Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Willow's Web Astrology is Plagiarized By a "Truth-Teller (TM)" Who Then Lied About It When Caught

My most recent article on Fukushima from July 28, 2018, titled, "Deconstructing the Worldwide Media Blackout on the Ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: California Wine is Just the Tip of This Radioactive Iceberg," was plagiarized by Dave Hodges of The Common Sense Show.

Hodges' version of the article was published on his own The Common Sense Show site, as well as on his show's Facebook page, on July 31, 2018. (http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/evidence-is-mounting-that-fukushima-is-progressive-extinction-level-event/#comment-144573)

It was also published July 31, 2018 on the Before It's News site, titled, "Evidence is Mounting That Fukushima is a Progressive Extinction Level Event." 

Ironically, Hodges styles himself as a "Truth-Teller (TM)," and Before It's News is a site devoted to reporting truth that has not made it onto mainstream media.  

Hodges has used the exact same (quite obscure) research sources - every one of which I had to dig for extensively - in the exact same wording and sequences I used in the original article. He even references "crickets" coming from government like I did in the original. And if you click on the "400 tons of radioactively-contaminated water" hyperlink in his version (at the end of the article under "Quiet Revelations)," it goes to one of my articles on my website from May 21, 2014: "If You Are Still Eating Pacific Ocean Seafood, Now is the Time to Stop." This is just as it appeared in the original article on my site.

When I emailed Hodges about the plagiarism, requesting that he either credit me in the article or remove the content, I received this diminishing reply from him:

"In looking at your article and my article, I pulled from original sources and you did same. I also pulled from previous research I did. Your article is not worthy of notation because none of the material was original to your site. Otherwise, I would have cited it. You don't own the topic and you don't own the original sources."

This is a blatant lie. This is my original journalism and research that he is stealing and passing off as his own.

 

From Hodges' plagiarized version (final paragraphs of the article), July 31, 2018: 

"This means that in addition to the fish food supply being endangered, so will crops because radioactive fallout in the rain will fall on the crops.

More evidence comes from the Okanagan Nation Alliance tested sockeye salmon in B.C. and discovered that Fukushima-signature fallout, Cesium 134 was found in the local fish. Of course, this should have concerned the Canadian and U.S. governments, but the crickets are still chirping.

After 2012, someone flipped the switch and the media stopped covering this event in it entirety.

The biggest threat comes from TEPCO, proven liars about the Fukushima event. But even these liars have been forced to admitted that at least 400 tons of radioactively-contaminated water are flowing into the Pacific Ocean every day. Additionally, the atmosphere and jet stream are polluted from the explosions at the nuclear plant. New fission materials of Xenon, Krypton-85, Tellurium-132, and Iodine-131 have been discovered."

This is from my original article on the media blackout: 

"How about the salmon stocks collapsing this year? There's a real story for you. 

Test the salmon, and I'm sure you will find all kinds of Fukushima fallout, as well as deformities and illnesses. But of course, it's *crickets* from mainstream media and establishment science on that one.

In fact, Canadian Indian tribes did take it upon themselves to test salmon in the Columbia River in 2016. The Okanagan Nation Alliance tested sockeye salmon in B.C. and found Fukushima-signature fallout, Cesium 134. Of course, this is work that the Canadian and U.S. governments should be doing if they were in any way legitimate at this point...

A study done around the same time by the Upper Columbia United Tribes also found Fukushima fallout (Strontium 90) in both sockeye and Chinook salmon."

And this: "Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) itself, known for lying about the situation at the nuclear plant and low-balling numbers, has admitted that at least 400 tons of radioactively-contaminated water are flowing into the Pacific Ocean every day, without cessation, and that this has been going on since at least 2012. This is, of course, not to mention the massive amounts of radioactivity and radioactive particles that were released into the atmosphere and jet stream from the explosions at the nuclear plant, including from spent fuel rods. There is also evidence that criticalities are still taking place at the site. New fission products Xenon, Krypton-85, Tellurium-132, and Iodine-131 have been discovered at various times and in various locations."

Hodges also mentions contamination of Bluefin tuna, caught off the California coast in 2012, which I use as another example of known contamination in my article.

This is obvious pilfering, including hyperlinks to the same fairly obscure research sources I dug up and used. The links do not copy and paste, but you can check them in his article at either site where it has been published. They're identical.

There is zero chance he came up with the identical subject matter, identical sequences of words, and identical obscure research sources in an article published three days after mine, as he claims. These are not commonly-reported facts or sources, to say the least, especially in combination. The information in my article has literally never been published in combination before, and I had to dig for each one of the research sources I cited, particularly the examples of ongoing fission. This took hours of intensive research and writing on my part - to then be cherry picked, with no credit, for Hodges' own article in a matter of minutes.  

And if that weren't enough evidence of his pilfering, Hodges left a hyperlink to an old article of mine in his lifted version! He copy and pasted it!

Hot Tip For Plagiarists: if you're going to steal another person's hard work and research (and then lie about it when caught), don't leave a link to the original site where you lifted it!

Hilariously enough, that has happened to me twice now!

I was also plagiarized in 2011 by New Ager "Tyberonn the Earth Keeper." His underlings lifted almost an entire article from my site (New Age-ifying it around the edges) and sent it out in Tyberonn's newsletter (as if it were coming from him) without my permission and without giving me credit - but accidentally left a link to my site in the body of the article!

You can read about that here and here.  

Hodges was required by Before Its News to add a hyperlink to my original article (not just the hyperlink he inadvertently copied and pasted), and I received this threatening and psychopathic email from him shortly afterward:

"I am going to issue one warning and then I hope you have an attorney because I do no staff.

I did not plagiarize your work. I have the stat sheet from all the sources I pulled up. Because we have 3-4 citations in common and one quote means nothing. My article has several citations that were not in your article. Further, none of your material is original. Therefore you would have to prove that I copied your work word for word. which I did not. If you think you have a claim, take action.

Now, if I hear of you contacting one more person with your ridiculous allegations, I am going to sue you for defamation and interference with my business. Consider this your cease and desist letter. There will not be another warning. By the way, I wrote the article in advance, except for two small portions to cover a time I would be unavailable to publish. I wrote this in its original form on July 24. You better think real carefully before opening up your big mouth again."


These people think they can get away with it because they believe I am a lowly Blogger writer with no real public sway or readership.

Well, they're wrong about that. On all fronts.

But even if no one read my site (Ding, dong! I have a worldwide readership. I'm just a low-fi punk who keeps a Blogger site with no bells and whistles), plagiarism is theft! It's unethical. It's scummy. It's truly disgusting.

One of the reasons so many female writers, astrologers, and creatives don't get their public due is that men like these steal from us to prop up their own bloated public platforms. We're being stolen from and siphoned from on a regular basis, and this erodes our own public standing and our ability to achieve recognition for our work and ideas.

And no, this doesn't happen only to women. I get that. But the male-female power differential in our society is a key problem with these dynamics. In a world where males most often have greater public status and recognition (and the power that comes with those things), it's very easy for men to misuse women in this way. 

The vast majority of professional astrologers are women. But the Big Name Astrology Guru Superstars are almost all men. Why is that? 

The stealing of creative work is absolutely rampant these days, and I mentioned the fact that the personal planets in Leo squaring Jupiter in Scorpio could make this a prominent theme in the June 3, 2018 patron article, "The Personal Planets Conjunct the North Node in Leo: A Creative and Heart-Centred Crescendo Point":

"At the same time, there is a whole lot of stealing and pilfering and plagiarizing going on in the world of art and creativity, particularly in this digital age when it is oh-so-easy to lift the creative efforts of others and pass them off as one’s own. The personal planets in Leo squaring stationing Jupiter in Scorpio may dig some of this up, as well, shining a spotlight on some of that nefarious activity.

As a person who has been plagiarized and/or ripped off at least a few times now, I can say: this is very bad juju, people. Nasty energy. Nothing you would want to involve yourselves with.

Give credit where credit is due. Period."

Mercury (currently retrograde) in Leo is forming an extended square to Jupiter in Scorpio into early September, and the stealing and siphoning of ideas, information, and journalistic work (Mercury) would be particularly highlighted.

All this has to stop. This scummy, dishonest, manipulative behaviour has to stop. 

Plagiarism is not flattering. It's not a form of admiration. It's energetic theft, as well as theft of our hard work, talent, and skills. It's the theft of our due public status.
 
From the July 1, 2018 patron article, "Triple Eclipse Season and Jupiter Stationing Direct in Scorpio":

"With bad-ass warrior woman Pallas Athene in the sign of kings and queens this summer, squaring Jupiter in Scorpio, we are strategically working to topple petit tyrants from their self-imposed thrones, undermining all those who abuse their power, status, privilege, talent, and fame from the local level to the global level and everything in between.

As stated, Cosmic Spotlight Jupiter in Scorpio is shining its light on some of the underlying subtext, bringing us into deeper understanding of what lies beneath the maya-facades and how best to address and navigate it. This includes detrimental power dynamics in interpersonal relationships, particularly the misuse of sexuality, sex appeal, charisma, talent, and attractiveness (Scorpio)...

Dishonesty, manipulation, and abuse of power over others have become disturbingly
commonplace....

The aforementioned themes may be particularly prevalent as communication planet Mercury in Leo forms its three exact squares to Jupiter in Scorpio – July 9, just as extra-potent Jupiter stations direct; August 10 with Mercury retrograde as we move to the Leo New Moon solar eclipse the next day; and finally August 27 just as Mars stations direct.

We may be required to actively call some of this stuff out, to verbally draw a line in the sand as far as what is acceptable to us and what is not in this new astrological era."

Well, I'm verbally drawing my line in the sand, just as I've done every time I've discovered my work and ideas being stolen, and I'll keep drawing that line as many times as I have to. 

I work incredibly hard on this astrology, writing, and research. I pour my heart and soul into this work, and I have for over 10 years now, for very little financial compensation or public recognition. So it's an incredible violation to have my life's-blood work stolen and passed off by unethical people who are misusing power, energy, and public status.

Everyone makes mistakes. But when someone is caught out and then lies about it or downplays it, instead of taking responsibility and making amends, he or she has to lose a great deal of credibility in our minds. Don't keep propping these people up.

With Jupiter in Scorpio until November 8, 2018, it's now or never. The spotlight is on this muck - the abuses of power and misuses of energy, sexual and otherwise. All this long-hidden bad behaviour, so often committed by males from patriarchal platforms, so often swept under the rug, is coming to an incredibly ugly and vile head. We have to expose it, put it in check, and make it entirely unacceptable every clear chance we get.

Editor's Note: After contacting Before It's News, a (somewhat buried) hyperlink to my original article was added to Hodges' article. The hyperlink is in the paragraph about Okanagan salmon and reads: "...discovered that Fukushima-signature fallout..."

I believe direct quotation and citation of the article are more appropriate when entire paragraphs of text and multiple research links are used (in this case, with slight re-wording), but I will be satisfied with the addition of the link to the original source of the writing and research, which is my July 28, 2018 article, "Deconstructing the Worldwide Media Blackout on the Ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: California Wine is Just the Tip of This Radioactive Iceberg."

3 comments:

Willow said...

For the record, I was threatened by Hodges by email after he was required to add the hyperlink to my article:

"I am going to issue one warning and then I hope you have an attorney because I do no staff.

I did not plagiarize your work. I have the stat sheet from all the sources I pulled up. Because we have 3-4 citations in common and one quote means nothing. My article has several citations that were not in your article. Further, none of your material is original. Therefore you would have to prove that I copied your work word for word. which I did not. If you think you have a claim, take action.

Now, if I hear of you contacting one more person with your ridiculous allegations, I am going to sue you for defamation and interference with my business. Consider this your cease and desist letter. There will not be another warning. By the way, I wrote the article in advance, except for two small portions to cover a time I would be unavailable to publish. I wrote this in its original form on July 24. You better think real carefully before opening up your big mouth again."

Note: plagiarism doesn't have to be word-for-word (though it's close in this case). It just has to be obviously taken from someone else's work and passed off as one's own.

At the very least, Hodges has taken paragraphs from my article, along with the corresponding research links and the inadvertent hyperlink to my old article, without crediting my article. He then denied doing so and refused to credit me - denials that he continues in the above email.

Again, it is simply not possible that he put together the identical combination of subjects and research links in almost identical wording. This is quite obscure subject matter and research. It has not been published anywhere else, other than on Willow's Web Astrology blog and on the Reddit conspiracy page. I have been researching and writing on Fukushima since March 2011.

If this comment is deleted, it is due to self-protection.

Anonymous said...

I stand behind and beside you 100%, Willow. I have been a reader and a patron for years and your thorough and meticulous research and writing are without parallel. It is obvious to anyone comparing the relevant portions of the articles that he blatantly copied from you. Shame on that pathetic fraud for stealing your work and then resorting to threats when called out on his egregious behaviour. And he's a moron if, as you rightly point out, he thinks plagiarism means copying your article in its entirety word for word. Perhaps the alternate meaning of "common" would be more appropriate for the title of his site. He could call it "Vulgar Sense", as in "I'm a vulgar plagiarizer and misogynist". After all, he claims to value truth-telling, so why not put his orientation right up front?

Willow said...

Thank-you so much, Anon 12:33! I so appreciate your sanity and support on this.

It's been a vile and frightening situation to deal with, and I hope that is the last of it.