Trump cultist watch

*  Everyone is surprised about how quickly the whistleblower complaint was released, and it certainly once again indicates that, unbeknown to Trump, he does in fact have people around him all the time who are appalled by his behaviour.   His Narcissistic Personalty Disorder prevents him from recognising it.  Most of the Trump cultists (and all round idiots - it's a Venn set diagram that is completely overlapping) who advise him were probably incapable of seeing how the doctored memo of the call could be seen as being damaging - although Axios has an article saying that there was at least some debate within some at the White House as to whether releasing it would help or hinder.   Anyway, once again I say that, whenever Trump is gone, there are going to be some ripsnorting insider accounts of outrageous and stupid things he has said and done while President.

* Australian Trump Cult central - Catallaxy - had the ridiculous CL write a post that started:

The Ukrainian impeachment hoax is over and Donald Trump won. What was that – about 48 hours?

all before the details of the whistleblower complaint were known, and on what he seems to think was an "unredacted transcript".

Of course, they being cultists, the whistleblower complaint will have no influence.  Nor will Trump being on a recording - speaking to a bunch of diplomats (!) - hinting that the "spy" who has caused him trouble really deserves execution.   They will laugh it off, because they are not only stupid, they're stupidly dangerous.   (Once again, I am at least pleased to see that the only conservative blogger I can trust to be at least on the right page re Trump - Allahpundit at Hot Air - is pretty appalled.)

As I have written before, this presidency has given us a good feel of what it must have been like being a reasonable person in the 1930's watching the rise of Hitler, progressing from:

"Oh, that loudmouth with the silly moustache?   No way people will buy into his over-the-top act.  Germans are pretty sensible, aren't they?" to "Oh my God, when will people realise the mistake they've made giving him power - they keep excusing him no matter what he says or does."

*  Hey this is pretty hilarious:   Vanity Fair claims that the Trump State Media that is Fox News is having an internal crisis as to how to drop support of Trump without losing their audience completely:

Trump’s final bulwark is liable to be his first one: Fox News. Fox controls the flow of information—what facts are, whether allegations are to be believed—to huge swaths of his base. And Republican senators, who will ultimately decide whether the president remains in office, are in turn exquisitely sensitive to the opinions of Trump’s base. But even before the whistle-blower’s revelations, Fox was having something of a Trump identity crisis, and that bulwark has been wavering. In recent weeks, Trump has bashed Fox News on Twitter, taking particular issue lately with its polling, which, like other reputable polls, has shown the president under significant water. Meanwhile, Trump’s biggest booster seems to be having doubts of his own. This morning, Sean Hannity told friends the whistle-blower’s allegations are “really bad,” a person briefed on Hannity’s conversations told me. (Hannity did not respond to a request for comment). And according to four sources, Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch is already thinking about how to position the network for a post-Trump future. A person close to Lachlan told me that Fox News has been the highest rated cable network for seventeen years, and “the success has never depended on any one administration.” (A Fox Corp spokesperson declined to comment.)

Inside Fox News, tensions over Trump are becoming harder to contain as a long-running cold war between the network’s news and opinion sides turns hot.

 They built a cult and don't know how to end it.

Update:   Some people around Trump blame it on Rudy Giuliani, and he's furious and sounds as if he's going to have a breakdown:

Giuliani unleashed a rant about the Bidens, Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, Barack Obama, the media, and the “deep state.” He has spoken freely about all these topics since the moment he became a surrogate in Trump’s 2016 campaign. Giuliani has aired far-right conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton’s health on national television. He has discussed his convictions about alleged Biden-family corruption with Trump in the White House residence. Still, until the Ukraine scandal broke, Trump’s allies were almost uniformly supportive of Giuliani to reporters, and current and former administration officials would often praise him for his loyalty.

Not until the back-to-back release of the summary of the Trump-Zelensky call and the full whistle-blower complaint did the mood change among this group.

This morning, a former senior White House official told me this “entire thing,” referring to the Ukraine scandal, was “Rudy putting shit in Trump’s head.” A senior House Republican aide bashed Giuliani, telling me he was a “moron.” Both individuals spoke on condition of anonymity in order to be candid.

“They’re a bunch of cowards,” Giuliani told me in response. “I didn’t do anything wrong. The president knows they’re a bunch of cowards.”...

“It is impossible that the whistle-blower is a hero and I’m not. And I will be the hero! These morons—when this is over, I will be the hero,” Giuliani told me.

“I’m not acting as a lawyer. I’m acting as someone who has devoted most of his life to straightening out government,” he continued, sounding out of breath. “Anything I did should be praised.”

 
Heh.

The funny is, some at Catallaxy agree that Giuliani is poison, but they don't realise they are victims of his conspiracy mongering too.