Catch 'em Young: AIPAC Subversion of the USG

[barracuda]

We're good, dude.

[MacCruiskeen]

The mods are simply not doing their job here. That's why the troll is crowing while zealously kissing your arses. If a referee is visibly floundering or just plain unfair, then the players will eventually start kicking each other to bits and the game will soon be abandoned. So the troll wins by default.

As for not calling people shills, I draw the following to the mods' attention:

17Breezes is certainly a troll by any definition, yet you do nothing about it. He breaks the rules incessantly and you sit back observing the spectacle, only emerging on page 5 to tut-tut and wag fingers when people eventually get really angry at him, just as he intended. Then suddenly you're all, like, "Hey guys, the rules" and stuff. Meanwhile, we're not allowed to call that troll a shill, which he is, so I won't. Instead I will call him a trill, because unlike him I must observe the rules.

1. The trill 17Breezes arrived here at almost exactly the same time he arrived as Democratic Underground. Here's an entirely typical example of his posts there (and here):

9. 17breezes (24 posts) Sun Feb-07-10 11:15 PM

Response to Original message

CT nuts are nuts whether 25 or 85.

Tin foil is always in fashion and [Nafeez] Ahmed just repeats the same old debunked troofer drivel.

Donate to DU and give valentine hearts to your friends! Click here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... 125x280320

A trolling one-liner, as always. That would make perfect sense if someone were being paid by the post, rather than by the line, would it not? I would appreciate an answer.

2. The Trill has never posted anything here but trolling one-liners.

3. None of those one-liners have ever been anything but idiotic.

4. None of those one-liners have ever been anything but disruptive.

5. Nearly all of those one-liners have been insulting.

6. The Trill has had literally nothing to contribute here (or there) except imbecilic timewasting trolling one-liners.

If you disagree with any of this, then I challenge you to post one (1) example of a post by the trill 17Breezes, from before page 5 of this thread (when he started getting careful) that contradicts what I've just said. Just one, mods. Maybe you'll manage it. If so, I will respond with ten (10) posts that were nothing but fatuous but effectively disruptive one-line trollposts.

I want to know if that's an acceptable proportion, and I want to know if that's the kind of poster you're happy to see here.

7. Now that he's been outed, The Trill is making a minimal but still-unsuccessful effort to look sensible, but only because he hopes you'll defend him. For the Trill 17Breezes is nothing if not an arselicker. And an arselicker is never without a job, often a very cushy government-funded sinecure where he can harrass honest people without ever having to raise his bum from his couch.

Because this is getting old, mods. c2w has just departed, and no wonder. We all waste too much time online, and I don't relish having it wasted gratuitously here by The Arselicking Trill while you sit by and watch. I'm supposed to be working, in fact; and unlike some, I don't get paid for what I post here.

[StarmanSkye]

re: 17breezes post:

WoW, that takes the cake.

You object to her calling the AIPAC's subversion of US politics and foreign policy a 'conspiracy'?

You have more problem with that then the corruption of America's government?

Well, OK then. Just to be clear where you're coming from.

AIPAC officials have secretly colluded in well-documented incidents of espionage, subversion, coercion and influence-peddling. Its not just conspiracy, but criminal conspiracy.

BTW: Right-on Mac; The lack of substantive content to 17breezes posts kinda give the game away, I don't recall EVER actually having my understanding of anything gaining from something he's contributed. While with Alice, I almost always have my knowledge increased.

[MacCruiskeen]

re: 17breezes post:

WoW, that takes the cake.

You object to her calling the AIPAC's subversion of US politics and foreign policy a 'conspiracy'?

You have more problem with that then the corruption of America's government?

Well, OK then. Just to be clear where you're coming from.

AIPAC officials have secretly colluded in well-documented incidents of espionage, subversion, coercion and influence-peddling. Its not just conspiracy, but criminal conspiracy.

BTW: Right-on Mac; The lack of substantive content to 17breezes posts kinda give the game away, I don't recall EVER actually having my understanding of anything gaining from something he's contributed. While with Alice, I almost always have my knowledge increased.

We're good, dude.

[MacCruiskeen]

November 3, 2006

Make Way for Sockpuppets

Posted by Jim Macdonald at 07:29 AM * 43 comments

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/ar ... 08142.html

How is the Pentagon responding to the fact that Rumsfeld and his cronies have lost the war they started in Iraq? By trying to change the news. After all, if we don’t hear about it, it never happened, right? From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — The Pentagon is reorganizing its public affairs operation in an attempt to influence news coverage, amid internal frustration at the tone and substance of reporting on Iraq and on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The expanded office, which was first described by department officials in an informal press briefing on Monday, features a “rapid response unit” to react to news reports. It is also stepping up efforts to arrange appearances by department officials on talk radio and cable television, and to recruit “surrogates” who are not on the department’s payroll to defend its policies.

“Surrogates.” Oh, joy. We know what they mean. Sockpuppets. Astroturfers. Trolls.

And where will these sockpuppets appear?

Officials involved say the new effort, which was conceived by Assistant Secretary of Defense Dorrance Smith, is not primarily a response to negative coverage but rather is aimed at more aggressively challenging articles and broadcasts deemed inaccurate and at making better use of podcasts, blogs and other new outlets.

Blogs. Yeah. “Inaccurate,” like reporting that Rumsfeld dismissed the folks who told him the truth about Iraq? “Inaccurate” like recording the lies Rumsfeld has told over the years? Notice, please, that “deemed inaccurate” isn’t the same thing as actually “inaccurate.”

Unfortunately for the paid trolls, the role Rumsfeld played in setting Iraq policy is only too clear — he trumpeted it while he was doing it — and the content of his speeches is public record.

Mr. Rumsfeld has long been critical of the government’s efforts to respond to information disseminated by people sympathetic to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, who make use of the Internet and other technology networks and, as Mr. Rumsfeld often says, are not bound by rules of accuracy.

Since by Rummie’s definitions anyone who criticises him or Bush is an al Qaeda sympathizer, that leaves him lots of room to play.

Hot tip for Rummie: Reality always wins. Always. [Really?]

And to our new sockpuppet friends: Welcome. You won’t last long here, though. [Won't he?] We’re a reality-based community. [Are we?]

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/ar ... 08142.html

[barracuda]

C'mon Mac - the rules are pretty clear. Realistically, Jeff needs to make the call on any complaints of useless, disruptive trolling, and he's obviiously read the thread and decided to allow 17breezes to continue posting here. That kind of behaviour has to be rather intensely egregious to qualify for a ban. And it's hard to take the complaints too seriously when...

a.- His points are so weak, and

b.- You and some of the others on this thread continue flaunting the rules regarding obscenity and agent-baiting.

The mods aren't here to win your arguments for you by banning people you disagree with vehemently. I would think you could have demolished him by now without so much as a hint of foul language. Or would you rather the thread was locked?

[SonOfKitty]

AIPAC’s Cal plan? Just the iceberg’s tip
2010 April 5 · Leave a Comment
2 Votes



The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s vow to take to over UC Berkeley’s student government the same way “AIPAC operates in our nation’s capitol” highlights the intrusion of the Israel lobby into every aspect of American political life.

Increasingly viewed as a pariah state by many nations for its repugnant treatment of the Palestinians and dependent on the largess of United States taxpayers and elected officials, Israel’s American activists have been conducting a ferocious propaganda campaign to influence student activists, starting in their high school years.

The campaigns are only comparable to those launched by Italy in the 1920’s and Germany in the 1930’s, efforts which specifically focused on ethnic Italians and Germans.

But the AIPAC campaign’s focus is much broader, and the video posted here 4 March which included the announcement by AIPAC national leadership development director Jonathan Kessler of the campaign to take over the student government at the University of California at Berkeley was a naked demonstration of self-confident power:

“We’re going to make certain that pro-Israel students take over the student government and reverse the vote. That is how AIPAC operates in our nation’s capitol. This is how AIPAC must operate on our nation’s campuses.”

As in Washington, so in Berkeley.

But the rest of the video is equally revealing, affording a rare glimpse of the most sophisticated and effective advocacy program on behalf of a foreign power that this blogger has ever seen in the course of more than four decades of reporting.

Of particular brilliance is AIPAC’s stunning effort to win over student body leaders at the nation’s universities and high schools, even enlisting them, as AIPAC reveals on its website, included significant numbers of African Americans.

One element of the propaganda campaign—for such it must be called—targets America’s high schools “to bring student leaders from across the country to Washington, D.C., for Israel advocacy and political activism training.

Note the particular phrase “for Israel advocacy.” In other words, to lobby on behalf of a foreign power which is specifically based on religious identity and ethnic ancestry, the antithesis of a genuine democracy. Zionist will say that

Arab Israelis are granted the same rights as Jews, but that most fundamental right, aliyah [return], is denied to those Arabs, who were evicted from their homes and farms in a usurpation that continues today with the ongoing settlement in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The same indoctrination is given campus student body leaders at the nation’s colleges and universities. The video shows students of many ethnic backgrounds attending the same AIPAC show of power that always draws a majority of both houses of Congress.

A 22 December 2007 news story from the JTA [Jewish Telegraph Agency, the same folks who produced the video] describes the recruiting process:

Bakari Sellers was moving into his student government office as president of Morehouse College one day in 2004 when he picked up the phone and AIPAC staffers Jonathan Kessler and Michael Glassman were on the other end. They were calling up the student body presidents of historically black colleges and universities and inviting them to the pro-Israel lobby’s annual policy conference.

>snip<

In the end, his experience at the AIPAC parley was so positive and memorable that the 24-year-old has been to four more policy conferences. More importantly, Sellers is beginning his second term as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives this month, and he credits AIPAC with helping him acquire some of the skills and contacts that assisted him in his succesful bid to become a state lawmaker.

>snip<

Key to AIPAC’s approach to building support among future political leaders is its willingness to give young activists lots of responsibility, from lobbying their hometown members of Congress to setting up programs on their campuses.

“There aren’t that many people saying” to college-age men and women that “we want to invest in you” and “we’re going to show you how you can make a difference,” Kessler said.

December’s Saban seminar attracted 400 students, about a quarter of whom, according to AIPAC, were not Jewish.

Another AIPAC program enlists college students as paid interns who lobby members of Congress on behalf of the State of Israel—advocating on behalf of another nation or, in plainer, serving as unregistered foreign agents. But they do get college credit—and check out the other programs listed at the link:

AIPAC’s Diamond Internship Program enables students to contribute to strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship by participating in one of the most dynamic lobbying groups in American politics. AIPAC offers Diamond Internships in Washington, D.C. and around the country for undergraduate and graduate students. Diamond Summer Internships are paid positions and semester internships are for credit only. Diamond Interns develop their own political activism skills by bringing research, writing, and event-planning experience to a host of projects that help advance AIPAC’s mission. When they return to their campuses, Diamond Interns are expected to promote pro-Israel political action as AIPAC portfolioed activists.

AIPAC isn’t the only organization offering attractive programs to enrol students as advocates for Israel. Consider this from Tamar Kaplan-Marans, a participant in a program of the Avi Chai Foundation, which describes itself as “a private foundation established in 1984 which functions in the United States and in Israel. Eventually AVI CHAI intends to function in all regions with major Jewish populations.”

As a counselor with Write on For Israel, the Israel advocacy high-school program coordinated by the Jewish Week and sponsored by the Avi Chai Foundation, I accompanied 27 select Jewish high school students on an intense ten-day tour. One evening, I found myself in a heated Bush-Kerry debate with a student who was a Kerry supporter. Walking alongside the ancient hilltops of Jerusalem, I argued the merits of President Bush’s pro-Israel record and his unprecedented support of Israel. The next day, the student approached me and told me he was reconsidering his support of Kerry.

“I think I might be harming Israel if I vote for Kerry,” he said.

This conversation was just one example of the intense discussions regarding America, Israel, and the world that characterized our trip. Write On For Israel is a two-year intensive program during which high school juniors and seniors learn about Israel-related issues. With anti-Israel fever raging on many college campuses, the goal is to train students in the history and politics of the Arab-Israeli conflict in order to prepare them to advocate for Israel when they arrive on campuses.

Another player in the foreign agency game is AIPAC’s Schusterman Advocacy Institute, which runs the high school student program, as AIPAC notes:

Through AIPAC’s Schusterman Advocacy Institute, AIPAC identifies and mentors high school students committed to strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship through the American political process.

The related Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, among many other programs, monitors the numbers and types of university courses covering Israel. In a press release earlier this year, they reported:

The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation announces the release of Searching for the Study of Israel: A Report on the Teaching of Israel on U.S. College Campuses 2008-09, prepared by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University.

An update of a 2006 report, Searching for the Study of Israel examines the scope of academic courses being taught about Israel on more than 300 leading American college and university campuses and finds that the state of education about Israel has improved since the original study. A comparison of the 246 institutions included in both studies shows a 69% growth in courses that focus specifically on Israel over the three-year period.

Were esnl a UC Berkeley student, he’d want to know whether or not candidates running for student office had participated in any of these and similar programs, and what impact they had on her/his thinking. And, yes, whether of not candidates had participated in any other programs for any other nations and groups which involved advocacy or lobbying.

http://richardbrenneman.wordpress.com/2 ... bergs-tip/

[Alaya]

Ladies and gentlemen, this thread is rapidly approaching the end of it's viability. Trading insults, however enjoyable it may be, does not constitute discourse.

Oh. Hi Jeff.

[Jeff]

The mods aren't here to win your arguments for you by banning people you disagree with vehemently.

I need this laminated.

[MacCruiskeen]

C'mon Mac - the rules are pretty clear. Realistically, Jeff needs to make the call on any complaints of useless, disruptive trolling, and he's obviiously read the thread and decided to allow 17breezes to continue posting here. That kind of behaviour has to be rather intensely egregious to qualify for a ban. And it's hard to take the complaints too seriously when...

a.- His points are so weak, and

b.- You and some of the others on this thread continue flaunting the rules regarding obscenity and agent-baiting.

I would think you could have demolished him by now without so much as a hint of foul language. Or would you rather the thread was locked?

So, no answer to any of those questions? I took time to make my points carefully and politely. You ignore them completely. And you're the mod.

The mods aren't here to win your arguments for you by banning people you disagree with vehemently.

Of course they're fucking not, and of course I never fucking suggested any such thing. Get real. The mods are clearly here to apply the rules selectively, to watch regular posters having their time wasted by opportunistic shitstirring arseholes, and then to snigger languidly whenever anyone gets pissed off.

Fuck this. It's happened too many times now.

Have the kind of board you want.

[MacCruiskeen]

This is a post.

[MacCruiskeen]

This is another post.

[MacCruiskeen]

on the other hand

[MacCruiskeen]

time is no object why not waste it

[MacCruiskeen]

post

over and out

(Someone should clean this shit up. Someone with plenty of fucking time on their hands. A mod, for instance.)