The reason that otherwise intelligent and sensible people like me could (for a time) support TFG is that we assumed these dangerous cranks had been deported out of his inner circle by mid 2017.
He brought them back in 2020, to plan 1/6 and the still-ongoing insurgency.
Michael Flynn is a good example of this phenomenon.
I don't call evil people "Mike" and I certainly never refer to the army rank that should be removed from him now.
He got a pardon. Read the list of of TFG's clemency recipients and you will see many of his 1/6 henchmen.
Flynn managed to stay quiet about his long game for almost 4 years.
He had some staffer manage his Twitter account and "follow back" tens of thousands of people. Those people then felt they were special because The General "followed" them.
He worked on the minds of Q followers and other groups of maga folk who openly disdained the Q phenomenon.
Flynn has close ties with the dictator Erdogan in Turkey, and of course with the dictator Putin in Russia.
All of that is public knowledge. I look forward to other damning facts being presented in court and in congress.
There are many well known grifters in the American far right fascist movement who need locking up, and I place Flynn among the top ten.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Another way these grifters get away with openly racist comments is by calling those who riot or otherwise damage property "thugs." That is far right code for POC, and I saw ex-cop maga "influencers" referring that way to a crowd of rioters in FL during Spring Break 2021.
In the cult, current and former LEOs and military are automatically given more trust and respect than other people are. This is completely nuts, especially when you see TFG's real view of these institutions, and how he and his cult have treated the many (literal) heroes of 1/6.
In the 14 days before 1/6 my support for TFG was on its last legs. Like anyone else with half a brain, I could see there would be violence, and that even he would not be able to call them off.
I assumed the usual LE & military security plans would be in place. How wrong I was.
In-joke alert: "Big if true" was in use as early as 2016 among the far right fascist grifter community. The much higher IQ @AccountableGOP community uses it ironically.
Grifters would say it when skeptical about a "news" story they hoped was true, as a way to hedge their bets.
Whenever I offer to help fellow #NeverTrump folk of any stripe, it's not to blow my own trumpet, not at all. It's to contribute in-kind to your fight for American democracy. I often see influencers comment on issues without knowing some of the inside maga knowledge that I have.
As a foreign national I can't lawfully donate or even buy merch from a campaign (a law abiding campaign, that is.) I can't afford to travel to the US right now. But like millions around the world, I want to help your cause. Because it affects people in other countries, like me.
Attacks like today's in Norway, for which the death toll is at least 5, can often be (immediately) used by US "gun control" activists to justify their view. The same goes for "gun rights" activists, who immediately look to justify their view.
This is dumb, because the US and Norway have major differences in laws, history, politics, religion, and culture.
So any knee jerk comparison is not going to be rational or credible. There is time to analyze any mass murder crime in the months and years ahead.
Read the article, there's a lot in it. I live in New Zealand where smooth, accessible shipping is critical to our survival, safety, and standard of living. The cost of sending a container from NZ to China went from something like NZD5k to NZD50k early in the pandemic.
Around half of NZ's export income is from trade with China. We're a giant grass-fed dairy farm, essentially. Along with selling other primary produce, and niche high tech stuff, and the best Pinot Noir and other wines in the world. (I'm hopelessly biased of course.)
Today is October 12, 2021, and so far President Biden has not encouraged, enabled, or denied his admin's role in any terrorist attacks on the seat of the federal government.
Nor told anyone to defy a Congressional subpoena order.
Daily reminder that TFG caused the 2021 crisis in Afghanistan, to own the libs, no matter how may innocents would be killed.
Any of the TINY number of Americans who WANT to leave AFG had at least 12 months' notice of US withdrawal & heightened risk there. I'd have left then.
TFG's (idiotically) public advice to his henchmen to defy Congressional subpoenas constitutes attempted obstruction of justice. He doesn't control the US DOJ anymore.
A legislature is the highest court in the land, tbh. They can order a witness to appear, and act if they don't.
All the major social media platforms have the same problem: how to lawfully try to reduce harm while maximizing the success of a product funded by advertisers (ie NOT you or me.)
It's not easy for them. To make it easier for you, think about WHY they are doing it.
Twitter isn't here as a public service or a charity. They are here to earn a profit for shareholders. Unless you want to live in a totalitarian state (whether communist or far right fascist) then it pays to remember these facts.