Playing With Fire

I don't really have a right to complain here do I.  Back in 2012 when Brett Keane and I first became friends there were many who tried to warn me against doing so.  If I decide to keep a scorpion as a pet I should expect once in a while to get stung.  I should expect no less then when I willingly ignored sound advice and became friends with Brett Keane.

When Brett Keane lost his YouTube channel for violations of the Terms of Service like the previous 30 times before he accepted no blame for his own actions.  He decided to seek out and blame others and that included even me his friend, who at the time was petitioning to YouTube to get him re-instated.

Pretty much this is what his treatment of me was like.

He began to post videos to his website, currently unavailable as he violated the Terms of Service for the web hosting company he was using, and through out this abuse I allowed him to throw me under the bus because I knew that defending myself would only serve as ammunition to his haters.  Over the past two months our relationship has essentially been two things.  He falsely accuses me, I forgive, he falsely accuses me, I forgive.  I have lost friends over this as he has slowly made efforts to turn people against me, and for what I have no idea.  I have been nothing but loyal to him, defending him even when I know his actions towards others are vile and worthy of contempt.  

Brett Keane is a person who routinely goes after people's families and their loved ones.  

Here is where we discuss his video suggesting that people call Child Protective Services on JohnCWilson because his daughter called him a bad name on video.

Here is KaptainObvious81 responding to Brett Keane's video (I can not find a copy of the original) where he accuses him of child abuse because his daughter used naughty words.

However, if someone makes a video about Brett's family then he cries foul.  My position is clear.  It is always wrong to go after someone's family regardless of who's family it is.  

I think the most hypocritical thing I can imagine about Brett Keane right now is what he said to BionicDance in a recent video of hers.  The comment thread is HERE if anyone wants to read it for themselves.

Here is a person who routinely makes phone calls to churches for no other purpose than to debate and try to pwn the preachers or whoever is unlucky enough to have answered the phone that day.  He makes no effort to inform the other party that they are not only being recorded, but also that they are being broadcasted on YouTube.  Now of course this is perfectly legal.  Only in a few states is recording someone without their consent illegal, but his phone calls are NO different than what BionicDance does in her videos where she responds to some n00b she found on YouTube.

But let's dig into the meat of this blog post.  Brett Keane's latest video against me.

I am going to respond point by point with everything he said.

• First the title is the positive and the negative.  The video is over 10 minutes long and the positive is only the first 90 seconds.  Really dude.  I make balloons and I help out in the YouTube help forums, that is it?  Really?  Ok.
• My channel is not and has never been aimed at children.  Not even the balloon videos are aimed at children.  Children like balloons, but it is ADULTS who want to learn how to make them.  Below is my demographics for the lifetime of my channel.  You will see those under 18 barely make up 10 percent of my audience.  The bulk of my audience is between 35-55 years old.

• To quote Onision in his most recent debate.  I am going to do what YouTube allows me to do.  The video such as the Mankini Milkshake was flagged and YouTube decided to leave it up with an age restriction.  My video Twerking Fail was also flagged and YouTube decided it did not violate their TOS but decided to put an age restiction on that as well.  I appealed both age restrictions and was successful in getting Twerking Fail un age restricted.  If YouTube felt my video was crossing the line they would have removed it.  

A user by the name of TheWhole69Yards made this bogus assessment.  

Fortunately such bogus accusations are easily disproven.  Behold my friend Graham in a Mankini.

Since Graham posted that video it has been age restricted but did you know that video was Featured on the YouTube homepage.  That is right.  A man wearing much less clothing than me was promoted by YouTube and put on the front page in Australia.

• Finally to quote Onision again.  I am not a baby sitter.  It is the parent's job to monitor what their kids are watching online.  My channel is not and never has been aimed at Children.  If children find one of my videos and find it offensive, then that is the failure of the parent not me.  With access to online hardcore pornography just a Google search away, my videos are the least of a parent's concern.
• Yes my favorite color is pink.  What is your point?  Is that some kind of homophobic look you gave to the camera Brett?

His favorite color is pink (2:58 in the video)

• At three minutes into the video Brett Keane looks into the camera with a strait face and says that while my ballon videos were very popular:  "His greatest popularity and triumph that he had was whenever he had a room mate a collaborative partner by the name of Nick Bravo..."  I am NOT making this up.  He actually said this.  As always, I have facts on my side.  Below is a screen shot of my most popular videos.

Here is the search results for Corky on my channel.  At the time of this post my video Defending Myself Against Accusations is my most popular video with over 8000 views.  On the FacepalmResponse channel the highest viewed video currently has around 4,000 views.  The problem with Brett Keane is that he either actually believes his own bullwinkle, or else he thinks his viewers are too lazy to check the facts for themselves.  I have repeatedly told Brett Keane over and over and over to NEVER question me on the facts.  Yet he still thinks he can actually pull stuff like this.  My mistake was in the past I allowed him to use me as his punching bag.  I valued our past friendship too much to defend myself.  It is high time I man up and own up to my mistakes.  I played with fire and I am getting the consequences I justly deserve.

• At 4 minutes into the video Brett makes another bogus accusation.  He claims that I uploaded videos making him look bad as soon as he moved out.  Not only does Brett know this is false, but this claim is easily debunked.  On December 19, 2009 I knowingly told a lie to my viewers that there was no feud between Corky and myself.  I did this for the sole purpose of not sending a bunch of angry fan boys to his channel to screw with him.  During this time on his SpikeBravo channel, Corky was making angry videos against me as well as messaging my friends on YouTube to try to tell lies about me.  In an effort to try and calm this fight I put out the video below.

In fact I even reached out to Corky to ask him to do this video with me.  

I tried to find his response but I was unable to.  Essentially he told me to kiss off.  

Previous to this he announced that he got a job up in Humboldt and needed money for bus fare.  So I put up this video for him soliciting donations.  This was on December 5th 2009.  It turns out the Newspaper job was actually a volunteer position writing for an online blog that is updated a few times a year.

However, in February of 2009 he was still living in Phoenix.  Shortly before he posted the now infamous death threat, which I will cover soon, someone sent me this message.

At the time I new he was living at the building owned by FreedomsPhoenix, a libertarian activist group, so I attempted to find out where this place was and made him aware of this.  I recorded this on BlogTv.  As BlogTv is no more the video has since been moved to YouTube.

Then he announced on YouTube that he was going to drop my docs on BlogTv.  

So I contacted BlogTV and sent them this video.  They essentially told me that they couldn't do anything until he actually done it.  Thus this is why I began monitoring his BlogTV shows.  Under an assumed name I was even given moderator status for his BlogTV room.  (For those not familiar with BlogTV, the host of the live broadcast could grant moderator perks to his or her friends to control the room and boot out the trolls who might disrupt the text chat.  This would leave the host free to broadcast without being preoccupied with moderating the room themself.)

SpikeBravo Posts Death Threat

While recently Corky has tried to claim that the video embedded above is comedy, the facts are clear.  First he is obviously referring to a very fat person.  At 1:29 of the video he says the person he is talking about called FreedomsPhoenix and informed them of a death threat made against him.  I have already established that this was something I did to try and warn him.  At 3:39 he makes references to me getting his YouTube channel terminated.  No that was something he did.  His own videos violated the Terms of Service.  

His claim that this death threat was comedy is further debunked with this video that was originally posted on December 2nd 2010 and is mirrored here.

That video may or may not have been in response to me soliciting donations to help him with his financial problems.

Of course Corky being Corky he couldn't wait until he got the money he needed and when I uploaded a video about a missing child, he made a comment about me having some "special interest" in the child.  I reported his comment to YouTube so that is why it doesn't exist.  Needless to say he posted a video called HappyCabbie's darkside and below is my response.  Short and sweet.  Next time Corky wait until you actually get the money before you attack me.

Brett this is a person who has accused me of all sorts of things.  Such as being a terrorist

He has accused me of raping a child

I suppose he was referring to another YouTube partner that used to be a truck driver on a video discussing HappyCabbie right?

And let's not forget this piece of trash right here.

FYI that video was uploaded on January 12, 2011 just one week after he posted his video called HappyCabbie's Darkside in which he accuses me of having a "special interest" in a missing child.  The thing is this Brett.  You are knowingly lying to your viewers.  You have to be, there is no other explanation.  Go through my videos on Corky and you will see almost every one of them is a RESPONSE to his bogus accusations.  Just like this blog is to you now.  Even the times when I appear to be doing parody, read the video description and you will see it is a RESPONSE to something he is accusing me of.  

But let's get back to the video.

• At five minutes into the video you essentially say that I wish Corky well, but that on my own channel I tarnish his image through my videos.  Brett what about MY image?  If someone is posting my address to anyone and everyone who wants it, if someone is out there trying to convince others that I am a pedophile, or a rapist, or a terrorist, or a murderer, does it matter what his socioeconomic status is?  I made that mistake by refusing to defend myself against your accusations for so very long Brett.  I allowed you to tarnish my name just to make yourself look better.  That was clearly a mistake and you preyed upon my good nature and loyalty to you.  
• Brett goes on to say that I have lost so many friends because of my association with Brett Keane.  That is not entirely accurate.  I lost so many friends due to my loyalty to you and defending your actions when I knew deep down that they were wrong.  For example, your abuse of the DMCA and claiming copyright over things that are clearly fair use.  That is something I have long protested against, and yet I turned a blind eye when I knew you were doing it.  Your double standard of posting video lashing out at anyone while at the same time questioning those who made videos against you claiming that if they had an issue they should have contacted you via skype to resolve the issue.  Your double standard of trying to flag down videos you thought were critical of you, yet at the same time cry foul when you were flagged and never have I ever heard you admit to doing anything wrong when one of your videos was taken down for Terms of Service.  I played with fire and I got what I deserved.
• Brett Keane calling the kettle black claims that I will block anyone who disagrees with me.  Ask my good friend BionicDance that sometime.  She made a video critical of me, yet the friendship remains and she is not the only one.  Yes my comments are on approval now, that is just to minimize the damage done by people who want to post my address on my videos.  Yet even a blind man can see that negative comments are almost always approved.  Those familiar with Brett Keane know he is very quick to hit the block button.  Brett then goes on to mention the video I made as a response to Jdubs.  Well I will let you judge the video for yourself.  

That video was private up until a few hours ago.  In order to let people decide for themselves the merit of the video I have made it public again.  

• At 6:15 in the video he says that there was drama between a user known as Tommy Sotomayer and myself.  No there was no drama.  There was a series of video responses we made towards one another.  For example here is my video responding to his claim that white women have higher standards then black women.

Tommy Sotomayer then responds with racist insults and refers to me as a homeless 500 pound bum.  So I post this video.  

He then responds by posting a tour of his house saying how much better he was then me because he had more money.  The issue was never about who had the bigger house, the issue is whether or not I was homeless and I disproved that claim with a tour of my home.  Eventually we agreed to meet on BlogTV and discuss things like men.  Based on the comments on that video, the majority feels that I lost that debate.  Fair enough.  

Here is a fun fact though.  Did you know that as I was making videos to Tommy Sotomayer so was Brett Keane?  Furthermore Brett Keane agreed to appear on Tommy's BlogTalkRadio program to discuss his issues.  Of course Brett Keane forgot to mention that.  So much easier to just portray me as a drama whore.

• At 6:30 he mentions that Thunderf00t and I had drama between us.  This actually comes as a surprise to not only myself but also Thunderf00t.  Neither of us were aware that there was drama between us, and I know I would like to thank Brett Keane for bringing this to my attention.  Also thank you Brett Keane for providing absolutely no proof to your claim that Thunderf00t thought that I was part of a group of trolls that harassed him and impersonated him online.  Fortunately, as always I have FACTS.

Fifteen minute long video where Thunderf00t discusses a bunch of trolls harassing and impersonating him and yet no mention of me at all in this video.  It appears as if he is laying much of the blame on Coughlan616.

Now let's explain what Thunderf00t did say about me one time.  At 6:15 in the video embedded below.

Now what is the reason Thunderf00t put me in this circle?  My guess would be that I spent over 4 hours debating DawahFilms on BlogTv.  

Since that debate, even as early as 2010 I was making video critical of DawahFilms behavior towards Thunderf00t that I felt was crossing the line.  Behaviors such as him trying to find out where Thunderf00t worked, trying to find out his name and address to mess with his personal life.  As Thunderf00t is not a subscriber to my channel these things went unnoticed even up until 2013.  As a response to him still lumping me in this group of DawahFilms supporters I had to set the record straight and that is what I did on March 7, 2012.

Thunderf00t I am NOT a DawahFilms supporter

The next day I saw this on Thunderf00ts twitter.

Now just in case Brett decides to go through my channel and misrepresent me by showing some videos I made critical of Thunderf00t let me say this.  Over the years I have made some positive videos towards Thunderf00t, and I have made some video responses where I disagree with him.  That is the nature of YouTube.  It is interactive.  We put our thoughts out there.  Then the community digests those ideas and sometimes people respond either in comments or in video.  The truth is Thunder00t has been on my Skype now for the past 4 years.  We do not have a problem with each other.  Another Brett Keane lie debunked.

• Brett Keane at 7:02 goes on to say that I and only I "set up" AgentofDoubt using a sock account, sadly this too is also inaccurate.  Let's review.  First, Brett Keane along with 3 other people were in on the experiment and all 3 people were on board and supported what we were doing.  It is only after Brett Keane lost his KeaneVlogs channel that I helped set up for him, does he suddently now have a problem with what went on.

For those not familiar with the back story here it is.  AgentofDoubt for the past year had been doing a video series called Flag Recaps.  He uses this as his thumbnail for the series.

Now AgentofDoubt can spin this any way he likes, the fact remains as long as he uses this thumbnail, he is implying to the viewer that the flags he is reporting were falsely flagged down and it was censorship.  That is a fact.  Another fact, throughout this series he would list in his video descriptions not only who was flagged but also who was being accused of flagging.  For example, he once listed me as being responsible for flagging down a video that was still up.  It never was flagged down.  A few of my subscribers even pointed this out to him.  Furthermore, he would often promote the new channels of people who have been flagged down.  Granted I have done the same when I feel it is warranted but some of the people he promoted such as Micma caused me to scratch my head.  

It got me to thinking, if he is willing to cry censorship when some of the worst people on YouTube get flagged down, what line would he draw in the sand.  So a experiment was devised.  Brett Keane was in on it, as was another person named Hellen and a third person who does not wish to be named at this time.  I made a mistake by not defending myself against Brett's accusation laying all the responsibility of the experiment on me.  I thought that certainly people would remember Brett Keane's own videos that he made on the subject and call him out on it.  I thought that by taking full responsibility that I would allow Brett Keane to vent off frustration over losing his account and that when he was done lashing out our friendship could continue.  I was wrong to not defend myself.  

Thankfully the truth did come out, although reluctantly.  Through Brett Keane's own mouth he admits the role he played in this experiment.  The full details of that discussion can be found in THIS blog post.  However it is clear that Brett Keane is trying to deny that he ever admitted to his own involvement.  This is why I document everything.  

Shortly after AgentofDoubt and myself had our peaceful resolution to our differences over skype, Brett decided that he wasn't satisfied.  So he posted some videos on his website going after him.  One of those videos that he posted on his website was mine.  Only he chose to rename the video.  He used AgentofDoubts real name and put his real name next to the words of to the effect of child porn.  Here is the exact title with AgentofDoubt's real name taken out.  XXXXXXXXXXX AKA AgentofDoubt Post Links to Under Age Porn on Principle  Proof of this is in the video description of AgentofDoubt's response to what Brett Keane did.  Read it for yourselves here.

Then on June 1st Brett Keane sent me an audio file and wanted me to edit it for him.  So I did.  As such I own the copyright to the video.  However it is set to creative commons and I encourage everyone to spread it around and post copies.  I do not want Brett to get away with trying to smear me as doing something underhanded and sneaky towards AgentofDoubt when Brett Keane was a full participant as well.

I bet Brett Keane didn't think I would still have that, but the thing is he has to learn, never challenge me on the facts.  I keep everything.

• At 7:56 Brett Keane tells a flag out lie.  There is no other explanation.  He sits there and makes a claim that AgentofDoubt and myself have never worked out our issues.  I guess the video embedded below is bullwinkle then.  Fun fact.  Our issues were worked out until Brett Keane decided he wasn't satisfied (his own words) and wanted to screw with AgentofDoubt some more.

• At 8:20 Brett again with a straight face tells something outrageous.  On this I can not be certain if he actually believes his own bullwinkle or just assumes his viewers will be too lazy to check but he claims that after the issue between AgentofDoubt and myself, the Hellen906 account disappeared.  Ok then what the smurf is this then?

• Brett Keane at 9:00 smears my efforts that I did during flag week in which I posted a series of tutorials on how to identify and target scams and spams and help flag them off YouTube.  That series was intended to raise awareness about that some times flagging a video is the right thing to do.  Too many people are under the belief that any flagging is censorship.  Flag week sought to change minds about that belief.  Brett Keane also fails to mention that he supported Flag Week.

• At 9:56 he says that I have gotten into it with ChickenDoodleSauce and the Troll Posse.  Seriously Brett.  You are going to defend a group that calls themselves the Troll Posse?  Just to get at me, you can not be serious.  For those who do not know ChickenDoodleSauce and the Troll Posse are a group of online trolls who stalk and harass users for fun.    They are obsessive.  For crying out loud ChickenDoodleSauce uses a picture of Undertakerfreak1127 as their profile picture.  You are talking about a person who has created a number of accounts to stalk and harass both Undertakerfreak1127 and his friend TheArchfiend.  This is who you are defending.  

Every time in the past two months Brett Keane and I have had issues it was started by Brett Keane.  Then a few days later he comes back and I forgive him only to allow him to inflict more pain.  I think Brett Keane said it best in this tweet from July 6th 2013.

However, I don't have anyone to blame but myself.  I knew the risks and I played with fire anyway.  I thought I could avoid being burned.  Through the year and I have that I have known him I thought the way he goes through friendships and how ugly they turned out would not happen to me.  I willfully ignored all the warning signs and turned a blind eye to everything I once stood for.  Some might say my tarnished reputation is the result of my friendship with Brett Keane, but in reality you can't blame a scorpion for stinging you.  It is in the scorpion's nature.  I have nobody to blame really but myself.  

All I can do is try to undo the damage I have done and hopefully mend some of the bridges that I have burned.  I can only hope that what has happened to me will serve as a warning to others, don't play with fire and don't mess with scorpions.