#838 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Thursday January 18)
Good morning,
I troll Facebook from time to time. I do so, as it affords me the opportunity to find articles from reputable journalists that I might not have found, to hear from friends, and to get a sense of what other people are thinking. One such thinker is a physician friend of mine, who maintains, against all evidence to the contrary, that the real threat to American democracy is not Donald Trump but, rather, Joe Biden. Here is his recent screed. Below his posting appeared numerous supportive comments, longing for the days when Trump again will be president. I have corrected misspellings:
THE OUTRAGEOUS POSTING
* I believe in one way or another the 2020 elections were stollen.
* I believe the Biden/ Obama/ Clinton machine is trying to imprison Biden's main opponent in order to steal the elections again
* I believe January 6th was entrapment and Biden's pathetic speech yesterday fed off of it
* I believe 2024 will be a turbulent political year as the Left continues the despicable lies and propaganda, fed by CNN, MSNBC
* I believe this year the majority of Americans (and the world) will finally wake up and reject the Leftist/ Marxist ideologies of illegal immigration, open borders, Woke-ism, gender confusion, DEI, etc. and will vote them out
* I believe Trump will win 2024 and he will win with the Black vote
* I believe after Trump the country will look for a third party and RFK will win 2028
* I believe many countries will go the direction of @JMPresidente23
of Argentina
* I'm grateful for @elonmusk and his platform @X without which none of these would be possible. Elon is making truth great again!
* The Biden/ Obama /Clinton machine will try to destroy @elonmusk and @X and we need to protect this platform and pray for Elon at all costs
THOUGHTS
So there it is. My friend subscribes to the unsupported statements of Trump and his acolytes regarding some deep-state, vast liberal cospiracy that is undermining Trump, without anything in the way of real evidence. Bolstering that preposterous narrative is the concurrent besmirching of every investigator and prosecutor in the Justice Department and any state in which Trump is a defendant. It is downright unpatriotic, unappreciative, and dangerous for them to do so, solely in the service of the Trump lies. It undermines faith in our institutions, already reeling from the bad press being pumped out daily by right wing media outlets.
The Trump gaslighting machine is in full swing. No longer are Trump’s actions seen as wrong and no longer are they being denied (e.g., hush money, trying to steal the election, supporting the January 6th rioters, retaining, lying about, sharing, and hiding classified information). Instead, the ultimate of gaslighting—blaming the other side for that which you are accused of and have committed—is the new strategy.
He no longer is concerned about the actual facts around the 2020 election, falling back, instead, upon his feelings that something must be wrong. After all, how could his candidate every be repudiated?
He endorses the notion that President Biden, despite assiduously avoiding personal involvement in the multiple indictments of Trump in different jurisdictions, is manipulating the “persecution” of Trump, apparently with Obama and Clinton as co-conspirators—without a shred of evidence.
He believes, again without evidence, that January 6th was a vast conspiratorial entrapment of what the right now describes as “gentle” and “patriotic” insurrectionists. Of note, Trump has made no secret of his intent to pardon them, while spineless creatures like Ted Cruz have backed down from their prior condemnation of these events.
The rest of the post is opinions, many of which I disagree with but here are my closing observations:
Mr. Musk has no more concern with the truth than the MAGA crowd. X (the former Twitter) is a hotbed of hate, misinformation, and disinformation. Musk has allowed people with vile and extremist racist and antisemitic views back on the platform.
I’m unclear whether the prediction of Robert Kennedy, Jr., the vaccine denier, will be elected in 2028 is merely hopeful conjecture or based upon something I haven’t considered. In any event, I think it unlikely, even in these crazy conspiratorial, science-rejecting times, that this gentleman can ever gain traction in a national contest.
My friend should stick to doctoring, about which he knows a lot more than I. As for history, politics, and critical reasoning, he is wanting.
This is a reminder of what we’re dealing with. Statements made with confidence based upon unverified assertions (many of which affirmatively have been refuted), repeated often enough, begin to being accepted by some as the truth.
A STARTLING STATISTIC
Two-thirds of the Iowa voters believe the 2020 election was stolen and Biden is an illegitimate president. Barring a victory by Haley in New Hampshire and significant change in the landscape, Trump will be the nominee.
In the meantime, the “smart money” today suggests that Mr. Trump may well be our next president. Heaven help us.
ERRATA
Yes, I know, Emperor Claudius didn’t write an autobiographical novel. Robert Graves was the author…
Have a good day,
Glenn