TallGuyJohninBKK

The NY Post report above comments "undetected for decades." Let's see, Walz has been governor there only since 2019, which means a whole lot of other prior governors served while the same alleged conduct -- supposedly underreporting investment fees paid by the pension fund -- was occurring. Which ones do you want to pin that on? https://www.nga.org/former-governors/minnesota/

I see / can find no outcome in court of the above case.... But I did find the following filed by the same Queens D.A.: Campaign volunteers indicted in Queens voter fraud scheme July 29, 2024 Six campaign volunteers, including the daughter of a City Council candidate in Queens, were indicted Thursday on voter fraud charges for allegedly submitting bogus absentee ballots, officials said. The suspects were charged with trying to rig a Council race for Republican candidate Yu-Ching James Pai, who was running in a June 2023 primary for the District 20 Council seat in Queens. ... The allegations revolve around a plot to submit fraudulent absentee ballot applications to boost Pai’s campaign. https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/07/25/campaign-volunteers-indicted-in-queens-voter-fraud-scheme/

And now just this week in Michigan, we have the Democrat attorney general filing felony criminal charges against four voters accused of attempted double voting in this year's presidential primary, and against three city clerk staff who allegedly facilitated the alleged fraud -- which a Republican county prosecutor had declined to pursue. 7 people face felony charges in double voting incident in St. Clair Shores October 4, 2024 (CBS DETROIT) - Seven people, including four voters, face felony charges in an alleged double voting incident in Michigan's August 2024 primary election, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Friday morning. The incident involves four St. Clair Shores residents flagged for submitting two ballots in the primary election on Aug. 6. According to Nessel, each person voted by absentee ballot, returned their ballot and then voted in person at their polling location on election day. In three of the four cases, voters signed an affidavit saying they had not received an absentee ballot despite completing and returning one, Nessel said. Election workers informed the voters that their absentee ballots had already been received but were allegedly instructed by assistant clerks to override the system and issue in-person ballots. ... In August, Macomb County Prosecutor [Republican] Peter Lucido declined to authorize charges against the four voters, saying an investigation showed that the "appropriate mechanisms functioned as intended to detect the issue," and that his office "concluded probable cause did not exist to believe that a crime had occurred." (more) https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/dana-nessel-announces-felony-election-law-violations/ Michigan attorney general charges 7 over double voting in Macomb County ... In a statement, Lucido said he respects the Attorney General's "jurisdiction and investigatory resources." "It is not unusual for the Attorney General to charge criminal cases in which a local prosecutor did not," Lucido added. "I expect justice will be served. I have no further comment on this ongoing case." But Christina Hines, the prosecutor's Democratic opponent in the Nov. 5 election, said "it is unacceptable that our elected Prosecutor chose not to even investigate this case" and argued it showed Lucido is unqualified to hold office. (more) https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2024/10/04/michigan-attorney-general-dana-nessel-charges-voters-clerks-double-voting-macomb-county-pete-lucido/75511947007/

For all the Trump supporters out there in search of imaginary voter fraud, there actually are a few rare cases where the fraud is REAL and PROVEN, such as the case below. And this one did involve an immigrant, if that makes you feel any better: Iowa official’s wife convicted of 52 counts of voter fraud in ballot-stuffing scheme November 22, 2023 SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — The wife of a northwestern Iowa county supervisor was convicted Tuesday of a scheme to stuff the ballot box in her husband’s unsuccessful race for a Republican nomination to run for Congress in 2020. The Sioux City Journal reports that jurors deliberated six hours before finding Kim Taylor guilty of 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration and 23 counts of fraudulent voting. Prosecutors said Taylor, a Vietnam native, approached numerous voters of Vietnamese heritage with limited English comprehension and filled out and signed election forms and ballots on behalf of them and their English-speaking children. (more) https://apnews.com/article/iowa-ballot-box-stuffing-18432099d65be5e95aa5e5cd83b589e1 Which then earlier this year led to: Republican candidate’s wife sentenced to prison for voter fraud April 3, 2024 An Iowa woman who sought to boost her husband’s unsuccessful congressional bid in 2020 through a voter fraud scheme was sentenced by a federal judge to four months in prison Monday in a rare case of fraudulent voting. Kim Taylor, 50, was convicted by a federal jury in November on 52 counts including fraudulent voting and providing false information in registering and voting. ... Prosecutors said Taylor used the ballots to fraudulently generate votes for husband Jeremy Taylor’s unsuccessful bid in the Republican primary for a seat in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District. The month after his primary loss, he successfully ran for Woodbury County Supervisor and still holds the position. (more) Washington Post https://archive.ph/quAuL And the above drew the following spot-on commentary from MSNBC: The deep ironies in the GOP's war on 'voter fraud' How many Republicans will get caught committing voter fraud before the GOP stops pointing fingers? April 5, 2024 "No matter what former President Donald Trump claims, actual incidents of voter fraud are extremely rare. Those instances that have come to light in the aftermath of the 2020 election are nowhere near widespread enough to swing a presidential election, let alone most down-ballot races. Taylor’s case, one of those rare instances, highlights one supreme irony of the GOP’s obsession with voter fraud: many of the cases of knowing fraud that have been prosecuted since then have had Republicans as the perpetrators. ... Other Trump supporters have been caught trying to vote more than once, including multiple residents at Florida’s retirement community The Villages. Still others have been caught trying to cast votes in the names of their dead spouses or family members, one of whom was initially a right-wing cause célèbre after claiming someone had stolen his dead wife’s absentee ballot. And just last month, a former election official in Milwaukee was found guilty of voter fraud for using her position to get obtain fraudulent absentee ballots and send them to a Republican state lawmaker who’d boosted Trump’s election lies. (more) https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/republicans-voter-fraud-convictions-2024-rcna146434

The one AI photo I reposed above -- to illustrate how fake media is being used / abused in the presidential campaign -- is clearly labeled as FALSE. Can't say the same for the posting habits of Trump and his lot.....as illustrated in several earlier posts in this thread.

And then, earlier this year, Trump supporters were at it again posting AI fake images of Trump purportedly palling around with black people (purporting to show that Trump is friendly to them and black people support him). Trump supporters target black voters with faked AI images 4 March 2024 Donald Trump supporters have been creating and sharing AI-generated fake images of black voters to encourage African Americans to vote Republican. BBC Panorama discovered dozens of deepfakes portraying black people as supporting the former president. ... The fake images of black Trump supporters, generated by artificial intelligence (AI), are one of the emerging disinformation trends ahead of the US presidential election in November. (more) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68440150

And, likewise, Trump lately has also been found to be falsely claiming that Harris or her campaign had altered an image of large crowds at her campaign rallies [bigger than his] -- when in fact the image in question was shown to be accurate and real! No evidence to support Trump’s claim that image from Harris’ rally is fake August 13, 2024 "Trump’s latest claim is that Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, manipulated a rally image to make it seem like there was a larger audience. ... THE ANSWER No, there is no evidence to support Trump’s claim this image from Harris’ rally is fake. There are several other real images from the event that also show the same large crowd." (more) https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/donald-trump/no-evidence-to-support-trumps-claim-that-image-from-harris-rally-is-fake/536-f484a59d-b193-4c13-b58b-8c437c3efa7c

Of course, Trump via his Truth Social account also has been caught lately reposting a fake/false image of Kamala Harris that purported to show her with P Diddy, when the actual photo showed her with Montel Williams. Posts Spread Digitally Altered Image of Harris with Sean Combs September 25, 2024 "Following the arrest of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs for sex trafficking and other charges, social media users — including former President Donald Trump — shared a digitally altered photo that purports to show Combs with Vice President Kamala Harris. The original image actually shows Harris with then-talk show host Montel Williams in 2001. ... A Sept. 21 Facebook post shared a photo which appears to show Combs and Harris posing together, along with the caption, “P. DIDDY & KAMALA ‘hanging out’ back in the day. Wonder if any ‘Crazy Stuff’ was going on then?” ... Former President Donald Trump reposted the photo on Truth Social on Sept. 20, where it was captioned, “Madam Vice President, have you ever been involved with or engaged in one of Puff Daddies freak offs?” The post was later deleted." https://www.factcheck.org/2024/09/posts-spread-digitally-altered-image-of-harris-with-sean-combs/

The same kind of digitally altered (fake) images have been used AGAINST Trump at times as well, such as a post assassination attempt photo comparing Trump's pose with that of Hitler. Neither kinds of misrepresentations should be allowed -- when identified as such. Photo of Hitler Posing Like Trump After Assassination Attempt Is Fake "In August 2024, social media users circulated a genuine photo of former U.S. President Donald Trump, taken after his attempted assassination in July 2024, alongside a purported image of Adolf Hitler. ... However, in short, although the Trump image was authentic, the alleged photo of Hitler was not. We concluded it was not AI-generated, but it was, in fact, a composite image created using elements from several different photographs, including a flipped and altered image of Hitler; a photograph of chief propagandist of the Nazi Party Joseph Goebbels; an unidentified woman; and a Nazi flag. Because of this, we rated the image of Hitler as "Fake." https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hitler-trump-image-fake/

Nice try... but one of the linked Facebook accounts cited above that circulated the false image has anti-Harris and Biden posts. https://archive.org/details/annotation-2024-10-02-133019 Same with the linked Instagram poster: https://archive.org/details/annotation-2024-10-02-133544

I always thought Trump and RFK Jr. had a lot in common.... Now I know even more as to why!!!

FACT CHECK: Donald Trump Claims Iranian Missiles ‘Never Hit The Fort’ In 2020 Attack 10/03/2024 Former President Donald Trump claimed that Iranian missiles “never hit the fort” and suggested troops only suffered a “headache” when Iran launched ballistic missiles against U.S. forces in Iraq in January 2020. ... Verdict: False The Al Asad Airbase, where U.S. troops were stationed, was hit by several ballistic missiles. While most troops who were injured returned to duty quickly, dozens were awarded the Purple Heart and were treated for traumatic brain injuries (TBI). ... U.S. service members described the missile attack in testimonials released by U.S. Air Forces Central Command, according to Task and Purpose. For example, one airman stated that a missile hit “within 150 meters” of their bunker. (more) https://checkyourfact.com/2024/10/03/fact-check-trump-iranian-missiles-2020-attack/ If words are coming out of Trump's mouth, odds are, he's lying, as illustrated above.

October 4, 2024 "In a classic example of how political ads mislead viewers by using out-of-context quotes, a TV ad from former President Donald Trump’s campaign cites the New York Times as saying Vice President Kamala Harris “is seeking to significantly raise taxes.” Period, end of sentence. The rest of that sentence in the Times said: “on the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.” There’s more context that was left on the cutting room floor. The ad twice features a clip of Harris saying, “Taxes are going to have to go up.” In the July 2019 event, Harris actually said, “Estate taxes are going to have to go up for the richest Americans.” ... The ad has aired in the swing states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada, according to AdImpact, a political ad tracking service. Nearly every citation in the ad is problematic. (more) https://www.factcheck.org/2024/10/trump-ad-on-taxes-uses-deceptive-political-playbook/ The latest in the unceasing flow of misinformation (false and misleading info) from the Trump campaign.

Another example reason on why there should be regulations restricting the posting of fake content to social media: Image of Donald Trump wading through flood water is AI-generated | Fact check A Sept. 30 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) appears to show former President Donald Trump walking through a flooded street while wearing an orange life vest. ... The post was shared more than 160,000 times in two days. The image was also shared on Instagram. Our rating: Altered Experts and an AI-detection tool confirmed the image is AI-generated. There's no evidence Trump waded through flood water in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (more) https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/10/03/ai-image-trump-hurricane-helene-fact-check/75483588007/ https://checkyourfact.com/2024/10/04/fact-check-does-this-photo-show-donald-trump-walking-through-hurricane-helene-flood-waters/

These are the reasons California passed the laws they did and they were signed into law by the governor: Political consultant fined $6M for using AI to fake Biden's voice in robocalls to voters Sep. 26, 2024, The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday finalized a $6 million fine for a political consultant over fake robocalls that mimicked President Biden’s voice, urging New Hampshire voters not to vote in that state’s Democratic primary.' https://nypost.com/2024/09/26/business/political-consultant-fined-6m-for-using-ai-to-fake-bidens-voice-in-robocalls-to-voters/ Political consultant behind fake Biden AI robocall pleads not guilty to first six charges June 5, 2024 (CNN) — The political consultant behind a robocall that used artificial intelligence to impersonate President Joe Biden pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the first six charges he faces in New Hampshire, according to a court spokesperson. Steven Kramer, who worked for Rep. Dean Phillips’ longshot Democratic primary campaign against Biden, previously admitted that he was behind the robocall. On the call, a voice that sounds like the president urged more than 20,000 voters not to vote in the January primary and instead “save” their vote for the November election. Phillips’ campaign denied having any role in the robocalls and distanced itself from Kramer. On Wednesday, Kramer appeared in Belknap County Superior Court where he’s charged with three counts of felony voter suppression and three misdemeanor counts of impersonation of a candidate. https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/05/politics/biden-ai-robocall-political-consultant-plea/index.html

And the reason for this kind of legislation aiming to combat so-called deepfake content is the example of what happened earlier this year in New Hampshire: Telecom company that sent Biden ‘deepfake’ calls to NH voters hit with fine August 21, 2024 The telecom company that delivered robocalls mimicking President Joe Biden’s voice to New Hampshire voters two days before the state’s presidential primary is being ordered to pay $1 million to the Federal Communications Commission. Under the terms of the settlement announced Wednesday, Texas-based Lingo Telecom will also revise its business practices. In January, the company delivered tens of thousands of robocalls to New Hampshire voters that included an artificially created voice that mimicked Biden. The message used the Biden catchphrase, “What a bunch of malarkey,” before encouraging recipients to skip the state primary and save their votes for November. ... Steven Kramer, the political consultant accused of coordinating the calls, is facing multiple charges of voter suppression in New Hampshire, as well as potential civil fines from the FCC, for his role in the misinformation effort. https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2024-08-21/telecom-company-that-sent-biden-deepfake-calls-to-nh-voters-hit-with-fine

What the above posts don't make clear is the one law that was the subject of this court ruling was only one of THREE related laws recently signed by the governor in California. And this court ruling only applies to one of those, AB 2839. The other two remain in effect, though apparently won't apply for the upcoming November election because they weren't "urgency" measures: "AB 2655 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) requires large online platforms to remove or label deceptive and digitally altered or created content related to elections during specified periods, and requires them to provide mechanisms to report such content. It also authorizes candidates, elected officials, elections officials, the Attorney General, and a district attorney or city attorney to seek injunctive relief against a large online platform for noncompliance with the act." AND AB 2355 by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) requires that electoral advertisements using AI-generated or substantially altered content feature a disclosure that the material has been altered. The bill authorizes the Fair Political Practices Commission to enforce a violation of these disclosure requirements by seeking injunctive relief to compel compliance or pursuing other remedies available to the commission under the Political Reform Act. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/09/17/governor-newsom-signs-bills-to-combat-deepfake-election-content/

The California law in question, which sounds pretty reasonable and valuable to me: AB 2839 - Protecting Democracy against Election Disinformation and Deepfakes "California is entering its first-ever generative artificial intelligence (AI) election, in which disinformation powered by generative AI will pollute our information ecosystems like never before. In a few clicks, using current technology, bad actors now have the power to create a false image of a candidate accepting a bribe, a fake video of an elections official “caught on tape” saying that voting machines are not secure, or generate an artificial robocall in the Governor's voice incorrectly telling millions of Californians their voting site has changed." PROBLEM Those trying to influence campaigns—conspiracy theorists, foreign states, online trolls, and even candidates themselves—are already creating and distributing deepfake images, audio, and video content, in the US and around the world. This generative AI-fueled disinformation can affect voter behavior and undermine faith in our elections. With this expected onslaught already starting, voters in 2024 will not know what images, audio, or video they can trust, and their faith in election integrity and our democracy will be significantly diminished. https://a28.asmdc.org/ab-2839-protecting-democracy-against-election-disinformation-and-deepfakes

Of course the Trump and Co. folks in the world don't want state laws that aim to prevent election-related misinformation, because the Trump campaign and its right-wing surrogates have been an unceasing flood of misinformation and false or misleading claims this year. Examples: Fact check: To attack Harris, Trump falsely describes new stats on immigrants and homicide https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/29/politics/fact-check-trump-harris-immigrants-homicide/index.html Fact check: New Trump attack ad deceptively edits out key words from Harris and The New York Times https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/04/politics/fact-check-trump-ad-harris-taxes/index.html Trump Ad on Taxes Uses Deceptive Political Playbook https://www.factcheck.org/2024/10/trump-ad-on-taxes-uses-deceptive-political-playbook/ Trump repeats baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets https://archive.is/g1XUn etc etc etc... Re the California law: "The law makes it illegal to create and publish false materials related to elections 120 days before Election Day and 60 days thereafter. It also allows courts to stop the distribution of the materials, and violators could face civil penalties. The law exempts parody and satire." https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/california-election-ai-deepfakes-law-potential-legal-challenges/ As reported below, it's a perplexing ruling that appears to give permission for all kinds of election-related misinformation to be conveyed via video format. But the court still ruled for some reason: "Mendez ruled that one aspect of the law did pass muster: If content is audio only, a disclosure must be read at the start and end of the recording, and at two-minute intervals if the recording is longer than two minutes. “The court acknowledges that the risks posed by artificial intelligence and deepfakes are significant, especially as civic engagement migrates online and disinformation proliferates on social media,” Mendez wrote." https://www.courthousenews.com/federal-judge-stops-implementation-of-california-misinformation-law/ The above news report doesn't give any explanation of how/why the judge decided that election-related digitally manipulated (faked) video content shouldn't have the same kinds of disclosure safeguards.

I wasn't worried before... But after reading the following headline here: Bangkok Will Not Flood, PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra Assures I'm moving all my belongings to high ground!!!!

Funny that we have all the aviation officialdom puffery in the OP... But absolutely no mention of this news item amid heavy rains from just a few days ago:

I live in the same general area and have for almost the past two decades. And while there always are problems, I must say, the last major round of sidewalk reconstruction in the lower Sukhumvit area has proven to be the best and most durable that I've seen during my time here. Before, they just laid new tiles down onto dirt or sand, which quickly became uneven and unstable once the rains came. But this last time, they actually laid down a concrete base level first before putting down the paver tiles... Which in the areas I traverse, thus far has meant that they have remained in pretty good and stable condition overall.

I had an item I ordered prepaid from Lazada recently that arrived to my home broken and leaking, as could be seen from the exterior of the package. Thus I refused acceptance of the package, which I had already paid for via bank card. At that point, via the Lazada messaging system, I tried to contact the Thailand-based seller. Over multiple days, the seller never even acknowledged the Lazada messages. During that same time, I repeatedly tried calling Lazada's customer service phone number during their normal business hours. Every time, I got a recording and told to hold for the next available operator. Then within a few minutes each time, the call was just disconnected, dropped. During that time, I also tried to contact Lazada via their online chat support channel during the business day when they claim to have live chat support operators. Each time, all I got was an automated chatbot response system that didn't offer any kind of option for my situation. Never was able to connect to a live chat person. Lazada, IMHO, is a AGGRAVATING MESS if you have to deal with any problems with their orders.

The above cited article also quotes one Canadian source as saying it's been recent changes to Canada's own immigration policies that have driven the [relatively small -- 19K+ for the past year] influx of illegal Canada to U.S. border crossings. "NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said changes to Canada's immigration policy have helped fuel an exodus to the U.S. of students and temporary foreign workers. "It is quite possible that people are now finding themselves in this dire situation and looking elsewhere to establish themselves," she said."

Voter roll purging part of a broader Republican campaign: Republicans are suing more election officials over voter rolls in several battleground states September 20, 2024 Washington (CNN) — Attempts by conservatives to purge state voter rolls ahead of the November election, including from Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee, are ramping up, prompting concern from the Justice Department that those efforts might violate federal rules governing how states can manage their lists of registered voters. .... Questioning the accuracy of voter rolls has long been a hallmark of right-wing efforts to raise doubts about the integrity of elections and featured prominently in 2020 when allies of the former president pushed false claims that scores of fraudulently cast votes helped Joe Biden win the presidency. [emphasis added] ... The right-wing effort to purge voter rolls has largely centered around claims that noncitizens are casting illegal votes in favor of Democrats. But reports of noncitizen voting in US elections are extremely rare. The right-leaning Heritage Foundation’s database of confirmed fraud cases lists fewer than 100 examples of non-citizens voting between 2002 and 2022, amid more than 1 billion lawfully cast ballots. [emphasis added] https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/20/politics/attempts-to-purge-voter-rolls-increase-as-election-nears/index.html