Tag: qanon

Brett Kavanaugh and Military Tribunals

Mike Rothschild

The far right has staked almost everything on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. In putting a person who possibly committed sexual assault as a teen, and definitely both lied constantly and had a rage-filled meltdown during his hearings, conservatives are basically saying that demeanor, bias, and character don’t matter when it comes to SCOTUS – only winning does.

But to believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory, Kavanaugh’s all-but-certain confirmation to the Supreme Court means something else entirely: the beginning of the end of the cabal that controls the world.

Read More »

QAnon Did Not Predict John McCain’s Death

Mike Rothschild2 Comments

Conspiracy theory avatar QAnon has a terrible track record at making predictions.

He came into the world concocting a bizarre scheme where Hillary Clinton and John Podesta were going to be secretly arrested, with the National Guard called up to quell the massive riots that would ensue. It didn’t happen.

He predicted the sham Devin Nunes memo would bring down the deep state. It didn’t happen, and it didn’t happen with the Department of Justice Inspector General report after that, and FISA declassification after that. He’s predicted wars, terrorist attacks, mass suicides, catastrophic falls of public figures, and government purges – none of which took place.

Read More »

QAnon is Not a “Non-Violent Research Movement”

Mike Rothschild7 Comments

One of the biggest reasons I write and talk about the QAnon movement is because of its potential to end in violence.

Despite all the lofty talk of “research” and patriotism and bringing “dark to light,” QAnon depends on extrajudicial incarceration, flagrant violation of the Constitution, and eventually, mass killing. It’s the very heart of what Q has been preaching.

Read More »

Q&A with QAnon

Mike Rothschild1 Comment

With little fanfare, on Wednesday night, anonymous conspiracy avatar Q announced “Q&A” and began answering questions from users on the image board 8Chan, where all of Q’s “drops” originate.

Immediately, there flowed a torrent of conspiracy questions, Pepe the Frog memes, racist tirades, and general paeans to Q’s greatness. So in that respect, it wasn’t much different than any other Wednesday night on 8chan.

I happened to catch the Q&A at the very beginning, and so got in on live-tweeting it, at least until I had other things to do. So, from that live-tweeting as well as after, here are my analysis of the questions, the answers – and what wasn’t said.

Read More »

Wireless Emergency Alert Paranoia!

Mike Rothschild2 Comments

On Friday, the tinfoil hats of both far right and far left conspiracy theorists got just a bit tighter with the announcement from FEMA that the agency would run its first test of the cell phone Presidential Alert system.

First laid out in the WARN Act of 2006 and launched in 2012, the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system is the logical extension of the Emergency Alert System, the national network of warning messages that can be sent out in the event of catastrophic events.

Such a national alert system has existed since CONELRAD came online in 1951. The systems have evolved through the years, and took on the duties of warning about local civil emergencies, such as severe weather, as well as oncoming nuclear horror. They all test weekly on the radio and on TV.

So there’s nothing new or novel about a national alert system sending test messages, nor is there anything surprising about a system being set up to reach people using the dominant technology of the day – cell phones.

Read More »