The initial reaction to news that reputed Gambino family crime boss Frank Cali had been fatally shot outside his home on Staten Island was to wonder whether New York City might be back on the brink of a mob turf war. There’s a pattern to these things that, while dormant, is familiar: A crew whacks a gangster, and his crew retaliates. They go to the mattresses. They hunker down at the Bada Bing.

It soon became clear that this incident wasn’t like the ones we see in movies. Shortly after Cali’s death, a 24-year-old named Anthony Comello was arrested in connection with the crime. Comello didn’t have the résumé of a Mafia button man. In fact, it was reported that police believe he killed Cali because the crime boss wouldn’t let Comello date his niece.

When Comello appeared in court in New Jersey for an extradition hearing that would send him back to New York, he suddenly displayed a hand covered in scribbled text. “United we stand,” he’d written, along with “MAGA forever” – a reference to President Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America great again.”

Drawn with thick lines at the center of his hand was a large “Q.”

Last summer, there was a flurry of reporting on “QAnon,” when adherents began popping up at Trump rallies. It’s a sweeping, bizarre theory that Trump’s presidency was secretly predicated on uprooting child molestation rings and in which an anonymous figure named Q revealed secret messages from within the White House about Trump’s hidden agenda. A president who’d based his election on the idea that he was battling a nefarious establishment cabal had transformed, in the eyes of thousands of supporters, into a president battling an even more dangerous and toxic group, leaking The Truth out to a select few through this anonymous account.

That Comello was sporting a “Q” on his hand in court, though, wasn’t an ironic statement or a wink at the broader conspiracy theory. In a phone call with The Post on Thursday, his attorney, Robert Gottlieb, argued that the QAnon theory was central to the incident on Staten Island.

“The evidence that I refer to, the QAnon, the other hate words and messages emanating from other extreme right-wing conspiracy websites, as well as statements made by the president, without any question will be critical and central to explaining what happened in this case,” Gottlieb said.

The lawyer didn’t explicitly state that Comello had committed the crime, but he added, “What I can say unequivocally is: Whatever happened here is connected to those hate messages and websites.”

After Comello was arrested, the government seized his computer, and Gottlieb indicated that he hadn’t seen the specific online material Comello had reviewed. But he did indicate that Comello participated in the QAnon world, either passively or actively, a fact he learned from speaking to Comello’s family and friends. They apparently indicated to Gottlieb that, in recent months, they’d noticed a change in Comello’s behavior that they attributed to his online activity and involvement with the unnamed sites.

Obviously, there’s a potential benefit to Gottlieb’s client in presenting him as having psychiatric problems. Gottlieb didn’t shy away from that suggestion.

“This is a very complicated psychological and psychiatric issue,” he said. “The hate messages, the venom that is spewed on the Internet doesn’t necessarily affect everybody. It certainly has a greater chance of having a devastating impact on someone who may be suffering from psychiatric problems.”

“It has a real impact on the most vulnerable people, who, if touched and affected by the hate, can do things which if they were not suffering from the mental illness they would have never done,” Gottlieb added.

This would not be the first time that someone appears to have been inspired by right-wing online conspiracy theories and Trump’s rhetoric to take violent action. One week ago, Cesar Sayoc pleaded guilty to charges that he’d sent explosive devices to newsrooms and Democratic politicians across the country last fall. An armed man who blocked traffic near the Hoover Dam last year cited QAnon slogans in letters he later wrote. After several violent threats in September, Reddit banned some QAnon discussion groups.

Gottlieb was careful in how he described what happened on Staten Island and its relationship to his client. He was much less worried about linking what his client read online to the possibility that it affected how Comello behaved.

“Over the past few years, people have been talking about the danger of this garbage that’s on the Internet,” Gottlieb said. “This could very well be the case that reflects that words really do matter.”

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/03/28/qanon-maga-and-the-killing-of-a-reputed-mob-boss/

>>5968033

Every day, QAnon "patriots" from across the globe post stupid ass shit on their special Voat message board. They accuse various people of being pedophiles, write letters to Trump (whom they apparently believe reads their message board every day and pays close attention to them), are sad about how bad white people have it, and talk about how amazing it is going to be once everyone realizes they have actually been right about everything all along.

But now they have gone too far. In a post I clocked this morning, one "baker" (as they call themselves) claims that beloved music icon (and primary inspiration for my current hair situation) Kate Bush is a MURDERER, and that her 1993 video for "The Red Shoes" is in fact "a symbolic reenactment of her initiation kill."

The user posting the video lays out his evidence.

1:10 - Gets drugged to help cope with it.

1:38 - Hesitates. It's so fucked up, can she really do this?

1:48 - Seduced by power and opportunity, as if under a spell.

1:55 - Hesitates again. Initiator has been patient and encouraging - everyone's first time is difficult.

2:00 - Finds her determination and enthusiastically breaks through the psychological barrier.

2:05-2:20 - He's doing the kill, she's swimming in blood.

2:40 - Symbolic of dancing in blood.

3:00 - Dancing on the graves of the consumed.

Wow, they've really thought this one through!

Other commenters on the site agreed that the video was an obvious murder confession, steaming that "They love to rub our faces in it, don't they?"

Oh, for sure. Kate Bush in 1993 was definitely sitting around thinking "Muahaha! I will make a music video about a murder I did in order to join a Satanic cult, and still never be held accountable for my crimes. Can't wait to see how much this bothers an internet rando in 2018!"

This is hilarious, but if any Q morons out there are reading this post, let me be very clear: You come for Kate Bush and we will fight you. Seriously. Do not fuck with Kate Bush unless you want to deal with the rage of millions of aging hipster women armed to the teeth with knitting needles, scissors for bang trims and whatever we still remember from that one Take Back The Night self-defense class we took in high school.

If you're wondering why on earth this particular video was a target, it is because red shoes are A THING for the QAnon people.

>>5968154

https://www.wonkette.com/qanon-idiots-finally-go-too-far-accuse-kate-bush-of-murder

sauce, sorry

One would think that a conspiracy theory that’s based on the idea that special counsel Robert Mueller and President Donald Trump are working together to expose thousands of cannibalistic pedophiles hidden in plain sight (including Hillary Clinton and actor Tom Hanks) and then send them to Guantanamo Bay would be doomed. Mueller’s investigation has ended and Attorney General Bill Barr’s summary of Mueller’s report has been published — all without any mention of pedophiles, cannibals, or child murderers.

One would be wrong.

As evidenced by Trump’s Thursday night rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, QAnon — a conspiracy theory that took root in online forums before bursting into the public eye in early 2018 — is alive and well.

It’s not just left-leaning or mainstream outlets that have argued the conspiracy theory’s inherent, and pervasive, ridiculousness. Major supporters of the president have denounced QAnon as a “grift” and a “scam.” Many of the conspiracy theory’s allegations — like that Hillary Clinton was executed by lethal injection in February — are patently false (and wild).

But the people who follow QAnon don’t care. In their view, QAnon — a conspiracy theory that alleges hundreds of thousands of child-eating pedophiles are due to be arrested any day now by Trump and Mueller (oh, and John F. Kennedy Jr. is alive) — is bringing America together.

A quick refresher on #QAnon

QAnon is a conspiracy theory based around an anonymous online poster known as “Q” — a pseudonym that comes from the Q-level security clearance, the Department of Energy equivalent of “Top Secret.” Beginning on October 28, 2017, Q began posting on the 4chan message board /pol/ about Hillary Clinton’s imminent arrest. Followers of Q became known as QAnon, and they began awaiting “The Storm,” during which all of Trump’s enemies, including Rep. Adam Schiff and others, would be arrested and executed for being murderous child-eating pedophiles.

wrote about QAnon last year, when the conspiracy theory first gained attention in mainstream circles. And as I wrote then, most, if not all, of Q’s posts and predictions were unadulterated nonsense.

In a posting on November 1, 2017, Q said that on November 3 and 4, John Podesta, chair of Clinton’s 2016 campaign, would be arrested, military control would take hold, and “public riots would be organized in serious numbers to prevent the arrest and capture of more senior public officials.” Q posted, “We will be initiating the Emergency Broadcast System (EMS) during this time in an effort to provide a direct message (avoiding the fake news) to all citizens. Organizations and/or people that wish to do us harm during this time will be met with swift fury – certain laws have been pre-lifted to provide our great military the necessary authority to handle and conduct these operations (at home and abroad).”

Obviously, none of this happened. There were no public riots or mass arrests or the use of emergency broadcasts. (In fact, the Emergency Broadcast System went out of service in 1997, replaced by the Emergency Alert System.)

But none of QAnon’s most fervent followers seemed to care. And even with the release of Barr’s summary of the Mueller report — which, though very short, would probably have mentioned the indictments of Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton had they been included in the document — QAnon believers aren’t deterred.

We will never see the end of QAnon

And that’s why, despite everything that’s taken place over the last week, QAnon will persist — because QAnon wasn’t built on facts, but on almost religious fervor. In fact, that’s how most conspiracy theories work. As I wrote last year:

Conspiracy theories like QAnon are “self-sealing” — meaning that evidence against them can become evidence of their validity in the minds of believers, according to Stephan Lewandowsky, a professor at the University of Bristol who studies conspiracy theories and conspiracists. Trying to disprove a conspiracy theory thus usually only serves to reinforce it.

Take conspiracy theorists who believed, falsely and without evidence, that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg had secretly died earlier this year and her death was being withheld from the American public by the government. As SCOTUSblog found in a case study it conducted, RBG conspiracy believers whom the blog confronted with evidence that the justice had not, in fact, passed away, reacted by leaning into the conspiracy theory even further.

Two users insisted that Ginsburg was dead. According to one, with over 15,000 followers: “Nope, that’s a body double if ever there was one.” And as another user, with over 435,000 followers, suggested, “That’s total hoax and a planned delay – bet she’s dead.”

more https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/29/18286890/qanon-mueller-report-barr-trump-conspiracy-theories

Every Resistance fan in America is watching the clip below thinking, “We haven’t seen the collusion evidence yet. All we know is that Mueller couldn’t get to probable cause.”

Right, we’ll see. But the fact that he couldn’t get to probable cause on collusion for anyone — not Trump, not Don Jr, not Mike Flynn, not even a guy like Paul Manafort who’s otherwise dripping with Russian sleaze — suggests this wasn’t a close evidentiary call.

I’ve heard her point made often this week, that Russiagate true believers obviously hoped for the worst from all this even though it would have been ruinous for their country. True enough. If Mueller could prove that Trump had conspired with Putin to influence the 2016 campaign POTUS’s legitimacy would be shattered, America would be humiliated, the right would be in chaos, and the bottom would fall out of public faith in the integrity of presidential elections (to the extent it hasn’t already). It’d be a catastrophe. And yet it wasn’t joy that had Rachel Maddow’s voice cracking on Monday night after Bill Barr assured the country that the worst fortunately hadn’t come to pass. How come?

When you recognize that conspiracy theories are mini-religions, you see it’s a normal reaction. Look at the people who join doomsday cults that believe the world will end on a predetermined date, then somehow have to cope after that date comes and goes. The world isn’t ending! The greatest news of all, right? But they don’t treat it as great. There’s no rejoicing. They cry, and then they get to work on retconning their beliefs such that they were right all along except for the particular date on which they thought doomsday would arrive. Russiagate truthers will do this too, instinctively. It’s a hard thing to ask someone to embrace a religion, build a worldview around it, and then force them to reckon with it being exposed as false in an instant. How would you feel if your chosen faith were somehow debunked today? People hate to be wrong, especially about the things in which they’re most emotionally invested.

Media types are chattering this morning about the prevalence of QAnon fans at Trump’s rally in Grand Rapids last night. If Trump went on TV and told the Q-bots to their faces that it’s all nonsense, there’s no Democratic-run international sex trafficking ring or whatever and he and Robert Mueller most definitely aren’t in cahoots, what would they say? Would they celebrate that their worst fears about America’s opposition party aren’t true?

Or would they get to work immediately on a theory that Trump’s statement is obviously disinformation that somehow confirms all of QAnon’s mythology if you just understand the code he was allegedly using during his remarks?

People don’t care about the country, they care about knowing in their hearts that their political enemies are gutter trash, be they traitors or pedophiles or what have you. Exit question: Can we really fault MSNBC and CNN for treating a pro-Trump ending to Russiagate as bad news? Just look at these numbers.

https://hotair.com/archives/2019/03/29/mary-katharine-ham-shouldnt-treating-good-news-america-trump-didnt-collude-russia/

>>5968303

huh?