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Russian Influence Campaign Sought To Exploit Americans' Trust In Local News (npr.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: The information operatives who worked out of the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg did not stop at posing as American social media users or spreading false information from purported news sources, according to new details. They also created a number of Twitter accounts that posed as sources for Americans' hometown headlines. NPR has reviewed information connected with the investigation and found 48 such accounts. They have names such as @ElPasoTopNews, @MilwaukeeVoice, @CamdenCityNews and @Seattle_Post. "A not-insignificant amount of those had some sort of variation on what appeared to be a homegrown local news site," said Bret Schafer, a social media analyst for the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which tracks Russian influence operations and first noticed this trend. Another example: The Internet Research Agency created an account that looks like it is the Chicago Daily News. That newspaper shuttered in 1978. The Internet Research Agency-linked account was created in May 2014, and for years, it just posted local headlines, accumulating some 19,000 followers by July 2016.
Another twist: These accounts apparently never spread misinformation. In fact, they posted real local news, serving as sleeper accounts building trust and readership for some future, unforeseen effort. "They set them up for a reason. And if at any given moment, they wanted to operationalize this network of what seemed to be local American news handles, they can significantly influence the narrative on a breaking news story," Schafer told NPR. "But now instead of just showing up online and flooding it with news sites, they have these accounts with two years of credible history."
Another twist: These accounts apparently never spread misinformation. In fact, they posted real local news, serving as sleeper accounts building trust and readership for some future, unforeseen effort. "They set them up for a reason. And if at any given moment, they wanted to operationalize this network of what seemed to be local American news handles, they can significantly influence the narrative on a breaking news story," Schafer told NPR. "But now instead of just showing up online and flooding it with news sites, they have these accounts with two years of credible history."
Good thing there isn't a major, national media group that controls a whole bunch of local news channels and can force them to run pre-written stories to push a political narrative. That would be awful!
=Smidge=
Why? To erode U.S. politics and disrupt NATO.
Russia's biggest restriction on expanding their influence has always been NATO. NATO's balls have been cut off without reliable American participation.
Someone ought to swing for this. As a cynic I know that powerful people often don't bear the consequences of their actions. But make no mistake, this is as much of an attack on America as 9/11 was.
Sinclair broadcast group owns many "local" stations, often multiple in a city. They force the "local" news shows to run their stories, commentators, and have the local hosts read corporate produced statements. They also force stations to run their national produced "news" shows like Full Measure.
They even run commercials about how independent and reliable local new is. It's funny to see these same ones on multiple stations.
You sound like a Nazi.
I thought he sounded like a Russian.
Are there Russian Nazis?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
I see every time this comes up that political process hacking is somehow not seen as a big deal, because injustice in the name of conservatism is somehow sacred and above such considerations.
Well, the digging won't stop. This isn't some 'Bengazi' investigation - this is about the heart of our election process, about how much influence foreign interference had.
I know that conservatives have power over the mechanisms of power now - and plenty of folks like that idea, and want it to continue at all costs. But if it comes at a cost of ignoring damage to our democracy, it won't be remembered well at all.
This is not going away.
None of these issues are going away.
Ryan Fenton
So it would be "honorable" and "decent" to ignore possible Russian meddling in our elections?
How about this: no, we're not going to ignore it
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Keep the GOP strong, support Russia.
Yes, Jesus Christ, we know the Russians are spying and up to no good. Thank you.
They have been doing this for nearly a century now. Running this story every other day, OTOH, is destroying what little credibility the media has left. No, I'm going to automatically feel outrage and vote for whatever cunt piece of shit you favour. Please shut the fuck up about it. It's like being amazed that blue looks blue.
Yes they are/have been/willcontinueto etc etc etc.
Please. Shut the fuck up about it.
"The information operatives who worked out of the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg did not stop at posing as American social media users or spreading false information from purported news sources"
This feeds into the MSN narrative as to how Putin influenced the US election through Facebook and Twitter posts. The truth being that across the board the media was totally opposed to Trump and fully positive for 'Hillary'. The American decided to not believe the MSM message and voted in Trump. This BS being designed to distract from the lobbying system that really influences things in Washington. No one believes your bullshit anymore.
'The Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative housed within The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF)'
Curious how deeply researchers dug into these accounts. Another possibility would be for them to have also posted 'fake news', allow it to get shared while relevant, and then delete those posts to continue the appearance of a semi-legit news source...? Very troubling either way. What would be really helpful now is news sources documenting how to detect these questionable sites....the willingness of people to trust what they see on Twitter and elsewhere is another side of the problem that needs attention.
Is this just all of the Clinton supporters still looking for something to complain about as to why their supreme leader lost?! If you are swayed by simple local media then shame on you for not being more educated and educating the others around you. Have conversations, spread the message, stop blaming someone else for your lack of taking part of you all feel so strongly about it. Go out and do something but stop retweeting and sharing fake uneducated news.
So Barack Obama was fundamentally WRONG about Russia?
And Mitt Romney was right?
Who knew!
ivan!!!
News at 11:00
this is about the heart of our election process
Exactly, this is precisely the problem. People spreading lies and getting away with it has been at the heart of the election process in many democracies for far too long. The only change is that now foreign governments are getting involved - including the US government which got involved in the Brexit debate. It's going to be hard to elicit a big response from people about a torrent of lies from foreign agents when they are already used to listening to a torrent of lies from their local politicians.
Yvgeny, get the bots to attacking!
Can't you people give it a rest? Do you still not get it? Hillary Clinton was a deeply unpopular candidate, which caused some people to switch to Trump and a lot more people to just not bother to come out and vote. There was no need for any fake news - or any news for that matter - to have that happen. A neutral scarecrow would probably have defeated Trump - who got a lot less votes than Romney in 2012.
Another twist: These accounts apparently never spread misinformation. In fact, they posted real local news, serving as sleeper accounts building trust and readership for some future, unforeseen effort.
In other words, no Russian "hacking," but they're sure these accounts were created by Russian trolls/bots and were up to no good. They just know it, dammit.
Ugly fucking pieces of shit too. Like a big-eared fish-eyed gargoyle that whines and complains.
called Sinclair news just bought virtually all local stations (and were allowed to do it by our current FCC) that's not really an issue.
I keep saying this, but when it comes to economics the media has a distinct right wing, pro-corporate bias.
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You forgot to log off or click "post anonymously" Yuri.
OMG! 48 examples! It's amazing! Those russians. So tenacious and dedicated. And 19,000 follower, no less. It's yuge. Will the russians never stop. Oh the horror! How will we ever resist the onslaught? We're doomed, I tell ya.
Ugly fucking pieces of shit too. Like a big-eared fish-eyed gargoyle that whines and complains.
They suck baby penises immediately after circumcision and also whirl chickens over their heads for their sins.
They run your news. Get a grip. Who modded down -1 you need to fucking kys.
These accounts apparently never spread misinformation
There is no need for fake news or misinformation. Very good results are obtained by just choosing what subjects are covered or not. This is what mainstream media do andit works very well.
So you're claiming that additional evidence that Russia has an extensive framework set up to interfere with US democracy through manipulating citizens' knowledge and views somehow doesn't support the narrative that Putin influenced the 2016 US election through Facebook and Twitter posts? Sounds like you're too far gone to see the issue objectively.
Side note: The media hardly ever talked about Hillary. They spent most of their time feeding into an underdog story for (privileged self-professed billionaire) Trump. And, sadly, this country values naive "thinking from the gut" over well-thought-out plans from people with experience and a proven record. The difference in detail (how goals could be accomplished) of plans for the country listed on their campaign pages was laughable as if Donald didn't want to win from the start.
The lobbying system is absolutely a problem though. And people desperately wanted change. But hiring a rich grifter is not a very logical way to change that compared to electing a moderate liberal judge who could help overturn Citizens' United.
Sinclair Media has already done a pretty good job of making local news more distrustworthy than Fox News.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
TROLLOLOLOLOLOL
Fuck the fuck off Trump troll.
have always been made based on people's opinion.
Khazar Talmudic Jews believe this of all they call goyim/gentiles (any non-jew): Jews = biggest racists of all (for which they "jew guilt" you for no less! They're hypocrites known as thieves all thru history or were Argentines in the 1940 under Peron, Spanish inquistion, France (1306), Egypt (despoiled/robbed by jews), Arabs (pre & post 1948), England (1330 Edward longshanks), Romans under titus, Russia pogroms and Germany who got rid of them from their nations nazi german's too? No. Driven into DESERTS ages ago! Don't wonder why after all those exilings above.
Should anyone doubt any of this see Jacob Javits' crony Rosenthal spill the beans on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4zMVZ8HnFI/ where he called all Christianity fools for helping Israel and the biggest scam of all time per their beliefs below from their Talmud.
This is the province of the synagogue of Satan (Pharisees whom Jesus Christ himself kicked to the curb out of the temple & they killed him for it. Jeremiah did the same to them also + the Essenes could not stand them either breaking away from the pharisee corruption):
Mark Zuckerberg stole the Winklevoss twins' code for Fakebook (figures as he is a thieving low jew too).
Maria Abramovic satanist spirit cooker pal of Hillary Clinton the Voodoo queen is a jew https://www.google.com/search?...
Like Hillary Clinton's mentor Saul Alinsky author of rules for radicals book dedicated to Lucifer
"Most Jews do not like to admit it, but our god is Lucifer Â- so I wasnÂ't lying Â- and we are his chosen people. Lucifer is very much aliveÂ" Harold Rosenthal http://www.thetruthseeker.co.u...
Jewish rabbi openly admits to satan worship use white children's blood they kill for passover bread, infiltrating and subverting the catholic church, creating the Jesuit order https://www.youtube.com/watch?... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Barbara Spectre, a jew, tells everyone it's jews orchestrating the muslim migrant problem in Europe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFE0qAiofMQ/ . No migrant raping of women in Poland. Tons in Sweden. Do the math. Use common-sense. This is to get muslims and other goyim/gentiles to wipe one another out as incompatible cultures that will clash and always have.
Rabbi A. Finkelstein ADMITS their greatest enemies are ARABS and WHITES (blacks too) whom they wish to kill one another in a 'theater of war' which they find AMUSING https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Finkelstein also admits JEWS DID 9/11 (perpetrated by the Mossad & Bebe Netanyahu of ISRAEL) https://www.youtube.com/watch?... profiting by it (and that 3,000 jews employed there did not show up for work that day knowing about it beforehand).
Finkelstein also admits JEWS are going to destroy the U.S. Dollar and dumping it for other world currencies and gold to destroy the United States.
George Soros who funds groups to create division in the USA?? A jew. One who sold his own jew people into death for the nazis.
Zucker now FIRED @ CNN is another frying publicly for lying about "russians" and John Bonifield a producer @ CNN said it is bs. Van Jones did also.
Bernie Madoff (who made off with everyone's money, especially construction union pensions) shows the thieving nature of the JUDEN!
Eric Schmidt had to step down @ JEWgle (a jew).
Adam Schiff (gosh s
The truth is far, far worse.
Don't worry Russia shills, keep digging that hole. Get plenty of practice, because soon, you'll be digging your own graves. Poka!
Russia didn't manipulate anyone's vote.
Russia may, or may not have had a hand in making social media posts or posting "Fake News" as the media calls it. But so what? It's a free country. You're allowed to publish whatever "News" you want, even if it's not true. CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and so on do it all the time, and to a much wider audience with more perceived (but undeserved) credibility.
Khazar Talmudic Jews believe this of all they call goyim/gentiles (any non-jew): Jews = biggest racists of all (for which they "jew guilt" you for no less! They're hypocrites known as thieves all thru history or were Argentines in the 1940 under Peron, Spanish inquistion, France (1306), Egypt (despoiled/robbed by jews), Arabs (pre & post 1948), England (1330 Edward longshanks), Romans under titus, Russia pogroms and Germany who got rid of them from their nations nazi german's too? No. Driven into DESERTS ages ago! Don't wonder why after all those exilings above.
Should anyone doubt any of this see Jacob Javits' crony Rosenthal spill the beans on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4zMVZ8HnFI/ where he called all Christianity fools for helping Israel and the biggest scam of all time per their beliefs below from their Talmud.
This is the province of the synagogue of Satan (Pharisees whom Jesus Christ himself kicked to the curb out of the temple & they killed him for it. Jeremiah did the same to them also + the Essenes could not stand them either breaking away from the pharisee corruption):
Mark Zuckerberg stole the Winklevoss twins' code for Fakebook (figures as he is a thieving low jew too).
Maria Abramovic satanist spirit cooker pal of Hillary Clinton the Voodoo queen is a jew https://www.google.com/search?...
Like Hillary Clinton's mentor Saul Alinsky author of rules for radicals book dedicated to Lucifer
"Most Jews do not like to admit it, but our god is Lucifer Â- so I wasnÂ't lying Â- and we are his chosen people. Lucifer is very much aliveÂ" Harold Rosenthal http://www.thetruthseeker.co.u...
Jewish rabbi openly admits to satan worship use white children's blood they kill for passover bread, infiltrating and subverting the catholic church, creating the Jesuit order https://www.youtube.com/watch?... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Barbara Spectre, a jew, tells everyone it's jews orchestrating the muslim migrant problem in Europe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFE0qAiofMQ/ . No migrant raping of women in Poland. Tons in Sweden. Do the math. Use common-sense. This is to get muslims and other goyim/gentiles to wipe one another out as incompatible cultures that will clash and always have.
Rabbi A. Finkelstein ADMITS their greatest enemies are ARABS and WHITES (blacks too) whom they wish to kill one another in a 'theater of war' which they find AMUSING https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Finkelstein also admits JEWS DID 9/11 (perpetrated by the Mossad & Bebe Netanyahu of ISRAEL) https://www.youtube.com/watch?... profiting by it (and that 3,000 jews employed there did not show up for work that day knowing about it beforehand).
Finkelstein also admits JEWS are going to destroy the U.S. Dollar and dumping it for other world currencies and gold to destroy the United States.
George Soros who funds groups to create division in the USA?? A jew. One who sold his own jew people into death for the nazis.
Zucker now FIRED @ CNN is another frying publicly for lying about "russians" and John Bonifield a producer @ CNN said it is bs. Van Jones did also.
Bernie Madoff (who made off with everyone's money, especially construction union pensions) shows the thieving nature of the JUDEN!
Eric Schmidt had to step down @ JEWgle (a jew).
Adam Schiff (gosh s
quite the opposite. The nations with the highest standards of living are Democratic Socialist nations (Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, Canada etc). America, with it's Dog-Eat-Dog capitalism ranks far down the lists in virtually everything (including infant mortality).
I can already here a chorus of shouts yelling "But Venezuela!" to which I reply "But the American Great Depression!". If the entire basis of your entire economy collapse in on itself no political system in the universe will save you. Venezuela had the market drop out from under them, so did we. The difference is Venezuela is doing better than we did at that time and that's accounting for the sanctions we put on their country (which I have never once heard a good reason for why those exist. Seriously, why are we sanctioning a country that is no threat to us who isn't engaged in banned research on nuclear weapon? I'm just kidding, I know the answer, we can't bear to see Socialism work so we'll sabotage it every chance we get).
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Oh yes, and they have the full support of the Russian government.
https://www.theguardian.com/ne...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Khazar Talmudic Jews believe this of all they call goyim/gentiles (any non-jew): Jews = biggest racists of all (for which they "jew guilt" you for no less! They're hypocrites known as thieves all thru history or were Argentines in the 1940 under Peron, Spanish inquistion, France (1306), Egypt (despoiled/robbed by jews), Arabs (pre & post 1948), England (1330 Edward longshanks), Romans under titus, Russia pogroms and Germany who got rid of them from their nations nazi german's too? No. Driven into DESERTS ages ago! Don't wonder why after all those exilings above.
Should anyone doubt any of this see Jacob Javits' crony Rosenthal spill the beans on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4zMVZ8HnFI/ where he called all Christianity fools for helping Israel and the biggest scam of all time per their beliefs below from their Talmud.
This is the province of the synagogue of Satan (Pharisees whom Jesus Christ himself kicked to the curb out of the temple & they killed him for it. Jeremiah did the same to them also + the Essenes could not stand them either breaking away from the pharisee corruption):
Mark Zuckerberg stole the Winklevoss twins' code for Fakebook (figures as he is a thieving low jew too).
Maria Abramovic satanist spirit cooker pal of Hillary Clinton the Voodoo queen is a jew https://www.google.com/search?...
Like Hillary Clinton's mentor Saul Alinsky author of rules for radicals book dedicated to Lucifer
"Most Jews do not like to admit it, but our god is Lucifer Â- so I wasnÂ't lying Â- and we are his chosen people. Lucifer is very much aliveÂ" Harold Rosenthal http://www.thetruthseeker.co.u...
Jewish rabbi openly admits to satan worship use white children's blood they kill for passover bread, infiltrating and subverting the catholic church, creating the Jesuit order https://www.youtube.com/watch?... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Barbara Spectre, a jew, tells everyone it's jews orchestrating the muslim migrant problem in Europe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFE0qAiofMQ/ . No migrant raping of women in Poland. Tons in Sweden. Do the math. Use common-sense. This is to get muslims and other goyim/gentiles to wipe one another out as incompatible cultures that will clash and always have.
Rabbi A. Finkelstein ADMITS their greatest enemies are ARABS and WHITES (blacks too) whom they wish to kill one another in a 'theater of war' which they find AMUSING https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Finkelstein also admits JEWS DID 9/11 (perpetrated by the Mossad & Bebe Netanyahu of ISRAEL) https://www.youtube.com/watch?... profiting by it (and that 3,000 jews employed there did not show up for work that day knowing about it beforehand).
Finkelstein also admits JEWS are going to destroy the U.S. Dollar and dumping it for other world currencies and gold to destroy the United States.
George Soros who funds groups to create division in the USA?? A jew. One who sold his own jew people into death for the nazis.
Zucker now FIRED @ CNN is another frying publicly for lying about "russians" and John Bonifield a producer @ CNN said it is bs. Van Jones did also.
Bernie Madoff (who made off with everyone's money, especially construction union pensions) shows the thieving nature of the JUDEN!
Eric Schmidt had to step down @ JEWgle (a jew).
Adam Schiff (gosh s
The links could provide facts from deep within the USA?
Only a short list of trusted news sites that party political social media staff approve of?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Lol that's like your 10th Russia post, on slashdot? You worried or something? Cuz the way it reads your full of shiff
it's a bonus if it is, but it doesn't have to be. That's not it's purpose.
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The article says these accounts never actually posted misinformation:
Another twist: These accounts apparently never spread misinformation. In fact, they posted real local news, serving as sleeper accounts building trust and readership for some future, unforeseen effort.
It's strange that Tim Mak opens the article with this:
Russia's information attack against the United States during the 2016 election cycle sought to take advantage of the greater trust that Americans tend to place in local news..
You can't have it both ways. Either the Russians did, or didn't, and the article itself says they actually didn't, an dthat it's likely they were playing the long game, waiting for the right time.
However, the last presidential election doesn't look like it was what they were aiming to derail.
"We'll need 2000 crickets, 4 cans of Easy Cheese, and the fluid from 18 glowsticks for this plan to work...." - ph0n1c
The "media" here in the States did not need a muh russian wrench to damage trust in the media. The media folks did that all by themselves.
Russian agents manipulated citizens' knowledge and views in ways that undeniably influenced votes. There is no "may or may not have." It is proven and accepted by the U.S. government. Even Trump has acknowledged it before (though he much more often downplays its significance or denies that it took place at all since he's the beneficiary and is accustomed to having an advantage in life instead of competing on an even playing field).
Interesting how you dramatically overstated the frequency at which the news organizations you mentioned print incorrect stories. Also interesting that you left Fox and organizations like it off your list. Your bias is clear.
Am I the only one who remembers that the United States did the same thing for most of the last century? Spreading our take on the news to the people of opposing governments. If these Russians can change an election for less than 1% of the cost of what the major political parties spent madison avenue is going be pulling semi trailers loaded with money up to their doors to come work for them
the media gave Trump massive amount of coverage, much more than Hilary. What matters in an election as close as this is coverage, not the quality of the coverage. But even if we're talking quality Hilary stories were non-stop negative. How many hours were devoted to your emails? So many that it's become a meme ("But her emails...").
The media didn't really care who got elected as long as it wasn't Bernie (they were caught doing a Bernie Blackout when the guy who runs the youtube Channel "The Young Turks" refused a sweet gig in exchange for shutting up about Bernie). The media sided with Trump because they wanted a horse race (so long as there was no risk of an anti-corportist getting elected). And they're loving the results. Hilary was a safe, boring choice. Trump is a ratings bonanza.
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Russian agents manipulated citizens' knowledge
Their total footprint, over years of "meddling" was less than 0.1% of the relevant MSM coverage and that of USA-based social media participants and blogosphere combined. The Russians' combined impact, when contrasted with that of the rest of the "citizen's knowledge" sources, was downright laughable in both quantity and quality. And no amount of wishful thinking and shifting of blame by some of those who feel deprived of their birth-right to the US levers of power will change that.
The "russia-gate" narrative is literally the new edition of Saddam's "mushroom clouds", Vietnam's Gulf of Tonkin "incident", Spain's sinking of USS Maine etc and so on.
And a perfect example of Americans' exceedingly short memories and their utter willingness to be duped as long as the "right" crowd gets to be righteously outraged at a properly convenient and profitable boogeyman de jeur.
You don't know that as a fact. I think there were 26 states that were notified that thier actual voting software and machines were at least subject to attempted hacking. Reports at the time claimed that they don't think the actual vote tally was changed but they don't know that for sure either. I know if I were a county/state employee who wanted to keep my cushy gov job, I'd say the machines were just fine too, no matter how many securtity holes were found. You seem to be doing the same thing.
because people _couldn't_ flee the country. Most of them were still using corn stalks to wipe their asses. Even the best educated couldn't just up and leave. What makes Venezuela odd is they're a modern nation that looks to be regressing. That probably wouldn't be the case without the sanctions. They could have just barely weathered the oil collapse. But as always we Americans have to stick our noses in where they don't belong and force our world view down everybody's throat (often at the barrel of a gun, RE: Iraq & Afghanistan).
Imagine what would have become of America if, during the Great Depression, the most powerful nation on the world decided to take a dislike to us?
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Russian agents manipulated citizens' knowledge and views in ways that undeniably influenced votes. There is no "may or may not have." It is proven and accepted by the U.S. government. .
Yes. I am certain there are tens of voters that would have cast their ballot for Hillary had the Pizzagate story not convinced them to support Trump.
The problem with the left is that they are self righteously convinced that they are the only ones capable to make a decision and see through all that Russian disinformation. Yet somehow, the simple minded deep in the blue corner who vote "D" every election no matter who runs are perfectly wonderful electorate exemplars.
You still do not understand that one of the biggest reasons Hillary lost was because she is the same kind of condescending asshole that most of you are. You will never win trying to convince anyone that they should vote your way because you are SOOOO smart and everyone else is SOOOO dumb. It's not a winning message.
So you're claiming that additional evidence that Russia has an extensive framework set up..
The "extent" of the "extensive" network is supposed to be up to a total of 1000 employees of one company (Internet Research Agency) with a budget of about $500,000, whose tasks included a large portion of non-political commercial promotional efforts.
Top US-based PR outfits employ in excess of 5000 people and have budgets measured in tens of millions of dollars each. And there are literally hundreds of them active during election time.
US Political ads alone during 2016 elections totaled in excess $10 BILLION dollars.
"russia-gate" cultists are simply insane.
Um, No - you are just plain wrong.
Your bias and futile grappling at a withering Russia narrative is still showing.
I guess we can add this rambling anti-Jewish copypasta to the list of the Putinbots' armory of deflection.
Did you even read the summary? None of the news posted was fake, it was all true. Russia doesn't have to lie, just expose the maleficence of our own institutions, you know, what the media should actually do? The American people should thank Putin, if you listen to the "fake" news and watch CNN you might actually be informed what both parties are doing.
If you want to suppress the truth because you don't want it influencing elections I have no idea what to say.
If you want to suppress the truth because you don't want it influencing elections I have no idea what to say.
Actually this is the crux of the matter. The US (and many other Western countries) Political scene is ready for wholesale silencing of "inconvenient" and "disruptive" and "hateful" truths for the sake of preserving cherished social illusions and National Myths. Many in the halls of power eye China with envy.
And while it is the Democrats at preset who are the torch-bearers of this "innovation", make no mistake, the whole of US corrupt political machinery, from the deep-state operatives, through the MSM corporations, lobbyists, government contractors and the Republican party profiteers, would be very glad if this is met with success.
All those close to the veins of power all love the idea.
In fact, some ancient dude had something to say about this ... something about power and corruption...
There is no "may or may not have."
Yes, but to what extent did that interference have any measurable effect and how would you isolate that effect from other things that may or may not have influenced the decisions of individual voters. It's essentially unknowable, but I for one find it hard to believe that the Russian election hacking was the deciding factor in the election. It's a question of degree really, but shouldn't the burden of proof be on those claiming that the Russian hacking was the "smoking gun" without which Hillary would have won?
but shouldn't the burden of proof be on those claiming that the Russian hacking was the "smoking gun" without which Hillary would have won?
That would be true if the object of the game was determination of the truth. As you probably noticed however most of the Western MSM has long since moved past questioning of the idea of the election results being essentially set by the Russians and, having determined Russian culpability to be 100% certain, albeit evidence free, are now well into discussing what horrible things must be done in retaliation for this travesty and how is the Trump Administration failing in doing so, while also pontificating and speculating on the extent of Trump's involvement with the Russian Election Stealing Conspiracy and how soon can he and everyone close to him be brought to account for the dastardly Russian machinations. Which, according to the MSM, Russians are expanding in an effort to steal all the elections around the globe. All the while corrupting Americans' Precious Bodily Fluids. Such is the evil Comm... Russian Nature.
Anyone who disagrees is clearly a Russian employee of the Internet Research Agency, a Russian bot, a Traitor, or better yet all three at once and is to be dismissed out of hand. And banned. All posts removed. Just to be sure the heresy does not infect the Holy scripture.
Not only is the burden of proof on the detractors of the claims so extraordinary that no evidence needs to be provided, but the very attempt to bring any sort of contrary, dirty, unholy "facts" into light is automatically considered a guaranteed proof of complicity in the works of the Great Enemy of Freedom and clearly wrong-think, on principle.
Any similarity to totalitarian cults of the past, be it religious, or ironically, draped in swastikas or red flags with hammers and sickles is purely coincidental...
We are still at zero evidence so far for Russiagate, which is the dumbest conspiracy theory of all time. It posits that Putin was so clever and crafty that he knew years in advance that a racist professional wrestling game show host could be president, yet was so unbelievably incompetent that he couldn't anticipate any blowback, or collude with someone as dumb as Trump. Because if Trump knew, that means that the CIA/NSA/FBI would know. Which means that President Elect Hillary would also know, as the race was hers to lose right up until November, and she had already campaigned on shooting down Russian jets over Syria.
All your "evidence" is as solid as a Birther seizing on a picture of Obama eating humus and insisting that was proof that he really was a muslim born in Kenya. Yes, Russiagate is that bad.
Dumbest.
Conspiracy.
Theory.
Of.
All.
Time.
The way you guys carry on you think it was Russia that boasted about inteferring in the 1996 election and then doubled the size of the Warsaw Pact, all the way to America's borders, after promising not one inch of expansion in the 80's. All the whining about Ukraine and Crimea is just Swiftboating, as it was the U.S. that overthrew the elected government of Ukraine and is busy arming literal neo-nazies, along with Israel.
That story would be so much more credible if it was delivered by Glenn Beck with a chalkboard.
Seriously? That's your plan? To keep spamming a fake news story? Hillary lost as she (and the DNC) are AWFUL.
Didn't work with your fake news networks (CNN etc) which during the election only acted like the propaganda arm of DNC, won't work in the future.
Paid writers on /. - Sblue etc - You're on the side of evil - you can say you don't care, but you can't say you never knew.
The media hardly ever talked about Hillary.
They spent decades attacking her and her husband and gave massive amounts of coverage to the FBI investigations right before the election that ultimately went nowhere.
Not saying they were necessarily nicer to Trump, they certainly called out a lot of his bullshit, but Hilary didn't get an easy ride by any stretch of the imagination.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Seeing as how...
Clinton and the DNC literally RIGGED the primary against Sanders, and not a single person who supports the DNC has an issue with it.
Clinton literally PAID Russia for dirt on Trump, which is illegal, and we have a 20 month investigation into Trump doing the same thing with no evidence.
I believe those two facts will answer your question. Rigging elections is not a issue for liberals, Russian interference with elections is not an issue for liberals.
If you all said anything about the above 2, we might listen to you. Instead we believe you are a bunch of morons that are throwing a fit because your girl lost an election.
A little snipped of wisdom from a little show called Futurama:
"When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
Think about that.
The homosexual zionist conspirators at the NOAA call for the impending end of the world and a flood of central american illegals to come flooding over the border, aided by George Soros. Winds light to variable. Here's Yuri with traffic...
... or have I missed it? Where are all these 'meddling' Facebook posts, and Tweets, that the JEWISH media keeps telling us 'interfered' with the election?
Did you not SEE the size of the crowds at Trump's campaign rallies, compared to Clinton's? Oh wait, the Jewish media wouldn't pan the cameras around, when Trump asked them, over and over again, because they don't want you to see reality.
Conspiracy theories too often lack any affirmative evidence to swat it away. It doesn't matter if Mueller comes up with no indictments of individuals soliciting Russian aid. If the investigation ends like that then people will just insist that it was kept well hidden or that people are lying.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
There is a case to be made that anonymity online is not desirable. I don't necessarily agree, but things like this point out the drawbacks of allowing anonymity. Usually opponents of anonymity say something like 'we don't allow people to anonymously drive cars, so..'
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
It just shows what she thinks of her supporters that they could be so easily swayed by "fake news."
What Trump said was a projection about what things WILL BE with the pipeline.
If you're going to go on about partisan mistakes, start with that one? Do words not mean things to you any more? Hint: "WILL BE" is referring to the future.
The way to both respect freedom of association and freedom of speech while disarming foreign propaganda is simple. Force all media companies offering content to the public to publish what geographic area the comments (or media content) is coming from. Knowing which city/country comments are coming from would not violate anyone's privacy.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
It would be dishonorable and indecent to claim it without presenting strong evidence for it. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
My Brother In Law has recently worked for the State Department, he was an analyst. According to him the Russians weren't all that interested in who won the election. The goal was to fracture the United States politically in order to weaken it. Every time I read news on either side of political issues or during election years or read the comments to any story I realize how effective they have been. There seems to be a lot of hatred for the other side politically in the United States. Not just disagreement anymore, but pure hatred. At the risk of sounding like Yoda here, that hatred then justifies what we tolerate our side doing to the other side. The kind of mentality that leads us to say, "Its OK if one of my team is rude/violent/dishonest with someone from the other team because so-and-so politician is so awful I can't blame them." My conservative friends absolutely hated Hilary Clinton, and the way they felt about those who supported her was pretty bad, and the more progressive friends are even worse on the Trump side. My observation does indeed prove my Brother in Law's theory in my mind. Russia hit the nail on the head.
Well played Russia, well played.
PseudoAnon: "So you're claiming that additional evidence that Russia has an extensive framework"
:]
What 'evidence', that story concocted by some front organization being funded by the neocons, follow the money
Who you fooling? Russians are the flavor of the day....our latest in a long
line of boogieman to create pretexts for war profiteering and investment in the military industrial complex...
Seriously, I have to think that a number of the trolls here are coming from places like Russia and China.
The problem is that many of them are manipulators and ppl need to read in-between the lines.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
And some people just peddle lies. And hate being call out on them. Usually troll is their first response to being caught out.
The world’s single largest coal-plant developer is India’s National Thermal Power Corporation, which plans to build more than 38,000 megawatts of new coal capacity in India and Bangladesh.
Look, red tide/porky, India is adding 38 GW of new coal for 2 undeveloped nations. Personally, I am opposed to that. BUT, India is saying that they will replace these with Nuclear power plants. And that is the ONLY company in India that adds coal.
OTOH, China has LOADS of companies that are adding over 300+ new coal plants in china alone, along with another 350+ coal plants in other nations, most of which does not have a lick of coal. IOW, China is setting it up so as to export their coal to these nations when ppl REALLY take this seriously and force China to shut down their coal plants. It would be far far better for CHina to quit installing these coal plants ANYWHERE, and instead, use that funding for putting in wind/solar/hydro/etc.
The world’s largest coal plant developer, India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), is planning to build over 38,000 MW of new coal capacity in India and Bangladesh.
Next in line are the Chinese companies SPIC (31,587 MW), China Datang (28,945 MW), Shenhua (26,014 MW), China Huadian (25,810 MW), China Huaneng (20,750 MW) and China Guodian (17,250 MW). All in all, Chinese companies account for 45% of the projects in Urgewald’s database, but around 1/7 of these projects are located outside of China. “If the Chinese government truly wants to position itself as a global climate leader, it needs to rein in its state-owned companies that are flooding the world with new coal power plants,” says Trusha Reddy, Coordinator of the International Coal Network.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Companies from other Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan also play a prominent role in the coal power pipeline. Japan’s Marubeni is the 26 th largest coal plant developer worldwide and is involved in joint ventures totaling over 13,000 MW of new coal in 9 countries. Among these are many projects in ‘frontier’ countries like Botswana, Egypt, Mongolia and Myanmar.
You missed the next bit about your other favourite Asian countries who also always get a free pass.
Again with the anti China lies WindTroll. CoalSwarm
Aiqun Yu, an analyst with CoalSwarm, a think tank that tracks coal-fired electricity generation globally, said that in just the past two years, the Chinese government has essentially cancelled or suspended some 444 gigawatts of new coal-fired generation capacity. The program has been enforced rigorously, she said, and to the point that several completed coal plants have been barred from hooking up to the transmission grid, effectively placing them in mothball status. The policy has pushed down the amount of new coal capacity coming online from 60 gigawatts in 2015 to 34 gigawatts in 2017—the lowest number in more than a decade.
Still trolling your anti-China nonsense. Even when the very study you cite no longer says what you want it to say.
You still constantly lie and claim China's government is pushing coal.
How can you say with a straight face that a country that halved its coal use to the lowest level in a decade is pushing coal?
Is this your idea of pushing coal?
China is the world's leading country in electricity production from renewable energy sources, with over double the generation of the second-ranking country, the United States.
China's renewable energy sector is growing faster than its fossil fuels and nuclear power capacity.
China added 35 gigawatts of new solar generation in 2016 alone. “That’s almost equal to Germany’s total capacity, just in one year,” Myllyvirta says.
Certainly sounds like China is pushing coal. No, wait, it sounds like China is pushing renewables, and you are pushing lies.
China isn't my country, but you knew that already too didn't you...
halved its coal use
Sorry not halved coal use, that would be nonsense. Halved the number of new coal capacity, still to the lowest level in a decade.
Hardly pushing coal. If they were pushing coal they would be increasing coal faster not the slowest in a decade. And certainly wouldn't have cancelled or suspended some 444 gigawatts of new coal-fired generation capacity.
America is the only country in the world where it's leader is actively pushing for more coal to be burned. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/2...
https://www.politico.com/story...
Don't take my word for it, stick 'Trump' and 'coal' into Google, pull your head out of your arse and enlighten yourself.