"This is consistent with the overall goal of creating discord inside the body politic here in the United States, and really across the West," Steve Hall, the former CIA officer and CNN National Security Analyst, said. "It shows they the [sic] level of sophistication of their targeting. They are able to sow discord in a very granular nature, target certain communities and link them up with certain issues."...Sowing racial discord — that's what we do for ourselves. How dare the Russians get in on the action! But if they did, were they trying to defeat Hillary and elect Trump or just screwing with us more generically?
[Facebook's chief security officer, Alex Stamos] said, "the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum -- touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights."
In the end, we might think that Hillary lost because not enough black people in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin felt like coming out and voting, so maybe there was some effect, but why would just a little more racial discord make a difference?
I'd like to see these ads, but if somehow the Russians figured out how to make a devastating race-based ad, I think there would have been Americans copying that message and running it on their own and we'd have been seeing it going viral on YouTube. If it were so powerful, it would not have remained targeted to Ferguson and Baltimore. It would have broken loose and gone national, and we'd all have been talking about it.
I found that article after encountering the Pajamas Media presentation of the issue, which was linked by Ed Driscoll at Instapundit. Pajamas Media says — inaccurately, I think — "Narrative Fail: Russia Facebook Ads Showed Support for Black Lives Matter, Clinton." Here's a screenshot that sums up why I can't stand to read Pajamas Media:
It was Hall, who's not a Senator, who talked about "the level of sophistication of [the] targeting." The only quoted Senator is Burr, a Republican. So who was absurd? I don't know, but it seems that there was some sophistication — enough to know that you can screw with Americans by stirring us up about race and perhaps to see the potential to stoke cynicism about voting among black people. I guess it is absurd to infer that Russians couldn't reach that modest level of sophistication on their own and another huge leap to get to the idea that Trump must have helped them. But what Democratic Senator suggested that?
The most interesting part of this to me is: If it really is so horrible to stir up racial discord and cynicism about voting, why is it done by so many Americans — Americans who present themselves as virtuous? You can't say those Russians are outrageous if they're just spreading the same message that you yourself have been spreading.
And now, I can see that I'm caught up in a paradox. I seem to be saying that the Democrats have been spreading a message that is damaging to their cause. But the paradox is avoided if you see that the left isn't monolithic. There are people the Democrats would like to think they own, but they don't. If the Russians helped deactivate these would-be Hillary voters, they colluded with Bernie Sanders, not Trump.
IN THE COMMENTS: Amadeus 48 informs me that the greenish text does not relate to the article where it appears. It's a teaser hotlinked to another article! That is, it's not a highlight meant to draw me into the text where it is embedded, but the sort of thing that I'm used to seeing over in a sidebar. Ridiculous! What a stupid squandering of the reader's time and good will.
Okay, here's the other article, which has the title you see in the greenish writing in my screen grab. The Democratic Senator is Richard Blumenthal:
"This micro-targeting required sophistication, knowledge, and a great deal of data and research," Blumenthal told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "And the real question, as you've just asked it, is how did they know how to micro-target?.... There is speculation, to be absolutely blunt, that they received that help from the Trump campaign, which had a great deal of digital information to enable its own targeting," Blumenthal said. "So the question is, was there collusion between this Russian internet agency, a St. Petersburg firm of trolls, and the Trump campaign?"That is pretty pathetic. I love the way "speculation" simply exists, as if it were an entity, living and breathing and able to concoct conspiracy theories without any human... collusion. And I love the jackassery of claiming to be "absolutely blunt" while avoiding saying who is doing the speculating. Is it him, right there, on Wolf's show?
Why would you need a "great deal of digital information" to find black people in Ferguson and Baltimore? Even if it weren't a matter of common knowledge, isn't Facebook designed to do the targeting for anyone who ponies up the cash to advertise?
Posts
132 comments:
"They are able to sow discord in a very granular nature, target certain communities and link them up with certain issues."...
I thought the media covered Ferguson et all pretty heavily.
Were they in on it, too?
I am Laslo.
One of the things that seems curious is would the Russians on their own have that level of sophisticated knowledge about the American political system, if they didn't at least get some advice from someone in America?
Senator Mark Warner, top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee.
That was back on March 30th, so it was not specific to the recently revelation of the facebook ads, but we don't know what info the intelligence committee had at that point.
I wonder if future history books will refer to this period as the Third Red Scare. Not a fear of communism, of course, but still a particularly febrile case of Russophobia.
The Soviets did it much better in the 60's (SDS) and 80's (CNF).
PJM lards on the click-bait.
Obama ruled, in part, by creating racial discord, for which he pretended to be the solution. His DoJ went in a stirred things up. His WH guests stirred things up.
It's not a huge leap for the Hillary campaign to think that on the whole, racial unrest favors (D)
in reality, the Russian meddling is just Putin doing what they have done for years. Getting payback for our charges that Russian elections are wired, by sowing the same sorts of discord in our political process.
Hands up don't shoot was a lie pushed hard by the D-hack press. Not the Russians.
It is a lie.
I'm reading this as: The left are losing their grip on holding back the damn of lies that help them. For example -- all the lies about Ferguson, Michael Brown and "hands up don't shoot".
A specific lie that was pushed hard by most major media outlets and the NFL.
So now it's "blame the Russians!" - don’t believe your lying eyes and please delete your memory.
It's a lie that was never corrected by the very same hack press who pushed it. Rachel Maddow interviewed Michel Brown's accomplice over and over as if he was a credible witness. Did the Russians force Maddow to do this?
It isn't a paradox if you recognize how easily narratives are shifted to suit leftie needs. 'Fake news' as a narrative was developed to counter outrage at President Hillary's private server felonies and leaked emails, for example. It isn't too difficult to consider how the 'Russians hacked the election so Hillary should be made President' and the leftie ginning up of racial hatred has backfired and therefore requires shifting the narrative to muddy the waters and shift blame.
It's what they do.
Ann--The material in green is a link to a story involving Senator Richard Blumenthal:
"On Wednesday evening, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) suggested that using Facebook to target the cities of Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, Md., for Black Lives Matter-themed ads would be too sophisticated for the Russians to figure out on their own. So how did they do it? "Collusion" with the Donald Trump campaign, of course!
"This micro-targeting required sophistication, knowledge, and a great deal of data and research," Blumenthal told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "And the real question, as you've just asked it, is how did they know how to micro-target?"
As usual, the Democrat grasped at straws, attempting to pin the Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election on Donald Trump. "There is speculation, to be absolutely blunt, that they received that help from the Trump campaign, which had a great deal of digital information to enable its own targeting," Blumenthal said."
I agree PJ Media's teaser format is confusing.
I think the "absurdly" headline is appropriate if the info below is accurate. Here are sections I found on PJ Media that has some quotes from Senator Blumenthal:
".....
On Wednesday evening, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) suggested that using Facebook to target the cities of Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, Md., for Black Lives Matter-themed ads would be too sophisticated for the Russians to figure out on their own. So how did they do it? "Collusion" with the Donald Trump campaign, of course!
"This micro-targeting required sophistication, knowledge, and a great deal of data and research," Blumenthal told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "And the real question, as you've just asked it, is how did they know how to micro-target?"
As usual, the Democrat grasped at straws, attempting to pin the Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election on Donald Trump. "There is speculation, to be absolutely blunt, that they received that help from the Trump campaign, which had a great deal of digital information to enable its own targeting," Blumenthal said.
"So the question is, was there collusion between this Russian internet agency, a St. Petersburg firm of trolls, and the Trump campaign?"..."
Amadeus beat me to it.
So, will this stop the Mueller investigation? I'll answer that, NO!
Just a quick point of clarification. The text in blue on the PJ Media pages are not excerpts or highlights from the story you're currently reading (as is common with magazines and newspapers), but rather links to another separate, but related story.
So you have to click the link to see the story where a Democratic Senator makes the absurd suggestion. You won't see that in the article you're currently reading.
In the end, we might think that Hillary lost because not enough black people in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin felt like coming out and voting, so maybe there was some effect, but why would just a little more racial discord make a difference?
We could think that, but why assume the lack was created by this specific activity? Alternatively this activity increased turnout from what it would otherwise have been but other Hillary related factors ensured the starting baseline was too low for this to be decisive.
I seem to be saying that the Democrats have been spreading a message that is damaging to their cause.
It seems to me the honest evaluation is that this Russian activity helped Hillary and only resistance to that conclusion is creating the "paradox".
Ok, I am ready for Trump to pardon Julian Assange in exchange for his proof that it was not the Russians.
I bet it's the Russians making NFL players kneel during the anthem.
Putin's Razor.
I am Laslo.
So what did Trump and the Russians do in Ferguson?
Any specific charge?
We already know the corruptocrat party and their corrupt media lied lied lied and lied some more about it, in order to spread racial animosity and deadly revenge inspired hatred of police.
The most interesting part of this to me is: If it really is so horrible to stir up racial discord and cynicism about voting, why is it done by so many Americans — Americans who present themselves as virtuous? You can't say those Russians are outrageous if they're just spreading the same message that you yourself have been spreading.
And now, I can see that I'm caught up in a paradox. I seem to be saying that the Democrats have been spreading a message that is damaging to their cause
Exactly.
But what is the press saying about itself in reporting this story. I got a news alert from CNN about it. What role did they play in covering this story, and ido *they* believe they hurt Democrats by talking about BLM so much?
"They are able to sow discord in a very granular nature"
When Hillary was Secretary of State she approved the sale of a large quantity of American discord granules to the Russians. Coincidence?
CNN is complaining about Russia spreading lies and creating discord with those lies.
That's rich.
We're getting close to the"dog ate it" excuse.
The Russians have been fucking with our domestic politics to ferment discord and doubt in our democratic process for almost a century, usually with democrats help. With the last year and a half of continual collapse of Democrat ever changing charges of Trump "collusion" with Russia is proof that Democrats are once again stepping up to the plate as useful idiots.
Adam Schiff for sure. He is the main sayer of stupid things for the Democrats on this topic. Hillary has said it numerous times.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article160803619.html
Love Ace HQ headlines,
"What They Promised: Smoking Gun Proof of Trump-Russia Collusion
What They Walked That Back To: Russia Bought Some FaceBook Ads
What It Is Now: Russian Ads Promoted Black Lives Matter
—Ace"
The "New Left" is an interesting term. And yes, these people seem to have some attitude in common with the Khmer Rouge.
Who would've thought hatred of the traditional, religious, privileged, ruthlessly self-interested, irrational, anti-Science, provincial, bourgeois, redneck, fat-cat, white-male, uneducated, judgmental, business-loving, slave-owning, war-mongering, Red-baiting, Gaia-plundering, anti-Semitic, neo-conservative, self-reliant, originalist, falsely-conscious, racist, sexist, misogynistic, homo and Islamo-phobic fascists....
....has ever united the many disparate groups and individuals of 'the Left'?
The Russians would have been a lot better off with Hillary. The blackmail opportunities are vast.
Vlad Brezhnev, Russian Internet Troll...
The Americans, they are so easy. They have the Black Problem, so I post things about the Blacks. The Blacks get angry, the Whites get angry, everybody angry. Like I said: it is so easy...
There are other Russians who specialize in the Facebook and the Twitter. Me, I do my best work in the Internet Porn...
Maybe you saw one of my video. A black woman comes to take away a white man's guns. He says you can't take away my guns, and then he fucks her in the ass. It got many many views, I tell you...
I make another video, a white cop arrests a black man. The black man says "Hands up, Don't Shoot" and then the cop, he fucks him in the ass. That one had the Black AND the Gay -- I was very proud...
You Americans with your Blacks: it is like taking a baby's candy...
I am Laslo.
Why pretend Sen. Adam Schiff or Hillary Clinton have even a shred of credibility at this point in time concerning this hot mess of pretend. The shit that comes out of these two individuals' pie holes is delussional.
"I make another video, a white cop arrests a black man. The black man says "Hands up, Don't Shoot" and then the cop, he fucks him in the ass. That one had the Black AND the Gay -- I was very proud..."
very hot
Who can tell the difference between Russian trolling and the real made-in USA leftist thing?
@ Chris N
You forgot shotgun-pumping, cousin humping and toothless.
Hey, you Ruskie sonsabitches, you can't sow racial discord in our country! Only we can sow racial discord in our country!
amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum -- touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues
I don't think I have ever seen CNN describe "LGBT matters" or anything to do with BLM as "divisive".
How is targeting Ferguson and Baltimore with a BLM evidence of sophistication? It might be evidence of sentience, but I'm not bold enough to say that even. But if you were actually going for impact, relatively low population areas like Ferguson or even Baltimore aren't where you'd go, so it's actually just evidence the person has little understanding of US geography most likely.
Honestly, I don't even think this is evidence of any organized campaign. If I'm a relatively nihilistic, tech savvy guy, the 2016 election was a goldmine of internet ad dollars. The trolling was out of sight. Just create some website, make some trollish Facebook posts to drive traffic to that site (counting on everyone foaming at the mouth to click through), then get other advertisers to pay for ads on the site you've just driven traffic to. It's basically arbitraging political insanity through ad spend.
And if profit motive is sufficient to explain this, we should use Occam's Razor generously towards the conspiracy mongering of the current Democratic Party (and Lindsey Graham).
But the paradox is avoided if you see that the left isn't monolithic. There are people the Democrats would like to think they own, but they don't. If the Russians helped deactivate these would-be Hillary voters, they colluded with Bernie Sanders, not Trump.
Let set the Althouse Way-Back Machine to January 7, shall we?
EDH Said... (Jan 7, 2017)
If Hillary was indeed the target of Russian espionage (phishing) and propaganda, it seems to me the long-range Russian strategy was more likely intended to facilitate the ascendency of the Sanders-Warren wing of her party over the establishment rather than to specifically aid Trump.
After all, much of the inculpatory information released revealed how the DNC establishment, the Clinton campaign and the media coordinated to rig the primary process against Sanders.
The underlying inconsistency of the intelligence report's assessment of Russian strategic intent is revealed in the “Annex,” which describes RT “Strategic Messaging” on behalf of Russian government “interests in areas such as foreign and energy policy.”
The content of that messaging is summarized in the report by several bullet points that read like a Bernie Sanders stump speech:
Occupy Wall Street. "Information warfare aimed at promoting popular dissatisfaction with the US Government. RT created a Facebook app to connect Occupy Wall Street protesters via social media. In addition, RT featured its own hosts in Occupy rallies.”
Civil Liberties. The United States as a "surveillance state" with “widespread infringements of civil liberties, police brutality, and drone use.”
Economic Injustice. “RT has also focused on criticism of the US economic system, US currency policy, alleged Wall Street greed, and the US national debt. Some of RT's hosts have compared the United States to Imperial Rome and have predicted that government corruption and "corporate greed" will lead to US financial collapse.
Anti-Fracking. “RT runs anti-fracking programming, highlighting environmental issues and the impacts on public health. This is likely reflective of the Russian Government's concern about the impact of fracking and US natural gas production on the global energy market and the potential challenges to Gazprom's profitability.”
Non-Intervention. “RT is a leading media voice opposing Western intervention in the Syrian conflict and blaming the West for waging "information wars" against the Syrian Government. In an earlier example of RT's messaging in support of the Russian Government, during the Georgia-Russia military conflict the channel accused Georgians of killing civilians and organizing a genocide of the Ossetian people.“
Of course, by suggesting that Russian interests are aligned with the left, instead of Trump, that's "McCarthyism."
1/7/17, 5:08 PM
Vlad Brezhnev, Russian Internet Troll...
You Americans, it is always about the Blacks. In Russia we would solve the problem very quickly, but you are weak, and you scratch and scratch at it like a mangy dog with the many fleas...
I make a porn video, a white cheerleader gets fucked in the ass by a black football player. Sure, it seem so simple, but here is the genius: I play the American National Anthem on the soundtrack as it happens. It get SO many views...
Then I go one better: while the National Anthem plays a black football player fucks a white football player in the ass, they are wearing the helmets and the shoulder-pads. The Black and the Gay, that is what America you obsess over: you make my job so easy...
I am Laslo.
Russians have an amazing propaganda set up.
Including:
- commenters / with up or down vote on sites.
- rt today
- friendly reporters
- buying online ads
They have updated for the internet age!
Their goal - help Russia, cause problems for the US.
Facebook includes all the micro targeting ability you need, nothing external needed besides a credit card.
using Facebook to target the cities of Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, Md., for Black Lives Matter-themed ads would be too sophisticated for the Russians to figure out on their own.
Really? So, how stupid do the Democrats think the Russians are? Can they walk and chew gum at the same time? The Russians couldn't figure this out on their own, so they turn to TRUMP the Master of the Universe to tell them what to do?
It is a double triple flip blind move. Make it seem like you are supporting Hillary, while creating more racial unrest, while Hillary thinks racial unrest is helping her, while it really is helping Trump and it helps the Russians in the long run (how?)
Either Trump is so Machiavellian that he controls the world. Or the Russians are so stupid they can't do anything on their own. Or Trump is a dupe taken in by the smart and wiley Russians.
Which is it? I'm confused on who I am supposed to direct my two minutes of hate at today.
Thanks, Amadeus. I've added to the post.
It never occurred to me that a link to another article would be presented in a format that is so widely used to highlight material in the text where it is embedded. It's a device used to pull you into a LONG article, and this article was pretty long (and included more than one "load more" button). I wasted a stupid amount of time searching for the Dem. Senator who said the thing. So annoying!
I'd like to see these ads,
If only they were real! Sigh.
This micro-targeting means they reached a micro-audience and had micro-influence. Or they would have if they had existed.
It seems that former president Obama was fully synchronized with the Russians and Vladimir Putin in terms of message and goals and objectives.
There is speculation
Right up there with People are saying. he should've gone for broke: People are saying that there is speculation. Then CNN can report on it, and then the Post can quote CNN. And so it goes, reporting about absolutely nothing factual.
No mystery at all here. The Russians like all Europeans have been stressing the seeing of America as a messed up racially divided absurdity for over 70 years. And they still enjoy sticking it to the World Hegemon.
The mystery is why the American Media tripled down on that same point of view since 1990. And of course the answer is the New World Order also has to eliminate the World Hehemon...that one that DJT is putting first and declaring great again. The horror of what happened November 8,2016 is sinking in. And Mueller and Soros can't stop it with hired fake news and hired mobs.
Why would you need a "great deal of digital information" to find black people in Ferguson and Baltimore? Even if it weren't a matter of common knowledge, isn't Facebook designed to do the targeting for anyone who ponies up the cash to advertise?
Exactly. Once again exposing the absolute abject ignorance of the Democrats (and probably the Republicans too) of how our technology and digital world works. They are worse than clueless.
And....these are the ignoramuses that are making laws that affect everything we do. /facepalm
Book on Russian disinformation. Available through the althouse portal. From the blurb on Amazon.
Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism
The highest-ranking Soviet bloc intelligence official ever to defect to the West, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa is at it again. Indeed, within these pages, Pacepa, along with his co-author, historian and law professor Ronald Rychlak, expose some of the most consequential yet largely unknown disinformation campaigns of our lifetime. Here the reader will discover answers to many crucial questions of the modern era: Why, during the last two generations, has so much of the Western world turned against its founding faith, Christianity? Why have radical Islam, jihad and terrorism burst aflame after a long period of apparent quiescence? Why is naked Marxism increasingly manifesting in America and its NATO allies? What really happened to Russia after the Berlin Wall came down? Like the solution to a giant jigsaw puzzle lacking one crucial piece, Disinformation authoritatively provides the missing dimension that makes the chaos of the modern world finally understandable. By its very nature, a disinformation campaign can work only if the seemingly independent Western press accepts intentionally fabricated lies and presents them to the public as truth. Thus, Pacepa and Rychlak also document how the U.S. mainstream media's enduring sympathy for all things liberal-left has made it vulnerable to--indeed, the prime carrier of--civilization-transforming campaigns of lying, defamation and historical revisionism that turn reality on its head. In Disinformation, you'll discover: How destroying the reputation of good leaders has been developed into a high art and science. How Pope Pius XII --a generation ago the world's most high-profile Christian leader, who personally saved countless Jews from Hitler's Holocaust--was transformed, through the magic of disinformation, into a Nazi sympathizer. How Christianity and Judaism have been targeted for constant denigration and defamation through an ongoing campaign of disinformation. How the Soviet bloc planted 4,000 agents of influence in the Islamic world, armed with hundreds of thousands of copies of the most infamous anti-Semitic book in history, to fan the flames of ancient Arab resentments against the U.S. and Israel and sow the seeds of anti-Semitism that would later bloom in the form of violence and terror toward Jews and Christians. How the defamatory attacks on American soldiers John Kerry made before Congress upon his return from Vietnam--charges later discredited and repudiated--were identical to a contemporaneous KGB disinformation campaign concocted to turn Americans against their own leaders. How supposedly respectable institutions like the World Council of Churches have long been infiltrated and controlled by Russian intelligence. How much of the world came to believe that the U.S. government itself masterminded the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. How the Soviet Union has been transformed into the first intelligence dictatorship in history. How disinformation is still very much alive in the age of Obama, remaining a powerful engine in the ongoing socialist transformation of America. All this and much more is meticulously documented in Disinformation, with the credibility of an eyewitness who was not only there, but actively involved as a Soviet bloc spy chief--who, thanks to a crisis of conscience, left the dark side and came to America to help shine a light on the greatest source of political evil of the modern age.
Luckily we no longer need Russian interference to explain how Hillary could possibly have lost the election she had in the bag. She H>erself has provided us with a whole laundry list of Others to blame for this otherwise inexplicable loss.
"I thought the media covered Ferguson et all pretty heavily.
Were they in on it, too?"
What they were in on was ramping up Black disillusionment with their lot in society that they bought for themselves by supporting Dem politicians, esp in big cities like Saint Louis. They live in extremely violent hellholes, terrorized by unfathered thugs. BLM was built on intentional falsehoods pushed heavily by the MSM (Dem operatives with bylines). One of the biggest was "Hands Up Don't Shoot". The police and other law enforcement knew almost from the first that the claim was a lie. The trail of spent shells and blood over them clearly showed that Brown was continuing to charge Officer Wilson, as Wilson back peddled, trying to keep Brown from closing, hitting him in essentially three volleys, once to the arms, then torso, and finally to the head, with Brown stopping with each, then restarting his advance. And there was Brown's DNA on the inside of Wilson's Tahoe, where Brown had reached in (slugged Wilson several times and then) tried to take his gun away. The autopsy showed that Brown didn't have his hands up, nor was he on his knees, at the time of his death. Rather he was advancing on Wilson with his arms down. This was all well known within days of Brown's death.
Where did the lie originate? Apparently, with his accomplice Darian Johnson. Brown was young, and maybe a bit naïve. Johnson was a bit older, probably smarter, and clearly a lot more streetwise, having had a number of brushes with the law already. When the shooting started, he made himself scarce, ultimately recanting his testimony about what happened, as making himself scarce meant that he hadn't actually seen what happened. Why the lie? Because he was an accomplice with Brown of several violent felonies against Wilson when Brown slugged Wilson while sitting in his Tahoe and tried to take his gun away. Johnson admitted accepting the stolen cigarillos from Brown to free up his second hand to use on Wilson. That was bad enough legally, but worse, being an accomplice, was the potential for criminal liability for Brown's death as Felony Murder. "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!" took the pressure off Johnson, and put it on Wilson and the Furguson PD (the city quickly settling with Brown's family for maybe $1.5 million, despite knowing all of the above). Even a year later, Johnson had not been arrested for any of this, nor for his lying to the police, that was instrumental in starting the riots that ravaged the city in the aftermath.
And the MSM (Dem operatives with bylines) pushed the knowingly false narrative as hard as they could. They didn't need Russian help there - they were taking their lead directly from the White House.
Black judge decides that Black Lives Matter can't be sued.
Vlad Brezhnev, Russian Internet Troll...
I make video, there are twenty black men wearing 'Black Lives Matter' shirts, and they do the bukkake all over a girl dressed like the serious business-woman. I make the girl wear the Serious Eyeglasses and everything...
It's funny: you white people don't like the blacks, but you'll watch twenty black men spunk on a white business-woman. I think this is because of your white women's Feminism: sure the men are black, but the white woman is uppity, too, and so she is getting what she deserves. That is what I think.
I am Laslo.
"This micro-targeting required sophistication, knowledge, and a great deal of data and research," Blumenthal told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
-- What? How much research and data was required to say, "Hey, let's advertise BLM where BLM is already advertising?"
"One of the things that seems curious is would the Russians on their own have that level of sophisticated knowledge about the American political system, if they didn't at least get some advice from someone in America?"
-- The level of sophistication demonstrated requires, at most, a surface level skimming of CNN's Top Stories or the NYT. Racial unrest was a front page news stories for weeks.
Castigating Black Lives Matters should have goaded more blacks to vote out of anger and defiance. How was that supposed to hurt Hillary?
Why assume the goal was discord? Weren't these ads just clickbait? "Here's what Hillary doesn't want you to know!" "You won't believe what Trump is up to now!" "Here's what the starts of The Brady bunch look like today!" The goal is $$ not discord.
I have no quantitative proof (no one does), but my suspicion is that the actually effect that this sorts of fake "targeted ads" is negligible at best. There's no shortage of more legitimate nonsense on Facebook anyway, stuff that's funded openly by foreign governments and organizations with all sorts of highly questionable and outright fraudulent claims and data.
Let's be honest here, it's not just Facebook. The entire goddamned internet is awash with misinformation, bad data, misleading clickbait headlines, false claims, fake stories, unsubstantiated rumors, and straight up poorly bad journalism. A large portion of it comes from places that people believe are legitimate. It is what it is. Consumers of the internet need to become much more savvy and cynical. In the face of that it seems almost absurd to make such a big deal about these sorts of nefarious doings. Russia has tried to mess with us forever, and we try to mess with them right back. So what?
"Ridiculous! What a stupid squandering of the reader's time and good will. "
My sentiments exactly -- of a person who goes to the trouble of screenshotting an article, accusing it of mucking up sources, but who fails to click the great fucking obvious link she took a screenshot of.
"And there was Brown's DNA on the inside of Wilson's Tahoe, where Brown had reached in (slugged Wilson several times and then) tried to take his gun away."
Sorry. I forgot to mention that the evidence there showed that Wilson had discharged his firearm while still in the Tahoe, with the bullet striking Brown in the hand, leaving his blood in the vehicle, and GSR on Brown. He claimed that Brown had tried to take the weapon away from him. All evidence indicates that Brown's arm and hand were in the vehicle at that time, corroborating Wilson's claim to have been attacked while still sitting there (Including some of Johnson's testimony).
Bruce Hayden 9:29 - thank you.
The hack press did everything they could to promote the accomplice's lies.
Richard Blumenthal should know, he learned all about sophisticated misinformation during his years of combat during the Vietnam War.
@Althouse, the simplest way out of the apparent paradox is not to assume that the Democrat strategists are all that bright when it comes to understanding the electorate -- or at least that part of the electorate which lives outside their big cities and coastal regions.
Newly released video of Althouse reading PJM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4CN_cIrHQ8
Do we know whether the Russian ads were before, after, or during the riots?
Might give us some indication if they were at all effective.
"or at least that part of the electorate which lives outside their big cities and coastal regions."
-- The rise of Sanders says that, well, maybe they're not too great at that either.
Laslo needs to storyboard the "meet-cute" between Vlad Brezhnev, Russian Internet Troll and a life-long republican which leads to Vlad's amazement at how much more effective the Life long republican is at thwarting the US' long term strategic interests by operationally aligning with the MSM and the left.
The Russians are exploiting the diverse nature of this country using new digital techniques. That's what it comes down to. This is what the right has always said but now the left is saying it. But CNN and others are trying to turn this into an anti-right argument by saying that this use of new digital techniques was taught to the more stupid Russians by Clever Right-wing American Propagandists led by Master of the Matrix Donald Trump who wanted to use the Russians to win the election because Trump and his Moron Brigade couldn't have won the election on his own because he's stupid and they were raping kittens. Hmm.
But anyhow here is some digital flow from some Master of Tricks. I hope no one is taken in. The Denver Broncos PR team has issued a statement:
"Our locker room is one diverse place and that's what makes it so special. It's where thoughtful intelligent leaders from all different races religions and backgrounds come together." I expect Putin personally wrote that so it had to go in but I would keep razors away from the PR people for a few days.
Ads can be fb posts that are promoted.
This way you can write a post that links to an article that promotes x by say The NY Times or a blm Fb page,
Have lots of people on their troll farm like it.
Target a zip code, say Fergusson for males between the age of 15-40 that like RAP (or done particular rap star), perhaps add incomes between x dollars. Or who like a blm fb page.
Pretty soon you are targeting the people most likely to protest. And inviting them.
I did not expect anything useful to come out of this Russian investigation, but the info on Russian disinformation proves me wrong.
I expect the investigation to shut down soon, this discredits the narrative.
Mathew Sablan:"-- What? How much research and data was required to say, "Hey, let's advertise BLM where BLM is already advertising?"
Maybe quite a bit....for the lefties.
Remember, Hillary did not campaign where Trump was already campaigning in the the midwest.
To be absolutely blunt, speculating Dems are doing the Russians' bidding, in a form of meta-collusion. Which is now becoming obvious. Which undercuts anyone's faith in their sanity and patriotism. Which helps Trump. Which must be due to uncommonly clever strategizing by "the right."
"This micro-targeting required sophistication, knowledge, and a great deal of data and research," Blumenthal told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "And the real question, as you've just asked it, is how did they know how to micro-target?.... There is speculation, to be absolutely blunt, that they received that help from the Trump campaign, which had a great deal of digital information to enable its own targeting," Blumenthal said. "So the question is, was there collusion between this Russian internet agency, a St. Petersburg firm of trolls, and the Trump campaign?""
....I haven't seen a single person on here talk about whether this actually requires sophistication or data/research. I was one of the earlier adopters of facebook advertising in 2009-2011 and one of their top 50 spenders on that channel of facebook revenue.
Targeting baltimore/ferguson is not "micro-targeting" - it's "geo-targeting" and it's an entry field on facebook that ANYONE can do. You upload your ad/text, you select where you want it to play, when, and among which demographics. You select how much you are willing to spend on it. That's it.
So basically if you decided your strategy was to sow racial discord in america, you'd determine how to do that - you could do that by watching American news. Then you'd find the places where there was substantial discord in place - you could do that by watching American news. Then you'd use facebook's existing platform.
This is amateur-level propaganda because it's taking advantage of an existing situation, location, and group.
And isn't it FASCINATING that promoting BLM is viewed as a way to "promote racial discord"? Doesn't that tell us alot about how BLM has, itself, positioned?
Ralph
Have the riots ever stopped in St, Louis?
Greenwald continues to impress me. Here's a good post on this.
https://theintercept.com/2017/09/28/yet-another-major-russia-story-falls-apart-is-skepticism-permissible-yet/
The fact that we are not seeing these ads that we're on Facebook and Twitter is a tell.
These ads were pro Hillary or pro Democrat in some way.
If they were at all pro Trump, they would be showing us the ads.
Instead, they are concocting conspiracy theories and leading us to believe whatever they think will damage Trump.
Show us the ads.
Why does our media suck so bad?
"MadisonMan said...
There is speculation
Right up there with People are saying. he should've gone for broke: People are saying that there is speculation. Then CNN can report on it, and then the Post can quote CNN. And so it goes, reporting about absolutely nothing factual."
CNN is nothing more than cheap whore being pimped out by the Democratic Party.
Yeah, I'm wondering if CNN's positioning of this story and the lack of coverage of the riots in St Louis are related.
I am reminded of Iowahawk's incomparable tweet about racial healing being his favourite part about the Obama years.....
the Russians hacked our brains and turned us against the wonderful poor innocent Hillary.
eric said...
Why does our media suck so bad?
They were educated exactly as our academia desired.
Sophisticated targeting with a great deal of research...
Hyperbole anyone?
The Soviets used to plant stories in the western press and when people complained liberals would roll their eyes and say it's just ham-fisted propaganda, nobody falls for it. But here liberals have convinced themselves that Trump stole the election with Putin's help and they become hysterical ninnies. Suddenly Moscow is manipulating American opinion at will.
Was there no financial incentive here? My previous understanding of fake news was that you could make some money selling ads on it. If this is true in this situation, the goal isn't to foment discord but to monetize it.
i thought racial discord helped democrats. at least, that is what dems have been doing for last 20 years.
besides, the real russian motivation to help hillary was to stop fracking in the us, which is a legit threat to russian rule and petro-daollars.
eric said...
"Why does our media suck so bad?"
Because they're suckers.
Here's a terrific piece by the investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein, he of JFK assassination fame: Putin's Motives.
As he points out (and has been obvious), the Russians clearly knew that their activities would be monitored by US intelligence and anything they did would be discovered. But they wanted to be discovered not because they favored Trump or opposed Hillary but because they wanted to raise doubts about the election.
Mission accomplished.
there is a term for what the dems are doing and its called "projection"
Has anyone published any of these ads anywhere? If you (any of you) have seen them I would like a link.
A ha! Here is Facebook's reason we can't see them. Theoretically they've already been out in the public domain, so what's the big deal? CYA much?!? The General Counsel's post referred to is bullshit piled on bull shit. Let me ask a simple question: If the people at Facebook are supposed to be so smart and virginal and so on-top-of-everything why didn't they catch this as it was happening?
PJM's use of links to other articles in that way is highly frustrating and a big turn-off re. going further down their rabbithole / into their "ecosystem", as it were. They should try another tactic.
As for the Russian's requiring special help to know that Baltimore and Ferguson (!!!) are racial hotspots, it's not like the media hasn't been feasting on those two cities' race issues for the past few years. They basically set the "Here's where to sow discord / here are the powderkegs" map in what seems to be their prinicipal editorial motivation anymore.
Well, we're right back to where we were in October-November of 2016--Russia has for several years been trolling around the edges of Western elections and politics, trying to undermine the legitimacy of governments and create confusion.
That is what the whole "Russia hacked the election" lunacy looked like then, looks like now, and looked like every intervening second from then until now.
It never made sense that Russia would explicitly work to elect to candidate who promised to strengthen the US military and to unleash more US energy production in order to drive down prices and free America from dependence on foreign energy sources. The Democrats tried to get around this by saying that they had good information that they couldn't share (sources and methods, y'know) that Putin was really upset at Clinton about the Ukraine, 2014--presumably upset enough to throw away the pillar of Russian politico-economic strategy in a fit of pique.
Which does not at all sound like Putin, but does sound a LOT like most of our hopelessly infantile and corrupt political establishment, thinking they see Putin when all they are doing is looking at themselves.
"Castigating Black Lives Matters should have goaded more blacks to vote out of anger and defiance. How was that supposed to hurt Hillary?"
Spot on. To think otherwise is to believe President Obama, the DOJ (pre-final report), CNN, MSNBC and the rest were all trying to hurt Hillary.
Ridiculous.
If anything they were trying to tell the black voting block, things are still bad for you because racism. Better support Hillary. The one standing between you and the (white) apocalypse.
"That is pretty pathetic."
That is Richard Blumenthal.
Vlad Brezhnev, Russian Internet Troll...
Internet porn is very good way to influence the American people. When they are doing the masturbate they are receptive to persuasion because their pants are down and they are in Happy Time...
Like, you have two white men having the fuck with a white girl -- one in her mouth, one in her vagina hole -- and, when it starts getting the real hot, a black man comes in and starts fucking her in the ass. The people doing the masturbate, they can't stop now, they do the masturbate and look at the shaved black balls...
You want to influence how Americans think, you show them a naked white woman and then you show them the shaved black balls. You Americans are so easy...
I am Laslo.
I can see you're trying to understand the allegations, and Ed Driscoll, Pajamas Media, and your commenters aren't going to give you any help.
The claim is that the Russian operation sought to drive down white working-class Democratic turnout (not black) in specific states (Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). In that context, I hope you can see how highlighting the racial discord in Ferguson might accomplish that goal. "Other ads showed support for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton among Muslim women," the Pajamas Media piece notes. There are far more Democratic votes to be lost than gained in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin with a pitch like that.
I'm a collusion skeptic, but Ed Driscoll and Pajamas Media are covering this story the same way the New York Times covers stories that might possibly benefit the right: with a pillow.
The whole thing is utterly absurd. By the liberals' own admission, Russia spent a measly $100,000 on the Facebook ads. In contrast, Hillary and her friends spent $1,200,000,000 in the 2016 campaign...
The whole thing is ridiculous.
I wish I was paid by the Russians. I could use the money.
I am Laslo.
Interesting point about the next-to-no coverage of the St. Louis riots.
This compared to wall-to-wall coverage of similar problems 2014-2015.
Its as if the news media was told to smother it; and by impkicatiin, was, at the time, told to play up and amplify the Ferguson/Baltimore/NY business as much as possible.
Its as if the news media were and are operating in coordination with someones political needs. When the old political strategy proved counterproductive the orders changed.
Hillary and Podesta can buy a lot, CA morons etc... but the rest of us are not for sale.
Interesting point about the next-to-no coverage of the St. Louis riots.
...
Its as if the news media was told to smother it
Tin, foil, meet hat. Never... again, and again, and again.
That said, Plan another baby for the barbie, they are done.
"isn't Facebook designed to do the targeting for anyone who ponies up the cash to advertise?"
Right now Facebook is serving me an ad for daycare (not applicable) and an ad for expensive flip-flops (I don't wear flip-flops, and it's fall.)
More like shotgunning.
We [as Americans] absolutely will NOT stand for Russians sowing racial discord in our great country! That territory belongs to the Democrats!
We've morphed from "Russia stole the election for Trump!" to "Russia placed ads on FB, which kinda sorta may have benefited Trump in some indirect fashion!"
Mueller should indict FB as a collaborator.
Count me as one who dislikes PJ Media's sensationalism, but they are a mirror image of CNN's sensationalism.
E.Prole,
But if highlighting racial discord in Ferguson and Baltimore is supposed to hurt Democrats, why were the Democrats putting in such extraordinary efforts at exploiting them? And they were; these were the most covered stories in the US news media for those years.
And the BLM and Democrats were organizing similar riots contra Trump from March to September 2016, with, moreover, the collusion of local officials in San Jose, Chicago and elsewhere.
>Right now Facebook is serving me an ad for daycare (not applicable)...
I'm kind of amazed at how bad website analytics can be.
I'm following an English translation of a Japanese comic book distributed through Amazon. I've bought 28 volumes. It did not occur to them that I might also like volume 29 when it became available.
My takeaway is this: Internet advertising doesn't work. This is common knowledge.
Media experts: Except when the Russians do it!
Senator Blumenthal: And they only know because the Trump campaign told them!!
With these magical superpowers, I don't think Trump needed any help at all.
"I'm following an English translation of a Japanese comic book distributed through Amazon. I've bought 28 volumes. It did not occur to them that I might also like volume 29 when it became available."
Ha! Yes, typical. I bet it thought you might like the ones you already bought though. I constantly see ads for things I recently purchased. "We see you liked these shoes enough to buy them? Want to buy them again? No? You're kidding. Well, how about the shirt you bought a few weeks ago. Surely you want to buy that over and over..."
If the sort of circumstantial evidence concerning media collusion were a matter of military intelligence analysis, it would long since have started a search for HQ bunkers and fiber-optic infrastructure, wherein to plant a few JDAMs.
It would pay richly to ID the sources of orders and the mechanisms by which they are transmitted.
Most advertisers on FaceBook don't know what they are doing. It's very easy to waste money on Facebook. You can do the micro targeting if you can figure out whom your customers are, or the shot gun approach.
>Right now Facebook is serving me an ad for daycare (not applicable) and an ad for
>expensive flip-flops (I don't wear flip-flops, and it's fall.)
Right now Facebook is serving me an ad for daycare (not applicable) and an ad for expensive flip-flops (I don't wear flip-flops, and it's fall.)
Went to check:
Low Maintenance Hot Tubs
Asphalt Paving
Hmmm.
"I'm following an English translation of a Japanese comic book distributed through Amazon. I've bought 28 volumes. It did not occur to them that I might also like volume 29 when it became available."
-- I'd like to say that's because they know you're probably already going to buy that, so why waste the money advertising you things they know they'll sell to you.
But, I frequently get ads for books on Facebook I post about having just bought or completed, so, who knows how it works.
At the time Democratic Supporters thought this would increase the Black Vote.
When they figured out it was not and was actually helping Trump, it died. Similar to what happened with occupy wall street.
>But if highlighting racial discord in Ferguson and Baltimore is supposed to hurt
>Democrats, why were the Democrats putting in such extraordinary efforts at exploiting
>them?
>I bet it thought you might like the ones you already bought though.
I've seen that happen a lot too. Once I bought a netbook computer on Amazon and their recommendations included the same computer, in different colors. I would like to have enough money to buy that.
>
-- I'd like to say that's because they know you're probably already going to buy that, so why waste the money advertising you things they know they'll sell to you.
That would make sense, but these are Amazon recommendations, not really ads they would have to buy. It comes out irregularly, so I need to search for it.
To give Amazon credit, they're doing something right with their recommendations. My nephew is in school to become a commercial diver, I bought a few of my favorite books on the subject, and Amazon is now suggesting books on diving. Good work there.
At the same time though, they seem to think that I want every Starbucks state and city mug ever made.
CG: "CNN is nothing more than cheap whore being pimped out by the Democratic Party"
Nonsense.
CNN is very much a "boiler room girl" for the dems. Always willing volunteers to help the dems/left causes, always available for extra-curricular activities, and always available for late-night "swims" with future dem presidential candidates.
The ads, if they are as described, were designed to help Hillary and the Democrats politically, not hurt them.
The entire media narrative is being demonstrated to be be a complete fabrication, and unbiased people can't be fooled by it any longer.
A rumor that just started. May be it's Russian disinformation, or may be it's real.
Basically the Raiders OL allowed the sacking of a quarterback 4 times, who did not kneel.
No way to prove it either way -perfect rumor.
According to this wapo story at hotair, political ads don't work.
Amadeus 48 informs me that the greenish text does not relate to the article where it appears. It's a teaser hotlinked to another article!
I, too, find PJMedia to be an infuriating site. Reading a story there is like being teleported into the midst of a five-way conversation among a bunch of 4 AM drunks.
It's high time they doffed the jammies and put on their big boy pants.
Dust Bunny Queen quoted someone who said:
Why would you need a "great deal of digital information" to find black people in Ferguson and Baltimore? Even if it weren't a matter of common knowledge, isn't Facebook designed to do the targeting for anyone who ponies up the cash to advertise?
And she added:
Exactly. Once again exposing the absolute abject ignorance of the Democrats (and probably the Republicans too) of how our technology and digital world works. They are worse than clueless.
To which I say:
Agreed. Anyone who knows how to read English can find plenty of books on Amazon discussing how to target groups using Facebook ads. That is their freakin' business model! Indie authors have been doing this for years. One of the big proponents is English thriller writer Mark Dawson, who offers a video course that many authors have found effective. (BTW, he writes a great thriller series, and he doesn't make a big deal out of his, but he's Richard Dawson's son, which I find amusing.)
It is not rocket science. It is not difficult to do. Except to a politician and the crooked media.
Christ! I feel like everyone in DC is taking stupid pills.
Nothing on content at hand...can't help but chuckle whenever my old Loudcloud co-worker Alax Stamos is quoted in these stories. He was down the OpsSec ladder then; but now he's a king.
Russia wrote the "Let's burn this mutherfucker DOWN!" line for that boy's father.
He originally wanted to say "Motherfucker."
True story.
The United States have been under attack from marxist/communist propaganda since the end of WWII.
Black Liberal Theology, Critical Race Theory? Both KGB constructs. The seeds of racial discourse planted in academia 40 years ago are now bearing fruit.
Sounds crazy, but the data is sound. There is a direct line from the Frankfurt school to Russians operating a Blacktivist facebook page to stoke the fires of Ferguson.
FFS...we are talking about the 2016 election. One candidate claimed the other was "crooked" and should be locked up. The other candidate warned that no woman's pussy would be safe from grabbing if the other guy won. This went on for months...primaries, debates, conventions and daily pundit dissection. And the media wants me to believe that some advertising or posts about BLM or Ferguson on Facebook was going to convince me and millions of other citizens to change our votes?? How stupid do they think we are?
if highlighting racial discord in Ferguson and Baltimore is supposed to hurt Democrats, why were the Democrats putting in such extraordinary efforts at exploiting them?
It’s a really good question, buwaya. The Democrats’ extraordinary efforts at exploiting racial discord have produced the worst electoral results for the party in a hundred years. Republicans now control the entirety of the federal government and dominate state government with 32 legislatures and 33 governors (as the Daily Kos helpfully tells us). Democrats control the government in just six states. Racial discord (and other radical projects) is killing Democrats; the question is why they refuse to see what is plainly clear to everyone else.
If you want to do micro targeting Facebook and google have been working with democrats for years.
Look up google analytics.
The obvious better question is why are the Russians and democrats trying to do the same thing.
Q: exploiting can be fanning the flames or showing ability to put out fires.
Democrats chose poorly and lost yugely.
From the blatant spying/unmasking of all viable Republican Presidential candidates to the more effective psy-op campaign to influence perceptions in the news/social media, there are two names you will never hear mentioned. They are invisible.
Ben Rhodes
George Soros
Everyone is too busy plucking the low hanging fruit to look up and see what kind of tree it is.
Having watched RT (Russia Times) commentaries on cable, I feel pretty confident that any ads bought by Russia or Russians will be not clearly partisan from our perspective. That is, these commentaries I have watched made no sense at all if you understand America and our politics, and thus I predict that when we see the Russia ads we will say WTF because it won't make sense. So far the rumor is that it looks like some ads supported Trump and some Hilary--but why wouldn't they all support Bernie? Because their message and strategy are incoherent.
Thank you, Ann, you are hot today. Full Amen to both this post and the Dr Seuss/ librarian post. As for Pj Media, the argument is between whether all of their authors are morons, or just most of them. I cut slack for Glenn Reynolds on constitutional issues and ignore his driving advice. I wish you read better fiction and were a little more responsive to poetry, but you are great on Dylan and I love your headshot.
if highlighting racial discord in Ferguson and Baltimore is supposed to hurt Democrats, why were the Democrats putting in such extraordinary efforts at exploiting them?
Because the left and the Soviets/Russians have been joined at the hip since 1917.
It has been reported Russia set up a fb page backing black power:
Key points
Name: blackivist
Likes: 360,000 vs 301,000 for blm
Contents: black power related such as black panthers, police shootings, etc
Promoted 6 rallies in 2016
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/09/russian-meddling-promoted-black-lives-matter.php
The smart way to do fb advertising is get a page like, then it's cheaper to reach them.
Advertisements can include promoted posts, video, banners, etc
The goal is make it look like content, and not an advertisement.
People have banner blindness.
You need to do lots of a/b testing to find the right audience to target, and adv content.
Effective fb advertising is more about targeting than just a shotgun approach. You need repeated touches to get an action.
Dr. Althouse: Even if it weren't a matter of common knowledge, isn't Facebook designed to do the targeting for anyone who ponies up the cash to advertise?
Yes, and the "level of sophistication" here is just that one can glean by reading a book or two.
The major political challenge of our era is navigating the waters of a generation of profoundly ignorant political "leadership" that has been completely and utterly overtaken by events in technology and, especially, digital communication. Marketing and persuasion generally, cryptocurrencies, the "dark web..." all well outside the ambit of understanding of anyone who's made a career in politics.
And that's extraordinarily dangerous to liberty, not non-existent Russian hacking.
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