Thread: CONSPIRACY THEORY GROUP QAnoon APPEARS AT TRUMP RALLY

CONSPIRACY THEORY GROUP APPEARS AT TRUMP RALLY



A new fringe conspiracy group called QAnoon made an appearance at President Trump's rally in Tampa, Florida. CNN's Tom Foreman reports.
Posted: Aug. 1, 2018 8:33 PM
Updated: Aug. 1, 2018 8:35 PM
Posted By: CNN Wire


If you watched any of President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday night, you likely caught a glimpse of people holding up signs with "Q" or "QAnon" printed on them. Those people are adherents of a broad-scale conspiracy theory that pits President Trump against a global elite seeking to murder him.

Yes, you read that right.
With QAnon moving from the fringes of Internet thought into something much closer to the mainstream, I reached out to the Daily Beast's Will Sommer, who has been writing and thinking smartly about QAnon since its inception. (Read his full explanation of QAnon here.) Our conversation, conducted via email and lightly edited for flow, is below.

Cillizza: Let's start simple: Where the heck did QAnon come from? And do we have any sense how many "members" it has or whether it is growing?

Sommer: QAnon started last October, when an anonymous person or group of people called Q started posting cryptic clues on 4Chan. Trump supporters eventually found these clues, which they call "breadcrumbs," and spun them into a whole counter-narrative that's contrary to just about everything that's actually happening in the world.

So, for example, Robert Mueller isn't investigating the Trump campaign -- QAnon believers think he's actually working with Trump to get Hillary Clinton.

It's hard to gauge the extent of QAnon believers, but I'd say that it's pretty wide-reaching among really hardcore Trump supporters. In April, QAnon believers marched in DC and they numbered something like 200 people, and it's only grown since then.

The other thing is that a lot of tenets of QAnon, especially the part about a "deep state" plot, aren't that different from what's on Fox [News Channel] or talk radio every day. So when a person already prone to support Trump hears about QAnon, they've been primed to believe this stuff by the rest of conservative media.

Cillizza: Is this just another garden-variety conspiracy along the lines of, say, Obama wasn't born in the US? Why has this become such a, well, thing?

Sommer: Unlike something like birtherism or Pizzagate, QAnon is a kind of mega-conspiracy theory that sucks in just about every conspiracy theory you can think of. Pizzagate is part of it, birtherism is part of it -- but so is the JFK assassination conspiracy theory, the idea that all these mass shootings have been deep-state false flags, and much more. The vague nature of the Q clues also means that you can sort of imprint whatever your personal issue is onto it.

The other strange thing about QAnon is that it's fundamentally a story being told by the side that's already in power. Normally, conspiracy theories, like the idea that George W. Bush stole the 2004 election or that Barack Obama was an illegitimate president because he was born in Kenya, are coming from a group that's trying to explain why they're out of power.

Instead, QAnon believers got the guy they wanted elected in the White House, but they didn't get everything they wanted or were promised. For example: they chanted "lock her up," but Hillary Clinton was never locked up. So they retreat to a fantasy world where Hillary Clinton will soon be sent to Guantanamo Bay.

Cillizza: "Q" him or herself seems to be a major source of interest. Is there ANY sense of who this person is? Whether it's a person or persons? Whether they have any ties to Trump?

Sommer: There are a lot of theories about who Q is. QAnon people believe in fanciful ideas like, maybe it's Trump or Dan Scavino or Michael Flynn. They're always on the hunt for clues or acknowledgments from the administration. For example, Trump said "17" a lot in his speech Tuesday night, which they took to be an acknowledgment of Q -- the 17th letter of the alphabet!

That's also why they've been bugging White House reporters to ask Sarah Sanders about Q. [Editor's note: White House press secretary Sanders was asked about QAnon in Wednesday's briefing: "The President condemns and denounces any group that would incite violence against any individual," she said.]

QAnon critics, on the other hand, tend to focus on various hucksters promoting QAnon. Lots of conspiracy theorists on the right have become alienated from QAnon after Q accused them of trying to profit from the movement, so it's become kind of a circling firing squad of people accusing each other of being Q.

I think Q is just some random person or group of people who started a troll that has gotten way out of hand. Or maybe, as with so many things these days, it's a Russian psy-op!

Cillizza: Why, suddenly, were there so many Q signs/supporters at the Trump rally last night? Coordinated effort? Coordinated how?

Sommer: There's actually been increasing Q believer activity all over this year -- billboards popping up, more attention from conservative celebrities [Editor's note: Like Roseanne and Curt Schilling], people appearing at Trump rallies. I think the stuff last night was big for a couple reasons: 1) pictures of the ralliers in Q gear started circulating before the event and 2) because people with QAnon gear and signs were in advantageous positions to get in front of the cameras during the rally. So suddenly all these political and media people are watching Trump give his speech, and this QAnon sign with Seth Rich references gets in front of the camera.

Cillizza: Finish this sentence: "QAnon's impact on politics -- and Trumpworld -- is _________________." Now, explain.

Sommer: "QAnon's impact on politics -- and Trumpworld -- is dangerous."

I think what we've learned from the Pizzagate gunman is that people actually believe this stuff, and some percentage of these people are going to be willing to take action.

The idea of global pedophile conspiracies, for example, is a huge part of QAnon, and that's exactly the kind of thing that appears to motivate people to commit these bizarre violent incidents.

We've already seen at least one QAnon incident, when a QAnon believer in an improvised armored truck and some guns shut down a road near the Hoover Dam in June. Fortunately, no one was hurt in that case.

In the broader perspective, I think it's just really bad for American politics to have a segment of the population becoming increasingly unmoored from reality.

For example, a big tenet of QAnon is that the deep state tried to shoot down Air Force One with a missile. That's nuts! But if you're a QAnon believer, you think that actually happened.

I'd also say QAnon probably benefits Trump, because it helps the base ignore actual bad news about his administration. It also dramatizes the campaign to elect Republicans -- it's one thing if you're voting for the GOP or Trump because you want boring legislative stuff like lower capital gains taxes. But if you believe in QAnon, you think Trump and the Republicans are literally fighting a worldwide battle against a nefarious cabal. That makes politics more engaging.

http://www.wktv.com/content/national/489798901.html


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LOL!! That's funny!

What is QAnon? Conspiracy Theorists Showed Up to Support Trump ...
https://www.newsweek.com/what-qanon-conspiracy-theorists-showed-support-trump-t...
15 hours ago - President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the ... all the nefarious groups of conspiracy theories past: the global banking elite, ...


What You Should Know About Far Right Conspiracy Theory QAnon ...
fortune.com › Briefing › QAnon
5 hours ago - The QAnon movement is growing in popularity and stemmed from the darker ... Far-Right Conspiracy QAnon, Which Was Present at the Tampa Trump Rally ... The movement is led by an anonymous user or group of users on ...


What is QAnon? The one conspiracy theory to rule them all - CNNPolitics
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/01/politics/qanon-trump/index.html
3 hours ago - If you watched any of President Donald Trump's rally in Tampa, Florida, ... QAnon started last October, when an anonymous person or group of ...


QAnon: The alternate reality that was front and center at Trump's rally
https://www.fastcompany.com/.../qanon-the-alternate-reality-that-was-front-and-center...
9 hours ago - A look at the online conspiracy theory that reared its head at last night's Trump rally.



What is 'QAnon'? Right-wing conspiracy theory surfaces at Trump rally ...
www.businessinsider.com/what-is-qanon-right-wing-conspiracy-theory-surfaces-at-tru...
At a rally in Tampa Bay, Florida on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump was ... about QAnon or is aware that some of his supporters subscribe to the group

We've already seen at least one QAnon incident, when a QAnon believer in an improvised armored truck and some guns shut down a road near the Hoover Dam in June. Fortunately, no one was hurt in that case.
---------------------------

Man who blocked traffic on Hoover Dam bridge wanted release of government report

By AnneClaire Stapleton and Steve Almasy, CNN
Updated 10:14 PM ET, Sat June 16, 2018

(CNN)The armed man who for more than an hour blocked a highway near the Hoover Dam with an armored truck and held a sign that said "Release the OIG report" is in an Arizona jail accused of several felonies, police said Saturday.

Matthew Phillip Wright, 30, of Henderson, Nevada, is accused of terrorist acts, unlawful flight from law enforcement, carrying a weapon in the commission of a felony and misconduct involving weapons. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of blocking a highway.

"Release the OIG report" apparently refers to the US Justice Department's internal watchdog report on the department's handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe. The 568-page report was released this week, leaving Wright's message unclear.


Matthew Wright, shown in a booking photo from Friday.

Trump: IG report 'destroys' ex-FBI Director Comey

Police said Wright had a rifle and handgun when he was taken into custody following a pursuit.

Authorities were called to the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge over the Colorado River just after noon on Friday when Wright allegedly parked across the southbound lanes. Both sides of US 93 were shut down for about 90 minutes.

At about 1 p.m. PT, Wright slowly drove into Arizona, running over spike strips about 5 miles in. Less than 4 miles later he turned down a dirt road and eventually stopped. The pursuit last about 35 minutes, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said.

According to online jail records, Wright is being held without bail in the Mohave County Jail. It is unclear whether he has an attorney. Online records do not list one.

The Hoover Dam and the bridge are on the border between Arizona and Nevada.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/15/us/hoover-dam/index.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=Man+...wJiJwNR02tEHM:

The QAnon conspiracy isn’t new; it’s the oldest scam out there

Mike Rothschild—
Mar 18 at 11:30PM

Duncan Hull/Flickr kunstwert.ch/Flickr (CC-BY) Remix by Jason Reed

Don’t be fooled.

In October 2017, President Trump posed with a group of high-ranking military officers and cryptically declared that it was “the calm before the storm.”

Most journalists puzzled over the remark for a moment and moved on to whatever chaos came next. But that seemingly random comment was the spark for a what’s now become the new right-wing conspiracy theory du jour: “The Storm”

A few weeks after Trump’s statement, an anonymous poster who claimed to have top secret “Q Clearance” (in reality, a classification only used by the Department of Energy) began posting cryptic “breadcrumbs” of “intel” related to what they claimed was the imminent revelation of a massive conspiracy at the highest levels of government. And Q called it “The Storm.”
https://twitter.com/55true4u/status/973939989347106818

In short, rhetorical fragments, “Q” (also called “QAnon”) revealed that President Trump was not actually under investigation as the mainstream media was reporting, but had really brought in Special Counsel Robert Mueller to crush the gigantic Obama/Clinton child sex trafficking ring first revealed by “Pizzagate.”

When Trump and Mueller have finished their work, ten thousand sealed indictments (some Q followers claim it’s actually as high as eighteen thousand) will be unleashed, with the Democratic evildoers rounded up, tried by military tribunals, and shipped off to a massively expanded Guantanamo Bay prison, with peace and prosperity to follow.
https://twitter.com/CraigRSawyer/sta...30703082737666

And it’s going to happen any day.

Over the last six months, “Q” has offered an endless buffet of tantalizing clues to “what’s really happening.” Many take the form of cryptic nuggets such as “future proves past” or “learn to read the map” or “Godfather III.” Others are in some kind of code, with abbreviations like “DNC -> (SR 187) (MS-13) -> DWS”, which accuses former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz of hiring notorious gang MS-13 to murder DNC staffer Seth Rich.

72 SECONDS@55true4u

Q !UW.yye1fxo 02/16/18 (Fri) 19:05:17 732b35 No.402538
Clown Agency>No Such Agency.
RIP JFK - we will succeed.
Pyramid will collapse.
Think shell.
Q#QAnon
7:21 PM - Mar 13, 2018

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https://twitter.com/gal_deplorable/s...35307302502405

Since then, Q followers have used prolific YouTube channels, internet memes, and Twitter to expand the mythology. Another anon posited that everyone from George H.W. Bush to Elon Musk had already been extradited to Gitmo, despite Musk having a rather public success with his latest rocket launch.

Rumors spread of secret prisons in Antarctica, or that the school shooting in Parkland, Florida was a military special operation to distract from “The Storm.” There was even a theory that internet personality Chrissy Teigen and her husband were secret child sex fiends attempting to escape “The Storm,” only for their flight to Tokyo to be turned back, exposed by a “citizen journalist.” Promises abound of a secret sex video about to destroy Hillary Clinton, or of Barack Obama being executed by a military tribunal, or of “Q” actually being President Trump himself.

The Storm is a Conspiracy Theory of Everything.
It encompasses whatever believers want it to be about.

Misplaced walking boots hiding ankle bracelets, train crashes, Big Pharma, the FBI text message controversy.

It’s all connected.

View image on Twitter

Ella Cruz#IAmTommyRobinson@EllaaaCruzzz

JESUS!
I am gonna tweet this for the rest of my life!
Till a prosecutor hold them accountable!#SandyHook #ParklandShooting #FloridaShooting #Florida #QAnon #Qanon8chan #TheStormIsComing #JeffSessions #prosecute #Propaganda #RedNation #censorship #DavidHogg #SethRichMurder #MAGA
10:37 AM - Mar 2, 2018

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In fact, “The Storm” is such a hodgepodge that it borrows liberally from previous conspiracy theories, also full of endless seemingly random “intel” and earth-shaking changes supposedly just about to happen.

One predecessor to “The Storm” was a scam from the early days of widespread internet use, called NESARA—which has roots in an even earlier intel-driven scam called Omega.

NESARA was a set of monetary reforms proposed in a late 90’s book called “Draining the Swamp,” written by engineer Harvey Francis Barnard. He wanted to abolish the Federal Reserve, ban interest on loans, forgive all consumer debt, go back to the gold standard, and establish a national sales tax. It’s a libertarian fever dream.

After years of trying to get Congress to pass NESARA, Barnard published the text online in 2000, where it caught the eye of a Seattle-area New Age enthusiast named Shaini Goodwin.

Goodwin was an online shill for an “investment” called the Omega Trust, which purported to sell “Omega Units” of “prime European bank notes” for as little as $100, which would then “roll over” and return millions of dollars in profit. Scam founder Clyde Hood and a group of associates began selling the non-existent “Omega Units” to locals in their small town, Mattoon, Illinois, looking to make some quick bucks.

Omega took advantage of the naivete of early internet adopters, and in particular, the growing ubiquity of Yahoo groups. By the mid-1990’s, it was a world-wide scam, with millions of dollars flooding into small-town Mattoon.

Goodwin played a major role in spreading the fiction of Omega, and under the screen name “Dove of Oneness,” she used message board posts, emails, and recorded messages to spin an elaborate fiction as to why the Omega Unit rollover wasn’t happening. To Dove, there was nothing less than a war between dark powers in the government trying to stop the Omega roll over and heroic “White Knights” trying to move it forward.

The longer it went on, the weirder it got. There were alternate realities, UFOs, renegade banks, claims that the U.S. government didn’t actually exist, and interventions from angels.

All the while, Goodwin insisted the Omega Unit rollover, with its countless millions, was on the verge of happening, in a few days, or “early next week.”

But Omega was a Ponzi scheme, and in August 2000, Hood and a dozen others were taken into custody by the FBI, accused of bilking over 10,000 people out of $12.5 million.

By then, Goodwin had already thrown Hood under the bus, saying he’d gone “off track” and had to be abandoned by the “Wealthy Visionaries” really in charge of Omega. By coincidence, Omega was collapsing at the same time as NESARA was picking up steam. And into the money shaped hole flew the Dove of Oneness.

Dove posited that Omega was shut down because it was just one element of a bigger economic miracle that would abolish all debt and deliver trillions in “prosperity packets.” Naturally, the dark forces would stop at nothing to derail NESARA—even staging the 9/11 attacks to stop the prosperity packets from being delivered.

It was the burgeoning paranoia of post-9/11 internet conspiracies that fed NESARA mania. After all, if the government could supposedly pull off a “controlled demolition” of the Twin Towers, why couldn’t they stop the divine prosperity of NESARA, as well?

Like she did with Omega, Goodwin kept the NESARA “intel” flowing with endless message board posts, recorded messages, and emails, all of which doled out secret information that only she had access to.

A typical Dove NESARA update, this one from March 2002, references the International Court of Justice, legendary New Age guru St. Germain, the Vatican, the Rockefellers, and the gold standard. It might as well be the misplaced walking boots, fleeing supermodels, and secret ice prisons of “The Storm.”

Dove subsisted on donations, and while the media wrote her off as a “cybercult queen” who merely combined old scams with new technology, she gained tens of thousands of followers and internet fame.

As the excuses wore on, Dove’s updates eventually became less hyperbolic, and in 2007, she was investigated by the IRS for defrauding an elderly woman to buy pro-NESARA mobile billboards.

Goodwin died in 2010, destitute and with tens of thousands in IRS liens. Clyde Hood died in prison two years later.

But no opportunity goes un-grifted, and so as NESARA faded, another scam took its place. One that combined the Ponzi scheme of Omega with the intel drops of NESARA.

It’s called the Iraqi dinar revalue, based on the mistaken premise that the currency of Iraq, now virtually worthless, would return to its pre-Gulf War value. Back then, it traded for as much as three dollars per dinar, pumped up by the dictatorial policies of Saddam Hussein. Since the U.S. invasion, it crashed in value to the point where over a thousand dinars were worth one dollar.

In May 2007, the International Monetary Fund released a report touting the Iraqi government’s efforts to fight inflation and rebuild the dinar’s value. Sure enough, the dinar spiked over 8 percent in value, a massive jump for a mostly worthless currency.

So scammers got the idea they could convince Americans that once Iraq was stable, Western string-pulling would spike the dinar’s value and make its buyers instant millionaires.

Of course, money isn’t magically “revalued” to some much higher number. What does happen often with low-value currency is redenomination, the process of lopping zeroes off a hyper-inflated money, then exchanging the old currency for the new version. Brazil, Venezuela, Turkey, and Bulgaria have all redenominated their currency in the past few decades.

Zimbabwe is infamous for redenominating its hugely inflated dollar numerous times before finally dropping it.

But the massive revalue that dinar gurus promise has never happened in world history. To do so would cause financial calamity. Beyond that, Iraq was mired in sectarian violence and didn’t even have the rudiments of a modern banking system.

Even so, the dinar scam was born shortly after the IMF report, and it only got stronger after the Great Recession hit, when people were yearning for a way to stick it to the “wealthy elites” who had looted the world’s banking system. So tens of thousands of Americans sunk millions into Iraqi dinars, hoping for ludicrous returns.

Their hopes were buoyed by intel-spewing dinar “gurus” who used a variety of tools, including rapidly growing social media outlets like Twitter, to tout Iraq’s economic recovery and claim that Bush or Obama or the IMF was going to “RV” the currency back to its previous glory.

They spun a mythology of secret 1-800 numbers, nondisclosure agreements, undiscovered mineral riches, and government tax shelters set up for dinar windfalls There were even books written about how to manage the “wonderful wealth” that the dinar RV would bring.

While the “bankers” used a legal loophole to “exchange” dollars for dinars (while charging huge markups), the gurus spun outlandish claims that the U.S. government holds trillions of dinars, and that wealthy elites like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett had massive dinar fortunes.

There were even whispers of a “contract rate” of as much as $32 per dinar driving additional buying.

The dinar scam was a particular hit on Twitter, where thousands of “dinarians” used hashtags like #wearethepeople and #ReleasetheRV to lobby Congress and buck each other up when the dinar eventually didn’t revalue.

Rykiell Brown@sweetie50002002

I have 9 immediate family members who will benefit from the RV when the US GOV does the right thing. #releasetherv #wearethepeople”
6:11 PM - Feb 6, 2014

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  See Rykiell Brown's other Tweets

Nikki Burget@ndigostar

Let tha celebration begin!!!!!!!!! #releasetheRV#wearethepeople@THE_TNT_TEAM

We are ALL so ready to begin to manifest our dreamzzzz!
10:25 PM - May 15, 2014

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https://twitter.com/faithforward77/s...73751817142272

The scam went mainstream in the first part of the aughts, drawing attention from the BBC and Forbes.

But that attention brought scrutiny from the authorities, and soon the FBI swooped in. Many of the dinar brokers were indicted, and local police warned people that the whole thing was a scam, and that worthless money doesn’t just “revalue” because someone decided it should.

And yet, even after years of chaos in Iraq, and the dinar continuing to plummet in value, the scam is still going.

On March 13, 2018, a website called “dinar chronicles” claimed the “RV” was happening between March 12 and March 15, with dinars exchanged for dollars at secret bank offices right before the Stock Market’s cabal-engineered collapse. It didn’t.

Oh, and there were also 18,000 sealed indictments being opened, nationwide martial law was imminent, and mass arrests were already taking place. Just like The Storm.

Omega begat NESARA, which begat the Iraqi dinar, which begat The Storm. Huge chunks of insanely detailed, totally bogus “intel” in the service of a long-promised, yet never arriving event.

The only real difference, so far, is that The Storm is not an outright scam, and while numerous fringe media figures have monetized the intel drops, Q isn’t asking for donations. Maybe whoever is dropping the “intel” has realized that when you start asking for money, eventually, the law knocks on your door.

But if QAnon followed in the footsteps of Dove of Oneness and set up a Patreon page because “dark forces” were trying to shut down their internet, the money would start pouring in, with the intel piling up, and the big reward always just one more post away.

The scam remains the same.

https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/qanon-the-storm/

I think you posted the wrong link, JD2.

QAnon Follower, Says She Foiled Trump Assassination

QAnon reports North Korea nuke attack on U.S. military base missed its target.

2.1 Kiloton Explosion Over Air Force Space Command Base And Trump Doesn't Mention It?

Two Arizona arrests have ties to QAnon conspiracy theory movement

Richard Ruelas, Arizona RepublicPublished 12:04 p.m. MT Aug. 7, 2018 | Updated 1:24 p.m. MT Aug. 7, 2018

Who is Q? A look at the Internet political conspiracy theory that is emerging at Donald Trump rallies. (Aug. 3) AP


(Photo: Matt Rourke/Associated Press)


One man parked his self-made armored car on the bridge next to the Hoover Dam. Another occupied a cement plant in Tucson, convinced it was involved in an international child sex-trafficking ring.

Both men were followers of a conspiracy theory propagated online by a mysterious character known as “Q.” The two incidents, both this summer in Arizona, appear to be the first actions resulting in arrests of people who have taken the conspiracy from the virtual world and into the real one.

Some followers of the QAnon theory took prominent spots at rallies for President Donald Trump in July. Their signs, T-shirts and chants have brought international attention to a conspiracy theory that sprouted on the web less than a year ago.

Here is a primer on QAnon:

The QAnon theory

Someone posted a series of cryptic questions in October on the bulletin board website 4chan.

The person later claimed to have "Q clearance," a reference to the top-secret clearance provided by the Department of Energy, leading to the nickname of Q.
The theory spooled out by Q in a series of increasingly cryptic questions and clues, known in this world as “crumbs,” involves a theory that turns accepted facts on their ear.

In the QAnon theory, the Robert Mueller investigation is not going after Trump. Instead, Mueller is focused on crimes committed by former President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton and his wife, and former 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.

Trump is working with investigators to expose widespread corruption, in the QAnon world. Some of the crimes, according to the theory, involve pedophilia.


Rep. Ron Desantis speaks at a Trump rally in Tampa, Fla. on July 31, 2018. A QAnon sign is visible in the foreground. (Photo: C-Span)


How this began, or why, is the subject of speculation.
Some suggest that whomever the perpetrator or perpetrators are designed this hoax to see how far people's beliefs could be stretched. Or it could be a hoax designed for pure entertainment that spun out of control.

Or, there's the chance a high-ranking member of the "deep state" is choosing to dole out the truth in a series of slightly coded messages and questions.

Although QAnon started on the 4chan website, it has moved to Facebook, Twitter and other websites.

YouTube has videos where people try to make sense of the clues, tying them to real life news events.

Q is the 17th letter of the alphabet. So adherents to this theory look for the number 17 as a marker of signs and clues.

President Trump, on Twitter, as recently as May, would complain about the "13 Angry Democrats" on the Mueller investigation.

On July 29, he started referring to the "17 Angry Democrats."

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump


There is No Collusion! The Robert Mueller Rigged Witch Hunt, headed now by 17 (increased from 13, including an Obama White House lawyer) Angry Democrats, was started by a fraudulent Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC. Therefore, the Witch Hunt is an illegal Scam!

12:35 PM - Jul 29, 2018

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Much also was made in the QAnon world when Trump, during a July 31 rally in Tampa, said that before he was elected, he had only been to D.C. "17 times."

Trump repeated the phrase four times, which adherents thought was an acknowledgment of a movement.

Although, it could also be indicative of the president's off-the-cuff speaking style.

The theory has received some discussion by mainstream conservative commentators, like Sean Hannity. Alex Jones, the radio and online host who entertains all sorts of conspiracies, backed QAnon before labeling it too contaminated to be believed.

Former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling, who hosts a show on Breitbart, has said that he has explored the QAnon world. He has not said whether he believes it, but has tweeted that it is interesting that a mere mention of the theory “makes liberals go mental.”

Curt Schilling

✔@gehrig38


Tomorrow on http://www.breitbart.com/podcasts/ I catch up with @JamesDelingpole and we talk about NOAA finally walking away from the HOAX that is climate change. Also? Time to start figuring out why Q makes liberals go mental. If they're some harmless group why the insanity? @prayingmedic

10:14 PM - Jun 27, 2018


Podcasts - Breitbart

breitbart.com

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Schilling, at Chase Field for an alumni game in early August, declined a request to talk about QAnon.

“No, no, thanks though,” he told a reporter.

Schilling then turned his attention back to a highlight reel of former Diamondbacks players on the stadium’s big screen. The video was narrated by former Schilling teammate Mark Grace, who coincidentally as a player wore No. 17.

The Hoover Dam incident

On June 15, Matthew Phillip Wright drove a self-made armored vehicle onto the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman bridge that spans the Colorado River and straddles the Arizona-Nevada border.

According to court documents, Wright, 30, of Henderson, Nevada, parked his truck perpendicular to traffic lanes and blocked the bridge.

The vehicle, which authorities said Wright had appeared to be living in for a while, had portal openings for guns. Wright, according to court papers, had two rifles and two handguns in the vehicle, along with 900 rounds of ammunition.

During his standoff, Wright held out a sign that read: “Release the OIG report.”

It appeared to be a reference to the Office of Inspector General report regarding the actions of former FBI director James Comey. The report had been released, but according to the QAnon theory, a second report was being withheld.

Wright, according to police, ended his standoff after less than an hour and drove into Arizona along U.S. 93. Officers employed stop sticks to flatten his tires. Wright drove onto a dirt road heading towards the river. But his truck stopped and officers arrested him without incident.


Photo of the main highway linking Phoenix and Las Vegas closed off to traffic for more than an hour after a man in an armored truck blocked lanes there. (Photo: Arizona Department of Public Safety)

In a letter Wright wrote from jail, he said he was “no seditionist, nor do I wish to fight the government.”
He said he understood that only a few in power were evil and corrupt and that a “greater good” was aiming to stop it.

“I simply wanted the truth on behalf of all Americans, all of humanity for that matter,”

Towards the end of his letter, Wright used this phrase: “For where we go one, we go all.”

It is a quote used on message boards in the QAnon community, sometimes shortened to "WWG1WGA."

The letter was sent to various law enforcement officials, including the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the FBI, the CIA and the Secret Service. It also was sent to the White House.

He faces state charges of terrorism and a possible life sentence.

In a July 17 hearing, a Mohave County judge raised Wright’s bail from $25,000 to $1 million.

The Tucson homeless camp

If an international child-trafficking ring were indeed operating, it would need to operate somewhere.

A man who led a group of veterans in Tucson thought he had found it.

Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, 39, was one of the leaders of Veterans On Patrol, a group that started a series of camps offering aid to homeless veterans.

The group made news in 2017 when it was forced to abandon an encampment near the Loop 202 and McKellips Road near Mesa. After starting another camp in the Phoenix area, Meyer said he was moving the veterans to an encampment he started in Tucson.

In May, Veterans On Patrol alerted Tucson police to a lot near Valencia Road and Interstate 19. It had been a homeless encampment, but, according to Tucson police, the group told officers it was being used for criminal activity, including possible trafficking.

Tucson police investigated, even bringing out a cadaver dog to search for what was claimed to be a body buried on the site. The department, in a news release, said there was no evidence that criminal activity had taken place there.

That did not satisfy Meyer.

He became convinced that a Cemex plant was the site of the sex trafficking ring, police said. He occupied a tower in the plant for nine days, police said.

Police again investigated but, they said, found nothing.

Meyer agreed to leave the Cemex property and not return, police said. But he violated that agreement by returning to the tower and occupying it.

Police arrested Meyer on July 22. He faces municipal charges of trespassing.

On his Facebook page, Meyer makes reference to the QAnon movement. On July 26, he posted a status of “#WWG1WGA."

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...ump/920336002/