If this is legit, Ron Watkins filed to run in the Republican primary for the AZ1 district. That seat flipped to the Dems when it was redistricted, and hasn't had a Republican in it since. Also, Ron doesn't live in Arizona, or anywhere in the US.
I'm still very skeptical that this is a serious campaign and not a fundraising scam. This is also the seat that his conspiracy buddy Wendy Rogers ran for (and lost) in 2018. More will be revealed, I guess.
Also, a high profile run for Congress opens Ron up to a lot of questions he might not want to answer. We'll know more if he actually announces he's running.
Okay, last thing until Ron actually announces he's running: he's a *really* weak candidate. He's a black hole of charisma, is a complete outsider in that district, has a lot of bizarre and lurid stuff in his past, and ran a message board full of porn and terrorist manifestos.
I just popped off an email to the address listed in the filing (the phone line hasn't been set up). We'll see what happens!
The email address in the filing is the one Ron used to run his failed NFT scheme, which is just perfect
And yes, I'm going to take this opportunity to plug my book on QAnon, in which Ron Watkins plays a major role in stoking some of the most violent and dangerous political rhetoric of the last century.
The last real asset Ron Watkins has, at least in my opinion, is the knowledge of who wrote the Q drops. So at what point does he just announce "I wrote the Q drops, and will tell my story to the first outlet that pays me?"
Ultimately, Ron cares about Ron. Remember his "election fraud video that would save the world" that was full of malware? He doesn't care if admitting he was Q sends believers into a spiral. And chances are, it won't. These people are used to being lied to.
All he has to say is "The Q drops came to me through God, I was only the conduit" and most Q believers will be totally stoked about it. Plenty of televangelists and charismatic leaders have done it before.
Today is the 4th anniversary of Donald Trump's bizarre comment that casually started the dominant conspiracy theory of his presidency. I chronicle it in THE STORM IS UPON US, and am going to quote from that to tell a brief version of the story.
"On October 5, 2017, Trump called the White House press corps, who had been dismissed for the day, back to the State Dining Room. The president was holding court with top-ranking military officers and their families, enjoying the pageantry and adoration of the office..."
"And in that muddled, speaking-to-nobody-in-particular tone into which Trump so often dropped when speaking off the cuff, he casually launched a conspiracy theory that would shatter America’s brain.
Antivax rallies around the world, from Chicago to Barcelona to South Africa - all using the same icongraphy and the same social media tags. This is where to look - not DC.
Why are these all in English? That's a good question, but I'd imagine it's easier to make hundreds of slightly different fliers in one language. And the antivax movement is hugely popular in English-speaking countries.
Clearly this effort to turn out worldwide protests is well-organized and funded. But that doesn't make it fake or inauthentic - if people show up to the rallies, the movement is authentic. And people show up to these rallies, we've seen it over and over.
The DC lawyer indicted by QAnon hero John Durham's probe appeared zero times in the Telegram channel of any major Q promoter until news broke of his indictment. Now it's a sign that THE STORM is here. Some storm - one random guy indicted on one charge of lying to the FBI.
I can't imagine getting excited after four years of waiting for a Perkins Coie partner to get hit with one indictment. But that's why I'm not a QAnon believer, I guess.
The last time the Q faithful got this excited over nothing was when FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith got indicted for altering an email in the Russia investigation. Q even made a drop that it was the first of many indictments. He avoided prison, and just got his law license back.
The nuclear chain of command right now is dangerous and potentially catastrophic. Milley can be an advocate for changing it. But in January 2021, the President had the final and only authority to launch - not him.
If people want to roast me and call me a Trump lover for this, fine. But civilian control of the military is a foundational principle of the United States. Milley violated it - and the next JCOS to do so could take it a lot further.
Among Twitter's trending topics are "#DoNotComply," "Dictator Biden," "King Biden," "Biden regime," #massnoncompliance" and "GO TO HELL." So you can tell that "facts not feelings" conservatives are having a little trouble keeping their meltdowns to themselves.
These are real reactions, being boosted by the biggest influencers in conservative thought and media. It's not Russian bots or troll farms. People truly believe that doing the bare minimum to protect others and themselves is tyranny to be met with violence.
Just shutting up and getting the free, safe vaccine that keeps them out of the hospital never occurs to them. Because they're special and important.