The Storm Is Upon Us

 The Disinformation storm. On Earth-2, an alternate universe where Elon Musk didn't buy Twitter and dismantle it in the service of the far right, when Hamas stormed across the border in a surprise attack on Israel we were able to get credible breaking news from Twitter (now X . . . Xitter).

Alas, here, where we live, on Earth 1, we can't. It's a sea of disinformation, misinformation, speculation masquerading as information, and so on. If you believe that the Main Stream Media is like that two, you are an idiot. No: the MSM is not a disinformation factory--and they are doing the only reporting The Omnivore trusts these days--however, there is one thing they weren't good at: on the ground, real-time information from people in the disaster area.

Now that Elon has carefully broken all of it (from internal systems that prevented the spread of misinformation to the removal of verification checks to cozying up with the far right, etc.) we are stuck with a service that was pretty vital to those of us prising real-time data with a minimal filter being replaced with a service that feeds us 3rd Riech propaganda in real time.

It's worse than that: the information eco-system ain't simple. A lie repeated on Twitter can be picked up and repeated by someone you trust--or, if you fall for it, someone who trusts you. The maneuver was just read an assertion that Israeli media is reporting they got a heads up from Egyptian intelligence about the attack.

This person did NOT say "and I read it from someone I don't know on Twitter." But they did. Fortunately, when The Omniovre asked "where'd you see that?" the answer was "someone I don't know who they are on twitter--so . . . yeah . . ." and to be fair it was presented as unverified "ruminint" anyway--but the fact remains that if The Omnivore had been running out the door and hadn't asked about this, The Omnivore would've been inclined to believe it. 

It sneaks past The Omnivore's internal defenses by hitting some priors (intel services must've known something) and the person relaying it is trusted--so . . . yeah.

If you are getting any information that is NOT from AP, Reuters, the BBC, and so on--that group in the very small group of outlets today that we call the "Lamestream Media"--you may be feeding from this disinformation well and not even know it. That means culturally we have to roll back to like 1998 or else we're all gonna end up like the boomers: stuffled full of bullshit and not even aware of it.

Dammit.

The Problem Dissolver's Caucus

 

Yesterday the House Democrats sided with the MAGA extreme fringe loons to oust Kevin "My Kevin" McCarthy from the speaker's chair. Now, as The Omnivore undersatnds it, the House can only do two things: adjourn or vote in a new speaker.

The right-wing finger-waver's caucus of pundits is verah, verah mad . . . at the Democrats. PJ Media, lamenting on the "dumpster fire" the GOP has plunged itself into, says that McCarthy learned the key lesson: Don't Trust Democrats. Hot Air rediscovers the story of the scorpion and the frog and casts the Democrats in the Problem Solvers Caucus as the scorpion--biding its time to strike when the Frog is in the middle of the river!

Yes: The Democrats are definitely, definitely to blame for this.

Let's look under the covers.

Under The Covers

Hot Air notes that the Problem Solver's Caucus--a group of "bi-partisan" Republicans and Democrats, has exsted for six years and never did anything but virtue signal. They were supposed to protect the institution from the extremes of MAGA and that was clearly nonsense as they did nothing.

Well, wait, they did one thing: they made it harder to remove a speaker!

Kevin, hat in hand, bargained that protection away when groveling with the MAGA extremes. You would think that the writer, having typed that sentence would ask himself why Democrats ought to vote to keep McCarthy in the first place at that point.

Of course, he doesn't--he laments that PSC Dems only care about Democrat Speakers--not the institution. He's so close to getting it, he should post on /r/selfaware wolves, the Reddit forum for people who are *this close* to being self-ware . . . but fall short.

No, what's under the covers is a whole lot of bullshit. Let's see.

The Pro-Temp speaker, an R's firs (and probably only) move was to oust Nancy Pelosi from her small ex-speaker's office. This was done for sheer pettiness's sake. Considering that reachin' around the isle, it looks like the scorpion was right to strike (the 'frog' was gonna try to drown him anyway).

Also: McCarthy, who the finger-wagglers think should've been saved by Democrats, was:

* Opening impeachment inquiries into President Biden

* Disparaged the Jan 6th Committee

* Didn't offer any concession to the Democrats if they kept him--after giving away the shop to the MAGA extremes.

* Did his fucking job by passing a bill to keep the government open--something the finger wagglers thought was a great concession to Democrats.

The bar, as they say, was low.

The time for McCarthy to work with Democrats to shore up his position was months ago. Yes: he had an awful caucus. Yes, he built a big red self-destruct button into his speakership (one of the conditions for his "yes" vote from the Freedom Caucus was that any one member could call a vote to remove him). If he wanted defenses against that, he should've cut some back-room deals with the Democrats before now.

Now? They did what any normal minority party would do with someone who was taking hostile steps against their incumbent president.

It wasn't the Democrat's job to save him--and they did not.

The GOP punditry's rage at them is a tacit admission that their own party can't be expected to wipe its own ass--someone grown-up has to do it for them.

Disaster for the GOP LOOMS! LOOMS!

 

A HarrisX poll found that 53% of Republicans think Trump is a "man of faith" and only 35% of Republicans think Mitt Romney is.

Now, ignorning for a moment that the question didn't ask "Is Person X a Heritic of Faith?" (to which the answer is, of course, yes, 100% for Romney--a Mormon and zero % for Trump who, of course, believes nothing) we can see that this is a disaster for the GOP.

Why?

Oh, You Don't Remember?

What really destroyed the Democrats, we are told by sour Republicans was when as a public service, and with love in their hearts for ALL MANKIND (okay, not womankind--but that's implied. Also, not really for the blacks) their peace offering was shat upon by the media!

You see, Romney, a saint--and not just a Latter Day Saint--was ridiculed for saying he had BINDERS of WOMEN. He was reviled for saying that 47% of Americans were all Take and No Give. He was DONE DIRTY by a story about how he put a dog in a carrier and strapped it to the top of his car for a family vacation.

The Biden laugh-line about how Romeny would re-enslave black people was passed over despite its vileness. Thus, as the good-and-decent man they nominated---just to please the press and Democrats--was rejected, THEN--THEN THEY HAD to give us all The Trump.

You see, we: the masses who did not vote for Romney out of politeness brought it on ourselves.

But now? Now rejecting Romney as a man of faith and dubbing him a RINO, the GOP is making the same fatal mistake the Democrats did. By rejecting St. Romney, what doom will they bring upon themselves?

Only time will tell, but this is like Bork-on-steroids. Let The Omnivore tell you: DOOOOM.

Doom.

He Shotguns a lot of Stuff

 This is how a friend of the Omnivore who really ought to know better apologized on behalf of Trump, whom he voted for (once--did he vote for Trump a second time? Probably--but The Omnivore really doesn't want to know). This Omni-Friend was engaged in the favorite pastime of "Never-Trump-Until-It-Looks-Like-He-Could-Win" pundrity.

This dance is done by capering around enjoying the lib-owning and looking in the mirror repeating over and over "they're trying to groom kids and move Pakistanis into the coutnry" in an attempt to actually make yourself believe it.

So when Trump is super-stupid? He's 'shotgunning stuff' (whatever that means: if we're going with that, he tried to shotgun the Constitution--but even at close range, he missed). No, you can't say: "Yeah, my guy is stupid and venal--but if I vote for that then by the transitive property, I'm stupid and venal so, uh, no--no--he's really smart--he's so smert--and he's just 'shotgunning' stuff."

Yeah.

Sympathy for the Deebil

Matt Lewis who writes conservative crap for The Daily Beast holds his hand to his forehead while lamenting what Ru-ru Murdoch of Fox did to his beloved conservative party. Why, Ru-ru, after whom Matty would have named his babies if he thought Trump would win this cycle, dropped his pantaloons and took a shit on the party that was still Matty's precious while Sarah Palin was ascendant and McCain was reviled for telling a radio personality that constantly using Obama's middle name was kinda an appeal to racism.

The Omnivore assumes his Omni-friend would hold, if Palin won, that she just machine guns a lot of stuff or whatever term of art is used when someone does something dumb and venal--but is keeping those goddamn Pakistanis out of the US of A. You've gotta take a stand somewhere, right?

No--Matty was soooo mad at 'Obamna' that he'd have taken a philandering dirty-money narcissist liar over him seven days of the week (and twice on Sunday--because as he'd probably tell to you: he's a good Ghod-fearin' Christian).

The fact is that Fox DID heavily contribute to the fall of America (we're fallin'--sorry Charlie Daniels). He's not wrong about that. The reason he should keep his fucking mouth shut is because he's only lamenting what indignities was inflicted upon on his beloved (partah) AFTER things had gotten so bad he was afraid he was gonna lose.

While that strain of populist crap was powering voting he liked? THAT was when he kept his goddamn mouth shut.

After all, shotgunning a lot of stuff is fine--so long as you're on the right end of the shotgun.

Turn This Thing Around (I Will Not Go Quietly)

Don Henley had some advice, by way of verse, that anyone who wants to criticize Trump should take. You don't get to straddle the line like someone using a latrine trench: if you want to trash talk your former lover, do what Joe Walsh (not Matt--fuck Matts forever) or the Lincoln Party guys did: Start vocally supporting Democrats.

 Yes, they're going to import those Pakistanis like there's no tomorrow, but they aren't going to pull us out of NATO or sell us out to Putin. They are also a lot less likely to strom the Capitol and suggest suspending the constitution.

It's a balancing act that hangs on the width of a single hair--but there's a right side and a wrong side. Maybe guys like Matty could figure out which is which.

What If He Believe It? A Theory of The Docudrama

 The Omnivore has another theory about Trump-Documents:

The Omnivore has a theory.

The 'My Documents' Explanation

The outstanding question about Trump-Documents is "What the fuck was he doing with all that shit?" If he was selling it, well, who'd he sell it to? If he was saving it for, like, blackmail or whatever, why keep it in his bathroom?? If he just wanted to keep it for ego? Well, yeah--that seems to fit. 

This is the "My Documents" theory of Trump-Documents. 

But then this raises a question: when it became clear he was gonna bring The Heat down on himself as the federal government was sharpening its claws and getting ready to slash him, why not give "my documents" back? Maybe make copies and have them mocked up to look like originals or something (like he does with fake Time Magazine covers at his golf clubs?).

Sure, he wanted his documents--but what made him think he could prevail in a court battle over them? Could . . . Could he really be that stupid?

Well, yeah--that seems to fit.

But WAT IF?

When it came out just now that Trump wrote to-do instructions on the blacks of classified briefing cards to give to his aides, it becomes plain that Trump wasn't just stupid about this: he was reckless in a whole 'nother dimension. Why? Why would he do that?

Well, let's peek in a rabbit hole . . .

Remember that Ukrainian Server? The 'Server' that Trump wanted Zelenski to look for / fabricate / whatever is mysterious, no? The theory of The Server goes something like this:

Hillary was doing all kinds of bad shit with her private email server. When DNC employee Seth Rich decided to blow the whistle, she had him killed. He released some of the materials through the heroic WikiLeaks--but the DNC refused to let the FBI investigate "the hack" so the DNC server, that they hid (in Ukraine) had all of the really bad shit on it. You get that server? You get Hillary--and Biden--and Obama. All of them.

We know the really bad shit was there because when investigators came knocking, Hillary destroyed her phones with hammers and poured Bleach in her server (after getting a Subponea to make her keep that shit). So she knew: if it came out, she was goin' down.

Record Scrach. Freeze Frame.

"It worked. She walked. End of story!"

The Docudrama Theory

What if Trump's belief is that when Hillary flagrantly broke ALL THE LAWS, she suffered nothing for it. This means: nobody really cares / can do anything about these breaches (so long as it isn't selling secrets directly). As such, he was airtight. He could do whatever he wanted with his precious and no nasty hobbitses could steal it.

What if he REALLY believed that if Hill could get away with all that shit, so could he. What if he believed the ridiculous fiction of The Server?

WHAT IF??

The Defiance of Climates?

 Climate Definace on Xitter posted a video of their people standing with linked arms outside CitiGroup in New York:

https://twitter.com/ClimateDefiance/status/1702368328247804073

This is a stupid, stupid protest. They struck a mighty blow for Climate by . . . stopping a bunch of IT executives from getting to their offices on time? Yeah, that'll work.

Worse: a bunch of those people believe in cimate change and champion Citi to pursue green alternatives (remember CitiBike?). But, as usual, the key word here is 'defiance' not 'climate.' The group wants to piss off their parents, not save the planet. Since their parents could actually dock their allowances or kick them out of their houses, they'll settle for symbolic proxies: Teh BiG BaNkS.

Now, The Big Banks got much to answer for. That's true. And historically, they certainly have done their share of climate bullshit. It's not like you couldn't point to things. The question is: why protest them? And, why like this? Who thought this was a good idea.

It's All About Eyeballs

The reason they did this, like this, is because they assert--they believe--that this action will draw attention--will roust the normies from their slumber--will Wake The Sheeple. They're not wrong that it got some attention (people in Citi IT are sharing the video and laughing at them! Mission Accomplished!) but waking the sheeple?

No--when Earth First! unrolled a fake crack down the face of the Glenn Canyon Dam, that was clever. This? This is not clever. The abrupt fear and shock created by the eco-performance of EF is light years ahead of the annoyance created by linking arms at CitiGroup HQ.

Annoying The Normies

When BLM shuts down a street by protesting normies, at least, are inconvenienced. Now, that COULD just turn them against the protests--but The Omnivore thinks it's more interesting that that. If the normie believes that the BLM complaint (extra judicial execution of George Floyd in a horiffic, televised manner) is legitimate--and they think the street being blocked is annoying, they MIGHT think: "Gosh, if I don't want to keep having to detour, maybe I could pitch in to fight against the extrajudicial execution of Floyd!?). Maybe. Maybe not--but at least the normie in question has to directly think about the issue.

In this case, the only people who have to think about the "issue" (climate? Big Banks and climate? What?) are a bunch of IT executives. Other people just look and snicker. What this really is is an ad for Climate Defiance--targeted at other activists. "Join us and you could get a news camera pointed at you--which is all you really want, to be honest."

At least Occupy Wall Street was about economic inequality. If this was being done an Exxon? Well, they'd probably get their wee little skulls broken. The same reason PETA people throw red paint on laides in furs and not bikers in leather . . . 

It's A Stupid Solution To A Real Problem

Right now half of the two-party system doesn't even believe in climate change. That's a much bigger problem than Citigroup's green initiatives (there are a bunch) not going far enough. It's also one that teenaged defiance can't really address. Sorry guys.

The Atheist and the Crucible

The Omnivore saw something interesting: 

This is Pinecreek

This is The Crucible

(Andrew a.k.a. Big Papa Fascist upper right)

This Will Take A Little 'Splainin

PineCreek is an uber-atheist. He holds the pleasant, polite, and often incisive PineCreek channel where he debates with theists about why they hold their beliefs and pokes holes in their logic. He's very polite--very well spoken--and he does a good job of hiding his conservative power level . . . usually.

A few days ago he was on The Crucible.

The Crucible, headed by Andrew--who was deemed the Big Papa Fascist and has taken the name as "a joke" is a right-wing politics debate channel. It's pretty good--rarely a trash fire--and whatever the problems they might have, they aren't Trumpaloos and aren't stupid. No, the problem with The Crucible isn't intellectual horsepower. In this episode, Andrew argues for an Orthodox Church Theocracy and he's very conservative (but no, not Trumpian, nor especially racist for someone with his general political leanings). PineCreek had some questions.

It Was a Love Fest (sorta)

PineCreek is totally anti-theist. He is eager to tear down their world-views (The Omnivore doesn't know if he's trying to de-convert people or just likes arguing--but boy does he like arguing). However, he's also . . . quite conservative. He doesn't usually go into it on his channel, but for instance, when hugging Andrew, he explained that:

• The shoplifting epidemic in California is horrible.
• What they are doing to kids (Transing them, presumably) is heartbreaking
• Earlier: They're litigating against Trump because they don't want him to run again.

The shoplifting epidemic IS horrible--he's not wrong about that. It's become something similar to just "shopping" in some places . . organized, systematized shopping. Seeing liberals make excuses for it (it's big corporations? whatever) isn't great. Clearly there is some kind of breakdown there. The Omnivore hasn't looked into it (probably: neither has PineCreek). But . . .

What they are doing to kids? That's . . . well . . . PineCreek isn't stupid--but that take is (The Omnivore is sure he's stuffed full of nuance and fact like a pinata--and if hit, would run away rather than debate on THAT--because, like the theists he goes after . . . he probably can't defend his strongly held opinion).

And . . 

If the words "They're just going after Trump because they don't want him to run again" came out of his mouth, The Omnivore bets that if questioned on that position, his nuance would be "I don't actually believe that--or at least I can't defend it--so I cede the field like the mighty intellectual warrior I am!").

Given his rigor with theism, his take on politics is what you'd expect from a real conservative . . . flimsy and a bit cowardly.

On The Theocratic Autocracy

But when he met Andrew? There was hugging--Christian-ethics side-hugging . . . so not gay--certainly not gay--but hugging . . . maybe even some platonic kissing.

You see, PineCreek really WANTED to, erm, bottom for Andrew. PineCreek, by his own admission agrees with Andrew's morals--just not the source of them (and maybe not all of them--unclearn on how PineCreek feels about The Gays--but probably he doesn't want them anywhere near impressionable young children).

However--he wanted to know if in Andrews Theo-topia he'd be executed for not being Christian? Would he?

Oh, noes--certainly not, Andrew said. Yes, the earlier church held executions for all kinds of things--but his enlightened Theotopia? Never. You'd be safe as houses, PineCreek. Let's hug. Sideways. 

Yes--they were quite eager to get past the whole God-Doesn't-Exist thing and agree that the Theotopia would be a better place for them both to live. Would it? Let's look.

The Orthodox Theotopia

Firstly, Andrew won't have a Protestant Church in charge--it's too splintered. There's no singular head. So, no--has to be Orthodox. Catholic would work, yes--but it's not preferable. Andrew wants his brand of orthodox--Eastern (?) to be the top collar. For mere nanoseconds, this sounds sensible. Then it all falls apart (but PineCreek lets it go--why? Love was in the air, man. Don't harsh the vibe, man. All conservatives really want to be counter-cultural hippies at heart. Remember that.)

The problem with this is that (a) Orthodoxies DO splinter (Vatican II, our new woke-pope, etc.) It might not be a formal schism--but if that disqualifies you from holding the crown then the comparatively tiny Orthodox church Andrew believes in would likely only meet the requirements for a little while once you put it in charge of the current sole hyper-power on earth.

Also (b) Andrew says Catholicism would be acceptable--because if he disqualifies it, things get uncomfortable fast. PineCreek won't say it (it'd be rude!) so The Omnivore will:

• For someone all Save The Children, does the Catholic Church's massive pedophile scandals disqualify them? If not, why? Objectively priests on a per-capita scale are worse than drag queens.
• What does Andrew think about Vatican II? The Omnivore bets he really doesn't like it! But it was done through the rules, so he has to accept it (philosophically). But he can't say that--because then we discover that he doesn't really think Catholicism is a legitimate theo-governement. He just can't disqualify it on the playingfield he wants to fight on.

Andrew is, as they say, hiding his power level.

But so is PineCreek.

PineCreek wants to know if he'd be killed for not believing in the Orthodox state. Andrew says "no wai, boi--we friends, let's hug!" (sideways). But The Ominvore isn't so sure. You see, the problem is this:

1. Andrew knows--really knows--in his heart--that there is NO WAY to implement his idea. He's further away than American Stalinists. He's hitched his cart to a loser of an idea. There isn't even sixth or seventh column gearing up to take the reins of power when his accelerationist buddies tear down the globohomo-state. No, he's all: "Get in the car, loser! We're going losing." Big Papa Fascist hates to lose almost as much as PineCreek does. So . . . what the fuck?
2. However, Andrew knows he can hold a position so long as it's all philosophical and he can hug (sideways) and fuck (so long as he's not photographed doing it) the hard-right and he can get a lot of what he wants: persecution of degeneracy. That's why he doesn't think he's a loser. Remember: the ultimate goal here--for both of them--is to fight in their chosen arenas and Not Lose.

So Andrew, whether he admits it or not, is in bed with all the religofascists who ARE in positions to take power. He just, you know, hides his power level, so he can give PineCreek the philosophical reach-around.

PineCreek was liking it too--it's good to have friends. But PineCreek ALSO had to pretend to O. You know, he had to pretend he didn't see the inherent contradictions that mean that Big Papa Fascist isn't quite the ironical joke that Andrew makes it out to be. No--he's perfectly okay with a fascism that's religious and kinda close to his. It's also one that would throw PC off the building along with the degenerates PC also hates.

Piney would hate them all the way down to the pavement--and feel mistreated--victimized. Andrew would shed a tear, yeh? But that's what he's talking about right now in real life, on stream. For Andrew this isn't a hypothetical game of philosophical chess. He can go and vote for Trump or Ted Cruz or Ron DeSantis and, should they win, get closer to the fascist state he wants. He'll just have to swallow the racism (which he doesn't like) and sniffle as PineCreek gets put on a list somewhere for big-time atheists spreading their child-harming degeneracy).

But he knows that so long as he doesn't play in PineCreek's sandbox he doesn't have to risk losing--and PineCreek knows he can be bedfellows with The Crucible just as long as he's willing to sleep in the wet spot. 

The 14th Risk

 People are buzzing about suits using the 14th Amenment to stop Trump from running. 

The 14th Amendment: Following the Civil War, the 14th--among other things designed to shore up the newly re-unified country--states that a person who committed Treason against America can't hold office. At the time, this was pretty easy to understand and apply: if you fought for the Confederacy, you can't get into office.

Today, though, it's a bit muddier. For one thing, it doesn't even mention the presidential office (lower ones--yes, and a catch all, yes--but not the presidency). For another, it doesn't say you must have been convicted of Treason against the US. Just that you can't have done it. What if I think Biden committed treason against the US? Do I then have to prove it? Or not?

Finally, like the other 14th clause about not questioning the faith of the union's debt, the clauses put in there (to stop southern states from voting to default) made sense then and were clear--but today? Can we default if we don't question America's good-for-itness?

No one knows. This stuff has never been tried.

Okay--but What If?

It's pretty clear that Trump tried to overthrow an election. It'll likely be proven in court. Likely appealed to SCOTUS. But how long will that take? Well after the election, most likely. Also: he probably won't be convicted of actual treason--the charges seem to be fraud. So okay, it's not a perfect fit--but clearly, the spirit of the amendment is still a fit.

How it works is this: in various (all?) states a suit is brought to disqualify Trump (this happened to Cruz: a citizen claimed as he was born in Canada, he was ineligible. The courts ruled that he was a big enough asshole to be considered American regardless of his place of birth, and the rest is history). This stuff isn't new news.

Now--most states will likely reject the case. But will all of them reject it? Not clear. If one takes it on and rules that yes, the Jan 6th cases 'finding of fact' is that he ought be included under the 14th, then it goes to appeals.

Now, SCOTUS will probably reject the finding--but for sure? No. Not for sure. Under Originalist Doctrine, they could well find reason to rule against herr trumpenfuerer. What then?

Cascading Crisis

This breaks down into a few possible problems:

1. Trump isn't on the ballot in a swing state. This is the WORST scenario. If the suit removes Trump from the ballot in a state he might possibly win, then Trump's re-election is probably sunk right then and there. This is dousing America with gasoline and throwing a road flare in. If/when SCOTUS, now needing no balls to rule how their people want them too, overturns it, it turns out that Trump was in fact, robbed (well, arguably).

2. Courts rule he's ineligible. This is the next "worst" case. Let's say that district courts rule he's ineligible and he's sunk. Even one district would end him. So before it goes to SCOTUS, he's out. Now, this might be overturned--if SCOTUS upholds the originalist intent? What then?

Well, the sad fact is that Trump's base--and all the people who'd like Trump--won't buy it. Worse: the super set of voters who hate Biden won't buy it. Depending on the calender, the Red Team might not even get a vote. If there's no alternative ready to go, who else's name is at the top of the ballot? What if this is after the convention. Is it his Veep? Really? The point is that even if the 14th "works" and "works all the way up," because of the compressed timing of this, there is probably a giant mess of things with no way to fix it.

Yes, Biden is president--but now the Red Team has even more reason to hold that the process is broken. A counter example would be if someone accused Biden of treason for . . . forgiving student loans or some shit . . . and courts ruled that was enough to get him kicked off.

Would Democrats, you know, buy that? Uh--no. No they would not--but to the deluded half of the country that wants Trump, that's how they see things: the charges are bullshit and the decision is politically motivated.

3. It's tried and goes nowhere. At that point, liberals can start saying "well, hell, these amendments don't really mean all that much do they?" They're not wrong. The 14th isn't terribly written--certainly no worse than the 2nd Amendment. Things that seemed clear then look less clear now--but the intent is clear and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The right, currently, wants to get rid of a bunch of amendments other than the 2nd. If the 14th can't stop the credit of the US from being questioned or authorities who engage in coups from holding office, what do we expect going forward?

So this is all a risk.

The Omnivore Thinks: Go for it. If Trump runs and wins, there won't be a republic. Part of the 'if you can keep it' involves learning the lessons of the Civil War.

Simulacrum Nazis

 There are Disney World Nazis marching today--or yesterday. Whatever.

RedState broke the code: They're Democrat Nazis!!

Uh huh,  RedState. Uh huh.

However. We all know the Disney Nazis are DeSantis Nazis. He kept shedding Nazis from his campaign like a vaccinated person shedding viral proteins or whatever the cool conspiracy is today.

But back up a minute. If we can point to Nazis--and there the Omnivore means 1488 Nazis--not just "republicans"--but people who fly the swastika (even if covertly) in or at least around GOP politics, does that mean we are seeing a resurgence of the 1930's Nazi Germany party?

A Simulacrum

A simulacrum is a copy of something that is explicitly NOT an exact likness of whatever it's supposed to be (classic example: Greek statues being larger at the top so they appeared to people on the ground to look like they were properly porportioned. Or, for example, a painting done of a photograph of a place).

Today's Nazis CANNOT be the same Nazis of WWII--we already have their history--their outcomes--their script. What we have today is a copy of what we discovered the Nazis to be when we rolled into their death camps.

In one sense this is cosplay. When Richard Spencer cut his hair in the SS style he was tyring to signify that he was the iconographically a legitimate person to be cast in the role of a Nazi Officer. Today we see Disney Nazis in black masks because they figured out showing their faces gets them canceled (the horror). In 1930, they might have covered up to throw a brick through a window--but on parade they were maskless.

They were as legitimate as today's Republican party. The Nazi party of the 1930s wanted to fight actual communists--real Trade Unionists (who also, The Omnivore has read, scared the upper middle classes). Today's Nazis want to fight imaginary communists and . . . uh . . . big corporations or something (The Omnivore never said they were smart).

The 1930s Nazi Party was a real political organism. Today's Nazi groups are insurgent / underground and disavowed by the GOP (well, sorta--not . . .  really).

This is because the simulacrum Nazis aren't really copies of the original. The Swastika was a powerful symbol taken from ancient cultures when Hitler glommed on to it. Today it's playing Helter Skelter while wearing a Charles Manson T-shirt.

See this way, we should treat the Nazis as something WORSE than the original. Their final form would be something logically evolved from where the real Nazis stopped. They accept all that baggage and wish to push further and deeper into the toxic wasteland that Hitler pioneered.

Disney Nazis are the worst.

The Coming Storm

 The Policitcal Omnivore is dead. Long Live The Political Omnivore.

The Omnivore hasn't touched this blog in a long, long time--but something has happened that The Omnivore feels compelled to weigh in on. So here we are. 

First, a little housekeeping:

1. Trump was bad. We know Trump was bad. Biden is far better than expected (for people with left-leaning perspectives). Most Americans think Biden is all but brain-dead--but he sure doesn't seem to be performing that way. Slower than a 50 year old? Sure. Unclear on which way is up? No.

2. It is an Age of Fiding Out (which comes after the Fucking-Around part). It's almost like a lot of the MAGA-Action arm of things had Fear of Missing Out On Finding Out. FOMOOFO! Well, they are. It turns out they don't like it.

3. Trump has fucked around the most. The Finding Out arc appears to be truly epic. We'll see.

NOW: The Omnivore's Idea

The Omnivore holds that a big part of the rot we see in the GOP today is this: They were told by their thought-leaders (Fox, Limbaugh, etc.) that Clinton was a mass-killer (Arkancide). that Obama was utterly, utterly corrupt and evil--and thus, Democrats--who liked both Clinton and Obama--had to be ontologically evil.

It turns out? Not so much. Bill Clinton really creeped around. Obama had some stuff going on (did he sic the IRS on the Tea Party? The Omnivore says "Don't Think So"--but if you believe he did, fine). In any event, the thing that never happened was the Finding Out. Hillary lost--but Hillary didn't go to prison.

Obama seems to be utterly scandaless in hind-sight.. Today, the Fast and Furious is a movie franchise and no one gives a fuck about Benghazi.

However, for Republicans, they decided that the inability of their leaders to stick it to the Dems was due to soft weakness on the part of Republican Elites (and, also, being in on the take). Thus, if you want justice, you need Trump--someone who isn't soft and isn't in-on-the-take. Trump, they reasoned, has his own take. He doesn't need another one.

Today, having unmoored themselves from reality in the 2000's and drifted into today's world of complete bullshit, they believe the following:

1. The charges against Trump are not just political--they are rank bullshit with no legal ground to stand on. Where there is evidence Trump did ANYTHING, they think ALL PRESIDENTS do it and the DoJ is just weaponized against Trump.
2. They believe that the election was stolen. Even smert republicans hold that "there are questions" (or, for the truly smert, that the COVID voting changes were illegal and therefore the election was de facto illegal). In any event, they think this is self-evident and if shown to a court that has a ballsack, it would be an open and shut case.
3. They have been told that (a) Trump is being prosecuted for lying about the election and that, therefore (b) if Trump can prove that either the election really was stolen or that he believed it was, he can beat the rap.

Oh--and also: The Revolution Will Be Televised (Trump's Georgia Trial will be on TV / YouTube).

The Omnivore's Take

The Omnivore suspects that this perfect storm of events will be where the Titanic of bullshit meats the Iceberg of Reality. That is: Seeing Trump's legal team flounder on TV and not being able to dismiss the prosecution like Neo brushing aside a zillion mooks on his way to fight Agent Smith they will conclude that:

• Trump's Team is corrupt or achingly incompetent
• That the corruption of the judge and the justice system is in over-drive to kill their hero / daddy.

Oh, and there's one other element to this storm that, for the most part, wasn't there before: It's going to be going down in one specific location.

The Omnivore has checked: There is no waking up and realizing you were lied to for these guys. They can't do it. It's too ingranied. It's too deep. It's not a religion--it's reached cult status. If there is a flash point for the second boogaloo, this is it.

Security forces better fucking be ready.

The Unbearable Cruelty of the HermanCainAward

On Reddit, one of the fastest growing areas is the "HermanCainAward." It is a message board where members post the 'story' of a COVID death with the preamble of social media posts denying the virus, them catching it (unvaxinated), and then ultimately dying (the notice of their death)--which earns them the award.

The Director for the Center for Medical Ethics at Columbia said that while possibly predictable  (that people would take pleasure at the misfortune of others) it goes against all medical ethics. Slate published an article noting it is a place where deaths "are celebrated." Certainly the descriptions of suffering and death that appear on the site--as well as the posts by burned out medical professionals who are numb, sad, and demoralized by the steady stream of preventable, horrible deaths choking their hospitals show that the specifics of death-by-COVID (at the end of their consciousness, many can't eat because they are too busy trying to breathe to even take a sip of a protein shake) are horrible.

So it's a cruel lefty celebration of the wave of schadenfreude at the deaths of righties. It's owning the cons, right?

Uh . . . no? Maybe? Let's think about this.

Here is a tiny smattering of the social media posts featured by some HermanCainAward "winners"--the posts they published before catching and dying from the virus--often in fashions that would be preventable even in the absence of the vaccine (such as having large gatherings).

See if you can notice a trend in the tone of these posts.

Whew . . . yeah. So--these posts do not show a lot of empathy for the 600k people--disproportionally  black and brown, who have already died. They certainly don't show any empathy or sympathy for those working to salvage the country and prevent more deaths. They are, as a whole--and this isn't a cherry picked selection, The Omnivore just went to the Reddit and picked a couple of the top posts today and downloaded the pictures (the really racists ones were from an especially bad person who just happened to be at the top--but they are not in any way an extreme outlier).

What these show--what they illustrate in excruciating detail--is that the flip-side of the sneering libs (not actually, but let's pretend the Reddit posters are all sneering libs for a second) are visibly palpable sneering conservatives. You can say they aren't "wishing death" on their fellow Americans  (you can say that--the lack of wishing-death-posts exists both in these pictures and on the sub-reddit: wishing death is actually not allowed and most of the posts The Omnivore has seen express sadness and some level of despair) --but you cannot claim that these posts show any sense of unity or understanding of what "the rest of us" see plainly: that we have a country-wide medical emergency that is killing people and overwhelming our hospitals and giving our front-line medical people PTSD.

If you want to see what "the rest of us" see, read this thread--a COVID horror story where nobody gets COVID: 

https://twitter.com/summerbrennan/status/1442806675325476867

TL;DR: the poster's dad falls and hurts his leg and has to go to the hospital. He can't get care because it's full of COVID and he develops a secondary condition and nearly dies due to neglect because everyone in the hospital is overwhelmed with COVID patients (unvaxed) who are dying in droves.

Make no mistake: a big part of not-getting-vaccinated is "owning the libs"--it's taking a stand, like hosting a boat parade or flying a Trump Flag, or 'rolling coal' (if you don't know, don't ask) to strike a blow in the culture wars. The movement that has turned into the anti-COVID-vaccine is also the one that spawned "Fuck Your Feelings (Trump 2020)" and Ben Shapiro's "Liberal Tears" coffee holders merch.

The inherent cruelty has been around for . . . erm . . . quite a while: the HermanCainAward really has nothing on the people who are posting the memes they gobble up or the misinformation they gleefully spread. The hatred directed at Fauci--much like the hate directed at Lt. Col. Vindman--is the incoherent rage at anyone who dares question or in any way disagree with their orthodoxy. Even the 'rational' members of the movement are ensconced in a cocoon of theory that "no one can say what 'misinformation' actually is" and as such, attempts by social media to take steps to curb it are overreach by a tyrannical lefty culture.

So The Omnivore's proposition is this: If the HermanCainAward is unconscionably cruel then before anyone can levy a complaint at it, they had best address what the recipients--and more importantly, the movement they represent, their enablers (Trump voters, reluctant Trump voters, anti-anti-Trump pundits, QAnon people, and so on) in terms of a societal standard for empathy or sympathy and forgiveness.

If you take a few steps down that road (a quick stroll and scroll through the subreddit) you will discover that posting their own words--their own broadcast messages---which appear over and over in different 'winners' timelines (these are, after all, viral memes) with a coda showing the consequences of their positions and actions--and their willingness--no, their gleefulness--to push their experience on others--to reinforce the same behavior that takes parents from children, destroys families, and damages our hospitals and society is, itself, a kind of gleeful cruelty that the HermanCainAward actually lacks. 

Maybe the sad, horrified posters are "really" cheering and celebrating each death--but they're not allowed to say that on the sub-reddit. If Facebook were to implement a rule saying you weren't allowed to cheer setbacks in COVID vaccination or post racist memes, these people would decry it as an unacceptable limit on their freedom of speech.

They would stand tall for their inalienable right to be mocking and cruel.

The Culture War Goes Hot: stochastic bio-warfare

 John Nolte has a theory: 

The idea that there is a unified effort by "the Liberal Elite" (who is that? AOC? All of CNN? The vaccinated staff of Fox News?) to kill off Republicans (never mind that Trump did more to discredit the vaccine and mask wearing than MSNBC could ever do) is absurd. But as Neil DeGrasse Tyson estimates that Republicans are dying at 5x the rate of Democrats (based on some iffy extrapolations about the respective rates of vaccination) one thing is clear: the current regime of deaths-of-the-unvaccinated are not simply the result of epidemiology. 

They are deaths caused by the Culture War. Nolte is wrong about all kinds of things--but he isn't wrong about that. Today "Evangelical" (or White Evangelical, if you will) is really more of a political designation than a religious one. Not surprisingly, then, they are the least vaccinated of all the polled religious groups. Just like Jesus would want.

On the flip side, Nolte's shriveled little heart would be delighted to learn about the Herman Cain Award subreddit where people post the story of various anti-vax meme posts on social media followed, inevitably, by the death announcement of the poster. The "Finding Out" part of the Fucking-Around equation, as it were.

On the subreddit itself, the posters are angry--and, in the case of actual ICU and other medical workers, exhausted. They are (by their own telling) emotionally drained and appalled. The deaths by COVID are horrible, stark, and preventable. In many cases the people dying--now skewing younger--some children--leave behind not just grieving relatives but giant messes of a life only partly lived and then thrown into chaos and destruction by a death, preventable, if not for Tucker Carlson's need for ratings.

While it is certain that there are people cheering these deaths as the destruction of the enemy, the litany of Facebook posts--smug, accusatory, often depressingly identical (there are only so many memes to go around) and, themselves, vicious towards the "libs" (BIDEN-20 is scarier than COVID-19, y'know?) shows that there is plenty of bile on both sides.

If the right's rhetoric of the Great Replacement brought us stochastic terrorism, COVID and the lamestream media has given us  stochastic bio-warfare. 

Now, to be clear: a LOT of the people dying are POC who aren't Republican (but just don't trust the government) and the idea that Trump voters are dying off while "ironic" is not "good." It doesn't actually help anything: elections will not tip because 100k Republicans die off spread across the United States. Even a million, evenly distributed wouldn't move electoral votes. This death spate doesn't help--it just does damage.

But what that damage shows is is how deep the cultural rot goes. Religion--white, mainstream, mega-church Christianity, anyway has been steam-rolled under the culture war. Political Policy evaporated in the explosion of ideological mortar shells. Today there is little that exists in politics (on the right, anyway: the Left has a huge raft of things they want to pass) that isn't a broadside against The Other.

The Republicans are significantly worse off here than the Democrats for a number of reasons (for starters, the Democrats trust traditional media which isn't as corrupt as alternative media) and as such, the damage is asymmetric. The allegation that if Trump had won, Dems would be refusing the vaccine is absurd. Harris said she wouldn't take a vaccine because Trump told her to (any more than she would drink bleach for the same reason) but would if the medical doctors said it worked.

That's consistent: Just as Democrats trust CNN to mostly get things right (and they do, mostly, get things right) they would, likely, trust doctors. The problem is that Republicans--even the "smart" ones--all too easily believe that if the shoe were on the other foot, it would fit.

That perspective is part of the culture war--part of the belief that just as THEY would claim Trump-really-won-the-election because it is politically powerful, so too would the Dems claim that vaccines developed under Operation Warp Speed were tainted by Trumpiness. The projection of political expediency onto the other side justifies everything--even letting your followers die horribly because everything, it turns out, is justified.

The Finding Out Part Sucks

 The slogan "Fuck Around and Find Out" has been adopted by all kinds of people (including the Proud Boys) as an implied threat.

"What are you gonna do?"

"Fuck around and find out."

But, in the age of the Delta Variant and the Texas GOP + Trump Supreme court, people who have fucked around are, more and more reliably, finding out.

For all the people who assured us that the GOP's picks for the Supreme Court wouldn't overturn Roe vs. Wade, the court's tacit acceptance of a bizarre Texas law that lets you snitch and sue women you think have had abortions stands in start rebuke of all the Jill Stein / Bernie-or-Bust / Don't Vote Blue--no matter Who people.

After all, the people who felt they could NEVER vote for Hillary because they were the True Leftists certainly didn't think putting Trump in power would end in millions  of vulnerable women in Texas losing abortion rights. 

Did they?  Well, maybe they did. Accelerationism ( hastening the fall of the current order so you can build the new) is a terrible idea--but it's appealing if you think it's the only way you can win. 

After Bernie's meltdown in South Carolina, a lot of really smug leftists are now sure that's the only way they can win. Trump's win was "supposed" to get us Bernie in 2020--and when that transaction with the American people didn't pan out they not only got the accelerationist court but those damn Black Voters cost them Bernie they have "logically" concluded that THEY couldn't be to blame for the current problem. No, it must be Pelosi.

On the flip side we saw lots of smug media critics saying that all the COVID 'super-spreader' events (Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, DeSantis opening beaches, etc.) didn't clearly super-spread. Part of that is because outdoors, COVID-Classic just isn't that contagious.  Part of it was that people were, in general, taking some precautions.

DeSantis et. al. felt they could fuck around.

With the Delta Variant, though, all that fucking around leads to the sometimes-lethal finding out part. Far more contagious  if you are not vaccinated, it's unforgiving and is leading to ruin in Texas and Florida--two states who led the fucking around charge.

Opening the economy won't work if people are terrified of getting sick--and if people believe COVID to be a hoax and don't vaccinate (and they are not) the great DeSantis economy comes with the visceral pile of bodies we now have.

The finding out part . . . sucks.

Frozen Peaches and Big Tech

 In The Conservative American  (the singular "The" is looking more and more prescient these days) Josh Hammer has an article talking about how "Big Tech" must be brought to heel so that "Conservatives" can have their bad say on Social Media. Or else! This is part 230 (which most of his readers probably don't understand correctly) and part generic anti-Trust and an implicit assertion (i.e. without evidence) that Big Tech is silencing conservative voices using their awesome power to shut down half of the debate and Free Speech (TM) in America (or, you know, maybe Amerika?).

What's going on?

What IS Going On?

In the waning days of the 2020 campaign a bombshell was unveiled: A laptop belonging to Hunter Biden was found ("found") with incriminating emails and pictures showing that Hunter was trying to make money with Chinese business people possibly giving 10% to his dad. According to who else you listen to it also: contained pedophilia, clearly stated that Biden was on China's direct payroll as a foreign agent, had other stuff that was ABOUT TO COME OUT that was horrible--just horrible--about Sleepy Joe.

Here are some facts reported about the story:

1. The guy pushing the story--Rudy Giuliani--isn't seen as an especially credible source by just about anyone not doing Fox Prime Time (the "entertainment" slots).
2. Almost no one save The Wall Street Journal and Fox News was actually granted access to the documents. This, alone, is both suspect and makes it hard to report on.
3. While the emails are (in The Omnivore's opinion) probably genuine, the provenance of the laptop--how it came into Rudy's hands--doesn't make any sense and has the fingerprints of someone trying to inject information into the election in a sideways fashion (The Russians? Maybe? Bannon or Roger Stone? Sure.) The story--that the laptop(s) were dropped off by Hunter and never recovered can't be substantiated and doesn't really make any sense. This, alone, makes it hard to report on.
4. The writer for The Post--which did publish the story--took his name off the byline. Why?  Because he wasn't willing to be associated with it. This is not the action of a reporter breaking the story of the century.
5. What we HAVE seen in the emails that ARE available is (a) nothing new (Hunter got a good position based on his pedigree--the same for Ivanka, Don Jr., and Eric Trump) and (b) does NOT link Biden---nor even Hunter--to any illegal activity alleged or otherwise.
6. The reader of the story is meant to *assume* that the mention of Hunter links Biden to unspecified illicit activities and therefore you should not vote for him. What are those? It doesn't say. We don't know.

This, of course, feels like (a) the Wikileaks Emails--dropped by Russia to take the pressure off of Trump at the release of the Pussy Tape and (b) feels like the Steele Dossier which was shopped around but refused by all news outlets other than Buzzfeed which finally published it despite not being able to verify almost any of the information.

Today we know that Wikileaks was, in fact, a Russian Op (thanks to Mueller's and the Senate Intelligence's investigations) and that the Steele Dossier was, in large part, correct (main points: Russia was helping Trump, Russia hacked for Trump, Trump people met with Russia--yep: that's all spelled out explicitly in the investigation documents that are published).

Needless to say: most media outlets didn't want to be useful tools in the spread of this kind of information and so they both (a) covered the meta-story ("why we aren't hyping the laptop") and, in the case of Twitter, simply forbid it being disseminated on their platform. It is hard for The Omnivore to blame a social media site for not wanting to be  a vector for dodgy info inserted into a fraught electoral campaign (especially as Twitter had forbid political ads on its network in the run up to the election).

Now, in the aftermath of the Jan 6th Insurrection-Riot, other voices are being silenced: Project Veritas has been kicked off Twitter (along with, you know, Donald Trump), and Parler, given numerous warnings by Amazon, was booted from their cloud servers for failing to take effective action to keep violent threats off its platform.

Conservatives (?) see the reformation of Social Media--the prevention of banning their voices--as a new 21st century rallying cry.

Whew.

So--Are Conservative Voices Being Silenced?

Well, yes . . . and no.  People talking about deregulation, small government, and muscular foreign policy aren't being suspended or kicked off. If we define "conservative" as "contesting election results" and "implying that Jews secretly run the world" then, uh, yeah--it turns out? That can get you kicked. It can lose you that plumb Disney job. Especially if you keep doing it after being told to / asked to stop.

Gina Carano was booted from Disney's The Mandalorian for "Being Conservative." This is one of her "Conservative Tweets" 

Uh--yeah: that's great. Who are all those people playing Monopoly on our backs? The Jewish Illuminati, guys. It turns out that talking on Social Media about The Jews is a pretty good move in Republican circles these days to raise your profile. Of course when those comments get out into the larger media, you can face consequences (MTG lost her appointments for them).

The takeaway here is that it's a bit hard to say if Conservative Voices are being silenced because in almost every event there is some aggravating factor beyond the person just being "conservative" (Josh Hawley loses his book deal after the storming of the Capitol, for example).

In order to make the case that "Conservatives" are trying to make, one needs to either (a) believe that the election WAS stolen and therefore Social Media is silencing legitimate voices--this is rank conspiracy theory since it involves numerous Trump-appointed and generally loyalist Republicans as well as tons of Democrats and normal people . . . none of whom have come forward to talk---0r  (b) that there is some other "conservative speech" that is being systematically shut down while people like Ted Cruz seem to be doing just fine avoiding the mine-fields while still being pretty trollish online.

So, no: we don't have a solid case that The Bad Thing (TM) is even happening.

But What About The Larger Free Speech Argument?

There is a reason one of The Omnivore's bylines is TL;DR--but if you are here, let's discuss. In the 21st century, so goes the argument, the Town Square is now privately owned--but a public service--like a lunch-counter at a restaurant--and you have to serve both black people AND conservatives at the counter since the 1st Amendment secures the "Town Square" for everyone--even if it's owned by Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Google.

What are the merits of this?

The Implicit Assumptions In  The Argument

In order to process these arguments one has to make the implicit assumptions that:

1. The large group of "Big Tech" is all "one thing." That is--the Public Square is happening on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Gab (uh-oh?), Telegram (double uh-oh), Disqus (triple uh-oh), and other platforms that are all working in concert to "be" the fora in which free speech now happens. This leaves off (a) The larger Internet where all kinds of information is widely disseminated such as Fox News', OANNs', and The Epoch Time's web pages--and that Social Media is the only platform for "speech" in the new world. Clearly going on Fox to complain about your book being canceled or going on Bob Maher to talk about how COVID must have come from a lab to 4-5 million people on one showing doesn't count as "speech" for these purposes.
2. That there is either no cause for kicking someone off a platform or that there must be some universal set of rules that we have yet to see that would be applied. Can you call for killing the President? Can you make plans to storm the Capitol? Promote the execution of Congress People? Use the N-word gratuitously? Is there a line?
3. It supposes--without argument--that today conservatives need to be a protected class like Black People. If I have a public restaurant I have to serve black people under the law. I don't have to serve Nazis. Nazis are not a protected class. Black People are. I can fire you for being a Nazi. I can't fire you for being black. The idea that conservatives need to be a special protected class is never argued--it's just assumed. What the umbrella would even cover isn't clear (small government, deregulation, muscular foreign policy? LOL, no--that's not enough--people aren't being banned for that anyway).

Together this set of implicit assumptions makes the argument that there is reform needed a form of begging the question: If you assume all of the above--without argument or specifics--then, okay: Twitter would be sued for banning all black people or for banning those who advocate for black people on social media--and would be excoriated for making a rule that in order to post you HAD to advocate for political assassinations--so, sure. The inverse of the above would be clear red flags.

But do we really have those assumptions made clear? No. We don't.

What Is Really Going On?

What is really going on is that the "Conservatives" in America have now hitched their wagon to a voting base that DEMANDS to be told lies. They require to be told that The Election Was Stolen by Dems (and R's and the DoJ and SCOTUS, and and and). They require to be told that BLM is full of Antifa Terrorists and that, maybe, Antifa false-flag-stormed the capitol.

Fox's ratings slide began when its decision desk--one of the top-tier ones in existence--called AZ early for Biden and it was Conservative heresy. 

Social Media, having been used as a vector for foreign attack and spread of disinformation as well as for organizing violence (including but not limited to the Storming of the US Capitol) is doing everything it can to stop the spread of that disinformation. In the midst of a pandemic, platforms are trying to not be tools in the spread of anti-Mask speech and COVID-Is-A-Lie narratives. This is understandable and laudable.

The fact that a bunch of speech--or at least actors--that conservatives happen to like get caught in the nets cast to stop this disinformation leads to the execrable defense of people real conservatives should never be defending in the first place.

74 Million Voters vs. 5000 Rioters

 Over on HotAir, conservative (but erstwhile republican, since he quit the party) Ed Morrissey finds common ground with the generally disliked on the right Bill Maher who says we shouldn't confuse 74 million Trump voters with the comparatively small group of insurrectionists who took over the Capitol, baying for blood, and came, likely, within literal feet of having captured some lawmakers.

After all, says, Maher, to Ed Morrissey's applause, 'we can't conflate illiberal beliefs with violent action--at least that's what I'm told about Islamic Terrorism.'

Uh . . . Ed? Ed? Are you thinking about this?

Maher also says "you can like something being run by assholes without being an asshole yourself." Does--uh--does this stand up to scrutiny? Let's look.

Trumplamic Terrorism

We have been assured for quite a while--and quite emphatically--that guys like the MAGA-Bomber and the various mass shooters who had Trump's words and themes coming out of their mouths as they pulled the trigger were not in any way indicative of, well, Trumpism. After all, the marching Tiki Nazi in a MAGA hat could've been wearing any hat, right? 

If he'd been wearing a Star Trek hat would we have to decide that the United Federation  of Planets was a fascist organization? 

Strangely? These guys never really seem to wear Star Trek hats. They tend towards MAGA hats. Correlation isn't causation--but The Omnivore thinks there just might be something there.

The Two Best Friends and Accomplices of the Tree of Life Shooter

Now, we can observe that while, yes: there is some kind of correlation between  fascist violence and Trump--the link, of which may never be known--

It Be Totally Mysterious

What we can say is that there is certainly a vein of racist violence in the Trump, erm, religion--Isn't Islam a religion, Bill? Ed? Is that what we're saying? And the rest of the flock isn't exactly hostile to it, are they?

A Camp Auschwitz T-Shirt Next To A MAGA Hat.

Oh, and the Back of The Death Camp Shirt?

It Apparently Says 'Staff'

What The Omnivore is saying here is that Trumpism, whether or not it's a religion like Islam, has not only the trappings of white supremacy but also seems really the hell tolerant of it--and this is something the Right universally condemns the Islamic religion for even though no one thinks an Islamic radical would have any luck running for POTUS--but Trump? Trump was the pick of the GOP. He didn't just declare himself grand Immam of the Republicans. No, he went through a lengthy and contested primary process wherein he was chosen for his attributes--and they liked him.

They still do.

The Kool Aid - They Have Drunk It

The Republicans, whatever they once represented, they are now the Party of Trump. There has been a variety of polling and what it shows is that the worldview of the Republicans is very homogenously Trump and that this worldview is pro-insurrection. See here:

Biden is Illegitimate

A core tenet of Trumpism is that if you lose the election was fraudulent and if you win it was fraudulent. In 2015 he said this before any vote was taken. In 2016 he said this to explain losing the popular vote. Leading up to the 2020 election he said this and immediately after? Yeah, you know.

There's probably a reason Giuliani's practice in Ukraine was called "Fraud Guarantee." 

They Approve of Trump--Even Now

And They, Like Trump, Take 'No Responsibility'

Who did the riots? Antifa! Who is responsible? Democrats! 

The upshot here is that if you take the polling as even remotely accurate the Republican party--now the Trumpian party--is the party that believes (a) they should be in power no matter what the election results show, (b) that their being in power would be a virtually unalloyed good thing (despite approaching 400k Americans dead, our economy and foreign policy in the toilet, and so on), and that if bad things happened? Despite all evidence to the contrary?

It's someone else's fault.

Who Says That?

The problem with Bill Maher's formulation (as well as the excuse that not everyone came to raid the capitol--except that was heavily advertised and not a surprise to anyone but the security forces) is that the party--that 74 million voters--despite having seen POTUS call for a raid on the Capitol, it happen, and us barely get lucky that it wasn't a catastrophic tragedy? They still support this and they would support doing it again.

How can The Omnivore say that? Well, the above logic shows that they don't think it was their fault, they do think they should "rightfully" have won the election and be in charge, and they believe that Trump's inciting speech was  part of his very good job.

In other words, if you voted for Trump . . . you got what you paid for last Wednesday. Congratulations.

The Tower and The Vaccine

 

As The Omnivore continues to reflect on the events of last Wednesday, some things are becoming clearer--but nothing is actually totally clear. Still, these are sign-posts and metaphors-made-new-flesh (long live the new flesh!) and we should pay attention to them as this develops as rapidly as anything this historic can.

What is The Omnivore talking about?

1. We All Got It Commin'

The Insurrectionist riot was something our country as a whole has built, coddled, and gestated for 12 years starting with Sarah Palin being favored by the GOP base over McCain and then birthed with Trump. We were not all complicity--no: but as a country our organs tolerated the cancer as it grew and spread.

"Don't anger the cancer," said the GOP. "It doesn't want to be treated and we need it."

"Don't show a strong bias," said the news media, being constantly accused of having a ginormous bias, "we have to report on this administration . . . fairly."

Narrator's voice: "They did a shitty job of reporting on it fairly along almost any dimension."

Our Social Media giants allowed the lies to spread: Republicans were totally allowed to lie on Facebook--they fought for that--won--and are now upset about it. QAnon flourished and grew even as alarmed observers (Reddit) tried to purge it, the nature of the Internet not only routed around many of the bans but concentrated the survivors in hyper-radicalization areas like VOAT.

Organs like Instagram filtered out most of the bat-shit content and created "pastel QAnon" for women in Yoga and to appeal to bro-science gurus fighting vaccines. The Save-The-Children nonsense roped in well meaning women involved in education. The deluge of From-The-White-House lies about mountains of evidence of stolen data has convinced even educated people something was badly wrong.

Arguments were honed by guys like Ted Cruz and at every level of authority to the Resolute Desk itself lies were told that ordinary people could be forgiven for taking at face value.

We built this--even as some of us tried to tear it down--we have to understand that we are all part of the same social organism. The #Resistance acts as a disease--but it cannot afford to kill the host.

So here we are. We are Americans. We own a piece of it.

2. The Vaccine Coup

As we roll out the vaccine for COVID--a possible game changer from our national pandemic--there is another vaccine that we have been subjected to: a really stupid coup attempt. Now, even bad, dumb coup attempts can damage the country such that the next coup succeeds. There's history for this, Trust The Omnivore.

But: History ain't guaranteed either. This has exposed a truth about the GOP and the lies that would not have been extant if we had gone along to get along. The lies are dangerous. The intent is vile. The support from the top is treasonous if not technically legally, morally.

People who were otherwise considering complaints an over-reaction have had to rethink things (in some cases) and it turns out that a still-born dead coup attempt may actually help to immunize us against the next harder core coup attempt (see: Ted Cruz's nocturnal emission dreams). We came close to seeing law makers executed on live-stream and it has mobilized our organic defenses in ways that, literally, have not been seen in modern times.

Maybe this helped.

3. The Vaccine  of Babble

In the biblical tale of the Tower of Babble, man exceeds his reach in building the tall tower and God responds by splintering us so we no longer understand each other. It appears the tower then gets destroyed by lightning.

That's kinda over kill, really.

In the case of the real vaccine, we built an amazing "tower." The rapid production of a vaccine in the pretty realistic movie Contagion was considered, by experts, "too fast--but it's a movie, so hey." In real life? The Omnivore thinks we beat the movie.

If COVID was sent by God as, you know, a wake up call then our boffins have built a tower and it probably ticked him off!

So now we all speak different languages ("the micro-chip! The DNA re-write! I'mma eat hotdogs--but WAT IS IN THE VACCINE!??") and we have chaos in the deployment. The problem? This didn't take any act of God. We fucking Babeled ourselves.

Even COVID is shaking its head in shame.

4. So What Happened?

Well, it seems apparent that the militias would need more balls than they have to storm Washington on the 20th with a ton of National guard there. So either we get cucked grousing on low-rent social media . . . or we get various state-house assaults and shit that we're also ready for. The Omnivore is pretty sure that FBI guys are infiltrating a lot of these movements and, despite what they think, faking being a MAGA is easy. Talk tough, do nothing, listen for someone who sounds like they might have some potential.

Maybe the coup vaccine worked--and we're still gonna be babeling on the real one. But let us not the irony: 

The MAGAts are affeared that the vaccine will implant a tracking microchip in them! I turns out? They were all carrying a tracking microchip and due to Parler's idiotic security, the data dump tracked them into the capitol.

we live in an age of miracles and wonders.

Maybe this is the long-distance wake-up call.

The Night of the Long Bans

 

Yesterday not only was Trump kicked off Twitter "for good" (we'll see--but probably) but TrumpTeam was evicted. YouTube kicked TheWarRoom (Trump media with Steve Bannon as a host), and a bunch of high profile QAnon people got the boot.

It's tempting to suggest that this is just a reaction to the Capitol raid and the sudden "Crash" in Trump's social and political currency--but there's a darker possibility:

Stop The Steal organized on Facebook for 48 hours growing at a semi-exponential rate before FB saw it and killed it. Social Media probably doesn't want to own an organized insurrection that is, again, being promoted by the President of the United States. Trump, although isolated and weakened is still the most powerful individual in the country and it doesn't take him long to disavow any calls for peace and sanity (about 48 hours, historically).

The banning of the QAnon promoters is required as well since they would be channels for a second attempt--one that would almost certainly be far more serious. The militia movements--both those involved in the 6th and those watching--have veterans and are more heavily armed and trained than QAnon or the standard MAGA.

The right's outcry has been intense: It's CANCEL CULTURE! Rod Dreher, the guy who perpetually almost gets it thinks that The Left and their toadies in Big Tech and Teh [sic] Media are just waiting to use Trump's attempted coup to demonize conservatives.

Why, how could THAT work? Rod can't come to grips with the fact that these guys are essentially self-demonizing: it doesn't take a woke collusion to determine that a mob storming the United State's seat of legislative power is bad and reflects something that no one should want to be associated with.

Even Axe Body Spray distanced itself from what is undoubtedly part of its core audience. Rod should know that when you have lost Axe you have lost America. At least a MAGish part of it.

And justifiably so. People are calling for Pence's execution--people who could do it if they got their hands on him. This isn't quite over and it isn't safe: we are going through critical straits here it isn't a "woke mob" cancelling Donald: it's the host organism trying to fight off a fatal disease.

It's also funny. Deplatforming is, again, and this is really important, a humiliation. It hurts in psychological places that weaken the target. It's important to make sure that Trumpers understand that they are, now, targets of mockery and derision--not abused patriots or people pushed back against the wall by the Teh [sic] Forces of the Left.

No, from 2015 Trump made it clear he wouldn't accept the losing an election and that didn't change through his four years in office. The assault on the Capitol was planned in plain sight and very clear language. None of this--not any of it--was surprising or out of character or anything. It's a case of getting what you paid for and then being really upset about it.

* The term The Night of the Long Bans was seen on Twitter--but The Omnivore can't find it now.