Like countless others, I frittered away the better part of Jan. 6 doomscrolling and watching television coverage of the horrifying events unfolding in our nation’s capital, where a mob of President Trump supporters and QAnon conspiracy theorists was incited to lay siege to the U.S. Capitol. For those trying to draw meaning from the experience, might I suggest consulting the literary classic Moby Dick, which simultaneously holds clues about QAnon’s origins and offers an apt allegory about a modern-day Captain Ahab and his ill-fated obsessions.
Many have speculated that Jim Watkins, the administrator of the online message board 8chan (a.k.a. 8kun), and/or his son Ron are in fact “Q,” the anonymous persona behind the QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds that President Trump is secretly working to save the world from a satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals.
Last year, as I was scrutinizing the computer networks that kept QAnon online, researcher Ron Guilmette pointed out a tantalizing utterance from Watkins the younger which adds tenuous credence to the notion that one or both of them is Q.
We’ll get to how the Great White Whale (the Capitol?) fits into this tale in a moment. But first, a bit of background. A person identified only as “Q” has for years built an impressive following for the far-right conspiracy movement by leaving periodic “Q drops,” cryptic messages that QAnon adherents spend much time and effort trying to decipher and relate to current events.
Researchers who have studied more than 5,000 Q drops are convinced that there are two distinct authors of these coded utterances. The leading theory is that those identities corresponded to the aforementioned father-and-son team responsible for operating 8chan.
Jim Watkins, 56, is the current owner of 8chan, a community perhaps now best known as a forum for violent extremists and mass shooters. Watkins is an American pig farmer based in the Philippines; Ron reportedly resides in Japan.
In the aftermath of back-to-back mass shootings on Aug. 3 and Aug. 4, 2019 in which a manifesto justifying one of the attacks was uploaded to 8chan, Cloudflare stopped providing their content delivery network to 8chan. Several other providers quickly followed suit, leaving 8chan offline for months before it found a haven at a notorious bulletproof hosting facility in Russia.
One reason Q watchers believe Ron and Jim Watkins may share authorship over the Q drops is that while 8chan was offline, the messages from Q ceased. The drops reappeared only months later when 8chan rebranded as 8kun.
CALL ME ISHMAEL
Here’s where the admittedly “Qonspiratorial” clue about the Watkins’ connection to Q comes in. On Aug. 5, 2019, Ron Watkins posted a Twitter message about 8chan’s ostracization which compared the community’s fate to that of the Pequod, the name of the doomed whaling ship in the Herman Melville classic “Moby Dick.”
“If we are still down in a few hours then maybe 8chan will just go clearnet and we can brave DDOS attacks like Ishmael on the Pequod,” Watkins the younger wrote.
Ishmael, the first-person narrator in the novel, is a somewhat disaffected American sailor who decides to try his hand at a whaling ship. Ishmael is a bit of a minor character in the book; very soon into the novel we are introduced to a much more interesting and enigmatic figure — a Polynesian harpooner by the name of Queequeg.
Apart from being a cannibal from the Pacific islands who has devoured many people, Queequeg is a pretty nice guy and shows Ismael the ropes of whaling life. Queequeg is covered head to toe in tattoos, which are described by the narrator as the work of a departed prophet and seer from the cannibal’s home island.
Like so many Q drops, Queequeg’s tattoos tell a mysterious tale, but we never quite learn what that full story is. Indeed, the artist who etched them into Queequeg’s body is long dead, and the cannibal himself can’t seem to explain what it all means.
Ishmael describes Queequeg’s mysterious markings in this passage:
“…a complete theory of the heavens and earth, and a mystical treatise on the art of attaining truth; so that Queequeg in his own proper person was a riddle to unfold; a wondrous work in one volume; but whose mysteries not even himself could read, though his own live heart beat against them; and these mysteries were therefore destined in the end to moulder away with the living parchment whereon they were inscribed, and so be unsolved to the last.”
THE GREAT WHITE WHALE
It’s perhaps fitting then that one of the most recognizable figures from the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was a heavily-tattooed, spear-wielding QAnon leader who goes by the name “Q Shaman” (a.k.a. Jake Angeli).
“Q Shaman,” a.k.a. Jake Angeli, at a Black Lives Matter event in Arizona (left) and Wednesday, confronted by U.S. Capitol Police. Image: Twitter, @KelemenCari.
“Angeli’s presence at the riot, along with others wearing QAnon paraphernalia, comes as the conspiracy-theory movement has been responsible for the popularization of Trump’s voter-fraud conspiracy theories,” writes Rachel E. Greenspan for Yahoo! News.
“As Q has become increasingly hands-off, giving fewer and fewer messages to his devotees, QAnon leaders like Angeli have gained fame and power in the movement,” Greenspan wrote.
If somehow Moby Dick was indeed the inspiration for the “Q” identity in QAnon, yesterday’s events at The Capitol were the inexorable denouement of a presidential term that increasingly came to be defined by conspiracy theories. In a somewhat prescient Hartford Courant op-ed published in 2018, author Steven Almond observed that Trump’s presidency could be best understood through the lens of the Pequod’s Captain Ahab. To wit:
“Melville is offering a mythic account of how one man’s virile bombast ensnares everyone and everything it encounters. The setting is nautical, the language epic. But the tale, stripped to its ribs, is about the seductive power of the wounded male ego, how naturally a ship steered by men might tack to its vengeful course.”
“Trump’s presidency has been, in its way, a retelling of this epic. Whether we cast him as agent or principal hardly matters. What matters is that Americans have joined the quest. In rapture or disgust, we’ve turned away from the compass of self-governance and toward the mesmerizing drama of aggression on display, the masculine id unchained and all that it unchains within us. With every vitriolic tweet storm and demeaning comment, Trump strikes through the mask.”
EPILOGUE
If all of the above theorizing reads like yet another crackpot QAnon conspiracy, that may be the inevitable consequence of my spending far too much time going down this particular rabbit hole (and re-reading Moby Dick in the process!).
In any case, none of this is likely to matter to the diehard QAnon conspiracy theorists themselves, says Mike Rothschild, a writer who specializes in researching and debunking conspiracy theories.
“Even if Jim Watkins was revealed as owning the board or making the posts, it wouldn’t matter,” Rothschild said. “Anything that happens that disconfirms Q being an official in the military industrial complex is going to help fuel their persecution complex.”
Rothschild has been working hard on finishing his next book, “The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything,” which is due to be published in October 2021. Who’s printing the book? Ten points if you guessed Melville House, an independent publisher named after Herman Melville.
Its really sad to find out that someone I looked up to, whose opinion I valued, has been suckered into the sheeple crowd, blinded by their hatred of Donald Trump. Remember today, Brian, and then consider where we are in January of 2025 and let me know if we are better off after 4 years of decay and rot caused by the Democrats being in charge. For a security guy, you certainly are in denial of the facts – a fraudulent election, stolen by a corrupt and perverse minority who has lied and cheated and defrauded this country.
Your delusion has no bounds, it’s fascinating to see people like you – confirmation bias runs rampant throughout your whole perspective/ideology of life itself – most likely due to a lack of understanding of how the Internet operates and where all these ties lead too, you’d rather ignore the evidence and discredit it with emotion, how pathetic.
Doc – you have been lied to. The ONLY people looking to take away what you have are the fascist leaders of the Trump cult. The ONLY people that want to tear up the constitution are the fascist leaders of the Trump cult. You probably think you are a patriot. You are not. No patriot could stomach what has been done to America by the conspiracy extremists and fascists trying to execute a coup on our country. There was NO election fraud. That is a lie. Engage some critical thinking and stop thinking that opinion & wishful thinking equals verifiable facts.
Any of you who rationalize and justify what took place at the Capitol….the attempt to destroy Democracy and our civilized society….you state your irresponsible, dishonest and arrogant idiocy…you all who fails to see how you are manipulated and used by foreign agents to destabilize the Union. Yes…that’s right, destroy the USA from within by its own people. It’s a perfect tactical game. Once the gullible are captive and go into the rabbit hole, it becomes impossible for them to get out. Only when everything collapses around their lives and they squander away their freedom do they awake from their coolaid drunkenness. Idiocy doesn’t absolve any of those gillipollas from facing Federal and State charges and get their judgment…..whatever it may be. Stop justifying idiocy and ignorance
Pot calling kettle … pot calling kettle! Get real. Anyone with even a 3rd Grade education can see this conspiracy crap and realize it is fake. Just more hackers with too much time on their hands and bored to death so have to stir up ludicris ideas for entertainment.
No direct disrespect but anyone with -common sense- can read between the lines — we’re not living in a reality TV show or movie, so get over wanting to start a war because you feel you have purprose or belive in something special greater than your fellow citizens. We’re in the greatest country in the world, and most of us have it pretty damned decent compared to much of the world. Quit the incessant whining, move on and strive for bettering yourself. Maybe actually read the Bible and take away the real message and meanings, and just not parts massaged to your liking. Every 4 or 8 years a new President takes office, and it’s been that way since the beginning and will continue. The world isn’t going to fall apart in 4 or 8 years with someone you do not feel should be in office! How on earth, as an supposidly educated person can you possibly believe that would happen???!!!! If you think that is the case I feel sorry for you. It’s cyclical and bounces from “side” to “side” each time and we’ve survived fine. And no, but sorry I don’t hate trump as I am a Christian but gave up on the vulgar greed, lies and fakeness of BOTH sides of American politics years ago — but am every bit as much of a “Patriot” as you all claim to be. Most anyone here in this country is, so you do not hold some unique place amongst yourselves, nor are you the special “real/only” patriots by any means. It’s freeing to be an Independant and not have to buy in to one side or the other fakery and propaganda, and just watch from a distance at those which seem hell-bent on imploding the country when it is absolutely warrentless. We’re a democracy, we will continue to be a democracy, and we vote and count. If you do not believe it is accurate then direct all of your negative vile energy and hatred towards inventing an infallable and inpenatrible voting method that can’t be back-doored, remotely hacked, etc and maybe make yourself rich. You’d then be wildly popular and have done something worthwhile for the country for a change.
Nice looking into this.
To those that asks what this has to do with cybersecurity, I can see one twitter post linking a person to the site. So it has the CyberSec angle.
Now, I also to not understand all the conspirationalists. If there is no evidence, that can be proven, then I do not care if it comes from Moby Dick, or if it is the FSB trying to destabilize the US to make Russia look relatively better.
We have here, a lots of people with no purpose in life, who found a purpose. We see that everywhere. Militant environmentalists, vegans etc. A common enemy is the best way for poor people to feel part of something bigger, and overcome their own suffering.
Many of them had a purpose in the military. Now they found it in QAnon, which, with their current hosting, seems to have the blessing of President Putin.
… as someone who is living outside US, it is fascinating to watch how your country is broken apart by yourselves (with a little bit of help from some outsiders fueling up some conspiracy theories). This comment thread is a prime example of that. Your enemies have found your weak spot, and are using it against you.
Truly. How these ‘Patriots’ cannot see the irony of their pupateers directing them, ‘Follow the White Rabbit” they say, never take their own advice, as if they did follow the trail there world view would start to crumble and that might be too much for them personally to handle.
Yes.
You gotta love the irony when they say “We are not sheep!” and then in the next breath “Where we go one, we go all.”
Sure sounds like a bunch of mindless followers to me!
If you right wing d-bags don’t like what Krebs has to say find somebody else that aligns with your double digit IQ values.
Yes, it was sedition. Yes, it was treasonous. Yes they are terrorists.
Just because you are butt-hurt about the elections loss doesn’t mean you get to go broken arrow all over everything. Grow the F up you bunch of toddlers.
Sedition, as I understand it, involves use of force. Well, we have that!
Treason, as I understand it, involves supporting a foreign power against the sovereign United States. Well, the Mueller probe did not look into the money trail. I think this aspect will come out when more complete investigations are carried out and explained to the public.
Sorry no other sovereign nation be included, this was Treason…
Dictionary: Treason: the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/treason
Legal: Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them *or* adheres to their enemies,
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2381
Not sure why Trump supporters were labelled as “a mob”, I would think they’re just regular people who think/know there was some funny business done in this election. As Americans, we have the right to fair and honest elections and if half the country feels they’ve been wronged, well, I would think the proclaimed winners would want to prove it. Almost like we’re all part of a movie.
lol!
So, if storming the seat of government en masse, smashing, looting, and threatening lawmakers, trespassing &tc don’t qualify for the apellation “mob,” I am curious as to what, in your book, does?
It’s truly what you want to believe, that you are in a movie, your ego can’t allow your life to accept the discourse of humanity so you’d rather associate yourself as the protagonist of the world. Get off social media and your narcissism may start to calm a little, some advice.
60 legal cases thrown/laughed out of court, many headed by conservative leaning judges, and you are still looking for proof from the accused? You have in effect accepted Mr Trump’s claim that Democrats cannot win legitimately and that a lack of proof of their machinations is proof of a cover-up. Imagine the shame when China & Russia are lecturing US on how to maintain democratic norms.
First, learn the legal definitions and standards of “evidence”. Cult members often lose the ability to understand the meaning of this word early on, which helps the rest of the indoctrination process. Once a person has a broad enough definition of “evidence”, they can be convinced of practically anything.
Second, take a crash course in logic. Understanding that the burden of proof is always on the claimant which is the person making the assertive statement. It is not up to Biden to prove fraud ‘did not’ happen.
Also, learn about Occam’s and Hanlon’s Razors.
To say that half of the country feels they were wronged is a gross exaggeration! Less than half of the voters that turned out for the presidential election had a candidate that lost. That is is only objective fact. The entire population of the USA, 325 million, cannot vote, only those registered, 255 million, can vote. Only about 155 million votes were cast which is less than half of the population and just over 60% of the voting population. Of those 74 million disappointed voters I doubt they ALL feel that they were somehow robbed.
Interesting article, and apparently a way to retire some of the kneejerk reactionaries from the board.
Thanks for the double win!
To those of you who don’t like Brian’s posts or political views, I suggest that you demand a full refund for every penny you pay to view his site.
Despite (and not because of) Trump, this is still America and Brian can say whatever the hell he wants to. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. No one is forcing you. Exercise your free will and just leave.
Spot-on, Scott!
As ardent supporters of the Constitution (as are we all), they have every right to unsubscribe. And also to voice their opinions — as Brian has given them the right to do here. (I don’t see any sign that he’s “moderating” [read: censoring] these comments!)
Children, grow up! Everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how wild and crazy it may seem. But to Brian’s critics, I remind you of the old saying:
“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Yeah……Scott …. say that now! Twitter and Facebook removing all content for the right. Amazon removing Parler. Google and Apple taking conservative apps out of their store. All in the name of hate speech or some BS. Want to talk about dictatorship …. look at what is happening just because they don’t agree with the opinions of others. Remember this day. When you stop saying something “they” like, you will get banned too.
You are right….they are private companies…don’t get fucking pissed when they don’t like what YOU say in the future.
You exaggerate the scope and reasoning. It’s not “all” right profiles/comments. It wasn’t just “hate speech”.
The fact is that real world violence is happening directly due to unchecked speech on privately owned platforms. The owners of those platforms have every right to kick them off their property, even for disagreeing, if they want. They didn’t kick them out sooner, when they should have, for policies that they agreed to, and then violated.
The Internet has apparently set a new standard for what is speech. People have gotten used to platforms like Twitter and Facebook and now take them for granted. Even worse, these entitled children think they have a “right” to use someone else’s property as a platform for speech. It is a privileged granted only by adherence to their policy.
Twitter is NOT the “public square”. As much as we make the analogy… the US government has never purchased Twitter and declared it public space. We need to stop being so entitled. This comment section exists at the discretion of Brian Krebs. And Twitter exists at the discretion of it’s owners.
Nobody is really saying free speech should be taken away. Nobody is suggesting that individuals cannot go outside and stand on a literal soapbox and start talking. They are even free to buy their own website and blog all day long.
These entitled snowflakes crying about their 1st amendment rights (which does not apply here), are the same triggered babies who want to violate the 1st amendment rights of others by assaulting members of the free press just for documenting their riot.
Judging from the comments, there are a whole lot of right-wing wackos interested in cyber security. Now I am even more concerned. I feel like I am living a low budget sci-fi movie and we are waiting for the day the grid goes down and brings leads us back to the middle ages.
At least Moby Dick was a classic.
Russian actors, and Qanon trolls have gravitated here lately, since Krebs started investigating them. They are not legitimate readers interested in his writing… just threatened by Krebs’ ability to uncover them.
What trances of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one unachieved revengeful desire! He sleeps with clenched hands; and wakes with his own bloody nails in his palms.
Independent voters stand at the intersection and get hit by traffic going both ways … I have the tire tracks to prove it. Anyway, I hope “they” don’t decide to cancel Moby Dick 😐
Independent voters are idiots, the stupid person’s version of wisdom.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/10/27/undecided
BIG difference between independent and undecided. Many independents have a very clear understanding of what they are looking for in a candidate. Neither of the major political parties represent their voters’ interests, and that kind of a big deal.
Yes, agreed.
To add to that… independents, undecideds, moderates, etc… are all slightly different.
It is possible to see a mass of moderates (tilting conservatives) now become independents seeing the GOP abandon principle.
I have always been fascinated by the origins of Qanon.
All great tyrannies or fascist dictatorships have to start somewhere and it certainly looks like America’s has begun, in no small part thanks to the Q movement which. Now, as you say, it has a life of its own, at this point divorced from the Qnuts who started it. Any moves against them only work to further support their paranoid, dangerous, delusional thinking. At some point they will attempt to elevate themselves into a “legitimate” political party, the (Q) Party, and run candidates.. possibly even by 2024. More craziness lies ahead
I look forward to reading Rothschild’s book. Thanks, Brian.
Thank you for helping the “shepple gain a voice. Every time people like you try to badmouth or use creative adjectives to describe John Q Public, you just give more strength to the movement. You may not like it but there are a lot more Trump supporters then you know. You can lash out a Trump supporters all you want, Krebs, thank you for showing your true colors
Fortunately, there are millions more Americans that do NOT support Trump. When the candidate that has the most supporters wins, that’s called democracy.
Not when electing a President. Or did you read the Constitution? Popular vote (as fraudulent as it seems) doesn’t decide the Presidency.
I have one question for those claiming the “right wing wackos” are being led by Trump like the Pied Piper…
If that is the case, is BLM responsible for the widespread destruction and looting that went on through most of 2020?
Most people won’t answer. Because they prefer to forget their hypocrisy rather than address it, or even be consistent.
QAnon is a joke and it has nothing to do with election irregularities. It does, however, provide a convenient scapegoat for people unwilling to see the real insurrection. But hey, keep patting yourselves on the back and saying “no, *I* am normal! I am not like those Trump rubes and QAnon people! Don Lemon said so!”
meh.
NOTE FOR POSTING
Moderator – Can you change my last post to only identify me by first name? Autofill screwed me.
Oh, Shawn M. Clark. Nobody would have noticed or cared until you pointed it out. Tire tracks all across your back, I can see you had your fun.
Yeah. Actually I probl’y wouldn’t have noticed except for the extended screen showing indicating a moderation check while my commentary traffic was going crosstown …
🙂
I suggest that people tempted to use personal invective in writing comments here first read enough columns to learn that Brian Krebs always writes without pettiness and always without rancor or spite.
Even when he was a victim of “swatting” – a crime that could have gotten him killed -he reported the story without invective or sensationalism. When he reported that the perpetrator was tried and found guilty, there was no gloating, not even a hint of a sense of delight in the man’s punishment.
When you write a comment here, you’re being compared to a high standard.
Here here.
Acknowledgement of these basic traits of Brian Krebs separates those who have been reading, and those who are merely trolling and feigning outrage.
Brian, thanks for the additional information regarding Angeli and he should be behind bars.
Would you also look into the opportunities (Antifa and BLM) that were there and caused damage? May be helpful to look at both sides of the extremist fence.
There were no antifascists there nor was there BLM. There was one media report in the highly questionable Washington Times. The Washington Times recalled the story.
If you believe these mob of armed white people were BLM, you need to learn to believe your eyes instead. 2+2=4
You seriously need to re-evaluate your information sources.
Here:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-nyt-antifa-capitol-attack-20210107-ushekk5xkfhkral54qmziqubym-story.html
and here
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/07/no-theres-no-substantive-evidence-that-capitol-riot-was-spurred-by-antifa/
and here
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/07/antifa-capitol-gaetz-trump-riot/
Yeah that’s not completely true.
https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2021/01/west-michigan-man-arrested-amid-capitol-riot-not-a-trumpster-step-father-says.html
So the dude’ stepdad didn’t know he was a Trump supporter? So what? He also didn’t know where he got the gun and large cap mags he was carrying.
It’s more like this old man didn’t really know his stepson like he thought he did, until his arrest. That’s pretty common.
Still conjecture on your part.
Conjecture is thinking that there was antifa or blm mixed in at rally/call to arms for Trump supporters.
Thank you.
I had always associated this movement with Q from Star Trek. But this founding story makes sense. It certainly is grounded in the most toxic terrible version of masculinity.
I can not imagine going through life believing that my neighbors are baby-murdering child-raping cannibals? That this is so much like European blood libel and Nazi dehumanizing propaganda is particularly problematic, as where that leads is so incredibly well documented. That they voted for Trump was a deep moral failure, but the ones that justify it with this kind of hate is beyond my comprehension. How do you move from, “I can not vote for a woman” which is of course bad to “My neighbors are child-raping baby-eaters.” which is dangerously insane.
How to deal with misinformation? How to prevent this ever-spiraling extremism that almost literally destroyed the certification of a national election to install a President For Life?
Understanding it is the first step so thank you.
IMHO, the person with the best understanding of this area is Kate Starbird, here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvEItxWb6Ek
That is her early work, she is now examining pandemic misinformation.
Well said and great video link.
To all the whiners writing here, after the despicable behavior of those you implicitly support to complain about Kreb’s rather mild critique would be laughable if it wasn’t so pathetically sad. The worst, by far, “president”of all time and you still defend him and his psychophants. You, like Trump, have no shame or credibility whatsover.
Shawn — Never trust autofill!
I didn’t realize before this that there were that many Trump idiots in IT.
They aren’t in IT. They don’t have any clue about cybersecurity. Once in a conversation with them, that becomes apparent.
They are here, because they are Qanon believers and Krebs has been investigating them. They are internet trolls.
Ron Watkins, who many say *is* “Q”, was interviewed by OANN and given the title of “cyber security expert”.
Yea. Right. This guy has ZERO qualifications in that area. Nothing. He ran a web site. BFD.
Someday someone is going to ask him if he even finished High School.
Ron Watkins is to “IT” as Jake Angeli is to Vikings.
Krebs… what exactly did this have anything to do with cybersecurity or digital fraud? Is there no place safe from liberal propaganda ? I refuse to read leftist rhetoric from a website that is supposed to be sharing info. regarding cyber related crimes. Spewing leftist tainted information in forum that should have no political agenda is straight out of the fascist playbook.
I do not know what Qanon is but I do know what a riot is. What happened at the U.S. Capitol was not a riot. Be mindful that half of the voters (and likely half your readers) voted for Trump. I can no longer find your info. credible.
I AM CANCELING YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND HOPE HALF YOUR READERS DO TOO.
“Be mindful that half of the voters (and likely half your readers) voted for Trump. I can no longer find your info. credible.”
We, the other 95% of the worlds population who are not even American, however, do continue to find Krebs’ work credible.
I very much doubt that half his readers are Trump voters.
Trump lost by what 7 million votes so not half. Plus his behavior since the election means his support now is quite a bit less than that. I am just surprised that there are people here that presumably are educated and work in some kind of professional capacity that still have crushes on Trump. He has been without doubt the worst president in history. He possibly with intent tried to make our country less strong due to all the debt he owes to international lenders/oligarchs.
These people that comment here in defense of Trump… are not the typical readers of Krebs. This is an open and anonymous forum… where anyone can troll under any name.
No, this is still cyber security. Cybersec is more than just protecting a website or entity from cyber attacks. The internet is part of our daily life, and it was just weaponized to incite violence and a coup d’etat attempt. So yes, a riot. Not all Trump supports are this tilted, but those that are make a big impression. This article isn’t propaganda; it sounds like you’ve been mislead from the truth. I suggest researching the origin of your news source a bit more closely.
Just a few questions to those bashing those they don’t agree with – do you support their censorship? While I condemn the violence at the capitol, I equally condemn the violence perpetrated by Antifa and BLM all summer long. Do you? Do you support sending billions of dollars overseas instead of bailing out the millions of US citizens who have lost everything due to this pandemic? There’s a middle road here, one where most of us travel, that doesn’t like much of what we’re seeing, and who recognizes our own government is behind much of it.
Jake Angeli is getting his not worthy “15 minutes of fame”
If trump is Ahab, who is Moby?
Stupid Circus!
I find it disturbing also that the corruption people are arguing over has not moved an inch since Nixon folded to the insurance industry. Now people are divided as ever into opposing parties focusing on blame rather that solutions and the same scamming ego trippers doing all the skimming and padding on budget items. And when those cost get exposed – all the direction/attention is shifted back to Dem vs Rep, till it fades into yesterday.
So although everyone thinks the swamp is filling and draining, it has not changed. There are people in politics with good intention and there are greedy ones that lack empathy. Greedy people tend to be more willing do bad things (never let a crisis go to waste). In other words – Nothing has changed in politics in our life time.
Well, whatever may come of it, you have at least re-read Moby Dick, and that’s a thing of beauty 🙂
Mee Hung……
Don’t you dare say that I am a Patriot!
Mee Hung and Greg…
You can …..well, I will leave it here. What is makes America the best country in the world. We are allowed to have our own views. Well, I guess that was the case up until now. I don’t mind you having your views. It is your right, but when you make comments like I am not a Patriot because I support Trump, you have stepped over the line. My views are MY views and yours are YOURS.
Brian…..
I am so disappointed Brian. You have disenfranchised many of your followers now. I “was” one of your faithful followers. Now that you feel it necessary to spread your political views within your SECURITY blog, I am out of here and I am sure many will follow suit. We will find our information in other places that don’t spew their personal political views.
So many whiners..
As already stated, if you don’t like what Brian has to post, then leave, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I’m sure there are *many* others that won’t get sucked up into to selfish personal views and stay and enjoy the high quality content that Brian has been offered for free for so many years.
When somebody you otherwise respect disagrees with you, it does not mean you have been disenfranchised. Similarly, when you vote in an election but your preferred candidate loses, you have still not been disenfranchised. The ‘franchise’ is the right to cast your vote, not to get your way.
PS Please spare us any specious meanderings about rigged elections.
As I now see bumper stickers of “Q” and political party of “Q” its time to reassess rational thinking. The Qorons that believe this information are Qlearly not Qualified to hold office and should be banned from the Internet or relegated to the Alt-Reality side that is separated from people that show respect and honor some form of truth based on facts, not crazy propaganda and foreign influence.
Poor Q supporters… you just don’t get it.
Brian is shining a light on how these Q sites — arguably a force in these days’ discussions — has managed to survive on the internet. (As he does with all sorts of other “forces” on the net, right?) And he used one of the great literary classics to tell the story of the site and its owners/creators. Hell, if I were Q (whomever he or she is), I’d be flattered to get this kind of attention!
But what’s saddest is that Hazzard, Jill, Eric and others, you really don’t get it. I n your eyes, if someone doesn’t agree with you 110%, they’re not just wrong, they’re evil and (judging from some of the comments here and elsewhere) you’d just as soon be rid of them. (Wow, sure sounds like how the Chinese government operates, hmm?)
The reality, Hazzard/Jill/Eric and other Q-lovers, is that you’d probably be surprised to learn how many of us actually agree with some of the things that your idol promised four years ago — but never delivered on. Where’s the great infrastructure initiative, the greatest-ever healthcare plan, the push to bring back manufacturing and jobs from China… I could go on and on. Nothing. Nada. Nil.
I’m pretty sure you want those things and more as much as we do. Honest! But what has been done in the past four years to even START working on any of those? NOTHING. 2017 started with great potential, but the energy has been spent on Twitter and the blame game, instead of LEADING America to come together and fix the problems.
I’m probably just wasting my breath, but one thing I won’t do (unlike many of you in these and many other posts) is waste my energy with name-calling and worse. And you’ll never see me vandalize police cars or businesses or – much worse – America’s Capitol! (A pox on those who do!) I’ve been around longer than most of you (yeah, I’m old), and I remember when Americans were able to work together. With a LOT less name-calling and blaming. We didn’t solve all our problems, but we accomplished a helluva lot more than we have in the past four years.
So c’mon, get over your angst over Brian’s piece, and let’s focus on coming together for what’s important. Like, f’rinstance, cybersecurity (which the current administration has pooh-poohed) – isn’t that why you come to this site? Then maybe all Americans – from all sides of the aisle – can try to solve some of those other problems we’re still facing.
(BTW, to be perfectly clear: no matter how strongly anyone feels, violence sucks. In the streets, for sure, but especially in the capital of the greatest country in the world. Get over it.)
If I was going to draw a literary comparison to Donald Trump it wouldn’t be Captain Ahab from Moby Dick but Captain Queeg from The Caine Mutiny.
We all like to fantasize about going back in time to stop Hitler. But when was the right time?
In the 40s, at the height of his power and with so many Nazi atrocities?
In the 30s, when the Nazi party has already seized power and crushed all opposition?
Or the 20s, when Hitler began to amass his followers and had just lead a failed coup attempt against the Democratic government?
After decades of gaining more followers, his spell finally broke and millions of Germans had to answer for not only crimes committed, but also atrocities condoned. Listen to the interviews of those people after the war.
The thing they regret the most,… Is that they did not recognize the evil for what it was, back when the simple act of not following, would have been enough to prevent it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Putsch
“The Beer Hall Putsch, also known as the Munich Putsch, was a failed coup d’état by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff and other Kampfbund leaders in Munich, Bavaria, on 8–9 November 1923, during the Weimar Republic. Approximately two thousand Nazis marched on the Feldherrnhalle, in the city centre, but were confronted by a police cordon, which resulted in the deaths of 16 Nazi Party members and four police officers.
Hitler, who was wounded during the clash, escaped immediate arrest and was spirited off to safety in the countryside. After two days, he was arrested and charged with treason.
The putsch brought Hitler to the attention of the German nation for the first time and generated front-page headlines in newspapers around the world. His arrest was followed by a 24-day trial, which was widely publicised and gave him a platform to express his nationalist sentiments to the nation. Hitler was found guilty of treason and sentenced to five years in Landsberg Prison, where he dictated Mein Kampf to fellow prisoners Emil Maurice and Rudolf Hess. On 20 December 1924, having served only nine months, Hitler was released.
Once released, Hitler redirected his focus towards obtaining power through legal means rather than by revolution or force, and accordingly changed his tactics, further developing Nazi propaganda.”
History doesn’t repeat… but it does rhyme.
Krebs – you identify an Antifa infiltrator of the Trump rally, and decide to deflect attention of that single detail by labeling him a QAnon leader. Back off, and call it for what it is – infiltration by the radical left…
It is a disgrace how intellectually-dishonest people can be. You know what – you are right: there is no proof of voter fraud, of younger Biden’s pedophilia, of elder Biden’s corruption, of Hillary’s corruption, of FBI execs being dishonest in their duties, etc… Peaceful, loving anitfa members would never conceive of, much less commit the action of infiltrating the Trump rally. We all saw the videos of the buses being let in. We all saw the videos of the police waiving the “rioters” into the Capital building. They knew. And so do you, whether you chose to admit it or not.
Repeat the lies as you are told, XINN Zombies
^ THIS… great example of the mental illness of the Qanon cult.
There is absolutely no limit to the imagination and fantasy of a conspiracy cultist.
The more you write, the more you expose yourself as someone with absolutely no grip on reality.