this dude’s personal narrative ends in tragedy and i think that’s just fantastic. how can we accelerate that. https://t.co/4EcA1I5Iqj
— World Famous Art Thief (@CalmSporting) August 10, 2021
I have a general policy against highlighting self-imposed tragedies from the genuinely not-sane, but this Lindell guy…
For months, Lindell told us to hang on, that proof was coming.
Proof is not coming. https://t.co/dloQGuQblk
— Philip Bump (@pbump) August 11, 2021
Pilled was a bad meme, and now it’s become a big joke. Phillip Bump, at the Washington Post, “The con is winding down”:
… Lindell, who has claimed for months and months that he had definitive proof that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by China, pledged to release that information at a “cyber symposium” that is underway in South Dakota. According to Lindell, someone captured Internet traffic in the days after the election that shows how votes were shifted away from Donald Trump and to President Biden. Instead of simply presenting this evidence to the public, he withheld it, offering $5 million to anyone who can prove that the information isn’t legitimate.
Rob Graham, a technologist and author, went to the summit to evaluate what Lindell claims to have. During a “breakout session,” he and others were provided with access to what Lindell’s team claims to have obtained. Graham shared what they were given — a collection of files that consists of 1) a list of computer Internet protocol addresses and 2) gibberish like that above. Well, technically they were given rich-text format files, some of which were inexplicably converted to hexadecimal encoding. Graham, an expert on Internet data, described the provided material as “a bunch of confusing stuff they can’t explain,” and said that those running the symposium pledged to hand over the “real” information Tuesday night or Wednesday. Meanwhile, Lindell’s live stream of the symposium — being watched by hundreds of thousands of people on one streaming feed — presses on, with the CEO mostly riffing on how toxic the media is. Promotions offer viewers codes for discounts at MyPillow, a useful bit of advertising given that Lindell’s conspiracy theories have cost his company placement in a number of retailers’ inventories…
But what if you’re not trying to prove it? What if you’re trying to make some cash and you stumbled onto a big, juicy mark? What if there were a millionaire desperate to prove something, a millionaire who’s not exactly an Internet savant but one willing to hand over loads of cash for data you made up — as some of the data previously released by Lindell pretty obviously was? For a while, you’re skating, cashing checks and sending along reports on occasion. Eventually, though, you get closer and closer to the point at which you need to actually turn over your work.
This is how all cons end. Things stretch and stretch and stretch until: snap. So instead of presenting your data, you encode it and obfuscate it and promise that there’s actually something there, but wait, hmm, that is weird, let me see what’s happening. Instead you say things like that there was a medical emergency that slowed things down and just ask everyone to stick with you for a moment. It’s just buying time — like Trump calling senators on Jan. 6 — hoping that if another hour or so passes, you can somehow regain control…
c’mon fellas maybe you need a refresher course, it’s all internet these days https://t.co/iyXJSEJN9N
— kilgore trout, terminal hiccups patient (@KT_So_It_Goes) August 11, 2021
The telling line of the Mike Lindell conference, directed at networks like CNN, who the speakers regularly complain don't treat their material seriously:
"You guys need to start reporting this stuff and stop fact-checking it!"
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) August 11, 2021
MAGAs reporting from Lindell’s big reveal today seem like they are pretty bummed out that what was promised isn’t being delivered. “Lot of information, not a lot of evidence.. kind of a nothing-burger.” pic.twitter.com/GXPPJ4ooNX
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 11, 2021
Do you think he's aware that a federal judge, literally minutes ago, allowed Dominion's $1.6 BILLION defamation lawsuit against him to move forward? https://t.co/C7xGCWBVPm
— Alan Feuer (@alanfeuer) August 11, 2021
Elizabelle
The man is an addict, and unstable. This conspiracy crap is his latest addiction.
This really could end tragically for him. He, Q and their like have already done a tremendous amount of damage to our body politic and civic organizations.
Parfigliano
I’ve peeled potatoes with more sense then this twit.
Poe Larity
57 49 4e 4e 49 4e 47 21
Adam L Silverman
Someone should really explain to these folks that the whole point of the Matrix movie is that it is a transgender allegory by the Wachowskis. The red pill analogy, within the context of the story they wrote and directed, is that by taking it you can recognize and then experience your true self.
Which would freak out all the homophobic and transphobic Proud Boys, alt righters, gamergaters, shitposters, inches, misandrists, etc who constantly use the reference.
Adam L Silverman
@Poe Larity: You sunk my battleship!
Major Major Major Major
get his ass
Leto
@Poe Larity: 53 6f 20 6d 75 63 68 20 77 69 6e 6e 69 6e 67 21
Ruckus
@Parfigliano:
And seemingly more intelligence as well.
And at least a potato can be made into an alcoholic beverage or a half assed salad, can crappy pillow guy or any of his crappy products do that? I don’t think so.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Poe Larity: Made me go find the first ASCII table I’ve looked at in I don’t know how many years.
54 49 52 45 44 20 59 45 54 3F
ReadWrite
@Poe Larity: 4C 6F 73 65 72 21
dr. bloor
Lindell’s kind of facinating from a professional perspective–he occupies that gray space Venn diagram overlap of “mentally ill,” “not very bright,” and “sociopathic huckster.”
Alas, my professional curiosity about his make-up is completely crushed by my desire to plant my knee in his junk, really hard.
prostratedragon
“I don’t know what we were waiting for. Maybe we thought the world would end.” − Jeff Bailey, Out of the Past
MagdaInBlack
I’ve kind of been watching/listening to the “Symposium” on Hal Sparks and….well…wow, just wow.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Has he kept his promise to stay on the stage without meal, sleep, or bathroom breaks?
Gin & Tonic
I think I felt a twinge of sympathy for this guy, but it seems to have passed. I hope Dominion buries him.
debbie
“Start reporting this stuff and stop fact-checking it!”
Good god.
emmyelle
So, I was just on a Zoom for my kid’s school, and Karen asked “what data are you using to justify placing restrictions on unvaccinated kids?”. Only she pronounced it “daahduh”. I know no one that says “daahduh” because that’s not a fucking word. So now My Pillow Guy is screamong about “daahduh” and I am wondering if this is some kind of secret handshake.
Steeplejack
@Poe Larity, @Leto:
Hexadecimal decoder ring for those who want in on the secret dialogue.
dmsilev
Red-Pillowed, surely?
There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)
Being a compassionate sort, I really feel I should buy me one of them pillows. At last. It might be the only real achievement in what turned out a miserable, insane, and wasted existence. Dude has just kinda set himself on fire in front of the whole world. Also, my neck could use a little hug now.
dmsilev
@emmyelle: No, it’s “what Dada are you using?”. As in, how does an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement act as a justification for vaccination? It makes no sense, which is in itself very Dada.
emmyelle
@dmsilev: That’s probably better than the real answer!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Steeplejack: You kids today! I was doing it with an ASCII table and stone tools, the way we did it back in the day.
NotMax
Overheard an ad on MSNBC, of all places, for his product. $40 off the “regular” price (which is still far more than it’s worth). Signals to this viewer his sales are circling the drain.
JoyceH
Years ago (I was an Ensign!) I had a lengthy conversation with a guy on my crew who was flipping out. I didn’t learn until later that he was a diagnosed paranoid who had stopped taking his meds. Every time I see Mike Lindell on television, I remember that day…
dmsilev
@emmyelle: It helps that it’s a self-referential answer. We all know the importance of meta-Dada these days.
(Sorry, I’ll stop now)
CaseyL
It might be interesting to see how much of this codswallop he’s funding out of his own (fast-diminishing?) wealth, and how much he’s funding by fleecing the rubes.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Oddly enough it decodes as “Buy Ovaltine.”
Gin & Tonic
@There are those who call me…tim… (Still posh): My daughter bought one, a while ago, before the dude set himself on fire. They suck.
planetjanet
Okay, I have been googling for ascii converters and they are just not working.
planetjanet
@Steeplejack: Thanks.
NotMax
@planetjanet
ASCII and thou shalt receive.
;)
Just Chuck
@dr. bloor:
Thank God no one like that ever became President.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
a tweeter after my own cold dark place where a heart should be.
Steeplejack
@MagdaInBlack:
Robert Graham, also an expert on the cyber, has been live-tweeting from the cyber symposium. Here’s the start of his coverage today. (You can see yesterday’s stuff by going back up the thread.)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@planetjanet: The link Steeplejack provided at #18 seems to work well.
Another Scott
@NotMax: [snort!] rofl.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@planetjanet: Decoded:
@Poe Larity:
@Leto:
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
@ReadWrite:
IOW, you weren’t missing much.
MagdaInBlack
@Steeplejack: Thank You ! ?
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
I tested negative for sympathy again today. (I get the multi-part anti-COVID/GQP/RWNJ test daily. It’s quick and easy, highly accurate.)
Steeplejack
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
It’s for the civilians, grandpa.
Repatriated
@dmsilev: Did someone mention Dada?
Diz Knee Land
Steeplejack
@planetjanet:
Maybe someone can return the favor and tell me where the goddamn frog is every day (after a suitable period of time has elapsed, of course).
Immanentize
@NotMax: I track that!
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
Looks like the My Pillow guy is back on the crack again.
Ruckus
@There are those who call me…tim… (Still posh):
I understand they are a lot cheaper than what you have to pay for them. In english that means they are crap and not worth the price of admission.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
There’s a shaggy dog ReBoot joke lurking in this mishegas about Hexadecimal sowing chaos but I’m not coffee’d up enough to tease it out.
;)
planetjanet
@Steeplejack: Lots of hints in the last thread. I am not completely sure, but he looks like just his head is poking out of the water.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think this is what they call “readership capture”?
Ruckus
@JoyceH:
I’m not sure that Mikie has ever taken any meds. I think he’s just ridding it out on his own. I’m pretty sure that’s obvious to normal humans. The people in his thrall are not at all normal….
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
“There are 10 kinds of people in the world—” No, that’s not it.
Ruckus
@Just Chuck:
At least not in our lifetimes, right?
Jay C
Thanks, AL: before I read this post, I hadn’t clearly got the handle on Mike Lindell’s insane “Crusade For Truth” – AFAICT, it’s basically a politically-oriented version of a Ponzi scheme: keep the rubes enthralled/contributing by endlessly promising The Big Reveal (while carefully shifting the blame for the lack-of-Reveal onto some Sinister Others on a daily basis), and, as you point out, apparently only now having to face the fact that there IS NOT GOING TO BE any “Reveal”, and desperately trying to change the subject.
The “release” of the “data” being offered up as support of the delusional “election fraud” claims reminds of nothing so much as something I read about a trick Bernie Madoff used to pull with his marks: he would send them, every month, reams of computer printouts about their “investments” which were so voluminous and complex that they were basically incomprehensible: the customers would be only too happy to get Bernie’s graciously-provided “recap” – a simple one-page note with the month’s “profits” prominently circled….
Steeplejack
@planetjanet:
By the time I see the Mr. Frog posts I’m usually in bed, reading on my cell phone. And then I forget to look again the next morning on my (not that gigantic) 13" notebook screen.
Ken
As a solution to the Frog Problem, maybe John should include each frog’s location in ASCII-hex encoding.
Mike in NC
It was pretty much inevitable that two shameless con artists would gravitate to one another.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
I cannot see the frog at all.
oldster
How serious are the suggestions about drug abuse (in this thread, and also in Josh Marshall’s tweets)?
Is he Charlie Sheen/ American Psycho levels of obvious coked-out, or is he just a bit excitable and it’s fun to tease about a Republican doing drugs?
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
He’s just offscreen, performing the Michigan Rag.
;)
Ksmiami
@Elizabelle: Gallows seems appropriate for all the violence they’ve committed against our nation
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@oldster: per his wiki page
So… thirty-ish years of booze and blow?
zhena gogolia
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIIomB3b_dw
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Spoiler alert. Do not highlight the inside of the block quote unless you want to know where the frogs were. (information from debbie)
zhena gogolia
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
What do you mean “highlight”?
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
Okay, got it. I’ll go back and look.
khead
Meet Laura Morris – today’s cause celebre in wingnut world. Laura is just a poor teacher in Loudon County who is standing up for her “values” by very publicly resigning at a Loudon County Board meeting…
…. and is also someone who – as with most grassroots whiny wingnuts – appears to be the president of the local GOP Woman’s Club. Now I KNOW why Fox and other wingnut outlets leave that part out. But just how fucking hard is it for ANY OTHER OUTLET that picks this story up to run her name through Google to find this hit? (Hint: Not very. One search. 0.72 seconds. Second hit.)
I really, really don’t like these people.
Ken
Yeah, if you believe that he actually got sober through prayer in 2009.
Matt McIrvin
Unf rirelbar urer sbetbggra gurve ebg-13 nyernql? Jung vf gur jbeyq pbzvat gb?
BC in Illinois
In regard to Mister Pillow. A few days ago — the day the 72-hour ordeal began — I read a note on F’Book. (A distant “friend” whose posts I look at fairly regularly, to see what the fringe are telling each other.)
This is what the fringe are telling each other.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
Thanks — found ’em!
oatler
@dmsilev:
“Bulldada”
Tim C.
I WANT THE FROG HUNT!!!!!
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I always thought you cannot petition the Lord with prayer??
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
@zhena gogolia: Scotland is proceeding with their investigation of TFG’s golf courses. Specifically, where he got the money to buy them.
Gin & Tonic
My dear wife just informed me that Chris Cuomo appears not to be hosting his regular 9:00 pm CNN program this evening. Odd. He must be on vacation or something, I guess.
Central Planning
@zhena gogolia: There are four frogs!
oldster
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ah, okay — so, he has a solid, documented record of substance abuse. In that case, allegations that he’s currently using are much more plausible.
Ken
@Matt McIrvin: Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
zhena gogolia
Hahaha
debbie
@Central Planning:
Are you counting stone frogs?
zhena gogolia
@Central Planning:
Are you including the inanimate ones?
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
Spending more time with his family.
Tim C.
46 72 6f 67 20 68 75 6e 74 20 6f 72 20 77 65 20 72 65 6c 65 61 73 65 20 74 68 65 20 4b 72 61 6b 65 6e
Leto
@Steeplejack:
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: haha, that was the converter I used! I honestly haven’t used hex in 24 years. Recognize it, but need the converter help ;)
VeniceRiley
@Gin & Tonic: birthday week he does every year. But convenient!
Ruckus
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
Again?
Don’t you mean still?
Central Planning
@debbie @zhena gogolia: It was a Star Trek reference to the Chain of Command episode where Picard is tortured. Picard’s line has become a meme
brendancalling
@Elizabelle: I fully expect some sort of public implosion. That profile by Applebaum is brutal, and he sounds like a man on the brink.
RSA
@zhena gogolia:
This is how I do it: \footnote{This is a footnote.}
Nichols needs to fill in a few more details for his students about what he means by “proper format”.
RSA
@Central Planning: It was a nice allusion; I got it.
scav
@emmyelle: For that matter, where’s hers? The sky-daahduh voice she hears in her head doesn’t count.
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
Someone has to have an appreciation for their effort…
Of course that person belongs in a home with a jacket with wraparound sleeves that end in a padlock loop in the back.
raven
@NotMax: Made in my hometown!
Leto
@Gin & Tonic: well after it was reported that he was helping coordinate his brothers response to this pillow convention, I’m hoping that he’s permanently spending time with his family.
Matt McIrvin
@Ken: Mi wile e toki sin la, mi toki kepeken toki pona.
There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)
@Gin & Tonic: ok. I meant well. Still and all, screw that guy.
debbie
@Central Planning:
Impressive memory! Was it the Borg or the Romulans?
There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)
@Tim C.: You’re trying to tell us something, aren’t you?
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
I used to tech edit for a group that used APA style. The footnotes were an absolute bitch.
There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)
@Matt McIrvin: it all makes sense now.
Ruckus
@oldster:
I think people are trying to give him an excuse to be speaking/acting like such an ignorant fuck. Not that he’s earned an excuse, he’s a semi grown human who seems to park his cranial appendage in his exit orifice on occasion – like 23 hrs and 59 minutes a day, so he really doesn’t need excuses for looking like a shit.
Central Planning
@Matt McIrvin: All the cool kids use rot-26 now. Twice as good!
Leto
@debbie: Cardassians! Good two part episode.
raven
@debbie: For some reason the APA manual popped into my head yesterday. What a fucking nightmare that was!
Ruckus
@zhena gogolia:
That’s good!
Pillow Symposium.
Put you to sleep, cry into or smother with?
Soprano2
OT update on my mother. She’s resting as comfortably as she can at the hospice house. The people here are wonderful. She had a few visitors today, which was nice. This is still so surreal. And I’m tired but I didn’t do anything today but sit and talk to people.
Anoniminous
Speaking of assholes ……..
“A Scottish court on Wednesday gave activists the green light to continue their effort to use an anti–money laundering statute to investigate the financing of Donald Trump’s golf courses in the country.
<snip>
The amount of money Trump has dumped—and continues to dump—into the courses has raised suspicions about these ventures. The numbers simply don’t add up—it’s an extraordinary amount of cash that Trump would have had to struggle to scrape together, spent on a business that doesn’t seem to be paying off. Mysteriously, Trump has pumped money into these properties through ongoing loans—loans to himself with no due date and no interest charged. Financial experts interviewed by Mother Jones say it’s hard to come up with a rationale, legal or not, for Trump’s Scottish dealings. ”
A Scottish Judge Just Resurrected an Effort to Investigate Donald Trump for Money Laundering
Spanky
EBCDIC or GTFO.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
That’s good news.
I’ve been through this more than once so I will say that it is exceedingly tiring. Please remember to take care of yourself as well.
debbie
@Soprano2:
I was sorry to read your news about your mother yesterday and am glad she is comfortable. The last visit my mother had was with her two oldest and closest friends. It was such a gift watching her take joy in her friends.
WaterGirl
@Soprano2: I am sorry about your mom. I must have missed an update because the last I heard we were waiting to see if she could swallow. I imagine there was not god news there.
I’m glad it’s a good place, but I am so so sorry that you are losing your mom.
debbie
@Leto:
Forgot about those reptilian bastards!
MagdaInBlack
@Soprano2: Hospice workers are amazing and I’m glad you have them there to help you all through this.
I remember that surreal feeling. I think its because we disassociate from the situation in order to deal with it.
Scout211
Oh my God. Speaking of the GQP death cult:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-dad-killed-his-kids-over-qanon-serpent-dna-conspiracy-n1276611
Booger
@dmsilev: I never metadata I didn’t like.
dmsilev
@Ken:
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn
Lyrebird
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks for explaining. I’ve never seen the movie, and I’d been afraid to google red pill… among other things, it seems to be used often by the kind of misogynist people Robyn Penacchia lampoons over at Wonkette.
lgerard
Today the Lindell “cyber” team admitted that they do not have the “absolute proof” that they had claimed to have.
Lindell “expert” Joshua Merritt (aka Spyder), former US Army mechanic said:
“We were handed a turd,”
But wait….here is a shiny object! A clerk in a tiny rural county with evidence of a giant conspiracy!
It seems that Dennis Montgomery has pulled off another successful scam.
RSA
@Spanky:
Oh, yeah. Data representations should be influenced by physical punch card constraints until the end of time. :-)
frosty
@Soprano2: This is good news, considering the circumstances. My mother was in hospice for her last days. We were over 300 miles away and they told us since we had just seen her a couple weeks ago there wasn’t any point in coming again for the end, they would be there for her. And they were.
catbirdman
Mike Lindell has enough evidence to convice everyone in the country?
Like Coupon the Movie???
Ruckus
All cults come to an end eventually.
Too bad this one has an entire “news” network to build it’s base.
@Adam L Silverman:
Some do not realize that the world on the screen and the one in their heads is not in any way, reality and that they would be a lot better off actually understanding the point of, well, anything.
pattonbt
Notwithstanding the above, I assume Trump is still going to be re-instated as President for life this month right?
Ken
@pattonbt: Yes, but only if enough True Patriots(TM) visit his website and make a donation of $100 or more. Otherwise it will have to be postponed a month, to give more True Patriots(TM) a chance to show their love for their country.
tom
@Leto: I am no doubt dating myself, but I many years ago I could read hex dumps without looking at a table. That’s no longer true :)
tom
@Soprano2: It’s so hard. My mother was in hospice care for the last month of her life. Hospice caregivers are wonderful people, and I hope your mother, and you, find peace.
Just Chuck
I still use DEADBEEF as a placeholder sometimes.
Yutsano
bortaS bIr jablu’DI’, reH QaQqu’ nay
Low Key Swagger
@Repatriated: That band rawks. I actually brought them to Nashville once to do a fundraiser for MoveOn. Caught them in the early 90’s in a small venue in Santa Fe. Been my favorite ever since.
JaySinWa
@Spanky: Geebus IBM (I’ve Been Misled) is still schizophrenic with Z/OS and Z/OS Unix. I was an EBCDIC guy in an ASCII world. Can’t we all just Unicode?
artem1s
@dmsilev:
Back in grad school one of my friends had an alter ego, a WWF wrestler, that he would feature in his performance art pieces. Lindell kind of reminds me of that character – an already ridiculous profession only exaggerated to the nth degree. Salvador Dali would have loved Lindell.
artem1s
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh, he’s still doing the booze and blow. It just took him 30 years to discover fundies make the best customers. You can lie to them about your sobriety (and products) over and over again, pray away your sins, and start all over again in the morning. They are perfect marks.
Just Chuck
@JaySinWa: Sure, just put everything in UTF-EBCDIC so both camps will declare jihad on you :)
dnfree
@tom: many years ago I could do hexadecimal math so I could trace addresses. And register contents. That was back when “byte” was a brand new concept.
Darkrose
@RSA: Like, which citation style? APA uses in-line citations and a reference list. I think MLA uses endnotes? Chicago/Turabian is the only one I’ve worked with that requires footnotes.
Matt McIrvin
@dnfree: My dad used to debug core dumps that were in octal rather than hexadecimal, because the mainframes had a 36-bit word–natural to divide into groups of 3 bits, though I suppose 36 is divisible by 4 as well.
fancycwabs
Isn’t tomorrow the day Trump regains the presidency after the Supreme Court votes 9-0 to reinstate him?