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One of the armed men arrested while traveling to Philadelphia’s vote-counting center is a QAnon obsessive who posted violent, anti-Semitic comics online. The other is a President Trump super-fan who urged social media users to poll watch and suggested the 2020 election was being stolen from the president.QAnon conspiracy theorist Antonio Lamotta, 61, was arrested Thursday with 42-year-old Joshua Macias, the co-founder of “Vets for Trump,” on federal firearms charges after authorities reportedly received a tip that a group was headed from Virginia to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the site of the city’s ballot count, to “straighten things out.” The pair drove from Virginia with pistols, an AR-15 rifle, and roughly 160 rounds of ammunition, according to Philadelphia police. They lacked valid Pennsylvania firearms permits to carry, and were charged with carrying a concealed firearm without a license, a third-degree felony, and carrying a firearm on public streets or public property, the District Attorney’s office said Friday. Both men, who are from Chesapeake, Virginia, were accompanied by a woman who was not charged with any crime.“We will be requesting that both be held without eligibility for bail when they are arraigned later this evening, as this alarming incident is still very much under investigation regarding additional charges,” the district attorney’s office added.The arrests come as QAnon promoters stoke outlandish theories that the ballot count in Pennsylvania is a scheme to steal the election from Trump.Alleged QAnon Goons With AR-15 Arrested Near Vote CenterLamotta’s Hummer was discovered near the convention center with QAnon bumper stickers on it and a QAnon hat inside. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said at a Friday press conference that the pair may have had an affiliation with QAnon. Photos of a silver Hummer parked near the Convention Center also show a parking violation envelope tucked under the windshield.“At this time we do not have indications that the story is bigger than these two individuals,” Krasner said, adding there was no indication the men were part of any extremist group. He declined to comment on possible motivations for their trip to Philadelphia but noted the FBI is also assisting in the investigation.But Lamotta’s interest in QAnon, which the FBI considers a potential source of domestic terrorism, goes beyond his truck. Social media posts on Facebook and Twitter reveal Lamotta to be a dedicated QAnon promoter who has embraced the conspiracy theory’s darkest, most anti-Semitic corners.QAnon believers follow cryptic “clues” posted on anonymous message boards by a mysterious figure named “Q,” who QAnon supporters claim is a figure in the Trump administration. QAnon adherents string these clues together to create a bizarre worldview in which the world is controlled by a nefarious cabal of pedophile-cannibals in the Democratic Party, Hollywood, and banking. Trump is a near-messianic figure for QAnon believers, who await the day that Trump and the military will arrest and execute his political opponents in a much-awaited purge they call “The Storm.”Lamotta echoed a core tenet of QAnon in a Facebook post, which was preserved by extremism research J.J. MacNab before Lamotta’s account was deleted.“QAnon is a positive military operation that is working to take down the deep state,” Lamotta wrote.> pic.twitter.com/DxBDldEn4S> > — JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) November 6, 2020On one of his websites, Lamotta touted his access to weapons and claimed to be an “international security contractor.” The website, headlined with a picture of a sword, also features pictures of a gun and bullets.A blog post on a business page for Lamotta’s private security firm also suggested that COVID-19 is “an entirely man-made fake ‘natural pandemic’ psyop crisis with a patented, laboratory ‘gain of function’ bioweapon as its disease.” The Aug. 25 blog post then falsely states that the coronavirus is a plot equivalent to “crimes against humanity causing premeditated deaths, suffering, and economic hardship, in combination with the suppression of preventive medications and natural treatments.”“Killing these people is a legitimate act of self-defense and not a crime,” the entry reads.The blog post then erroneously suggests the pandemic—which has killed over 236,000 Americans—is nothing more than a “eugenics program at work” before commending Trump for taking a shot at Big Pharma.An Aug. 21 post took direct aim against Democrats and the upcoming election, stating: “Folks, I saw the DNC whatever that is…if I was a democrat, I’d shoot myself in the head right now, (right after seeing Trump’s rally.) I would save myself a ton of ammo. They ain’t worth 65-cents each to shoot at.”The 62-year-old also claims to be a U.S Army vet, and the site associated with this private security firm posted a link to the Facebook group “Vets for Trump” on Sept. 4. > Our president as CommanderInChief has done more for Vets in his 3 years then decades of politicians. We stand behind our @POTUS @realDonaldTrump as will the 85% of the Veterans who vote as VetsFortrump just like 2016! VeteransForTrump https://t.co/CRBVAedQ86> > — Joshua E Macias ⭐⭐⭐ (@JoshuaMacias) September 4, 2020Social media for Macias, a Navy vet, revealed the 42-year-old is an enthusiastic Trump supporter who co-founded the veteran’s group supporting Trump. A Twitter account appearing to belong to Macias frequently posts in support of the president and has shared several posts that allege the 2020 presidential election—which has yet to be called—was stolen from Trump.“We are the Veterans who support our 45th President of the United States of America. We have stood the watch, we have survived the firefight. We are the backbone of the MAGA Movement in your backyard. For every Rally, every community meeting we are there for courage and strength as well as security!” Macias, who appears in a picture with Trump on his personal website, wrote on his LinkedIn page.In 2015, Macias was even a featured speaker at a Trump rally in Manassas, Virginia. A year later, just days after Trump was elected president, Macias also spoke to reporters at Trump Tower. After being introduced by Kellyanne Conway, Macias talked to reporters on Nov. 17, 2016 about how “veterans have been behind Donald Trump since Day 1.” “There are millions of veterans across the country that support Donald Trump,” he said, adding that they also “support Steve Bannon and the campaign efforts and General Flynn.” When asked why he was at Trump Tower, Macias said there to “augment and support on a volunteer basis.”Vladimir Lemets, executive director of Vets for Trump, confirmed to the Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday that Macias went to Philadelphia to monitor ballot counting.“They just went up there to see if they could be of any assistance and scope out what’s happening,” Lemets said, insisting that Macias had no violent intentions and probably thought his Virginia gun permit was valid out of state. (According to state law, Pennsylvania permits are honored in Virginia, but not the other way around.)Republican Candidate Who Openly Backed QAnon Wins a Seat in the HouseAnd Macias alleged accomplice, Lamotta, isn’t the first QAnon believer to be accused of plotting violence. QAnon conspiracy theorists have been charged with a number of crimes, including two murders, child kidnapping plots, and a terrorist incident near the Hoover Dam involving guns and an armored truck.Lamotta also made a comic, dubbed “The Trumpinator,” that portrayed Virginia State Sen. Amanda Chase (R) and a “Rambo”-like Trump taking on the cabal portrayed in QAnon conspiracy theories. At one point in the comic, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) promises to provide a nefarious figure with “adrenochrome,” a rejuvenating blood-like substance QAnon believers claim world elites drink after sexually torturing children.Despite his fringe beliefs, Lamotta has ties to at least one Republican official. He’s been photographed repeatedly alongside Chase, an outspoken opponent of gun control who has carried a pistol onto the statehouse floor.Chase posed for a picture in front of Lamotta’s Hummer and a QAnon flag while holding an AR-15-style rifle, and took a picture with him with the Hummer in the background.A spokesman for Chase said that Lamotta was not an official member of Chase’s campaign or security detail. Lamotta applied to join Chase’s campaign, according to the spokesman, but was rejected.“He did not meet the qualifications or standards within the campaign,” the spokesman said.The comic even references a QAnon faction, fringe even within the broader QAnon movement, that John F. Kennedy Jr. faked his death in a 1999 plane crash and disguised himself as Trump supporter Vincent Fusca. In his comic, Kennedy is portrayed putting on a costume to disguise himself as Fusca and help Trump.Lamotta’s comic also makes references to the anti-Semitic Khazar conspiracy theory, which posits that the Jewish people are not “genuine” Jews. At one point in the comic, Vladimir Putin is shown coordinating with Trump to arrest “the zionist-fake-jews.” A suspect in a 2019 attack on a kosher grocery store in Jersey City was also a Khazar conspiracy theorist.Lamotta also posted on Twitter about Pizzagate, the conspiracy theory that inspired both a shooting and an arson attack at a Washington pizzeria and eventually was subsumed into QAnon.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
November 6, 2020Read More
Across the world, many were scratching their heads Friday – especially in countries that have long been advised by Washington on how to run elections — wondering if those assertions could truly be coming from the president of the United States, the na…
November 6, 2020Read More
“Roadtrip Nation: A Single Mom’s Story” premieres on public television, follows three single mothers as they explore different paths that could provide a fulfilling career while raising a familyCosta Mesa, Calif., Nov. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Career exploration nonprofit Roadtrip Nation will premiere the new documentary film, “Roadtrip Nation: A Single Mom’s Story,” November 6, 2020, airing nationally on public television stations. The film follows three single mothers on their journeys to finding fulfilling and family-sustaining careers by pursuing postsecondary education and training. Supported by ECMC Foundation and presented by KQED, “A Single Mom’s Story” is also available to watch online at rtn.is/single-mothers.The series follows Gabby, Kiera, and Maliaq, who are eager to explore how to find meaningful careers and navigate postsecondary success and travel across the country to talk with other single mothers who have found fulfilling work as microbiologists, professors, authors, artists, and more. Each roadtripper joined the trip with different interests: * Gabby is a Tarrant County College student from Hurst, Texas studying nursing and wants to be a role model to her girls by showing them the importance of education. Three months after her first daughter was born, Gabby started as a drugstore cashier during the night shift and worked her way up to pharmacy technician. She is doing her best to figure out how to balance her family life, career, and schooling. * Kiera is from High Point, North Carolina and on hiatus from school because of the pandemic. She’s become obsessed with geology and rocks of all kinds since starting community college. She has been told she cannot make a living from that interest, but she is undeterred. Her hope is to find a fulfilling career that provides a stable income and is secure enough to afford her plenty of time with her children. * Maliaq is from Wasilla, Alaska and is currently a University of New Mexico student pursuing a computer science degree. She often feels like a misfit in her family since she is the only member without an advanced degree. She is eager to provide the best life possible for her son and wants them both to start thriving and not just surviving.“For nearly two decades, Roadtrip Nation has been building a collection of career stories that others can see themselves in,” said Mike Marriner, president of Roadtrip Nation. “With this documentary, we’re highlighting different pathways to fulfilling careers that single moms have found. We hope single moms will see themselves in these three stories and feel inspired to explore different careers and find the path they feel fits them best.”Throughout their journey, Gabby, Kiera, and Maliaq learn how to channel the strength and determination they have developed as they plot out their next moves in identifying the career path they want to embark on long term. The roadtrippers meet Amy Yeung, the founder of the clothing and apparel company Orenda Tribe; Felicia Rice, a microbiologist at the Mayo Clinic Hospital; and Sarah Centrella, an author, speaker, and life coach.“We were excited to partner with Roadtrip Nation to amplify the stories and voices of single mothers who are pursuing higher education,” said Jennifer Zeisler, career readiness senior director, ECMC Foundation. “We know that one in 10 U.S. college students is a single mother, but just eight percent graduate on time. We hope stories like these will help shine a light on what could help single mothers succeed in school and as they find a fulfilling path in the workforce.”Alongside the release, Roadtrip Nation will be streaming a live workshop series, Together We Thrive, for single mothers and their supporters, featuring conversations, resources, and inspiring stories. The event runs from November 16-20. Learn more and register to attend at https://www.crowdcast.io/roadtripnation.To learn more about “A Single Mom’s Story,” visit rtn.is/single-mothers.You can also learn more about the film by following @RoadtripNation and @ECMCFoundation.About Roadtrip NationRoadtrip Nation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that humanizes career exploration through story and empowers individuals to connect their interests to fulfilling lives and careers. Through its award-winning public television series, New York Times bestselling book “Roadmap,” and educational programs and tools that provide visibility and insights into career possibilities and pathways, Roadtrip Nation gives people from all backgrounds confidence and belief in their ability to persist through challenges and define success for themselves. Roadtrip Nation has been showcased at the United Nations Social Innovation Summit, Clinton Global Initiative, NBC Education Nation, TEDx, Talks at Google, SXSW, and the Harvard Social Enterprise Forum. For more information, visit roadtripnation.com.About ECMC FoundationECMC Foundation is a Los Angeles-based, nationally focused foundation whose mission is to inspire and to facilitate improvements that affect educational outcomes—especially among underserved populations—through evidence-based innovation. It is one of several affiliates under the ECMC Group enterprise based in Minneapolis. ECMC Foundation makes investments in two focus areas: College Success and Career Readiness; and uses a spectrum of funding structures, including strategic grantmaking and program-related investments, to invest in both nonprofit and for-profit ventures. Working with grantees, partners and peers, ECMC Foundation’s vision is for all learners to unlock their fullest potential. Learn more about ECMC Foundation by visiting ecmcfoundation.org and ECMC Group by visiting ecmcgroup.org.About KQEDKQED serves the people of Northern California with a public-supported alternative to commercial media. An NPR and PBS affiliate based in San Francisco, KQED is home to one of the most listened-to public radio stations in the nation, one of the highest-rated public television services and an award-winning education program helping students and educators thrive in 21st-century classrooms. A trusted news source and leader and innovator in interactive technology, KQED takes people of all ages on journeys of exploration — exposing them to new people, places and ideas. www.kqed.orgAbout APTAmerican Public Television (APT) is the leading syndicator of high-quality, top-rated programming to the nation’s public television stations. For more than 10 years, APT has annually distributed one-third or more of the top 100 highest-rated public television titles in the U.S. Founded in 1961, among its 250 new program titles per year, APT programs include prominent documentaries, performance, news and current affairs programs, dramas, how-to programs, children’s series and classic movies. “America’s Test Kitchen From Cook’s Illustrated,” “Cook’s Country,” “AfroPoP,” “Rick Steves’ Europe,” “Chris Kimball’s Milk Street Television,” “Front and Center,” “Doc Martin,” “Nightly Business Report,” “Midsomer Murders,” “A Place to Call Home,” “Lidia’s Kitchen,” “Globe Trekker,” “New Orleans Cooking with Kevin Belton,” “Simply Ming,” and “P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home” are a sampling of APT’s programs, considered some of the most popular on public television APT licenses programs internationally through its APT Worldwide service. Entering its 13th year, Create®TV — featuring the best of public television’s lifestyle programming — is distributed by American Public Television. APT also distributes WORLDTM, public television’s premier news, science and documentary channel. To find out more about APT’s programs and services, visit APTonline.org. CONTACT: Mark Fewell Roadtrip Nation (949) 764-9121 [email protected]
November 6, 2020Read More
A look at false and misleading claims and videos that followed voting in the Nov. 3 presidential election. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. CLAIM: A video shows election workers in Delaware County, Pennsyl…
November 6, 2020Read More
President Donald Trump has held himself up as a champion of U.S. troops without rival. Now, with his presidency on the line, he’s casting suspicion on a tool of participatory democracy — the mail-in ballot — that has allowed U.S. military personnel to…
November 6, 2020Read More
The conservative evangelical Christians who helped send Donald Trump to the White House four years ago stuck by him in 2020. White evangelical voters made up 23% of the vote nationwide and overwhelmingly favored Trump this fall, with about 8 in 10 bac…
November 6, 2020Read More
The pace of vote-counting in Nevada is being criticized for taking too long and it’s even become fodder for online jokes. “We told everyone early on that results would take at least 10 days,” Secretary of State spokeswoman Jennifer A. Russell said in …
November 6, 2020Read More
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are to speak by telephone on Saturday, her spokesman said, as post-Brexit talks butted up persistently against major differences.
November 6, 2020Read More
It seems like everyone is waiting in anticipation of the presidential election results after three days of refreshing Twitter and Google for the latest information. As of Friday morning, the Decision Desk HQ projected that Joe Biden had won enough electoral college votes to be named the president-elect. As for the rest, we are still waiting for The Final Countdown.
Biden’s win will be historic for a lot of reasons: He will be the oldest elected president in U.S. history at 78-years-old on inauguration day; his running mate Kamala Harris will be the first woman, as well as the first Black and South Asian American, vice president; and Biden will be the 10th person to unseat a sitting president after just one term. That’s right, President Donald Trump will be joining just 9 other presidents who lost their reelection campaigns — and he’s not happy about it.
It would seem there’s also something monumental about Trump’s losing campaign, like the fact that he is the only president ever to lose the popular vote twice, or that he is the first president ever to lose a reelection after being impeached. But luckily for Trump, he can now use one of his favorite insults to describe himself: Loser. Sad!
So who else is Trump joining as a one-term president after a reelection loss? Well, John Adams was the first one-term president, as well as the second ever president of the United States. He lost reelection to Thomas Jefferson in 1801. Later, John Quincy Adams would lose his reelection as the 6th U.S. president in 1829 to Andrew Jackson. Quincy Adams lost due to accusations of “corruption and public plunder” from his opponents. Trump will also be joining Martin Van Buren, Benjamin Harrison, William Howard Taft, and Herbert Hoover, who lost as a result of the stock market crash in 1933.
In more recent history, Trump will join the ghosts of presidents past, which include Gerald Ford, who lost his reelection in 1977 to President Jimmy Carter after he pardoned President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal. Ford also faced blame for failing to revive the economy. Unfortunately, Carter would later lose his own reelection bid to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1981. The Iran hostage crisis — when 52 Americans were held for 444 days — did not bode well for his presidency. Iran released all 52 hostages the day Carter left office.
And that leaves us with George H.W. Bush — the most recent one-term president (until now) — who lost his reelection campaign in 1993 to Bill Clinton. Bush lost support for his domestic policies, “from a faltering economy, rising violence in inner cities, and continued high deficit spending,” his White House biography states.
But Trump isn’t going down without a very misguided fight. The president is still claiming there are missing ballots and illegal votes being counted. In a Twitter tantrum on Friday, Trump pointed again to the so-called “Radical Left Dems” as the real threat to democracy, and is even blaming the social media giant, Twitter for censoring his lies.
Unfortunately for Trump, the United States democracy doesn’t function like a game show, and just as he touts that all lives matter, so do all votes.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?Trump’s Adult Sons Are Already Shaming RepublicansThank Stacey Abrams For Biden’s Georgia WinThe Unexpected Winner Of The Election? Gritty!
November 6, 2020Read More
The most turbulent and norm-breaking presidential election of a lifetime has led to an extraordinary spectacle in the United States over the past three days: armed protesters gathering nightly outside offices where workers are counting the votes that w…
November 6, 2020Read More
The steady counting of votes that has moved Democrat Joe Biden closer to the presidency is exposing rifts at Fox News Channel, the influential media outlet that is the favorite for many supporters of President Donald Trump. Despite intense pressure fr…
November 6, 2020Read More
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