QAnons in the House

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/cori-bush-marjorie-taylor-greene-capito...
Democratic Rep. Bush to move congressional office away from Rep. Greene, citing safety reasons

GOP leaders are not going to do a damn thing to tame Greene. They want her House votes now, and they will need the votes of her deplorable voters at election time.

Ah. I was hoping you could offer personal advice on how one handles Q believers in ones own life sphere. I have a neighbor....

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/tucker-carlson-dismisses-something-called-qanon-mock...
Tucker Carlson Dismisses ‘Something Called QAnon’, Mocks Media For Deeming it an ‘Existential Threat’

This elitist dude's mental health issues are gaining speed. He sides with QAnons, the Pillow Guy and white nationalists on a regular basis. The fact that QAnons happen to be white folks is just a coincidence, of course.

>1 Molly3028: I thought you were talking about this group.... I think at the moment we're down to one, around here...

>2 2wonderY: I had a neighbour, who we called Chicken Man Dan (he kept chickens and sold the eggs). He seemed nice enough until a couple of years ago, when he apparently became one of those people. He built himself a big sign in the shape of a 'q', placed light bulbs around the edge, and lettered it with 'wigwaga' or whatever their motto is.

Unfortunately for him, he was renting to own the property where he lived, and the owner of the property developed dementia. Chicken Man Dan had never bothered to get the 'rent to own' contract in writing, so on November 6th of last year, he departed, after arguing with the owner's legally appointed guardian.

Wish they were all that easy to get rid of.

>5 MsMixte: Wigwaga, magalaga, covfefe... the sad linguistic detritus of the Trump era...

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/tucker-carlson-mocks-aoc-after-video-on-capitol-riot...
Tucker Carlson Mocks AOC After Video on Capitol Riots: ‘Narcissism on Parade,’ ‘Only Subject She Really Cares About’ Is Herself

This disgusting dude is giving the middle finger to the thousands of citizens who work on the Congressional campus. He hates AOC. He makes excuses for Ms. Greene. AOC has brown skin, and Ms. Greene has white skin. Period. End of story.

https://www.mediaite.com/analysis/flashback-three-times-kevin-mccarthy-denounced...

FLASHBACK: Three Times Kevin McCarthy Denounced QAnon — Before Now Claiming: ‘I Don’t Even Know What It Is’

The GOP must be nuked in 2022/24.

LibraryThing.com appears to be turning into a ghost town. It seems to be following in Shelfari's path.

>9 Molly3028: LibraryThing.com appears to be turning into a ghost town

Most of the groups which I follow don't seem to have become "ghost towns". Perhaps you're referring only to the Pro and Con group? Certainly there are less posts from the extreme right wing and from conspiracy theorists, but I've also noticed fewer incendiary posts from the anti-Trump camp.

>9 Molly3028: I think, that except for a few diehards, that the sore losers have gone somewhere else to present their conspiracy theories.

>11 MsMixte: And plop, plop, fizz, fizz!

I agree that things have quieted down a bit. I wonder if we could inject more and different topics to try and get more input from new people. (See new thread about Stupidbowl.)

I think even for a lot of Trump diehards Qanon is a bridge too far--not that they don't mind the votes. What we saw on Jan. 6 though was pretty much a complete cross section of what is now the republican base and they got to where they got with their own two feet and fists or whatever weapons they brought along with them. Antifa didn't get or manipulate them there--they got there on their very own after listening to moron 45. They were going to hang or shoot people--they were the ones that vandalized the Capitol and very well might have killed someone like AOC or Katie Porter if they had got their hands on them. They might even have hung Mike Pence.

14 >They might even have hung Mike Pence.

A hung white man. Unlikely in both senses of the word.

11 House Republicans Cross the Aisle, Fleeing QAnon Cultists That Is Now the Republican Party

Adam Kinzinger of Illinois
Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania
John Katko of New York
Fred Upton of Michigan
Nicole Malliotakis of New York
Carlos Gimenez of Florida
Chris Jacobs of New York
Young Kim of California
Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida
Chris Smith of New Jersey
Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida

Two geographical areas leap to the eye:

The Florida contingent -- where a real school massacre occurred, including 3 Cuban-Americans from South FL. The consequences of their vote within their constituencies could be interesting.

The New York contingent -- where two extremely large buildings collapsed when terrorist planes flew into them and killed 3000+ people, the greatest number of them New Yorkers.

Must be difficult for a number of those 11 to hold conflicting opinions about holding people responsible for their remarks to incite violence -- a GA freshman representative must be punished and removed from committees vs. a US president who they think is being impeached for partisan Democratic political reasons and shouldn't even be slapped on the wrist much less removed from running for office again. See post about Donald Trump starting a new political party.

>9 Molly3028: Certainly the Pro and Con group has become a rather deserted space.

I think part of the reason for that may be that members are choosing not to engage with those who post simply in search of an argument.

Perhaps others have left the group, or stopped posting, because of their wild assertions, which have now proven to be false. I’m talking about those posts saying that the election was fraudulent. Or that the election would be overturned on Date X. Oh, wait, it will be Date Y. Er, no, I meant date Z. And each time, those who thought the election was legal were excoriated as fools and dupes who would soon be punished for their wicked, wicked ways. It’s hard to make a comeback from that.

They’re kind of like those old End Of the World, Armageddon is imminent, confused religious people who have continually moved the onset date of the End Times when they’ve been proven wrong, again.

The rest of Librarything seems to flourishing.

The real meaning behind the Ms. Greene episode is obvious. The GOP needs warm bodies to vote for their reps at election time. GOPers are therefore welcoming QAnons, white supremacists, white nationalists, Proud Boys and other fringe group members into their tent. As the cancer on the party grows, the party is shrinking. And, demography is destiny!

#17--I think to a degree this was inevitable after Trump's ugly departure from power and apart from Prox's occasional missives we're not seeing the kookier right wingers who posted before that departure around here anymore.....and January 6 certainly took some of the wind out of their sails. No matter how they would want to parse it most of the country disapproved of that and most of the country are not bothered by the FBI chasing those hapless idiots to ground and who ironically don't happen to be BLM or antifa activists. How they managed to go one up on Charlottesville really being incited by that oaf of a 45 who went 0 for 60 in court cases because he had no evidence for his bullshit stolen election claims and would have murdered his own vice president to stay in power. Kool Aid drinkers one and all only the one who gave them the poison didn't drink it himself and now they get to go to court--pay for lawyers to defend them and probably do prison terms and some of his best buddies like Sidney and Julie Annie get to fend off billion dollar lawsuits. The next year or so of watching this shit go down could be pretty entertaining.

>17 Matke: There's still hope! March 4th is just around the corner, you know.

I certainly agree with you about members choosing not to engage with those who are just trolls. I'd like to move on to more substantive questions, but there don't seem to be any actual conservatives here anymore to discuss meatier issues.

Republican Party Belongs to the Trolls

Instead of sending legislators to Congress and visionary leaders to the WH, the most recent events in their political circle confirm that Republicans -- always inadequate when it came to governing -- have abandoned that idea totally in favor of electing trolls with no interest in lawmaking or governance.

Haters gotta hate and the Trump Cultists who own the Republican Party are only into "owning" the "libs." More and more knuckle dragging lovers of nonsense from the loony right wing will be elected to office on the local and state level where pockets of products from the shallow end of the gene pool thrive. While I'd like to see more stories like the one that unfolded in GA happen across the South, white male racial bigots who occupy power in these states are and will continue to do everything in their power to limit access to the ballot by other than white Christians.

Fear inhibits reason. Trump popularized fear and hate-mongering as the favored Republican strategy to get elected. It was stunningly successful with the fearful and ignorant for whom reasoning is hard work. Palatable conspiracy theories that "go down easy" and appeal to their fright and ignorance are easily internalized in place of rationality. Crowded raves are ideal for whipping up their enthusiasm to "stick it" to Progressives whose policies to help the low to rise threaten their relative position of dominance and drive them to the ballot box to act on their riled up grievance and dissatisfaction with a reality that holds no hope for people fossilized in the past.

Who or whatever is behind the QAnon curtain has little work to do when it comes to molding such malleable material as MT Greene, Goetz, Jim Jordan, Lauren Boebert, and Nunes. Political vultures like Cruz, Hawley, Graham, and McConnell can't resist picking over the remains. The only direction for the Republican Party to go is lower.

>11 MsMixte: I have never been a conspiracy theorist. But I went elsewhere several years ago because there were a few abusive and generally unpleasant members of this Group which Management refused to do anything about. I believe they're gone now, but the sour taste still remains.

>22 lawecon:

Good to see you posting here again. It must be years.

GOP's Boebert Drowned in Ridicule: Blames Windmills for Causing Texas Power Outage

Yes, the windmills are frozen in TX. And yes, it's hampering the restoration of power across the state. But whose fault is that? Didn't anyone think that de-icing technology is necessary for mechanical technology continuously out in the elements? I mean, we make sure planes don't fall out of the sky by de-icing them. Heck, I have a heat lamp down my well here in Georgia. (Yep, it's on today!)

But it isn't the Great Windmill Freeze of '21 that caused the power outage; it's the severe Arctic weather that froze the windmills that caused the outage. If you're going to blame and demonize an inanimate object, Rep. "Bobo," try picking the right one. Like the warming Arctic due to climate change, driving the deep freeze.

CONFIRMED: Coal, natural gas and nuclear facilities are 'main factors' in Texas power outages

Trump-loving Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) on Tuesday was quickly drowned in mockery after she endorsed a false claim by Fox News host Tucker Carlson about windmills being to blame for power outages across the state of Texas.

(In a Tweet) "It takes a special kind of stupidity to run out of energy in Texas," she wrote. . .

Shall we move on to discuss the special kind of stupid it takes to blame the windmills for TX's dearth of power sources on its grid? TX is not part of the US power grid. Secession readiness, perhaps?

#24--interesting about Texas having its own power grid to avoid federal rules and regulations. Seems to me they need to figure this out on their own.

QAnnoniacs Can't Just Pick One and Look at the Rest

Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the real president. . .
Jan. 6, 2021
March 4, 2021
March 20, 2021
April 1, 2021
May ???, 2021

(all the above dates have been cited by QAnon as the day)

Why don't they just create a betting pool for any day of the year? 1$ a chance. Whoever guesses correctly, wins the pot. If no one wins -- as in, Donald Trump does not get inaugurated on any day in 2021 -- the money goes to a real charity, like St. Jude's Children's Hospital or the ASPCA no-kill shelter program.

Turn a lose-lose into a win-win.

https://www.rawstory.com/cult-deprogrammers-overwhelmed-with-requests-to-help-de...
Cult deprogrammers overwhelmed with requests to help de-radicalize pro-Trump conspiracy theorists: NPR

"NPR reports that professional exit counselors, who are brought in to help deprogram cult members, are being overwhelmed with requests for help in bringing Trump-supporting conspiracy theorists back to reality."

"Joan Donovan, who leads the study of online disinformation at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, similarly tells NPR that the current social media environment is a "free for all" that is producing an "unfathomable" amount of disinformation for Americans to consume."

The never-ending Trump-era cautionary tale continues.

Why are QAnon believers obsessed with 4 March? (BBC)

Their hero is no longer president, but some followers of the fringe QAnon conspiracy theory have latched onto obscure, irrelevant laws in an attempt to keep the faith... The idea stems from the belief among some QAnon followers that the United States turned from a country into a corporation after the passage of the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871... Believers in the QAnon offshoot maintain that every US president, act and amendment passed after 1871 is illegitimate. But the theory is based on a false interpretation of the Organic Act, which merely turned the District of Columbia into a municipal corporation, better known as a local governing body, and has no relation to a president or the US as a whole... Before the 20th amendment of the US Constitution - adopted in 1933 - moved the swearing-in dates of the president and Congress to January, American leaders took office on 4 March. That's why QAnon followers have latched on to this date to underpin their latest theory...

It makes no sense, but then conspiracy theories never do...

My ridgetop neighbor started sending me email links to various conspiracy theories that are based on a single photo. Obama and young girls, for example. When you google the small bits of info, you can find the rest of the story - oh, that was his niece he was snuggling. On Inauguration Day, he sent a photo of VP Harris’ hand on two books. The claim was she couldn’t touch a bible (Satanist, you know) so there was a book in between. A google search revealed the story of the second bible, which belonged to someone who helped raise her; and another photo from a different angle showed the spine label saying ‘bible.’
I do respond to my neighbor, as I need to stay in good relationship, but oh my, it gets old.

>29 2wonderY: So is Vice-President Harris supposed to belong to the Church of Satan or the Satanic Temple?

The $1.98 definitions are:

Church of Satan: “Just Ayn Rand philosophy with ceremony and ritual added” —Anton Lavey, founder

Satanic Temple: “A non-theistic movement aligned with Liberty, Equality, and Rationalism.” —Lucien Greaves, co-founder

Although not a member myself, I think it would be kind of cool if Harris were part of the Satanic Temple.

Or maybe there is a secret Satanist group that really does eat babies. 🤪

>30 gsm235: Well, obviously.

#30--'Just Ayn Rand philosophy with ceremony and ritual added'--LOL! That's about it though.

QAnonnies Need Help -- A New Nostradamus

QAnon predictions are so good that believing the opposite of what they predict will make you right every time. Their record of successful predictions is so bad that it seems as if for every "Q particle" there's an "Anti-Q particle" which collides with it in a case of massive disintegration.

No mass arrests of Democrats, no mass suicides of Trump opponents, no Hillary arrest, no 'Mother of All Bombs' dropped on North Korea, no secret network of Democratic Satanic pedophiles, no return of the un-dead JFK, Jr., and no restoration of DJT to the presidency.

Aren't they tired of "winning" yet?

In the job search for a new Nostradamus, I hope one of the employment qualifications is ability to read maps.

Qanon followers have become convinced that Washington, D.C. has been "dissolved" ahead of the purported re-inauguration of former president Donald Trump.

"Did maps always just say Washington?" said popular Qanon conspiracist @GhostEzra on the Telegram encrypted messaging app. "Thought it said Washington DC?"

Google doesn't label the nation's capital with D.C., but it does identify the District of Columbia on state boundaries.

Bless their hearts.

>33 Limelite: Oh, yeah. This was(n’t) the day either.

It's March 4. No word yet on when Donald Trump is going to get sworn in again? What's going on Qballs?

And Stupid forges on, with Stupid millenarianism...

Did they happen to say, March 4 of which year?

>33 Limelite: no return of the un-dead JFK

Oh, now you've really disillusioned me. I thought JFK was alive and well and living on the moon with Elvis and Hitler, and a London double decker bus...

>38 John5918: He wasn't refereeing to Pres JFK, but JFK Jr. I don't remember the specifics, but one of Qanons "beliefs" is that he's still alive and part of Trumps "fight" against all that's wrong with the USA.

That doesn't sound very likely, the Kennedys are all Demonrats.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/tucker-carlson-mocks-coverage-of-radical-qanon-peopl...
Tucker Carlson Mocks Coverage of ‘Radical QAnon People’: They Seem Confused But ‘Gentle’ — ‘They’re Not Torching Wendy’s’

Tucker is a happy pro-QAnon dude. He knows QAnons are confused souls and mouth breathers who will gladly vote for GOPers at election time.

> 32

Sounds like the ultimate horror scenario : insane + boring.

Far-right supporters move to open source to evade censorship (Guardian)

A suicide and a strange bitcoin bequest have opened a window on to the new frontier of extremist online media...

Waking Up Too Late