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Twitter Will Show Who Pays For Ads and How Much They Spend (bloomberg.com)
Twitter will show detailed information about advertisers in an attempt to combat meddling in future elections. You will now be able to search for a Twitter account and see all the ads it has run in the past seven days. "For U.S. political advertisers, users will be able to see billing information, ad spending, demographic targeting data and the number of times tweets have been viewed," reports Bloomberg. From the report: The changes are part of Twitter's broader efforts to clean up its service after lawmakers berated the company for failing to discover Russian influence peddling through fake accounts and divisive ads during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Earlier this week, the company began requiring more authentication from users. In May, it rolled out stricter rules that require advertisers running political campaign ads for federal elections to identify themselves and certify they are located in the U.S. The company has also banned ads from accounts owned by Russia Today and Sputnik.
It got attention because of Russia meddling in US politics. Don't be obtuse.
It got attention because Hillary lost, and there had to be *some* reason for it that didn't put the blame on Hillary or the Democrats.
Along with sexism, misogyny, Bernie Sanders, Wikileaks, low information voters, women under pressure from men, and James Comey.
Hillary's comment is informative:
"I never imagined that [Putin] would have the audacity to launch a massive covert attack against our own democracy, right under our noses - and that he'd get away with it."
The Russian interference amounted to about $1.25 million per month, compared to the $1.2 billion spent by Hillary, or $617 the million spent by Trump.
But it's probably good to be able to tell who's purchasing ads in future elections.
Had she won there would have been no fuss about any Russian interference. Obama had actionable intelligence 8 months before the election and did not say or do anything. His stated reason for taking no action on the intelligence was he did not want to disrupt the on-going campaigns. Of course he and all the political experts fully expected Clinton to win the election. If she won there would be no need to bring up any Russian interference. All the social media companies would have never changed any of their operations or summoned to Congress for a hearing. Just like there would have been no efforts to eliminate the "un-fair" electoral college. And if Clinton had won the government would have pretty much stayed the same. Trump is an idiot but he has said a lot of things other Presidents only wish they could have said.
Everyone complaining about Trump's actions act like the world was a perfect place before he came along and crashed the party. The old "stay the course" diplomacy and governmental operations caused most of the problems we face today.
Trump decided to take some different approaches to the intractable and long lasting problems in the world. He openly castigated NATO members for not honoring their monetary and resource obligations to NATO.
He exited the Iranian nuclear agreement because the US was the only signatory that got nothing. The EU was after billion of dollars in Iranian trade. Russia got to look like a model global citizen just doing good things for good people as well as expanding economic possibilities. The Iranians received the ability to enter the world trade and currency markets. They received all the assets the US froze since 1979. All Iran had to do was turn off a couple of centrifuges. The Iranians used their windfall to put into it's ballistic missile programs. And the Iranian nuclear research library stolen by the Israelis painted an entirely different spin on Iran's nuclear weapon capabilities. The only thing the US got out of the agreement was a pinky promise to not build nuclear weapons.
He recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Actually he just enacted an existing US Congressional law to do so. People argued this would cause more violence in a region. Exactly when is the last time violence was taking place in the ME? In terms of body count the embassy move was about as peaceful as it gets.
He has also went about securing Arab buy in to the Palestinian peace plan the US government is pushing. Most of the Arab countries in the area are placing economic concerns above supporting the Palestinians. It seems the Arab's are finally getting over the embarrassment caused by getting their assess kicked by the Israelis every time they attempted a military solution to run the Jews into the sea.
The tariff backlash is caused because no body wants the status quo challenge. And the status quo seems to require the US to shut up and accept all the shitty trade agreements in the name of global happiness. And lets see how far Europe is prepared to go when they lose their US military protections they have taken for granted over the past 60 years. And Canada already levies heavy tariffs on US imports. They are not complaining because they think the existing trade agreements are fair for all parties and should not be meddled with they are complaining about Trump having the nerve to binging the subject up in public.
He exited the Paris Climate Change agreement because there was not a single benefit for the US. The reduction of green house gases and other pollutants related to fossil fuel use is already occurring. Alternative energy sources are growing every year. Exactly what does a piece of paper created by lofty academics and professional environmental activists actually accomplish?
The real problem is Trump actually using the power the US wields when US interests are challenged.