Politics Random, Random

[ti-amie]

[ponchi101]

Ok. They left the rally.
And in two weeks, they will still vote for him.

[patrick]

Ok. They left the rally.
And in two weeks, they will still vote for him.

Correct

[patrick]

With LA and DC newspapers not endorsing Harris, what actual newspaper will finally be able to endorse Harris?

[Suliso]

Ok. They left the rally.
And in two weeks, they will still vote for him.

Yes of course. People who go to political rallies are hard core supporters.

[ponchi101]

Ok. They left the rally.
And in two weeks, they will still vote for him.

Yes of course. People who go to political rallies are hard core supporters.

But the guy posting the tweets is obviously saying it as if it would make a difference.
Selective image-selection, if that makes sense.

[Owendonovan]

We can't run a parallel experiment in two parallel worlds, one in which the WP endorses Harris, and one in which they endorse Trump.
And see how many cancellations each scenario generates.
Plus, I am sure the WP gets hundreds of cancellations a day. And hundreds of subscriptions.
The numbers are meaningless without statistical context.

I asked all those on Instagram who proudly announced their WaPo cancellations if they've cancelled their amazon accounts and no longer shop at Whole Foods. No one has said yes yet.

[ti-amie]

Interesting. Apparently there are only about 35k Amish in the area but 180,000 of them sent in ballots for Tiny.







That he's gay wouldn't matter except for the hypocrisy of MAGA.

[ti-amie]

We can't run a parallel experiment in two parallel worlds, one in which the WP endorses Harris, and one in which they endorse Trump.
And see how many cancellations each scenario generates.
Plus, I am sure the WP gets hundreds of cancellations a day. And hundreds of subscriptions.
The numbers are meaningless without statistical context.

I asked all those on Instagram who proudly announced their WaPo cancellations if they've cancelled their amazon accounts and no longer shop at Whole Foods. No one has said yes yet.

Amazon Prime subscriptions won't get cancelled either.

Personally I started following the Philadelphia Inquirer but I haven't canceled either the NYTimes or WaPo.

[ti-amie]

Russian actors made fake video depicting mail-in ballots for Trump being destroyed, FBI says

By MELISSA GOLDIN, MIKE CATALINI and ALI SWENSON
Updated 8:52 PM EDT, October 25, 2024

YARDLEY, Pa. (AP) — Russian actors were behind a widely circulated video falsely depicting mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania, U.S. officials confirmed on Friday.

The video had taken off on social media Thursday but was debunked within three hours by local election officials and law enforcement after members of the public reported it.

U.S. officials said in a statement sent by the FBI that they believe the video was “manufactured and amplified” by Russian actors. The officials said it’s part of “Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans.”

The information was released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The Bucks County Board of Elections had identified the video as fake on Thursday, saying the envelope and other materials in the video “are clearly not authentic materials belonging to or distributed by” the board.

The quick knockdown of the staged video showed how election officials have learned to move swiftly to counter false narratives over the last four years, ever since a large swath of American voters became distrustful in the voting process in 2020. Yet the video’s detailed mimicking of ballots in a key county in this year’s presidential race was a wake-up call that demonstrated how committed foreign actors are to undermining faith in the U.S. voting process in the critical stretch before voting concludes.

The video showed a person sorting through what looked like mail ballots labeled as coming from Bucks County. The person, who was Black, appeared to be tearing up ballots marked for Trump, and leaving alone ballots marked for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Researchers who closely study Russian foreign influence campaigns had previously connected the video to a Russian disinformation network known as Storm-1516 or CopyCop. The network has previously shared numerous videos with false claims about Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz.

Darren Linvill, the co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, who closely studies the group, said the user who popularized the Bucks County video on the social platform X had been an early amplifier of several other narratives from this network, including the first one his team ever tracked, in August 2023.

The style and appearance of the latest video matches other videos from the network too, Linvill said.

The video used a Black actor with a foreign accent — a choice that may be intentional as a way to inflame existing divisions on American soil, according to Josephine Lukito, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin who has researched Russian disinformation.

It’s a common strategy in fake videos originating in Russia, she said.

“It tends to amplify racism, right?” Lukito said. “There’s already this kind of groundswell of discussion about immigrants that are illegally voting or immigration broadly. Russian disinformation absolutely exploits that.”

After the video had been debunked, the X user who popularized it deleted their original post and shared multiple posts from other accounts decrying it as fake.

America PAC, a super political action committee launched by billionaire X owner Elon Musk to support Trump in his bid for a second term, was among those denouncing the video — a stark contrast to the misinformation that frequently spreads on X, often spurred by Musk himself. The PAC declined a request for further comment.

There were multiple clues that immediately indicated the Bucks County video was fabricated. For example, under Pennsylvania law, election officials must wait until 7 a.m. ET on Election Day before they can begin to process ballots cast by mail and prepare them to be counted.

Other tip-offs included the dark green color on the left side of the outer envelopes — it is actually more of a kelly green — and the glossiness of the inner and outer envelopes, which in reality have a matte finish. Plus, none of the envelopes in the video had voters’ return addresses written on them.

Citizen complaints from across Bucks County and a call from the Yardley Borough police chief alerted District Attorney Jennifer Schorn that the video was circulating online. Schorn was in a pretrial conference Thursday and when she emerged she saw the calls about the video pouring in.

“Immediately at that point, we began investigating the video and made our ultimate conclusion that it was, in fact, fabricated,” she said in a phone interview Friday.

Schorn was reluctant to describe how authorities reached their conclusion, citing concerns that subsequent fraudsters could improve their tactics. She said her office has assigned two attorneys to screen allegations of fraud and that they’ll be on “24/7” on Election Day.

Both Republicans and Democrats in the county called the video out as bogus and expressed concern about how it could affect the election.

“To us, this is disinformation, aimed at scaring voters and dissuading them from using mail-in ballots or on-demand voting that uses the same mail-in ballot process,” the Bucks County Republican Committee wrote in a statement. “We have seen dirty underhanded tactics this year, from the defacing of signs, letters threatening Trump supporters, and now this video trying to scare Bucks County voters.”

Pennsylvania Sen. Steve Santarsiero, chair of the Bucks County Democratic Committee, called the video an attempt to “cast doubt on our vote by mail system and, ultimately, the outcome of the Presidential Election” in a statement.

Officials said they were heartened by the speed with which this disinformation and some other harmful falsehoods have been caught during this election cycle.

“I don’t at all blame Americans for wanting to be reassured that the system can be trusted,” Schorn said. “I don’t blame that because, sadly, you know, there are criminal entities out there that do undermine processes. I felt reassured yesterday. I felt like it worked the way it was supposed to.”

https://apnews.com/article/misinformati ... ca96b03288

___ The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

[dryrunguy]

Actually, I've never been a big fan of media outlets endorsing political candidates--mainly because such endorsements historically have not been driven by matters of policy or ethics or behavior. Instead, such endorsements have generally seemed driven by pre-determined political slant or geographic location.

That said, if they want to publish opinion pieces about the candidates, I would not object to publishing dual opinion pieces about the merits and drawbacks of each candidate. (I am aware of the Jill Stein problem this presents.)

And then there's the reality that, had the Washington Post endorsed Harris, it would have just "hardened the hearts" of diehard Trumpists who are already convinced the Washington Post is fake news. Just as a NY Post endorsement of Trump would simply harden my heart in a similar way.

I also am not aware of any evidence to suggest that an outlet's endorsement of a candidate actually changed anyone's mind or changed any votes. Of course, collecting such evidence would be difficult to do.

Finally, the talk about trying to cancel subscriptions simply because an outlet didn't endorse who you wanted them to endorse wreaks of ideological fragility. Have we really become that insecure and jaded? Do we read a newspaper's content because we trust their journalistic integrity? Or are we reading that newspaper's content because we expect them to tell us what we want to hear? And if that's the case, how are we any better or different from people who only watch FOX News or Newsmax? It's the same pathology--whether we want to admit it or not.

[Owendonovan]

But when you have a choice between a candidate running for president and another running for dictator, do we really just carry on as usual?

[ashkor87]

All this is Obama's fault...if he hadn't the hubris to think he could anoint his successor, Biden would have defeated Trump in 2016..I still think Obama felt guilty about having stopped Hilary from winning the nomination ...he would have known Hilary is a very weak candidate...

[ponchi101]

That very weak candidate won the popular vote by a few millions votes.
And Biden did not run for the nomination in 2016 because he did not want to. He made it clear he was not seeking the presidency during that election.
You have made it clear that you do not like either of the Clintons, and that is fine. But you analysis above may be skewed due to that dislike.

[ponchi101]

But when you have a choice between a candidate running for president and another running for dictator, do we really just carry on as usual?

Isn't that the way that the Dems like to play? Their Uber naive believe that the American system will always prevail? That justice will prevail? That the good guys will win?
The Dems have had 4 years to put this man behind bars. But no, you need to build such a strong case that it takes you 5 years to find the smoking gun, even though you are in a firing range. I want to see how long will Jack Smith be employed after Jan 20th (or whenever the inauguration takes place).
And then you had one woman that led Tiny in the polls by 7 points, but no, we are going with the one that is, at best, tied with him.
Dems are really good at governing. But they suck at Realpolitik's.

Serious here, not putting you on. What do you think should be done?