The Gallery of Trump-Inspired Assholes (Part 1)

Trump’s expanded his base. He’s collaborating with both the Russians and the Chinese now.

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Bannon’s indictment confirms that the American right is made up of con artists

lots of links to supporting material in this column, hours of reading

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No exceptions. :man_shrugging: Good on them.

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" News and police reports about the incident have not explored​ how Fulbright’s actions were influenced by her beliefs​in the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon and its new soft front, #SaveTheChildren."

This is concerning. I remember Save the Children as a legit charity helping babies. If they can hijack legit sounding names, they will get donations from old folks who don’t know it is not the same thing as they remember. I hate these guys.

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Responding police officers reportedly found Fulbright “crying hysterically” and yelling that the driver of the vehicle she attacked “was a pedophile and had kidnapped a girl for human trafficking.” The arresting officer noted that Fulbright seemed “delusional”; her blood alcohol content was recorded as 0.21​ percent—more than double the legal limit in Texas. Fulbright was charged with driving while intoxicated and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the latter of which is a second-degree felony in Texas and carries a term of 2 to 20 years. She was released on an $11,000 bond the day following her arrest.

Wow… so, a “delusional” person with an alcohol problem and a penchant for what was probably attempting to murder not one, but two random strangers because she thinks they belong to a global political pedophile conspiracy… gets released on $11k bond…

just makes you feel safe all over, doesn’t it?

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“I was the one who originally sent her stuff, and her boyfriend sent her stuff, kind of like laughing at how ridiculous it is,” Molina said.

But according to Molina, Fulbright ​began to sincerely follow the conspiracy theory.

“I found out later that she was staying up for days reading this stuff,” Molina told RWW​. “She was getting more and more caught up in it and delusional.”

Think twice before you share that stuff, even ironically.

This is also why the idea of the “marketplace of ideas” is false. I’ve been mocked by first amendment fundamentalists before that I am afraid of “wrong” ideas spreading like a virus to which I’ve always answered that, yes, that is exactly what I am afraid of. And cases like this show that in an unregulated"market" stupid ideas will not just fizzle out.

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It kind of confuses me why these theories aren’t being considered and dealt with as libel. I know the political norm is to take the “high road” and just ignore it, but this is, like you say, dangerous.

a published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; a written defamation.

When it was random messageboard junk, sure, more trouble than it was worth to be able to find who posted it, but this is out in the open now. This is radio hosts yelling it. And if accusing someone of being part of a global conspiracy to sell, abuse, and murder children isn’t “defamation”, wtf is?

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I don’t know, in the age of the internet, it seems things go from tiny, “not worth the trouble” to global conspiracy networks in the blink of an eye. How do you shut down something like Qanon at this stage? There is no “Q” and there is no central authority. Just a bunch of idiots idioting.

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I think it is crossing a line. You have congressmen “taking the oath.” People are being so bold now about writing these things out-loud, online, without pretending to be someone else or anonymizing in any way.

To me, the time is right for picking out the loudest ones and putting the law to the test. For one’s self, say Hillary, it probably seems like more trouble than it is worth. But for the sake of an entire generation of people being brainwashed? Seems like a good fight to join.

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Yeah. If “inciting a riot” is a crime (and one with stiff penalties too), why not “inciting a murder”?

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It is though.

If you are Muslim. Inciting the mass murder of Muslims though, that’s centrist, cross the aisles policy in the North/West.

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As the Republican Party moves closer to the Far Right Event Horizon, it’s undergoing successive Lovecraftian mutations: Tea Party, MAGA, and now QAnon. And that’s not even its final form…

Phone call for people still calling themselves Republicans: “YOU FOOL! The Republican Party is dead!”

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In his house at R’lyeh dead CthulAnon waits dreaming.

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“When the stars are right, they let you do it. You can do anything.”
– The Republinomicon, by Abdul Huckabee-Alhazred.

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Particularly to a “friend” the woman characterized as suffering from untreated mental illness whose family are hardcore MAGA.

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One wonders if “executive adviser” is a role with actual power, or a closet with a card table and folding chair.

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