20 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2016
    1. They hadn’t thought about the downsides. These tools offer remarkable empowerment, but there’s a dark side to it. It enables people to do very cynical, damaging things.”

      Hence the absolute necessity of fact checking tools like Hypothes.is. Here is a way out: https://blog.jonudell.net/2016/10/30/marshalling-the-evidence/

      And here too: https://blog.jonudell.net/2016/10/29/bird-dogging-the-web/

  2. Oct 2016
    1. In other words, Hillary Clinton herself has known for at least a year that her campaign and her entire party systematically incite violence at Trump rallies. This is hard evidence of direct collaboration between the DNC and the Hillary/Kaine campaign to terrorize every Trump or Pence event with paid, trained, and centrally organized agitators. Many of these agitators were homeless and/or mentally ill persons, as well as “rock ‘n’ roll” DNC union workers. Moreover, coordinating all these thugs involved daily calls to Robbie Mook and Hillary Clinton herself. This Bolshevik/Brownshirt “birddogging” campaign is way bigger than online “troll” tactics by the Correct The Record Super PAC. This campaign literally amounts to a paid, mobile army of about 500 agitators that can be anywhere in the USA as needed.
    1. Official records reveal Bob Creamer, the man exposed as being behind a tactic called “bird-dogging” in which homeless people, the elderly, and mentally ill individuals are paid to start violence at Trump rallies, has been to the White House many times since 2009.
    1. Democrats have used trained provocateurs to instigate violence at Republican events nationwide throughout the 2016 election cycle, including at several Donald Trump rallies, using a tactic called “bird-dogging,”
    1. In turn, the consultants are working with Democratic Super PACs and other groups to give maximum media exposure to the “bird dogging” violence, which they admit targets the elderly and disabled for maximum “shock value.”
    1. Democrats have used trained provocateurs to instigate violence at Republican events nationwide throughout the 2016 election cycle, including at several Donald Trump rallies, using a tactic called “bird-dogging,” according to a new video investigation released Monday by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas.
    1. A new expression has emerged: "Bird-dogging."Democrats have used trained provocateurs to instigate violence at Republican events nationwide throughout the 2016 election cycle, including at several Donald Trump rallies, using a tactic called “bird-dogging,” according to a new video investigation released Monday by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas.
    1. Bird-Dogging

      Bird-dogging is a technique whereby activists get candidates on the record about their position on an issue. The term comes from the analogy of a bird-dog which flushes birds out of hiding. In the metaphor, candidates for office often want to conceal their positions on controversial issues or keep their language around them vague. Bird-doggers go to events and ask carefully crafted questions on issues they wish to talk about to try to "flush a candidate's opinions into the open."

      Bird-doggers often work in issue advocacy organizations, and are less concerned about who wins an election than about getting their issues addressed as part of the campaign.

      The term was popularized in 2004 by New Hampshire Quaker activist Arnie Alpert who noted that the way people were asking questions at "town halls" with presidential candidates was allowing the candidates too much wiggle room:

      "If you simply go in there and say, ‘What do you think about health care? What do you think about Iraq?’ the candidate can pretty much say anything and have it sound like it’s a good answer,” said Arnie Alpert, the program coordinator in New Hampshire for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group.

      So in the lead-up to the 2004 primary, he started teaching people how to ask questions. Basically, it takes planning, precision and a little bit of courage. (see New York Times story)

      Albert's techniques were later adopted by Priorities NH, a Ben Cohen (of Ben and Jerry's) group trying to get military spending issues addressed, as well as other groups in the 2008 primary. The rise of citizen video made such techniques an important tool of activism.

      Controversy

      Rhetoric around a 2016 controversy created by James O'Keefe wrongly portrayed bird-dogging as a Clinton campaign term dealing with the instigation of violence at Trump rallies. The term pre-dates the Clinton campaign and has never been used in this way.

      Sources

      New York Times Article: Bird-Dogging in N.H. and Iowa, March 2007

      From the 2016 book Service Sociology and Academic Engagement in Social Problems: "Bird-dogging means attending a political candidates public appearances with the specific aim of challenging or seeking clarification of a particular issue."

      From 2011 book The Young Activist's Guide to Building a Green Movement and Changing the World: "Bird-dogging refers to attending public events where a candidate for public office or an elected representative will appear and calling on him or her to publicly address an issue, support your cause, or reconsider a stance already taken."

    2. "Bird-dogging"

      Bird-dogging has nothing to do with the Clinton campaign or with violence. This is a mis-definition of the term to create confusion in people watching the video. See Bird-dogging for definition.