Hell no, he won’t go
Either Trump believes his own rhetoric about a “stolen” election, or he doesn't. I’m not sure which would be worse.
When President Trump contacted COVID-19 a few news cycles ago, I wrote on Facebook that I hoped this would finally make him realize the seriousness of the pandemic and that he’ll hopefully act more appropriately in the future. A really hardcore NeverTrumper friend of mine - I’m talking about someone who makes me look like Judge Jeanine Pirro - firmly responded that Trump is simply incapable of acting more appropriately.
Trump subsequently proved him correct by making a bizarre propaganda video about his triumphant recovery, started his super-spreader rallies and gloated about how he was now “immune” from the virus. If anything, contacting the virus made him worse.
Fast forward to last week, when some news stories asserted that Trump was finally coming to terms with his resounding election defeat. If so, he’s hiding it very well:
Honestly, the man was in rare form this past weekend:
This retweet of a guy calling himself “Stonewall Jackson” (but of course) came up literally as I was writing this:
For people like me who’ve been way too online for a long time, this brings back memories of the Diebold conspiracy theories following the 2004 election. Back then, it was Republicans who stole the election because of corrupt voting machines. The difference was, it was marginal conspiracy theorists and Robert Kennedy, Jr. (though I repeat myself) blabbing about it, not the guy with the nuclear codes.
Does Trump actually believe this stuff, or is he just throwing red meat to the Trump cult to promote his eventual move to Newsmax? Or is it a Hail-Mary bid to stay in office to avoid the flood of lawsuits coming in the moment he’s out?
Trump’s departure from the Oval Office could expose him to a host of lawsuits and investigations, now that he is no longer protected by the presidential “cloak of immunity”, legal experts say.
From allegations of tax evasion to potential charges arising out of the Mueller investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, the outgoing president and his legal team can expect to spend some time in court.
Estimates of the number of cases vary, with some experts suggesting that there could be more than a dozen.
[…]
…once Trump steps out of the office on Jan. 20, not only will he have to adjust to the new reality of life as a private citizen, but will also have to quickly find a way to protect himself against a litany of pending lawsuits and investigations, civil and criminal.
“He’s very vulnerable to prosecution,” Jimmy Gurule, a former Justice Department official in the George H.W. Bush administration told USA Today, referring to the investigation into Trump’s tax returns and other financial documents. “I think the threat is very real and very substantial.”
Currently, the two most significant legal threats Trump faces once he leaves the White House are investigations by Manhattan and New York prosecutors into his personal and professional financial dealings.
Prosecutors in Manhattan have subpoenaed eight years of Trump tax returns as part of an investigation that started with a probe into payments made during Trump’s 2016 election campaign and extended to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump before he became president. Prosecutors are also looking into potential criminal activity within the Trump organization.
Trump is literally trying to save his skin, and if that means bringing the country down with him, so be it.
Speaking of early-2000s conspiracy theories, the same country that sent a 9/11 conspiracy book to the top of its best-seller lists is now the most anti-vaxxer country in the Western world:
Here is a pretty conundrum. France, cradle of the enlightenment and birthplace of Cartesian logic, is also a snake-pit of conspiracy theories. French “touch-and-see” rationalism and French “it’s-all-a giant-fiddle” scepticism sometimes align. They can also collide. And nowhere is this more true than for vaccinations. France, the home of Louis Pasteur, of Pierre and Marie Curie, is more opposed to them than any other country in the world.
The news of the Pfizer and BioNTech breakthrough in the development of a vaccine against Covid-19 was greeted across the world with cautious relief and delight. In France, there was some delight — but also suspicion and even anger. International research by Gallup last year reported that one in three French people believed all vaccines to be dangerous — the highest percentage of the 144 countries surveyed. This week, an Ipsos survey suggested that 46% of French adults will refuse — or say they will refuse — the Pfizer jab or any other kind of anti-Covid jab. (Compared to 36% in the United States, 30% in Germany, 21% in Britain and 16% in India.)
Strangely, opposition appears to have increased as the vaccine looked more likely to appear. An Ipsos survey in September found that 41% of French adults would refuse any Covid jab. With “herd immunity” estimated to require 60 to 70% coverage of a given population, the pandemic appears to have a long and prosperous future in France.
[…]
Laurent-Henri Vignaud, a French historian who has studied the rise and fall of anti-vax movements, is sceptical. It’s not always a good idea, he suggests, to take the French public at its word — and certainly not on this subject. “The only other countries broadly as anti-vaccine as the French are the Russians and the Mongolians,” he says. “Countries where government is widely held in disrepute. What we are looking at here, I think, is a transfer of suspicion. For many years 30-40% of the French have been vastly sceptical of all politicians and all media.”
He concludes that, “this deep pessimism has spilled over to the question of vaccines”. Wide-scale rejection of mainstream politics exists in other countries, but takes an especially acute form in France, where the traditional centre-Left/centre-Right pattern of politics has all but collapsed. The poor performance of recent governments offers a partial explanation. But France’s aggressively suspicious attitude towards authority is not a new phenomenon.
As he describes it, there is a core of people who are viscerally anti-vax, “people who use arguments on natural health or because they believe conspiracy theories of the far-Right or the far-Left”. But there is another group, he says, who are simply sceptical or negative about whatever the government proposes. “But I doubt they will all refuse in the end to take a Covid vaccine?”he says.
The writer, John Lichfield, concludes that most French people will get the vaccine when it becomes available. But every once in a while it’s good to be reminded that conspiracy culture thrives outside of the United States.
(Another example: QAnon has gone global. But don’t worry: when Justin Trudeau leads the Canadian Armed Forces south of the border to force Trump to concede, you’ll read all about it here.)
The Associated Press reports on an Israeli device that sends music directly into your head so that only year can hear it, without headphones:
Imagine a world where you move around in your own personal sound bubble. You listen to your favorite tunes, play loud computer games, watch a movie or get navigation directions in your car — all without disturbing those around you.
That’s the possibility presented by “sound beaming,” a new futuristic audio technology from Noveto Systems, an Israeli company. On Friday it will debut a desktop device that beams sound directly to a listener without the need for headphones.
The company provided The Associated Press with an exclusive demo of the desktop prototype of its SoundBeamer 1.0 before its launch Friday.
The listening sensation is straight out of a sci-fi movie. The 3-D sound is so close it feels like it’s inside your ears while also in front, above and behind them.
Big deal. “Weird” Al Yankovic predicted this kind of thing back when he was hosting MuchMusic.
“Imagine a world where you move around in your own personal [...] bubble.” Kind of fits Trump, doesn’t it? ;)
Seriously though, now that he’s cornered to the point where reality is imminently coming for him whether he likes it or not, the guy is more dangerous than ever. One can dismiss him as a ranting fool, but he’s been putting the pieces in position for a long time. Moves like firing defence staff may look crazy, but the timing is good from the perspective of a coup attempt. (Not too soon in terms of alarming voters; not too late to be useful to him.) He has made many moves that “could be” harmless, but fit the picture of a dictator too well. His foundations are in place, and we don’t know with any certainty how many people may follow him.
Guys like him only believe in themselves and their right to use others (which is why it’s pointless to think about what he’s willing to do to the country. Short answer: anything that serves his needs.) He knows people will follow him if he convincingly *appears* to have genuine beliefs.
Fortunately many Americans are concerned and watching. Biden is stronger than he looks. But it’s possible that the Trump crowd may go to lengths for which America is simply not prepared. Also, can we feel safe that no outside powers may support him? If there is a safe transition of power - which would be a relief - Trump is nonetheless an influence that won’t go away; even or perhaps especially if he is imprisoned.