January 12, 2021

The downfall-of-Trump conspiracy theories will go on for 100 years. They will never end in my lifetime. I have accepted this reality.

Americans love our great conspiracy subjects. The JFK assassination.... Area 51... We were talking about that last night, and I happened to say, "Truthers. Remember Truthers. What were the Truthers?" 

I had to stop and think which conspiracy subject had the people called "Truthers." I remembered: 9/11.

Now, 2 hours before sunrise, I'm seeing the headline "Some members of Congress fear the Capitol mob attack was an inside job" (Axios). Oh no. It's like the 9/11 Truther theory: inside job!

It will never end. We're just getting started. 

Do I need to worry that this is the conspiracy theory that gets you ousted from social media? Is it a left-wing conspiracy theory or a right-wing conspiracy theory? If I say it looks like a left-wing conspiracy theory because it's Axios so I'm probably safe writing about this, am I wafting a right-wing conspiracy theory and therefore vulnerable?

First sentence of the Axios article: "An information gap following the Capitol assault has fueled fears among members of Congress that it was an inside job involving the Capitol Police." So, in the absence of evidence — an "information gap" — you can speculate about anything and feel afraid. Then the gap itself can be said to "fuel fears." 

There's only one member of Congress identified in the article, Tim Ryan, "a lone Democratic congressman from Ohio": 
The mass resignations by the Capitol Police chief and Senate and House sergeant-at-arms, coupled with few briefings by federal officials like the FBI, have left important questions unanswered and a lone Democratic congressman from Ohio trying to fill in the gaps. Rep. Tim Ryan, chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Capitol Police, has held three virtual briefings to update reporters. 
On Monday, he shared the shocking news that two Capitol Police officers had been suspended and 10–15 were under investigation for their behavior during the riot. "One was the selfie officer, and another was an officer who put a MAGA hat on and started directing people around,” Ryan said....

It's one thing to point to individual officers who, surrounded by a mob, behaved in a manner that could be construed as friendly. But why wasn't there far better security overall? If you're going to hypothesize that the Capitol Police supported the mob, don't limit yourself to one hypothesis. Why did the mob get into the building in the first place? But don't be a Truther. Actually find out what is true.

But you can see how there's a left-wing hypothesis here and a right-wing hypothesis. I presume, under current conditions of censorship, that the left-wing hypothesis will get air. That fuel will catch fire. The right-wing hypothesis... well, where will it go? 

181 comments:

exhelodrvr1 said...

Pretty clearly the election results were not going to be overturned at this point.

So who had the most to gain by actions such as what occurred?
1) Not Trump himself.
2) Not the Republican party.
3) Possibly "big Tech"
4) Definitely the Democrats

It was obviously not an actual "coup" attempt. Anyone making that claim is either an idiot, or trying to cause trouble. Or both.

Ann Althouse said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Left Bank of the Charles said...

Where will it go? The right wing conspiracy theory concerning the downfall of Donald Trump gathered on the Ellipse and marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. That’s where it went.

Ann Althouse said...

I feel like I should delete my comment, out of an interest in self-preservation.

YoungHegelian said...

Oh, gosh, how could it be that The Congress is not beloved by all those who have the honor to serve it on a day to day basis?

/sarc

Come on, ya lying dog face pony soldiers! I live in the DC area, and everyone knows that a large fraction of the Congresscritters are assholes to those in their orbit. Being abused by the congress-person is a hazard of the job for anyone working on a congressional staff.

Ya know all those employment laws that cover job discrimnation? Well, Congress exempts itself from those laws that they impose on every other employer. Guess why.

To paraphrase a wise man on the street, a Congress is asshole!

Breezy said...

Are referring to the theory of there being Trump haters in the crowd that instigated the worst offenses, as the right wing conspiracy theory?

exhelodrvr1 said...

It definitely could have just been a few far-right idiots, but would anyone be surprised if it was instigated by the left? And that if it was, the government and the media would do everything in their power to cover it up?

The biggest problem with what has gone on the past (especially) 12 years - inappropriate activity by government entities that favor the left, and minimal investigation/outright attempts to cover it up by the media - is that it makes potential "conspiracy theories" MUCH more believable.

rhhardin said...

I had to stop and think which conspiracy subject..

Hendiadys, replacing subordination by coordination. The subordinated original is "stop to think."

iowan2 said...

Transparency?

I look for those "gaps" in media propaganda. Unasked questions. The Dog that didn't bark.

The Las Vegas shooting comes to mind. Lots of death, for no motive.

With the Federal govt, the default position is to classify everything top secret, and then leak the info that smears conservatives.
The dog not barking is leftist thugs are the perpetrators, Not President Trump supporters.

Mark said...

Stop the Steal will also exist then, but for some reason you don't mock.

You pretend at bravery here, but a brave act would be to challenge your readers about their conspiracy du jour

Sally327 said...

I suppose the cop blaming fits with the Democrats' approach to the police generally. One more reason for defunding. I guess this also detracts from the reality that the police actually shot someone dead. So maybe this is actually a pro-police feint.

I was thinking recently about the early days of the Internet, when there were chatrooms and message boards. Are those still around? Maybe that's how the right can fuel its own conspiracy theories, resurrect the old ways of communicating, old, that is, as in 20 years ago, which isn't really old.



rhhardin said...

There's the don't-give-a-shit hypothesis to fill the information gap, a third possibility. It's out of the soap-opera loop.

rehajm said...

I feel like I should delete my comment, out of an interest in self-preservation.

All your stuff is on the servers- it won't matter. You'll have to wait your turn but they'll get to you.

...but hey- at least the mean Presidential tweets won't come from Trump anymore...

Temujin said...

There was a lot going on that day. And I do think that the Michael Yon article I posted here yesterday gave a good feel for some of what was happening from a man who spends his life in hot zones, strife zones, around social upheaval, protests, and riots. He knows what he sees and comments on it without emotion.

He did not come out and say that this was a set up. But he did point out that there were literally hundreds of thousands of people there. Many had no idea what was going on. Many simply peeled off and went back to their hotels (or wherever) before anything happened because it was so cold. And up front, there were very clear signs of Agent Provocateurs directing the crowd by use of bullhorns and screaming directions. And, as always happens in a crowd- once the crowd gets moving, they all get moving. Most moving just to see. Others moving to destroy and have cover. Also- there were clear signs of Antifa and BLM agents up front, in the crowd (and photos have identified at least a couple who were present at Antifa/BLM protests and riots over the summer, including the Viking guy.)

Finally- as we all have sensed- Yon pointed out that all of us knew there was something that could happen. Everyone knew it. Surely our national security people knew it. The FBI knew it. Where was everybody? Why was there no major security set up all around the Capitol with an unquestioned force present? Why were a handful of Capitol Police there, surprised that they were up against a huge mob of people? And why were some of the Capitol police removing barricades and waving people in, directing them in?

The thing about conspiracy theories is that usually they are just theories. But sometimes they're the truth waiting to have a light shone on it. Like so much that keeps happening in this country- there is never a light shone on anything anymore. Truth is in short supply.

rehajm said...

Maybe rhhardin can give you some shortwave tips...

rhhardin said...

The thing to remember about being cancelled is that you're cancelled because of what they overseer thinks will happen to them if they don't cancel you, not because the overseer otherwise cares.

It's a psy-ops thing.

Sort of like the Nazis. You're afraid not to reveal where the Jews are hiding lest it be discovered that you knew and they kill you too.

tim in vermont said...

This is how the Reichstag Fire was played by the Nazis. Shut down any voice that could by remotely plausibly accused of “disloyalty.” You are right to be worried. This is how fascist rule, by fear if, as the non presidential elections showed, love is not possible.

" be to challenge your readers about their conspiracy du jour”

You mean like Trump paid hookers peeing on a hotel bed where Obama slept once?

rhhardin said...

I'm listening to a VK2 (Australia) calling CQ but he's weak enough that my reply with 15w surely wouldn't be heard. First shortwave tip.

Gahrie said...

On Monday, he shared the shocking news that two Capitol Police officers had been suspended and 10–15 were under investigation for their behavior during the riot. "One was the selfie officer, and another was an officer who put a MAGA hat on and started directing people around,” Ryan said....

How about the guy who shot and killed someone?

rhhardin said...

A Sarah Hoyt commenter over at insty had it figured out. The Trumpers were there to protect the guards from an insider attack. Actually more plausibly presented.

Curious George said...

Althouse today: "So, in the absence of evidence — an "information gap" — you can speculate about anything and feel afraid. Then the gap itself can be said to "fuel fears."

Althouse yesterday: "I don't have a position on the impeachment, though. I need to know if there was a plan to breach the Capitol and if Trump knew about it."

Fernandinande said...

Biden is totally not stoking the flames of hate and chaos by appointing as the head of DOJ's civil rights division the person who wrote the following text:

"Pineal calcification rates with Africans are five to 15 percent, Asians 15 to 25 percent and Europeans 60 to 80 percent. This is the chemical basis for the cultural differences between Blacks and whites.

Five: Melanin endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities–something which cannot be measured based on Eurocentric standards."

The Crack Emcee said...

"Truthers. Remember Truthers. What were the Truthers?"

Van Jones lost his WH job under Obama for being one.

If Trump's a racist for being a Birther, was Van Jones a racist for that? It did come first.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Don't be the first one to stop clapping.

Will said...

Another way of saying this is that Pretentisent Joe Biden will be completely illegitimate from Day One.

you know Joe, the guy who said his team had "put together I think the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics."

Biden has made a choice to leave a giant dark storm cloud over his administration.

Why?

traditionalguy said...

The purge we fear is happening because fear that Populism could rise again. What if the elites cannot fool all the people all the time. From the murder most foul of 1963 through the demolition of the WTC of 2001 and the election counters of 2020 the truth of what happened has been escaping on the internet for 15 years. So it is the internet reports that are being purged as we speak.

David Begley said...

We’ve seen references to the Reichstag fire, but none that I’ve seen to the Bastille. Why is that? Congress is our jailers and the building is a sign of their oppression of us Deplorables.

J. Farmer said...

The deplorables are hopeless. They'll continue tilting at windmills while demography, drug overdoses, and suicides do their work. They're stuck in a Cold War narrative where the villains are "leftists" and "communists" and "socialists." Meanwhile, neoliberalism has been the dominant global ideology for almost 30 years.

Between the post-60s civil rights movement, mass immigration, and the end of the Cold War, there is no coherent American national identity. A more diverse society is a more divided society. The previous decade probably saw the nation's first decline in absolute European-Americans while nearly all population growth over the same period was driven by ethnic minorities.

iowan2 said...

Its all propaganda.

Bidens laptop. The only mention the media gave it, was to say it was Russian disinformation and the had a long list of retired(no longer receiving intelligence)to support that conclusion.

Three prongs of the propaganda play. 1. Silence the whole thing. 2 Lie about it. 3.appeals to authority.

The Crack Emcee said...

We could stop anything, if we'd only lay out the facts to the people - the Iraq War:

We fucked-up (thanks to Colin Powell) because we should've killed Saddam during the first Gulf War, as we promised. Because we didn't, we got people killed - so they weren't happy to see us return - but, W had to keep our word and kill the bastard (we created him), so, even if it was hard, our honor stays intact.

Trump: Jerrod Carmichael said Trump is "the kid you bullied in school" and - specifically the Clintons - want to keep bullying him in adulthood. Why? BECAUSE THEY AND THEIR PARTY ARE CRIMINALS AND THIS IS A WAY FOR THEM TO DIVERT ATTENTION AWAY FROM EXPOSING THEIR CRIMES, LIKE THE LONG-STANDING RAPE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST BILL.

boatbuilder said...

The media’s lack of curiosity about the video recorded execution of Ashli Babbit is stunning.

Mr Wibble said...

Conspiracy theorists aren't simply some nutter in a cabin in the woods stocking up on canned goods and ammunition. It's your aunt who tells you that big agra is hiding the truth about pesticides and autism. It's your cow orker who swears that the board of directors is planning to sell the company and take the money and run while you all get fired. It's the buddy who swears all the teachers at school are out to get him.

Conspiracies are a part of being human, because we desperately seek patterns in random chance and the decisions of millions of other people. They are exacerbated by low social trust and cohesion. Humans, being fundamentally tribal creatures, mistrust those not like themselves.

Of course, we have two parties dedicated to policies which encourage low social trust and maximum diversity, which is fertile ground for conspiracy theories. The left is telling people to obsess over race, sexual orientation, class, and whatever other differences can be labeled, while simultaneously attacking many of the institutions (such as religion) which have served as a unifying force. Meanwhile, Conservative, Inc. is busy importing millions of third-world laborers and exporting jobs, gutting the middle class in the name of economic efficiency while at the same time causing rapid social and cultural changes to the fabric of society.

rehajm said...

It's your cow orker who swears that the board of directors is planning to sell the company and take the money and run while you all get fired.

Sorry I can't continue without acknowledging my cow orker...

Lucien said...

Anyone who thinks they know what will go on for 100 years SHOULD be writing for Axios.
When was the last time you heard a spirited “who lost China” debate — or about how FDR knew about Pearl Harbor ahead of time, but let the attack happen (that’s why the carriers weren’t there)?

Mr Wibble said...

or about how FDR knew about Pearl Harbor ahead of time, but let the attack happen (that’s why the carriers weren’t there)?

Honestly, I hear that one quite a bit in certain corners of the internet.

Mr Wibble said...

Sorry I can't continue without acknowledging my cow orker...

That was deliberate.

MayBee said...

Facebook still hasn't finished investigating whether the Hunter Biden laptop story is real enough to be posted n its pages. But it knows that "Stop the Steal" is bad.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

“Information gap” is a weird way to spell “censored news.”

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I feel like I should delete my comment, out of an interest in self-preservation.

Then the fascists have won. That is exactly what they want you to think.

MayBee said...

Mr Wibble, you are right about the conspiracy theories. We all see them, in big ways and in small.
The Satanic Panic of the 90s has become Q-anon, but Q anon is much less embedded in our institutions, so it's a tremendous "conspiracy".

As for me, I can see several different options:
1- MAGA people for some reason decided to start beating cops to death on the Capitol steps
2- Antifa people had infiltrated and led the protestors to be more Antifa-like
3- Some government entity, like the CIA or the FBI, had people in the crowd to stir it to violence to get at Trump
4- Some non-government entity, non-poitical entity that wants to get at Trump had people in the crowd to stir up violence

None of these seem impossible to me. How about anyone else?

Inga said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Inga said...

Who is still pushing Trumpist conspiracy theory? Trump of course.

“Behind the scenes: In a tense, 30-minute-plus phone call this morning with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Trump trotted out the Antifa line.

McCarthy would have none of it, telling the president: "It's not Antifa, it's MAGA. I know. I was there," according to a White House official and another source familiar with the call.

The White House official said the call was tense and aggressive at times, with Trump ranting about election fraud and an exasperated McCarthy cutting in to say, "Stop it. It's over. The election is over."”

https://www.axios.com/trump-falsely-blames-antifa-for-capitol-riot-bab4943c-d465-4d05-ae36-1e8d1437f168.html

The Crack Emcee said...

Ing says she respects me - and then ducks me like a racist.

iowan2 said...

Inga, exactly who said President Trump "trotted out the Antifa line."

Show your work

The Crack Emcee said...

boatbuilder said...

"The media’s lack of curiosity about the video recorded execution of Ashli Babbit is stunning."

Here's Christopher Hitchens in 1998, talking about the Clinton's ability to make journalists keep their mouths shut and their intellectual suborders to form a bulwark against the truth ever coming out.

NewAge Nazis don't want to grapple with being the bad guys.

The Crack Emcee said...

"supporters"

Mikey NTH said...

There are people who claim that FDR knew that the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor and did not warn the fleet because he wanted to get the USA into WWII. As hard as people try to quash conspiracy theories, they will exist and thrive. The tech iterations of the Masters of the Universe will eventually learn this.

The Crack Emcee said...

Inga is determined to keep muddying the waters - not bringing light to the situation - which is Hitchens' point about what's wrong with the entire party.

ANd a good reason for an uprising.

People who refuse to reason (Inga just wants us to hear her opinion, not debate) are insufferable.

iowan2 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Every first-person account I’ve heard/read indicates exactly what Yon writes. And you can see in the videos posted. There are red white & blue Trump supporters (“stop the steal”) and there are black-clad anfita (in skeleton masks) who are provacateurs. It’s undeniable if you look at the available videos.

stevew said...

The people of the West, and especially Americans, love conspiracy theories and theorizing. It's a way to spice up events and blame the other.

I do find it interesting that it is here that I read about all the resignations and investigations of the Capital Police. One would expect reporters to break that news. Instead they are fomenting conspiracy stories and turning a blind eye to the facts.

The Crack Emcee said...

How could Christopher Hitchensay, in 1998, the Clintons have the ability to make journalists keep their mouths shut and their intellectual suborders to form a bulwark against the truth ever coming out - and it hasn't been acknowledged since - when we see it in action?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

https://reason.com/2021/01/11/powells-books-antifa-andy-ngo-store-censorship/

For “just an idea” anfita sure seems to get “its” way pretty often in the PNW.

iowan2 said...

4- Some non-government entity, non-political entity that wants to get at Trump had people in the crowd to stir up violence

Robert Creamer is probably still in the same business he was in, before he was exposed and fired. He is the guy hired by President Obama to hire thugs to disrupt political events using violence, targeted by the White House.
What a coincidence! Obama is still in DC and still running his oft renamed Organizing for America.

The Crack Emcee said...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Every first-person account I’ve heard/read indicates exactly what Yon writes. And you can see in the videos posted. There are red white & blue Trump supporters (“stop the steal”) and there are black-clad anfita (in skeleton masks) who are provacateurs. It’s undeniable if you look at the available videos.

You guys are in the woods: there's a right and a wrong - if the Democrats are the reason for this chaos - Antifa is in the wrong.

But, first, you have to prove the Democrats are the reason.

Trying to prove the rest is worthless.

Inga said...

“I do find it interesting that it is here that I read about all the resignations and investigations of the Capital Police. One would expect reporters to break that news. Instead they are fomenting conspiracy stories and turning a blind eye to the facts.”

There were many news outlets reporting these resignations and investigations, even yesterday.

The Crack Emcee said...

Inga's ducking me because she knows she can join you guys in throwing out what the media wants you guys discussing - the polls, the machines, Antifa, etc. - but she can't handle the facts being nailed down in front of ma group. A court of law would be ideal, right now - NewAgers HATE that.

But it's just what we need.

iowan2 said...

So to reference my last post.

Who do you suppose instigated the violence in DC?
Trump supporters who number in the millions at his rallies for the last 5 years, with violence being a non issue?

Or

Obama, who actively hires thugs to foment violence at political events?

stevew said...

In the "Last Voyage of the Lusitania" author Erik Larson all but accuses Winston Churchill of sending that passenger ship into harms way to bait the Germans into sinking it. The theory is that Churchill did this as a way to goad the US into entering the war.

The Crack Emcee said...

iowan2 said...

"Who do you suppose instigated the violence in DC?"

Why would I care when the need for something to happen is so obvious? Why do you suppose people want violence in DC? is the question.


"Trump supporters who number in the millions at his rallies for the last 5 years, with violence being a non issue?

Or

Obama, who actively hires thugs to foment violence at political events?"

Obama gave Oprah a medal for 30 years of spreading misinformation and you think that's a question worth asking?

MayBee said...

iowan2 said...
4- Some non-government entity, non-political entity that wants to get at Trump had people in the crowd to stir up violence

Robert Creamer is probably still in the same business he was in, before he was exposed and fired. He is the guy hired by President Obama to hire thugs to disrupt political events using violence, targeted by the White House.
What a coincidence! Obama is still in DC and still running his oft renamed Organizing for America.


Yeah, Creamer was outed during Wikileaks, Obama "fired" him, and then the press decided Creamer denied violence and we were forever done hearing about that.

But it is very interesting, isn't it, that Michelle Obama then made a call for all the platforms to deplatform Trump, and they did.

MayBee said...

Is it going to be a dangerous conspiracy theory or playing into Russian disinformation every time we look into Biden's corruption now? We shall see!

D.D. Driver said...

MAGA people for some reason decided to start beating cops to death on the Capitol steps

"For some reason." The reason is that the president has been lying to people about a "stolen" election. When it's time for him to present his evidence, he asks the court to dismiss his case. And then his followers repeat the canard that courts refuse to hear the evidence on the merits. Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

The voter fraud hoax is not just a lie--it's one of the most dangerous lies you can tell. It's akin to lying to your neighbor and telling him his wife is fucking her boss. You may not know exactly what will happen, but it won't be good and it could result in dead bodies. One of my favorite court opinions is a Judge Kozinski's dissent: "The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed — where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees."

What Trump has been telling his followers is that: the doomsday provision has been triggered. And, read the comments around here--his followers believe him. So then you get everyone together. Warm 'em up with a little rousing "trial by combat" rhetoric. Tell them they need to be tougher and send them to the capitol. What could possibly go wrong?

hombre said...

Crack: “...THEY AND THEIR PARTY ARE CRIMINALS AND THIS IS A WAY FOR THEM TO DIVERT ATTENTION AWAY FROM EXPOSING THEIR CRIMES....”

This motivates most of what they do. Russia hoax? Cover for Hillary’s email misdeeds. Impeachment? Cover for Biden family grifting and Quid Pro Joe’s extortion? “Good people” fraud? Cover for their support for vandalism of public property. Proud Boy scam? Cover for the riotous actins of Democrat Brownshirts. Second impeachment? Cover for election fraud and leftmedia and Big Tech censorship of “The Steal.”

And so it goes....

MayBee said...

D.D. Driver said...
MAGA people for some reason decided to start beating cops to death on the Capitol steps

"For some reason." The reason is that the president has been lying to people about a "stolen" election. When it's time for him to present his evidence, he asks the court to dismiss his case. And then his followers repeat the canard that courts refuse to hear the evidence on the merits. Rinse. Wash. Repeat.


DD Driver- that would be an interesting theory, but we have had a "stolen" election before--- Bush 43 was stolen, remember? For his entire first term, Gore was the "real" president. Bush went on to become a war criminal, a man who lied us into war for his oil buddies, and finally killed black people during hurricane Katrina.
Hillary has been telling her vast following for the past 4 years that Trump had stolen her election.

We had a multi-year, multi million dollar investigation into Trump being Putin's agent. Do you remember that?

How in the world do you think that Trump saying the election was stolen is somehow a huge outlier here?

iowan2 said...

Obama gave Oprah a medal for 30 years of spreading misinformation and you think that's a question worth asking?

Well, trolls are going to troll...offer conspiracy theories about a Presidential phone call that is not based on any facts.

But for a person that is still unsure about events, the socratic method of asking people to answer simple questions, sometime advances the discussion.

roesch/voltaire said...

I won’t believe the conspiracy theories until I read it from QANon, that Russian front for disinformation designed to destabilize our government.

D.D. Driver said...

How in the world do you think that Trump saying the election was stolen is somehow a huge outlier here?

I guess we will never know what would have happened if Al Gore held an anti SCOTUS rally in the wake of Bush v. Gore. You don't think that would have resulted in violence? I do.

Sebastian said...

"It's one thing to point to individual officers who, surrounded by a mob, behaved in a manner that could be construed as friendly."

At least one video shows not just individual officers but a group opening doors, standing aside, and letting the crowd walk in.

Part of the "riot" by a "mob" "storming" the Capitol.

MayBee said...

Perhaps I misread you, DD Driver. Perhaps you are acknowledging that all those lefty stolen election conspiracies have led the violence the left has been perpetrating these many years and now the right has joined in.

If that's what your saying, I 100% agree that's plausible.

Rusty said...

"1- MAGA people for some reason decided to start beating cops to death on the Capitol steps"
Watch the video. The video was taken by a leftist activist but it tells you a lot. The guy is laying face down . His head is pointed at the protestors. You can't see his hands. His hands are probably at his side. If he was hit by a protestor he'd be in a different position with his hands and arms in front of him. Trying to protect himself. He was struck from behind by one of his own people.

MayBee said...

I guess we will never know what would have happened if Al Gore held an anti SCOTUS rally in the wake of Bush v. Gore. You don't think that would have resulted in violence? I do

Just in March, Chuck Schumer had an anti SCOTUS rally, warning the justices if they do the wrong thing they will "reap the whirlwind". The Democrats called Kavanaugh a rapist. Protesters filled the Capitol to get in Senators faces and tell them they needed to stop the rapist from getting on the court. You remember this, right?

And you know, there was violence at the Bush inauguration. He had to stay in his limo, remember? And there was violence all around the Trump inauguration. Limos and cars were set on fire.

Rusty said...

MayBee said...
" D.D. Driver said...
MAGA people for some reason decided to start beating cops to death on the Capitol steps

"For some reason." The reason is that the president has been lying to people about a "stolen" election."
The president elect told us publicly that he had assembled the most efficient vote fraud organization in history. It's a matter of public record. He seemed really proud of it. The people in the audience seemed uncomfortable. The president elect didn't lie did he? I mean you voted for him,(only once. I hope.),right?

MayBee said...

Those people during the Kavanaugh hearings - the lefties who stormed the Capitol- did have an effect. They managed to convince Jeff Flake to delay the vote.

Something similar-- a day of protest- were the tea party protests outside the Capitol to try to get the House to delay the vote. That didn't work. Pelosi still walked through the crowd laughing with her giant gavel and the vote passed. But the tea party people were still called racists. And there was no violence but a made up spitting event.

So I would say there was reason to believe these protests would remain peaceful and have some influence. (I don't personally believe that, but then I don't protest OR riot_

D.D. Driver said...

The president elect told us publicly that he had assembled the most efficient vote fraud organization in history

Fine, I'll bite: let me see the quote in context.

J. Farmer said...

@The Crack Emcee:

Obama gave Oprah a medal for 30 years of spreading misinformation and you think that's a question worth asking?

How do you feel about Montel Williams having cosigned Sylvia Browne?

I remember Oprah going New Age in the second half of the 90s. I always thought it was to distance her show from the tabloid talk shows that became huge in the 90s. Wally George and Morton Downey, Jr. helped spawn Geraldo, Jerry Springer, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jenny Jones, Ricki Lake, Maury Povich, etc.

The Crack Emcee said...

iowan2 said...

"The socratic method of asking people to answer simple questions, sometime advances the discussion."

I did a whole thread of that and Inga ducked the whole thing.

And I'm not questioning the socratic method, but asking who's more honest, Trump or Obama - without adding there's evidence Obama REWARDS dishonesty - is, itself, dishonest.

Like comparing cough syrup to homeopathic cough syrup.

Amadeus 48 said...

Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

It is hard to see what the Trump supporters (and others?) who invaded the Capitol thought they could do other than disrupt things temporarily. Also, the dynamics of mob behavior (loss of individual responsibility, etc.) are pretty well established.

I have a friend who has lived in France for years. He says he sees things like this pretty regularly.

There is so much less to this than conspiracy theorists want there to be.

However, there is also a huge dollop of TRUMP!!

Inga said...

“I did a whole thread of that and Inga ducked the whole thing.”

Crack, there are other people here that may want to engage in debate with you, don’t take it personally, I’m just not in the mood.

MayBee said...

Rusty- the video doesn't look like that to me. There's a guy in the crowd at the front who is definitely beating on that cop. And there's video of a guy throwing a fire extinguisher onto the group of them and it hits someone on the head. It's really horrible.

Amadeus 48 said...

"Fine, I'll bite: let me see the quote in context."

I think the quote was an example Joe's occasional incoherence rather than a brag or confession.

Must have been the stutter. Yeah...that's the ticket!

The Crack Emcee said...

J. Farmer said...

"How do you feel about Montel Williams having cosigned Sylvia Browne?"

Fine - I think Kamala Harris giving her vagina to him disqualifies her from office, because it proves - 100% - she's either A) a crooked Cop who knew he ripped off millions and didn't care or B) a blithering idiot who believes in talking to the dead, and neither of those is fit to lead.

"I remember Oprah going New Age in the second half of the 90s. I always thought it was to distance her show from the tabloid talk shows that became huge in the 90s. Wally George and Morton Downey, Jr. helped spawn Geraldo, Jerry Springer, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jenny Jones, Ricki Lake, Maury Povich, etc."

By 1998, Oprah was winning awards from skeptics she refused to accept, because they were all for either being stupid or fooling the public. She still tours with Deepak Chopra, who exemplifies both trends.

Why nobody thought Obama was a fraud, when he showed up with her, is a testament to how well NewAge cultism works. He was a "Lightworker" and nobody blinked an eye at the signaling. They know viirtue signaling now, but they didn't recognize shit when it mattered.

The Crack Emcee said...

J. Farmer said...

"How do you feel about Montel Williams"

Actually, not "fine" - Montel's a U.S. Marine - so ripping off the public goes against his oath. And his own kids don't like him.

He's a piece of shit.

Inga said...

“And there's video of a guy throwing a fire extinguisher onto the group of them and it hits someone on the head. It's really horrible.”

I saw the video of the fire extinguisher being thrown at someone’s head. I wonder if it will end up being shown to be the cop who died. I’ve been reading comments by people here that the family said that Officer Sicknick died of natural causes. I looked to see if I could find those comments from the family, so far nothing. I did read he had a gash on his forehead and had a blood clot on his brain that is thought to be the cause of death.

Butkus51 said...

The dems left the law and order train 6 months ago at the very least. Most of them called for riots. Many said protests are supposed to be violent. Fredo and AOC just to name 2.

Now they will be very diligent about Law and Order in certain cases.

All I know is Im glad Im not a politician these days. Duck and cover.



The Crack Emcee said...

Inga said...

"Crack, there are other people here that may want to engage in debate with you, don’t take it personally, I’m just not in the mood."

You're not in the mood because you're being dishonest, and you know it - that's why you're ducking me. You know who I am.

I'll me you cry "Uncle" in three posts.

I know cults.

Inga said...

“I know cults.”

Yet you fail to recognize the Trump Cult.

chickelit said...

rhhardin wrote: "Sort of like the Nazis. You're afraid not to reveal where the Jews are hiding lest it be discovered that you knew and they kill you too."

It's snitch culture and snitch culture is communist China culture.

The Crack Emcee said...

Inga said...

"Yet you fail to recognize the Trump Cult."

That's because it doesn't exist - like Trump being a racist, it's a projection of the NewAge cult's imagination.

Andrew Breitbart says the same thing within the FIRST TWO MINUTES of his description of NewAge Nazis.

MayBee said...

On my craziest days, I see
Big Tech in bed with China
CNN, WaPo, NYT getting a lot of money from China
Trump's roaring economy
An election year
A pandemic that comes from a Chinese city with a lab that studies SARS virus
A economy busting lockdown
Don't wear a mask/put old COVID patients back in nursing homes
Facebook/YouTube/Twitter moderation of COVID information on their platforms
Democrat primaries that can't get their ish together when it comes to counting the votes
A Dem Candidate who doesn't campaign
A Dem Candidate who is outed as having corrupt business with China
That information getting shut down across all platforms
A push to have mail in ballots in a way that has never been done before
A Billionaire who owns a huge online business, a newspaper that takes Chines money, and hates Trump gets more business
That same Billionaire has a contract with the CIA for his servers, which kick off a conservative group
The techs go all in to censor Trump

And I really do think there is something to see in all of that.

The Crack Emcee said...

Inga,

Don't take my word for it (but you should, if you respect me, because I wouldn't lie to you) here's Rick Ross, the world's #1 authority on cults.

And here he is on the topic of the Trump "cult".

I'll just add, cult leaders aren't elected, nor do they lose elections, or complain elections are rigged.

You should be smart enough to know that.

Browndog said...

roesch/voltaire said...

..., that Russian front for disinformation designed to destabilize our government.


that deep-State front for dis-information designed to stabilize law abiding American's need for justice.

MountainMan said...

Fully agree with Temujin's comment above.

For those of you who did not see this in a post I made last night here is a link to an interview with Michael Yon, with videos, of what he saw at the Capitol last week.

Short summery: Agent provocateurs from Antifa engaged in a false flag operation.

Rick said...

It's revealing that cops who de-escalate BLM / antifa events are hailed as models. Cops who de-escalate right wing events are investigated and suspended.

Gusty Winds said...

Anyone with any common sense or ability to analyze anything knows Oswald did not act alone. That’s not a tin foil hat conspiracy. But the fake moon landing people are at a whole new level. They are not all the same.
But now Althouse, the fraudulent election, which you supported in its outcome and refusal to discuss its evidence, is the new “conspiracy du jour”. Like JFK it was an unconstitutional coup.

So the Martians of Madison, WI will lump it in with the Moon landing and Area 51. You haven’t figured out that in the last three months you’ve become part of the oppressors. I’ll give you credit for your comments section, but that is part of your product. Without the comments your traffic plummets. What will you do?

I foresee back peddling and doggy paddling. Your “cruel neutrality” was always just a cloak. Pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

You should be smart enough to know that.

LOL the funniest thing Crack wrote here in a long time. The operative word “should” is doing a LOT of work in that sentence, Crack.

Curious George said...

"iowan2 said...
Inga, exactly who said President Trump "trotted out the Antifa line."

Show your work"

Our resident dullard did. Go to Axios. Ctrl-C, Ctrl V. I'm constantly amazed she can find her way back here.

Axios needs to show their work. Once again "according to a White House official and another source familiar with the call." Of course the fact that they don't doesn't faze our resident dullard. Never has.

Inga said...

“And here he is on the topic of the Trump "cult".”

Crack, thanks for the link to the Cult site. And the article on whether there is a Trump Cult does have some good points, but I’ve seen so much behavior from people here and elsewhere that just screams mindless indoctrination to me. I agree that people who voted for Trump did have many of these “qualities” already before Trump ran for office, that’s one of the reasons they could identify with him and go on to vote for him. BUT after 4 years of Trump’s escalating nutty behaviors especially since the election I’m hard pressed to see those who continue to support him and this Stop the Steal idiocy as mindless cultism.

Gusty Winds said...

Ann Althouse said...
I feel like I should delete my comment, out of an interest in self-preservation.

You've been self preserving for a few months now. You still reside in Madison. It's a requirement for the privilege to live in America's #1 place to retire.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Stop the Steal idiocy

Says the idiot who claimed Trump stole emails, stole Wikileaks data, stole the 2016 election and has resisted all efforts to elicit evidence to support her crazy claims.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Expert in idiocy, please explain it!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Trump supporters do not act like Antifa.

They never have.

WAtch this and learn something.


Antifa did the damage at the Capitol. Antifa waved it all in, and the police let them in.

Francisco D said...

tim in vermont said...
This is how the Reichstag Fire was played by the Nazis. Shut down any voice that could by remotely plausibly accused of “disloyalty.” You are right to be worried. This is how fascist rule

While I fully agree with that statement, I thought Ann was referring to negative reactions from her readers not the woke mob.

Inga said...

“Expert in idiocy, please explain it!”

You go right ahead.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The Trump-hate cult is the real cult.

iowan2 said...

I did read he had a gash on his forehead and had a blood clot on his brain that is thought to be the cause of death.

We are 5 days past since the rally. Autopsy is done and signed

I talked today about the dog that didn't bark. The silence you hear is the swamp setting up fake evidence with some reasonable, but unprovable, link to President Trump.

Conspiracy theories are started by the establishment working in secret rather than publicly with full transparency

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Russia Russia Inga swallows whole all the leftwing lies. Go away - twit.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Trump supporters have never acted like Antifa. Look at the crowd outside the Capitol - It's Antifa all over the place. There might have been a small handful of real Trump supporters who got sucked in - but that's mainly Anitifa.

Watch

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The real cult is so much Trump hate - big tech had to stop free speech.

D.D. Driver said...

I think the quote was an example Joe's occasional incoherence rather than a brag or confession.

That's what I would assume (although I will fight you on the word "occasional") but I've seen the claim a couple of times here, so I'm a bit curious where it comes from.

Howard said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Francisco D said...

Conspiracy theories arise when people do not trust the media to report accurately and fairly.

The media has been gaslighting us about Trump and the WuFlu for a long time. Is it any wonder that people develop dumb conspiracy theories?

iowan2 said...

Crack, thanks for the link to the Cult site. And the article on whether there is a Trump Cult does have some good points,

Which she will ignore because the truth triggers her headaches.

Howard said...

Blogger rhhardin said...
There's the don't-give-a-shit hypothesis to fill the information gap, a third possibility. It's out of the soap-opera loop.


Exactly. This is in line with the "better than nothing is a high standard" philosophy.

It also fits nicely with the bumper sticker wisdom of the late 1980's: "Shit Happens"

Inga said...

“We are 5 days past since the rally. Autopsy is done and signed”

So, do you have a link to it? Where are the articles in which his family said that he died of natural causes as some commenters here claimed? Links to the family’s comments regarding his cause of death?

Bob Boyd said...

Ann Althouse said...
I feel like I should delete my comment, out of an interest in self-preservation.


You could try releasing a video like Arnold did.

Joe Smith said...

Information Gap...sounds like Dr. Strangelove.

I thought our elected officials were the smartest most bestest people ever.

Wait; I just remembered that more than half of them believed that Trump pissed on Russian whores and was a card-carrying member of the KGB.

At least that's what they told us for four years.

I know politicians never lie, so it must have ben true.

Browndog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Browndog said...

A very popular comment on twitter from a few days ago reads: For the first time in their lives, millions of boomers are questioning the accuracy of historical events.

DanTheMan said...

There were no riots in DC. It's all Russian disinformation and deceptively edited videos.

Static Ping said...

Which conspiracy theory do we want to discuss?

The vote fraud "conspiracy theory" has the following things going for it:
1. Mail-in elections, as were used in many states in this election, are ripe for fraud. This is non-controversial and bipartisan, or at least it was before it became inconvenient. At one time these sort of elections were an obvious sign of an unfair election, the sort of thing a dictator would do for show.
2. People actually know how to do math, and the math is screaming "Hey, this is really weird!"
3. When challenged with the math or any of the other irregularities that occurred, the retort is not to discuss the situation in any logical way, but to scream about "conspiracy theories" and decide that it has been pre-debunked, despite the fact that their debunking essentially involves refusing to even consider the idea.

If you want to discuss the Capitol riot, we are still very near to the events. Each day we find out that something we knew wasn't true or distorted beyond anything resembling the truth. A police officer was killed during the riot when someone hit him with a fire extinguisher! Oh, wait, he wasn't hit with a fire extinguisher. He may not have been injured at all. He actually went home alive, returned to work the next day, and then died of something that may or may not be related. Or maybe not. This sort of confusion is normal since chaotic events do not tend to lend themselves easy documentation. It gets worse when journalists are not good at their jobs - most of them are not - and when journalists are more interested in the narrative than the truth, which is also a common affliction of the standard journalist these days.

Conspiracy theories are not crazy when there is an actual conspiracy. It is not paranoia when they are really out to get you.

Oh well.

Howard said...

The whores pissed on Trump, Joe Smith. Teh Dronald has a weak stream.

Howard said...

Global warming is a communist conspiracy based on stastictics, models and anecdotal evidence.

The stolen election is a communist conspiracy based on stastictics, models and anecdotal evidence.

Joe Smith said...

"The whores pissed on Trump, Joe Smith. Teh Dronald has a weak stream."

Yeah...typing too fast, but I believe the story was the whores pissed on each other while Trump watched and the Russians were rolling hidden cameras for Kompromat.

I love that Russian word...Schiff said it with such seriousness when being pranked by the two comedians. What a tool.

Speaking of tools....

Gahrie said...

Fine, I'll bite: let me see the quote in context.

“We’re in a situation where we have put together, and you guys did it for our administration…President Obama’s administration before this. We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics,” he (Biden) said.

There's a video of it at the link:

https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/24/joe-biden-says-democrats-created-the-most-extensive-and-inclusive-voter-fraud-organization-in-american-history/

Inga said...

“We’re in a situation where we have put together, and you guys did it for our administration…President Obama’s administration before this. We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics,” he (Biden) said.

There's a video of it at the link:

https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/24/joe-biden-says-democrats-created-the-most-extensive-and-inclusive-voter-fraud-organization-in-american-history/“

Fact check: Clip of Biden taken out of context to portray him as plotting a voter fraud scheme

Static Ping said...

And you know how you get more conspiracy theories? You take perfectly reasonable inquiries that deserve to be addressed in a thoughtful and logical way, and then immediately declare them conspiracy theories that make you a bad person for even asking the question! Nothing makes a person want to believe that they are being conspired against than to be treated in bad faith in such a blatant manner.

It also does not help when you have an inkling that they are hiding something and then they act exactly like they are hiding something and you are a terrible person for noticing.

Also, being lied to all the time does not build trust. Being lectured about conspiracy theories by people who tell you things that aren't true - provably false - over and over again is not the definition of "debunking."

Oh well.

Inga said...

Trump was pushing the idea of a “rigged election” even before the election, priming the pump of voter fraud conspiracy theory.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Bidenist Inga at the ready - to serve her corrupt masters.

MayBee said...

Inga's link: "Likely meaning to say “voter protection” instead of “voter fraud,” "

"Likely meaning" is not a fact-check. It's explaining what the want him to be saying.

Inga said...

“You take perfectly reasonable inquiries that deserve to be addressed in a thoughtful and logical way, and then immediately declare them conspiracy theories that make you a bad person for even asking the question!”

60+ lawsuits failed because of bad faith? If Trump’s lawyers had hard evidence of massive voter fraud they would have presented it. They didn’t.

MayBee said...

Inga said...
Trump was pushing the idea of a “rigged election” even before the election, priming the pump of voter fraud conspiracy theory.


Yes, and Democrats were pushing the conspiracy that the US Postal Service was locking mailboxes so there'd be voter suppression.

It's been a crazy time.

J. Farmer said...

@The Crack Emcee:

By 1998, Oprah was winning awards from skeptics she refused to accept, because they were all for either being stupid or fooling the public. She still tours with Deepak Chopra, who exemplifies both trends.

I agree Oprah's an annoying cunt. People like her, Tyler Perry, and Lee Daniels are the kind of non-threatening, anti-white, self-loathing house negros that guilt-ridden whites like having around to feel better about themselves. People like Spike Lee or Paul Mooney aren't interested in playing black savior to white guilt.

That said, from Youruba religious practices to Afro-Caribbean Vodou to Gullah hoodoo to Father Divine to Wallace Fard Muhammad to Jim Jones to Dionne Warwick's Psychic Friends Network and to Miss Cleo, blacks love New Age shit.

Browndog said...

If, based on evidence and reason, you have a theory in regards to a conspiracy, it's automatically false, and you're automatically a nutjob.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

You need a photo ID to get into the DNC convention.

Not so to vote.

Howard said...

Trumpco purposely lost the challenges by having his court gestures do their best slapstick routine.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Static Ping said..."The vote fraud "conspiracy theory" has the following things going for it:
1. Mail-in elections, as were used in many states in this election, are ripe for fraud. This is non-controversial and bipartisan, or at least it was before it became inconvenient. At one time these sort of elections were an obvious sign of an unfair election, the sort of thing a dictator would do for show.
2. People actually know how to do math, and the math is screaming "Hey, this is really weird!"
3. When challenged with the math or any of the other irregularities that occurred, the retort is not to discuss the situation in any logical way, but to scream about "conspiracy theories" and decide that it has been pre-debunked, despite the fact that their debunking essentially involves refusing to even consider the idea."


Nice synopsis.

Joe Smith said...

"And you know how you get more conspiracy theories? You take perfectly reasonable inquiries that deserve to be addressed in a thoughtful and logical way, and then immediately declare them conspiracy theories that make you a bad person for even asking the question!"

What Inga and others don't understand is, it has nothing to do with lawsuits.

If the Democrats won fair and square, they would have welcomed an official commission's investigation with open arms. They would have proved beyond a doubt that Biden won, and they would have then rubbed the Trump voters' noses in it,

I wonder why they didn't do that? It would have gone a long way toward promoting unity.

Instead, it will be like the JFK assassination, Marilyn Monroe's death, and UFO conspiracy theories. The lore of Biden's stolen presidency will live forever.

Joe Smith said...

"You need a photo ID to get into the DNC convention."

You need a photo ID to get a fucking library card or buy a can of spray paint for God's sake.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

You need a photo ID to travel

You do not need a photo ID to vote.


Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Vote fraud occurred right in front of us. We all know it.

Trump was helpless to stop it.

Legal teams were threatened to say away from helping him.

I happen to know of one here in CO.

Gahrie said...

Fact check: Clip of Biden taken out of context to portray him as plotting a voter fraud scheme

1) The MSM and the Left (I repeat myself) routinely quote Trump and other Republicans out of context, and actually distort their quotes to do so. Biden clearly said what he said.

2) They assume that Biden misspoke, ignoring the fact that it was a Kinsley gaffe.

MayBee said...

You need a photo ID to vote in person in Michigan, but not to mail in a ballot.

Inga said...

“You need a photo ID to vote in person in Michigan, but not to mail in a ballot.”

In WI you need a photo ID to vote in person and to apply for a mail in ballot in most cases.

Rick said...

D.D. Driver said...
The voter fraud hoax is not just a lie--it's one of the most dangerous lies you can tell. It's akin to lying to your neighbor and telling him his wife is fucking her boss. You may not know exactly what will happen, but it won't be good and it could result in dead bodies


It's revealing left wingers recognize how harmful these types of lies are, but only when pushed by the right.

In contrast consider how left wingers developed an entire pseudo history of America to justify their political goals. They make obviously crazy assertions [Coates: blacks built everything in this country, Hannah-Jones: the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery] because they have internalized this pseudo history and no longer recognize it as a political fiction. Their goal is to increase hatred for anyone not supportive of income redistribution to their followers. This hatred results in antifa (really profa) and other extremists like BLM supporters murdering police.

Exactly zero left wingers express concern over these lies or the results of them.

LA_Bob said...

"I feel like I should delete my comment, out of an interest in self-preservation."

"Paranoia strikes deep...."

So here's a conspiracy (of one, unless she discussed it with Meade first -- you know, "a plan") theory. Althouse posted a comment, deleted it, and then pointed out the deletion to pour fuel on the fire of conspiracy outrage comments.

You're welcome, All!

Rick said...

Inga said...
Trump was pushing the idea of a “rigged election” even before the election, priming the pump of voter fraud conspiracy theory.


Of course. The only purpose for Dems eliminating signature verification on mail ballots is suborning fraud. Dems lauded Stacey Abrams for accomplishing this to such a degree she was a finalist for Time Person of the Year.

MayBee said...

In WI you need a photo ID to vote in person and to apply for a mail in ballot in most cases.

That's good. In Michigan you don't have to. They rely on "signature matching".

LA_Bob said...

"Van Jones lost his WH job under Obama for being [a Truther]."

Crack, thanks for this. I didn't know that. Checked it out, and it was certainly part of his problem.

Michael K said...

I was thinking recently about the early days of the Internet, when there were chatrooms and message boards. Are those still around? Maybe that's how the right can fuel its own conspiracy theories, resurrect the old ways of communicating, old, that is, as in 20 years ago, which isn't really old.

Maybe it could come back.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know Tim Berners-Lee is a pretty important dude in the technology world. He's the father of the Internet, responsible for the birth of the World Wide Web as we know it.

And he hates what it has become. So he's taking some action to fix it.

Jason said...

Looks like blocking Republican observers and resisting all efforts to conduct investigations and get some transparency into the electoral process, and block any attempts at evidentiary hearings before an impartial judiciary was a mistake.

YoungHegelian said...

Bob/Crack,

Van Jones lost his WH job under Obama for being [a Truther]."

Crack, thanks for this. I didn't know that. Checked it out, and it was certainly part of his problem.


No, Van Jones was fired by the Obama administration after it was revealed by Glenn Beck, then at Fox News, that he had belonged to STORM, a self-described Communist organization in Oakland.

If there's any of you that think I'm misapplying the word "communist", feel free to to read this. It was written by former STORM members as a post-mortem after the organization fell apart due to personal & ideological infighting.

Michael K said...

oward said...
Trumpco purposely lost the challenges by having his court gestures do their best slapstick routine.


Speaking of conspiracy theories.

iowan2 said...

“You take perfectly reasonable inquiries that deserve to be addressed in a thoughtful and logical way, and then immediately declare them conspiracy theories that make you a bad person for even asking the question!”

60+ lawsuits failed because of bad faith? If Trump’s lawyers had hard evidence of massive voter fraud they would have presented it. They didn’t.

This is the crap the earns you all the derision and mocking you get. Every single comma of it.

Not a single lawsuit brought to address voter fraud examined and cross examined evidence. Not ONE
Every single case was refused on technicalities, or the notion that their existed no remedy(in the opinion of a judge, not supported by fact)

So stop posting lies, or stop posting on topics of which you are willfully ignorant.

pacwest said...

I subscribe to only 2 conspiracy theories.

Conspiracy Theory #1: The Democrats are willing to do anything to gain and hold power. Even destroy the Republic if necessary.

Conspiracy Theory #2: The sun rises in the east.

Drago said...

Russia Collusion Dead End Truther Inga literally pushed the Putin Changed Vote Totals conspiracy as well as accusing every single Trump voter of being a treasonous traitor in 2016.

Not to mention her passionate acvusations that multiple members of the Trump 2016 campaign were literal Russian agents.

Those were just a few of the hundreds of conspiracies Inga pushed at Althouse.

One of my all time favorite Inga-isms was her vehement claim that any assertion that the Hillary campaign paid for the hoax dossier used to spy on the Trump campaign was a loony conspiracy theory.

Inga has never retracted that, or any, of her hundreds of conspiracy theories pushed over the last 5 years.

She STILL asserts Carter Page is a russian spy!

Inga either lacks the intelligence to know her 5 years of conspiracy lies are lies, or she lacks the character to admit her lies were just that.

I suspect its alot of both.

Paul Snively said...

Dr. Althouse: So, in the absence of evidence — an "information gap" — you can speculate about anything and feel afraid. Then the gap itself can be said to "fuel fears."

In the absence of evidence, you're left with your prior probabilities.

What's been going on for the last 50+ years, and accelerated dramatically with the rise of social media, is increasing awareness that no one actually gets evidence. We get assertions of evidence from OMG-not-disinterested-parties X, Y, and Z. If Rachel Maddow or Sean Hannity told me my mother loved me, I'd be on the phone to Mom in a heartbeat to confirm it. So we don't just say "CNN says masks help prevent the spread of COVID-19, so nevermind the current COVID-19 pattern in California or New York; I'm fine with over a year of everything being shut down," if we don't start with a high degree of trust in CNN. If OAN says the January 6th capitol attack was a false flag operation by Antifa, I don't start hoping the FBI tries to hunt down Antifa members involved (but hope they do continue to try to hunt down Antifa and BLM members involved in, e.g. the Portland riots); I roll my eyes pretty hard at OAN.

In other words, as has been the case now and forever, amen, consider the source. Now consider that there are literally millions of sources, all interacting in uncontrolled ways, and the theory of complex, non-linear dynamical systems tells us we'll end up with Zipf distributions of absolute moonbattery, of which the violent ends of BLM and QAnon are examples.

And that's, quite literally, all there is to it.

Qwinn said...

"Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.""

Said everyone who attempted to cheat others with malice while playing stupid.

I frankly believe the exact opposite of that "Razor" gets closer to reality more often than not.

The Crack Emcee said...

Inga said,...

"BUT after 4 years of Trump’s escalating nutty behaviors especially since the election I’m hard pressed to see those who continue to support him and this Stop the Steal idiocy as mindless cultism."

This is the craziest thing I've read in years - "after 4 years of Trump’s escalating nutty behaviors"?

Why do Democrats focus on Trump after Rachel Maddow announced on national television we're in "Hell" within minutes of his being elected? Is that a "nutty behavior" for a newscaster to exhibit? Why doesn't it bother you she was so unprofessional?

Why do Democrats focus on Trump after the Democrat's journalists dropped objectivity for activism? They were ANNOUNCING they'd be dishonest but they STILL have Democrat Party support.

Why do Democrats focus on Trump after they denied him a 100-Day "Honeymoon" period as all other Presidents got? Why does being unfair to this man make Democrats so happy? And what do they think happens when others see them being unfair?

Why do Democrats focus on Trump after Hillary's three-year Russian Collusion lie revealed HER as the dishonest politician?

Why do Democrats focus on Trump after everything the Democrats have done for five long years?

The Crack Emcee said...

BidenFamilyTaxPayerFundedCrackPipe said...

The Trump-hate cult is the real cult.

Andrew Breibart said Democrats project their lies on others.

The Crack Emcee said...

I'm son disappointed in Inga:

She comes on like she's decent, but try to nail her down, and she's a typical lying piece of shit liberal.

And no one appreciates a typical lying piece of shit liberal.

The Crack Emcee said...

J. Farmer said,...

"blacks love New Age shit."

Please don't rub it in. I'm just coming to terms with it.

And it's not easy.

Lurker21 said...

The right-wing conspiracy theory will go underground. I suppose there were some Antifa people in the crowd, but just as the supposedly anti-fascist Antifa adopts fascist tactics, so some "right-wing" combat groups have adopted Antifa and Black Bloc tactics. If you saw burly men in black getting off of buses, they might not have been Antifa. I'd say the odds are against it, and I'd say that to the morning radio guy here, but don't want to bother with all the bs.

Why was the Capitol so lightly guarded, though? I don't know. If you want to connect some dots and trace them back to Trump, couldn't you with as much or as little justice to the same to Pelosi and McConnell? What did they think would happen? Could it be that they weren't worried that anything would happen? Or that one or both of them felt what happened at the Capitol would happen? Any why didn't Schumer act, if he was so convinced that the rally was bound to lead to something like the events of last Wednesday?

And what do we call this thing anyway? "What happened in the Capitol"? "The events of last Wednesday"? So many other terms are loaded with connotations of one sort or another that don't quite fit what actually happened, but rather force events into a ready-made, but inaccurate mold.

Inga said...

Crack sez...

My cult is better than your cult!

Jim at said...

You leftists have no idea of the hell you're trying to unleash.

None.

YoungHegelian said...

@Jim,

You leftists have no idea of the hell you're trying to unleash.

Perhaps they do, Jim, and they seek to goad the Right into violence so that the full security apparatus of the Federal government can be unleashed upon it.

Are they so sure that those forces would follow their orders? I mean would any of the LEOs, or intelligence agencies, or armed forces follow such orders? I don't know, but I tend to think that such orders of such moral consequence would splinter the agencies along the same lines as the civilian population and thus it would create literal intra-agency turf warfare. I could be very wrong, however, and they may know something I don't.

My guess is that the Democratic leadership is being assured by the heads of various agencies that they can deal with whatever happens, but that the agency heads are praying to God that they're never tested. The rank & file probably are never hearing of these discussions and if they were their reaction would be "WTF?! Are you out of your fucking minds?!".

mockturtle said...

YH observes: Perhaps they do, Jim, and they seek to goad the Right into violence so that the full security apparatus of the Federal government can be unleashed upon it.

Yes, as many of us have believed for some time. Leftist whites trying to make conservative whites hate blacks by the use of insane racial rhetoric; constant bashing of our President; censoring our media to enrage us. It's a lot like FDR inciting Japan to attack us in order to officially enter WWII, the end result is just what they wanted. If we fight back, martial law will slap us down. BUT...I don't think things will work as they oh-so-carefully planned. For one thing, they are stupid enough to believe their own polls.

Francisco D said...

mockturtle said... Leftist whites trying to make conservative whites hate blacks by the use of insane racial rhetoric

There is no need use the term "conservative". The goal is to create resentment among Whites and hopefully engender some racist actions because demand greatly outstrips supply.

My (life long Democrat) wife is getting annoyed at the racial rhetoric and the gratuitous exclusion of White men from TV commercials. The funny thing is that she eats up most media propaganda, but not the racial rhetoric. One reason may be that her Korean son was taunted by Blacks in HS and Jr HS.

YoungHegelian said...

@mockturtle,

BUT...I don't think things will work as they oh-so-carefully planned. For one thing, they are stupid enough to believe their own polls.

What I'm expecting is dozens of "Whiskey Rebellions" out in the heartland, i.e. localities that simply refuse to execute this or that federal mandate. The amount of violence will vary tremendously from situation to situation.

Mark said...

About those "downfall of Trump conspiracy theories" --

It takes a special kind of obtuse blindness to ignore all the efforts since 2015, including calls for impeachment on Inauguration Day 2017, to not only drive Trump out of office, but out of civilized society altogether, and give it the dismissive label of "conspiracy theory."

D.D. Driver said...

Not a single lawsuit brought to address voter fraud examined and cross examined evidence. Not ONE
Every single case was refused on technicalities, or the notion that their existed no remedy(in the opinion of a judge, not supported by fact)


You can stop repeating this now. There's a court in Georgia that was ready to go last Friday and Trump voluntarily dismissed his case.

The Crack Emcee said...

Inga said...

"Crack sez...My cult is better than your cult!"

The NewAge Nazi Democrat's true colors eventually reveal themselves:

Everybody saw her claim to respect me, after using me as a prop, to bolster her racial credentials - for years.

Everybody saw I gave her respect - until she started dodging questions like an intellectual coward. I HATE intellectual cowards.

Everybody saw I asked her easy, direct questions any 5-year old could answer. Everybody saw I didn't badger her. And everybody saw her dodge every one, like she's a white fairy Princess and BLACK LIVES DON'T MATTER.

Everybody saw I gave her a cult expert's opinion, to show her the claim Trump has a cult is false. Everybody saw her thank me for it, too, like she'd learned something.

And everybody saw why there's riots - and the Democrats are the cause of those riots - with this total reversal of a head-completely-up-her-ass answer, designed to do nothing but flatter herself and try to look down on me.

How low will cultists go - to hurt their non-cult friends trying to help them find clarity - for their political cult?

The Democrats are testing that limits of that very question.

The Crack Emcee said...

D.D. Driver said...

"You can stop repeating this now. There's a court in Georgia that was ready to go last Friday and Trump voluntarily dismissed his case."

And you can stop repeating this now, too, because it doesn't matter:

Just because the fraud isn't where Trump is looking (which is where the Democrats want everyone to look) doesn't mean there ain't fraud and every lying, piece of shit Democrat (and Oprah fan) knows it.

Rusty said...

D.D. Driver said...
"The president elect told us publicly that he had assembled the most efficient vote fraud organization in history

Fine, I'll bite: let me see the quote in context."

https://patriotpost.us/videos/74416-biden-brags-about-his-voter-fraud-organization-2020-10-26

Lurker21 said...


When a "fact check" tells you that somebody didn't say what they are literally recorded as saying, something is terribly wrong with the "fact checker."

If this was an "anti-voter suppression" operation, the fact that the words "voter fraud team" came out of Biden's mouth is significant, isn't it? If Trump had said those words would they be brushed aside so easily?

It's clear that Biden "misspoke" and somehow didn't intend to say what he said, but he did say it, and his record of "saying the quiet part out loud" makes one wonder if there wasn't more truth in what Biden said than those who explain away his actual and literal quote would like us to believe.

Go a little deeper: the "anti-voter suppression" campaign also helped open up means of voter fraud. It's entirely possible that somebody somewhere in the campaign or the party was aware of that, and an inkling of the possibilities inspired Biden's faux pas.

The question one could ask is why Trump and the Republicans didn't put as much of an effort into countering the Biden campaign's efforts before the election. One could also ask why the post-election legal effort was so horribly run and why the lawyers who represented the president's cause so often harmed it.

Inga said...

Crack, it’s interesting to see you trying to regain some street cred from the Trumpists here. Try bringing up reparations again and we’ll see just how fast they kick you to the curb. Try bringing up racism and see how far you get with your fellow Trumpists here. You seem to have a blind spot. Or are you trying to get some of these people to go and buy your music? Or did your blog fail to get followers? Something other than your “politics” brought you here again.

Inga said...

And Crack, as for any respect I had for you, it’s gone. You are a user of other people because you have failed to get airborne on your own wings. You use your color to try to advance yourself by claiming racism, people here aren’t impressed with that argument. You use people to advance your music and blog, you’ve failed. You have tried to use me and turn me into your enemy because you thought it would make you more of a sympathetic character here, I think most people here will see the through this. What you’ve done is lose the one defender you ever had here and that was me. You are a foolish man.

Rusty said...

Oh. Inga. The last thing he needs is any of us validating his opinions. You on the other hand.

Russell said...

Never forget that there is one conspiracy you can claim and assert without any concerns of fact checking or social media bans: that Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. So, yes, sneer at conspiracy theorists all day long, but the first three years of the Trump term was dominated by a demonstrably false conspiracy theory that everyone currently sneering at the Trumper conspiracies pushed. Daily. I can't take the shock and awe at the Trump Stop the Steal crowd if the shocked people bought into the Russia collusion hoax. Because I know they are not working from any core principle, just partisan hackery.

The Crack Emcee said...

This is why I don't like people like Ann - they decide IT WILL NEVER STOP - ALL ON THEIR OWN - AND THEN THEY USE THEIR SUPERIOR REACH TO BROADCAST THAT MESAGE - while ignoring or belittling people like me (or anyone else like me) who say IT CAN STOP BUT YOU WON'T STOP IT.

YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.

You *narcissistically* focus upon want you want - THAT'S NewAge - and THAT'S the problem.

The Crack Emcee said...

Inga actually thinks I'd read what she has to say after her betrayal - THAT'S how narcissistic and sick cultists become.
'
She can suck my dick.