Hotel California, Internet Style

The Kingdom of Shadows does NOT issue tourist visas.

Let me apologize in advance. This is going to be a public post but I’m going to address some issues that have arisen in what I’ve long referred to as the Kingdom of Shadows.

The fringes of the internet are a thousand digital cesspools, from long term well known ones like 4chan to the ephemeral scrum of IRC channels and Discord servers. They connect in a variety of ways ranging from shared back channels to cross patched individuals - those who have a foothold in two or more of these virtual places.

Ukraine is running out of ammo. Iran showered Israel with cruise missiles, drones, and we witnessed the first combat exoatmospheric intercept of a ballistic missile a couple days ago. When the world is inflamed like it is right now, the flickering of those fires will both motivate and illuminate things moving in the shadows.

And now we’ll go splashing about in the digital ordure …

Attention Conservation Notice:

Reading this will be five minutes of your life you’ll never get back and you’ll wind up dumber than when you started. I recommend searching for cat videos on YouTube as a healthy alternative.

Administrivia:

If it matters to me, it’s got Authy and it’s not attached to any email address you can find for me based on Google searches. No, really, there are email addresses that exist just to serve as containers for all the things.

That being said, a Facebook account I “deleted” twelve years ago isn’t going to be revived. I peeked once in 2017 and the 3,200 friends with Guy Fawkes masks had morphed into 2,400 white rural Christian conservatives. Since then Facebook has decided to require a picture ID to restore long idle accounts. And that ain’t gonna happen, so you can go find someone else’s ankle to slaver on.

Incommunicado:

First I moved, then my elderly workstation started acting like Donald Trump in the middle of a campaign speech, simply forgetting what it was doing mid-sentence. I really did abandon @nrauahauser with no recourse, it’s even deader than that Facebook account. I scrubbed and recycled devices right before I moved and I’m getting the sense that wouldn’t be a bad process to repeat. I still haven’t done the Google Pixel8/GrapheneOS thing yet. I can grit my teeth for a couple more weeks and then Noble Numbat will be a thing.

If all I do are the important things, the urgent things will simply fade away.

Having Fired A Spread:

Many of you are too young to be familiar with the World War II submarine tactic of “firing a spread”. When you’ve got a juicy target you put two or … or three … or four fish in the water. Then you wait.

There are three in the water right now.

The second post is the first Malign Influence Operations Safari success. I’ll hit send on that after the story breaks. I had to help some people learn to count there in that last one about Files - the draft link has been shown to those who need it. That post will never see the light of day.

Looks like #2 was a clean miss. We’ll turn and have a go with tube #4, of course, but not until after …

My spidey sense tells me #3 didn’t just find its mark, looks like we tagged the engine room of an ammo ship. I have to sit quietly for another six days, but the fact that what I sit and wait for exists at all is pretty amazing. Feels quite a bit like that rising wave in the fall of 2011.

Unaccompanied Minors:

If you were confused, I hope it’s clear this one is for you.

I looked at your origin story and I understand what you’re trying to do.

My advice, as a longtime denizen of the underworld and former analyst in service of the federal public defenders is that you NOT.

You may caper and whirl in the sunshine, but you’re not built for sneaking and slithering in the shadows. The speed of light is a well understood quantity, you have no understanding of the Speed of Dark.

You could add a zero to the number you’ve got in mind. Or two. An incremental approach to something impossible won’t change by you adjusting the scale. If you persist, the vortex will take you, too.

I am truly and sincerely sorry. I’ve been where you are. I’ve watched a bunch of other people face similar situations. Mama Tried …

Espionage:

There were a lot of people who supported Julian Assange to varying degrees. There was a sea change from 2015 to 2017, people sensed the changes and wanted nothing to do with aiding and abetting a Kremlin agent.

A few days ago I wondered aloud - is Julian Assange Flipping? He’s been cornered for twelve years, a Kremlin agent for eight, a guest of Belmarsh for five, and four years ago he caught a superseding indictment. His extradition to the U.S. is imminent.

Australia has asked that the U.S. stop pursuing Assange. For the sake of one of our closest allies we may well do this, but I can’t imagine it’ll be a get out of jail free card for everyone implicated in the superseding indictment. The agents of a Kremlin agent are themselves agents, and they’ll be consolation prizes for mad USAAs.

I read the superseding and maybe I recall some of the events, or maybe I just read about them in We Are Anonymous, or Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy. There are winners and losers in this matter, but there are no good guys.

Conclusion:

If I’ve learned nothing else in the last fifteen years, I’m dead certain that it can be a life’s work to undo one casual whoops. The poster child for this is James “Pissboy” McGibney, who will never escape the consequences of Rauhauser v. McGibney. And like the subject of Unaccompanied Minors, nothing will save the Dallas FBI field office.

Having sat and written this, I’ve started thinking maybe tube #4 would best be used on … a Senate candidate.

What say you, my longtime companions?