Source: The End Run
Coming on the heels of last week’s dirty deception by the Huntsman campaign,
several rabidly anti-Ron Paul political activists have been caught
planning another vicious “false flag”-style dirty trick against the
presidential candidate and his supporters, this time in South Carolina,
where the next GOP primary will take place.
The plot, which was being hatched over Facebook,
involved dressing up in hooded Ku Klux Klan (KKK) robes, posing as Ron
Paul supporters (complete with Ron Paul signs), and “follow[ing] Paul
around South Carolina”, making “sure to get photographed by the media.”
The thread proposing the idea was started earlier this week by Jere Brower of neighboring Georgia on the wall of the “Stop Ron Paul 2012″ Facebook group. On Wednesday, January 11th, Brower wrote:
“If you live in South Carolina and want to have some real fun with these Paulbots here is what we do- go online and buy or make your very own KKK robe, complete with hood (hood is important). Then get some Ron Paul signs off the internet or make your own. Follow Paul around South Carolina and be sure to get photographed by the media. Again, hoods are important. All can be Klansmen for Paul. Black, white, Jewish, Asian- those Paulbots will shit a brick!”
He quickly got a second from one Chris Collins of Gainesville, GA
(only about an hour’s drive from the South Carolina border), who said:
“That is seriously a great idea! Anyone wanna volunteer???”
Minutes later, Brower replied: “Chris, if we can get ten of us to do it, I am down, but where does one get KKK robes????”
When another member opined that the plan was not worth carrying out,
Collins objected: “Well, actually, I disagree. Why not show the world
the truth about the type on ilk that supporters Ron Paul? Let me think
on this, Jere.”
The next post came from a Rex Foster, who recommended
that the Paul haters infiltrate the Paul campaign by volunteering to
make phone calls for the candidate. They could tell South Carolina
voters that they were calling on “behalf of Ron Paul’s campaign”, and
then spout non-sense about “lizard people” in an attempt to turn the
voters off to Paul.
The thread was flagged by lacrossewatchdog.org earlier today, who credited Patrick McEwen of the Capital Free Press
for the tip. News of the plot spread to a number of Ron Paul
grassroots websites, whose members quickly sounded the alarm and took
the story somewhat viral on social media sites like Facebook and
Twitter. The negative attention prompted the “Stop Ron Paul 2012″ group
to remove the thread late Friday evening, but not before many activists
captured screen shots.
Around the time that the thread was removed, and after getting
bombarded with negative Tweets and Facebook messages, Brower posted a
message to Facebook saying, “Someone has hacked my shit.” When
questioned by another user about whether the supposed “hacking”
pertained to his financial information, Brower replied: “Nah, messed
with my facebook, fucked with my email, messed around with work files.”
This claim, which is apparently meant to explain away the offending
thread, does not pass the smell test. The thread was posted three days
ago, with several follow-up posts by Brower. Furthermore, The End Run
has examined his publicly-available Twitter and Facebook
posts and found many examples of him calling “Paulbots” “clinically
insane”, falsely accusing Ron Paul of wanting to “legalize child
prostitution” and being “against children going to school”, attempting
to conflate him and his supporters with the KKK and racism, using vulgar
language to disparage them, and so forth. These posts go back months.
When Kelly Clarkson tweeted that she supports Ron Paul, he repeatedly
trolled her Facebook page, accusing her of wanting to burn crosses. Here is a screen shot of some samples. (Warning: Vulgar language.)
According to his publicly-viewable LinkedIn page (archived here),
Brower works for Google as a “Field Operations Specialist”. He lists
his “Specialties” as “Crisis management, social media, media relations,
brand specialist, event planning, event management”. At this point I
have seen no evidence that he was acting on behalf of Google or any
other entity other than himself, but this connection may at least be
worth looking into, especially in light of the ties between Google and the recent uprising in Egypt.
Brower
served in the U.S. Army during the mid and late 90′s (possibly as late
as 2002, according to one source), and has several older pictures of
himself in uniform on his Facebook page. He is listed on VetFriends.com as having reached the rank of Specialist (SPC).
On Facebook, he lists The Prince by Machiavelli as one of his favorite books.
Throughout 2011, Brower repeatedly voiced his strong support for former candidate Herman Cain on Facebook and Twitter, and pictures of him with Cain
have emerged. However, it is important to note that I have seen no
evidence thus far that he is directly tied to the campaign. Unless
strong and credible evidence emerges tying him to the Cain campaign, it
would be unfair to hold Cain responsible for his behavior.
Likewise, it
would be totally unfair to try to paint all Herman Cain supporters with
a broad brush due to Brower’s shameful behavior. Every candidate has
loathsome individuals supporting them, and it is clear that most Cain
supporters — and indeed most people in general — would not contemplate
stooping to these kinds of tactics. (Brower has also Tweeted support for a Donald Trump candidacy, by the way.)
As for Chris Collins,
who called Brower’s plan “seriously a great idea” and asked for
volunteers: his listed activities include “Jackson County GOP”, “Tea
Party Movement”, “Freemasonry”, and “Jefferson Georgia Tea Party
Patriots”. (Again, this does not mean that any of these groups as a
whole, or any other members of them, necessarily endorse or even know
about what he was plotting with Brower.)
Collin’s page also lists HermanCain.com as a past “employer”.
However, I have found no corroboration for this, so he may just have put
that there to show his support.
It’s important to note that anyone can
list themselves as being employed by anyone else on Facebook. Once
again, until further evidence comes forward, it is not safe to assume
that he actually worked for Cain, and certainly not that Cain is somehow
behind this anti-Paul plan. Recently Collins has been posting lots of
anti-Ron Paul and pro-Rick Santorum articles.
Lacrosswatchdog.org has noted that South Carolina has a history of political dirty tricks, such as Karl Rove’s disgraceful “push polling” during the 2000 GOP Primary.
The proposed plot against Ron Paul is similar to one that was carried
out against his son Rand Paul during his Senate campaign, when a
supporter of Democrat Jack Conway dressed up as a “Rand fan” to try to make Rand Paul supporters look crazy and racist in front of the media, but was later caught participating in a march for Conway. He was subsequently identified as Tyler Collins, a liberal activist who campaigned for Barack Obama.
In South Carolina, Ron Paul has recently surged to 20% in the polls, following his impressive second place showing in New Hampshire, where he garnered 24% of the vote.
