A SlimVirgin Close Encounter, ...of the first kind Options

[TabulaRasa]

If you followed a link on O-Smear to get here, please be sure to read this topic for some more recent commentary on this whole situation. Thanks!

UPDATE: We'd also like to apologize for the fact that the topic referenced earlier was the wrong one, and was, indeed, a dead link until just recently. The topics are referenced by number, and the admin adding this note (who has since been severely punished) originally typed "8623" instead of "8263." (The link was dead until the new number came up and was taken by an RSS-fed media topic.) OOPS! Normally we're more careful than that... sorry! Anyway, the purpose of linking to the other topic was simply to help keep people up-to-date on what we're discussing, and the gist of that was that Wordbomb is not "Joey," at least not according to our IP data, analysis of posting patterns, writing style, attitude, known history on Wikipedia, and just-plain common sense. Sorry about that too, but it's our story and we're sticking to it.

Also, putting notes like this in threads that are linked to by other sites is hardly "unprecedented." Half the time we delete such threads completely, just to piss people off... we're just like that! In this case, we simply want to make it clear that while Wordbomb is generally well-tolerated here, and Gary Weiss is generally disliked, that doesn't mean we have any real desire to get in the middle of their little feud, or whatever it is. Most of us are only concerned with how it plays out on Wikipedia, not elsewhere. That's our "purview," you see. (The site is actually called "Wikipedia Review," not "The Gary and Judd Review"...)

Anyway, thanks! We hope you enjoy the site!

The Management, Apr. 17, 2007

Antisocialmedia.net has found the actual person who might be partly responsible for Linda Mack's slow descent into SlimVirginity. If the story weren't so unbelieveable I'd discount it, but trust me: you can't make this stuff up.

The first half of the post is mostly a rehash of things we've read here, but the second half is where Slim comes in and that's what you really need to read. If it's all true, then SlimVirgin mythology has just taken a huge step forward. It's at http://www.antisocialmedia.net

[Herschelkrustofsky]

I'd like to get Daniel's opinion on whether this represents an intelligence breakthrough. The bombastic style of the post suggests a Wordbomb/TabulaRasa/AntiSocialMedia.Net nexus.

[EuroSceptic]

If true, very interesting.....

[LamontStormstar]

Whoever runs that site is another bastard hiding behind DomainsByProxy.net so I have no idea who runs it even by their location.

[IronDuke]

Insofar as Slim's psycho-social background is relevant to her egregious behaviour on WP, or can be used to goad her into doing a Kelly Martin, this is probably helpful. This seems true for the Gary Weiss connection. Many of the other details seem irrelevant and of purely prurient interest.

The main problem with Slim is not purely her ownership of various articles (Judaica, Animal Rights, Gary Weiss), but her use of admin tools and threats of admin action from her minions (Jayj, etc) to enforce that ownership. If Slim were a non-admin editor, and not mindlessly supported by other admins, most of the problems with her would disappear.

[TabulaRasa]

That Wordbomb/TabulaRasa/AntiSocialMedia.Net comprise an apparent nexus doesn't trouble me much.

I'm surprised that the Wordbomb connection comes as a surprise to anybody...I thought it was obvious, since he's been saying the same things as antisocialmedia and hasn't been seen around here since the site got started.

As for me, the only connection is a well publicized antipathy toward Gary Weiss and SlimVirgin...making me more of a psychological nexus.

Say, anybody notice the other AWOL poster around here is Dudley? He took off after Wordbomb outted him as Gary Weiss.

The account of pub-chat at King's College in 1988 implies either an inside source or some other undisclosed source.

As I read it (several times) the source is named as Patrick Byrne himself. He (the writer) says he had a conversation with him, which he reprinted with permission. Did I misread that?

[Somey]

Just so we're all clear, knda-sorta, WordBomb and TabulaRasa are accusing Weiss of supporting naked short-selling, which (as I understand it) is the illegal practice of taking what amounts to non-existent money from an account that's owed either cash or securities, delaying the completion of transactions as required to do it, and using the "phantom funds" to short-sell various stocks.

Short-selling with real money is perfectly legal, though probably not so helpful to the economy.

[Somey]

Say, anybody notice the other AWOL poster around here is Dudley? He took off after Wordbomb outted him as Gary Weiss.

That's not how I remember it... More like "accused him of being" Weiss, and with no evidence at that, other than the fact that he publicly suggested WordBomb was essentially cyberstalking.

Let me get this straight, then. Patrick Byrne says something mean to Slimmy one day in Cambridge in '88, asks another guy there to go and apologize on his behalf, that guy dies on Pan Am 103, and now Slimmy's using Gary Weiss to get payback on Byrne, because she knows Byrne and Weiss hate each other over the naked short-selling issue?

Okay, but I'd say it's just as likely that she's using Weiss the same way she uses all the other meat puppets - he helps her game the system, she bans anyone who makes a fuss. I mean, do we know if Byrne is even aware of what's going on there?

[Placeholder]

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This post has been edited by Joey:

[Herschelkrustofsky]

Presuming that line of inquiry has merit, it would help to know what was the nature of Byrne's offense against Slim. If it had ethnic or political overtones, it would seem plausible it could remain as a thorn in her side nearly 20 years later if she ever had occassion to interact with Byrne or somehow address his interests. They aren't the only ones, but certain animal rights activists and advocates for various ethnic interest sometimes posterize their world into only two shades -- white and black -- good guys and bad guys. My read of Slim's work is that her social graces are largely applied to control those she sees as wrong, and to dignify herself who she seems to hold as inerringly right. It wouldn't surpise me if she continues to affect grudges against someone she labeled a demon 20 years ago.

Perhaps. But I would suggest that maybe Slim's public persona, of being a bit of a fanatic, is intended to mislead. If she were a garden-variety animal-rights crusader or ethnic chauvinist, why the desperate need for anonymity? Daniel has said that he "gets a spook vibe" from her, and I trust his instincts. Spooks don't see the world in white and black -- they have a whole palette of greys.

I often point to one of her first Wikipedia exploits, her in-depth re-write of the Cambridge Apostles article. My hunch is that she admires these types, famous in espionage circles for being triple, quadruple, or lord knows what kind of agents. She may have fantasies about being a spook, or she may be one.

[Somey]

...who benefits from these supposedly illegal naked short-sells, and who is hurt?

Again, this is based on my limited understanding of what really is a very complex issue, but the simple answer is that corrupt stockbrokers benefit, and the people who are hurt are (1) the investors who don't actually receive the stocks they've purchased (or get the funds from selling them) until weeks or months later; (2) companies whose stocks are targeted (see below); and to some extent, (3) everyone who owns stock, which is a large percentage of the US population, for example - because it's the sort of thing (along with outrageous CEO salaries and other forms of corruption) that pisses investors off enormously and causes them to want to get out of the market, which in turn reduces demand, and therefore stock values. Which, I might add, are still overinflated in most cases...

The example used by WordBomb & Co. was Sedona Software, a CRM company with lots and lots of SMB (small-to-medium-sized business) customers:

http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2006/lr19639.htm

...In short (heh heh, pun intended), their stock was targeted for manipulation by four unscrupulous stockbrokers (as if there's any other kind!), which drove the price down drastically and nearly put the company out of business - and did, in fact, force them into cutbacks that put quite a few people out on the street. Moreover, those customers suffer too, because the product they're using gets fewer resources devoted to its development, what with all the cutbacks.

Do any of the beneficiaries or injured parties map on SV's grid of good and bad guys?

Personally I don't see how, but I guess with SV, there's almost no way of knowing!

[Placeholder]

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This post has been edited by Joey:

[Herschelkrustofsky]

My source says:

"Michael Steinhardt was founder and managing partner at Steinhardt Partners. He's now retired, but is a major philanthropist and supporter of causes related to Israel and has been pretty soundly tied to the Mossad (see Google). He gives about $500,000 each year to the Jewish Heritage Museum.

Danny Wool used to be a director at the Jewish Heritage Museum, but is now #2 at Wikipedia."

Perhaps more significantly, Steinhardt is a member of the Mega Group, which would make him highly interesting to SV with her spook proclivities. He was also chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, the group of lavishly funded right-wing moles in the Democratic Party. Steinhardt's daddy was gangster "Red" Steinhardt, who did time in Sing Sing.

[Daniel Brandt]

From larouchepub.com:

"Red" Steinhardt was sent to Sing Sing on a five- to ten-year sentence, a fact that Michael kept off of his resume, in order to get his start on Wall Street with the "Our Crowd" firm, Loeb Rhodes [sic]. Like father, like son -- Steinhardt Partners came under SEC and Justice Department scrutiny in the early 1990s, along with Salomon Brothers, for cornering the market in short-term U.S. Treasury bond sales. To avoid jail, Steinhardt settled the case with a $50 million fine.

You bet he left it off his resume, and the spook-connected Washington Post was also careful not to drag up any old history. From "Wired Into Wall Street: Tough Trader Steinhardt Brings Wealth to Clients, Attention to Himself" by Brett D. Fromson, Washington Post Staff Writer, December 1, 1991, pp. H1, H4:

Steinhardt comes from a lower-middle class Brooklyn family. His parents divorced when he was a year old. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in 1960 at the age of 19 and joined the investment firm of Loeb Rhoades, where he excelled as a research analyst. In 1967, he and two other young analysts also in their 20s -- Jerrold Fine and Howard Berkowitz -- opened their own hedge fund, Steinhardt, Fine & Berkowitz. Fine and Berkowitz left to open their own investment firms in the 1970s.

[TabulaRasa]

THIS JUST IN!

Hot off the RSS reader, it's the SlimVirgin Chronicles, Part II.

It's a post by Patrick Byrne himself, answering the questions raised by the original.
(IMG:http://www.woodrowwilsonblog.com/wp-includes/js/tinymce/themes/advanced/images/spacer.gif)

[Somey]

Fascinating!

Assuming this is all true (and Byrne is enough of a public figure that it would probably be pointless to try to forge something like this), it could well be interpreted as confirmation of the assertion that SlimVirgin is, in fact, victimizing Wikipedia by using it as a platform for pursuing her lifelong obsessive vendetta, and in so doing, devaluing the work of all other contributors - allowing them, in effect, to be tarred with the same bad-publicity brush for having helped build a website that could be so coldly manipulated in this way.

I mean, sure, we knew that all along, but it's still fascinating. And I knew she'd have been into the 80's proto-Goth scene... Just like David Gerard, only Canadian! I'll bet she has every CD that Black Tape for a Blue Girl ever made...

The last bit is especially well-stated - I hope nobody minds my quoting it here:

Linda Mack is not a bad person, and if I had had a chance I would have reached out a hand in friendship myself. I ask that no one hate or abuse her: she is someone who fell in the deep end and never came out. On the other hand, SlimVirgin is a tyrant for whom ... the past is clearly not the past, and the prejudices and interests driving her behavior should be exposed.

[Daniel Brandt]

This is amazing. I have to assume that it is legit. Patrick Byrne is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and you don't ask them to join -- they might ask you after you are nominated by two other members. Anyone trying to pretend that they are Patrick Byrne would be taking a huge legal risk. It's very well-written. People who write that well generally don't take unnecessary legal risks. I'd like to express my appreciation to Mr. Byrne for sharing this.

[EuroSceptic]

Ask Patrick Byrne to send this directly to Jimmy Wales!

[IronDuke]

I don't know what to say other than un-fucking-believable. If it wasn't so late I'd post it to 100 places on WP with various socks. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

[Daniel Brandt]

About Jimbo: "He worked as Research Director at Chicago Options Associates, a futures and options trading firm then located in Chicago."

About Jayjg: "I'm Jayjg. I joined Wikipedia on June 15, 2004, was made an administrator on September 13, 2004, and in July of 2005 Jimmy Wales appointed me to the Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee. I'm a pretty active Wikipedia editor, having made over 30,000 edits."
Q: "How old are you and what do you do? (If student, please state what subjects you are studying.)"
A: "I'm in my forties and work in management." [Hey Jayjg, might that be financial management, perhaps?]

Maybe I'm imagining things, but after reading some of Patrick Byrne's comments about the way the financial press is constantly covering up for Wall Street, I'm starting to wonder. I've read a couple of books on Enron, and I've watched the press slobber over Google for six years now, when basically there is nothing there at all except for an extremely inflated stock price. I have to wonder about what's really going on at Wikipedia.

I don't know anything about hedge funds, but I know about establishment journalism. If I was a Wall Street heavy looking to add a few more billion to my assets, it might be smart to cover my bets by supporting Wikipedia. WSJ and NYT and WP are great at ignoring what's really happening on Wall Street, just like they ignored Vietnam for years. But when push comes to shove -- something like Watergate, for example, or Iran/contra -- they might remember that they're supposed to be journalists, and go half-cocked after a story. People on top can no longer control events. Wikipedia with its embedded cartels could be a real asset in a situation like that. It's possible that SlimVirgin doesn't even know who she's working for.

The anti-Semitism thing is connected to the Wall Street thing (it's sometimes Wall Street's first line of defense by way of a counter-accusation), but probably not for SlimVirgin. She's more likely a useful idiot, and/or an agent of influence for the spooks. Jimbo is the designated cult leader. It suits him, because he sees himself as charismatic.

"I'm doing this for the child in Africa who is going to use free textbooks and reference works produced by our community and find a solution to the crushing poverty that surrounds him." -- Jimbo

Yeah, okay.