oromagi

@oromagi

In 1913, somebody falsely yelled "fire" at a packed Christmas Party in Michigan and 73 people were crushed to death in the panic.

It still feels like you're missing the point.

What if there really was a fire.

Would yelling "fire" cause the same number of deaths (as not-yelling fire)?

Exactly like this "HUNTER BIDEN" "problem", it's the individuals who PANIC that are "the problem" that need to be solved.

--> @oromagi

The shouting FIRE analogy originates from a Supreme Court argument adjudicated by Oliver Wendell Holmes, who used the analogy as an example of speech that First Amendment does not protect.

And that's exactly why I always hate that analogy.

The patrons should be smart enough to look around and see if there's any smoke or anything without flying into a panic.

ALSO,

Do people typically panic and trample each other when their fire-alarm/smoke-alarm system is unexpectedly tripped?

Wouldn't this "danger" kind of make all fire-alarm/smoke-alarms counter productive??

One month before a purported leak of files from Hunter Biden's laptop, a fake "intelligence" document about him went viral on the right-wing internet, asserting an elaborate conspiracy theory involving former Vice President Joe Biden's son and business in China.

The document, a 64-page composition that was later disseminated by close associates of President Donald Trump, appears to be the work of a fake "intelligence firm" called Typhoon Investigations, according to researchers and public documents.

The author of the document, a self-identified Swiss security analyst named Martin Aspen, is a fabricated identity, according to analysis by disinformation researchers, who also concluded that Aspen's profile picture was created with an artificial intelligence face generator. The intelligence firm that Aspen lists as his previous employer said that no one by that name had ever worked for the company and that no one by that name lives in Switzerland, according to public records and social media searches.

One of the original posters of the document, a blogger and professor named Christopher Balding, took credit for writing parts of it when asked about it and said Aspen does not exist.

Despite the document's questionable authorship and anonymous sourcing, its claims that Hunter Biden has a problematic connection to the Communist Party of China have been used by people who oppose the Chinese government, as well as by far-right influencers, to baselessly accuse candidate Joe Biden of being beholden to the Chinese government.

The document and its spread have become part of a wider effort to smear Hunter Biden and weaken Joe Biden's presidential campaign, which moved from the fringes of the internet to more mainstream conservative news outlets.

An unverified leak of documents — including salacious pictures from what President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and a Delaware Apple repair store owner claimed to be Hunter Biden's hard drive — were published in the New York Post on Oct. 14. Associates close to Trump, including Giuliani and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, have promised more blockbuster leaks and secrets, which have yet to materialize.

The fake intelligence document, however, preceded the leak by months, and it helped lay the groundwork among right-wing media for what would become a failed October surprise: a viral pile-on of conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden.

Behind Typhoon

The Typhoon Investigations document was first posted in September to Intelligence Quarterly, an anonymous blog "dedicated to collecting important daily news," according to its "about" section. Historical domain records show the blog was registered to Albert Marko, a self-described political and economic adviser, who also lists the blog on his Twitter bio. When asked about the provenance of the document, Marko said he received it from Balding.

Balding, previously an associate professor at Fulbright University Vietnam who studied the Chinese economy and financial markets, posted the document on his blog on Oct. 22, seven weeks after it was initially published.

"I had really not wanted to do this but roughly 2 months ago I was handed a report about Biden activities in China the press has simply refused to cover. I want to strongly emphasize I did not write the report but I know who did," Balding said in an email.

Balding later claimed to NBC News that he wrote some of the document.

"I authored small parts of the report and was involved in report preparation and review. As a researcher, and due to the understandable worry about foreign disinformation, it was paramount that the report document activity from acknowledged and public sources," Balding said. "Great care was taken to document, cite, and retain information so that acknowledged facts could be placed in the public domain."

A viral dossier about Hunter Biden was written by "Martin Aspen," a fake identity whose profile picture was created by artificial intelligence.TyphoonInvesti1 / via Twitter

Balding said Aspen is "an entirely fictional individual created solely for the purpose of releasing this report." Balding did not name the document's main author, saying "the primary author of the report, due to personal and professional risks, requires anonymity."

Balding claimed that the document was commissioned by Apple Daily, a Hong Kong-based tabloid that is frequently critical of the Chinese government. A spokesperson for Apple Daily confirmed it had worked with Balding on the document.

In addition to posting the document to his blog, Balding also promoted it in far-right media, appearing on Bannon's podcast and on "China Unscripted," a podcast produced by The Epoch Times, a pro-Trump media outlet opposed to the Chinese government.

Balding, an American who taught economics at China's Peking University HSBC Business School until 2018, is often critical of the Chinese government. He made news this year as a source uncovering a global bulk data collection operation by the Chinese company Shenzhen Zhenhua Data Technology.

Blog posts highlighting the most salacious parts of the document, including articles from the Intelligence Quarterly Blog, Revolver News and Balding's blog, received 70,000 public interactions — which includes reactions, comments and shares — across Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, according to the social media analysis tool BuzzSumo.

Balding's blog was the primary driver of virality in conservative and conspiracy communities. The report itself was shared across Facebook and Twitter around 5,000 times, according to BuzzSumo, and more than 80 sites linked back to the blog, which was shared more than 25,000 times on Facebook and Twitter. Hyperpartisan and conspiracy sites like ZeroHedge and WorldNetDaily led the pack.

After the promise of a big reveal one day earlier, the document was also posted on the extremist forum 8kun by Q, the anonymous account behind the QAnon conspiracy theory movement.

On Twitter, the document was pushed by influencers in the QAnon community, as well as by Dinggang Wang, an anti-Chinese government YouTube personality who works for Guo Wengui, a billionaire who fled China amid accusations of bribery and other crimes. Republican Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, tweeted the document to his 2.3 million followers.

'Immediately suspicious'

The document gained attention from disinformation researchers in part because of the image of the document's author.

Elise Thomas, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, first spotted telltale signs of a fake photo when she went searching for Typhoon Investigations' Aspen on the web. Thomas found a Twitter account for Aspen named @TyphoonInvesti1, which had posted a link to Typhoon's WordPress page that contained the document on Aug. 15.

The profile picture for Aspen immediately showed signs of being a computer-generated image that can be created by computers and even some websites. Aspen's ears were asymmetrical, for one, but his left eye is what gave away that he did not really exist. Aspen's left iris juts out and appears to form a second pupil, a somewhat frequent error with computer-generated faces.

"The most obvious tell was the irregular shape of the irises," Thomas said. "The profile picture looks pretty convincing in the Twitter thumbnail, but when I popped it up into full view I was immediately suspicious."

Thomas then consulted with Ben Nimmo, director of investigations at the analytics company Graphika, who noted the other telltale sign of a computer-generated face.

"One of the things he and his team have figured out is that if you layer a lot of these images over the top of one another, the eyes align," Thomas said. "He did that with this image, and the eyes matched up."

Other parts of Aspen's identity were clearly stolen from disparate parts of the web. Aspen's Facebook page was created in August, and it featured only two pictures, both from his "new house," which were tracked back to reviews on the travel website Tripadvisor. The logo for Typhoon Investigations was lifted from the Taiwan Fact-Checking Center, a digital literacy nonprofit.

Aspen claimed on his LinkedIn profile to have worked for a company called Swiss Security Solutions from 2016 to 2020. Swiss Security Solutions denied having ever employed anyone named Aspen, and it said it had found fake accounts for two other people pretending to have worked for the company.

"Martin Aspen was never a freelancer or worker of the Swiss Security Solutions. We do not know this person. According to our Due Diligence Software, this person does not exist in Switzerland," Swiss Security Solutions Chairman Bojan Ilic said, adding that the company has reported the profile to LinkedIn.

Fake faces

Computer-generated faces have become a staple of large-scale disinformation operations in the run-up to the election. In December, Facebook took down a network of fake accounts using computer-created faces tied to The Epoch Times. Facebook removed over 600 accounts tied to the operation, which pushed pro-Trump messages and even served as moderators of some Facebook groups. Stephen Gregory, publisher of the U.S. editions of The Epoch Times, has denied any connection to the accounts.

Last month, Facebook removed another batch of computer-generated profiles originating in China and the Philippines, some of which made anti-Trump posts.

Renee DiResta, a researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory, said computer-created identities are becoming common for disinformation campaigns, in part because they are easy to create.

DiResta, who helped examine a ring of AI-generated faces tied to the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA last month, said computer-generated profile pictures can be used to "build an army of fake people" to artificially support a cause or to make "disinformation operations harder to discover."

"One of the things that investigators look at to understand the narrative that is spreading is whether the accounts are authentic, whether they're real," DiResta said. "If they were to use a stock photo, it confirms something dishonest is likely happening. By using an AI-generated face, you're guaranteeing you won't find that person elsewhere on the internet."

CORRECTION (Oct 30, 2020. 11:19 a.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated Christopher Balding’s position at Fulbright University Vietnam. As of Thursday afternoon, the university had listed him as being currently employed, but later put out a statement saying he was a former professor. He is no longer an employee of the university as of Sept. 10, 2020.

--> @oromagi

Remember when McCarthy waved a piece of paper that he claimed had a list of 205 communists working for the State Dept. ? The fact that the paper was never submitted into evidence or ever seen again was irrelevant, the McCarthyists were required to believe in red panic and so the witch hunt proceeded.

All smoke and no fire.

It’s right in the source. The claim is simple: Bobulinski claims the “big man” in the verified emails refer to Joe Biden, who met with a member of Burisma.

Ben Smith of The New York Times reported on October 25 that early that month a White House attorney, Eric Herschmann, and two other men devised a plan to present Bobulinski and a cache of emails about Hunter Biden to a Wall Street Journal reporter, expecting the paper to run a story. This was conveyed to the president, who expected the story would be published on October 19, according to Steve Bannon. Trump mentioned on a conference call with aides that the Journal would soon publish an "important piece". Word of this comment reached editors at the Journal, who reportedly resented the insinuation that the paper was "being teed up to do this hit job". Bannon asserted that Bobulinski "got spooked" about whether the story would run, and on October 21 he emailed a statement about his allegations to a variety of sources, including Breitbart, which published it in full. As the October 22 presidential debate was ending, the Journal published a short article reporting that Bobulinski did not prove his central claim that Joe Biden was involved in and profited from his son's lobbying

I don't care if blank pages were stolen, the fact that they objectively were is bullshit.

Hey everyone, 

I do LD and I'm planning on running a moral skepticism kritik in the future. Ofc I know that some won't take kindly to it so I'll be running it quite selectively. I had a couple questions about the concept for anyone who knows enough about debate/metaethics to answer them.

1. How do you create solvency/establish negative impacts without making moral claims? I know Nietzsche wrote some stuff about crafting orientations towards living in light of the subjectivity of morality but I'd like some more specificity here.

2. What are some common/instinctive rebuttals that you'll get if you run moral skepticism and how can you counter them? I don't know exactly what I'll be hearing yet. 

3. Any good (preferably online) resources for cards/support for nihilism/skepticism? 

"ought" is in the resolution. If we don't ought do do anything, we don't ought to institute a jobs guarantee. My impression is that it'd work the same with any normative topic. 

Where Ragnar and Oro is, where Wins.

• I'm willing to judge. 
  
• If any challengers would rather I didn't judge them, I'll respect that too.
  

@oromagi

There are almost no mainstream moderate news sources, but every media bias checker has the Washington post at least left-center(I prefer mediabiasfactcheck.com, because all the the other supposed bias checkers are biased in themselves, lol).  If we're going for fair reporting but still a slight bias to the left, I'd say The Hill.  If we're going for the same thing but to the right, I'd say the New York Post(keep in mind i'm talking only about news, not any editorials for all of these).  If we're trying to go for closest to the center on either side, I'd say the Wall Street Journal(and I'd definitely consider The Hill).  Media sources who are pretty much completely neutral and pretty much just says what happens and let's the people decide how to interpret it are Real Clear Politics and C-Span.

Edit:  I'd actually say the Hill is neutral as well, just as much as the Wall Street Journal.

So The Hill, The Wall Street Journal, Real Clear Politics, and C-Span.  There's 4 for you.

I'm sorry, but that post just reads as an "I hate Trump" op-ed.  You can have your personal opinions of whether Trump's policies have helped the black community and be entitled to trust a leftist fact-checking website, I'm just asking for a fair assessment of what different president's have done for blacks.  I don't think you answered the question, you kinda mentioned Obama, this was just a rant against Trump and conflating different political issues and opinions into a simple question.

People always brush it off when Trump says it,

• Black poverty was at an all time low in 2019, dropping 3 points after the Obama admin's 7 point drop.  However, 2020 has erased all of Trump's gains and black poverty is back up to post-2008 crash numbers.
• Black unemployment last month was 16.7, highest official rate since Jan 1984.
  
• Criminal Justice reform was highly truncated version of  a more expansive bill written by the Obama admin and rejected by McConnell & Co.  Trump made no contribution beyond his signature to the popular bipartisan bill.
• Violent crime has decreased for all races fairly steadily since 1991 with some leveling out since 2014.  Early reports are that COVID has resulted in significant decreases in crime generally, with some remarkable spikes in commercial break-ins, assault, etc during the Floyd riots of this summer.
• School choice accelerates educational white flight and mostly promotes home schooling which is not an option for families without one stay at home parent. 83% of home schooled kids are white, less than 5% are black.
  
• Opportunity Zones legislation has mostly just created massive tax breaks for the wealthiest real estate interests.  Few blacks benefit from accelerated gentrification.
  
• HBCU funding is in the Congressional budget.  HBCU funding during Trump's term is substantially less than either of Obama's terms.
  

• 60% drop in civil rights investigations
  
• Virtually no investigations of any govt civil rights violations
  
• Massive new impediments and restrictions targeting black voters
  
• Substantial reductions in black nominations and appointments by Trump admin
• Trump's passive endorsement of white supremacy and personal history of racism
  
• Increased health risks to blacks caused by Trump's failed pandemic response
  

but can you name a president who has done more? 

Most people only say LBJ because he passed the civil rights act; however, he was a proud racist who frequently used the N-word and voted against any civil rights legislation in the senate before he was president.  The only reason he signed it into law was because he was pressured by everyone to do so, and it would have been very bad politically if he hadn't.

Nobody said Biden lying to the people about placing his son in a position to funnel money to him was criminal.

--> @oromagi 

How’s Antarctica?

nor is he asking the New York Post for a retraction.

Biden isn't denying the story,

- We Should Colonize Mars by 2100 (pro)

"humans are useless wasteful, irrational, flawed and worthless viruses."

• The guy keeps saying, "shit I shouldn't have said that" "God I suck at this"
  
• He keeps offering provocative details and then as soon as the reporters ask for a corroborating name or number or place, he just says "no comment"
  
• Mac's story is that somebody dropped off three laptops and never came back for them, although they contained pornography and incriminating 5 year old emails as unprotected files with direct  links on the desktop.  Really?
  
• Mac never saw who dropped them off & Hunter BIden's whereabouts are now well established in April 2019.  He was never in Delaware.
  
• Did the FBI contact him?  Did he contact the FBI?   Mac doesn't know.  They took a laptop from him but he didn't have a subpoena, or receipt, or a name or an office or a number to call?  Mac's not sure.....Special Agent something or other, he thinks.
  
• Who are all these secret go-betweens to Giuliani and FBI? 
  
• When pressed, Mac call Giuliani his "lifeguard" someone who saves you when you're drowning.  So whatever Mac's relationship to Giuliani, we've established that it is Mac who owes Giuliani in this transaction.
  
• What does Mac owe Giuliani?
  
• Trump's Director of National Intelligence advised Giuliani last November that the people he was getting his information from regarding Biden and Burisma were Russian Intelligence.  When Giuliani persisted, the DNI advised US Govt (and briefed Trump, of course) to be on the look out for Russian manufactured phony Biden &  Burisma documents  Dec 2019.  
  
• That is, just from monitoring Russian Intelligence, US intelligence was able to accurately predict Giuliani's move ten months ahead.  Not a great look for "America's Mayor."
  
• If  US intelligence can establish that images from either of the Fancy Bear hacks on Burisma were used to create these phony docs, then we have another direct link between Trump's personal lawyer and Russian intelligence, with at least one freaked out nerd who can't keep his story straight in between.  As the Speaker of the House frequently reminds us, with Trump, everything goes back to Russia.
  

Alright, there are currently three people who I think have a possibility of beating oromagi. 

1. Intel

2. Bear

3. Rational

Maybe Sum1Hugme, but that's not for sure.

• Many good souls who were trapped in their tombs because of original sin were suddenly purified by Christ's sacrifice and granted access to heaven
  
• a big earthquake
  
• Matthew is reporting the presence of many  newly resurrected, newly saved but not yet ascended souls wandering through Jerusalem
  

• many people then as now, get buried in rubble of earthquakes for days or weeks, when they are found or free themselves, miraculous claim abound
  
• Cities like Jerusalem were mostly 2 and 3 story buildings built of mud bricks.   A big earthquake would tear apart nearly every house and leave an ocean of bricks and buried residents.  The numbers of people buried and trapped would be astonishing.  People who could not find their home or families might be separated for weeks.  After a big earthquake, there would be large numbers of people who were assumed dead who returned days, weeks, even years later.  So earthquakes become associated with resurrections.
  
• Also, many people were buried fairly shallow in those days, under only two or three feet of sand, often.  Any big earthquake would shake out many, many dead bodies from years of prior burials.
  
• I think Matthew is depicting the mass salvation of so many as a physical reality and cataclysm  for the residents of Jerusalem, cracking open  the earth and waking the dead.
  

I've been trying to decide if it's unethical to eat veal. I'm not a vegetarian, nor do I have a problem with meat. But veal seems a little cruel.

-->@HistoryBuff

How about you go line by line with the 2 articles I posted and explain why it is bullshit.

• The first piece is 2 year old opinion from the editor and sole contributor of a  free bi-weekly out of a trailer park called Cave Creek that calls itself the conservative voice of Arizona, much to  Barry Goldwater's post-mortem distress.
  
• The second piece is a 4 year old opinion from a Philadelphia fire chief published in Uncle Sam's Misguided Children.  Media Bias Fact Check advises readers to never trust information from these extremists
  

• "Overall, we rate Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children Questionable based on Extreme Right bias, promotion of conspiracies and propaganda, lack of ownership transparency and numerous instances of publishing fake news as verified through several failed fact checks.
  
• Reasoning: Extreme Right, Propaganda, Conspiracy, Lack of Transparency, Failed Fact Checks
  Country: USA
  Founded in 2011 by Rick (Tank) Ferran, Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children is a conservative news website as well as an online store that sells conservative related merchandise. According to their about page “Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children is a community founded by United States Marine Veterans to bring awareness of the lame stream media.” They state their mission as to “raise awareness of threats foreign and domestic against our Constitutional Rights by providing accurate news, commentary, and facilitating the organization of Patriot groups in the defense of Freedom.” 
• Funded by / Ownership
  
• The website does not openly state ownership. Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children is funded through advertising and an online store that sells branded merchandise as well conservative and pro-Trump items.
  
• Analysis / Bias
  
• In review, Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children publishes news and opinions with a strong right leaning bias. Story selection always favors the right and utilizes strong emotional wording such as this, 
  
• AL ABORTION BAN – LEFTISTS IN MELTDOWN OVER “PATRIARCHY”. This particularly story is poorly sourced to tweets rather than credible media sources. Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children frequently publishes propaganda pieces highlighting the dangers of illegal immigration such as this: 
  
• TEXAS ILLEGAL ALIEN CHARGED WITH 12 MURDERS OF ELDERLY WOMEN, MAYBE HUNDREDS MORE. This story is sourced to the Associated Press and the factually Mixed Daily Wire. The headline of the story is very misleading as it claims there may be 100’s more murdered by this man, however the article states that police are investigating 750 other deaths. It does not mean this man was responsible for 100’s of them. This is classic propaganda to seize on a factual statement and make an unknown claim that cannot be substantiated.
  
• In another article they promote the conspiracy that former President Obama is a Muslim as well as the age old debunked birth certificate conspiracy.  In general, story selection always favors the right and sometimes poor sources are utilized. They also do not distinguish between straight news and opinion, which is misleading. It is safe to say most content on this website is opinion.
  
• Further, they frequently publish outright false or misleading claims and memes on their social media pages. See below.
  

• A factual search reveals numerous failed fact checks on either their website or through social media. Below is a short list.
  
• Says U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis “voted in favor of food stamps for illegal immigrants.” – Pants of Fire
  
• The widely debated practice of separating families at the border is mandated by Public Law 107-296, which was passed by Democrats in 2002 – False
  
• In August 2018, “liberals” started a GoFundMe campaign to raise murder suspect Cristhian Rivera’s $5,000,000 bail. – False
  
• A photograph shows women who gathered to “scream” at President Donald Trump “through their vaginas.” – False
  
• In the summer of 2018, President Donald Trump donated his entire $400,000 annual salary to the Department of the Interior for the purpose of rebuilding military cemeteries. – False
  

I opened up the news and read how no one did anything wrong in the "unmasking" investigation. I had no idea anyone thought this was a thing, but apparently Hannity and Lou Dobs said this was "the greatest scandal in american history". But there was absolutely no scandal to be found. 

So my question is, did right wing people actually believe this? Does this not make you question what fox news tells you when they hype a "scandal" just for it to turn out to be absolutely nothing?

• pfp claiming L proved overly ambitious but I felt like I was getting away with it and then I came back Monday afternoon and Danielle had seen right through.  
  
• Speed begged me not to kill Danielle but it seemed like the move most likely to aid my escape. 
  
• Even before she joined I wanted to kill Danielle to prevent Ragnar or SA from joining.
  
• I expressed my mafia fatigue last game but TUF begs me to play one more- then rewards me  with solo scum in a theme where I am  guarenteed class dunce.  great.
  
• I keep telling people that I suck at scum and nobody believes me.