US Politics Thread |OT| SAD TRUMP

[agrajag]

June 12th is really soon, let's see how many times they flip flop before that date.

[Kara]

A not uncommon response to the ICE revelations has been "this is NOT America!" which, aside from being absurdly ahistorical, shows you just how bleak political prospects are in the U.S.

[shosta]

I'm a little lazy but... I'm having trouble finding this bribery that Don Jr. solicited. Is it just the Qatar bailout?

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1000831304836018176

This shit's at 50/50 now. 

[agrajag]

has North Korea actually made any concessions since his dumb letter?

[Joe Molotov]

has North Korea actually made any concessions since his dumb letter?

The promised Moon not to dunk on Mike Pence anymore (unless they have to).

[thehunter116]

https://twitter.com/AntonioArellano/status/1000831511405395969
 

There aren't enough emotes to describe this.

Jesus fucking Christ.

[kingv]

I'm a little lazy but... I'm having trouble finding this bribery that Don Jr. solicited. Is it just the Qatar bailout?

Specifically talking about the “hey, us foreign nationals are going to donate millions to your campaign in the form of social media advertising and you just kinda help us out with this Qatar thing” story from a few days ago.

[shosta]

Uh that's not illegal. Citizens United, brah.

[Nola]

I'm not a legal scholar but....

The Act and Commission regulations include a broad prohibition on foreign national activity in connection with elections in the United States. 52 U.S.C. § 30121 and generally, 11 CFR 110.20. In general, foreign nationals are prohibited from the following activities:

- Making any contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or making any expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement in connection with any federal, state or local election in the United States;

- Making any contribution or donation to any committee or organization of any national, state, district, or local political party (including donations to a party nonfederal account or office building account);

- Making any disbursement for an electioneering communication;

- Making any donation to a presidential inaugural committee.

Persons who knowingly and willfully engage in these activities may be subject to an FEC enforcement action, criminal prosecution, or both.

If there was direct assistance by a foreign government to the Trump campaign, that would be illegal. What the NYtimes report(which I assume is what is being referenced) lacks is evidence of a transaction taking place. This however is yet another undisclosed incident where the Trump campaign was seeking out and attending meetings where the substance of which was discussing ways that foreign governments could coordinate and help the Trump campaign. To which durning none of these meetings did the campaign contact the FBI or any law enforcement as they should of. Once again, lots of smoke and fitting into a pattern of behavior.

[kingv]

Uh that's not illegal. Citizens United, brah.

Uh. It IS illegal.

Foreign countries cannot have US subsidiaries..... unless Donald Trump himself counts.

[Kara]

A not uncommon response to the ICE revelations has been "this is NOT America!" which, aside from being absurdly ahistorical, shows you just how bleak political prospects are in the U.S.

https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1000480584437846018

[kingv]

http://observer.com/2018/05/what-did-the-fbi-do-in-2016-about-russian-connections-to-donald-trump/

Direct quotes from a “senior intelligence official” that seem to directly implicate Trump and his kids in a Russian conspiracy based on High level intelligence:

In response to urgent FBI requests for more information, NSA rose to the occasion, and by the time that Donald Trump officially accepted the Republican nomination in mid-July 2016, “We knew we had a Russian agent on our hands,” as a senior NSA official put it to me recently.

The official went on: “We had several reports in late 2015 and early 2016, mostly from Second and Third Party”—that being spy-speak for NSA’s foreign friends—“but by the spring of 2016 we had plenty of our own collection.” These reports, based on multiple intercepts, were tightly compartmented, that is, restricted to a small group of counterintelligence officials, given their obvious sensitivity, but they painted an indelible picture of a compromised GOP nominee. “The Kremlin talked about Trump like he was their boy, and their comments weren’t always flattering.” The NSA official stated that those above-top-secret reports left no doubt that the Russians were subverting our democracy in 2016—and that Team Trump was a witting participant in the Kremlin’s criminal conspiracy: “Trump and his kids knew what they were doing, and who they were doing it with,” the official explained.

[benjipwns]

Between that and the ICE stuff, been a really bad weekend for the Obama Legacy™.

[kingv]

One of the key planks of the “trump is completely innocent” argument is “because the evidence has not been published in the news, it doesn’t exist”.

The news continues to pile up, but this seems to be the running theme, thought it has sometimes evolved into “public ally available and reported on by my favorite conspiracy-tier news source”

The next takedown will be “oh, it’s an anonymous source” and “who is John Schindler anyway?” He’s a former nsa official, so he is certainly in a position to know people who know things. Over time this information will start to come out in various forms and one thing I am pretty sure of is that Mueller knows pretty much everything that happened in the canpaign, but is working on tidying up the loose ends by finding sources that aren’t based on TS/SCI sources.

[Nintex]

One of the key planks of the “trump is completely innocent” argument is “because the evidence has not been published in the news, it doesn’t exist”.

The news continues to pile up, but this seems to be the running theme, thought it has sometimes evolved into “public ally available and reported on by my favorite conspiracy-tier news source”

The next takedown will be “oh, it’s an anonymous source” and “who is John Schindler anyway?” He’s a former nsa official, so he is certainly in a position to know people who know things. Over time this information will start to come out in various forms and one thing I am pretty sure of is that Mueller knows pretty much everything that happened in the canpaign, but is working on tidying up the loose ends by finding sources that aren’t based on TS/SCI sources.

Schindler sees Russian agents everywhere though. I sorta like following the guy on Twitter. He may very well be right but he can be paranoid and a conspiracy theorist at times.
If he gets trolled on Twitter he immediatly assumed it's the 'chekists' from Russia in a SIGINT operation.
He's a real life Metal Gear Solid codec contact 

[benjipwns]

This information helps explain why James Clapper, our country’s most experienced spy-boss, recently amplified his previous statement that our president was Vladimir Putin’s “asset” by explaining that he has “no doubt” that Russian spies “swung the election to a Trump win.” This weekend, Clapper stated that he was “absolutely” unaware of the FBI’s use of informants to gain information about the Trump campaign in 2016. Tellingly, Clapper said nothing about top-secret-plus intelligence which might have spurred the Bureau to rustle up some informants in this case—and, like any veteran spook with a half-century in the spy business, Clapper isn’t likely to blab about high-grade SIGINT anytime soon, particularly when it implicates the president in espionage and worse.

some might say, that this isn't the best person to cite to support any argument

[benjipwns]

He’s a former nsa official

how dare you smear him like this

I know something about how that plays out in practice, since I worked for NSA both as a civilian analyst and as a military officer, and I was technical director of NSA’s biggest operational division. I also worked extensively in counterintelligence, including collaboration with the FBI in cases just like what unfolded, in secret. Therefore, I speak of the intersection of SIGINT and counterintelligence from the vantage point of what my friend Tom Nichols might call an expert.

[Mandark]

Trump's doing the same thing with the parent/child separation that he did with DACA: use the executive branch to set a policy, claim that he's actually against that policy, say Congress needs to fix it, but only accept a solution if it comes with the immigration "reform" he really wants (ie slashing legal immigration caps, ending family visas, etc).

As long as the GOP controls Congress he's in no danger of having anything passed over a veto, but it's telling that even Trump apparently thinks those particular anti-immigration policies won't be popular, and it scared to stand by them.

[Nintex]

news has been slow

i want some new fuckery

i need to hear more about how fucked michael cohen is

I hope this Nuclear stuff sub plot is over soon and we can get back to the show. 

[Nola]

news has been slow

i want some new fuckery

i need to hear more about how fucked michael cohen is

On the contrary, I took a bit of a hiatus on following the Trump corruption/fuckery news for like a week and I feel like I am still not fully caught back up.

I mean just this last week or so:

- EPA barred reporters from a summit on water contamination.

- Trump told reporters that if you don't stand for the anthem you should be kicked out of the country and later went on at a naval gathering to romanticize American genocide during westward expansion.

- Unveiling plans to ban money under Title X to any organization that performs abortions.

- Trump has began a pressure campaign to force the DOJ to investigate the Russia investigation and seeks to out undercover informants. While in an interview giving up the game that he is actively trying to mis-label these informants to deceive the public in order to discredit it in the court of public opinion.

- Stone's story about his supposed lack of coordination with Assange had more holes poked in it after a WSJ report.

- Cohen received a 400,000 dollar payment on behalf of the Ukrainian government last June at the White House, right during the thick of the concern for Manafort turning, and the next day Ukraine dropped a corruption investigation into Paul Manafort.

- Spanish officials obtained wiretaps between Alexander Torshin and Alexander Romanov, a convicted Russian money launderer they were monitoring, reportedly discussing an upcoming meeting with Don Jr. at the NRA convention in May of 2016. To which the whispers are it is very damning. The same NRA that is suspected of funneling millions of dollars to the Trump campaign from Russian government tied oligarchs.

- Trump's business secured a 500 million dollar Chinese loan and several sought after trademarks for Ivanka's Chinese business right before Trump did a 180 on sanctioning ZTE.

- Black Cube, the private Israeli security firm, allegedly targeted former White House officials Ben Rhodes and Colin Kahl in an attempt to discredit the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, was reportedly hired by members of the Trump administration. Essentially a potential administration hiring a foreign intelligence service to try and look up dirt and slander former civil service officers because they spoke out against a potential administration policy.

- The NYTimes report that the Mueller investigation is looking into another meeting at Trump tower arranged once again by Erik Prince, where Trump Jr. responded positively to the solicitation by an Israeli private security firm and an unregistered ambassador to the UAE and Saudi Arabia for millions of dollars worth of campaign support.

- Evgeny Friedman, Cohen's close business associate, has decided to cooperate with the investigation, whittling his charges down to 5 years probation and a single guilty plea. Shaving off up to 100 years of jail time to none. Which suggests he has quite the story to tell if he is getting that type of deal.

That last one especially could be huge, because it likely piles crimes onto Cohen and every year that gets added is upping the probability that Cohen starts singing.

[benjipwns]

boring how about fuckery like porn stars or pornography or stupid tweets, not everyday government and corporate corruption only cultural socialist just-us ree-tards pay attention to, let alone care about

[Mandark]

In any other administration, we'd all be sick of the blanket coverage of the Scott Pruitt scandals.

[Nola]

I think 100 years was like the absolute max under extreme circumstances and all the charges that could come his way, but even a conservative estimate seemed to have him being pretty fucked.

Though to preface, as of right now, Friedman claims it isn't cooperation against Cohen.

[benjipwns]

- Evgeny Friedman, Cohen's close business associate, has decided to cooperate with the investigation, whittling his charges down to 5 years probation and a single guilty plea. Shaving off up to 100 years of jail time to none. Which suggests he has quite the story to tell if he is getting that type of deal.

so he was about to get 100 years jail time and now he gets ZERO by cooperating

holy jesus he must have given them a lot

siding with innocent until proven guilty standard criminal defense hot take: or he was being incredibly overcharged with things that the government was hoping to not have to ever defend, let alone prove, in court

[agrajag]

well it worked!

[Nola]

In any other administration, we'd all be sick of the blanket coverage of the Scott Pruitt scandals.

It kinda goes to show that if you want to be a mid-level corrupt official, the best cover is to just have everyone engaged in endless corruption around you.

I mean I remember in October Zinke trying to hand a 300 million dollar no-bid Puerto Rico energy contract to his buddy in Montana that had zero qualification or experience, and that was like the 4th major story that week. FEMA promised a probe and basically that entire saga has gone radio silent. No congressional movement and the probe seems to have died out....Meanwhile, Tom Daschle felt pressure to withdraw his name as HHS nominee over  unpaid employment taxes and that was like a month long scandal.


....The curve corrupt Republican administraton's are graded on would give etiolate an A on an investigative news sourcing essay arguing the superior credibility of KimDotCom tweets.

[benjipwns]

In any other administration, we'd all be sick of the blanket coverage of the Scott Pruitt scandals.

I don't really remember much of anything about Richard Windsor, current Apple VP of environment, policy, and social initiatives. Or Christine Todd Whitman's shipping free bottled samples of Ground Zero Air to every American to breathe in and experience the patriotism.

But then I didn't read CORPORATE newspapers or watch broadcast CORPORATE news then either so I can't in any way compare any variables even mentioned in this driver-less "discussion". (if you can even call it that, r.i.p in peace the bore political thread)

[benjipwns]

well it worked!

only if you accept the goals of the state

[agrajag]

In Marx we trust!   

holodomor.jpeg

[benjipwns]

and yes those were the only two EPA Administrators' names other than Ruckelshaus I even remembered...

not remembering Browner is a serious fail

the second one Nixon appointed was named TRAIN, coincidence?!?

[Kara]

The Las Vegas massacre got maybe a few weeks of coverage; it's not some idiot savant damage control on the part of the president. Consumers are unwilling to focus on stories and the business of news is unwilling to do anything other than chase short-term profit.

[Nintex]

I actually forgot about the Vegas shooting all together until you mentioned it 

There were about 500 people shot and it was in the news for like 24 hours. 

"Oh well he just decided to unload his machine gun from a hotel balcony for no reason nothing to see here folks"

[Mandark]

The last few years have demonstrated that the media is very comfortable giving political scandals (or potential scandals) prolonged blanket coverage.

[Nola]

The Las Vegas massacre got maybe a few weeks of coverage; it's not some idiot savant damage control on the part of the president. Consumers are unwilling to focus on stories and the business of news is unwilling to do anything other than chase short-term profit.

I mean I am not sure there is an answer to how you actually do focus the narrative on one-off scandals when you are simultaneously tasked with reporting breaking news in a cutthroat business where everyone is rushing to be first to market and there are like a dozen scandals a week and resources are increasingly limited. And like you said, consumers are chasing the new scandal so there is less of a market for the Zinke and Pruitt stories.

Media seems like they can beat to death a scandal if it is like the only thing going on, but the system gets overloaded when it's a continual onslaught of new scandals and corruption(and this seems to be a truism no matter the country). Russia stuff gets covered endlessly, but the less sexy corruption tends to have a really short shelf life.

[Kara]

I actually forgot about the Vegas shooting all together until you mentioned it 

Wait until I remind you that the longest serving Speaker of the House from the Republican Party was revealed to be a serial child molester and became the highest ranking federal politician to do time in prison.

[Nintex]

The media is ridiculous and I blame blogger culture. If we had the same media during WW2 that we have now than they would me more occupied with Gorings weight, Hitler's dog and Goebbels affairs than the invasion of France, the defeat at Stalingrad and the Allied war effort in General.

"Oh yeah, there's this Yalta meeting going on. BUT DID YOU KNOW ROOSEVELT HAS POLIO?"
"10 tips to deal with Polio!"
"How can the president focus with Polio?"
"Is Roosevelt literally Hitler for interning the Japanese?"
"D-Day or P-Day, POLIO SCANDAL BREAKS DURING SECRET ALLIED PLANNING"
"GOP in congress, D-Day landings unconstitutional"
"Democrats oppose deal with Stalin"
"Marco Rubio refused to call Hitler 'evil' says we do plenty of bad things too"
"Bernie Sanders blocks Manhattan Project in close vote over college funding dispute"
"Freedom Caucus blocks use of American bombers, should remain at home to protect against Mexico"
"New York Developer and GOP front runner Fred Trump claims he has plan to defeat the Germans that 'no one has thought about before'"
"Fred Trump says US should invade and take the steel that they didn't take in WW1"

[Nola]

It might be time to remind some people that Joseph Pulitzer got his start running a Yellow Journalism paper owned by Hearst in New York thats business model thrived by leaning on infotainment, appeals to emotion, poorly sourced political scandal, and political gossip stories, punctuated with click bait style headlines.

It shouldn't be lost that consumers are  major component for why we also don't have better journalism and more emphasis on quality long-form reporting.

[benjipwns]

The media is ridiculous and I blame blogger culture. If we had the same media during WW2 that we have now than they would me more occupied with

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

[benjipwns]

Largest daily newspaper in the U.S. at the time, The Evening Star, Jan 13, 1939: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1939-01-13/ed-1/seq-1/

Amusingly all the major stories are by the AP or another wire service, except the longest story, the weather report, and a story about local parking meter violators (one meter had only seven nickels in it from an entire week's operation!), just like 79 years later.

TOP STORY:

WORLD PEACE FOR YEAR, HITLER REPORTED TELLING DUCE

...

Adolf Hitler was reliably reported today to have stepped into Prime Minister Chamberlain's appeasement visit to Rome by urging Premier Mussolini to keep the peace for one year before demanding fulfillment of Italy's "natural aspirations."

...

Hitler's reported request was interpreted as indicating that the Fuehrer was not yet ready to make payment to Mussolini for his support at the Munich conference which partitioned Czecho-Slovakia and marked a milestone in European history.

Informed persons said, however, that Hitler probably would support Italy if her claims, principally against French colonial holdings, were not met within a year, and would consider Italy justified in going to any lengths then to realize them.

He was believed to have advised Il Duce to give the democracies one year after learning through Von Mackensen of Count Cinao's report that the British had taken a firm attitude.

news you can use!

[benjipwns]

I like how the AP style guide of 1939 calls them The Fuehrer and Il Duce.

[El Babua]

Bananas Sold in Moscow First Time Since War

Moscow --- Jan, 13th --- Bananas were sold on the streets of Moscow today for the first time since the World War. Thousands of young people who had never seen a banana before lingered to marvel at the exotic fruit. They stood in line to buy samples at 7 1/2 Rubles a pound -- about $1.50 at the official exchange rate.

The only bananas available previously in Moscow were those imported by embassies and legations.

Etiolate annihilated

[shosta]

The Las Vegas massacre got maybe a few weeks of coverage; it's not some idiot savant damage control on the part of the president. Consumers are unwilling to focus on stories and the business of news is unwilling to do anything other than chase short-term profit.

Counterpoint, why should the Last Vegas shooting command more than a week of coverage?

[benjipwns]

well for one thing, we need at least two weeks to speculate about the shooters motivations and then analyze who that might help most in the 2020 presidential primaries

and we can't do that and wring our hands about violent media at the same time, let alone demand something anything be done

really, i can't see a time when we ever don't talk about nothing but it, this is NOT normal, NEVER AGAIN, WE ARE THE CHANGE WE ARE WAITING FOR

ahem, anyway, what was "it" again?

[Kara]

Counterpoint, why should the Last Vegas shooting command more than a week of coverage?

That's not a counterpoint; it's an opaque rhetorical question.

The largest mass shooting in U.S. history occurring in the closely monitored part of a closely monitored city challenges many specious political promises made since 2001. For that reason alone it should occupy some space in collective consciousness.

[curly]

Counterpoint, why should the Last Vegas shooting command more than a week of coverage?

That's not a counterpoint; it's an opaque rhetorical question.

shosta's slate pitch contrarianism annihilated

[Nola]

Speaking of the Vegas shooter, looks like after the trove of documents was just released that the guy was a full on Alex Jones/Ruby Ridge/Sovereign Citizen/FEMA Camp right-wing nutter.

Not that it means a whole lot, except I remember that huge rush on the right-wing sites to try and label him some sort of unhinged leftist that proudly voted for Obama.

EDIT: Though on further thought, if that turns out to be a part of the motive, it would technically hand back the post-9/11 terrorism crown to the right after Islamic terrorism had made a late push to take the lead with the Orlando nightclub shooting.

[agrajag]

Speaking of the Vegas shooter, looks like after the trove of documents was just released that the guy was a full on Alex Jones/Ruby Ridge/Sovereign Citizen/FEMA Camp right-wing nutter.

Not that it means a whole lot, except I remember that huge rush on the right-wing sites to try and label him some sort of unhinged leftist that proudly voted for Obama.

Why'd he shoot at rednecks at a country concert tho

[Nola]

Speaking of the Vegas shooter, looks like after the trove of documents was just released that the guy was a full on Alex Jones/Ruby Ridge/Sovereign Citizen/FEMA Camp right-wing nutter.

Not that it means a whole lot, except I remember that huge rush on the right-wing sites to try and label him some sort of unhinged leftist that proudly voted for Obama.

Why'd he shoot at rednecks at a country concert tho

Who knows. I don't think the FBI has really made a determination of motive yet, there was just a whole bunch of documents dumped a week or so ago and the AP did a bit of a summary.

Some family reportedly overheard him at a diner a few days before the shooting talking to someone about the 25th anniversary of Ruby Ridge and Waco with a lot of veneration and then getting heated. Reports of a friend that he spoke often about a number of right-wing conspiracies including that Katrina FEMA camps being a dry run for the government coming to confiscate everyone's guns. Said someone had to wake up America and get people to arm themselves. One of the investigating officers did preface the AP by saying they didn't have confirmation of the reports, but I'm guessing that would be hard to get.

[agrajag]

It worked on Cindi 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I know, I know, she was already a gun nut for a long time

[close]

[benjipwns]

Not that it means a whole lot, except I remember that huge rush on the right-wing sites to try and label him some sort of unhinged leftist that proudly voted for Obama.

he voted Democrat when he pulled that trigger

[benjipwns]

Counterpoint, why should the Last Vegas shooting command more than a week of coverage?

That's not a counterpoint; it's an opaque rhetorical question.

The largest mass shooting in U.S. history occurring in the closely monitored part of a closely monitored city challenges many specious political promises made since 2001. For that reason alone it should occupy some space in collective consciousness.

FACT CHECK: https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/10/05/no-las-vegas-wasnt-actually-the-worst-mass-shooting-in-us-history-analysis.html

It is true a gunman’s killing of 58 people and injuring more than 500 in a mass shooting Sunday in Las Vegas was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history

spoiler (click to show/hide)

A not uncommon response to the ICE revelations has been "this is NOT America!" which, aside from being absurdly ahistorical, shows you just how bleak political prospects are in the U.S.

[close]

[Kara]

"Actually, race riots are mass shootings," is definitely not a twist I expected the present to take.

[benjipwns]

Hey buddy, he also included a squad of men slaughtering a Native American village!

Some have argued this narrow definition of one person using guns to kill groups of people erases the thousands of people who have been killed by guns in a single incident.

One reason it’s problematic — as well as insensitive — not to reference them is because the modern shootings invoke cries of “This is not who we are.”

[Kara]

And before California was part of the U.S.?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Despite being a native Californian the only state history I know is the actually important stuff like the missions and Alta California because I was educated by the Church instead of the Methodists or whomever poisons the minds of da secular youf.

[close]

[shosta]

The largest mass shooting in U.S. history occurring in the closely monitored part of a closely monitored city challenges many specious political promises made since 2001. For that reason alone it should occupy some space in collective consciousness.

The news media is neither a debate platform nor a propaganda outlet for bludgeoning a topic to death until you're personally satisfied (unless you're a substantially sized corporation). If there are no updates, I don't want to hear about it. Let left wing politicians write bills to make a ruckus.

Furthermore the gun control debate is completely intractable and everyone has already made up their mind so I don't know why you think interminable news saturation would do anything to affect public opinion. I don't even know what kind of coverage it is you want. "Breaking: still no justice for 1 October victims. We go live to Mandalay Bay." That's not news, that's guilt-tripping agitprop.

Obligatory SNL clip.

[benjipwns]

Obligatory SNL clip.

ya know, you watch all of those one after another in nine minutes instead of over the course of a year and it's not really that funny of a running joke

*goes to watch a video of every Tobias is gay reference*

[Kara]

My parents would routinely say "General Francisco Franco is still dead," to me even though I (1) never watched SNL and (2) was too young to know that Spain's first astronaut was launched by ETA.

[shosta]

you had every opportunity to turn it off after four minutes when you realized it wouldn't get any funnier and you still watched it

that's like the purest essence of the human condition

[kingv]

One of the key planks of the “trump is completely innocent” argument is “because the evidence has not been published in the news, it doesn’t exist”.

The news continues to pile up, but this seems to be the running theme, thought it has sometimes evolved into “public ally available and reported on by my favorite conspiracy-tier news source”

The next takedown will be “oh, it’s an anonymous source” and “who is John Schindler anyway?” He’s a former nsa official, so he is certainly in a position to know people who know things. Over time this information will start to come out in various forms and one thing I am pretty sure of is that Mueller knows pretty much everything that happened in the canpaign, but is working on tidying up the loose ends by finding sources that aren’t based on TS/SCI sources.

Schindler sees Russian agents everywhere though. I sorta like following the guy on Twitter. He may very well be right but he can be paranoid and a conspiracy theorist at times.
If he gets trolled on Twitter he immediatly assumed it's the 'chekists' from Russia in a SIGINT operation.
He's a real life Metal Gear Solid codec contact 

I got accused of being a Russian agent today by Eric Garland when I asked if his crazy screed was a Q-anon conspiracy theory. He said I should have hid my IP better.