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Why Michael Avenatti should have earned a ban from Twitter by now

Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti are now feuding, and it seems this might very well be the end of their relationship. This seems related to Daniels’ complaint to the Daily Beast that Avenatti filed the Donald Trump defamation lawsuit without her consent (which she lost and was obligated to pay hefty legal fees on).

Additionally, Daniels complained that Avenatti obfuscated details of how more than $400k in crowdfunded monies raised for Daniels’ legal defense have been spent. In recent days, Avenatti started yet another crowdfunded campaign without Daniels’ consent (if anyone can believe her), using language which implied her intimate involvement (the campaign has apparently been suspended, although Avenatti’s tweet announcing it still persists at the time of this writing). (Update: this campaign and another by Avenatti related to migrant mothers and their children are under review.)

To top it off, this morning Avenatti was publicizing apparently passive aggressive ‘Streisand effect’-like news about his client, and about why his audience of close to 900k Twitter followers should “reserve judgement” about a police report which was filed against Stormy Daniels and her ex-husband by a gay couple who alleged homophobic slurs were levied at them in the course of a business dispute (one of Avenatti’s steadfast exes helpfully shared the actual article about it— and being from an obscure source — it isn’t likely people would have found the article or known of it otherwise). (Classy people, these Michael Avenatti clients and lady friends.)

While all of this is leaving the question up in the air of whether Daniels and Avenatti have turned on one another, and if his advocacy of her is done for good, it also has me asking if Michael Avenatti’s use of the Twitter platform to preempt a series of incendiary cultural/political debates about sex and race — not to mention his use of it for potential financial malfeasance – might be sufficient grounds for him to be banned there.

I had recently done a quick year-to-date Google Trends analysis of Michael Avenatti, which was unrelated to the Twitter question. Surprisingly however, it shows just how correlated public interest is in him with Twitter. I think this objectively demonstrates how essential the platform is to the enablement of his campaign of apparent lies, hate, and division.

Google Trends data about Michael Avenatti over the past year reveals quite a bit about his dependence on Twitter. (Click for large version.)

Continue reading “Why Michael Avenatti should have earned a ban from Twitter by now”

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Russian ARA San Juan Disinformation: Dredging Up Bad Feelings from the Falklands War

The Argentine submarine, ARA San Juan, which disappeared on November 15, 2017 was announced found on November 18, 2018 by the US oceanic survey company Ocean Infinity.  It was located several hundred miles from its last expected position, scattered in pieces and with a partially imploded tail, half a mile deep. The last official communications with the vessel indicated that the Captain reported a malfunction with its snorkel which caused the boat to take on water and may have resulted in an onboard fire in the battery compartment. Currently, Argentina is unsure if they will be able to recover the vessel as their navy does not possess the technological capability. Until the submarine is recovered it will probably be hard to determine what happened to it.

Confirmed resting place of the ARA San Juan — significantly north of the Falkland Islands and away from the expected location.

‘On the surface’ this tragedy at sea has had the appearance of vast international goodwill and cooperation to find the missing submarine. In addition to the resources of Argentina, the navies of the UK, the US, and even Russia provided resources to support the search. But specifically despite the apparent goodwill by Russia around the tragedy, it has left me wondering if Russia exploited the crisis with a disinformation campaign, or even had a role in the disappearance of the ship itself. Perhaps with the goal of salvaging communications or other intelligence from the craft (and drawing some possible parallels with the 2010 Smolensk crash and associated intelligence coup for Russia).  Continue reading “Russian ARA San Juan Disinformation: Dredging Up Bad Feelings from the Falklands War”

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All you useful idiots should stop wringing your hands about Jamal Khashoggi

It is clear to date that Russia and its (even then) proxy Syria were involved in the promotion of the September 11. 2001-era conspiracy theories such as ‘4000 Jews Stayed Home on 9/11‘, and ‘Nostradamus predicted 9/11‘.

Today, it also seems increasingly likely (if not obvious) that Alex Jones of Infowars — who claims responsibility for starting the ‘False Flag’ conspiracy theory connected to the 9/11 attacks (in July 2001); and John Hogue — who had the top selling book of the 9/11 timeframe  (and had called out Osama Bin Laden as a candidate for Nostradamus’ “Third Antichrist” in June 2001), are proponents of conspiracy theory serving a Russian perspective.

Following careers launched by viral 9/11-era conspiracy theories, both Jones and Hogue seem to have openly embraced Russia and also paralleled Russian and Syrian lines on the so-called ‘chemical weapons false flag’ of the Syrian Civil War in the 2013-onward timeframe, which at various times attributed prohibited activities of the Syrian government to ‘Allied’/NATO nations, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia (using arguments that originated in Syrian and Russian state media).

It seems that similar mischief is afoot in the case of the ‘poorly disappeared’ Saudi expat journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  The apparent murder and cover up is not something we should be proud of or advocate, but we should stand by Saudi Arabia as our ally and the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since this controversy’s amplified status may bear the fingerprints of Russian information operations and have implications for our mutual security.  Continue reading “All you useful idiots should stop wringing your hands about Jamal Khashoggi”

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Paranoid Pattern Recognition? ‘Sexy Time’ Eastern European Influencers?

It was interesting to glean the identity of the woman Michael Avenatti allegedly attacked. It was Mareli Miniutti, a 24 year old apparent prostitute bit part actress and native of Estonia (legally married to a New Yorker named Michael Miniutti). She has been dating Avenatti since October 2017 and cohabiting in Century City California with him since January 2018. Their disagreement seems to have stemmed from Avenatti’s repeated inability to provide the financial security he had promised [Mareli] Miniutti as an apparent condition for their relationship. Documents filed by Miniutti substantiating the basis for the restraining order state that Avenatti “has made promises to “take care of” her financially and sometimes fails to follow through“, in addition to being “financially controlling” . Documents also seem to state that when Avenatti was unable to provide Miniutti with sugar daddy levels of security, he became “vehemently” opposed to her making money on her own.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised that given Michael Avenatti’s tendency to stiff his landlords, business partners, and the IRS for small fortunes, he seems to have done the same to his lovely, young, unabashedly gold-digging, social climbing, Hollywood girlfriend?

The result of the financial argument appears to be that Avenatti was verbally aggressive (calling Miniutti an “ungrateful f****** b****“), hit her forcefully with pillows, and allegedly dragged her from bed which resulted in superficial scratches and bruising on Miniutti’s leg and side. The court documents around the restraining order allege this was not the first major fight between the two. 

Despite the split; I wonder how much she’s been influencing Michael Avenatti in his recent media efforts, if at all? Could she possibly be an ‘agent of influence’ herself? It looks kinda like the cases of Richard Spencer and George Papadapoulos to me, in which similar questions have been asked.

Red Sparrow? – Mareli Miniutti, a 24 year old native of Estonia is the Michael Avenatti domestic violence complainant. Bonus: In addition to being roughly half of Avenatti’s age (he is 47), she’s just 7-8 years older than his eldest daughter (who is 16 now). This makes it clear that as he says, he loves his daughters and this is a basis for why he would not ever strike a woman. But it seems indisputable that he would definitely not let age comparisons with his progeny prevent him from ‘hitting it’. Demonstrably, getting into frisky pillowfights, taking away cell phones, restricting ‘allowances’, social media access etc. can be a good parenting strategy. In the end, keeping a hot young Eastern European girlfriend in line is a lot like being the father to any teenage daughter, really. It’s about being fun but having a firm hand.

Continue reading “Paranoid Pattern Recognition? ‘Sexy Time’ Eastern European Influencers?”

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Alt-Right Conservative Active Measures II – or: When They Go Low, Mike Avenatti Uppercuts a Lady?

I am not sure what to say about the Michael Avenatti domestic violence arrest. It is the kind of surreal schadenfreude normally reserved for happy dreams that you long for when you wake up; yet, it is all real (in the press anyway). However, I am fairly certain that regardless of whether it ends up being an increasingly common right wing political hoax — which would seem strategically intended to disprove Avenatti’s ‘believe all survivors‘ narrative — or if in fact he did commit felony domestic violence as the LAPD alleges — it is guaranteed to be ironic and damaging for Michael’s brand (and totally in line with the many ‘plagues’ which have befallen him of late for his apparent hubris). In the end, the Michael Avenatti case will prove either 1.) that all accusers cannot be believed and/or 2.) that Michael Avenatti is a dangerous advocate for women and a hypocrite.

Continue reading “Alt-Right Conservative Active Measures II – or: When They Go Low, Mike Avenatti Uppercuts a Lady?”

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The 666 Mindvirus Part II: A Russian Orthodox Connection

One of the 1990s conspiracy theories which I recall hearing about in popular media and internet lore is that of the ‘Beast Computer’. The 1998 track ‘Information‘ off the (Wu-Tang-Clan affiliate) Killah Priest album ‘Heavy Mental‘ might be the best popular cultural example which I can to point to that may reflect this kind of thinking.  (Much like the RATM canon artistically it’s not a bad album IMHO and I like the sound, although it is chock full of anti-Americanism. Just be sure to enjoy the lyrics critically from a strategic perspective as they probably relate to a legacy of disinformation.)

It is apparent that the track captures an online premillennialist zeitgeist of  apocalyptic / popular eschatological concepts. I think this strongly represents the late 90’s online anti-American conspiracy thinking which accompanied such ‘viruses of the mind‘ as ‘Nostradamus‘ and ‘Bill Gates 666 Disinformation‘ and are likely traceable to Russian active measures activity (see also, ‘False Flag‘). Specifically, for the purposes of this post, the ‘Information‘ track mentions the idea of a ‘Beast Computer’ within the context of anti-CIA/NSA sentiment, anti-semitism, anti-capitalism, and even cyberspace (lyrics). The controversy surrounding the so called ‘Beast Computer of Belgium’ is in fact cited in the context of a 1998 ‘mind virus’ as well which is specific to Russia, but the conspiracy has been associated with Russian Orthodoxy overseas since at least 1982. Continue reading “The 666 Mindvirus Part II: A Russian Orthodox Connection”

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Bill Gates 666 Disinformation: Russian Fingerprints of a Mind Metavirus?

Much like the fabricated Nostradamus emails, usegroup posts, and text messages which flooded the internet following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and are seemingly attributable to Russia,  I recalled a similarly viral chain of disinformation from earlier in the 1990s. Lets call these fairly transparent conspiracies: ‘Bill Gates 666 disinformation’ (a good debunking can be found here).

This 1990s online chain mail format of disinformation – as evident in the Nostradamus case – appears to me to be a direct predecessor of the ‘media outlet-based’ online conspiracy theories which are seemingly emergent from Russian and Syrian information networks today.

Bill Gates: Not the Antichrist (Reuters)

Continue reading “Bill Gates 666 Disinformation: Russian Fingerprints of a Mind Metavirus?”

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Team America: Our Politics is Full of Polarizing Influence

It can be hard to make sense of the world today, but once again, I think ‘Team America World Police’ offers great wisdom for our democracy.

Seriously though, it seems that our politics are now unarguably an extension of the 19th and 20th century Russian revolutionary disinformation which springs from Russian Tsarists (who spread fascism, Aryanism, and Anti-Semitism); and their conflicts with Russian Bolsheviks (who spread communism, Marxism, and anti-capitalism). Russia seemed to control ‘both sides’ of extremist political discourse in the run up to World War II and it seems they may do so again.

Continue reading “Team America: Our Politics is Full of Polarizing Influence”

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Rhetoric: Michael Avenatti is a Laughable, Privileged White Man who Should be Ashamed. Women Deserve Better.

Michael Avenatti is now having to deflect considerable criticism from both Democrats and Republicans that his actions around his representation of Julie Swetnick indirectly aided Brett Kavanaugh’s eventual ascendancy to the Supreme Court. While Avenatti has stood steadfastly by Swetnick, she has generally been eviscerated under public scrutiny. It is suggested that Avenatti’s actions in recklessly representing the flawed Swetnick and trying to grab the political spotlight for himself resulted in taking focus off of the more credible claims of Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez, allowing Republicans to focus on the ‘straw man’ of Swetnick’s weak character as a public figure. It seems in this case, that his tactics of social shaming rhetoric have backfired, perhaps permanently damaging his political standing.

Michael Avenatti – Shamecrow : Master of the Social Fear of Shame

Continue reading “Rhetoric: Michael Avenatti is a Laughable, Privileged White Man who Should be Ashamed. Women Deserve Better.”

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Michael Avenatti and Dan Moldea vs. Nominee Brett Kavanaugh : The Muddy Wheelchair Tracks of Larry Flynt?

Michael Avenatti (who has strong Democratic establishment connections via his early work with Rahm Emanuel’s political opposition research group) is now representing the fairly dubious Julie Swetnick regarding her self-incriminating claims about early 1980’s sexual impropriety allegedly committed by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Here’s Julie!

I also just found that over the past month, Larry Flynt’s investigator Dan Moldea has been connecting with the press as well in the context of work Kavanaugh had done on Kenneth Starr’s Independent Counsel investigation into Bill Clinton — where Flynt and Moldea had come to Clinton’s rescue. In this case, Moldea is arguing not for a sex scandal (although his argument does derive from one), but for a lack of ethics regarding Clinton-era press leaks as being grounds for why Kavanaugh’s nomination should be questioned.

Here I find it important to point out that Moldea is basically the ‘standard bearer’ of the promotion of modern anti-conservative ‘Jimmy Hoffa’ conspiracy theories which emerged directly from Trotskyist-Communist labor narratives from the HUAC era and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of the 1930’s. Otherwise I think you might be able to chalk a lot of this up to harmless politics — when it may not actually be so. It creates a potential ‘Russian propaganda’ connection among the attempts to assail Judge Kavanaugh, and brings the story in line with the scope of this blog. Continue reading “Michael Avenatti and Dan Moldea vs. Nominee Brett Kavanaugh : The Muddy Wheelchair Tracks of Larry Flynt?”

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