OK, more housekeeping ahead of putting this account up on blocks.

#BurnNotice - search for that coming from my account, you'll learn some things about troubles in late 2020.

But this is going to be pretty meta, it's about what goes a #BurnNotice and why.

We've used the #BurnNotice tag in the past to denote an entity that is in need of special attention. That practice dates back to 2011/2012 and lapsed some time ago.

This is a more traditional sort of #BurnNotice

https://t.co/vXH1B5WABs
Let's put some bounds on this. Those in a #BurnNotice are NOT:

1) people I dislike

2) people I think are competitors in some fashion

3) "feds", whatever you people mean by this undefined term.

4) informants. Got a list of those, too, it's handled differently.
The #BurnNotice is more focused on people who present as if they might be working for Erik Prince:

https://t.co/Ex9B7RQjZR
Or maybe they work for Tiger Swan:

https://t.co/WoLSixHUoq
One of the great faults of grassroots activists is that they think everything is tied to whatever bad actor most recently got immolated. Examples of entities that got roasted include:

HBGary Federal

Gamma Group

Hacking Team
The point here is that there are always corporate and nation state actors in the mix. Their presence is unavoidable, but that doesn't mean that YOU have to get infiltrated and have your time and energy wasted.
That being said, lets examine some primo examples current as of late 2020.

I can think of no better example than "Cody Webb".
The above tweet is a LIE. I know there is an actual person associated with the set of tactics and targets associated with the "Cody Webb" persona. Why does this one get a burn notice?
When I first encountered Cody, he was forever stirring shit in Talib Kweli's timeline. TK is suspended now, but he used to really dish it to right wing loons.

Cody was working on a GINORMOUS RESEARCH PAPER ZOMG at the time.
We had a phone call. He claimed to be a Navy vet, a sub nuclear power plant guy. That's a good cover story, unless, like me, your best friend from highschool was a helmsman on the same class of boat. Having an old boss who was chief petty officer on a Thresher class helped, too.
So in response to inquiries about his experience aboard a nuclear powered submarine, he couldn't change the topic fast enough.

This, by itself, is not disqualifying. Another veteran showed up, tank mechanic, didn't want to talk much about this. His DD214 was fine.
Next, he claims where he lives the only internet access he has is via hotspot. Those are great for non-attribution without a warrant or a drawn out civil process. I have a cell phone on my desk right now that provides this, when I feel the need.
I know two people who legit run hotspot only. One is in Ireland, the other in South Africa. It's not out of the realm of possibility, but it is a bit unusual in the U.S., particular for someone constantly active online.
Third thing that was fishy. The GINORMOUS RESEARCH PAPER. He couldn't explain what he was doing or why. Another case of bad luck - take a look at how many research papers are in my SlideShare. Anything posted there, I've read.

https://t.co/SDXRLVxhhQ
Contributing to this "research" was, for Cody, like a salesman's appeal to a higher authority. Things that didn't make sense for the mark (ie YOU) would be explained as being associated with the research effort.
First @LibbyInPhilly got a look at Cody's GINORMOUS RESEARCH PAPER. She's a product of Drexel University's psych program, where they read and write A LOT.

Her judgment was that it would not pass IRB requirements.

https://t.co/5sWOgbBLG3
Someone else finally helped Cody with the writing and I saw the final product. It's a confession of recruiting individuals into various sub-groups, then inducing them to engage in infighting.

Precisely the sort of thing Erik Prince pays people to do.
So maybe "Cody Webb" is one of THOSE people.

The other explanation is that he's somewhere on the psychopathy spectrum and he does things like this to service the psychopath's need to "put one over" on victims.
I had intended to cover a couple different cases, but this is getting kinda long.

Spotting someone doing this is HARD. I spoke to him. I had specialized knowledge (submarines, peer reviewed research), I had a similarly skilled peer (Libby) also find him to be "off".
And then I watched him from a distance for about two years, while signs of him doing the same things I'd seen up close continued to surface.

If he's not a paid plant, I'm OK with putting this out now, because he's in the other category - someone who is always going to fuck you.
Recently he's gotten into a mode of trying to discredit Libby. Her work is good - you can see some of it actually published here:

https://t.co/kM1LdAAlNg
Cody has also been all about interfering with the stuff that Libby, Kirtaner, and I are doing. Take the article about 8kun operator Jim Watkins trafficking child pornography as an example.

https://t.co/B25bKexAqh
The pain for Watkins was the first, then there was some suffering for Parler. Next to get time in the barrel will be the person who did the legend for the Q persona, and then ONAforums operator Josh Moon.

You might not like any one of Libby, Kirtaner, or I ...
But given the role those entities play in dragging this country towards civil conflict, if you're not setting aside whatever personal grudges you have and just staying out of the way, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

And that will be assumed to be intentional on your part.
So there you have it. #BurnNotice for a persona (not proven to be a person) whose methods are either those of a paid disruption artist (he's here nonstop) or someone with a character disorder *who would certainly be a tool of such actors*.
Didn't realize how many column inches would be required to explain why I arrived at a certain view regarding the Cody Webb persona. That's enough for now, I'll have to do some more #BurnNotice work later this month.

/ends
@threadreaderapp unroll

More from For later read

Excited we finally have a draft of this paper, which attempts to provide a 'unifying theory' of the long economic divergence between the Middle East & Western Europe

As we see it, there are 3 recent theories that hit on important aspects of the divergence...

1/


One set of theories focus on the legitimating power of Islam (Rubin, @prof_ahmetkuru, Platteau). This gave religious clerics greater power, which pulled political resources away form those encouraging economic development

But these theories leave some questions unanswered...
2/

Religious legitimacy is only effective if people
care what religious authorities dictate. Given the economic consequences, why do people remain religious, and thereby render religious legitimacy effective? Is religiosity a cause or a consequence of institutional arrangements?

3/

Another set of theories focus on the religious proscriptions of Islam, particular those associated with Islamic law (@timurkuran). These laws were appropriate for the setting they formed but had unforeseeable consequences and failed to change as economic circumstances changed

4/

There are unaddressed questions here, too

Muslim rulers must have understood that Islamic law carried proscriptions that hampered economic development. Why, then, did they continue to use Islamic institutions (like courts) that promoted inefficiencies?

5/
I’ve been frustrated by the tweets I’ve seen of this as a Canadian. Because the facts are being misrepresented.

We’re not under some sort of major persecution. That’s not what this is. A thread. 1/8


This church was fined for breaking health orders in Dec. They continued to break them. So the pastor was arrested and released on conditions of... you guessed it, not breaking health orders. And then they broke the health orders. 2/8

So then he was arrested and told he couldn’t hold church services in person if he was to be released. He refused. He’s still in custody.

Here is my frustration as a Christian in Canada:

1. They were able to gather, with some conditions. They didn’t like those. 3/8

2. He is not actually unable to preach. He is just unable to hold church services because they broke the conditions given by the public health office in Alberta. He says he can’t in good conscience do that, so they are keeping him in jail (because he will break the law). 4/8

3. This is the 1st article of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” 5/8

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