There is a reason why “idiots” is part of the phrase: useful idiots. It is because although “useful” they are also idiots. MaxPowers epitomizes useful idiots because although he considers himself intelligent and even witty he is nothing more than a thug serving his masters. The thing about liars is that eventually the truth leaks out.
Many years ago, I had to read one of the most boring texts ever. What made it even worse is that it was originally written in English and the version I was reading was a Spanish translation that was hurriedly translated, although professionally it was an obvious translation that made it even more difficult to read. I hated the fact that I was having to read it and never thought I would actually use what I read. Truth be told, I probably remember less than 2% of what I read. It was a compilation of about five to six manuals, each on a different topic related to counter-insurgency.
I don’t remember exactly in which section I read about detecting when someone is lying, it could have been in “Manejo de Fuente” or “Interrogación”. (Handling a Source, or Interrogation) However, it is likely it was in the latter. I remember reading that individuals hiding something will go into attack mode as soon as they feel like they are about to be exposed. I’m sure most of you know that those who are lying get defensive when questioned. People who are not hiding something plainly come out and state so.
I know that everyone in politics has an agenda, as it is the nature of the beast. Politics brings out the worst in all of us. Then there are those who are just plain idiots. MaxPowers thinks he was being clever by registering his domain name through GoDaddy’s proxy back on January 2013.
What he forgot is that GoDaddy is in the business of making money not hiding his identity. He thought he was a secret when, in fact, he was just another $6.00 a year to GoDaddy. He further thought that he was safely anonymous setting up his blog at Typepad.
That was mistake number two as by default TypePad uses Google Analytics (UA-225723) to internally track traffic to their blogs. Guess what? It’s about making money for TypePad so the analytics tracker is a wealth of information. Even better was the information TypePad revealed to me when I contacted them for information on him. Again, for TypePad it’s not about keeping secrets it is about one blogger worth a few pennies a day among thousands of others.
As clever as he thinks he is, the anonymous blogger is just stupid enough to think that he can keep himself anonymous.
However, it was his own stupidity that ultimately exposed him. Last week, when I started writing about The Forma Group, I mentioned that I was about to reveal an anonymous blogger to you. No sooner had I finished posting that article that MaxPowers reacted as all liars do, he went into full-attack and defense mode all in one. Two classic reactions by liars when they feel they are about to be exposed.
Two things were happening at the same time, one was that I was exposing The Forma Group for what it was and I dropped a hint that I was about to expose a blogger. I did not mention who the blogger was; I just wrote that I was writing a piece on exposing him.
Fearing exposure, MaxPowers immediately goes on the defensive writing that he is not working for Forma and at the same time goes on to attack me. However, intelligence can’t be used to define him so he attempts to mask his insecurity by taking one sentence from my blog “bribes disguised as campaign contributions” to try to discredit me. However, another blogger, and a newspaper reporter had to point out to him that in fact that statement had been used to describe the El Paso corruption.
Although I had been aware of the blog for the most part I ignored it because of how sexually crude it is, in fact it borders on being a creep show for sexually unstable individuals. However, I started paying attention to his postings when he and David Karlsruher teamed up with The Texas Tribune to attempt to discredit Stephanie Townsend Allala. You can read more about that on my post “How Useful Idiots Manipulate Public Perception: Case Study David Karlsruher and MaxPowers”.
As I read the posts, as revolting as they are I noticed a common theme, besides the sexual instability expressed by the author, it was that it targeted certain individuals, some to prop up and others to destroy. Among the posts, some promoting candidates that are paying The Forma Group and the others attempting to destroy those that oppose the paying clients, one individual stood out for me. It was Mary Gonzalez.
At first it seemed like the blogger has some sort of crude sexual fixation on Mary Gonzalez and then I realized something. Looking through the financial disclosures of The Forma Group it became evident that much of the money comes from Texans For Lawsuit Reform (TLR) related coffers.
Generally opposing the TLR is Annie’s List who contributed heavily into Mary Gonzalez’ campaign in 2011 and thus it started to become obvious to me who MaxPowers was serving. Taking a look at the posts, it quickly became even more evident that the blogger was a base from which to generate attack pieces to benefit Forma paying customers.
Today’s biggest targets of the bloggers’ viciousness are those candidates opposing the paying candidates Naomi Gonzalez and Marisa Marquez. Anyone challenging a paying client becomes a target. Many of you probably noticed that Norma Chavez was a onetime paying customer of The Forma Group and now she’s one of the politicians that the blogger attacks.
Remember how I pointed out to you in last week’s post how Naomi Gonzalez became a Forma client almost immediately after Chavez lost to her. Prior to that Ricardo Armendariz was touting Norma Chavez. As soon as she wasn’t a client of his and it became apparent that she threatened Gonzalez’ seat the blogger was dispatched to dress her down.
Likewise, the attempt by the blogger to discredit Stephanie Townsend Allala had everything to do with Steve Ortega’s campaign; he was a Forma client and everything to do with keeping the sweetheart baseball stadium on track. Remember that Woody Hunt funded The Forma Group through political contributions.
Even his Thursday, January 23, 2014 post further exposes The Forma connection. The blogger writes about the El Paso Times endorsements for House District 76. In it, he writes that Cesar Blanco is likely to get the paper’s endorsement. He argues that Norma Chavez is unlikely to get it and he acknowledges that Forma’s client, Naomi Gonzalez, is unlikely to get it because of her arrest. Therefore, he needs to limit the political fallout by creating a whisper campaign that it’s all good and it was expected. It is just another attempt to prop up Forma’s candidate and diminish the challenger.
The fact is that many individuals privately told me that MaxPowers was Ricardo Armendariz of The Forma Group a long time ago. In fact, he has been called out by name on at least two comments that I have seen on his own blog.
As anonymous as MaxPowers has been trying to be the fact is that he himself has identified himself through his own stupidity and ineptitude. There is a reason why “idiot” is part of the useful idiots phrase.
A note on anonymity
Personally, I believe in the freedom of speech and the ability to express oneself without the fear of retaliation in the form of violence or interference in the professional or private life of the person expressing themselves. In El Paso where corruption is the rule rather than the exception, I understand why certain bloggers prefer to remain anonymous, out of fear. There are anonymous bloggers that I read and I have no inclination to find out who they are because they express an opinion about an issue normally with intelligence and thought. I may not agree with them but their blog posts are reasoned arguments intended to express a position.
In the case of the MaxPowers character, I felt it important to expose him because of his hypocrisy especially when I realized he was nothing more than a tool for The Forma Group. He is nothing more than a vehicle for creating under-current negative whisper campaigns needed by The Forma Group to manipulate an election. For that reason, he needed to be exposed. I’m sure some woman who he has targeted are also happy he’s been exposed, for the creep that he is.
This should be a testament to the character of “MaxPowers” and the Forma Group. Anyone performing such practices lacks integrity and am not surprised that the “public servants” of El Paso (Marquez, Gonzalez, …) decide to flock with them.
It would seem that to have any impact you would need a lot of readers which none of you appear to have. When I mention any of the local blogs to friends, I get a blank stare back. You all overestimate your minimal influence.
rotten you are correct these bloggers have one or two followers and they think they have influence. they are all losers working in their mommies house.
Why are you not sharing what TypePad shared with you?
You are all fools for believing he knows anything. Parades just makes assumptions and proves nothing.
I am glad that the toilet is getting flushed. Keep on flushing Martin. By the way…can you connect dots on our legal system. And yes, we are scared to tell who we are because we know retribution is being planned. We have 28 el paso citizens who are looking to vote independent but we don’t seem to be having one run. The Old Regime must go.
Birdie thank you for taking the time to read my blog and for your comments. I am in the process of researching information on various aspects of the legal system in El Paso. As soon as I have time, I’ll begin to post the results of my research. The solution to the problem is voter engagement. When voters demand better things will change.
Thanks again,
Martín
Some people are useful idiots, and some people are useless idiots, Mr. Paredes.
As a long time Typepad customer who has had literally hundreds of inquiries made about me to them, I happen to know their policies on talking about their clients. They didn’t Martin anything. Do you know how I know that? I have called, pretended to be someone offended by my blog and pushed them to give me info. They hung up. Then they emailed ME to tell me that someone had called looking for info on ME. It didn’t take them long to recognize my voice.
They don’t use google analytics. In fact – their page views and hits tracking is a unique system and why I pay for their blog platform. I do have google analytics plugged into my site for some info that it provides – but you have it wrong in the way you describe it Martin.
As for the Forma Group and Max Powers being Ricardo Armendariz – you have obviously never met Ricardo. You also have missed posts where he has savaged Forma embarrassingly – especially Mark Smith.
I know a few things about Powers, but I don’t know who he is. I do know who he isn’t – Rick Armendariz. Seriously, Armendariz hat the personality of a broken pencil.
So, once again, the only person lying here is YOU. Why?
Really, is that the best you can do David? You write that YOU LIED to Typepad and then accuse me of lying? This from the person who, to my knowledge, has had to retract at least one post due to inaccuracies and had to post an apology for making stuff up on another.
Oh, and as for the analytics, here is a little thing you can try before writing about what you have no knowledge about, it’s called Google. Try typing in “UA-225723” and see what pops up. You might just learn something.
You’re not ready for the varsity because you’ve got no game. Practice some more at peewee and in time you might get into JV, just give up the varsity dream already.
Martín
Martin, your conspiracy theories are really entertaining!
The following quote at the bottom of my comment is straight from your quote above regarding a Google Search……… “you can try before writing about what you have no knowledge about, it’s called Google. Try typing in “UA-225723” and see what pops up. You might just learn something.”…
“Colleen, Typepad Community & Support
We just use it for general tracking – where traffic is going, what monitor sizes and browsers are the most popular, etc. We don’t collect any identifying visitor information, per our privacy policy. ”
Excellent job of proving NOTHING, once again.
Mike, thank you for taking the time to read my blog. And, I’m glad you are enjoying it. Just a quick point of clarification – my response was to David K’s statement that Typepad doesn’t use Google Analytics. Thank you for verifying it for David K, I’m sure he appreciates* being proven wrong again.
Martín (*that was tongue-and-cheek for those with reading comprehension issues)
Apparently you did not pick up on my sarcasm. Irrespective of yours and David’s disagreement, what did Typepad give you in light of what they were using Google Analytics for over a year ago? See, if you would have researched the quote I posted, you would have known that. Instead you reacted.
So you have gone to great lengths to prove your point over a minor detail in the comments section of your blog. what you have NOT done, is prove, WHAT Typepad shared with you leading you to that Max Powers is in fact Ricardo Armendariz.
In your case Martin, Richard Baron’s comment, above sums it all up for.
You’re still wrong – my back end tracking is not powered by google analytics. Typepad may have some general tracking they stick on my page, but it does not power the data I get on the backend. We are talking about two different things here. Either way they didn’t tell you Armendariz is authoring that blog because he is not and they wouldn’t.
Nice try – where Are those depos you promised? Or were you lying about that too? I retracted nothing – I made a fool of your girlfriend’s lawyer. You aren’t wise enough to know the difference I guess
“In the case of the MaxPowers character, I felt it important to expose him because of his hypocrisy especially when I realized he was nothing more than a tool for The Forma Group. ”
For someone who: “believe[s] in the freedom of speech and the ability to express oneself without the fear of retaliation in the form of violence or interference in the professional or private life of the person expressing themselves” you sure did show that you enjoy being the Judge, Jury, Executioner
“There are anonymous bloggers that I read and I have no inclination to find out who they are because they express an opinion about an issue normally with intelligence and thought. I may not agree with them but their blog posts are reasoned arguments intended to express a position.”
Essentially what you’re saying, is that if you’re opinion is not intelligent and thought, you don’t count. (opinion definition: a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.)