http://chessusa.blogspot.com/2008/04...-sickness.html

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Chess Politics Sickness

Those dirty chess politicians. They sneak around and infest our noble
game with their filthy fingers of innuendo and sly winks. They meander
along the periphery of Caissa sniffing the leavings of normal chess
enthusiasts for morsels to feed their niggling interests, stuffing
their egos with the destruction of sincere chess volunteers, and
tainting the community to the point of acute repulsion.

So the world of chess governance has become. To maintain whatever
power some think they have, the legitimate business of the USCF has
been embargoed by disparate sets of "political" chess personalities
over the past several years. Honest volunteers interested and formerly
enthusiastic about chess governance so that regular folks could play
chess in a structured environment have been bullied, assaulted, sued,
and generally persecuted by those few egomaniacs and charlatans bent
on petty domination and absurd games of gotcha.

A recent example of this is a thread, on the forum of member of the
Executive Board of the USCF, that was posted simply to embarrass a
noted chess personality that is politically in opposition to that
candidate. The story involves a tragic incident of eight years ago and
is not relevant to chess or any current chess topic. It would seem
that this board member, who has benefited extensively from the good
will and protection from defamation and threats from chess governance
volunteers in the past, including yours truly, would have immediately
seen to the removal of this thread from that forum.

That board member did not. In fact, the board member simply stated
that the matter was between the principles involved in the incident
and that, "What matters to me is his current or recent conduct, not
what happened 8 years ago." No words of disapproval, no instructions
to the sysadmin to remove the thread, nothing. The sysadmin states
that the thread addresses a "valid issue." Valid to what chess topic,
I wonder? In typical conspiracy theory mode that sysadmin also alleges
that the matter has been "hidden" for eight years. Hidden from whom?
As posters on rec.games.chess.politics (excuse me while I wash my
keyboard) note, the matter was discussed extensively on RGCP at the
time of the incident.

The simple truth is that the thread has no place in discussions of
chess or chess politics. Also noted by RGCP posters is the resemblance
of this matter to another episode where a chess personality was
falsely smeared during the 2007 USCF elections.

Last September I started this blog with the hope that it would grow
into a vehicle to help inform chess players in the US about the
governance that represents them and to facilitate the exchange of
ideas between governance and membership. I had hopes that the blog
would grow beyond me and become a community effort to bridge the
information gap that impedes the effective operation of the USCF's new
One Man One Vote mode of governance.

Back then I thought a new day had dawned with the removal of one
undesirable chess personality from USCF governance. Our federation had
withstood the blockade of distraction that had disrupted the business
of the board for a year. It was time to get on with the industry of
growing the federation and the game of chess in the US. Many of us
enthusiastically made plans and began initiatives believing that the
lost year was just a hiccup, a temporary interlude of waste, and that
the new board members just elected and the old members that remained
would form a team to lead the USCF into the twenty first century
internet enabled world.

By the end of September we had been disabused of that notion. By the
end of December, the levels of depravity and selfishness displayed had
me sick to my stomach. The embargo on USCF governance remains,
enforced by the peccadilloes of a new set of "leaders." The federation
wobbles and flounders, the leadership rendered impotent by past
prurient acts, and present juvenile denials of the obvious.

And now they want to shut down the USCF Issues forum, that hot bed of
dissent that pesters them so...

Games of gotcha are played by all sides, accusations with no substance
are hurled to splatter all, involved or not, particularly those of
good repute who simply strive to right this yawing ship. Drive-by
slanderings assassinate the character of innocent volunteers, forcing
them away from the business of maintaining our federation.

I'm gonna go play some chess and forget about those people, those
dirty chess politicians... Because, you know, in their words, all will
be made clear in due time. I can wait. Don't enlighten me. I've had
enough. Perhaps Jack wishes to blog some more here. For now, I do not.
I'm disappointed, disconcerted, disillusioned, and disheartened. I'll
keep this blog open in the hope that others of stronger constitution
may wish to carry on. If you wish to blog, the invitation in the top
left corner remains.
Posted by Steve in TN at 10:35 AM

On Apr 8, 11:57*am, p944dc wrote:
http://chessusa.blogspot.com/2008/04...-sickness.html

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Chess Politics Sickness

Not to disagree, but

They meander
along the periphery of Caissa sniffing the leavings of normal chess
enthusiasts for morsels to feed their niggling interests,

Sounds a lot like what I do with chess history!

And we can all take the small comfort that someday, this will make a
hilarious story for a future chess historian. If it had been fiction,
the characters and plot twists would at times have not seemed
believable! A former head of the sexual freedom league and a self-
proclaimed seduction guru vs a female grandmaster whose husband has a
mysterious past brimming with dark secrets - strange allegations - a
death from 8 years ago resurrected - vicious fights over chess titles
claimed on dubious bases - and why did you introduce that suplot
involving St Kitts and Nevis?

Jerry Spinrad

Jerry Spinrad

On Apr 8, 12:13 pm, "
wrote:
On Apr 8, 11:57 am, p944dc wrote:

http://chessusa.blogspot.com/2008/04...-sickness.html

Not to disagree, but



They meander
along the periphery of Caissa sniffing the leavings of normal chess
enthusiasts for morsels to feed their niggling interests,

Sounds a lot like what I do with chess history!

Do you stuff your ego with the destruction of sincere chess
volunteers, and
taint the community to the point of acute repulsion?

If not then we agree...

And we can all take the small comfort that someday, this will make a
hilarious story for a future chess historian. If it had been fiction,
the characters and plot twists would at times have not seemed
believable! A former head of the sexual freedom league and a self-
proclaimed seduction guru vs a female grandmaster whose husband has a
mysterious past brimming with dark secrets - strange allegations - a
death from 8 years ago resurrected - vicious fights over chess titles
claimed on dubious bases - and why did you introduce that suplot
involving St Kitts and Nevis?

Lol, my wife is the writer! Maybe she can make a decent novel of
this...

can someone post the original message from that forum?

On Apr 8, 9:57*am, p944dc wrote:
http://chessusa.blogspot.com/2008/04...-sickness.html

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Chess Politics Sickness

Those dirty chess politicians. They sneak around and infest our noble
game with their filthy fingers of innuendo and sly winks. They meander
along the periphery of Caissa sniffing the leavings of normal chess
enthusiasts for morsels to feed their niggling interests, stuffing
their egos with the destruction of sincere chess volunteers, and
tainting the community to the point of acute repulsion.

So the world of chess governance has become. To maintain whatever
power some think they have, the legitimate business of the USCF has
been embargoed by disparate sets of "political" chess personalities
over the past several years. Honest volunteers interested and formerly
enthusiastic about chess governance so that regular folks could play
chess in a structured environment have been bullied, assaulted, sued,
and generally persecuted by those few egomaniacs and charlatans bent
on petty domination and absurd games of gotcha.

A recent example of this is a thread, on the forum of member of the
Executive Board of the USCF, that was posted simply to embarrass a
noted chess personality that is politically in opposition to that
candidate. The story involves a tragic incident of eight years ago and
is not relevant to chess or any current chess topic. It would seem
that this board member, who has benefited extensively from the good
will and protection from defamation and threats from chess governance
volunteers in the past, including yours truly, would have immediately
seen to the removal of this thread from that forum.

That board member did not. In fact, the board member simply stated
that the matter was between the principles involved in the incident
and that, "What matters to me is his current or recent conduct, not
what happened 8 years ago." No words of disapproval, no instructions
to the sysadmin to remove the thread, nothing. The sysadmin states
that the thread addresses a "valid issue." Valid to what chess topic,
I wonder? In typical conspiracy theory mode that sysadmin also alleges
that the matter has been "hidden" for eight years. Hidden from whom?
As posters on rec.games.chess.politics (excuse me while I wash my
keyboard) note, the matter was discussed extensively on RGCP at the
time of the incident.

The simple truth is that the thread has no place in discussions of
chess or chess politics. Also noted by RGCP posters is the resemblance
of this matter to another episode where a chess personality was
falsely smeared during the 2007 USCF elections.

Last September I started this blog with the hope that it would grow
into a vehicle to help inform chess players in the US about the
governance that represents them and to facilitate the exchange of
ideas between governance and membership. I had hopes that the blog
would grow beyond me and become a community effort to bridge the
information gap that impedes the effective operation of the USCF's new
One Man One Vote mode of governance.

Back then I thought a new day had dawned with the removal of one
undesirable chess personality from USCF governance. Our federation had
withstood the blockade of distraction that had disrupted the business
of the board for a year. It was time to get on with the industry of
growing the federation and the game of chess in the US. Many of us
enthusiastically made plans and began initiatives believing that the
lost year was just a hiccup, a temporary interlude of waste, and that
the new board members just elected and the old members that remained
would form a team to lead the USCF into the twenty first century
internet enabled world.

By the end of September we had been disabused of that notion. By the
end of December, the levels of depravity and selfishness displayed had
me sick to my stomach. The embargo on USCF governance remains,
enforced by the peccadilloes of a new set of "leaders." The federation
wobbles and flounders, the leadership rendered impotent by past
prurient acts, and present juvenile denials of the obvious.

And now they want to shut down the USCF Issues forum, that hot bed of
dissent that pesters them so...

Games of gotcha are played by all sides, accusations with no substance
are hurled to splatter all, involved or not, particularly those of
good repute who simply strive to right this yawing ship. Drive-by
slanderings assassinate the character of innocent volunteers, forcing
them away from the business of maintaining our federation.

I'm gonna go play some chess and forget about those people, those
dirty chess politicians... Because, you know, in their words, all will
be made clear in due time. I can wait. Don't enlighten me. I've had
enough. Perhaps Jack wishes to blog some more here. For now, I do not.
I'm disappointed, disconcerted, disillusioned, and disheartened. I'll
keep this blog open in the hope that others of stronger constitution
may wish to carry on. If you wish to blog, the invitation in the top
left corner remains.
Posted by Steve in TN at 10:35 AM

There are quite a few appalling mis-statements and characterizations
that you have made Steve.

1) You make it appear that an EB Board Member, who I might add you are
trying to recall, made this post. This is incorrect. A forum user made
the post and I removed the name of the prominent chess person
associated with this incident until I could verify that the LA Times
story was correct-- and it was correct.

2) When you stated that a 'sys-admin' states that this is a valid
issue, you are correct. You stated yourself that the person was a
'noted chess personality'. What you did not state, and you well know
if since you read my RGCP posts is that I thought that this story was
a new story and had not been discussed. I used the keywords that were
in the LA Times story in google, and I found no hits.

In this article, you make it sound that:

a) Susan is behind this and it was an intentional smear attempt.

b) that I intentionally left it up, and lied about not knowing that
this story was discussed in the past.

Both points that you start from are incorrect.

What happened is quite simple-

a) A forum user posted a factual story that occurred in the past and
it was reported in the LA Times.
b) I, the moderator, edited the post until I could verify it. Once it
was verified, I edited the post again and pointed a link to the LA
Times article thinking that the story was not discussed. I still
believe that this post was within our rules, and I acted as fairly as
I could as a moderator with the information that I had in hand.

This morning, the post was removed by Susan Polgar.

There is no rule in chessdiscussion.com that we do not allow factual
questions, backed up with data that may cause embarrassment to a
person that caused the death of another party.

It is sad that you are so caught up in an emotional bandwagon against
a candidate that you are trying to remove that you can't see the logic
of this. It is also sad that you are deliberately framing this as
something that was intentionally done by a certain party in order to
harass someone.

Is this your new method to try to get out the vote for your recall
campaign Steve?

Just my very disappointed take,

Gregory

On Apr 8, 12:33*pm, wrote:
can someone post the original message from that forum?

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.g...65cf476e639ea#

On Apr 8, 5:30*pm, Gregory wrote:
On Apr 8, 12:33*pm, wrote:

can someone post the original message from that forum?

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.g.../browse_thread...

On Apr 8, 7:20 pm, Gregory wrote:

It is sad that you are so caught up in an emotional bandwagon against
a candidate that you are trying to remove that you can't see the logic
of this. It is also sad that you are deliberately framing this as
something that was intentionally done by a certain party in order to
harass someone.

Was it done to simply harass a past political opponent? We don't know
that. Were the salacious emails emanating from the same source during
the 2007 EB election intentionally meant to defame, or not? How can
we know the mind of those who do such things? We can recognize
patterns of behavior, and whatever the reason, the acts are to be
condemned.

What is sad is that you have become so passionately partisan that you
support, and in this instance participate in, these unethical acts.
If you were truthfully approaching this subject you would remember
that I did not support the recall UNTIL Truong refused to participate
in the USCF defense. You would remember who it was, pretty much
alone, who supported your position in the fake BG post episode where
you were the one blamed last October. You would remember who it was
that supported you when you had difficulties in the last weeks of your
time as moderator at the USCF forum. You would remember who it was
that faced the tip of the spear when Truong and Polgar were under
attack last May (not YOU, by the way). I try to approach these
matters not from the realm of personality worship, but by
dispassionately weighing the ACTS of those involved against the
standard of decent morality. You should try it sometime.

On Apr 9, 1:00*am, p944dc wrote:
On Apr 8, 7:20 pm, Gregory wrote:



*It is sad that you are so caught up in an emotional bandwagon against
a candidate that you are trying to remove that you can't see the logic
of this. It is also sad that you are deliberately framing this as
something that was intentionally done by a certain party in order to
harass someone.

Was it done to simply harass a past political opponent? *We don't know
that. *Were the salacious emails emanating from the same source during
the 2007 EB election intentionally meant to defame, or not? *How can
we know the mind of those who do such things? *We can recognize
patterns of behavior, and whatever the reason, the acts are to be
condemned.

What is sad is that you have become so passionately partisan that you
support, and in this instance participate in, these unethical acts.
If you were truthfully approaching this subject you would remember
that I did not support the recall UNTIL Truong refused to participate
in the USCF defense. *You would remember who it was, pretty much
alone, who supported your position in the fake BG post episode where
you were the one blamed last October. *You would remember who it was
that supported you when you had difficulties in the last weeks of your
time as moderator at the USCF forum. *You would remember who it was
that faced the tip of the spear when Truong and Polgar were under
attack last May (not YOU, by the way). *I try to approach these
matters not from the realm of personality worship, but by
dispassionately weighing the ACTS of those involved against the
standard of decent morality. *You should try it sometime.

Steve,

Your false innuendo and blame sounds like a your beating of a drum to
garnish further recall support. While you definately have a creative
writing style, it is disconnected from reality. The post was a
verbatim quote from the LA Times.

You most definitely made this post to sound like it is the fault of
Susan Polgar, or Paul Troung, whom you are presently trying to
politically recall.

Stop with your false protests about decency. I don't want to hear
them. If Susan or Paul that caused the death of an innocent
individual, you-- and your friends, would not let it go and drum the
beat for eternity. If you, or your friends, posted a factual article
against Paul, or Susan, that occured 8 years ago and it was yanked by
a moderator, you would all cry that we are not allowing free speech
since we pulled a factual post about a chess personality.

The double standards that are applied are sickening-- and I did not
expect this from you.


Regards,

Gregory

On Apr 9, 1:00*am, p944dc wrote:
On Apr 8, 7:20 pm, Gregory wrote:



*It is sad that you are so caught up in an emotional bandwagon against
a candidate that you are trying to remove that you can't see the logic
of this. It is also sad that you are deliberately framing this as
something that was intentionally done by a certain party in order to
harass someone.

Was it done to simply harass a past political opponent? *We don't know
that. *Were the salacious emails emanating from the same source during
the 2007 EB election intentionally meant to defame, or not? *How can
we know the mind of those who do such things? *We can recognize
patterns of behavior, and whatever the reason, the acts are to be
condemned.

What is sad is that you have become so passionately partisan that you
support, and in this instance participate in, these unethical acts.
If you were truthfully approaching this subject you would remember
that I did not support the recall UNTIL Truong refused to participate
in the USCF defense. *You would remember who it was, pretty much
alone, who supported your position in the fake BG post episode where
you were the one blamed last October. *You would remember who it was
that supported you when you had difficulties in the last weeks of your
time as moderator at the USCF forum. *You would remember who it was
that faced the tip of the spear when Truong and Polgar were under
attack last May (not YOU, by the way). *I try to approach these
matters not from the realm of personality worship, but by
dispassionately weighing the ACTS of those involved against the
standard of decent morality. *You should try it sometime.


Steve,

Your false innuendo and blame sounds like a your beating of a drum to
garnish further recall support. While you definately have a creative
writing style, it is disconnected from reality. The post was a
verbatim quote from the LA Times.

You most definitely made this post to sound like it is the fault of
Susan Polgar, or Paul Troung, whom you are presently trying to
politically recall.

Stop with your false protests about decency. I don't want to hear
them. If Susan or Paul that caused the death of an innocent
individual, you-- and your friends, would not let it go and drum the
beat for eternity. If you, or your friends, posted a factual article
against Paul, or Susan, that occured 8 years ago and it was yanked by
a moderator, you would all cry that we are not allowing free speech
since we pulled a factual post about a chess personality.

The double standards that are applied are sickening-- and I did not
expect this from you.


Regards,

Gregory