August 2, 2021

Jihadists flood pro-Trump social network with propaganda

GETTR, the new platform started by members of the former president’s inner circle, is awash with beheading videos and extremist content.

Just weeks after its launch, the pro-Trump social network GETTR is inundated with terrorist propaganda spread by supporters of Islamic State, according to a POLITICO review of online activity on the fledgling platform.

The social network — started a month ago by members of former President Donald Trump’s inner circle — features reams of jihadi-related material, including graphic videos of beheadings, viral memes that promote violence against the West and even memes of a militant executing Trump in an orange jumpsuit similar to those used in Guantanamo Bay.

The rapid proliferation of such material is placing GETTR in the awkward position of providing a safe haven for jihadi extremists online as it attempts to establish itself as a free speech MAGA-alternative to sites like Facebook and Twitter.


It underscores the challenges facing Trump and his followers in the wake of his ban from the mainstream social media platforms following the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots.

*snip*

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/02/trump-gettr-social-media-isis-502078

August 1, 2021

One of these fuggers is gonna get Delta and die!

That will be a big wake-up call. I betcha a buck those bastages are all vaccinated anyway.

August 1, 2021

Former RNC chairman to Jim Jordan on Jan. 6: 'You know, b****, what time you called the president'

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele called Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan a "son of a b****" for his recent remarks that he wasn't certain whether he spoke to former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6.

The former RNC chairman, a frequent critic of the former president, expressed disbelief that Jordan would be uncertain of the details of his conversation with Trump surrounding the events of Jan. 6.

"I can tell you the time, the place, the date of every conversation I've had with every president of this country, period," Steele said during a Thursday livestream for the Lincoln Project, a group of current and former Republican operatives who oppose Trump. "Going back to Bill Clinton, I can tell you where I was. I can tell you what was said. This son of a b**** is sitting up there acting like, 'Well, I don't know if it was before. I don't know if it was after. Oh, lordy, Jesus, I don't remember. I got to look at my notes.' You know, b****, what time you called the president, and you know what you said."

Steele then compared Jordan, who's a "grown a** man," to a 10-year-old who "got caught masturbating by [his] mama."

*snip*

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/michael-steele-jim-jordan-and-trump

July 29, 2021

THE MYPILLOW GUY REALLY COULD DESTROY DEMOCRACY

In the time I spent with Mike Lindell, I came to learn that he is affable, devout, philanthropic—and a clear threat to the nation.

By Anne Applebaum

When you contemplate the end of democracy in America, what kind of person do you think will bring it about? Maybe you picture a sinister billionaire in a bespoke suit, slipping brown envelopes to politicians. Maybe your nightmare is a rogue general, hijacking the nuclear football. Maybe you think of a jackbooted thug leading a horde of men in white sheets, all carrying burning crosses.

I met Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, in the recording studio that occupies the basement of Steve Bannon’s stately Capitol Hill townhouse, a few blocks from the Supreme Court—the same Supreme Court that will, according to Lindell, decide “9–0” in favor of reinstating Donald Trump to the presidency sometime in August, or possibly September. I made it through the entirety of the Trump presidency without once having to meet Bannon but here he was, recording his War Room podcast with Lindell. Bannon has been decomposing in front of our eyes for some years now, and I can report that this process continues to take its course. I walked in during a break and the two men immediately gestured to me to join the conversation, sit at the table with them, listen in on headphones. I demurred. “Anne Applebaum … hmm,” Bannon said. “Should’ve stuck to writing books. Gulag was a great book. How long did it take you to write it?”

In the room adjacent to the basement studio, an extra-large image of a New York Times front page hung on the wall, featuring a picture of Bannon and the headline “The Provocateur.” A bottle of Bio-Active Silver Hydrosol, whatever that is, sat on the desk. The big-screen TV was tuned to MSNBC. This wasn’t surprising: In his podcasts, Bannon carries on a kind of dialogue with Rachel Maddow, playing her sound bites and then offering his own critique. Later, Lindell told me that if it weren’t for attacks by “the left”—by which he means Politico, the Daily Beast, and, presumably, me—his message would never get out, because Fox News ignores him.


Bannon, too, lives outside the Fox bubble these days. Instead, he inhabits an alternate universe in which every minute of every day seems to be entirely devoted to the discussion and analysis of “electoral fraud,” with just a little time devoted to selling wellness products and vitamins that, despite his claims, won’t actually cure COVID-19. Bannon’s podcast, which he says has millions of listeners (it is ranked 59th on Apple Podcasts, so he might be right), is populated by full-time conspiracy theorists, some of whom you have heard of and some of whom you probably haven’t: Peter “Trump Won in a Freakin’ Landslide” Navarro, Rudy Giuliani, Garland Favorito, Willis @treekiller35, Sonny Borrelli, the Pizzagate propagator Jack Posobiec, and, of course, Lindell. Bannon calls them up one by one to report on the current status of the Trump-reinstatement campaign and related fake scandals. There are daily updates. The guests talk fast and loud. It is very exciting. On the day I was at the studio, Bannon was gloating about how President Joe Biden was now “defending his own legitimacy”: “We are going to spring the trap around you, sir!” He kept telling people to “lawyer up.”

snip>https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/mike-lindells-plot-destroy-america/619593/

July 27, 2021

I am not mad at people that refuse to get vaccinated......

I do consider it their right to refuse. So, I feel, as someone that has gotten COVID after being vaccinated, it is my responsibility to mask up from this point further.

July 27, 2021

2 Capitol rioters plead guilty while House hearing unfolds; judge calls their behavior 'reprehensibl

(CNN)A married couple who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 and later downplayed the level of violence pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court, where a judge pledged to use the case to send a message that their behavior was "reprehensible."

The plea hearing for the two Donald Trump supporters, Lori and Thomas Vinson of Kentucky, took place while the select committee hearing about the attack was underway in the House of Representatives.

The Vinsons, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of demonstrating in the Capitol. This has become the standard deal that the Justice Department has offered to nonviolent rioters.

The charge carries a potential maximum sentence of six months in jail, though they'll likely get less than that, and could even receive probation and avoid incarceration. As part of the plea agreement, both agreed to pay $500 in restitution for damage done to the Capitol.

snip>

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/27/politics/vinson-plea-capitol-riot/index.html

July 27, 2021

Liz Cheney urges investigation of Trump's 'every phone call' on Jan. 6, and Kinzinger makes an emoti

Liz Cheney urges investigation of Trump’s ‘every phone call’ on Jan. 6, and Kinzinger makes an emotional appeal for truth.

Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, issued a defiant challenge to her own party on Tuesday as a special House committee began its inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, saying that the riot would remain a “cancer on our constitutional republic” if Congress failed to hold accountable those who were responsible.

In stern opening remarks, Ms. Cheney, one of just two House Republicans willing to serve on the panel, dared her colleagues to support a full investigation into the worst attack on Congress in centuries.

“Will we be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America?” Ms. Cheney asked. “Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country and revere our Constitution?”

Her remarks underscored just how isolated she has become in her own party as one of the few Republicans willing to speak out against President Donald J. Trump and his role in inspiring the attack on the Capitol. Ms. Cheney, the daughter of a powerful conservative family, has already been ousted from Republican leadership for her insistence on calling out the former president and his election lies, and her participation in the inquiry has drawn scorn from party leaders.


snip>
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/us/liz-cheney-capitol-riot-jan-6.html

July 27, 2021

We are never gonna get anywhere with this Select Committee..........

My Trump loving family are poo-pooing the officers already. Nothing. will. happen. No one is going to be held accountable.

July 23, 2021

Donald Trump Jr. Responds to Kimberly Guilfoyle 'The View' Rumor

*snip*

Meanwhile, the son of the former President Donald Trump shared a Daily Mail.com report saying that the race is on to find a "Trump Republican" to replace McCain, so the show can appeal to a broader audience.

*snip*

In tweeting the article, Trump Jr. responded to rumors that his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former co-host on Fox's The Five, was being considered.

"LOL, hey ⁦@ABC⁩ even I'd tune in to see ⁦@kimguilfoyle⁩ do this," Trump Jr. tweeted.

"Kim vs the other 4 doesn't seem like a fair fight though. You may need a few more libs," he added, referring to liberal voices.

*snip*

July 23, 2021

The surreal lives of Arkansas nurses fighting Covid-19 inside the hospital and denial on the outside

(CNN)Sunny worked as a nurse on a Covid-19 floor of a hospital at the height of the pandemic. The work was hard, but what made it surreal was doing it while living in small town Arkansas, where many people, even some in her own family, said the virus was overblown -- "just the flu."

"It's extremely difficult to watch so many people die, and then have people tell you on Facebook or in Walmart that you're a liar," Sunny said. Sometimes that would come from the loved ones of the patients she was taking care of.

"We had people accuse us of giving their loved one something else so that they would die and we could report it as Covid. We heard it more than once that we were fudging the numbers, or we were killing people on purpose to make Covid look like it was worse than it was, or to make it look real when it wasn't," she said.

Sunny asked CNN not to use her real name, because some dedicated Covid-19 deniers have harassed health care workers, or tried to get outspoken ones fired.

snip>

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/us/arkansas-covid-nurse-vaccine/index.html