Tag: Fake News

This Is How Damn Lies Get Started

Most boasts are usually lies and some of the better ones come from the resident in the White House……” what you have now, so great looking and smart, a true Stable Genius!”  Trump starting a new Twitter thread in which he criticized the mainstream media and his 2020 Democratic rivals while praising himself as a handsome “genius.”  Never trust a person who tells you just how smart or beautiful they are…a true smart person does not need to tell you they are so.

Lies go on and on……

We are bombarded daily by the prez and his attacks on the media as being fake news and an enemy to the people…..most of the media is in the pocket of corporate America and does not actually tell the truth all that often…..but this op-ed is a stretch of truth…

In the June 26-27 debates, the candidates were barely bothered with national security or foreign policy matters because the moderators asked a scant few questions about them. On illegal immigration, a huge national security problem, the candidates made it clear that they are all for open borders. That is one of their most extreme positions.

On the first debate night, one moderator asked if the candidates would rejoin the 2015 nuclear weapons deal with Iran to which former President Obama agreed. Nine of the 10 — the exception being Sen. Cory Booker — said they would. Many said the deal was imperfect and they would try to renegotiate it, but none said that successful renegotiation was a predicate to rejoining. That is a radical position entirely contrary to our national security.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/7/democrats-reveal-their-radicalism-on-matters-of-na/
 
As FOX is the voice of Trump on the tube the Wa T is in print……it is an op-ed and is packed full of bullsh*t, lies and fear mongering manure.
 
Read it!  If you believe any of the observations then we will know who you will vote for in 2020….ignorance over reality.
 
“Lego Ergo Scribo”

It’s A Hurricane….But Nor Barry!

An apprehensive Saturday.

But the storm Barry is not the meat of this post…..

As we here on the Gulf Coast await the season’s first Hurricane/ T. Storm I read something in the news that caught my eye…..

It seems that some tin foil hat wearing expert thinks UFOs use hurricanes to enter into their secret underwater base…..

A UFO expert claimed that a satellite footage of a hurricane showed a fleet of alien vessels flying into its eye. According to the expert, the UFOs deliberately created the hurricane in order to secretly enter their underwater base.

The satellite footage of the storm was recorded and shared by YouTube user MRMB333. According to the user, the hurricane happened during the recent total solar eclipse on July 2.

In the video, strange dark orbs can be seen entering the hurricane and converging into its eye. According to the YouTube user, the dark circles could be the reflections of the shadow on Earth that was caused by the eclipse.

https://www.ibtimes.com/ufos-create-hurricane-enter-underwater-base-expert-claims-2805681

I am starting to see more and more of this type of silly story in the news…..it is troublesome that so many are starting to believe the manure spread by these babbling buffoons….that our ancestors were not intelligent enough to progress with the help of aliens (ET not Hispanics)….that is poppycock! (Excuse my language)

Back to the storm….looks like it will make land fall in the Louisiana lowlands….means we should get lots of rain and a bit of wind….but all should be fine for us….Louisiana may not fare as well.  Our thoughts are with those impacted by Barry.

MoMo is bummed!  And when she is bummed she watches the world go by waiting for the storm to pass.

Rush To Condemn

By that I am talking about the West’s belief in anything said about North Korea…..and then the lack of correction by the media after they make a false report….for instance….recently it was reported that North Korea’s Kim had executed his negotiator on nukes because of the failure of the Hanoi “summit”….and then the person in question was spotted a week later very much alive,,,,and that false report was not corrected by most of the MSM.

I have often question some of the claims by the government and their propaganda arm, the Mainstream Media….

Why do we so easily believe the false reports? Have we been programed to do so?

The American Conservative answers this question……

Perhaps the greatest bottleneck in creating a stable and self-sustaining peace regime on the Korean Peninsula isn’t North Korea’s nuclear weapons or missiles but something much simpler: making peace with what we feel in our hearts is “evil.”

Case in point: last week, a right-leaning South Korean publication, The Chosun Ilbo, published a bombshell story that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had “purged” Kim Hyok-chol, Pyongyang’s lead negotiator in working level talks leading up to the Hanoi summit, executing him a month later. Another even more senior official close to Kim himself, Kim Yong-chol, was “sent to a labor and reeducation camp.”

That’s big news. And from there it gets even more interesting. Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, had “not been spotted in public since the Hanoi summit” some 50 days ago, said a South Korean government official. She was reportedly ordered to “lay low.”

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-our-obsession-with-evil-north-korea-fed-fake-news/
 
Americans are easy to rush to condemnation…..they have had years even decades of programming to get the society pleasingly numb to reality.
 
The real story is the “Squid Wars”……this is a battle for squid harvest in the Sea of Japan…..
The Japanese coast guard says its patrol boats have been pushing back hundreds of North Korean boats trying to poach in fishing grounds rich with squid off Japan’s northern coast. Coast Guard officials say they have forced more than 300 North Korean boats out of Japan’s exclusive economic zone near Yamatotai since May, the AP reports. The patrol boats used water cannons on 50 North Korean boats that ignored warnings. Coast Guard footage obtained Tuesday showed North Korean crewmen on a wooden boat abandon a fishing rope after being sprayed with water. Japanese authorities have stepped up patrols in the area as North Korean poaching has surged in recent years. Experts say Pyongyang’s campaign to boost fish harvests has increased poaching by North Korean boats.
Have you ever smelled dried squid?

007 North Korean Style

As usual there is always something in the news about Kim and North Korea and this week is no different…..

First, Kim and his Gang are getting antsy about their diplomacy with the Trump Gang……

North Korean state media has issued a new statement on Tuesday, reiterating the call for the US to “withdraw its hostile policy” toward North Korea and come up with new negotiation efforts.

The media has been pushing this increasingly in the past few weeks, as the one-year anniversary of the first Kim-Trump summit approaches. That summit went exceedingly well, though a failed Hanoi Summit in February has stalled the process since then.

With no progress in months, North Korean state media are increasingly emphasizing the need for a new approach, and warn that the US can’t continue its “arrogant and unilateral” policies and expect to get anywhere.

(antiwar.com)

Sanctions on North Korea…..56 nations are violating the sanctions according to the UN…….

The United Nations Panel of Experts on North Korea (or Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)), established pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1874 (2009), reports annually its findings and recommendations on the implementation of Security Council resolutions on North Korea. These reports list in detail cases of proven or alleged sanctions violations of the ten UN resolutions on North Korea that have been passed by the Security Council since 2006. This year’s report, covering the period February 2018-February 2019, mentions over a hundred new, continuing, or unresolved proven or alleged violations involving 56 countries, territories, and entities.2 Thirty-one of the 56 states listed in this report were allegedly responsible for multiple sanctions violations. Using data and findings from another Institute study, the Peddling Peril Index for 2019 (PPI 2019), which ranks all 200 countries, territories, and entities according to the effectiveness of their strategic trade controls, we also consider these 56 countries in terms of 1) their overall score under the index, and 2) the comprehensiveness of their export control legislation, which allows for a clearer picture of the weaknesses of those involved in or caught up in alleged North Korean sanctions violations.

The 56 countries involved in alleged violations during the reporting period, listed in alphabetical order, were:

Algeria*, Belize, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, China, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic of), Côte d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, France, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, New Zealand*, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore*, South Africa, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Yemen (Houthi faction), and Zambia.

http://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/56-countries-involved-in-violating-unsc-resolutions-on-north-korea-during-t

Now the spy novel stuff……

It seems that Kim’s half brother was an CIA asset….

Assassinated in February 2017 at a Malaysian airport, Kim Jong Un’s half-brother Kim Jong Nam has been revealed in new reports to have been a CIA informant, and had flown to the airport to meet with his CIA contact.

Once considered the heir apparent for Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Nam fell out of favor decades ago, with controversies centered around him trying to use a fake passport to sneak into Japan and visit Tokyo Disneyland. He had been living mostly in China since then.

While he was definitely a CIA asset, it was believed he had ties to several other countries’ spy agencies, including China. China never confirmed this, nor as of yet has anyone else.

How useful of an informant he would have been is less clear, however, as he was many years removed from being in North Korea, ad no noteworthy power base there, and was considered unlikely to have much information on the country’s inner workings.

(antiwar.com)

Finally, it is being reported that Kim used flesh eating fish to kill a general that had fallen out of favor……

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un borrowed an execution technique from a James Bond movie to rid himself of a top general, according to British media.

In the James Bond film, ‘You Only Live Twice’, antagonist Ernst Stavro Blofeld famously removes any opposition by releasing a trapdoor over a piranha-filled pool, causing the unfortunate victim to fall to a gruesome end.

Several British media outlets, including the Sun and the Star on Sunday, reported over the weekend that one of North Korea’s top generals suffered such a fate after displeasing Kim Jong Un, being thrown into a piranha-filled pool after having his torso and arms slashed with knives.

The general, not named by media sources, was reported to have been punished for plotting a coup. 

https://www.jpost.com/OMG/Kim-executes-James-Bond-style-punishment-for-General-592016

This is NOT verified….and if we wait long enough the general may well show up later as did the ones said to be dead by the MSM……https://lobotero.com/2019/06/03/the-purge/

Plus there is little accurate in the JPost…they just assist the West in the propaganda machine…….

Then more news reports on the DPRK……

The name of the report is an ominous-sounding one: “Mapping the Fate of the Dead.” And the contents of the report issued Tuesday by the Transitional Justice Working Group, a South Korean NGO, don’t belie its morbid title, detailing research dedicated to human rights violations in North Korea, including killings and burials. Among the findings: the identification of nearly 320 sites used for public executions that were often witnessed by upward of a thousand people, sometimes including young children of the people put to death, the BBC reports. The identification of the sites—which included prisons and labor camps, as well as locations near schools, markets, and sports sites—was based on interviews with more than 600 defectors. The executions, which stretched back decades, were prompted by everything from murder and attempted murder to more minor infractions like stealing copper and cows.

And while one person interviewed described a cheerier atmosphere at an execution witnessed in the ’60s, complete with a “festival” vibe and upbeat music, more recent state-sanctioned killings have served as a “core method of inciting fear and deterring citizens from engaging in activities deemed undesirable by the regime,” per the report. Most of the executions happened by firing squads, with some of those interviewed noting that the executioners appeared to be intoxicated. “Public executions are to remind people of particular policy positions that the state has,” Sarah A. Son, TJWG’s research director, tells the Guardian and Reuters, which couldn’t independently verify the report’s accounts. “But the second and more powerful reason is it instills a culture of fear among ordinary people.”

How accurate is this?  Or is this just another unverified piece of gossip?  This is all so silly at this point….what does all this unverified BS actually accomplish?

Stay Tune!

Turn The Page!

Closing Thought–21May19

By now we all have heard that Russia diddled around in our elections and have also done the same for other “Western” countries……and they have been condemned by most people that know of their interference.

Of course they are not the only one that has attempted to diddle….some say China, North Korea, even Iran possibly…..this is reported by our dynamite media…they want us and the world to know of these attempts…..

But there is one that is not getting any attention and as usual the MSM is protecting one country from criticism…….

Facebook said Thursday it banned an Israeli company that ran an influence campaign aimed at disrupting elections in various countries and has canceled dozens of accounts engaged in spreading disinformation.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, told reporters that the tech giant had purged 65 Israeli accounts, 161 pages, dozens of groups and four Instagram accounts.

Although Facebook said the individuals behind the network attempted to conceal their identities, it discovered that many were linked to the Archimedes Group, a Tel Aviv-based political consulting and lobbying firm that publicly boasts of its social media skills and ability to “change reality.”

“It’s a real communications firm making money through the dissemination of fake news,” said Graham Brookie, director of the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council, a think tank collaborating with Facebook to expose and explain disinformation campaigns.

https://www.apnews.com/7d334cb8793f49889be1bbf89f47ae5c

The MSM made sure to report on the Eurovision piece of crap but have not thought it was important enough to report on their meddling……so damn typical!

At least Facebook has stepped up….but I think it is more because of the bad press they have gotten recently more than any serious concern……

Does It Sound Familiar?

Just a closing thought for this Saturday…..the rain will not let up and MoMo is letting me know she wants me to make it stop.

In this age of fake news, misinformation, disinformation and propaganda I thought I would leave you with a little history……

The talking points out of the White House….they seem to have a familiar ring to them….at least to me……

Have you been paying attention?

And the rains came…..and attention is focused elsewhere.

Have a wonderful day and see you tomorrow.

Smells Like Disinformation

We live in an age of disinformation…..we can re-cover the dialog for the last 24 months…but why? If you believe bullshit nothing I say will change that. But I do want to talk about this disinformation thing.

I have written about it before on several occasions…..https://lobotero.com/2019/02/26/a-disinformation-nightmare/

But we know that there are many people that will willful show their ignorance because someone has said something they want to believe….whether accurate or not……so let us look into this thing called “disinformation”……

Disinformation is the deliberate and purposeful distribution of false information. The term is generally used to describe an organized campaign to deceptively distribute untrue material intended to influence public opinion.

In recent years, the term has become especially associated with the spread of “fake news” on social media as a strategy of negative political campaigning.

A key component of the definition of disinformation is the intention of the person or entity creating the message. Disinformation is distributed with the specific purpose of misleading the public. The false information is meant to impact society by swaying the opinions of the members of the audience.

https://www.thoughtco.com/disinformation-definition-4587093

One might scratch one’s head and ask….how can this be?

A new survey from the Pew Research Center has found that many Americans cannot recognise the hypothesis part of the scientific method when confronted with a problem in everyday life.

“In an era of easy access to a wide array of information, along with sometimes-intense debate over what information is true and false, this survey takes stock of the degree to which the public shares a common understanding of science facts and processes,” says Cary Funk, director of science and society research at Pew Research Center.

It wasn’t all bad news – Americans’ knowledge of specific scientific facts seemed pretty good. But their understanding of the scientific method was more worrisome.

With more than 4,000 respondents, only 52 percent could correctly identify a scientific hypothesis about a computer slowing down.

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-surprising-number-of-americans-can-t-identify-a-hypothesis

We have an absolute expert at bullshit in the White House……he passes on crap and his lackeys will do everything possible to spread the same bullshit to make him appear as if he is telling the truth…..or to give the impression that he, Trump, is knowledgeable……

Disinformation is a pure form of propaganda and we live in world where few know what is truth or fantasy.

The Golden Age Of Free Speech

We all know about the First Amendment ….the right to freedom of speech…..just how does that equate in this age of information with the access to the internet and all that goes with it?

For most of modern history, the easiest way to block the spread of an idea was to keep it from being mechanically disseminated. Shutter the news­paper, pressure the broad­cast chief, install an official censor at the publishing house. Or, if push came to shove, hold a loaded gun to the announcer’s head.

 

This actually happened once in Turkey. It was the spring of 1960, and a group of military officers had just seized control of the government and the national media, imposing an information blackout to suppress the coordination of any threats to their coup. But inconveniently for the conspirators, a highly anticipated soccer game between Turkey and Scotland was scheduled to take place in the capital two weeks after their takeover. Matches like this were broadcast live on national radio, with an announcer calling the game, play by play. People all across Turkey would huddle around their sets, cheering on the national team.

https://www.wired.com/story/free-speech-issue-tech-turmoil-new-censorship/

The prevalence of “fake news” accusations have expanded in recent years once it was shown just how influential the “news” could be.

Now just the hint of “fake news” can send any conversation off the course and onto the rocks of stupid.

Since we have been thumping our chests about “fake News” I have written about this on several occasions…..https://lobotero.com/2016/12/20/the-curious-debate-over-fake-news/

“Fake News” is just a modern use of Goebbels’s theory of propaganda and as usual I had thoughts on this as well….. https://lobotero.com/2013/01/11/what-is-propaganda/

Calling something “Fake News” does not make it so……and wrapping around the First Amendment does not make it a “true” statement…..and because something fits your limited view of the issue does not make it a factual statement nor does it make it a false statement.

The individual needs to the work to find the truth…….I wish I could state that I have ever confidence that the American people will search for the truth……but as usual I would be deluding myself for most Americans are too lazy to look beyond their little limited view.

And the beat goes on!

Turn The Page!

A Disinformation Nightmare

If you follow the news for last 2 years or so then you probably have an opinion on the reports of the massive disinformation campaign waged during the 2016 election.

If not then where the Hell have you been?

That said here is a brief history of the situation in 2016……

We’ve seen many types of efforts to abuse Google’s services over the years. And, like other internet platforms, we have found some evidence of efforts to misuse our platforms during the 2016 U.S. election by actors linked to the Internet Research Agency in Russia. 

Preventing the misuse of our platforms is something that we take very seriously; it’s a major focus for our teams. We’re committed to finding a way to stop this type of abuse, and to working closely with governments, law enforcement, other companies, and leading NGOs to promote electoral integrity and user security, and combat misinformation. 

We have been conducting a thorough investigation related to the U.S. election across our products drawing on the work of our information security team, research into misinformation campaigns from our teams, and leads provided by other companies. Today, we are sharing results from that investigation. While we have found only limited activity on our services, we will continue to work to prevent all of it, because there is no amount of interference that is acceptable.

https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/security-and-disinformation-us-2016-election/

Well the prediction is that the 2020 election could be even worse for disinformation…..an attempt to obfuscate the issues and the candidates…..

As the field of Democratic presidential hopefuls slowly takes shape, so do the contours of a massive social media disinformation campaign that appears designed to torpedo individual candidacies, confuse voters, and create a general sense of chaos and mistrust within the party. A Politico investigation found that Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Beto O’Rourke appear to be the “main targets,” but that no prominent candidate is exempt. In other words: If you thought the fake news sites and Russian Twitter bots of 2016 were harmful to The Discourse, it looks as if 2020 is going to be a lot worse.

The tools of the trade—eminently-shareable memes, scandalous-sounding questions, and incendiary hashtags—are standard-issue gross Internet fodder. One post, says Politico, pushed a “false narrative…alleging that a blackface doll appeared on a kitchen cabinet in the background of the senator’s New Year’s Eve Instagram livestream”; another “widely seen tweet employed racist and sexist stereotypes in an attempt to sensationalize Harris’ relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.” The perceived distinctions between “centrist” candidates (you know who) and “progressive” ones (again, you know who) is also a popular pressure point. Many of the accounts in question were the same ones which, in the weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, tirelessly proclaimed that invading immigrant caravans would soon overrun the country if Americans didn’t vote as many Republicans as humanly possible into elected office.

https://www.gq.com/story/2020-disinformation-presidential-race

This will make access to true issues a bit difficult but will the voter try to cut through the crap to get to the heart of the candidate?

As the pool of candidates vying for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president continues to grow, so does a “sustained and ongoing” push to spread lies about them on social media—with one key aim being to sow division among progressive voters—according to an alarming Politico report published Wednesday.

Citing analyses by and conversations with data scientists and digital campaign strategists, the outlet reported:

Researchers and others interviewed for this story say they cannot conclusively point to the actors behind the coordinated activity. It’s unclear if they are rogue hackers, political activists or, as some contend, foreign state actors such as Russia, since it bears the hallmarks of past foreign attacks. One of the objectives of the activity, they say, is to divide the left by making the Dem primaries look as chaotic as possible.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/20/operation-divide-left-analysis-shows-2020-online-disinformation-campaign-already

Will the voter have access to “real” information?

My guess is NO!

They will have to hunt for the truth….are they up to such a task?

That “War On Christmas”

The day before and what is being done?  Darting from store to store looking for that last gift…..shelves are bare and there is one lone box of chocolate that was there when Rome was sacked…..

I have not heard the usual chanting that there is a War of Christmas this year….maybe I was just fortunate to have missed it.  I do not believe that there is some cabal out there trying to crap on Christmas….

Blind consumerism is replacing the religious aspect of the day…..today it is more about spending money than remembering what the day is suppose to signify.

I will admit that with each passing year there seems to be less and less religion involved in the Christmas celebration…..

It’s not a war on Christmas; Christmas as a yearly event seems robust. But the de-Christianization of Christmas is a real thing. From the Pew Research Center:

Not only are some of the more religious aspects of Christmas less prominent in the public sphere, but there are signs that they are on the wane in Americans’ private lives and personal beliefs as well. For instance, there has been a noticeable decline in the percentage of U.S. adults who say they believe that biblical elements of the Christmas story – that Jesus was born to a virgin, for example – reflect historical events that actually occurred. And although most Americans still say they mark the occasion as a religious holiday, there has been a slight drop in recent years in the share who say they do this.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/america-christless-christmas/

This may be true….but that still does not mean there is a “war on Christmas”…..

Just a thought for the day before…..

Be well, Be safe