Most of us are familiar with left wing sectarianism, the tendency to organize into a circular firing squad. In the 1930s, the U.S left splintered into Democrats, Socialists, Democratic Socialists, Communists, Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Trotskyites, Cannonites, Schachtmanites, Lovestoneites, and many other factions. Most of their infighting was over ideological and doctrinal differences.
Now, as the Washington Post reports, our zany rightwingers are splitting into warring factions, not so much over ideology (which in their case is either nonexistent or incoherent), but over power and greed.
The far-right firebrands and conspiracy theorists of the pro-Trump Internet have a new enemy: each other.
QAnon devotees are livid at their former hero Michael Flynn for accurately calling their jumbled credo “total nonsense.” Donald Trump superfans have voiced a sense of betrayal because the former president, booed for getting a coronavirus immunization booster, has become a “vaccine salesman.” And attorney Lin Wood seems mad at pretty much everyone, including former allies on the scattered “elite strike-force team” investigating nonexistent mass voter fraud.
After months of failing to disprove the reality of Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss, some of the Internet’s most popular right-wing provocateurs are grappling with the pressures of restless audiences, saturated markets, ongoing investigations and millions of dollars in legal bills.
The result is a chaotic melodrama, playing out via secretly recorded phone calls, personal attacks in podcasts, and a seemingly endless stream of posts on Twitter, Gab and Telegram calling their rivals Satanists, communists, pedophiles or “pay-triots” — money-grubbing grifters exploiting the cause.
The infighting reflects the diminishing financial rewards for the merchants of right-wing disinformation, whose battles center not on policy or doctrine but on the treasures of online fame: viewer donations and subscriptions; paid appearances at rallies and conferences; and crowds of followers to buy their books and merchandise.
But it also reflects a broader confusion in the year since QAnon’s faceless nonsense-peddler, Q, went mysteriously silent….
The cage match kicked off late in November when Kyle Rittenhouse, acquitted of all charges after fatally shooting two men at a protest last year in Kenosha, Wis., told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that his former attorneys, including Wood, had exploited his jail time to boost their fundraising “for their own benefit, not trying to set me free.”
Wood has since snapped back at his 18-year-old former client, wondering aloud in recent messages on the chat service Telegram: Could his life be “literally under the supervision and control of a ‘director?’ Whoever ‘Kyle’ is, pray for him.”
The feud carved a major rift between Wood and his former compatriots in the pro-Trump “stop the steal” campaign, with an embattled Wood attacking Rittenhouse supporters including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.); Flynn, a former national security adviser to Trump; Sidney Powell, Flynn’s attorney; and Patrick Byrne, the Overstock founder who became a major “stop the steal” financier….
Each faction has accused the opposing side of betraying the pro-Trump cause or misusing the millions of dollars in funds that have gone to groups such as Powell’s Defending the Republic.
Wood has posted recordings of his phone calls with Byrne, who can be heard saying that Wood is “a little kooky,” and Flynn, a QAnon icon who can be heard telling Wood that QAnon’s mix of extremist conspiracy theories was actually bogus “nonsense” or a “CIA operation.”
Beyond the infighting, both sides are also staring down the potential for major financial damage in court. A federal judge last month ordered Wood and Powell to pay roughly $175,000 in legal fees for their “historic and profound abuse of the judicial process” in suing to overturn the 2020 presidential election. And Powell and others face potentially billions of dollars in damages as a result of defamation lawsuits filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which they falsely accused of helping to rig the 2020 race.
To help cover their legal bills, the factions have set up online merchandise shops targeting their most loyal followers. Fans of Powell’s bogus conspiracy theory can, for instance, buy a four-pack set of “Release the Kraken: Defending the Republic” drink tumblers from her website for $80. On Flynn’s newly launched website, fans can buy “General Flynn: #FightLikeAFlynn” women’s racerback tank tops for $30. And Wood’s online store sells $64.99 “#FightBack” unisex hoodies; the fleece, a listing says, feels like “wearing a soft, fluffy cloud.”
It would be funny if it weren’t so sad. The Trump minions are showing their true colors as a clown car.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This link is broken.
Joe ______________________ co-author with Helena Worthen, of Power Despite Precarity: strategies for the contingent faculty movement in higher education. Order at https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745345529/power-despite-precarity/ or from Powells through the ILWU local 5 portal at Paperbacks come with free e-books.
——————— Joe Berry 21 San Mateo Road, Berkeley, CA 94707 cell-510-999-0751 joeberry@igc.org or joetracyberry@gmail.com Skype: joeberry1948
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Here is the link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/01/03/trump-qanon-online-money-war-jan6/
As delicious as this should be, I am not comforted primarily because the disarray of the various things that need to coalesce against all of them. Now. I am reminded of Kurt Tucholsky’s observation when he observed a similar scenario: “Never before had Democracy reacted so promptly as did by doing nothing when it dealt with the prospect of dictatorship.”
Nailed it.
…it did…
First as tragedy, then as farce, then as tragifarce
Darth Putin: May the tragifarce be with you.
LOL. Yes
We can only hope this is like “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” – Rod Serling short story and Twilight Zone episode
The exPresident is mobilizing by against those who claim the election was fair. If a few more defect, that puts the question in front of others on the campaign and maybe.. just maybe some educated gop voters will step up and fewer crazies get elected.
Bravo to Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota for speaking truth
From Post DIspatch editorial – McDermott: Many Republicans know they should confront Trump. But they are so, so scared.
In an ABC interview last Sunday, George Stephanopoulos asked Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, about those in his party “who have bought the falsehoods” still emanating from TrumpWorld.
So it was refreshing to watch Rounds answer the question as if he is someone who, unlike so many in his party, still inhabits this reality, instead of some wishful-thinking alternate one. “The election was fair, as fair as we have seen,” he said. “We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency.”
Bravo to Senator Rounds for speaking truth. Trump immediately attacked him, and attacked Mitch McConnell as well, and his attacks were ignored. I suppose the vast majority of Republican senators know that Trump’s claim is a lie, but they cower before His Orangeness. Senator Rounds was just re-elected, so can wait until 2026, when Trump will be gone, in prison, or discredited, or enfeebled.
“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”
one of the best screenplays ever!!!
Some years ago I read a book describing all of the anti-evolution theories that competed in the theater of the absurd that is religion-based science. This author entitled his book Tower of Babel, a reference to the Biblical story which carried the theme of the gods confusing the mortals who sought to be like them. The point was that there were multiple ideas about a divinely guided universe that competed with each other for adherents.
So this just reminds me that ideas based on stories that are absurd often find themselves in a confusing mess. But will it last through the mid-terms? will these disagreements keep some from the polls? Probably not. These ideas do not field candidates for the most part. As the election nears, we will be reminded that all those different groups Diane remined us of that formed the disparate left in 1930 are really just the same thing, and right wing winners of the elections will continue to solidify the rule of the minority.
highly recommended
Greenblatt, Steve. The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve. Norton, 2017
An outstanding history of the Adam and Eve story by the breathtakingly erudite and wonderful writer, Greenblatt, the creator of The New Historicism
The song, Gottingen, is said to have changed history bringing the French and Germans together in 1964 after the wounds of WWII. There are several recordings of the song by its writer and singer, Barbara (available on YouTube). The singer, Pomme, also has a version.
A song that brought Americans together, in a feeling of compassion to replace hate…
Things in the US are absolutely peachy compared to the situation in Afghanistan.
Remember Afghanistan? The US mainstream news media have pretty much moved on and forgotten already.
Afghanistan is facing catastrophic loss of life , including 1 million children who face starvation because US sanctions “to punish the Taliban” have put the entire economy in a choke hold and are effectively punishing the entire population. That according to people who have witnessed the recent almost total collapse of the Afghan economy and healthcare system firsthand, including Dr. Paul Spiegel of Johns Hopkins and Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council
https://www.democracynow.org/2022/1/14/afghanistan_crisis_deepens_from_us_sanctions
!!!!!
If you didn’t want this, you should have sided with the neocons to keep US troops in Afghanistan.
This situation is horrible and tragic. I wanted the US out, too, but I also didn’t understand the absolutely certainty by some on the left that the US needed to do this and it was evil neocons making the US stay. They acted as disingenuous as the Republicans saying that Obamacare was very flawed (which is true) but they had a better plan (which was false).
That total collapse happened because the Americans left and everyone who supported that is responsible. The criticisms of the US staying were true. The lie that withdrawing would not have just as bad of an outcome was just that – a lie.
The worst hypocrites are those who strongly opposed keeping US troops there to protect those innocent Afghan citizens who suffered at the hands of Taliban who then turned around and profess to be upset that the US isn’t doing something to protect those innocent Afghan citizens from the horrors of the Taliban who has seized control.
And now they have turned around and are angry that the US isn’t empowering the Taliban more so the Taliban can continue to violently repress innocent people there because those innocent people are suffering. Why is the US so mean to the Taliban? They should be making sure the Taliban is well-funded so their economy improves.
And next month it will be back to the same “why isn’t the US doing something to stop the Taliban’s horrible, horrible actions against their own people?”
For the record, the Biden administration has funded NGOs and aid organizations that give aid directly to the people. But the sanctions were about pressuring the Taliban to stop their horrible repression of innocent people. Now you want them to stop.
The point of the economic sanctions is to pressure the GOVERNMENT – the Taliban – from their horrible repression of their citizens. Something everyone wanted Biden to do. Now they don’t?
And then when Biden bows to this pressure and the Taliban is strong again and massacring their own people, the hypocrites will go back to “why isn’t the Biden administration preventing this by using the secret plan that some on the left and right say exist, which is just as real as the Republicans secret plan to replace Obamacare with health insurance that costs less, covers everything, and makes everyone healthy and happy.”
I think Biden’s plan to get more NGOs there is better than taking action to make the Taliban stronger than ever, although there is an argument to be made that we should just empower and enrich the Taliban so the good effects on the economy trickle down to the rest of the people. If that is your POV, I respect it.
I don’t object to anyone fighting to remove economic sanctions just like I respect anyone who fought for the US to withdraw.
But I lose all respect when those people blame someone else for the results that we all knew – in advance – were part of that calculation.
Withdrawing from Afghanistan meant we either left the Taliban to do whatever they wanted, or tried to pressure them.
When people saw the suffering of the civilians left behind, they wanted the US to do something. When people see the suffering of the civilians now, they want the US to do the opposite.
At first I thought those who wanted withdrawal wanted the US to wash their hands of Afghanistan, but then they spent 2 months screaming about how the Biden administration needed to do something to get the Taliban to stop harming so many of their own people.
Now they are back to “give the Taliban money and let them do what they want”.
????!!!!!
Also, if you read the Democracy Now transcript all the way through, you will see that there is a lot more nuance to what is being said than entirely scapegoating the US.
“I would nuance the idea of saying lifting sanctions versus ensuring there are sufficient humanitarian exceptions, as we’ve seen in Venezuela and as we’ve seen in Yemen, amongst other countries. So, whether it is completely stopping the sanctions — I think that’s a political decision. But regardless whether it’s stopped, there can be very clear humanitarian exemptions to be able to ensure the money, or at least the — yeah, the money flows, and the people are able to undertake their interventions.
Since I returned — I returned around mid-December — the Biden administration has made clear some of the humanitarian exemptions. And I’ve spoken to the field, and what they’ve said is there is more clarity, but it hasn’t yet trickled down to — let’s say, to the field and to the operations, number one….”
More from Democracy Now:
“And as Jan Egeland said, it’s not a black-and-white situation. You need to be able to — it’s no good to ensure that women have equal rights, but they’re dead. And it is such a severe situation right now that the priority of humanity must take over, while ensuring that there are sufficient safeguards that money is not going to the Taliban, the Taliban leadership. ”
I am glad we have the Biden Adminstration which is trying to balance those competing needs. They aren’t going to do it right, because it is IMPOSSIBLE to do it right. Maybe the progressives are right and Biden should lift all sanctions and to heck with human rights.
I am fine with that as long as the people who support that ALSO take responsibility for all the long term harm that causes.
I have started to admire Biden much more than I ever thought, because he takes responsibility. He doesn’t pretend that there is some magic policy – whether progressive or conservative – that doesn’t cause some other issues. It always does.
I support passing Medicare for All, but I am also willing to admit that union members may end up with health insurance they don’t like as much as the hard fought benefits their current insurance has.
I support getting more humanitarian aid to the Taliban and so does the Biden Administration. They are trying to do it so as not to harm their efforts to protect the human rights of millions of people stuck there. But no matter what they do, there will be a bad outcome.
NYC public school parent
It is a good thing you don’t have a ribbon attached to the keyboard. You would go broke and make Staples stock soar.
I’ll keep it short. Had Biden kept troops in Afghanistan it would require bringing troop levels back up to a minimum of 15,000 troops plus Contractors who were replacing troops doing tasks that troops once did. 15000 troops were there in 2018 before Trump started a draw down, locking out the Afghan Government from negotiations and tuning over large swaths of the countryside over to the Taliban.
Although American casualties would not be too high (unless you were one of them) how many Afghan women and children would be killed in an unending war. Everyday we were there was another day that an Afghan family suffered the loss or maiming of another woman or Child 33,000 children , 70,000 civilians . Winning hearts and minds.
Not dismissing any aid that is needed. But measure those civilian casualties against anything that has happened since.
Further we would have been in the same situation 10 years from now. So bashing the left for calling to leave is BS. The political reality may be as you say boosting NGOs rather than turning cash over to the Taliban .
Joel,
I’m not bashing the left for wanting to leave. I also believe that leaving was the right thing to do.
I am criticizing the left for wanting to leave, and then acting shocked, shocked that there would be a humanitarian crisis caused by the US leaving!
I am criticizing those on the left who have been demanding the US withdraw when they then turn around and act shocked because “there could be more civilian deaths this year than there were in 20 years of war.”
Joel, you are absolutely correct about the cost of remaining in Afghanistan.
But there was always going to be a humanitarian cost to withdrawal that kept going unacknowledged by those who supported withdrawal.
The first, obvious cost was the Taliban doing what we all knew they would do and put women back in their place and take violent action against those who spoke out.
The second, obvious cost was that the economy would collapse if the world tried to pressure the Taliban using sanctions.
The US and other countries who are committed to helping Afghanistan are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They are trying to thread the needle between not financially empowering the Taliban to continue to do great harm to its people and financially empowering the Taliban so that some money can trickle down and help the people suffering from devastating economic hardships.
Biden and leaders of most other countries that want the Taliban to stop the horrific human rights abuses committed against their own people.
When they lift sanctions entirely, as the left is now demanding, the Taliban will have no reason to stop the horrific human rights abuses committed against their own people — if anything the Taliban will be even more empowered.
There isn’t a good answer. Every action that helps in the short term does great harm in the long term.
But given the circumstances, I would much rather have the Biden Administration in charge trying to balance those needs than an incompetent one. It’s just a shame that they will be scapegoated for doing the “wrong” thing, no matter what they do.
Ending the sanctions is like calling for withdrawal. It sounds good and when the bad consequences happen, the people calling for it will look for a scapegoat to blame to alleviate their own guilt in supporting it.
NYC public school parent
I am not going to totally dismiss the affect of US sanctions on Afghanistan. It is worth noting that after touting 500k excess deaths in Iraq due to sanctions for decades. Almost every study after there was access to the country in 2003 found the excess mortality did not happen.
But if we are so concerned about sanctions and their affect on innocents; is Maduro the only or the worst human rights abuser in Latin America? Bolsonaro even tried to weaponize Covid against the poor and indigenous people of Brazil Time to flood the US market with Venezuelan oil.
NYC public school parent
And that might not be as anti Green as it sounds.
The more disarray in their ranks the better. The 3 right-wing funded, newly-elected Cy-Fair ISD TX school board members managed to blow their cover at the very first Board Meeting. Parents furious and Faculty fuming. The one with loudest HATER mouth was immediately FIRED from his place of employment.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/Cy-Fair-ISD-trustee-no-longer-employed-at-16778598.php
In Chicago, there was this.The Oak Lawn High School District 229 Board voted Wednesday to remove Robert Cruz from the board, claiming he violating his oath of office and board policy by twice filing a lawsuit against Gov. J.B. Pritzker objecting to the statewide mask mandate in schools. Chicago Tribune
Justice!
Wow. Looks like the grifters are really competing trying to move that merch. I wonder which Russia RepubliQan(s) control the licensing for the “Lincoln / Kirk Douglas” debates?
Thanks for the humor… though dark.
LOL!!!
In the third debate between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, Lincoln told his audience, “I have no way of making an argument up into the consistency of a corn-cob and stopping his [Douglas’s] mouth with it.”
Maybe it was the “Lincoln V. Douglas Fairbanks” debate.