#political
Moscow ponders Western response to political crackdown in South Korea
#Moscow ponders #Western #response to #political #crackdown in #South #Korea #Zakharova #Russia
"Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has speculated whether Seoul will be hit with sanctions like Georgia"
Russian opposition holds anti-war march in Berlin
The event's participants are calling for Russia's withdrawal from Ukraine, the release of #political #prisoners, and to try Putin as a #WarCriminal, Deutsche Welle reported.
The event, which had been planned in advance, took place the same day as #Russia launched one of its largest strikes on Ukrainian cities and the energy grid, killing and injuring civilians.
While the German police estimated the initial number of participants to be 1,800, the independent news outlet Meduza counted up to 6,000-7,000 people
https://kyivindependent.com/russian-opposition-holds-anti-war-march-in-berlin/
Exploiting Meta’s Weaknesses, Deceptive Political Ads Thrived on Facebook and Instagram in Run-Up to Election
In December, the verified Facebook page of Adam Klotz, a Fox News meteorologist, started running strange video ads.
Some featured the distinctive voice of former President Donald Trump promising “$6,400 with your name on it, no payback required” just for clicking the ad and filling out a form.
In other ads with the same offer, President Joe Biden’s well-known cadence assured viewers that “this isn’t a loan with strings attached.”
There was no free cash. The audio was generated by AI. People who clicked were taken to a form asking for their personal information, which was sold to telemarketers who could target them for legitimate offers — or scams.
Klotz’s page ran more than 300 of these ads before ProPublica contacted the weather forecaster in late August. Through a spokesperson, Klotz said that his page had been hacked and he was locked out. “I had no idea that ads were being run until you reached out.”
Klotz’s page had been co-opted by a sprawling ad account network that has operated on Facebook for years, churning out roughly 100,000 misleading election and social issues ads despite Meta’s stated commitment to crack down on harmful content, according to an investigation and analysis by ProPublica and Columbia Journalism School’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, as well as research by the Tech Transparency Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit that researches large tech platforms. The organizations combined data and shared their analyses. TTP’s report was produced independently of ProPublica and Tow’s investigation and was shared with ProPublica prior to publication.
The network, which uses the name Patriot Democracy on many of its ad accounts, is one of eight deceptive Meta advertising operations identified by ProPublica and Tow. These networks have collectively controlled more than 340 Facebook pages, as well as associated Instagram and Messenger accounts. Most were created by the advertising networks, with some pages masquerading as government entities. Others were verified pages of people with public roles, like Klotz, who had been hacked. The networks have placed more than 160,000 election and social issues ads on these pages in English and Spanish. Meta showed the ads to users nearly 900 million times across Facebook and Instagram.
The ads are only a fraction of the more than $115 billion Meta earns annually in advertising revenue. But at just over $25 million in total lifetime spend, the networks collectively rank as the 11th-largest all-time advertiser on Meta for U.S. elections or social issues ads since the company began sharing data in 2018. The company’s failure to block these scams consistently highlights how one of the world’s largest platforms struggles to protect its users from fraud and deliver on its nearly decadelong promise to prevent deceptive political ads.
Most of these networks are run by lead-generation companies, which gather and sell people’s personal information. People who clicked on some of these ads were unwittingly signed up for monthly credit card charges, among many other schemes. Some, for example, were conned by an unscrupulous insurance agent into changing their Affordable Care Act health plans. While the agent earns a commission, the people who are scammed can lose their health insurance or face unexpected tax bills because of the switch.
The ads run by the networks employ tactics that Meta has banned, including the undisclosed use of deepfake audio and video of national political figures and promoting misleading claims about government programs to bait people into sharing personal information. Thousands of ads illegally displayed copies of state and county seals and the images of governors to trick users. “The State has recently approved that Illinois residents under the age of 89 may now qualify for up to $35,000 of Funeral Expense Insurance to cover any and all end-of-life expenses!” read one deceptive ad featuring a photo of Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois state seal.
More than 13,000 ads deployed divisive political rhetoric or false claims to promote unofficial Trump merchandise. ...
Rest if article: https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-instagram-meta-deceptive-political-ads-election
#ProPublica #meta #facebook #political #ads
How Russia attempted to steal Moldovan election, referendum, and what comes next
Although #Russian #interference has taken many forms in #Moldova since its independence in 1991, the election and referendum results on Sunday shocked many pro-European Moldovans.
Despite opinion polls showing clear support for entrenching the desire for EU accession into the country's constitution, the success of the EU referendum came down to the wire, with the support of the large Moldovan diaspora securing a 50.38% victory margin.
The "yes" vote won by a mere 11,000 votes.
Moldovan authorities, the EU, and U.S. officials, as well as independent observers, blamed an unprecedented attack on the country's democracy from #criminal networks and #political groups tied to Russia.
A.very nice "Cold Open", a game show (something they have updated) with the new ensemble of political characters.
Family Feud Election 2024 Cold Open - SNL
#SNL #Election2024 #TrumpVirus #Biden #ColdOpen #satire #political #SaturdayNightLive #comedy #humor
The Terrifying Decline
A university professor laments the precipitous decline he has observed in the ability of his students:
I work as a professor for a uni on the east coast of the USA. What strikes me the most is the decline in student writing and comprehension skills that is among the worst I’ve ever encountered. These are SHARP declines; I recently assigned a reading exam and I had numerous students inquire if it’s open book (?!), and I had to tell them that no, it isn’t…
My students don’t read. They expect to be able to submit assignments more than once. They were shocked at essay grades and asked if they could resubmit for higher grades. I told them, also, no. They were very surprised.
To all K-12 teachers who have gone through unfair admin demanding for higher grades, who have suffered parents screaming and yelling at them because their student didn’t perform well on an exam: I’m sorry. I work on the university level so that I wouldn’t have to deal with parents and I don’t. If students fail– and they do– I simply don’t care. At all. I don’t feel a pang of disappointment when they perform at a lower level and I keep the standard high because I expect them to rise to the occasion. What’s mind-boggling is that students DON’T EVEN TRY. At this, I also don’t care– I don’t get paid that great– but it still saddens me. Students used to be determined and the standard of learning used to be much higher. I’m sorry if you were punished for keeping your standards high. None of this is fair and the students are suffering tremendously for it.
If there were any chance of salvaging the #USA as a means of organizing #heritage #America, this might be lamented. But there isn’t, so this is a very positive thing for those who are propagating heritage America, as the #intellectual #capabilities of the ruling elite and the #invaders who prop them up are in a steep #decline.
#Political #collapse and #balkanization is inevitable, so it is paramount for heritage Americans to ensure that their descendants are a) #numerous and b) #well-educated. This is the way that #America will survive and eventually thrive again, stronger and wiser than before.
Atrocity Inc: How Israel Sells Its Destruction Of Gaza
In an exclusive new #documentary, Max #Blumenthal rips the cover off the #media deceptions and atrocity #hoaxes #Israel pushed after #October 7 to create #political space for its #gruesome #assault on the #Gaza Strip. Blumenthal exposes the #US #mainstream media's role as a megaphone for the Israeli #government, introducing new #lies even after their initial ones were debunked.
Atrocity Inc raises serious #questions about the #official #narrative of October 7, while revealing how Israel's #army has consciously engaged in the same hideous #atrocities which it #falsely accused #Palestinian #militants of committing.
https://player.odycdn.com/v6/streams/aed8da19dc34161a933589ecc5c5ca77bcc56cae/f3610d.mp4
Tracking #political #censorship
https://codeberg.org/tord/orwell/wiki/Home
This is a nice list, from one of our D*ers (@Sunyata ☸ 👨🏻💻 ☮) showing when sites and individuals were cancelled from the corporate media.
We need more lists like this, rather than one at a time messages; which are easily forgotten.
(For example: A list of vaxxed sports stars who have died from heart issues since 2020, would make for another good list).
#Facts about #slavery never mentioned in #school | #ThomasSowell
Thomas Sowell is an #American #economist and #political #commentator. He taught economics at #Cornell #University, the University of #California, #LosAngeles, and since 1980 at the Hoover Institution at #Stanford University, where he is currently a Senior Fellow.
This channel helps to promote his teachings and principles of #economics and #philosophy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyPWjjWs7-w
https://invidious.fdn.fr/watch?v=lyPWjjWs7-w
#histoire #esclavage
Is this the last summer of relative peace?
The satanic cabal known as "politicians" that roost over the populations of the West have discovered the joys of war-talk, and they can't start World War Three fast enough. But why this sudden push? Even leaders of countries that are mere specks of dirt on the map (Estonia, for instance) squeak about "bringing Russia to its knees." Sure, Western politicians are lapdogs of Washington, but why this naïve war-talk? Is it just deep duncery (usual for the Western politician), or is something more sinister afoot?
We use the term "satanic" purposefully. We have long known that the Western powermongers are neo-Malthusians — that is, they all believe that the planet has too many people and we need to do something to bring the population down. The less people living on the planet is better. This is the guiding principle behind every aspect of modern life, so that every political, social, and even cultural decision is guided by this principle. Culling humanity is the grand, moral goal — the postmodern utopia, where we only have as many people as we need. The "we," by the way, are the powermongers. What's the point of having millions of useless eaters, they reason? Culling the herd is good management of nature (the planet): Woke husbandry pushed to its ultimate limit. Such overarching evil can only be satanic.
And then along comes this war in Ukraine. Here is a country that is not part of the EU, nor a member of NATO, but all the Western politicians latched on to it, because it was "existential" somehow for each of them. For places like Canada, the UK, New Zealand to be truly safe, Ukraine must win. If it loses, well, it's slavery and the dull road to the Gulag, for the whole world. It's absurd really that we are ruled by such morons who spew endless lies which are sadly believed, and therefore the general populace keeps electing them dutifully (but let's not digress).
The entire war in Ukraine, for the West, was a round-robin of wonder weapons that were going to "bring Russia to its knees" — so many that it's now hard to keep track... there were HIMARS, Leopards, Abrams, Patriots, Bradleys, and let's not forget the much-bruited 61 billion that was going to be the bee's knees of military might which was going to undo Russia lickety-split; and of course the much-awaited F-16s. To be charitable, let's not forget the various armchair journo-strategists who have been meaningfully employed for the past two years; anyone that can put two (or less) words together has advice to offer on to conduct the war. It's tiresome to even parse the endless strategies spun out. Are these people being paid by the word, one might begin to wonder? (By the way, you can easily spot these experts — they love to use the term, "geopolitics").
The current buzz, the new wonder weapon is the great theater of "allowing" Ukraine to use NATO supplied weapons to strike deep inside Russia. The propagandists tell us that thus far poor Ukraine has been fighting with one hand tied behind its back. If it had both hands free, Russia would be... well, on its knees. How stupid do these politicians think we really are? Or, perhaps the question is better another way — how stupid do we think these politicians really are? When did Ukraine ever set up a network of satellites in space that guide and program each and every missile and drone launched every day against Russia? When did Ukraine train such expert cryptographers who can handle the guidance systems and then identify Russian targets to be struck — last we heard, said Ukrainians were hard put trying to learn enough English to somehow get an F16 up into air and keep it there — thus far that has been mission impossible.
The short answer to all these questions is — Washington. Ukraine would not be able to fight its way out of a paper bag if it weren't for the Americans and their various lackeys, like the Brits, the Germans and the French. There's really no point mentioning Italy, Poland, and all those others that fall under the rubric of "etc."
Shocking as it may seem to the various journo-generals, it is Washington that has a massive network of sophisticated military satellites which alone can manage the war that is being currently fought in Ukraine — and it is a huge credit to the Russians who are fighting this mighty American capability to a standstill. Despite the highly sophisticated lethal gadgetry, Washington is losing the war, and on an epic scale. What does that tell us about "allowing" Ukraine anything? The private citizen that is now the martial law coordinator of Ukraine (since he declared that having elections during a "war" is pointless) is Washington's bobblehead (but that's hardly news).
So, all this talk about the moral hemming and hawing of "allowing" Ukraine to strike inside Russia, of untying that one hand, and allowing Ukraine to fight more freely, is simply flapdoodle ("twaddle" works well here as, so feel free to substitute). But it does give employment to the faceless many among the bureaucrat types who would otherwise be unemployed.
And because Washington is losing badly, it wants to let all of us know that it is now going to hit Russia — and we should look after our affairs as best we can because when Russia responds, we are all collateral damage (and that will include the many journo war experts) — only the powermongers with good underground bunkers will survive.
In other words, all this war-talk about "allowing" Ukraine to hit Russia is a message to all of us — a major war is on its way; call it World War Three, if you like, though that term is meaningless, since most of the world will not be lifting the proverbial finger to "protect" Washington and its lickspittles, its tufthunters, commonly known as "politicians" in the West. Washington has decided that it wants a greater war with Russia, which it will lose, just like it lost so many others. (What's the thinnest book ever written? Wars Won by America after WWII).
America has declared war.
Why does the entire Western #political class want a larger #war? Well, can you think of an easier way to cull the herd? The clot-shot didn't work so well with the Covid business in thinning out humanity... but a nuclear bomb — well, that's quite a handy thing to have lying around to get that job done. This is why no one who is sensible can make any sense of why "we" fight on in Ukraine.
This next war is not going to be about power, resources, or real estate. It's going to be a grand neo-Malthusian project, in which the real enemy is all of us who need to be taken out, so the planet can be rid of all the useless eaters. This is the real point of all the war-talk by out #useless #politicians. We are the #real #enemy.
In other words, the West has reached the final phase of its Woke logic — it is now eager to kill off the majority of its population. We are being frog-marched into annihilation.
So, who is my enemy?
#Modern #American #Imperialism
Example: #Thailand
Part 1: US #Political Capture as a #Game (& How to Win)
Introduction
If you're confused about the #global #political situation [it's #leftism. it's #fascism, etc, etc] to a point at which "blue Marxism" is a thing, I've been trying to explain for some time now..................
The situation is accelerating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism
#Accelerationism is a range of revolutionary and reactionary ideas in left-wing and right-wing ideologies that call for the drastic intensification of capitalist growth, technological change, infrastructure sabotage and other processes of social change to destabilize existing systems and create radical social transformations, otherwise referred to as "acceleration".[1][2][3][4] It has been regarded as an ideological spectrum divided into mutually contradictory left-wing and right-wing variants, both of which support the indefinite intensification of capitalism and its structures as well as the conditions for a technological singularity, a hypothetical point in time where technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible.[
This is a #spectacular shift.
Materialized ideology has no name, just as it has no formulatable historical agenda. Which is another way of saying that the history of different ideologies is over.
[Debord]
From my point of view, there can't be "Left Accelerationsim" One can't "push" capitalism to its final phase. That phase can only be reached by firstly, the workers having control of the MOP.
One thing I hadn't noticed until recently was the association of #Marxism with #Gnosticism among some on the Right. This seems contradictory considering that the heretical nature of #Gnostic sects was determined by the Roman Church. The Roman Church doesn't believe in the individual knowledge of God. God can only be arrived at by incantations and through earthly intermediaries. A position which contradicts the teachings of Jesus. As I made case of in recent discussion with one #Trump supporter, #Jesus and his followers were a Theosophist cult, in effect. Therefore levelling such an accusation at #Marxism, might be viewed as incongruous.
https://newsie.social/@ZhiZhu/112026279928099587 ZhiZhu@newsie.social - @protecttruth
The #NYTimes once published an article saying that #Hitler wasn’t really that bad. He was just using #antisemitism as a way to attract followers & keep them excited about his #political campaign.
The NYTimes more recently published an article saying that #Trump isn’t really that bad. He is just using threats of #violence & #authoritarianism as a way to attract followers & keep them excited about his political campaign.
CBS News analysis: Most Republicans agree with "poisoning the blood" language
That's the headline CBS led with, sort of a buzzy lead...
But I'd say this polling and results presentation is actually quite decent, in attributing the participant pools (all registered voters, and likely Republican voters), and in the effort to get a representative sampling. Nothing much to quibble with though I'm left wondering a bit about the demographics of the respondents (by age, geography, SES, a few other details). Overall, I'd say this is impressive for a news organization, both in the efforts at decent social science and in the clarity of presentation, without over-concluding big 'shockers' or under-considering some of the key determinants. So I applaud it's effort at 'neutrality' or grand conclusions.
Thin-sliced: This seems to mirror other polling and the general observation of how key beliefs are distributed between likely voters.
Beyond that; 1) Things are very close, split nearly in half by party; and 2) That is... Very Interesting
#GQP #TrumpVirus #disinformation #elections #voters #opinions #political #belief
#America vs itself: #Political scientist Francis #Fukuyama on the state of #democracy
January 13, 2024GZERO Staff
"Listen: In this edition of the #GZERO World #podcast, #IanBremmer speaks with Stanford’s Francis Fukuyama about the state of democracy worldwide and here in the US. 2024 will be a pivotal year for democracy, and nowhere more so than here at home. A quarter of Americans believe that the FBI was behind January 6. But as the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “You’re entitled to your own opinions, but you’re not entitled to your own facts.” But today, in America, we cannot agree on basic facts. On this note, Fukuyama joins Bremmer to discuss the global and domestic threats to democracy."
https://www.gzeromedia.com/gzero-world-podcast/america-vs-itself-political-scientist-francis-fukuyama-on-the-state-of-democracy
https://the.ink/p/want-to-save-democracy-watch-less
Want to save democracy? Watch less #cable $news; attend more #town meetings
A conversation with Harvard #political scientist Daniel Ziblatt about how #democracies die — and how a pro-democracy movement could keep ours alive
#ANANDGIRIDHARADAS
JAN 11, 2024
..."you have to get involved with real #organizations, where people are coming together face to face. This can mean #volunteering at your local precinct office of the Democratic Party. It turns out it's a really low bar to get involved. You could very quickly become the leader of the #local precinct office. And then you notice that nobody can meet regularly because they all have kids. So you work to set up a thing where people are sharing childcare duties, and next everyone is thinking about who should be the candidate in the next election.
...
they're voting on whether or not to introduce ranked order voting. And some of the defenders of the status quo said, "Well, I understand the national symbolism of this, but what's wrong in Lexington that really needs this reform?" Which I thought was a very good question to ask. And so people tried to make the case, "Well, if you look at who's running for office, it's all the same people over and over. Maybe if we did this, we'd have different people." So, people are engaged at the local level. And they're downloading white papers from Protect Democracy, and understanding the importance of these institutional reforms, and they can then become engaged on that level too.
That's my best answer: being engaged through real organizations, whether in local electoral politics, unions, church and religious institutions, that are addressing the real concerns of people's everyday lives.
...
There are overwhelming majorities of Americans who do value these institutions and value liberal principles, and value principles of racial equality. I was looking at some survey data on whether or not you think there should be rules, restrictions on where people can live on the basis of race. In the mid-1970s, very high percentages of Americans agreed that there should be. Today, overwhelming percentages of Americans think the opposite, conservative and liberal alike."...
..."If #conservatives put all of our #political eggs in the coming months, blaming most of our country’s problems on Joe #Biden, including #inflation, out-of-control spending, an invasion of illegal aliens through our southern border, war on police leading to more crime and murder in big cities, war on fossil fuel, war on Catholics, war on Evangelicals, etc., etc.— we’ll be at a loss on August 19th when the #Democrat National Convention opens in Chicago and President Biden goes to the camera and microphones and announces he is not running again.
However, he’s going to endorse his dear friend #MichelleObama to be the Democrat #nominee for #President of the United States. The convention hall will go wild applauding, screaming, and yelling for Michelle, and all of our attacks against President Biden will be worth little in the next 77 days."...
This free post is brought to you by American Target Advertising™ (ATA) and American Mailing List Corporation™—“ConservativeListsRUs.” ATA was the world’s first conservative direct marketing agency and still is the largest with over 85 team members