Shannon D. Hanson  

Redefining Zealotry for Trump’s Long Con

Singer Charles Shaw was reportedly paid $150,000 dollars after a New York Newsday article in which Shaw told the world he was one of the actual voices behind the fifteen-minute pop sensation Milli Vanilli.

Unlike the laundered hush money that was paid to Stormy Daniels by alleged billionaire Donald Trump, the gravy that Shaw received was to retract what he said rather than merely stop saying it.

In both cases, the payments were meant to shield the public ear from hearing one specific sentence among a narrative that was largely already known. In both cases, it was money well wasted but for different reasons.

In July of 1989, – a problem with a computer hard drive caused what was akin to a record skip during a live concert by Milli Vanilli. As a result of the glitch a portion of a line from the hit single Girl You know it’s True repeated several times. 

https://youtu.be/pqqjRVdakeI

It was the first real evidence pointing to the truth of stirring allegations that the two young men being dragged around the world as Milli Vanilli did not actually do the singing on their multi-platinum album.

Music producer, and mastermind behind the Milli Vanilli scam, Frank Farian might just as well kept his money. The controversy that ended Milli Vanilli’s meteoric ruse to fame was likely too far spun up already when Shaw cashed the big check.

Less than a year later – albeit after three American Music Awards and a Grammy (which was later revoked)  – Farian himself let the kitten the rest of the way out of the gunny sack.

At a campaign rally In January of  2016 Trump told his MAGA lidded followers,

“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters”

Trump knew how loyal his disciples are. So why, months later, did Michael Cohen draw money from a line of credit on Cohens home to pay off a porn star Trump had raw dogged?

It wasn’t like people didn’t know Trump was a philanderer and a piece of shit husband. Maybe one of  Trump’s handlers mistakenly thought that descriptions of Don’s dalliances delivered mere days before decision date would be a detriment.

Even though most pop music – especially in the 80’s – was about flash more than real talent, it turned out that even for the delirious dolls who deified the dancing duo from Deutschland, lip-syncing was a bridge too far.

For Trump’s bootlickers, there is no bridge too far.  Worse, it’s getting worse.

Covidiocracy

When Impeached President Donald Trump finally began to speak with any level of enormity about the  Covid-19 situation,  as expected, his servile slice of lemmings swiveled right along with him.

It was as if all those times that Trump downplayed the virus had never really happened. in fact, in the pretzellian logic of Trumpers, they hadn’t happened.

Never mind that on March 4th His Highness had told Hannity he had a hunch Covid-19 was not so bad as The WHO and other experts were saying.

Ignore that on the 9th of March Trump tweeted:

The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power (it used to be greater!) to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant. Surgeon General, “The risk is low to the average American.”

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020

Never mind all the times that Trump and the squawking heads who are always eager to do The Don’s dirties, downplayed, diffused and diluted advice and warnings from experts.

Put aside the fact that many of the Trumpists called the virus a hoax, said it was just the flu, claimed that it only affected the old and the sick.

On March 17th, Trump said,  “… I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”  Within minutes that statement became the only narrative to those in his loyal legion.  It didn’t even matter that Trump’s earlier denials and lies were on tape, In their minds, that was all fake news.

Trump’s battalions of butt kissers have been called a cult and with good reason.  Absolute loyalty and the refusal to accept the slightest criticism of the leader certainly are hallmarks of a cult.  Trumper’s are so much worse than that though. 

Although cult members apply confirmation bias in thick coats and will eagerly embrace lies to fit their beliefs – cults are usually largely insular and members don’t care if people outside the fold believe what they do.

In fact,  it provides credence to the cult that only they know some stuff.  Only they are going to have a place on the spaceship.

Trump loyalists though need to change history for everyone because they are not just cult members they are willing participants in Donald Trump’s long con. Trump and his ultra-rich cronies are filling their pockets with the gold from America’s coffers right under our noses.  The red hats have been convinced that some spare change will wind up in their paper cup.

The dispatch broadcasted over the  wingnut telegraph was simple; ‘Dear leader had been taking this seriously all along but didn’t want to scare the peons.’

It was not just a  statement meant to persuade the loyalists but a directive. The Trump cartel was not just saying “this is what you believe now”, but they were commanding their faction to “make it so”  Anyone who questions this alternative history is ‘blind to the truth’. 

And, where there are actual holes in the hastily crafted plot?  Well, that was clearly Obama’s fault in concert with The Who.

To Trumpers, recorded history is like Wikipedia where they can edit and delete information to match their new reality. This is hardly the first time they have done this.  In fact. they do it all the time,  it has become as natural to them as donning a MAGA hat.

Sometimes though, obfuscation and redaction of history are not enough. Sometimes a denial of facts and dismissal of evidence is not enough.  Sometimes what is needed are different  ‘facts’.

Chloroquine Koolaid

When Trump pushed a Malaria drug despite no evidence of its efficacy on COVID-19, his followers ate it up –  some literally.

Within seconds social media was stuffed with anecdotes about doctors who have been getting miraculous results with the unproven medication and second-hand reassurances from medical professionals who claimed it was sure to work.

Of course, the source of these stories was dubious and the claims they made were laughably thin, but that didn’t matter to the new Chloroquine converts.

One minute they had not heard of Chloroquine, the next they were pushing it as a panacea based solely on the word of one Man. Any doctor who did not want to shove it down the throats of patients was an irresponsible quack.  Urging caution was seen as denying the supreme word of Trump.

Anyone who didn’t call their doctor immediately and get a prescription was a “libtard”. Anyone who questioned their evidence was suffering TDS.

The matter of whether the drug is effective or dangerous (data is mixed) was immaterial to Trumpers. What mattered was dears leaders sagacity. Claims that Trump was a hero who had simplemindedly saved the nation with his Chloroquine clairvoyance repeated – like the Milli Vanilli song lyric – from the echo chamber of the trumpers.

Never mind that Trump’s knowledge of the drug seems to have started with a  Tweet from Elon Musk.

Maybe worth considering chloroquine for C19 https://t.co/LEYob7Jofr

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 16, 2020

Trump is a known gasbag who couldn’t pick the truth out of a lineup, plus this is hardly the first time he has pushed unfounded information. Why does this one matter?  Because no President should not be pushing any drug – tested or otherwise – during an official public appearance. Because the president is not a medical doctor and he routinely decries science. Because in a time of crisis people are grasping at straws.

If Trump truly thought the drug showed promise he should mention it to the doctors.   But Trump needs to be the hero. Worse yet he needs to be right all the time. His supporters need him to be right too because it validates their choice.

If it ended there it would be bad enough but it doesn’t. His supports also need you to think he is right, they need him to be your hero too, because the con requires it.

So, in the end, was Trump’s gut right about Chloroquine?

Not only have we not seen the kind of positive results Trump and his minions suggested. We are seeing that Chloroquine may be more harmful than not.

• The largest study to date on the drug by The Veterans Administration  found more deaths and no benefit
• A study in Brazil which was halted due to a high number of deaths and heart issues among test subjects.
• This Newsweek article mentions both of the above.
• Hospitals in Sweden stopped using Chlorooquine due to harmful side effects

On the day that Trump argued with Dr. Fauci’s assessment and said “We ought to give it a try“, 309 people had lost their lives to the virus.  At this writing, the death count is 59,459 – more than all American casualties in ten years of combat in Vietnam.

Lysol and Listerine

Beginning on March 23 poison control centers in New York, Maryland, Illinois, and elsewhere began reporting an uptick in calls. 

Not only did emergency priority calls increase but the count of callers who just had questions went up as well  One question that was asked is if it was okay to mix a little disinfectant in with the morning gargle to help prevent COVID-19.

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This new spate of calls was because Trump – fresh off his earlier successful foray into medicine – discussed during a press briefing the possibility of whether disinfectant injected into the body might fix COVID-19.

I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? 

Several states issued stark warnings telling people that it is not, in fact, safe to ingest, inject, or otherwise input bleach or other disinfectants into your body. The makers of Lysol said that under no circumstances are their cleaning products safe for human consumption.

The EPA added in big red bold letters the following warning to a page listing disinfectants. 

Trump was rightfully lambasted for this dangerous dumbfuckery and  later said he made the comments “sarcastically” and   “just to see what would happen.”

What happened was predictable.

It’s hard to imagine that anyone would defend anything so asinine but some of Trump’s band were boneheaded enough to try.  Select Syncophants shared stories about companies that had been selling a “miracle cure” including this bleach-based snake oil.

It has been suggested that contact from one the charlatans responsible for this dangerous crap is what led Trump to his most recent maniacal medical epiphany.

Of course, some Trumpers took to the task of convincing you that the man who they praised for always saying what he means, didn’t mean what he said this time.  Still, others tried to change what he said altogether.  including viral FaceBook posts that quoted him completely wrong.

Fortunately, this nefarious redefinition of  Trump’s massively stupid comments has for the most part not worked. The fallout from #disinfectgate continues.

I don’t push conspiracy theories, I’ll leave that to the QAnon quacks. But take an honest look at the posts, memes, and comments which have been committed to the collective of social knowledge since Trump’s Scrubbing Bubbles bungle and form your own opinion.

I don’t think there could be more compelling evidence that these morons dangerous co-conspirators in Trump’s scam.  There are no lies to vile, no logic leap too far, no depth too low in their quest to convince you that dear leader is right, except of course when he is joking.

End of an Error

The Milli Vanilli grift ended at least in part because Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus eventually insisted on doing what their contract called for, which was to sing. Farian was quoted as saying that the boys could sing “but they didn’t have enough quality.”  One reading of history might conclude the pair were victims.

After all, they were performing in clubs as Milli Vanilli before they fell for the sweet lies of big-name music producer.  And, they did sign the contract and were led along for months before they knew they would never sing on the album.  But calling them victims is not a complete view.

When the hard drive skipped during the live performance Pilatus bolted from the stage. If he was a victim, that would have been a perfect time to confirm the growing suspicions and end the ruse but he didn’t. He was talked into returning for the rest of the show by MTV  VJ Downtown Julie Brown.

Both performers helped sell the story that it wasn’t treachery but “artistic license”. Both men kept up dancing and dissimulating. Both men accepted (and later returned) the Grammy.  Yes, they were conned, but they quickly became willing participants in the sham.

Trumpers were also sold bushels of manure by a skilled flimflam man.  To be fair it was sweet-smelling horseshit, but, by now they either know it’s shite and are consenting contributors to the con, or they are dupes destined for Darwin’s docket.

The Milli Vanilli hoax fell apart because Morvan and Pilatus no longer agreed to go along with the deception. I wouldn’t count on Trump’s votaries to veto his villainy any time soon. We can’t change em but thankfully we do outnumber them. 

As the election nears you can expect the heat to be turned up. Trump’s willing idiots need you to believe in Trump because they need your vote. Don’t give it to them.

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