"Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released thousands of Russian Facebook ads on Thursday..."

"... offering the public its first in-depth look at the troubling messages used to heighten tensions among Americans during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election," USA Today reports.

Some of the more than 3,000 ads denounced Donald Trump, others his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. Many of the ads, placed by Russians posing as Americans, didn't endorse a specific candidate but spread inflammatory messages on sensitive subjects such as immigration and race to amplify fault lines in American life, targeting users from specific backgrounds and tight races in key states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia. These negative appeals included a group called Fit Black, which urged people to attend “Black Fist Free Self-Defense Classes.” Another from the Army of Jesus encouraged voters to pick a president with “godly morals" with a picture of Jesus arm-wrestling Satan....

Patterns quickly emerge in sampling the ads. Many of the hundreds of ads placed in April 2016 targeted racial divisions in American society, encouraging African-American political activism by imitating the language and messaging of the Black Lives Matter movement with posts highlighting racist incidents and others the resilience and beauty of the African-American community. A smaller contingent that month targeted conservative Facebook users. Festooned with American flags, they sounded patriotic themes including reverence for the constitution. Still others contained calls for Americans to "take care of our vets, not illegals."...

I looked at a bunch of them. There's a slideshow of 31 at the link. It's a mishmash of stupid. But who knows what weird little thing might tip somebody's vote?

ADDED: If I believed these ads mattered, I would not support voting as a way to determine who exercises governmental power. But I'm thinking that the Democrats who are making such a big deal out of these ads really don't themselves believe in democracy. They have been going on and on for a year and a half about how Donald Trump shouldn't be President. Personally, I want to believe in democracy, and what I saw back in November 2016 is that the American people voted Donald Trump into office. I accept that he is rightfully President because he won the election. It bothers me tremendously that so many people won't do that. I think they do not believe in democracy. And I know they are leaning very hard into the argument that what happened wasn't real democracy. Look at those stupid ads they've made such a big deal about!

AND: Please don't tell me about Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote. What if Donald Trump had held rallies in upstate New York and various places in California, etc. etc.? He won the election that was held. She won an imaginary election that he wasn't competing in.