I Did Not Know That

Historic troll donkeytale had been attacking Glenn Greenwald as being a fake lefty. I asked him for some proof since I had never thought about it and rarely read Glenn's schtick. Donk responded something about his being from the CATO Institute.

Aaaah yes, it is fascinating how many former wingnuts have become leading, so-called leftist bloggers since Bush was anointed President in 2000 by the Supreme Court. There was Arianna Huffington. Before her was Markos Moulitsas whose Daily Kos dominated the whiteysphere. The dude who owns Democratic Underground was (still is?) on Al From's DLC payroll. Maryscott O'Connor had a rage schtick against the right. I socratised her ass and found her posting support for lower taxes on the rich. For pointing that out and other thingies, my ass was allegedly reported by MSOC to the FBI for cyberstalking. But I digress.

I am not one to reinvent the wheel, at least those of others. My own wheels are obviously a whole other matter. Anyway, Mr. Mark "Brutal Honesty" Ames of The Exiled thoroughly exposed Greenwald in this "Koch Whore" entry. You can read it for youseselves and see how much of a fake Greenwald has been proven to be.



Donkeytale exposed myself a number of months ago. Many have wondered how the heck I was able to hone socratisation into an art form. It's basically googlification 101. So last night I started searching for good links for this diary. The above is probably the best. From one of the last comments, I then googled Greenwald with Matthew Hale. That led me to this Democratic Underground thread. From that link or perhaps from one included in the thread, I cannot remember, I saw a DU poster claiming Cenk Uygur as a former neocon. Most know who he is. He runs that Young Turks or whatnot show. As with Greenwald, I knew he existed but didn't know much about him or any backstory.

My initial reaction was the claim was disinfo. I've seen him in a video or two and he seems like a definite sweetie. (disclaimer: I am not gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just don't want folks thinking I'm a sexist pig for only describing women as sweeties. I have tried my best to drop the sweetie schtick, but it's taken longer than expected. Thanks for your patience, youse dear wonderful, gentle, sweetie readers.)



Through further socratisation, i.e. googling, that led to Cenk Uygur comes out of the Woodwork and then to the mother lode of an entry that thread was based on.

(excerpt) Ratfuckery has reached a new level of sophistication. Coincidental to its further rise was the advent and enhancement of cable and internet media political discourse - the celebrity political pundit, or the Professional Left, along with the 24-hour news cycle - and the election of the first African American President.

Progressives sought love and comfort in the Leftwing writings and commentary of various pundits during the dark years of the Bush Administration, and - especially after Bush's second election triumph - many more talking heads emerged ... Many who had, until recently been practicing, full-on Republicans, themselves.

Seems there was a buck or two to be made [proselytizing] to the Progressives, and it might [have been meant] to divide and conquer [in their] true Segrettian fashion, but via the media this time. After all, these poor souls were crying out for representative media voices in the Wilderness to counter Fox News.

Ceny Uygur was one of those ratfuckers. A failed corporate lawyer and neocon with an enhanced opinion of himself and an ego as fat as his broad ass.

He, along with the likes of Arianna Huffington and Ed Schultz, all former virulent neocons, sought to tap into the low information end of Progressive voters - young people and disaffected Left Coastal unreconstructed middle class types who yearned to be hippies again (or even for the first time) who either had forgotten how to think critically along the way or who had never learned. Suffice it to say, these people knew nothing and understood little about the way the government functioned.

I'm in the process of trying to find an adult education course on reading comprehension. I don't recall from skimming through that monster entry where the author gave links and proof of her claims. I know it's true Huffington was a neocon or some other manifestation of wingnut. I have barely heard of the Schultzie dude. It is conspiracy fact that Moulitsas was a wingnut with family ties (see Keaton, Alex P.) to the El Salvadoran oligarchy. Internet predator Neal Rauhauser was a Republican. A quick glance at that blogger has my intuition saying she is legit and thus it's all true what she wrote about Uygur.

Her basic premise was Uygur was one of a number of right wingers who were unable to get their foot into the wingnut door. Those slots had already been taken by the Coulters and Hannitys of the world. At the end of her post, Flaming Emilia embedded the following, entertaining video.

Protester confronts Dylan Ratigan at Occupy Wall Street


From that, I located the protester's youtube channel. Most of the comments on his videos were nasty towards him, but I must say (see Grimley, Ed) the dude seemed to be right on target with his expose of Uygur's 'protest porn'.

And there's the rub. One cannot possibly confront fake lefties on their own turf. One will either be ridiculed or outright censored and banned. So it appears Cenk Uygur and Glenn Greenwald are 100% internet fake. I did not know that.

el fin

Will The Team Numbnuts Versus Team Breitbart Cult Schtick Ever End?

*** UPDATE *** Marcy Wheeler is garbage for a source. She tweeted to Patterico, "Thanks though, for checking in. More to copy and send to your boss."

How does a debate on her recent schtick turn into a Rauhauser-Kimberlin tactic? Do I think Patrick Frey should be out of his job? Yes, for the cybersmearing of Ron Brynaert. That's quite different from the crap Neal Rauhauser and Brett Kimberlin have been peddling. I also see Frey is claiming Wheeler is a friend of Brad Friedman's. I don't know. Sometimes both sides truly suck. That is what's going on here, imho. *** END OF UPDATE ***




what would Ed say?

Folks are probably wondering wtf Ed Grimley is doing as the top screenshot for this mailed-in entry. I just figured that look crystalises in a nutshell and straightforward manner without diction precisely every emotion one feels when reading anything to do with the Numbnuts and Breitbart cult.

The main impetus behind this diary is that someone has to do something before donkeytale clogs up this delightful blog with more mailed-in reruns of six year old entries.

Word is we now have yet another numbnut to add to the list to go with internet hack Karoli Kuns. Her name is Marcy Wheeler. She used to blog at FireDogLake with Jane Hamsher. Yesterday she piped in with, "Breitbart Folks Appear to Fake Violence in Lansing."

I don't have time to socratise her. Of course donk will pipe in on how he showed up at The Next Hurrah or wtf years ago to confront Nutrooters such as Dana Houle. He'll go on and on about how he was sandtrapped at Daily Kos. Donkeytale's major flaw is he thinks everything centers around himself. No, that is where myself and Al Franken enter the scene.

Anyway, before I digress, I did find this photo of Marcy. She's obviously a sweetie.



However, that doesn't give her the right to blog crap like she did yesterday. I went through that whole article and was left wondering, "Uhm, have ye got any fricken proof?"

We all know the Breitbart cult is full of insidious con artists and manipulators. But even a prostitute deserves protection. Apparently, Lee Stranahan merits such a defense. Or is the line even a pimp deserves protection?

I tried to find the original proof Lee was advertising his wife's uhm er skills. I've seen it before. However, Lee has put a block on the archive.org machine.



Here's a screenshot captured by Holocaust denying Brooks Bayne.



Anyway, let's get back to today's main feature concerning the troll wars.

Omg, McCain and Patterico are livid!

According to Pat Frey:

Last night I blogged about a portion of an Empty Wheel post on the assault on Steven Crowder in Lansing. Today I want to discuss the way it fits into a disturbing trend, in which politican partisans rewrite history for a gullible audience more interested in a politically convenient narrative than in fact.

For over two years now, I have watched as Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, and a small band of confederates have literally rewritten history regarding anybody who happened to report on them. In coming days and weeks I will document this revisionism point by point, but for now it is enough to note certain trends:

Hey, Frey forgot to mention Ron Brynaert. Is he tabling that specific cybersmear because he fears being sued by Ron? Perhaps. He's got zero proof Brynaert SWATted himself or Mike Stack. Frankly, I don't see what Wheeler's idiotic spin of a legitimate news story has anything to do with Bwett and Neal. And I bet neither does Patrick Frey. All Fatterico has proven the last year is that he's a public prosecutor who posts outrageous smears on a lowbrow, guttersnipe blog.

Meanwhile, McCain sent out an odd tweet to Ron.



Stacy basically linked to a Brynaert pastebin which included email contact between Ron and Marcy Wheeler. It had nothing to do with her piece. It was pure McCarthyism through proxy of accusing the accuser of accusing and cussing or whatnot.

Perhaps McCain and Frey need to better coordinate their cahootness. The Patterico attack on Brynaert has been an utter fail. The whole BK is a blogger assassin so hit the freaking tip jar schtick has become a total mess of an epic fail.

By the way, that Brynaert pastebin is actually a pretty good one.

So let's see. What else is on the DFQ2 agenda. Oh yeah! Here are two mailed-in current event updates.

1) Jacob Tyler Roberts



A dude aged 22 killed two people, seriously injured another, and then took his own life. I haven't much to say on that. I'll let a sweetie named Rachel do the talking:

Obviously video games are not the sole cause of the violence problems in the US but one has to wonder if being constantly inundated with fake violence could have an effect on someone who is already suffering or developing mental problems. I dont think anyone is actually suggesting that we ban violent video games but I think there does need to be research done to see if there is a link and what that link might be. I think the next step would be to educate people and especially parents. SIDS used to be a rather large problem in this country until research was done and the nurses started the "back to sleep" ad campaign. The rates of SIDS dropped dramatically and I bet something similar could be done here.

I don't know why Rachel focused in on violent video games. Perhaps she assumed a 22 year old would be into those. For all we know, Jacob might have spent all his gaming time on innocuous racing games.

But she does make a good point. We have become desensitised to violence. Add in a tough economy and we should expect more of this. The source of violence can always be traced back to the ills of capitalism. Bet on it. Though for this specific story, we just don't know. Perhaps the nutjob was going through twinkie withdrawal. Say a variation of the twinkie defense. And if so, even that can be traced back to capitalism. These are the facts wingnuts don't want Joe and Jane Americano to consider. We are not the greatest. We are a cultural wasteland.

2) Nurse Jacintha Saldanha left suicide note, reports state

This is another interesting yet tragic story. A numbnutted Australian radio station made a prank call to a British hospital inquiring about the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge. Apparently sensitive info was released due to the nurse's falling for the hoax. I'm not sure why that would have led to her to commit suicide. We'll have to wait and see what she wrote in that note.

This is the risk one runs by pranking. You never know when someone is going to end up dead. Imho, the most famous example of this pertained to what happened when trash talk host Jenny Jones surprised a guest. As CNN reported:

Amedure was shot twice in the chest and killed by Jonathan Schmitz, who learned in a taping of the show that his secret admirer was Amedure, not a woman. The Amedure family brought the wrongful-death lawsuit, saying "The Jenny Jones Show" was negligent in humiliating Schmitz, prompting him to kill Amedure three days after the taping.

Jenny Jones - The Murderous Crush Show That Never Aired by ThePowderfinger71

On March 6, 1995, Jenny Jones taped an episode called "Same Sex Secret Crushes" on which Scott Amedure, a gay man, confessed to his best friend Jonathan Schmitz, that he had a crush on him. Schmitz's response was mostly humorous as he laughed about that revelation in front of the audience. However, three days after the taping, Schmitz, allegedly upset over that incident, killed Amedure. After the murder made headlines, the producers decided not to air the show. However, the episode did air on Court TV when the network was covering the trial. Clips of the episode were also featured in the HBO documentary, Talked to Death.

Schmitz's history of mental illness and alcohol/drug abuse came to light during the trial in which Schmitz was later convicted of second degree murder. He is currently serving a 25-50 year prison term.

Jones and the producers were later sued by Amedure's family for neglecting to find out Schmitz's history of mental illness and substance abuse. Jones testified under oath that the producers told Schmitz that his admirer could be a man, but Schmitz thought that the admirer was a woman. Jones also admitted that the show did not want Schmitz to know the outcome of his secret crush. Amedure's family won the ruling and the show was ordered to pay $25 million, but that decision was later overturned by the Michigan appellate court because the producers were not responsible for what happened to the guests after their appearance on the show.

el fin

The Perfect Lawn

by donkeytale
Tue Jun 6th, 2006 at 08:24:32 AM EST

She stood quietly at the window. I had brought her to me to provide instruction. My life had become a mess again. The tangles of time,people,alcohol, madness.

For years I had struggled against myself, kept myself heavily secured in emotional chains, mental bondage, a slave to others. I had worked very hard against all odds to remain a failure and had failed even that test. Accidental success had only deepened my misery. There are no chains wrapped tighter than those forged by easy success.

She took the glass I offered her and sat down across from me.

"What was your first job?"

"You mean as an adult?"

"No. Your first job."

I thought for a moment.

"My dad was a gardener. When I was eleven he made me work with him Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday all summer mowing peoples lawns."

Not a single friend of mine missed a single moment of his summer that year, I recalled with an acuity not diminished one bit by the passage of some forty odd years.

"Was your father the best gardener?"

"Not really. He did a lot of quantity over quality I would say. We hustled."

"Did you know this at the time, that there was a better way?"

"Well, sort of...the wealthy people always hired the nisei gardeners to tend their landscaping. The nisei were the best gardeners. Some of the designs in Beverly Hills or the old mansions in Pasadena...unbelievable."

"The nisei were interned during World War II. They seemed very bitter about it. They stayed to themselves."

I remembered a schoolboy crush I had on the daughter of one of the nisei in our town. She never returned my valentines card. Never even thanked me for the big heart shaped cherry sucker I left on her desk.

"Yes. They were born in America, in fact were among the earliest residents of southern California and yet they were imprisoned for years simply because of their japanese heritage." I always know my facts, even when the knowledge makes me unhappy.

"You have a lot of lawn. What is your favorite part?"

"The side yard by the patio."

"Yes, its lovely. You must make it perfect."

I looked at her.

"Do you know what is "perfect?"

I looked at her.

"Go work on your lawn until it is perfect."

I looked at her.

"You will know when it is...and when it is not. Perfect isn't a picture in a design magazine, no matter how glorified. It cannot be found in anyone's yard. The perfection I am talking about cannot be attained outside the place you inhabit. It cannot exist for anyone but you. The award winning lawn of your neighbor can never be your perfection."

I looked at her.

"You will find perfection only as a feeling which arises within you. Most important you must make yourself open and available to it. Otherwise, there is no path."

I looked at her.

"The goal of your life is to maintain your perfect lawn each day. As you do so and it becomes a routine habit, the feeling will transform into an attitude, an attitude which you may then bring into other parts of your life."

I looked at her.

"An attitude which you can only build one 'perfect lawn' at a time."

She rose and walked out the french door to the patio, then stepped back across the threshold.

"Its a big yard and there is still some sunlight..."

She left quietly without saying goodbye. I stared at the open door for a moment, felt a sudden heaviness pass through my body, then stood up and walked outside.