We Hunted The Mammoth
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.
UPDATE about 5 minutes after this went up: TRUMP ORDERS MISSILE STRIKES ON SYRIA
Here are a few initial reactions to the strikes on Twitter, followed by my original post:
So roughly 150 neo-Nazis, alongside some alt-rightists who are basically Nazis but kind of like to pretend that they aren’t, went a-marching in Pikeville, Kentucky this past weekend, dressed to the 88s in an assortment of Nazi-esque uniforms, carrying flags festooned with swastikas and an assortment of other Nazi-ish symbols, chanting chants containing the word “heil” and occasionally breaking out in Nazi — sorry, “Roman” — salutes. A few even brought assault rifles along with them, in case they needed to invade Poland or something.
A succession of new revelations about National Security advisor (and possible Russian operative?) Mike Flynn have gotten people talking about Trump’s Russian connections again.
Of all the scary things I’ve read about Trump and Russia in the past few days, the most telling one came from a piece called “The Spy Revolt Against Trump Begins” in The Observer, revealing that the intelligence community is increasingly convinced that Trump and his people can’t be trusted with America’s secrets:
Our Intelligence Community is so worried by the unprecedented problems of the Trump administration—not only do senior officials possess troubling ties to the Kremlin, there are nagging questions about basic competence regarding Team Trump—that it is beginning to withhold intelligence from a White House which our spies do not trust.
The worst part isn’t the withholding of information. It’s that our spies are probably right to withhold that information. Even aside from the Russia stuff, there seems to be a real chance that Trump will start blabbing about top secret matters while poking at his iceberg lettuce-based salad during dinner at Mar-a-Lago just a few feet away from assorted random diners.
But I digress Obviously, WE NEED A THOROUGH AND INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION into the whole Trump/Russia thing.
So get out those phones and call your Members of Congress!
See my posts here and here for information and advice on how to make your calls and emails effective. If making these sorts of calls is tough for you, here’s some advice on calling politicians if you have social anxiety. But emails are also fine.
The weekly Action Checklist for Americans of Conscience that I mentioned a few posts back has some suggestions of other people to call about Russia:
Action: Support investigation of Russian interference in US elections.
On January 6, an official report of the CIA, FBI, and NSA assessed with high confidence that Vladimir Putin ordered a 2016 campaign to undermine public faith in the US democratic process. Thankfully, three Senate and House bipartisan committees are now examining Russia’s actions.
Call: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Call: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Call: Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism
Script: Hi! I’m calling in regard to _name’s_ role on the _committee name_. I strongly support his work on resisting attempts to “move on” from Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. I am looking forward to learning the outcome of the committee’s findings.
See the rest of this week’s Action Checklist here.
Might I suggest also calling and thanking Congresswoman Maxine Waters for her attempts to keep this issue on the front burner? You can leave a message at (323) 757-8900 or (202) 225-2201.
Speaking of giving thanks, the folks at Wall-Of-Us will be hand-delivering a valentine to Elizabeth Warren tomorrow. You can put your name on the card by going here.
The 4th quarter 2016 We’ve Got a Bigger Problem Now WHTM pledge drive continues! If you like the blog, please donate what you can! THANKS!
In light of the latest revelations about Russian interference in the presidential elections, I made some more memes you might want to post around this internet of ours.
Well, they’re basically all the same meme, with slight variations. And only two of them are usable. But I’ll be making more!
Here’s the meme with standard white meme-y text:
Here’s a weird and unusable variation:
And another even weirder and even more unusable version:
Here’s a song about a much cooler secret agent:
Feel free to make and post memes of your own!
EDIT:
By request, here’s one with no text:
