Please remain vigilant and protect yourself! You are so very loved by we your constituents NATIONWIDE who appreciate the work you did to stop the craziness of Trumpism and Q Anon in earlier years. Why a verdict of guilty was not given is beyond reason.
A verdict of guilty was not given because the Republicans were scared of him and perceived him being as powerful at the time. I’m wondering if some of them look at the orange man- baby and wish they could have a do over on the impeachment vote. Somehow he doesn’t seem as scary now.
And the "other people" (Supreme Court) are as greedy and power hungry as Trump is so they will support him in every way if given the opportunity. This election must be a landslide victory for Harris in order to avoid the involvement of the courts. Although it's widely considered to be a close election, we must do everything we can to move the needle to landslide!
There are some de facto Q-tips in my family. I deflect all political discussions to avoid conflict. The only saving grace is that we are in an area of California where they are utterly irrelevant in terms of impact, so I can afford to be quiet. But it is horribly deflating and unpleasant to witness the insanity and its lack of any tether to reality or common sense.
And it seems as though your strongest believers out there in Cali are making their way this direction here to Missouri & other Red states with lax gun laws.
The Bulwark did an episode about this awhile back. It talked about Michael Flynn holding Q Anon type rallies out West & encouraging people to move to Red states with loose gun laws.
Just in the past 5-6 years or so, we have seen so many people move out here to Missouri from California.
It's interesting, originally my thinking was that a California or New York Republican would probably be more like a Missouri Democrat. That is definitely not true (at least not anymore if it ever was).
Our Democrat candidate running for governor & our Republican candidate running for Lt Governor (we're still in our primary season) both live here in Springfield. They actually did a joint radio town hall event where people could call in & ask questions. And yes, the 2 of them did it together at the same time.
Someone called in & I don't remember the question but it was something about productivity & the reason for the lack of it this year. The event was live streamed on YouTube so I saw Lincoln Hough (the Republican) look at Crystal Quade like, 'you wanna take this' & she gestured back like 'thats all you, that's your party'.
He said, "basically it's like this, we actually have 3 parties in Missouri. We have the Democrats, the Republicans, & the...." Then he looked at Crystal again like 'help me out here'. She laughed & said "oh no, that's your party". He said, "I like to refer to them as the 'rock chuckers' because that's basically what they do. They make it impossible to get anything done, no matter what it is".
He's right though. Missouri used to be like the 2 of them. Pretty much agree on most of the same things. At the state level, there wasn't really 2 distinct separate parties, people voted on the candidate they liked the best.
Now we have our own "Freedom Caucus" & they're very MAGA & based on some of the interactions I've had in neighborhood groups on Facebook, the Republicans from out West are very far Right. We obviously have our own here as well. It's just, the most opinionated ones, the ones who want our government to pass all these crazy laws about trans kids & books etc their profiles show that they lived in California previously.
The life long Republican Missourians are like, "we don't need them passing laws about this, we can handle it ourselves. It's been interesting.
Gotta fight back! Same in Idaho. Trumpsters moving into an already very conservative state and infiltrating school boards, getting the legislature to pass laws banning books and any parent being able to sue a library for carrying a book they don’t like. Those are Gestapo tactics!
Yes! Every year since 2022, we have had PACS no one has ever heard of from outside the state take out these really nasty political ads for our school board races. Even the candidates the ads support get upset by them because they have no interest in running that kind of a political race.
None of these articles are the specific story I was looking for but they discuss the PAC that buys like $30k & $60k ad spots on our main local news channel at 6 pm in the evening & ran really ugly political ads. Like I said, even the candidates the ads supported weren't happy about it. The one article I was looking for involved a candidate who was running & the PAC used his Facebook profile cover photo which was a family photo with his wife & kids & his profile picture. He was furious that his wife & kids pictures were attached to such a terrible ad about the incumbent he was running against. For safety reasons.
He came out publicly & said he had nothing to do with that ad & told people that if it doesn't say his name followed by "I approve this message" at the end then it didn't come from him. That had never occurred to me, that there would be ads taken out to support a candidate that the candidate didn't participate in putting out. Of course then I saw it a lot in 2022 but, that became one of those helpful tidbits of information I've held on to.
It's strange though, your experience in Idaho, us down in Springfield, MO....these dark money PACS pouring 10's of thousands of dollars into school board races in states that, until recent years, stayed largely isolated from major political activity like this.
This is the stuff where I find myself sounding like a conspiracy theorist. But... it's not an outlandish conspiracy theory when there is evidence of something unusual happening right in front of us. Why do these PACS fron outside of our states have so much interest in our school board elections?
Now, I believe I read that one of their preferred candidates who is now the head of our school board is also now a representative in the RNC. Kind of odd maybe? Or maybe not idk. Just interesting.
Springfield is the largest school district in our state. They've also been traditionally in the center (or MAGA would say liberal but they think anyone who utilizes common sense is liberal). Thankfully, in the school board election back in April, there were 3 seats up for Election. 2 of the 3 we elected the moderate candidates. I think they might've been the incumbents.
There was an issue that caused controversy where I guess nation wide the discrimination policy had to be updated to include transgender & non binary students & teachers. If they refused to change it, we'd lose federal funding for free lunches for low income students.
They went back n forth on the issue, holding more than one vote because one of them a member was absent & so on. Finally, the members in favor of changing it to meet requirements were just like, "This is ridiculous. We're really going to give up feeding students who can't afford to buy their lunches over this? How many kids are going to read this change in the handbook anyway!?". They did ultimately end up changing it but it caused all sorts of drama. It's all just silly in my opinion.
I interract with these people everyday on Twitter when they try to follow me or make crazy comments. I have not read the book, but plan to add to my long list. It sounds like a number of these people are mentally ill. Not kidding here. I know everyone can have a very bad day once in awhile, get angry and lash out at the world ... usually through social media. But normal people recover and move on.
P.S. Anyone who has not seen Against All Enemies and would like to, it premieres free on YouTube tonight at 9:30 PM. Normally, you have to buy or rent this documentary. As a Veteran, I thought it was pretty interesting.
I’m with you on the mental health aspect of the Q people. I think 45 knows exactly how to push the buttons of the vulnerable, uneducated, and mentally ill in this country. He doesn’t have a single shred of integrity. For that alone, he should be punished.
I'm sorry. I was in a hurry to get to Zoom meetings when I posted the info about Against All Enemies on YouTube. When I looked again, it actually premieres tomorrow AUG 5 at 9:15PM ET & MeidasTouch sent out a post on it a few days ago. Oddly, YouTube on my SmartTV has it premiering at AUG 6 at 1:15AM, so I'm confused. 🤦♀️
I'm a firm believer in the quote "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself". I'm also a firm believer that education can solve 99% of the world's problems. We need to continue to fight social media disinformation and continue to vote for democracy to prevail which I believe it will. I know a couple of these people and let me tell you some of the things that come out of their mouth make even my head spin. I just simply look at them and reply "Okay Q Tip" whatever floats your boat just keep your views off my Island and away from my family, especially my children.
Ally, once again you nailed it. Education gives, or should give folks the tools to discriminate. Don’t know any Qs, but probably a matter of time before I meet one and I will remember, “OK Q tip, whatever floats your boat,” but just stay out of mine! Meanwhile, T continues to self implode at an ever quickening pace. He’s beginning to run scared sh..less! The Orange one has no clothes only fake tanning lotion! :) KAMALA - Keep America Moving Along Again!!!
What could I say? It's my snarky generation X coming out in me. We just don't care. We'll confront you and you won't like it. But I'm a really nice person. I swear I just don't have time to put up for conspiracy theories. JFK Jr is dead and so is his dad
I believe you are a nice person and like myself doesn’t put up with BS, and best of all your comments make me laugh, even the snarky ones or perhaps especially the snarky ones. I’m generation 0, pre boomer; I like that. I never heard of generation O, just behind the Great Generation of WWII, who didn't take America, freedom, or democracy for granted!
My generation will never be known as the greatest generation nor the generation that changed the course of history. Rather the generation of a bunch of feral children running around eating berries and drinking out of garden hoses. And that's okay. That taught us to be tough! We also learned that super glue made wonderful bandages. We are out from the morning until the street lights came on for the love of God. They had to put a commercial on TV saying it's 10:00 p.m. do you know where your children are because our parents just didn't pay attention. They were busy living their own lives. I mean, honestly, who needs to be reminded your children aren't home at 10:00 p.m. lol oh wait my parents! Fortunately my parents turned out to be pretty cool people. We just don't put up with BS We are a different breed. We don't hide behind a keyboard making vile threats. If we had a beef with somebody we met him at the local tennis courts. We had it out and then by the end of the day we were friends again. So when somebody says to me why don't you say that to my face? I'm like okay LOL. Not a keyboard warrior. Don't have a computer to hide behind. I'm 100% authentic and that's why I can't stand these people
Exactly what we need-more authentic, and don’t say you wont change the course of history because history is coming at us every day and you may not know in this moment what you will do to change it for the better. Keep that Spirit. Intention and perseverance is powerful! Look at what the Ukrainians are doing in the face of horrible odds!
I think that the Federal Government should outlaw the algorithms that Social Media uses solely to increase their profit. These algorithms compartmentalize people into "like-minded" silos which then fuel these conspiracy theories. These algorithms are not speech so their absence wouldn't infringe on anyone's ability to post anything (i.e. Freedom of Speech). The result is that it would be much more difficult for conspiracy theories to 'flourish' because they wouldn't be spread as far and wide as they are now. Reasonable people do their own research on any subject and form reasonable conclusions. Unreasonable people do not need to be 'spoon-fed' falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
Glad somebody brought this up. Again, you shared some excellent information that main stream corporate media seems to purposely ignore. Excellent. Well, it sucks but your take is excellent. Thanks Man.
We were so much better off without social media. Free speech or not, if the government were to outlaw social media, I would support it. It's ruining all of us. When I think of the number of people that spout conspiracy theories, I think we deserve to lose society
Yeah, I so hear you…. Outlawing will never happen. But there should be some strict regulations on its use. Especially kids under 17 and repercussions and outlawing for those who blatantly lie. But remember, there still is fox spew. The number (1) threat to democracy. Ask Hungry how a basically russian operative was elected. (Fox owned news media) Remember, in the US, millions of very cult like people believe what fox spew….spews. Cheers 🥂
Especially when you have the Elmo Musks of the world going off on their newfound "libertarian" kick and saying all speech is free speech. He has almost eliminated content moderation on his platform, allowed banned liars back on, and from what I heard allows openly racist and fascist posts to flourish, not to mention countless Russian trolls
Indeed. Russian trolls big time. High hundreds to thousands. In cubicals working shifts. Top that off with Ai support providing easy American dialect. That’s significant because it makes him hotter to spot by typical Americans. Yeah, legend in his own mind Elmo is like icing on the cake for the russians.
I agree, and I would gladly go without. I find that even Substack brings my blood pressure up to unhealthy levels. I partake because I don't think ignorance is healthy either. But, if the world went back to email only, I would go willingly.
Adam is on target with this. Q Anon feeds on certain traits of people. There are a large number of individuals who refuse to accept that things happen in life that we cannot control, and others who refuse to accept that we are responsible for most of the problems in our own lives.
That first group are those who try to control everything, even though such a thing is not possible. When things happen outside of their control, they blame others as if their lack of control is a conspiracy against them.
That second group needs someone else to blame in order to avoid the guilt of their own failures.
Psych 101, week 5 if I recall. It has been quite a few decades. People like this tend to group together because it creates a support system that shields them from facing their own bad choices and poor behavior.
If I remember correctly, this is mostly a learned trait passed down by a parent or bad role model in a child's life.
Hard to believe this hate and fear filled vision these folks have. I feel sorry for them and how they’re wasting their time on this earth with such nonsense. If folks have such a need to belong to something, join a garden group, church group, neighborhood library or anything but this craziness. I don’t and not sure I ever will understand it but thank you Adam for addressing it here.
Yes sir, I feel your frustration. But it’s pretty simple why these (mostly ill educated people) buy into it. The illusion of power by means of fear. The oldest repeatedly failed concept of human history.
A good friend of ours has a sister who is lost in the Q cult BS. She's also very "Christian." The overlap of MAGA and QAnon and evangelicals defies belief. Dangerous nuts. I don't know how we can reach these folks.
Gosh, Adam, just when I was feeling a lot of hope..... here's Q😔!!
😉 Seriously, thanks for the heads up on this scary group! Like Roy, I'm in California and don't hear a lot about this evil. My heart goes out to those family and friends that are so torn apart. Don't worry! We will do everything we can to keep trump from winning and to protect you and the January 6th committee!! God bless you, your family and Country First!!🙏
Cindy, just my take, but I think it’s really time to stop paying attention to this Q and other crap. Energy goes where attention flows. When the orange melts it will go down the drain with the residual grease.
Thanks, Bob! I pray you're right! It's hard to fight something you can't see! Ok, we'll ignore the negative and work toward the positive!
I just heard an author who was underground with some of the Q members doing research. She said they kind of died out when they were taken off Twitter. They're back on X because Elon musk allows the hate speech.
I agree. Please see my comment elsewhere on this post regarding outlawing Social Media algorithms. We certainly don't need computers adding to the energy either.
This Q mess, as with trump fever, is hard to understand because it is classic addictive behavior and it is impossible for anyone who’s mind is affected, to understand the deep need that is driving it. It’s sick, dangerous behavior that the affected persons themselves could never begin to explain and there are not nearly enough deprogrammers or addiction specialists out there to make a dent in the problem. Breaking the cycle(social media mania)would be a start. It’s the “drug” of choice.
Let me know when you can nail it down. I worked for a city of 25,000 for 40 years. Worked with many community members over the years. In my early years I was asked what it's like on the street. Up to about 30 years ago I'd say 10% of the public I deal with are (you fill in the blank _________________. About 20 years ago it was 25%, 10 years ago 40%, 2 years ago - 66%
The fact that Don-old and his minions promote this just again shows their evil intent. When someone is deep into Q there is nothing to be done. Just either last year or year before a group gathered in Dallas and had the specific time and date that JFK Jr. was coming , with his father, and some were adding in Princess Diana , Michael Jackson and a few others. They were going to take over the government with Don-old. The FACT that that never happened didn't bother them a bit. They must have misread something and they would get a new message. One woman interviewed had "had dinner with Michael Jackson " that night. Of COURSE they don't look like themselves they have taken on a new body.
Guys, I'm sorry as hell but those people are totally off their rockers and they are NOT harmless. There are enough of them to be a real problem.
Some say that Q was found and being a skeptic that I am, I don't think so OR others have picked up the baton. Whoever and what ever it, she, he, they are, are probably amazed at what they have managed to do. They probably never could have dreamed it.
Some of you may not be old enough to remember or to have read about Orson Well's radio program he put on, War Of The Worlds. There were hundreds of people leaving their houses, calling the police in total panic thinking we were being invaded by beings from outer space. Joseph McCarthy had a Communist on every corner, destroyed peoples lives all by just starting rumors and gossip. How much worse would THAT have been if we had the internet then. There WAS a Communist Party in the US, it didn't get a lot of support but it was used as a tool and on the other end The John Birch Society. I knew several people that belonged to that. My husband and my boss used to go to meetings all the time. My husbands last name was Wing, so whenever he would tell a member his name they would come back with "left or right". They loved going. Hilarious.
So, we have kind of been down a similar road in the past, and I just pray that we can push through this. :It is good to see that a lot of people are tired of the fear and loathing being pushed constantly by Don-old and MAGA so we have to fight through this.
I am sorry Adam, that you are put in to a place where you MUST acknowledge the craziness and the threats. I know you are being vigilant but who signed up for that crap? All the excellent persons we had running our elections, in my state, have resigned. We have had teachers and school board members resign. We have a man who moved here around the 2020 election and just constantly stokes the hate, the stolen election and so on. It's a very difficult.
Just know everyone Don-old Trump will NOT go quietly, it is NOT in his blood. If Kamala gets the votes that WILL not be the end of him.
Rachel Maddow has the excellent series “Ultra” which explains the rise of the fascists in the United States and the direct connection to Joe McCarthy and his horrible persecutions.
I find this to be horrifying. I have a couple family members I’m scared to confront. We have to abort arguments just to maintain some love. Not sure I can sustain keeping my mouth shut without having a melt down. God help us.
Sorry to read that. Been there and finally had my fill. They bought idiots lies and went cult. Now they have anger, stress and hate, not me in their lives. They lost, not me. You might consider that you’d be better off stepping away. It’s not easy, especially at first. But as time goes by, it’s worth it. Like I said, been there. I feel for you being in that position tho.
My sister and her husband fell into the cult mindset. Since before 2016. What bugged me at first is I didn’t care if they liked the moron. But because I spoke my mind, they shunned me. It hurt deep because from that point on, they didn’t care about me. lol they cared more about a pathetic lying sack of shit than me. That bothered me at first. Not anymore.
At some point, we will have to deal with these wing nuts. They are no different than the followers of ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Totally radicalized and would do whatever they are told to do in the name of Orange Jesus. How they get deprogramed will be interesting and a very long and involved process. If they ever do get deprogramed. We may have to wait a long time for them to die off.
Minn Tom Emmer, gop whip??, used them to campaign against my former terrific congressman , tom malinowski (nj 07) with untrue statements. He and his family then received constant death threats. Tom emmer DiDN’t care when TM politely requested he back off due to the threats. . So if any of you are in Mn 6, support his opponent.
In Rural PA, people in trump flag flying trucks screamed at us with biden plaques, “pedophiles!!!”. And the poor sob from NC who believed the pizza restaurant Q story, went to jail for showing up with AR. How about someone interview him if he is upset at being played, and get it out and on X and tictok?
And have craig Unger, who researched trump snd Epstein appear on news show?
QAnon as well as the other MAGA relatives remain as long as Donald Trump remains. Making the baby man irrelevant is the only way to make these groups disappear or crawl into the dark holes from which they emerged. Adam, you and Liz Cheney are heroes holding up democracy. I pray for the safety of you and your families as these lunatics roam free. They all need to be locked away forever.
I used to believe this. I realized after Trump lost in 2020 that, I believe, it's bigger than him. Trumpism isn't guaranteed to go away once Trump is out of the public eye.
Yes, we have to keep him from winning in November & yes, he needs to be convicted & sentenced for his crimes. If we fail to do this I believe it will have devastating consequences for our country.
If we are to believe that Trump happened as a result of letting Nixon off the hook; then it's logical to assume that that the next threat will be exponentially worse just like Trump was compared to Nixon. Like Adam mentioned in Friday's video regarding Israel responding strongly for the attack that killed the kids just recently. Intentional or not, detourance is absolutely necessary. I feel like that applies here as well.
Trump should have to stand trial & if convicted, his sentences should be the maximum penalty. Not house arrest at his beach resort. That would be a joke.
I said in another comment that the solution to this & to somehow prevent the spread of disinformation, which, the prevention part is where we're stuck.
However, I do also believe that detourance from coup like & destructive behaviors is another way we fix this. This has been able to spread like cancer throughout our country because there haven't been any significant negative consequences as a result. Not for the people spreading it.
The times there have been negative consequences, they haven't happened or it's just been one or two people (like Alex Jones). Has Fox paid Dominion? Where is the Smart Matic case? Has Rudy Giuliani paid Ruby Freeman & Shay Moss? What about the other members of Congress involved with J6? Seems like the past year while the Trump DC case was at a halt & judge Eileen Cannon gave them the runaround, maybe that time could've been used to start building cases against Jordan, or that Senator from Wisconsin, MTG... Etc. I mean, someone planted pipe bombs around the Capitol! It feels like we're just taking a "meh... Whatever" approach. How is it possible that we have the person on camera & we can't figure out who did it?!
That's one of the very disturbing things about MAGA: how it has crept into Congress and most alarmingly, the judicial branch. I suppose the Founders never thought we would have Federal judges and SCOTUS justices that are so openly corrupt
Please remain vigilant and protect yourself! You are so very loved by we your constituents NATIONWIDE who appreciate the work you did to stop the craziness of Trumpism and Q Anon in earlier years. Why a verdict of guilty was not given is beyond reason.
A verdict of guilty was not given because the Republicans were scared of him and perceived him being as powerful at the time. I’m wondering if some of them look at the orange man- baby and wish they could have a do over on the impeachment vote. Somehow he doesn’t seem as scary now.
They were scared of him, so they convinced themselves that dealing with him was other people’s responsibility.
And the "other people" (Supreme Court) are as greedy and power hungry as Trump is so they will support him in every way if given the opportunity. This election must be a landslide victory for Harris in order to avoid the involvement of the courts. Although it's widely considered to be a close election, we must do everything we can to move the needle to landslide!
There are some de facto Q-tips in my family. I deflect all political discussions to avoid conflict. The only saving grace is that we are in an area of California where they are utterly irrelevant in terms of impact, so I can afford to be quiet. But it is horribly deflating and unpleasant to witness the insanity and its lack of any tether to reality or common sense.
And it seems as though your strongest believers out there in Cali are making their way this direction here to Missouri & other Red states with lax gun laws.
The Bulwark did an episode about this awhile back. It talked about Michael Flynn holding Q Anon type rallies out West & encouraging people to move to Red states with loose gun laws.
Just in the past 5-6 years or so, we have seen so many people move out here to Missouri from California.
It's interesting, originally my thinking was that a California or New York Republican would probably be more like a Missouri Democrat. That is definitely not true (at least not anymore if it ever was).
Our Democrat candidate running for governor & our Republican candidate running for Lt Governor (we're still in our primary season) both live here in Springfield. They actually did a joint radio town hall event where people could call in & ask questions. And yes, the 2 of them did it together at the same time.
Someone called in & I don't remember the question but it was something about productivity & the reason for the lack of it this year. The event was live streamed on YouTube so I saw Lincoln Hough (the Republican) look at Crystal Quade like, 'you wanna take this' & she gestured back like 'thats all you, that's your party'.
He said, "basically it's like this, we actually have 3 parties in Missouri. We have the Democrats, the Republicans, & the...." Then he looked at Crystal again like 'help me out here'. She laughed & said "oh no, that's your party". He said, "I like to refer to them as the 'rock chuckers' because that's basically what they do. They make it impossible to get anything done, no matter what it is".
He's right though. Missouri used to be like the 2 of them. Pretty much agree on most of the same things. At the state level, there wasn't really 2 distinct separate parties, people voted on the candidate they liked the best.
Now we have our own "Freedom Caucus" & they're very MAGA & based on some of the interactions I've had in neighborhood groups on Facebook, the Republicans from out West are very far Right. We obviously have our own here as well. It's just, the most opinionated ones, the ones who want our government to pass all these crazy laws about trans kids & books etc their profiles show that they lived in California previously.
The life long Republican Missourians are like, "we don't need them passing laws about this, we can handle it ourselves. It's been interesting.
Gotta fight back! Same in Idaho. Trumpsters moving into an already very conservative state and infiltrating school boards, getting the legislature to pass laws banning books and any parent being able to sue a library for carrying a book they don’t like. Those are Gestapo tactics!
Yes! Every year since 2022, we have had PACS no one has ever heard of from outside the state take out these really nasty political ads for our school board races. Even the candidates the ads support get upset by them because they have no interest in running that kind of a political race.
None of these articles are the specific story I was looking for but they discuss the PAC that buys like $30k & $60k ad spots on our main local news channel at 6 pm in the evening & ran really ugly political ads. Like I said, even the candidates the ads supported weren't happy about it. The one article I was looking for involved a candidate who was running & the PAC used his Facebook profile cover photo which was a family photo with his wife & kids & his profile picture. He was furious that his wife & kids pictures were attached to such a terrible ad about the incumbent he was running against. For safety reasons.
He came out publicly & said he had nothing to do with that ad & told people that if it doesn't say his name followed by "I approve this message" at the end then it didn't come from him. That had never occurred to me, that there would be ads taken out to support a candidate that the candidate didn't participate in putting out. Of course then I saw it a lot in 2022 but, that became one of those helpful tidbits of information I've held on to.
It's strange though, your experience in Idaho, us down in Springfield, MO....these dark money PACS pouring 10's of thousands of dollars into school board races in states that, until recent years, stayed largely isolated from major political activity like this.
This is the stuff where I find myself sounding like a conspiracy theorist. But... it's not an outlandish conspiracy theory when there is evidence of something unusual happening right in front of us. Why do these PACS fron outside of our states have so much interest in our school board elections?
Now, I believe I read that one of their preferred candidates who is now the head of our school board is also now a representative in the RNC. Kind of odd maybe? Or maybe not idk. Just interesting.
Springfield is the largest school district in our state. They've also been traditionally in the center (or MAGA would say liberal but they think anyone who utilizes common sense is liberal). Thankfully, in the school board election back in April, there were 3 seats up for Election. 2 of the 3 we elected the moderate candidates. I think they might've been the incumbents.
There was an issue that caused controversy where I guess nation wide the discrimination policy had to be updated to include transgender & non binary students & teachers. If they refused to change it, we'd lose federal funding for free lunches for low income students.
They went back n forth on the issue, holding more than one vote because one of them a member was absent & so on. Finally, the members in favor of changing it to meet requirements were just like, "This is ridiculous. We're really going to give up feeding students who can't afford to buy their lunches over this? How many kids are going to read this change in the handbook anyway!?". They did ultimately end up changing it but it caused all sorts of drama. It's all just silly in my opinion.
https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/education/2022/03/30/truth-politics-group-says-not-back-down-pull-attack-ad/7212225001/
https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/education/2022/09/21/truth-politics-says-our-work-not-done-reshape-sps-board/10425302002/
https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/education/2023/03/29/tv-attack-ad-accuses-sps-board-incumbent-of-being-anti-american/70058204007/
I interract with these people everyday on Twitter when they try to follow me or make crazy comments. I have not read the book, but plan to add to my long list. It sounds like a number of these people are mentally ill. Not kidding here. I know everyone can have a very bad day once in awhile, get angry and lash out at the world ... usually through social media. But normal people recover and move on.
P.S. Anyone who has not seen Against All Enemies and would like to, it premieres free on YouTube tonight at 9:30 PM. Normally, you have to buy or rent this documentary. As a Veteran, I thought it was pretty interesting.
I’m with you on the mental health aspect of the Q people. I think 45 knows exactly how to push the buttons of the vulnerable, uneducated, and mentally ill in this country. He doesn’t have a single shred of integrity. For that alone, he should be punished.
Preaching to the choir, I know. 😎
I'm sorry. I was in a hurry to get to Zoom meetings when I posted the info about Against All Enemies on YouTube. When I looked again, it actually premieres tomorrow AUG 5 at 9:15PM ET & MeidasTouch sent out a post on it a few days ago. Oddly, YouTube on my SmartTV has it premiering at AUG 6 at 1:15AM, so I'm confused. 🤦♀️
I'm a firm believer in the quote "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself". I'm also a firm believer that education can solve 99% of the world's problems. We need to continue to fight social media disinformation and continue to vote for democracy to prevail which I believe it will. I know a couple of these people and let me tell you some of the things that come out of their mouth make even my head spin. I just simply look at them and reply "Okay Q Tip" whatever floats your boat just keep your views off my Island and away from my family, especially my children.
Ally, once again you nailed it. Education gives, or should give folks the tools to discriminate. Don’t know any Qs, but probably a matter of time before I meet one and I will remember, “OK Q tip, whatever floats your boat,” but just stay out of mine! Meanwhile, T continues to self implode at an ever quickening pace. He’s beginning to run scared sh..less! The Orange one has no clothes only fake tanning lotion! :) KAMALA - Keep America Moving Along Again!!!
He's imploding like one of his failed casinos that they blow up and tear down for a new building. Trump exit left Harris take the stage.
What could I say? It's my snarky generation X coming out in me. We just don't care. We'll confront you and you won't like it. But I'm a really nice person. I swear I just don't have time to put up for conspiracy theories. JFK Jr is dead and so is his dad
I believe you are a nice person and like myself doesn’t put up with BS, and best of all your comments make me laugh, even the snarky ones or perhaps especially the snarky ones. I’m generation 0, pre boomer; I like that. I never heard of generation O, just behind the Great Generation of WWII, who didn't take America, freedom, or democracy for granted!
My generation will never be known as the greatest generation nor the generation that changed the course of history. Rather the generation of a bunch of feral children running around eating berries and drinking out of garden hoses. And that's okay. That taught us to be tough! We also learned that super glue made wonderful bandages. We are out from the morning until the street lights came on for the love of God. They had to put a commercial on TV saying it's 10:00 p.m. do you know where your children are because our parents just didn't pay attention. They were busy living their own lives. I mean, honestly, who needs to be reminded your children aren't home at 10:00 p.m. lol oh wait my parents! Fortunately my parents turned out to be pretty cool people. We just don't put up with BS We are a different breed. We don't hide behind a keyboard making vile threats. If we had a beef with somebody we met him at the local tennis courts. We had it out and then by the end of the day we were friends again. So when somebody says to me why don't you say that to my face? I'm like okay LOL. Not a keyboard warrior. Don't have a computer to hide behind. I'm 100% authentic and that's why I can't stand these people
Exactly what we need-more authentic, and don’t say you wont change the course of history because history is coming at us every day and you may not know in this moment what you will do to change it for the better. Keep that Spirit. Intention and perseverance is powerful! Look at what the Ukrainians are doing in the face of horrible odds!
I think that the Federal Government should outlaw the algorithms that Social Media uses solely to increase their profit. These algorithms compartmentalize people into "like-minded" silos which then fuel these conspiracy theories. These algorithms are not speech so their absence wouldn't infringe on anyone's ability to post anything (i.e. Freedom of Speech). The result is that it would be much more difficult for conspiracy theories to 'flourish' because they wouldn't be spread as far and wide as they are now. Reasonable people do their own research on any subject and form reasonable conclusions. Unreasonable people do not need to be 'spoon-fed' falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
Glad somebody brought this up. Again, you shared some excellent information that main stream corporate media seems to purposely ignore. Excellent. Well, it sucks but your take is excellent. Thanks Man.
We were so much better off without social media. Free speech or not, if the government were to outlaw social media, I would support it. It's ruining all of us. When I think of the number of people that spout conspiracy theories, I think we deserve to lose society
Yeah, I so hear you…. Outlawing will never happen. But there should be some strict regulations on its use. Especially kids under 17 and repercussions and outlawing for those who blatantly lie. But remember, there still is fox spew. The number (1) threat to democracy. Ask Hungry how a basically russian operative was elected. (Fox owned news media) Remember, in the US, millions of very cult like people believe what fox spew….spews. Cheers 🥂
Especially when you have the Elmo Musks of the world going off on their newfound "libertarian" kick and saying all speech is free speech. He has almost eliminated content moderation on his platform, allowed banned liars back on, and from what I heard allows openly racist and fascist posts to flourish, not to mention countless Russian trolls
Indeed. Russian trolls big time. High hundreds to thousands. In cubicals working shifts. Top that off with Ai support providing easy American dialect. That’s significant because it makes him hotter to spot by typical Americans. Yeah, legend in his own mind Elmo is like icing on the cake for the russians.
Exactly. Troll farms
While in no way intending to be demeaning, I could argue Substack is social media.
I agree, and I would gladly go without. I find that even Substack brings my blood pressure up to unhealthy levels. I partake because I don't think ignorance is healthy either. But, if the world went back to email only, I would go willingly.
Adam is on target with this. Q Anon feeds on certain traits of people. There are a large number of individuals who refuse to accept that things happen in life that we cannot control, and others who refuse to accept that we are responsible for most of the problems in our own lives.
That first group are those who try to control everything, even though such a thing is not possible. When things happen outside of their control, they blame others as if their lack of control is a conspiracy against them.
That second group needs someone else to blame in order to avoid the guilt of their own failures.
Psych 101, week 5 if I recall. It has been quite a few decades. People like this tend to group together because it creates a support system that shields them from facing their own bad choices and poor behavior.
If I remember correctly, this is mostly a learned trait passed down by a parent or bad role model in a child's life.
Prof, you need to go to a Q meeting and hold a seminar! Let me know when you do because I will try to count mouths agape! :)
Yeah, pretty much covers it. ✔️
Hard to believe this hate and fear filled vision these folks have. I feel sorry for them and how they’re wasting their time on this earth with such nonsense. If folks have such a need to belong to something, join a garden group, church group, neighborhood library or anything but this craziness. I don’t and not sure I ever will understand it but thank you Adam for addressing it here.
Yes sir, I feel your frustration. But it’s pretty simple why these (mostly ill educated people) buy into it. The illusion of power by means of fear. The oldest repeatedly failed concept of human history.
A good friend of ours has a sister who is lost in the Q cult BS. She's also very "Christian." The overlap of MAGA and QAnon and evangelicals defies belief. Dangerous nuts. I don't know how we can reach these folks.
Gosh, Adam, just when I was feeling a lot of hope..... here's Q😔!!
😉 Seriously, thanks for the heads up on this scary group! Like Roy, I'm in California and don't hear a lot about this evil. My heart goes out to those family and friends that are so torn apart. Don't worry! We will do everything we can to keep trump from winning and to protect you and the January 6th committee!! God bless you, your family and Country First!!🙏
Cindy, just my take, but I think it’s really time to stop paying attention to this Q and other crap. Energy goes where attention flows. When the orange melts it will go down the drain with the residual grease.
Thanks, Bob! I pray you're right! It's hard to fight something you can't see! Ok, we'll ignore the negative and work toward the positive!
I just heard an author who was underground with some of the Q members doing research. She said they kind of died out when they were taken off Twitter. They're back on X because Elon musk allows the hate speech.
I agree. Please see my comment elsewhere on this post regarding outlawing Social Media algorithms. We certainly don't need computers adding to the energy either.
This Q mess, as with trump fever, is hard to understand because it is classic addictive behavior and it is impossible for anyone who’s mind is affected, to understand the deep need that is driving it. It’s sick, dangerous behavior that the affected persons themselves could never begin to explain and there are not nearly enough deprogrammers or addiction specialists out there to make a dent in the problem. Breaking the cycle(social media mania)would be a start. It’s the “drug” of choice.
Correction: “whose mind isn’t affected” 🙃
When, how and why did so many people in this country completely lose their minds???
They were fed lies and disinformation to divide us.
The old Divide and Conquer strategy
The motto for the United States is:
E Pluribus Unum
Latin for “ Out of many - one”
We get our strength from the many - from the bottom up - not the top down.
It’s the opposite of MAGA/Project 2025/Q
They expect people to follow and serve
Let me know when you can nail it down. I worked for a city of 25,000 for 40 years. Worked with many community members over the years. In my early years I was asked what it's like on the street. Up to about 30 years ago I'd say 10% of the public I deal with are (you fill in the blank _________________. About 20 years ago it was 25%, 10 years ago 40%, 2 years ago - 66%
The fact that Don-old and his minions promote this just again shows their evil intent. When someone is deep into Q there is nothing to be done. Just either last year or year before a group gathered in Dallas and had the specific time and date that JFK Jr. was coming , with his father, and some were adding in Princess Diana , Michael Jackson and a few others. They were going to take over the government with Don-old. The FACT that that never happened didn't bother them a bit. They must have misread something and they would get a new message. One woman interviewed had "had dinner with Michael Jackson " that night. Of COURSE they don't look like themselves they have taken on a new body.
Guys, I'm sorry as hell but those people are totally off their rockers and they are NOT harmless. There are enough of them to be a real problem.
Some say that Q was found and being a skeptic that I am, I don't think so OR others have picked up the baton. Whoever and what ever it, she, he, they are, are probably amazed at what they have managed to do. They probably never could have dreamed it.
Some of you may not be old enough to remember or to have read about Orson Well's radio program he put on, War Of The Worlds. There were hundreds of people leaving their houses, calling the police in total panic thinking we were being invaded by beings from outer space. Joseph McCarthy had a Communist on every corner, destroyed peoples lives all by just starting rumors and gossip. How much worse would THAT have been if we had the internet then. There WAS a Communist Party in the US, it didn't get a lot of support but it was used as a tool and on the other end The John Birch Society. I knew several people that belonged to that. My husband and my boss used to go to meetings all the time. My husbands last name was Wing, so whenever he would tell a member his name they would come back with "left or right". They loved going. Hilarious.
So, we have kind of been down a similar road in the past, and I just pray that we can push through this. :It is good to see that a lot of people are tired of the fear and loathing being pushed constantly by Don-old and MAGA so we have to fight through this.
I am sorry Adam, that you are put in to a place where you MUST acknowledge the craziness and the threats. I know you are being vigilant but who signed up for that crap? All the excellent persons we had running our elections, in my state, have resigned. We have had teachers and school board members resign. We have a man who moved here around the 2020 election and just constantly stokes the hate, the stolen election and so on. It's a very difficult.
Just know everyone Don-old Trump will NOT go quietly, it is NOT in his blood. If Kamala gets the votes that WILL not be the end of him.
Stay aware, and stay safe Adam.
Rachel Maddow has the excellent series “Ultra” which explains the rise of the fascists in the United States and the direct connection to Joe McCarthy and his horrible persecutions.
I find this to be horrifying. I have a couple family members I’m scared to confront. We have to abort arguments just to maintain some love. Not sure I can sustain keeping my mouth shut without having a melt down. God help us.
Sorry to read that. Been there and finally had my fill. They bought idiots lies and went cult. Now they have anger, stress and hate, not me in their lives. They lost, not me. You might consider that you’d be better off stepping away. It’s not easy, especially at first. But as time goes by, it’s worth it. Like I said, been there. I feel for you being in that position tho.
Join the club! Tough when it's your old man and he took it to his grave in 2022.
My sister and her husband fell into the cult mindset. Since before 2016. What bugged me at first is I didn’t care if they liked the moron. But because I spoke my mind, they shunned me. It hurt deep because from that point on, they didn’t care about me. lol they cared more about a pathetic lying sack of shit than me. That bothered me at first. Not anymore.
Heartbreaking
Thank you
Q-Anon, the gift that just keeps on giving.
At some point, we will have to deal with these wing nuts. They are no different than the followers of ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Totally radicalized and would do whatever they are told to do in the name of Orange Jesus. How they get deprogramed will be interesting and a very long and involved process. If they ever do get deprogramed. We may have to wait a long time for them to die off.
Minn Tom Emmer, gop whip??, used them to campaign against my former terrific congressman , tom malinowski (nj 07) with untrue statements. He and his family then received constant death threats. Tom emmer DiDN’t care when TM politely requested he back off due to the threats. . So if any of you are in Mn 6, support his opponent.
In Rural PA, people in trump flag flying trucks screamed at us with biden plaques, “pedophiles!!!”. And the poor sob from NC who believed the pizza restaurant Q story, went to jail for showing up with AR. How about someone interview him if he is upset at being played, and get it out and on X and tictok?
And have craig Unger, who researched trump snd Epstein appear on news show?
QAnon as well as the other MAGA relatives remain as long as Donald Trump remains. Making the baby man irrelevant is the only way to make these groups disappear or crawl into the dark holes from which they emerged. Adam, you and Liz Cheney are heroes holding up democracy. I pray for the safety of you and your families as these lunatics roam free. They all need to be locked away forever.
I used to believe this. I realized after Trump lost in 2020 that, I believe, it's bigger than him. Trumpism isn't guaranteed to go away once Trump is out of the public eye.
Yes, we have to keep him from winning in November & yes, he needs to be convicted & sentenced for his crimes. If we fail to do this I believe it will have devastating consequences for our country.
If we are to believe that Trump happened as a result of letting Nixon off the hook; then it's logical to assume that that the next threat will be exponentially worse just like Trump was compared to Nixon. Like Adam mentioned in Friday's video regarding Israel responding strongly for the attack that killed the kids just recently. Intentional or not, detourance is absolutely necessary. I feel like that applies here as well.
Trump should have to stand trial & if convicted, his sentences should be the maximum penalty. Not house arrest at his beach resort. That would be a joke.
I said in another comment that the solution to this & to somehow prevent the spread of disinformation, which, the prevention part is where we're stuck.
However, I do also believe that detourance from coup like & destructive behaviors is another way we fix this. This has been able to spread like cancer throughout our country because there haven't been any significant negative consequences as a result. Not for the people spreading it.
The times there have been negative consequences, they haven't happened or it's just been one or two people (like Alex Jones). Has Fox paid Dominion? Where is the Smart Matic case? Has Rudy Giuliani paid Ruby Freeman & Shay Moss? What about the other members of Congress involved with J6? Seems like the past year while the Trump DC case was at a halt & judge Eileen Cannon gave them the runaround, maybe that time could've been used to start building cases against Jordan, or that Senator from Wisconsin, MTG... Etc. I mean, someone planted pipe bombs around the Capitol! It feels like we're just taking a "meh... Whatever" approach. How is it possible that we have the person on camera & we can't figure out who did it?!
That's one of the very disturbing things about MAGA: how it has crept into Congress and most alarmingly, the judicial branch. I suppose the Founders never thought we would have Federal judges and SCOTUS justices that are so openly corrupt
This will make holding him legally accountable difficult