All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Joker]

I think the only country that is statistically worse than the U.S. is Brazil isn't it?

We were third. Not sure now, but maybe it was India also in the top 3?

[Tami]

The Troll: A fake flag burning at Gettysburg was only his latest hoax

Adam Rahuba, a former concert promoter, works part-time as a food-delivery driver and a DJ. At 38, he spent most of the past year staying on a friend’s couch in a small town north of Pittsburgh.

A Washington Post investigation found that Rahuba is also the anonymous figure behind a number of social media hoaxes — the most recent played out in Gettysburg on Independence Day — that have riled far-right extremists in recent years and repeatedly duped partisan media outlets.

Rahuba once claimed that activists were planning to desecrate a Confederate cemetery in Georgia, The Post found. He seeded rumors of an organized effort to report Trump supporters for supposed child abuse. And he promoted a purported grass-roots campaign to confiscate Americans’ guns.

These false claims circulated widely on social media and on Internet message boards. They were often amplified by right-wing commentators and covered as real news by media outlets such as Breitbart News and The Gateway Pundit.

The hoaxes, outlandish in their details, have spurred fringe groups of conspiracy-minded Americans to action by playing on partisan fears. They have led to highly combustible situations — attracting heavily armed militia members and far-right activists eager to protect values they think are under siege — as well as large mobilizations of police.

Since the election of President Trump, Rahuba’s hoaxes have focused on leveraging fears of antifa, loosely affiliated activists who oppose fascism and have sometimes embraced property damage and violent protest. His July 4 hoax, a purported burning of the American flag, was billed as an antifa event. Hundreds of counterprotesters, including skinheads, flocked to Gettysburg National Military Park to confront the nonexistent flag burners.

A Post examination of Rahuba’s activities provides a rare inside look at the work of a homegrown troll who uses social media to stoke partisan division. It shows that in an era of heightened sensitivity about disinformation campaigns carried out by foreign nations, bad-faith actors with far fewer resources can also manipulate public discourse and affect events in the real world.

A previous Post story raised questions about the identity of the person behind the Gettysburg deception. In response, several of Rahuba’s former acquaintances contacted reporters and said they suspected he operated Left Behind USA, the social media account that promoted the fake event. The Post examined dozens of accounts and websites, some linked to him by name and others used to anonymously promote hoaxes. Similarities in content, design and other details were apparent.

Post reporters located Rahuba last week at a friend’s apartment in Harmony Township, Pa., where he acknowledged in an interview that he was behind 13 aliases and social media accounts that promoted hoaxes as far back as 2013.

“I guess I’m outed,” he said.

He said he was not concerned about potential backlash from his identity being revealed. “I’m all in,” he said.

[The no face guy]

I think the only country that is statistically worse than the U.S. is Brazil isn't it?

Your still number 1, according to the stats, though it is hard to get accurate statistics for developing and autocratic countries (The former because the poor don't get registered, the latter because they most likely fudge the numbers)

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

I find there is a certain degree of free market fundamentalism in your country that leads governors and select citizens to deny the science behind COVID, because it doesn't align with their ideology of unregulated capitalism and unrestricted freedom. (ie, people refusing to where face masks, governors refusing to close down pubs and bars before it it too late.

There is also probably a large degree of social darwinism being practiced by those in power, particularly in Brazil. I doubt Bolsonaro and his cronies care if it wipes out a large segment of their poor ethnic populations, as they'd see it as population control in the slum neighborhoods.

[Mister Mets]

In some bad news, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has liver cancer.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suffered a recurrence of cancer earlier this year and began chemotherapy in May, she said in a statement Friday.

Ginsburg, 87, said the chemotherapy is “yielding positive results” and shrank lesions that were found on her liver in February.

"I have often said I would remain a member of the Court as long as I can do the job full steam. I remain fully able to do that," she said.

Ginsburg, who is the court’s oldest member and its longest-serving Democratic appointee, has suffered several bouts of cancer over the past couple of decades and acknowledged last year that she was again receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer. As recently as January, however, she said publicly that doctors believed she was cancer free.

Ginsburg's new statement does not discuss the potential to cure the cancer, but instead stresses that it has not interfered with her duties as a justice.

"I am tolerating chemotherapy well and am encouraged by the success of my current treatment. I will continue bi-weekly chemotherapy to keep my cancer at bay, and am able to maintain an active daily routine. Throughout, I have kept up with opinion writing and all other Court work," Ginsburg wrote.

Ginsburg said doctors first attempted immunotherapy to fight the liver lesions, but that proved "unsuccessful," prompting the move to chemotherapy.

Ginsburg was hospitalized briefly earlier this week for what the court said was a "possible infection" that may have been related to a blocked stent placed in her bile duct during the pancreatic cancer treatment last year. She also spent two nights in the hospital in May for treatment of a gallstone. The new statement said those episodes were "unrelated" to the cancer recurrence.

Many of the court's public disclosures about Ginsburg's health appear to have been grudging, delayed or incomplete.

She does not plan to leave the court, and says chemotherapy is yielding positive results.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

In some bad news, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has liver cancer.



She does not plan to leave the court, and says chemotherapy is yielding positive results.

Notorious RBG is tougher than week old steak. She’ll overcome this latest setback like she had all the others.

[PaulBullion]

I'm sorry, but I must've missed the memo that said Toronto had become an American city. Laura Ignoramus needs to STFU. Seriously.

The story is also a lie. The city banned nothing. The Catholic church changed the way communion is administered to reduce infection risk.

[Kirby101]

I worry for RBG. Do we have any doubt that shit head MConnell, who held up Garland because it was "an election year" wouldn't push through another horror like Kavanaugh, even if Trump loses and it's January 19th.

[Tami]

I worry for RBG. Do we have any doubt that shit head MConnell, who held up Garland because it was "an election year" wouldn't push through another horror like Kavanaugh, even if Trump loses and it's January 19th.

I think RBG knows what would happen if she left her seat before February 2021, one way or another. She's strong, but at her age anything could happen.

[Kirby101]

I think RBG knows what would happen if she left her seat before February 2021, one way or another. She's strong, but at her age anything could happen.

It's cancer, I worry it is out of her hands.

[Tami]

It's cancer, I worry it is out of her hands.

Believe me, I know. My sister-in-law had cancer. She lived about 5 or 6 years longer than her doctors predicted, but eventually, she lost the fight. And she was a whole lot younger than RBG.

[Darkspellmaster]

Believe me, I know. My sister-in-law had cancer. She lived about 5 or 6 years longer than her doctors predicted, but eventually, she lost the fight. And she was a whole lot younger than RBG.

She beat it once, she'll do it again. Let's just hope we can get Biden in.

Also, Sweden is on the list for bad choices made by government officials when dealing with this problem.

[Tami]

Found this on Twitter

[Robotman]

As a German, these kind of tactics are somewhat familiar.
From history books.
1930ish...

The video is pretty damn terrifying.

https://mobile.twitter.com/JesseDami...656824321?s=19

We know that Erik Prince has pitched a domestic spy program to Trump to infiltrate protests and enemies of the administration.

[InformationGeek]

And now it sounds like Trump is just giving up on fighting Covid in general.

[Robotman]

And now it sounds like Trump is just giving up on fighting Covid in general.

So there’s a really good chance we’ll all die if Biden doesn’t win. Clearly Trump doesn’t give a flying sh!t about the 150,000 Americans this virus has killed. He can’t be bothered with it.