Dealing with child welfare is not a game, but for many, publishing propaganda for financial gain is.
18 U.S. Code § 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television
Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation occurs in relation to, or involving any benefit authorized, transported, transmitted, transferred, disbursed, or paid in connection with, a presidentially declared major disaster or emergency (as those terms are defined in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122)), or affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.
Ah, the smell of propaganda is thick in the air, so, I thought it only proper to bring my work in child welfare full circle by addressing the forces behind the eminent attacks.
Cyberwars are real and so is the event of my future smearing.
Just remember, it all started in child welfare because no one cares.
There is a model to address the propaganda being spewed on Youtube and other social sites by these so called "investigative truther journalists" who solicit online "funding for fraud", across state and international lines, which just so happens to violate the Terms of Service for most sites.
There is also are also well established venues to report and challenge the veracity of information being promulgated online, because it seems, some of these online Youtube celebrates may be covert operatives, failing to declare the foreign origins of their Patreon contributions.
Others simply do it for the clicks.
Let the people regulate the internet in open, public declarations, or rather, put their money where their mouths are.
If you are not will to back up what you say in a congressional hearing or a court of law, you might want to rethink your online career path.
Dealing with child welfare is not a game, but for many, publishing propaganda for financial gain is.
18 U.S. Code § 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television
Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation occurs in relation to, or involving any benefit authorized, transported, transmitted, transferred, disbursed, or paid in connection with, a presidentially declared major disaster or emergency (as those terms are defined in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122)), or affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.
How award-winning former journalist Michael D. Moore came to run a site filled with false reports and conspiracies.
Days after former FBI lawyer Lisa Page testified in a closed-door meeting with the House Oversight and Government Reform and House Judiciary committees, pro-Trump website True Pundit published an explosive — and false — report about what she said.
The article cited anonymous “well-placed FBI sources” to claim Page revealed that Chinese hackers had accessed Hillary Clinton’s private server, stolen her emails, and intercepted hundreds of top secret documents including even the president's daily schedule — and that the FBI knew about it and did nothing.
In response, Page’s lawyer spoke publicly to say the story was unequivocally false. Even Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert — who has pushed the as-yet unproven claim that a foreign power “other than Russia” gained access to Clinton’s server — disputed the story about Page. He told Fox News she “apparently didn’t know” about anything related to China, directly contradicting True Pundit.
Regardless, the false story generated more than 22,000 shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook, and was a hit on Twitter, where famed Trump supporter Bill Mitchell shared it. (The story was also copied by notorious fake news peddler YourNewsWire, which generated another 77,000 Facebook engagements.)
The most Twitter engagements for the article were generated by the owner of True Pundit, who uses the handle @Thomas1774Paine and goes by the historical pseudonym Thomas Paine. He shared the link more than 25 times to his close to 200,000 followers, generating thousands of retweets and likes.
“MSM Quiet on This One -- Wonder Why?” Paine tweeted, suggesting big media outlets were covering up his false scoop.
It was classic Paine: publish a false story that paints the FBI and Hillary Clinton in a bad light, credit the information to anonymous sources, and claim the mainstream media is covering it all up.
Since launching the site in June 2016, Paine and True Pundit have carved out a unique niche among the news grifters capitalizing on our conspiracy-laden, deeply polarized information environment. As New York magazine noted in a piece debunking two True Pundit stories, Paine is “fluent in the paranoid language of 2016 social media.”
Paine combines the use of a pseudonym with almost exclusive use of anonymous sources to establish the persona of a deeply connected reporter with a vast network of FBI, law enforcement, and government sources. As with the Page story, he adds false or conspiracy-filled claims to real events or documents in order to create the impression of being rooted in fact. And the retweets, traffic, and supporters have rolled in.
One of Paine’s 2016 stories even led to an email exchange between then–FBI director James Comey and his former deputy, Andrew McCabe, about whether True Pundit really had sources inside the FBI. Paine, of course, seized upon that as evidence that he’s as well-sourced as he claims. (He loves to criticize the bureau: The site has used the phrase “Federal Bureau of Incompetence” in the headline of five different stories.)
The question of who’s behind True Pundit has itself become the source of wild theories. Viral #resistance tweeter Seth Abramson dedicated an 84-tweet thread to True Pundit and Paine. Abramson argued that True Pundit was being fed information by “a cadre of pro-Trump FBI agents and intel officers — some active, some retired — [who] conspired to swing the election to Trump.” (Another Twitter user investigated the account and concluded it’s a fake persona concocted by the Trump campaign’s social media team.)
Among the many clues: Paine and his lawyer say he is based in the Philadelphia area; he has talked publicly about covering the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 as a newspaper reporter; he used to run a Twitter account called @HockeyIntel before changing his handle to @Thomas1774Paine; and he once tweeted a photo of what he said is his Gerald Loeb Award, a prestigious business journalism prize.
Paine has also talked publicly about leaving journalism in the late ’90s to work in “intelligence.” During that same time period, Moore created a company called Dig Dirt that he described as an investigations service. He left his newspaper job to work on it full time. The company’s site is now offline, but as recently as the fall of 2016 it contained language that directly echoes the messaging of True Pundit.
“We subordinate our desire for public recognition and publicity to the ever-growing need for confiendiality [sic] and LOYALTY. Old School,” said the Dig Dirt site.
The Patreon’s description also says True Pundit offers “investigative intelligence unmatched elsewhere.”
Dig Dirt’s tagline? “Investigative intelligence.”
Moore also has a connection to the FBI that could explain True Pundit's fixation with the agency: He was arrested by federal agents in November 2011 for running two websites that sold pirated hockey DVDs and downloads. Months earlier, FBI agents executed a search warrant on his home and carted off the equipment he used to pirate hockey games and other content.
Moore pleaded guilty to one count of copyright infringement in June 2013. He was sentenced to time served of one day in prison, a year of house arrest, and three years of supervised release. During his release he had to provide monthly income statements and facilitate the “investigation of his financial dealings,” according to a sentencing document filed on June 17, 2013.
And so, almost exactly three years later, with probation and its financial disclosure requirements behind him, Moore launched True Pundit.
He didn’t waste any time pumping up its credentials. “True Pundit has folks who worked for the FBI and other agencies on staff,” claimed one of the site’s earliest articles.
Moore's hastily published admission that he is in fact Thomas Paine made it clear that his case later fed his motivation to start a site that would hit back at the FBI.
"These bastards — and their bosses — were going to pay for violating my family. My kids. My home. One way or the other, I would have the last word," he wrote. "As I have throughout my life and career. And I was going to have to go back into journalism to even the score."
Moore also has a connection to the FBI that could explain True Pundit's fixation with the agency: He was arrested by federal agents in November 2011 for running two websites that sold pirated hockey DVDs and downloads. Months earlier, FBI agents executed a search warrant on his home and carted off the equipment he used to pirate hockey games and other content.
Moore pleaded guilty to one count of copyright infringement in June 2013. He was sentenced to time served of one day in prison, a year of house arrest, and three years of supervised release. During his release he had to provide monthly income statements and facilitate the “investigation of his financial dealings,” according to a sentencing document filed on June 17, 2013.
And so, almost exactly three years later, with probation and its financial disclosure requirements behind him, Moore launched True Pundit.
He didn’t waste any time pumping up its credentials. “True Pundit has folks who worked for the FBI and other agencies on staff,” claimed one of the site’s earliest articles.
Moore's hastily published admission that he is in fact Thomas Paine made it clear that his case later fed his motivation to start a site that would hit back at the FBI.
"These bastards — and their bosses — were going to pay for violating my family. My kids. My home. One way or the other, I would have the last word," he wrote. "As I have throughout my life and career. And I was going to have to go back into journalism to even the score."
Many would have found it hard to believe that a man who’d been recently been arrested by the bureau, and pleaded guilty, now had former FBI employees on staff at his just-launched website.
But no one knew that True Pundit was the work of Michael D. Moore. Instead, it was Thomas Paine, his Loeb Award, and all of his impressive-seeming anonymous sources pumping out frequently false stories to fire up the pro-Trump base.
Do you have any video of you speaking to the people as a political oracle before the 2016 General Election on the virtues of your campaign predictions?
No, you did not.
You never listen and that is why the Michigan Democratic Party sucks, and you are one of its leaders.
I affirm this statement because you have ignored me for at least a decade.
It is my belief that you were motivated to pen this op-ed to cover your arse because you know your name may just pop up somewhere the investigation of the DNC.
Even though you have ignored me, I have never ignored you.
I was the crazy one. I predicted that Hillary Clinton was in trouble in Michigan during the Democratic primary. I observed that Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination for president. And at Rotary clubs, local chambers of commerce, union halls and mosques, I noted that we could see a Trump presidency. “That’s Debbie, it’s hyperbole, she is nuts.”
You clearly were not neutral during the Primary race
.
> *From:* Debbie Dingell <debbie.dingell@yahoo.com> > *Date:* June 20, 2015 at 6:38:22 AM EDT
> *To:* Cheryl Mills <cheryl.mills@gmail.com> > *Subject:* *Fwd: You're Invited! Inaugural Meeting of Michigan Women for
> Hillary*
> > Someday we will connect. Observation....I am pissed. I had the largest > grassroots meeting in state. Yet I get this notice from no where of first > women for Hillary organizing meeting and debbie Stabenow and brenda are > highlighted....and I am the third senior women in the state...not
> included..... > > Too many feelings were hurt last time, too much back stabbing, no team > building.....looks like same old machinations returning and gives me 0
> confidence.
> > I am not circulating anything that doesn't treat me with respect....I am > pissed.....I stay out of everyone's way, do what asked, effective > speaker...get asked about her by media several times a week...low > maintenance....highest profile event in michigan so far....slap in > face....it just reminds me of mistakes of past. And I am flagging for > you....I am pregnant now......don't want to see her lose....but it gives > you 0 enthusiasm. D2 >
>
>
> Debbie Dingell
> Congresswoman, MI-12 > d2@debbiedingell.com
> 202-225-4071 office
>
And yes, there has always been a special term of endearment for you on the streets, Deborah.
Adding Amanda who has been managing this on our end (i think!!??).
> On Jun 23, 2015, at 5:20 PM, Huma Abedin <huma@hrcoffice.com> wrote:
>
> Debbie upset there was an event for HRC in Michigan and she wasn't told.
> It was an event that Jill Alper put together (didn't include HRC)
> Debbie cannot stand Jill Alper and won't have anything to do with her. I think Jill is just bewildered by Debbie and kind of just does her thing and doesn't bother Debbie.
> So we ended up with an angry Debbie
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jun 23, 2015, at 4:02 PM, John Podesta <john.podesta@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> What is this about?
>>
>>> On Jun 23, 2015 1:54 PM, "Cheryl Mills" <cheryl.mills@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> more
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: Debbie Dingell <debbie.dingell@yahoo.com>
>>> Date: Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 4:46 PM
>>> Subject: Wouldn't say problem was fixed....
>>> To: Cheryl Mills <cheryl.mills@gmail.com>
>>>
>>>
>>> Got press call asking why i was backing off supporting Hilary.....nothing to say....d2
>>>
>>> Debbie Dingell
>>> Congresswoman, MI-12
>>> d2@debbiedingell.com
>>> 202-225-4071 office
