QAnon Conspirators Must Be So Confused Right Now
QAnon got what they wanted, Trump is president, but "the Plan" isn't going as expected.
"Trust the Plan," QAnon conspirators say. Electing Donald Trump was supposed to usher in a new Golden Age of peace and prosperity. This Golden Age starts with violence. Those who steal babies and drink their blood in ritual sacrifice will be exposed. Democrats, Oprah, Tom Hanks, the Clintons, the Obamas, and more will face military tribunals and mass execution. All that was hidden will be revealed.
If you actually believe this, you must be wondering what's taking so long.
Several people who've promoted various aspects of QAnon conspiracies have been appointed to top government positions. Kash Patel is FBI Director. Dan Bongino is FBI Deputy Director. Robert Kenney Jr. is Secretary of Health and Human Services. But running the government and online influencing aren't the same, they're quickly finding out.
Patel and Bongino disappointed their QAnon fans when they told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo Jeffrey Epstein killed himself, and they had no evidence that the FBI was behind J6 or the "Deep State" was behind Trump's assassination attempts.
Other conspiracies have influenced public policy, however. Trump himself has used false claims about Venezuelan gangs and white genocide in South Africa to justify his actions, including his violation of constitutional rights and human rights abuses.
So what will happen to QAnon now that it, more or less, controls the government?
Nick Catoggio at The Dispatch suggests it'll focus more on conspiracies outside government:
As an editor said to me this morning, the nature of MAGA conspiracy theories will likely shift from “what is our terrible government hiding from the people?” to “what are our terrible people hiding from the government?” Greedy corporations, sinister pharmaceutical companies, violent Venezuelan gang members: They’re the villains in the new Trump conspiracies, and they’re all conveniently non-governmental elements.
And populists will be fine with it. My guess is that they ultimately don’t care very much which conspiracies they need to use to scratch their itch of hating elite, so long as they get to scratch it somehow.
Do you have a friend or family member caught up in QAnon? This could be a moment to plant some seeds of doubt. The way to do that is not to hound them with evidence. Rather, help them think through their own logic. Be curious. Ask questions that require them to explain their thinking in their own words. This will activate the parts of their brain that require them analyze why they believe what they believe. It may not happen suddenly, but you can help your loved one by simply being a sounding board for them.
Other News
Cato: “50+ Venezuelans Imprisoned in El Salvador Came to US Legally, Never Violated Immigration Law”
These legal immigrants include a temporary visa holder and four men who were authorized to travel through the US refugee program. The government vetted these refugees abroad and concluded that they would face persecution, letting them resettle in the United States. The other 45 legal immigrants scheduled appointments using the CBP One app, through which they were permitted to seek entry. Among those with appointments, 24 were paroled into the United States, where they could live and work legally for up to two years, while the other 21 were detained at the port of entry.
These people came to the United States with advanced US government permission, were vetted and screened before arrival, violated no US immigration law, and the US government turned around and “disappeared” them without due process to a foreign prison. It is paying the Salvadoran government to continue to keep them incarcerated.
Who Is the US Government Paying to Be Imprisoned?
The men were workers—construction laborers, pipe installers, cooks, delivery drivers, a soccer coach, a makeup artist, a mechanic, a veterinarian, a musician, and an entrepreneur. Most of those who were released quickly found jobs in the United States.
A majority of the men are fathers. Altogether, the men were trying to support 44 children. The US government did not inform their families, lawyers, or anyone else of their impending imprisonment at US government expense in a Salvadoran prison known for torture and other abuses that would be illegal inside the United States. Agents simply disappeared them without charge or trial or even acknowledgment, which is rightly considered a crime against humanity.
A previous post on this issue:
It Was Never About 'Bad' Immigrants
Trump's immigration policies were never about deporting criminal or "illegal" immigrants.
Mississippi Free Press: “ICE Arrests Mississippi Father at His Citizenship Hearing, Threatening Deportation”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transported Kasper to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, also known as the LaSalle Detention Center, in Jena, Louisiana, with a dozen other detainees. Not sons, not fathers, not husbands, but detainees, “aliens”: in the eyes of the law, that remains his primary designation. ICE deposited him in a facility where he shares a cell with just under 100 other people, cycling in and out, sharing little in common beyond the uncertainty of their future.
Kasper has never been charged with or convicted of any crime. He has not been accused of being a member of MS-13 or Tren de Aragua. What led the government to rip Kasper out of the arms of his family was, to the best of his knowledge, a single document. Form I-751, appropriately clinical, a “Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence,” was just one of the endless documents he needed on his decade-plus journey to American citizenship.
Kasper and his wife, Savannah Hobart Eriksen, never submitted that form, which was due all the way back in 2015. She had suffered a stillbirth, losing their first child, and in the days of grief that followed, the deadline slipped right past them. But Kasper’s naturalization continued unimpeded. He corresponded with immigration officials numerous times over the next 10 years, and says agents never warned him that a critical document was missing. He paid taxes each year, reliably contributing a portion of his labor to the nation he already felt a part of.
Reuters: “US aid cuts leave food for millions mouldering in storage”
Those supplies are valued at over $98 million, according to the document reviewed by Reuters, which was shared by an aid official and verified by a U.S. government source as up to date.
That food could feed over a million people for three months, or the entire population of Gaza for a month and a half, according to a Reuters analysis using figures from the World Food Programme, the world's largest humanitarian agency.
NPR: “Multiple Trump White House officials have ties to antisemitic extremists”
NPR has identified three Trump officials with close ties to antisemitic extremists, including a man described by federal prosecutors as a "Nazi sympathizer," and a prominent Holocaust denier.
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