June 12, 2022

A strange image on the front page of the Washington Post — a woman called "Burnitdown" — who's accelerating a fire — is said to "portend" "what the Trump movement is becoming."

 

The caption under the picture — the tiny print — says: "Angela Rubino squirts fuel into a fire in her yard in Rome, Ga., so that participants in a Republican meeting on a chilly morning can warm themselves."

So we're told she's called "Burnitdown" and she "portends what the Trump movement is becoming," and we're inflamed at first glance, but if we take the trouble to read the fine print, she's just warming Republicans on a chilly morning.

Why is this front-page news? It seems like some random lady.

If we click on the link, we arrive at "The town crier/Deepening suspicions. A parallel voting system. Dumpster diving for documents. In northwest Georgia, a woman known as ‘Burnitdown’ portends what the Trump movement is becoming" by Stephanie McCrummen. 

So... a "town crier" brings us the news we hadn't heard yet. And she "portends" — she foretells, she's an omen, she gives advance warning.

Okay. I'll read it now. Excerpts:

Six years into the grass-roots movement unleashed by Donald Trump in his first presidential campaign, Angela Rubino is a case study in what that movement is becoming. Suspicious of almost everything, trusting of almost nothing, believing in almost no one other than those who share her unease, she has in many ways become a citizen of a parallel America — not just red America, but another America entirely, one she believes to be awash in domestic enemies, stolen elections, immigrant invaders, sexual predators, the machinations of a global elite and other fresh nightmares revealed by the minute on her social media scrolls. She is known online as “Burnitdown.”...

In [Marjorie Taylor] Greene, she did not see what much of America saw — a person willing to do almost anything to keep emotions running high, whether that meant perpetuating lies about election fraud, harassing a victim of a school shooting, speaking at a white nationalist conference or casting fellow citizens who disagree with her as “domestic terrorists.” 

Instead, Rubino saw a person like herself: a political outsider who shared the same sense of urgency about the same dystopian America, one that required a popular uprising to save it. To that end, Rubino had so far managed to rally enough people to get the county election board ousted, replacing its members with those who believed that the 2020 election was stolen. She was part of a group called the Domestically Terrorized Moms that was pressing the local school board to get rid of a curriculum they believed to be grooming children for sexual predators. 

Now, on a cool Saturday morning a few weeks after she had climbed into the dumpster, she was getting ready to host a gathering of fellow activists to strategize about their next moves.... She set out coffee and doughnuts in the bed of a pickup. She hooked up a loudspeaker she’d bought for the occasion. She built a roaring bonfire, and now smoke and Aerosmith were drifting into the blue spring sky....

This is well-written, I must say:  "and now smoke and Aerosmith were drifting into the blue spring sky." Ha ha ha.

 They were also planning to start a podcast called “The Dirty Peach” to expose “RINOs” and “criminal politicians.” And, to keep people motivated, they were launching an elaborate online game in which players would earn points by carrying out political actions in real life, the more audacious the better.... 

She had ordered three huge tents she was planning to raise in her yard, imagining larger rallies with candidates and nationally known speakers, a gathering place for people in the movement. “It’ll be a safe space,” she said. “People can come and express themselves without worrying someone’s going to call them crazy.”...

Much more at the link. I think this is an excellent article, deserving of promotion on the front-page, and the incendiary teaser is likely to rope in WaPo readers. I don't know why there's no comments section! Anyway, I'm interested in reading more articles by Stephanie McCrummen.

I loved the Aerosmith detail. What Aerosmith do you think played in the bonfire smoke?

 

There's something wrong with the world today 

I don't know what it is 

Something's wrong with our eyes 

We're seeing things in a different way 

And God knows it ain't his 

It sure ain't no surprise, yeah

40 comments:

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

We will be told... over and over again = that Biden got 81 million votes or something.

and you will be forced to believe it. and if the leftist machine want to sell you Hillary's lie that Trump stole the 2016 election with Russia (even though it was Hillary herself who received millions from Russia via secret uranium deals) - you will also be forced to believe that.

Again -the theme is "mind-crime".

Robert Cook said...

Aerosmith is "America's greatest rock band?"

Not on their best day. They're a capable band who have written some good songs, but they are too derivative of their influences, without having transcended them, to be considered "the greatest."

(I still remember seeing their first album in the miscellaneous "A" section of a record store in Jacksonville, FL in 1973, the year I graduated high school. The cover design was so bland and schlocky that I assumed they would never go anywhere or ever be heard of by a wide public. I was certainly wrong on that.)

Drago said...

I certainly hope she did not cross any "sacred State lines" with that lighter fluid.

According to Left Bank, gadfly, readering and Freder that is a crime.

Owen said...

How many Republicans is she warming? Do they cook quickly (all that body fat!) or does she use a marinade and low heat?

J Melcher said...

In very-distantly-related news ... The former city council person and Mayor of Wasilla Alaska, who semi-famously campaigned for office while towing her children around in the family's "little red wagon" and making some national family values concern a centerpiece of the local elections ... ANYhow, Sarah Palin is now front-running in the Alaska race for Representative to the US House.

Never discount tiger-moms. Or grizzly bear moms.

Temujin said...

Still waiting for the similar article from WaPo on Antifa, Ruth Sent Us, Jane's Revenge, or of course, BLM. No, I'm not holding my breath. But these are the same people who covered actual cities burning (and an historic church in DC) and proclaimed them to be signs of peaceful protests.

Yes- the people are revolting.

Bob Boyd said...

I'm sure these fear-mongering articles appearing at the same time as the Jan. 6th Telethon is just a coincidence.

John henry said...

To that end, Rubino had so far managed to rally enough people to get the county election board ousted, replacing its members with those who believed that the 2020 election was stolen. She was part of a group called the Domestically Terrorized Moms that was pressing the local school board to get rid of a curriculum they believed to be grooming children for sexual predators. 

Stuff like this is much scarier to WaPo readers than Proud Boys with guns and such.

The govt has police and even military to arrest jail or even kill violent people trying to take back govt.

But people like this, using the system's own rules and institutions to take it back? How do you stop it?

Yes, you can use police to stop people speaking at school board meetings but that seems to backfire.

Never heard of this woman before but good on her "burn it down" using the legal tools we already have.

And all those fascists constantly beating us about the head with DEMOCRACY! don't much like it when it is used against them, do they?

John LGKTQ Henry

Wince said...

Janie's Revenge Has a Gun?

John henry said...

Angela Rubino burnitdown seems like my kind of lady and I figured I'd duke her $5 to keep up the good work.

I could not find a way to do it but I did find a link to the full article. Scroll down and look for the post headline.

https://www.armwoodlaw.com/2022/06/the-town-crier.html

What a crock of shit. It's not an article, it's an op-ed. The people working within the system really, really, really scare the crap out of the WaPo fascists.

Very worth reading

John LGKTQ Henry

Bob Boyd said...

To that end, Rubino had so far managed to rally enough people to get the county election board ousted, replacing its members with those who believed that the 2020 election was stolen. She was part of a group called the Domestically Terrorized Moms that was pressing the local school board to get rid of a curriculum they believed to be grooming children for sexual predators.

An effective woman, apparently.
Better get a feminist from the WaPo down there right away to dress her up like a witch.

Bob Boyd said...

So McCrummen was down there in GA when it was still cold. But they waited to publish the story until now.

J Melcher said...

But people like this, using the system's own rules and institutions to take it back? How do you stop it?

Ask Catherine Engelbrecht. Proven in court, she experienced the weaponization of federal powers against her efforts to merely enforce the voting rules that were already on the books.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2019/06/08/true-the-vote-wins-historic-2-million-settlement-against-irs/

The federal pressure did not stop Engelbrecht but how many such similar people WERE suppressed?

Anthony said...

Suspicious of almost everything, trusting of almost nothing,

Like that's a bad thing. . . . .

Michael K said...

Bob Boyd said...

So McCrummen was down there in GA when it was still cold. But they waited to publish the story until now.


They saw the ratings of the Jan 6 infomercial.

Sally327 said...

It is wrong to conclude that it's just those on the right or the so-called Trump Americans who have this unease, this unwillingness to trust in the leaders and the institutions. There are plenty of Biden Americans who feel this way as well, there is just disagreement as to the underlying causes and what to do about it although we'll probably see those disagreements set aside in deciding the results of the next election.

Aerosmith? Okay then, good music, good band (instrumental in bringing rap to the mainstream by the way) and at least it wasn't the Allman Brothers or Lynyrd Skynyrd because that might have made us think the article was rife with a stereotypical depiction of small town southern America.

Bob Boyd said...

The purpose of stories like this and of the "hearings" is to push the idea that we need censorship.

Dude1394 said...

Name one institution in this country that is not corrupt? IRS/fbi/doj/cia/homelan/cdc

She’s not wrong.

Ann Althouse said...

"Aerosmith is "America's greatest rock band?""

What counts as a "rock band"? I think if you purify that category enough, they would have a claim.

What is an American *rock band* that is clearly "greater"?

Ann Althouse said...

I'm having flashbacks to discussions with teenagers in the 1990s who insisted that "rock" music was not the same as "rock and roll."

"Rock" was something specific...

Mike Sylwester said...

Democracy Dies in Darkness!

Václav Patrik Šulik said...

What is an American *rock band* that is clearly "greater"?

I love Aerosmith, but The Beach Boys, the Ramones, and the Eagles all immediately spring to mind.

Ann Althouse said...

"I love Aerosmith, but The Beach Boys, the Ramones, and the Eagles all immediately spring to mind."

I think in a refined definition, The Beach Boys would not be called a "rock band." You could exclude the Eagles too. Being better than The Ramones isn't worth arguing one way or the other. I prefer The Ramones, but I'm not sure punk groups were really properly called "rock bands." The term "rock band" is a later distinction. And I would think that Aerosmith were specifically styling themselves as rock — rock and not rock and roll, not punk, not pop.

Ann Althouse said...

"I prefer The Ramones, but I'm not sure punk groups were really properly called "rock bands.""

And The Ramones aren't about "greatness." It's a diminishment of them to put them in a striving for greatness.

Ann Althouse said...

Just to be clear: The Beach Boys are so much better than Aerosmith that I wouldn't even want to talk about it. I just don't consider them a "rock band." We didn't say "rock band" in the 60s. We said "group." What's your favorite group?

Ann Althouse said...

“We’re not a band, we’re a group!”

Ann Althouse said...

A rock band is the kind of band that would scream "I wanna rock!"

Goldenpause said...

If there’s a way for the WaPo to distort the facts, it will find it.

Mr Wibble said...

But people like this, using the system's own rules and institutions to take it back? How do you stop it?


Sic the IRS on her, have the FBI investigate her, deny her access to financial institutions, social media, etc. Harass her employers until she's out of a job. And repeat to everyone else around her.

Misinforminimalism said...

"Six years into the grass-roots movement unleashed by Donald Trump..."

Individuals "unleash" grass-roots movements? Did the movement pre-exist Trump, but he had it on a leash? Or did someone else have it on a leash, and Donald Trump cut the movement free? Or did Trump create the movement by planting a bunch of grass seed?

Does WaPo even have an editorial staff?

boatbuilder said...

Change a few lurid details, and they could write this piece of propaganda about any of us, or for that matter about Althouse.

Anybody not on board is Emmanuel Goldstein.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

If the country was not in the danger these... deplorables claim, why are those in power bent on weakening the first and second amendments to US constitution?

boatbuilder said...

Aerosmith is an interesting cultural phenomenon.

Started as an almost strictly old-fashioned roots blues band (a very good one).

Morphed into blues-rock.

Disappeared for a while.

A pioneering rap band samples one of their hits; it goes huge, they reappear.

They come back, playing stadium rock ballads, movie soundtracks. Doing pretty damn well.

Not the Stones, but not half bad.

Jim at said...

Why it's like six months of non-stop leftist rioting never happened.

realestateacct said...

Marjorie Taylor Greene is not an extremist. She believes that she needs to convince people to vote for her ideas. There seem to be quite a few Democrats who think they have the right to power and people who get in their way should be crushed. This seems to include a few people who think it is important to them to include queer sex in the education of small children while rigorously excluding all reference to religion.

Tina Trent said...

It's important to understand that Rubino lives in the part of Georgia completely controlled by House Speaker David Ralston, a defense attorney (and RINO who loves Stacey Abrams). He mocks Republicans who worry about crime, CRT, etc. He repeatedly broke House and Bar rules by abusing his executive privilege to run the clock on several child rape cases. Look it up. He rules with an iron fist, and nobody save a few very brave GOP legislators fought back, as the Democrats enjoyed the show. A pox on all their houses. The child rape victims were destroyed and denied justice. Pervy Speaker Ralston wasn't even censured. Thanks, crooked Bar Association. Thanks, lazy lawyers and judges and law professors and so-called rape victim advocates.

So this woman is operating in an arena where these things actually do happen and are committed by powerful government leaders who control the media and the government, some to discredit conservatives, some for personal power -- such as Ralston, who would flip parties in a minute. We need to help her and others like her.

People who are traumatized and/or denied justice often resort to metaphor to explain what is happening to them. I try to see through the metaphor to the facts. Most people just use the metaphors to mock and discredit them, for their own professional desires.

Try to see through the metaphor. Try to walk in their shoes before dismissing them.

realestateacct said...

This is what keeps annoying me beyond all reason: one side burns things down, loots and terrorizes to the praise of the press and the other side responds in the parameters of legality and they are maligned. It frightens me, because eventually the side adhering to civilization will drop their restraint as pointless.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Mr.Wibble,
It does not even require the 'sic'.
Modern US government is so complex and powerful that one can stumble into its thorny bushes at any time, for any reason or no reason. As I have personal knowledge of, despite being almost entirely apolitical.
This fact and awareness of it in the population is a powerful deterrent to action. Cf the aftermath for the Canadian truckers and their supporters, and the Jan 6 arrestees, for recent examples.

Lurker21 said...

Isn't it time somebody did for the cities what the metropolitan media routinely does for the rural backwaters. I just got back from the city and was able to scratch "man in a skirt" and "women with buzzcuts" off my bingo card. With all the tattooed people I saw, I think I won a prize. The strangeness is not just in the small towns. It's in the cities themselves.

Remember when Aerosmith had their last hurrah in the Nineties, and all their songs -- "Cryin'," "Crazy," "Amazing," -- all sounded alike? It didn't help that Alicia Silverstone (and I believe Liv Tyler) were in all of the videos. I've been watching a documentary about the Boston club scene. I kind of regret having missed all that now that it's over, though at the time it was the last thing on earth I would have been a part of.

Bunkypotatohead said...

You ain't seen nothin' 'til you're down on a McCrummen.

I want a rock.

See you at LollaPelosi!