JFK headed back to Dallas

[Rick Plant]

Nevada’s GOP secretary of state candidate follows QAnon, neo-Nazi accounts on Gab, Telegram

The Daily Dot unearthed previously unknown accounts for Marchant.



Jim Marchant, the Republican nominee for secretary of state in Nevada, has a conspiratorial online presence, as evidenced by the groups and people he follows from accounts on Gab and Telegram, which the Daily Dot has unearthed.

Marchant is a member of the far-right of the Republican party, who has stated that had he been Nevada’s secretary of state in 2020, he would not have certified the election for President Joe Biden.

A number of far-right Republicans have been running for office in states that swung the 2020 election, with the unspoken goal of keeping their states from sending Democratic electors to Congress in the event of another close presidential contest in 2024. Marchant is a key part of that effort; he co-founded the America First Secretaries of State Coalition (the other co-founder is a QAnon influencer named Wayne Willott and known as Juan O Savin). Five of the coalition’s candidates, including Marchant himself, have won their state’s Republican primaries.

Marchant’s personal Telegram account, and a Gab account that matches Marchant’s online identity, show just what voices are being listened to by someone who could hold sway in Nevada in 2024.

On Gab, a far-right haven for antisemitism, the account for Marchant follows 12 accounts.

What appears to be Marchant’s Gab account, @jcm9079, is under a username he has had across various forums and services since the mid-2000s.



Marchant did not respond to a request from the Daily Dot. 

The account follows only 12 other users. Among them is a pro-Nazi QAnon influencer called IPOT1776. QAnon is the conspiracy theory that claims former President Donald Trump will soon arrest, imprison, try, and execute all of his most prominent opponents on charges of being Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

IPOT1776’s pinned post on Gab is a link to his latest video, a two-hour screed arguing that the Nazis were right about Jews. The video makes use of Nazi propaganda posters and antisemitic art, and borrows long stretches of material from at least one other neo-Nazi “documentary.”

The video’s central claim is that the Jews were spreading Communism and “degeneracy” and had to be stopped. The video portrays the Nazis as a natural and defensive reaction to the Judeo-Bolshevik menace—a sentiment that IPOT1776 has also recently expressed on Truth Social.

IPOT believes this Jewish menace is still a threat today.

It is important to note that it’s impossible to know when the account followed IPOT1776. The earliest possible date would be in January 2021, when this account was created. That was a few months before IPOT started posting overtly antisemitic content.

It’s possible @jcm9079 followed IPOT before it was openly pro-Nazi. However, in January 2021 IPOT was still an extremist—he had called for hangings and “citizen’s arrests” of people who had stolen the election from Trump.

IPOT’s posts also often make references to Q, and many of his videos use Q’s writings as a framework to interpret current events.

At a minimum, the account follows someone who openly fantasized about violent revenge against his political enemies, a jarring influence on the timeline of someone who could control the fate of Nevada’s six electoral votes.

In addition to IPOT, it follows two other QAnon influencers: Ron Watkins, one of the people most associated with the QAnon conspiracy, and Neon Revolt, a popular QAnon influencer.

Along with the QAnon promoters, @jcm9079 follows other fringe figures on Gab—most notably Paul Joseph Watson, a conspiratorial influencer whose popularity exploded on the coattails of Alex Jones.

The Gab account is under the username @jcm9079, which has been Marchant’s online alias of choice for decades. Marchant has clearly used it on various sites since long before he became a public figure.

For instance, starting in 2009 he used an account labeled jcm9079 to write fiery political commentary on the conservative site Redstate. One of his articles mentions that he met Newt Gingrich in Las Vegas. A Disqus account under jcm9079 also shows this user saying that he met Gingrich at an appearance in Las Vegas.

Marchant brought his politics into a forum for pickup truck owners. In a 2009 thread on a site called “The Diesel Stop,” user jcm9079 wrote: “They have not taken any Obama money and have so far avoided being taken over by our Marxist Government. Kudos to Ford!” The user signed the post “Jim,” and later in the thread revealed that he lived in Las Vegas.

That makes three separate instances of Marchant using the name “jcm9079” before he became a politician. Marchant was elected to the Nevada state legislature in 2016, serving a two-year term.

Marchant continued to use jcm9079 after he began his political career as well. A document available on the Nevada state legislature’s website shows him using jcm9079 as a personal email address in 2017.

Marchant has also used it as a handle in at least two other places: his Instagram and Rumble accounts are both under jcm9079.

Additionally, Marchant is a member of at least two QAnon-affiliated Telegram groups, and uses the app daily.

Telegram is a social media app that became the de facto hub of the QAnon movement after Q influencers and followers were banned from Twitter in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

One of the QAnon groups Marchant follows is run by a man known as “QAnon John.” The other is a chat for followers of Ron Watkins, who Marchant also follows on Gab.



QAnon John has organized several conferences for QAnon followers—including an October 2021 convention in Las Vegas, which Marchant attended and spoke at.

Marchant’s Telegram account is registered under his real name and with his personal cell phone number, which is publicly available in a document published by the Nevada state legislature.

Telegram’s desktop app will show the hour and minute a user last logged off, provided that it was recent enough. Over approximately two weeks of observation, it appears Marchant was a daily user of the app, frequently logging on in the late night and early morning.

Marchant’s association with QAnon promoters is hardly a secret and his denial of the 2020 election is openly known. But seeing the accounts he chooses to follow on far-right networks reveal just how deep those beliefs might go.

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/jim-marchant-gab-telegram-qanon/

These Trump MAGAs are all the same.
 
They push insane Qanon conspiracy theories, advocate violence, and support white supremacists & nazis.

This is today's Republican party.

Ronald Reagan is rolling over in his grave.     

[Rick Plant]

GOP legislators spoke at a QAnon convention chock full of conspiracies and hate


Republican legislators spoke at Patriot Double Down, a QAnon conference. L to R: Rep. Leo Biasiucci of Lake Havasu City, Rep. Mark Finchem of Oro Valley, Sen. Sonny Borrelli of Lake Havasu City and Sen. Wendy Rogers of Flagstaff.

Four Republican members of Arizona’s state legislature attended a QAnon convention in Las Vegas over the weekend that included speakers from the fringe of the conspiracy world as well as antisemitic imagery.

One of the legislators, Rep. Leo Biasiucci of Lake Havasu City, bragged to the attendees of Patriot Double Down that he stood strong against people who tried to convince him not to attend a gathering so closely tied to a violent extremist belief system that calls for the death of political enemies. He recounted an exchange he had with an unnamed Arizona lobbyist whose client was concerned about being associated with Biasiucci.

“Have the CEO of that company give me a call directly and I’ll explain to them why I’m going to this event,” he said.

“And then I’ll explain to them why nobody explains to me what I can or cannot do. ‘Cause I don’t bow down to anybody. No CEO, not the dictator in D.C. I bow down to God and I answer to you, my constituents,” Biasiucci told the crowd, most of whom were not his constituents and had paid between $650 to $3,000 to attend.

And while Biasiucci seemed to revel in being linked to QAnon — the bio he submitted for the event included a reference to a QAnon conspiracy about convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — Sen. Wendy Rogers played dumb about the event’s overt links to the conspiracy. “What is a Q?” Rogers tweeted before the gathering.

In its simplest form, QAnon is a conspiracy theory that alleges that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles are running a global sex-trafficking ring, control world governments and are trying to bring down President Donald Trump — who is himself single-handedly dismantling the cabal.

Each member can adopt their own beliefs and are encouraged to do their own “research,” and there are as a result a wide variety of QAnon beliefs. For example, some believe that the founder of QAnon, dubbed simply “Q,” is actually JFK Jr., while others believe Q to be Trump himself. (JFK Jr. died in 1999 when the plane he was flying crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.)

Borrelli: COVID is a ‘plandemic’

Biasiucci and Rogers spoke alongside Rep. Mark Finchem, who is running for secretary of state, and Sen. Sonny Borrelli on a panel discussing the Arizona Senate’s partisan “audit” of the 2020 election. That self-styled audit was marred by controversy and conducted by conspiracy theorists who had no background in elections or knowledge of Arizona election law. It found no evidence of the fraud that the four GOP legislators and tens of millions of Republican voters nationwide say stole the election from Donald Trump.

Instead, the “audit” concluded that Joe Biden won Arizona.

The panel discussion opened up with a video by a company that makes QAnon memes and videos, many of which center on debunked conspiracies in them or antisemetic messaging. None of the legislators refuted any of the conspiratorial or antisemitic themes in the video.

Parts of that same video would later be shown during the opening of the second day of the convention.

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1452329605264773129

(One video found by the Arizona Mirror that was created by the company used by Patriot Double Down stated that the Titanic disaster was a hoax, Hitler faked his death and babies blood is being harvested as part of a popular QAnon conspiracy about Hollywood elites. Another video also superimposed the Star of David among images of the 9/11 attacks.)

Other than Biasiucci’s opening remarks recounting his conversation with the lobbyist, the Arizona legislators avoided talking about QAnon directly, but alluded to parts of the wide-ranging conspiracy theory.

For instance, Borrelli called the COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken the lives of over 21,000 Arizonans and 984 in Mohave County, where he lives, a “plandemic” and used a stack of masks as a prop to demonstrate the many “masks” of Democrats that were “coming off.”

“CRT, another distraction, another distortion,” Borrelli said, referring to critical race theory while throwing a mask in the air. Borrelli also claimed that disgraced Gen. Michael Flynn — who pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russian officials — had been “framed.”

The lawmakers urged those in attendance to get involved in local politics, urging them to become precinct committeemen — the foot soldiers of political parties who primarily do things like registering voters, canvassing neighborhoods for their party’s candidates and other grassroots activities.

Finchem also spoke on a second panel of other QAnon-linked candidates who are running for secretary of state in their respective states.

The panel discussion mostly focused on similar debunked claims around the election, including ones around California’s recent recall election. Finchem also praised a Colorado county clerk who is under federal investigation after allowing unauthorized individuals access to voting equipment.

“Tina Peters, god bless her, y’all need to pray for that woman ‘cause she is under fire,” Finchem said about the Mesa County Clerk who has been branded a hero by QAnon conspiracy theorists.

Later, Finchem compared the murder of six million people in Holocaust to “cancel culture.”

“You know what happened in the 1940s, right? Six million Jews were exterminated because they were dehumanized. (Kurt Tucholsky) said, ‘A country is not just what it does, it’s what it tolerates.’ We have become far too tolerant of those who would try to ‘cancel culture’ us, of those who would tell us to sit down and shut up,” he said. “And Aristotle, another notable, said tolerance is the last virtue left of a failing society.”

One other Arizona politician was in attendance: QAnon leader and congressional candidate Ron Watkins.

The event also featured a speech from actor Jim Caviezel, who fully embraced QAnon during a session that included a man whose fans claim he is JFK Jr.

https://www.azmirror.com/2021/10/28/gop-legislators-spoke-at-a-qanon-convention-chock-full-of-conspiracies-and-hate/

[Rick Plant]

Full List of Republican Politicians Attending QAnon Convention in Las Vegas
https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-attending-qanon-convention-las-vegas-nevada-1641562

[Rick Plant]

At this point the GOP should just rename their party QAnon.     

[Rick Plant]

The dangerous Qanon cult tearing families apart with conspiracies | 60 Minutes Australia

This story presented a serious dilemma for Sarah Abo because for the most part it is pure fantasy, and 60 MINUTES reporters prefer to deal in facts. But pure fantasy is how to best sum up QAnon, an ever-shifting mega-conspiracy theory that’s bizarre and nonsensical. As whacky as it is though, millions of people appear to be caught up in the internet-based cult, including more and more Australians. The dangerous real-world consequences of QAnon, where families are being torn apart, now demand that the rest of us stop scratching our heads in disbelief and start to take much more notice of this strange group.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

The jury found that the FBI concocted the fake plot to kidnap Whitmer.  They found a few numbskulls who didn't like her and set up a "plot" to kidnap her.  These guys were just pawns in the FBI's desperate effort to make a political arrest that harmed Trump.  As a result, the jury did not convict any of the defendants.  To suggest otherwise is the disinformation.  The facts speak for themselves and can be easily verified by anyone who does a one second Google search.  That doesn't fit the desired narrative, however.  So keep peddling a falsheood.  In addition, there are not ten people in the entire world who believed JFK was coming back from the dead.  Not even mentally ill people.  That is a fake story given social media attention to make Trump supporters look like loons.


 "A federal jury failed to convict four men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer."

There was no "fake FBI plot". That was nothing but right wing propaganda.

I correctly stated that the Feds were bringing a new trial and these 2 right wing radicals were convicted by a jury yesterday and will rot in prison for the rest of their lives.

Once again I am 100% correct.   

 
2 men convicted in plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer


 
Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, delivering swift verdicts in a plot that was broken up by the FBI and described as a rallying cry for a U.S. civil war by anti-government extremists.

The result was a big victory for the U.S. Justice Department. A different jury just four months ago couldn’t reach unanimous decisions on Adam Fox or Barry Croft Jr. but acquitted two other men, a stunning conclusion that led to a second trial.

Their arrests nearly two years ago came at an extremely tense time: the volatile homestretch of the election between Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump playing out against a backdrop of armed protests over COVID-19 restrictions, especially in Michigan.

Jury selection in the retrial of Fox and Croft coincidentally occurred a day after FBI agents searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate for documents, putting the agency in headlines at the same time that the judge was trying to detect any biases about law enforcement in the jury pool.

Fox and Croft were convicted Tuesday of two counts of conspiracy related to the kidnapping scheme and attempts to use a weapon of mass destruction. Prosecutors said they wanted to blow up a bridge to disrupt police if the abduction could be pulled off at Whitmer’s vacation home.

Croft, 46, a trucker from Bear, Delaware, was also convicted of another explosives charge. The jury deliberated for roughly eight hours over two days.

“Today’s verdicts prove that violence and threats have no place in our politics and those who seek to divide us will be held accountable. They will not succeed,” said Whitmer, a Democrat, who turned 51 years old on Tuesday.

“But we must also take a hard look at the status of our politics,” she added. “Plots against public officials and threats to the FBI are a disturbing extension of radicalized domestic terrorism that festers in our nation, threatening the very foundation of our republic.”

Law enforcement officials across the country have been warning about an increase in threats and the potential for violence against agents or buildings.

Fox and Croft, who face sentences of up to life in prison, just stared at the jury as the verdicts were read. Defense attorney Christopher Gibbons shook his head while another defense lawyer, Joshua Blanchard, removed his glasses.

Jurors declined to speak to reporters.

“It’s been a good fight. We were hoping for a different outcome,” Gibbons said.

During closing arguments Monday, a prosecutor had a blunt message: No one can strap on an AR-15 rifle and body armor and snatch a governor.

“But that wasn’t the defendants’ ultimate goal,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said. “They wanted to set off a second American civil war, a second American Revolution, something that they call the boogaloo. And they wanted to do it for a long time before they settled on Gov. Whitmer.”

The investigation began when Army veteran Dan Chappel joined a Michigan paramilitary group and became alarmed when he heard talk about killing police. He agreed to become an FBI informant and spent the summer of 2020 getting close to Fox and others, secretly recording conversations and participating in drills at “shoot houses” in Wisconsin and Michigan.

The FBI turned it into a major domestic terrorism case with two more informants and two undercover agents embedded in the group. Evidence showed the group had many gripes, particularly over stay-at-home orders and other pandemic restrictions imposed by Whitmer.

Fox, Croft and others, accompanied by the government operatives, traveled to northern Michigan to see Whitmer’s vacation home at night and a bridge that could be destroyed. Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, too, were on that ride. They pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution.

Whitmer was not physically harmed; six men were arrested hours away from her home in October 2020.

David Porter, who leads the FBI in western Michigan, hailed the verdicts.

“Here in America, if you disagree with your government you have options. ... What you cannot do is plan or commit acts of violence,” he said outside the courthouse.

Defense attorneys tried to put the FBI on trial, repeatedly emphasizing through cross-examination of witnesses and during closing remarks that federal players were present at every crucial event and had entrapped the men.

Fox and Croft, they said, were “big talkers” who liked to smoke marijuana and were guilty of nothing but exercising their right to say vile things about Whitmer and government.

“This isn’t Russia. This isn’t how our country works,” Blanchard, Croft’s attorney, told jurors. “You don’t get to suspect that someone might commit a crime because you don’t like things that they say, that you don’t like their ideologies.”

Gibbons said the FBI isn’t supposed to create “domestic terrorists.” He described Fox, 39, as poor and living in the basement of a Grand Rapids-area vacuum shop, which was a site for meetings with Chappel and an agent.

Hours after the verdicts, U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker unsealed his Aug. 14 findings about a juror. Blanchard had disclosed early in the trial that his office took a call from someone who said the juror was eager to get picked and would vote to convict.

“The juror repeatedly and consistently denied making any such statements,” said Jonker, who, with staff, spoke to the person in private. “Based on the court’s observation of the juror’s demeanor and behavior, these responses were credible.”

In separate but related cases, eight other men linked to the kidnapping scheme are being prosecuted by the Michigan attorney general in state courts.

Whitmer in 2020 blamed Trump for stoking mistrust and fomenting anger over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn hate groups and right-wing extremists like those charged in Michigan.

On Aug. 6, three days before jury selection, Trump told conservative activists that the kidnapping plan was a “fake deal.”

https://apnews.com/article/elections-presidential-michigan-gretchen-whitmer-grand-rapids-9ad8f100d32e7d5883b1be9d6c4cb8d5

[Rick Plant]

BIGOTED, TRUMP-APPROVED CANDIDATE LAURA LOOMER SHOWS WHERE THE GOP IS HEADED

The president celebrated the outspoken Islamophobe’s Republican primary win in Florida, along with a “future Republican Star”—and QAnon conspiracist—in Georgia. QAnon’s followers, he told reporters Wednesday, “love our country.”

AUGUST 19, 2020



The president celebrated the outspoken Islamophobe’s Republican primary win in Florida, along with a “future Republican Star”—and QAnon conspiracist—in Georgia. QAnon’s followers, he told reporters Wednesday, “love our country.”

In 2018, Laura Loomer, far-right conspiracy theorist, frequent laughing stock of the internet, and self-described “#ProudIslamophobe,” handcuffed herself to the outside of Twitter’s office building in New York for more than two hours. The stunt was aimed at pressuring the website to reinstate her Twitter account, as she had been banned on the platform—which, to this day, still grants white nationalist Richard Spencer the space to air out his views—for violating rules against hateful conduct. Loomer’s offline bigotry includes walking up to people she assumes are Muslims to ask them to disavow terrorist attacks and famously struggles to get anywhere in New York City. “I’m late to the NYPD press conference because I couldn’t find a non Muslim cab or @Uber @lyft driver for over 30 min! This is insanity,” she wrote in a 2017 tweet, which was just one of many similar racist outbursts that culminated in the 27-year-old being banned from PayPal, Uber, Lyft, and even Uber Eats.

Less than two years later, there is at least one notable institution still in her corner. “Great going Laura,” tweeted Donald Trump in response to the news that Loomer, who is currently running for Florida’s 21st Congressional District, had won the race’s Republican primary. “You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet!” he added, while also retweeting news articles and supportive commentary about her win throughout Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Loomer is now looking to defeat Representative Lois Frankel, the four-term Democratic incumbent in November. The president’s congratulatory tweets are notable for more reasons than just his seeming support for an out-and-out racist with long shot congressional aspirations—which is not entirely surprising given that his 2016 campaign revolved around a proposed ban on all Muslims from entering the U.S.—as the South Florida district Loomer is hoping to seize control of is home to his “Winter White House,” i.e. Trump’s Palm Beach property and Mar-a-Lago resort.

Trump did not weigh in on the race until the six-candidate primary process was over, but the president’s close congressional ally Representative Matt Gaetz did throw his support behind fellow millennial Loomer. When pressed Wednesday for comment on the president’s tweets, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany avoided addressing Loomer’s views and racist meltdowns, only saying instead that he “routinely congratulates” Republican primary victors and that “he hasn’t done a deep dive into” Loomer’s history. Additionally, Loomer bragged during her Tuesday night celebration that she had received a call from Republican Party chairman Ronna McDaniel, who she claimed had anointed her a “political rock star.”

The odds of Loomer dethroning Frankel are very slim, but her primary win offers a look at what the future of Republican congressional races could look like and the thumbs-up thrown her way by the president suggests that he welcomes a party shift toward the younger, outwardly more extreme outliers. Trump’s recent endorsement of congressional nominee Marjorie Taylor Greene—a supporter of the deranged QAnon conspiracy theory that claims, in part, that Trump is in a secret war against an Illuminati pedophile cabal—who won her primary race in Georgia, marked another telling sign that this trend is here to stay. (Greene has also made racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic comments). Trump called Green, who is just one of 15 QAnon-tied candidates set to represent the GOP in November, a “future Republican Star” and “a real WINNER!” and added in a presser last week that “she had a tremendous victory. So absolutely, I did congratulate her.”  However, when asked on Friday for his thoughts on QAnon, which the FBI flagged as a potential terrorist threat last year, the president refused to answer. However, on Wednesday, he spoke favorably about the QAnon movement. “I’ve heard these are people who love our country,” Trump told reporters.

His refusal to distance himself is all the more telling given that his Twitter habits has subtly done the talking for him. Vice News reported that since the start of the pandemic, the president has promoted 90 tweets from 49 pro-QAnon accounts for all of his 85 million followers to see—amplification that is no doubt appreciated by Trump’s many supporters who bring “Q” merchandise to his rallies and the millions who are members of QAnon Facebook groups.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/08/trump-approved-laura-loomer-shows-where-gop-is-headed