JFK headed back to Dallas

[Rick Plant]

Things Overheard at the QAnon Rally for the Return of JFK Jr.
https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/the-qanon-crowd-gathered-in-dallas-to-see-the-ghost-of-jfk-12706456

[Rick Plant]

Rep. Flores joins Greene and Boebert in having referenced QAnon
https://www.businessinsider.com/flores-joins-greene-and-boebert-in-having-referenced-qanon-2022-6

[Rick Plant]

Why some QAnon believers think JFK Jr is still alive – and about to become vice president
A theory considered too far-fetched even for most followers of the Q conspiracy could still be a cause for concern
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/qanon-jfk-jr-alive-trump-b1995594.html

[Rick Plant]

QAnon cryptocurrency implodes — and costs its investors millions of dollars: report



On Monday, disinformation-fighting tech company Logically.ai reported that a special cryptocurrency developed for adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory has imploded.

"For the past year, two QAnon-affiliated influencers have been persuading their thousands of followers to invest in a portfolio of cryptocurrency tokens marked as fraudulent by the Stellar network — a major blockchain, alongside the better known Bitcoin and Ethereum — causing their followers to collectively lose millions of dollars, one of whom died by suicide after losing more than $100,000," said the report. "Combining conspiracizing with bad investment advice, the WhipLash347 and Quantum Stellar Initiative (which has no relationship with the Stellar network) Telegram channels coordinated to produce a weekly curated list of cryptocurrency assets, claiming that they had access to secret military intelligence and knew which assets were going to succeed."

This comes as cryptocurrencies in general face a huge market correction, with Bitcoin losing 15 percent of its value in a 24-hour period last week alone.

"The leaders, WhipLash347 and PatriotQakes (also active in the community under her real name, Emily Tang), capitalized on distrust in both financial institutions and mainstream media to lend credence to the assets they promoted, and bombarded their tens of thousands of followers with misinformation about crypto ventures," said the report.

These leaders used encrypted Telegram channels — a favorite method of organizing for the far-right — to inundate QAnon adherents with advice to buy the coins, which experts have called scams.

"WhipLash347 is an anonymous personality in the QAnon community who has claimed close personal connections with Elon Musk, former President Donald Trump, and John F. Kennedy Jr, who is dead," said the report. "Although at one point there was a WhipLash347 QAnon influencer account on Twitter and Facebook, the social media behavior of the WhipLash347 Telegram account makes it likely that the account has changed hands within the past year. Currently, the group mostly contains forwarded messages from other crypto investing groups, and contains far fewer Q-related posts than it did at the account’s inception."

The QAnon conspiracy theory, which arose on extremist social message boards in the early Trump years, asserts that America is controlled by a secret ring of Satanic child-trafficking cannibals who consume human blood to live forever. Adherents have generally gravitated toward Trump, claiming he is the only U.S. politician aware of the conspiracy, and constantly predicted martial law and mass arrests while he was in power.

https://www.rawstory.com/qanon-cryptocurrency/

[Rick Plant]

QAnon influencers are now reportedly defrauding their followers via cryptocurrency scams

Weaponizing conspiracy theories for cold, hard cash



You may not have heard very much about QAnon in recent months, but believers in the right-wing conspiracy theory are very much still around.

And those believers are proving to be easy-to-dupe marks for influential QAnon promoters looking to make money.

Two QAnon influencers are using their cachet within their conspiratorial communities to prey on their followers and bilk them out of millions of dollars via cryptocurrency scams, according to a new report by the tech-based fact-checking firm Logically.

Using their large followings on Telegram, QAnon influencers Whiplash347 and PatriotQakes have promoted numerous fraudulent tokens to their followers on the messaging platform. The two, along with other leaders in the chats, frequently weaponize QAnon conspiracy theories in order to sucker their fans into investing in their various cryptocurrency schemes.

According to Logically's research, the two mainly use their Telegram channels to run their scams. Whiplash347, an anonymous QAnon influencer, has built a Telegram channel with 277,000 subscribers thanks to his promotion of QAnon conspiracy theories over the years. PatriotQakes — who, unlike Whiplash347, has also gone by her real name, Emily Tang — also runs the Quantum Stellar Initiative (QSI) Telegram channel, which has 30,000 subscribers.

“I am without doubt that Whiplash347, Emily, and QSI are scam artists,” said a former admin of the QSI chats, Rocky Morningside, to Logically. “[They] were promoting pump and dumps, and this appeared to be a very large and well organized Ponzi Scheme.”

Logically's detailed report follows just how these crypto scams played out on the Stellar blockchain. Stellar, a network like Bitcoin or Ethereum, allows anyone to create their own tokens in "5 easy steps." The QAnon influencers would create scam tokens and then transfer their holdings out for real money or more establish cryptocurrency after telling their followers to invest. This is commonly known as a "rug pull" in the crypto space. The tokens were created under the domain name "Indus.Gold," and the QAnon influencers would tell their followers that the crypto was backed by a real New York bank with a similar name. In fact, many of the scam cryptocurrencies followed a similar naming pattern in order to make them sound connected to an actual real company. Logically found that none of these tokens had any connections to the companies they were named after.

For example, Sungold token, which was pitched to their followers as being "backed by a Kazakh gold mine," was supposedly "linked" to a Russian company of the same name. Logically could not find any information to back this claim up. This scam, however, netted the QAnon influencers approximately $2 million according to Logically.

Followers of the vast right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon have a number of outrageous and obviously false beliefs. The movement itself was built upon the lie that former President Donald Trump was trying to takedown a global Satanic child sex trafficking ring run by baby-eating Hollywood elites and members of the Democratic Party.

The QAnon influencers appear to use these conspiracies in their money-making schemes. The channels release investment advice regarding which cryptocurrency assets to buy into. They would claim this investing knowledge came from "secret military intelligence" and that this meant they "knew which assets were going to succeed." According to the Logically report, the Telegram chat leaders would also reference supposed connections to "Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and JFK Jr," and claim that "aliens will facilitate a 'quantum' wealth transfer to the followers."

QAnon followers have long-believed that JFK Jr., President John F. Kennedy's deceased son is still alive and a supporter of Trump. In fact, Whiplash347 was a major disseminator of conspiracy theories about the Kennedy's. The Telegram channel was a major influence on some of the more cult-like QAnon phenomena, including an assembly at Dealey Plaza in Texas last year, during which adherents believed that the assassinated former president was going to reveal that he was actually alive.

In YouTube videos discovered by Mashable, Tang would utilize other common QAnon beliefs about the "banking cabals" and news media to sell her followers on these scam crypto assets.

According to Logically, their research led to a Telegram support group made-up of those who were scammed by the two QAnon influencers and were trying to warn others. A survey in that chat found that between 52 people who responded, a total of $223,494 was estimated to have been lost in these crypto scams.

In addition, Logically spoke to the family of one individual who lost more than 98 percent of his $100,000 investment into these QAnon influencers' crypto scams. The family says the man later took his own life over "losing his house and construction business due to unpaid debts."

And there's one more wrinkle to the report: Logically believes that it is "likely" that the original Whiplash347 isn't the one running the Telegram channel of the same name anymore.

Logically determined in its report that currently "the group mostly contains forwarded messages from other crypto investing groups, and contains far fewer Q-related posts than it did at the account’s inception."

https://mashable.com/article/qanon-influencers-crypto-scams

[Rick Plant]

QAnon’s ‘Q’ returns after long absence: ‘It had to be done this way’



The mysterious person behind the absurd QAnon conspiracy theory is back.

"The anonymous message board user known as 'Q,' whose cryptic announcements spawned the fascist pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory, has returned to posting after a nearly two-year hiatus," The Daily Beast reported. "On Friday night, someone with access to Q’s login credentials posted on 8kun, the anarchic internet community where Q last posted in December 2020."

The conspiracy theory has even been believed by elected officials like Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

"In QAnon’s telling, Donald Trump was recruited by the military to run for president in 2016 to take down that nefarious 'cabal.' QAnon believers await 'The Storm,' an event in which they believe Trump enemies like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be executed via orders from a military tribunal, or imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay," The Beast reported. "The Q poster followed up with two more messages on Friday night. Asked why they had disappeared for more than a year, they wrote, 'It had to be done this way.'"

Ginni Thomas also appears to believe in the conspiracy theory.

“Remember your oath," one message ominously instructed.

AFP

[Rick Plant]

QAnon in Dallas: Why have QAnon followers been flocking to Dealey Plaza -- and what do they believe?

Over the last few months, QAnon followers have been flocking to Dallas in droves. On November 2, 2021, WFAA's Kevin Reece was at Dealey Plaza as hundreds of followers come together.

What were they hoping to see happen there that day? Did they really expect John F. Kennedy Jr. was going to show up? What do these people actually believe?

You've probably heard plenty about QAnon conspiracy theories over the last year -- including during the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol -- but how much have you heard from these people themselves?

We visited the scene of their latest mass gathering -- and spoke with some area experts -- in order to get to the bottom of the situation and find out.

Watch: