The title is just me selling out and utilising the click bait schtick. There's nothing special about me. Nonetheless, one thing I have consistently spewed out has been the idea there is a prevalence of paid fakes on the internet. Donkeytale is correct such actors have always been amongst the regular guys.
We have recently been discussing the infamous shadowthief supertroll who he trollbusted as Veronika the Viking at a now defunct website called Political Flesh Feast. For years his name would pop up in the form of meta, at Marisacat's and of course with myself showing up years later allegedly with no context.
No, I get the context all right. I am just missing the shadowy details.
I may have not proven Shadowthief has been a military troll, but a looksie at the new Snowden stuff confirms such people exist.
Our buddy Jack Werner covered him for a Swedish paper named Metro:
Who is Veronika?
So there you have it. Blogging Curmudgeon/Shadowthief/Veronika were one and the same. However, we still do not know what that person's real name is. We do not know if he did this for laughs, attention or that kind of motive, or if he was the proverbial spook. Neither can be ruled out. We are basically chasing the shadows of a username called Shadowthief.
Muslims are definitely a huge target for internet cointelpro. I believe one of the worst sins of Greenwald and The Intercept has been their giving the impression that is mostly what is going on here. Or that is the result. Like donkeytale says, it may not be my intention, but my writing too much on this stuff could instill paranoia and actually work to the advantage of the Military-Industrial Complex.
Quakers have been targeted. No one is off-limits. Anarchists are watched. Right wing liberty fighters into conspiracy theories are definitely targeted. It's not just about Muslims and the "War on Terror" worldview of terrorism as depicted by mainstream news. That is the superficial which blocks reform and the eventual dismantling of the spy apparatus.
There are obvious deal breakers. A historic one was slavery. There was prohibition, censorship, the list goes on. The problem is that social reproduction includes oppression. As a plant renews itself in Spring, the old oppressive experiences are transformed into new ones all in support of status quo power. One deal breaker we currently face is living in an Orwellian society. This will not stand!
This is a cat out of the bag situation. This is Bob Marley's none of them can stop the time.
I am not saying I have any answers. But I do know anyone can read:
BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE SUPPORT FOR JTRIG’S EFFECTS AND ONLINE HUMINT OPERATIONS (click on this for the document)
They can take another look at the original and famous JTRIG document and wonder, "Wtf do they mean by conspiracy stories?"
It's weird stuff and no longer top secret. It has not just been about the rantings of kooks saying we are being played, that the internet is rigged.
Donkeytale and myself both understand. But like with buddhism, our dear, sweet, gentle, gracious readers, it's on you to do your own homework. Some things are very difficult, if not impossible, to put into words.
Donkeytale should like the above screenshot. One of the words I noticed him using effectively was herding. And there it is.
One other complaint I recall is that they aren't everywhere. Why would they care about this tiny blog?
My answer is you'd be surprised what can be accomplished with a big budget and non-disclosure agreements.
The people involved can't separate the reality of the intrusion from their patriotic beliefs. They think what they are doing is moral and necessary, from the jackass who derails threads to the fatfuckface who infiltrated the Quakers.
Snowden is what he is, like Assange. Julian is one of ours, however. He had his own blog and was a regular guy. Snowden was a kid who joined the CIA what have you because he thought it was the right thing to do. Cops think they are doing the right thing when they are crushing people's legs with batons or punching a dude while lying about some sort of resisting arrest. Darren Wilson thought he was doing the right thing in real time. This keeps happening over and over again because there is no hot stove, don't touch schtick in place for cops.
It can be frustrating to be ahead of one's time and end up with a debilitating cynicism.
We can hope that in time everything will come out in the wash. We need to set the structure in place for future generations to take control of the internet. Otherwise, let's just rename Amerikkka as Oceania and infotain ourselves for eternity in a mess of a social reality.
Related link: I haven't read this yet but have a sneaking suspicion it is relevant.
"First, lying corrupts the most important quality of my being human: my ability to make free, rational choices. Second, my lies rob others of their freedom to choose ..."
I'll end by noting that I lost this link. I googled the quote and what do you know, weird websites have been stealing this person's content like "phil elkins" or wtf.
I added Santa Clara University and was able to retrieve the real deal. I read the first couple paragraphs and it is good stuff. It's an entertaining read, infotainment as you may refer to it, but it is on a higher plane. That's what I think. People should strive for pureness. There is nothing more noble than seeking truth.
I don't think it's a crime if it's also fun.
I'll end by noting that I lost this link. I googled the quote and what do you know, weird websites have been stealing this person's content like "phil elkins" or wtf.
I added Santa Clara University and was able to retrieve the real deal. I read the first couple paragraphs and it is good stuff. It's an entertaining read, infotainment as you may refer to it, but it is on a higher plane. That's what I think. People should strive for pureness. There is nothing more noble than seeking truth.
I don't think it's a crime if it's also fun.
77 comments:
The US government is fundamentally an inert entity, a blank slate. It consists of laws and institutions, elected and appointed officials. Hired flunkies, such as cops.
But, of course what happens, and this goes without saying it is so obvious, the "government" has no vested interest in anything.
It becomes invested with interest by those whose interest it serves.
This is why blaming the government for repression misses the point. The blame must go to those whose interest the government serves.
Google doesnt serve the Government's interest in the fundamental sense.
The government serves google's interest.
The MIC (which is private enterprise) doesn't serve the military's interest. The military serves the MIC.
Ultimately, the danger is that government will continue to loose the ability to distinguish itself in any way shape or even form from the private interests that it serves.
That is the point of no return for "we the sheeple."
That is the point of he Medium is the Conspiracy."
There is no longer a point of return.
The internet is crawling with unpaid fakes who speak in unison because they have been herded.
Russia has a veritable army of paid fakes online because in their system the government controls and private enterprise is subordinate to Putin. They work for him.
This Russian army of paid fakes is well known worldwide. You can't keep such a large enterprise secret. If one existed in the US it too would be revealed.
In our system, the large army consists of volunteers and they have no idea or concern even that their thoughts and efforts are circumscribed. The fakes don't even know they are fake. It isn't a conspiracy because they are not even connected in a way that can be proven. The conspiracy is hardwired into the means of communication. The thoughts communicated are freely provided.
This is the Orwellian essence of the internets. This is the meaning of your diagram.
It will take a lot more to convince me that Snowden is a regular guy.
Manning, for sure. Regular g...uyrl.
Assange, regular guy.
Greenwald. Bought and paid for, yes perhaps after the fact.
Snowden, bought and paid for perhaps before but definitely after the fact.
His "revelations" certainly have contributed to the knowledge of government intrusion (which was already known anyway but the documents providing the stark evidence are still valuable).
But I cannot bring myself to trust him anymore than I can throw Omidyar across the pile of gold in his bank account. Sorry, I remain totally skeptical on that point. Yes, Snowden too has been circumscribed and has willingly allowed himself to become, if he wasn't from the beginning.
Ditto, Greenvault.
And unlike both Manning and Assange, who remain locked up.
The current state of affairs in Greece is a case in point. The main objective of the EU (AKA Germany and its vassal states) is to suppress and squash the democratically elected hard left government of Greece.
They need to regain control of their vassal first and then they will come to the "rescue" of the people second.
Everything else is window dressing. The only way forward for both Syriza and Greece is to vote no and leave the Euro zone. This will be a huge win for Russia, who could use a win right now.
At the point of no return the reactionary German PTB will concede because they are out of options.
The same will occur in the US. The PTB will do whatever it takes to squash Bernie.
It cannot be overstated that Bernie's only relevant in the discussion and a threat because he is operating within the Democratic Party. My God how prescient was I with that anti-3rd party schtick.
In fact, that is how I came to be Frtitzcat by proclaiming the absolute necessity for changing the party first and then all else would follow. The two party system is also a government instituion. It is a blank slate awaiting investment by the factions within it.
The Green Party is a cowardly cop out. Pyrrhiod. A distraction. For my troubles of being accurate the dismal Marisacat branded me a political op. What a fool.
Too bad she is dead or insane and not aware to see the Bernie phenomenon rendering her and her clique's millions of words of cynical blather not just meaningless but 100% wrong and in reactionary support of the PTB.
Ironically, Marisacat was the winger political operative, if inadvertently so.
We are like Jordan and Pippen. When you repost The Conspiracy Is the Medium, we will switch personas like a Bergman movie. Or maybe we are like Jae Crowder and Marcus Smart. We may not be all-stars yet, but we are showing a lot of grit with a high ceiling, emphasis on high.
People are recommended to read The Power Elite by Mills. I think that's the one. It's been so long ago, but I remember the gist of his schtick. His is an interesting story. He was not a regular guy at first. He used to get paid to do government sponsored studies. This goes back to historic debates and why I often repeat myself. There was positivism versus the counter-enlightenment. Obviously science and so-called progress won out. Only Bohemians or those with similar characteristics ever mention this shite. When's the last time someone said luddite or Jean-Jacques Rousseau?
Anyway, Mills quit that garbage and went old-school philosophical hard core academia. He was a form of Plato and Socrates telling it like it is.
Just to toss out some Mills. He said the conspiracies are to be found in the institutions. He said there was an Iron Triangle in which power mongers could rotate from any number of positions. Back in the day Magic Johnson shocked the world from playing point guard and center. The versatile guys are the new people being serviced by the NBA institution. The old-school center represents the Confederate flag or something. I don't know. Analogies are tricky.
The three categories are executive office, military, and corporate. And it obviously goes on precisely like C. Wright Mills described. Rumsfeld made big bucks off of aspartame. I am too tired to come up with a lot of filler for this response. It is kind of both though the institution and the people they serve. I'm referring to your point of no return idea. Fascism is when military fuses with corporate. That was Hitler.
I was worried I messed up calling Snowden a regular guy based on your comment, but I didn't.
Snowden is what he is, like Assange. Julian is one of ours, however. He had his own blog and was a regular guy. Snowden was a kid who joined the CIA what have you because he thought it was the right thing to do. Cops think they are doing the right thing when they are crushing people's legs with batons or punching a dude while lying about some sort of resisting arrest. Darren Wilson thought he was doing the right thing in real time. This keeps happening over and over again because there is no hot stove, don't touch schtick in place for cops.
Julian is the regular guy. Snowden I suppose was a regular guy before joining the Spy Factory. I worked a little in between teaching at a mortgage company. There was one guy who told me he was applying to them. We hashed it out quite a bit. I tried to warn him. He obviously was nice with morals.
I guess Snowden is a regular guy who went over the edge into bought and sold.
But he did escape it. I don't see any conspiracy in that. I think he did what he did based on high principles. What he couldn't prevent were his flaws. In his mind, Greenwald was the one to go with. Is Seymour Hersh the ultimate paid fake. I don't think so. And he sill has balls. The wrong people got the data. Wikileaks would have been the one to go perhaps, but even that got infiltrated. Assange took a liking to some kid and that kid turned out to be a rat. But again, I'm tired. This is work! That's why I want it to be fun or it's not worth it. And if we are not having fun, we could really be hurting fragile people out their with excessive cynicism. Who wants to hurt people? It happens. We are human. Not everyone can be Ned Flanders. The road to a good blog schtick can be derailed. I had potential. But at the time I was poor and did not do what I should have to be ready. Obviously, if I had got my butt down to Baltimore in time, there would have been no default and I really would have been on top of the zeitgeist.
You were prescient about third parties. It was an obvious call. I remember John Anderson hurting Carter. Nader is the famous one.It worked with Teddy Roosevelt, no? I am bad with details. But once was a fluke.
I worry too that Bernie is in for a beating. I never understood why Bill Bradley didn't get the nomination or even McCain over Bush. I can't believe Bush was re-elected. I guess McCain is explainable. He was caught on video a number of times having anger issues. Maybe folks were worried about his being a pow fucked up his wiring.
I do think about the politics within the parties. McGovern is probably the gold standard for winning the nomination. He got crushed in the finals like the Celtics against LeBron in round one.
Though I saw Bernie is picking up the pace. He could get a lot of libertarian votes. A lot of young people were brainwashed that liberalism means soft. And that's definitely the case with DINOs always capitulating to the right of center.
Bernie Sanders is actually a very smart, regular guy. I hear he is bad on Israel. He will have trouble with the FakeLeft vote. But then again he was a socialist elected as a senator. Vermont is special, progressive, but that's still impressive.
You talk of minorities becoming the majority. We have always known the votes are out there. I think one time I did some Nate Silver basic mathematics and the winner of the oval office actually only got 19% of registered voters. I would need to fact check this. It seems the turnouts can be embarrassingly low. So I do believe the votes are out there. But he will need a lot of free help, young people to make phone calls and canvass or however that's done. Ron Paul had amazing success with the internet until the weird stuff emerged. I think Sanders only weird thing is writing a porn play. I forget.
Marisa was the one or maybe she backed someone saying you were Petey at DKos. It seemed to make sense because he was all over the anti-third party schtick.
I agree now with one thing you said a long time ago that you're not really that similar. I remember those women said you were stalking them. Maybe that was Neal Rauhauser socially engineering something.
What truly sucked was Susan Something deleting all her posts on the first or second entries on this blog. It makes me look like an idiot talking to myself. Dave's sister showed up here too. Abbeysbooks. Dave's sister had no problem with my calling it what it is. It was somewhat stealing a milieu. Some troll said I was robbing a grave or something bad. I did ponder a bit whether it was a morally wrong name for the blog. Dave was the best. He was one of us. I am fairly sure if he had lived, today he would be Mayor of New York or something fun. Man, did he ever go after those right wing fucker media people in the NY/NJ area. It was awesome reading. It's a shame he was basically murdered by those DKOS political operatives.
In Bernie's defense, it is a big world. Palestine needs Israel to back the F off. I saw disinfo that said Sanders voted for a resolution defending Israel,. But they are lying c***s (British word). He didn't go near it. So some group out there is worried about him to some extent to disseminate bullshit.
I don't usually read Salon because it's garbage, but I stumbled onto two articles on Bernie Sanders, both making us look prescient.
The Bernie Sanders smear campaign has begun
The real reasons Bernie Sanders is transforming the election: Here’s why he galvanizes the left
I suspect DFQ2 is morphing into a Marisacat milieu. It can't be said we are stealing it, for it seems to have been abandoned.
So perhaps this place is gonna be meta, meta, blah, blah bluh blah, then in Walter Cronkite voice... in today's news, blah blah, then after 85% copy paste news, in meta blah blah and so on and so on and so on.
I found pffugee at archive dot org. Just like with PFF, it is incomplete. And even if you find an entry you'd like to see again or for the first time, when you hit on the read more part, you get the message, sorry, we are overrated for capturing url's and your material is poof gone, sucker.
This isn't blatant schtick theft? The author writes that Claire McCaskill has been deployed to attack Bernard, to say that he's simply putting on a deja vu of Ron Paul, that there's no there, there.
“Well, you know, Rand Paul’s father got massive crowds, Ron Paul,” she said. “He got the same size crowds. Pat Buchanan got massive crowds. It’s not unusual for someone who has an extreme message to have a following.” Ooooh, gotcha: Big crowds mean you’re an extremist....
Ooooohh? la la? That's my schtick!
This is quite bizarre how my schtick is simply lifted with no citation. Reminds me of Mandy Nagy and Breitbart stealing my destiny.
Its fallacious, clumsy logic seems more suited for the YouTube comments section: You know who else got big crowds? Hitler.
Though with all due respect, I stole the Hitler schtick from Jerry Lewis in King of Comedy when he improvised, "Hitler made a mistake." DeNiro had said, "I made a mistake."
"Bernie Sanders Catching Up to Hillary Clinton in Iowa"
http://time.com/3943994/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-iowa/
The question: Is Bernie Sanders the Atlanta Hawks or the Golden State Warriors?
Sanders is showing a great capacity to go on runs while stopping the opponent on the other end of the court. He has the offense of LeBron James with the defense of a Ben Wallace.
But is he injury prone? Will his lack of presidential playoff experience hurt his chances in the semifinals?
The Eastern Conference is weak except for LeBron Clinton.
The Pope also draws big crowds. Oh wait.....he's a lefty too.
To be fair, PFF, FSZ and Pffugee were also using the same formula as MCats, but in the soapblox format.
However, we are now doing meta social history, which makes it more academic-like. We aren't doing take-a-crapp-on-people-to-give-us-a-false-sense-of-superiourity meta. I never did that, I specialised in the exact aspects that we are, mining the social significance. Well, maybe I did take a dump on Pyrrho...but it was a well-reasoned piece of excrement and on target, which makes all the difference. Mariscat just pulled shiite out her fat ass.
OK, I recall reading the Swedish Metro piece about Shadowthief but I saw a link to a followup that I hadn't read.
Jack found ST......in Berkeley.....where everybody said he was....working at the school district library. It was what it was.
And it was ST himself, who when confronted, put forth the idea that he was working for some top secret military internet spy ring experiment.....which also fits his persona a minute web presence.
My take has long been that ST was inventing a new way of lierary fiction with his obviously made up schtick. It always struck me as made up. Towards the end of FSZ he was into restoring a classic sail boat down at the Berkely marina and would drop a lot of unsalty sailor talk and provide details, although none too specific about how much time and money he put into this pet project.
He also appeared as Veronica on some internet porn sites and appeared to have made good money helping guys get their rocks off with his suggestive comments.
This too fits a mould. I sometimes lurk on a Green Bay Packer site during the season. The threads are pretty good. Wisconsin sports fans are similar to New England, well-educated, funny and trending negative whenever the teeniest bit of adversity strikes.
Anyway a few years ago there was a chick who posted regularly, said she was stationed in Afghanistan and then Germany. All the guys came onto her respectfully but obviously.
Somehow it was determined that she was a he and not in the military at all, but a closeted or latent tranny who got his rocks off turning on straight guys.
She got banned but then came back several times as different chicks continuing to be banned when people noticed similar comment patterns and tics.
Finally, he came in as a guy, admitting that he was gay but he really loved the Packers and he was so sorry, please please give him another chance, etc. and he became accepted, although as a fringe member, mostly ignored by those in the know but no one objected to his presence after that.
Oh and congrats to Dallas for picking up DeAndre Jordan. That is the biggest NBA news item of the Summer. I doubt anything will top that. The Clippers are now in hot water. Doc Rivers will probably step down at some point or be fired. I doubt that happens this year.
I am happy with Ainge's slow and steady course. The C's are still being processed through test tubes. They are not ready to simply add on one final piece.
I have had to stop reading Celtics forums completely. The majority of posters are assholes who need to get a grip. Why watch the fricken games if you're rooting for losses? Why make a million basketball posts about your team if it's always about being on a treadmill and negativity?
Ainge is obviously modeling the C's off of Houston. Put together everything else and hopefully you get lucky with drafting or a strategic trade/signing.
I like the Amir Johnson signing. He is doable for a center. I hope Jordan Mickey makes the team. He too can block shots. I am hopeful Olynyk will have a good year. I am hoping Jared Sullinger is traded. Though he has a new schtick where he absorbs the negativity and uses it as incentive to prove people wrong.
He has the skills. But if he can't figure out this isn't golf where you can be fifty pounds overweight, chain smoke on the course, and still win the tournament, he is deluded. A fat Sullinger simply doesn't fit into the Celtics anymore. He needs to lose the weight or he's done in Boston. It's his last year of the contract. Boston will have no qualms about benching him if he still sucks and no one else wants him.
The salary cap goes up for everyone the next year or two, but the C's could now get rid of $50 million next year.
Ainge retained flexibility while giving this roster a chance at approaching 50 wins.
So the plan is to get a better seed to have a better playoffs and any kind of draft positioning will have to be a result of Brooklyn fading. The Dallas pick obviously just lost a lot of value. DeAndre is good. If Dirk has anything left in the tank, the Mavs could be back in business. Jordan is old-school. Hopefully for youse guys he is practicing his free throws. That's about the only hole in his game.
And now we see that there are limitations to how much players love Doc Rivers.
Haha! They added 52-year-old Paul Pierce, now in his 32nd year of pro hoops. They lost DeAndre.
It could get very ugly for the Clippers.
The Mavs signed Jordan, which I believe is the biggest free
agent signing to date by another team. He took less money to leave a better team and come home, where he will be a bigger fish in a small pond that now has lost Monta Ellis and Tyson Chandler.
And Dirk is decrepit. The SI.com rates this A+, the likely best free agent pick-up to occur at least until Aldridge also comes home to Texas and signs with San Antonio.
Well down the page in the fine print we learn that the washed up point guard who shall remain nameless signed a $10 million 1 year deal with the looser Sacramento Kings.
SI.com rates that move an F.
I see we are posting simulataneously. LOL.
The Mavericks still do not have the look of a serious contender, although without Jordan and perhaps one more top player they are consigned to the lottery next year and Cuban doesn't value the NBA draft enough to fall that far while Dirk the Decrepit is still lacing up his sneakers.
This could be the year of the Bern. It all sets up. People are sick of being kicked around by the rich, not so much that that will change anytime soon but there can be some opportunities to kick back at teh GOP at least. No one likes Hilary any more than they like Bush. The remainder of the GOP clowns have no chance. A Sanders v Trump finale would be worth all the tea in China.
Bernie can seal the deal with strong persistent outreach to the black and Latino communities. Easier said then done given he has made few connections over the last several decades but he has to pull this off in order to have a chance.
I'm convinced if he wins the nom he will win the White House. The Dems are going to win, especially if Obama moves keep breaking positively and his ratings stay above 50%.
I disagree somewhat about the Clippers. They still have several good players and the big man, especially one who can't make his free frows has been thoroughly exposed by Golden State. Yes, they will need someone to step up.
I also disagree with you somewhat about Rivers. He's not the second coming of John Wooden but the coach isn't the issue in LA. There is something fundamental missing inside the Clips' players hearts or maybe its a few good pieces coming off the bench are needed. GS proves that a deep bench is critical in the clutch.
Their stars can't seem to make the transition to true champions, although they are playing well from what little I see.
Griffin improved his game alot this year, if he keeps improving and they add a a serviceable extra piece or two, say a rebounder who can also shoot and play tight man to man defense, they will likely remain a much better team than either Dallas or Boston for the foreseeable future, unless either the Mavs or Celts pull another miracle free agent signing out of the hat that also clicks, which are big "ifs".
Yes, we are on at the same time proving we are not the same person, although a Bergman-styled persona swap could fuel future speculation by "Phil Elkins."
I have errands to run, but I do read all your posts. I was sad that Pffugee ended and that you also gave up on El Guardanoian.
I will have to respond later to your posts and any others that follow.
I have a friend in real life who I share stuff. She is very nice with great morals, so no worries there. Even when she would advise me to ignore you, she did admit you were usually a fun read.
I will never out you no matter what. You can probably imagine how great a feeling it is to know the person on the other end is not involved in some kind of racket.
I repeat what I do because it's extremely important for me to strive for ethics. There's not much we can control in this world without feeling like assholes or doing "liberal" appeasement stunts to suffocate feelings of guilt.
I was terrified when outed and shamed by very disgusting people. I got over it. I am stronger for the experience. For the time I was in a rut for writing, the last year or two, I basically went for Twitter as my basic writing outlet, my youtube channel, and basketball.
Recently I have been shooting the shit with someone at Youtube. It's not easy to find. It's on a specific movie. It's like we are doing here but without any audience.
Yesterday in one hour about 200 page views were hit. I don't know if that was from spam, some crawler robot, or to use your phrase, wtf.
Blogger doesn't log ip visits. On most other places they can see exactly where we are coming from.
If I am being targeted by Snowden document people, they know where I amfrom say looking at ip's on the youtube videos I linked to. Youtube is Google.
I recall Dick Costolo being cool trying to fight for our rights against spy factory intrusion. He was a regular guy, a stand-up comic, though I've never seen it or read about it. Must make mental note to see if Dickie C. has been youtubed.
Now he is a very rich man. He is like an NBA player going from rags to riches. I am assuming he came from a regular guy background. I don't know why he interests me. Perhaps I want to sociologically keep tabs on him. If state power thinks they can use frankensteinian social sciences to herd and manipulate/file/entrap us, maybe the offer can be returned. It is similar to the idea of a reverse the curse.
It's like how trying not to think of pain does the opposite. Maybe we are supposed to confront all legitimation crises in American society.
Max Weber said that ideas can change the world. There is the chance that the internet can be a positive steering device for social change. Though things do very much suck. You just can't quit until the fat lady sings.
I don't think Jack actually confirmed shadowthief was from Berkeley. I don't remember any follow up, but maybe there was. You think a guy like that would show his ip, someone you admit was a Hall of Fame troll? I need proof. I think that was a Tor node only giving the impression he was located in Berkeley, California. Extraordinary footnotes deserve extraordinary proof.
Maybe it was literary fiction. There was a guy at Debate Both Sides who got busted doing that. He played out some weird sob story. Of course he was another fake hot chick. He got busted. He said he didn't think much would come of it, but that it took a life of its own. He said he simply wanted to practice creative writing.
On the other hand, shadowthief/blogging curmudgeon was not a minute internet presence. He could have been a military troll herding the malcontents from Daily Kos. DKos used to rule. It was fake leftist as you well know, but Fox would call them commies. Maybe shadowthief was running a disinfo cell out of GCHQ. Maybe the American spies work over the Brits. Maybe if Snowden had leaked to someone with integrity and balls, we'd know more.
Bill Bellichick never stuck it out with anyone. He'll waive Tom Brady the first moment it becomes clear he has become a bum and the run is over.
Sacramento is a funny team. There seems to be a lot of drama between the coach and their center. Dallas is still missing something. They need a guard. Danny has a bunch of them.
The Clippers are done. Doc Rivers is one of the worst GM's in the league. He is one or two injuries away from being worse than Brooklyn. Even if Paul and Griffin go nuts out of their minds, they have no rim protection. They are slow, so they can't play small ball. They are small. And I know Pierce put up some clutch shots, but he too is decrepit.
I wonder what the story is between Jordan and Doc. That seems out of left field. Doc kind of created him. I give Doc credit for "developing" DeAndre.
Doc the coach is okay. He is either average to very good depending on opinions. As for his GM work, it has been nothing special. I think you are underestimating the need for a big even if they can't hit free throws. The Clippers are weak now. Marcus Smart wasn't so great on offense, but he was remarkable on defense. Olynyk gets ragged on, but his plus-minus is always one of the best.
Griffin is not known for defense and is injury prone. Chris Paul is always a question mark for health and now he is starting the back nine.
Golden State could repeat. San Antonio is now the big player. We are forgetting about their pickup of I think Aldridge? I am bad at spelling. Duncan should be decrepit but seems to keep producing.
Right now they are the two best with Cleveland. All other teams are big question marks unless they shut up doubts on the court.
Free agency is still early. Teams like Dallas are going to want to tinker with this newfound momentum. They need a guard.
On paper it should be a repeat of this year's Finals. But San Antonio made a big move too. Dallas still needs to do stuff to have a chance at the top level.
I think most teams are treading water. I think only San Antonio, Cleveland, and Golden State are real threats. But that can change. People can emerge who we never heard of. The Celtics have the outside chance of being a top team. It would be the system rather than two or three players basically propping up so-called contenders.
The Knicks added some pieces, but they will be missing the Celtics' chemistry.
Most basketball fans and writers overthink things. Tanking is for losers. I am not saying the Celtics are going to contend for the title. They could win 50 games and catch lightning at the right time. Dallas could, if they tighten what they've started. GS looks tough, but they seem vulnerable in some areas. Cleveland looks better than they are because of the Eastern Conference. Love is injury prone. That tea did come together faster than expected. They should on paper win the title like when Steinbrenner used to purchase them.
I despise people who keep talking about tanking and the draft. I don't get the point of ripping out your guts over wins which is the objective. A team out of nowhere sneaks into the playoffs. The Celtics. Now it is a year later ad the C's have added a few above average pieces. They got rid of Rondo and Green who were too set in their ways. Sullinger is the next one out the door. He is going to be feast or famine. He will be one of the C's best players or he is gone. It's put up or shut up time for the guy who is still overweight going into his fourth year.
I would like nothing more than Bernie Sanders as Mr. President. He's still down some major points. Is it too early for Nate Silver telling us what will happen. Bernie is in a clear second place position. I wonder where fakeleft is on this. You'd think he'd go finally, a Democrat I can vote for. But I bet he is pimping for Jill Stein or some Russia Today endorsed candidate.
Not my best posts. Worse than mailed in. But still better than the average schmuck blogger contribution. It's like a big boulder on my shoulders. One can have their greatness confirmed yesterday, but what about today? What about my prime, Mick?
ST could've been anything. He was that good. But it was all fiction. This is from your own link. Are you saying you missed it? There is an update at the bottom. Jack busted ST and called him at work, yes, based on the IP that he gave away.
http://www.metro.se/nyheter/veronika-the-end-of-the-story/EVHmka!S1fbi5Dls0cQ/
You are correct that Shadow was an awesome troll, however that does not automatically make him technically adept at internet.
He gave away the school IP many times as is explained in the story without realising. Marisacat busted him with it. There was that weird wikipedia page that included thou and moi that unfortunately got taken down before anyone nabbed a screenshot. It listed the IP. All pointing to "a school district somwehere in Kalifornia."
I did make a mistake in my summation above. It was one of Jack's friends who surmised the possibility that Shadow was part of some online military experiment, not Shadow himself.
Shadow often mentioned Berkeley in his schtick and how he drove past MAMZ new $800,000 home in Berkeley on his way to work.
Mudge once admitted that he worked there.
Jack nabbed him but didn't out him. He called him at work, which to your CT chagrin was indeed "a Kalifornia school district library." The implication was it was the same one everyone thought it was yet Jack, like you, isn't in to outing people so he keeps the details vague.
He even allows for the possibility that ST could be a military spook.
Hell, Jack could be a military spook for all we know and he is just re-establishing Shadow's cover story for him with this schtick.
Get it? One can remain safely inside one's comfortable CT cocoon forever if one wants. There is no way to disprove conspiracy if one wants to keep adding layers to the conspiracy. By all means...but I will say the likelihood is as I believed all along...ST is who he is...an extremely successful internet literary persona creator from the DKOS bannee milieu who finally went viral through his clever schtick...and yes, who may possibly be a government cyberspook...but the probability seems less than 50-50, as there is no known evidence to back that up, nor really any motive for his doing so at the blogs he frequented. The thought of GHCQ needing to herd the DKOS diaspora itself seems pretty funny, especially since the diaspora herded itself ("the medium is the conspiracy") at Boomans and MLW.
From the link:
Let's call him Steven. I’m pretty sure that Steven is Veronika.
Steven is in his 50’s and works as a school librarian somewhere in Kalifornia, USA. He has travelled around and worked in some of the areas that Veronika has been to and his work as a school librarian gives access to computers and the time that would be needed to create Veronika. But there are also other things that tie him to Veronika.
All the accounts and websites that Veronika had disappeared rather quickly after my story was published. All except one. In a quite bare user account her name appears, a photo of Tiffany Olson (whose photos Veronika used as her own) as well as a user name linked directly to a school where Steven has been employed.
IP-addresses that Richard Cox could link to Veronika can also be linked to the area around this school.
In different local papers’ online commentary fields Steven has been an active writer, and his tone is very similar to Veronika’s.
Furthermore there’s an email address, that Steven has stated has his own, is linked to a woman’s name and only appears as a user account on Second Life. This user account also has a style of writing that is similar to Veronika’s. And there are a few photos of a dark haired girl, whose name doesn’t appear on Google.
So I called Steven."
Here, Jack agrees with me. In fact, he probably stole my schtick:
"If this is Veronika’s history we don’t know. But what’s true and not true in this story isn’t just hard to make out but also completely irrelevant. Maybe this reminder about Veronika that is most important, that our traditional quest for the truth in a time where whole lives can be led outside the physical world isn’t as logical. Because what could be a massive spy mission, sanctioned on the highest level of the world’s only superpower, may also just be one lonely person’s search for intimacy, if only digital intimacy."
Wow, how did I miss this? Thanks.
Could he have also been Anonymous Army? He was one of my ancestors. He used to go hard after what he called the lefty liars club, including Larissa and Brad.
Did you know I was referred to Davefromqueens by Number5? It was 5 or 6. He was in the trollbuster pit with Dave when it was all over Daily Kos. Dave Weintraub was a very popular blogger, arguably the best known regular guy on it. He must have had an arsenal of doughnuts.
Of course by the time I showed up, all the blog freedom fighters (a leftier than thou cell) were long gone. I a not sure how we ended up in contact, but I was with #5. I think he ended up saying he was roommates with Anonymous Army.
I am reading the article slow to make sure I don't misconstrue the blog stew.
This Tom guy is hearsay. Shadowthief made money selling fake hot chick cybersex during a simulation/Sims thingie game? I must be dense.
Yes, I'd seen the Cox article. I don't remember much of that, but it was good. Shadowthief had all the tools of the spy game. I look forward to the end with the alleged ip/phone call evidence.
Now it's some guy named M. Awesome. This is a bad movie which Jack better tighten by the end.
I'm live blogging reading an article. It's a schtick still in Beta development.
Did he ever mention My Left Wing or Daily Kos? It seems like he missed a big chunk of the story.
I feel really stupid. What's this about calls with a female? Shadowthief had an accomplice?
Also, we might as well retread this piece for the newbies and fence sitters where Jack first appears here seeking clues about "Veronika Larssen":
http://davefromqueens2.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-return-of-topiary.html
This thread contains a more concise and accurate recollection of the Vickie the Viking outing on PFF that I just repeated above.
lol, during yet another of our endless relationship in crisis moments.
The Metro couldn't have come up with a clearer screenshot?
Hey, did you notice Shadowthief mention a friend Laura? Hmmmmmm. Yeah, it's just a first name.
Where is shadowthief? He must need a place to lay down some posts. Hey, buddy. legend of all supertrolls. we are not worthy.
Yeah, it's a bit of a struggle to get through Jack's English as a second slanguage translation from teh Svedish, that's why I made the mistake above. That's my excuse anyway.
No, I believe the chick mentioned were bloggers whose personae or photos Shadowthief stole and made his own, or wtf.
But yes, you do seem to be having trouble grasping what to me seems clearcut: Shadowthief is who he is but in the end who really cares? He was a creative genius.
Do we really care that Hemingway was a massive alcoholic asshole in real life who couldn't get it up?
Or do we remember the brilliant short stories?
He interviewed MSOC in the initial story. I think he was mainly coming from the Veronika larssen - Grauniad angle, though.
I give him an A for nailing the Shadowthief zeitgeist and finding the guy....but not outing him.
Greatness
Jack's kicking some serious zeitgeist butt.
This had made my day.
I never saw this before!
Yes, Jack took this to a higher plane.
Author and information architect Jonas Söderström has followed the story about Veronika very closely and was the first one to suggest that something bigger was behind Veronika. He pointed out that the US military has bought software for ”sock puppet management” from Ntrepid, that is the creation and running of made up identities online to either push an agenda or gather information. The project seems to have started in 2007, at the same time when Veronika appeared.
I thought I was the first.
I'm finishing the article then reading your comments.
I don't remember reading that update. Yes, Jack seemed to merge both of our schticks. I agree with you the case is dismissed and shadowthief is declared a regular guy.
If anyone's covering for anyone, it's this guy called M.
"San Diego school district to return armored military vehicle"
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-diego-military-vehicle-20140918-story.html
You ask why would he be at the blogs he was. That's ridiculous. If he's military, he'd be in a great position to watch for "extremists."
How and why would school districts be ending up with military equipment?
Because it's there?
A few loose ends to connect as I re-read some of your comments here and in the song fest thread.
Austin....yes, home of Dell Computer, Raytheon (taking your word for that), and many many transplanted Californians from the high tech world. Austin is also home to SXSW, a legendary (though has been) alt music scene (Dallas actually produces much better music since the 80s from a smaller scene that includes Denton home of the University of North Texas up the road a ways).
Austin is definitely trending to MIC-dom but look to San Antonio if you really wish to study the emerging market for government spookery. San Antonio's economy is heavily dependent on military bases and there is a huge start-up business culture that began after 9/11 when the Bushco started pumping dollars into defense and tech strategies to go along with it.
You won't find the big names in San Antone but that's the point. The more shadowy under the radar stuff on the cutting edge is where the real action is nowadays.
You can google on it and find stuff I believe.
Austin also was the teaching home of one Yanis Varoufakis, current (and probably soon to be unemployed) finance minister of Greece. Varoufakis was an economics prof and game theory specialist at UT when he was called home to work for the Syriza govt when they took power.
I was prescient just a few days ago stating that the EU would blink in greece. D'uh, they have no choice even though they have forcibly shut down the banks and not budged from their absurd position vis a vis the impossible-to-service debt load they require to Greece to maintain just so the EU can bail out German and French banks. The market uncertainty of a Greece default could sink the world economy or it could be rather insignificant. No one knows and that is why the risk of letting little Greece fail isn't worth dumping Syriza in the final analysis but the Euros, especially the dismal Frau Merkel and the dumb Germans seem to want to steadfastly act stupid and risk loosing a lot over relatively little.
Wolfgang Shnauble blinked. He said that the EU will take care of the Greek people no matter what the vote today. This is like an abusive husband "protecting" his wife and massaging her wounds after he beat the holy crap out of her.
Sick. And why are the female heads of state to date of First World countries susch horrid right wing loosers?
Don't wish to find out how bad Hillary will be following in the footsteps of Thatcher and Merkel.
Dave was great but he had something of a mean streak in him too. He reacted and didn't always maintain the high road. He tended to drop down into lengthy arguments over minutae with nobody's like Pager.
I don't blame him for that but he trolled all of his opponents, especially the chicks, very hard. And he did so often using sock puppets.
It detracted from his greatness somewhat. He also hypocritically attacked me for attacking basically the same group of wimmen, except I trolled the ones he liked as well as the ones he didn't.
Then when the long awaited outing finally developed he picked the wrong guy and Pinche Tejano busted him on it. It was highly infotaining, but Dave had to quickly issue a retraction and grovel for forgiveness. This too detracted from his schtick. It spoke to poor judgment and was a huge letdown after so much infotaining WWF style build-up.
He too badly wanted the DKOS terrorist in chief to be a higher up Dem Party operative and went with that guy as his choice (don't recall the name but it was a high toned NYC lawyer/Dem political contributor) not because it was true but that's how he wanted it to be.
Instead the real culprit was two-bit, basically nobody Major Fingerit whom he fingered, which made much more sense given the Kos Krowd consisted of poli ops of a decidedly small time flunky characteristic. No real players waste their time on blogs. Except us of course.
That aside, I loved me sum dave, as you know, I defended him vociferously. He had a great sense of humour and very grounded practical political intelligence and real world skills.
He was also a low level Dem Party op and an Obamabot. You can say he would've turned on Obama but that is purely conjecture based on you seeing things the way you wish them to be...Dave understood politics quite well and I don't think he would've turned on the big O for many or all the same reasons I have not turned on him.
Maybe maybe not. But the point is he did not.
Yes, Obama is a tool. See my comments above. The government are by necessity tools of the private interests. This basically has always been so, but started most visibly after the Kennedy assassination. LBJ was forced to concede the MIC in order to get his way on the social issues. He wasn't that interested in foreign policy so he let that part go and it ruined him eventually.
Governance of the sheeple has since never changed.
However, change is back, once again in the wind. Maybe Bernie can make that happen but the reversal back started with the election and reelection by the non-PTB of one Barack Obama, who has been a tool and a disappointment in many ways. Maybe Bernie will be assassinated if it appears that he presents too strong a challenge.
Obama is an alive chicken, however, he has also been clever and able to become effective against the historically unprecedented congressional and SCOTUS opposition.
And he came to power inside a terrible economic collapse. Yes he chose to prop up the banks.
However, what was the realistic alternative alt choice? There wasn't one. Just as there isn't today in Greece. The banks must be propped up during economic collapse. The govt failed to do this in the 30s and the depression was never-ending....until WWII broke out.
Ideally, your stating shut down the MIC and fund Baltimore is the right thing to do. In moral theory this is 100% correct. Indisputable. However, shutting down the MIC (Bernie will learn this too when he takes the reins) will instantly collapse the economy and you will find tremendous opposition. we both might be for this type of cataclysm, but recall the circumstances under which Hitler took power, not the communists.
Unintended consequences.
You can't simply wave a magic wand of idealism and redirect such huge economic activity from one sector to another without catastrophic disruptions.
Greece is insignificant but a move of this nature in the US would almost certainly collapse the world economy and if history is any guide, ironically collapsing the MIC could eventually lead to WWIII, for which the MIC would need to be be quickly reinvigourated in any event.
Now, carefully winding down and redirecting this heinouse war making activity over a few decades makes sense, but that is still a delicate proposition requiring political will and compromise. And international cooperation will be needed as well.
I have not yet seen Bernie's plan. He has the rhetoric, so did Obama, but like Obama, his idealism is sure to be majorly challenged by the wealthy once he takes power.
Unlike Obama, the people who supported him with a vote will need to stand behind him in the streets through thick and thin instead of quickly turning on him when his ideals prove next to impossible to accomplish in the US two party duopoly of the rich by the rich for the rich.
This concludes todaze lecture "on political reality or why donkeytale is a sellout"
I wish I was more into politics and specific thingies like Greece. I can tell you are chomping at the bit for some enlightened banter in those areas.
It appears we are in 100% agreement that there are deal breakers. It seems where we differ are in how to respond and at what pace.
Activism is the art of the possible?
I am not trying to kiss our collective asses, but I truly believe Jack lifted from our schticks, but that it was near impossible for him to include us. Is that what happened with Mandy too?
I think Jack's hitting the wall is his location. He may have a real name. What he has is a real fake name called M who apparently referred him to an alleged real name left on local newspapers.
I think one of your earlier comments interested me the most and pertained to the idea of conspiracy players not even realising they are part of something originally put together by George Orwell.. Maybe Steven M. Shadowcrest was a poor man's Orwell using his own vision of performance blog art to wake up sheeple.
Yes, Dave did bust the wrong guy. I saw that somewhere before it got scrubbed. On my last computer (now obsolete - like a 2000 macintosh apple or wtf) I have copied the UGOG files. It was bizarre. And I wish we had a copy of MattyJack going gangster. It may be at Dave's or in the archive machine or some of it could be in the backwaters of this blog towards the beginning.
Fingerit's dad was a big wig. But you are correct, he turned out to be some Mickey Mouse real estate attorney. Michael Bouldin, that's the guy who went out of his way to torment Dave Weintraub. He crossed some serious lines. I think he was MBNYC or something like that for a username. There are others like him, KosNuts, who are obvious political operatives.
That form of blogging is now obbsolete? I am seeing nothing but big boy copy/paste aggregators with the generic Facebook comment sections.
There is Medium or wtf. It is like a Daily Kos but with the emphasis on the entries. There may be comment sections, but I haven't seen them.
I always looked at places like blogger and wordpress differently from the traditional looking forums.
Daily Kos is an interesting historic artifact because except for the paid bloggers, it was pretty much a free for all... but only on the surface. And that was the beauty of Dave's work. He put the final nail in the DKos coffin. But of course everyone else already knew DKos was rigged. There were long Meta discussions at MLW including Peeder who created the doughnut system.
Dave was one of us. He may not have been an anon coward. He may have been a bit more involved in actual frays than us. He had his public schtick. He wasn't just typing away. He wasn't even considered part of the DKos infrastructure. He was coming from another angle, like us, and somehow pried open the door into internet consciousness.
On a much lower level, Weintraub was Snowden. Everyone with a clue already knew the Spy Factory was all over the internet. But it's nice to have documents confirming the conspiratorial angle. Everyone already knew about DKos, but it was nice to finally see UGOG files confirming that.
Dave died in early 2009? There's simply not enough data to predict how he would have reacted to the Obama years.
I do believe that Mandy messed up in not including me in her piece on Kimberlin. That was definitely rude and clear cut schtick theft.
I agree it is most likely shadowthief was a regular guy based on Jack's two pieces and especially the update. But I am not going to say his ending was definitive.
It is possible the dude had a cushy library job, more supervisor than actual work, and thus he had all freaking day to drop comments.
There's the good chance he was just like us who in the early days would have no reason to believe we could climb so high in the zeitgeist food chain.
We do have power. Unfortunately it's like superchicken or those goofy fake superhero animations found in between Mickey Mouse cartoons. We have the power. We just don't know how to best use it.
What we need is a Brad Stevens as Coach of Bloggers United to draw out the best of each of us and increase our worth as assets in the cause of idealism.
Twitter is not the answer. I find Holland's faith in it as the center of the movement quite disturbing. Twitter sucks. Yeah, let's scroll down for a minute or two and then read upwards a ton of two sentence posts which we will not be able to retrieve easily in the future. That's the ticket.
But here, in the traditional blog structure, people are getting relevant links. They are getting some regular guy commentary.
Think about all the kids around 25 years and younger. They have no clue what life was like before all this computer shite took over.
We may not be the right men to drive the rig (Mad Max line), but I feel we have identified the rig (the internet).
Curiously, Booman also survives but in general you are correct. The soapblox stucture is dead otherwise. Perhaps it generated too much conflict in the threads. In fact, Booman has very little thread activity whil Kos (I believe) still has lots but the krowd has become so homogenised colourless who can even read it?
I read neither and stopped when I got banned.
They also require "diaries" which only a few of us are adept at producing masterpiece after masterpiece.
I guess Redstate still survives in a soablox format.
The older forum structure also lives on with DU (I think) and Reddit of course being extremely huger than anything going.
4chan also is a forum, I believe.
The newer kids seem to be more into the gamer type forums, much like the one depicted in Jack's story. More virtual and technological oriented the relationships develop through the competition. My son is involved in one that includes a subculture of youtubes whose amateur productions that somehow relate to and interact with the main website zeitgeist.
He's been involved since he was in juniour high and now he's an upperclassman in college.
He spends all day everyday banging into his smart phone in various texts, chats and assorted means of communication within organisations with which he is involved. I have no idea about specifics. LOL. He may be working for the NSA for all I know reporting back in the old man.
Greece is interesting because a hard left govt is being brought down authoritatively and punitively by a globalist power structure and the peoples' tragedy is just a footnote to them. Todaze vote will be instructive. The center parties vote to stay within the EU and one of them will be returned like whipped dogs if the yes vote wins, which I suspect will happen tho hope not.
The no side consists of Syriza and Golden Dawn, which is the proto-Nazi party.
Aldridge is now a Spur, no surprise. The two main free agent acquisitions are Dallas guys heading back to Texas. So they stay in teh West and take less money in a state without income taxes but where a very high quality brand of pro basketball has proliferated for the prior 20 years.
The "patriot" sick and tired of the NWO who interviewed Harry Link has a linkedin which shows he works for Websense in Austin. I googled Websense and found out it is owned by Raytheon. And there is proof out there that Raytheon is involved with internet cointelpro.
Those guys are caricatures of conspiracy theorists. A former nutjob internet friend used to say that soul cannot be faked. I don't like to steal others' words. I believe that line.
Something is off in each and every one of us. Nonetheless, some folks' eccentricities are not so easy to pass off as someone being stoned or drunk or not afraid to toss in a bit of surrealism.
I think those clowns in my second to last masterpiece simply have tunnel vision going after paranoid schizophrenics or similar folks on the edge to realise they can also be accessed by regular guys.
Like the UGOG's not securing their website. That was Stupidity 101.
Why was I the only one bending over backwards to get to the bottom of Kimberlin and Brad Friedman?
That Lori Grace webpage was one of my better finds. It is now scrubbed, but I did copy and paste it. I did dig and found out she is the heiress to Oliver Grace. I am not sure how that didn't make it into Mandy's plagiarised article.
I respect Jack because he wasn't afraid to cover a story steeped in convolution. I guess where I messed up was in overestimating how much anyone would care about Brett Kimberlin. Joe Lauria was interested in it. But he only wanted to know if there was proof the elections were stolen. I wasted an hour on the phone with him. The jackass even tried to explain to me that Wayne Madsen is a regular guy. I wasted an hour with Marc Randazza who turned out to be in cahoots with shadowy Breitbart allies like Popehat and later on Bullyville.
There is a lot of convolution out there and not many people one can trust.
I agree Reddit took over for the old-styled outlets. I also agree that gaming is a big thing and circumscribed into the overall internet experience.
This might have been one of my better entries over the last couple years:
Internet Cointelpro Confirmed as Part and Parcel of The Program
http://davefromqueens2.blogspot.com/2014/08/internet-cointelpro-confirmed-as-part.html
The Spy Factory is also all over games.
It's a deal breaker. It goes to the hearts and minds of freedom of speech and association.
Thanks for the info on Greece. I know they were one of the countries historically fucked over by the United States.
The link at the top of that entry is a military document which discusses how spy factory numbnuts can "get into the game."
Of course it was schtick theft. Although to be fair it could have been an editor who removed you, Breitbart is pushing an agenda not delivering news and you would have been an inconvenient reminder that coming from the left you were about fairness not agenda.
Jack here doesn't owe us any credit since he practiced journalism, researched and worked very hard to get the bottom.
That he drew similar conclusions could be schtick theft or it could be that great minds think alike or both.
The medium is the conspiracy relies on the fact that like minded people from similar backgrounds and philosophical outlooks will more often than not draw the same conclusion independently of each other.
This makes it easier to manipulate the zeitgeist without having to pay anyone, it is also the law of avarages in an interconnected world of 7 billion where nothing exists that is new under the sun, except for the modes of communication and the ability to twist them to certain ends.
Polls closed in Greece. The exit opinionators are saying No will win be 3%. That would be exciting and encouraging for the worldwide left but let's see. After 2004 I no longer put much stock in exit polls.
Yeah, I wasn't trying to throw Jack under the bus and his work obviously helped Meta History and one close to home!
You hit the nail on the head with Breitbart/Mandy. They had an agenda and it was not served by someone who had told the story years before they did and from a leftier point of view. I named specific names and stories and none of them had anything to do with official Democratic channels. Moulitsas might have. And I did blog on a precise connection between Democratic Underground founders and the DLC.
BK was a specific human interest story. It wasn't even my scoop. An anon coward at DU confronted Alexandrovna and BK on a couple threads, one of which I have linked to early and often. But that person only took it so far.
Heck, The Last Name Left did far more work exposing BradBlog than the person who barely linked Kimberlin to Friedman.
Plus despite the horror and annoyance of having to defend myself in Maryland and on the internet, I got my Perry Mason moment. I did the sequel to Mark Singer's book Citizen K.
And that's why I had moderate success with Twitter. It's why this blog has had moderate success.
It's not about me despite the arrogance typed above. That is the tricky part of life. How does one stand up for truth, justice, and the American tao without pimping one's self?
As for "M", I am curious why he waited for Jack to emerge to link shadowthief to steve local newspaper commenter. I am confused why no one else noticed that. It's possible this was the plan in place in case anyone tried to pinpoint who shadowthief is.
Yes, I am moving the conspiracy theory goalposts. When the big source is someone called M, it brings a pause.
I bet M was Curmudgette or a male friend of hers. It gets so convoluted, one must have Einstein blood to piece anything together or Gambini's. Most have the sleuthing DNA of a Jesse Ventura. And for folks who read my second to last entry and are interested in the Myron May story, they know that Ventura's conspiracy theory show on mind control was one of the last things to inspire May.
Fakeleft has that dna. Most are not worthy. It's not even biological. People are lazy. They are lazy in regards to the biggest questions of all time.
This really goes to the heart of circumscribing and herding.
I agree with you they can't be all or even mostly all fakes. The paid fakes are after the hearts and minds of the collective consciousness. They love a guy like Deray. They loved MattyJack. They do not like dudes like Weintraub or you mention Lord Byron.
Dave went hard after Harold Ford. DFQ was not a DINO. That was a tragic loss for his family and for society in a long-term way.
MLK what a loss. I just checked. He'd be 86 if still alive. Cornel West is not a bad guy, but I think he is basically censored. I doubt that could have been done to MLK. He would have been elected President. If Ronald Reagan and Obama could be elected, then why not MLK? Bernie's problem is he's not a household name like Mr. King. But we can hope.
Maybe you are correct Sanders wins if he makes it to the Finals. It'll be like the Red Sox in 2004. Everyone knew they were going to win the world series after coming back 0-3 to the New York Yankees.
If Bernie beats Hillary Clinton, there will be a lot of happy leftier than thou campers going, yes! Wicked Awesome, it's in the hole!!!! Tooouuuuuuchhhdown, Auuubburnnnn. Whoa Nellie! Yeeeehaw!
But the internet is also overrated. How many of those losers who love Hillary and Democrats while despising Republicans are going to care about the differences between Hillary and Bernie? My fear is their vote is already checked off. Now, if Hillary has a major scandal, that changes things. Maybe I am being too cynical. It's not like Bernie Sanders is a fricken lunatic kook right winger fascist like Ron Paul. Paul was good as anti-war. I remember that. I too appreciated the few leftier than thou stances of Ron Paul.
Let's face it. The Democrats own the White House. Is there anyone on the right wing side to fear? Jeb Bush seems a bit smart, but he is a Republican and they are not liked. Rand Paul? I don't really care about right wingers. I hope my instinct is correct and they will win nothing.
The good thing for Sanders is he can work those early primaries with his supporters. If he can make that a horse race in Iowa and New Hampshire, then perhaps he will trend #2 everywhere. I just don't want to be disappointed. I will definitely watch and follow the debates and hopefully all Americans wtfu and think of things on a deeper level.
Greece has spoken against austerity. This is huge and you bet it has implications for the Sanders campaign as well.
The Tsipras government keeps insisting that they will not pull out of the euro, which I grok from a political standpoint since the people of Greece want to stay in the euro on better terms that the EU gangsters will never allow unless they are forced to walk the plank.
As long as Greece sounds conciliatory the European "leaders" will keep making stupid and obnoxious statements and not offering anything.
If I were Greece I would listen to and then reject the latest non-offer from the EU and then stop BS'ing and let the Germans have it right between the eyes.
"we are considering all options, including the Russians."
FU EU.
Okay, I am looking into this.
"Austerity: Killing Greece (and the Idea of Europe)"
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/03/austerity-killing-greece-and-the-idea-of-europe/
The author is someone named BINOY KAMPMARK. He's a professor published by Counterpunch. Sometimes we have to trust people.
It is starting to sink in. This is by STAVROS MAVROUDEAS, another academic. He is an economist from Greece.
The Greek Referendum and the Tasks of the Left
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/03/the-greek-referendum-and-the-tasks-of-the-left/
I thought the golden rule was don't lend any money that you expect back. No one can predict the future. Why should Greeks suffer because crooks in both Germany and their own government created this mess? I am not knowledgeable in this area, so if I say anything stupid, it's not on purpose.
"Greece and Global Class War"
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/03/greece-and-global-class-war/
"In this frame it doesn’t all that much matter what Syriza did or didn’t do— the game was rigged from the start. As far as reflecting poorly on an international left, if one modeled the distribution of political and economic power before and after Syriza little movement in one direction or another would likely be seen. If the idea of the left is to provide a critical frame and broad principles for social— political and economic, organization then leaving Syriza and the Greek people to their own devices hardly seems constructive. If this analysis has bearing, the people of Baltimore, Detroit and Philadelphia share more interests with the Greek people than they do with the local representatives of international capital in Washington and New York. The unifying factor is neo-imperialist political economy put forward in the realms of the political and the economic as freedom to choose."
There's also a very nasty report on climate change in Counterpunch. Things are not looking good.
No, you pretty much have the Greek situation down.
Goldman Sachs advised the previous Greek govt on how to make themselves look more credit worthy than they really were.
Now, the EU (Germany mainly as it is mostly their banks at risk) are continuing to loan money to their own banks through Greece and collateralising those additional loans on the backs of the Greek economy.
This fiction allows the banks to avoid taking a huge loss which in the absence of Greece continuing to own the debts would be placed on the German taxpayers in the form of bailouts. Very cynical game.
The IMF just stated that there is no way Greece will ever be able to make good on these debts.
Now that the Greeks have voted overwhelmingly to no longer play this stupid game for the sole benefit of the Euro banks at their expense something will give.
It could well be the takedown of the EU unless Germany sucks it up, which of course they should as they are by far the main beneficiaries of the EU.
Merkel could be toppled in the process which would be even better.
The main takeaway for we the sheeple is that Greece is an example of leftist populist people power thumbing their nose at the PTB.
However, hard sacrifices must be made in order to fight back. Greece will go though a period of pain if they drop out of the EU. However they are already living through the Great Depression so it can hardly get much worse for them.
They are now telling the EU to fuck off and here, feel some of our pain, assholes.
Climate change is another one of those things that can't be fixed until there is a collapse. Politically, China and other developing 3rd world countries aren't incentivised to play along.
The West created this mess in the process of enriching ourselves but now we are telling them, no you cant also have what we have because the environment which we fucked up getting ours can't take anymore.
There is no solution, although I also believe the doomsday scenarios are overheated. We will cope amidst a growing scale of disasters. What choice does a planet of 7 billion and growing have?
Perhaps a plague, an asteroid strike or the good ol standby of world war will be required to resolve the issue at some point.
Don't really see any other practical solutions.
Climate change is a point of no return. The emission chemicals take hundreds if not a thousand or more years to dissipate or wtf.
I saw that Canada, one of the 5 Eyes countries, is going nuts with tar sands and all kinds of dirty pollution.
It is depressing to think we are at a point of no return. I am going to ask for a planet transfer for my next incarnation assignment. I had a feeling my whole life nothing truly meant anything. I wasn't bipolar or depressed. I'm still not.
I didn't ask to be born. No one did.
People didn't ask God can you please send me to Greece, so I can become an economic slave to capitalism?
We need some victories and quickly. If there is no hope, there is no future.
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