It's been a couple months since Facebook confirmed that fake accounts likely originating in Russia bought ads on the platform to sow discord during the 2016 presidential campaign.
On Friday, the company revealed that its subsidiary Instagram was also used in an attempt to influence the election. And on Wednesday, as officials from Facebook, Google, and Twitter testified before Congress, House Democrats released examples of the Instagram posts in question.
The ads are similar in many ways to those posted on Facebook and Twitter, which also targeted things like Sharia law, Black Lives Matter, and gay rights.
They're similar in another fundamental way: They succeeded in reaching millions of Americans. Colin Stretch, general counsel for Facebook, said Tuesday before Congress that malicious Russian actors managed to produce 120,000 relevant Instagram posts, which reached 16 million people from October through the election.
The data before October is murkier, according to Stretch, though the company estimates that another 4 million people likely saw content from Russian accounts.
At this point I think we can safely assume that every social media platform was infected with Russian propaganda designed to alter our political points of view and make us hate each other even more.
And no, staying completely off of social media yourself does nothing to solve this problem.
ot-Self-HATE? CON-FU$ed?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politicususa.com/2017/11/06/texas-gunmans-in-laws-attended-church-sheriff.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/devin-kelley-texas-shooter-denied-145210417.html
Deletehttp://wset.com/news/nation-world/enough-is-enough-family-of-emanuel-9-reacts-to-texas-church-shooting
Delete""HARD TO BREATHE thinking that 20 more people were killed in a place of worship," Singleton tweeted. "Gun violence is REAL & needs to be STOPPED!!!""
""The Lord blessed us with free will and at times like these I am destroyed by the things people do with it. ?? #TexasShooting," Singleton tweeted."
"Sherri Pomeroy, wife of Pastor Frank Pomeroy, said in a text message that she lost her daughter "and many friends" in the Sunday shooting."
Details:
Deletehttps://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-church-gunman-walked-up-and-down-aisles-shooting-people
"The Air Force said on Monday that it failed to record the Texas church shooter’s domestic violence conviction in a federal database that would have kept him from buying a gun."
Deletehttps://www.yahoo.com/news/air-force-failed-enter-church-225139639.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=fb
""This effort to seize the nuclear weapons—they wouldn’t wait too long until after war-level hostilities broke out. They would have to try to seize them before they’re used,"
ReplyDelete"get very bloody, very quickly," "I think North Korea probably would use its nuclear weapons, at a relatively early stage of escalation, and would probably use them against U.S. bases in Japan and/or South Korea," "A recent Congressional Research Service report estimated as many as 300,000 could die in the first few days of fighting between the U.S. and North Korea, even without the use of nukes, and a separate assessment determined upwards of 2.1 million could perish if nuclear detonations occurred over Tokyo or Seoul."
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/what-would-an-invasion-of-north-korea-look-like/
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/11/06/trump-jealously-endorses-authoritarian-jailing-political-enemies-saudi-arabia.html
DeleteWhat I was saying. And they are still influencing our minds. And yes, there is a Russian (Donald) still using instagram. Know how I know he is a Russian? He never has anything nice to say about Americans. He doesn't stick up for us unless you're white. And if you have loads of money.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting how deep Putin came into America.
I rarely use social media - sucks up too much time. However, I saw both of these examples posted by my crackpot sister. I wondered at the time where she came up with them. Sad, really.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet she never believes it was from Russia.
DeleteK.O.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/olbermann-mueller-indictments-could-be-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-megalomaniac-trumps-presidency/
RESIST
PEACE
Instagram has always been part of the "social media" ship of fools along with Facebook and Twitter. Narcissists unite!
ReplyDeleteThe dangerous cult of Donald Trump
ReplyDeleteI am not the first person to point this out: There’s been a cultish quality to President Trump’s most ardent supporters. He seemed to acknowledge the phenomenon when he boasted that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and not lose voters.
Throughout the campaign, and in personal appearances since then, Trump has harnessed the kind of emotional intensity from his base that is more typical of a religious revival meeting than a political rally, complete with ritualized communal chants ("Lock her up!").
As we approach the one-year anniversary of Trump's election victory, the zeal of some of his followers seems increasingly akin to a full-fledged cult.
I use the word "cult" in its pejorative sense, meaning a deeply insular social group bound together by extreme devotion to a charismatic leader. Such groups tend to exhibit a few common characteristics.
They are usually formed around an individual whom they've elevated to prophetic and near divine status.
During the campaign, Franklin Graham,Trump's most enthusiastic evangelical Christian supporter, dismissed his many moral failings by comparing him favorably to the flawed patriarchs and prophets of the Bible: Abraham, Moses and David.
Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, told a talk radio audience that Trump was a better presidential candidate than someone who "embodies the teaching of Jesus" because Trump fit the biblical preference for a "strongman" in government.
Frank Amedia, an Ohio pastor who briefly had ties to the Trump campaign, explicitly cast the president as a prophet receiving divine revelations: "I believe he receives downloads that now he's beginning to understand come from God," he said in July.
The authority that a cult leader exercises comes from his self-ascribed role as the one true information source for his followers. Competing ideas and facts are not just wrong; they are demonic.
Trump, of course, characterizes most media outlets as "fake news." He calls journalists "liars" and "sick people" who are "trying to take away our history and our heritage." In a May HuffPo/YouGov poll, a whopping 60% of Trump supporters agreed with him that the media are "the enemy" of people like them.
The cult leader is generally believed to possess special knowledge. No matter how demonstrably false his pronouncements, they become, by definition, truth for his followers. Trump has been spectacularly successful at getting his supporters to believe his blandishments rather than their own eyes. Consider the fact that in another HuffPost/YouGov poll, conducted after allegations of sexual harassment and assault surfaced against producer Harvey Weinstein, only 8% of Trump supporters believed the claims of sexual assault made against him despite the evidence of the "Access Hollywood" tape.
One of the ways a cult leader maintains his unquestioned authority is by creating a siege mentality among his followers and presenting himself as the antidote. In Trump's view, the country is a wasteland of empty factories "scattered like tombstones" and crime-ridden cities that are more dangerous than war zones. "Our military is a disaster. Our healthcare is a horror show," he declared during the campaign. And as Trump has often said, "I alone can fix it."
This dark view of the U.S., in which honest, hardworking white Christians are under attack by hostile forces, has convinced Trump's followers that they are among the most oppressed people in the country.
http://beta.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-aslan-trump-cultists-20171106-story.html
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/trump-is-pretty-much-a-cult-leader-says-reza-aslan/
Roem would be the country’s most powerful openly transgender politician if elected, and the first one to be elected and serve in a statehouse. That fact has made the closely-fought race something of an international media spectacle. With a chuckle, she calls the gridlocked highway, a mainstay of her campaign, “the road I’ve now made world famous.”
Deletehttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/one-of-the-most-anti-lgbt-lawmakers-in-the-country-might-lose-his-seat-to-a-transgender-journalist/
Trump Jealously Endorses The Authoritarian Jailing Of Political Enemies In Saudi Arabia
ReplyDelete...What Mohammed bin Salman is doing is rounding up his political opposition that may challenge him for the throne. Under the guise of anti-corruption sweep, the crown prince is consolidating his power and removing political opponents. Donald Trump had crowds chanting lock her up at his rallies in 2016, but bin Salman really is locking them up. This is not the kind of behavior that the United States of America should be endorsing, but it is what Trump wishes he could do his opponents in the United States.
The leaders that Trump idolizes on the world stage are all authoritarians. Trump has praised Putin, the Chinese leadership, and now the Saudi crown prince.
Trump is an enemy of democracy, and his jealous admiration toward events in Saudi Arabia should worry every American.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/11/06/trump-jealously-endorses-authoritarian-jailing-political-enemies-saudi-arabia.html
OT?'“As long as you’re telling Republicans and conservatives what they want to hear and you say it with a healthy dose of snarling about Susie Cream Cheese and tree huggers,” said Taylor, “you’re probably just fine.” “I got to the point where I could not find a credentialed economist who would argue against climate action,” he said.
ReplyDelete“Not a single one.”"His brother, James Taylor, works at the Koch brothers-funded Heartland Institute, a conservative think thank leading the charge on global warming denial. The brothers agree to disagree on climate change and don’t discuss it."“I wish I had done the due diligence with the arguments I was trafficking earlier in my career; I do regret that. I feel I have a lot to make up for.”"
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/11/i-was-a-professional-climate-denier-i-was-wrong/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/opinion/climate-report-global-warming.html?mwrsm=Facebook
Delete"This comprehensive report — the most up-to-date climate science report in the world — is an outstanding example of federal science in action, and is especially noteworthy given the current political climate." each of the last three years has successively been the warmest on record based on observational data going back to the late 19th century, and 16 of the last 17 years have been among the 17 warmest years on record globally."
", the area of ocean covered by Arctic sea ice in September (the typical annual minimum) has decreased by about 50 percent, while its volume has decreased even more dramatically as the remaining ice thins."News reports in just this past year show how the cost of clean energy sources such as wind and solar have decreased dramatically both here and in emerging economies such as China, India and even the Middle East, sending powerful signals to long-term investors and businesses about which way things are trending. And more and more businesses, whether by choice or in response to investor demand, are asking: What risks do we face, if we do not plan for a changing climate?
All humans share this planet. We depend on it for the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, the natural resources it provides and the places where we live. For that reason, all Americans need to understand the risks we face, and the impact our choices will have on our future."
https://science2017.globalchange.gov