Forum: World Events
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27 Jun 21 2:29 pm
+ Donald Trump’s Chances of Staying Out of Prison Are Not Improving
BESS LEVIN
JUNE 7, 2021 7:13 PM
BY BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
If you asked Donald Trump what he thinks the next several months will hold for him, he’d likely tell you that he’ll be holding some rallies, playing some golf, and getting ready to head back to the White House. He’d tell you that because he’s a disturbed man who apparently thinks that a president who loses an election can simply be “reinstated” to the presidency, like one can have their cable reinstated after canceling it and then panicking about how they’re going to be able to watch Vanderpump Rules. In reality, what the next several months, and potentially years, hold for the ex-president are a lot of meetings with attorneys about how he’s legally in the bad place—that is, assuming they’re still keeping him apprised of the situation and aren’t yet at a point where they just park him in front of the TV “while the grown-ups talk.”
Most recently, the no good, very bad news for Agent Orange has involved the impaneling of a grand jury by the Manhattan district attorney as part of Cyrus Vance Jr.’s criminal probe. Last month, The Washington Post reported that such a group will be hearing evidence concerning the ex-president, his business, and its executives, and on Friday, it emerged that one of the most senior officials at the Trump Organization has reportedly already testified. Which seems less than ideal for the owner of said Trump Organization.
Per ABC News:
Jeff McConney is among a number of witnesses that have already appeared before the special grand jury that will decide whether criminal charges are warranted against the former president, his company, or any of its employees, [sources with direct knowledge of the matter] said. McConney, who serves as a senior vice president and controller for the Trump Organization, is the first employee of the former president’s company called to testify, the sources said, and his testimony is a sign that prosecutors have burrowed deep into the company’s finances. “
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23 Jun 21 8:22 am
+ Trump abused power for revenge and personal gain. This can't be our new normal:
Eric Swalwell
Mon, June 21, 2021, 7:29 AM
Almost 50 years ago, John Dean warned of “a cancer on the presidency.” For the past four years, the cancer was the president. Donald Trump had no regard for our laws, our system of justice or our democracy itself, and he was fine with destroying all of them if it served his personal purposes.
The revelation that Trump’s Justice Department secretly seized phone and email data from his critics, his perceived political enemies and people whose loyalty he doubted – including me – fits a bigger pattern of abusing the rule of law for personal gain. Trump systematically eroded nonpartisan safeguards designed to prevent abuses of power.
Remember, he pardoned or commuted sentences of his felonious cronies Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn; in Flynn’s instance, his Justice Department earlier had moved to abandon the case, even after Flynn had twice pleaded guilty. Attorney General William Barr deliberately misled the public as to the contents of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia. And Trump pressured Barr and others to find nonexistent fraud in the election that ousted him.
All the wrong lessons from Nixon
Trump always treated the idea of justice with contempt and his attorneys general as his personal fixers. Just like his almost impeached predecessor and mentor, Richard Nixon, Trump sicced the power of government on his enemies with no regard for the rule of law. It appears he took away all the wrong lessons from Nixon’s time in office.
Presidents help set the tone for America; Trump set a tone of bullying and phony machismo that lingers even after his ouster, as we see public health officials threatened, bottles thrown at NBA players and decency disappearing from campaigns – and even the House floor.
This can’t be America’s new normal. And even Trump supporters should agree our nation can’t have a “Big Brother” who sees all and wields government against anyone who disagrees.
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22 Jun 21 1:55 pm
+ Trump's tour with Bill O'Reilly conflicts with August reinstatement theory — driving QAnons bonkers
Aldous Pennyfarthing and DailyKos
Seeing QAnon adherents puzzle their way through reality is a bit like watching Donald Trump try to sound out a raw vegan menu. Eventually he orders the portobello mushroom steak—and then we sit back and wait to see his face contort into ever-lower depths of bafflement as he deluges his entree with enough ketchup to drown a baby rhino. And that's before the German carob cake shows up.
At some point, the Q folks all changed their internal default font to Zapf Dingbats, and now literally nothing they say makes any sense to anyone—except their fellow travelers.
The latest? They can't imagine why Donald Trump is promoting a December tour with Bill O'Reilly when he's supposed to be back in the White House in August and O'Reilly is presumably scheduled for a series of painful face-splotchectomies.
Newsweek:
QAnon supporters have acted with dismay and confusion after Donald Trump announced the December dates of his upcoming speaking tour with Bill O'Reilly, which coincides with when he is meant to have already been reinstated as president.
…
The announcement was shared by a number of popular QAnon telegram accounts, one of which has nearly 75,000 subscribers on the encrypted messaging service app.
Supporters of the radical movement expressed concerns that Trump going on a speaking tour later this year surely means that he will not be returning as president—a false claim they have continued to believe since he lost the 2020 election more than seven months ago.
I really wonder what these people will do when Sept. 1 comes around and Trump is still ensconced, Taft-like, in his toilet. How many times can they move the goalposts before they—like the QAnon people themselves—are on another planet?
According to the announcement, Trump and O'Reilly have several December dates scheduled in Florida and Texas. But if Trump really thinks he'll be back by then—which has been widely reported to be the case—then why is he fixin' to go on tour with Pile O'Bile-y?
Newsweek collected several alarmed responses from QAnon cultists posting on Telegram about this vexing bait-and-switch.
A sampling:
"OK I GUESS MY QUESTION IS TRUMP COMING BACK? WHY WOULD HE BE DOING A TOUR THRU THE END OF THE YEAR WITH O'REILLY. HMMMMMMMMM SOMETHING DOESN'T FEEL RIGHT?" — Telegram user Peace Lilly
"So nothing will happen until December?" — Tina N.
"Man I sure hope we don't have to wait that long before you're back in office." — Jack Miller
"So basically the August thing is a bunch of bull because a reinstated President doesn't go on tour." — Angela Baldwin
Oh, Angela Baldwin, you are sharp. I imagine that's exactly how Archimedes felt just before shouting "Eureka!"
Of course, many QAnoners and other Trumpy dead-enders are hanging their hopes on either Pillow Man Mike Lindell's barmy assurances or the Arizona fraudit, which they believe will touch off a domino effect wherein one blue state after another falls back into Donald Trump's column. Because there's zero chance that the most vulgar, deceitful man on the planet—a man who never polled over 50% percent approval at any time during his presidency—could have possibly lost a national election.
Of course, some QAnoners appeared to be hedging their bets: "It's only a few dates close together...it could be done if it works out like it should...could cancel....but yup..kinda a gut punch statement," one wrote. "But we are in an information war, so who the hell knows."
Who the hell knows? Not you, that's for sure. But most of us do, oddly enough—because we're not getting our information from rando kookaburras on Telegram.
And, yes, it's possible that Trump will cancel his serial sexual harasser tour with O'Reilly, but not because he'll be president. It'll be because his muscles have taken on the texture of Gerber's mashed pears and he can't get through the auditorium doors without a crowbar and a can of Crisco.
Or maybe—just maybe—he'll be defending himself in court. A man can dream, right?
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22 Jun 21 1:46 pm
+ They joined the Wisconsin Proud Boys looking for brotherhood. They found racism, bullying and antisemitism.
Will Carless, USA TODAY
Mon, June 21, 2021, 1:41 PM
KENOSHA, Wis. – Daniel Berry said he was searching for camaraderie.
The 40-year-old Army veteran yearned to forge the sort of bonds he had in the military: a brotherhood of like-minded men watching one another’s backs, holding one another up, united in a common goal.
Last year, Berry said, he remembered a guy at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall asking him if he had heard of the Proud Boys. The group was vocal in its support for then-President Donald Trump, whom Berry had voted for. Members called themselves "Western chauvinists" and said they welcomed true men. That sounded about right for Berry, who considers himself a dyed-in-the-wool patriot.
He did some internet searches and sent off an email. Almost immediately, he received a link to an encrypted chatroom.
So began Berry's journey into the dark world of the Wisconsin chapter of the Proud Boys.
Berry, along with a member of the Wisconsin Proud Boys and another former recruit, told USA TODAY the group is a den of racism and antisemitism. Moving up within the group, they said, is dependent on sadistically bullying potential members and promoting white supremacist talking points.
Berry and the two other men, who asked not to be named because they fear violent repercussions from members of the Proud Boys, provided a unique view into an organization that has become a magnet for racists and violent extremists. They spoke and emailed with USA TODAY independently, providing screenshots of chatrooms, photos, memes and audio recordings that backed up their claims.
Their accounts reveal the face of a group that masks itself as a harmless, multiracial drinking club, one that reaches new members by preaching free speech and patriotism. At least in Wisconsin, the men said, the Proud Boys stands less for brotherhood and more for the racial hatred espoused by outmoded organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations.
“Initially it was truly a brotherhood,” Berry said. “But what I experienced was more like a cult.”
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15 Jun 21 7:37 am
I recall some other websites years ago where members actually CARED enough to actively-post Interesting and Sincerely-Intelligent Topics daily, and *ENGAGE* en masse in those threads.
Well nowadays; years later (see FB, VF, and GW...unfortunately, I actually SENSE that eventually GW will crap-out and all those insufferably-horrid Malicious Little Right Wing Bonebrain Trolls will then Migrate here to GG. But fortunately, not all GothWirelings are Painfully-Stupid Idiots. though, blessedly) people everywhere seem more interested in (if they even post/comment anything at all; aside from Endless Selfies) MALEVOLENT FLAMING and TROLLING, and further, the enabling, groupthinking "lesser trolls" seem to only to stroke and feed the malicious "alpha trolls" into keeping their tsunamis of mindless anarchic chaos (Right-Wing Political Disinformation Campaigns included therein) going ad nauseum on the daily.
Not even Classic Grammar itself is any longer given The Proper Respect it deserves, these days.
-_-
Some people are certainly Their Own Worst Critics, so maybe they actually Try Harder To Excel in so many of their own actions (which, To Smarter And Wiser Individuals, is often clear), and maybe The More Burningly-Envious Lazy Types in-turn then but simply Troll.
-_-
"There Will Always Be Some People Who Will Always Work Harder Than Others."
-proverb
Forum: World Events
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15 Jun 21 7:04 am
#OlderArticles.
**************
+ These Businesses and Institutions Are Cutting Ties With Trump
Several large banks and the P.G.A. are among those that have disassociated themselves from the president and his allies since his supporters stormed the Capitol.
Other companies and organizations have begun to cut ties to Trump-related entities since the Capitol rampage.
By The New York Times
Published Jan. 11, 2021
Updated Jan. 27, 2021
A growing number of companies and institutions have taken actions against former President Donald Trump and his associates since the deadly rampage at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by the president’s supporters.
Social media companies barred Mr. Trump from their platforms, universities stripped him of honorary degrees, major banks paused political contributions, and the P.G.A. of America said it would no longer hold the 2022 P.G.A. Championship at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
Here is a list of entities that have severed ties with Mr. Trump or distanced themselves from the president — and in some cases, Republican politicians who supported his efforts to overturn the election. Many were identified by the newsletter Popular Information.
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15 Jun 21 6:41 am
+ Latest News: Facebook to hold politicians accountable for disinformation, suspends Donald Trump's account for two years
Economic Times | Jun 05, 2021 12.27 AM
Latest News: Facebook to hold politicians accountable for disinformation, suspends Donald Trump's account for two years
Facebook said it will suspend former President Donald Trump's accounts for two years following its finding that he stoked violence ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.
Facebook also plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that automatically exempted politicians from rules that banned hate speech and abuse. The company has said it has never applied this policy to Trump.
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15 Jun 21 6:28 am
#OlderArticles.
**************
+ January 21, 2021 - 02:47 PM EST
Florida bank says it has closed Trump's accounts
BY JOSEPH CHOI
A Florida bank announced Thursday that it has closed down former President Trump's account, joining a growing list of entities that have cut ties with the former president following the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
In his financial disclosures, Trump had stated he had two money-market accounts with Banks United, The Washington Post reports. The accounts held somewhere between $5.1 million and $25.2 million.
"We no longer have any depository relationship with him," said Banks United, without giving reasons for its decision to shutter the accounts.
Another Florida bank, Professional Bank, last week announced that it would be cutting ties with Trump, saying it would no longer conduct business with the former president or his organizations.
Signature Bank in New York and Deutsche Bank have also said they will no longer be conducting future business with Trump. Signature Bank notably took a strong stance against Trump and his allies in Congress, calling for him to resign and saying it would not conduct business with lawmakers who had objected to certifying the presidential election.
Deutsche Bank is seeking to resolve more than $300 million in loans, reportedly looking to offload the loans onto another lender due to the negative press their dealings with Trump has caused. Deutsche Bank's relationship with the Trump Organization is under a civil investigation by New York attorney general Letitia James.
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15 Jun 21 6:28 am
#OlderArticles.
**************
+ More of Trump’s Banks Cut Ties as Backlash Grows Over Violence
By Shahien Nasiripour
January 12, 2021, 2:45 PM CST
Deutsche Bank and at least two U.S. lenders retreat over riot
Others such as JPMorgan, Capital One haven’t signaled decision
Donald Trump’s tumultuous relationship with the financial industry is once again under pressure after his top creditor, his hometown bank and even his mortgage lender spurned him in the wake of riots at the U.S. Capitol.
The question is whether his other banks and financial backers -- including giants Capital One Financial Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- plan to keep him as a client.
Fresh strains in Trump’s relationship with the industry began emerging late Monday. Deutsche Bank AG decided not to conduct more business with Trump or his family company while waiting for him to pay off roughly $300 million in loans in years ahead, a person with knowledge of the situation said. Manhattan-based Signature Bank, a mere 10-minute walk down Fifth Avenue from Trump Tower, announced it’s closing Trump accounts holding about $5.3 million.
Then on Tuesday, Professional Bank, which once gave him an $11 million mortgage, said it won’t do more deals with the Trump Organization and “will be winding down the relationship effective immediately.”
Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons running the family business while his father is in the White House, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
With New York City joining an onslaught of companies and entities looking to pull back from doing business with Trump after he encouraged a mob of supporters to storm the Capitol, here’s a look at the firms that provide him with credit or hold his money, and what they have said about those ties:
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15 Jun 21 6:28 am
+ The Odds Of Donald Trump’s CFO Flipping and Helping Send Him to Prison Just Shot Up
BESS LEVIN
MAY 20, 2021 4:14 PM
One of the key figures in prosecutors’ quest to actually put Donald Trump behind bars is Allen Weisselberg, the longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer. With the company for decades, Weisselberg has described himself as Trump’s “eyes and ears” at the firm and presumably, in the event that any laws had ever been broken, would know about them. In fact, as his ex-daughter-in-law, Jennifer Weisselberg, put it to Air Mail earlier this year, “Allen knows every bad thing [Trump] ever did.” That kind of witness would obviously prove invaluable to the government officials trying to make their case, which is why, unsurprisingly, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has been working for months to “flip” Weisselberg and get him to cooperate against the ex-president. And while it’s not clear where Vance’s office is in its efforts, it appears the Trump Organization CFO may soon be under intense pressure to cooperate with the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, which just happens to be collaborating with the D.A.
The New York Times reports that Weisselberg is officially under criminal investigation by James’s office, which is examining if taxes were paid on “fringe benefits” Trump gave him, including cars and thousands of dollars in private school tuition for at least one of Weisselberg’s grandchilden.
Per the Times:
The focus on perks and Mr. Weisselberg overlaps with the Manhattan district attorney’s long-running criminal fraud investigation of Mr. Trump and his family business. The district attorney’s office has been investigating the extent to which Mr. Trump handed out fringe benefits to some of his executives, including Mr. Weisselberg, and whether taxes were paid on those perks…In general, fringe benefits—which can include cars, flights, and club memberships—are taxable, though there are some exceptions. Companies are typically responsible for withholding such taxes from an employee’s paycheck.
Rather than risk bumping into each other, the two investigative offices recently began collaborating, another person with knowledge of the matter said. Two assistant attorneys general from Ms. James’s office have joined the district attorney’s team, which has been seeking to turn Mr. Weisselberg into a cooperating witness against Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization, people with knowledge of that effort said…. In addition to the fringe benefits, Ms. James and the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., have examined whether Mr. Trump’s company inflated the value of his properties to obtain favorable loans and lowered the values to reduce taxes.
For months, Mr. Vance’s office has pursued Mr. Weisselberg as a potential cooperating witness, people with knowledge of that effort have said. Mr. Vance’s prosecutors, who have paid particular attention to Mr. Weisselberg’s fringe benefits, subpoenaed records from Mr. Weisselberg’s bank and the private school in Manhattan that his grandchildren have attended, The Times has reported. Mr. Weisselberg’s former daughter-in-law, Jennifer Weisselberg, has said that prosecutors had asked her about the tuition payments as well as gifts her ex-husband, Barry Weisselberg, received from Mr. Trump, including an apartment on Central Park South and several leased cars.
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13 Jun 21 6:44 am
+ Revealed: rightwing firm posed as leftist group on Facebook to divide Democrats
FEC investigation failed to uncover link to Rally Forge, a firm with close ties to Turning Point USA
Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco
@juliacarriew
Fri 11 Jun 2021 06.00 EDT
A digital marketing firm closely linked to the pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA was responsible for a series of deceptive Facebook ads promoting Green party candidates during the 2018 US midterm elections, the Guardian can reveal.
In an apparent attempt to split the Democratic vote in a number of close races, the ads purported to come from an organization called America Progress Now (APN) and used socialist memes and rhetoric to urge leftwing voters to support Green party candidates.
Facebook was aware of the true identity of the advertiser – the conservative marketing firm Rally Forge – and the deceptive nature of the ads, documents seen by the Guardian show, but the company determined that they did not violate its policies.
Rally Forge would go on to set up a pro-Trump domestic “troll farm” for Turning Point Action, a “sister” organization of Turning Point USA, in 2020, earning a permanent ban from Facebook.
“There were no policies at Facebook against pretending to be a group that did not exist, an abuse vector that has also been used by the governments of Honduras and Azerbaijan,” said Sophie Zhang, a former Facebook employee and whistleblower who played a small role in the investigation of the Green party ads.
She added: “The fact that Rally Forge later went on to conduct coordinated inauthentic behavior with troll farms reminiscent of Russia should be taken as an indication that Facebook’s leniency led to more risk-taking behavior.”
Devon Kearns, a spokesperson for Facebook, said: “We removed Rally Forge from our platforms for violating our policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior. Since the 2018 midterms, we have strengthened our policies related to election interference and political ad transparency. We continue working to make political advertising more transparent on our platform and we welcome updated regulations and help from policymakers as we evolve our policies in this space.”
The revelation that the ads were linked to a rightwing organization raises questions about the Federal Election Commission’s enforcement of campaign finance laws. APN and its ads appeared to violate federal laws that require independent expenditures to be filed with the FEC and include proper disclosures on advertisements, as ProPublica and Vice News first reported in 2018.
The non-partisan campaign finance watchdog group Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint against APN and subsequently sued the agency in an attempt to force it to investigate the group. But in July 2020, the FEC voted to dismiss allegations that America Progress Now had violated federal law, after an individual, Evan Muhlstein, took responsibility for the ads and attributed the lack of proper disclosures and filings to his “inexperience”.
It is illegal to knowingly make false or fraudulent statements to federal agencies, and the FEC appears to have taken Muhlstein at his word that the ads were a sincere but novice attempt to support Green party candidates.
The former FEC commissioner Ann Ravel, who reviewed the case at the request of the Guardian, said that were she still on the FEC, she would now refer this “stunning” case to the justice department for investigation.
“It seems as if it’s a clear fraud,” Ravel said, noting that the FEC general counsel’s office appeared to have been “misled” by Muhlstein. “The requirement for the justice department to take on an electoral matter is that it be serious and willful, and clearly in this case it was willful, in my opinion.”
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12 Jun 21 5:42 am
+ Palmer Report
Lock him up!
Bocha Blue | 11:59 pm EDT June 11, 2021
Palmer Report » Community
We should not have been surprised. I say this regarding the bombshell news that the former guy weaponized the Department of Justice to spy on his enemies by seizing metadata from Apple and slapping a gag order on Apple. We already know of at least two prominent Democrats who were spied on. There will likely be more where that came from.
We shouldn’t have been surprised. But we were. I don’t know about you, my friends, but my jaw dropped. In retrospect, though, it makes sense. The former guy is, I believe, a sociopath. I cannot be sure. I am not a psychologist and have not diagnosed him.
But he meets all the criteria. And sociopathy is a personality disorder. There is no cure. Sociopaths cannot feel empathy. They cannot care about anyone beyond themselves. They use people. They turn on any perceived enemies in a heartbeat. They are without any conscience. They know what they are doing is wrong, and they do not care.
So, yes. The former guy did this. And I would not be surprised if there are even more horrible things he did that we don’t even know about.
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10 Jun 21 8:21 am
+ Fact check: Gohmert's attempts to connect moon orbits and solar flares to climate change
By Holmes Lybrand, CNN
Updated 11:06 PM EDT, Wed June 09, 2021
Washington(CNN)
Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas made an argument about climate change at a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday that appeared to elicit confusion from a government official and ridicule on Twitter.
During the Natural Resources Subcommittee hearing, Gohmert appeared to draw a connection between the moon and Earth's orbit and solar flares to climate change. In questioning US Forest Service Associate Deputy Chief Jennifer Eberlien, Gohmert asked if the National Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management could change the orbits of the moon and Earth, making a comment that some saw as an attempt to argue that climate change should be viewed as a natural phenomenon rather than man-made.
"I was informed by the immediate past director of NASA that they have found that the moon's orbit is changing slightly and so is the Earth's orbit around the sun," Gohmert said.
"We know there's been significant solar flare activity. And so, is there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM (Bureau of Land Management) can do to change the course of the moon's orbit or the Earth's orbit around the sun? Obviously, that would have profound effects on our climate," the congressman asked Eberlien.
Eberlien responded that she "would have to follow up with you on that one, Mr. Gohmert."
Facts First: Gohmert's remark makes little sense. The insinuation that solar flares and orbital activity cause or greatly contribute to the climate change seen today is completely incorrect. Greenhouse gases produced by humans are the primary driver of the earth's rapid warming.
Gohmert's office did not respond to CNN's requests to clarify his remarks, which were widely mocked on Twitter.
Brian Brettschneider, a climate scientist and professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, wrote tersely, "We cannot change the Earth's or Moon's orbit. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk."
"The 'science-y sounding' reasons most politicians use to reject climate change are not primarily due to lack of education or knowledge," Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist and co-director of the Climate Center at Texas Tech University, wrote on Twitter. "No: they are deliberately manufactured and offered as palatable excuses to hide the real problem: solution aversion. They don't want to fix it."
Everything Gohmert asserted has been debunked by NASA.
