Is QAnon an FSB active measure?

Not Crazy - August 13 2020

QAnon are not crazy. They are fascist, totalitarian & subversive. Everything Q outputs is propaganda crafted to indoctrinate their followers, reinforce their fanaticism & divert attention from REAL CRIMES! I believe Q is probably an active measure from GRU/FSB & GOP operatives!!!

The vicious lie that people on the left are the real pedophiles and Trump was "undercover" is propaganda! It is a great example of Big Lie propaganda. Lies so big the credulous and cynical alike believe them. It plays on bigotry & emotion.

Q as Propaganda

Propaganda uses the technique of repetition and amplification to create a band wagon effect. Q gives credibility to rw propaganda and those sucked into it, in order to create a bandwagon more people are sucked into!

History of QAnon

Anonymous had been an alliance between left and right libertarians. They hacked into government agencies who were abusing power. And famously had, allegedly intervened in an election by preventing Karl Rove changing votes in 2012.

A lot of young people were attracted to various news groups, including one called 4 Chan. That group mostly attracted gamers. It became a place of conspiracy theories and grievence. The FSB & GRU saw potential before the 2015 election.

The first step to recruitment was to feed existing conspiracy theorists new or slightly tweekes conspiracy theories, some amptly founded on official misconduct and obtuseness - others manufactured out of whole cloth. Right Wing [RW] conspiracies recruit on grievence. The Trolls built up stories aimed at Obama and the Clinton. 4chan amplified and helped launder planted stories over to the mainstream media thru a network of semi legitimate journalists and talk radio/video stars.

In 2016 they circulated stories loosely based on hacked emails and mostly on psychological profiling creating trafficking allegations against the Clintons. That and other alleged crimes were tied to an imaginary conspiracy. They alleged a Pizza store was putting young women in a non existent basement.

The deep state was born.

This Pizza Gate narrative gained wildfire spread.  The FSB/GOP folks behind Pizza gate saw they needed a more credible and plausible sounding source than Cosy Bear so they invented Q, an omniscient source who could lay out "the real issues." Anonymous had been an army of individual hackers who sometimes played vigilante. Q is designed to mobilize a RW army with accusations and slander.

But not liberal.

The Anonymous folks had been resisting efforts to shut down free speech, interfere in elections, etc... for years.

It was a simple thing to hijack résistance on behalf of authoritarianism. The "deep state" is a sufficiently abstract entity that was used Aato tie together conspiracies. It recruited younger people enchanted by a Godlike voice.

People in Q  August 15

I'm 100% certain in my gut, but only 90% confident, formally, that Q is an active measure. That it actually is, is not easy to prove, so until someone with more resources me acts, I have to hedge a little.

Today's daily Beast provides an insight.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-promotes-pedo-ring-conspiracy-theories-now-theyre-stealing-kids 

Some main Q sources, disseminators & associates are:

1. Timothy Charles Holmseth
2. Field McConnell [Able Danger]
3. Chris Hallett and 
4. Kirk Pendergrass [E Claus]
5. Tracy Diaz [see update aug 19] 
6. Paul Furber
7. Jerome Corsi
8. Coleman Rogers [Pamphlet Anon]
9. Fredrick Brennan
10. James Arthur Watkins
11. His son, Ron Watkins

The Daily beast article profiles some of these. The abc article that came out later suggested 3 more. All of them exemplify the alternative hypothesis that Q is just a collection of  🦇💩 crazy people. But digging deeper one gets clues.

Since I wrote this 3 names popped up

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/men-qanon/story?id=73046374

All of this strengthens my suspicion that Q is an active measure team of a State Actor [probably Russia] working with RW propagandists/agitators who live here.  Somebody is paying for those Q Drops.

Able Danger - 911 Conspiracies

Field McConnell was a Naval Academy graduate back in the 60s, flew fighters, then graduated to flying for the airlines.  He was fired from the airlines after refusing psychiatric examination for pushing the [insane] theory that the planes used in 911 were on autopilot. 

He subsequently advanced conspiracy theories that Hillary was actually behind those 911 attacks. Once in the conspiracy theories, he pivoted to advancing pedophile conspiracies a few years later. They found this Holmseth character, who supposedly had inside knowledge and associated with eclause to organize Q.

Eclause

Is named after an 1810 passed, but never ratified amendment to the emoluments clause that states:

“If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain, any title of nobility or honour, or shall, without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them.”

Pendergrass claims in an article written years ago, that it actually in fact, had been ratified.  If that were true, I don't see how he could support Trump, but rightwingers never see themselves subject to the same rules. Eclaus is in trouble with the law right now. They don't seem to be on the up and up. 

Russia

Field McConnell's connection to Russia goes back to his 911 truther days. A website from the UK Boasts:

“Field McConnell's expertise has been used by Russia, Malaysia and Germany in explaining the four airliners takendown by the illegal modifications, which he first reported on 10 December, 2006.”

https://alternativeview.co.uk/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=49

The website is obvious propaganda, but Voice of Russia interviewed him in 2014.

He has been openly working with them. Admittedly circumstantial. But they no doubt amplify him. Last year thousands of troll accounts were purged from Twitter as coming from twitter.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/russian-troll-accounts-purged-twitter-pushed-qanon-other-conspiracy-theories-n966091

Admittedly these are bread crumbs. But if I can find these on a Sunday morning someone with better resources could crack Q's links to Russian FSB with better resources.

https://ssgreenberg.name/PoliticsBlog/2014/03/30/3-17-2014-voice-of-russia-interview-with-field-mcconnell/

https://www.pinterest.es/pin/369013763190154826/

August 19th 2020

NBC traces Qanon to 3 people and 4 chan. According to them:

"Qanon was just another unremarkable part of the “anon” genre until November 2017, when two moderators of the 4chan board where Q posted predictions, who went by the usernames Pamphlet Anon and BaruchtheScribe, reached out to Tracy Diaz, according to Diaz’s blogs and YouTube videos. BaruchtheScribe, in reality a self-identified web programmer from South Africa named Paul Furber, confirmed that account to NBC News."

Diaz denied she is Q. 

Jerome Corsi and Active Measures

The article goes on to describe:

"Dr. Jerome Corsi, an Infowars editor and a best-selling author of books about the “deep state,” had taken an interest in Q"

Info wars popularized Q.  Corsi, later backed of Q, but a fellow named Coleman Rogers, Pamphlet Anon decided to take it to the next level.

Rogers, his "wife, Christina Urso, 29,...launched the Patriots’ Soapbox,...YouTube channel for Qanon study and discussion. The channel is, in effect, a broadcast of a Discord chatroom with constant audio commentary from a rotating cast of volunteers and moderators with sporadic appearances by Rogers and Urso. In April, Urso registered Patriots’ Soapbox LLC in Virginia."

Rogers sometimes denies & sometimes intimates he is Q:

“Ten bucks says you see my face on national news within a few weeks, saying that I'm ‘the mysterious hacker known as #Qanon,’”

I suspect Rogers is part of the active measure. But it is even more suspicious that Jerome Corsi is.

Jerome Corsi is referred to on page 173 of the Senate Intel report as the confederate of Roger Stone who interacted with wikileaks, which had become a conduit for stolen by the FSB and then edited and weaponized emails to sew division and win votes for Donald Trump. Conspiracy theories about pedophiles and secret plots are designed to gaslight folks and discredit the very idea of democracy or truth. The above confesses that Q is a team of analysts. So were the FSB active measure team feeding wikileaks.

We need more evidence, but the circumstantial evidence suggests an investigation into Soapbox LLC. I've continued to study this. But Daniel Morrison lays out what probably happened really well:

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/02/qanon-is-psyop-daniel-morrison-lays-it.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna900531?__twitter_impression=true

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/press/senate-intel-releases-volume-5-bipartisan-russia-report

Postscript

Possibly related

https://busy.org/@sadcorp/field-mcconnell-got-his-intel-from-russia-4f3de50ecd72b/amp

Interesting finds

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a5659/debunking-911-myths-pentagon/

He wrote the book

My friends and colleagues, Michael Jackson, Toussaint Tyson, Leroy Nesbitt and Andre Carley working in an an ongoing partnership between GABIDDC and the Black Student Fund, are fighting to deal with COVID19 and the economic disaster. Mike, who lives in DC, literally wrote an instruction manual for dealing with COVID-19 and hazardous waste situations. Our partnership between GABIDDC and the Black Student Fund working as much as possible with other allied organizations are all delivering education and training to students and people returning to the workforce. GABIDDC is teaching programming skills in Python this summer and is hoping to do the same thing this fall.

Manual:

https://www.gabiddc.org/workersguidehazards/

Recent Course:

SPRING COVID 19 MATH TRAINING GRANT SUCCESS

The Evils of Slavery between the Lines

Sometimes a historical document looks dry and innocuous. That is until you study it. My daughter came upon these old market bills recently. They recount things of horror.

Bounties on Indigineous

I want to keep this simple. This first one establishes bounties for killing American Indigineous people. It is evidence of mass murder.

Evidence of Rape

This second one is a bill of sale for slaves. What makes it particularly ugly is that the slaves are portrayed as "mulattos" and "creoles," which in the language of New Orleans of the time, were "mixed breed", it is possible that the master of the children for sale, could even be the children of the owner. This was a horror.

My Daughter got rid of these things. They are vile. It is a vile memory, and it is sad, some of our ancestors did these things, casualty and with no real consciousness of their evil.

I won't be coming back to this subject, I hope.

When Graffiti is Terrorism

DHS Soldiers violating State Law

These fake "Police" are Homeland Security!

https://twitter.com/sparrowmedia/status/1284180035868471296?s=19

Exercised over graffiti

Chad Wolf gave a justification for his illegal violation of Posse Commitatus and invasion of Portland Oregon to the NY post

refering to 47 straight days of protests, as follows:

“Each night, lawless anarchists destroy and desecrate property, including the federal courthouse, and attack the brave law enforcement officers protecting it,” Post

Except the record is a bit mixed. Most other witnesses say the protests stayed peaceful until Chad's private army attacked them! 

 Wolf wrote. “A federal courthouse is a symbol of justice – to attack is to attack America.” Post

For his list of assaults?

Chad Wolf is convinced that the following crimes are terrorism;

1. Graffiti

2. Breaking or damaging windows

3. Damaging fencing.

4. Throwing grain at his troops

5. Breaking a card reader.

6. Pointing lasers at his troops.

7. Damaging a camera.

8. Fireworks [before 4th of July]

9. Doxing Contract security

The protesters deny most of this, but each complaint refers to 2-300 "violent anarchists." I'm sure some might be. But most of these offenses, if true, merit fines, not Federal Troops snatching people off the streets.

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2020/07/16/acting-secretary-wolf-condemns-rampant-long-lasting-violence-portland

https://nypost.com/2020/07/17/dhs-chief-chad-wolf-denounces-lawless-anarchists-in-portland/

Disappearing demonstrators in Portland Oregon

Last night I was browsing twitter, trying to bore myself to sleep, and instead I ran into articles about people being grabbed off the street in Portland, Oregon. The first articles I thought someone was trolling me. Then I looked. And it really was going on! So I tweeted about it last night, and thought I'd write about it today, so I don't forget and because this is more serious than a lot of the other awful things going on right now. It is right up there with COVID-19. Indeed, since Portland is experiencing a COVID-19 upsurge, the fact that Homeland Security is sending in troops, not invited by Mayor or Governor, and with no rank, insignia or respect for rule of law, is very serious indeed. Instead of Trump sending in doctors and medical supplies, he is sending in troops to invade the city.

Officers with no badge or insignia are grabbing people in the dead of the night, throwing them into patrol cars, and their excuse is “antifa”.

The High Court ignores the Constitution and the 24th Amendment

This week the Supreme Court ratified Florida's poll tax on former felons, completely ignoring both the spirit and letter of the 24th Amendment!

The 24th Amendment clearly states:

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.”

Florida had barred felons who had served their time from voting. The state recently passed a constitional amendment stating:

“all terms of their sentence including parole or probation.”

Naturally the legislature passed a law “that required residents who have been convicted of a felony to pay all court costs, fees and fines before they can become eligible to vote.”

Since the court system doesn't seem to have any obligation to present a final bill to prisoners when they've done their time, this amounted to a poll tax, since there is no requirement that the courts not pile on additional fees (that amount to taxes) and in usual style, can turn a felon into a debt slave for years after they have done their time. Voting rights advocates sued, the first time on the grounds it discriminated against the poor, and the second time because such gratuitous fees and levies amount to a poll tax aimed at preventing the poor from voting. The district court noted these thingsf and also concluded:

“that because it could take years for the state to figure out how much residents with past convictions must pay to be eligible to vote, the law will discourage voters from registering at all, because they will be afraid that they will be charged with fraud if they make a mistake.”

So being mistaken about whether one has paid the taxes or not would lead to further incarceration!

Scotus Blog

This was appealed on 24th amendment grounds and also matters of justice. The appeal was denied with no grounds cited. Obviously to prevent the constitutional amendment from actually helping most citizens it applies to by the 6/3 Republican Majority.

Sonya Sotomayor notes:

“This Court’s order prevents thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in Florida’s primary election simply because they are poor,”

And

“And it allows the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to disrupt Florida’s election process just days before the July 20 voter-registration deadline for the August primary, even though a preliminary injunction had been in place for nearly a year and a Federal District Court had found the State’s pay-to-vote scheme unconstitutional.”

This is another example of how the Conservative Judges interpret "due process" meaning "following the forms" and don't really care if either the spirit or the substance of the constitution is applied.

Sources and Further Reading

https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/sotomayor-blasts-supreme-court-for-upholding-florida-poll-tax-that-excludes-voters-simply-because-they-are-poor/

Just as Bad:

Barr Vs Lee

Reforms needed to Stop cheating

There is a reason that Trump wanted his operative Roger Stone out of jail this fall.  The GOP WILL try to cheat this year, both by a firehose of dishonest but emotional propaganda and by direct election fraud. People like Karl Rove & Roger Stone are critical to the effort.

Election security exper Jennifer Conn gives advice on stopping them:

https://thedailyedge.substack.com/p/hacking-our-democracy

The threat:

1. Cyberattack, or insider, efforts to alter election rolls to impede voting.

2. Cyberattack, or insider, efforts to actually, change recorded votes or flip them.

3. Intentional or negligent handling of mail in ballots to impede casting votes.

4. Breakdowns of voting machines or equipment inadequate to handle voter volume.

Vulnerabilities

1. Mail in Ballots, delay or destruction are the main concern. Fraud is less an issue with them.

2. E voting. Electronic voting can be programmed to record different votes from what voters thought they cast.

3. E pollbooks, are as dangerous as e voting, can be hacked, fail or misbehave for other reasons.

4. Encoded activation cards & bar codes can be used to disguise deliberate flipping of votes as it happens.

5. Machines break down or are supplied in insufficient numbers.

6. Polling sites closed, located abusively and/or underresourced in material & personnel.

7.  Bar codes are useful for numbering ballots but otherwise are a vulnerability.

8. Any scanner, modem or electronic tabulating device can be hacked if attached to the networked or tampered with by nefarious insiders.

9. Centralized tabulating is notorious for being vulnerable to nefarious insiders.

Remedies

1. Paper ballots are needed to memorialize voting for verification & validation.

2. Paper polling records are also needed for the same reason.

3.  Records should be eye readable, hand countable and preserved for auditing, verification & validation.

4. Election judges should act like judges.

5.  All parties involved should be present to monitor recording, tabulating & verification activities.

6. Partisan officials should not touch anything without witnesses present.

7. All election documentation should be preserved.

8. Elections should be validated and audited by default.

9. Criminal penalties should attach to official vote fraud.

10. Ballots should never be trashed. Spoiled ballots should be be documented [for why they were spoiled] and available in case their invalidation was wrong.

11. Voters should have an automatic right and the infrastructure to report

What we can do

1 support efforts to reform our process.

2. Fill out requests to vote by mail early.

3. If can't vote by mail, fill out your sample ballot in advance to speed voting.

4. Insist on paper ballots.

5. Volunteer as a poll worker or poll watcher if possible, but wear PPE if you do it this year!

6. Get informed!

Of course there is more. You can volunteer with protect our votes & similar below.

Additional info

https://www.protectourvotes.com/

https://www.scrutineerscommunity.org/feed

https://democracycounts.org/