I would also point out that right now is appropriate because of several hard-hitting, emotional news items hitting on multiple fronts - Epstein + chilling images from the camps + Trump dropping all pretense and being Just Racist, Akshully (and his supporters in tow). There’s an outrage mine there, or at least there oughta be, that will have long simmered down come January. And, y’know, that shit is wrong now so it should be denounced now.
I suppose one can count on Trump to keep being consistently awful all year 'round, but that’s kind of the point. Plus waiting strikes me as more nakedly political : “you didn’t say anything then, why do you say something now I wonder ? Any particular, electionyear reason ? But OK, let’s talk principled stands !” ;).
I’d advise against getting too defensive towards Omar on that one. The information that Omar can’t delete is all conducive to the brother hypothesis and the information which is purported to have been deleted, if faked, would have required professional photo shoots, professional photo manipulation, and professional graphic design to pull off. Given that this is supposed to have been pulled off by some crazy right-wing blogger, not the CIA, and that the story does originate out of her country of birth, not the right wing web, I’d expect to get egg on my face by standing too close to her.
The more the Democrats defend Omar, the greater the chance that they take a severe political hit if the evidence comes in. That evidence does seem relatively likely to come in.
WTF? If the evidence was deleted (and thus, by definition, unavailable for examination), how the hell can anyone assess the level of chicanery required to falsify it?
Oh. Wait. This isn’t evidence that was deleted; it’s evidence that is purported to have been deleted. (Presumably, because the evidence that would show whether or not the evidence was deleted was itself deleted. Purportedly.)
What is even more discouraging to me is the idea that the Democratic base is made up of people who are so fired up against Trump that the demand that he be impeached right this instant ready! fire! aim! regardless of the political reality or consequences, but then a year and a half down the road when actually given a chance to personally ensure his removal from office in a way that will actually succeed, will stay at home and sulk because their feeling were hurt.:smack:
Snopes and other such sites have looked over the available evidence. The supposed marriage doesn’t make much sense as a way to get into the country. Exactly what it was suppose to have accomplished doesn’t appear reasonable:
The only sites supporting the idea – surprise! – are right-wing sites.
I may well be wrong, but I’d say that there’s something fishy there, whether it’s brotherness or something else (polygamy, etc.)
The evidence, if faked, is too good a fake for a crazy blogger to generate and too good to generate without risking jail time or civil liability.
If you haven’t looked at it because of the source, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
It could certainly be manufactured and those guys are going to be sued for every last penny at any moment. I am not all knowing. But, I’m not saying they’re right. I’m simply advising caution.
Where is this evidence? What, in fact, is it? At this stage, I’m not impressed by document forgery or even photographic manipulation – I’ve seen very convincing results generated by talented amateurs.
Deep fake can do some very specific things like swapping out a person’s face or generating a fake face. It can’t (currently) be used to generate full scenes, replete with hospital bands with text, hospital gowns, etc. and to do so without introducing some funkiness. And that still only gives you a photo, even if it was within the realm of technical capability. But with actual current technology, you would have to hold a real photo shoot. If you’re a good photographer, sure, you can do it.
Now that you have that photo, you still have to create a fake Instagram screenshot. That’s a different set of skills from creating a nice photo. It’s not as easy as taking a shot of a Instagram and swapping out the content. Getting the fonts, the font sizes, the spacing, etc. is an immensurate PITA and that’s if you even have clear documentation to lay out what the requirements are. Reverse engineering it is an additional PITA. You basically need to be a graphic designer to do it well.
Now, granted, you can hijack the full display of the website itself and swap text in and out of the HTML (e.g., by downloading it), but you would need to be fairly technical to realize that you can do such a thing and then proceed to do it.
But then you still need to scan through the followers, see who leaves comments, see what sorts of comments they write, how they write, etc. and copy that. You have to be a sleuth and a writer.
And all of that, together, to create a unified whole that passes a sniff test requires being meticulous and organized.
We’re assuming that it’s a fake because, clearly, an insane, right-wing crank is going to also be an organized, resourceful, polymath? :dubious:
All of which is still ignoring that all documentary evidence available, that we know isn’t forged, supports the narrative that she was always with her current husband, was never separated from him, and that the brother-husband only ever lived with the both of them for a couple of months. That’s supported by various forms submitted by the three of them during the time period and a near contemporaneous interview with her to that effect.
And all of which is still ignoring that it would be insaaaanely easy for Omar to disprove all of this. All she would need to do is show some records and receipts from the time that she and her husband were living together. And all that she would need to do to win a few free $100k is take the information falsifiers to court. Instagram’s internal logs could destroy them in just a few seconds. We’re not talking a giant contentious legal battle. It really would just be free money.
You can call anything you want fake and deny its reality. But it really don’t look fake and the part where it’s clear that it’s real says that Omar is lying about something.