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Trump's real-life, Nuremberg-lite, QAnon-serenaded Nazi rally in Youngston, Ohio. Photo by Gaelen Morse/Reuters
Whoa. The frenzied, hateful, gonzo base was always bad. Now, it's worse. Like, Leni Riefenstahl worse. Ending the "week he went QAnon" with a deranged rally in Youngstown, OH, Trump literally raved - invasion of illegal aliens, crashing economy, "murders, shootings, stabbings, r-r-r-rapes, carjackings," Hunter Biden's laptop! - to the swelling, coming-storm soundtrack of "Wwg1wga," QAnon's "Where we go one, we go all" anthem. In response, the rapt crowd gave a straight-arm, index-finger salute we could swear we've seen before. Oh, right: 1930s Nuremberg. Armbands coming soon.
Whoa. The frenzied, hateful, gonzo base - in thrall to a cheap con man they blindly deemed "a vessel for God" - albeit a smiting, lying, transactional, grifting one - was always bad. Now, it's worse. Like, Leni Riefenstahl worse. With the pressure mounting - lawsuits, prosecutors, a Jan. 6 Committee bearing down - a flailing Trump has veered sharply to the right, threatening mob-style "problems like we've never seen" and posting brazenly QAnon-flavored missives and photos, including one sporting a "Q" lapel pin with, "A storm is coming." Subtle. Aptly, he ended "the week he went QAnon" with a feverish, hate-spewing rally in Youngstown, Ohio. Ostensibly there to endorse cracker Senate candidate J.D. Vance - ever-gracious, he sneered, "J.D. is kissing my ass" - he was really there to rave, literally. Ulysseus? Introduced by an equally demented Klan Mom MTG - he is the GOP's "one true leader" and God help us all - he railed to the less-than-massive crowd about a fictional America in ruins: No border, invasion by "millions of illegal aliens," crashing economy, enemy-of-the-people media, "horrible convicts," spying Obama, an "unhinged persecution." Aaron Rupar - thanks again for sitting through this - summarized the tired jeremiad: "Murders, shootings stabbings, r-r-r-rapes, carjackings are skyrocketing."
But it was at the end that things got really bizarre - creepy, Wagnerian, Jonestown-Kool-Aid bizarre. As Trump began his final, hypnotic, hyperbolic lamentation of "a nation in decline," his babbling was theatrically accompanied by the swelling soundtrack of somber strings in the QAnon anthem "Wwg1wga," a ridiculous title representing their puerile, stalwart slogan, "Where we go one, we go all." Reportedly written by one "Richard Feelgood," it's meant to portray the rising storm that will soon destroy the global satanic cabal of pedophiles out to get Trump - who in turn already used the song in a post, prompting excited QAnoners to declare it "THE mother of all Q proofs." Yes, we are all in fascist middle school. As the music rose, the toxic sick old man blathered about election fraud, Hunter Biden's laptop, how "Whatever they do to me, I will endure their torment," and a cognitively impaired president - Biden not him - whose failings mean "we may end up in World War 3." In response, the rapt crowd raised, en masse and zombie-like, a straight-arm, index-finger, eerie salute toward the stage that we could swear we've seen before. Oh, right: 1930s Nuremberg. We assume the armbands are on order. But it's definitely not a cult.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Whoa. The frenzied, hateful, gonzo base - in thrall to a cheap con man they blindly deemed "a vessel for God" - albeit a smiting, lying, transactional, grifting one - was always bad. Now, it's worse. Like, Leni Riefenstahl worse. With the pressure mounting - lawsuits, prosecutors, a Jan. 6 Committee bearing down - a flailing Trump has veered sharply to the right, threatening mob-style "problems like we've never seen" and posting brazenly QAnon-flavored missives and photos, including one sporting a "Q" lapel pin with, "A storm is coming." Subtle. Aptly, he ended "the week he went QAnon" with a feverish, hate-spewing rally in Youngstown, Ohio. Ostensibly there to endorse cracker Senate candidate J.D. Vance - ever-gracious, he sneered, "J.D. is kissing my ass" - he was really there to rave, literally. Ulysseus? Introduced by an equally demented Klan Mom MTG - he is the GOP's "one true leader" and God help us all - he railed to the less-than-massive crowd about a fictional America in ruins: No border, invasion by "millions of illegal aliens," crashing economy, enemy-of-the-people media, "horrible convicts," spying Obama, an "unhinged persecution." Aaron Rupar - thanks again for sitting through this - summarized the tired jeremiad: "Murders, shootings stabbings, r-r-r-rapes, carjackings are skyrocketing."
But it was at the end that things got really bizarre - creepy, Wagnerian, Jonestown-Kool-Aid bizarre. As Trump began his final, hypnotic, hyperbolic lamentation of "a nation in decline," his babbling was theatrically accompanied by the swelling soundtrack of somber strings in the QAnon anthem "Wwg1wga," a ridiculous title representing their puerile, stalwart slogan, "Where we go one, we go all." Reportedly written by one "Richard Feelgood," it's meant to portray the rising storm that will soon destroy the global satanic cabal of pedophiles out to get Trump - who in turn already used the song in a post, prompting excited QAnoners to declare it "THE mother of all Q proofs." Yes, we are all in fascist middle school. As the music rose, the toxic sick old man blathered about election fraud, Hunter Biden's laptop, how "Whatever they do to me, I will endure their torment," and a cognitively impaired president - Biden not him - whose failings mean "we may end up in World War 3." In response, the rapt crowd raised, en masse and zombie-like, a straight-arm, index-finger, eerie salute toward the stage that we could swear we've seen before. Oh, right: 1930s Nuremberg. We assume the armbands are on order. But it's definitely not a cult.
Whoa. The frenzied, hateful, gonzo base - in thrall to a cheap con man they blindly deemed "a vessel for God" - albeit a smiting, lying, transactional, grifting one - was always bad. Now, it's worse. Like, Leni Riefenstahl worse. With the pressure mounting - lawsuits, prosecutors, a Jan. 6 Committee bearing down - a flailing Trump has veered sharply to the right, threatening mob-style "problems like we've never seen" and posting brazenly QAnon-flavored missives and photos, including one sporting a "Q" lapel pin with, "A storm is coming." Subtle. Aptly, he ended "the week he went QAnon" with a feverish, hate-spewing rally in Youngstown, Ohio. Ostensibly there to endorse cracker Senate candidate J.D. Vance - ever-gracious, he sneered, "J.D. is kissing my ass" - he was really there to rave, literally. Ulysseus? Introduced by an equally demented Klan Mom MTG - he is the GOP's "one true leader" and God help us all - he railed to the less-than-massive crowd about a fictional America in ruins: No border, invasion by "millions of illegal aliens," crashing economy, enemy-of-the-people media, "horrible convicts," spying Obama, an "unhinged persecution." Aaron Rupar - thanks again for sitting through this - summarized the tired jeremiad: "Murders, shootings stabbings, r-r-r-rapes, carjackings are skyrocketing."
But it was at the end that things got really bizarre - creepy, Wagnerian, Jonestown-Kool-Aid bizarre. As Trump began his final, hypnotic, hyperbolic lamentation of "a nation in decline," his babbling was theatrically accompanied by the swelling soundtrack of somber strings in the QAnon anthem "Wwg1wga," a ridiculous title representing their puerile, stalwart slogan, "Where we go one, we go all." Reportedly written by one "Richard Feelgood," it's meant to portray the rising storm that will soon destroy the global satanic cabal of pedophiles out to get Trump - who in turn already used the song in a post, prompting excited QAnoners to declare it "THE mother of all Q proofs." Yes, we are all in fascist middle school. As the music rose, the toxic sick old man blathered about election fraud, Hunter Biden's laptop, how "Whatever they do to me, I will endure their torment," and a cognitively impaired president - Biden not him - whose failings mean "we may end up in World War 3." In response, the rapt crowd raised, en masse and zombie-like, a straight-arm, index-finger, eerie salute toward the stage that we could swear we've seen before. Oh, right: 1930s Nuremberg. We assume the armbands are on order. But it's definitely not a cult.