I was wrong. I misjudged. Badly. It's clear to me that I was in huge error back in December when I suggested in this blog entry that Occupy Nashville was not the private party for a few guys on the stream team. If you consider that, even after the things that Matt and Jason have done publicly, much of it outlined here and here, these two are still the public face for ON and continue to solicit funds for their personal use on WePay accounts here and here, and also consider their very public attacks and the threats of violence outlined here and here, there really is no other logical conclusion to reach. It is their party, they will do what they want to, and the ON General Assembly as it exists now will abide the ride, wherever it takes them. Even, apparently, when the local media picks up the story and outs Jason for the behind the scenes lying trouble maker he is in this recent Nashville City Paper article.
I'm about through spinning my wheels on this. There's so much more I had planned to include in this series of articles, but, really, what is the point? As I've noted previously, none of this is new. Most of it was known to people who chose to ignore it for their own reasons. I'm going to let the local media people pick the story up from here (and I understand that's going to happen), but I'm going to tie my own loose ends up here before I go.
Slander and character assassination
Attempts to silence me and other women who have spoken up in Occupy Nashville have included threats and name calling. I've personally been called a bitch, cunt, and, perhaps my personal favorite, a "two-bit floozy."
Besides the name calling and the attempts to paint me as crazy written about earlier, there has been an almost nonstop barrage of charges of things I'm alleged to have done. The short list ("short" because it's only what I'm aware of) of what I've been accused of in recent weeks includes:
- posing as other people posting on online media sites about ON
- spamming media sites with links to this blog
- calling an Occupier's place of employment in an attempt to endanger his job status
- calling an Occupier's probation or parole officer to report them for misbehavior
- writing articles posted on web sites I have no affiliation with
- sending anonymous email to ON working group teams
- rallying people to post harassing posts on people's fb pages
- being an agent paid to infiltrate ON
- being a methadone addict
F'real, if I'd actually done even one or two of these things, I might line up with my detractors in nominating me for "Scum of the Month" or some such. But the truth is that I didn't do any of them, nor do I know who did. Nor do I especially care. What I do care about, however, is that these be noted as further examples of how this bunch attacks the messenger when they don't like the message. You'll, no doubt, see it all again in varied formations when another woman gets in their way.
Occupy misogyny
Yes, I said woman. Make no mistake about it, ON has major problems with misogyny. Who has this team had problems with? Women. Look at the stories in this blog over and over and see who has been under attack by these guys. Nor am I the first to write about misogyny in ON. (See Tristan Call's excellent article if you haven't already, or this written by Mimi Yahn.) And this isn't occurring in a vacuum either. In Occupy camps across the country, women have had to deal with their voices being silenced in the same way that's occurred here in Nashville. I was gratified to hear from a number of these other women from across the country when the Occupy Patriarchy site picked up my own earlier article about it.
Yet, just last week, I saw the matter of women being subjected to bad treatment within the movement referenced dismissively as a side issue, a "gender" thing. Divisive. Even now. Still. So silly of us, I know, to want to be considered as equal, huh? No thanks, Michael Custer, for that comment in GA.
In the meantime, every media outlet on the web has a story about the war on women currently underway across the country in state house after state house and in D.C. But there's no misogyny in ON. Why? Because they said so, that's why.
Jason and Joe
Some of the ugliest and most blatant attacks on me since writing recent blog entries have come from Jason Joe. See, I've started to think of them as one of late. Joe (Joe A. Black on fb, but is an alias) has made no public bones about being around ON because of his relationship with Jason Steen and that he couldn't care less about its goals for change. When Jason's not tweeting for ON, Joe's online talking shit of the sort I've copied here in other entries. All the while, Jason continues to collect money on WePay and to pimp his cause on ON sites. And, we all breathlessly await what we'll hear at the "press conference" they've been baiting us with for days now when it happens later today. Uh huh.
Here's what you can take to the bank about this:
- Jason will be a hero for the cause (choking here, sorry) and get arrested when he valiantly tries to defend Legislative Plaza as Ground Zero in the fight for The First Amendment, the rights of homeless people everywhere, and all that is holy and good only if they come drag him out of his Murfreesboro Road roach and flea infested motel room. (In fairness, I don't think Jason and Joe brought the roaches to the motel.)
- Money donated to Jason's WePay account will likely never see a bailsman's hands, but the guy that sells vodka for a living is grateful.
*************
On February 21, a person unknown to me sent me the following email:
I thought you'd want some information on Jason Steen. I known him for a number of years -- not so good.
He was born February 21, 1979 (yep it's his birthday even tho it doesn't show up on Facebook...but I swear it is).He was arrested in 2000 for theft. It was several grand worth. If i look around I might be able to find some docs on that. be careful with this fucker...
I have no clue whether or not this is fact, so let's just call it a rumor. What I do know is that if you Google Jason Steen and GreenZap, you'll find him a part of some interesting forum conversations about a scandal that resulted in criminal charges for at least a couple of people working for another outfit that dealt with money online.
Until you figure it all out, by all means, keep sending him money.
Matt Hamill
Matt or Tangello or ... continues under the ON banner to solicit funds for his own use too. I won't even pretend to know what he does with that money. But I do have a few bits in the bowl for Mr. Hamill too...
While the frequently juvenile antics of Jason and Joe could conceivably cause a thoughtful adult grave concern relative to their capacity for functioning as members of society and not a threat to themselves or others, there should be no energy wasted on worry that Matt Hamill won't come out of his Occupy Nashville experience ahead of the game he brought to it. His every move, indeed, his every breath, seems calculated to assure the best odds for that outcome. It remains to be seen how long he'll be in Nashville after the plaza isn't his home, or whether he'll be in Oakland, Chicago, Atlanta...all places he's recently posted online as where he's headed...but it won't matter. Let's just hope he tells his probation officer or whoever it is this time so he won't be whining again that someone reported him for not notifying them.
For the duration that he is part of ON, you can count on him to self promote at every turn. It's for "the revolution" and it's all "badass." I am left, however, to wonder if he'll leave before he has to explain how his name ended up on the "Pay to" line of a $100 check left at the plaza as a donation for ON earlier this year. Am I starting a rumor? Nah. I'm repeating what was told to me in a communication I received from another anonymous person via facebook. I was further told that the bank involved had notified the owner of the account that they would cooperate with the police so that charges could be pressed. Is any of this true? I don't know. The person who wrote me claims to be the owner of that account and states that she (I think it's a she, anyway) intends to prosecute. We'll see.
The bit players
There are just a few people who merit special mention here. Besides the tech and behind the scenes support I've written about previously that has enabled the mugging of ON, there have been those whose roles have been mostly of the cheerleader variety, but they've been rather venomous nonetheless.
Phillip leads this pack of jackals, but I've already posted enough about him. I will just point out here that somebody recently sent me information about Phillip too...very sad information, actually. Information that gives context for his relentless and vicious attacks on me and other women who are part of ON, information, indeed, that explains why he's such a sad sack. About that, I'll say only that I'm sorry he's had such a miserable lot in life, but I'm decidedly more sorry that his apparent way of dealing with it all is to project his anger onto others with lies and innuendo.
GritsGirl, Debra A. Carter on facebook, is a special piece of work too. She gets the prize for being the most consistently rabid woman hating woman participant of ON, hands down. There isn't even any close competition. She's chimed in with the cunt word repeatedly and suggestions that some of us think having vaginas gives us special authority. A real charmer this one, no issues with women, though, of course...except for the part about not feeling like a real woman because she can't have children, that is. (Is this all messy to you? Yah. I know exactly how you feel. Welcome to my world for the past almost five months.) Oh, she also shared in a discussion of domestic abuse her conviction that "some women deserved to be beat." Thanks for sharing, Grits. Yah. I'll miss this.
"Whisper" (Lynne Adams on fb) and "Ohio" (Sheila Lytle) may feel slighted if I don't mention them here, so I will. Anybody around chat knows why I did and that's all that matters. There are others. It's late.
Wolfy
Wolfy has been mentioned previously in this blog, but there's a little more to tell here before I leave this alone.
On January 6th, I posted an article on this blog about an interview Matt Hamill was getting ready to do with a man who had lied about his military service. In a comment about that article when it was posted on fb, I referred to the guy who had lied about his military service as a POS (piece of shit.)
One of my fb friends didn't understand that my POS comment was about the politician to be interviewed but mistakenly thought it was about somebody else, a member of Occupy Nashville who he had a history with. He sent me private note via fb.
It turns out that my fb friend thought I was referring to Wolfy when I called somebody a POS for lying about his military service because he claims that Wolfy has done the same thing. Fine. But it got more interesting...
Ummm; the POS you are talking about - I think we are dealing with the same person and I NEVER told you ANYTHING DIRECTLY! Oh My oh my...What has he done now; whatever it is I'm sure he will fail to spread the blame around or accept any blame for his decisions or actions; he has NO FUSE, he is reactionary, he is unstable, and IF it is the same person were talking about; DAMN - what must he have done to piss you off and/or cause you to feel that way about him?
Never-mind; I don't need to know, and I don't want to -PLAUSIBLE DENI-ABILITY must be maintained; already had him and have him wanting to kill me/destroy me for saying something to JasonS about it, and when I did, it was to point out hypocrisy in the News Media; JasonS blurted what I had wrote in chat OUT LOUD and it kept getting replayed over and over and over in the reruns...
Of course, he blames me for ALL OF IT...He needs to look closer to home seriously; he chose this path, he set this course, and if the DOD decides to get him; they will find him and get him; no questions asked...and this could have happened and might have happened for the past TWO YEARS or more at this point.
I could COULD tell you one more piece of info that you more than likely don't know about, but, I won't; it would be bad form in the extreme to put it mildly...
ANYWAY; so, great minds etc etc etc...Don't know what else to tell ya, other than keep your young boys AWAY from this individual...seriously...not joking.
ENOUGH SAID; I NEVER SAID THIS; I AM NOT HERE; DELETE THIS MSG AFTER YOU READ IT...
Either way, its better to know what you are dealing with as opposed to having NO CLUE as to the demon you KNOW is wandering like a predator among so many innocent sheep,,,Later in the day, I spoke with the person who sent me this note by phone and during the phone conversation, he told me that Wolfy had confided in him that he was a pedophile and he expressed some concern about what might be on a computer he had donated for his use while at the plaza as part of Occupy Nashville.
Whew; I know hes gin to blame me fo rit all, but, JESUS GOD; is he being that high profile that he is outing himself left and right?!?
I don't need to know, and for being assholish that is a character flaw that he will never ever get beyond and it was not basic or the military that did it to him...he was like that and is like that all by his lonesome...
On the same day, still January 6th, I contacted a member of the ON legal team and gave them the information that had been given to me. I was assured that the legal team was going to look into it, at least from the standpoint of ON's vulnerability if child porn was involved.
By January 16th, Wolfy was posting online that he was no longer in Nashville and part of Occupy Nashville, but was instead in Oklahoma.
On January 31st, the web site Evil Unveiled posted a page featuring Wolfy as a pedophile and all hell broke loose in the Occupy Nashville Camp. When people weren't attacking the ON person affiliated with that web site, they were jumping over each other denying that he'd ever been a part of ON's teams, in spite of the fact he was pictured and quoted repeatedly in The Tennessean during the winter months and even noted there as a "site administrator" for the tech team. Or alleging that I was the author of the piece on the EU web site.
Since then, the EU site has been featured in a three part series done by the ABC affiliate in Omaha, Nebraska. The conclusion they reached after speaking with local law enforcement agents, the FBI, and even a pedophile now in jail after being caught thanks to the efforts of the EU site, was that the EU site is anything but the crank site pedophiles and other detractors from Occupy Nashville want to make it out to be when they run their usual attack the messenger gambit. See parts one, two, and three for yourself.
Will more be revealed about Wolfy and his involvement with ON? My money says yes. And don't be surprised when you see just how many people knew while he was in Nashville that he was a pedophile. Or who they were. If these weren't such crazy times and such a contemptible crew wasn't involved, I'd suggest you'll be shocked, but if you've been paying attention, you won't be.
Et tu?
Finally. Though this is the sixth blog entry since I started this Occupy Nashville: The Drama series here, there is a ton of information I never got around to addressing. Again, what would be the point now? People mostly knew this stuff anyway, if they wanted to.
But I want to end by saying just a little bit about the information sent to me in the past few weeks and the people who sent it. Over a dozen people, about half of them people I don't know and probably using assumed names, to give me information they thought relevant to what I was trying to expose here. Some of them even took time to offer their support for my effort. Privately.
And that's the thing I want to address. Private support is all good, but has none of the power that public support does. I do understand the reasons some people have for being reluctant to be publicly identified with dissent, especially in light of what I and others have endured when we spoke up in ON. But, here's what I want you to consider...Had everybody who saw what was going on been public from day one about it, could it have gone on? Maybe, maybe not. We'll not know now. That's too bad, too, because ON lost a lot of support when it pushed people away with their online shenanigans, support they might have been glad to have about right now.
I consider one of the most poignant things I've encountered along this journey to be this statement, a quote from an email I received from another woman who has been a part of ON. She said, " I'm tired of being demure all the time and just taking the shit they give me." That's what she said after she said her feminist side was bothering her for questioning why I would go public with this stuff about ON. I get it. I really, really, do get it. But I have to say that something else has occurred to me in recent days and that's the chant heard last fall in Occupy camps across the country when police swarmed in, "Who do you protect? Who do you serve?"
I guess that's what I'd most like to ask all of you supporters of ON. Just exactly who are you protecting? Who are you serving?
And, are you ready for a new General Assembly?
