Meet BigJerr / Crazy Guggenheim

How do I know? This is the key paragraph.

Soon after, she received a frantic message from "Crazy Guggenheim," explaining to her that her response would out him as "BigJerr" to anyone who knows his face. He insisted that she remove the picture from her response. Apparently, the edit window had passed, and Ms. Peggy refused to bother the DU mods with such a trifle. Notably, FuzzySlippers responded to say that CG is a stud muffin.

But the details matter.

Grab a beer or your favorite beverage. It's a simple tale, but a beerverage helps: especially the part where BJ / CG bums DU donor stars under false pretenses for his numerous sockpuppets at DU.

Every single link matters in this post.

Late 2007-February 21, 2008: The tone and tenor of DU changed for the worse, but I was hopeful that it would get thru Election 2008 intact and sane. Several people PMed me with the addresses of splinter boards, asking me to take a gander. I filed those away, literally and figuratively, but my loyalties were with DU. I didn't delete those PMs, but I sort of forgot about them. One of the PMs I received was from "FuzzySlippers" (or her sockpuppet), inviting me to check out DemocraticWarrior instead of DU. It was one of the PMs I read, didn't delete, but largely ignored.

February 21, 2008: DU and I parted ways. I asked a couple of especially trusted friends to send simple PMs to a small handful of DUers I'd come to consider friends, giving them my contact information. At no time have I created a sockpuppet to return to DU, nor will I; I may not think Skinner is a very savvy Admin, or a very effective progressive, but it's his site. I lurked as a guest for a while, and then eventually confined myself to retrieving a piece of writing or two of which I am especially proud (or which made a point well enough to warrant recycling).

February 22: Most of the DUers I reached out to contacted me (anyone I forgot, I'm truly sorry). Among the ones that had me doing my happiest of happy dances - CaliforniaPeggy. One of the very last posts I made at DU was in one of her lovely picture threads (from her much-anticipated trip to Palm Springs). I always enjoyed her picture threads, and her poetry threads. Knowing this, she sent me a larger version of that beautiful picture of her, as her first private response to me, post-DU. We agreed to keep in touch, and even agreed to talk by phone, soon.

February 22-24: Several people urged me to check out DemocraticWarrior. One of those people is a person I have special reason to trust. So, I talked it over with a few other trusted friends, and signed up at DW on Sunday, February 24th.

February 24: Right after I joined up, "BigJerr" - the site Admin and owner at DW - suggested I should get to know "Crazy Guggenheim," and let me know that he (BJ) was automatically appointing me to the Oppo Research title designation, from Neophyte. Um, OK. Since I had publicly called on Skinner to create just such a forum at DU, I was thrilled to see it already existed on DW. Naively, I thought "Crazy Guggenheim" was merely someone who'd shown an aptitude for Oppo Research, and that "BigJerr" was being a good host - and trying to pair me up with someone whose interests in effective Oppo Research might match my own. At this point, let us pause to remember that the aforementioned "FuzzySlippers" and "Crazy Guggenheim" are an item, and are planning a wedding. So, to recap, the person who PMed me at DU is the intended of "Crazy Guggenheim".

March 2: California Peggy and I had a lovely chat by phone. She is as warm and approachable in person, as she is online. It was a treat to talk to her. During the conversation, I happened to mention that I'd landed at DW. Her voice and demeanor grew a little guarded, a little odd. She expressed a certain bit of miff with BigJerr. Naturally, having just joined, and still skittish about the new board, I inquired as to the nature of her misgivings concerning him.

The answer?

First, please note: I am posting this revelation with her explicit permission.

She recounted, during that phone call, how - shortly after I was no longer on DU - she had responded, innocently, to this picture thread: Post Pics of DU Meetups in the past!

Soon after, she received a frantic message from "Crazy Guggenheim," explaining to her that her response would out him as "BigJerr" to anyone who knows his face. He insisted that she remove the picture from her response. Apparently, the edit window had passed, and Ms. Peggy refused to bother the DU mods with such a trifle. Notably, FuzzySlippers responded to say that CG is a stud muffin.

Now, chances are, this needle in a haystack would've gone unnoticed, had BJ / CG just played it cool. But BJ / CG hit the panic button, and persisted on nagging Ms. Peggy about it.

So, a week after I joined DW, Ms. Peggy clued me in to who Crazy Guggenheim really is.

Suddenly, BJ's contrived messages about CG and me teaming up on Oppo Research made more sense. My initial instinct was to tell BJ that I knew, and how. I felt a little bit angry, but then calmly decided that maybe that is how BJ keeps people from getting mad at his Admin persona: having CG as his "regular" user profile. So, I decided to play along.

When I would send PMs to CG, often he'd tell me to ask BJ, and vice versa. It got old, but still I played along.

Over time, I learned that FuzzySlippers and CG are to be married (they're pretty public about that, in fact). FuzzySlippers and CG both regaled the board with their tales of sockpuppet theater over at DU.

Just today, I learned the following, when I sought Ms. Peggy's permission to reveal the confidence she had shared with me.

I am sorry this has turned out to be such a mess, sweetie...I really don't know what to say.

I had my own dust-up with him, and am no longer talking to him. Here's what happened: He joined DU, unbeknownst to me, under a new name. I don't recall it now. Of course, he knew who I was! We began talking and were friendly. Then one day, he showed up in a thread about starless people, and he lamented that he didn't have one. Via PM, I offered to buy him one. And then I did.

Then he was TS'd. I didn't see it happen, and was unaware of it. THEN, I got an email from CG, in which he revealed himself. He told me he would have revealed his true identity if he'd gotten to 1000 posts, which of course, he didn't get to. I was outraged. I finally told him (via email) to cancel my account at DW, since I was never going to show up there again, and to never talk to me again. I told him I felt used, and I think I was. I was really really really upset. I'm done with him, and I told him so. So......I'm sorry for your predicament. I really wish you could come back to DU. I miss you there, and the fun we had.

Take care, sweetie...

Peggy

So, not only is Crazy Guggenheim raiding a competitor's board with sockpuppet after sockpuppet, he's apparently bumming donor stars!

Are ya kidding me?!?

Now, mind you, more than one DWer "informed me" that BJ and CG are the same person, and many repeated, "We all know."

So, even without Ms. Peggy's heads-up on March 2, I would've come to know.

Fast forward to this past Friday.

I dared to take on Crazy Guggenheim on an Oppo Research thread. But, as BJ posted, CG is the "superstar" of DW, and apparently, doesn't want anyone else stepping on his toes in Oppo Research (nevermind the fact that FuzzySlippers was the one who slipped me that PM at DU on the sly, or that BJ gave me an instant promotion to Oppo Research upon my arrival at DW). So, BJ issued a "Time Out" that was supposed to end Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.

When BJ and CG were notified of the well-known duality of their posting, and confronted about the real reason for the Time Out, BJ over-reacted. He extended my Time Out without notice or explanation, banned my IP address from even browsing DW (including my own posts), and freaked out when he saw that IdesOfOctober had posted something on Sunday.

BJ / CG has been in full on PRE-nial mode ever since. He's issued pre-emptive denial after pre-emptive denial. Like a scared little five-year-old meeting his mommy or daddy at the door as soon as they walk in, he's told his users, "You might hear something. I didn't do it." Most parents would struggle to stifle a giggle.

"What didn't you do, exactly?"

He claimed - falsely, as it turns out - that anyone who approaches him directly, without lawyers, would find him responsive. He said so when he posted the former du mod threads.

And now, he has rattled that silly magic staff, and made cryptic and veiled threats. That much, he did, as he tried to figure a way to spin it.

Answer a single e-mail seeking an explanation?

Nope.

That's hardly a Warrior, in my book.

- Dave