An Inglorious August Ahead

This year's August is starting to terrify me.

I'm living in a state led by a mad governor in DeSantis who is so obsessed with winning the leadership of the Republican Party he's willing to let COVID infect and kill our kids in school starting next week.

There are ongoing signs of the Far Right that eagerly participated in the January 6 Insurrection are making plans to repeat that act again. One of trump's business allies - the MyPillow CEO Lindell, who's so far gone he's abandoned Fox Not-News as being not crazy enough - has been openly backing trump's Big Lie that the election "was stolen," and is shilling this "symposium" scheduled for August 13 (a Friday no less) and claiming his revelations are so shocking it will force Biden and Harris to both resign in shame and a regretful House to make trump Speaker, allowing trump to reclaim the Presidency through the 25th Amendment. As with everything else surrounding this Big Lie, Lindell has no proof to reveal and is selling shit to trump's fanbase... who are still going to eat it all up like steak and get driven further into their own bubble of madness. 

There is a good chance Lindell's antics - especially if trump joins in - can stir up another riot in DC or elsewhere. Given how Congress tends to hold recess in August, this would be a perfect month for Proud Boys/Oath Keepers/Other White Separatists to band together to storm Capitol Hill again...

Last night, one of the foreign policy/intelligence/unconventional warfare contributors to Balloon Juice Adam L. Silverman posted a brief entry basically sending up a warning flag to the rest of the United States:

I just wanted to post a quick note. I’m really not actually trying to depress, scare, upset, and/or anger anyone here, though I’m not surprised if everyone thinks I am. I’ve already done two threat assessments on this insanity we’re living with – one in November that covered the transition and one started the night of 6 January covering the attack at the capitol and what it might lead to – and I’m currently working on a third one. I’m hoping to have it done before 13 August, which is Mike Lindell’s day of miracles or something.

I think everyone has figured out I’m incredibly concerned. Every bit of my professional experience and expertise is screaming at me right now. While hope and I stopped talking a long time ago, and don’t even get me started on faith, nothing would please me more than to write a marking my beliefs to market post in a couple of months about how the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate managed to overcome all the obstacles and pass voting rights and electoral integrity legislation...

Only time will tell if I’m Cassandra of Troy or James Jesus Angleton lost in the wilderness of mirrors. Until then, I’m going to make a real effort to not post about this stuff anymore...

I’m truly sorry that we all have to live through this. I’m also very sorry to those I’ve upset or angered in trying to make clear what I think the threats are. And that’s not a “if you are offended” apology. I know I’ve made some of you quite angry and upset and I’m sorry that that has been the effect of my posts and comments on this topic, which is why I’m going to try not to post or comment on it anymore...

Silverman has access to a lot of intel and connections to a lot of other experts in the Intelligence Community (for you conspiracy-minded that's the Deep State, but relax he's a good guy he brings the occasional donut box in). This is someone who knows what terrorism and high-level threats looks like, and has contributed some thoughtful and analytical essays on terrorism (especially domestic) for BJ for years.

That brief entry is telling me at least that Silverman has seen something that scares the hell out of him. He's trying to downplay it, offering caveats that he may yet be wrong (if you know your Cold War history, his reference to Angleton - whoa, his middle name WAS Jesus - is to a high-ranking CIA official who went mad thinking there were deep mole Soviet spies everywhere).

One of the scary things about trump and his willing cohorts supporting trump's coup attempts is how inept they've been planning those attempts. They didn't do a very good job of hiding their efforts for the January 6 insurrection, and they're likely doing a poor job of it now for whatever they've got planned for Friday the 13th. If you read that ProPublica article and various others that looked back at how that riot unfurled itself, you'll realize one of the biggest reasons it got as far as it did was poor response and awareness by various law enforcement agencies who didn't grok how serious it was going to get.

The other big reason trump's riot got as far as it did was trump himself making sure a stronger response like the National Guard wouldn't deploy in time. One would hope under a Biden Presidency that won't become an issue... but it still boils down to whether or not the proper authorities will take things seriously this time.

If whatever it is Silverman saw is a legitimately big scary deal, let's pray those authorities are as rattled by it as he is and are taking proper steps to prevent it.

What is adding to all of this paranoia - yes, I admit I am being a bit panicky right now - is trump's latest money-making scam that also happens to double as a big fat "OMFG WHAT DID HE DO" warning.

"Trump Cards." No, I'm not making this up.

Especially in the top left one, Traitor Trump shows his Nazi inspiration. Arrest him now. pic.twitter.com/hWsxg680BA

— Harry Turtledove (@HNTurtledove) August 5, 2021

Any similarity between that gold eagle card and the Nazi eagle is purely intentional...

They may look like credit cards - and the thing is, if these ARE credit cards who the hell is stupid enough to back a trump business like this given all his failures? - but all they really are is just symbols of membership to trump's "exclusive club" of fellow MAGA drum-beaters and potential brownshirts.

Ever see that TV Afternoon Special movie about a high school teacher who started a social experiment to show his students how a fascist movement can take over an entire nation? One of the things that happened in that experiment was the students making their own membership card to emphasize who belonged and who didn't.

That social experiment incident was the first thing I flashed back to when I saw those trump Cards. More so than the damn red MAGA hats or the damn fan art that portrayed trump as a muscled Rambo, these cards are more terrifying than mocking. These cards are terrifying because they're promoting devotion to one thing: trump. his name in big letters. These cards aren't membership to the Republican Party, or to a Make America X movement. These cards spell out fidelity to trump himself.

This is the point where the fascist movement embraces the Cult of Personality with a whole heart, without embarrassment or excuse.

It Can't Happen Here? It's already happened, and it's getting worse.

Along with what Silverman's seen, none of this is making me hopeful for the next couple weeks.