DL Open Thread – Monday April 26th 2021

Filed in National by on April 26, 2021

Since Trump’s defeat, the QAnon movement has quietly entered a different, and arguably more dangerous, phase. Adherents now hold local elected offices across the U.S.–from mayors to city-council members to school-board trustees–with the power to shape policies that directly affect the lives of millions of Americans from positions that offer a measure of credibility to delusional beliefs. In some places, like Grand Blanc, the election of QAnon believers to local office has met little organized resistance. In others, it’s prompted street protests, frantic PTA meetings, tearful city-council Zoom calls, and hundreds of angry emails and petitions.

It’s impossible to estimate how many elected officials believe in QAnon or have promoted its theories in the past. No organization keeps tallies, and it can be hard to parse the point where Trumpian provocation ends and true conspiracy thinking begins. But it’s clear from more than two dozen interviews with residents of communities where QAnon-tied officials have taken office that America is only beginning to grapple with the havoc that the cultlike conspiracy theory has wrought. Almost every resident who talked to TIME about their own local official’s links to the movement also pointed out others in the area they had noticed sharing QAnon content: a state legislator, a county commissioner, a sheriff.

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Jason330 is a deep cover double agent working for the GOP. Don't tell anybody.

Comments (26)

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  1. puck says:

    Good news – racist bully cops are self-identifying and leaving the force:

    NYPD experiences 75 percent increase in departures and retirements

    At least in NYC, but hopefully the bad apples will start falling from the trees all over the orchard.

    To reform policing, we need different police. The challenge now is for local elected officials to assert authority over institutional police and manage reformed recruitment and training of the new blood.

    FOP will cry victim and say cops are “under attack.” But really I think the pensions are just too damn rich. Cops have every incentive to retire in their forties, collect a full cop pension, and start a second well-paying career in the Biden boom.

    Unfortunately a lot of these f**kers will end up in consultant-type jobs training new cops.

    • Alby says:

      What usually happens in these cases is that the people who leave are the ones with prospects elsewhere, leaving the dregs, but we’ll see.

  2. Alby says:

    This is why I changed my mind and now support the death penalty, though not for garden-variety murders. Just the heinous ones, like this Florida father and his three sons who killed seven people by marketing sodium chlorite, which becomes industrial-strength bleach when ingested — and refused to stop selling the shit, which they said was a Covid cure:

    https://this.kiji.is/758831454644944896?c=592622757532812385

  3. jason330 says:

    Qanon/Antimasker nut is running for a Red Clay School Board spot, and I think one is running for Cape School Board.

    Mike Matthews has been following the Janyce Colmery run and in return has been the focus of an immense amount of anti-gay hate.

    • Alby says:

      We should post a voters’ guide of whom not to vote for in the school board elections, as all most voters have to go on is their names.

      • Don’t vote for Scott Gesty in Brandywine. He’s a Libertarian who runs for State Rep in the 7th RD every two years. Definitely a stealth candidate.

  4. puck says:

    “Mike Matthews has been following the Janyce Colmery run”

    Can’t find, maybe it’s behind the Facebook wall.

  5. bamboozer says:

    Need to gauge the depths of American stupidity, gullibility and just plain ignorance? QAnon to the rescue, of all the insane conspiracy theories I’ve seen over the years this is absolutely the most insane and pathetic, it’s adherents live in a fantasy world and seem proud of it.

  6. All Seeing says:

    They all seem to be “Gaslighted”. Pretty scary.

  7. Alby says:

    That “park” over I-95 is a joke. It would cost $255 million. If you can’t think of a better use for that money, you’re comatose.

    That’s a higher bill than fixing Wilmington’s sewer system, which dumps raw sewage into the Christina every time it rains 1/10th of an inch or more.

  8. Alby says:

    Cops who should be jailed, part infinity:

    https://www.rawstory.com/karen-garner-police-arrest-video/

    Remember that story last week about the Colorado woman with dementia who was tackled by an officer so hard he dislocated her shoulder and broke her arm? Video has emerged of him laughing about it afterwards and telling someone as they watched the video, “Listen for the pop” when her shoulder was being dislocated. She went 6 hours without medical attention.

    This is the scum we pay with our taxes.

  9. jason330 says:

    Re the Cape School Board Election:

    Cape Henlopen District residents: Vote May 11 or Cape Henlopen School Board could end up with a member who thinks teaching Black history is Marxist.
    If ever an election mattered, this one does.
    Vote for Janis Hanwell
    Polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
    Vote at any of these poling sites:
    Cape Henlopen High School – 1250 Kings Hwy, Lewes DE 19958
    Mariner Middle School – 16391 Harbeson Rd, Milton DE 19968
    Rehoboth Elementary School – 500 Stockley St, Rehoboth DE 19971
    Absentee voting information is available at elections.delaware.gov.
    Please bring proof of identity and address. Any of the following works:
    Delaware driver’s license, or Delaware ID card, or Work ID card with photo and home address, or U. S. postal material with street address
    *****************************
    You can read about Dr. Hanwell at https://www.facebook.com/forallcapekids/
    You can learn about her opponent by reading her own words as posted on Facebook and in a letter to the editor supporting her. See below. [Note that the arrival of slavery in this country is no big deal.]
    By the way, the bill referred to in the post is House Bill 198 which requires each school district and charter school to establish and implement a curriculum on Black History for students in grades K through 12. This Act incorporates contemporary events into discussions of Black History and the tools of experience.
    ******************
    “Ashley Murray for Cape Henlopen School Board” Facebook post of April 6:
    Bill 198- The Critical Race Theory- a marxism ideology has passed the DE committee and now listed as ready. Call/email your reps and Senators or it will become law, making it mandatory to be taught K-12.
    Hey, everyone in the back! If you don’t know what indoctrination is or don’t believe it occurs. Check this out, they don’t even try to hide it now. They are so blazon they are making indoctrination a law. The ones screaming “Unity”, are the ones passing bills like this. It worked so well at colleges- they are all so “Woke” now, they are targeting our children. They want to create the division right from the start.
    Let kids be kids!! They don’t care about each others skin color. How do you collapse the USA? Inside out. Its all manipulation and brainwashing. United we stand, divided we fall! They are dividing us everyway they can. But this targets whites vs black. They can’t have us team up on them.
    Turn your tv’s off and don’t fall for all the race baiting propaganda
    How did we go from teaching Dr. Martin Luther Kings’s whole movement of not judging a person by the their skin color but by their character to teaching a 1960’s marxist ideology that creates racism and division. Its all for a political gain and power.
    Let me break it down for you:
    Critical Race Theory summary- they paint all pretty but its not
    1. Skin color matters- the complete opposite of we were taught.
    2. Racism is everywhere
    3. Dialog is evil- if you conversate with someone of opposition, you are just racist as them.
    WAKE UP! THIS NEXT IS BIG
    4. Totaltarian- dictational government with subservient state.
    So starting in kindergarden indoctorating our kids to want
    Communism. To be submissive.
    Its not just what you do but also what you don’t do
    Have you heard this one yet? “White silence is violence”
    5. Science, math, and reason are all instruments of white supremacy
    It groups people into 3 categories: Oppressors, victims, and people that don’t want to be thought of as an oppressor so they side with victims.
    **** it is UNBELIEVABLY DESTRUCTIVE”””””””
    There is 2 way to govern a country
    1. talking, speaking, convincing- Aristotelian- Jesus Christ was our
    best one (USA currently)
    2. Force
    Summary- so if a whole generation of kids programmed to not believe in science, math or reason, nor dialog or conversating, there is only 1 other way to govern and they have been programmed to want it.
    We Must Save Our Children by taking the board seats, 1 by 1.
    Make sure to vote May 11th – the incumbent is all for this, and is pro district.
    *******************
    Letter to the Editor in April 2nd Cape Gazette:
    I recently passed by an election sign for Janis Hanwell, who is running for the Cape Henlopen school board for at-large board seat. I was struck by the issues she feels are important: diversity, inclusion and equity. This agenda is a virtue signal to the woke left but does absolutely nothing to address the educational deficiencies in the school. In what world is a 33 percent proficiency in math acceptable? While 58 percent proficiency in reading/language is certainly better, it too has significant room for improvement. Shouldn’t these be the areas of focus at Cape Henlopen High School?
    Sadly, this agenda is not uncommon in many high schools across the state and country. The diversity and inclusion issues are a little surprising as the demographics of the student population is something they have no control over. The minority teacher population in most cases already exceeds that of the minority student population, so again there is little to be done.
    The academic issues are far more troubling. Schools are increasingly embracing the teaching of the 1619 Project, which presents the arrival of slaves in America as the defining event in the county’s history. While it was a significant event, it was not the defining event and was only a small part of our history. We should teach it all, good and bad, with accuracy and without bias.
    Another issue increasingly permeating our schools is the teaching of critical race theory. This theory essentially teaches people to hate their country and hate one another. It teaches people to judge others based on their physical characteristics rather than the content of their character, contrary to Martin Luther King Jr.’s beliefs.
    We used to call this racism and still should. It condemns social norms like objectivity, respect for authority, delayed gratification, individualism, politeness, hard work, self-reliance, logic, planning, and family cohesion as white values contributing to “systemic racism.” It places people in three categories: victims, oppressors, and those who might save themselves by becoming “allies” of the victims….
    Vote Janis Hanwell on May 11

  10. Hop-Frog says:

    Speaking of second doses of coronavirus vaccine: I signed up with the state, and was notified and got a first dose of Pfizer March 10 at an event at DelTech in Dover. Then I waited three weeks, expecting to be notified for a second dose. Nothing. Nada. Nearly seven weeks later now, and not even a note saying there would be no state-sponsored second-dose clinic.

    I was lucky enough to get my second dose from my primary care provider a couple of weeks ago, but I wonder how many other seniors are quietly waiting to be offered a second dose by the state?

  11. County council9 says:

    Please look at the Christina School district. The incumbents voted not to give people that live in the district. A chance to payoff there school taxes with no interest. All other districts voted yes.

    • meatball says:

      Why wouldn’t you be required to pay interest on taxes you didn’t pay? This seems like one of those personal responsibility moments I imagine all FOX news viewers experience while projecting onto others.

      • County council9 says:

        Maybe because the pandemic hurt the middle class. It’s only interest you pay the principal. Or just do not get any money at all like you are now

  12. Holy cow! Kim Stock is the Real Deal. Check out her website where she will tell you all about herself:

    https://kimstockteacher.com/

    I’ll be voting for her in the May 11 BSD School Board election. If you live in Brandywine, I hope you will too.

    • Joe Connor says:

      We can’t sleep on this! the opposition is beyond whacked and in Red Clay the opponents are Whacked on steroids!
      Kim in Brandywine and Kecia in Red Clay. It’s important!

      • Yep. Here’s a quote from the other candidate for BSD BOE. One Dr. Tanya Hettler, ‘psychologist and blogger’:

        “The classroom must be a place to seek truth not an agenda. We must remove the 1619 Project with its biased and false view of United States history and replace it with the truth–the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

        Uh, except for slavery, I guess.

        • Alby says:

          She’s upset about remote learning and wants to get out of Common Core and doesn’t like her union. She thinks “God” created “the moral laws of the universe,” so the education she touts obviously didn’t take. She sounds like a real peach.

      • puck says:

        The Red Clay candidates have almost no issues information available. It’s as though they are counting on turning out their friends and allies, and don’t care so much about winning over voters. Which may actually not be a bad strategy, given how uninformed voters are on the issues. The hot issue now is remote learning, which is a transient issue, so I’d hate to see that demagogued to draw in voters.

        My main issue is equity – to return high-quality programs to low-income schools. i.e., to reverse the flow of funding to charters and magnets, and to re-institute honors, arts, and sciences programs inside traditional public schools. I guess I don’t have a candidate; nobody’s going to run on that in Red Clay.

        Kecia looks like the one for Red Clay, so she has my vote by the process of elimination, even though her website is full of anodyne platitudes. I hope she will exceed my expectations.