The Donald Trump Score Card

Right-Wing Embrace Of Conspiracy Is 'Mass Radicalization,' Experts Warn

excerpt:

"Nobody expects polarization – or its spinoff, radicalization – to go away when Trump is out of office. It's now a fixture of the American political landscape, part of an international trend toward right-wing populism, said Arie Kruglanski, a University of Maryland professor who's written extensively about radicalization. He said the erosion of trust in public institutions leaves ample room for disinformation to take root.

"We don't trust the government. We don't trust the Congress. We don't trust the Supreme Court. We don't trust now the science. We don't trust medicine. We don't trust the media for sure," Kruglanski said. "So who do we trust? Well, we trust our tribe. We trust conspiracy theories that tell us what we want to hear."

Kruglanski said revolutions and wars throughout history offer examples of how quickly extremism can go mainstream.

"Every large political movement started at one point as a small fringe minority," he said. "And when it catches on, it can engulf the whole society. So, you know, the danger is there.""

 

Article about mass radicalization published about a month after Trump's insurrection.


The Problem Isn’t Just One Insurrection. It’s Mass Radicalization.
Extremism is faster, more collaborative and happening at a far wider scale than it used to, says Michael Jensen. Does that mean more January 6th-type incidents in the future?
By ZACK STANTON
02/11/2021 06:06 PM EST

The Problem Isn’t Just One Insurrection. It’s Mass Radicalization.

excerpt:

"What leads to radicalization occurring on that sort of mass scale?

First, you have to have a vulnerable audience receptive to the extremist narrative—individuals who are scared, angry, isolated and looking for answers that satisfy their own personal biases, looking to cast blame for their problems on someone else. They find narratives that tell them their problems are not their fault; it’s the product of a conspiracy trying to undermine your way of life and well-being. Those messages are deeply appealing, because it’s harder to look inside and question your own decision-making and behaviors. Over the past year in particular, we’ve had an unprecedented situation that has left a very large audience receptive to those narratives. The pandemic has left people scared, without jobs and looking for answers to what happens next.

The second thing you need is an influential voice pushing the extremist narrative. And over the past 4½ years, we have had a very influential political leader [President Donald Trump] pushing a narrative that is not only polarizing—not only highlighting that the right and left are far apart on policy issues and disagree on discretionary spending—it’s a narrative of “othering.” It’s a narrative that casts the other side as evil, as “enemies,” as individuals you have to fight at all costs in order to preserve your way of life. We saw this, whether [Trump’s “others”] were Democrats, the news media or the scientific community.

The final thing you need is a mechanism to spread that narrative to the masses. Historically, mass radicalization took time. If an influential leader wanted to spread a message, they’d do it through newspapers or political speeches in towns and cities throughout their country, and it could take a while for that message to spread. But that’s not our reality anymore."

 

The Problem Isn’t Just One Insurrection. It’s Mass Radicalization.

excerpt:

"In terms of extremist individuals [overall], when you look at the backgrounds, you see everything you can imagine. You see well-adjusted individuals who have good jobs, who are married with children, but maybe have some identity needs that aren’t being fulfilled, who want to matter more than they think they do, and find extremist narratives appealing. We see individuals who have had horrible lives—victims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse as children; people with substance-use disorders who join an extremist movement because it gives them access to friends, parties and drugs. We see young people. We see old people. We see people with mental illness. We see people without mental illness.

When we look at individuals on the far right, we’re seeing much higher rates of previous criminal history that had nothing to do with their ideology. We’re seeing much higher rates of substance-use disorders. We’re seeing somewhat older individuals. And the reasons why can be complicated.

Far-right narratives often appeal [more] to older individuals. “Grievance” narratives are often tailored to individuals who have unmet expectations about the way their lives were supposed to turn out—people who are already into their lives, where they supposed to have established a career and a family and their identity within the community. The narrative is really appealing to them: All your ambitions were thwarted because of this evil “other” working to undermine you."

 

Forbes editor testified to grand jury about Trump.


Forbes editor says he testified before Trump grand jury

 

Trump?

Holy shit these people are fucking stupid...

 

Just another one of them there Sunday afternoon tourists, eh?

 

The coup attempt continues. Democracy hangs in the balance. Right wingers are not stupid, just frantic in their lust for power and control. They see the writing on the fabled wall--the realization that the changing of the demographics of the voting public will end the white power structure and they will become irrelevant. What to do? Change the voting laws--- reduce the number and location of voting booths, attempt to make mail-in voting seem corrupt, reduce the USPS blue boxes to slow down voting, and of course---keep blabbing endlessly that the election was stolen and blame the insurrection on anyone but followers of that son of a bitch---that mentally ill psychopath --that has one of the largest cults ever known in this country.

It's a damn shame that so many citizens can be duped into following such a lousy human being as trump. What is it in so many peoples lives that his bullshit line and the constant line of republicans bullshit against regular working people in this country---which has ALWAYS BEEN THERE--with their outright gifts to the rich and super rich---what is it that convinces citizens to elect these people that screw them (us) over every chance they get ,as a matter of course? That so many citizens actually believe all the bullshit and nasty lying , talking heads on places like Fox "news " ?

There are enough people with guns and cloudy, obstinate minds in our country to bring real hell the next time they try an insurrection. Pay attention, keep your powder dry and make some decisions. I love this country--with the obvious faults it has--but I'm not willing to let a bunch of fascist, Nazi pigs take over this country. The video posted by Tyrsonwood above--shows that they absolutely don't care about honesty, integrity or democracy.

 

Mark Meadows was at the center of the storm on 6 January. But only Trump could call it off

excerpt:

"Three days later, Meadows sent Rosen another email containing a link to a 13-minute YouTube video titled “Brad Johnson: Rome, Satellites, Services, an Update”. In the video, Johnson, a retired CIA station chief, gave further details of Italygate, which he described as a secret plot to overturn the US presidential election and stop Trump from gaining a second term.

In Johnson’s account, an Italian defense contractor, Leonardo, had joined forces with the CIA to carry out the dastardly scheme. Together, they had hacked into Italian military satellites, beaming them down on to US voting machines in battleground states and remotely switching votes from Trump to Joe Biden.

Rosen politely replied to Meadows that he had received the video, then sent a copy of it to his deputy Richard Donoghue. Later that day, Donoghue told his boss what he thought of Johnson’s video.

“Pure insanity”, he said."

 

Sounds similar to former Clemson professor Judy Wood's narrative that the U.S. used directed energy beams to, in her words, 'dustify' the WTC towers.

She lost her engineering professorship at Clemson for proffering such explanations. She didn't have tenure and the university didn't renew her contract.

Mike Lindell is probably the most emotional and unhinged of all of them. His remarks indicate he's willing to forego his entire financial empire for Trump's truth narratives.

 

McConnell Stops Another Coup Attempt as Trump’s Grip Keeps Slipping

excerpt:

"But Trump has recently turned up the heat. “How this guy can stay as Leader is beyond comprehension,” Trump recently wrote. “[T]his is coming not only from me, but from virtually everyone in the Republican Party. He is a disaster and should be replaced as ‘Leader’ ASAP!”

The only problem? No sitting Republican senators agree with Trump, and only two Republican candidates for Senate (Alaska’s Kelly Tshibaka and Missouri’s Eric Greitens) have endorsed this notion.

It would be a mistake to read too much into this. As conservative writer Ramesh Ponnuru noted, despite documented signs of weakness within the GOP, “Trump retains great strength in the party and remains its most powerful leader” and, simultaneously “is also stronger than he looks.”

This paradox rings true: Trump is the obvious frontrunner to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, and he clearly lacks the authority to persuade or impose his will in other ways. He is powerful and talented, but also lazy and incompetent. Put otherwise, he is formidable but not unbeatable. Seeing his enemies prosper is a potent reminder of this."

 

Fools indeed….

 

Trump has been lashing out increasingly at McConnell, Kemp, Raffensperger, Cheney, and now the Jewish community in general, apparently stemming in part from Netanyahu congratulating Biden on his 2020 election win.

His anger toward people he perceives as insufficiently loyal is burning the last few bridges to rational colleagues he may have had.

The people who would replace those he wants ousted likely wouldn't satisfy his loyalty either.

Trump is now upset at his former White House and current Mar-a-Lago right-hand man, Meadows, for publishing details about his administration, such as stating that Trump's hair was a mess and his eyes were red in the days leading up to his rush to the hospital for COVID.

Even if Trump could find such people, they would be like Mike Lindell, so loyal and unhinged that they wouldn't be able to function in a White House setting.

 

Good

 

Trump was not happy when Ivanka converted to Judaism.

 

The composition of a second Trump administration would likely look like that of a psychopathic ward.