#type: factcheck

[undergroundusa]

"…the most potent threat to free speech comes not from the communist Chinese or the Bolshevistic Russian oligarchs, the Marxist dictators of South America, or the Islamofascists of the Middle East. It is emanating from the far-Left of the Democrat Party…"

ORIGINAL CONTENT: https://www.undergroundusa.com/p/free-speech-under-attack-the-marxists

READ, SUBSCRIBE, SHARE & EDUCATE: PROTECT FREE SPEECH

Free Speech Under Attack: The Marxist’s March To Control Through Censorship

[samueldays]

'Effectively, Ukraine has eliminated Russian ground forces'

...claimed an 'Eastern Europe expert' in this thread in March 2022, one month into the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

I was reminded of him when looking through some chatlogs today. At the time, I thought he was making absurd predictions, but figured he might try to water them down to claim something like accuracy if Ukraine won in the next month or two, stretching the definitions of words.

Now it's been a year and a half, and I want to revisit Sergej Sumlenny's bluster, not just for him being thoroughly personally wrong, but as a general reminder that anyone can call themselves an expert, and still be completely wrong.

In the first month of the war, this guy was saying shit like:

Russia and its army are about to collapse. RU obviously has no reserves left

Russia has been "about to collapse" every month for the last twenty months, somehow.

According to Ukrainian intelligence (and they get much info from the US I guess) Russia has already used 95% of all its ground forces gathered for the invasion, and it makes almost 100% of Russia's active ground forces. Effectively, Ukraine has eliminated Russian ground forces

If Ukraine would resist several more days, I am sure Russia will face the biggest defeat in its history. Nothing comparable. It will also trigger independency movements in Russia-occupied countries of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Ichkeriya, Sakha, Komi and others

I am not seeing these things that were supposed to happen after "several more days".

When Moscow army will be eliminated (and it nearly is)

I am also sure - very soon we will face a shiny glorious future without the Prison of Nations. Thank to brave Ukrainians.

"very soon" has come and gone, Sergej, why are you still here?

The simple explanation, IMO, is that this guy is a pure propagandist, nothing else.

Perhaps he was never attempting to say anything true at all, he was completely disconnected from the evidence, Ukraine paid him to say pro-Ukraine things so he said the things his paymaster wanted. If Russia had paid him, he would have said the opposite.

But the thing about the Sumlennys of the world is that someone has put quite a lot of money into making them look expert. A Twitter account is free and can be set up in five minutes. A website for the European Resilience Center, maybe fifteen minutes and ten bucks to host. The content over at European Resilience, with regular updates, takes a bit more work. But Sumlenny being interviewed by external sources like France24 is not so easily manufactured.

For more on Ukraine's planned counter-offensive and all of the latest in Russia's brutal year-long invasion, FRANCE 24 is joined by Sergej Sumlenny, Journalist, Political Analyst, and Managing Director of the European Resilience Initiative Center.

Sumlenny got similar treatment in a wide variety of news outlets from ABC to Al Jazeera. Journalism delenda est. Both for Sumlenny personally, and for the many other journalists who interviewed him, respected him, failed to fact-check him, treated him as an expert, and gave him the prestige of an expert. There's two different meanings of "expert":

"expert" as in "has a credential and is used as a source on the subject being discussed"

"expert" as in "consistently produces good results and correct predictions"

and Sumlenny was very much the first sort. Which also has two meanings when I say it: that he was not the second sort, and that people did cite him and invite him and treat his opinion as being worth more than some random Tumblr blog.

(One might like to have a word that only means the second sort of expert. Good luck keeping it!)

The information ecosystem is polluted by Sumlennys. It's easy and common to go "Russian bot", but one should also have a mental space for "Ukranian bot", and then expand that term far enough to include Sumlenny, or have some other term for the less-obviously-bot-like people performing expertise as they spout nonsense. There is no side that is free of lies and nonsense, there is no credential that is clean, there is no institution that is clean. The clown world experts are everywhere. Sumlenny was not acting alone, nor is he unique, Sumlenny merely happened to get my attention, and the "factcheck" system that journalists love to talk about didn't catch him. It's not going to catch slightly more subtle lies. Epistemology is hard.

[alltimeupdating]

No, Elon Musk didn’t buy Discord or rename it “XD” — it’s just a viral rumor! But the way it spread shows how fast misinformation travels online.

Learn what really happened Why people believed it And how to spot fake news before sharing

Stay smart, stay informed.

[factcheckdotorg]

Trump’s Latest False Claim About the U.S.-China Trade Deficit 

[mscherrybombxx]

Haechan〖Fact Check - The 5th Album〗

NCT 127 color palette series

[faiths-fright-flicks]

Read Laterally

By: Faith Ortega

While scrolling through X recently, I came across an interesting post that danced with the field of conspiracy theories. The post used four pictures, including two of Kamala Harris wearing earrings during the recent debate and two of a similar-looking wireless earbud product meant to look like earrings. The post insinuates that Harris used wireless earbuds to receive answers during the debate. This is a bold and highly accusatory claim. After reading such an intense accusation, I wondered what credentials this X user, Ryan Rozbiani, had. Thus began my journey to “read laterally” and investigate X influencer Ryan Rozbiani.

I first looked into Rozbiani’s page to investigate the type of content he regularly posts. I found many politically aimed posts, mostly about the war in Gaza and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

Each post seemed to contain chilling images, accompanied by emotionally charged statements regarding the war. This further led me to question the credibility of Rozbiani, as he was reporting on national and international news topics of influential natures. I thought, well is Rozbiani a reporter of some sort? Does Rozbiani have any credentials to assert his expertise in political and world news? 

I dove further by scrolling up to Rozbiani’s public biography on X. The caption contained many phrases like “freedom of speech”, “finance & economics”, and “my views are my own, posts are informational, NOT endorsements”. Already Rozbiani seemed to be an unreliable source. The caption points to “finance & economics” while the majority of Rozbiani’s posts have nothing to do with financial topics. Additionally, Rozbiani states that the X page is full of “my views” and that posts are strictly “NOT endorsements”. By asserting the posts are filled with personal opinions, it is already clear that there is no promise of factual reporting present. The phrase “NOT endorsements” also seems to be aggressive and possibly defensive in my opinion, pointing towards heavy bias. The caption contains zero official credentials such as a degree or official job relating to journalism or political expertise. So far, Rozbiani seemed to be an uncredited individual focused on personal opinions rather than factual reporting.

Next, I searched for Ryan Rozbiani on Google. Many social media platforms came up. I first opened the Ryan Rozbiani YouTube channel and read the About section. In the About section, Rozbiani explains that this is a financial YouTube channel and that he is “not a financial advisor, this is all for educational and entertainment purposes only! Any risks you take are your own”. Once again, Rozbiani makes it clear he is not an expert of any kind, whether it be about politics or finance. 

By digging further, I found that Rozbiani had no formal profiles, such as Linked In. Instead, Rozbiani had profiles on sites called F6S and Crunchbase. The F6S profile: https://www.f6s.com/member/ryanrozbiani, which is an unofficial and unreliable site to start with focused on startup owners, stated he works as a college aide for the New York City Department of Transportation and is the CEO of a startup company called U.START. The Crunchbase profile: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/ryan-rozbiani , which is a site I’ve personally never heard of which seems to report information about companies through self-entries, stated Rozbiani has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from NYU. Whether or not Rozbiani actually has this degree is unknown, and even if he did, a degree in computer science has nothing to do with politics or reporting of any kind.

In total, Ryan Rozbiani has no expertise in politics or world news. He doesn’t even have credited expertise in finance, which he seems to heavily lean on in his content. He seems to half admit to his lack of accreditation by saying his posts are “his views” but also goes against full accountability by claiming his X page is “informational”. If anything, I’d say that Ryan Rozbiani’s X page is a heavily biased and un-fact-checked page meant just for “funsies” and should not be looked at as a reputable news source. Therefore, none of the X posts from the Ryan Rozbiani page should be taken at face value.

[theurbansombrero97]

As for my Comms. class, I need to look for any seemingly sensationalized news and fact check whether the claim on the news is either factual or exaggerated.

I found one such post while I was scrolling through Instagram. A page I follow called "TheOther98". While this page does post mostly left winged news, it often posts memes and content far left that even some of their followers' base do not agree with. The post in question is two Twitter accounts making 2 different claims on the state of Fast-food chains in a state where the minimum wage is quite high ($20/hr) "Shake Shack to shut 6 California locations, including 5 in LA, after state's $20/hr minimum wage hike" according to the NYPost.

The article: https://nypost.com/2024/08/28/business/shake-shack-to-shut-6-california-locations-after-states-20-minimum-wage-hike/

An individual with the handle JdcMedlock states "California's Minimum wage is so powerful it even compelled Shake Shake (Shack) to close locations in Houston and Ohio." The post from Medlock seems to be sarcastic, claiming that the minimum wage hike does not correlate with multiple closures in other states.

The initial post from the NYPost did give me a knee jerk reaction at the state of California, but then the subsequent post had me question whether or not NYPost is telling the truth. To get a better understanding of the situation, I searched for the original article made by the NYPost to understand what the title might not have covered entirely. First, the article was written by Taylor Herzlich, a Fordham College graduate with a degree in Journalism and English. The other collaborator of the post is Josh Kosman, a long time NYPost Journalist covering Financial and Business news. While reading the article, it claims many other fast-food chains have been pulling out of California as well, though as I read the article further it seems that it is using claims from these other fast-food chains to make the same statement for Shake Shack. For example, "Rubio’s California Grill closed 48 of its nearly 134 locations at the end of May, citing the “rising cost of doing business” in the state for the closures and filed for bankruptcy in June." When it came to Shake Shack making a statement about their closures, they simply stated the decision was based “in part due to changes in the trade area,” and refused to comment on the minimum wage hike in CA. Lastly, in the same article, it shows California’s fast-food industry has added jobs every month this year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. This statistic is not indicative of economic downturn and major fast-food closures.

The final nail in the coffin is James Medlock himself. Researching Medlock, a self-proclaimed social democrat who often discusses about wages and labor. This tells me he has some stake in the game when it comes to economics, despite what political view he carries. Medlock's post states other closing locations, 2 in Houston and 1 in Ohio. Minimum wage in Texas is $7.25/hr while Ohio's minimum wage is $10.45/hr. This information I found has brought me to the conclusion that the title does not at all tell the full story and even the context of the article does not back up what the title indicates. It is simply an exaggerated headline to attract more clicks. It got me!

[marandsviet]

(via "Real News & Fake News" Pullover Sweatshirt for Sale by MarandSviet)

[samueldays]

No, we do not remember it, because that's not how it happened. You have been misinformed.

Elon offered to fund an end to world hunger with $6 billion if anyone could show a plan to end world hunger with $6 billion, and nobody showed a plan for that.

There were some dishonest journalists who wrote clickbait headlines like "UN to Elon Musk: Here’s that $6 billion plan to fight world hunger" and you can see how "end" or "solve" world hunger has been watered down to "fight" world hunger, which is not what Elon challenged people to show.

If you click through, you'll see that UNWFP (not UNICEF) plan in more detail, and here's the budget highlight:

The US$6.6 billion required would help those in most need in the following way: one meal a day, the basic needed to survive – costing US$0.43 per person per day, averaged out across the 43 countries. This would feed 42 million people for one year, and avert the risk of famine.

Scroll slightly down...

Global hunger continues to rise at an alarming rate: our latest estimates show that 282.7 million people across 80 countries are experiencing extreme levels of acute hunger.

By the UNWFP's own figures, the closer-to-7-billion dollars plan would not end world hunger, it would feed a small minority of the hungry for one year.

The cruelty of racist white men.

[samueldays]

Reminder that people would really do that, just go on the internet and tell lies. Disinfo activists sometimes go on the internet and call themselves anti-disinfo activists, too.

As best I can tell by checking the guy, this is not some parody made up by 4chan. He's like this across multiple platforms, he's got a record of being like this for a long while, he's like this with his name and face on LinkedIn that point back to twitter.

Twitter is apocalyptic as in revelation. Twitter did not invent this guy. Twitter showed this guy to the world. Twitter is a warning for those with ears to hear.

[unicityusa]

Buy Feel Great System Now: https://ufeelgreat.com/c/KFV597

[random2023reviews]

भोजन में मिलावट: एक छुपा हुआ ज़हर (Food Adulteration – A Hidden Poison)

भोजन में मिलावट: एक छुपा हुआ ज़हर (Food Adulteration – A Hidden Poison) आजकल खाद्य पदार्थों में मिलावट (Food Adulteration) एक गंभीर समस्या बन गई है। बाज़ार में मिलने वाले कई उत्पादों में मिलावटी रसायन और घटिया सामग्री मिलाई जाती है, जिससे खाद्य पदार्थ का पोषण मूल्य (Nutritional Value) घट जाता है और यह स्वास्थ्य के लिए बेहद हानिकारक हो जाता है। मिलावट का मुख्य उद्देश्य मुनाफा कमाना होता है, लेकिन…

[renewskin]

Not everything you hear is true! 🧐 Let’s separate myths from facts—get ready to be surprised!

[mittahub]

📚✨ Calling all MA Literature students! If you're looking for a reliable, comprehensive, and easily accessible source of knowledge, look no further than Britannica.

Whether you're prepping for exams or need a quick reference for your research, this platform is a game-changer.

[rhk111sblog]

I couldn’t access this “The rhk111 Philippine Defense Page” from my Personal Computer (PC) for around half an Hour this Morning. I could still access it using my Smartphone, but just not by my PC. Not sure what happened there, but based on the Fact that I have been posting these “Fact Checks” against the Anti-China Propaganda by the combined Talyanist and Pinklawan Forces, I bet they have something to do with it.

In Filipino, “Hindi lumalaban ng Parehas ang mga iyan” (they don’t fight Fair), they act like Spoiled Brats who just can’t or won’t compete fairly and needs to always have their Way, regardless if its the Truth, or if its for the Good of the Country.

They feel they are the only ones who have the right to tell the News to the Filipino People so they can manipulate and control what Filipinos will see and hear. No wonder the Philippines is such a fakk up under the Influence of the United States (US), and the Oligarchs and their Social Syndicate M*r*ns ...