Joe's Philanthropy is No Smokescreen

I am sorry to say that Gerry Gleason, without consulting me in any way, has taken it upon himself to impugn the motives of Smoky Joe, JD Executive Director of Rooster Foundation, the sole Funder of Gifthub. Gerry, I can assure you that Joe does not use philanthropy to, as you put it, "lay down a smokescreen." Joe provides a well-reasoned rebuttal here in Wealth Bondage to Gerry's ill-founded and scurillous charges.   Please assure Candidia, Joe, that I had nothing to do with this. I am well aware of which side my bread is buttered on. Without the generous support of Candidia Cruikshanks and The Rooster Foundation, we could not continue to uplift humanity. Thank you for all you do for me.

Comments

[J. Alva Scruggs]

I was think it's a real pity there's no one auditing the money trail from Smoky Joe to Blowtorch. You'd think the ability to do that would be part of a basic democratic toolkit, available to anyone who cares about democracy. We know where Joe gets his money. His sponsors are proud to deduct it as charitable donations.

[Phil]

Disclosure, I believe, of grants is required. You can poke around at Guidestar, and Mediatransparency to get an idea.

[Gerry]

It would be fun to use Joe and Rooster in example of mock opposition research. Demonstrate to those of us who don't know just what sort of things you might dig up on someone. Fiction has the advantage of being maleable, and it can't sue you either.

I told Joe he'd better shape up over at WB. Blowtorch is not that subtle, he always leaves a trail.

[Phil]

Fictionalizing and dramatizing what Jay has researched might make it easier for some people to engage. "Aesthetic distance."

[Gerry]

That's what I was thinking. I also apreciate the difference between taunting Blowtorch vs. his real world counterparts. Sock puppets don't bite back except rhetorically. In the real world, I'd like to be able to leave the necessary application of force to stop those who insist on using violence to the professionals. In many places, and hopefully more and more places you can pretty much count on the police to be on your side against hate crimes. They might not always be that effective, particularly against covert attacks, but they will take it seriously and do what they can.

[Phil]

Agreed, Gerry. Mixing truth with overt fiction is an ancient and powerful technique. Candidia, Blowtorch, Smoky Joe are like X,Y,and Z in algebra. They can take an infinite number of personal names, but each name if given could as you say "bite back." So why not deal with "types"? The use of "types" for this kind of work goes back at least as far as Aristophenes.