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2018 American Political Scene
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“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
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so i trust we all remember the lively little debate around here about whether the Russians were deliberately trying to get Trump elected vs "merely" just trying to screw with the US election.
US Senate Intelligence Committee Report:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/techn...s-scale-sweep/
A report prepared for the Senate that provides the most sweeping analysis yet of Russia’s disinformation campaign around the 2016 election found the operation used every major social media platform to deliver words, images and videos tailored to voters’ interests to help elect President Trump — and worked even harder to support him while in office...
The first report — by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika, a network analysis firm — offers new details of how Russians working at the Internet Research Agency, which U.S. officials have charged with criminal offenses for interfering in the 2016 campaign, sliced Americans into key interest groups for targeted messaging. These efforts shifted over time, peaking at key political moments, such as presidential debates or party conventions, the report found.
The data sets used by the researchers were provided by Facebook, Twitter and Google and covered several years up to mid-2017, when the social media companies cracked down on the known Russian accounts. The report, which also analyzed data separately provided to House Intelligence Committee members, contains no information on more recent political moments, such as November’s midterm elections.
“What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party — and specifically Donald Trump,” the report says. “Trump is mentioned most in campaigns targeting conservatives and right-wing voters, where the messaging encouraged these groups to support his campaign. The main groups that could challenge Trump were then provided messaging that sought to confuse, distract and ultimately discourage members from voting.”...
The Russians aimed particular energy at activating conservatives on issues such as gun rights and immigration, while sapping the political clout of left-leaning African American voters by undermining their faith in elections and spreading misleading information about how to vote. Many other groups — Latinos, Muslims, Christians, gay men and women, liberals, Southerners, veterans — got at least some attention from Russians operating thousands of social media accounts.
The second report — prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee by researchers for New Knowledge, Columbia University and Canfield Research — emphasized this aspect of the Russian operation, saying, “The IRA created an expansive cross-platform media mirage targeting the Black community, which shared and cross-promoted authentic Black media to create an immersive influence ecosystem.”
This report, though largely tracking with the one from Oxford and Graphika in its conclusions, also offered some new statistics, including that the Russians posted more than 1,000 YouTube videos for their disinformation campaign and that Instagram generated more than twice the “engagement” among users than either Facebook or Twitter. Such metrics track user comments, shares, likes and other actions that go beyond having an item merely appear on their screens.
Both reports also offered some of the first detailed analyses of the role played by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, and Instagram, owned by Facebook, in the Russian campaign, as well as anecdotes about how Russians used other social media platforms — Google+, Tumblr and Pinterest — that have received relatively little scrutiny. The Russian effort also used email accounts from Yahoo, Microsoft’s Hotmail service and Google’s Gmail.
The authors of the report by Oxford and Graphika, while reliant on data provided by technology companies, also highlighted the companies' “belated and uncoordinated response” to the disinformation campaign and, once it was discovered, their failure to share more with investigators. The authors urged that in the future they provide data in “meaningful and constructive” ways.There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov
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and recall the discussion we had about that oh-so-wonderful tax bill that was going to super-charge the American economy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...26b2d6629d4d4/
The stock market is giving President Trump a lump of coal for Christmas.
All three major indexes shed more than 2 percent on Monday, as the S&P 500 notched its lowest close in 14 months. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is down 2.2 percent this year, and the small-cap Russell 2000 index has lost more than 20 percent from its late-summer high, officially putting it in bear market territory.
The Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500, both down more than 7.5 percent this month, are on track for their worst December performances since 1931, in the pit of the Great Depression.
Trump was silent on the latest market down day, extending his pattern of avoiding comment on Wall Street carnage. A year ago this week, he was heralding history-making gains, as his then-imminent signing of a massive tax cut powered stocks higher...
But to the extent the promise of Trump’s tax cuts offered investors a major theme last year, it was replaced this year by the threat of his widening trade war. The president has cast blame elsewhere, a message White House trade czar Peter Navarro carried forward in a CNBC interview on Monday when he identified Federal Reserve policymaking as the primary culprit spooking investors.
“Donald Trump’s instincts are always right on this, and months ago he started pointing out that the Fed was going too far too fast,” Navarro said. He said in the absence of stronger inflation, the central bank should hold off on continuing to raise interest rates. “The only argument I'm hearing for the Fed to raise rates now is somehow they have to exert their independence.”There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov
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Our resident Trump defenders have been oddly quiet lately...“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
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Originally posted by TopHatter View PostOur resident Trump defenders have been oddly quiet lately...
Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!
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Did someone say fiscal fiasco?
https://itep.org/five-things-to-know...-and-jobs-act/
Below are the five takeaways about the legacy and continuing effect of the TCJA.
- The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will substantially increase income, wealth, and racial inequality.
- The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will continue to substantially increase the deficit.
- The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is not significantly boosting growth or jobs.
- The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act continues to be very unpopular.
Despite the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s lack of popularity and ill effects, many Republican lawmakers are calling for even more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.Trust me?
I'm an economist!
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So let's see what else has been happening....
Trump's crime foundation has been shut down, hard.
Flynn's judge is so disgusted with him that he's considering prison, even though Mueller has asked for no prison time.
Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano has openly speculated that Trump could be under sealed indictment (let that source sink in for a minute)
And of course our favorite gaslighting White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders has denied pretty much everything as usual.
Tick tock...tick tock...“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
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Indian-American legal expert leads opinion to indict Donald Trump
Bad days coming for the President.Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!
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Indian-American legal expert leads opinion to indict Donald Trump
Bad days coming for the President.Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!
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Originally posted by TopHatter View PostSo let's see what else has been happening....
Trump's crime foundation has been shut down, hard.
Flynn's judge is so disgusted with him that he's considering prison, even though Mueller has asked for no prison time.
Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano has openly speculated that Trump could be under sealed indictment (let that source sink in for a minute)
And of course our favorite gaslighting White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders has denied pretty much everything as usual.
Tick tock...tick tock...
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Originally posted by Oracle View PostIndian-American legal expert leads opinion to indict Donald Trump
Bad days coming for the President.
Some others are envisaging a situation where Trump resigns to make way for Mike Pence as president if he foresees losing an election, and obtains a presidential pardon from Pence.
Still others, including prominent political pundit, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, go so far as to predict Trump would resign in the “next few weeks” after cutting a deal with prosecutors since his children Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump could be the “next dominoes to fall”.
But I don't take seriously any of this news as the "Trump's gonna get it" line has been coming for the last two years and about to happen real soon now
American media on this particular subject is as credible if not less than Pak media : DLast edited by Double Edge; 19 Dec 18,, 15:21.
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Meh, it was never very big
Not connected to Trump but to Flynn's dealings with Turkey.
edit-- should also add, it's not just Flynn's dealings with Turkey. it's also Flynn lying about his contacts with Kislyak and Flynn lying to the FBI.
His re-election draws near. If the economy doesn't tank he'll get a second term. If it does, he wont. Its that simple. Past is prologue and every president who wanted a second term but did not get one was dealing with both peace and a bad economy.
of course if the economy goes into recession by 2020, as seems more and more likely given the current economic indicators, it will be an absolute wipeout.
on the tactical level, i find it interesting that the Trump re-election campaign recently announced that it will be merging with the RNC effort. essentially, the party will go all-in for Trump, closing off potential challengers (whom didn't really have a chance to begin with, but still). essentially the issue that people had with HRC campaign and the DNC in '16, lol.Last edited by astralis; 19 Dec 18,, 15:48.There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov
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Originally posted by zraver View PostMeh, it was never very big
Originally posted by zraver View PostNot connected to Trump but to Flynn's dealings with Turkey.
Originally posted by zraver View PostLet it sink in, its coming from the same guy who is a states rights, Lincoln started the civil war conspiracy theorist... Am I supposed to take Alex Jones seriously too?
Originally posted by zraver View PostLiterally the job of every press secretary ever.
Originally posted by zraver View PostHis re-election draws near. If the economy doesn't tank he'll get a second term. If it does, he wont. Its that simple. Past is prologue and every president who wanted a second term but did not get one was dealing with both peace and a bad economy.Last edited by TopHatter; 19 Dec 18,, 17:34.“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
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So we have out of the blue - announced on twitter - withdrawal from Syria because the traitor proclaims "mission accomplished" without taking any advice and sanctions to be withdrawn from Deripashka's companies - the pal that Manafort offered updates of the campaign to... Two little birds sitting in a tree, Trumpkin and Vova. Guess he's taking his orders from Moscow now.
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