Media

Reposting this as it's a much more handy summary than I could give. Neato! I think we're seeing this get more and more privatized as well -- I have a couple flagrant sockpuppets I know and love, they are like a handy little COINTELPRO weathervane. When talking Information Operations (not to mention spinstorms) this is stuff that should be right on hand.

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The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies - Via Cryptome.org - read cryptome every day if you're not already :)

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A sends:

The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies (spooks, feds, etc.)

http://pastebin.com/irj4Fyd5

1. COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum
2. Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation
3. Eight Traits of the Disinformationalist
4. How to Spot a Spy (Cointelpro Agent)
5. Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression
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COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum..

There are several techniques for the control and manipulation of a internet forum no matter what, or who is on it. We will go over each technique and demonstrate that only a minimal number of operatives can be used to eventually and effectively gain a control of a 'uncontrolled forum.'

Technique #1 - 'FORUM SLIDING'

If a very sensitive posting of a critical nature has been posted on a forum - it can be quickly removed from public view by 'forum sliding.' In this technique a number of unrelated posts are quietly prepositioned on the forum and allowed to 'age.' Each of these misdirectional forum postings can then be called upon at will to trigger a 'forum slide.' The second requirement is that several fake accounts exist, which can be called upon, to ensure that this technique is not exposed to the public. To trigger a 'forum slide' and 'flush' the critical post out of public view it is simply a matter of logging into each account both real and fake and then 'replying' to prepositined postings with a simple 1 or 2 line comment. This brings the unrelated postings to the top of the forum list, and the critical posting 'slides' down the front page, and quickly out of public view. Although it is difficult or impossible to censor the posting it is now lost in a sea of unrelated and unuseful postings. By this means it becomes effective to keep the readers of the forum reading unrelated and non-issue items.

Technique #2 - 'CONSENSUS CRACKING'

A second highly effective technique (which you can see in operation all the time at www.abovetopsecret.com) is 'consensus cracking.' To develop a consensus crack, the following technique is used. Under the guise of a fake account a posting is made which looks legitimate and is towards the truth is made - but the critical point is that it has a VERY WEAK PREMISE without substantive proof to back the posting. Once this is done then under alternative fake accounts a very strong position in your favour is slowly introduced over the life of the posting. It is IMPERATIVE that both sides are initially presented, so the uninformed reader cannot determine which side is the truth. As postings and replies are made the stronger 'evidence' or disinformation in your favour is slowly 'seeded in.' Thus the uninformed reader will most like develop the same position as you, and if their position is against you their opposition to your posting will be most likely dropped. However in some cases where the forum members are highly educated and can counter your disinformation with real facts and linked postings, you can then 'abort' the consensus cracking by initiating a 'forum slide.'

Technique #3 - 'TOPIC DILUTION'

Topic dilution is not only effective in forum sliding it is also very useful in keeping the forum readers on unrelated and non-productive issues. This is a critical and useful technique to cause a 'RESOURCE BURN.' By implementing continual and non-related postings that distract and disrupt (trolling ) the forum readers they are more effectively stopped from anything of any real productivity. If the intensity of gradual dilution is intense enough, the readers will effectively stop researching and simply slip into a 'gossip mode.' In this state they can be more easily misdirected away from facts towards uninformed conjecture and opinion. The less informed they are the more effective and easy it becomes to control the entire group in the direction that you would desire the group to go in. It must be stressed that a proper assessment of the psychological capabilities and levels of education is first determined of the group to determine at what level to 'drive in the wedge.' By being too far off topic too quickly it may trigger censorship by a forum moderator.

Technique #4 - 'INFORMATION COLLECTION'

Information collection is also a very effective method to determine the psychological level of the forum members, and to gather intelligence that can be used against them. In this technique in a light and positive environment a 'show you mine so me yours' posting is initiated. From the number of replies and the answers that are provided much statistical information can be gathered. An example is to post your 'favourite weapon' and then encourage other members of the forum to showcase what they have. In this matter it can be determined by reverse proration what percentage of the forum community owns a firearm, and or a illegal weapon. This same method can be used by posing as one of the form members and posting your favourite 'technique of operation.' From the replies various methods that the group utilizes can be studied and effective methods developed to stop them from their activities.

Technique #5 - 'ANGER TROLLING'

Statistically, there is always a percentage of the forum posters who are more inclined to violence. In order to determine who these individuals are, it is a requirement to present a image to the forum to deliberately incite a strong psychological reaction. From this the most violent in the group can be effectively singled out for reverse IP location and possibly local enforcement tracking. To accomplish this only requires posting a link to a video depicting a local police officer massively abusing his power against a very innocent individual. Statistically of the million or so police officers in America there is always one or two being caught abusing there powers and the taping of the activity can be then used for intelligence gathering purposes - without the requirement to 'stage' a fake abuse video. This method is extremely effective, and the more so the more abusive the video can be made to look. Sometimes it is useful to 'lead' the forum by replying to your own posting with your own statement of violent intent, and that you 'do not care what the authorities think!!' inflammation. By doing this and showing no fear it may be more effective in getting the more silent and self-disciplined violent intent members of the forum to slip and post their real intentions. This can be used later in a court of law during prosecution.

Technique #6 - 'GAINING FULL CONTROL'

It is important to also be harvesting and continually maneuvering for a forum moderator position. Once this position is obtained, the forum can then be effectively and quietly controlled by deleting unfavourable postings - and one can eventually steer the forum into complete failure and lack of interest by the general public. This is the 'ultimate victory' as the forum is no longer participated with by the general public and no longer useful in maintaining their freedoms. Depending on the level of control you can obtain, you can deliberately steer a forum into defeat by censoring postings, deleting memberships, flooding, and or accidentally taking the forum offline. By this method the forum can be quickly killed. However it is not always in the interest to kill a forum as it can be converted into a 'honey pot' gathering center to collect and misdirect newcomers and from this point be completely used for your control for your agenda purposes.

CONCLUSION

Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM. Once they are aware of these techniques the operation can completely fail, and the forum can become uncontrolled. At this point other avenues must be considered such as initiating a false legal precidence to simply have the forum shut down and taken offline. This is not desirable as it then leaves the enforcement agencies unable to track the percentage of those in the population who always resist attempts for control against them. Many other techniques can be utilized and developed by the individual and as you develop further techniques of infiltration and control it is imperative to share then with HQ.
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Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation

Note: The first rule and last five (or six, depending on situation) rules are generally not directly within the ability of the traditional disinfo artist to apply. These rules are generally used more directly by those at the leadership, key players, or planning level of the criminal conspiracy or conspiracy to cover up.

1. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Regardless of what you know, don't discuss it -- especially if you are a public figure, news anchor, etc. If it's not reported, it didn't happen, and you never have to deal with the issues.

2. Become incredulous and indignant. Avoid discussing key issues and instead focus on side issues which can be used show the topic as being critical of some otherwise sacrosanct group or theme. This is also known as the 'How dare you!' gambit.

3. Create rumor mongers. Avoid discussing issues by describing all charges, regardless of venue or evidence, as mere rumors and wild accusations. Other derogatory terms mutually exclusive of truth may work as well. This method which works especially well with a silent press, because the only way the public can learn of the facts are through such 'arguable rumors'. If you can associate the material with the Internet, use this fact to certify it a 'wild rumor' from a 'bunch of kids on the Internet' which can have no basis in fact.

4. Use a straw man. Find or create a seeming element of your opponent's argument which you can easily knock down to make yourself look good and the opponent to look bad. Either make up an issue you may safely imply exists based on your interpretation of the opponent/opponent arguments/situation, or select the weakest aspect of the weakest charges. Amplify their significance and destroy them in a way which appears to debunk all the charges, real and fabricated alike, while actually avoiding discussion of the real issues.

5. Sidetrack opponents with name calling and ridicule. This is also known as the primary 'attack the messenger' ploy, though other methods qualify as variants of that approach. Associate opponents with unpopular titles such as 'kooks', 'right-wing', 'liberal', 'left-wing', 'terrorists', 'conspiracy buffs', 'radicals', 'militia', 'racists', 'religious fanatics', 'sexual deviates', and so forth. This makes others shrink from support out of fear of gaining the same label, and you avoid dealing with issues.

6. Hit and Run. In any public forum, make a brief attack of your opponent or the opponent position and then scamper off before an answer can be fielded, or simply ignore any answer. This works extremely well in Internet and letters-to-the-editor environments where a steady stream of new identities can be called upon without having to explain criticism, reasoning -- simply make an accusation or other attack, never discussing issues, and never answering any subsequent response, for that would dignify the opponent's viewpoint.

7. Question motives. Twist or amplify any fact which could be taken to imply that the opponent operates out of a hidden personal agenda or other bias. This avoids discussing issues and forces the accuser on the defensive.

8. Invoke authority. Claim for yourself or associate yourself with authority and present your argument with enough 'jargon' and 'minutia' to illustrate you are 'one who knows', and simply say it isn't so without discussing issues or demonstrating concretely why or citing sources.

9. Play Dumb. No matter what evidence or logical argument is offered, avoid discussing issues except with denials they have any credibility, make any sense, provide any proof, contain or make a point, have logic, or support a conclusion. Mix well for maximum effect.

10. Associate opponent charges with old news. A derivative of the straw man -- usually, in any large-scale matter of high visibility, someone will make charges early on which can be or were already easily dealt with - a kind of investment for the future should the matter not be so easily contained.) Where it can be foreseen, have your own side raise a straw man issue and have it dealt with early on as part of the initial contingency plans. Subsequent charges, regardless of validity or new ground uncovered, can usually then be associated with the original charge and dismissed as simply being a rehash without need to address current issues -- so much the better where the opponent is or was involved with the original source.

11. Establish and rely upon fall-back positions. Using a minor matter or element of the facts, take the 'high road' and 'confess' with candor that some innocent mistake, in hindsight, was made -- but that opponents have seized on the opportunity to blow it all out of proportion and imply greater criminalities which, 'just isn't so.' Others can reinforce this on your behalf, later, and even publicly 'call for an end to the nonsense' because you have already 'done the right thing.' Done properly, this can garner sympathy and respect for 'coming clean' and 'owning up' to your mistakes without addressing more serious issues.

12. Enigmas have no solution. Drawing upon the overall umbrella of events surrounding the crime and the multitude of players and events, paint the entire affair as too complex to solve. This causes those otherwise following the matter to begin to lose interest more quickly without having to address the actual issues.

13. Alice in Wonderland Logic. Avoid discussion of the issues by reasoning backwards or with an apparent deductive logic which forbears any actual material fact.

14. Demand complete solutions. Avoid the issues by requiring opponents to solve the crime at hand completely, a ploy which works best with issues qualifying for rule 10.

15. Fit the facts to alternate conclusions. This requires creative thinking unless the crime was planned with contingency conclusions in place.

16. Vanish evidence and witnesses. If it does not exist, it is not fact, and you won't have to address the issue.

17. Change the subject. Usually in connection with one of the other ploys listed here, find a way to side-track the discussion with abrasive or controversial comments in hopes of turning attention to a new, more manageable topic. This works especially well with companions who can 'argue' with you over the new topic and polarize the discussion arena in order to avoid discussing more key issues.

18. Emotionalize, Antagonize, and Goad Opponents. If you can't do anything else, chide and taunt your opponents and draw them into emotional responses which will tend to make them look foolish and overly motivated, and generally render their material somewhat less coherent. Not only will you avoid discussing the issues in the first instance, but even if their emotional response addresses the issue, you can further avoid the issues by then focusing on how 'sensitive they are to criticism.'

19. Ignore proof presented, demand impossible proofs. This is perhaps a variant of the 'play dumb' rule. Regardless of what material may be presented by an opponent in public forums, claim the material irrelevant and demand proof that is impossible for the opponent to come by (it may exist, but not be at his disposal, or it may be something which is known to be safely destroyed or withheld, such as a murder weapon.) In order to completely avoid discussing issues, it may be required that you to categorically deny and be critical of media or books as valid sources, deny that witnesses are acceptable, or even deny that statements made by government or other authorities have any meaning or relevance.

20. False evidence. Whenever possible, introduce new facts or clues designed and manufactured to conflict with opponent presentations -- as useful tools to neutralize sensitive issues or impede resolution. This works best when the crime was designed with contingencies for the purpose, and the facts cannot be easily separated from the fabrications.

21. Call a Grand Jury, Special Prosecutor, or other empowered investigative body. Subvert the (process) to your benefit and effectively neutralize all sensitive issues without open discussion. Once convened, the evidence and testimony are required to be secret when properly handled. For instance, if you own the prosecuting attorney, it can insure a Grand Jury hears no useful evidence and that the evidence is sealed and unavailable to subsequent investigators. Once a favorable verdict is achieved, the matter can be considered officially closed. Usually, this technique is applied to find the guilty innocent, but it can also be used to obtain charges when seeking to frame a victim.

22. Manufacture a new truth. Create your own expert(s), group(s), author(s), leader(s) or influence existing ones willing to forge new ground via scientific, investigative, or social research or testimony which concludes favorably. In this way, if you must actually address issues, you can do so authoritatively.

23. Create bigger distractions. If the above does not seem to be working to distract from sensitive issues, or to prevent unwanted media coverage of unstoppable events such as trials, create bigger news stories (or treat them as such) to distract the multitudes.

24. Silence critics. If the above methods do not prevail, consider removing opponents from circulation by some definitive solution so that the need to address issues is removed entirely. This can be by their death, arrest and detention, blackmail or destruction of their character by release of blackmail information, or merely by destroying them financially, emotionally, or severely damaging their health.

25. Vanish. If you are a key holder of secrets or otherwise overly illuminated and you think the heat is getting too hot, to avoid the issues, vacate the kitchen.
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Eight Traits of the Disinformationalist

1) Avoidance. They never actually discuss issues head-on or provide constructive input, generally avoiding citation of references or credentials. Rather, they merely imply this, that, and the other. Virtually everything about their presentation implies their authority and expert knowledge in the matter without any further justification for credibility.

2) Selectivity. They tend to pick and choose opponents carefully, either applying the hit-and-run approach against mere commentators supportive of opponents, or focusing heavier attacks on key opponents who are known to directly address issues. Should a commentator become argumentative with any success, the focus will shift to include the commentator as well.

3) Coincidental. They tend to surface suddenly and somewhat coincidentally with a new controversial topic with no clear prior record of participation in general discussions in the particular public arena involved. They likewise tend to vanish once the topic is no longer of general concern. They were likely directed or elected to be there for a reason, and vanish with the reason.

4) Teamwork. They tend to operate in self-congratulatory and complementary packs or teams. Of course, this can happen naturally in any public forum, but there will likely be an ongoing pattern of frequent exchanges of this sort where professionals are involved. Sometimes one of the players will infiltrate the opponent camp to become a source for straw man or other tactics designed to dilute opponent presentation strength.

5) Anti-conspiratorial. They almost always have disdain for 'conspiracy theorists' and, usually, for those who in any way believe JFK was not killed by LHO. Ask yourself why, if they hold such disdain for conspiracy theorists, do they focus on defending a single topic discussed in a NG focusing on conspiracies? One might think they would either be trying to make fools of everyone on every topic, or simply ignore the group they hold in such disdain.Or, one might more rightly conclude they have an ulterior motive for their actions in going out of their way to focus as they do.

6) Artificial Emotions. An odd kind of 'artificial' emotionalism and an unusually thick skin -- an ability to persevere and persist even in the face of overwhelming criticism and unacceptance. This likely stems from intelligence community training that, no matter how condemning the evidence, deny everything, and never become emotionally involved or reactive. The net result for a disinfo artist is that emotions can seem artificial.

Most people, if responding in anger, for instance, will express their animosity throughout their rebuttal. But disinfo types usually have trouble maintaining the 'image' and are hot and cold with respect to pretended emotions and their usually more calm or unemotional communications style. It's just a job, and they often seem unable to 'act their role in character' as well in a communications medium as they might be able in a real face-to-face conversation/confrontation. You might have outright rage and indignation one moment, ho-hum the next, and more anger later -- an emotional yo-yo.

With respect to being thick-skinned, no amount of criticism will deter them from doing their job, and they will generally continue their old disinfo patterns without any adjustments to criticisms of how obvious it is that they play that game -- where a more rational individual who truly cares what others think might seek to improve their communications style, substance, and so forth, or simply give up.

7) Inconsistent. There is also a tendency to make mistakes which betray their true self/motives. This may stem from not really knowing their topic, or it may be somewhat 'freudian', so to speak, in that perhaps they really root for the side of truth deep within.

I have noted that often, they will simply cite contradictory information which neutralizes itself and the author. For instance, one such player claimed to be a Navy pilot, but blamed his poor communicating skills (spelling, grammar, incoherent style) on having only a grade-school education. I'm not aware of too many Navy pilots who don't have a college degree. Another claimed no knowledge of a particular topic/situation but later claimed first-hand knowledge of it.

8) Time Constant. Recently discovered, with respect to News Groups, is the response time factor. There are three ways this can be seen to work, especially when the government or other empowered player is involved in a cover up operation:

a) ANY NG posting by a targeted proponent for truth can result in an IMMEDIATE response. The government and other empowered players can afford to pay people to sit there and watch for an opportunity to do some damage. SINCE DISINFO IN A NG ONLY WORKS IF THE READER SEES IT - FAST RESPONSE IS CALLED FOR, or the visitor may be swayed towards truth.

b) When dealing in more direct ways with a disinformationalist, such as email, DELAY IS CALLED FOR - there will usually be a minimum of a 48-72 hour delay. This allows a sit-down team discussion on response strategy for best effect, and even enough time to 'get permission' or instruction from a formal chain of command.

c) In the NG example 1) above, it will often ALSO be seen that bigger guns are drawn and fired after the same 48-72 hours delay - the team approach in play. This is especially true when the targeted truth seeker or their comments are considered more important with respect to potential to reveal truth. Thus, a serious truth sayer will be attacked twice for the same sin.

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How to Spot a Spy (Cointelpro Agent)

One way to neutralize a potential activist is to get them to be in a group that does all the wrong things. Why?

1) The message doesn't get out.
2) A lot of time is wasted
3) The activist is frustrated and discouraged
4) Nothing good is accomplished.

FBI and Police Informers and Infiltrators will infest any group and they have phoney activist organizations established.

Their purpose is to prevent any real movement for justice or eco-peace from developing in this country.

Agents come in small, medium or large. They can be of any ethnic background. They can be male or female.

The actual size of the group or movement being infiltrated is irrelevant. It is the potential the movement has for becoming large which brings on the spies and saboteurs.

This booklet lists tactics agents use to slow things down, foul things up, destroy the movement and keep tabs on activists.

It is the agent's job to keep the activist from quitting such a group, thus keeping him/her under control.

In some situations, to get control, the agent will tell the activist:

"You're dividing the movement."

[Here, I have added the psychological reasons as to WHY this maneuver works to control people]

This invites guilty feelings. Many people can be controlled by guilt. The agents begin relationships with activists behind a well-developed mask of "dedication to the cause." Because of their often declared dedication, (and actions designed to prove this), when they criticize the activist, he or she - being truly dedicated to the movement - becomes convinced that somehow, any issues are THEIR fault. This is because a truly dedicated person tends to believe that everyone has a conscience and that nobody would dissimulate and lie like that "on purpose." It's amazing how far agents can go in manipulating an activist because the activist will constantly make excuses for the agent who regularly declares their dedication to the cause. Even if they do, occasionally, suspect the agent, they will pull the wool over their own eyes by rationalizing: "they did that unconsciously... they didn't really mean it... I can help them by being forgiving and accepting " and so on and so forth.

The agent will tell the activist:

"You're a leader!"

This is designed to enhance the activist's self-esteem. His or her narcissistic admiration of his/her own activist/altruistic intentions increase as he or she identifies with and consciously admires the altruistic declarations of the agent which are deliberately set up to mirror those of the activist.

This is "malignant pseudoidentification." It is the process by which the agent consciously imitates or simulates a certain behavior to foster the activist's identification with him/her, thus increasing the activist's vulnerability to exploitation. The agent will simulate the more subtle self-concepts of the activist.

Activists and those who have altruistic self-concepts are most vulnerable to malignant pseudoidentification especially during work with the agent when the interaction includes matter relating to their competency, autonomy, or knowledge.

The goal of the agent is to increase the activist's general empathy for the agent through pseudo-identification with the activist's self-concepts.

The most common example of this is the agent who will compliment the activist for his competency or knowledge or value to the movement. On a more subtle level, the agent will simulate affects and mannerisms of the activist which promotes identification via mirroring and feelings of "twinship". It is not unheard of for activists, enamored by the perceived helpfulness and competence of a good agent, to find themselves considering ethical violations and perhaps, even illegal behavior, in the service of their agent/handler.

The activist's "felt quality of perfection" [self-concept] is enhanced, and a strong empathic bond is developed with the agent through his/her imitation and simulation of the victim's own narcissistic investments. [self-concepts] That is, if the activist knows, deep inside, their own dedication to the cause, they will project that onto the agent who is "mirroring" them.

The activist will be deluded into thinking that the agent shares this feeling of identification and bonding. In an activist/social movement setting, the adversarial roles that activists naturally play vis a vis the establishment/government, fosters ongoing processes of intrapsychic splitting so that "twinship alliances" between activist and agent may render whole sectors or reality testing unavailable to the activist. They literally "lose touch with reality."

Activists who deny their own narcissistic investments [do not have a good idea of their own self-concepts and that they ARE concepts] and consciously perceive themselves (accurately, as it were) to be "helpers" endowed with a special amount of altruism are exceedingly vulnerable to the affective (emotional) simulation of the accomplished agent.

Empathy is fostered in the activist through the expression of quite visible affects. The presentation of tearfulness, sadness, longing, fear, remorse, and guilt, may induce in the helper-oriented activist a strong sense of compassion, while unconsciously enhancing the activist's narcissistic investment in self as the embodiment of goodness.

The agent's expresssion of such simulated affects may be quite compelling to the observer and difficult to distinguish from deep emotion.

It can usually be identified by two events, however:

First, the activist who has analyzed his/her own narcissistic roots and is aware of his/her own potential for being "emotionally hooked," will be able to remain cool and unaffected by such emotional outpourings by the agent.

As a result of this unaffected, cool, attitude, the Second event will occur: The agent will recompensate much too quickly following such an affective expression leaving the activist with the impression that "the play has ended, the curtain has fallen," and the imposture, for the moment, has finished. The agent will then move quickly to another activist/victim.

The fact is, the movement doesn't need leaders, it needs MOVERS. "Follow the leader" is a waste of time.

A good agent will want to meet as often as possible. He or she will talk a lot and say little. One can expect an onslaught of long, unresolved discussions.

Some agents take on a pushy, arrogant, or defensive manner:

1) To disrupt the agenda
2) To side-track the discussion
3) To interrupt repeatedly
4) To feign ignorance
5) To make an unfounded accusation against a person.

Calling someone a racist, for example. This tactic is used to discredit a person in the eyes of all other group members.

Saboteurs

Some saboteurs pretend to be activists. She or he will ....

1) Write encyclopedic flyers (in the present day, websites)
2) Print flyers in English only.
3) Have demonstrations in places where no one cares.
4) Solicit funding from rich people instead of grass roots support
5) Display banners with too many words that are confusing.
6) Confuse issues.
7) Make the wrong demands.
Cool Compromise the goal.
9) Have endless discussions that waste everyone's time. The agent may accompany the endless discussions with drinking, pot smoking or other amusement to slow down the activist's work.

Provocateurs

1) Want to establish "leaders" to set them up for a fall in order to stop the movement.
2) Suggest doing foolish, illegal things to get the activists in trouble.
3) Encourage militancy.
4) Want to taunt the authorities.
5) Attempt to make the activist compromise their values.
6) Attempt to instigate violence. Activisim ought to always be non-violent.
7) Attempt to provoke revolt among people who are ill-prepared to deal with the reaction of the authorities to such violence.

Informants

1) Want everyone to sign up and sing in and sign everything.
2) Ask a lot of questions (gathering data).
3) Want to know what events the activist is planning to attend.
4) Attempt to make the activist defend him or herself to identify his or her beliefs, goals, and level of committment.

Recruiting

Legitimate activists do not subject people to hours of persuasive dialog. Their actions, beliefs, and goals speak for themselves.

Groups that DO recruit are missionaries, military, and fake political parties or movements set up by agents.

Surveillance

ALWAYS assume that you are under surveillance.

At this point, if you are NOT under surveillance, you are not a very good activist!

Scare Tactics

They use them.

Such tactics include slander, defamation, threats, getting close to disaffected or minimally committed fellow activists to persuade them (via psychological tactics described above) to turn against the movement and give false testimony against their former compatriots. They will plant illegal substances on the activist and set up an arrest; they will plant false information and set up "exposure," they will send incriminating letters [emails] in the name of the activist; and more; they will do whatever society will allow.

This booklet in no way covers all the ways agents use to sabotage the lives of sincere an dedicated activists.

If an agent is "exposed," he or she will be transferred or replaced.

COINTELPRO is still in operation today under a different code name. It is no longer placed on paper where it can be discovered through the freedom of information act.

The FBI counterintelligence program's stated purpose: To expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, and otherwise neutralize individuals who the FBI categorize as opposed to the National Interests. "National Security" means the FBI's security from the people ever finding out the vicious things it does in violation of people's civil liberties.

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Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Strong, credible allegations of high-level criminal activity can bring down a government. When the government lacks an effective, fact-based defense, other techniques must be employed. The success of these techniques depends heavily upon a cooperative, compliant press and a mere token opposition party.

1. Dummy up. If it's not reported, if it's not news, it didn't happen.

2. Wax indignant. This is also known as the "How dare you?" gambit.

3. Characterize the charges as "rumors" or, better yet, "wild rumors." If, in spite of the news blackout, the public is still able to learn about the suspicious facts, it can only be through "rumors." (If they tend to believe the "rumors" it must be because they are simply "paranoid" or "hysterical.")

4. Knock down straw men. Deal only with the weakest aspects of the weakest charges. Even better, create your own straw men. Make up wild rumors (or plant false stories) and give them lead play when you appear to debunk all the charges, real and fanciful alike.

5. Call the skeptics names like "conspiracy theorist," "nutcase," "ranter," "kook," "crackpot," and, of course, "rumor monger." Be sure, too, to use heavily loaded verbs and adjectives when characterizing their charges and defending the "more reasonable" government and its defenders. You must then carefully avoid fair and open debate with any of the people you have thus maligned. For insurance, set up your own "skeptics" to shoot down.

6. Impugn motives. Attempt to marginalize the critics by suggesting strongly that they are not really interested in the truth but are simply pursuing a partisan political agenda or are out to make money (compared to over-compensated adherents to the government line who, presumably, are not).

7. Invoke authority. Here the controlled press and the sham opposition can be very useful.

8. Dismiss the charges as "old news."

9. Come half-clean. This is also known as "confession and avoidance" or "taking the limited hangout route." This way, you create the impression of candor and honesty while you admit only to relatively harmless, less-than-criminal "mistakes." This stratagem often requires the embrace of a fall-back position quite different from the one originally taken. With effective damage control, the fall-back position need only be peddled by stooge skeptics to carefully limited markets.

10. Characterize the crimes as impossibly complex and the truth as ultimately unknowable.

11. Reason backward, using the deductive method with a vengeance. With thoroughly rigorous deduction, troublesome evidence is irrelevant. E.g. We have a completely free press. If evidence exists that the Vince Foster "suicide" note was forged, they would have reported it. They haven't reported it so there is no such evidence. Another variation on this theme involves the likelihood of a conspiracy leaker and a press who would report the leak.

12. Require the skeptics to solve the crime completely. E.g. If Foster was murdered, who did it and why?

13. Change the subject. This technique includes creating and/or publicizing distractions.

14. Lightly report incriminating facts, and then make nothing of them. This is sometimes referred to as "bump and run" reporting.

15. Baldly and brazenly lie. A favorite way of doing this is to attribute the "facts" furnished the public to a plausible-sounding, but anonymous, source.

16. Expanding further on numbers 4 and 5, have your own stooges "expose" scandals and champion popular causes. Their job is to pre-empt real opponents and to play 99-yard football. A variation is to pay rich people for the job who will pretend to spend their own money.

17. Flood the Internet with agents. This is the answer to the question, "What could possibly motivate a person to spend hour upon hour on Internet news groups defending the government and/or the press and harassing genuine critics?" Don t the authorities have defenders enough in all the newspapers, magazines, radio, and television? One would think refusing to print critical letters and screening out serious callers or dumping them from radio talk shows would be control enough, but, obviously, it is not.

It was a fun experience out at Zuccotti Park last October/November, and one late morning/early afternoon I gave an interview to Kevin Breslin, a gung ho director who pulled the OWS pieces together a 38-minute documentary called #whilewewatch on very little budget. It's been making the rounds and will now be free on the Internets later tonight. 8 Pm Eastern, 7 Central, 6 Mtn, 5 Pacific. Official site: http://www.whilewewatch.com/

Streaming live TONITE at http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/while_we_watch or http://www.whilewewatch.com/snag.html . There will be online chat afterwards as well.

Notes and clips from C&L: http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/occupy-wall-street-w... . Huffpo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fagin/while-we-watch-ows-movie-_b_14... . Note from the ol affinity group site: http://occupywallst.org/article/while-we-watch-new-documentary-occupied-...

Who knows, it might inspire me to get more stuff rollin!

Rise of the Facebook-Killers by Nick Pinto- New York - Village Voice:

.... Moglen said, Mark Zuckerberg had harnessed the energy of our social desires to talk us into a swindle. "Everybody needs to get laid," Moglen said. "He turned it into a structure for degenerating the integrity of human personality, and he has to a remarkable extent succeeded with a very poor deal. Namely, 'I will give you free Web hosting and some PHP doodads, and you get spying for free all the time.'"

It was hardly the first time this sort of critique had been leveled against Facebook, but Moglen wasn't just carping.

"I'm not suggesting it should be illegal," Moglen told the audience of the Internet Society of New York. "It should be obsolete. We're technologists. We should fix it."

Fixing it wouldn't be hard, Moglen argued. There's no reason the architecture of a social network has to include the kinds of privacy invasion endemic to Facebook. In fact, the hardware and software necessary to build a network in which people kept direct control of their information, with no middleman, already exists. So Moglen challenged his audience: Build a better system.

It's been interesting lately... working on a lot of things. One cool thing which has eluded my ability to spend much time getting into: the development of a 'federated social networking' model to replace Facebook. While not having spent much time on this directly, I dug into a bunch of stuff today and purpose of this post below: as many links as I could snag for underlying techs, alpha, beta and placeholder related possible elements. Epic Lulz ensue?

Despite the buzz Facebook is like another AOL in many, many ways. With new approaches, the same damn functions that were used to make Facebook a monolithic killer app of the Internet will finally be able to move into a decentralized cloud of services.

Cloud, in some ways is the best word, as it will finally be possible to setup virtual machines running private nodes of a larger network. Think of all the chunks of the social network experience including status updates, fixed events, photo and video item sharing, private messages etc. You have to find certain protocols to fire off the Like to a status update on a different machine without constantly polling all the time - and sharing a clear meaning between servers.

AS noted in Wired, Occupy Geeks Are Building a Facebook for the 99% , and now nice Village Voice story by Nick Pinto, the stuff which can knock Facebook's highly valuable, shadowy commercial exploitation of the patterns of your activity is being developed. Occupy Wall Street project run with TechOps called Federated General Assembly promises to combine a lot of nice opensource techs into a SocialNetwork-in-a-box. (TechOps Projects: Technology Operations Group - Occupy.Net wiki

Rise of the Facebook-Killers - Village Voice

Drupal vs Zuckerberg! Problem? Article: De-centralised social networks and Drupal | istos

The goal is to make inter-operable social networking servers running different, interchangeable open-source software platforms (i.e. diaspora, Drupal, status.net, WordPress). It's kind of loose right now but a lot of established component techs are in decent shape, and merely have to be piled up into implementations of the protocols on sturdy, ready-to-run server stacks. Easier said than done. But once done, everything will be quite different!

To deliver this, a specification proposal which already has taken flight is one batch of protocols called OStatus - Understanding OStatus | StatusNet. Status.net is something of an Open source replacement for Twitter etc; Welcome to the Developer's Section | StatusNet. Status.net supported OStatus since .9.0 including Salmon, Webfinger, and ActivityStreams in March 2010. OStatus is just a mix of these existing, specified protocols, many of which already have open-source implementations available (drupal & wordpress modules, PHP libraries etc): Worth quoting here:

• Atom or RSS for feeds. These standard feed formats make it easy to include rich information like location, thread context, and HTML formatting in status updates.
• PubSubHubbub for real-time. PubSubHubbub (or PuSH) is an HTTP-based protocol for pushing feed entries from publishers to subscribers. It lets people on different servers receive status updates in real-time (or "real-enough time").
• Salmon for replies. Salmon is an excellent, distributed, secure protocol for sending messages "upstream" -- from subscribers to publishers. And since it uses Atom or RSS elements to structure those messages, it's easy to include lots of rich data in these messages.
• ActivityStreams for social events. There is a lot of information in a social network that's not explicitly a status update: follows, faves, repeats ("retweets"). We use ActivityStreams to encode these events, which then either flow through PuSH out to a network of subscribers, or get posted through salmon to the recipients. This lets sites on both sides keep track of followers and friends with a minimum of data transfer.
• Webfinger for discovery. We needed an easy way for people to say, "Follow me!" Webfinger gives people identities available across the Internet that look like email addresses. We use this for discovering people on the network; you can follow me at evan@status.net.

Putting these pieces together, we were able to make the new, distributed social networking system that's part of StatusNet 0.9.0. It'sgreat; flexible and simple and high-performance and fun and easy to use.
We wanted more sites to implement these protocols so the network becomes even more valuable. Some parts have been implemented already by sites like Google Buzz, LiveJournal, WordPress.com, andTumblr. We want to make sure that sites that have taken those first few steps make the next ones to build a truly distributed social Web.
So we've put a name on this suite of protocols: OStatus. We want people who are looking for a way to distribute status updates to know that there's an easy, standard way to go. We think that the more OStatus participants, the better the network becomes.
We've published the OStatus suite's definition as OStatus 1.0 Draft 1.

So OStatus can represent a package of complex activity back and forth. Nice. Lets look at Federated General Assembly, using something like OStatus (maybe not Webfinger?). FGA is basically a Drupal distribution in the works (ideally with a good virtual machine, so any machine could run your social network by booting from USB key). FGA could run off a box in the Occupy camp ... and go from there. Or run really on any affordable shared hosting or at a larger scale for certain services, VPS, most likely.

Drupal Modules for Make Great FGA! As a Drupal muck-abouter myself, the shape this has all taken with the FGA project in particular going right to a Drupal-centric approach, is damn sweet. Drupal 7 is flexible to handle much of this. It's true Drupal has always angled for this kind of use anyway -- the unfortunately not-that-successful OpenID protocol has been in Drupal Core for years. With some more work, its a natural open choice for implementing this stuff, while also developing an open approach that can talk happily to existing, new alternative & corporate providers via API modules.

As something of a test you could setup a free account on DrupalGardens.com, export to any web host. Install some of the modules on the list below, join discussions on mailing lists & IRC (and the info I'm throwing in here is just from skimming around, not reading the list so forgive me inaccuracies :)

For Drupal 7.x federated social network module ideas, Massive list, may not be up to date but covers your bases. Drupal for Assemblies | Occupytalk.org. Many things to look at!! Yikes.

*******

Drupal modules wiki'd for possible use in Federated General Assembly: Federated General Assembly - Drupal Modules - OWS Project Tracker.

Modules to Test and Try to Fix Where Needed

• File Admin - UI for file entities
• i18n - Internationalization
• Mail Comment
• Mailhandler
• Messaging
• Notifications
• Organic Groups - Support for working group structure
• OStatus
  • Activity - Would need to be adapted for specific uses, use Heartbeat instead?
  • Activity Streams - basic implementatation for subscription to other sites but no publishing
  • Discovery - Superset of Webfinger
  • Heartbeat - Possibly a better idea than the Activity module for doing Activity Streams
  • PubSubHubbub Hub - PubSub PuSH support
  • Pusher - PubSub publisher
  • (RSS - native)
  • Salmon - support non-existent
  • Webfinger - Totally blows up, port Discovery instead?
• Plus1 - +1 style voting
• Statuses
• VARQL - Views SPARQL query back-end

Modules to Port to D7

• FOAF+SSL - Authentication (WebID)
• https://drupal.org/project/tableofcontents (code may be useful for agenda/minutes)

Modules to Build From Scratch

• FGA Feature for end users
• FGA Endpoint Admin for end user admins
• FGA Push to enable P2P communication via service layer
• FGA Edge Server for end user sites that wish to provide their own services (eg mobile support via REST)

Alpha or Beta Modules Stable Enough for Basic Usage

• Address
• Admin
• Advanced Forum
• Calendar
• Captcha
• Context
• Ctools
• Date
• Debut
• Entity
• Features
• Feeds
• File Entity
• Fivestar
• Follow
• Gcal Events
• Job Scheduler
• LDAP
• Media (install issues?)
• Metatag
• OAuth
• OpenCalais
• OWS Curator
• Plupload
• Print
• RDFx
• Redirect
• Recaptcha
• Services
• SPARQL
• SPARQL Views
• Strongarm
• Styles
• Superfish
• Token
• Twitter
• Views
• Views Data Export
• Web Service Client (wsclient)
• XML Sitemap
• TBD

Stable Modules to Include

• Comment Notify
• Email
• Forward
• Global Redirect
• HTTP Client
• jCarousel
• Lang Dropdown
• Libraries
• Link
• Login Toboggan
• REST Server Plist Support
• Rules
• Service Links
• Variable
• VotingAPI
• WYSIWYG
• TBD

Libraries

• ARC2
• CKEditor
• DOMPDF
• Plupload
• Superfish

*******

Anyway that list seemed worth sharing - no time for hyperlinks! Cool way to chart the progress of FGA: FGA Directory site - Gantt - OWS Project Tracker

Development server: or just a front page of sorts: home | FGA project site

FGA Project site - Roadmap - OWS Project Tracker - overall plan for version releases. you can see which bugs/features are closed to hit the releases. it's rough but moving along better in recent weeks.

Federated General Assembly - Primers and Tutorials - OWS Project Tracker

Federated General Assembly - Technology Stack - OWS Project Tracker

Federated General Assembly - Project Specification - OWS Project Tracker - interoperability rules! (you don't need to use this core system, any server meeting the spec could link up)

get involved - communications

• IRC
• general listserv
• UX listserv
• forums

get involved - developers

• documentation
• code
• issue queue

get involved - events

• calendar of events
• minutes

Drupal module implementations & test things: No idea yet if this stuff works. A couple may be little more than placeholders. But that's what's nice about open-source. Someone else can nudge it along or take it as an example to put on another platform etc.

damz/foafssl-drupal - GitHub // Foaf+ssl/HOWTO - W3C Wiki

ClusterFCK/Drupal-Mumble-Viewer - GitHub // Drupal Mumble Viewer | Free World Media

dtarc/ows_curator - GitHub <- curates news from ManagingNews

WebID | drupal.org - implementation, just getting rolling (7.x alpha2)

#drupal-ostatus for anyone interested in working on bringing Ostatus to Drupal.

Also useful for Drupal media aggregation - Mobile Broadcast News | we're there for you style RSS based youtube embed parsing from member accounts in D6. Modules: Feeds: YouTube parser | drupal.org // Feeds | drupal.org // Media | drupal.org. try a demo of MediaMosa, a drupal distribution linked with FFMPEG that helps manage video assets, and transcode/intake via FTP too, Big buck bunny | demo.mediamosa.surfnet.nl. Drupal MediaMosa Module / the blank-yet-quite-functional white label version of mediamosa: Videos | demo.mediamosa.surfnet.nl. MediaMosa | Drupal Distro Watch // check out Drupal Distro Watch for a number of cool free projects.

Importing list of occupations: FGA Directory site - Feature #117: Import Occupations List into Drupal - OWS Project Tracker

More nifty tech tips for activists: Had to throw in Tactical Technology Collective & Security In A Box | Tools and tactics for your digital security, Firefox with add-ons - Secure Web Browser | Security In A Box

WebId protocol - kind of an extension of OpenID. This is the basic universal identification mechanism which actually gives control over privacy and lets us get away from centralized identity. WebID - Universal Login and Identity for the Web

WebID 1.0 // WebID Wiki // W3C WebID Incubator Group: "an authentication protocol that uses the SSL/TLS layer for user identification by tying the client to a profile document on the Web through placing a URI in a certificate. It is a first step to a fully standard-based browser authentication experience, but not limited to browser based authentication: peer to peer server authentication will work just as well. The Incubator Group intends to pursue work that has been evolving since 2008, grow the number of interested parties from the Social Web, security and browser communities, and integrate their feedback."

pubsubhubbub - A simple, open, web-hook-based pubsub protocol & open source reference implementation. - Google Project Hosting - Installation guide: PubSubHubbub Support for Drupal | Development Seed. Brand new: Views RSS: PubSubHubbub Elements | drupal.org. FOr pushing 6 and 7: Pusher | drupal.org

Activity Streams Protocol: Hadn't really heard about this one. Looks interesting. "The Activity Streams format has already been adopted by BBC, Gnip, Google Buzz Gowalla, IBM, MySpace, Opera, Socialcast, Superfeedr, TypePad,Windows Live, YIID, and many others." activitystreams's Profile - GitHub .

Salmon for the win: Salmon Protocol // See Protocol Summary - Salmon Protocol.- "As updates and content flow in real time around the Web, conversations around the content are becoming increasingly fragmented into individual silos. Salmon aims to define a standard protocol for comments and annotations to swim upstream to original update sources -- and spawn more commentary in a virtuous cycle. It's open, decentralized, abuse resistant, and user centric. (See latest news.) See Protocol Summary for a high level description, the FAQ for common questions and answers, and the Magic Signatures and Salmon Protocol specifications for full details. There is a Google Code project for source code and specs, and a mailing list; please join the list if you are interested in participating in defining or implementing the protocol. There is a demo running at the Salmon Playground."

OccupyTalk.org and Mumble, JSON hotness: another development is open source Mumble based OccupyTalk. Mumble software kind of annoying to setup so I haven't messed around on it. but good stuff.

Occupytalk.org:

Embed the Mumble block on your site

It's now possible to embed the Mumble block on your website! This technology is called Channel Viewer Protocol. In short CVP.

Currently we support 1 way of embedding the block: Json CVP.

The address for the Json output is: http://occupytalk.org/json/1/1

Plugins for your website that work with Json:

Drupal 7 module: download

Wordpress plugin: Website

Joomla Channel viewer: Website

More links: Federated Social Web | Drupal Groups. Just a stub: sanduhrs's sandbox: OStatus | drupal.org // RSS & Aggregation | Drupal Groups // Google Feed API — Google Developers // funky Ajax techniques 25 Excellent Ajax Techniques and Examples

Some neat geographic data mapping: I wanted to stuff some more not-yet-fully-baked module links in here, why not. For cool spatial portals, some of this stuff could work wonders. OpenLayers its own badass system for open source mapping. This mapping of river level data, live, is AWESOMESAUCE: AustroFeedr | Hochwassernachrichten in Echtzeit. A neat aggregator of data: AustroFeedr | Pushing the Real Time Web in Austria. English writeup is VERY interesting: AustroFeedr - Real-time Open Data Aggregation, Processing and Publishing in Austria | drupal.org // developmentseed/openlayers_themes - GitHub // Diff | drupal.org < adds cool wiki style changelog effect to revisions. //Search API Location | drupal.org // affinitybridge/spatial - GitHub - php processing spatial data recently developed //Geofield | drupal.org

Entity API relation : Not going to get into it too much, but a lot of cool data can be aggregated and represented as entities rather than nodes in Drupal 7. Anyway these are at varying states but definitely worth looking at for a minute: Relation | drupal.org - cutting edge new way to relate new data entities - specifically designed for linking say donor entries...Entity reference | drupal.org. Hm: References | drupal.org.Field group | drupal.org / Synonyms | drupal.org / DataStore | drupal.org /

WTF: Endgame on this stuff? This post is intended as a rough round-up so hopefully interested folks can find some tasty repos & move this process along :) Basically I think if you mix together a lot of these technologies and make bootable virtual machines and USB images, you will have a ready way to run a lot of great services for almost any circumstance. The AOL-like Facebook monopoly will finally fade away, its primacy eclipsed by obsoleteness. Mix the some of the above open techs, have a few distros moving around the Occupy movement and elsewhere that are more ready-to-run & essentially turnkey, you've got most of what you need without a corporate behavior-spy watching your every move.

In occupy camps, even old cell phones, with no valid SIM for the commercial network, could be talking to a DIY picocell tower and this someday, if I can speculate could be managed by the FGA or other support system. A clever person pointed this out to me. We can dream...

Peer-to-peer CDN networks seem to be one thing needed (SMS gateways another) to replace the most expensive elements of Internet media distribution. Could peer participants in a CDN be awarded rewards much as bitcoin miners might - using Salmon or something else to upstream their available IP connections? Why not? :-D

I've noticed that the shadiest old men of the Establishment frequently make political arguments that boil down to 'GET OFF MY LAWN YOU DAMN KIDS'. For example, the corrupt paleo-reaganite federal judge in Minnesota who tossed the Shepard Road RNC lawsuit said he didn't care about illegal government operations because GET OFF MY LAWN. Interesting philosophy, to which the kids respond "Ok we'll become anarchists then." The tighter they squeeze, the moar star systems slip thru their clumsy fingers.

One of the more nasty old Weasels of the Woodwork, Mort Zuckerman, posted another of his characteristic Grumpy Old Man rants, because wrecking America wasn't enough he has to blather about Hacktivists© now too.

So we need to destroy the internets now because the national security state is weak & feckless in the face of anarchic HTTP protocols and Denial of Service attacks.

As A Victim Of Cyberwar © Myself This Week, I mean damn, I had a DDoS take Hongpong.com's shared box off the internets all damn day yesterday, and you know what?

Denial of Service attacks don't matter for jack! I survived, everything's fine, it's annoying but it's like spilling yr beverage. Wash out the keyboard, let it dry, get on with things.

Anyway the Old Zuckster, a nasty racist old man who hates Palestinians and loves his criminal financial operative besties friends, let loose with this broadside: WikiLeaks, Cyber War Threaten Our Way of Life - US News and World Report (related he wrote in WSJ Mortimer Zuckerman: How to Fight and Win the Cyberwar)

Which literally included an 80-year old disinfo bit about Anarchism © :

Anarchists have a long history in America of acting to create and at times threaten a violent overthrow of civil society. An anarchist assassinated President William McKinley in 1901 and others tried to kill Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer in 1919; anarchists sent 36 parcel bombs to prominent citizens in 1919 and exploded a lethal bomb on Wall Street in 1920. Our cyber anarchists would be appalled at any comparison, but their intent is the same—the creation of chaos—and the philosophy is the same, characterized as are all anarchic movements by an inability to distinguish liberty from license and an overriding narcissistic contempt for the rights of others. Of course, the license is pre-emptively asserted in the name of "the people."

Actually I'm pretty sure it was your buddies on Wall Street that acted for the creation of chaos etc...

Read All 18 Comments - Anyway I think my response was pretty good:

You Kids Get Off My Cyber-Lawn!

Mr. Zuckerman, your corrupt generation of swine has virtually destroyed the United States, and you've been a cheerleader of the most perfidious rings of financial criminals every step of the way -- your personal friends are the core of our nation's problems. As the official mascot for obsolete & grumpy old men everywhere, you're leading by anti-example, showing us all how to march towards the apocalypse with aplomb. Perhaps in the afterlife you'll be sentenced to a Groundhog Day-like scenario, experiencing directly the destruction your generation of unstoppable criminals has wrought, from the West Bank bulldozers to the nuked pension funds.

The more vengeful and abusive shady old people like you get, the more young people turn away from your deadwood ideology by the thousands. Raiding the Royal Carriage, the kids in England chant 'Off With Their Heads' as the Grumpy Old Men fume and ask their grandkids to setup the DVD player. You will have no ideological heirs, sorry Mort! The National Security state is a layer cake of lies, and it's so weak just proclaiming a few bits from the rooftops sends it spinning into Chaos. On Internets we call this a LOL: your dictatorship of information control is eroding exponentially. It's not the anarchists' fault these hierarchies are falling apart!

It's a good feeling that the snarling geriatric types are losing their grip - but I fear within 10 years or so, nearly demonic geezers like Zuckerman and Dick Cheney could be effectively almost immortal/zombie-like due to medical advances. Transhumanist Grumpy Hyper-Old Men would be awful.

I'll leave it there - oh wait here's an awesome roundup describing how evil this man is, how he treats his media employees abusively, and nukes their 401Ks while lunching at the Four Seasons. A Look Back: Ten Years of Branding Mort Zuckerman As A Boring Monster: lulz:

Over the last ten years, the New York Post has called Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman a cheapskate, a tyrant, an illegal maid-payer, a friend to unsavory characters, a bad businessman, a racist, a friend of terrorism, a firer of pregnant women, a publisher who uses his editorial page for the his own real estate interests, a constructor of dangerous buildings, the provoker of staff suicides, as well as wild-eyed, mercurial, panicky, a cheater of readers, a scoffer at laws, a "horrible, nickel-and-diming boss," and the publisher of boring publications.

Let's hope the real estate crash bankrupts him before he can rant again!

For followups & fun I've posted a bunch of vids to youtube (New Madrid MSNBC and Army Corps 1 and 2 ) and a bunch of pdfs to Scribd including all the latest crazy Pennsylvania Homeland Security stuff.

Event here: Indymedia having a 2010 Resistance in Review on Friday at Waite House with dinner!
TC Indymedia Dec 3 Event Resistance in Review New

I tried loading a funny cable about Prince William from Wikileaks into Xtranormal. It's not super funny, but xtranormal kicks ass...

Anyway here is the stupid core of the system going on. Look at that, we have these damn things maturing as soon as May 2012 here, why are they such short bonds, why can't we lock in some cheap 20-year bonds? Gawd this is like the exploding ARM of doom coming off this chart. As the video explains....Tentative Outright Treasury Operation Schedule - Federal Reserve Bank of New York also Federal Reserve Bank of New York - Permanent Open Market Operations

Nicely done, video is just a fun way to reach people. The trick is to keep puttin em out.....