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What do you call someone who refuses to face reality, who lies to others for personal ambition, who uses incendiary rhetoric to push some “the most loyal” in the audience, over the edge?
Well, in today’s topsy-turvy world, you call such a person the continuing king-pin of the cowering GOP. Never-mind that the techniques used by this morally bankrupt excuse of leader, are meant to inflict pain. Intentionally, by design, to as many of his imagined “enemies” as possible.
Because those techniques, while at times indirect, rely on the well worn tricks of terrorists:
stochastic terrorism — www.dictionary.com
noun
1) the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted:
The lone-wolf attack was apparently influenced by the rhetoric of stochastic terrorism.
Case in point, Exhibit A:
[...]
Mr. Trump tweeted at 2:24 p.m., after the riot was under way: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.” That was a reference to the vice president’s refusal to block the certification of President Biden’s election win in the joint session of Congress that day.
“The tweet looked to me like the opposite of what we really needed at that moment, which was a deescalation,” Matt Pottinger, Mr. Trump’s former deputy national security adviser, told the committee.
Sarah Matthews, a former White House deputy press secretary, argued that the tweet gave Mr. Trump’s supporters permission to continue their assault on the U.S. Capitol. “It was essentially him giving the green light to these people,” she said, adding that Mr. Trump’s supporters “truly latch on to every tweet and every word he says.”
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Trump's Tweet About Pence Seen as Critical Moment During Riot
www.wsj.com — July 21, 2022
And the practical effect of this intentionally-written tweet — was to amp up the intensity of the Capitol-attackers … to amp the fear of those working in Congress, as constitutionally required on that day:
"I worked on the campaign, traveled all around the country going to countless rallies with him," she said [Sarah Matthews, a former White House deputy press secretary]. "I've seen the impact that his words have on his supporters. They truly latch on to every word and every tweet that he says. And so I think that, in that moment, for him to tweet out the message about Mike Pence — it was him pouring gasoline on the fire and making it much worse."
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Trump was 'pouring gasoline on the fire' with Pence tweet, making January 6 'much worse,' former aide Sarah Matthews testifies
www.businessinsider.com — July 21, 2022
“… in that moment, for him to tweet out the message about Mike Pence — it was him pouring gasoline on the fire and making it much worse."
— Sarah Matthews, a former White House deputy press secretary
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"Stochastic Terrorism" — it’s not just for Al-qaeda anymore. (It has become the hallmark of Trump-hollowed-out GOP.)
You’d be surprised how many power-hungry pols, have learned to manipulate and employ its psychological mechanisms. Either knowingly, or unknowing — no matter — the outcomes are largely the same: some impressible pin-head, (likely many of them), act out based on “targeted hostile rhetoric” — and attempting to right the pretender’s alleged grievances.
Remind you of anyone?
PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM — Volume 15, Issue 5
Stochastic Terrorism: A Linguistic and Psychological Analysis
by Molly Amman and J. Reid Meloy
[...]
The Phenomenology of Stochastic Terrorism
How does stochastic terrorism unfold in the course of real-world events? We propose a practical description of stochastic terrorism as an interactive process between the originator of a message, its amplifiers, and one or more ultimate receivers. A charismatic public figure, or perhaps an organization, lobs hostile rhetoric against a targeted out-group or individual into the public discourse to further some political or social objective. An unrelated consumer of the rhetoric absorbs and reacts with anger, contempt or disgust, often mirroring the speaker’s emotional state, and adding his own fear and anxiety to that cocktail of negative emotionality; [13.14,15] [...]
The speaker’s rhetoric may range from bombastic declarations that the target is a threat by some measure, to “jokes” about violent solutions, or to the shared problem posed by the target — always stopping short of requesting or directing an attack for reasons of plausible deniability. Social and news mass media outlets are exploited to spread and amplify the message.[16.17] [...]
Gradual degradation and dehumanization of the target may occur through escalation of verbal attacks on the target’s personal virtues, combined with repetition and saturation of the overall message.[18] Once he reaches his personal tipping point, a consumer of the rhetoric, unknown to the speaker, mounts an attack against the targeted out-group or individual.[19.20]
[Emphasis added]
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In order to have the ‘anger pump primed’ — to have the Mob amped-up and ready to go — first you have to get them saturated with your “anger, contempt or disgust” — be it real, or fabricated …
And what better stage to pull on those patriotic heart-strings of your followers/marks, than in the shadow of the Washington Monument, at the iconic Washington D.C. Ellipse. On Election Certification day.
On these hallowed grounds, let our pretend grievances ring ...
Case in point, Exhibit B:
Examining the U.S. Capitol Attack
A Review of the Security, Planning, and Response Failures on January 6
Committee of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Committee on Rules and Administration
B-1 Appendix B: Transcript of President Trump’s Speech at the “Save America Rally” on January 6
pg B-2
[Trump addressing the crowd on 01/06/2021]
And Rudy [Giuliani], you did a great job. He’s got guts. You know what? He’s got guts, unlike a lot of people in the Republican Party. He’s got guts. He fights, he fights.
And I’ll tell you. Thank you very much, John [Eastman]. Fantastic job. I watched. That’s a tough act to follow, those two. John is one of the most brilliant lawyers in the country, and he looked at this and he said, “What an absolute disgrace that this can be happening to our Constitution.”
And he looked at Mike Pence, and I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so.”
Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. All he has to do, all this is, this is from the number one, or certainly one of the top, Constitutional lawyers in our country. He has the absolute right to do it. We’re supposed to protect our country, support our country, support our Constitution, and protect our constitution.
States want to revote. The states got defrauded. They were given false information. They voted on it. Now they want to recertify. They want it back. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people.
And I actually, I just spoke to Mike. I said: “Mike, that doesn’t take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage.” And then we’re stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot and we have to live with that for four more years. We’re just not going to let that happen.
[...]
And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a, a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our Constitution.
Now, it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down.
Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.
Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.
[...]
I think one of our great achievements will be election security. Because nobody until I came along had any idea how corrupt our elections were.
And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.
[Emphasis added]
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Unfortunately for the would-be-Mussolini, V.P. Pence had already consulted other legal experts and had concluded he did NOT have the Constitution power, to do what Trump wanted him to do — to single-handedly halt the certification of the 2020 Election, and throw the decision back to the states legislatures (as John Eastman had plotted).
As a result, Trump’s war of words against Mike Pence continued, and escalated — some might argue “ignited” the Capitol conflagration — at a very pivotal moment during the Capitol breach. At the moment, when Mike Pence’s Secret Service detail itself, was literally fearing for their own lives … as well as that of the VP’s … as the Trump “inspired” Mob swarmed in ...
Into the midst of this violent chaos, the lit-torch of a Tweet was thrown. Reiterating the “target” Trump had already drawn for them — reminding his “stochastically-primed Twitter followers” of their prime objective.
Reminding them, WHY he sent them there, in the first place. “To fight like Hell.”
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.” — Donald Trump Tweet, 2:26 pm, Jan 6, 2021; This Tweet was actively and intentionally sent.
This was all in spite of knowing beforehand, about the chants to “Hang Mike Pence” by the emotionally-explosive mob, he sent to the Capitol. Many of whom, primed to react in real-time on his latest anger-fueled tweets/commands.
Instead of de-escalating the Mob, he threw more “gasoline on the fire” — an intentional act, which prompted many of his Administrative staff to resign in disgust.
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Hey MAGA World, all those spontaneous fireworks are NOT supposed to be part of the By-the-People Democracy show.
When the Mob you incited is like a bone-dry tinderbox, on the verge of ignition given any spark — perhaps throwing Twitter ‘fire-crackers’ into the mix, is NOT the most responsible course of action, for a Commander-in-Chief to take.
Unless of course, you WANT TO escalate the violence, you WANT TO block the lawful constitutional functioning of the US Government.
Unless of course, you WANT TO defraud the American people of their constitutionally protected right to choose their next leaders — by Voting, in state-certified elections.
If however, your illicit goal is to get the trumped-up Mob to carry out your authoritarian plot — and overturn the will of the people — then relying on such plausibly deniable “stochastic terrorism” techniques, might be a very effective method of getting away with the scheme — scot free.
Some might even call it, “The Art of the Steal” … Done boldly in plain sight. Denial asserted, or not.
The scam continues ...
Sure, he’d love to show us his Taxes but they’re “still under Audit” …
You betcha! Just like those Secret Service “Text messages” ...
Mob Bosses from perpetuity, have become proficient at getting others to do their dirty work for them. Pushing those emotional buttons of anger, fear, and loyalty, is a skill that they know well. Escaping personal responsibility, while still getting their illicit schemes done. (Just ask Michael Cohen, for a look behind that curtain.)
Getting others to take the fall for them — it’s easy as the arsonist, striking another match.
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Legal note: The Arsonist must “choose to” strike those matches to be culpable.
Because you know, those “Fight like Hell fires” usually aren’t going to light themselves.
2) involving chance or probability
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