A QAnon-themed Stop The Steal, anti-vax, Covid-denial roadshow came to an untimely end in mid-August with their fearless leader succumbing to COVID pneumonia on a ventilator in Florida. He denied the virus was real until his last breath.This week, Julian chronicles the 84-stop Arise USA Resurrection Tour led by the recently deceased former CIA agent, Robert David Steele.Characters on this Ill-fated tour include the aging wanna-be rock star slam-poet conspiracist Sacha Stone, anti-vax Urban Health Alliance leader Kevin Jenkins, cowboy-costumed MC Trent Loos, and a presidential impersonator named Lincoln Bob.
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I earned this Marine Corps flag, and when I think of militia, I don't think of dress-up.
I think of gun-packing mamas.
Because I think women are going to save this country.
Because satanic pedophilia and child trafficking is how they keep it all together.
There are up to 8 million kids being sacrificed, tortured, cannibalized.
And that's just in the United... No, that's in the world.
In the United States, it's more like 800,000.
Okay?
So election fraud, Wall Street treason and crime, satanic pedophilia, those are the big three.
NSA was weaponized in favor of the good guys in the same way that CIA and the FBI were weaponized against President Trump.
I believe that a whole bunch of information was declassified on the 19th of January.
And I believe that angels of God have been moving throughout this country.
Making deals.
Because when you're a spy, you learn you don't back people into a corner.
You make a deal.
President Trump is a master of making the deal.
And I think we're on a good, good path.
Nobody else has five coaches.
These are God's coaches.
These are your coaches.
We do need another $500,000.
I tell myself God will provide, but God's job for me is to worry about money.
So there is a pig over there.
I want you to feed that pig.
I'll be standing over by that pig when this program is over with.
Now I can't confirm these as facts, but in my imagination I see Steele and the group he refers to as his permanent party for the tour and his de facto board of advisors, as he calls them, Trent Luce, the emcee, who he dubs the ground commander, Richard Mack, a constitutional sheriff who spoke at most of the events, and Karen Stolle, that nationally acclaimed singer-songwriter who sang their theme song that you heard.
We're all in one SUV together, breathing in the same air, maybe picking up Sasha Stone at a truck stop or Greyhound station or maybe from his Bond villain helipad, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, on the way to what would become the dry and dusty cancelled dates in empty Tumbleweed County fairgrounds with only stale popcorn seasoned lightly with ivermectin for the faithful few who had not yet heard
The news, and then on their way to Robert David Steele's final hospitalization a little over two weeks later.
I reported on this past Thursday's episode that the AriseUSA website made no mention of Steele's death.
Also that his final BigBat blog post with a hospital ventilator selfie that had been fairly widely reported had also been taken down.
Well, a day later, that post is back up, and they do actually now have a new In Memoriam post.
And to their credit, they list the cause of death as COVID-19 pneumonia.
Unsurprisingly, the post is also mostly an appeal for more donations, so as to finish up the remaining four dates and pay off the debts incurred by the tour.
On social media, supporters are already of course seeding conspiracy theories that the Deep State poisoned the Khor Arise crew through the ventilation systems on the tour buses to make it look like they got COVID, or that the hospital treatment is what killed Steele instead of honouring his wishes to be treated with unproven alternative cures like ivermectin.
So, ending not with a bang, but a whimper.
Robert David Steele and the Arise USA Tour.
Swimming in debt.
Gasping on a ventilator.
Anticlimactic to say the least.
I'm struck by a cluster of mismatches here.
The grandiosity of the vision versus the tame and humble actuality of the tour.
The visceral fantastical nature of the dark mythic queue narrative versus the small town America county fairground settings.
Sasha Stone's slam poet rock star visionary alternative historian shtick And the D-list local musicians playing over terrible PA systems.
Kevin Jenkins taking the stage as the only black man for miles.
The COVID denialism and raging against COVID restrictions leading then to the death of their fearless leader from COVID in Florida, the state with the exponentially biggest Delta surge numbers.
Their militia fantasy cosplay contrasting then with Trent Luce's fully committed aging cowboy costume.
He wore the hat, the vest, the always colorful, fresh bandana, the formidable mustache.
Every time.
The Abe Lincoln impersonator in his huge hat and dyed black beard and hair, and then all those plaid shirts, blue jeans, American flags, and the smatterings of polite applause punctuated with occasional whoops as speakers from the stage called for an old-time revolution.
