monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Following the banning of Donald Trump and many prominent followers on mainstream social media platforms, and Amazon’s withdrawal of web hosting from Parler, rightwingers have fled to an archipelago of smaller “alt tech” sites and services that promise less content moderation or a refuge from the prying eyes of their political opponents and law enforcement.

CloutHub also offers a function for rightwingers missing their frenetic Facebook groups. On his own CloutHub page as of Tuesday, Brain was offering links to an anti-lockdown page demanding the reopening of houses of worship. Other groups included “Patriot’s Corner”, “Women for Trump”, and “QAnon: The Official Group Page on CloutHub”.

The site is one player among a cluster of sites like MeWe and Minds.com whose light touch in content moderation is presented as a commitment to free speech. The laissez-faire attitude of those sites has led many conservatives to at least set up accounts ahead of any bans they might receive on other platforms. On MeWe, for example, the QAnon-boosting lawyer Lin Wood, conservative broadcaster Mark Levin and Eric Trump all have profiles, but have so far posted little or no content.

Parler is currently down and out but it has found a new hosting company in the form of Epik, which has repeatedly stepped in to save far-right-friendly websites. If it does come back in some form, it will only be after a painful migration of its user data. It is an open question whether the security issues exposed by a data breach that has apparently struck the site will make its old users reluctant to return.

Republicans may not give a **** about democracy and the rule of law but they do care about their own safety. When the rioters broke into the capitol building many Republican lawmakers felt threatened. That’s why so many are now supporting impeachment.

The bonkers Republican logic on why Trump shouldn't be impeached

As the Democratic-controlled House prepares to vote to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday for his incitement of rioters that stormed the US Capitol last week, Republican elected officials and talking heads are rolling out a fascinatingly ridiculous argument for why they oppose the move.

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CNN logoThe bonkers Republican logic on why Trump shouldn't be impeached

As the Democratic-controlled House prepares to vote to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday for his incitement of rioters that stormed the US Capitol last week, Republican elected officials and talking heads are rolling out a fascinatingly ridiculous argument for why they oppose the move.

"As President @realDonaldTrump stated last night, it is time to heal and move on," tweeted South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R). "If Speaker Pelosi pushes impeachment in the last days of the Trump presidency it will do more harm than good."

Texas Republican Rep. Kevin Brady (R) put it this way: "Those calling for impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment in response to President Trump's rhetoric this week are themselves engaging in intemperate and inflammatory language and calling for action that is equally irresponsible and could well incite further violence."

Then there was this from Brian Kilmeade, co-anchor of "Fox & Friends" on Fox News Tuesday morning: "We see what's happening around this country, how 50 state houses are being threatened on Inauguration Day, this is the last thing you want to do," he said.

Even Trump got in on the act before leaving for the Texas border on Tuesday. "This impeachment is causing tremendous anger," he said. "I think it's causing tremendous danger to this country. ... I want no violence."

So, let's walk through this logic, shall we? No punitive action should be taken against the President who told a mob of his supporters that "we fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore" because, if that action is taken, it could lead to violence?

Er, what? Just in case anyone forgot, we already had a mob overrun the US Capitol -- incited by the President. That happened six days ago.

To do what the likes of Graham, Brady and Kilmeade is, quite simply, to let mob rule win. We can't act to punish the President, who clearly egged on the rioters, because it could lead to more riots!

Tell me how that differs from arguing after September 11 that we had better not seek to punish those responsible for the bombings because it might further incite them and lead to more bombings? Or how we had better not strike back after Pearl Harbor because it could lead to further attacks on the United States?

Right. You get it.

You can disagree with the strategy of impeaching the President with only eight days (and counting) left in his term. That's a fine debate to have. But you cannot in good conscience argue that impeachment shouldn't happen because it could trigger a violent reaction from Trump's supporters.

That already happened, people! Did you miss the people marauding through the Capitol last week? And celebrating both during and afterward?

We are already through the looking glass. Impeaching this President is not the match that will light this fire. It is already burning in the country -- thanks to the President of the United States pouring lighter fluid of the combustible combination of grievance, victimhood and plain old racism over the past four years.

In short: Give me a damn break.

It’s been a traumatizing couple of weeks in Gotham City, full of unthinkable violence and chaos. We’ve all seen the appalling footage: the exploding shark, the pier bombing, and the United World Organization building—until last week, a powerful symbol of the democratic hopes of the entire world—being invaded, vandalized, and defiled by the “United Underworld,” an alliance of the city’s most dastardly criminals: Catwoman, the Penguin, the Riddler, and even the Joker, the coolest supervillain of them all (although his role in the plot was very minor or maybe even nonexistent, from what I’m hearing). People across Gotham are frustrated and angered, and the vicious, unwarranted vigilante attack launched by so-called crime fighters Batman and Robin against the crew of a whimsically decorated Navy surplus submarine in Gotham Harbor did nothing to lower the emotional temperature.

Now it appears that Commissioner Gordon and Chief O’Hara are planning to bring criminal charges against the ringleaders of the United Underworld. This is a grave mistake. Our great city should be looking forward right now, not dwelling on the past. A trial would only dredge up traumatic memories and evidence of the terror unleashed by the Penguin, the Riddler, Catwoman, and possibly others. Criminal trials should not occur in the heat of the moment, if ever, and I fear that investigating this shameful incident any further would only be inflammatory and incriminating. We could waste months looking into exactly which supervillain used a stolen piece of distillery equipment to dehydrate all nine members of the Security Council as part of a deranged kidnapping plan, but would that do anything to improve the life of the average Gothamite? In the spirit of healing and unity, I believe that the members of the United Underworld, especially the Joker, should be released immediately and face no further consequences for their alleged involvement in this plot. Anything less risks angering Gotham’s supervillains and their henchmen further while doing nothing to stop the cycle of super-crimes.

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Liz Cheney will vote to impeach Trump

Beware this individual. I'm awarnin' ya.

The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.
Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President.

The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not.

There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.
I will vote to impeach the President.

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There is nothing surprising at all about this.

Not to the dupes and the gullible.

The rest of us know that there's nothing legitimate about the results.