Author: mfnnews
From the Oval Office to the Trump Kennedy Center, the gilded makeover expands
From the Trump Kennedy Center to the White House, here are the renovation and design changes President Donald Trump has pursued since returning to office.
Fetterman admits government shutdown won’t stop ICE operations, says parties must negotiate a ‘way forward’
Sen. Fetterman reveals government shutdown won’t halt ICE operations due to Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” allocating $200B that keeps immigration enforcement running.
Federal judge’s ‘unhinged’ order in migrant case ignites Republican fury, impeachment demand
Judge Fred Biery’s immigration order prompts Senator Mike Lee to call for impeachment after the Clinton appointee criticized Trump administration deportation practices.
Another Georgia Democrat is charged with fraud — the third in the last month
The Department of Justice scored a Democrat fraud hat trick in Georgia: A third politician has been charged with fraudulently obtaining unemployment funds from the government.
Georgia state Rep. Dexter Sharper, a Democrat, was charged Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice with “making false statements to fraudulently obtain thousands” in COVID-related funds after he allegedly claimed unemployment benefits while he kept working.
‘The alleged activities describe a disgusting abuse by an elected official who appeared to trade his integrity for money destined for those in need.’
Sharper applied for the benefits in 2020 that were available as a result of the pandemic, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg.
He allegedly claimed that he was unemployed and obtained about $13,825 in unemployment while he was actually making up to $2,231 of income per week at one job and up to an additional $275 weekly as a musician. He applied for the benefits and then made fraudulent weekly statements that he wasn’t working in order to receive unemployment payments, prosecutors said.
“While many of his constituents and fellow citizens were losing jobs and desperately needed unemployment assistance during the pandemic, Representative Sharper allegedly pretended to be out of work to collect a share of unemployment benefits for himself,” said Hertzberg. “When government officials lie to take money, and do it while holding an elected office, it violates the trust of citizens and weakens faith in our elected government.”
The first Georgia Democrat nailed for stealing fraudulent unemployment benefits was Karen Bennett, who resigned before pleading guilty on Jan. 21 to federal charges of making fraudulent statements. Prosecutors said she stole $13,940.
A second Democrat, state Rep. Sharon Henderson, was indicted on Dec. 2 for similar accusations related to the alleged theft of $17,811 in pandemic unemployment funds.
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Sharper declined a request for comment from the Georgia Recorder on the advice of counsel, and a spokesperson for the Georgia House Democratic Caucus also declined to comment.
“These charges point to some disgraceful conduct at the highest level, which should shock and repulse every citizen,” said Georgia Inspector General Nigel Lange. “The alleged activities describe a disgusting abuse by an elected official who appeared to trade his integrity for money destined for those in need.”
Sharper’s biography appears to have been scrubbed from the Georgia House of Representatives website, but a version of the page archived at the Wayback Machine said he founded “Sharper Bounce Houses & More” as well as the “Dexter Sharper Fresheners” business. He has four children with his wife, Chequella Shipman Sharper.
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The TRUTH about the Ilhan Omar ‘attack’ the media won’t tell you
When Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) survived what appeared to be a sort of acid attack, Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck’s first thought was, “In her country, in some Muslim countries, in some Muslim communities, that happens to women and they spray battery acid on their face.”
He thought she should be deservedly freaked out.
“I thought, ‘Wow … she must be concerned, because she knows in Muslim communities, some people do that,’” Glenn says. “But that’s not what this was.”
“This was some guy who looked like Fred Flintstone that took a syringe and filled it with, are you ready? This is horrible. Filled it with apple cider vinegar. Now I’m not sure if you’re aware of this … I believe that can stain a nice sweater like that. It can leave a mark,” Glenn jokes.
“We should be clear,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere chimes in, “we do not have any evidence of this particular apple cider vinegar attack staining that sweatshirt or discoloring the stripes, but that is a possibility.”
“Now I agree, Glenn, like legitimately when I first saw that, we didn’t know what this liquid was. It could have been really dangerous. I’m not minimizing, like, that could have been scary for her. She is a divisive figure. It could have been something terrible,” he continues.
“And the person who did it looks completely insane and on something to me in the video. Like just looks completely crazy. A crazy person charges you, gets close to you, gets close to any public figure, there is the possibility that it turns into something really, really bad,” he adds.
However while what happened could have been much worse, Stu points out that because it isn’t, the story would usually disappear.
“When typically, we find out it wasn’t something bad, the story pretty much goes away. I could give you dozens of examples of conservatives … getting hit in the face with a pie. A conservative being glitter-bombed, right?” he explains. “These things happen all the time. And when they are happening, there is real risk to that person.”
“When you have a person who hates you that much, to run up to you, and be that close to you, it could have gone in a very ugly direction. When we find out that it didn’t, it is a quick incident that goes away almost immediately with no additional coverage,” he continues.
“Not the case with Ilhan Omar. Ilhan Omar, the next day after this incident, was the top story at the New York Times all day long. All day,” he adds, pointing out that in one of the top New York Times articles on the event, they framed it as Trump’s fault for being “xenophobic” and “racist” toward Omar.
“I can’t take it. Because all I can think of is what they’re doing … to every single member of ICE right now. I can’t. I can’t. My head will explode,” Glenn comments.
“100%. They are demonizing these people. They’re calling them Nazis every single day on television,” Stu adds.
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Can you tell the difference between the people on OnlyFans and the fakes making money on Fanvue?
Yes, a company called Fanvue has taken a step into the cyborg dystopian future with its introduction of an AI-based version of OnlyFans. New tech has made it possible and, for the moment, profitable to spin up non-human avatars — complete with voices, “personalities,” and, of course, finely tailored physical forms — to pull in the expanding audience of lonely and socially awkward or just tired, and mostly male, denizens of the fast-deteriorating cyber realm.
Fanvue, as with the bevy of similar startups hitting the internet, is essentially OnlyFans, but the twist is that the “creators” have open access to AI. Artificial voices, personages, events, acts, and so forth are all on offer in the new digital landscape. The voice, the hair, the body — none of it is real at all. Add a $100 million market capitalization, and you might see where this is going.
Maybe sites such as Fanvue force most women back into the real world, where they need to interact with other real humans.
With both Only Fans and its AI mimickers like Fanvue, creators upload content, followers subscribe, and whatever happens behind the paywall stays behind the paywall. (Just don’t violate the generous but firm guidelines in the Terms of Service.)
In the scramble to replace humanity online, Fanvue is, if not leading the pack, making bold strides into designing how that erasure goes down. The company boasts 200,000 “creators” on the platform, to whom it has paid out more than $500 million. Similar companies jockeying for position will likely fight over brand-name recognition and then be absorbed under some yet-to-be-determined single umbrella. Maybe it’s Fanvue. Or will OnlyFans simply buy them all?
OnlyFans creators do have at least some cachet with their existing followers. And until the next crop of perhaps less human-oriented followers steps up with debit cards in hand, the small contingent of OnlyFans creators who make a living (very attractive women) will probably continue to do well.
RELATED: The crazy reason Matthew McConaughey just trademarked himself
Photo by PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Maybe you have seen the clips of decidedly non-European men positioned in front of a camera, pantomiming, smiling, pretending. On the split screen, we can see how the Kling (or similar) motion control software instantly transmogrifies the middle-age Indian man (from the cases we’ve seen) into a rather convincing young, highly attractive, English-speaking female (to take just one of many iterations). She’s ready to talk to you! The opportunities for delusion, fraud, and manipulation by way of the human proclivity toward self-deceit just got multiplied a thousandfold. Customer service runarounds just got 10 times more convoluted.
The assumption is that, for millions if not billions of customers, video-to-video and image-to-video technology like Kling, which allows users to transfer specific motions, facial expressions, and gestures in live time from a reference video is more than enough to satisfy consumers as well as producers. Everybody wins!
Or not? Digital puppeteering can’t help but subvert the quality and value of human-to-human interaction — you know, that thing that started and perpetuates all of our experience on earth. Yet so dilapidated are our circumstances that it’s actually very hard to say whether or not this is an improvement in moral terms. You see, on the one hand, maybe sites such as Fanvue force most women back into the real world, where they need to interact with other real humans. On the other, maybe the price for artificial intimate interaction with digital entities stabilizes and even more young, shiftless, and financially abused men have nowhere else to turn but to simulated companions.
Justine Moore, a partner at A16z, gets credit for putting the puzzle together in a semi-viral X thread last week: “I predicted this in ’23 when I saw a few creators start using AI to sell voice clips and extra images. But now the future is here — anyone can be a hot girl online. It’s all thanks to NB Pro [and] Kling Motion Control.”
Consider that with these minor steps forward into really convincing motion transfer and voice technologies, the level of human discernment required to combat fraud, at every level, just shot through the roof. You get a FaceTime or X call from someone. Is it really that person? We are presented with an audio-visual clip of some sort, it’s labeled “BREAKING.” Maybe it looks important, or maybe the context really has immediate impact, but we won’t be entirely sure if it’s real.
Fanvue’s big step into a very particular timeline nightmare shouldn’t have been inevitable, yet it also seems foretold. It surely spells deep trouble — and signifies a turning point where we must make an active, daily choice to be, and not just seem to be, human.
Rhian Ramos’ mom questions VACC for supporting driver who allegedly stole private photos
Rhian Ramos’ mother, Clara Ramos, questioned the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) for defending the actress’s driver who allegedly stole private photos from her condo unit.
Kylie Padilla, Miguel Tanfelix, Jak Roberto, Kyline Alcantara, Buboy Villar to star in new series ‘Task Force, Firewall”
Kylie Padilla, Miguel Tanfelix, Jak Roberto, Kyline Alcantara, and Buboy Villar are set to star in the upcoming Kapuso action-drama series “Task Force, Firewall.”
‘Never Say Die’ makes action-packed premiere on GMA Prime
“Never Say Die” has finally landed on TV screens!
