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1 hour ago, Wideleft said:

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President

How new technologies and techniques pioneered by dictators will shape the 2020 election.

Story by McKay Coppins

Updated at 2:30 p.m. ET on February 10, 2020.

One day last fall, I sat down to create a new Facebook account. I picked a forgettable name, snapped a profile pic with my face obscured, and clicked “Like” on the official pages of Donald Trump and his reelection campaign. Facebook’s algorithm prodded me to follow Ann Coulter, Fox Business, and a variety of fan pages with names like “In Trump We Trust.” I complied. I also gave my cellphone number to the Trump campaign, and joined a handful of private Facebook groups for MAGA diehards, one of which required an application that seemed designed to screen out interlopers.

........

The story that unfurled in my Facebook feed over the next several weeks was, at times, disorienting. There were days when I would watch, live on TV, an impeachment hearing filled with damning testimony about the president’s conduct, only to look at my phone later and find a slickly edited video—served up by the Trump campaign—that used out-of-context clips to recast the same testimony as an exoneration. Wait, I caught myself wondering more than once, is that what happened today?

.........

What I was seeing was a strategy that has been deployed by illiberal political leaders around the world. Rather than shutting down dissenting voices, these leaders have learned to harness the democratizing power of social media for their own purposes—jamming the signals, sowing confusion. They no longer need to silence the dissident shouting in the streets; they can use a megaphone to drown him out. Scholars have a name for this: censorship through noise.

...........

The campaign is run from the 14th floor of a gleaming, modern office tower in Rosslyn, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Glass-walled conference rooms look out on the Potomac River. Rows of sleek monitors line the main office space. Unlike the bootstrap operation that first got Trump elected—with its motley band of B-teamers toiling in an unfinished space in Trump Tower—his 2020 enterprise is heavily funded, technologically sophisticated, and staffed with dozens of experienced operatives. One Republican strategist referred to it, admiringly, as “the Death Star.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/the-2020-disinformation-war/605530/

Yeah i saw McKay on a few features in the last few weeks and he was talking about this very thing... it is frightening... 

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5 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I hope im wrong but....it wont be about character.  It will be about age, health and "do you want your taxes to skyrocket to pay for socialism?"

They're going to play the socialism card no matter who it is, and trump ain't a picture of health either. 

Where Bernie wins is his ability to nullify the bullshit that the right spews and connect with voters. Moderates will vote for a socialist cause the trump supporters ain't anywhere close to moderate and people are tired of a government that doesn't work for them.

 

Trump won in large part to being an outsider. Bernie has that same thing only same.

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Bernie is only left compared to the extreme right republicans. His positions would fit nicely in a global perspective and are quite honestly needed in the us. They has gone so far right no one can see them. People who aren't the zealots on the right will support that. 

 

It's the 1% who are shitting themselves at the thought of Sanders not your average voter.

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1 hour ago, Wideleft said:

What I was seeing was a strategy that has been deployed by illiberal political leaders around the world. Rather than shutting down dissenting voices, these leaders have learned to harness the democratizing power of social media for their own purposes—jamming the signals, sowing confusion

yup.  This is why people like Zontar are invaluable to the Trump movement -- they take whatever spicy semitruth the Trumpist goons are pushing today and reblog it endlessly as if it's true.

That's why you don't see the dude engage on anything substantively.  He's not here to debate or to educate, he's here just to make noise.

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17 minutes ago, pigseye said:

The Democrats are absolutely lost if Sanders is the best they can muster up. The vast majority of Democrats are still centric and Bernie is just too far left for them. What a bunch of losers. 

Centrist? You have to define what your definition of centrist is, because Bernie's position on many things are supported by the majority of USA voters. 

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10 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Bernie is only left compared to the extreme right republicans. His positions would fit nicely in a global perspective and are quite honestly needed in the us. They has gone so far right no one can see them. People who aren't the zealots on the right will support that. 

 

It's the 1% who are shitting themselves at the thought of Sanders not your average voter.

Are you deluded?

He's a self proclaimed social democrat, wants broad based social programs for everyone funded by taxation, basically a Canadian not your average American even by Democrats standards. 

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Just now, wanna-b-fanboy said:

Centrist? You have to define what your definition of centrist is, because Bernie's position on many things are supported by the majority of USA voters. 

No you don't just go to wiki and read it for yourself

Sanders described himself as a "democratic socialist"[5] and an admirer of aspects of social democracy as practiced in the Scandinavian countries

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1 hour ago, wanna-b-fanboy said:

you have a history of having trouble with false equivalencies- I don't think the above strays from that history.

1. Rigged Iowa caucus. Not to mention the rigged caucuses from 2016 to keep Mao Sanders out. (complete with Hillary getting advanced debate questions)

2. Tried to over turn Trump election with a manufactured treason charge.Paying for fake intell , which, in itself is treason. Millions spent on Mueller probe, DOJ, FBI, CIA corrupted and damaged in the process.

3. Last second sabotage of Kavanaugh nomination with manufactured rape smear. Then a gang rape smear for good measure.

4. Tried to indict president with manufactured and ridiculously partisan impeachment.

Again, these are the people you think are more ethical and moral ?

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8 minutes ago, Zontar said:

1. Rigged Iowa caucus. Not to mention the rigged caucuses from 2016 to keep Mao Sanders out. (complete with Hillary getting advanced debate questions)

2. Tried to over turn Trump election with a manufactured treason charge.Paying for fake intell , which, in itself is treason. Millions spent on Mueller probe, DOJ, FBI, CIA corrupted and damaged in the process.

3. Last second sabotage of Kavanaugh nomination with manufactured rape smear. Then a gang rape smear for good measure.

4. Tried to indict president with manufactured and ridiculously partisan impeachment.

Again, these are the people you think are more ethical and moral ?

You have no facts that support your arguments.  Except Iowa- I will conceed on that one. Everything else is legit. 

nothing manufactured about the Muller probe- there were legit 10 counts of obstruction of justice, and an overwhelming amount of evidence that supports the collusion aspect. It is literally all laid out in the report. Just because you refuse to accept them doesn't invalidate the evidence.

Sabotage of the Kavanaugh nomination? the fact that the scope of the investigation was the equivalent to the scope of and eye in a needle- that certainly sets off a few flags... 

Manufactured impeachment? I don't even understand why you are going on about this... of course it's manufactured- it's a political process that is meant to keep a POTUS from committing crimes. Just because the GOP are ******* spineless shouldn't count for "ridiculously partisan impeachment.". Also, during the removal trial- that was bipartisan. 

 

Every example here (other than the IC) that you use to slag the ethical and moral standards of the Democrats is underscored by the fact that every one of those examples, are in fact an instance of the moral bankruptcy of the GOP.

 

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The "overturning the 2016 election" argument is stale horseshit from people who want to invalidate the 2018 election.

The people who impeached Trump and tried to remove him from office were not deep state spooks or the terrifying Elite Shadow Order of Vegan Feminist Adjunct Professors.  They were elected representatives, each of whom beat a GOPer in an election, with the exception of Mitt Romney and maybe Justin Amash?

aaand ... if the impeachment had resulted in Trump's removal from office, the GOP would still hold the presidency.  That's much of the reason why there is a vice president; to make for an orderly succession in case of emergency.

So yeah, horseshit.

Edited by johnzo
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2 minutes ago, johnzo said:

The "overturning the 2016 election" argument is stale horseshit from people who want to invalidate the 2018 election.

This is just what dumb people say. Everything has been about the attempts he's making to interfere with the upcoming election. Everything, from his own mouth, is get himself reelected by any means necessary including foreign interference from the Ukraine, Russia and China. 

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1 minute ago, JCon said:

This is just what dumb people say. Everything has been about the attempts he's making to interfere with the upcoming election. Everything, from his own mouth, is get himself reelected by any means necessary including foreign interference from the Ukraine, Russia and China. 

Yeah it ignores the fact that impeachment is a real thing the founders created for just such reasons.  If we believe the idiot GOP's argument that only voters should decide on the conduct of a President, then what they're saying is, the President can literally do ANYTHING...literally commit crimes, jail critics, act as a dictator and if he's not voted out, so be it, all the while voters are being cheated anyway.

These morons would believe in this right up to the point Emperor trump marches them off to the firing squad for some perceived slight, like his hero in NK.

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4 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

 what they're saying is, the President can literally do ANYTHING...literally commit crimes, jail critics, act as a dictator and if he's not voted out, so be it, all the while voters are being cheated anyway....These morons would believe in this right up to the point

...that a Democratic president is elected.

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22 minutes ago, johnzo said:

The "overturning the 2016 election" argument is stale horseshit from people who want to invalidate the 2018 election.

The people who impeached Trump and tried to remove him from office were not deep state spooks or the terrifying Elite Shadow Order of Vegan Feminist Adjunct Professors.  They were elected representatives, each of whom beat a GOPer in an election, with the exception of Mitt Romney and maybe Justin Amash?

aaand ... if the impeachment had resulted in Trump's removal from office, the GOP would still hold the presidency.  That's much of the reason why there is a vice president; to make for an orderly succession in case of emergency.

So yeah, horseshit.

Yes, the GOP would still hold the presidency but would likely lose the next election without Trump. Big difference that you seemed to just skip right over. 

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16 minutes ago, pigseye said:

Yes, the GOP would still hold the presidency but would likely lose the next election without Trump. Big difference that you seemed to just skip right over. 

Nothing would stop trump from running again. 

 

The only issue is that there would be an end to the constant cover up by the GOO in that scenario.

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2 hours ago, Zontar said:

1. Rigged Iowa caucus. Not to mention the rigged caucuses from 2016 to keep Mao Sanders out. (complete with Hillary getting advanced debate questions)

2. Tried to over turn Trump election with a manufactured treason charge.Paying for fake intell , which, in itself is treason. Millions spent on Mueller probe, DOJ, FBI, CIA corrupted and damaged in the process.

3. Last second sabotage of Kavanaugh nomination with manufactured rape smear. Then a gang rape smear for good measure.

4. Tried to indict president with manufactured and ridiculously partisan impeachment.

Again, these are the people you think are more ethical and moral ?

1.  The centralists got bombed in Iowa - funny kinda of rigging
2.  "Spygate" has been debunked in many quarters, not a single shred of evidence provided to support it.  Report Muller has 6-10 total clear cut cases of Obstruction (completely covered up by Barr)  Trump props up the Russians and especially Putin to the detriment of DOJ, FBI, CIA et al.
3.  Some Republicans expressed doubt in public, but voted to confirm anyways (sound familiar?)
4.  All documents requests to 8 different branches of administration blocked.  All members of administration blocked from testifying.  A trial without neither

Need to unscrew those helmet bolts, just a bit.  Unless you are holding out for the Medal of Freedom, from Trump.

 

 

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