Trump log #55: Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Scarier

One of the aspects of American culture that candidate Trump glommed onto, was the growing popularity of conspiracy theories. He attacked our previous president with nonsense about his birth certificate. Some of our more shitty media companies gave him free publicity when he did so. He also clings to the bad ideas about vaccines, believes that Supreme Court Justice Scalia was assassinated and that global warming is a hoax invented by China. In normal times, a candidate who did such things, who admitted to such beliefs, would be laughed off the stage. But this is not normal times. Has this aspect of our society always been here and we didn't see it? Has the Internet simply made it easier for insane and paranoid people to more easily meet and exchange "ideas?"  These people have always fascinated me but up until recently, they never scared me. Qanon kinda scares me.

Qanon is getting a lot of exposure this week, with New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and The Guardian etc., all giving them ink. Who are they? If you watch a Trump rally and scan the crowd, you will see people with Q t-shirts and "We Are Q" signs. They believe that all presidents after Reagan through Obama were members of a cabal or a syndicate of powerful people from government, industry, media and other parts of American life. It is unclear what this group's apparent motivation is other than power and pedophilia, but they are all plotting against Qanon's savior, Donald Trump. It sounds nutty. If it were a movie, I would not believe it. When a group of delusional and easily manipulated people get together, they could believe anything it seems. What is scary about this group is that they are growing and some famous people (Roseanne Barr and Curt Schilling) are doing their bidding. They also have some odd obsessions: the Titanic, the Rothschilds and the Illuminati.

Like a lot of fringe movements, this one also comes with violence. In June, a gunman on a Qanon mission had a standoff at Hover Dam demanding more action against Hillary Clinton for her emails. In December, 2016, a few weeks after the election, a gunman shot up a pizza place in DC claiming that a child molesting ring was being run in its basement. This was "discovered" by reading coded messages in John Podesta's emails to his candidate Hillary Clinton. This is serious. We live in a society that has legal access to guns and the insane are organizing. They even have their own president now.

Trump Log: 

Monday, July 30 - Straddling the line of church vs. state, AG Jeff Sessions announces a Religious Liberty Task Force. (Source: Slate)

Tuesday, July 31 - So not only is our Federal government separating migrant children from their parents and then treating the children like animals, but they are drugging them with psychotropics. Something tells me these kids are really going to hate America in the future ... just a guess. (Source: Washington Post)

Wednesday, August 1 - Trump's lying and hate mongering has lead to an uptick in popularity of conspiracy theories.  The most scary and bizarre is Q-Anon. (Source: Washington Post)

Thursday, August 2 - Trump announces that he plans to freeze automotive fuel-efficiency requirements. (Source: Washington Post)

Friday, August 3 - Trump's tariff on Canadian paper could to be the death knell to many American newspapers. (Source: New York Times)

Saturday, August 4 - We could stop Russia from interfering in our election in November pretty easily. Many in Trump's administration are ready to step up and do it, if only he would admit there was a problem. (Source: Slate)

Sunday, August 5 - We have had Presidents that were out of touch with the economy before, but we don't expect this from a President's whose only qualification was his business acumen. (Source: Washington Post)

Prior Trump Logs:
Issue # 1 - posted November 15th, 2016
Issue # 2 - posted November 22nd, 2016
Issue # 3 - posted November 29th, 2016
Issue # 4 - posted December 6, 2016
Issue # 5 - posted December 12, 2016
Issue # 6 - posted December 19, 2016
Issue # 7 - posted December 26, 2016
Issue # 8 - posted January 3, 2017
Issue # 9 - posted January 10, 2017
Issue #10 - posted January 17, 2017
Issue #11 - posted January 24, 2017
Issue #12 - posted January 31, 2017
Issue #13 - posted February 7, 2017
Issue #14 - posted February 14, 2017
Issue #15 - posted February 21, 2017
Issue #16 - posted February 28, 2017
Issue #17 - posted March 7, 2017
Issue #18 - posted March 14, 2017
Issue #19 - posted March 21, 2017
Issue #20 - posted March 28, 2017
Issue #21 - posted April 5, 2017
Issue #22 - posted April 11, 2017
Issue #23 - posted April 18, 2017
Issue #24 - posted April 25, 2017
Issue #25 - posted May 2, 2017
Issue #26 - posted May 9, 2017
Issue #27 - posted May 16, 2017
Issue #28 - posted May 23, 2017

Issue #29 - posted May 30, 2017

Issue #30 - posted June 6, 2017
Issue #31 - posted June 13, 2017
Issue #32 - posted June 20, 2017

Issue #33 - posted June 27, 2017
Issue #34 - posted March 12, 2018
Issue #35 - posted March 19, 2018
Issue #36 - posted March 26, 2018
Issue #37 - posted April 1, 2018
Issue #38 - posted April 8, 2018
Issue #39 - posted April 15, 2018
Issue #40 - posted April 22, 2018
Issue #41 - posted April 29, 2018
Issue #42 - posted May 6, 2018
Issue #43 - posted May 13, 2018
Issue #44 - posted May 20, 2018
Issue #45 - posted May 27, 2018
Issue #46 - posted June 3, 2018
Issue #47 - posted June 10, 2018
Issue #48 - posted June 17, 2018
Issue #49 - posted June 24, 2018
Issue #50 - posted July 1, 2018
Issue #51 - posted July 8, 2018
Issue #52 - posted July 15, 2018
Issue #53 - posted July 22, 2018
Issue #54 - posted July 29, 2018