Mysteries

Mystery 1: Does Rick Wilson have the Ultimate November Surprise? Go here. If these tweets are real (and they do not appear on Wilsons' own Twitter page), then "We're not close to the final surprise."

(Added note: My mistake; the tweets are indeed real.)

Wilson is an anti-Trump Republican who writes for Politico, The Daily Beast, and the New York Daily News. He seems a bit full of himself, but that attitude is pretty common these days. At any rate, he seems to be hinting at an anti-Trump surprise -- thank god.

That said, I happen to have a heart condition, and I'm not looking forward to a "bonkers" weekend. The Afib has been bad enough as it is.

I know nothing more than what you see here. If you know more, please share with the rest of the class.

Mystery 2. Ah, Weinergate! Everyone is talking about the surprisingly erudite missive written (allegedly) by the underaged girl said to be the object of Anthony Weiner's attentions. It is published here. She slams into Comey for saying what he said; supposedly, his letter re-awakened interest in her case and caused reporters to come a-knocking at her door.

In his “cooperation” with you and with his love of the spotlight, Anthony Weiner has given information that led to the media finding me. You have assisted him in further victimizing me on every news outlet. I can only assume that you saw an opportunity for political propaganda.

I thought your job as FBI Director was to protect me. I thought if I cooperated with your investigation, my identity as a minor would be kept secret. That is no longer the case. My family and I are barraged by reporters’ phone calls and emails. I have been even been blamed in a newspaper for causing Donald Trump to now be leading in some polls and costing Hillary the election.

And so on. But is this well-written letter genuine? Before you take all of this at face value, please read the following comment I made to a NY Mag recounting of this tale:

I'm suspicious of this whole thing. Does anyone recall the FIRST sexting scandal of 2011? The right wing trolls in various comments sections kept predicting that Weiner would also be guilty of chatting sexually with underaged girls.

Suddenly, two claimed underaged girls came forward making that very claim. Various news reports gave them the code names "Betty" and "Veronica."

They told extremely detailed stories. Mediaite reporter Tommy Christopher investigated. He talked to the girls, and to one parent.

And then the girls admitted that the whole thing was a ruse, and that they had been put up to it by writers for Brietbart.

And THEN -- Christopher discovered that none of the people with whom he spoke ever existed. They were imposters!

The whole affair remains a bizarre mystery. A number of people (on both the right and left) quietly kept looking into the matter after Weiner resigned from office and the story died. There was a lot of sound and fury, but as far as I know, nobody has ever explained the imposture.

(If you don't believe what I've just written -- ask Tommy Christopher. He probably has many further details which I've forgotten over the course of five years.)

The similarity of that case to the current one is uncanny.

Due the passage of time, my memory of what happened is far from perfect, and I haven't gone over those older posts to refresh my recollection. But I think that what I've written here is a fair precis of the "Betty and Veronica" mystery.

I can assure you that, shortly after the Weiner scandal broke in May of 2011, the right-wing comment trolls (who were obviously organized) really were shouting about Weiner's "abuse" of the underaged. They sounded that note before the "Betty and Veronica" story came out. The way they called the shot was downright uncanny.

The B-and-V mystery was the basis of a great behind-the-scenes brouhaha -- a "twilight war," as I have called it in various previous posts. All sorts of shadowy characters became involved. They were doxxing each other and lobbing weird accusations at each other. Even for me, things got way too bizarre; I quickly gave up on trying to keep track of it all.

As I recall, a few of the Brietbarters settled on the theory that The Great Clinton Conspiracy had hoaxed Tommy Christopher. Why? Because them Clintons is EEEEEEvil, I tells ya! They also committed the Smiley Face murders...and they started the Vietnam War...and...

Weiner admits that he has a problem, but he has also said that he was hoaxed. I don't have any further details about that claim, but I do know that hoaxing does play a role in this story.

Some of you may recall that when the current underaged sexting story first broke, the 15 year old in question -- let's call her Miss X -- wrote another long-ish piece. It was, once again, written with a grace and style unusual for one so young. In that piece, Miss X included a weird, out-of-nowhere jibe at Hillary Clinton.

Mind you, I'm going on memory here. If you people are interested, I'll explore this business further in a later post, offering linky goodness and direct quotes.

On the other hand, if all you want to do is to make yourself feel virtuous by delivering a predictable rant about the dangers of sexual predation -- well, I'd rather not deal with it. The people who give those rants are missing the fucking point. The point being: Who were Betty and Veronica, why were they hoaxing Tommy Christopher, and is our current "Miss X" of a similarly fictional nature?