadership, no, his only job was to ‘win’, not help. Obama had to fix the economy and pass the ACA without help from the GOP.

Obama had Mitch and the co-opped ‘Tea Party’ to contend with, Biden and Harris will have a GOP that is even father right. The Tea Party believed Obama was a Muslim radical, born in Kenya. The new version of the Tea Party, Oanon (with has taken over a lot of the base, and electing followers) believe all Democrats are Satan worshiping pedophiles who torture children to harvest a drug called Adrenochrome. Qanon is what is firing up the Republican base, and the god of Qanon is Trump. The leaders of the GOP have a choice;

One: cast off Trump and all the ugly he has revealed about the party,

Two: try to court Qanon and keep it under control, or

Three: just dive in and go nuts.

Far so, they’re doing both two and three.

The push since the election is just go plain full-on crazy, the more the better. I don’t see any signs of that stopping anytime soon. Going forward, the GOP/Trump/Qanon party, already a party of White grievance, will become all about that, it will fuel and drive it. It will be about ‘stolen elections’, about the shrinking White demographic, about ‘biased media’ (even Fox is taking hits for not towing the Trump line and lies), it will retreat even further into its bubble world, and it will strike out with the blind fury of a wounded animal. Trump knows a good grift when he sees it, and so does his family and all their enablers. He’s already shown he doesn’t care about the country, he’ll burn it all down just to get his way, so he’ll keep pushing, keep lying and keeping telling the people who want to believe that he, and they, were robbed.  

And they’ll believe him.

The Georgia and national Republicans are looking at polls showing the two senate races there either tied of the Democrats slightly ahead. Those polls are also showing them something else; Trump’s lies of ‘voter fraud’ and ‘rigged elections’ are causing some of his more fevered supporters to stay home. This can’t be good for them, but they can’t say anything out loud, even Perdue and Loeffler, the Republicans in the race, have to finesse their way around the crazy, calling the election and unfair while at the asking people to vote for them.

Crazy, right?

In 2022 we’ll see a wave of the crazy unlike anything we’ve seen before. Those Republicans running for reelection will have to either take the pledge and be just as crazy as the rest, or run the risk of being primaried by someone who is crazier than they are, or at least does a good job of acting that way.

So, what’s the Biden/Harris administration going to do the get even some of their agenda through the coming wall of craze?

Biden has a couple different ways to deal with this. Hopefully, he will not try to be collegial and work with them. I know, I know, that’s always the goal, to ‘work across the aisle, be bi-partisan. If Biden learned nothing from the Obama years, he should have learned that the Republicans are bad actors, they do not negotiate in good faith. Even those that might agree in private are going to be pushed, squeezed to the wall by the base who will demand blood… and they don’t really care which side bleeds; the Satanist Democrats, or the RINO’s who let their beloved Trump down. It’ll a race to prove which Republican is the most irresponsible, and that’s the Republican that will go forward. 

Right now, McConnell is saying the new administration won’t even get cabinet positions confirmed unless he personally approves of them, won’t even get a vote. No, unless he gets the Senate, (and maybe not even then) Biden will have to go it alone as much as possible, get things done administratively rather than through congress. And it won’t be easy, as every more will be protested, will be dragged into the courts. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Republicans filling out lawsuits now, to fill in the blanks later.

Biden is going to have to move fast, blitz the field before 2022, when chances are he might lose his House majority. He can do this with multiple teams pushing his agenda at the same time. I assume right now they’re readying Executive orders to sign, and they should do as much as they can as fast as they can, confuse and disorient the opposition into trying to figure out and deal with the numbers of different things coming out. Just as Trump does with outrages, committing new ones before the furor over the last one died out, Biden can do with policy. A Trump tactic for the good of the country.

That might be the best thing we’ll learn from Trump.

Four Days of Fear and Hate

Of course, Donny opens for himself. This is 2016, but ya gets the idea. Photo: Meg Vogel

In 1969, the small upstate New York town of Woodstock saw a music festival that had branded itself as ‘Three Days of Peace and Love’. Well, it turned into three days of mud and failed organization, but at least there was some of that peace and love going around. And some good dope.

Now, we have another hastily thrown together festival starting this week. Instead of a grassy field upstate, it’ll be held in rooms and cyberspace. It also has people (acts) who dropped out (where are Bush and Cheney? Mitt Romney?), and instead of hitting the stage during a rainstorm, it’s playing during a global pandemic. It’s four days instead of three, and it’s not about ‘peace and love’, but focuses, like the people throwing it, on ‘fear and hate’.

The Republican National Convention has begun.

The Democrats focused on inclusion, diversity, and a vision for what to do after Trump was gone. The Trump Party (as that is what it is) is focused on blaming someone (China, Democrats, Biden) for the wreck their own polices, and the lack of them, have made of America. If you look at the speakers, for every one of them slightly this side of sane, they have a pile of bomb throwers, cranks, grifters and grievance peddlers. And Trumps. Every night at least a couple of the Trump Crime family (and extended Crime Family) will be speaking. And Trump himself.

Every night.

That can’t go wrong, can it?

The RNC has become the Trump Show, that final season of the Apprentice he never got; all Trump all the time. In fact, producers of the Apprentice are helping to slap together this soggy bag of anger and hate into something ‘watchable’, like car wrecks are watchable, in the hopes that Americans will slow down and gawk.

Who’s speaking? All the Trump kids, their spouses, and Trump himself (every night, did I say that already?) Jim Jordan (still dogged by accusations he ignored the sexual assault of athletes when he was a coach) Matt Gaetz, liar in the service of Trump, who mocked the virus by wearing a gas mask in congress during a vote, as his constituents were dying of it back home, the idiot ‘gun couple’, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who demonstrated incorrect gun handling by waving guns at protesters walking past their house, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was part of gassing peaceful protesters and has used his offices to protect Trump, Sen. Rand Paul, who has proven himself to be an idiot several times over, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, whose covid policies have been killing thousands in her state, along with her refusal to seek help after the derecho devastated counties and towns, Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, representing a state whose policies have allowed the virus to rampage through nursing homes, beaches and bars, infecting and killing thousands. She should be home, working to make things right.

So, why double down on the hate and grievance?  

What else they got?

Trump can’t run on his record because, well, look around. Est 200,000 Americans dead, virus burning uncontrolled across the country, double digit unemployment, protesters in the streets… none of this is good. So, he tried tweeting ‘LAW & ORDER’ in all caps, because Trump, but seeing how he’s the shadiest President since Nixon (Nixon resigned before being impeached, btw) that hasn’t worked so well. Even his secret police only made things worse by being even more violent that the regular police. He’s got the lying thing down (Joe Biden is a radical leftist!) but he just lost his most effective liar as Kellyanne left, about to lose her family over her ugly job. He’s still showing pictures of burning cars and calling it ‘Biden’s America’, fooling nobody. Donny, it’s Your America.

Fear, hate, finger-pointing and grievance are what he’s got left. Point to immigrants, to Black Life Matters, to China, to Democrats to explain what can only be called a failed presidency. They are to blame! If only there was one of those forgotten caravans around to help! If you can’t inspire hope (and let’s face it, he can’t) then inspire fear.

We’ll see a lot of that the next four days.

It’s all brought to us by a party who has literally thrown out their GOP party platform (principles, hope, mercy…) to say the only thing they stand for is Trump. Where Goes Trump, There Go All. A cult-party of over 200,000 acceptable deaths (57% of Republicans think that, according to polling), ready to reward his performance with four more years.

And four more after that, as a spying/virus/economy crashing do-over.

And they’d give it to him.

Let the Four days of Fear and Hate… begin.

Where Goes Q, Goes the GOP

“Trust the Plan” they say, you know, when it looks to be insane bullshit. It’s not! Trust it!

The GOP has embraced a far-far right-wing conspiracy theory, or it has infected the Republican party enough that it has to embrace it or be swallowed. That theory, really a worldview and way of life, is called: Qanon.

What the hell is ‘Qanon?

Qanon is a bizarre, through-the-looking-glass movement, the new Tea Party, but crazier, stupider, and much, much more dangerous. The whole thing was started by an anonymous poster claiming to be a 'top level intelligence officer’ in the Trump administration. They posted on Reddit under the name ‘Q’ and started outlining their ‘insider knowledge’. After the initial drop, they would should back up and post what the increasing followers would call 'breadcrumbs' (and what one study claimed to be random keyboard hits) which true believers (now calling themselves Qanon, or just 'Q') would then 'interpret' as they saw fit. And boy did they see fit.

Essentially, the world is run by a cabal of Satan worshiping, pedophile cannibals, (this includes Hillary Clinton, Obama, and Tom Hanks. TOM HANKS!!!), and many many more, mostly Democratic politicians and Hollywood celebrities, anyone to the left of Satan. This ungodly cabal will, any day, be rounded up by Trump, who has been secretly working behind the scenes (with Robert Mueller, Yes, this is part of it!!) and then Trump will lead the nation back to the truth, the light, the church and Christ.

Trump. He's going to do all this.

Any day now.

We're all waiting.

Okay, I make fun, but.... there are several true believers running for seats in congress right now, and a couple that will probably make it in. What will they do, all the true 'Q' believers? What did the Millerites do when they waited all spring of 1843 for Jesus to show up to smite the non-believers, and he never arrived? They doubled down, and waited until spring 1844, really, really sure Jesus would show up this time. When Jesus still didn't show up (I assume they sent him an invitation) they tripled down, changed the name of the group to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and continued on thinking they were smarter and better than anyone else.

Because they knew 'the truth'. Just like the Q-anon believers do, as the Trumpers do.

They will double down. And I'm afraid they will do so violently. They've been violent before, killing police, shooting up a DC pizza parlor to free the abused children in the basement (no kids, no basement). The FBI considers them a domestic terrorist threat, and they like to show up at rallies with far-right anti-government extremists and Nazis. They are looking for a fight.

“Where We Go One, We Go All" is their motto.

 And when the Chosen One is in danger, (like losing an election) they will be there, ready for that fight.