Lies, Errors, and Tendentious Mischaracterizations of Facts
Posted on | April 27, 2014 | 37 Comments
“Vile Lie-Peddler @Karoli Kuns,” as I have sometimes called her, is one of the members of Team Kimberlin whose harassment of the perjuring bomber’s Enemies List is intermittent, rather than habitual and constant. It has been months since I paid any attention at all to her and, honestly, the whole Kimberlin drama has begun to bore me. The $1 million Maryland lawsuit Kimberlin v. Walker, et al., continues shuffling along in zombie fashion, while the $2 million federal lawsuit (Kimberlin v. the Universe, et al., as John Hoge calls it) seems to be approaching the point at which, as the lawyers say, it will be “ripe” for dismissal.
The fundamental dishonesty of Kimberlin’s litigation, however, is a self-evident fact with which my readers are so abundantly familiar by now that I don’t see much point in updating regularly — “Oh, look, another lie from the Pro Se Pipsqueak!” — and I’ve resolved personally to pay as little attention to it as a defendant must necessarily pay.
Maybe I should have included a “Trigger Alert” for those who have traumatic reactions to Bill Schamfeldt’s face. With a truly amazing persistence, Schmalfeldt has continued his obsessive fixation on John Hoge, who many months ago seems to have decided that stoic indifference was an insufficient response to Schmalfeldt’s sadistic harassment. Hoge has been quite active in seeking to hold Schmalfeldt legally accountable. Predictably, Schmalfeldt has turned this around in his demented mind, absurdly claiming that Hoge is harassing him, whereas the truth of the matter is, of course, the exact opposite of what Schmalfeldt says. It is now 10 months since a Carroll County judge granted Hoge’s peace order against Schmalfeldt. All that is required of Schmalfeldt is to cease his harassment of Hoge, but Schmalfeldt is like that old Led Zeppelin tune, “I Can’t Quit You Baby”: He’s hooked. He’s addicted. He’s got a monkey on his back. He’s got a harassment jones.
“He’s banned on Daily Kos. He’s banned at the Examiner. He gets angry about being ignored, and erupts in frothing rage. So then people pay Bill the only kind of attention he deserves — pointing out that he’s a brain-damaged troll — at which point he claims victimhood. Then the cycle begins again, and Bill makes new threats . . .”
— Robert Stacy McCain, Oct. 6, 2013
So the endless provocations continue — “How Many More Times,” another early Zeppelin classic — and when Hoge responds to Schmalfeldt’s provocations, this gives Schmalfeldt a new occasion to claim helpless victimhood. Bill’s existence has become a Mobius Loop of self-inflicted humiliation.
@stephensheiko Just wait. 1. Bill Schmalfeldt seeks attention. 2. Bill Schmalfeldt gets attention. 3. Bill Schmalfeldt claims victimhood.
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) March 17, 2014
Schmalfeldt has a penchant for “monkey see, monkey do” mimicry, and anyone who has ever been in conflict with Bill quickly learns to recognize how he habitually imitates whatever rhetorical method his antagonist employs against him. Call attention to Schmalfeldt’s characteristic remorseless sadism, then start the clock to count the moments until he accuses you of sadism. And as often as we have remarked the obsessive nature of Schmalfeldt’s harassment of Hoge — this is an indisputable truth — yet we have now become accustomed to Bill claiming that he is the victim of harassment and that Hoge is obsessed with him. There’s an alternative universe inside Schmalfeldt’s mind, you see, where everything is the mirror reverse of reality, and his delusions would only be of interest as a clinical study in dementia, were it not for the fact that Schmalfeldt continues publicizing his perverse fantasies on the Internet.
Enter, now, Karoli Kuns . . .
What inspired the Vile Lie-Peddler to take an interest in Bill Schmalfeldt’s imaginary victimhood? I have no idea, but she evidently decided to recycle Schmalfeldt’s intentionally dishonest (or, perhaps, delusionally paranoid) version of events at Crooks & Liars:
How Maryland’s Domestic Violence
Laws Became A Right Wing Weapon
Of Personal Destruction
You can click the headline and read it — it’s nearly 3,000 words — but permit me to excerpt just a few choice selections:
Right-wingers have discovered that it is a relatively simple trick to turn a legal process intended to protect those at risk of domestic abuse into a weapon of personal destruction. All that’s needed is a friendly judge, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, a deep mean streak, and time. On one level, this is the story of one man’s experience with vicious right-wing online operatives. On another, it’s representative of the overall right-wing strategy of using scorched-earth tactics to discredit and destroy their opponents. . . .
(In her opening paragraph, Karoli uses “right-wing” three times, which functions to prejudice progressive readers who are willing to believe any evil thing anyone says about right-wingers.)
In 2012, a group of right-wing bloggers decided to go after Brett Kimberlin — a guy with a past ripe for exploitation. . . .
(Which is not what happened, actually. There was no “group” decision, despite the conspiracy theory Kimberlin offers in his federal lawsuit. What happened was that Aaron Walker published a lengthy account of his legal battles with Kimberlin, mentioning also the role of Kimberlin’s “associate” Neal Rauhauser. My previous familiarity with Rauhauser, a disgraced Democrat political operative, caused me to take an interest in the story. Four days after I began writing about this, Kimberlin contacted my wife’s employer, ranting feverishly and accusing me of “harassing” him. This resulted in a security alert at my wife’s place of employment, which led me to depart to the “Undisclosed Location” so that I could continue covering the story without endangering my family or my wife’s employer. This action drew widespread attention, and Lee Stranahan decided to declare the next Friday — May 25, 2012 — “Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day,” a declaration that resulted in the story gaining national attention. We now return to Karoli’s version of events . . .)
Schmalfeldt wrote stories in Kimberlin’s defense which took dead aim at the Breitbart cabal. In the process, Schmalfeldt became an easy proxy for their real target. Disabled and housebound, Schmalfeldt’s ability to write and speak was his outlet for activism, which he used liberally.
Schmalfeldt wasn’t gentle. In some cases, he stepped outside the boundaries of normal journalistic standards and climbed down in his opponents’ gutter. At other times, he hit them just a little too close to home for their comfort, exposing lies, funding sources and possible motives for their anti-Kimberlin campaign. . . .
OK, I’ll stop with the back-and-forth now. Anyone familiar with the trajectory of Schmalfeldt’s antics clearly recognizes that Karoli Kuns’ telling of the tale is a cloud cuckooland fantasy.
After July 5, 2012 — when a Maryland court lifted a previously imposed gag order on Aaron Walker — the Kimberlin story faded away and would have ceased to be a story at all, were it not for the fact that a discernible Enemies List (including Walker, Patterico, Ali Akbar, Lee Stranahan, Brandon Darby and others) continued to be targeted for a steady stream of harassing tactics. Mostly, this took the form of Twitter stalking, and most of it I suspected was incited or orchestrated by Neal Rauhauser. The question of Rauhauser’s motives, especially whether he was being paid by Kimberlin to mastermind this troll operation, has been much disputed. Nevertheless, Neal’s distinctive fingerprints were visible often enough (mainly because Rauhauser is such an inveterate braggart) that I inferred that the visible incidents were evidence of a vast iceberg of behind-the-scenes activity by Neal.
Such was the case when Barrett Brown began harassing me right before I left to cover the 2012 Democratic convention — provably the result of Rauhauser’s incitement — and, after Brown melted down and was arrested by the FBI, I noticed a steady escalation of harassment directed at me by Bill Schmalfeldt.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc? Well, I’ve never claimed that this was the case. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that after Rauhauser tried (and spectacularly failed) to use Barrett Brown as a weapon against me in September 2012, Bill Schmalfeldt became increasingly obsessed with me in October 2012. For a couple of weeks, I simply ignored Schmalfeldt’s trademark tactics — making lurid accusations and demanding that I respond — because I was busy covering the presidential campaign. But that last weekend before Election Day in Ohio, when Bill was sending me dozens of hostile messages daily, I finally took notice: “Monsters on the Internet: Sociopathic Sadism and Bill Schmalfeldt’s Madness.”
Implicit message: “Don’t mistake my silence for cowardice and don’t imagine that you are deceiving anyone about your motives.”
If Bill wanted to play games with me, he wasn’t going to be able to dictate the rules of the game and, predictably, my refusal to cooperate with his agenda enraged him to the point that, over Thanksgiving weekend 2012, Schmalfeldt sent me more than 200 hostile Twitter messages in the span of 48 hours. His motives were no secret.
Everybody saw what Bill Schmalfeldt was doing, and everybody knew why he was doing it, yet he continued escalating the harassment until, in February 2013, Lee Stranahan got fed up with it. Stranahan flew from Texas to Baltimore to swear out a peace order complaint against Schmalfeldt. John Hoge gave Stranahan a ride from the airport to the courthouse for the purpose, which is how “Destroy John Hoge” became Schmalfeldt’s Prime Directive. Hoge then decided to seek his own peace order against Schmalfeldt, which was granted in June 2013. This court order — in effect, a judicial declaration that Schmalfeldt is guilty of harassment — has been upheld on appeal, and in December 2013 the order was extended another six months.
So now, evidently hoping to generate sympathy for Schmalfeldt, Karoli Kuns has volunteered her, uh, creative abilities on his behalf. John Hoge refutes a few of her falsehoods here, and I noticed a commenter on the Crooks & Liars post employ the phrase “Hoge and McCain and ilk.” Being lumped into an “ilk” pissed me off, so I replied in a comment that I suspect C&L will delete, and which I therefore repeat here:
It is perhaps of no interest to you, but nonetheless relevant, that during this long ordeal that began (for me) nearly two years ago, I have never sued anyone, never sought a peace order against anyone, and never filed criminal charges against anyone.
The facts of this can be ascertained by anyone who cares to investigate. Likewise, any curious person can easily learn that the person who initiated this entire chain of extraordinary events — lawsuits, peace orders, criminal charges, et cetera — was Brett Kimberlin.
People can believe what they want to believe, but this does not change the facts which are, as John Adams said, stubborn things.
Their attempt to re-write history so as to transfer agency — to blame the consequences of their own actions on the innocent people they have wronged — is destined to fail. Nothing enrages the dishonest and evil so much as when honest people refuse to be intimidated. And they shriek as if they had suffered a fatal injury every time readers hit my tip jar.
Fuck you, Bill Schmalfeldt. And fuck you, Karoli Kuns.
Comments
37 Responses to “Lies, Errors, and Tendentious Mischaracterizations of Facts”
April 27th, 2014 @ 3:47 pm
“What inspired the Vile Lie-Peddler to take an interest in Bill Schmalfeldt’s imaginary victimhood?”
Personally, I think Karoli probably shares an interest with Bill in that “Butt Stuff.”
April 27th, 2014 @ 4:09 pm
They must live in some alternative reality to ignore so much abuse
April 27th, 2014 @ 4:15 pm
She also basically calls you a racist. If so, you are an odd one, with a black Arab as a close friend and business partner. Oh, and didn’t Ali say that BK called him a “ni**er”? Nice group of people over there.
April 27th, 2014 @ 4:17 pm
RT @smitty_one_each: TOM Lies, Errors, and Tendentious Mischaracterizations of Facts http://t.co/9ufUvXz5BH #TCOT
April 27th, 2014 @ 4:45 pm
“He’s banned on Daily Kos. He’s banned at the Examiner.”
He’s also banned at LittleGreenFootballs. But then, who isn’t?
April 27th, 2014 @ 4:46 pm
She also basically calls you a racist.
Oh? It’s become so routine I scarcely even bother noticing anymore. But it’s just a distraction: This is not a story about me, and all the abuse directed at me by those people doesn’t change the facts of what Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, Bill Schmalfeldt & Co. have done.
April 27th, 2014 @ 4:59 pm
I’ve been following this for some months on Hoge’s blog. While I’m not always convinced Hoge is on the side of angels, Schmalfeldt’s blatant lies make me distrust him in the murkier areas as well.
(Ex: some time back, Bill posted his taxes where he claimed he had no income. Fast forward to several weeks ago, and he publishes a book [which was pulled for copyright infringement], and I learn he has multiple books on Amazon. Granted, I doubt his sales are anything spectacular, but I highly doubt he had no income from them in the entire year of 2013. I’m an indie author myself and while my numbers are far from spectacular, my profit isn’t nothing, either.)
April 27th, 2014 @ 5:00 pm
Some of these people are just very lucky in who they have chosen to harass. You are all peaceful guys who go through the courts with peace orders and defend the nuisance lawsuits with lawyers.
Sooner or later, one of these nuts is going poke the wrong person, though.
April 27th, 2014 @ 5:03 pm
Please don’t call “How Many More Times” a “Led Zeppelin classic” unless you add the word “plagiarism.” The song is a direct theft from Howlin’ Wolf’s “How Many More Years,” with additional riffs stolen from Albert King and Jeff Beck.
“I Can’t Quit You Baby” is a Willie Dixon song, which they did acknowledge and pay rights for, probably because it was owned by Dixon’s publisher who could sue them.
April 27th, 2014 @ 5:16 pm
. . . legal process intended to protect those at risk of domestic abuse into a weapon of personal destruction.
Wow. Barely a sentence in, and there’s already a misstatement of fact. The form to which she helpfully links demonstrates on its face that it is not intended to be used by parties to domestic squabbles.
Later on she notes (without citation), “Maryland lawmakers reasoned that there might be circumstances where someone was at risk of domestic violence who didn’t fall into the corridors of a restraining order.” Here, we have lie/misstatement number two. She is deliberately conflating domestic violence with harassment by someone not related to the plaintiff. Stated differently, to make her case for an evil, conservative cabal misusing the court system, she has to make this seem like it’s dirty pool. It’s obviously not. Behavior such as that described is not confined to spouses or family members, and filing for a peace order is not availing oneself of a “loophole.” It’s the reason the process exists.
Aside: I have a personal problem with these sorts of orders directed to conduct which consists solely of speech. I think there are First Amendment prior restraint issues involved, but that doesn’t mean they’re inappropriate for stalking, telephone harassment and other conduct where the defendant initiates unwanted contact after being told to refrain.
April 27th, 2014 @ 5:31 pm
As I recall the orders specifically allowed Bill to write about John Hoge to his heart’s content. He just wasn’t supposed to initiate direct contact in any form, including electronic. There had been multiple cease and desist letters prior to that point.
Bill spent the first 6+ months trying to convince people that @(name here) on Twitter wasn’t direct contact, since all the @ed person had to do was block him. However this didn’t fly; the harassed isn’t supposed to have to be the one to take actions to avoid the contact, the harasser is supposed to stop contacting them. These are the 366 counts against him (which would seem to have only resulted in 3 warrants, served on 2 different dates, if I am reading the MD judiciary website correctly).
Bill is now attacking everyone who comments over at Hogewash, doxing them when he can, and libeling us too. He forgets that libel laws can vary from state to state, as do harassment statutes. In my state the contact doesn’t have to be direct, so just writing something indirectly addressed to or about the harassee on a blog or tweet which the harasser knows will likely be seen by the harassed counts.
April 27th, 2014 @ 5:33 pm
To clarify and correct: it is Matt Osborne who is doing so.
April 27th, 2014 @ 5:44 pm
I’m not saying the process is inappropriate in the Hoge case. I merely point out that such orders can be misused if a judge cannot distinguish between pure speech and otherwise unwelcome contact.
April 27th, 2014 @ 5:53 pm
Like the judge did with Aaron Walker.
April 27th, 2014 @ 5:59 pm
Karoli is engaged in nothing more the old trick of accuse the accusers, but I like your description as “a cloud cuckooland fantasy”. These folks are getting a little tedious.
April 27th, 2014 @ 6:05 pm
Another nutter.
April 27th, 2014 @ 7:43 pm
As my man so often says, “Not even with Bill Clinton’s equipment.”
Why did none of her commenters notice that she never linked to a single primary source document? Not even a single blog post, never mind a court document.
That would bother me. Even though I am a “right wing but job.”
April 27th, 2014 @ 7:44 pm
No one respectable remains outside the Camp of the Banned.
April 27th, 2014 @ 7:45 pm
Along with Stalin sympathizer Karoli Kuns…who is a leftist, may possibly be aligned with the Earth Liberation Front and the Black Liberation Army…The entire post at kooks and losers was nothing but cheap character assassination with NO regard for the facts. Pathetic and beneath contempt.
April 27th, 2014 @ 7:50 pm
I wonder if he’s silly enough to faildox me? Seriously, it would take an effort. But if anyone is up to the task, it’s BS.
April 27th, 2014 @ 7:58 pm
“Why did none of her commenters notice that she never linked to a single primary source document? Not even a single blog post, never mind a court document.” Because Breitbart! and right-wing! and the cherry on top of the sundae of lies and innuendo, white nationalist!!111!!!
April 27th, 2014 @ 8:19 pm
I believe pictures of Bill Schmallfeldt on the internet constitute a pattern of microagressive harrassment against ordinary harmless people trying to use the Web in peace. Who should I sue? You for posting them or BS for his face?
April 27th, 2014 @ 8:40 pm
Blithering Stool blithers, yet having blithered, cannot move on. And the vile lie-peddler lies, and having lied, remains vile.
Death begins when learning ends, so there would be no point escalating to violence with such people; the dead cannot be harmed.
April 27th, 2014 @ 8:40 pm
Blithering Stool blithers, yet having blithered, cannot move on. And the vile lie-peddler lies, and having lied, remains vile.
Death begins when learning ends, so there would be no point escalating to violence with such people; the dead cannot be harmed.
April 27th, 2014 @ 9:22 pm
Ya can’t like the blues unless you also like the tradition of singing everyone else’s songs.
That form of “re-use” is as old as the blues itself.
But at least it’s a novel twist on the usual argument that “These guys always write new words to the same damn song.”
April 27th, 2014 @ 10:55 pm
There is a big difference between “singing everyone else’s songs” and putting your own name on them to cheat the actual writer out of royalties.
When the old bluesmen did each other’s numbers, they didn’t claim ownership.
April 27th, 2014 @ 10:55 pm
There is a big difference between “singing everyone else’s songs” and putting your own name on them to cheat the actual writer out of royalties.
When the old bluesmen did each other’s numbers, they didn’t claim ownership.
April 27th, 2014 @ 10:55 pm
There is a big difference between “singing everyone else’s songs” and putting your own name on them to cheat the actual writer out of royalties.
When the old bluesmen did each other’s numbers, they didn’t claim ownership.
April 27th, 2014 @ 11:06 pm
Schmalfeldt doesn’t care about being sued. He has no property to attach if you win. He’s a parasitic boil on the ass of the Republic.
Stopping him from harassing Hoge is pure torture to him, though.
April 27th, 2014 @ 11:09 pm
George Lucas should sue him for trademark infringement of Jabba the Hut.
April 28th, 2014 @ 1:48 am
Page and Plant have announced the re-release of those early classics with unheard bonus cuts. Maybe Kuns can listen to them in her purple umbrella and fifty cent hair. After all, she’s just a woman.
April 28th, 2014 @ 1:54 am
I knew I’d seen this guy before.
April 28th, 2014 @ 2:15 am
Most of the real “stealing” came when the producers decided who’s name got put on the “composer” credential for publishing.
Wilson Pickett said he wrote 634-5789, but the credit was given to Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper, so he never made a dime off of it.
But cover tunes almost never paid royalties until the modern era.
Now in the age of resampling, you have to reeel careful.
April 28th, 2014 @ 2:37 am
Well, and those who never went there.
April 28th, 2014 @ 11:40 am
Exactly. I have named him “Anima autem, cum sit absens”, The man with an absent soul. Sans soul he is dead for all practical purposes, unable to learn and nothing but a fleshly container for evil, a tool for evil men and evil purposes (Hi Neal).
April 28th, 2014 @ 4:56 pm
[…] Lies, Errors, and Tendentious Mischaracterizations of Facts […]
May 4th, 2014 @ 9:13 am
R.S. McCain. You think you got it tough? Try getting death threats from this clown! And guess what? The guy giving them claims to be the victim too!
@Guardian sequal to @FeMail story RE #gaydads put kids on @GAYDAR sex site #UKIP @bnp @latimes@rsmccain #auspol #tcot
http://theothermccain.com/2014/05/01/wombs-for-rent-babies-for-sale-tv-promotes-gay-surrogate-business/
Begin rant. Sourced article will be written soon!
UK BABY SELLERS TO HIV+ Gays / PEDOPHILIA SUPPORTERS GO GLOBAL IN TV SHOWtheparentmakers.com!
This is what liberal / labor / greens support! Sunrise on Channel 7 praises their criminal activity on our morning TV shows: Gay men who sell single HIV+ homos babies!
Now they are threatening to kill an Australian as they have threatened victims of their fraud previously (as reported by Daily Mirror UK). DM-UK also said they put their kids on the gay instant casual sex website Gaydar – the same website their surrogacy agency @SurrogacyUK promotes!
Gay men who put their kids on an instant gay men casual sex site GayDar and do other criminal activities praised by Sunrise Australia TV! Be sure to see dailymail UK link!
http://theothermccain.com/2014/05/02/gay-baby-surrogate-drewitt-barlow-british-million/
Gay baby sellers admit they are coming to Australia soon! My twitter antics are getting world famous – especially in the TCOT and Right Wing American forums!https://twitter.com/Gaydads/status/461852291528941568
Here they plug their TV interviews including in Australia. http://www.britishsurrogacycentre.com/in-the-news/
@skyhd @pinknews @itvnews @InformationTV @TheParentMakers ALL PROMOTE THE #GAYDADSFLESH TRADE American children to UK/AU/Europe single gay men (pedos?) – admittedly to gays with HIV (see their website bsc-america.com). #essex Police were informed they admit operating a commercial surrogacy agency using UK surrogates to produce babies for gays mostly on both their websites (britishsurrogacycentre.com / the parentmakers.com) that backed up by myself and UK sworn police officers).
It is presently illegal in the UK to pay women in commercial surrogacy operations. 2-5 years jail! The cops should shut these criminal homos down! More info http://tinyurl.com/gaydadschurchsuingbabysellers (page 2 for the police news) – http://twitter.com/gaysabovethelaw for updates!
BNP: They tweeted their physical address when talking about my imminent death. And Via email CC the Essex Chemsford police, they claimed to hire local police here to kill me, to get my dad in Australia who’s 72 years old and as yet zero involvement with police for any crime, and even claims he can pull of an extra-ordinary rendition. https://twitter.com/Gaydads/status/461884999307100160 See these faggots think they own the world. They also put their kids on dating sites and their history of making death threats is well known before I attempted to expose their pro pedophile behavior!http://victimsofgaybullying.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/queer-bullies-and-their-fake-marriage/ Be sure to check out Robert Stacy McCain (big us blogger)’s first article about them too!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-408666/Why-pictures-millionaire-gay-dads-children-dating-website.html
Via email CC the police @gaydads Barrie said he supports the actions of a US mainstream media confirmed gay child rape fantasizing pedo taking away my first born child. If he is going around saying stuff like that he shouldn’t have kids! http://tinyurl.com/arrestedbychildrapingfagcop (Christopher Bowersox, Convicted Pedophile, Bakersfiled CA Police – see him on famliywatchdog.us child sex offenders registrar and I provided details on his charge sheet for me)
Now I find out their @surrogacyUK twitter is plugging GAYDAR the same gay casual sex site – they put pictures of their kids on! So says the Daily Mirror! Remember it’s not homophobic to be against those who support gay child rapists or sexualizing their children! I’m against gay child rapists – queers that don’t go near children are no problem for me just as they are no problem for Putin. Hurt our children or go near them – JAIL! The west should follow Putin. Look where it’s going!
See how the ABC Australia supports gay dads child rapists here and does a cover-up destroying evidence of a world famous pedophile ring that inspired Russia to make it’s “anti-gay” lawshttp://billmuehlenberg.com/2013/12/10/more-tales-from-the-tolerance-thugs/