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Friday, March 31, 2023
Liked on YouTube: Lil Peep - your eyes (Official Video)
Official video for "your eyes" by Lil Peep Directed by @QuietCam Follow Lil Peep — Website: https://lilpeep.com/ Instagram: https://ift.tt/ID18Vz0 Facebook: https://ift.tt/rGh4apE Twitter: http://twitter.com/lilpeep Spotify: https://ift.tt/2iLnE6V Apple Music: https://ift.tt/FHrOoM8 Amazon Music: https://ift.tt/SVqkFy5 YouTube Music: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0gOw4iy-6HwO01q-gA1B0Q LYRICS: [Intro] Lately I've been flexin' hard on my ex Baby, I've been leanin' hard on this tech I can see the scars on your neck And it helped me see the stars in your— [Chorus] Lately I've been flexin' hard on my ex Baby, I've been leanin' hard on this Tech I can see the scars on your neck And it helped me see the stars in your eyes Right now, you're the only thing on my mind Got me rollin', sippin', smokin' dope, just to get me high Baby, I've been tryin' hard to get by Babygirl tryin' hard just to get fly for me [Verse] She would die for me, ride for me Spend a night with me, don't fight with me She in the Beamer with me, two-seater with me Say she love me 'cause I know that's what she needed from me (Yeah) My bitch bleeding for me, she never cheated on me She wanna fuck with me forever when she fuckin' on me Come and fuck with me, baby, I ain't fuckin' for free Come and fuck with me, baby, come and fuck with the G [Chorus] Lately I've been flexin' hard on my ex Baby, I've been leanin' hard on this Tech (This Tech) I can see the scars on your neck And it helped me see the stars in your eyes Right now you're the only thing on my mind Got me rollin', sippin', smokin' dope, just to get me high Baby, I've been tryin' hard to get by Babygirl tryin' hard just to get fly
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWp7IjONZCM
Thursday, March 30, 2023
Liked on YouTube: CATCHING UP WITH BARON VON RASCHKE (IN CHARACTER) AT THE APTER CHAT
He is ageless as you will see here. This was filmed at the www.tmartpromotions.com great convention on August 7, 2022. Enjoy!--Bill Apter
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSKrZNleZ5c
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Administrative Detention and ‘Medical Neglect’ in Israeli Prisons Lead to Deaths and Protests
Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine — Around 4,700 Palestinians are jailed in dire conditions in Israeli prisons with at least 866 of those prisoners being held indefinitely on ‘administrative detention’ without charges, trial or release date. Deaths inside Israeli prisons since 1967 have risen to 235, including a high-profile prisoner death in late December and another in February 2023.
Human rights organizations and prisoners have long demanded an end to administrative detention and practices of ‘medical neglect’ which they contend occur regularly in Israeli prisons.
In efforts to draw attention to the deadly policies, prisoner hunger strikes and acts of disobedience inside Israeli jails are growing – 35 consecutive days of organized disobedience actions inside Israeli prisons occurred earlier this year. Outside, Palestinians continually gather to protest Israeli policies and honor fallen prisoners.
In our video below we feature three actions addressing some of the issues faced by many Palestinian prisoners and their families:
- We were on the ground in late December 2022, when the mother of prominent prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid, who died in custody, asked for her son’s dead body to be given to the family. Israeli forces responded to a protest at the Qalandia Checkpoint by shooting live fire at the crowd.
- A week before that, we filmed a large crowd hold a demonstration outside of the Red Cross Headquarters after Hamid’s death.
- Last summer, we covered a march entitled ‘We will not let our prisoners down,’ in Gaza City that stood in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners Khalil Awawdeh and Raed Rayan.
Administrative Detention and Hunger Striking
Administrative detention is a controversial policy carried out by Israel’s occupational government in which Palestinian prisoners are routinely held for months, sometimes years, without charges, court dates or any evidence of crimes.
International human rights organizations have continuously called for an end to administrative detention noting that it violates international law.
According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, a set of international humanitarian laws adopted in 1949, the use of administrative detention is allowed in emergencies only, or during an occupation, of which Israel as the occupying power is allowed administrative detention “for imperative reasons of security” which shall include procedures for appeals “with the least possible delay.”
Over the years, dozens of Palestinian prisoners have increasingly held hunger strikes to demand their release from administrative detention. Several prisoners are currently staging hunger strikes, including Raed Rayan whose health has deteriorated severly.
Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh nearly died from his hunger strike late last year. He had been held on administrative detention for several months before starting a hunger strike demanding his release. After six months of the strike, he ended it on Aug. 31, 2022, when a deal was made for an Oct. 2022 release. However, as of March 2023, Awawdeh has yet to be released from prison.
Administrative detention is not the only controversy inside Israeli jails and prisons. In January, 40 Palestinian prisoners were sent to solitary confinement by Israeli authorities in attempts to thwart a mass hunger strike. Furthermore, jail authorities then started giving inmates less food, have cut the shower time of prisoners to less than four minutes and are consistently and violently raiding the cells of Palestinian prisoners.
In response to the punitive measures, a series of disobedience actions occurred for 35 days straight throughout February and March in the Israeli jails. Last week, Palestinian prisoners called victory and stopped their planned mass hunger strike “after the halting of Israeli repressive measures against the prisoners.”
Related: Prisoners in Greece: Hunger Strike as a Weapon [Jan. 28, 2023]
‘Medical Neglect’ and the Death of Nasser Abu Hamid
Medical treatment, or lack thereof, for Palestinian prisoners has a long, well-documented , and controversial history. Doctors are not regularly available in the jails and over two hundred people have died in Israeli custody over the last 56 years.
On December 20, 2022, high-profile prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid, who had been incarcerated since 2002, died of cancer while in Israeli custody. Claims of “deliberate” medical neglect were instantly reported after Hamid’s death.
Abu Hamid was the co-founder of the armed wing of Fatah, al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, and was given seven life sentences plus 50 years for several murders during the second Intifada. Four of his brothers are also serving life sentences. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade is labeled as a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the U.S.
Abu Hamid was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer in August 2021, had surgery in October and fell into a coma in January 2022 for 12 days. In August 2022, a tumor had been detected in Abu Hamid’s head and his health rapidly deteriorated.
Palestinians that Unicorn Riot spoke with on the streets of Gaza after Abu Hamid’s death consistently blamed his death on medical negligence. Some also claimed that being tortured for years in Israeli prisons initially led to his cancer, a claim that was also noted in a statement to the United Nations.
The Organization for Defending Victims of Violence and the Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture, a non-governmental organization in special consultative status issued a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council in February calling Abu Hamid’s death an “execution” from “willful medical negligence.”
“Because of the torture and the disease, he contracted cancer, which began to devour his body moment by moment, and he lay under artificial respirators in the Ramla prison clinic, unconscious, shackled by the hands and feet, and his body no longer responded to treatments, and the Ramla prison clinic lacked the lowest therapeutic and life necessities.
Despite all the calls and reports about the seriousness of his health condition and the need to release him and transfer him to his home or abroad for treatment, the occupation authorities refused and he was fighting death under willful medical negligence, suffering from cancers in the lungs and in the brain.”
Execution of The Prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid in Prison, statement to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Feb. 5, 2023 submitted by Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture
The statement read that they hold “Israeli occupation fully responsible” along with “all governments … because the international silence encourages the occupying state and contributes to the killing and oppression of Palestinian prisoners, and they bear part of the responsibility.” Read the statement in full below.
A.HRC_.52.NGO_.216_200223Israel Has Kept 117 Dead Palestinians in Their Morgue, Refusing to Return Them to Their Families
In a disturbing trend, since 2016 the Israeli government has kept the bodies of at least 117 dead Palestinians in their morgue and have not given them back to their families, violating religious laws and customs.
This is also the case with Abu Hamid. In late December 2022, then-Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz, said to Israel’s Army Radio that “terrorist Nasser Abu Hamid will not be returned to his family.”
A week after Abu Hamid’s death, a march was led by his mother in which they marched with an empty coffin draped in a Palestinian flag and demanded his body be given to the family.
“We want our sons, just because they resisted and struggled, their corpses shouldn’t be kept with a criminal enemy in the mortuary. Our sons resisted and struggled to defend the land, al-Aqsa and Palestine. We want our sons buried on the land of Palestine.”
Mother of Nasser Abu Hamid
The march started at the entrance of the al-Am’ari camp in al-Bireh and ended near the Qalandia military checkpoint as Israeli forces opened fire with live bullets, sound grenades, and tear gas. Eleven civilians were injured, no arrests were made.
At least two dozen Palestinian prisoners suffer from cancer inside Israeli prisons with many claiming the lack of medical care could lead to another death at any moment.
Prisoner activities are dynamic and their support networks are ongoing. Continuous updates to prisoner conditions and strikes can be found at Palestinian Prisoner’s Society’s website.
For more from Palestine, see our archives.
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Unicorn Riot's Coverage from Palestine:
- Families in Gaza Live Among the Dead - February 10, 2023
- Elderly Woman Among at Least 9 Palestinians Killed During Raid on Jenin - January 26, 2023
- Ancient Antiquities Discovered in Palestine’s Gaza Strip - January 23, 2023
- Surfing Santas in Gaza Welcome a New Year of ‘Prosperity and Happiness’ - January 4, 2023
- Palestinian Lands Seized for Israeli Military and Colony Settlements - December 14, 2022
- Gaza Flooded Due to Old Infrastructure From Israeli Blockade and Bombings - November 22, 2022
- Nablus Siege Lifted After 3+ Weeks of Collective Punishment - November 10, 2022
- Attacks and Collective Punishment, a Cycle of Palestinian-Israeli Conflict - October 18, 2022
- Murals of Eyes in Silwan Remind Jerusalem of Palestinian Struggle - October 1, 2022
- Protests in Besieged Palestinian Village Nabi Samuel Suppressed - September 25, 2022
- Over 2,200 Israeli Raids Killed 140 Palestinians Thus Far in 2022 - September 13, 2022
- Sand Sculpture on Shore of Gaza Sea Tributes Children Killed by Israeli Forces - August 31, 2022
- Clowns Visit Children in Gaza Amidst Rubble of Destroyed Houses - August 12, 2022
- Operation Breaking Dawn: Israel Kills 44 Palestinians Over Three Days - August 9, 2022
- Occupation Forces Repress Palestinians Fighting Land Grabs in the Northwestern West Bank - June 29, 2022
- Israeli Raid on Nablus Kills Two Palestinians and Wounds Many - July 25, 2022
- Palestinians Speak Out During Biden’s Visit - July 21, 2022
- Israeli Forces Suppress Protests After Court Green Lights Demolitions in Masafer Yatta - June 30, 2022
- Israeli Forces Raid Jenin, Kill Three Palestinians, Wound 10 - June 18, 2022
- Israeli Forces Assault Mourners of Young Man Dead After Israeli Attack on Al-Aqsa - June 16, 2022
- Israeli Settlers Celebrate Capturing Jerusalem, Police Arrest Palestinians - June 11, 2022
- Palestinian Investigation Finds Israel Responsible for Killing Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh - June 7, 2022
- Israel Kills 4 Palestinians in 48 Hours and Blows Up a Home - June 3, 2022
- Eyewitness Recounts Moments Israeli Forces Killed Shireen Abu Akleh - May 24, 2022
- Israeli Police Attack Funeral Procession of Palestinian-American Journalist - May 21, 2022
- Demonstrations in West Bank for Palestinian Prisoner’s Day and Jenin Camp - May 17, 2022
- Israeli Army Kills Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh - May 11, 2022
- Israeli Forces Clear Al-Aqsa for Settlers’ Tours - May 6, 2022
- Palestinians Killed While Resisting Israeli Forces in Silwad Led to More Protests - May 1, 2022
- Last Friday Prayer of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Draws 160K Despite Strict Measures by Israeli Forces - April 30, 2022
- Man Shot by Israeli Forces During Land Day Demonstration - April 27, 2022
- Musaharati Dressed as Clowns Wake Up Citizens in Gaza Strip for Meal Before Ramadan Fast - April 25, 2022
- Israeli Airstrikes Hit Gaza, Iron Dome Explodes Missiles - April 22, 2022
- Israeli Airstrikes Target Gaza - April 19, 2022
- Al-Aqsa Mosque Stormed: Israeli Police Detain 400, Injure 153 - April 15, 2022
- Israeli Raids on Jenin Refugee Camp Leave Many Dead, Dozens Shot - April 15, 2022
- Palestinian Protesters Fight Occupation on Mount Sabih, Nablus - April 15, 2022
- Interview: First Ukrainian Refugee Arrives in Gaza Strip - April 14, 2022
- Palestinians Commemorate Land Day with Demos in Negev & Gaza - April 12, 2022
- Israeli Forces Stifle Religious Freedoms During Ramadan - April 5, 2022
- Palestinians Prevented from Reaching Confiscated Lands in Qusra, Gassed by Occupation Forces - March 31, 2022
- Palestinians Protest Israeli Colony Outposts in Northern West Bank - March 22, 2022
The post Administrative Detention and ‘Medical Neglect’ in Israeli Prisons Lead to Deaths and Protests appeared first on UNICORN RIOT.
by Unicorn Riot via UNICORN RIOT
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Liked on YouTube: Memes compilation #148
The Best and Funniest Memes compilated in just one video. #meme #dankmemes #memescompilation Tags: memes, memes compilation, dank memes, coub, best cube, coub compilation, dank, funny, dank memes vine compilation, dank memes compilation, gifswithsound, try not to laugh
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeIPc62ILNk
Liked on YouTube: sleep - my chemical romance (cover)
IM ALIVE HELLLLLOOO
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T11wqNZqVoY
Monday, March 27, 2023
Liked on YouTube: IWRG | El Hijo del Pirata Morgan derrota en mano a mano a Hijo de Canis Lupus
¡Conviértete en miembro de Más Lucha y disfruta de contenido exclusivo! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCycDOsJg6tInGaVbZylMFmg/join ¡Suscríbete a +LuchaTV y disfruta lo mejor de la lucha libre! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=mluchatv #LuchaLibre #Deporte
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf-N0xInBI0
Liked on YouTube: How Companies Plan The Economy
Compare news coverage. Spot media bias. Avoid algorithms. Try Ground News today and get 30% off your subscription by visiting https://ift.tt/obqNIxf We've been told all our lives that competition, free markets, and ruthless business practices are the best way to run an economy. If that's the case...why do all major corporations operate as planned economies? And how can we follow that example to build a nationwide planned economy? How Companies Plan The Economy – Second Thought SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://bit.ly/2nFsvTS New video every other Friday! Citations and Further Reading: Books https://ift.tt/Zid5ctf https://ift.tt/JaT8sqK https://ift.tt/Sp6PDHz https://ift.tt/FwAmrW4 Economic planning & related topics https://ift.tt/EMwmtcP https://ift.tt/bO8zHIt https://ift.tt/oI8lMmg https://ift.tt/8FKUB14 https://ift.tt/fryjVAe https://youtu.be/ME1hVozRIcA https://ift.tt/M3yJ1AN https://youtu.be/_OslQ6TnijA https://ift.tt/nD4mz5b https://ift.tt/nKJVs6w https://ift.tt/4zvXCb8 https://ift.tt/V3fLiDC https://ift.tt/es8A9ba https://ift.tt/J2Wh3VD Walmart bad https://ift.tt/qf7C02V https://ift.tt/CLiD3yn https://ift.tt/GvXhCyb https://ift.tt/pFBiVlW https://ift.tt/38OLkRp https://ift.tt/M8miEXx https://ift.tt/mZtDdcs https://ift.tt/FK2rEbB https://ift.tt/VGNJ75C https://ift.tt/U3hjr4X https://ift.tt/YvOZ8AI https://ift.tt/4CNVpc9 Walmart collaborative planning https://ift.tt/YnjBuZ2 https://ift.tt/Nb36XSf Sears https://youtu.be/t6zEe-vhhQI https://ift.tt/QzynvpO Declassified Chile documents https://ift.tt/QhEqjsT Cybersyn - A Documentary https://youtu.be/RJLA2_Ho7X0 Follow and Support Second Thought! Twitter: https://twitter.com/_SecondThought Patreon: https://ift.tt/thgakoN BuyMeACoffee: https://ift.tt/rabQLUH CashApp: $JTChapman Watch More Second Thought: Latest Uploads: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJR_Fq2hhYVEFS11cf1YzG27 Spaaaaaace!: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJQRpqT-hMTTFx8A6VVH3m6v What If...: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJRI7VrWf_-mT0z6lrN--Cvi Popular Videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6SJktA-ecJRx7ZaO9J04Kbob_u5baHxN About Second Thought: Second Thought is a channel devoted to education and analysis of current events from a Leftist perspective. Welcome! Business Email: secondthoughtchannel@gmail.com
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuBrGaVhjcI
Liked on YouTube: FWE Meltdown (5/14/11) - Winter vs Rosita w/Ref Christy Hemme
From Meltdown (show #2) - Winter vs Rosita with Christy Hemme as the special guest referee. Commentary from Frank Trigg and Michael Schiavello Please note this footage is taken directly from the Blu-Ray. https://ift.tt/fIpPabc https://ift.tt/4AoJBhi
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rmOzou0Pd0
Sunday, March 26, 2023
Acrylate Water Safety Emergency Hits Philly; Residents Scramble for Bottled Water
Philadelphia, PA — A warm and sunny Sunday afternoon was suddenly interrupted by an emergency phone alert: Philadelphia authorities warned the city water supply could be endangered and everyone should cease using drinking water after 2 p.m. Eastern time. Within minutes, people headed to grocery, corner and beer stores to grab water jugs and bottles. By 4 p.m. a couple stores Unicorn Riot checked were mostly picked over.
City authorities warned at a Sunday morning news conference that ethyl acrylate, methyl methacrylate and butyl acrylate spilled into Otter Creek from a pipe rupture at the Trinseo PLC chemical plant near the Delaware River late Friday night.
The Samuel S. Baxter Water Treatment Plant along the Delaware River has reportedly closed its intakes, and as of 5:30 p.m., city authorities said that the city water supply was still safe to drink. The Philadelphia Water Department advised it is safe to store tap water through Monday night, and advised residents should generally store about 2 days of water per household.
Alarmingly, butyl acrylate was also released in the recent East Palestine, Ohio chemical disaster (EPA files here in PDF, lists butyl and other acrylates in that disaster).
A map from the city this morning clarified that West Philadelphia is ostensibly not impacted, but almost all the city east of the Schuylkill River is affected. A report on Sunday stated the release is estimated at 8,100 gallons, a maximum of 12,000 gallons.
A release from the city at 3:30 p.m. said that the Baxter facility had been sealed off from the river so that water would be safe through the end of Monday until midnight. (The city’s homepage for this incident is being regularly updated.)
“Based on updated hydraulic modeling and the latest sampling results and data, the Philadelphia Water Department is now confident tap water from the Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant will remain safe to drink and use at least through 11:59 p.m. Monday, March 27, 2023.
There is no need to buy water at this time. Customers can fill bottles or pitchers with tap water with no risk at this time. We will provide a media update at approximately 5 p.m. today, Sunday, March 26, 2023.
This updated time is based on the time it will take river water that entered the Baxter intakes early Sunday morning to move through treatment and water mains before reaching customers.
The water that is currently available to customers was treated before the spill reached Philadelphia and remains safe to drink and use for bathing, cooking, and washing.
The earlier advisory that customers receiving water from the Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant may choose to drink bottled water on March 26 was issued out of an abundance of caution. Testing has not shown the presence of water impacted by the spill in the Baxter system at this time.
We will continue to share updates as more information becomes available through sampling and monitoring of river conditions.
The Philadelphia Water Department’s Tidal Spill Model Tool is being used to track contaminant plume movement and inform when the chemical spill will no longer impact the Philadelphia drinking water intakes.”
City of Philadelphia release, 3:30 p.m.
East Palestine Impacts Philly Recovery; Facility Rep Downplays Hazard Risk
A video clip aired on 6ABC included the disturbing claim that the East Palestine disaster slowed operations during this incident: “It took us a little while to gather the resources as the Ohio incident is still draining a lot of resources regionally,” said Samuel Manka, a US Coast Guard marine science technician.
However ABC6 claimed that the chemicals did not overlap with the East Palestine disaster, although butyl acrylate has been released in both disasters. The report appears to have aired before city officials mentioned the chemicals at the Sunday morning news conference. As of 9:30 p.m. Eastern time the city incident webpage does not feature the names of the chemicals.
“But unlike the toxins spilled in the Ohio chemical spill after the major train derailment, environmental experts are adamant that the material shouldn’t be a concern to the public.
‘It’s like the material you find in paint,‘ said [Senior Vice President of Manufacturing and Engineering at Trinseo, Tim Thomas]. ‘It’s your typical acrylic paint you have in your house, that’s what really this material is, in a water base.'”
ABC6 Report, “Pipe burst at Trinseo PLC releases hazardous material into Bucks County creek; Coast Guard responds,” March 26, 2023
In a Sunday press conference around 10:15 a.m. authorities explained the series of events. Just before midnight on Friday, the chemicals spilled through a storm drain, down Otter Creek into the Delaware River. The Trinseo plant in Bristol Township was the source, a spinoff company of Dow Chemical, which has a history in Pennsylvania for chemical contamination. Another Dow site in Bristol Township is the site of an EPA-directed cleanup.
An update in a live Zoom chat around 5:15 p.m. Sunday from the city indicated that the intake at the Baxter facility had been open as late as 5 a.m. that morning, and they will have to open the intake again late on Sunday, or risk damaging equipment if it runs dry. Further city updates are available via phila.gov, water.phila.gov, @philaOEM and @phillyh2o on Twitter.
More on Chemicals, Ongoing Regional Industrial Problems
Ethyl acrylate is considered a health hazard. According to the National Library of Medicine, “The International Agency for Research on Cancer stated, Overall evaluation, Ethyl acrylate is possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B).” Butyl acrylate is considered harmful in the workplace above 10 parts per million (10 ppm) per CDC.gov. Methyl methacrylate (MMA) is a “monomer of acrylic resin” which is not considered carcinogenic in normal circumstances, but can have negative health effects.
Aside from the East Palestine chemical fallout that spread from Ohio, Pennsylvania continues to suffer industrial disasters and controlled toxic release conditions. At least five people were killed and two still missing in West Reading, after a candy factory exploded on Friday evening. On Saturday, the Shell oil company announced that their major new ethane cracker plant was firing off an “elevated flare for a period of time.” The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection monitors the Shell Petrochemicals Complex in Beaver County, Potter Township, and the most recent violation notice was on February 13, 2023 (PDF). Beaver County is also one of the most impacted areas in the East Palestine disaster.
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The post Acrylate Water Safety Emergency Hits Philly; Residents Scramble for Bottled Water appeared first on UNICORN RIOT.
by Unicorn Riot via UNICORN RIOT
Liked on YouTube: "what's your niche?" #shorts #vtuber
I have a livestream VODs channel! ► https://www.youtube.com/@thepurpleanonvods I do livestreams on Twitch! ► https://ift.tt/14HUguP Buy my merch! ► https://ift.tt/DlRmAs6 Donate to me! ► https://ift.tt/na9qW6f Follow me on Twitter! ► https://twitter.com/TrulyPurpleAnon Join our community Subreddit! ► https://ift.tt/FVRXhun Listen to my originals on Audius! ► https://audius.co/thepurpleanon
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iGv2GcHvoo
Liked on YouTube: TONIGHT! John Morrison vs Chris Bey for the Mecca Grand Championship! | Watch FSW Mecca IX on FITE!
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via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHQDvEF8j_4
Liked on YouTube: Blutengel - Fliegen (Official Music Video)
BLUTENGEL release their new single “Fliegen”, a harmonious yet very deep, sad song about loss, relationships and mental illness. ▶ Stream "Fliegen": https://ift.tt/WVgEGyv ▶ Pre-order the new album: https://ift.tt/K4lRGP9 ▶ Subscribe to our channel & don't forget to click the 🔔 https://www.youtube.com/OutOfLineMusic ▶ more news here 💌 https://www.outofline.de/subscribe/ Listen to our playlists on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer & YouTube Musik: 🎧 Dark Side Of Pop: https://ift.tt/rweINKU 🎧 Glass Danse: https://ift.tt/gz8hauc 🎧 New Releases https://ift.tt/VGinvrj ➡️ Follow BLUTENGEL on Social Media Facebook https://ift.tt/Y7zjr1s Insta https://ift.tt/KL2rHpw https://ift.tt/05HwGlZ ➡️ Follow OUT OF LINE on Social Media Facebook https://ift.tt/TDCRGLw Insta https://ift.tt/2MfiYZW Twitter https://twitter.com/outofline https://ift.tt/QsWLe73 https://ift.tt/ZRiXfvI 👕💿🛒 BLUTENGEL Merchandise ▶ https://ift.tt/1hdnGHP BLUTENGEL LIVE 2023: Blutengel go on Tour with their brand new Album “Un:Sterblich - Our Souls Will Never Die” and celebrate their 25th Anniversary live on stage with all of us! 11.05. Pratteln (CH) 12.05. München 18.05. Frankfurt (Main) 19.05. Oberhausen 03.06. Berlin 17.06. Anniversary Show at Wasserschloss Klaffenbach Chemnitz ▶ TICKETS: https://ift.tt/uTeyxN0 --- Words & music by Chris Pohl Produced by Chris Pohl Additional Production, Mix & Master by Henning Verlage #Blutengel #ChrisPohl #darkwave
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T90cJxF1Tbg
Saturday, March 25, 2023
Liked on YouTube: Mark Out Mania Saturday Morning 198!
via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvHBkox-urQ
Liked on YouTube: MEGA RAN - WRESTLING IS REAL (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
Directed by SoundVision Films Track appears on the album WRESTLING IS REAL, PEOPLE ARE FAKE Get it now! Bandcamp: https://ift.tt/v0Mnoug Spotify: https://ift.tt/VRtLwxB Credits: Instrumental/Production: Mega Ran for Random Beats Lyrics: Mega Ran Mix and Master: Bag of Tricks Cat Video Direction/Production: Jon Diaz of SoundVision Films Shot at: 1Take Studios, Tempe, AZ Catch Streams on Twitch: https://ift.tt/NvGg5pi Follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/megaran Join Robot City Times (Mega Ran’s discord) Get your Merch: https://ift.tt/rFsx9AI 2 Songs per month on patreon: https://ift.tt/36ixjp2 Follow me on Instagram: https://ift.tt/oaEk9uU Get Upcoming Tour Dates: https://ift.tt/TauFJi5 Follow my Tiktok: https://ift.tt/PsNJiOo Get Tees: https://ift.tt/q0Oi9Iv Synapsis: Mega Ran revisits his love for pro wrestling with a new all-original set of wrestling inspired tracks, releasing March 27, in time for WrestleMania season. Namedrops include Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Goldberg. Kurt Angle, Mick Foley and many more hall of fame legends! #wwe #aew #wrestlingnews
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Liked on YouTube: Scott D'Amore CANADIAN DESTROYERS Jason Hotch in Surprise Return | Sacrifice 2023 Highlights
Scott D'Amore returned to put an end to Bully Ray's rampage and brought Windsor to their feet with an incredible Canadian Destroyer. Join Ultimate Insider and watch Sacrifice in full: https://bit.ly/JoinUltimateImpact Become an IMPACT WRESTLING INSIDER today with the ultimate YouTube membership: https://bit.ly/JoinUltimateImpact There’s two levels of membership: IMPACT INSIDERS and IMPACT ULTIMATE INSIDERS. INSIDERS get access to members-only badges that appear next to your name in the comments sections and during exclusive live-chats with your favorite impact wrestling stars. Insiders also get exclusive access to IMPACT’s weekly television show each and every Thursday. ULTIMATE INSIDERS get all of that plus a whole lot more including: Monthly Impact Wrestling special events… Impact pay-per-view replays and access to the TNA and impact archive… exclusive merchandise offers… exclusive gifs, photos and music… and a ton of brand new impact original shows. Subscribe to IMPACT Plus for access to over 4000 hours of TNA/IMPACT content: https://ift.tt/0AnfB76 Collect IMPACT merch: https://ift.tt/X2vYqHk
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Friday, March 24, 2023
Ahead of the Final Four, Houston Criminalizes Homelessness
Efforts by cities across the country to “clean up” before major sporting events such as the Super Bowl aren’t new. But when those efforts involve forcing the unhoused away from certain areas, they often employ the use of police to criminalize support services for homeless people.
In Houston, TX., where the NCAA Final Four (college basketball tournament championship games) will take place March 31 – April 3, the mayor’s office has taken it a step beyond displacing the unhoused. Mayor Sylvester Turner’s office has ordered police to target people feeding those in need.
After opening a facility to move people miles from downtown from a homeless encampment near Minute Maid Park and the Toyota Center, Mayor Turner began invoking old city ordinances to ticket Food Not Bombs Houston (FNBH) food-sharing volunteers and trying to discourage them from doing what they’ve done for decades: feeding people at the Houston Public Library every night.
Mayor Turner’s office claims there is an increase in threats and violent incidents against families visiting the library. Because of that, it is offering what it refers to as an “alternative charitable food service” located at 61 Reisner St. – the Houston Police Department’s Central Patrol Station. Due to added pressure from the mayor’s office and Houston police, some of the unhoused have agreed to move.
But the city’s effort is opposed by volunteers at the library. When asked about moving the homeless from specific areas in what appears to be an effort to hide some of the biggest issues affecting the city, the mayor’s office responded with the same statement it issued to all media outlets.
“Recently, there has been an increase in the number of threats and violent incidents directed at visitors and employees coming to the Houston Public Library downtown. Parents and families have expressed no longer feeling comfortable visiting the library or holding special events. We want the library to serve as a safe, inclusive place for all to come and visit. That’s why we are providing a dedicated, alternative charitable food service at 61 Riesner St. This location has the infrastructure and amenities needed to provide services and food to Houstonians in need. By shifting food services to an alternative location, we can maintain the integrity and historic nature of Houston’s Public Library while serving all Houstonians with the dignity they deserve.”
Mary Benton, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Director of Communications.
Unicorn Riot set out to substantiate the claims made by Mayor Turner’s office and was met with silence. When asked to provide evidence or statistics regarding the alleged attacks, the mayor’s office did not respond. Nor did it say anything about the sudden urge to move the homeless from specific areas of downtown. When asked why it was targeting FNBH, they again provided no comment.
But when asking the volunteers, who are there every day and whom the mayor’s office is laser-focused on, they dispute the narrative presented by the city. Several volunteers have already been ticketed because of an order to Houston Police by the Mayor’s office. One has filed a federal lawsuit against the city citing a violation of their first amendment rights to freedom of speech and expression.
A sign posted at the public library cites the ordinance that took effect on Feb. 24, 2023. It states that if “you do not comply with these rules and regulations, beyond 7:00 p.m. on Friday, February 24, 2023, you run the risk of violating the law.” Five days later, the first citation was issued to an FNBH volunteer. Since then, a total of eight volunteers have been ticketed so far. Some advocates for the homeless now fear being arrested.
There’s strong evidence of continued escalation by the city. In a video posted on Facebook, a Houston Police officer admitted to an FNBH volunteer that they are monitoring their social media pages. This is an alarming development highlighting how police use information gleaned from the tech sector’s data channels circumventing the need for search warrants to gain access to personal information. This comes as part of the effort to move homeless people away from the highly visible Houston Public Library.
This isn’t the first time the city of Houston has done this. Prior to the Super Bowl in 2017, many homeless people were displaced by the clearing of encampments near the stadium. While the city denied claims that it was behind making the homeless disappear from the area, it’s much more than coincidental, as some would suggest as these tactics aren’t isolated to the fourth largest city in the US.
Many cities have made similar moves. In 2011, the city of Dallas increased pressure on the homeless by strengthening an ordinance against panhandling. Like Mayor Turner, then-Dallas mayor Tom Leppert denied coming down hard on the homeless because of the Super Bowl. Similarly, mayors from other major cities who have criminalized the homeless in specific areas to make them go away for an event have also denied doing so.
Cities across the country routinely take similar measures against their unhoused populations in the lead-up to major sporting events. It isn’t just happenstance that police become enforcers in the weeks leading up to them.
Unicorn Riot reached out to the NCAA for comment. We have received no response as of this writing.
Cover image by Niko Georgiades for Unicorn Riot featuring photo of Houston Police Department responding to unhoused people via Houston Police Department’s Facebook Page, Houston’s skyline via David Daniel Turner, and the Final Four 2023 logo via NCAA.
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by Unicorn Riot via UNICORN RIOT
Liked on YouTube: Streets of Paris set ablaze in pension protest
Police fired tear gas at violent protesters in Paris as thousands marched in France against the government's plan to raise the pension age. #News #Reuters #newsfeed #Paris #France #Pension #Reform #Macron #Protest Subscribe: https://ift.tt/cZzr7Ft Reuters brings you the latest business, finance and breaking news video from around the globe. Our reputation for accuracy and impartiality is unparalleled. Get the latest news on: https://ift.tt/9JNKvYc Follow Reuters on Facebook: https://ift.tt/HVFKfuz Follow Reuters on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Reuters Follow Reuters on Instagram: https://ift.tt/ioK1AJU
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Thursday, March 23, 2023
FBI Informant ‘Microchip’ Surfaces in White Supremacist Election Interference Trial
BROOKLYN, NYC — Federal prosecutors have put internet troll Douglass Mackey on trial for allegedly attempting to trick voters into trying to vote by SMS message in the 2016 election, in a case that has attracted national attention. Mackey, aka ‘Ricky Vaughn,’ was the one of the election’s most influential posters among a web of right-wing and white supremacist activists which included neo-Nazi Daily Stormer publishers Andrew Anglin and Andrew Alan Escher Auernheimer, aka ‘weev’. On Wednesday, March 22, one of their former confederates, a technical expert known as ‘Microchip,’ testified for the government that he has been an FBI informant since 2018, and had assisted Mackey in his alleged efforts to keep Black and Hispanic people from voting.
Mackey’s identity was first exposed by Luke O’Brien in a 2018 HuffPost report. The main case is United States v. Mackey (1:21-cr-00080); it is believed that Microchip’s cooperating guilty plea case also has a docket number, but has not been confirmed.
The Wednesday hearing aired new facts, that ‘Microchip’ apparently voluntarily started cooperating in 2018 but notified U.S. District Judge Ann M. Donnelly that he would plead guilty in March 2022, to 18 U.S.C. § 241, a conspiracy to deprive other people of rights, or violate their rights. (Donnelly is also hearing Mackey’s trial now.)
After Mackey was arrested in 2021, O’Brien described Microchip as “a fascist accelerationist who has expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and Nazism, [he] claims to have been involved in the early spread of the QAnon conspiracy cult and repeatedly told this reporter that his goal was to destroy the United States.”
To get a snapshot of the latest turns in this case, Unicorn Riot interviewed Joe Fionda after a long day of courtwatching. Fionda is a researcher and associate producer of the 2014 documentary ‘The Hacker Wars,’ which examined the milieu around ‘weev’ and others. He has attended most of the trial so far, which is unfolding in the Eastern District of New York. We took a deep dive into not just Microchip’s FBI informant deal exposed on Wednesday, but the backstories surrounding the internet troll farms during the 2016 election, and groupings like Gamergate which preceded it.
Editor’s note: This rush transcript of an interview has been edited for style and clarity. Fionda’s opinions are his own and do not represent Unicorn Riot.
Interview with Joe Fionda on the Mackey Trial, Microchip’s Informant Deal, 2016 Troll Swarms, Far-Right Networks, the History of MAGA3X & Gamergate
Unicorn Riot: All right. It’s March 22, 2023. And I’m talking with Joe Fionda. Thanks for chatting with Unicorn Riot tonight, Joe. So you’ve had your eye on this defendant and their sort of circle of friends for quite some time, would you say you’ve been an observer of them for quite a while?
Joe Fionda: Yeah, I’d say so. It’s kind of like we’re re-living the 2016 election and watching, you know, the same list of characters turn up now in a federal case seven years later. And there’s a lot of people might be like, well, what’s the whole point of this case? We know Tucker Carlson spent the other night trying to say this was some sort of like, heinous abuse of justice by the Biden Administration, targeting Trump supporters over mere memes.
And there’s a lot more to this case that’s really just, frankly, whitewashing what is going on, and what the government is presenting as a case of a conspiracy to deprive rights, otherwise known as the KKK Act. 18 U.S.C. § 241.
The Mackey Trial: Deceptive Messages & Hotline to Trick Voters
Unicorn Riot: So, okay, 18 U.S.C. § 241. The defendant here is a man whose name is Douglass Mackey. He was oftentimes known as Ricky Vaughn online, and he hasn’t been convicted of anything yet, you know, still presumed innocent.
Joe Fionda: Today was the third day [of trial] in the Eastern District [of New York]. This is the third day of trial. And the case isn’t simply just about memes. But the case that the government is accusing against Douglass Mackey and several other co-conspirators is that they got together in Twitter DM groups, and in some cases coordinating directly with the Trump campaign HQ Slack [chat] to spread memes of a derogatory and generally false nature. But the specific charges here regarding a number of memes that were sent, that pretended to [pass itself off as from] the Hillary Clinton campaign, with the with the intent to present to Hillary voters as people who they saw as dupes.
They — in their minds saw as minorities, Black voters, Mexican voters, women — they wanted to [deceptively] tell people that they could go and tweet by text, so they could text Hillary to… 59925, and that their vote on election day would be counted. Which, as me and you both know, is not something that is actually something that can be done anywhere outside of a voting booth, or mail-in voting.
Unicorn Riot: So just to be clear, it wasn’t just simply that they were posting memes or election rhetoric or things that weren’t true. It was very specifically the government is saying that they tried to deceive people about how they could even vote, which which is not something that’s legal, it’s basically a violation of civil rights. Is that the government’s idea?
Joe Fionda: Correct, and that they did it on a discriminatory basis.
Unicorn Riot: Okay.
Joe Fionda: This was more than just them making memes and making like hilarious parodies, you know, it was something that they went so far as to make their own text voting hotline to convince these people that they could vote by text. So on the other end of the service, this text, this texting service, you know, you can sign up for a five digit number to SMS like a menu. Many businesses have it, we’ve used it, we’ve gotten text messages from these numbers; and they were presented with fraudulent ads that made it look like they were tweeted or shared by the Clinton campaign so that they could target specifically Hillary Clinton voters into staying home or to dupe them into — trick them into not voting.
Unicorn Riot: Okay. So I guess one of the major elements that’s been presented so far is, you mentioned a Slack. Can you just explain what a Slack would be? So they were connected to the official campaign? The government has said so far, or?
Joe Fionda: Yes, the government presented one of the group chats, the Twitter DM [direct message] group chats in which notorious provocateur Baked Alaska, who is a named unindicted co-conspirator in this case.
Unicorn Riot: [Baked Alaska is] Anthim ‘Tim’ Gionet?
Joe Fionda: Yes. And he was telling some members of the chat, “would you like access to the Trump HQ Slack?” So we have instances in which people… [in a] number of chats, have demonstrated a closeness with the core of the Trump campaign in 2016. Now, if I remember how 2016 went down, it was a rather large group of infamous shitposting, neo-Nazi alt-right, or what would become the alt-right, Twitter trolls from all around the world who got together and effectively wanted to install Donald Trump as president.
Unicorn Riot: So during that period during 2016, this defendant, I think the government has raised the argument that this defendant Douglass Mackey was, you know, kind of the main person behind an account that was known as Ricky Vaughn. Is that true?
Joe Fionda: Correct. Ricky Vaughn is a character in [the 1989 baseball film] Major League. It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen that movie. And his avatar is Ricky Vaughn from the baseball team, and he’s wearing these glasses and he photoshopped a “Make America Great Again” red hat onto Ricky Vaughn. So he’s appropriating the character of the movie to be this anonymous, political, Twitter troll who is giving help to the Trump campaign first in the primaries, then into the general election.
Microchip Testifies as Anonymous FBI Informant
Unicorn Riot: So today [March 22], the interesting thing was that someone who is kind of one of the remaining anonymous figures from that era, and who had been known by the handle ‘Microchip,’ testified as well. Can you talk about what Microchip was publicly seen as? And then what happened today with him?
Joe Fionda: Right, so back in 2016. He testified that he signed up the first Microchip persona account in 2015. And that he was, you know, this guy who was a mobile web app developer, and coder who had a very special skill set to aggregate tweets, and data, and inflate view counts and follow counts. He described in detail how he would make new Twitter accounts every time he got banned, how he would pay certain services online to create bot armies and inflate view counts and be able to artificially amplify tweets that were favorable for the Trump campaign.
Now, what’s also very interesting is that he’s very insistent on saying that he did it primarily more because he hated Hillary Clinton more than he liked Donald Trump, more than he wanted Donald Trump to be president. Even though he was a pretty profusely ardent Trump supporter, he made a point that it was driven more by his hatred of Hillary Clinton. One of the chats that they organized, like earlier on in 2015, which included many famous individuals such as Milo Yiannopoulos and ‘weev’ was called “Fed free hate chat.”
Unicorn Riot: Ironic since today, he explained his status of cooperating with the government. Can you explain what kind of came to light about this figure whose name is still unknown, his legal name?
Joe Fionda: So I don’t know his legal name. Over the years, you know, this has been a subject of much speculation, due to his prolific nature. And I do know what he looks like now. And he looks like pretty much how I would imagine somebody like him to look like. He is somebody who seemed very, (despite the fact that he cooperated with the government, and that he pled guilty to crime in this case, to hopefully get a downward departure at a sentencing) he was very proud about what he did. He didn’t seem pretty remorseful about any of the actions that he took. There was a certain, like, sense that if he was given the choice to do this again, he would absolutely do it again.
Unicorn Riot: Was it clear if what he had been charged and pleaded guilty to was part of this case? Like was he, you know, indicted, and kind of rolled as part of this or something else? I’ll just add that we don’t have access to the transcripts. We’re sort of picking out the details as we can day by day. And this is all brand new.
Joe Fionda: So this is where it gets a little bit confusing. I wrote about like 30 pages of notes today and scribbles. So I’m kind of recounting this as to the best of my ability to read my own chicken scratch handwriting. [Microchip] was, you know, quite, quite accomplished, about his record, but it was unclear as to the true original nature of his cooperating with the FBI. So there was some examination by Mackey’s defense specifically about dates and times that the FBI came and visited him and the lead agent on the particular case.
It was it was kind of a meandering examination because I wasn’t quite sure what Mr. Mackey’s lawyer, Andrew Frisch, was trying to say, but we do know that Mr. Microchip, as he is called, in 2018, he was first visited by the FBI and claimed that he became an informant in 2018. Apparently voluntarily, on his own volition said that he was beginning to work with the FBI. In what capacity, we have no idea, they would not share. That was kind of a off-limits thing specifically with this trial, because it didn’t relate to this trial or doesn’t appear to relate to this trial.
[When Microchip cooperated with the government] he would be visited or … they would bring him to the FBI. And it seemed like most of the time it was to the Eastern District [of New York]. He said he was visited twice: once in 2018 and then in end of 2020. About a month before the inauguration, a couple of weeks before January 6, I believe it ended up being like the end of December, that he had been visited. And that there was some attempt of his, from his first lawyer (we also don’t know who his previous lawyer was), to make contact with the lead agent in the case investigating him.
So he described the encounter in 2018 as sitting in a car with two FBI agents, and explaining to them what he could do for the agency. And this is without apparently a threat of prosecution at that point. I’m trying to figure out like, what else specifically about the cooperation that was kind of like black boxed? That was quite interesting, but… aren’t quite sure. As we know, [in the past], the Trump FBI, the Trump years was at a time where our own president was somebody who was so paranoid about him or his supporters being prosecuted by the federal government, because the people doing it would find themselves out of jobs, that seemed to happen quite a lot during the Trump administration.
Unicorn Riot: So was it clear, would you say, that [Microchip’s] cooperation is still ongoing? Like it’s not a completed project? Like he testified, but it’s still an active state he’s in?
Joe Fionda: Correct. It would appear to include the trial, and also other matters, that they understand that we did not provide for us publicly in court. But the specific statute was, again, 18 U.S.C. § 241, conspiracy to deprive rights or violate rights.
Unicorn Riot: And that was [Microchip’s] charge that he pleaded to at some point?
Joe Fionda: Yes. So it’s also not apparent what other crimes he may or may not have been charged with, like CFAA [Computer Fraud and Abuse Act] or anything else. They asked him [Microchip] to plea to a straight § 241.
Unicorn Riot: Well, that’s very helpful [to understand].
Joe Fionda: Okay. So sometime between February 4, 2021, and April 22, 2021, he had been arrested. We don’t know the exact date. He had a different lawyer at that point. He also said that he was indebted to the IRS and may have had bankruptcy debt. [Microchip] agreed to a ‘tolling agreement’ to suspend the statute of limitations on his charge on June 24, 2021, because at that point, it was going to the eclipse the five year statute of limitations. And he notified the judge (who is the same judge, Judge [Ann M. Donnelly], for this case), notified her in March 2022, and the Eastern District, that he was intending to plead guilty and then entered a sealed guilty plea, April 14, 2022.
Unicorn Riot: Okay. I think there was some exchanges about something involving a 36 hours and drug use, can you mention that briefly?
Joe Fionda: The [defense] cross-examination also included what many of us assumed to be Micro’s most recent and last account string @wdfx2eu9000, 9000 as a homage to ‘Over 9000’ and the chan anonymous lore. He made some tweets about his drug use to the public, saying that he was on an Adderall binge for 36 hours and programming ChatGPT into Voice-to-text bots or something to that effect. It’s not apparent on whose behalf he was doing it for. Whether it was the job that he told the court that he has, or that it was on behalf of the federal government [or something else].
Unicorn Riot: Okay. So that was quoted online.
Joe Fionda: He also tweeted that he was at Oregon during that time, and that also became a point of contention for the court, because they’ve stipulated that he would not have to share the state that he was living in. Other than that it was not the New York City metropolitan area. He was very concerned about keeping his identity secret in exchange for his cooperation because he felt that it would hurt his business, personally endanger him, and that he would not have a business if his true identity were to be exposed.
So yeah, we were reading these tweets out in court. And I was snarfing, like laughing, trying not to laugh, because he was explaining readings [& his tweets]. I mean, it was truly bizarre. He’s, like, as you know, a despicable sort of character. I like got the humor and I … wouldn’t even know what to call [his vibe, visibly sweaty, hairy and greasy].
… He had the aura on him on somebody that was a hardcore internet troll or king internet troll, and had a mullet like … not Ricky Vaughn, the other baseball guy. Kenny Powers mullet. So, you know, people got to see him. His name still is anonymous to the public. He wants to keep it that way. I don’t think that’s going to happen. Nor do I think he deserves to have that sort of anonymity.
Mackey, Milo, and the MAGA Swarms
Unicorn Riot: I remember when Ricky Vaughn was exposed as Mackey, that was kind of a significant break because that guy had also been able to stay anonymous for quite a long time.
Joe Fionda: Yeah. Yes. So they’re the swarm of the MAGA people. There’s a large crowd that went from GamerGate to the Trump campaign to the alt-right to MAGA3X. Same people the whole way. There is even one of the tweets, one of the DMs [direct messages] even showed Mike Cernovich was in it.
Unicorn Riot: Would you say that most of them are lower profile than someone like that?
Joe Fionda: No, because Milo at the time was in the chat. And he was he was coordinating with all of these figures, including ‘weev,’ who at the time — he’s just permanently hiding out outside the arm of U.S. extradition. So it was him.
Unicorn Riot: And we should say ‘weev’ was a very famous internet troll person named Andrew Auernheimer. And would you say he’s intricately involved? That has been coming up in the case?
Joe Fionda: It’s wild to have to say it out loud. But he’s clearly a mastermind of this and a mastermind of the Trump campaign. I remember when filming ‘Hacker Wars,’ he said, off camera and I’m forgetting the exact context or place that we were. But he said that like after he got out of jail like, “I’m gonna get revenge on the federal government, and I’m gonna do the most destructive thing to lay waste to this country is to install Donald Trump as a dictator.” And it was something that I kind of laughed. But I was also like, oh, shit, he’s probably gonna fucking do it.
Unicorn Riot: What year was that?
Joe Fionda: That was 2014.
Unicorn Riot: It’s a while back there.
Joe Fionda: A very, very long time ago. So I spent a lot of time warning people in 2016 like, “Hey, guys, yo, this shit is happening.” Like, you know, you guys should like get on it before this guy like installs Trump as a fucking President, destroys this country, because that’s what he wanted to fucking do. And this preceded all of the Russian interference narrative stuff that happens. So when people say like, it’s a Kremlin aligned op, something that he was working with the IRA [Russian Internet Research Agency] or whatever. This happened before all of that. You know, his ego. Like, he’s a small dude. But he, his ego is beyond [boundaries]. [I thought] that this is something that he was going to be successful in doing, and, you know, eventually did.
Unicorn Riot: So Auernheimer, or ‘weev,’ has continued to be kind of thought of as hiding out somewhere probably in Eastern Europe in recent years.
Joe Fionda: Correct. And he was working with Milo Yiannopoulos from Breitbart. Andrew Anglin, who was his editor at Daily Stormer, and I believe he was running Alt-Right Info at the time as well. So basically also the nerve cell of the alt-right, was happening in this place. And they were radicalizing men using the the Trump campaign also to bring — openly advocate — open white supremacy and Neo-Nazism. While Anglin was also apparently living in Krasnodar, Russia, for a period of time.
Unicorn Riot: So basically, this trial is kind of moving through the stages of that and the parts where the government alleges they stepped over the line to try to deceive people into the wrong polling, the wrong voting procedures, so that they would essentially kept from voting, their votes would not be counted.
Joe Fionda: Correct.
Brexit Memes Recycled; Court Limits References to Repellent Posts
Unicorn Riot: But it’s intricately connected to that history, would you say?
Joe Fionda: Correct. They, the court, the prosecutor, I guess the defense, you know, agree to have them limit the reference to Neo-Nazism and antisemitism, to best help Ricky’s defense, but the chronology of the history for those that do remember — the hundreds of thousands of people who became like, researchers of this sort of thing. This was originating in and around the Andrews, the two AA’s, if you will [Anglin and Auernheimer].
Keep in mind that Milo Yiannopoulos is working from Breitbart at the time. And there’s an alt-right, arch-conservative nationalist network, that is being amplified also by Steve Bannon. This became its own ecosystem of hate. And Ricky Vaughn played an intricate part in it because he algorithmically speaking was … one of the most influential people in the 2016 election [as analyzed by] MIT elections laboratory.
Unicorn Riot: Earlier in the days of the trial was there someone from MIT that testified?
Joe Fionda: Yes, um, I forgot his first name, but Mr. Powers of the Washington Post and his MIT assistant.
Unicorn Riot: Was there anything else that you wanted to kind of call attention to in terms of understanding this or other aspects that have started to kind of come out in court that may lead to more exposure?
Joe Fionda: Yeah, I think, you know, if we’re getting to the bottom of what happened in 2016, this is a great window of, you know, what actually happened. Clearly, Tucker Carlson, and the conservative media are attempting to try to paint this as some sort of like, Biden-led witch hunt, when in fact, these people had the benefit of having, you know, won the election and evading responsibility for their actions and scrutiny of their actions, because they effectively took over the US government for a time and had incredible influence that they should have, frankly, never had in the first place. And in the case of Milo Yiannopoulos, he’s a source of foreign interference and foreign help to help Donald Trump. At one point one of the participants in the ‘Madman #1’ chat (flips notes) —
Unicorn Riot: So there were a few different chats that have already come up in the trial.
Joe Fionda: There, there have been a number of them. I scribbled down like a number of numbers, and user IDs, […] User @urpochan, in October 2016. Recycled a meme — a false fraudulently Photoshopped meme from the Brexit referendum earlier in the summer, where they did the same thing. Where they were tweeting that, oh, Labour, Labour, you go vote for, you know, you could [phone] text and vote in the Brexit referendum. And they use that for inspiration.
Milo’s in the chat too. You know, he was a big part of making Brexit happen with Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytica, but, this was just copied. So in the parlance of meme culture and meme warfare is that memes are to be copied or stolen…
Unicorn Riot: Recycled memes are a common strategy.
Joe Fionda: Inspiration to be able to target and manipulate people and try to suppress the vote. They wrote it out; they wrote out their intentions of what they were attempting to do. Finally, the other [alleged] main co-conspirator in this case is guy named 1080P — a person who is named Gabe, I believe that he’s a resident of the state of Indiana. And he also was very central in the creation of the fraudulent voting memes and then claiming go text to vote, or you can tweet to vote.
Unicorn Riot: And that came up in the trial specifically, this Gabe in Indiana.
Joe Fionda: Yeah. … I know that he [is] from Indiana. That fact was not presented by the government. So he specifically was seeking out like intelligence and information about the exact type of font and number of the font [hex] color that the [Clinton] campaign was using for their images, so that he can make it look as close to theirs as possible. So you can spoof and fool people that they saw as dupes also, on a racist basis.
Unicorn Riot: And so, if that kind of material was not intended as satire, but rather as a kind of deception, is that the idea?
Joe Fionda: Correct. Microchip testified quite authoritatively that his entire motivation was to cause as much chaos as humanly possible. And he didn’t care if the information was false or defamatory that he was just there. He wanted to destroy the reputation of Hillary Clinton. That’s what his words were when he was testifying, that was his mindset. And he seemed quite proud of it. And, you know, not really remorseful.
Unicorn Riot: Thank you for that. Is there anything else you wanted to add on this thing right now?
Joe Fionda: … I’m just noticing, you know, … they sought to kind of tamper down on the connection of these names to like, violent neo-Nazi groups and references to antisemitism and other hate-based imagery or words because they would apparently would be seen as [disfavorable] to Ricky.
Unicorn Riot: So basically, you saw, like they had the jury leave the room. And then the judge and the attorneys agreed to basically kind of downplay like the racist and misogynist content?
Joe Fionda: I don’t know how they agreed upon it, because they had many, many, many sidebars and motions in prior days. But there was many sidebars today [Wed, Mar. 22], where they argued about the redactions in the presentation of particular words and phrases, because it was being seen as inflammatory. And, like, unnecessarily inflammatory, and it might influence the jury.
Unicorn Riot: Which is kind of ironic, because these guys specialize in trying to make inflammatory content.
Joe Fionda: Correct, correct. … They are getting the benefit of the doubt.
Playbooks & Manuals, Gamergate Revisited & the Launch of MAGA3X
Joe Fionda: But at the end of the day, I saw it. I know you saw it, at least samples of the sort of hate and harassment. I have even been shown by people who kept receipts of the harassment that they were engaging in at that particular time.
Unicorn Riot: So you briefly mentioned Gamergate, and the fact that some of these people had known each other in that era. Can you kind of just explain the idea there and what the connection would be?
Joe Fionda: How do we go back to GamerGate? GamerGate started because there was a [misogynstic online troll campaign claiming to be] about ‘ethics in video game journalism.’ And it became a thing where many people started getting doxxed and swatted. It was quite chaotic. And Milo was a main character and provocateur of this day because he wrote about it for Breitbart, but before that, he, I think he was ready. He had his own failed attempt at a magazine … blanking on the name.
Unicorn Riot: GamerGate was known as a highly organized system of harassment towards people…
Joe Fionda: Correct.
Unicorn Riot: … and finding targets. And so it seems like that type of energy and style and kind of dangerous quality sort of got recycled into this group, or this sort of network. Would you say that’s in the right area?
Joe Fionda: Correct. Yeah. Literal terrorists in the group. You know, it was about the same space that the Sam Hyde meme would come out in. And these guys would swat people. They would engage in hideous harassment, a lot of it was transphobic harassment. And the same people that were involved in that took that and they rolled it into the Trump campaign and the MAGA3X crowd, and then the alt-right. It was a rolling Katamari Damasy ball of the worst people on the internet barreling down for Trump. GamerGate? You want to even go further back before that, with weev and those guys? It’s GNAA and Goatse Security.
Unicorn Riot: And MAGA3X? Can you just explain how that idea connects to this trial?
Joe Fionda: Right. There’s MAGA3X PAC created by Jeff Giesea, who is a lieutenant — a former lieutenant [ed: trusted assistant] of Peter Thiel, apparently. And they held a number of events for the Trump campaign. There was a number of groups, kind of circled around that — like a Venn diagram. Like ‘Gays for Trump.’ Where a lot of these people ended up in the same fucking place. Like Laura Loomer, Milo, the fucking guy from Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft. Hoan Ton-That of ClearView AI, Chuck Johnson, kind of connected to it.
Unicorn Riot: But those names haven’t come up in the trial. Is that correct?
Joe Fionda: [Filmmaker] Loren Feldman testified that he was introduced to Ricky Vaughn by Mike Cernovich and Chuck Johnson.
Unicorn Riot: Okay, so their names did come up. Okay.
Joe Fionda: Yeah.
Unicorn Riot: And so MAGA3X would have been kind of like a background movement that’s connected to these happenings?
Joe Fionda: Yeah. So like, in the latter days of the campaign, the idea of MAGA3X was, bring three people to vote with you — it was a get the vote out campaign. But it was also based in GamerGate.
Unicorn Riot: Okay so for someone that’s new to it, you’d say that all of these things didn’t exactly happen at the same time, but they were related and involve some of the same people. Is that how you put it?
Joe Fionda: There were playbooks. There were manuals written. And there were objectives. And there were foreign players involved — a number of foreign players involved in England, in the Netherlands. And, you know, people like weev who at that point, were hanging it out in like Donetsk, People’s Republic, or, no man’s land. Doing God knows what, like in a troll hole. But that’s where his masterminding came from–being many, many, many time zones away from the US and out of reach of extradition.
Unicorn Riot: So in the last few days of this trial, are there any other prominent figures who have been named dropped in testimony?
Joe Fionda: Let’s see. Remember guys in 2016, like Jared Wyand, @NeilTurner_. Nia4_Trump was not indicted, but named as a co-conspirator. It is strongly implied, they’re also cooperating. There was one last thing I want to say. The names of the fake likes and the fake follower companies were ‘Add me fast’ and ‘Fast followz’ with the “z”. They went into detail into how he would put money into that so that he would keep the bots going.
People also ought to look at this trial, to see that the government will get everything on your service if they have a legal warrant to get in. You know, these people ran a tight ship. And I don’t recall these channels leaking. And now we see them in court and it’s pretty eye opening.
Unicorn Riot: Alright, well, that is fascinating. It really is the seedy underbelly of a very subversive mode of campaigning. But again, the government’s contention is that it went over the line of simply campaigning or just lying on the internet. They’re alleging that Mr. Mackey, did something illegal by doing that phone number and sort of trying to convince people that they could text to vote for the Democratic candidate. Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. It’s very unusual. And we appreciate the detail about that. All jotted down a flow of handwritten notes over three days so far at the Douglass Mackey trial in the Eastern District of New York, which is where in New York City?
Joe Fionda: Brooklyn!
Unicorn Riot: All right, well, thank you so much. Joe Fionda, the associate producer of Hacker Wars, a 2014 documentary that was about some of the same people. And here we are today, eight years later, and still kind of learning more about things that happened in between that time. So thank you very much for joining us tonight.
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The post FBI Informant ‘Microchip’ Surfaces in White Supremacist Election Interference Trial appeared first on UNICORN RIOT.
by Unicorn Riot via UNICORN RIOT