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Chuck Darwin<p>Conspiracy Theorist Clay Clark Is Working to Place a ‘Prophet’ in Trump’s Cabinet </p><p>In 2021, far-right conspiracy theorist and self-proclaimed <br>“alpha toxic male” <a href="https://c.im/tags/Clay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Clay</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Clark" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Clark</span></a> <br>organized a “Reopen America” event in Oklahoma that was designed to protest restrictions that had been put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. <br>That event was such a success that Clark quickly rechristened it <br>💥“ReAwaken America” 💥and launched a nationwide tour, holding similar events all over the country.</p><p>Convinced that a vague 2013 prophecy from the late self-declared “prophet” <a href="https://c.im/tags/Kim" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Kim</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Clement" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Clement</span></a> about “a man by the name of Mr. Clark and … another man by the name of Donald” <br>was a prophecy about himself and former President Donald Trump, Clark’s events quickly became a nonstop cavalcade of outlandish <a href="https://c.im/tags/conspiracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>conspiracy</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/theories" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>theories</span></a> and explicitly <a href="https://c.im/tags/violent" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>violent</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/rhetoric" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rhetoric</span></a> mixed with aggressive <a href="https://c.im/tags/Christian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Christian</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/nationalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>nationalism</span></a>.</p><p>Eventually, members of the Trump family began to participate in Clark’s event, <br>leading Clark to form a particularly close friendship with <a href="https://c.im/tags/Eric" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Eric</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/Lara" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lara</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Trump</span></a>, whom he credited with “legitimizing what we are doing in the minds of many people.”<br>In 2023, Clark bragged that through his tour, he had managed to establish direct connections to the Trump family and campaign, <br>and was working to ensure that ♦️Trump would be “surrounded by both prophets and pastors” ♦️in his run for president.<br>On Monday, Clark appeared on a program hosted by self-proclaimed “prophet” <a href="https://c.im/tags/Julie" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Julie</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Green" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Green</span></a>, <br>where he revealed that his current plan is to leverage the access he has gained🔥 to place a “prophet” in Trump’s cabinet if the former president returns to the White House.<br>After bragging that Eric Trump had personally invited him to attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, <br>Clark recalled how Eric had asked him to organize a right-wing prayer call for the Trump family earlier this year.<br>“For the president’s son to ask [us] to organize a night of prayer, <br>that’s just not normal of what you would expect, and it shows that God is moving on him,” Clark said. <br>“I feel like the purpose of the ReAawaken Tour is to flip the [organization] chart [so] you have 👉God at the top, prophets second, and then the politicians third.”👈<br>“You’d have God, and then you’d have the prophets, and then you would have President Trump listening to them and ❌treating them in the same way that he might talk to the Secretary of Defense, ❌or the same way that he might talk to the head of Homeland Security,” Clark continued. <br>“I would like to see President Trump have a prophet in his cabinet.”<br><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/conspiracy-theorist-clay-clark-is-working-to-place-a-prophet-in-trumps-cabinet/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">rightwingwatch.org/post/conspi</span><span class="invisible">racy-theorist-clay-clark-is-working-to-place-a-prophet-in-trumps-cabinet/</span></a></p>
Chuck Darwin<p>Republicans also made concerns about the election a formal part of their <a href="https://c.im/tags/platform" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>platform</span></a>. </p><p>“We will implement measures to secure our elections, <br>including voter ID, <br>highly sophisticated paper ballots, <br>proof of citizenship and same-day voting. </p><p>We will not allow the Democrats to give voting rights to illegal aliens,” the document says.</p><p>Republicans say they are building an army of poll watchers and observers<br> to watch over the vote this year. </p><p>They’ve also appointed <a href="https://c.im/tags/Christina" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Christina</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Bobb" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Bobb</span></a>, <br>a lawyer facing criminal charges in Arizona for her involvement in the <a href="https://c.im/tags/fake" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>fake</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/electors" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>electors</span></a> scheme, <br>to head the party’s litigation efforts.</p><p> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Lara" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lara</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Logan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Logan</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/conspiracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>conspiracy</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/die" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>die</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/convention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>convention</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Jim" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Jim</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Hoft" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hoft</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Gateway" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gateway</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Pundit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Pundit</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/misinformation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>misinformation</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/bankruptcy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>bankruptcy</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Georgia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Georgia</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Dominion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Dominion</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/libelous" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>libelous</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/stolen" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>stolen</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/YMCA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>YMCA</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/non" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>non</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/citizen" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>citizen</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/rare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rare</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/messaging" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>messaging</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/doubt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>doubt</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/debunked" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>debunked</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/rescan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rescan</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/confirmed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>confirmed</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/rigged" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rigged</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Jr" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Jr</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/cheating" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cheating</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/believe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>believe</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Kari" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Kari</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Lake" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lake</span></a></p>
Chuck Darwin<p>Election denialism front and center at Republican national convention </p><p>“Don’t fuck us,” <a href="https://c.im/tags/Lara" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lara</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Logan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Logan</span></a>, the former CBS News anchor turned to me and said. <br>“If you use the word <a href="https://c.im/tags/conspiracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>conspiracy</span></a> theorist in your story, I’m going to haunt you when I <a href="https://c.im/tags/die" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>die</span></a>.”</p><p>It was the third day of the Republican national <a href="https://c.im/tags/convention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>convention</span></a> and Logan was standing in the atrium of a hotel that was once the old Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee. <br>She was there to moderate a presentation by <a href="https://c.im/tags/Jim" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Jim</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Hoft" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hoft</span></a>, <br>the founder of the far-right website <a href="https://c.im/tags/Gateway" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gateway</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Pundit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Pundit</span></a>, and his twin brother, Joe, who is also a contributor to the site.</p><p>The site, which has become a launchpad for <a href="https://c.im/tags/misinformation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>misinformation</span></a>, <br>has been in hot water recently. <br>The site declared <a href="https://c.im/tags/bankruptcy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>bankruptcy</span></a> in April in order to delay civil suits from two <a href="https://c.im/tags/Georgia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Georgia</span></a> election workers and a former <a href="https://c.im/tags/Dominion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Dominion</span></a> Voting Systems employee who say the site defamed them. <br>The site denies publishing <a href="https://c.im/tags/libelous" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>libelous</span></a> claims against the women.</p><p>The event billed as a “blockbuster interview” on the site’s “legal challenges and new beginnings” underscored how doubts about the outcome of the 2020 election continue to grip Republicans<br> (a PRRI poll from January found that 63% of Republicans believe the 2020 election was <a href="https://c.im/tags/stolen" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>stolen</span></a>).</p><p>Inside and outside of the convention hall, it was clear in speeches and interviews with attendees throughout the week that doubts about the 2020 election remain, <br>and the possibility of another “stolen” vote looms.</p><p>The most direct reference to a stolen election in 2020 came in a pre-recorded video from Donald Trump <br>that aired on the jumbotron each night. <br>It was only one of two videos that repeated <br>(the other was a goofy video of Trump doing a wiggle-type dance to the song <a href="https://c.im/tags/YMCA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>YMCA</span></a>).</p><p>“The most important thing we have to do is protect the vote. <br>You have to keep your eyes open because these people want to cheat <br>and they do cheat, and, frankly, it’s the only thing they do well,” Trump said in the video.</p><p>Republican speakers steered clear of the 2020 election results directly, <br>and instead repeatedly emphasized the threat of <a href="https://c.im/tags/non" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>non</span></a>-<a href="https://c.im/tags/citizen" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>citizen</span></a> voting, <br>which is exceedingly <a href="https://c.im/tags/rare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rare</span></a> and yet nonetheless has become a central part of the party’s <a href="https://c.im/tags/messaging" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>messaging</span></a> around elections. </p><p>Just as Trump pointed to mail-in ballots to seed <a href="https://c.im/tags/doubt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>doubt</span></a> about the 2020 election, <br>experts believe that the emphasis on non-citizen voting is an effort to seed doubt about the election results in 2024.</p><p>At the Gateway Pundit event, there was little new information. <br>Jim Hoft walked the 20 or so attendees <br>– the event was also livestreamed on X <br>– through video footage that purported to show Georgia election workers running ballots through tabulator machines several times. </p><p>“We think this is important because in my world anyway where I grew up, you kind of count ballots two or three times,” Jim Hoft said. <br>He insisted that nothing the site had published had been disproven.</p><p>The claim that ballots were scanned multiple times in Georgia has been <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/debunked" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>debunked</span></a> repeatedly <br>and the women have both been cleared of any wrongdoing. </p><p>If there’s an issue scanning a single ballot within a batch <br>– a jam or a smudge on a ballot <br>– it’s common practice for election workers to delete the incomplete batch to <a href="https://c.im/tags/rescan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rescan</span></a> the entire group until they have the correct total. </p><p>The state also conducted a hand recount of every single vote cast in the presidential race in Georgia that <a href="https://c.im/tags/confirmed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>confirmed</span></a> Joe Biden’s win there.</p><p>At the convention, there was little doubt that the next election could be <a href="https://c.im/tags/rigged" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rigged</span></a>. <br>The struggle of the Biden campaign and Trump’s strong standing in the polls only increased the belief that any Democratic victory would be illegitimate. <br>Speaking at an Axios event on the sidelines of the convention, Donald Trump <a href="https://c.im/tags/Jr" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Jr</span></a> said that if Trump lost it would be because of “<a href="https://c.im/tags/cheating" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cheating</span></a>”.<br>“We’re going to have to make sure we have people watching [the election] very closely,” he said at the event. <br>“I don’t think that Joe Biden over-performed only in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee <br>– I just don’t <a href="https://c.im/tags/believe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>believe</span></a> that’s real,” he said.</p><p>As part of their messaging around non-citizen voting, Republicans recently passed legislation in the US House that would <br>require anyone who registers to vote to show proof of citizenship. <br>Speakers at the convention picked up the mantle by suggesting that Democrats had opened the borders to allow non-citizens to vote.</p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/Kari" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Kari</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Lake" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lake</span></a>, who is running for a US Senate seat in Arizona, <br>falsely accused her opponent, Representative Ruben Gallego, <br>of voting to “let the millions of people who poured into our country illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election”.</p><p>Imagining a second Biden term, Senator Rick Scott of Florida said: “It was easy for Democrats to rig the elections – they simply allowed all the non-citizens to vote.”</p><p>“[Democrats] want illegals to vote now that they opened the border,” Steve Scalise, a top Republican in the US House, said in his speech.</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/19/election-denialism-republican-convention?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/us-news/articl</span><span class="invisible">e/2024/jul/19/election-denialism-republican-convention?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other</span></a></p>
Brian Jopek<p>“Doctor Zhivago” is on Turner Classic Movies: another of my boyhood movie crushes. <br><a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/MoviesOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MoviesOfMastodon</span></a> <br><a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/JulieChristie" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>JulieChristie</span></a> <br><a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/Lara" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lara</span></a></p>
Chuck Darwin<p>Reasons Republicans might start to panic about increasingly Trump-centric RNC</p><p>Trump’s pick to be the new <a href="https://c.im/tags/RNC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RNC</span></a> co-chair, his daughter-in-law <a href="https://c.im/tags/Lara" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lara</span></a> Trump, said on Tuesday that the committee’s “only job” is getting Trump elected in November...<br> and that she will use “every single penny” from the RNC to do so if elected. </p><p>In an increasingly Trump-centric RNC, the former president’s slate of endorsements to replace the current leadership would solidify the trend....<br>but the record under this new focus gives reasons to question the strategy:<br>Trump’s legal bills are piling up<br>2024 looks favorable for Republicans — but so did 2022<br>Candidates who heavily associate with Trump have alienated voters in key races<br>Trump is fixated on long-shot states<br><a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/2856331/five-reasons-republicans-might-panic-about-trump-centric-rnc/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">washingtonexaminer.com/news/ca</span><span class="invisible">mpaigns/2856331/five-reasons-republicans-might-panic-about-trump-centric-rnc/</span></a></p>
Chuck Darwin<p>Lara Trump says she’d spend ‘every single penny’ of RNC funds to elect her father-in-law.</p><p>Corrupt Donald Trump effectively became the leader of the Republican Party, a position he holds to this day despite the many alleged crimes and that one attempted coup. </p><p>So it seemed like only a matter of time until one of his family members was literally running the Republican National Committee, and apparently that may be happening very soon.</p><p>In a statement released on Monday, Trump declared that he wants current North Carolina GOP chair Michael <a href="https://c.im/tags/Whatley" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Whatley</span></a> to replace Ronna <a href="https://c.im/tags/McDaniel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>McDaniel</span></a> as the leader of the <a href="https://c.im/tags/RNC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RNC</span></a>, with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, serving as cochair. </p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/Lara" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lara</span></a>’s qualifications for the job appear to be that (a) she regularly goes on TV and says completely ridiculous things about her father-in-law (like that he might win New York in November) and (b) she’s married to <a href="https://c.im/tags/Eric" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Eric</span></a> Trump. <br>(Eric is Trump’s third child and second-oldest son, and he inherited his intelligence from his father.) </p><p>Whatley’s main qualification, according to The New York Times, is that he’s all in on the thoroughly debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen:<br><a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/donald-trump-lara-trump-rnc-michael-whatley" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">vanityfair.com/news/donald-tru</span><span class="invisible">mp-lara-trump-rnc-michael-whatley</span></a></p>