Problem is, he still has the support of >50% of Republicans,
Not anymore, that number has been declining ever since he left office and is now around 45%. The number of republican voters want the party to move on is the majority and increasing despite the gops leadership trying to push his narrative.
@superficial (and others)
It’s quite bizarre how Republican voters think they’re the party of hard-working, honest, law-and-order types. Without realising that those things are completely incompatible with believing in weirdo nut job stuff like QAnon, adrenochrome, pizzagate and stolen elections.
I think you need to take a step back and realize this is just what the media is feeding you for entertainment.
The "news" that the overwhelming majority of people are completely normal and sit in the center ground doesn't keep you reading their tweets and watching their news channels 24/7.
You're falling for just the same type of "othering" as the Trumpist fringe is trying to achieve on the other side.
American politics swings on very small margins (it's a FPTP system after all), Trump's "base" is a very vocal fringe minority that it turned out was larger than the swing voters. The remainder of the republican voters probably equally hate him, "but at least he's not Clinton/Biden".
that number has been declining ever since he left office and is now around 45%.
Yes, I haven't followed any polling since the election, but 45% is still much more than any other single Republican politician. Nobody else in the Republican party has the support to take on Trump and beat him.
this is just what the media is feeding you for entertainment.
Nah. Spend some time in comment sections of YouTube, Twitter, TikTok etc.
These people are not media creations. They exist and are extremely vocal about their insane conspiracy theories.
Despite Ron Watkins taking a step back I still regularly see people publicly spouting Q nonsense online and that's just what escapes the echo chambers where this stuff festers.
Nah. Spend some time in comment sections of YouTube, Twitter, TikTok etc.
These people are not media creations. They exist and are extremely vocal about their insane conspiracy theories.Despite Ron Watkins taking a step back I still regularly see people publicly spouting Q nonsense online and that’s just what escapes the echo chambers where this stuff festers.
Except that's the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. And they exist to get you to watch their youtube, Twitter or ticktock, that's their job, and the comments section is just their echo chamber.
The other 328million people in the USA just get up in the morning, go to work, pay taxes, and every 2 years vote red or blue.
The majority don't even own a gun, not even the majority of households.
Except that’s the 1% of the 1% of the 1%.
Sure but underestimating the power of conspiracy, fringes and non-traditional media is partly how we got Trump and the Jan 6th insurrection.
These people are noisy empty vessels, but some of them have hundreds of thousands of followers and plenty more that don't follow but still see their content, believe it and repeat it.
A lot of the anti-mask anti-vaccine rhetoric getting spread at the moment is linked to the same nut jobs. Just as all the child-trafficking stuff was before.
There are people that take Lin Wood seriously! And Simon Parkes!
Except that’s the 1% of the 1% of the 1%.
No, it's a lot more than that.
The majority don’t even own a gun, not even the majority of households.
If you go to rural areas, I think you'll find gun ownership is pretty normal. If you go to cities in Democratic states, much less so. Republican messaging is targeting the nutty people in Republican states, they're the voters that dominate Republican primary elections. Keeping them happy is the only thing that matters if you want to go to Congress.
Except that’s the 1% of the 1% of the 1%.
It's not.
A few years ago, I worked with an-ex US Marine. He came across as a normal person.
When the electoral fraud stuff was all over the internet, he posted something on a mutual friends FB post. It was a link to a right wing nut job, Trump is still president, the Clintons are peado, blood drinking satanists.
There are a lot of Americans who believe that stuff.
And by that argument is everyone to the right of you in UK politics a supporter of this guy?
Sure but underestimating the power of conspiracy, fringes and non-traditional media is partly how we got Trump and the Jan 6th insurrection.
The other part is a complete inability of the left to be much better ("we" put Corbyn up as a candidate for PM don't forget).
The ability to empathize with another person's worldview and construct arguments around that seems to have been lost in favor of ad hominem attacks from both sides.
Republican messaging is targeting the nutty people in Republican states,
Exactly.
(and the overall figure for gun ownership is IIRC somewhere around 10-15% depending on what estimate you use for unregistered firearms and how you distribute them)
And by that argument is everyone to the right of you in UK politics a supporter of this guy?
No no, not at all, I was trying to say that as fringe as those views are, they still have enough of a movement in US politics to vote in loonies like Greene who has views that are seen as valid to them. Apologies I wasn't clear.
And we elect fringe people too.
Remember at their peak UKIP won 13% of the general election vote (but thanks to FPTP only one seat).
Remember at their peak UKIP won 13% of the general election vote
Not really fringe though when given the chance 52% voted for their policy of Brexit
It's not often that I agree with gobuchul but
It’s not.
A few years ago, I worked with an-ex US Marine. He came across as a normal person.
When the electoral fraud stuff was all over the internet, he posted something on a mutual friends FB post. It was a link to a right wing nut job, Trump is still president, the Clintons are peado, blood drinking satanists.
I've experienced this from a friend who is also an ex-US Marine. It's obviously nuts, but certain media outlets have made stuff like this mainstream - once again you only have to look at the posts made by our resident non-sequitur loving troll to see how the loonier assertions are accepted as fact by vulnerable people.
Not really fringe though when given the chance 52% voted for their policy of Brexit
People love simple solutions and explanations for complex problems. People were told that the EU is coming for our tea/light bulbs/sovereignty etc and thanks to social media, the disseminators of this guff found a way to reach their target audiences. The same is true for Trump - billions of dollars have been spent in attempts to remove context from slogans and thus persuade people to vote against their own interests.
The only real short term answers are to hold those disseminators of counter-factual material to account, which is no easy thing when there are vested corporate interests involved from some of the largest and most powerful businesses in the world.
Speaking of right-wing nutters, the NRA just took a brutal thrashing in court.
Professor Adam Levitin, a bankruptcy expert at Georgetown University, described the NRA’s bankruptcy strategy as “remarkably hare-brained” that raised the question, “what the hell were they thinking?” He pointed to several specific problems in the NRA’s case that led to the bad-faith determination.
“If you’re going to do a sketchy filing, the lesson from SGL Carbon was don’t tell everyone that you’re solvent and doing the filing to stiff a single creditor in your press release,” he wrote on Tuesday. “Yet, that’s exactly what the NRA did. Additionally, the pre-filing governance moves were really iffy (never telling the board of directors!), the creation of a forum-shopping sub completely blatant, and the NRA and its counsel never had their story straight about why they were filing.”
https://thereload.com/experts-paint-grim-picture-for-nra-after-bankruptcy-gamble-goes-bust/
Easy to mistake this article for parody.
Basically a large proportion of the people who worked with Trump came away deeply dismayed by his mental capabilities. O’Keefe, Ledeen, et al., looking at this epidemic of Trump appointees who consider him a complete moron, decided the problem was a deep-state cabal subverting Trump. And then, despite investing large sums of money, the expertise of a British spy, and several attractive women, did not get anybody calling Trump an idiot on camera. This would be like luring a group of tourists into the desert without air conditioning in the goal of getting somebody to say they’re hot, and failing.
https://twitter.com/jonathanchait/status/1392956877491904517
Wait, what? That is a pro-Trump trying to honeytrap normal workers into telling a camera that Trump is an idiot? What?
@willard that's how I read it too. Were they trying to draw their anti-trump members out into the open so they could be identified and expelled? That doesn't seem right, I'm scratching my head..
Yes, they wanted to try and identify deep-state agents within the Trump administration working to sabotage the Ranting Shitgibbon's plans.
Republican who runs that Arizona county has lost his patience...
https://twitter.com/stephen_richer/status/1393662268542386178?s=19
Until more genuine Republicans stand up and call out the "insane lies" he will continue to draw in the weak willed and wishful thinkers.
I think the sooner that Republicans realise that their party is now a Trump/Lie promoting machine, the better. There's talk now I think of a 3rd party.
FFS, is there a single honest person in MAGAland?
https://twitter.com/nwjerseyliz/status/1394535668315877377
Morecash, nickc,
I was watching Beau of the fifth column on YouTube and he was emphasising that if the 'real' Republicans are thinking that they need to split from the Trump party then they have to act now. They have to put up candidates in the mid terms else it will all be too little too late.
BBC News - New York prosecutor says Trump inquiry now 'criminal'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57166735
About to get very shouty, I suspect.
But he's such a great businessman...
Do they normally announce that an enquiry is now criminal? I've never seen that sort of announcement before. Is this just a warning shot to the Trump followers. A shot across the bows so it's not a huge shock when he gets arrested?
If not, what is the purpose of this announcement?
Do they normally announce that an enquiry is now criminal?
I think when it's cases like this, yeah mostly they do, it's a public investigation, so they may as well get the announcement out there under their terms.
I'm guessing they put it out there ahead of the colossal smokescreen he's going to put out about Democrats bring mean to him.
what is the purpose of this announcement?
From what I read elsewhere, they informed Trump's lawyers that the inquiry had been expanded to potentially include criminal matters. I assume they are required to keep the Trump side informed of developments and this is just keeping the public informed as well.
Did we already discuss the quote from the "QAnon Shaman"'s lawyer?
Watkins, the “Q Shaman” Jacob Chansley’s attorney, said his client had Asperger’s syndrome and indicated that Chansley’s mental state — and the impact of Trump’s “propaganda” efforts — would play a role in his case.
“A lot of these defendants — and I’m going to use this colloquial term, perhaps disrespectfully — but they’re all fing short-bus people,” Watkins told TPM. “These are people with brain damage, they’re fing retarded, they’re on the goddamn spectrum.”
“But they’re our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, our coworkers — they’re part of our country. These aren’t bad people, they don’t have prior criminal history. ****, they were subjected to four-plus years of goddamn propaganda the likes of which the world has not seen since f***ing Hitler.”
Amazing.
More in the Talking Point Memo article: Capitol Rioters’ ‘Trump Defense’ Comes Up Again And Again. Will It Make A Difference?
One of Trumps losing 2020 temper tantrum
Miller told associates he had three goals for the final weeks of the Trump administration: #1: No major war. #2: No military coup. #3: No troops fighting citizens on the streets.
A lot of these defendants — and I’m going to use this colloquial term, perhaps disrespectfully — but they’re all fing short-bus people,” Watkins told TPM. “These are people with brain damage, they’re fing retarded, they’re on the goddamn spectrum.
or as Trump put it watching them on telly "low class".
they informed Trump’s lawyers
He still has one? After the A-Team, the Tiger Team, the Ninja-Squad, the Lawyer SEALS and all these other indefatigables ran away crying, I suppose there's always the public defender
“A lot of these defendants — and I’m going to use this colloquial term, perhaps disrespectfully — but they’re all fing short-bus people,”
A beautiful quote in isolation but this is more pertinent:
hey were subjected to four-plus years of goddamn propaganda the likes of which the world has not seen since fing Hitler.”
The biggest danger to democracy in the US isn't "short-bus people", it's the organisations that have crafted an alternative reality and have force fed the vulnerable with narratives like Q-Anon etc. While the capitol rioters need to face justice, I'd say that it's imperative that the personnel involved with Cambridge Analytica and Aggregate IQ, together with their investors are more culpable and should be dealt with accordingly.
Regarding the Arizona/Maricopa CyberNinja "audit", the official reply letter from the Maricopa Board of Supervisors is well worth a read.
Some highlights:
These accusations are false, defamatory, and beneath the dignity of the
Senate. ... Their stunning lack of a basic understanding for how their software works is
egregious ... You have rented out the once good name of the Arizona State
Senate to grifters and con-artists ... We are stunned that you are asking us this question. It demonstrates a spectacular lack of understanding on your part...
We will not be responding to any additional inquiries from your “auditors”. Their failure to understand basic election processes is an indication you didn’t get the best people to perform in your political theatre.
We have wasted enough County resources. People’s tax dollars are real, your “auditors” are not.
You are using purple lights and spinning tables. You are hunting for bamboo.
These are not things that serious auditors of elections do.
Bear in mind that most of the board writing this letter are Republican 😁
Worth following "legaldad" on TikTok for some good takes on the "audit". He's a lawyer with ties to Arizona.
Also worth looking at the results of the genuine audits that were already completed in Maricopa by two experienced independent firms (Pro V&V and SLI Compliance) that specialise in election audits, are accredited by the Election Assistance Commission and don't employ "ninjas":
https://www.maricopa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/66843/SLI-Compliance-Forensic-Audit-Report
https://www.maricopa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/66844/Post-Audit-Report
Funnily enough, they found nothing of note.
Bear in mind that most of the board writing this letter are Republican
Yeah, but Bill Gates was involved and he was mates with Jeffrey Epstein.
And now the Hamburglar dude is running for the U.S. Senate.
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1394962218173751302
Guess which gun-toting lawyer shares a lawyer with the QAnon guy.
Times they are achanging - possibly, maybe, hopefully
BBC News - Republicans defy Trump to back Capitol riot probe
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57180679
Only the senate, it still has to pass the upper house I think. iirc it was the same with impeachment.
Yes, it will probably die in the Senate, but that is a surprising number of Republicans in the House that voted for it.
