As I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do.- Andrew Carnegie
There’s a core group of people involved in reporting on the whole Brett Kimberlin saga; people like (in no particular order) Liberty Chick, Aaron Walker, Patterico, Michelle Malkin, Erick Erickson, Brandon Darby and so on…
So, if you saw someone attacking those people for days on end in an attempt to undercut their credibility…
If you saw someone smearing, insulting and leveling all sorts of absurd accusations against them…
If you saw someone coordinating attacks against those people and working with their sworn enemies…
Your first, logical assumption would be that the attacker was trying to help Team Kimberlin, right?
If someone is trying to confuse the story, create false narratives, and attacking just about everyone trying to cover the story — that’s not the actions of someone actually trying to get to the bottom of the story, is it?
This is exactly what Brooks Bayne and the Twitter-Gaters are doing.
Forget what they say about their goals for second. Forget their excuses and explanations about who started it and how they are the only real conservatives.
Look at how they act.
What you’re seeing is not ‘in-fighting’ . It’s not a personal twitter battle. It’s not about personalities.
The drama and attacks are no accident and they aren’t a petty battle. It’s a campaign to detail the victories that have been happening.
It’s a campaign of social engineering that is designed to derail the story.
Why? Who knows? Motives are hard to pin down. But it’s clearly happening. It’s intentional drama.
This example is from today. @OccupyRebellion is an anonymous account that’s connected to Neal Rauhauser and Brett Kimberlin. @OccupyRebellion is a very, very bad actor in this whole story.
Of course, Brooks will defend this by saying he’s ‘just asking questions’ or some nonsense. There’s beyond ample evidence that @OccupyRebellion is a pure attack account as Brooks must think people are really stupid if he think people can’t see what he’s up to - especially given the full context of what he’s been up to for at least a week.
So - what possible good motivation would Brooks Bayne have in coordinating with them against Mandy Nagy aka Liberty Chick? There’s no explanation that makes sense. If his whole goal is to fight Neal Rauhauser, why partner with his friend @OccupyRebellion publicly to question whether this indcident Mandy?
Or what about this attack on @Patterico - Brooks accuses him of lying.
It was funny? No proof. Just an accusation and another attack on Patterico, who has done amazing, thankless work on this story.
Or this offensive ‘comment’ on Michelle Malkin by Brooks Bayne.
Look at the actions, not the words.
This doesn’t read like the same Brooks Bayne I was reading just a couple of weeks ago (the first I’d ever heard of him was quite recently).
At least these quotes of him read like he and OR are on the same page, which is not a page anyone should be reading.
I keep holding out hope that this can be resolved. I agree with Greg Howard that the attacks on him were serious and deserve serious exposure, discussion, and if possible some justice, but I also respect Liberty Chick’s awesome work and I know she’s held her head high despite some nasty attacks no one should have to deal with in a decent society. I’ve butted heads with a lot of people… behind the scenes I’ve actually butted heads even with my closest friends on this on various points, but I keep it private now because I’ve realized this story is too serious to screw around with.
I honestly don’t understand why anyone serious about any aspect of Neal’s behavior, or Brett’s, would act otherwise. Unless they aren’t on the right side.
To clarify, the nasty attacks I’m talking about LC dealing with are the O.R. attacks this post reminded me of.
But I also think she can’t get a fair shake from other folks and I don’t understand why because I’ve interacted with her many times and found her to be compassionate and honest… even when I disagree with her.
Brooksbayne seems to be circling the drain at this point. He apparently knows it, too, since his desperation is on full display - at least for those who even bother reading his tripe these days. He’s ‘all in’ and he’s holding a pair of threes. Furthermore, last night it was revealed that anything goes now, including hacking and eavesdropping on phone conversations. After the disclosure of such tactics, I expected him to slither away and delete his account or at the very least APOLOGIZE for losing his way on a dead-end lead, which was never the story at all. He’s completely lost the plot (and he knows it), because this story can’t be told when the most vocal players are trying to settle old scores rather than getting to the truth.
Case in point: Greg Howard. Yes, he was harrassed. We get it. Many people were! But this isn’t civil court. The ‘justice’ that Greg Howard seeks can only be handled in court. When some of us tried to help him in the past, he only needed to call the police and give them the information provided, but he chose not to. As a result, what police reports actually exist to support his claims? (Hint: none) Further still, Neal Rauhauser’s whereabouts are pretty well-known to everyone. He’s been showing up with Kimberlin at court hearings. Why isn’t he being served? Why isn’t Greg Howard doing something? (so much for seeking justice, ‘eh?)
Basically, Greg Howard is looking for someone else to blame for his failure to act. If he wants justice, he has to seek it. His attacks on Andrew Breitbart, Liberty Chick, Michelle Malkin, et al., are ridiculous, and it’s a perfect example of why nobody cares any longer. If he wants to blame someone other than himself, maybe he should blame Michelle Lessick (Zapem). She’s the one who thinks she owns the copyright on everything having to do with Rauhauser, and after a year-and-a-half of ‘protecting’ her product, she could have published something on her own instead of the irritating, unedited, poorly-presented ‘Twittergate’ video.
The bigger story, which is Kimberlin and his criminal enterprise, really needs to be told in spite of all these distractions, and we all need to throw our full support behind Liberty Chick, Brandon Darby and you. Everything else should be mocked or ignored accordingly.
I don’t know “Brooks Bayne” from Adam. Never heard of him before a couple of weeks ago. A nobody to me.
All I know is:
He lurked on a call I thought was between me and Pat Read;
He came on after a good long while and started accusing me of being a liar;
He made grandiose pronouncements about himself that were laughable, and I accommodated by laughing at him, again and again and again;
and
He is a counterproductive force at this point.
I won’t assume he is working with Kimberlin or that he means to aid the bad guys’ effort. I will instead assume that he cares about his own overblown ego more than he cares about holding the bad guys accountable for their evil actions.
That doesn’t exactly excuse his behavior in my view.
The problem is that people who don’t know Brooks think this is something new. I was fighting with Brooks before he even got involved with this story due to his consistent attacks on conservatives and tendency to say bigoted/offensive things. He has now taken those same traits and applied them to this story. If Greg Howard etc. really wanted to get their message out, they would do it through a better messenger. The fact that they are choosing to stick by Brooks despite all his antics, attacks (against almost every single conservative I respect), and games, shows that aren’t interested in aiding the productive development of this story.
Pat is right in that Brooks’ motives are irrelevant to the fact that everything he does is counterproductive at this point. My suggestion is everyone can just ignore Brooks and the few individuals that choose to defend the indefensible. He really has an almost non-existent audience and contributes very little.
My list is shorter: 1. Bring the thugs to justice.
That’s it.
Brooks Bayne truly has gone off the handle. I don’t know what is going on with that account. I’ve been following this as an outsider and it’s very confusing. When I compare tactics used by a certain party and those being used even in the past couple weeks by those supporting Kimberlin and other leftists destroying the free speech on Twitter it makes matters much clearer.