Tag: GOP now the cult of Trump

The coronavirus is conspiracy theory gold for Trump-supporting QAnon

AlterNet logoBy now, most of us have heard about QAnon, the group of conspiracy theorists that formed soon after Donald Trump was elected. For a refresher course, here’s how they were described by Travis View, the host of the QAnon Anonymous podcast, who has written about the group extensively for the Washington Post.

“QAnon is based upon the idea that there is a worldwide cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who rule the world, essentially, and they control everything,” View told Salon. “They control politicians, and they control the media. They control Hollywood, and they cover up their existence, essentially. And they would have continued ruling the world, were it not for the election of President Donald Trump.”

“Now, Donald Trump in this conspiracy theory knows all about this evil cabal’s wrongdoing. But one of the reasons that Donald Trump was elected was to put an end to them, basically. And now we would be ignorant of this behind-the-scenes battle of Donald Trump and the U.S. military — that everyone backs him and the evil cabal — were it not for ‘Q.’ And what ‘Q’ is — is basically a poster on 4chan, who later moved to 8chan, who reveals details about this secret behind-the-scenes battle, and also secrets about what the cabal is doing and also the mass sort of upcoming arrest events through these posts.”

Continue reading.

OPM chief Dale Cabaniss abruptly resigns

The move comes as the Presidential Personnel Office, headed by John McEntee, seeks to stock the administration with officials loyal to Trump.

Dale Cabaniss, the director of the government’s Office of Personnel Management, resigned abruptly on Tuesday, effective immediately.

Cabaniss stepped down because of, what two people familiar with the matter said, was poor treatment from the 29-year-old head of the Presidential Personnel Office, John McEntee, and a powerful appointee at OPM, Paul Dans, the new White House liaison and senior adviser to the director of OPM.

OPM Deputy Director Michael Rigas is now acting director of OPM, according to an OPM spokesperson. Continue reading.

Pence secretly meeting with right-wing media personalities on how to spin Trump’s virus crisis: report

AlterNet logoAs part of his duties overseeing the task force in charges of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, Vice President Mike Pence has been holding secret meetings with prominent right-wing “influencers” on how to spin Donald Trump’s administration’s efforts to contain the growing health crisis.

According to a report from the Daily Beast, the outreach began at the annual CPAC conference long before the administration had any idea what they were dealing with, the report notes.

“The direct outreach occurred on Thursday, Feb. 27—the day after Trump tapped Pence to lead the task force. There, the vice president hosted an informal briefing on COVID-19 and the administration’s latest efforts, with several right-leaning personalities with large followings on Twitter and other social media platforms, according to a source with direct knowledge of the gathering,” the Beast reports, adding, “The following Wednesday, Pence hosted another closed-door meeting with conservative ‘influencers,’ with this one lasting for roughly an hour in the vice president’s office on White House grounds.” Continue reading.

As Crisis Escalates, Right-Wing Figures Still Reject Reality

American life is grinding to a halt during the coronavirus outbreak as people are being urged — or even being ordered by state and local governments — to stay inside as much as possible.

In both New York City and Los Angeles, bars and restaurants have been ordered to close almost completely, with service only for delivery or takeout. Movie theaters in both cities have also been shut down.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has just ordered similar restaurant closures on a statewide basis. And in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered a reduced occupancy of 50 percent in restaurants and is urging people over 65-years-old or with chronic health conditions to stay inside. Continue reading.

Never have GOP votes against impeachment seemed more shortsighted

Washington Post logoEvery time Vice President Pence appears for a coronavirus briefing, it is a reminder what the votes of just 20 Republican senators for impeachment might have accomplished for the republic.

Pence is no Franklin D. Roosevelt, but neither is he an obviously outmatched leader like his boss. The vice president is a sycophant but not an incompetent. He possesses the type of qualities one might find in an effective governor facing a hurricane. President Trump possesses the qualities one might expect in a shady businessman trying to shift responsibility for bad debt and mismanagement — which was the main leadership qualification on his pre-presidential résumé.

Never has the phrase “President Pence” had a better ring to it. Never have Republican votes against impeachment seemed more shortsighted and damaging to the country. Continue reading.

On Fox News, suddenly a very different tune about the coronavirus

Washington Post logoFor weeks, some of Fox News’s most popular hosts downplayed the threat of the coronavirus, characterizing it as a conspiracy by media organizations and Democrats to undermine President Trump.

Fox News personalities such as Sean Hannity and Laura In­graham accused the news media of whipping up “mass hysteria” and being “panic pushers.” Fox Business host Trish Regan called the alleged media-Democratic alliance “yet another attempt to impeach the president.”

But that was then.

With Trump’s declaration on Friday that the virus constitutes a national emergency, the tone on Fox News has quickly shifted. Continue reading.

Justice Dept. abandons prosecution of Russian firm indicted in Mueller election interference probe

Washington Post logoThe Justice Department on Monday dropped its two-year-long prosecution of a Russian company charged with conspiring to defraud the U.S. government by orchestrating a social media campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

The stunning reversal came a few weeks before the case — a spinoff of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe — was set to go to trial.

Assistants to U.S. Attorney Timothy Shea of Washington and Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers cited an unspecified “change in the balance of the government’s proof due to a classification determination,” according to a nine-page filing accompanied by facts under seal. Continue reading.

Trump’s rage at the media takes a dangerous new turn

Washington Post logoIt’s bad enough that President Trump has relentlessly minimized the coronavirus threat for nakedly political reasons, disastrously hampering the federal government response to the crisis, with untold consequences to come.

Determined not to be outdone by his own malice and depravity, Trump is taking new steps that threaten to make all of it worse. He’s telling millions of Americans to entirely shut out any and all correctives to his falsehoods. He’s insisting they must plug their ears to any criticism designed to hold his government accountable for the failures we’re seeing, even though such criticism could nudge the response in a more constructive direction.

Trump is now raging at the media for reporting on his botched claims about Google’s plans for a new website to steer people to testing options. Trump dramatically overpromised in this regard, forcing Google to scale down the expectations he had created. Continue reading.

RNC Gave Big Contracts To Chair McDaniel’s Husband, Cronies

The Republican National Committee has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to contractors closely connected to the organization’s chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel.

One contract went to her husband’s insurance company. Two others went to businesses whose executives recently donated to Ronna for Chair, a largely inactive political action committee that McDaniel controls. She had set it up in 2015, when she successfully ran for chair of the Republican Party in Michigan, her home state.

The companies won the contracts soon after McDaniel became the party’s top official. She was picked for the position by President Donald Trump after the 2016 election. Continue reading.

Meet the Trump Fan Accused of Registering Democrats as Republicans

New York Times logoA woman in Florida charged with 10 felony counts of submitting false voter registration forms had filed hundreds of forms before her arrest.

Wherever crowds gathered in the flat, lake-dotted swath of Florida between Orlando and Ocala, it seemed that Cheryl Hall was there: clad in red, white and blue, clipboard in hand, signing up new voters at the Mount Dora Arts Festival, the Ocoee Founders’ Day party, the Taste of South Lake fair in Clermont and more.

“She just seemed like a diligent, hard-working lady,” said Alan Hays, the supervisor of elections in Lake County, who appears in a photo on Ms. Hall’s Facebook page, his arm firmly clasped around her shoulder. “No one suspected anything was amiss until we got phone calls from people.”

Something was indeed amiss: Ms. Hall, a 63-year-old and very ardent Republican whose ranch house in Clermont sports life-size cutouts of Donald and Melania Trump and a MAGA poster in the window, was charged last week with 10 felony counts of submitting false voter registration forms. On at least 10 forms traced to Ms. Hall, officials said, the party affiliations of already-registered Democrats and Independents had been switched to Republican. More than 100 others that may be tied to her contained missing or bogus data such as wrong birth dates. Continue reading.