By David Futrelle
If I were a conspiracy theorist, it would be easy, oh so easy, to make the case that Donald Trump is preparing to launch a massive crackdown on civil liberties in order to protect himself and fellow Republicans from massive losses in the midterms next month.
All the “proof” I would need to make such a case is out there, hiding in plain sight, in the words of Trump himself, as well as those of his most fervent followers.
Yesterday, as anti-Kavanaugh protests swelled and angry rape survivors confronted GOP senators face to face, Trump tweeted out his endorsement of an age-old anti-Semitic accusation, claiming (without the slightest shred of evidence) that “the very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals” carrying suspiciously un-handmade signs “paid for by Soros and others.”
Other GOP bigwigs, including Senators Chuck Grassley and John Cornyn have made similar claims. And Trump’s own lawyer — the increasingly erratic Rudy Giuliani — has even suggested that Soros’ assets be frozen in retribution for his alleged support of the protesters.
Trump has long dreamed of criminalizing dissent — recently declaring that he thinks “it’s embarrassing for the country to allow protesters” — and since his election the GOP has been doing their best to oblige him, And so Trump’s reference to Soros-paid protesters in his tweet yesterday can’t be dismissed as Trumpian grumbling; it’s an attempt to portray those who disagree with him and his fellow Republicans as traitors working for some sinister “international” cabal.
Trump has not himself publicly endorsed martial law, of course, but his most fervent supporters haven’t been quite so circumspect.
Believers in the rabidly pro-Trump conspiracy theories promoted by QAnon — based on the fiction that Trump is a bold freedom-fighter working diligently behind the scenes to defeat a traitorous “Deep State” — think that Trump has been signalling for some time that he’s about to launch a massive crackdown on his domestic foes.
But Q Believers aren’t just posting “proof” of this Trump plan; they are indicating — to the world, and to Trump himself — that they would enthusiastically support what would basically amount to a Trumpian military coup.
Many Q Believers thought that Trump’s text alert test run last Wednesday — Trump sent out an innocuous text message to millions of Americans to test new Presidential Alert system designed to warn Americans of natural and other disasters — was part of the run-up to a real declaration of martial law. As The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer writes,
Believers in QAnon … think the text could mark the start of “The Storm,” a fantastical MAGA dream in which Trump’s political enemies will be arrested and tried at military tribunals.
“That is how we will receive orders if all else fails,” wrote one QAnon believer on the 8Chan internet forum. “We are the next generation Minutemen! Standing by Sir!”
“SO HAPPY!” wrote another. “THANK YOU 45!”
More than a few Q Believers seem to be taking this “Minuteman” talk literally, with some hoping that they — like the Minutemen of old — will get an opportunity to murder leftist “traitors” in a sort of Trump-endorsed purge.
https://twitter.com/MrPuma2072/status/1047536309454221324
Never thought I’d be 😊 to hear about boots on the ground in 🇺🇸 #justiceiscoming
Martial Law, already enacted into readiness mode, may go full power for the purpose of keeping the peace while #massarrests occur
The #wirelessemergencyalert system will be handy then 👏😎#QAnon pic.twitter.com/zpaVnJqF8z
— 〽️💎⚡️✨💛 #fulldisclosure (@sheshifts001) October 5, 2018
Q Believers are even more excited by the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, suggesting that his presence on the supreme court will make it easier for Trump to get authorization for the military tribunals that are a central part of QAnon’s fantasy of retribution against the evil libs. This was a major Q talking point in the last several weeks:
It started… IT'S HERE!!!
The emergency text on 10/3
Kavanaugh will be in by 10/8
They will declassify FISA 10/25ish
Its the fall if the fall…
Arrests, Military tribunal -is gizmo ready?
The Red October will win! 11/6#POTUS45 #QAnon#Q#QArmy#FISA#DECLSS#RedWave https://t.co/HuKiCjpTsq— WQ2 (@WQ262402470) October 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/druderadio/status/1046022966956503041
One Q Believer explained the logic in a blog post several days before the final confirmation vote today:
Why are the dems so afraid of Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court? abortion? partly, but the real reason, courtesy of #Qanon: the deep state hacks are terrified of facing military tribunals; Kavanaugh will be the court tie breaker allowing the tribunals to go forward. …
they are terrified because they know its game over; they know President Trump will immediately declass FISA, the indictments will begin to be unsealed, and the arrests will begin these monsters will not be able stall the criminal judicial system and bribe and buy their way out of criminal convictions; they will face justice via the military courts and quick sentencing…some will get life in prison, and some will get a swift execution for their treason.
(Thanks to intrepid Q-monitor Mike Rothschild (no, really) for highlighting this post on his blog.)
On Twitter today, Q Believers are giddy over Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
Q primed the pump with a “Q Drop” promising “pain” to the alleged Deep Staters, (CW: Rape joke.)
#QAnon wants to know if you're ready to see arrests and pain. He's like Michael Buffer with a too-tight MAGA hat cutting off the blood to his brain. pic.twitter.com/rCwrYZ2ILu
— Mike Rothschild (no relation) (@rothschildmd) October 5, 2018
Q Believers’ bloodthirsty glee over this allegedly impending “PAIN” is palpable.
Kavanaugh ready. Now BRING THE PAIN #maga #QAnon #TheStorm #Kavanaugh #KavanaughConfirmation pic.twitter.com/MwZNQ1adlg
— Juanma (@jmalmodovar) October 6, 2018
Anti trump pro demonrats called to demonstrate again #KavanaughConfirmation open societys are paid again by soros, to bash #Kavanaugh . but the Darkness will make a end for his own side, light will win again. Fuck all DemonRats thats a threat to the Soveraign planet mother earth!
— Q-NLD-0002 (@QDutchpatriots) October 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/Skinner147/status/1048706556416733184
One Q Believer even managed to work in a reference to the artist Banksy.
As alarming as this all is, it’s worth remembering that QAnon and his or her supporters have been wrong in virtually every specific prediction; hell, while correctly predicting that Kavanaugh would be confirmed (not exactly a difficult thing to predict), QAnon was off on the vote total, an inconvenient fact that Q Believers are now trying hard to explain away.
But Trump — an authoritarian to his core — has been obsessed with “retribution” his entire life, and the midterms represent a massive challenge to his continued power. Making things even more dangerous, Trump is well aware that many if not most of his fans would support some sort of crackdown on liberals and the left — none more enthusiastically than the QAnon contingent.
I would love to be able to dismiss all this as conspiracist nonsense. But with an impulsive, conspiracy-minded authoritarian in the White House — and energetically supported by a veritable army of wannabe Minutemen online — I can’t.
We need to put as much energy as we can into the midterms — they’re ours to win. But we also need to be prepared in case Trump decides to interfere in them, or worse — as so many of his fans not-so-secretly desire. These are dark days for American democracy. I can only hope the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the Trump Train.
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@wwth, Ariblester – ah thanks! Also, I don’t know why I left a “the” where it wasn’t supposed to be. Not enough sleep.
On that note, I hadn’t realized it was nearly 1 AM. I wonder where my parents are? They’re supposed to be here but I think they went to a wedding or something. …Gah, I’m 30 years old. I shouldn’t need my parents’ presence to regulate my schedule. Well, goodnight!
Hopefully in November, it’ll be these jerks who feel “THE PAIN”!
I find myself chilled by the ‘paid for Soros, members of the Global Left,’ views expressed in public by actual politicians. It reminds me of followers of a certain Austrian troublemaker going on about ‘International Jewry.’ Good grief, they can’t even be subtle with dogwhistling.
@Kevin
Why would they be subtle? At every turn, they’ve learned that they can be a little less covert and cautious, because they’re still achieving all their goals. As far as they can see, they’re immune from consequences. They’re rich and powerful, they’ve stuffed the supreme court with amenable judges, and they can’t envisage anything like a civil war occurring as the end result of their actions or if they can, they don’t see themselves as suffering as a result of it.
You speak of the Minutemen sir, but I will have you know that I am their General and you aren’t fit to lick Preston Garvey’s boots (and now pardon me, another settlement needs my help…)
Why is it so hard to do research? One of the most successful media campaigns against informed citizenry is the constant song that Trump could not possibly do something right. If he does something positive that cannot be hidden from the public, it is presented as a fluke. The media covered Trump’s first controversial Executive Order (so-called Muslim ban quite successfully) but then what? None of the subsequent Executive Orders preparing the stage for Military Tribunals for traitors and defining the types of criminals the DoJ will indict were mentioned. This information exists where regular people can find it. A sealed indictment can only be held for a year. 1 year ago began the biggest festival of sealed indictment filing in history by DoJ. The count has surpassed 55,000. This does not indicate how many actions or people are contained within. The early unsealed indictments concerned the fake leadership coaching org NXIVM that is actually a sex cult that provides services of adult and children to NYC celebrities (and the celebrities were then indicted as well, and a Southern District clerk leaked a few names… surprising names, I lost a few other “favorite men” from my list.) The other was Backpage.com which is said to be responsible for brokering 70% trafficked individuals. That’s all, Trump is executig a crackdown on Corruption and Serious Human Rights Abuses. It has been in writing since the first day of his presidency. Over 10,000 people have been arrested in related cases. At some point, the media will be forced to mention this crackdown as well as other actions that will be unique in history. You should be contesting these arrests and auditing the process but since you don’t know, you can’t protect yourself against the Trump Administration. You have zero useful information. Because your media is tasked with hiding this from you… It is sad.
Tell that to the Puerto Ricans dead and dying due to US neglect and Mexican children still separated from their parents.
@ canadiangirl
I’m not sure that’s correct.
An indictment can remain sealed until arraignment.
The courts have held there’s no time limit on that; and some of the RICO indictments remained sealed for years.
Interestingly, to me anyway, so long as an indictment is returned (and if necessary, sealed) prior to the expiration of any statute of limitations time limit, then any subsequent charge is deemed to be in time (“tolled”) even if the suspect isn’t arrested and/or arraigned until after the expiration of the limitation period.
See Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and related cases (many of which are interesting reading if you’re a mafia buff; it’s like real life The Sopranos)
Yeah, it’s the “you” part that gets me. What exactly are you implying ?
Trump? The guy who is having migrant children taken away i the dead of night to be taken to the Tornillo concentration camp? The guy who is in love (his own words) with Kim Jong Un? The guy who say that TV stations critical of him should lose their licenses? The guy who leads chants of “lock her up” at his rallies every time a woman challenges him? The guy who tweets out anti-Semitic conspiracy theories? The guy who by your own admission is trying to ban people from the country on the basis of religion? You think he’s leading crackdowns on human rights abuses? You must be living in an alternate reality or something.
Oh, and I don’t need the news to tell me Trump is an authoritarian nightmare. His own behavior and words tell on him plenty.
And how did you come across this information, if not from some media outlet?
How long can this Storm stay in its entirely hypothetical teacup before Q believers have to admit they’ve been duped by terrible sub-Da-Vinci-Code pseudo historical pulp conspiracy fiction?
Right, right, forever. Infinity time. I was just hoping for a different answer.
(There’s almost certainly a lot that goes on that we don’t know about. Anything that thousands of jerks constantly talk freely about on the Internet is almost certainly not one of those things.)
@CanadianGirl – What are you talking about? Of course David’s not claiming that every single thing Trump has ever done is bad. If you were the head of a country, it’d be pretty hard NEVER to do anything that would affect people in a good way. The reverse is also true. What David’s saying is that Trump is overall doing way more harm than good – and, here, that QAnon’s bullshit is potentially dangerous. Do you disagree?
…By the way, not everything you mention as a good thing is unequivocally good. Backpage.com, for instance? Some sex workers were saying that restricting it meant they couldn’t find a way to screen clients and thus stay safe/have enough money. Other people said that the platform allowed for child abuse and trafficking. Probably both are true, and there could be more ways to protect sex workers while reducing trafficking.
In any case, I don’t see what this has to do with QAnon.
…In other news, I spent Sunday night and yesterday morning worried about my parents. Turns out they just went out of town because Monday was a holiday, and their phone wasn’t working properly. Everyone’s OK.
I wonder how many of these flaking napstitches were bleating about Jade Helm back in 2015?
Wow, that seems so long ago.