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FOCUS: Pocahontas Is a Great Hero Elizabeth Warren Should Embrace |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=6004"><span class="small">Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News</span></a>
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Wednesday, 22 February 2017 13:04 |
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Wasserman writes: "Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) would do well to embrace our early American hero Pocahontas. She might even thank Donald Trump for making the link."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren. (photo: Getty)
Pocahontas Is a Great Hero Elizabeth Warren Should Embrace
By Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
22 February 17
 enator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) would do well to embrace our early American hero Pocahontas. She might even thank Donald Trump for making the link.
With his signature sneering, leering sexism and racism, Trump refers to the Massachusetts senator with the name of this real-life historic figure as if it were a put-down.
But Pocahontas is a true American icon. Unlike Trump, she was greatly loved by her people, and her character was impeccable. She was deeply admired in England, where she travelled with her husband and young son and then tragically passed away, having barely turned twenty.
Throughout her career, Senator Warren has referred to her lineage as including traces of both Cherokee and Delaware tribal heritage. It seems to be family lore for which she has no firm documentation. There’s no indication Senator Warren has benefitted from the possibility she may be part indigenous. Given her legendary serious demeanor, it’s extremely unlikely she made it up. But with characteristic ugliness, the Republicans have turned it into a slur.
In fact, Pocahontas was born with the name Matoaka, probably around 1596. She was the much-loved daughter of the powerful chieftain Powhatan, whose tribe occupied the tidewater region of present-day Virginia.
In 1607, as the first white settlers arrived at Jamestown, Pocahontas may have saved the life of the English adventurer John Smith. Allegedly Pocahontas’s father meant to put him to death. Legend has it Pocahontas saved Smith by stopping the execution. It’s also rumored she may have saved another white man as well.
The stories are shrouded in mystery, and there’s much about them that makes little sense. Smith was a polarizing character. It would have been very much in character for him to have alienated the Virginia chieftain, but the two men needed each other. Smith included the story of Pocahontas’s alleged intervention in memoirs that were relentlessly self-serving and doubted by some historians.
Whatever the case, the story has stuck throughout history and is revered as one of the first instances of a positive human connection between the indigenous Americans and invading Europeans.
There is no indication from Smith or any other contemporary that he and Pocahontas might have been lovers. She would have been about eleven years old when she allegedly saved him. He was probably pushing forty. The anatomically impossible characters in the Disney film are very far from credible.
In 1613, the teenaged Pocahontas was kidnapped by English settlers. While in captivity she converted to Christianity, then married a tobacco farmer named John Rolfe. The circumstances were complex, though most accounts indicate the two were in love. Their marriage prompted a “Peace of Pocahontas” between the colonists and the local tribes that lasted until her father died about a year after she did.
In 1615 Pocahontas and John Rolfe had a son they named Thomas. The following year Rolfe took the family to London, where they met the king and were welcomed at various social gatherings. She also met Smith again in what he described as a complex and not entirely loving encounter.
In March, 1617, the Rolfe family embarked for Virginia. Pocahontas took sick and died at Gravesend, on the Thames. Some of the natives on board the ship believed she was poisoned. There have been attempts to bring her body home, but the exact location of her gravesite at Gravesend has allegedly been lost.
Young Thomas returned to America. His descendants include First Lady Edith Wilson (married to Woodrow, also born in Virginia), the astronomer Percival Lowell and the actor Glenn Strange. It’s widely asserted that Nancy Reagan was also descended from Pocahontas, although the evidence is sketchy.
Pocahontas is the first indigenous female to be honored on a US postage stamp. She was revered on both sides of the Atlantic as a gentle, courageous woman of good character whose marriage helped inaugurate a rare time of peace between whites and natives. The armload of articles, books, and movies about her always exude the welcome image of a great heart.
Next time Donald Trump refers to Senator Warren as “Pocahontas,” she’d do well to proudly embrace the name and honor the real-life woman who made it famous. Perhaps she could propose a special commemoration to the Senate — if they let her speak.
Harvey Wasserman’s History of the United States helped pioneer a generation of “people’s histories” when it was introduced (in 1972) by the great Howard Zinn. He has taught history, journalism and diversity at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and at two colleges in central Ohio.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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FOCUS: Good Morning! Here's Another Insane Russia Story to Start Your Day |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=11104"><span class="small">Charles Pierce, Esquire</span></a>
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Wednesday, 22 February 2017 11:54 |
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Pierce writes: "There have been two characters in the news over the past couple of weeks that have gone unmentioned here at the shebeen. The first is Milo Yiannopoulos, a bully and a charlatan who has fallen on hard times at the moment, and whom I never knew much about in the first place and couldn't care less about now. You want to argue about him, feel free. But try not to disturb the folks at the next table, who are talking about Felix Sater-and there, my friends, is a story and a half."
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. (photo: Getty Images)
Good Morning! Here's Another Insane Russia Story to Start Your Day
By Charles Pierce, Esquire
22 February 17
It's time for the tax returns.
 here have been two characters in the news over the past couple of weeks that have gone unmentioned here at the shebeen. The first is Milo Yiannopoulos, a bully and a charlatan who has fallen on hard times at the moment, and whom I never knew much about in the first place and couldn't care less about now. You want to argue about him, feel free. But try not to disturb the folks at the next table, who are talking about Felix Sater—and there, my friends, is a story and a half.
Let me just say at the outset that I will read any story anywhere that contains the phrase, "once stabbed a guy in the head with a broken margarita glass." (It's like Raymond Chandler rewritten by Carl Hiassen.) That's a grabber, that is. But it's only part of the Felix Sater story which, thanks to great reporting by Josh Marshall and a number of other people, seems to run all the way through the depths of the corruption that has leached into the government thanks to the election of El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago last November.
Sater, it seems, was born in what is now Kazakhstan, but was then part of the USSR, in 1966. He emigrated to the United States. When he was 20, he stabbed the dude with the stem of the margarita glass. He went to the slammer for that and, once he got out, he got involved with a stock scam that also involved both the Genovese and Columbo crime families. He seemed to be headed back into the jug for a longer stretch this time but, as Marshall and others have indicated, this is where the story becomes an exploded ball of yarn.
Somehow, after he got busted on the stock scheme, Sater became an asset to the American intelligence community, buying arms in the wild-west weapons bazaar of the former Soviet Union. As Marshall writes in TPM:
After Sater got busted, somehow he managed to offer his services to the FBI and supposedly the CIA to work on their behalf purchasing stinger missiles and other weapons on the then wild and free-wheeling Russian black market. Whatever Sater was doing for the CIA in the black market arms smuggling world seems to have become much more important after 9/11 - thus Sater's high value to the US government.
Marshall asserts that whatever work Sater was doing for the spooks was important enough for them to shield him from actual punishment for the stock scam. This is not an unfamiliar scenario for those of us who were in and around Boston during the last 30-odd years. It appears that the intelligence community may have made of Felix Sater an international Whitey Bulger. Good move!
Somehow, Sater—and another guy named Salvatore Lauria, who'd been in the bar when Sater stabbed the guy, and who was his partner in the stock swindles—got into business with the Trump organization. Marshall points us to a New York Times account of how they all got together in a project known as Trump SoHo through something called Bayrock Group, where Sater finally landed.
Mr. Lauria brokered a $50 million investment in Trump SoHo and three other Bayrock projects by an Icelandic firm preferred by wealthy Russians "in favor with" President Vladimir V. Putin, according to a lawsuit against Bayrock by one of its former executives. The Icelandic company, FL Group, was identified in a Bayrock investor presentation as a "strategic partner," along with Alexander Mashkevich, a billionaire once charged in a corruption case involving fees paid by a Belgian company seeking business in Kazakhstan; that case was settled with no admission of guilt.
Sater and Bayrock also were involved with the Trump organization's abortive Trump Fort Lauderdale, which went belly-up and subsequently was buried under an avalanche of writs. Most recently, Sater popped up in the news as an alleged intermediary for a Russian-favorable peace plan involving the Ukraine and Crimea. The plan would have lifted sanctions on Russia. There also was a proposal for a referendum whereby the Ukrainian people would decide whether to "rent" Crimea to Russia for 50 or 100 years. This strikes me as being dangerously close to the law-school definition of chutzpah and, anyway, the Russians slapped it down.
In addition, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, there's a reek of kleptocracy around the deal. From the NYT:
But the proposal contains more than just a peace plan. Andrii V. Artemenko, the Ukrainian lawmaker, who sees himself as a Trump-style leader of a future Ukraine, claims to have evidence — "names of companies, wire transfers" — showing corruption by the Ukrainian president, Petro O. Poroshenko, that could help oust him. And Mr. Artemenko said he had received encouragement for his plans from top aides to Mr. Putin. "A lot of people will call me a Russian agent, a U.S. agent, a C.I.A. agent," Mr. Artemenko said. "But how can you find a good solution between our countries if we do not talk?" The two others involved in the effort have somewhat questionable pasts: Mr. Sater, 50, a Russian-American, pleaded guilty to a role in a stock manipulation scheme decades ago that involved the Mafia. Mr. Artemenko spent two and a half years in jail in Kiev in the early 2000s on embezzlement charges, later dropped, which he said had been politically motivated.
Russian ratfcking in the West seems to be the old Tsarist imperatives hitched to an outlaw plutocracy that possibly might have its hooks in the President of the United States and/or in his corporation's business, about which the Congress should demand more information. The burlesque about the tax returns has to end, very soon. If there's a single Republican chairperson of a relevant committee with any sense of patriotism at all, those returns have to be subpoenaed as soon as possible.
Right now, we've thrown national security—and the presidency itself—into the blender with a Dostoevsky novella and some sort of pulp spy fiction. Enough is truly enough.
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Do These 10 Things, and Trump Will Be Toast |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=35918"><span class="small">Michael Moore, Michael Moore's Facebook Page</span></a>
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Wednesday, 22 February 2017 09:50 |
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Moore writes: "First, let's acknowledge what we all know to be true: Trump is in deep, deep trouble - in the pocket of Russians, surrounded by alt-right idiots, alone in his bathrobe in a mostly-empty White House - and caught inside a disgusting 'shit-sandwich,' so said his supporter who turned down the NSA job."
The filmmaker Michael Moore, near a closed factory in Flint, Mich., where his father worked. (photo: Fabrizio Costantini/NYT)
Do These 10 Things, and Trump Will Be Toast
By Michael Moore, Michael Moore's Facebook Page
22 February 17
 riends, I welcome you to "The Michael Moore Easy-to-Follow 10-Point Plan to Stop Trump."
First, let's acknowledge what we all know to be true: Trump is in deep, deep trouble -- in the pocket of Russians, surrounded by alt.right idiots, alone in his bathrobe in a mostly-empty White House -- and caught inside a disgusting "shit-sandwich", so said his supporter who turned down the NSA job.
Only one month into his So-Called Presidency -- and yet there is good news, as this is what the American landscape looks like:
•Tens of thousands of citizens across the country have stormed Congressional district offices and town hall meetings to express their rage at the Trump agenda (a dejected Republican congressman, after a 3-hour verbal assault from his angry constituents, said on TV last night, "let's face it - they [the Obamacare supporters] have won.").
•A federal court halted Trump's first Muslim Ban -- actually, make that FOUR federal courts have ruled against him! He's conceded defeat and will not appeal to the Supreme Court (though he will try a new ban - and good luck with that, you son of a Scottish immigrant).
•Progressive Democrat Congressman Keith Ellison appears to be the front-runner for this Saturday's vote to head the Democratic Party -- and to FIX the whole damn mess! Also, a recruitment drive has begun across the country to find the best local candidates to run for state and federal offices in 2018. Millions are committed to never letting the Debacle of ‘16 happen again.
•Our beautiful Army of Comedy - with its Platoon of Satirists led by Alec Baldwin and Melissa McCarthy - is killing it! The devastating impersonation of White House spokesman Sean Spicer by McCarthy has Trump fuming to the point where he has considered getting rid of Spicer. Politico says he simply can't watch one of his top aides being portrayed by...a woman!
So the momentum is with us right now -- and if we all just take a little time to do the Action Plan below, I'm convinced we'll succeed in halting the dark force that is Trump. We can tie him up in knots at every turn, and eventually, we can bring him down.
So let's get started with our...
10-POINT ACTION PLAN TO STOP TRUMP
1. THE DAILY CALL: You must call Congress every day. Yes - YOU! 202-225-3121. It will take just TWO MINUTES! Make it part of your daily routine, one of those five things you do every morning without even thinking about it:
- Wake up.
- Brush teeth.
- Walk dog (or stare at cat).
- Make coffee.
- Call Congress.
It is impossible to overstate just how much power you have by making this simple, quick DAILY CALL. I know from firsthand experience the impact it has. These politicians freak out if they get just 10 calls on an issue. Imagine them getting 10,000! Holy crap - the dome will pop off that building!
NOTE: if you're saying to yourself, "I don't need to call because my rep is a Democrat!" -- that is NOT true. They need to hear from you. They need to know they have your support. Don't believe it? Our beloved Sen. Elizabeth Warren voted in favor of Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development! I'm sure no one in Massachusetts thought they had to call her. YOU DO! She and the other Dems need to hear from the boss -- YOU! They work for us - and what boss doesn't have daily contact with his or her employees?
It's easy to make The Daily Call. To call your U.S. member of Congress or Senators in D.C., dial 202-225-3121 (or 202-224-3121 if busy). It's even better to call their direct line. For Senators, find each of their numbers here: http://bit.ly/2kko0Ao. For the direct line to your member in the House of Representatives: http://house.gov/representatives.
Here’s some great news: Someone has created an app to make this very easy: Go to the App Store and get "5 Calls". The app will dial the friggin' phone for you and give you talking points for when you speak to your reps!
Here's what a sample week of your DAILY CALL can look like:
On Monday, call your Congressman/woman and tell them you do not want them to repeal Obamacare. In fact, you want them to improve it so that we have single-payer universal health care like all other "civilized" countries.
On Tuesday, call the first of your two U.S. Senators and tell him to vote NO on Rick Perry for Secretary of Energy. He couldn't even remember there was a Department of Energy - or what it did!
On Wednesday, call your other U.S. Senator. Demand she do everything in her power to block the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Thursday, call your local State House/Assembly representative in your state capital. Tell her you want the House to vote for legislation that prohibits the incarceration of nonviolent drug users.
On Friday, call your State Senator. Tell him you want him to support all efforts to reduce those activities which cause climate change.
If you’d rather to write to your reps, you can find the best way to do that for each of them here by typing in your address on: democracy.io.
I will post updates on the actions we're fighting for each day and week on my Twitter and Facebook pages. If you want to know what to call your reps about, I encourage you to follow me right now on Facebook at facebook.com/MMFlint and on Twitter at @MMFlint. All my social media sites are at my website www.michaelmoore.com.
Remember -- A call a day keeps the Trump away.
2. THE MONTHLY VISIT: To add even more pressure, SHOW UP! Your member of Congress has a local office in your town or somewhere nearby. So do both of your U.S. Senators (often in the nearest federal building). Go there and ask to speak to their aide about the issues we're facing (again, I will continually post them on my social media sites).
Also, don't forget to visit the local office (or the state capitol office) of your State Representative/Assemblyperson, and your State Senator.
And, if you're lucky to live within driving distance of Washington, DC, show up on Capitol Hill and pay an unannounced (it's legal!) in-person visit to your U.S. Senators and your Congressman/woman. They pay serious attention to this. It blows their mind that you'd drive that far to see them. Do it!
I know not everyone has the time to do THE MONTHLY VISIT -- but if you can, please do!
3. YOUR OWN PERSONAL RAPID RESPONSE TEAM: You and 5 to 20 friends and family members must become your personal RAPID RESPONSE TEAM. Sign everybody up so that when we need to leap into action (like we did at the airports the hour after Trump signed his Muslim Ban), you can email and text each other and make an instant plan. On other days, you'll share links to good investigative stories and TV news items. Come up with a name for your RAPID RESPONSE TEAM -- mine is called "The V for Vendetta Rapid Response Team" and it consists of myself, my daughter and son-in-law (and their new baby!); my two sisters, their spouses and adult children; my cousin; 8 friends; 6 co-workers; and my next door neighbor. That's 27 of us and we live from Seattle to Michigan to Maryland. And each of them are forming their own local Rapid Response Teams. So that means the 27 on my team are so far responsible 405 new Rapid Responders overnight! And each of those 405 are doing the same - they're recruiting their own 5-20 people - and BOOM! 4,050 more Rapid Responders tomorrow -- and growing!
4. JOIN! JOIN! JOIN!: We all know it's time for all of us to be part of a greater whole, so let's actually physically sign up online and JOIN some of our great national groups. I've joined Planned Parenthood, ACLU, Black Lives Matter, Democratic Socialists of America, and ERA Action. Some charge money to join, so if you don't have much, pick the lowest amount ($5 for ACLU for example) -- or join groups that don't charge anything (but if you can help them financially, please do). They will keep you informed of national actions and fight for us in court.
5. THE WOMEN'S MARCH NEVER ENDS: The historical, record-breaking January 21st Women’s March on Washington -- and the hundreds of other Marches that day across the US and the world, with over 4 million in attendance! -- brought massive numbers of people out who had never protested in their lives. It inspired millions of others and ignited so many local movements we still can't count them all. The day after the Women's March, another two dozen protests took place. The day after that, 2,000 Utahans jammed into their state capitol in Salt Lake City. Then, on the following Saturday, tens of thousands of Americans occupied their local airports to oppose Trump's Muslim ban. And on and on and on. Every day -- still! -- dozens of actions continue to take place as if the Women's March never ended. It hasn't. Join it!
I and a group of friends have set up THE RESISTANCE CALENDAR (www.resistancecalendar.com) that is updated daily, where you can find out what actions are taking place near where you live. All you have to do is type in your city or state in the search bar.
It's critical that large numbers of us continue to march, protest, sit-in, and be very visible -- to Trump, so he knows we are the majority; to put the Dems on notice that we expect them to grow a spine; to our fellow Americans who live in Boise or Tulsa or Grand Rapids and have been feeling alone and afraid since the election. Our mass presence reminds them the people didn't elect Trump. And it is good for each of us to operate in concert with each other, to feel the solidarity and the hope.
And the official Women's March on Washington -- they've called for a national Women's Strike on March 8th. Let's join them!
6. TAKE OVER THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: The old guard of the Party has twice in 16 years presided over the majority of Americans electing the Democrat to the White House -- only for us all to see the losing Republican inaugurated as President. How is it that we have won the popular vote in SIX OF THE LAST SEVEN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS -- the Republicans have only won ONCE since 1988 -- and yet, we hold NO power in any branch of government?! That, plus losing 1,000 local seats in this election that the Dems use to hold -- plus watching many Dems in Congress unwilling to stand up to Trump -- PLEASE, the old leadership has to go. God love 'em for their contributions in the past, but if we don't enact a radical overhaul right now, we are doomed as far as having a true opposition party during the Trump era. And that, more than anything, will help to usher in the vice-grip of a totalitarian culture.
You must do two things:
1. Let the DNC know that THIS SATURDAY, February 25th, the Democratic National Committee MUST elect reform and progressive candidate, Congressman Keith Ellison, as the new DNC chair. Keith is a former community organizer, the first Muslim elected to Congress, and a key backer of Bernie Sanders. He not only has Bernie's support --and mine--but he's also backed by Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Gloria Steinem, John Lewis and many others. Sign his petition of support at www.keithfordnc.org/howyoucanhelp. Let the DNC know how you feel.
And locally, you need to start attending your county Democratic meetings. If possible, organize your friends and others and take over your local Dem organization. More on this at a later date.
7. HELP FORM BLUE REGIONS OF RESISTANCE: People keep saying to me, "Mike - I live in a Blue State - what can I do?" If you live in a Blue State, you have one of the MOST important tasks to complete: Show the rest of America what it looks like when Trump isn't in charge! Blue States and Blue Cities must do an end-run around Trump and create the America we want to live in. That means New York goes ahead and offers Free College for All. California can create its own Universal Health Care. Oregon can stop mass incarceration of African Americans. Hawaii can enact its own climate change laws. Blue States can show the rest of country how much better life can be. Important historical note: Before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal, California and New York passed their own state laws to make it legal. This greatly helped pave the way for CHOICE being the new normal -- and the enactment of Row v. Wade.
8. YOU MUST RUN FOR OFFICE: I know, that's the LAST thing you want to do. But if we keep leaving the job up to the dismal, lame, pathetic political hacks who have sold us all down the river, then what right do we have to complain? This is only going to get fixed when you and I decide we are willing to put in our time -- even if it is a brief time -- and run for office. I ran when I was 18 and got elected. You can, too. We need good candidates for the 2018 elections -- and not just Congress and State Houses, but also school boards, city councils and county commissions. Why not take out a petition today and run next year? Heck, I'll bet I'll even support you!
I realize most of you can't do this -- but there is one office every one of us can and SHOULD run for next year: PRECINCT DELEGATE. Every precinct, every neighborhood can elect x-number of Dems to the county Democratic Convention. It's on the ballot and it's usually blank - no one runs for it. So the precinct delegates end up being appointed by the party hacks. And that's who ends up eventually at the national convention to pick the next presidential candidate. So this is an important position to run for. The time commitment is just 3 hours a year! You attend the county convention -- that’s it. Call your city or county clerk and find out how to get on the ballot. If you'll do it, I'll do it. It's the first step to making sure we put a candidate on the ballot who can win.
9. YOU MUST BECOME THE MEDIA: Stop complaining about the media, stop wishing they were something they're not, find the ones who are doing a good job and then start your own "media empire" by sharing their work and your work on the internet. Use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media sites to spread news and information. Make sure all your friends and family are signed up. Yes, I'm talking to you, Baby Boomers. Get over it, put down your postage stamps and your "TV clicker" and find a six-year old to show you how to start tweeting. You can be your own reporter, your own editor. You can curate the news for your friends. And now Facebook lets you have your own network with Facebook Live! It's all free. Get on social media now. Imagine, your own CNN is in the palm of your hand...
10. JOIN THE ARMY OF COMEDY: Trump's Achilles heel is his massively thin skin. He can't take mockery. So we all need to MOCK HIM UP! Not just the brilliant people at SNL or Colbert, Seth Myers or Samantha Bee -- but YOU. Use your sense of humor and share it with people. Get them to do the same. Keep sending around the SNL links spoofing Sean Spicer, Trump and Kellyanne -- there's no such thing as watching them too many times! Hahaha. I truly believe the final tipping point for Trump will be when he implodes from all the laughter -- the mocking, the unbearable ridicule of tens of millions of Americans that will discombobulate him and force him out of the White House. I know this seems like Mike’s fever dream, but I believe it can work. I don't know what happened to Trump in boarding school at 13 and I don't care. Whatever it was, let's use it. He's used all the other things he picked up over the years - misogyny, bigotry, greed - against the powerless and the unfortunate. It's time to laugh him outta town. And if there's one thing we all could use right now is a good laugh -- AND the possibility of a much-shortened presidential term.
So, there you go! The 10-Point Action Plan to Thump Trump. Something for everyone. And every one of us needs to do them. Please share this and spread the word. We can stop him. We can nonviolently block and obstruct halt the damage he's doing. But it's going to need -- and take -- ALL HANDS ON DECK!
Let's make Trump toast again.
-- Michael Moore
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How to Run a Rogue Government Twitter Account With an Anonymous Email Address and a Burner Phone |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=32965"><span class="small">Micah Lee, The Intercept</span></a>
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Wednesday, 22 February 2017 09:30 |
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Lee writes: "As a rule, the people running these accounts chose to remain anonymous, fearing retaliation - but, depending on how they created and use their accounts, they are not necessarily anonymous to Twitter itself, or to anyone Twitter shares data with."
A burner phone. (photo: The Intercept)
How to Run a Rogue Government Twitter Account With an Anonymous Email Address and a Burner Phone
By Micah Lee, The Intercept
22 February 17
 ne of the first things Donald Trump did when he took office was temporarily gag several federal agencies, forbidding them from tweeting.
In response, self-described government workers created a wave of rogue Twitter accounts that share real facts (not to be confused with “alternative facts,” otherwise known as “lies”) about climate change and science. As a rule, the people running these accounts chose to remain anonymous, fearing retaliation — but, depending on how they created and use their accounts, they are not necessarily anonymous to Twitter itself, or to anyone Twitter shares data with.
Anonymous speech is firmly protected by the First Amendment and the Supreme Court, and its history in the U.S. dates to the Federalist Papers, written in 1787 and 1788 under the pseudonym Publius by three of the founding fathers.
But the technical ability for people to remain anonymous on today’s internet, where every scrap of data is meticulously tracked, is an entirely different issue. The FBI, a domestic intelligence agency that claims the power to spy on anyone based on suspicions that don’t come close to probable cause, has a long, dark history of violating the rights of Americans. And now it reports directly to President Trump, who is a petty, revenge-obsessed authoritarian with utter disrespect for the courts and the rule of law.
In this environment, how easy is it to create and maintain a Twitter account while preserving your anonymity — even from Twitter and any law enforcement agency that may request its records? I tried to find out, and documented all my steps. There are different ways to accomplish this. If you plan on following these steps you should make sure you understand the purpose of them, in case you need to improvise. I also can’t guarantee that these techniques will protect your anonymity — there are countless ways that things can go wrong, many of them social rather than technical. But I hope you’ll at least have a fighting chance at keeping your real identity private.
For this exercise, I decided to pick a highly controversial political topic: Facts. I believe that what we know about reality is based on evidence that can be objectively observed. Thus, I created the completely anonymous (until publishing this article, of course) Twitter account @FactsNotAlt. Here’s how I did it.
Threat model
Before we begin, it helps to define a threat model, that is: what we need to protect; who we need to protect it from; what their capabilities are; and what countermeasures prevent or mitigate these threats.
Basically, it’s impossible to be completely secure all the time, so we need to prioritize our limited resources into protecting what matters the most first. The most important piece of information you need to protect in this case is your real identity.
Law enforcement or the FBI might launch an investigation aimed at learning your identity. It may be to retaliate against you — getting you fired, charging you with crimes, or worse. Your Twitter account might also anger armies of trolls who could threaten you, abuse you with hate speech, and try to uncover your identity.
If the FBI opens an investigation aimed at de-anonymizing you, one of the first things they’ll do is simply ask Twitter — and every other service that they know you use — for information about your account. So a critically important countermeasure to take is to ensure that none of the information tied to your account — phone numbers, email addresses, or IP addresses you’ve used while logging into your account — lead back to you.
This is true for all accounts you create. For instance, if you supply a phone number while creating your Twitter account, the phone service provider associated with that number shouldn’t have information that can lead back to you either.
Another concern: The FBI also might go undercover online and try to befriend you, to trick you into revealing details about yourself or to trick you into clicking a link to hack you. They might make use of informants in the community of people who follow you on Twitter as well. Organized trolls might use the same tactics.
Hiding your IP address with Tor
An IP address is a set of numbers that identifies a computer, or a network of computers, on the internet. Unless you take extra steps, every website you visit can see your IP address. If you’re using Twitter while connected to your home or office Wi-Fi network, or your phone’s data plan, Twitter can tell. If they hand these IP addresses to the FBI, you will very quickly lose your anonymity.
This is where Tor comes in. Tor is a decentralized network of servers that help people bypass internet censorship, evade internet surveillance, and access websites anonymously. If you connect to Twitter while you’re using Tor Browser, Twitter can’t tell what your real IP address is — instead, they’ll see the IP address of a random Tor server. Tor servers are run by volunteers. And even if any of the servers bouncing your data around are malicious, they won’t be able to learn both who you are and what you’re doing.
This is the primary benefit that Tor has over Virtual Private Network, or VPN, services, which try to help users hide their IP addresses. The FBI can go to a VPN service to learn your real IP address (assuming the VPN keeps a record of its users’ IP addresses, and cooperates with these requests). This isn’t true with Tor.
To get started with Tor, download Tor Browser. It’s a web browser, like Chrome or Firefox, but all its internet traffic gets routed over the Tor network, hiding your real IP address.
Using Tor Browser is the easiest way to get started, but it’s not perfect. For instance, a hacker who knows about a vulnerability in Tor Browser can discover your real IP address by tricking you into visiting a website they control, and exploiting that vulnerability — the FBI has done this in the past. For this reason, it’s important to always immediately update Tor Browser when you get prompted.
You can also protect yourself from Tor Browser security bugs by using an operating system that’s designed to protect your anonymity, such as Tails or Qubes with Whonix, (I’ve written about the latter here). This is more work for you, but it might be worth it. Personally, I’m using Qubes with Whonix.
Getting an anonymous email address
Before you can create nearly any account online, you need an email address. While popular email services like Gmail or Yahoo Mail let anyone make an account for free, they don’t make it easy to do so anonymously. Most of them require that you verify your identity with a phone number. You can in fact do that anonymously (more on that below), but I prefer using an email provider that is happy to give addresses to anonymous users.
One of these providers is SIGAINT, a darknet-only service that forces all its users to login using Tor to read or send email. The people who run it are anonymous and it contains ads for (sometimes very sketchy, sorry) darknet websites. However, you do end up with a working, anonymous email address.
Update: Feb. 20, 3:10 p.m. ET
The SIGAINT service appears to be down right now. While it’s down, you can try Riseup, or set up a burner phone and then try ProtonMail, Gmail, or some other service instead.
If you prefer not to use SIGAINT, another good choice is Riseup, a technology collective that provides email, mailing list, VPN, and other similar services to activists around the world. Accounts are free, and they don’t ask for any identifying information, but you do need invite codes from two friends who already use Riseup in order to create an account.
Yet another option is ProtonMail — a privacy-friendly email provider based in Switzerland that asks for minimal identifying information and works well over Tor. However, to prevent abuse, they require Tor users to provide a phone number (that they promise not to store) to receive an SMS during account creation. So, if you’d like to use ProtonMail instead (or any other email service that requires a phone number when creating an account over Tor), follow the steps below to create an anonymous phone number first.
I decided to use SIGAINT. In Tor Browser, I went to SIGAINT’s onion service address, sigaintevyh2rzvw.onion, which I found on their public website. This is a special type of web address that only works in Tor Browser, and not the normal internet. From there, I filled out the form to create a new account.
That’s it. I’ve now created a brand new anonymous email address:
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.
Getting an anonymous phone number
While attempting to create a Twitter account, I quickly hit a snag. Even if I provide my (anonymous) email address, Twitter won’t let me create a new account without first verifying my phone number. (You might get lucky and get the option to skip entering your phone number — it doesn’t hurt to try — but if you’re coming from a Tor node that isn’t likely.)
This is a problem, because I obviously can’t use my real phone number if I want to remain anonymous. So to proceed, I needed to figure out how to get a phone number that isn’t tied to my actual identity. This is a common problem when trying to stay anonymous online, so you can follow these instructions any time you need a phone number when opening an account.
There are other ways to do it, but I chose a conceptually simple option: Buy a burner phone anonymously, use it to verify my new Twitter account, and then get rid of it. I wandered around downtown San Francisco looking in convenience stores and pharmacies until I found what I was looking for in a 7-Eleven.
Using cash, I bought the cheapest TracFone handset I could find (an LG 328BG “feature phone” — as in, not a smartphone) as well as 60 minutes’ worth of voice service, for a total of $62.38 after tax. You might be able to find cheaper cell phone handsets if you look long enough.
If you’re going to get a burner phone and want to maintain your anonymity, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Buy your burner phone handset and pre-paid service using cash. Don’t use a credit card.
- When you buy service, the clerk activates your service card at the cash register. This tells the phone company (TracFone, in my case) exactly which store you bought it from, and when. Keep this in mind, and consider picking a store far away from where you live — like while you’re traveling in another city.
- Security cameras will probably record your face at the store. Most stores delete old footage on a regular basis, overwriting it with new footage. If possible, wait a week or two before you start tweeting so that the footage is already deleted by the time anyone tries to figure out your real identity.
- You can find phones and service like this at some convenience stores and pharmacies. If you need to do internet research to find a store near you that sells burner phones, use Tor Browser.
- As soon as you power on your burner phone, it will connect to cell phone towers, and the phone company will know your location. So, don’t activate your phone, or keep it powered on at all, at your home or office — instead, go to a public place, like a coffee shop, before activating your new phone. Keep it powered off while you’re not using it.
- Don’t use the burner’s phone number for anything at all that isn’t related to this specific project. This is called compartmentalization; if someone discovers the entire history of that phone number, they shouldn’t be able to learn anything new.
- Each cell phone handset has a unique identifier. So if you need a second phone number at some point in the future and you don’t want it to be connected to your first phone number, you’ll have to buy a second handset.
After buying phone service, you’ll need to activate the phone. This process will be different with different phone companies. TracFone requires you to activate your handset either by calling their phone number from a different phone — obviously not a good option for someone trying to remain anonymous — or by activating online at their website. I activated my burner phone online using Tor Browser.
Once you’ve activated your phone, you can use the phone’s menu system to learn what your new phone number is. On my LG 328BG, I pressed Menu, selected Settings, and finally Phone Information to find it.
Creating a Twitter account anonymously
Finally, armed with an email address and phone number that aren’t in any way connected to my real identity, I could create a Twitter account.
Before making an account, grab your laptop and burner phone and go to a public location that isn’t your home or office, such as a coffee shop. When you get there, power on your burner phone. Keep in mind that this location is now tied to your burner phone, so you might wish to do this step when you’re traveling in another city.
Using Tor Browser, I navigated to https://twitter.com/signup and signed up for a new account. The new account form asked for my full name (“Facts Are True”), my email address (
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), and a password.
After clicking “Sign up,” I was immediately prompted to enter my phone number. I typed my anonymous phone number and clicked “Call me.” A Twitter robot called my burner and read out a six-digit number, which I typed into the next page on Tor Browser. It worked great.
With the phone number verification step complete, I powered off my burner phone. Once you’re sure you don’t need your burner phone anymore, it’s a good idea to get rid of it.
Toward the end of the signup process, Twitter prompted me to come up with a username. After many tries, I found one I liked: @FactsNotAlt. After clicking through the welcome screen, I was finally logged into my new anonymous account.
I went ahead and confirmed that I control my
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email address.
And there you have it. I set up my new account and began tweeting about things that are true.
Maintaining the Twitter account over time
If you’re following along, you’ve now created a completely anonymous Twitter account as well. Congratulations! But your work has only just started. Now comes the hard part: Maintaining this account for months, or years, without making any mistakes that compromise your identity. I won’t be following these tips myself with the @FactsNotAlt account — I’ve already outed myself as the owner. But for anyone who is trying to anonymously maintain a popular Twitter account, here are some things to keep in mind.
Be careful about how you interact with people:
- You should operate on a strict “need-to-know” basis. Don’t tell anyone who doesn’t need to know that you’re involved with running this account. Don’t brag. This is, by far, the easiest way to mess up and for your real identity to come out: gossip.
- Be careful about what privileged information you tweet. If you’re part of a small group of people who have access to some information and you tweet about it, you might become a suspect when before you weren’t.
- If your account becomes popular, you might begin having conversations with lots of strangers on the internet. Be very careful what you say, even if you’re saying it in a private message. Some of these strangers might be gaining your trust in hopes that you’ll slip and tell them scraps of information about your identity.
- Be very careful about clicking links that people send you — they could be trying to learn your IP address, or even trying to hack Tor Browser. Avoid clicking them at all, but if you really want to click one, first make sure you’re running the very latest version of Tor Browser and set your security slider to High.
- Be conscious of your word choice. People might analyze your writing style to de-anonymize you, so you should try to write in a voice that’s distinctive from your own, if you can. For example, it wouldn’t be wise for Donald Trump to tweet, “The failing @theintercept keeps writing FAKE NEWS. Sad!” from his anonymous account, because people might suspect that he’s the person behind that account.
Compartmentalize:
- Never log in from your work computer — many companies spy on their employees’ computers. Use a personal computer instead. Also, avoid your work network — many companies log exactly which computers connect to their network and what they do online. Tor hides what you’re doing, but the company can still tell that you’re using Tor on their network.
- Always use Tor Browser when using your account. Don’t log in on your phone. Don’t log in with any other browser. Don’t even look at your anonymous Twitter account while logged into your personal account.
- When you are logged into your anonymous account, don’t follow your personal account, or the accounts of any of your friends. Don’t retweet or like any of those tweets either. Basically, don’t make it obvious who your social group is.
- Be careful about uploading photos for tweets or your profile. Photos often contain metadata that could be used to lead back to you. Screenshots don’t though, so one easy way to remove metadata from a photo is to take a screenshot of it.
Many successful Twitter accounts have a team of people who run them instead of a single individual. If you’re part of such a team, or thinking of sharing access to your existing account with someone new:
- Only invite people that you know and that you trust.
- Come up with a set of operational security rules — like the rules listed above — and make sure that everyone involved understands them and is on the same page.
- Come up with a secure communicate channel as a team, and only discuss the Twitter account using this channel, or in person. There are many different technologies you could use, all with different trade-offs, but one option is to use the encrypted messaging app Signal: Create a Signal group (with an innocuous name) and set your messages to automatically disappear after a short time, like 5 minutes.
- Instead of just tweeting when you come up with ideas, edit each other’s tweets. This will both improve the quality of the tweets, and could help defeat style analysis, since you’ll end up with a shared voice.
And finally, keep in mind that after all this, Twitter can always kick you off for their own reasons. And if your account gets hacked and the email address associated with it is changed, you’ll have no way to recover it.
Good luck!
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s tyrants take control of democracies, they typically do 7 things: 
