Hump Day open thread: Flippin' harder than flapjacks
So, this is happening today:
Oh yes. It's all fun and national socialist revolutionism until you realize that the Volk is not going to rise up, that the führer to whom you pledged devotion is a near-senile imbecile, and that there's no one any better to take his place. Oh, and did I mention that you're almost certain to be convicted of seditious conspiracy, which is not a good thing?The attorney for Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, tells CNN that Rhodes will appear virtually before the Jan. 6 Committee on Wednesday.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 1, 2022
I guess Mr. Rhodes isn't taking Donald Trump's promise of a pardon should he somehow be reinstalled in the White House at face value. Or any value.
Now, let's be perfectly frank: Rhodes is flipping. He's heading to DC for an extended stay in the pokey. He's been left to hang, along with his current low-level flunkies. Rather than being a gauleiter in a new white ethnostate, he's looking at quite a long prison sentence, with no help from any of his one-time "friends". His legal defense fund, which has a target of $250,000, currently stands at... $80. He literally has nothing left to lose.
The question is: Who will he flip on? Roger Stone? Steve Bannon? Trump? All of them? The answer to that depends on how segmented the larger conspiracy was. To paraphrase General Turgidson: Who got to see the big board? From what's been reported, it seems that everyone involved had pretty much equal access to information. So Rhodes might just be able to deliver them all on a platter.
That's the thing about sedition: you're doing a very bad, very illegal thing. Those who engage in such acts are, in turn, generally very bad people who are not to be trusted. They are roiling vipers, as likely to bite each other as much as their intended targets. If it succeeds, then party time. But, if it fails, as it did on January 6, then things go south pretty damned quickly. It took a while for the ball to get rolling, but the avalanche is here. Someone like Rhodes wouldn't be talking to the committee unless he was going to spill everything in order to gain leniency. And if he's talking to the committee, then he's talking to the prosecutors. I shudder to think of the state of Trump's underwear at the moment.
That this hasn't gotten more notice is another indication of the failure of our media, and its indebtedness to Trump. If CNN and MSNBC spent their time digging into the insurrection and going full metal to protect democracy, rather than continuing to play the "both sides" game, they would see their ratings soar. But, it is what it is.
Good luck, Mr. Rhodes. You're a piece of shit, a traducer of the Republic. But, in your exigency, you might just do the Republic you wanted to destroy a signal service.
This is your open thread.