Topic: Sexual Abuser Donald Trump Indicted

[Nobby Reserve]

Published on
Sunday, May 23, 2021
by Common Dreams
The Republican Party and the End of Enlightenment
"Republican discourse is a never-ending torrent of lies, idiocies, and absurdities—the very antithesis of Reason."
byRobert Freeman
 19 Comments

Most of those leading this cultural regression - from Trump to Bannon and all the other 'alt-right' gobshites - don't really believe all this stuff. They just use it as a series of dogwhistles to build a coalition of voters from amongst some seriously embittered people.

There's parallels with both the Brexit campaign in the UK, and the subsequent Tory government. People voting against reason and logic, and in favour of nebulous concepts founded in bigotry, bitterness and a sense of victimhood.

[Dr. Beaker]

I'm not so sure about this endarkenment theory. Ever since time began, the rich want power to ensure that their ill gotten gains won't be taken away from them. In the past, these rich folks were more likely than not the clever guys. Nowadays, for some reason, you can be a right thick fucker and still become immensely rich, but you aren't clever enough to appeal the the intelligent folks, you have to aim at the much more numerous thickos, and social media enables this.

[oldfordie]

Published on
Sunday, May 23, 2021
by Common Dreams
The Republican Party and the End of Enlightenment
"Republican discourse is a never-ending torrent of lies, idiocies, and absurdities—the very antithesis of Reason."



Republican discourse is a never-ending torrent of lies, idiocies, and absurdities—the very antithesis of Reason. The Muslim invasion. The caravan bringing murderers, rapists, drugs, and disease. Democrats eating babies. A satanic cult of pedophiles running the “Deep State.” A pandemic that would “disappear, like a miracle.” The greatest economy in the history of the world. Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head being canceled. Biden’s hamburger ban. A rigged election. Massive voter fraud. Terrorists who were really just tourists handing out hugs and kisses. It never ends.

The Republican assault on Reason is an attack not just on truth itself, but on our very capacity to think at all. With their base, Republicans address not the neo-cortex—the thinking part of the brain—but the amygdala—the lizard-brain seat of fight-or-flight. The amygdala subordinates logic, facts, reason, and deliberation to deceit, conspiracy, hysteria, and fear.

It’s easier to trigger hatred and fear than thinking and logic. That’s why Republicans do it. That’s why their base—and increasingly, their “leaders”—sound like zombies, like robots, like members of a cult when they’re interviewed for the evening news. They are. They’ve been programmed to fear and hate and blame, and the reinforcement is unending, because, to work, it has to be. Otherwise, they become unprogrammed.

It doesn’t matter that none of the endless effusion of lies ever turn out to be true or that they are routinely, repeatedly abandoned in favor of newer lies for the next news cycle. What matters is that the lies incite indignation, and that the dopamine high that follows gets its constant, programmed, ever-increasing reinforcement.

Trump’s 35,000 documented lies are the embodiment of it all. It is a leprous, insidious disease, an inability to deal with reality, but literally the one by which Republicans define themselves. Glandular excretions are the Republican formula for generating voter turnout: inciting Pavlovian rage based on a torrential fantasmia of lurid lies. It works, but it is the living, suppurating antithesis of Reason.

Another Republican assault on the legacy of the Enlightenment is the attack on Democracy. It was John Locke who, in 1689, wrote that people who were able to think could not be bullied like ignorant people could. If government wanted thinking people’s cooperation it could no longer rely on the medieval divine right of kings. It needed to obtain “the consent of the governed.” This, of course, became a sacrament of the American political order.

The opening words of the Constitution are, “We the people of the United States…” That is not a paean to monarchy, or to dictatorship. It is a statement that the consent of the people—and only that consent—provides a government its legitimacy. But Republicans are working feverishly to overturn the consent of the governed, to destroy Democracy.

Their assault on the Capitol on January 6th was the most conspicuous effort to overthrow the legitimately elected government of the United States but it was not the first and will certainly not be the last. Republicans insist that their reason-denying mobs, their goons, their Brownshirts will tell the rest of us how we will be governed. No consent involved, only submission: ours. You can see this in their fevered efforts at voter suppression, explicitly preventing majority rule and the consent of the governed.

Republicans cannot win power on the strength of their ideas and policies. They lost the presidency, the Senate, and the House. Large majorities favor policies backed by Democrats. So, they need to destroy Democracy itself to gain power. To do that, they need to destroy Reason as the way we know what we know. That is the core, the essence, the modus operandi of the Republican enterprise.

Constitutionalism is a third Enlightenment ideal that Republicans are intent on destroying. A constitution defines how a country is to be governed. Before constitutions, it was autocracy that called the shots. Think of Louis XIV’s notorious declaration: “I am the state.” Decisions were made by caprice, by the rich and powerful, in their own interests, everyone else be damned. Constitutionalism embeds the Rule of Law—another Enlightenment ideal—into a society, making “equal treatment under the law” a modern treasure, however badly it may be realized.

Besides losing all of the branches of the federal government, Republicans failed over and over and over to persuade the judicial branch to sanction their usurpation of the Constitution. So, they resort to performative charades like the farcical ballot laundering farrago in Arizona to try to undo the Constitutionally-ordained process for the peaceful transfer of power. Now, they’re taking it to other states. It will not end.

We could go on. Republicans want to destroy the social contract—another Enlightenment ideal—that says you get ahead on the basis of hard work. They insist, instead, that privilege should be based on race, with the best spots reserved for whites. This violates the Enlightenment ideal of equality for all.

Remember the opening words of the Declaration of Independence? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Pure Enlightenment. In the Republican world, however, like in Orwell’s Animal Farm which was an allegory of the degradation of Soviet totalitarianism, all men are created equal, but some—whites—are more equal than others.

We should be clear. This is not about peripheral protests over policy preferences. It is a broadside against the foundation, the institutional undergirding of our civilization. It is an attempt to destroy the conceptual milieu that has survived for centuries and that, however flawed it may be, has delivered the greatest freedom, expansion of rights, material progress, and human opportunity the world has ever known.

The measure of our alarm should be that Republicans, with the help of a complicit media, have managed to normalize rampant public lying, the unrestrained desecration of Reason, are carrying out an open, unabashed attack on our democracy, are carrying out notorious, savage assaults on Constitutionalism, the Rule of Law, Equality, and more. Our nation is literally under attack by anti-Enlightenment zealots determined to tear it down and it’s not at all clear that they will not succeed.

It is indicative that the Republican party’s highest priest is a thrice-married pathological liar, an admitted sexual assaulter, a draft dodger, a six-time filer for bankruptcy, a man who inflicted hundreds of thousands of excess deaths on the country, was twice impeached, who lost two successive popular vote counts, and who then attempted to overthrow the government. Read that sentence again and think about its implication.

The Republican hero, the man they model themselves on, the one they want us to bow down to, is a failed business man, a failed reality TV star, a failed president, a career con man who is the most corrupt, certainly the most craven and creepy individual ever known to American politics. This is the best Republicans have to offer. That is who they are, and what they insist on inflicting on all the rest of us, our consent be damned.

The Enlightenment helped the world replace monarchy with republicanism, a world ruled by theology with a world of science, autocracy with the rule of law, aristocratic privilege with the equality of all men, and feudalism with capitalism. No matter how imperfectly it may have been realized, it was as noble a vision as human beings have ever devised. The two worlds are the difference between the “Dark Ages” that went before and the modern world. That is the Republicans’ promise to America.

More regression. More destruction of beautiful ideals and noble institutions. More degradation of deserving people. More humiliation of undignified people, themselves being the examples. More carnage. More chaos. More slime spewed on everyone.

There’s not a syllable of inspiring vision in anything they have to say, not a word of uplifting ideals in any of it. It is all pathetic self-victimization and a lust for vengeance against those who refuse to respect them. We must all be dragged into the sewer that spawned, that is, and that sustains Donald Trump. That is his and Republicans’ retaliation against a people who once had the temerity to believe in majestic ideals, the audacity to strive for them, and who once imagined that they might even be worthy of them.

Great post.
"It's easier to trigger hate and fear than logic and reason" a few simple words that need to be said more often.

I think it's time to start using a word the Republicans are fond of, Radicalized, the Republicans to their shame have Radicalized people into extremists. the word has to be used far more often as well as the situation in America is getting very dark, you wonder how far this Radicalization will go and then you read something like this below and you wonder why you never saw it coming. many Trump supporters are White Supremacists, Charlottesville proved many are Nazi supporters, they both have influence on the CTs sweeping America.
So this could be next. call them White Supremacists or Nazis and they may tell you these are words invented by Jews to attack us.

The words Nazi, Anti-Semetic, Racist+Sexist are all derogatory Epithets made up by Radical/Communist/Liberal Jews.

[Red Beret]

There's no easy way to break down this situation, and it's not just an American phenomenon.

If you consider that in the past, say, 150 years, there was a huge drive for the working class to become educated.  At first just the basics of being able to read and write, but they're the foundation on which critical thinking is built. Expansion of voting meant political parties had to communicate to a far larger and much broader range of electorate.  Politicians were forced to engage with the people more directly.

Fast forward to today - to a world of materialism, creature comforts, social media, echo chambers etc.  There is more information available than at any point in human history. Yet seldom at any point in the modern era have regular people been more disengaged.

People are happy to be spoonfed whatever they want to believe in a dumbed down world. Republicans?  Why engage with voters, when you can simply disenfranchise them?  Your own supporters?  It only counts as lying if they can be arsed to fact check you.  And if people do fact check you?  Create a law to ban fact checking, or at least make it a high financial risk to do so.

We live in an age where people gorge themselves on blue pills, but they think they are red pills because they've been told that's what the colour is and they're colour-blind.  So both sides point to the other and call them sheep.

[dalarr]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a first-in-the-nation bill that can penalise tech companies for deplatforming politicians.

I bet it has nothing to do with his orange friend getting banned. I don’t quite know what to make of this as I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. But isn’t this an attack on free speech? Shouldn’t any “platform” be allowed to govern themselves?

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56952435

[Chakan]

Florida - leading the way back into the dark ages.

[Riquende]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a first-in-the-nation bill that can penalise tech companies for deplatforming politicians.

I bet it has nothing to do with his orange friend getting banned. I don’t quite know what to make of this as I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. But isn’t this an attack on free speech? Shouldn’t any “platform” be allowed to govern themselves?

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56952435

I don't know that you could make an attack on free speech work as an attack, as it's being touted as stopping people being censored just for their political views.

The real noggin-scratcher is how Republicans can square being the party of small Government and supporting such overt regulation and meddling in what private companies can do.

That's assuming they're a logical, consistent party however, which obvsiously isn't the case. If all the major social media networks were run by evangelist Christians then they'd be quite happy to let them run themselves, banning all the atheists, socialists, gays etc.

[Jiminy Cricket]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a first-in-the-nation bill that can penalise tech companies for deplatforming politicians.

I bet it has nothing to do with his orange friend getting banned. I don’t quite know what to make of this as I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. But isn’t this an attack on free speech? Shouldn’t any “platform” be allowed to govern themselves?

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56952435

Yep. The bill is patently unconstitutional. I do not know if Ron DeSantis is ignorant of this or does not care.

[FlashGordon]

Yep. The bill is patently unconstitutional. I do not know if Ron DeSantis is ignorant of this or does not care.

Both, I'd wager.

[jambutty]

CNN
Trump responds to insurrection lawsuit by claiming immunity while he was President
By Katelyn Polantz, CNN  1 hr ago

Donald Trump's attorney defended the ex-President's incendiary speech on January 6, saying he is protected under the First Amendment and had "absolute immunity" while he was President to contest the election, according to a court filing this week.

The argument is the first time Trump has formally defended his actions in court since the insurrection, and reflects his continued push to his supporters that he did nothing wrong and was robbed of a second term in office.

Trump argues in DC District Court that his bully pulpit message to his supporters at the political rally on January 6 -- encouraging them to oppose Congress certifying the vote -- was a constitutionally protected act of the presidency.

"While holding that office, former President Trump was free to advocate for the appointment and certification of electors, just as he was entitled to advocate for the passage or defeat of a constitutional amendment, or the reconsideration of a congressional act over his veto even though the President does not directly participate in those congressional acts," Trump's private attorney Jesse Binnall wrote in a response in court to a lawsuit from Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell seeking to hold him accountable for the insurrection. "The claims against former President Trump directly contravene the absolute immunity conveyed on the President by the Constitution as a key principle of separation of powers."

The filing from Trump's legal team also argues that Swalwell can't sue because the House has already impeached Trump and the Senate tried him. (At the time, several senators, including Republican leaders, said they believed Trump still could be held accountable through litigation.)

In what's become a typical rhetorical defense from Trump, his attorney also throws barbs at his political rivals, trying to equate the ex-President with Democrats.

The filing defends Trump's effort to question the election results after states had certified their votes, comparing his push of unfounded fraud allegations to Stacey Abrams suing after her Georgia gubernatorial race.

His lawyer also suggests that if Trump were held responsible for the insurrection, Swalwell and Democrats could be held responsible for the shooting of House member Steve Scalise at a baseball practice in 2017, or for a neighbor who attacked Sen. Rand Paul, according to the filing.

"If similar lawsuits were brought based upon those incidents against Mr. Swalwell and his colleagues, they would inevitably be making the same arguments, and rightfully so. As a matter of law, political speakers do not owe a legally enforceable duty of care to their adversaries or others who might find themselves in the path of impassioned supporters," Trump's attorney wrote in court.

Recently, Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani defended his own speech at the rally on January 6 just before the riot. The former New York mayor argues he was speaking in hyperbole when he called for the crowd to contest the election results with "trial by combat.

"https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-responds-to-insurrection-lawsuit-by-claiming-immunity-while-he-was-president/ar-AAKnfjo?li=BB141NW3

[oldfordie]

 
Trump "It's the biggest Witch Hunt in History, all political.blah blah blah"

CNN, Trumps words are meaningless, this is about hard evidence in court, you have to look at what happened last week as it can't be coincidence. they announced the investigation was now a criminal investigation, now it goes to a grand jury. they have the goods.

New grand jury seated for next stage of Trump investigation

The development signals that the Manhattan district attorney’s office was moving toward seeking charges as a result of its two-year investigation, which included a lengthy legal battle to obtain Trump’s tax records.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-trump-investigations-business-government-and-politics-80592eae7ba9ca508a3161e085a0fec6

[KillieRed]

Interesting bit (18 minutes in) about Don McGahn testifying with regards to Trumps flagrant obstructions of justice:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rachel-maddow-show/id294055449#episodeGuid=dfaf1a40-ecb6-43e4-937c-93b5c3183e2a

[Jiminy Cricket]

Interesting bit (18 minutes in) about Don McGahn testifying with regards to Trumps flagrant obstructions of justice:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rachel-maddow-show/id294055449#episodeGuid=dfaf1a40-ecb6-43e4-937c-93b5c3183e2a

Which episode? That link goes the episode index.

[KillieRed]

Sorry, here you go.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rachel-maddow-show/id294055449

Though both links go to the same place for me. It’s episode 81.

[Jiminy Cricket]

Sorry, here you go.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rachel-maddow-show/id294055449

Though both links go to the same place for me. It’s episode 81.

Cheers.

[Jiminy Cricket]

Sorry, here you go.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rachel-maddow-show/id294055449

Though both links go to the same place for me. It’s episode 81.

Actually, that still goes to the index. And, I can see no episode number. What's the title?

[KillieRed]

Hmmmm, I wonder if it’s phone specific? Which would kinda render their share button obsolete. It’s episode 81 in the index; “As Manhattan DA moves...”

Here’s the weblink; https://the-rachel-maddow-show.simplecast.com/episodes/as-manhattan-da-moves-to-grand-jury-in-trump-org-probe-other-trump-investigations-loom-IVzmukJM.

[Red Beret]

I hear Besos has just bought MGM for $9bn, even though it was valued at only $5bn.

Stephen Colbert uncharitably suggested Besos only bought it so he can get his hands on The Apprentice blooper tapes, that have Trump using all kinds of foul, obscene and racist language, and that he's planning to have them released.

Surely not.

[KillieRed]

Jesus, $4b overpay and he’ll hardly miss it. Rooting for Bezos over Trump is kinda like rooting for the ESL over UEFA or Stalin over Hitler. The best we can hope for is tasty popcorn fallout.

[Jiminy Cricket]

Hmmmm, I wonder if it’s phone specific? Which would kinda render their share button obsolete. It’s episode 81 in the index; “As Manhattan DA moves...”

Here’s the weblink; https://the-rachel-maddow-show.simplecast.com/episodes/as-manhattan-da-moves-to-grand-jury-in-trump-org-probe-other-trump-investigations-loom-IVzmukJM.

Nope. That doesn't worth either! I think you made an error when copying the URL - I get the following message:

Unconfigured Simplecast Domain

You are seeing this page because your website is not configured properly. Learn more

But no problem - I have it from the title you provided. And here's the link:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/as-manhattan-d-moves-to-grand-jury-in-trump-org-probe/id294055449?i=1000523127141

[oldfordie]

Actually, that still goes to the index. And, I can see no episode number. What's the title?

It must be the episode at the top of the list from last night, I see a play button and had no problems listening so not sure why others are having problems.

[dalarr]

Republican bill aims to cut funding to Michigan schools that teach about racial oppression

Under the legislation introduced Thursday, K-12 districts would lose 5% of their funding if educators teach critical race theory, “anti-American” ideas about race in America, or material from The 1619 Project, a New York Times initiative that puts Black history and the consequences of slavery at the center of the U.S. national narrative.

Like stated in this thread numerous times: they’re not even trying to hide it anymore. I was shocked by this. Strange that it has not caused an uproar. What’s the point of schools if they cannot teach and train critical thinking?


https://www.google.no/amp/s/detroit.chalkbeat.org/platform/amp/2021/5/21/22447870/gop-bill-cut-funding-michigan-schools-teach-about-racial-oppression

[Jiminy Cricket]

It must be the episode at the top of the list from last night, I see a play button and had no problems listening so not sure why others are having problems.

Yeah. I would have plumbed for the top one too, but I could not drag the progress marker to the 18 minutes mark. Thought it best to double-check.

[Chakan]

Republican bill aims to cut funding to Michigan schools that teach about racial oppression

Under the legislation introduced Thursday, K-12 districts would lose 5% of their funding if educators teach critical race theory, “anti-American” ideas about race in America, or material from The 1619 Project, a New York Times initiative that puts Black history and the consequences of slavery at the center of the U.S. national narrative.

Like stated in this thread numerous times: they’re not even trying to hide it anymore. I was shocked by this. Strange that it has not caused an uproar. What’s the point of schools if they cannot teach and train critical thinking?


https://www.google.no/amp/s/detroit.chalkbeat.org/platform/amp/2021/5/21/22447870/gop-bill-cut-funding-michigan-schools-teach-about-racial-oppression

Keep the populace dumb and you can make them do whatever you want.

[oldfordie]

Yeah. I would have plumbed for the top one too, but I could not drag the progress marker to the 18 minutes mark. Thought it best to double-check.

Yeah, sorry, should have mentioned the same thing with me, couldn't jump to 18 min but found the first 18 very interesting anyway as she explained the purpose of a grand jury and how it works in detail.

[Jiminy Cricket]

Republican bill aims to cut funding to Michigan schools that teach about racial oppression

Under the legislation introduced Thursday, K-12 districts would lose 5% of their funding if educators teach critical race theory, “anti-American” ideas about race in America, or material from The 1619 Project, a New York Times initiative that puts Black history and the consequences of slavery at the center of the U.S. national narrative.

Like stated in this thread numerous times: they’re not even trying to hide it anymore. I was shocked by this. Strange that it has not caused an uproar. What’s the point of schools if they cannot teach and train critical thinking?


https://www.google.no/amp/s/detroit.chalkbeat.org/platform/amp/2021/5/21/22447870/gop-bill-cut-funding-michigan-schools-teach-about-racial-oppression

The US education system (at school level at least) has never been that interested in facts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_and_evolution_in_public_education_in_the_United_States

[Jiminy Cricket]

Yeah, sorry, should have mentioned the same thing with me, couldn't jump to 18 min but found the first 18 very interesting anyway as she explained the purpose of a grand jury and how it works in detail.

You can actually advance play 30 seconds at a time (the button just to the right of the play/pause button), but it is a bit slow. And, I did not even notice the button until later.

[oldfordie]

You can actually advance play 30 seconds at a time (the button just to the right of the play/pause button), but it is a bit slow. And, I did not even notice the button until later.

Always the way. find out afterwards.
Glad I listened just the same, understand why it's done in secret and the purpose so even more confident this will lead to a indictment now.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Jesus, $4b overpay and he’ll hardly miss it. Rooting for Bezos over Trump is kinda like rooting for the ESL over UEFA or Stalin over Hitler. The best we can hope for is tasty popcorn fallout.

Not sure how anybody can put them both in the same category.

Would be amazing if he did get hold of those master tapes and make them all free to view.

[Jiminy Cricket]

I though fellow RAWKites (especially Oldfordie) would appreciate this Trump legal tracker:

https://www.justsecurity.org/75032/litigation-tracker-pending-criminal-and-civil-cases-against-donald-trump/

You can track other topics too.

[oldfordie]

I though fellow RAWKites (especially Oldfordie) would appreciate this Trump legal tracker:

https://www.justsecurity.org/75032/litigation-tracker-pending-criminal-and-civil-cases-against-donald-trump/

You can track other topics too.

Brilliant site, MSNBC recommended it last week, very detailed info but also gives a excellent summery.

[KillieRed]

I also like r/Keep_Track on Reddit.

[ShakaHislop]

Trump has launched his own social media platform called, wait for it, ‘from the desk of Donald J Trump’.  Rolls of the tongue that.

Former President Donald Trump’s blog — a webpage where he shared statements after larger social media companies banned him from their platforms — has been permanently shut down, his spokesman said Wednesday.

The page, “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” has been scrubbed from Trump’s website after going live less than a month earlier.

It “will not be returning,” his senior aide Jason Miller told CNBC.

“It was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on,” Miller said in email correspondence.

He declined to provide additional details about those efforts.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/02/trump-blog-page-shuts-down-for-good.html

[TSC]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/02/trump-blog-page-shuts-down-for-good.html

Another success

[stoa]

Wouldn't be surprised if that "broader effort" is Trump joining the Pillow guy's new "social media platform" that is supposed to launch someday. It's basically a no-brainer, if you're a lunatic right-wing rich guy. Let some IT-intern put together something where people can post stuff, follow others, comment and like stuff and get Trump to sign on to it. Clearly, loads of his sheep would follow him and you get all their data, because they don't really care about privacy as long as they can once again follow their Dear Leader. Sell that information to others and get some companies with right wing nutters in charge as advertisers. Hell, you could even set up a donation thing for your platform, so you can get the money directly from the Retrumplicans. Of course, you'd need to set  up the company in some foreign place, so US-authorities can't come after you, if you violate privacy rules or whatever. If people complain about that, just say that it's because of the deep-state in the US and it's a safety meassure so your free speech  platform can't be taken offline by the evil Democrats. Don't think there's an easier way to make money...

[Red Beret]

I think the My Pillow guy is going to have his hands full pretty soon...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/8tNiqG1_4Ds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/8tNiqG1_4Ds</a>

Still, it makes sense for Trump to piggy back on somebody else's project - that way, when it fails it's not his failure, he's just a user.  Trump probably thinks he'd be untouchable and all the liability will be on the platform.

[Caligula?]

Trump is telling people he thinks he'll be 'reinstated' as president in August, according to a report

Former President Donald Trump has been telling people he thinks he'll return to the White House as the sitting president by August, the New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted on Tuesday.

Haberman, who broke some of the biggest stories of the Trump administration and has been covering him for decades, added that Trump had been "laser focused" on election audits in states whose results he is still trying to overturn.

The anti-democratic conspiracy theory has been bubbling up in fringe conservative media for several months. It has no basis under the Constitution or any legitimate legal framework.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has been a prominent proponent of the theory.

The former Trump attorney Sidney Powell also floated the idea at a QAnon conference over the weekend.

The anticipation of a Trump reinstatement on a certain date could spread further among the most dedicated Trump supporters. The calls to help overturn the 2020 election on January 6, for example, gained steam through a pro-Trump bus tour by a fringe group and led to the insurrection at the Capitol.

Lindell has said August is when he would go to the Supreme Court to present evidence he's acquired that would be so convincing that the justices would be forced to reject the 2020 election result.

A podcast from the former Trump advisor Steve Bannon has amplified the conspiracy theory, as Lindell and others have gone on the show to promote it with minimal pushback.

The podcast is influential among GOP lawmakers hoping to avoid a primary challenge while seeking reelection.

Trump's lawyers and other Republicans filed dozens of lawsuits related to the election; all failed.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-expects-to-be-reinstated-as-president-august-2021-6

I genuinely can't tell who among them is the most batshit crazy. Time for Biden's Justice Department to step in here and do something. They're advocating for a Myanmar-style coup and there are nutjobs who are readying for violence as we speak.

[dalarr]

I genuinely can't tell who among them is the most batshit crazy. Time for Biden's Justice Department to step in here and do something. They're advocating for a Myanmar-style coup and there are nutjobs who are readying for violence as we speak.

It certainly is not a laughing matter but you can’t help but chuckle a bit. They lie about everything but when it comes to racism and terrorism/facism they are always completely honest.

[Nobby Reserve]

Wouldn't be surprised if that "broader effort" is Trump joining the Pillow guy's new "social media platform" that is supposed to launch someday. It's basically a no-brainer, if you're a lunatic right-wing rich guy. Let some IT-intern put together something where people can post stuff, follow others, comment and like stuff and get Trump to sign on to it. Clearly, loads of his sheep would follow him and you get all their data, because they don't really care about privacy as long as they can once again follow their Dear Leader. Sell that information to others and get some companies with right wing nutters in charge as advertisers. Hell, you could even set up a donation thing for your platform, so you can get the money directly from the Retrumplicans. Of course, you'd need to set  up the company in some foreign place, so US-authorities can't come after you, if you violate privacy rules or whatever. If people complain about that, just say that it's because of the deep-state in the US and it's a safety meassure so your free speech  platform can't be taken offline by the evil Democrats. Don't think there's an easier way to make money...

Lindell's social media platform, set up because Lindell didn't agree with comments being censored, will ban swearing, blasphemy and content deemed sexual in nature.

Because they're unChristian. And Lindell is a committed Christian.

But racism, white supremacy, anti-homosexual hate speech, advocation of neo-fascism are all fine.

[KillieRed]

That’s his chosen sect. I’d bet his fine with religion for profit & the proliferation of firearms too.