And the Fed Informants Keep Turning Up...

The Feds and their informants on Twitter call themselves computer consultants or radio dee jays or poets.  [On FakeBook/FailBook/FB they refer to themselves as "your friends"].  The mother of a close friend in high school used to always tell us that truth is stranger than fiction.  It certainly is.

I tweet [a.k.a. converse] with a truly diverse bunch on Twitter.  It is fortunate that Twitter is not happening in real-life in someone's living room.  Guns would be drawn and people would die.  My Anonymous friends and the ninjas dislike each other.  The good-time trolls and the anti-cyberbullies can find little common ground.  Even the child abuse and human trafficking folks are divided into camps.

I've written posts about Lori Handrahan and I've written about WWASPS-- I don't like either one of them.  I've discussed the alleged infiltration of the Million Dollar March in D.C. by a poet which some believe to be a Fed [and I believe that too.  I could be wrong.  At any rate, I will not be going to D.C. on November 5th].  I haven't blogged about the PayPal 14 or the PayBack 13 for two reasons.  I think others can tell the tale better than I can.  One of the PayBack 13 is someone that I've never met in real life but I consider him to be a friend.

I've written some about my politics but not much about the political ideologies that I've found on Twitter.  I will do a little bit of that now.  Those who know me know that I am pro-gun, anti-amnesty for illegal aliens, pro-secularism in the public schools, anti-N.S.A., pro-free internet, anti-CISPA and the current exaggeration of copyright "protections" in effect today which pretty much render fair use dead, pro-civil rights for all civils, and anti-Obummer Care.  I don't like the A.C.A. stuff because I found a chart with the rates on the U.S. government site-- a chart with public permissions and a download button-- and even with "rebates," I found that the Affordable Care Act is not affordable for me.  Quite frankly, when my circumstances change, I will have to leave the country in order to afford healthcare if ObummerCare is still the ahem law of the land.  The A.C.A. would have been a better idea if it was not 2300 pages of something that Nancy Pelosi has been quoted as saying that we will have to pass it in order to find out what is in it.  Or something like that.  If it was Open Market [versus tied to the federal government and to the states] and did not penalize the uninsured for not joining up, it might have been less of a disaster than it is.  Universal healthcare is a grand idea but the implementation of it to date has sucked.  Period.  It needs to be re-worked and not just patched.

I can no longer call myself a liberal.  I have refused to join Unite Blue on Twitter.  Although I am an atheist and not a christian, I have found myself a political home of sorts on Twitter with Todd Kincannon and some other conservatives.  I have no desire to argue with christians over their religious and spiritual choices.  I do have a desire to write snarky things at the pope once in awhile [yes, his unholiness is on Twitter along with the apologetics for bad behavior of the roman church].  I will engage in snark with a few muslims who think that we ought to follow islam; and with a few of the more extreme christians who are as obsessed with conversions on Twitter as a transfolk is with mutilation via surgical means.  Besides, Todd and Ashley have a dog named Noodle [who is also on Twitter]. 

Todd's Twitter stream is full of people who randomly attack him for his viewpoints, coarseness, and language.  It is never dull.  He does not seek out targets.  They seek him out.  The results are rather zany.  He's been accused of being a bully and several other things which I won't print here.  Todd has several long-standing adversaries and bunches of folks who find his comebacks too witty and have the sense to depart quickly.  The long-standing ones don't have the sense to use their block button, to drop the endless tweets accusing him of all kinds of things, to accept that not everyone on Twitter has to approve of them or their thoughts or beliefs.  Believing in equal rights-- or in civil rights for all civils-- is not an endorsement of all lifestyles on the planet.  This is something that many folks get mixed up about.  Todd says stuff that an average person may think but doesn't say.

Last night a guy who characterizes himself as a "real brother" and his allies appeared on Todd's stream.  This real brother has been accused of being racist and a drug-runner of sorts in other places on the interwebz.  Todd informed this real bro that Todd wanted him to put away or put down for drug crimes [of the foul nature that the real brother is alleged to have committed, and may or may not be continuing in the present].  A quick search engine search revealed that the real brother was doxed by someone in Anonymous and that the real bro is suspected of having turned fed informant.  Another name to add to the list of people that other people think are fed informants.  Ha!

Then we all heard from an anti-bullying coalition of sorts.  Calling names is bad m'kay.  One guy pointed out that cyberbullying is a bit of fakery as we all have the choice to step away from the computer or go do something else online.  In response, another guy inferred that anyone who finds Todd's stuff to be witty has a mental deficiency.  I snarked back in fun that the latter guy just insulted me and my kin, and that we are hashtag MentallyDivergent.  The anti-bullying coalition account retweeted my snark-- perhaps not realizing that I was having fun.  And so on.  Hanging with Todd and other conservatives on Twitter is never boring.  It is a nice break from the drama of current news and current political disasters and reports of earthquakes in places that I may have never heard of.

So last night resulted in the outing of yet another possible Fed informant to add to the list that I keep in my head.  I enjoyed my time on Twitter last night.  It's nice to be nice.  Sometimes we can be too nice.  In my life I certainly have been too nice.  I learned from Todd Kincannon what to do when people attack me with name-calling and their supposes of my character rather than arguing with my ideas in a logical manner.  I retweet them, being careful to add a period before the enclosed a and their twitter handle.  Sometimes I favor their tweet.  Because I can laugh at myself today.

If I have thoughts of suicide, something is wrong with me and I ought to make an appointment with a health care professional.  If I am that fragile that I think some mean comments on the internet can push me over the edge, then I better take up crocheting washcloths and watching soap operas for a hobby instead of social media.  Getting faux-fended is my problem, not the problem of the big meanie poo-poo head who rocked my unself-esteem with their words.  If a stranger from the interwebz shows up uninvited to my home and neighborhood, then it is time for cops and guns and dogs with sharp teeth. 

radical sapphoq


p.s.  A final word to parents with kids and teens.  They're your rat bastards.  You parent them.  You are responsible to know what they are doing on their computers and cell phones.  The computer should be out in the open like in the living room.  You should be monitoring what they do on-line as well as off-line.  There are ways to do this.  Find those ways.  Learn the technology.  Supervise your children.  They are your responsibility until they become adults.

p.s.s.  "Twitter" refers to http://www.twitter.com.  By using the word Twitter, it is not my intention now or ever to take over, cybersquat, make profit from, or otherwise defame the Twitter name.  I am not affiliated in any way with Twitter other than being a tweeter.  And the staff and owner or owners of Twitter probably have no idea who I am and don't care who I am as long as I am not being mean to them on the interwebz which I am not.

 

Interesting Reads

https://data.healthcare.gov/dataset/QHP-Individual-Medical-Landscape/ba45-xusy
It's listed as public permissions and there is a download button too.  These are prices for
the healthcare plans it seems.




http://www.libertynews.com/2012/04/radio-host-theron-k-cal-berates-insults-and-harasses-black-female-caller/

http://rbradioshow.blogspot.co.uk/

http://realbrother.wordpress.com/

www.facebook.com/Realbrother0003

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z604WbTJQmY

http://twicsy.com/i/b8UjP

http://thewordfortheherd.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/an-open-letter-to-theron-k-cal.html

http://pastebin.com/qE2tMxLp

http://pastebin.com/MMwQhrds

http://twitpic.com/6hxbro

https://twitter.com/REALNIGNOG0003

https://twitter.com/REALBROTHER0003

https://twitter.com/REALBRONY0003

https://twitter.com/REALSPOOK0003

https://twitter.com/Realsister0003



http://whosarat.com/aboutus.php

http://whoisthesnitch.com/



http://www.zpub.com/notes/fbi-shame.html

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=613521

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/counterterrorism-glossary

http://www.snitching.org/

http://november.org/Snitch/

http://www.shouselaw.com/informants.html

Facebook Me, Not

Digital art that I shot with my cheap digital camera and then altered my own self.  So copyright police, please go away now.  ~radical sapphoq


There are a whole lot of people around me who appear to me to have gone nutty over Facebook.  "Facebook me," has become a common expression within the crowd.  The question I am asked most frequently by acquaintances these days is, "Are you on Facebook?"

No, I am not on Facebook, and no, I will not "Facebook you."  I hate Facebook.  I deplore Facebook.  And in fact, I want nothing to do with Facebook.  I am not a Luddite.  I am not anti-technology.  In fact, I am into technology in a very real way.  I also like my privacy.  This movement among giant companies that we must use our "wallet names"-- i.e. legal names-- in order to sign up for the latest social network craze I think is a very bad idea.  One of the excuses given for the necessity of using our real names is that somehow this will make us all kinder people on the Internet.  Here's a news flash: No, it won't.

The thing is, even a voluntary "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights"  fantasy essay is exactly that-- fantasy.  There is no true privacy on the Internet.  Some of us know this and we use nicknames or pen names, much as I have chosen to do.  To be sure, we can still be found.  But, at least the less sophisticated  will have to think about how to do it for a few minutes first.  Furthermore, in order to identify who we are in "real life," an advertising agency [my own bias is revealed here, I believe the demand for our wallet names have more to do with the desire to foist ads on me and target me for snail mailing lists than the idea that we will transform into non-assholes] or individual up to no good need three pieces of information.  Those three pieces of information are birthdate, gender-- male or female, and zip code.  And that's it.  How many of us have signed up to blog at sites which don't demand our wallet names but do want our birthdates, gender, and zip code?

There are several approaches to this invasion of privacy.  The first one is to unplug the computer and to avoid leaving a paper trail in real life.  The second is to be very conscious of our digital footprints by using temporary wifi cards in cafes, libraries, or other public places to connect.  If we must use the social networking scene, we can develop several sock puppets to use on various sites (one per site, not all socks in all sites like some trolls might).  If we go that way or if we use a home computer, it is a great idea to use one browser per social networking site as well and invest in anonymous e-mail such as CounterMail.  The other thing of course goes without saying: invest in a good vpn, proxies, onion routers [not Tor by the way] and use several layers of the same to cover our Mac addys and our ISP numbers.  Privacy precautions are only as good as the person using them.  Having the best in non-tracking electronic ware does nothing if we blog or tweet about our birthdays, the weather in our area, or things that can cause others to accurately guess our gender.  And using social networking sites or cruising the Internet or shopping on-line during worktime-- even at those rare companies that claim they "don't mind"-- forget about it.  Bad idea.

One of the things that I have seen social networking sites used for that I think is a most excellent use is to for activist-related events and for news-sharing.  Folks who are prone to that sort of thing know what the risks are and tend not to give out their true wallet names, birthdates, or zip codes.  Any other use of social networking sites to me is just mental masturbation.


radical sapphoq says: I don't do Facebook.  I don't upload pictures of myself or family or friends to the Internet.  Any information I give out on-line to companies like Google-is-Evil-Now is on a need-to-know basis. 


http://internetrightsandprinciples.org/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/02/23/fact-sheet-plan-protect-privacy-internet-age-adopting-consumer-privacy-b

http://internetjustice.blogspot.com/2010/06/right-to-privacy-on-internet.html

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/23/technology/privacy_bill_of_rights/

http://legallyeasy.rocketlawyer.com/will-americans-soon-have-an-online-bill-of-rights-94566

http://legallyeasy.rocketlawyer.com/as-yelp-rises-free-speech-and-business-reputations-can-conflict-94582

http://legallyeasy.rocketlawyer.com/episode-57-internet-privacy-and-the-right-to-be-forgotten-94520

http://heresthethingblog.com/2012/02/23/10-tacky-avoid-posting-facebook/


http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/24/privacy-bill-of-rights/?section=money_technology

http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-privacy-push-seeks-cooperation-001448521.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2012/02/24/facebook-users-becoming-more-privacy-savvy/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/social-network-users-regret-posts-study-294815

http://www.datamation.com/news/as-privacy-concerns-grow-more-social-media-users-are-unfriending.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/24/internet-privacy-pew-idUSL2E8DO87R20120224

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505363_162-57384459/beware-digital-tattoos-while-browsing/

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/articleid/503256/newspaperid/411/The_Internet_Never_Forgets.aspx