The Coming 'Storm' (see: tantrum, temper)
NOTE: if I do not provide a citation for a section, that section will reflect my personal opinion. Sources are listed at the end of this article. This article was written for my facebook followers who are not always as politically plugged in or informed as Daily Kos members. I actually want Dkos feedback before posting because your suggestions may help make this more persuasive. Thank you.
Like anyone concerned with the future of America, with fighting racism, and with destroying the fascist Trump movement, I have been watching QAnon's developing and deploying of conspiracies with concern. After all, QAnon is a terrorist movement which uses the ideology of Anti-Semitism as the foundation for its conspiracies. If Trump loses the election - the most likely outcome - I expect Q and 'his' followers to scream for an armed uprising. And yes, they will kill innocent people.
Whoa! How can I say that? And what can we do to stop it?
Anti-Semitism and QAnon
Action steps are at the end. First, we have to start with a bit of grossly oversimplified history here.
In the late 1700s, the Russian Empire, through the partitioning of Poland, found itself with the world’s largest Jewish population - complete with its own semi-self-governing bodies. Russia’s ruling class hated competition, and Anti-Semitism festered.
In 1902, Russians who wanted to eliminate Jewish autonomy, influence and power decided to write a book. The result: a half-baked, mostly plagiarized (the authors lifted extensive passages from Dialogue in Hell by Maurice Joly and Hermann Goedsche’s Biarritz) slanderous conspiracy theory booklet packed full of more bullshit than the Fort Worth Stockyards in their heyday: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. (The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2020)
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a darkly farcical compilation of ridiculous slanders against Jews. It accuses Jews of conspiring to take over the world, kidnapping, killing and eating Christian children (today called 'blood libel'), and controlling banks, politicians, international finance, the media and churches. It purports that Jews control and profit from pedophilia and homosexuality. Supposedly, the Elders' endgame is to disarm the populace, pollute the white race with interbreeding, and thus destroy the inherent power of Christian Europeans. Basically, a “best-of compilation” for racist Anti-Semitism.
Sadly, the Russian royalty and elites loved it, and they made sure copies were available everywhere so gullible dupes (like QAnon followers) would violently attack Jews rather than the royalty. When the Protocols hit Germany, anti-Semites there loved it and spread it far and wide to cause violence against Jews.
And when it reached the United States, guess what happened here? That’s right! Americans, disgusted by the hateful racism refused ... ahahahahahahaha, I can’t even write that with a straight face. No, Henry Ford printed 500,000 copies and handed out to every person he could reach, and then created radio broadcasts to further promote the hate, and cause violence against Jews.
What the hell does this have to do with QAnon?
Well, what does QAnon claim?
Q claims there is a secret conspiracy to take over the world by wealthy, powerful liberal elites (Jews), involving kidnapping, imprisoning, and killing and eating children to gain power from their blood. A “deep state” supposedly created by Democrat US Presidents Clinton and Obama, controls the United States government (Stanton, G., 2020).
Meanwhile, Jews, such a George Soros, allegedly control banks, politicians, international finance and the “fake news media.” And all of the above dance to a tune orchestrated by a pedophile network, and smoothed over by the agents of this "deep state" movement infiltrating Christian churches. QAnon adherents further assert that the pedophile elite promote homosexuality, transgenderism and abortion, and, of course, plan to disarm and replace whites via multiculturalism, and thus eliminate the pure, white race. (Stanton, G., 2020)
Ta-da! Exact same conspiracy, bright shiny new packaging. Slightly concealed and disguised Anti-Semitism. Much more overt anti-Immigrant and anti-Black racism. QAnon is a plagiarism of the plagiarism that is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, just edgier, with more memes and a lot of MAGA.
Is QAnon Really a Terrorist Movement?
Q and ‘his’ QAnon supporters work towards “The Storm,” the day when Trump and QAnon believers rise up against this fictional international 'pedophile cabal' and summarily execute them. (Stanton, G., 2020)
Notice: arrested, but not tried and convicted – just murdered. And guess who is part of that ‘pedophile cabal’? Well, if you guessed every elected Democrat and every Civil Rights activist in the public eye, you’d pretty much have the complete list. Oh, and sure, they tagged the odd progressive celebrity on there also.
The FBI field office in Phoenix warned, in a 2019 bulletin (FBI Phoenix Field Office, 2019), that QAnon was becoming a domestic terrorist threat, and the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (Amarasingam, A. and Argentino, M., 2020) reached the same conclusion this July.
Here's a sampling of actual verified violence associated with QAnon from the above reports and from Insider (Greenspan, R., 2020):
● December 4, 2016: Edgar Maddison Welch enters Comet Ping Pong, a pizza place, and fires an assault rifle in an attempt to liberate "child sex slaves trafficked by Hillary Clinton." He now serves a four-year prison sentence. This incident slightly pre-dates Q, but the “pedophile sex trafficking ring” became integral to QAnon beliefs. The conspiracy theory originated on 4chan and 8chan (now 8kun), the exact same places Q originated.
● June 15, 2018: Matthew P. Wright blocked the Hoover Dam Bridge. He was armed, and had thousands of rounds of ammunition. He held up a sign which said, “release the OIG report”. One QAnon claim is that there exists a hidden Office of Inspector General report on former FBI Director James Comey.
● March 13, 2019: Anthony Comello shoots and kills Gambino crime boss Francesco (Franky Boy) Cali, claiming that Q wanted him to do so.
NOTE: FROM AUGUST TO NOVEMBER 2019 8chan/8kun WAS OFFLINE AND Q WAS SILENT. THIS MAY EXPLAIN PART OF THE YEAR GAP IN VIOLENT INCIDENTS
● March 31, 2020: Eduardo Moreno, train engineer, derails a train, running it off the rails towards the USNS Mercy, there to provide extra hospital beds for COVID patients. Moreno has not explicitly stated that he is a QAnon follower, but his Facebook posts were laden with QAnon language and conspiracies. His stated reason for driving the train towards the ship? Preventing government takeover.
● April 29, 2020: Jessica Prim drives onto a pier armed with knives, apparently to rescue children she believed were held captive by, or being rescued from, pedophiles aboard the USNS Comfort, yet another QAnon conspiracy theory. She also stated, “Joe Biden must be killed.”
● August 29, 2020: the “Reichsbürger” faction of Germany’s far-right QAnon following stormed the steps of the German Parliament, brawling with police to do so.
Yep, terrorists.
And don’t kid yourself – along with the hosting and promoting the Q content, 8chan (and 8kun, since it is the same platform) has been a platform for radicalization and celebration of mass murderers. Remember Patrick Crusius, the El Paso shooter who killed 23 people? Where did he post his manifesto? 8chan. (Mezzofiore, G. and Sullivan D., 2020)
Who cheered him on and celebrated the murders? 8chan. Where did the motherfucker who shot Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand post his manifesto? 8chan. How about the Anti-Semitic douche who killed people at the Congregation Chabad synagogue in Poway, California? 8chan. (Mezzofiore, G. and Sullivan D., 2020)
And Incels who murder women for the ‘crime’ of not submitting sexually to them? 8chan (Hoffman, B. and Ware, J., 2020).
8kun, the new name for 8chan, is absolutely a terrorist hub.
And our President, the Malignant Melanoma in the Oval Office, constantly retweets and makes statement supporting QAnon candidates for office. Today Trump retweeted "pedoBiden" - talk about the irony. Trump ain't that smart but he can spot useful idiots when he sees 'em.
‘Q’uestion of the day: Who or what is Q?
We don’t know.
‘His’ announcements first appeared on 4chan under the name “Q Clearance Patriot”. A person holding a Q security clearance would have access to top secret information about America’s nuclear weapons.
Q moved to 8chan, which, by now, has changed its name to 8kun because after the El Paso shooting, 8chan lost hosting and DNS services. We do know that posts under the Q identity are posted on 8kun by the same individual(s) posting on 8chan because this Q account is tied to an encrypted identified account (technically a secure salt prepended to the unique tripcode of the account) that posts this dangerous Neo-Nazi bullshit. It looks like Q set this up to prevent anyone else from posting as 'him'. (Rothschild, M., 2020)
HOWEVER: this method of anonymity/security shackled Q to 8chan/8kun. ‘They’ were unable to post after 8chan went down for around four months following the El Paso mass shooting - apparently, 'their' anonymity is not portable. And if 'Q' really had a Q level security clearance, one expects they would have been prepared for this possibility. Within six hours of 8kun going online, Q began posting again. (Rothschild, M., 2020)
PROGRESS TOWARDS UNMASKING Q.
On September 10, the fact-checking website 'Logically.ai' identified Jason Gelinas, a Financial Information Security Analyst for Citibank, as the owner of 'QMap.pub,' the mainstream platform for publishing Q’s racist, hateful filth. After 'Logically.ai' published this link, 'QMap.pub' went dark for about 24 hours. 'QMap.pub' has been receiving 10 million unique monthly visitors since April of 2020.
It appears further that Jason Gelinas, anti-American traitor and racist scumbag, owned the 'qappanon' Patreon account, which earned him a tidy $3,320 each month for smearing fellow Americans and inciting violence. (Logically.ai, 2020) Patreon has refused to deplatform 'qappanon', because promoting racist insurrection which has led to murder is obviously more wholesome than sex work, which Patreon has banned as being harmful. As of just 5:12PM, Sept 15, 2020 the qappanon account no longer appears on Patreon.
Under the all-caps QAPPANON moniker, it appears Jason Gelinas was attempting to create/created a social media app called “Armor of God” to ensnare the duped racist followers of QAnon further into their clutches, with the probable goals of further radicalizing them while simultaneously financially fleecing them. Google Play and Amazon both removed the app before it achieved functionality. (Logically.ai. 2020)
Many better-informed researchers than I have speculated that Q is either Jim Watkins, current owner of 8kun (formerly 8chan), or his son, Ron Watkins. However, this has not been established with certainty. What can be stated with certainty is that 4chan, 8chan and 8kun are harbors for violent racists, misogynists, bigots and ... wait for it … pedophiles (O’Neill, P.H., 2014 and Machkovech, S., 2015). As part of the research for this post I visited 8kun on the darkweb and inside the /incest/ forum there are very questionable images (September 11, 2020). Who gets their political information from a site that hosts /incest/ and where top tag is “Fuck-N*****s-LOL”? And what kind of mind would consider information found there to be legitimate?
And do not be surprised that they traffic in what they ostensibly oppose. Cognitive dissonance is definitely no barrier for these bastards.
The Danger
QAnon presents a direct, imminent threat to us all. The Anti-Semitic and white supremacist lies which are the foundation this movement have resulted in tens of millions of deaths in the past. That’s right – much of Hitler’s and the Nazi party Anti-Semitism originated from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion; this propaganda directly inspired the Russian/Eastern European pogroms against Jewish communities post 1900.
Whoever or whatever is behind Q is fully aware of this history. He/They are exploiting this, knowing it will lead to Americans killing their fellow Americans. I would not be surprised to find Russian intelligence agents working with American collaborators to propel this movement forward, with the goal of fomenting even more civil strife in the US.
Do not underestimate the lethality of this conspiracy and its adherents.
The coming 'Storm' – the election and its aftermath.
Tuesday, November 3rd is election day. On the morning of Wednesday, November 4th, there are four likely possibilities (and many more very unlikely scenarios I choose not to address):
Scenario 1: Biden/Harris have a clear victory in both the popular vote and the Electoral College, and are declared the winners.
In this scenario, Trump, Q and other nutjobs will have an uphill battle to start a violent uprising. Nonetheless, I expect isolated shootings/shooting attempts and assassinations/assassination attempts. This is the best-case scenario and, based on polls, fundraising and early voting numbers, the most likely to occur.
Scenario 2: Biden/Harris have a clear victory in the popular vote, but the Electoral College is not clearly decided, and no victor is declared right away, pending absentee/mail-in votes being counted.
In my estimation, this is the 2nd most likely outcome. In this situation, we can expect Trump, his administration, elected Republican officials, Q and social media to contest the validity of the election strongly. I suspect the eventual outcome will be as above in Scenario 1. However, the absence of an immediate clear result will cause a lack of coordination in America’s domestic terrorist/white supremacist movement, because there is not a solid “launch point” for a violent uprising. Trump’s tweets in response to this Scenario may attempt to create such a launch point.
Scenario 3: The popular vote ties, and the Electoral College is completely undecided.
My gut (whatever that is worth) says this will provide a solid "launch point" for a violent uprising, and many people will die over weeks and months of bloodshed. Possibly even civil war will result. This scenario is less likely, but distinctly possible.
Scenario 4: Trump wins both the popular vote and the Electoral College.
This is impossible without massive cheating and fraud by Republicans. The traitor-in-chief has NEVER had a popular majority. Again, there will be bloodshed on a massive scale, but this time, it will be organized, sanctioned and perpetrated by law enforcement, with an eager and willing civilian militia component. Highly unlikely to occur, but still must be considered.
So, what can we do about the election?
Only three things: Donate, Volunteer and Vote.
These are literally the only things left that will make a difference at this point. Doing these can ensure Biden/Harris WIN CLEARLY AND CONVINCINGLY. That will likely produce the least bloodshed AND may actually lead to investigations, prosecutions and dismantling of the Q conspiracy.
Donate. Volunteer. Vote.
That is our focus.
Will my small dollar donation actually make a difference?
FUCK YES!! Your donation will make a difference!! $5 goes towards the software and bandwidth so volunteers can make Get Out The Vote phone calls (GOTV). $10 allows candidates to purchase security to prevent hackers from getting into their databases. $20 gets mass texts sent about early voting out to registered voters.
We are past the time when your donation might have gone to paying for a fundraising dinner. Your $$$ now will go DIRECTLY to getting VOTERS out to vote. $3 matters. $5 matters. PLEASE DO IT.
Who should I donate to?
The obvious choice is Biden/Harris. But here are key races that may give Democrats a majority and thus control of the United States Senate (ranked from most likely to win to least – just Andy’s opinion):
Sara Gideon for US Senate, Maine
Theresa Greenfield for US Senate, Iowa
Ralph Warnock for US Senate, Georgia
Cal Cunningham for US Senate, North Carolina
John Hickenlooper for US Senate, Colorado
Steve Bullock for US Senate, Montana
MJ Hegar for US Senate, Texas
Jon Ossoff for US Senate, Georgia
Another place where small dollars add up to a BIG IMPACT is EveryDistrict.us which targets State Legislative races. $5 donated there will have the impact of $50 donated to a US Senate race.
Where can I volunteer?
If you are in a solidly BLUE STATE, I recommend contacting one of the above US Senate campaigns, which are not in solidly Blue states, and volunteering for those campaigns. If you are in RED STATE with a US Senate race, volunteer for that campaign; otherwise, find your Democrat US Representative candidates and volunteer there.
Voting
Learn when voting starts for you, and get info: Vote411.org
The only way we are going to pull this off, to retake our country, is for EVERY LAST ONE OF US to get involved somehow.
Because if we don't win clearly and convincingly, things are gonna get bloody, and 8kun, Q and Trump will be behind it.
SOURCES:
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Available at: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion (Accessed: September 11, 2020)
Stanton, G. (September 9, 2020). QAnon is a Nazi Cult, Rebranded, Available at: https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon-is-a-nazi-cult-rebranded/ (Accessed: September 12, 2020)
FBI Phoenix Field Office (May 30, 2019). FBI Bulletin: Anti-Government, Fringe Political Conspiracy Theories Likely Motivate Domestic Extremists to Commit Criminal, Violent Activity. Available at: https://publicintelligence.net/fbi-consiracy-theory-domestic-extremism/. Downloaded: September 11, 2020)
Amarasingam, A. and Argentino, M. (July 2020). The QAnon Conspiracy Theory: A Security Threat in the Making? Available at: https://www.ctc.usma.edu/the-qanon-conspiracy-theory-a-security-threat-in-the-making/#reference77 (Accessed: September 12, 2020)
Greenspan, R. (August 26, 2020). QAnon conspiracy theorists have been linked to a killing and multiple armed stand-offs. Here are the criminal allegations connected to the movement and its followers. Available at: https://www.insider.com/qanon-violence-crime-conspiracy-theory-us-allegation-arrest-killing-gun-2020-8 (Accessed: September 12, 2020)
Mezzofiore, G. and Sullivan D. (August 5th, 2019) El Paso mass shooting is at least the third atrocity linked to 8chan this year. Available at: https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/04/business/el-paso-shooting-8chan-biz/index.html (Accessed: September 13, 2020)
Hoffman, B. and Ware, J. (January 12, 2020). Incels: America’s Newest Domestic Terrorism Threat. Available at: https://www.lawfareblog.com/incels-americas-newest-domestic-terrorism-threat (Accessed: September 14, 2020)
Rothschild, M. (August 31, 2020). Did an IP address accidentally reveal QAnon’s identity? It’s more complex than it sounds. Available at: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/who-is-qanon-jim-watkins-rumors/ (Accessed: September 12, 2020)
Logically.ai. (September 10, 2020). QAnon Key Figure Revealed as Financial Information Security Analyst from New Jersey. Available at: https://www.logically.ai/articles/qanon-key-figure-man-from-new-jersey (Accessed: September 11, 2020)
O’Neill, P.H. (November 17, 2014). 8chan, the central hive of Gamergate, is also an active pedophile network. Available at: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/8chan-pedophiles-child-porn-gamergate/ (Accessed: September 13, 2020)
Machkovech, S. (August 14, 2015). 8chan-hosted content disappears from Google searches Domain-specific searches contain warning about "suspected child abuse content." Available at: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/08/8chan-hosted-content-disappears-from-google-searches/ (Accessed: September 13, 2020)