The Freaks Are Feasting On Each Other

Eventually, delusion, paranoia and brain worms just take over what little there is in the MAGA/ low- IQAnon / fascist mind, conspiracies beget conspiracies, and uncivil "civil wars" are waged.  Let's feast on their fighting:

On Saturday night, pro-Trump lawyer and QAnon booster Lin Wood released a recording of what purports to be a phone call between Wood and Flynn on Telegram. The audio’s publication comes amid a right-wing civil war pitting Wood against one-time allies like Flynn and other figures involved in the 2020 attempt to overturn the election.

In the call, Wood complains to Flynn that his QAnon supporters had attacked Wood online. But Flynn attempts to disown QAnon, claiming it’s a “disinformation campaign” created by the CIA.

“I think it’s a disinformation campaign,” Flynn said on the call. “I think it’s a disinformation campaign that the CIA created. That’s what I believe. Now, I don’t know that for a fact, but that’s what I think it is. I think it’s a disinformation campaign.”

Later in the recording, Flynn called QAnon “total nonsense.”

“I find it total nonsense,” Flynn said. “And I think it’s a disinformation campaign created by the left.”  [snip]

Wood’s publication of the audio comes as part of a growing feud between Wood and Flynn and other figures active in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The fight kicked off last week when recently acquitted Kenosha shooting defendant Kyle Rittenhouse, a former Wood client, accused Wood in a Fox News interview of deliberately keeping him in jail to raise money off of his case.

Suddenly under attack by Rittenhouse, Wood grew publicly furious that allies like Flynn and pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell weren’t strenuously defending him. The ensuing clash has consumed QAnon and other far-right communities over the past week, while Wood grows increasingly hostile, even claiming at one point that a plane he was set to take a flight on was sabotaged in an attempt to kill him.

At roughly the same time, loyal MAGAt Steve Cortes was fired from uber- right- wing Newsmax:

Former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes is out at Newsmax and will host his last primetime broadcast for the right-wing cable channel early next week, if not sooner, five sources familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast.

Tensions between Cortes and the MAGA cable network had long been simmering, sources suggested, but it was the Trump loyalist’s vehement disagreement—which he wasn’t shy about publicly voicing—with Newsmax’s company-wide vaccine rules that was the final straw. [snip]

“I will not comply w/ any organization’s attempt to enforce Biden’s capricious & unscientific Medical Apartheid mandate,” he blared in one tweet. “I will not be forced into the injection, nor will I disclose my vaccination status. No one should be pressured to choose between medical privacy & their job.”

Cortes publicly bashing his employer’s decision may have been the final straw, but insiders said the former Trump campaign strategist and ex-CNN contributor has long conflicted with Newsmax.

“It’s been ongoing for a while,” one current Newsmax staffer told The Daily Beast, adding that Cortes is “a constant risk” due to his penchant for making controversial and inflammatory comments.

“He’s on a delay. Can’t trust him,” the staffer further noted, claiming Cortes’ nightly program utilizes a broadcast delay to give the network an opportunity to censor potentially inappropriate content.  (our emphasis)

Then there's the split among low- IQAnon adherents as to whether John F. Kennedy, Jr., is still alive and ready to join the Malignant Loser in his quest to regain the presidency:

The theory is strange even by the standards of QAnon – which claims Democrats and Hollywood celebrities are involved in a secret cannibalistic cult which Donald Trump is secretly battling, a theory expounded in cryptic internet messages by a mysterious prophet-like figure known as Q. And while only a fraction appear to believe the JFK Jr angle, experts say it is still damaging to their relationships and their grasp on reality.

Will Sommer, author of the upcoming book Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Reshaped America and a longtime observer of the conspiracy theory, estimates that about 20 per cent of Q followers believe in JFK Jr’s re-emergence, but that those who do, “100 per cent believe”.

“QAnon itself is obviously pretty dangerous. It’s hard to say whether the people who believe the JFK Jr [conspiracy] are more dangerous than the QAnon people who don’t,” he told The Independent.

To settle things, our modest proposal is that everyone adhering to these "theories" and half- baked "beliefs" -- anti- vaxxers, low -IQAnon, Stop the Steal- ers, etc. -- need to engage in hand- to- hand combat, with appropriate medieval weaponry, with no quarter given!  Last person standing will get the handsome hat pictured above.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Nevada  Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak had some choice words for COVID Donnie in the wake of his superspreader indoor rally Sunday night:

“Tonight, President Donald Trump is taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada,” he began. “Despite reports from his own White House, despite local officials in Southern & Northern Nevada reiterating to the venues the existing restrictions in State emergency directives, tonight, the President is knowingly packing thousands into an indoor venue to hold a political rally.” [snip]

“To put it bluntly: he didn’t have the guts to make tough choices ― he left that to governors and the states. Now he’s decided he doesn’t have to respect our state’s laws. As usual, he doesn’t believe the rules apply to him,” he wrote.

“This is an insult to every Nevadan who has followed the directives, made sacrifices, and put their neighbors before themselves. It’s also a direct threat to all of the recent progress we’ve made, and could potentially set us back.”  (our emphasis)

David Von Drehle discusses COVID Donnie's delusional claims about bringing jobs back to the auto industry, and concludes with this broadside on the myth of COVID Donnie as a shmart bidnessman:

Trump has led the planet in the production of just one commodity: hot air. Long ago, he reached the point where no major bank would lend him a nickel — except Deutsche Bank, known for the large fines it has paid over accusations of laundering money for Russian billionaires. As Trump himself likes to say, Russia, Russia, Russia.

During his years as a reality television star, Trump was known for saying, “You’re fired.” A more accurate tag line would have echoed a cough syrup ad from the 1980s: I’m not a successful businessman, but I play one on TV. But he’s a billionaire! For that he can thank his daddy. In fact, Trump would be far wealthier today if he had invested his inherited fortune in an index fund and walked away, instead of tossing it down ratholes of his own making. According to the latest estimate from Forbes, the vaunted Trump economy has cost Trump roughly a third of his net worth, leaving him a billion dollars poorer than he was last winter.

Trump’s defenders like to charge those of us in the reality-based community with rooting for failure. But I have high hopes for the economic future of the United States — hopes based on the productive energy of Americans, not the windbag of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Charlotte Alter went on a Cletus safari in Wisconsin and found a common element among many supporters of COVID Donnie who live in the right- wing conspiracy dome -- they're nuttier than a fruitcake:

Kelly Ferro is a busy mom on her way to the post office: leather mini-backpack, brunet topknot, turquoise pedicure with a matching ombré manicure. A hairdresser from Kenosha, Wis., Ferro didn’t vote in 2016 but has since become a strong supporter of Donald Trump. “Why does the news hate the President so much?” she says. “I went down the rabbit hole. I started doing a lot of research.”

When I ask what she means by research, something shifts. Her voice has the same honey tone as before, and her face is as friendly as ever. But there’s an uncanny flash as she says, “This is where I don’t know what I can say, because what’s integrated into our system, it stems deep. And it has to do with really corrupt, evil, dark things that have been hidden from the public. Child sex trafficking is one of them.”  [snip]

In more than seven dozen interviews conducted in Wisconsin in early September, from the suburbs around Milwaukee to the scarred streets of Kenosha in the aftermath of the Jacob Blake shooting, about 1 in 5 voters volunteered ideas that veered into the realm of conspiracy theory, ranging from QAnon to the notion that COVID-19 is a hoax. Two women in Ozaukee County calmly informed me that an evil cabal operates tunnels under the U.S. in order to rape and torture children and drink their blood. A Joe Biden supporter near a Kenosha church told me votes don’t matter, because “the elites” will decide the outcome of the election anyway. A woman on a Kenosha street corner explained that Democrats were planning to bring in U.N. troops before the election to prevent a Trump win.  (our emphasis)

Hoo- boy. Sales of tinfoil must be strong there.  But, the far right disinformation isn't limited to Wisconsin, of course, or to English- speakers.

COVID Donnie's not going to walk away with an award in any "who's the sanest" competition with Joe Biden:

Likely voters believe that Democratic nominee Joe Biden is more mentally sound that President Donald Trump, according to a recently-released Fox News poll.

The survey of likely 1,191 likely voters found that 51% believe that Biden “has the mental soundness to serve as president.”

Only 47% of likely voters told Fox News that President Trump has the “mental soundness” to be commander-in-chief.

That 47% sounds high, and the 51% low, but this is Fox News, so...

Speaking of polls,



Finally, once again, we recommend a visit to Infidel 753's link round- up for a very comprehensive collection of links to interesting blog posts from around the Internet.  Check out his posts, too, or better yet just bookmark him!