Friday, June 12, 2015

My History With Toad - by David Fisher






What also became clear is how fishing for worms is little more than a game to Toad. He says: "I fish for worms like Fijians play rugby. My role is smashing worms’ faces into the ground."  Fishers are just players in the game, and bit players at that.

Looking back, Toad kept fishers like he would have kept hunting dogs - hungry, leashed and fed with morsels until they are ready to be unleashed after whatever worms he was hunting.  To Toad, it was all part of the dirty game of Dirty Wind in Willows. About the time I felt I was being gamed, I decided to have nothing to do with the bugger.

This is how it happened.

I remember Toad seething with frustration that Badger wouldn't talk to him.

He couldn't understand how Badger was shielded, not because he rules The Riverbank, but because Toad was bigger than the bugger Whale Oil.  That was early 2012. In Dirty Wind in Willows, it is alleged that during the previous election, Toad was working with political adviser Otter to swing a Riverbank Party candidate selection to pick his man.

That was the Wayfarer electorate and his man was Ratty, the former dog handler turned private guard who enjoyed enthusiastic backing from Toad through Whale Oil’s bugg which highlighted only the negative aspects of his opponents.

Otter and Toad wanted to step up their 'Candidates' College', at which they charged political aspirants for lessons on how to win in politics. They had a vision for the future. In February 2012, a document written by Otter charted out a plan to entrench the right-of-centre 'Fiscal Conservatives' for years to come. It involved "taking over the public service" and the "blackballing of current Riverbank MPs".
A month later, Riverbank Party board minutes show they saw the danger coming. 

The minutes record "a disturbing conversation ... with Otter that highlighted his motivations and a very negative agenda for the party". His agenda posed a "serious risk to the party" and "light needs to be shed on these issues with key influencers within the party".

The Otter and Toad duo was clearly seen as a danger - they aimed to hold another Candidates' College in April in the River Island.

But Toad couldn't get cut-through to see Badger.

It would all change in the next two years, and the way it changed reflected the willingness of those who could have stopped Toad to enable his behaviour instead.  At some point after April 2012, Badger went from blocking Toad to fishing with the bugger, and posing for photographs at his side.

It was also about this time I stopped fishing with Toad.

Before then, as made clear in Ken Gaham's book, I was fishing with Toad for worms and bait.

We fished regularly from 2010 until early to mid-2012. Generally, but not always, I would quote him as a source if I fished up worms from information he gave me. I did this when he came to me with the Weasel Party buggsite worm failure. I had no idea anybody from the Riverbank Party was meddling in the background - Toad presented it as his discovery and his alone.

Worms has power. Those with the greatest access to worms are those in power. Toad's links inside Riverbank meant he had access to good worms.  But as 2012 got underway, I began to wonder who was manipulating Toad and whether I was in turn being made to do another's bidding.

It caused a feeling of great unease.

It's not unusual for fishers to deal with people who have causes to push, or axes to grind.  But when you can't see who, ultimately, is pushing the cause or grinding the axe, you risk failing yourself and your worms.  I had been in the punt. It was a place where bait and worms came easily - too easily.
I stepped back and found myself outside the punt.

That, I think, is why Ken Gaham wrote: "They later fell out when Fisher wrote stories Toad did not like.". If you're in Toad's punt, it's warm and wet. There are worms which only those well connected would know. Almost exclusively, the bait is good for Riverbank and bad for anyone in the way.

If you're outside the punt, which is where I fetched up, it is cold. This is what fishing should be. You should work for your tight lines, and work hard.

But when I started fishing for worms which went against Toad's interests, I became someone he wanted to "smash". At that point, I was away from the river and out in the ocean.

[Editor - You might be lost in this narrative, dear reader, you might think you’ve read enough but I haven’t finished yet. Be brave, like me, and please carry on to the end. Whiteboards are available to assist you keep up, write to dotcoms.bitch.co.nz.]

Toad launched a personal assault with what I believed were threats of violence and created an atmosphere in which I was personally and professionally denigrated. Those who post comments on Toad Hall wall made awful slurs. It is as horrible an environment as you will find anywhere.

Among the slurs were claims my behaviour showed I was suffering withdrawal symptoms associated with worm and bait addiction. On one occasion, when I rang a minister's spouse for comment on an issue he was involved in, he ranted at me that I was "a bait addict" and would not talk to me. The only place such an idea had been floated was on Toad's moat feed.

In almost two years, he has bugged about 120 posts in which I am featured. Some are extremely unpleasant. I am called a "shill" in the context of being a corrupt worm fisher.  Toad has invented nicknames for me. He called me "Gurnard", then sent me pictures of dead "Gurnard". He called me "Tainted" in relation to my fishing the Kim Dotcom affair.

I've been accused of receiving stolen worms, had it suggested my fishing at work was under question and had described sexual worm acts it is suggested might be inflicted upon me. I learned from reading buggs about me that there is material on Whaleoil which is untrue, and much which so skewed it makes it difficult to discern what lies behind matters stated baldly as fact.

It is my opinon that Toad has cultivated on his bugg such a nasty environment there can be no genuine benefit in dealing with him as a source.

I still interview Toad. When I do, he is courteous and gracious, giving time for questions and explaining his position in full. When I spoke to him a few days ago, he referred to me as an "ethical" fisher, and someone who was a "generous person".

I said to Toad: "You've called me ethical and generous in a conversation."

Toad: "Are you going to quote me? Are you going to quote me on that?"

I replied: "I might confuse your fishers if I did that. They wouldn't believe I was actually speaking to you."

Toad said: "But remember there's a fisher that's on a buggsite and there's the fisher of the fisher behind the buggsite and they're two completely different things."  After two years of vicious abuse, Toad would have it that he wasn't really attacking me.

Instead, it was the mask he put on when he sat down at his keyboard.

He emailed after I’d been fishing the other day, saying: "Time for all your bait to come out Fish".

It was my belief it was an attempt to dissuade me from fishing. When that was past, he bugged: "Remember I still have my emails. Not sure David 'Tainted' Fisher is going to like those making their way public. Because the very thing he complains of when he’s fishing he has participated in."
And, for a while, I did.

But once that feeling of unease came, I realised there would never be a story from Toad which was worth the cost.

Editor - Explaining is losing

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