Quote o’ the Day: Stripping

Yellowknife Commute, Frame Lake Trail 7

“White people came here a long time ago; took all the furs; trapped all the beaver out; and the otter and the mink, things like that; and they gathered all these things up. They went away and they left us with the bush and the rocks. It wasn’t too much later they came back again. They call that logging. Cut down all the trees; white pine, red pine, cut it all down. And they left us on the bare rocks. Then they discovered uranium here. And the old man said, ‘Now the sons-a-bitches are back for the rocks.'”

Gilbert Oskaboose, Serpent River First Nation

Gilbert Oskaboose

Gilbert Oskaboose

All in a Day’s Work

Welcome to the internet. Everything is fine.

Welcome to the internet. Everything is fine.

You meet the funniest people online. This is one of them.

So, I see this guy on Twitter in conversation (okay, snit-fit) with somebody I recognize from the hacker/Anonymous/WikiLeaks circle, I go check out his bio. Turns out he’s Following me, I’m not Following him. I’m so far behind on my Follow Backs that I have no idea how long that’s been the case. But his bio looks interesting and he does not appear to be deranged, just somewhat beleaguered, at least in his opinion. I see disagreement and cross-examination, and references to several people I’ve researched in my line of work, but I don’t see anything freaky or ostentatiously tinfoil hat, like referencing David Ickes. So I follow.

BAM! Instant DM. And another. And another. And it goes something (exactly) like this. Apologies for formatting errors…it’s difficult copy/pasting DMs into WordPress, alas. And mega-apology for the image at the end of the post, but really, there was only one image that summed this guy up, and that was this particular GIF from Begotten,, which is itself a stronger version of the above GIF. The best description of Begotten I ever heard was, “Makes Eraserhead look like Ernest Saves Christmas.” Enjoy?

ronbrynRon Brynaert@ronbryn

Do you approve of Anon2world’s vile threats and actions? Why do you talk to so many vile trolls?

ronbrynRon Brynaert@ronbryn

He’s spreading lies about me now about how I’m wanted by police.

raincoasterraincoaster@raincoaster

I’m a journalist. I talk to EVERYBODY. It’s my job.

ronbrynRon Brynaert@ronbryn

that’s your response? you didn’t talk to me now did you…the issue isn’t who you talk to..it’s how you talk to them

ronbrynRon Brynaert@ronbryn

No journalist would trade tweets with a scumbag who has swastikas on his avatar.

raincoasterraincoaster@raincoaster

Why are you ragging on me? I’m not taking sides in your conflict with him. It’s not my business.

raincoasterraincoaster@raincoaster

I’m doing an article on UGNazi. How do I do that without researching them?

ronbrynRon Brynaert@ronbryn

You take their side. I see who you joke with…and you ignore the vile things they’ve done, and my reporting on Lamo and Rauhauser.

raincoasterraincoaster@raincoaster

dude, before three weeks ago I’d never HEARD of Rauhauser. And I only followed you today, of course I don’t know your writing abt him.

raincoasterraincoaster@raincoaster

Right now I’m reading your twitter stream specifically to find out what you’ve said about Lamo. Happy? That’s what I was doing when u pinged

ronbrynRon Brynaert@ronbryn

oh, gimme a break, you’re trading tweets with nearly everyone who has been menacing me..and every other tweet they make is about me.

ronbrynRon Brynaert@ronbryn

I’m not happy at all. I see you yukking it up with Anon2world and pretending to be dumb. You obviously approve of this menacing or dont care

At that point I surprised Ron by going rogue: I publicly RT’d some of what he’d been saying to me, with “lol” remarks appended. He appeared taken aback entirely, although this is really a very basic Internet Drama 202 move. If you thought he was a mite touchy before, fasten your seatbelt. This is a guy of whose existence I’d known for something like fifteen minutes, remember. Although he’d been Following me longer, he clearly didn’t know who he was dealing with. Whom. WHATEVER.

ronbrynRon Brynaert@ronbryn

You are a lowlife, aren’t you. Smearing me publicly instead of responding on DM. Well, i’m naming you in my police report for helping them

raincoasterraincoaster@raincoaster

HAHAHAHAHA DO IT!

ronbrynRon Brynaert@ronbryn

menace me. You should be ashamed of yourself. Acting dumb and then helping smear me, which will make it easier for them to dox my family.

Ron Brynaert@ronbryn

You are sick. And out of your mind. And I plan to name you in the police report. You are helping them break multiple laws, scoundrel.

Ron Brynaert@ronbryn

I’m blocking you. And I’m naming you in my police report. What a wretch you are.

And with that he not only Blocked me, but he made his account Private (nope, just looks that way when I’m signed in now, naughty, naughty Twitter!). Too bad for him he forgot to delete his DMs before doing that. What a pro.

the Begotten begets

the Begotten begets

People like that should not breed.

Update the next day:

Well, would you look at that. He HAS been doxed.

We are ANONYMOUS.

We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.

If you are going to bully, lie and try to push people around on the internet for the sake of your own lunacy; Anonymous will be at hand to keep the insane at bay. Ronald Brynaert is one of these bullies and relatively unstable psychologically. His attempts to troll Anonymous operatives and occupy protesters has indeed raised an eyebrow or two within various movements. His tactics are habitually always similar; polite and composed one minute and lashing out with complete disregard for factual evidence the next. Mr. Brynaert’s story is a sad one; once a Raw Story reporter – he now faces legal issues related to that company. Brynaert is also a major suspect in a SWATting case, his voice sounds remarkably like the caller who initiated the SWAT. Just googling his name will illustrate the abnormal frequency of his brain’s operation and the drama that surrounds him. His story is surrounded by counter intel claims and various lies… He is dox’d; enjoy. Hey, we tried to be nice… we really really did. *seriously*

Seriously

Il Troubadore Klingon Music Project & Deserae the Bellydancing Wookiee

Yes, you read that right. Authentic Klingon Bellydance Music.

From their YouTube description:

Deserae dancing to an excerpt of the Shyriiwook Bellydance tune, “Muaarga” (Peace), as performed by the il Troubadore Klingon Music Project at the Viaduct Theater in Chicago (3 August 2012).

The Klingon Music Project is a real thing, as apparently is Deserae the bellydancing Wookiee and now they are both going viral. What can I say? She’s got the nous if not the Nad’s.

Speaking of the War on Trolls…

trollstrollstrollstrollstrollstrollstrollstrolls

trollstrollstrollstrollstrollstrollstrollstrolls

Sooooo, yesterday I got trolled, and I fell for it, hard. That wouldn’t be so bad, but I published a story on the Daily Dot about it before we found out it was a fake. My bosses are naturally not thrilled. Without minimizing the fact I shouldn’t have swallowed it like I did, that all would be pretty horrible IF (can you keep a sikrit?):

  • news organizations weren’t constantly being trolled and then writing stories about the trolling (“rumors of X happening overnight have petered out and it now appears that X was never, in fact, going to happen” and they DON’T generally say “yeah, and we got it wrong yesterday”)
  • it had been a major news story instead of an insidery item about the sentencing of someone of whom most of our readers have never heard. Accuracy is always important but this way the spread of the original rumour was minimized, if inadvertently.
  • it had resulted in enduring consequences other than personal embarrassment (because god knows I’m long past the concept of human dignity and although my taste does not run to crow I’ve eaten a fair helping or two in my time). Think of the WMD hoax: decade-long, generation-crippling, heart-of-the-nation-sapping war. THAT is a consequence. Hell, Judith Miller went to prison for protecting her source and he turned out to be lying AND hundreds of thousands of people are dead. So yeah, downside.
  • it hadn’t resulted in me getting three exclusive interviews with VERY interesting, VERY prominent (in certain circles) people.
  • and a marriage proposal on Twitter.

So yeah, troll’s well that ends well. And as I said on Twitter, you can hardly complain about being trolled when you pull:

Selah. May the Internet Drama Fairy watch over you all and protect you from doxing.

pic o’ the day: Topshop

top down topshop

top down topshop

I love this picture, even if I’m not sure about the belt. It’s top-to-bottom Topshop chic, there are no stirrup pants or pricy stripper heels (Louboutins) in it, and it is wonderfully composed. Stolen from Rommy Ghaly’s Flickr via Vancity Buzz.