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Author Topic: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2  (Read 290652 times)

Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4280 on: October 14, 2021, 11:09:26 PM »
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The GOP is a dangerous conspiracy cult infested with Qanon domestic terrorists.



In the Donald Trump era, GOP politics are mainly about trolling. So it's no surprise that Ohio Senate candidate Josh Mandel manifested this week as an in-flesh version of an egg avatar tweeting memes about DEMON-crats and the glories of horse paste. The unlucky recipients of Mandel's trolling were members of a school board in a suburb of Cincinnati, where Mandel showed up to grandstand despite not having children in the district. His complaints were incoherent — a muddled mix of whining about mask mandates, screeching that "children should not be forced to learn about to pick a gender," and something about the district's book-keeping practices — but of course, actually making sense was not the point. The point was to get attention by being a jerk.

So Mandel walked himself through the standard troll protocol: Escalate obnoxious behavior until the target is forced to block you, or in this case, kick you out. Then sanctimoniously declare yourself a victim to your own followers, martyred by the censorious liberals who can't handle the truth bombs you were supposedly dropping.

Mandel followed this script faithfully. He declared on Twitter — freely and without a hint of self-awareness — that his "free speech" was being suppressed. He was just there to "defend moms and dads," he sanctimoniously insisted, before accusing the school board of "using kids as pawns in a political game."

As with most accusations leveled by right-wingers, this was really a confession.

The Ohio school board — like every other school board affected by the coordinated assault by unhinged right-wingers screaming about mask mandates and "critical race theory" — is just trying to navigate the difficult problem of educating children during a pandemic. It's Republicans who are using kids as political pawns, staging these increasingly ridiculous confrontations at school boards. It's nothing more than political theater to motivate the GOP base for the 2022 midterms.

They learned these tactics from the QAnon cult.

QAnon is, at its heart, a fascist movement dedicated to ending American democracy and, like many fascist movements, regards their leader, Donald Trump, as a god-like figure. But coming at people straight with that pitch is a tough sell. So, instead, the QAnon pitch is about "the children." They lure people in with lurid conspiracy theories about a worldwide pedophile cult, the sort of thing that, if it were true, really would be a cause to take action. Once in, the lies about "saving the children" serve as a justification, both to outsiders and to silence doubts in the followers. How can you call them fascists when all they want to do is "save the children?"

The beauty of using "the children" as a cover story is that it is blanket permission to be a monster. Any level of harassment or even violence can be justified, as long as protecting the innocence of children is invoked. (See: The attempted overthrow of American democracy by QAnon fanatics.) No wonder Republican operators have been inspired to take a page directly out of the QAnon playbook to manufacture this nationwide assault on school boards. Using imaginary threats to children as a recruitment-and-rationalization strategy works.

Republicans' cleaned up the conspiracy theory a little, as accusing Tom Hanks of pedophilia is a tough one to trick mainstream journalists into repeating. So the mainstream GOP version of the conspiracy theory is now "critical race theory" and something about how mask mandates are a sinister effort to wrest away parental authority, instead of a common sense health regulation. But the basic gist is the same: Pretend to believe that evil liberals want to hurt children, and use that as a permission slip to act on every antisocial impulse.

To be certain, Republican organizers have long understood that their base is composed of wannabe trolls just aching for an excuse to freak out in public. This understanding was harnessed in the early years of Barack Obama's presidency to protest his economic stimulus and in the GOP effort to prevent the Affordable Care Act from passing. The "Tea Party" started off as a total Astroturf affair, funded by the Koch brothers and organized by GOP operatives, built to look like a "grassroots" uprising of conservatives supposedly irate at social spending programs. But it tapped into a very real longing among everyday Republican voters to have racist temper tantrums in public. They just needed a cover story, and the Koch brothers gave it to them. Pop on a tricorner hat, drop the "without representation" part of the American revolutionary complaint about taxation, and now it's "patriotic" to scream barely coded racist vitriol at the local town hall meeting. The current assault on school boards follows the same formula.

"The sudden interest in school boards is not an organic grassroots movement of angry parents," but "an effort orchestrated by seasoned right-wing political operatives," Judd Legum at Popular Info writes, in a piece that identifies both the organizers, drawn heavily from the GOP consultant class and their GOP-linked funders. These people are then laundered into "concerned parents" — with no mention of their political affiliations — on Fox News. The organizing is deliberately constructed to look amateurish, as if this were just local parents having authentic reactions to local politics, instead of a well-financed national movement to construct a mass hysteria, aimed solely at the goal of electing Republicans.

The strategy works very well, because, as GOP operatives understand the scream-at-waiters-and-flight-attendant energy of America's Kens and Karens. Add to the mix the QAnon-esque fake concern for "the children," and that anti-social energy becomes explosive, as school board members across the country are finding out to their dismay.

No one should be fooled. Neither the organizers behind this Astroturf effort nor the ordinary Republican voters caught up in the excitement care one whit about American children. If they did, they sure wouldn't want them spreading COVID-19 in schools. In a broader sense, people who actually care about children want to fight climate change, want families to have access to affordable and quality child care, and want children born into homes where they are wanted and welcome — all values Democrats stand for (well, mostly) and Republicans universally oppose. Children are not harmed by learning racism is bad or by being protected from the novel coronavirus. But if these QAnon-style tactics work to elect Republicans in 2022, American children's futures are in very real peril indeed.

https://www.rawstory.com/critical-race-theory-schools/

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4280 on: October 14, 2021, 11:09:26 PM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4281 on: October 15, 2021, 10:44:11 PM »
Bunch of MAGA scumbags screaming profanities in front of children all because President Biden is trying to save lives and end this pandemic.

Trump supporters hurl profanities at Joe Biden as he greets children at a daycare center



President Joe Biden was greeted with profane taunts from Trump supporters on Friday despite the fact that he was in the presence of children.

According to NPR White House correspondent Scott Detrow, Biden on Friday travelled to a daycare center in Hartford, Connecticut to promote childcare plans that are part of his "Build Back Better" agenda.

While there, he greeted several children at a playground, only to be interrupted at one point by Trump supporters who were yelling at him from across the street.

As recounted by Voice of America News reporter Patsy Widakuswara, "at one point Biden put a twisty blue tube toy on his head" while meeting with the children and "as this happened you could clearly hear Trump supporters across the street yelling 'traitor' and "f**k Joe Biden."

Despite this, Biden continued into the daycare center and delivered a speech talking about Democratic policies such as the expanded child tax credit and universal pre-K.

https://www.rawstory.com/biden-in-hartford/

Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4282 on: October 15, 2021, 10:53:36 PM »
President Biden is working hard to clean up the economic disaster left by Criminal Donald. More good news coming on the economic front.

US consumers stepped up spending in September and retail sales posted a surprise 0.7 percent increase, pushed by broad gains that extended beyond gasoline and autos, the government reported Friday.

The increase, which sent the monthly sales total to $625.4 billion, defied economists' expectation for a slight decline -- for the second month in a row. And the Commerce Department revised the August gain higher than initially reported, to 0.9 percent.

Demand for goods has surged as widespread vaccinations have allowed businesses to reopen from the Covid-19 shutdowns, and total sales jumped 13.9 percent compared to September 2020, according to the report.

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4282 on: October 15, 2021, 10:53:36 PM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4283 on: October 16, 2021, 04:57:38 AM »
Almost of of these Trump stooges and sycophants couldn't stand Trump but then all fell in line and started worshipping this criminal. This is from his "lawyer" who lost in court over 60 times with the bogus voter claims.


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4284 on: October 16, 2021, 11:09:48 PM »
Biden recalls single parenthood struggle in child care pitch


US President Joe Biden promotes his Build Back Better Agenda, highlighting the importance of investing in child care, during a speech at the Capitol Child Development Center in Hartford, Connecticut, on October 15, 2021

Hartford (United States) (AFP) - President Joe Biden made a deeply personal appeal Friday for a transformation of America's lagging child care services, saying that the crash that killed his wife and daughter demonstrated the importance of helping parents struggling with work and raising families.

Biden, who became a single parent juggling a political career and two young boys after the accident in 1972, said during a speech in Connecticut that he "could not afford the child care" on a senator's salary, forcing him to commute daily between Washington and Delaware.

"It made me realize how difficult it is for the vast majority of people who need help," Biden said at child care center in the state capital Hartford.

Part of a national tour to drum up support for his proposals, Biden's second presidential visit to the Constitution State came during a crucial phase for his historic but controversial spending plans, which face opposition from his own side as well as from Republicans.

It is far from the first time he has spoken publicly about the crash that killed his wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Naomi.

But the president reframed the horrific episode as a learning moment that made him realize most Americans don't have the help of an extended family that he benefited from when they are struggling to raise families.

"I've been conscious of the concern in a lack of access, and a lack of financial ability to have child care, for a long time," he said.

Child care is being held up as critical to the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic -- but the administration argues that the United States invests far less in children than comparable economies.

'Game changer'

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says the nation invests less in early childhood education and care relative to the size of the economy than all but two of the world's 37 leading developed countries.

The cost of child care for the average family in Connecticut is $16,000, according to Hartford's Democratic mayor Luke Bronin, who called the Biden child care agenda "a game changer."

"How can we compete in the world if millions of American parents, especially moms, can't be part of the workforce because they can't afford the cost of childcare?" Biden said.

Parents' difficulties in hanging on to jobs also contributes to a wide gender gap in workforce participation between mothers, who still take on the greater burden of care, and fathers.

Biden is proposing to bridge the gap with federal subsidies for low and middle-income Americans that would cap families' child care expenses at seven percent of their income.

He wants to offer large subsidies to child care centers, raise wages for those who work in the industry and increase child credit from $2,000 to $3,000 a year for children aged over six. 

"It's never a good bet to bet against the American people. It's time for us to invest in ourselves, show the world that American democracy works," Biden said.

"We've always led the world not by the example of our physical power, but by the power of our example. That's why the world has followed."

'Lift up families'

Republicans vehemently oppose White House proposals for a multi-trillion-dollar social spending package that calls for Biden's child care provisions.

The Democrats in Congress have enough lawmakers without Republican help to pass the historic blueprint -- which includes improved benefits for college students and seniors, cash for health care coverage and provisions to help rescue a warming planet. 

But House of Representatives liberals balk at cutting the $3.5 trillion top line to $1.5 trillion over 10 years, which a small group of moderates favor.

Biden has told progressives that the end goal should be around $2 trillion as he tries to wrangle sufficient Democratic votes.     

This means confronting grueling choices between funding fewer programs for longer periods of time or more programs for shorter stints, in hopes they will be renewed by future Congresses.

Polling shows that as little as one in 10 Americans known specifics about the contents of the plan but Bronin said broad improvements in child care were overwhelmingly popular among Americans.

"It would lift up families across this country, open up pathways to opportunity, make sure that we keep our middle class strong," he said.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-president-joe-biden-recalls-single-parenthood-struggle-after-1st-wifes-tragic-death-in-accident-2577068

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4284 on: October 16, 2021, 11:09:48 PM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4285 on: October 17, 2021, 12:05:27 AM »
Trump in Hiding

Donald, why are you so scared to go to Virginia? Coward


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4286 on: October 17, 2021, 11:07:41 PM »
Trump's civil suit deposition on Monday could come back to haunt him: former federal prosecutor

According to a former federal prosecutor, answers that Donald Trump gives in a civil lawsuit deposition on Monday will likely be closely scrutinized by multiple prosecutors investigating the ex-president and could come back to haunt him in court cases yet to be filed.

Trump has been ordered by Justice Doris Gonzalez of the Bronx supreme court to give a videotaped deposition at Trump Tower on Monday that will be used as part of a "lawsuit brought by a group of demonstrators who said his security guard assaulted them during a 2015 demonstration outside Trump Tower," the Guardian has reported.

Speaking with MSNBC host Alex Witt, attorney and legal analyst Tali Farhadian stated that answers Trump gives about how the Trump Organization operates could become fodder for other investigations.

"It looks like this deposition is a go," host Witt began. "What do you think lawyers will ask Donald Trump?"

"Well, the question at the heart of this case is whether Donald Trump directed his security to assault the protesters who have brought this lawsuit," Farhadian replied before noting, "And, you know, it's interesting because it's a low-profile case from the presidential campaign, but it does represent the first time that Donald Trump is going to be asked a question like that under oath and I think that a world of lawyers, prosecutors, investigators, are going to be listening for that answer."

"Okay, so when you say whether the president directed them to rough these people up, how could that be verbally expressed?" host Witt pressed. "Because we've heard Donald Trump saying himself, in rallies over the years, he would like to knock somebody out, or he's going to rough somebody up. Is that the kind of thing that could get him into trouble legally here? Would it have to be 'I want you to beat them up'? How is that going to work, the interpretation of what he said?"

"Well, the protesters who have sued him are going to want to use the kind of evidence that you've just described, Alex, where we can impute to him the direction of his organization based on the stuff that he's said," the attorney explained. "What I think they would get into in the deposition is more trying to understand, how does he run his company, how regularly does he direct his security to do one thing or another? And those questions about how he runs his organization, what kind of manager he is, are really swirling around in a lot of the litigations and lawsuits that involve him."

"So depending on what he says and how he says it, come tomorrow, is there any way he could get into bigger trouble than where it stands right now?" the MSNBC host asked.

"Yes," Farhadian confirmed. "I think that, if he does in fact testify under oath, you know, give the deposition tomorrow, where the judge has said at the extremes he could have until the end of the month, then his next strategy, I anticipate, will be to try to keep whatever he said hidden, to keep it sealed and not disclosed, because as I said earlier, whatever he says there about how he directed his security could be really interesting to the people who want to know how else he runs his affairs."

"You know, Alex, I was just thinking, it would probably take us all afternoon to list all of the litigations and investigations that involve Donald trump right now, ranging from January 6 to the defamation suits by E. Jean Carroll and Summer Zervos," she added.

Watch below:


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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4286 on: October 17, 2021, 11:07:41 PM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4287 on: October 17, 2021, 11:57:57 PM »
Pressure mounts on ex-DoJ official Jeff Clark over Trump’s ‘election subversion scheme’

Former assistant attorney general faces possible disbarment and charges after report details machinations on Trump’s behalf


Jeffrey Clark, a former top environmental lawyer at the Trump justice department accused of plotting with Trump to undermine the 2020 election results in Georgia and other states, is facing ethics investigations in Washington that could lead to possible disbarment, as well as a watchdog inquiry that might result in a criminal referral.

The mounting scrutiny of the ex-assistant attorney general, who led the justice department’s environment division for almost two years and then ran its civil division, was provoked by a report from the Senate judiciary committee whose Democratic chairman, Richard Durbin, has asked the DC bar’s disciplinary counsel to examine Clark’s conduct and possibly sanction him.

The panel’s exhaustive 394-page report followed an eight-month inquiry, and included voluntary testimony from former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and his deputy, Richard Donoghue, revealing how Clark schemed privately with Trump about ways to pressure Rosen to help launch an inquiry into baseless charges of voting fraud in Georgia and other states that Joe Biden won.

The report noted Clark repeatedly tried to “induce Rosen into helping Trump’s election subversion scheme”, including by telling Rosen that if he agreed to join their cabal to overturn election results, Clark would turn down an offer Trump had made him to become attorney general in place of Rosen.

Clark was asked by the Senate panel to testify voluntarily in July but declined, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The Senate report was shared with the House select committee that has been investigating the 6 January attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, and Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results. On 13 October, the committee issued a subpoena seeking deposition testimony, and it requested records from Clark on 29 October, after reportedly struggling to get his cooperation.

"It’s no mystery why Clark is playing hard to get with Congress,” said former justice department inspector general Michael Bromwich in an interview with the Guardian. “He faces a meaningful threat of criminal liability based on the facts contained in the Senate report.

“The Senate report provides overwhelming evidence that Jeffrey Clark became a witting pawn of Trump’s in trying to launch a coup in the justice department, which would then serve as the launching pad for the broader coup whose aim was to overturn the results of the election.”

Clark’s covert efforts to help Trump have been under scrutiny by the current inspector general at the justice department, Michael Horowitz, since January, when news reports surfaced about his machinations with Trump to help overturn the election results by spurring an investigation in Georgia focused on baseless claims of voting fraud.

It’s unclear when the inspector general inquiry will be concluded, but depending on the findings, a criminal referral could result.

The Senate report provided new details about the secretive pressure tactics deployed by Trump and Clark to persuade Rosen to accede to their schemes to help nullify Biden’s win, even after Trump staunch ally, attorney general William Barr, publicly stated on 1 December that the election results were not marred by fraud that “could have effected a different outcome in the election”.

Strikingly, the report described a bizarre multi-hour White House meeting on 3 January that was attended by Trump, Rosen, Clark and other top administration lawyers, where Trump initially showed strong interest in ousting Rosen, who had been resisting pressures from Clark to open an inquiry into fraud allegations, and replacing him with Clark.

According to Rosen’s testimony, Trump began the meeting by taking an aggressive posture and declaring: “One thing we know is you, Rosen, aren’t going to do anything to overturn the election.”

At the end of the meeting, Trump dropped the covert scheme to oust Rosen after Rosen’s deputy Donoghue told Trump that he, Rosen and others, including the two top White House attorneys, would resign in protest.

Pat Cipollone, the top White House lawyer, condemned Trump’s plan as a “murder-suicide pact,” according to the Senate report.

The Senate report formally recommended that the DC bar’s disciplinary counsel “evaluate Clark’s conduct to determine whether disciplinary action is warranted”.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a top Democrat on the judiciary panel, in a statement to the Guardian said: “Either Jeffrey Clark was an enterprising sycophant looking to score points with a transactional president, or he was a cog in a much larger election-theft scheme.

“Clark’s testimony under oath will be very important to arrive at the full truth, which is why it’s very hard to imagine he avoids testifying – either before Congress or a grand jury.”

Before the release of the Senate report, ABC News unearthed emails revealing that Clark tried to get Rosen and his deputy to approve a letter he drafted on 28 December that would have pressed Georgia’s governor Brian Kemp to “convene a special session” of the state legislature to examine unfounded allegations of voting fraud before 6 January, when Congress met to certify the results.

The Senate GOP’s minority in a separate report offered a tepid defense for Trump and Clark’s actions, stating that Trump “listened to all data points” at the White House meeting where several resignations were threatened, and “rejected” the path Clark promoted with Trump’s apparent blessings. Grassley also faulted the Democrats for issuing their report before hearing from Clark and receiving more documents.

Still, two days before the majority report, about three dozen prominent lawyers and former DoJ officials signed an ethics complaint orchestrated by Lawyers Defending American Democracy which also asked the DC disciplinary counsel to investigate Clark’s conduct with an eye to sanctions.

The lawyers wrote that Clark “made false statements about the integrity of the election in a concerted effort to disseminate an official statement of the United States Department of Justice that the election results in multiple states were unreliable”.

Trump nominated Clark in mid-2017 to serve as assistant attorney general of the DoJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, but he was only narrowly confirmed in October 2018.

During his tenure running the division, Clark reportedly often was at odds with veteran lawyers there, because of his narrow reading of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. By late 2020, Clark had become acting chief of the civil division at the DoJ.

Previously, Clark had been a partner at the powerhouse law firm Kirkland & Ellis, where he defended BP in Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation and represented the US Chamber of Commerce in litigation that challenged the federal government’s power to regulate carbon emissions.

Barr and Rosen were also top partners at the firm before their stints leading the Department of Justice.

Clark’s distaste for strong environmental rules during his tenure at the department was presaged by some of his earlier comments about climate change in which he derided the need for more regulations to address it.

Clark, a member of the conservative Federalist Society, gave a talk at its 2010 convention, where he bitterly denounced the Obama administration’s policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions as “reminiscent of kind of a Leninistic program from the 1920s to seize control of the commanding heights of the economy.”

Given Clark’s anti-regulatory background in the private sector and his stint at the DoJ, it’s perhaps not surprising that he landed a top post working for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a conservative law firm funded by the Charles G Koch Foundation.

Clark was tapped in July to be the alliance’s chief of litigation and director of strategy. Two calls to the alliance’s press office to reach Clark and seeking comment about his status there in the wake of the Senate report did not get responses. But on Wednesday Clark’s name had disappeared from its website’s roster of staff.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/17/jeffrey-clark-scrutiny-trump-election-subversion-scheme