This blog is dedicated to the memory of David Weintraub, who took on insidious astroturfers and won.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Spirit of Annette Appollo Lives On

Right now if one clicks on annetteappollo.com, they will find that the website has been turned into a one page entry. It includes the screenshot I took of a young, beautiful, groovy Annette sipping wine in the Rockies with her dog alongside. It also links to my previous entry on her.

I think one of her friends must have access to it and decided that Annette wouldn't have wanted her personal writings tied in with her blogging at Democratic Underground.

I am retracting my theory that she took her own life. I think another possibility is she had a chronic disease and knew her time was limited. Nonetheless, the cat is out of the bag. She most certainly was OldLeftieLawyer. I think whoever her friend is did the right thing. Annette's blog included pictures of her family and fond anectdotes about her dad. While others had no qualms picking at Theresa Duncan after her tragic death, this person seems to realise that Annette wouldn't have wanted the same thing done to her. But in regards to her DU blogging, I bet Annette would have loved for folks to read and appreciate her efforts.

I think this person has linked to DFQ2, because Annette would have wanted the truth known how she had kicked troll arse at Democratic Underground. I doubt she was ashamed of blogging having been a big part of her later life. It seems she would have liked the all this doting and sticking up for her honour. To any of ye out there, her friends, God bless you.

Annette clearly admitted to being OldLeftieLawyer at the Comservative Cave. She spoke of how she had been attacked for pointing out the crazy lies put out by Leopold, Will Pitt, and the others concerning the "Rove indicted" scam. That's not all. At this link, Annette wrote as OldLeftieLawyer, "I went to school in Springvale."

That diary had pertained to Maine. Annette Appollo graduated from Nasson in 1970. That college is in Springvale, Maine.

Look, she was brilliant at OldLeftieLawyer and would probably at this point call down from Heaven, "Ok, I was OldLeftieLawyer. Sue me." Check out her posts. She was hot shite. Here are 12,800 google hits. She was all that and a bag of chips.

Here are 50,800 results for Tangerine LaBamba. I'm just saying she was a major blogger. Anyone who knew her and wants to link to her best stuff or share any stories about her DU blogging, please do. I can somewhat relate to what she was up to. There are a bunch of us who simply fell in love with making posts until becoming disillusioned with the major forums. For her, it obviously went much further in terms of building many special relationships.

I've just got a few more loose ends to tie from the previous entry. I'm not going to turn this into a cottage industry. Nonetheless, I sincerely believe her work as a blogger at DU deserves this sort of salute that has spontaneoulsy emerged at DU and by my humble self. That's all this has been, nothing more, nothing less. An ode to Annette's spirit.

One of her internet friends wrote, "I'm not much of a DU poster, although I know Annette was crazy about it. I think she'd like her friends reminiscing a little about her. She said it wasn't fun anymore. I too, hope she's found peace now."

That woman had soul!

As for the fake sister showing up to spit on her grave, truly wtf was that all about?

I found this Conservative Cave thread in which Frank Solich was involved with other freepers in astroturfing convolution. One poster wrote, "That's it. This hoax is going tooooooooooo far. (have you dropped this stinky turd at DU yet, Frank?)" Another wrote, "Check and see if Andy Stephenson was in that class as well." Why no responses from Frank?

Then a poster named Zeitgeist wrote, "This gets more interesting, I happen to have a 1970 Nasson Yearbook in my posession. There is no Annette Appollo listed. Any theories about a maiden name?"

These are disinformation writers, imho. He didn't have a copy of that college's yearbook from that specific year. No fricken way. Anyone else see My Cousin Vinnie? No one could put anything over the Gambini. Annette would have been a great consultant for that movie. These people at the Conservative Cave aren't fooling me. Frank Solich was one of the people behind a website called Scamdy.com. He's had a website called DUmmie Funnies. I'm talking controlled opposition. These are convolution makers. They were trying to spin something that wasn't there. One of them said that Appollo was her pen name. Uhm, no. That was her real name.

Here's a post that was made by a real life friend named sprouse27. He was trying to speak truth to convolution.

...I've been in touch with someone involved in settling her estate and it was her wish, as expressed in her legal will, that no obituary be done on her. So I wouldn't expect you to ever see that. DU is just about the only obituary you'll ever see for her, which is kind of why I'm here now. I've seen a few threads asking about it, and saw yours again and decided to respond to it. Annette never spoke with me about her wishes after death. So I could only speculate as to why she wanted no obituary. She was a very unique woman.

I'm not even going to quote that fake sister. I have emailed sprouse27. Maybe he can get the person in charge of her estate to sue "Wabansia" for libel. Nothing too fancy. Just to try to find out Wabansia's true identity. Or maybe find out if there is a real sister who could press charges for identity theft. Just enough to pin down who Wabansia is in real life. These are the only ways we are ever going to bust this astroturfing racket. I think it can be done.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a real sister, not fake as suggested but she lived in Frackville PA and in Florida and I know that she considered (considers) the AA here mentioned as lost to her for many years. Wabanasia has it right and is someone who knew AA well

Tokyo Shemp said...

Oops, I forgot to write an update at the top of this one. I got in email contact with someone, who already informed me that scumbag with the name Wabansia might have been her sister afterall.

This wasn't my best entry. People should check out the original one I wrote and the newest one. They definitely shouldn't care what anonymous troll scum like yourself think.

Annette Appollo: Death by Internet

More on Annette and the Strange Way Some Folks Are Victimised by Troll Gang Attacks

If the sister was legit, her family works for Halliburton. That makes them assholes, period. She also talked crap about someone after they died, all unverifiable, just like you, just another creepy sack of shit no one cares about.

Wabansia didn't know Annette well. They weren't close. Good people tend to avoid going near right wing trash like Wabansia or whatever her real name is. Unless you want to cough up your real name and explain what this has to do with yourself, just go away.

Sherlock said...

As far as I know Annette Apollo never had a sister, what Yearbook is she in?
Frackville had yearbooks, not just Shenandoah.
Somewhere she should be listed, with or without a picture!
I'm 63 years old and lived in Shenandoah all my life.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Hi Sherlock.

The first poster is an obvious troll, so nothing it said can be taken seriously.

Are you saying you lived in the same town growing up as Annette and never remember a sister? You would be close to her age. Another person who seems legit says she did have one. Now whether Wabansia is that person, if she exists, is open to some serious debate. I think it's an enigma whether there was a sister. I don't think the person posting at DU was her sister.

There's definitely been a beyond any reasonable effort to smear her. This started when she was a blogger at DU. The same thing happened to Dave Weintraub, even worse, since his username was involved in real life activism. I'm not saying Annette wasn't. But that she for the most part kept her blogging life separate from her internet activities.

Organised troll attacks are a reality. It happened to me too.

Anyone who stands up to the internet herd is attacked. Annette did that in a most effective manner. Thus she was banned. The trolls have inside power at the major fake lefty outlets.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I responded to your other post and included the link to her alleged sister's post. It may give you some leads to fact check. No real name was given, but the person claims to be 69 years old, as of January. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know AA well, not like a bff...what I can say from what I knew was the posting from the sister (alleged or not) did not surprise me. Everyone grieves differently. I have no doubt that AA hurt people, some probably quite gravely; I was not one of them. For me she had warm words and awful ones; I let them slide off like I do with the rest of my a-hole friends. You shouldn't be surprised, either, if you knew her, and you should accept all facets of her as they arise, because I think that's what she would want. She was not, of all things, apologetic, ever.

Tokyo Shemp said...

What's your DU username, or are you just another anonymous coward trying to cover up for the fools who dominate DU? This wasn't an enigma. Creeps with inside power ran her off that board.

Anonymous said...

hey sherlock from Shendo = CLUE for ya
============================
"As far as I know Annette Apollo never had a sister, what Yearbook is she in?
Frackville had yearbooks, not just Shenandoah.
Somewhere she should be listed, with or without a picture!
I'm 63 years old and lived in Shenandoah all my life."
__________________________________
Carol Appollo. 1953-1957. Cooper High School Shenandoah PA
The sister. real and living.
My mother knew her and talked with her about 15 years ago about the "one lost to her" as she described her lost sister. Discussion took place in Frackville. They were neighbors then.

go to Classmates.com type in COOPER HS

Tokyo Shemp said...

It looks like there was a sister, but why would she sign up at Democratic Underground and write the filth she did? I think it's natural to doubt wabansia was Annette's sister. But either way, that's bizarre.

Someone faking being a sister to troll someone after they died? Bizarre.

A real sister talking trash about Annette? That would be even stranger. She was talking about her family being from Halliburton. She had an American eagle for her avatar. It sounded like that typical queer dialogue at DU concerning freepers this and that. While I lean left, I definitely think certain things are scripted, or co-opted is the better word. DU is not lefty or progressive. They are similar to the Moulitsas phenomenon of fake leftiness. Wabansis was a caricature of a righty. Why didn't DU delete her filthy accusations? That was bizarre too. DU allowed unsubstantiated attacks made against a dead woman, yet no one can show why Annette was originally banned. Her so-called transgressions have been deleted. Same thing happened to me. I was there in 2007. No one can go aha, this is why you were banned, you wrote this, etc. et al and so forth....

Now we see some asshat showing up on the original post I made here at DFQ titled Death by Internet. It's utterly convoluted to the point of pointless. Someone's accusing Annette of having conned him out of big money. He said something about the Patriot Act and people killed. It was sounding like some goofy Film Noir script not a good one.

Annette was a regular guy just like Greta Garbo was a regular guy actress. People are taking this way too seriously. Trashing a dead person who wasn't a public person is a nasty thing to do. Especially when there is never any proof or even a hint of anyone giving a f*ck.

We're talking trolls 101.

The real sister should step forward. People should get the local papers involved. That's the only way to get to the bottom of this. You local people, chill out for one thing and try to show some decency. Secondly, get some local paper to interview this sister and see if she wrote as Wabansia. I'd like to know if that was her sister. I honestly can't say what I think about that. I definitely don't believe the dirt that has been flung at Annette. That's the craziest part of all this. I can relate. Some of us bloggers get the shit beaten out of us by the zeitgeist. That's all I've been saying about Annette. She didn't deserve to be banned. She didn't deserve the attacks on herself after death. She doesn't deserve her real life being dragged into any of this. But now that it is, I want real newspapers with the story, not anonymous assholes with no proof and who have no qualms spitting on graves of people who can't defend themselves.

Bravemed said...

Even with will requests to not publish a death notice. Her death would be recorded by social Security, which is public record AND a suicide would be mentioned somewhere.

Tokyo Shemp said...

I don't think it really matters to know for sure how her life ended. It wasn't foul play. While I don't think people should take their own lives, I can respect that there are varying degrees of accepting it and not. I tend to think her situation was about a self-inflicted case of euthanasia. Ever get an extremely bad toothache which will not go away unless a tooth is removed? It appears Annette was suffering some serious physical ailments, and that's what led her to take her own life. In that light, what she did wasn't so bad. I don't mind not knowing how her life ended for sure. It's really none of our business. By writing on Annette, my motives were two-fold. I was interested in how the internet can influence behaviour. And of course one of my schticks is about exposing how undemocratic the internet is, the opposite of what Wars for Democracy were supposed to be about, leaving the racist nature of those times to the side. When I mention the Political Revolutions, I am talking about in principle. I guess I had a third motive. I wanted to stick up for people trolling on a dead woman who had pure motives and honesty as a blogger. Annette Appollo was cool beans.

Barbara V said...

Yes, she was 'cool as beans'. I knew her from the Writers Cafe and loved her book "Last One Home". Yes, she could be snappy and at times somewhat beligerent, but, she always spoke nicely to me and even sent me exerpts from a second book she was writing. I always kept up on her blog, not from the democratic underground but her blog 'annetteappollo', I'm sorry someone took that down, would love to reread some of her posts. I wonder how we can get that up again if that is possible... I loved her and miss her blogs.....And that sister of hers ought to be ashamed, you don't speak ill of the dead! Appears to me that there must have been some kind of jealousy going on there.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Hi Barbara, thanks for your contribution.

There was someone named Zinger who showed up on my original diary on Annette, but his blogger profile doesn't lead anywhere. He was the one hosting her website. I'm not sure how you could get in contact with him.

Her blog up to October 10th, 2007 is still available through archive.org.

Unknown said...

My name is Suzanne and I was the asst manager at one of the properties Ms Appollo lived at. I have not been at that particular property since 2005 but I knew her well. While she may have rubbed some folks the wrong way with her demeanor, she was always very sweet to me. She took me out to lunch quite a few times....she loved Thai food and turned me on to it. I was one of the only people she allowed into her apartment and often helped her with groceries and/or deliveries (everyone else was scared of her....she only needed a hug). Despite what people think of her, I adored her and I am so sad to have heard about this so many years later. Rest in peace Ms Appollo, you may have pissed off some people but you made me laugh and you made me smile!

Tokyo Shemp said...

Hi Suzanne,

Thanks for the comment.

Imho, it's the nature of the internet that explains a lot of this. If we had a dollar for every time someone's blogged, "You'd never say that to my face," we'd be rich.

We're not going to get along with everyone. Like yourself, I think Annette and I would have gotten along very well.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of heated talk, but unfortunately too many don't know when to stop. It was disgusting how Ms. Appollo was trolled on for simply expressing her freedom of speech. From what I recall, nearly everything she wrote made a lot of sense.