The Intel Hub
January 16, 2012
Contributed by 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.
Similar tactics have also been planned and executed against the “Tea Party movement” by (for example) “anarchist” provocateurs wanting to “act on behalf of the Tea Party” in disgraceful ways in order to “damage the public’s opinion of them”, and fake “Nazi Youth” who crashed a tax day protest by the Santa Fe Tea Party.
Here is a good example of activists with cameras and anti-racism signs non-violently confronting a supposed “KKK” member who infiltrated a “Tea Party” rally in St. Louis, which may be instructive if any such people show up in South Carolina this week.
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.
