46 Comments »

Sundog said:
Damn. Just damn. I keep thinking there are lines they won’t cross.
WINNER!! ::   +10
[Reply]

Melkor Reply:
June 14th, 2012 at 6:58 pm
@Sundog, I think the Droid has long established that if these sociopaths have any lines they revolve around managing public perception of themselves, ’cause they sure as fuck don’t have anything resembling a conscience, morals or even an instrumental approximation of ethics.
  +6
[Reply]
# 14 June 2012 at 6:11 pm

Head Honcho said:
Hello, MSM…it’s starting.
Good stuff, @SD. I’m sure you’ve doubted how or when…and you know as well as we do we’re far from “there” yet, but — this feels like the start of “there.”
WINNER!! ::   +8
[Reply]
# 14 June 2012 at 7:37 pm

Wyrd said:


Mark I wanted to let you know these things because your presence in my home communicates to me that you condone these behaviors. That it is ok to abuse your wife and not pay child support. It is ok to donate to the campaign of the attorney general while not paying to support your children. Your presence communicates to me that you are there to support Sov in his terror over me as the attorney general and there will never be justice for me and my children.
Utah, why is he still in office? Are you just waiting for things to degenerate to the point of mafia and gangland hits? Mark Shurtleff should not be in office. His groomed boy Swallow should not replace him.
–
Furry cows moo and decompress.
WINNER!! ::   +9
[Reply]

Lanna Reply:
June 14th, 2012 at 9:50 pm
@Wyrd,
In Illinois, we have mafia and gangland hits. We have an AG elected through nepotism. And we still don’t have anything like Mark Shurtleff!
  +4
[Reply]
# 14 June 2012 at 7:47 pm

Jack said:
Just feeling too much rage about it…other than saying about it that THIS is what Mark Shurtleff condones:

WINNER!! ::   +11
[Reply]

SD Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 1:51 pm
@Jack ::
Wow!
That’s amazingly compelling and effective.
It was created by Y&R Chicago. All you n00bs should take a look at their impressive portfolio …
http://www.yr.com/portfolio/
… and think about the fact that most fake web guru’s charge double {or more} for their various fake “branding” and “marketing” services.
[Reply]

Sundog Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 4:43 pm
@SD, And here I thought Y&R just dropped water balloons on colored folk
  -1
[Reply]

aaron wall Reply:
June 22nd, 2012 at 5:15 am
@SD, I think you are under-estimating the prices a firm like YR can charge. They don’t cater to the DIY small business crowd so much as the big companies with budgets bigger than godzilla. :D
Then again I probably under-estimate the depth of destruction on some of the tapes you have listened to. ;)
  +5
[Reply]

aaron wall Reply:
June 22nd, 2012 at 5:25 am
@SD, oh…and YR is part of WPP http://www.yr.com/content/young-rubicam-companies.html
WPP recently bought AKQA for $540 million
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2012/06/akqa-selling-to-wpp.html
and has a valuation above $15 billion (with a price to sales of under 1, indicating that they have more than $15 billion a year in sales … whereas all of Google is like $40 billion ish in sales), so it is not like they are a “small, low-end, boutique” ad agency
  +1
[Reply]

SD Reply:
June 22nd, 2012 at 1:43 pm
@aaron wall ::
Oh I know Y&R charge a cakeload :: and I also know that they would refuse to accept most of these dreamland entrepreneurs as clients … even if they came through the door cash-in-hand. Unrealistic clients are almost always not worth the money to a legit service provider.
And I know that they’re a big hairy global deal … servicing Godzillas. But Godzilla negotiates for :: and almost always gets … market prices. So that’s the whole point.
A couple of posts ago I talked about Chris Brogan saying :: in sales materials no less … that his per day rate was $22,000. If you racked up that kind of single day bill at Y&R … or Razorfish … you’d have had literally dozens of the most qualified people in the field working on your stuff. Plus all the power that their all important scale would provide you in a Godzilla industry like professional marketing and advertising services. And if they fucked you :: and you sued them and won … you could collect.
Irwin Frank IV has said his day rate is $100,000.
If your DIY bizness marketing guru is claiming rates 5x more than the small handful of actual neurosurgeons that exist on the Earth … then maybe there’s a problem.
And yeah … you most def aren’t allowing yourself to internalize the magnificent fucking horror of what’s happening here. Else I wouldn’t have had to modify that Brian Clark lego card myself.
http://brandharmonystudio.com/
Teaching Sells!
Or maybe “teaching” isn’t the right word.
[Reply]

Wyrd Reply:
June 24th, 2012 at 12:54 am
@SD,
I get why we aren’t allowed to vote on your posts–because how ludicrous would it be if a bunch of trolls voted your own post down to -4!?
But sometimes I wish we could score the really good ones like this ala Slashdot style like
+1 Insightful
You make so many very good points.
–
Furry cows moo and decompress.
  +1
[Reply]

aaron wall Reply:
June 22nd, 2012 at 5:30 am
@SD, i was anonymous there too…so i guess it did take. so…um…clean up on isle 3? can you consolidate that stuff & delete the extra bits
  +1
[Reply]

SD Reply:
June 22nd, 2012 at 12:48 pm
@aaron wall ::
… fucking n00b.
Speaking of fucking n00bs :: get a gravatar son … all the cool kids are doing it {in 2005}.
[Reply]

aaron wall Reply:
June 23rd, 2012 at 3:48 pm
@SD, my goal is to always be as out of style as possible.
3 benefits:
- stuff is cheaper
- laziness is embraced & rewarded
- sometimes if you are so out of fashion people think you are ahead of the curve, a free bonus for being cheap & having an effortless “approach”
aaron (aka: not a cool kid :D)
  +6
[Reply]

Jack Reply:
June 23rd, 2012 at 6:47 pm
@aaron wall,
“my goal is to always be as out of style as possible.”>blockquote
It’s why I yet still leint the beer at my parties.
  +4

SD Reply:
June 23rd, 2012 at 8:45 pm
@AWOL ::
You should monetize those laziness ideas into something monetized :: or not … sounds hard.
# 14 June 2012 at 9:47 pm

Doctor Mario said:


It’s called traction :: and we’re getting some … stick in both feet and push!
-@SD
It has begun!

  +2
[Reply]
# 14 June 2012 at 10:13 pm

RT said:
Holy shit balls!!
Shurtleff is pure EVIL
I hope he gets what is coming to him … but how do you use the law to take down the guy who is sitting at the highest level of law in his state?
  +6
[Reply]

Head Honcho Reply:
June 15th, 2012 at 7:42 am
@RT, The electorate can throw him out if they’re educated.
I know — who wants to wait another 100 years for the electorate to finally get a few brain cells, right?
The other route is to take it Federal.
  +1
[Reply]
# 14 June 2012 at 11:41 pm

Cary the Label Guy said:
Mark Shurtlett is just ONE of the many, many turds in the rancid Utah punch bowl. Utah didn’t become the scam capitol of America overnight. It took a bunch of crooks, a lot of effort, and many people in high places looking the other way. For a l-o-n-g time. It’s going to take some serious housecleaning and a real shakeout to remove that deeply-entrenched “good ol’ boy (and girl)” network. It’s probably also going to take the FEDS. They’ll have their work cut out for them.
  +6
[Reply]
# 15 June 2012 at 3:30 am

YahBooSucks said:
Cool! They do things so much bigger and better in the States!
  +1
[Reply]
# 15 June 2012 at 9:23 am

YahBooSucks said:
Hmmm.
That link to has an interesting advert from someone called Tony Robbins – Be a Life Coach and Change Lives … who he, you ask?
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-77-16068-dialing-for-dollars.html?current_page=3
… the gamekeepers are cavorting with the poachers … it’s kind of a muddle where no one knows what to believe anymore – throw enough mud and it becomes impossible to discern the truth … the love of money makes even the critical carry adverts for the crooks … crrraazzy … no wonder the despairing, the ignorant and the naive are suckered in … but beautifully done if you appreciate that sort of thing …
  +3
[Reply]
# 15 June 2012 at 9:52 am

MaxBenign said:
Dear Utahns,
‘Utahns’?! SRSLY? Yr demonym sux!
(Also: terrible politicians!)
Yrs,
A Wisconsinite (we know from terrible politicians, you betcha.)
  +3
[Reply]
# 15 June 2012 at 10:39 am

Head Honcho said:
And now for something COMPLETELY different (but::not really):
Anyone else get the email from Tellman that he’s RETIRING from Internet Marketing? Is this fer real?
If so, let’s all watch for his stated reasons. I hear all kinds of ‘em but I notice they’re still biting the dust, one at a time.
  +4
[Reply]

Melkor Reply:
June 15th, 2012 at 2:21 pm
@Head Honcho, I’ve got 5 cents that says his retirement is as real as Kerns and Mark Joyners’ retirements.
  +3
[Reply]
# 15 June 2012 at 11:25 am

G said:
I seriously think nothing short of Napoleonic measures will ever get rid of these parasites. It’s like they are zombies. Dead with respect to anything resembling human emotions such as compassion, honesty, decency and so on, they yet exist in this rancid, undead, stench-filled, eat-your-brains infestation/facsimile of “life” and all at our expense.
We should just be allowed to use flamethrowers on them to disinfect the planet from their kind.
  +4
[Reply]
# 15 June 2012 at 5:54 pm

mirele said:
Wow, this is seriously asshattish behavior. You have to be a real king asshole to use your political office to intimidate an ex-wife at 10:30 pm on a Friday night at the behest of a contributor. I thought our pols were bad here in AZ, but not even they have done something quite so heinous.
This probably also explains why Shurtleff can’t bring himself to prosecute polygamists for anything (not just polygamy).
I passed this on to my Utah friends and posted it to my FB.
  +4
[Reply]
# 16 June 2012 at 9:07 am

Cosmic Connie said:
Why aren’t more folks commenting on this post? This is seriously important stuff. ‘Course, I’m kind of late to this myself, so mea culpa and all that. But jeez. Utah. Eric’ Peterson’s latest piece — with the able assistance of Salty — just takes us further down the rabbit hole (or into the beehive, as the case may be). I can’t wait to read the next installments — both from Eric and from Salty.
  +4
[Reply]

Alison Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 9:42 am
@Cosmic Connie, I imagine part of the silence is – what on earth do you say? How do you not feel completely overwhelmed knowing an office of such high standing, that should be morally answerable to the people, is so corrupt? What Shurtleff is guilty of is absolutely disgusting, and as a woman and mother I’m just furious.
But unfortunately, I have no idea what to do about this fury. How do we direct it? What do we say, who do we go to about it? I think that’s what we need tacked onto the end of this story – what can we do?
The only tangible thing I’ve known to do is to share this with everyone I know, and ask to get the word out. Beyond that, does anyone have any practical advice?
  +5
[Reply]

Dr Geek Reply:
June 18th, 2012 at 4:13 pm
@Alison, @Cosmic Connie,
Absolutely. This is such an egregious abuse of power, it’s difficult to comment. Our little robot friend has said that which needs to be said.
For the first time ever, I *wish* I lived in Utah so I could campaign against this man.
  +2
[Reply]

Anna Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 11:38 am
@Cosmic Connie, I think Alison hit the nail on the head. Shurtleff, Swallow and the Utah machine are beyond appalling. It’s really hard to find anything to add. I don’t think not commenting necessarily means not reading. I don’t comment very often, but I never miss a post either and it’s rare not to come back a few times to follow the discussion. Just when one thinks the stories here can’t get more twisted and interconnected, they do. And a few years of reading shows sadly they always do.
  +3
[Reply]

SD Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 1:34 pm
@Cosmic Connie ::
Traffic tanks whenever I talk about this … tis a fact.
I think it kinda goes with something we’ve been talking about in MinionProject501 {which is what I’m calling it starting now} … everything works so much better when the enemy is primarily reliant on the Internet … and better yet a person who makes themselves into an Internet public figure. Those lame posts I wrote about the Decaffeinated Elf were more popular than any of the Utah posts … which pretty much says it all.
The people who really need to hear this story in order for it to be an effective application of forced transparency … are Utah’s average Republican primary voters. That’s obviously never going to happen.
On the other hand :: I did SLC talk radio last night with Eric … so that should be much more in the average Utahan’s wheelhouse. Other other hand :: they played Peter Tosh between segments … so maybe not.
[Reply]

Wyrd Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
@SD,
Traffic tanks whenever I talk about this … tis a fact.
I wish it were not so. I wish people could/would have that full on outrage feeling about this that makes them do something–like not vote for Swallow.
The people who really need to hear this story in order for it to be an effective application of forced transparency … are Utah’s average Republican primary voters.
I love that expression “forced transparency”.
Yes, its very difficult to get the information to where it most needs to be. The shielding goes brain deep, I’m afraid. Suppose you could actually get the Swallow audio clip and the news articles in front of every republican at the primary–still there would be fierce resistance. At that point, it might work, it might not.
We humans are not nearly so rational as we like to pretend.
That’s why evidence is so important. That’s why I’m glad your method is based on evidence, sources, etc.
As long as you are posting, @SD, we’ll be reading. Maybe there’s some only-slightly-right-wing, Utah oriented blog. If I found one of those, that’d be the best place to post links
–
Furry cows moo and decompress.
  +5
[Reply]

Head Honcho Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 5:52 pm
@SD, It just proves to me that, directly opposite of what you’re often accused of, this site isn’t all about “building traffic.”
Utah is starting to remind me of Pakistan. Only more blatantly worse. They provide shelter to the scums. And your radio appearance last night: a drone strike.
More drones!
  +4
[Reply]

fried egg Reply:
June 20th, 2012 at 2:14 am
@SD,
It’s a whole lot easier to capture the imagination and emotions of the audience with a ‘celebrity train wreck’ (internet-based or otherwise) than with the real political power machinations that go on all the time everyday in real life.
The audience tends to tune out the real power stuff as the subject is generally too big, too amorphous and way too close to home. Most of the audience acknowledge on some level that it is real and true–but openly acknowledging it would complicate their already complicated and frantic lives spent trying to stay out of the direct path of the power machine long enough to accumulate the basic necessities of life.
Any power player worth his salt knows this. Its in his interest to make the workings of power politics boring beyond belief to the vast mass of people who indirectly provide him with his power.
Like a stage magician using a distraction technique to direct attention away from the hand doing the real dirty deed.
Pete Tosh? Try his grandaddy, Joe Higgs, for some really emotional steppin music.
  +2
[Reply]

Ryan Healy Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
@Cosmic Connie, I think the Utah posts lack some of the celebrity train wreck appeal of those posts that target certain “Internet marketing gurus.”
Yet stopping Utah’s mafia-style shenanigans is more important than any single guru. Because if the corruption in Utah stops, then that will put the kibosh on the lead-gen boiler room business model.
WINNER!! ::   +9
[Reply]

Cosmic Connie Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 4:52 pm
@Ryan Healy, My thoughts exactly, re the importance of stopping the shenanigans in Utah. And of course it’s not just the politicians; so many of the scammy MLM companies and such are based in Utah as well.
  +5
[Reply]

Doctor Mario Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 5:04 pm
@Cosmic Connie & @Ryan Healy ::
If only we could get some of the Utards to come here for some trolling.
I guess they are too busy running their giant scam empires to use the webz / comment on websites.
When your scamminess reaches billionaire status (a la Blake Roney) I guess you have more important things to do (like paying off the FTC) than actually addressing the public outcry against your egregious crimes.
  +2
[Reply]
# 18 June 2012 at 8:19 am

Utah sux said:
I think Mormons in general suck and sp does utah
  -3
[Reply]
# 18 June 2012 at 2:31 pm

Rafael Marquez said:
This whole thing just reinforces my notion that the Attorney General is nothing more than the head scammer of the state.
  +3
[Reply]
# 19 June 2012 at 9:39 am

Crazy Utah said:
@SD
Where is this link of you on the talk radio with Eric as stated in your earlier post? I would love to spread the fire here in UTAH
  +2
[Reply]
# 19 June 2012 at 3:23 pm

Crazy Utah said:
last story on this series of 3 for eric p. looks like saltydroid makes another guest appearance
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-77-16096-phone-predators.html?current_page=all
  +1
[Reply]

Wyrd Reply:
June 20th, 2012 at 9:33 am
@Crazy Utah,
Thanks. :-)
  +1
[Reply]
# 20 June 2012 at 9:28 am

Crazy Utah said:
Utah Attorney General out does himself again… When can we rid these douche bags out of office?
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/55598812-200/johnson-swallow-rawle-attorney.html.csp
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865570538/Ex-millionaires-plea-deal-unravels-in-attempt-to-protect-family-new-AG.html?pg=2
  +3
[Reply]
# 12 January 2013 at 1:08 pm

LiberalinUtah said:
Man, this stuff is getting more and more wierd. The corruption here in Utah runs deep.
Keep reporting, SD! It makes for good reading!
  +1
[Reply]
# 9 May 2013 at 4:06 pm

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