He's on his Great MAGA tour of America, holding one large rally after the other. He lives for those moments.
But even the screams of his fanatical followers can't mask the fact the Donald Trump is slowly cracking up.
His speeches and tweets are becoming even wilder, and even more deranged.
He knows that Robert Mueller is closing in on him
And it must be driving him crazy with fear.
But what makes Trump's Great MAGA Tour of America even more bizarre, is the emergence of a deranged conspiracy cult called QAnon.
Believers in “QAnon,” as the conspiracy theory is known, were front and center at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall, where Trump came to stump for Republican candidates. As the president spoke, a sign rose from the audience.
“We are Q,” it read. Another poster displayed text arranged in a “Q” pattern: “Where we go one we go all.”
Where Q is supposed to be a secret government agent trying to protect Donald Trump from his Deep State enemies.
“Q” feeds disciples, or “bakers,” scraps of intelligence, or “bread crumbs,” that they scramble to bake into an understanding of the “storm” — the community’s term, drawn from Trump’s cryptic reference last year to “the calm before the storm” — for the president’s final conquest over elites, globalists and deep-state saboteurs.
What's strange or stranger about this cult is that their leader is the most powerful man on earth.
QAnon is unusual, according to University of Miami professor Joseph Uscinski, because it offers Republicans an alternate view of the world when they already control nearly the entire government.
Usually, “conspiracy theories are for losers,” Uscinski said, “Normally you don’t expect the winning party to use them, except when they’re in trouble,” Uscinski said.
Which is encouraging. Maybe they know or sense where Trump is going...
But in the meantime, it's not hard to see where this madness could lead.
Not when Trump is inflaming his supporters, and encouraging them to go after the media.
As Jim Acosta said later: "It didn't feel like we were in America anymore."
And can you imagine how that mob might react if Mueller hits their Great Leader with an obstruction of justice charge?
It's all madness. But watch the Cons closely for they are sure to be infected.
Trump has never been so scared.
And never so dangerous...
27 comments:
Please by all means try and remove Trump from office... if you want a civil war.
Usually, “conspiracy theories are for losers,” Uscinski said, “Normally you don’t expect the winning party to use them, except when they’re in trouble,” Uscinski said.
I am not sure that I completely agree with that. I had the impression that the Harper Cons always had the feeling that everyone was out to get them---though this might not be a true conspiracy theory. Stalin, clearly, thought everyone was out to get him.
Modern conservatives often seem to think everyone is out to get them but they tend to be so corrupt and/or incompetent that is probably true.
I, partly anyway, think that Right Wing Authoritarians as described by Bob Altemeyer http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/ have a tendency to embrace conspiracy theories if they are told to.
I do think that Trump must be frightened. He has far too much dirty laundry to want Mueller to continue the investigation. If Cohen flips, Trump could be in very deep water.
Of course, with such a corrupt and gutless House and Senate in Washington who knows if anything would happen?
It all depends on the timing. I expect Trump will be removed from office at a time when most of his supporters are drunk on moonshine or high on crack.
Nah smoking crack is more of a liberal thing. Never seen it out in the country but the cities are full of junkies.
@anon 1:49 "smoking crack is more of a liberal thing"
Like that paragon of liberalism Rob Ford?
Is Bob Altemeyer still alive? How come he hasn't been interviewed by the Ceeb on the Trump madness and its attendant offshoots in Europe and certainly the Rebel fanaticism that Scheer, Marshall and Levant are cultivating back home? (Or has he?) The book came out in 2006, and could easily explain the 10 years of the Harper Reich and the ensuing desire by con authorit-Aryans to get their revenge on Trudeau as well.
The Authoritarians is an excellent tome, and in my opinion he should be Canada's foremost public intellectual instead of that narcissistic hack Jordan Peterson. Who himself is a cult leader in his own right, trafficking in conspiracy theories about "cultural Marxism" (which is actually an anti-Semitic dog-whistle... as most, if not all, of these conspiracies are). Scratch any tin-foil paranoiac enough and you'll find a blood libeler right under the surface. Now his daughter has gotten in on the act telling everyone they better eat pork if they want to be cured of mental illness. Hm, fancy that. Not lobsters, of course. Trump Steaks™. But I digress.
BTW: New URL for the complete Altemeyer series with "appendices" about the 2008 Obama/McCain election, the Tea Party backlash and now Trump can be found at theauthoritarians.org.
The logical outcome of being brainwashed by illogical fundamentalist religion. Down here in the free-range madhouse of Yankee Fantasyland, we call Trumpists/Republicans "Vanilla ISIS." Funny how they cherry-pick from the scriptures to obsess over all the verses about sexual prohibitions, but get really mad when liberals do their own cherry-picking to find all the parts they ignored about loving your neighbor, looking out for the poor, beating swords (or guns) into ploughshares, etc. No, those verses are fake news or misinterpreted by communists steeped in "Liberation Theology" or outright satanic paganism...
Steve Bannon is one of their high-level kooks who believes, among other things, that Jesuit Catholics are Jewish infiltrators and is now working with Italian fascists to bring down the pope. TownHall.com columnist/manifesto scribbler Liz Crokin is one of the most prolific nutballs on Twitter promulgating the Pizzagate nonsense (I heard somewhere she was the one who started the Trudeau-Fidel Castro birth certificate conspiracy -- they're not even original, as clearly all she or whoever started it did was swap out Obama and Kenya for Trudeau and Cuba). Now the Q cultists are following her lead in "investigating" whether JFK Jr. is still alive and is the secret identity of this mysterious Q, in response to a column she wrote recently. JFK and Q? Honestly, I'm surprised they even got that far in the alphabet.
The party of Reagan indeed. If he hadn't closed the insane asylums (without replacing them with a more humane alternative), these people would be getting professional help instead of going around spreading propaganda that movies (Da Vinci Code anyone?), WWE wrestling rivalries, and Internet fan fiction are real. Donald Trump is their Charlie Manson, and Pizzagate/Q-Anon (which has all the makings of a GRU psy-op) is the 21st-century Helter Skelter.
This won't end well...
It’s such a bizarre phenomenon, a cult within a cult, I find it all very ominous. The comment from anon@10:40 AM only reinforces my belief that the U.S. is heading for a total meltdown.
He's retired and, from what I can tell, drifted into a well-earned retreat. You're right about his book.
Remember Michael Scheuer who became a favourite on US cable news before Obama took out bin Laden? Scheuer had been the CIA agent in charge of the bin Laden desk but never delivered the goods. Now he's a rampaging Trump supporter who urges "patriots" to eliminate Trump's enemies and bring on revolution. That's how creepy things are getting in the US. You would think he would at least be arrested for sedition, but no.
https://www.salon.com/2018/07/31/exclusive-trump-endorsed-radio-show-has-promoted-ex-cia-agents-call-for-right-wing-rebellion/
Hi Jackie,
As MoS says he seems just be in retirement. Wiki, anyway, thinks he is and references a 2016 comment on Trump and RWAs, Donald Trump and Authoritarian Followers https://archive.org/details/DonaldTrump_201603. It makes interesting albeit scary reading.
There has been a bit of work done on RWA by political scientists and from the little I have read it seems to support Bob though one woman seemed to have no clue about some of the implications of the theory even though she was using it.
Now that you mention it, it is a bit surprising that something like the Current or As It Happens has not interviewed him.
The Da Vinci Code is not factual history?
Jesuit Catholics are Jewish infiltrators and is now working with Italian fascists to bring down the pope.
Sounds reasonable to me. That is probably why the Pope hired all those mercenaries from Switzerland. I bet Betsy De Vos's brother was disappointed not to get the contract.
Parts of the USA seem to be descending into raving deliriums. And we are right next door.
If some one started arresting people for sedition in the U.S.A. there wouldn't be enough jails to hold them all.
It was funny to watch Stephen Corbett, Trevor Noah, and Seth Myers last night. One of them did do a routine regarding how, once the cameras are turned off, many of those who were chanting against Acosta were asking for his autograph and pictures. There was also mention of vacant seats at the arena. I didn't see any reports on the attendance, but it would be interesting to know if it is starting to get lower.
The way the audience at these events carry on, is much like the wrestling and car matches. Perhaps these people, although being Trump supporters simply see this as another form of entertainment. They are no longer able to distinguish between reality and fantasy.
It would appear Trump is loosing it, you need I.D. to buy groceries and therefore you need I.D. to vote. Trump obviously has never purchased groceries or perhaps he considers booze groceries and for that one might need I.D.
It is clear the U.S.A. has had a deep divide for some decades and those who were left behind by a changing world and economy are resentful. They don't know who to blame, so they blame any one and everyone who is different from them. These "whites" who at one time were the 'big boys on campus' are no longer relevant and politicians had stopped paying attention to them. Trump seized the moment and started a movement. its worked for him.
The Republicans in Congress don't have much of a spine. /Some may be loyal to their party, but at some point they have to be loyal to their country and that is what they seem unable to do. The U.S.A. is definitely a country in decline. With continued tax cuts for the 1% of the 1%, Trump is defunding the American government. Now that could be because that is what Putin wants, a country with no money or Trump is just to stupid to know how much it costs to run a country. Whatever the case at some point the U.S.A. will run out of money to run the military, health care for seniors, etc. Of course if Trump forces a shut down, it could all come tumbling down a whole lot sooner. Thank "God" my parents immigrated to Canada.
My take on it, given the alt right, racism, etc. it won't be long before a civil war breaks out. All you need is one rally where Trump speaks out against the media, the crowd kills some in the media, the police arrive and the riot starts. There won't be any coming back then, especially if it happens in the wrong right wing state.
Here's the link to Bannon being in cahoots with Italy's right-wingers against Pope Francis.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-cardinal-burke-minister-salvini-and-the-plot-to-take-down-pope-francis
I hope you guys up north start a new underground railroad for us sane liberals trapped behind the Orange Curtain.
There is no doubt in my mind that the deep state is trying to remove Trump, just as they did with Nixon. Who took out Jimmy Carter and put in the actor that fundamentally screwed the world.
There is no side, Trump is bad, the deep state is bad, Hillary was deep state bad, Bernie Sanders surrendered to Hillary. Do we live in a world of kabuki theater for sure. In Canada, I hope Justin can be re elected, bring in proportional representation and forever ensure that Canada is free.
Mound you're not welcome on this blog. You and Lorne encouraged that homophobic maniac to go after Simon and never apologized.
I jokingly suggest when Trump was elected that we would have to open refugee camps for people fleeing the USA. Oops that one came true though I was thinking of US citizens.
Let's hope we don't need an underground railway. But, perhaps you should make sure your passport is currant.
Hi anon@10:40 AM.... When the time comes to remove Trump from office, it will either be the forces of law enforcement, or the new Democrat Congress that will impeach him according to the rules that govern all Americans. In both cases resistance will be treason and will suffer the same fate as the Confederacy...
The QAnon conspiracy phenomenon is the terminal end state as the result of overdosing on weaponized alt reality political (WARP)propaganda. As with any strong addiction, recovery is a long difficult path complicated by the fact that efforts to help the victim become part of a conspiracy within a conspiracy. Hopefully the percentage of QAnoners is not growing as there is hope for the early stage victims of the WARP virus. Although there is resistance and progress is slower than desired social media sites such as Facebook have started to be treated with antiviral agents designed to slow the viruses ability to replicate without killing the free speech host cells. Hopefully it will be successful as democracy and our future depend on it.
RT
Hi jrkrideau...Both Harper and Stalin were paranoid and in Stalin's case murderously so. But I doubt that any of their followers felt the same way, or came up with such an elaborate conspiracy as QAnon cult, even if they were told to believe it or else. But I only vaguely remember Bob Altemeyer's name from my days at McGill and could benefit from brushing up on what he had to say about the authoritarian mind. If anybody can give me a rational explanation for that madness I'd be very grateful, for right now it's all looking a lot like a zombie apocalypse... ☠
Hi Anon@9:01 PM...Thank you for coming to my defence, but I have forgiven both of those guys. I was very angry at the time, and I don't agree with their views on Justin Trudeau that I consider far too harsh. But unlike some of my fierce Scottish ancestors I can't hold a grudge for too long. Life is too short. But you didn't know that so thanks again...
Hi Jackie....yes, I think there must be a strong religious component to the QAnon cult. Only religious backwardness could fuel such fevered delusions. As for the JFK Jr. -Q connection it's simply mind blowing and the best example of collective psychosis I have ever encountered. I'll never be able to look at a Q-tip the same way again. And for encouraging such insane behaviour at his fascist rallies Trump should get an extra ten years tacked on to his prison sentence ...
Hi anon...yes, bizarre is the only way to describe the Q cult. And it's not as if there are just a few of those weirdos attending Trump's rallies, there are apparently hundreds of them emerging from their internet hidey holes to cheer their hero and heckle the media. Like you and Jackie i also believe that this is not going to end well...
Hi Mound...thank you for that information or that warning. I don't think I'll be visiting the U.S. Until this nightmare is over. Especially since one of my cousins in Maine is a 300-pound ex Marine colonel who drives around in a tank of a pick up truck and thinks Trump is God. His very respectable family is horrified, but with his gun collection nobody, including me, dares say anything. And this is Kennebunkport for God's sake....
Hi e.a.f...I think you summed up the situation well, although I obviously hope you are wrong about the civil war part. But that's what is so scary, nobody can rule anything out anymore. My hope is that the Democrats can take control of Congress in November and irritate Trump so much he ends up resigning before he is impeached. But he's quite capable of starting some war to distract us, so we won't be safe until he is locked in a jail cell or dead...
Hi Steve...I don't doubt that many powerful people would love to see Trump driven from power. But I'm not a believer in so called Deep State conspiracies. If Trump is deposed it will be by the legitimate power of law enforcement, or Congress. And historians will in time conclude that he was his own worst enemy...
Simon you seriously believe the rule of law is in effect in America? I dont want to call you out but I will give you a quote from the esteemed Judge Thomas after the court gave the election to GWB. "The supreme court does not do politics" Ironicly those are the most words he has said in two decades of sitting on the bench.
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