Fake News

Gallows

A little over a month ago, I pointed out that five men spent hours erecting a gallows in front of the Capitol in the early morning hours of January 6, with one of them making a coffee run at the shop closest to the FBI’s headquarters. This to me indicates that the Feds know who these men are, because they are likely FBI informants or agents.

Now the B-list media has begun to notice.

Martin believes that the gallows were constructed by those wishing to paint President Trump and his supporters in a bad light. Specifically, Martin wonders why police did not stop its construction. So far, there is no evidence to support Martin’s claims.

False. There IS evidence.

  • The police didn’t stop the construction. That is a known fact that can’t be disputed. The area of DC around the Capitol and Whitehouse is one of the most heavily policed and surveilled areas in any American city.
  • Likewise, the FBI is a counterintelligence agency. They have every inch of the area around their headquarters monitored by security cameras. There is no doubt that there is closeup video of at least some of these men.

So why aren’t they looking for them? It is reasonable to infer that they aren’t looking for them because they are already known. If the press in this nation was actually doing its job, they would be asking these questions and finding the answers.

By Divemedic, ago

Using Statistics to Mislead

Take a look at the National Safety Council’s statistics on your odds of dying.

I’m not even on the “guns” yet. There is a basic flaw with this chart, and that flaw is the assumption that the event that causes your death is random- that is, they are assuming everyone is equally likely to experience one of the events. So looking at “opioid overdose” for example, if you don’t take opioids, your chances of dying of an opioid overdose are exactly zero.

Now that we have exposed the flaw, note that “guns” is the only cause of death that is listed as an object, and not an event or action. You will also note that the math doesn’t work. Firearm assault and accidents aren’t even close to equaling your odds of dying from “guns.” Doing the math, there is a 1.1 percent chance of being killed by “guns,” but your chances of dying from a firearm assault or accident are only 0.049 percent. The other 0.61 percent? That is from suicides. So you cut your chances of being killed by “guns” if you take the simple step of not comitting suicide. We see that on the next line, where you have a 1 percent chance of killing yourself.

Taking other steps, like not being a gang banger, a drug dealer, or a violent criminal likewise reduce your risk of death by “guns,” but we won’t mention that because it doesn’t fit the agenda. This is a great example of how people can be mislead by what appears to be solid facts and mathematics applied in a scientific appearing article, when it is really just hokum that is designed to manipulate the reader.

By Divemedic, ago

Smart Guns, Stupid Reporters

This market report claims that smart guns are the future of firearms. I don’t think that they are. This report can be believed, since the reporter also claims that:

traditional iron sight, which can also help shooters look through an optical telescope for aim, red dot sights project a small light directly onto a target.

So iron sights help you look through a telescope for aim, and red dots project light? How can I take financial advice from someone who obviously doesn’t know what they are talking about?

Then the story goes on to be a bit more misleading.

gun owners overall are 63% male and 73% white, the study found.

Gun owners being 73% white actually means that whites are slightly underrepresented as gun owners, since whites are about 76 percent of the population. Math is a thing.

I don’t see how you can claim that 63% are male, since we don’t seem to know what male or female is any longer.

By Divemedic, ago

Unbiased Polling

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The company that did the poll? Let’s look at their about page.

Navigator is a trusted resource for developing and distributing winning progressive messages and polling on the most pressing issues of the moment.

Read the bios of the people who work for the company:

  • Margie Omero is a Principal at GBAO Strategies, with over 20 years of experience working for Democratic candidates, progressive causes, and corporations.
  • Bryan Bennett is the Senior Director of Polling & Analytics at The Hub Project, overseeing research to strategically inform progressive campaigns.
  • Prior to joining the Hub, Rachael worked in targeting and data analytics for the National Domestic Workers Alliance 
  • Christina Reynolds is the Vice President of Communications at EMILY’s List. She was most recently the Senior Vice President at Global Strategy Group and served as Deputy Communications Director at Hillary for America. Previously, she served as the White House Director of Media Affairs, Director of Rapid Response at Obama for America,
  • Jesse Ferguson is a veteran Democratic Strategist. Most recently, he served as Deputy National Press Secretary and Senior Spokesperson at Hillary for America.
  • Jessica Floyd is the Executive Director of The Hub Project. Prior to that, she was most recently President of American Bridge 21st Century. Following several successful campaigns in New York and New Jersey, she managed Congressman Ron Barber’s winning congressional campaign and served as Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ political director. During the 2014 and 2016 cycles, she worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Independent Expenditure
  • Joel Payne is the Chief Communications Officer at MoveOn. Previously Joel served as the Managing Director, Communications at The Hub Project, was the Director of African-American Paid Media & Advertising for the 2016 Hillary for America campaign
  • Melanie Roussell Newman is the Senior Vice President of Communications and Culture at Planned Parenthood Federation of America
  • Mike Podhorzer is the Political Director of the AFL-CIO
  • Most recently, Nayak served as the Director of Opinion Research for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign,
By Divemedic, ago

Truth? Or Muckraking?

Remember back during the Chauvin trial, when people were threatening witnesses? The defense attorneys in the trial received death threats? Or when the jury members were found to be members of BLM and Antifa marches? All of that was not a problem.

Now that news outlets are claiming people are doing the same in the Trump case, it’s a problem again. I hope they are. Goose, gander, all of that. However, I don’t believe that it’s happening. This is the tail wagging the dog- the news is creating content to get people riled up.

If I *do* locate such a website, I will of course link to it.

By Divemedic, ago

That’s Not How It Works

There is a whole lot of angst going on with regards to the following video and the “mark of the beast.”

Except that isn’t how this works. No one accepts any sort of computer chip in their hand or any of that kind of nonsense. I had to do the same sort of thing when I took my licensing exam to become an RN. The device has a camera inside of it that takes an infrared picture of the blood vessels in your palm.

Due to anatomical variation, the blood vessels in a person’s hand are unique to each individual: no two people’s vessels are alike. Even people with identical DNA have unique features, such as fingerprints and blood vessel patterns. In this case, customers of Whole Foods create an account, where they associate a credit card with the image of the blood vessels in their hand. This allows them to show their hand to the scanner, which then matches the photo to their account and charges the credit card on file.

It’s no different than a fingerprint reader or facial recognition, except the blood vessels in your hand are more difficult to spoof than a fingerprint reader or facial recognition. This isn’t any sort of “mark of the beast” or anything like that. This is a file kept of attributes that you are born with.

Now one could argue that you don’t want a business having a file on your personally identifying attributes, and I could certainly understand that, and I am not sure that I would be willing to do this, but I just don’t see it as ushering in the apocalypse.

By Divemedic, ago