Nov 2023 Mod notice:
There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations
and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines
before posting here.
Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.
If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules
when posting here.
In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I've actually heard about deepfakes in a CNN article. It's pretty scary how our technology has been so advanced that we can manipulate videos (both image and voice) to dicredit well-known world leaders, celebrities, and politicians. Not only that, deepfakes makes it impossible to tell which video is the real thing or not.
Deepfakes can be used to either advance or discredit a political and/or social agenda. Imagine deepfakes being used to promote white supremacy or to discredit LGBT and civil rights.
Edited by DarkPaladinX on May 27th 2019 at 10:08:09 AM
Not to mention, all that’s needed even if deepfakes were outlawed is a scapegoat, if even that, unless the punishment for knowingly broadcasting a deepfake was the dismantling of the network in its entirety, which won’t happen. Once the footage is broadcast, the damage is done and the public’s (as a whole) perception is irrevocably tainted, as portrayed in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All and listed here under Disregard That Statement when Franziska revealed an illegally obtained photo “off-the-record” to lead the judge astray.
Edited by ShinyCottonCandy on May 27th 2019 at 2:47:14 PM
My musician pageOne of the scariest things about deepfakes is that their very existence will provide a defense for *actual* atrocious things that get caught on camera. Not just smearing people who didn't do anything wrong, but providing a defense for people who totally did. I don't look forward to people like Trump having another tool to gaslight people.
If the punishment is more than just a slap on the wrist, I would agree that it’d be worth instating. The problem is, I don’t see how such a punishment could get legally instated with anything close to the current state of American institutions. At the very least, it’d have to apply to network executives, not just the showrunners who hosted the broadcast.
My musician page- Mike Pence addressed the graduating class from the military academy at West Point. What he said is deeply worrying
(Warning: opinion article)
- It is a virtual certainty that you will fight on a battlefield for America at some point in your life. You will lead soldiers in combat. It will happen.
- Some of you will join the fight against radical Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some of you will join the fight on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific, where North Korea continues to threaten the peace, and an increasingly militarized China challenges our presence in the region. Some of you will join the fight in Europe, where an aggressive Russia seeks to redraw international boundaries by force. And some of you may even be called upon to serve in this hemisphere.
- And when that day comes, I know you will move to the sound of the guns and do your duty, and you will fight, and you will win. The American people expect nothing less.
- So, wherever you’re called, I urge you to take what you learned here and put it into practice. Put your armor on, so that when — not if — that day comes, you’ll be able to stand your ground.
Let’s pause and consider what this means. Pence is saying not just that more wars are inevitable, but that they are inevitable soon. Let’s not forget that while many of those who attend the service academies go on to careers in the military, many do not. They have an eight-year commitment after graduation — five years on active duty and three in the reserves.
So the vice president announced to these young men and women that within the next eight years, they will all see combat. In fact, Pence sees America waging war everywhere very soon, whether it’s “the fight on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific,” “the fight in Europe” or somewhere in Latin America. As for Iraq and Afghanistan, Pence is saying that there will be no end to not just American presence but American combat in those places.
What’s most troubling about Pence’s statement is that it treats American invasions of other countries as simply a given, something out of our hands to decide whether or not we want to do. It’s a dangerous world out there, so we have no choice in the matter. It’s just the way it is and always will be. Not only that, these invasions will happen so frequently that at least a few of them are an absolute certainty within any eight-year period. And not any piddling little Grenada-style invasions, but invasions requiring such a large mobilization that every Army officer who graduated from West Point in recent years will see combat.
...
This is a view of the world that leads to catastrophes like the Iraq War. So let’s be clear: We absolutely have a choice in the question of how often we decide to invade other countries. Every one of the many, many invasions we have undertaken was a choice. And most of them turned out terribly for everyone involved, particularly the people unfortunate enough to live in the places we sent our military.
Imagine looking at the history of American military action over the last couple of decades and thinking that we really couldn’t have done much differently, since this is the burden we have to bear as the global hegemon. If that’s your point of view, it makes it much more likely that in any future conflict, you’ll decide that launching a major military action in which American and foreign lives will be lost is something other than a failure and a tragedy.
I don't like saying the words "to be fair to Mike Pence", but if you look at the kinds of conflicts that are going on on Earth I can certainly see why a politician would say that war is very likely in the next eight years.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanWhen it's a choice between Trump's America, Xi's China and Putin's Russia, I'll take Trump's America any damn day.
Because unlike in the other two entities, Americans - and not just the political class - actually give a damn about the world. The other two, not so much - for them, it'a all about them and damn everyone else.
Given the state of the world, conflict is very likely. So nothing wrong with Pence saying what he did say. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
I hold the secrets of the machine.Alexandria Cortez talks about how a lot of Bernie criticism is Anti-Semetic in nature.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.I hope you'll all forgive me for hearing a politician mention the likelihood of war with North Korea, Russia and China - not to mention "this hemisphere", which honestly brings to mind some very nasty scenarios - and thinking that sounds catastrophic.
Oh God! Natural light!![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Well yeah, I mean Trump is a horrible guy, but I'd still rather live under him than under Xi or Putin. Not even close.
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
And off course, everytime AOC brings something like this up, all these Trumptards come out of the woods crying "But you defended Ilhan Omar, she hates ALL jewish people!"
Edited by Forenperser on May 27th 2019 at 10:33:02 AM
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian![]()
Yeah, my bad, I got distracted. I'll move it down here.
What I meant to say is that both the Chinese and to a lesser extent the Russians propagandize themselves as world saviours. Winnie here loves to talk about global happiness, and how the USA gets in the way of that. Likewise the USA talk a good game, but, at the end of the day, they'd rather allow poppy traffic to continue in Afghanistan, than subsidize farming that would compete with US national production, to give a particularly tragic example.
Edited by Oruka on May 27th 2019 at 1:39:43 AM
I think the purpose is to spin it as hypocrisy, i.e. "How can you call yourself a socialist if you're rich?!"
Which ist just mindbogglingy stupid if you know even a bit about Karl Marx' friend Friedrich Engels.
Edited by DrunkenNordmann on May 27th 2019 at 10:43:14 AM
We learn from history that we do not learn from historyEhhh... More dangerous than Andrew Jackson?
The Haaretz article is surprisingly complimentary of Sanders. What's his image in Israel among the different political groups?
Edited by Oruka on May 27th 2019 at 1:46:00 AM

Before long they're going to start using Deepfake manipulation to smear people
what I mean by DeepFake
Edited by Ultimatum on May 26th 2019 at 10:38:48 AM
have a listen and have a link to my discord server