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Author Topic: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2  (Read 290634 times)

Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5192 on: May 19, 2022, 02:41:15 AM »
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Each day the radical right becomes more extreme infringing upon our rights, civil liberties, and our pursuit of happiness. 

Hundreds of GOP state legislators have joined far-right Facebook groups, according to new report



More than one in five state lawmakers across the country have joined at least one far-right Facebook group, according to a new report.

Together the lawmakers sponsored 963 bills during the most recent legislative sessions, said the group that wrote the report, which describes the far-right efforts as anti-human rights.

The Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, a think tank that defends democracy and human rights, identified 875 lawmakers who have joined at least one of 789 Facebook groups, including white nationalist groups, groups tied to QAnon, groups that spout conspiracy theories about COVID-19, and others that promote former president Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that voter fraud cost him the 2020 election.

The institute’s report, titled Breaching the Mainstream, lists all of the legislators identified as being part of far-right Facebook groups and detailed their legislative impact.

“We knew we had a problem on our hands, but we hadn’t been able to quantify the depths of it,” said Devin Burghart, president and executive director of the institute. “This was a first attempt on our part to wrap our heads around it, and it was pretty striking in terms of the various pipelines that have opened up to pump disinformation and far-right ideas into legislatures.”

The legislators who have joined far-right groups made up 21.74% of all Republican legislators and 0.09% of all Democratic state legislators in the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions, according to the report.

More than 75% of the legislators in far-right Facebook groups identify as male, while 24.45% identify as female. Nationally, 31.2% of all legislative seats are currently held by women.

The report found 27 Michigan lawmakers participated in far-right groups.

While the legislators in far-right groups come from all 50 states, some states are represented more than others. The representation is highest in New Hampshire (62), followed by Pennsylvania (40), Minnesota (39), Missouri (36), Arizona (34), Montana (34), Maine (34), Georgia (32), Washington (30) and Maryland (27), according to the report.

The state lawmakers are also spread out in all regions of the country. Currently, 221 of them represent districts in the Midwest, 191 in the Northeast, 264 in the South and 200 in the West.

“It’s a nationwide phenomenon,” Burghart said. “Far too often, people think of this activity as being relegated to the deep South or the Pacific Northwest, but there are legislators in all 50 states who have joined these different far-right Facebook groups.”

Many of the legislators identified have been at the forefront of pushing anti-democracy and anti-human rights bills, according to the report.

The lawmakers identified have supported far-right legislation including “Don’t say gay” proposals and pushing the racist critical race conspiracy theory which Republicans accuse educators of being taught in schools. They’ve proposed bills attacking women’s reproductive rights, immigrants and the LGBTQIA community, the report noted.

“There was a very high level of support and sponsorship of bills coming from this cluster of legislators that we’d identified,” Burghart said.

Read the report here: https://www.irehr.org/reports/breaching-the-mainstream/

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5192 on: May 19, 2022, 02:41:15 AM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5193 on: May 19, 2022, 01:37:43 PM »
Criminal Donald is now going to cry about imaginary voter fraud in a Republican primary?

Trump's 'dangerous' election lies may be about to blow up in Pennsylvania Republicans' faces: NYT's Haberman

Donald Trump is encouraging Pennsylvania Senate hopeful Mehmet Oz to declare victory even before all mail-in ballots are counted -- and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman thinks this could hurt the GOP's shot at winning the seat this fall.

Appearing on CNN, Haberman said that if Oz goes on to lose the primary to rival David McCormick, Trump could wage a scorched-Earth campaign to convince his followers that Oz only lost due to voter fraud.

"What he is doing is muddying the waters and there are huger implications here because Republicans are trying to retake the senate," Haberman explained. "It is going to be much harder if Donald Trump is casting doubt on Dave McCormick the way he's clearly prepared to do."

Haberman also said that, even though Trump's antics could potentially hurt the Pennsylvania GOP, they are also bad for the health of American democracy.

"I'm not at all surprised to see how this is playing out but, again, this is really dangerous what Donald Trump is saying and it should not be minimized," she said. "This isn't just him complaining that he lost an election, all of the things that got said after November 3rd, 2020... now he's willing to say this about other people's elections and we are heading down a different path."

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Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5194 on: May 19, 2022, 03:07:43 PM »
Trump 'wearing out his welcome' with Pennsylvania GOP over his endorsements of 'difficult' candidates

Donald Trump privately trashed Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano before changing his mind last week and endorsing his gubernatorial campaign, throwing the state's Republican Party into turmoil.

The former president was frustrated that Mastriano was unable to make good on his promise to conduct a 2020 election audit, but he ultimately backed the right-wing legislator because he pledged to make Trump's election loss a top priority if he was elected governor -- which many Republicans doubt he will be, reported Politico.

“The biggest reason why he did it was he said, ‘Mastriano was there for me and I need to be there for him,’” said one person close to Trump.

Republicans are worried that Mastriano's focus on 2020 will cost them a shot at retaking the governor's mansion, and they're concerned that would ultimately hurt Trump and other GOP candidates in 2024.

“He endorsed someone who is going to be very difficult to elect," said Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator. "I’ve heard from so many people who’ve said to me, ‘He obviously isn’t running for president,' and their rationale is, ‘If he actually cared about winning the presidency, he would not want a Democratic governor or Democratic secretary of state to do what they did two years ago.’”

Trump also backed former TV talk show host Mehmet Oz, who's locked in a too-close-to-call Senate primary with hedge fund manager David McCormick, but Republicans are also doubtful of his chances for winning in November.

“I’m not very happy with his involvement in local races and endorsements,” said Rob Gleason, former chair of the Pennsylvania GOP. “He doesn’t live in Pennsylvania. His name isn’t on the ballot. He might be wearing out his welcome.”

Local party leaders were frustrated by Trump's last-minute endorsement, saying they already had strategies in place for other candidates they felt were more electable, and they said the former president squandered political capital with his picks.

“The question here is, was the juice worth the squeeze? I think no,” said one prominent Republican involved in the governor’s race. “His standing and reputation — it took a big, big hit with both Oz and Mastriano [endorsements]. There is a third of the electorate that loves the endorsements, but there’s a great number of Republicans that don’t.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/18/trump-endorsement-mastriano-pa-republicans-00033573

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5194 on: May 19, 2022, 03:07:43 PM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5195 on: May 19, 2022, 03:26:11 PM »
Conservative's Big Lie 'documentary' shredded by reviewer: 'A 90-minute safe space for MAGA snowflakes'



On Thursday, writing for The Daily Beast, opinion editor Anthony Fisher tore into far-right filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza's latest project, "2000 Mules," which alleges with no evidence whatsoever that hundreds of thousands of ballots were illegally collected by "ballot mules" in the 2020 presidential election.

"Surveillance footage of people taking selfies after dropping their votes in dropboxes is presented as 'A-ha!' evidence — while ignoring the fact that people taking voter selfies was a mundanely common thing to do in 2020 (and for quite a few years prior)," wrote Fisher. "Video clips of people dropping off a few ballots are presented as unimpeachable evidence of voter fraud, even though dropping ballots for family members was also common. And despite the repeated claims by the 'experts' that they’ve tracked literally thousands of vote-dropping 'mules' — not a single one of these supposed professional voter fraud foot soldiers is shown on screen making more than one drop."

As Fisher noted, even D'Souza acknowledges that these pieces of "evidence" don't actually prove anything illegal happened.

D'Souza, who was famously pardoned by former President Donald Trump of campaign finance crimes he pleaded guilty to, has publicly complained that various right-wing media figures have not done anything to promote his project. And there's a clear reason for that, wrote Fisher.

"Even a Trump-supporting right-wing firebreather like Ben Shapiro can’t bring himself to say D’Souza made a persuasive case with 2000 Mules, because the film’s central thesis simply isn’t backed by any supporting evidence — much less an overwhelming amount of verifiable, unimpeachable data," wrote Fisher. "There’s no reason to watch 2000 Mules, unless you really are looking to be well-equipped to argue with your MAGA relatives at Thanksgiving. The film isn’t meant to persuade anyone, it’s meant to reinforce the already passionate certainty in people who believe in something that simply does not exist."

"It is a vile piece of agit-prop, pushing a falsehood that could very well tear our country apart," concluded Fisher. "It’s also a very stupid movie, packaged as smart, fearless muckraking. In a sense, it’s a 90-minute safe space for MAGA snowflakes who can’t accept the fact that their hero is a loser."

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dinesh-dsouzas-vile-big-lie-documentary-is-too-stupid-even-for-fox

Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5196 on: May 19, 2022, 04:03:06 PM »
Elise Stefanik slammed for 'bizarre' endorsement of plan to 'expunge' Trump's second impeachment

Donald Trump is the only president in history to have been impeached twice. The number of presidents impeached was already a small number, with only two prior to Mr. Trump. In fact, the former president doubled the number of presidential impeachments after he attempted to shake down Ukraine for dirt on President Joe Biden and incited a riot at the United States Capitol after losing the 2020 election.

Writing Thursday, Rachel Maddow producer Steve Benen wondered why Republicans would be so focused on "expunging" Trump's second impeachment if he wasn't even convicted by the Republicans in the Senate. But the reason comes from the man himself.

"Should they expunge the impeachment in the House?" Trump asked rhetorically after Republicans blocked attempts to call witnesses in the trial and voted to end it without conviction.

It's worth noting that an impeachment can't be "expunged." It's not a criminal proceeding and it's already part of the public record. Even if Republicans wanted to vote to eliminate it from the public record, their actions of eliminating it would be recorded in the public record.

Trump's impeachment was passed by Congress, and if something is passed by Congress it can't be un-passed years after the fact. They could pass something saying they don't agree with it, declare the future Congress believes it was wrong, or even pass laws that attempt to change the articles of the Constitution that regulate impeachment.

Still, far-right Republicans jumped to deliver his demands.

Oklahoma Rep. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate, proposed a resolution that would declare Trump’s first impeachment "expunged." The bill only got eight cosponsors.

This week, Mullin introduced legislation to "expunge" Trump's second impeachment. Given that it's an election year, people were clamoring to join. The Fox network reported that more than two dozen Republicans signed on, including GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and GOP Conference Vice-Chair Mike Johnson. Stefanik was once what Benen called a relative moderate who refused to even say Trump's name. After taking a leadership position, however, that changed.

"Stefanik’s justification is itself bizarre," wrote Benen. "Democrats held Trump accountable to advance their political agenda? The second impeachment was on Jan. 13, 2021 — a week before Democrats took control of both the White House and both chambers of Congress. Whether the then-president was impeached or not had literally no bearing on Democratic governing."

Secondly, Benen explained that for Stefanik to describe the second impeachment as a purely partisan exercise is factually inaccurate and inconsistent with the congressional record she hopes to "expunge."

Ten House Republicans supported the impeachment, making it the most bipartisan impeachment in American history. What's more, seven Senate Republicans voted in favor of convicting him.

Benen closed by noting that in a Democratic-led House it's hard to see a bill like this ever passing.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/push-expunge-trumps-second-impeachment-odd-rcna29581

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5196 on: May 19, 2022, 04:03:06 PM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5197 on: May 19, 2022, 08:28:13 PM »
Criminal Donald is at it again.

'Stop finding votes!' Trump rages against election being 'rigged' against Dr. Oz



On Thursday, former President Donald Trump took to his platform on Truth Social to rage against the election process in Pennsylvania, where Republican primary candidates Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick are separated by fewer than 2,000 votes and an automatic recount seems almost assured.

With no basis whatsoever, Trump, who endorsed Oz in the race, accused Pennsylvania officials of "finding" extra votes, and demanded that they stop tallying outstanding ballots.

"The Pennsylvania Oz race is ridiculous," he wrote. "How long does it take to count votes. France, same day all paper, had VERIFIED numbers in evening. U.S. is a laughing stock on Elections. Stop FINDING VOTES in PENNSYLVANIA! RIGGED?"



Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed that delays in calling an election result are indicative of fraud or fake ballots, even though this is a routine occurrence when election results are close, depending on how state law lays out the process for counting.

Oz and McCormick's near tie comes after right-wing talk radio host Kathy Barnette, who had previously been surging in polls, failed to produce a strong showing on Tuesday night. Barnette's supporters in turn are also pushing conspiracy theories that the election was stolen from her.

The ultimate winner of the Republican primary will go on to face Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in November.

https://www.wgal.com/article/automatic-recount-pennsylvania-primary-dave-mccormick-dr-oz/40033116

Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5198 on: May 20, 2022, 12:26:48 AM »
These con artists continue taking money from these suckers.

Bleach-drinking Trump supporter launches 'QAnon 2.0' at California conference



Conspiracy-minded Donald Trump supporters are touring the country to hawk quack medical cures, gaudy merchandise and outlandish QAnon theories on the "ReAwaken America" road show.

The multi-city event is hosted by conspiracy theorist Clay Clark and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, and vendors sell Trump playing cards, self-published materials and "bedazzled gun-shaped purses," reported New York Magazine.

But the most popular booth is operated by Christopher "Vaccine Police" Key, who sells the bleach-based Miracle Mineral Solution.

“Chlorine dioxide!” Key said, swirling the mixture in a paper cup as customers pull out their wallets. “This is the most amazing product in the world. Remember when President Trump said ‘Drink bleach’? This is it!”

At least 10 people who calls themselves doctors warned guests the COVID-19 vaccine may rewrite recipients' DNA, render them sterile or deliver other dire outcomes, and others spread wild tales about 5G frequencies and biological warfare.

“This is sacrificing children to Moloch,” claims one of those uncredentialed "doctors," Christiane Northrup. “You need to understand that this is the religion of the demonic cult that has been running the planet since the time of Genesis, and their time is up!”

Joining the fringe characters are Eric Trump, GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone and Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist who served various roles in the past administration, and Clark says Donald Trump Jr. will join the tour in New York, and speakers share their prophetic visions for divine retribution they're starting to describe as "QAnon 2.0."

“I hear all the time: ‘I came to see Eric’ or ‘I came to see General Flynn,’” said tour facilitator Aaron Antis. “They did not come to meet Jesus, and that’s what ends up happening to these people.”

https://www.rawstory.com/reawaken-america-tour/

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5198 on: May 20, 2022, 12:26:48 AM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5199 on: May 20, 2022, 11:47:21 AM »
Republicans ‘hate America’ — and their constituents are getting fed up: Howard Dean

Former DNC Chair Howard Dean blasted Republicans for hating America during a Thursday appearance on MSNBC's "The Beat."

Anchor Ari Melber reported on the Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol sent a letter to Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) asking for his cooperation.

The letter came more than one year after Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, suggested that Republicans in Congress may have given reconnaissance tours prior to the Jan. 6 attack.

"As to your clip, it is particularly valuable because this is a former officer of the united states armed forces who served her country. which is more than i can say for most of the republicans ran around the Capitol building wrecking the place," Dean said.

"The truth is, that there are despicable congresspeople on the right. It's not because they are conservative, there are plenty of conservatives I actually like and respect. It is because they hate America and they hate the people of America," Dean charged.

"When you consider that something like two-thirds of the Republican delegation in the House of Representatives voted to overthrow the election, these people hate America and they are so consumed by their own hate, that they spread it to their constituents," he continued.

"I actually think their constituents are getting a little sick of it and my hope is, as I've said before, the real big fix here is not electing more Democrats, it is voters coming to their senses and stop electing hate-filled people who want violence and will do anything necessary to get their way," Dean said.

Watch: