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

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Greatest Meltdown in Internet History

This dude Steven Hertzberg was Director of the Election Science Institute. He was heavily involved in the whitewashing of problems with electronic voting machines. Robert Hertzberg, I believe his brother, was one of the first politicians to sponsor a bill for the funding of such machines. They were to be the answer to the 2000 fiasco that took place in Florida. What most people don't know is that Steven was also a top dog blogger for a nutjob website run by an obvious internet fake named Fintan Dunne.

Days ago, I dared donkeytale to say things to my face I didn't think he'd have the guts to. He responded with some wisdom. That is an overused cliche found on the blogosphere, that many write things they would never say in person. There is some truth to that, but my use of the cliche momentarily turned me into a stooge of a keyboard commando tough guy. Donkeytale said he'd meet me for a duel. That was a good one, very funny.

Steven was posting as Navari at a disinfo dump named Break for News. At the peak of his bravado, he was turning the joint into a cult. He co-opted a Donald Rumsfeld phrase and turned it into a call for Full Spectrum Liberty. From his vanity website, "Full Spectrum Liberty: A global collaboration to develop a system of liberty so pervasive, so ingrained into the psyche of each individual, that no government, commercial entity or other person may compromise it."

For the whole scoop on this guy, you can check out this thread. For now, check out his meltdown. Fintan Dunne deleted it, but I saved it while it was still accessible through google cache.





Pretty funny stuff indeed.

5 comments:

Tokyo Shemp said...

One of the big schticks of the Fintan Dunne cult is the astroturf that there is no anthropogenic global warming, or that it isn't significant.

They won't be happy that a scientist on their side has defected. They will never discuss serious talks going on by Frankenscientists pertaining to geoengineering. I don't visit that dive anymore. I believe in the hypothesis that once a nail is driven in, there's no need to keep hammering. I do like to repeat interesting tidbits that pop back into my head. Did ye know that Fintan Dunne once decoded an alien language? That's the ticket!

Noted anti-global-warming scientist reverses course


I thought perhaps this blog wasn't getting many readers. Yesterday I noticed blogger is now providing stats. That's cool. Unfortunately, I don't see any numbers for reader hits just page views. I'll share some of that info. The stats start from May to the present.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Here are some stats.

There were 2,991 views last month. Certain older stories are still drawing in folks. The "Theresa Duncan Story Solved" leads that pack. But others, e.g. on Michael Rivero and Annette Appollo. are also drawing in people.

Traffic Sources

Most of the action is deriving from google. Some traffic is coming in via image searches. Others through direct links at various forums. Even a story like I wrote up on Peg Entwistle has led to some new readers. For all of blogger's limitations, it has its advantages. People are plugging in search words such as Peg Entwistle or Susan Polk and ending up here.

Ha, someone linked to DFQ2 from DU. He or she wrote what a coincidence. The original entry was made by Bob the Drummer. What's the coincidence? A lot of people have the name Bob. Bob the Drummer has over a thousand posts, and I'm not about to check out whether it's the same Bob. I doubt it, since his avatar at the moment is a cross. Or maybe it's being implied that anyone who plays gadfly on a specific topic must be a sock puppet. That happened when the Michael Connell hoax was being spinned. All of a sudden I was creeksneakers2, AnonymousArmy, and troubleinwinter. That's the ticket.

I'm finding a lot of nuggets in these blogger stats. Sorry I can't share them all. It would take forever.

I'll share more at a future time.

Tokyo Shemp said...

Ok, a bit more now before I log off.

In the last two hours, there have been 21 page views. Five have viewed the Peg Entwistle entry, four of Bob's one on exploitation of youth, four of the Rivero Exposed as Right Woos left Jew Hater, two of organised disinfo covering up the octopus, and one view of various other entries.

I signed up at one of the referring blogs but have to wait to be ok'd to post. It concerned the Annette Appollo story and my linking Democratic Underground directly to the triangulating DLC. Most people there felt I did a good job. I've signed up, because two people kind of digged into me concerning things I've written about Brad Friedman and Tinoire. As usual there was no debunking of the content provided. If they ok my membership, I'll reveal which one it is. I like how they say no trolling, disparaging comments, etc. are allowed. I don't use sock puppets, and I always reveal where I have posted. I have nothing to hide.

I hope some of these lurkers will decide to add comments to DFQ2. I don't bite. I play fair. Always have.

Freedom Is Sacred said...

This is interesting. I'm just getting to know your blog. I am not particularly interested in most of the DemRep name-politics and I'm acrophobic about all the acronymical little orgs, but the troll-fighting and blog-dueling that got out of hand over in my neck of the woods caused me to come up with a combined video-blog.

I was getting directly threatened by "dossier" trolls, one of whom actually called a person's grandmother in a nursing home at one point, and I am not speaking here of the pain in my own family from the same stalker.

One of the milder things they began doing was posting my legal name with all kinds of obscene and defamatory filth while sending emails to a few people claiming to be me. I considered the legal-demand route, but of course that kind of troll-gang can just move around and force me to spend my life chasing them, so I decided to out-seo them with my own name, (that is why I put it in the header of my blog, not for ego) and put myself right in my videos so people know who I am and can dismiss the junk that the trolls were sending around.

I don't see many people doing this. There are bloggers and there are youtubers, but not that many combining the two.

Now that I am getting the hang of this, and my fight with trolls has turned into a larger look at a real-world stalker problem, it seems worthwhile.

I would like to invite you, soc, and anyone else, to go post links in my blog whenever you have a thread on anything even distantly related to Freedom-Is-Sacred's theme. Traffic begets traffic, after all, (mine is very low, no braging here) and it is good to pull interested readers into a coherent flow.

The best good to come of it would be to actually put a dent in the horrible fascism that seems to be seeping out of every wing and tail-feather of the political world right now. That is what I am trying to do.

Tokyo Shemp said...

My advice is stay away from any websites that are hostile or do not offer fair moderating.

Debate is good. The right to be left alone is good too. I wish you well in figuring out how to block those people out of your mind. It can be done. Remember, it is the reader who decides, and most people will shut off noise. If you love blogging, then put together your schtick the best you can and sleep well at night. If the internet is making you sad, then quit. It's that simple.