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Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

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You are here: Home / Politics / An Unexamined Scandal / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: #FaceBorked

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: #FaceBorked

by Anne Laurie|  March 20, 20186:23 am| 212 Comments

This post is in: An Unexamined Scandal, C.R.E.A.M., Dolt 45, Election 2016, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Russiagate, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?

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(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)
.

Of course it's infrastucture week. They're digging holes and shoveling shit aren't they?

— TreasonWeasle (@TreasonWeasle) March 20, 2018

Michelle Goldberg, in the NYTimes, on “Trump’s High-Tech Dirty Tricksters”:

…After days of revelations, there’s still a lot we don’t know about Cambridge Analytica. But we’ve learned that an operation at the heart of Trump’s campaign was ethically nihilistic and quite possibly criminal in ways that even its harshest critics hadn’t suspected. That’s useful information. In weighing the credibility of various accusations made against the president, it’s good to know the depths to which the people around him are willing to sink.

Created in 2013, Cambridge Analytica is an offshoot of the SCL Group, a British company that specialized in disinformation campaigns in the developing world. It’s mostly owned by the Mercer family, billionaire right-wing donors and strong Trump supporters. Before becoming the Trump campaign’s chief executive, Steve Bannon was Cambridge Analytica’s vice president. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who has since pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I., also served as an adviser to the company…

At a minimum, we’ve learned that the Trump campaign’s vaunted social media program was built on deception. Shortly after the 2016 election, Forbes ran an article crediting Jared Kushner for his father-in-law’s shocking triumph. Thanks to digital tools, it said, the traditional presidential campaign was dead, “and Kushner, more than anyone not named Donald Trump, killed it.”

For those who knew something of Kushner’s pre-election career, this portrait of him as some sort of analytics genius was befuddling. The small, gossipy New York newspaper he’d owned, The New York Observer, didn’t even have a particularly good website. “He wasn’t tech-savvy at all,” Elizabeth Spiers, the paper’s former editor in chief, told me.

Cambridge Analytica’s corruption helps provide the missing piece in this story. If the Trump campaign had a social media advantage, one reason is that it hired a company that mined vast amounts of illicitly obtained data.

There’s a lesson here for our understanding of the Trump presidency. Trump and his lackeys have been waging their own sort of psychological warfare on the American majority that abhors them. On the one hand, they act like idiots. On the other, they won, which makes it seem as if they must possess some sort of occult genius. With each day, however, it’s clearer that the secret of Trump’s success is cheating. He, and those around him, don’t have to be better than their opponents because they’re willing to be so much worse.

Trump won the election by leveraging stolen data from a shady firm and stolen emails from a foreign power. He received $30M from the NRA that might’ve originated in Russia. And Congress might be being blackmailed or bribed to go along with it. This is a criminal enterprise.

— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) March 20, 2018

Interesting that when Clinton seemed to have Cambridge Analytica's number last May… pic.twitter.com/PjlXI3EKRB

— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 20, 2018

You just know this is going to end with Trumpies going to jail for trying to bleach their servers, right?

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) March 19, 2018

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)
.
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Reader Interactions

212Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    March 20, 2018 at 6:28 am

    After days of revelations, there’s still a lot we don’t know about Cambridge Analytica

    We’ve learned a lot about media like the NYT, however, and how many stories they missed in 2016 because they were corrupted by Hillary hate.

  2. 2.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 6:29 am

    What’s the “hurdle” that must be cleared for the Mercers’ activities to be declared treasonous?

    Asking for a friend.

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 6:29 am

    Good Morning Everyone ???

  4. 4.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 6:31 am

    @Baud:

    We’ve learned a lot about media like the NYT, however, and how many stories they missed in 2016 because they were corrupted by Hillary hate.

    Will you please STOP blaming the NYT/media for the Dems running the Worstest Cannidate Evah (insert trademark symbol)?

    ETA: Perhaps we should start referring to Hitlary as “WCE.”

  5. 5.

    Chyron HR

    March 20, 2018 at 6:34 am

    @SFAW:

    Mock if you want, but Hillary would have won if she’d embraced her primary opponent’s “White working class lives are what REALLY matter” platform.

    ETA: Perhaps we should start referring to Hitlary as “WCE.”

    Sounds like a wrestling league. Roman Reigns might come after her looking for another title belt.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    March 20, 2018 at 6:36 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning.

    @SFAW:

    If she was such a bad candidate, why did they need to form one of the most sinister international conspiracies in history to defeat her? (I know you were snarking.)

  7. 7.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    March 20, 2018 at 6:39 am

    What Hillary said next is really get to the heart of collusion:

    So the Russians — in my opinion and based on the intel and the counterintel people I’ve talked to — could not have known how best to weaponize that information unless they had been guided.

    Guided by Americans and guided by people who had polling and data information.
    (link)

  8. 8.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    March 20, 2018 at 6:41 am

    Our new NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll has Democrats with a 10-point advantage over Republicans in congressional preference for the 2018 midterm elections.

    but, but…. the tax cut!

  9. 9.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 20, 2018 at 6:41 am

    Robert Gibbs is useless. He’s trying to do a “both sides” argument on Morning Joe. Mika had to stop him. Sigh.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    March 20, 2018 at 6:43 am

    @SFAW

    “WCE.”

    Too easily confused with certain other entities as it would be pronounced “wiki.”

    :)

  11. 11.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 6:45 am

    @Baud:

    If she was such a bad candidate, why did they need to form one of the most sinister international conspiracies in history to defeat her?

    But they didn’t. As you know, were it not for California, New York, and a few others casting 83 million Fake Votes (i.e., votes not cast by economically-anxious WWC voters) for her … um, something something LOOK OVER THERE!!!

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 6:46 am

    @NotMax:

    Too easily confused with certain other entities as it would be pronounced “wiki.”

    Everybody’s a critic.

  13. 13.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    March 20, 2018 at 6:46 am

    Even the liberal Wall Street Journal:

    Republicans are losing support among groups they typically rely on to push them over the top. Since January, Republicans are down three points among all white voters, down six with voters who live in GOP districts, down seven with suburbanites and down nine with white-collar workers. By the way, the GOP is also down double-digits with young voters.

    the erosion is increasing

  14. 14.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    March 20, 2018 at 6:47 am

    That Jack Ohman comic depresses me. Or rather the reality of “we should thank Russia for giving us The Orange Saint” that it reflects depresses me. I would hope we could get a majority of voters to get angry at being led by the nose by a foreign country. But I don’t know how to get there.

    I guess there’s little or no hope of convincing any of them to leave the cult. The only hope is to outnumber them.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 6:48 am

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: A candy bar in every pot!

  16. 16.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 6:48 am

    Trump won the election by leveraging stolen data from a shady firm and stolen emails from a foreign power. He received $30M from the NRA that might’ve originated in Russia. And Congress might be being blackmailed or bribed to go along with it. This is a criminal enterprise.

    — Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) March 20, 2018

    Twitter truth

  17. 17.

    PaulWartenberg

    March 20, 2018 at 6:49 am

    I’m looking for alternate social media tools for my library to use to outreach to the public other than Facebook.

    Intsagram is a part of Facebook, right? (dammit)

  18. 18.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    March 20, 2018 at 6:51 am

    @SFAW: I don’t think you can have treason without war. Although I do believe we are in a hot cyber war with Russia (one where they’ve already won a lot of ground) it doesn’t fit the legal definition of war in the sense of shooty things happening.

    “Conspiracy against the US” works for me as a “peace”-time charge.

  19. 19.

    Chyron HR

    March 20, 2018 at 6:52 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Robert Gibbs is useless. He’s trying to do a “both sides” argument on Morning Joe.

    That’s probably why his brothers didn’t let him join their band.

  20. 20.

    cosima

    March 20, 2018 at 6:54 am

    https://www.newsandguts.com/link/time-package-bomb-explodes-fedex-texas/

    Likely linked to the other bombs. Wonder if they are closing in on this lunatic?! What on earth will they find when they do? Bunker/house full of bombs?

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    March 20, 2018 at 6:55 am

    @David Merry Christmas Koch

    One factor which helped nudge enough Congressional Rs to break with Nixon once enough stones had been turned over in Watergate was that ’74 was an election year and they could not deny their own butts were squarely in the crosshairs come November if they continued to either support him or to sidestep the situation.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 6:56 am

    #Pizza4Protesters: community backs students over gun control walkout

    Wellwishers have been crowdfunding to send pizza to 225 students at a Pennsylvania school who were given detention for taking part in protests against school shootings.

    Students at Pennridge high school took part in a national school walkout on 14 March against the wishes of the school board. The board warned pupils in advance that anybody taking part in the protest would receive the standard punishment for skipping class – a Saturday morning in detention.

    Anna Sophie Tinneny, one of the students who helped to organise the protests and get the message out on social media, told the Guardian: “Two hundred and twenty-five students walked out of the front doors for 17 minutes of silence and a few speeches afterwards. As we walked into the school, we were put in single-file lines and had to sign up for detention before returning to class.”

    The students then turned the detention into another opportunity to protest. They attended the session on Saturday wearing signs bearing the names of those killed at the Parkland school shooting in Florida, and turned the detention into a sit-in.

    Kids these days.

  23. 23.

    Tony Jay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:01 am

    Humpty Trumpty ran on a Wall
    Humpty Trumpty had a great Fall
    All the Tsar’s hackers and all the Zuck’s men
    Couldn’t keep Trumpty out of the Pen.

    From a History of 21st Century America: The Pelosi Years

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    March 20, 2018 at 7:02 am

    (*yawns, stretches*)

    Good late dinner followed by an even better nap. Gonna shift the brain into neutral to idle for a while and veg out with some Spanish time travelers on Netflix.

  25. 25.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    March 20, 2018 at 7:03 am

    @NotMax: It’s interesting, a key bellwether in the 1974 landslide was a special election in middle Pennsylvania: marine veteran Jack Murtha turned a red seat blue.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:04 am

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    That part I don’t really believe. They wouldn’t need professionals to understand the GOP base. The GOP base makes themselves known on FOX and social media every day.

    I’m having trouble with the assumption that is some complex, super-smart psy-ops. Have you seen what these people pass around? Obama with a bone in his nose? The Russian government wouldn’t need the expert guidance of Steve Bannon to know “the people passing that around would probably respond to racist appeals”.

    I’m open to the “cooperation” charge but you really don’t need any unique insight into anything to see what they respond to- they tell us what they respond to, loudly, incessantly, every fucking day.

    Donald Trump announced it again yesterday. His “opiate” speech was 90% xenophobia. Last week they all decided that school shootings are the result of schools not expelling enough black kids, and that is – wait for it- the fault of Obama. Every single conservative “solution” is the same solution. Kelly-Ann Conway is a dishonest, mean spirited, greedy political hack. She’s not a master of psychology. The Russian government may have coordinated with her but it wasn’t for her unique insight- it was for access to Trump. It’s not what she knows. It’s who she knows.

  27. 27.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 7:05 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I don’t think you can have treason without war.

    I’ve heard that from some of our resident pettifoggers. Not being a lawyer mineself, I don’t know whether war needs to be declared for an opponent to be declared an “enemy.” (As in: “providing aid and comfort to our enemies.”) But since, as far as I can recall, the US has not declared war on anyone in 75-plus years, one wonders whether that distinction is still operative.

    ETA: Not disagreeing with your “conspiracy” comment, by the way. Also: “shooty” may no longer be a requirement, but as I said, not a lawyer.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    March 20, 2018 at 7:08 am

    @Kay:

    They wouldn’t need professionals to understand the GOP base. The GOP base makes themselves known on FOX and social media every day.

    Two things. One, they are not steeped in that culture everyday like we are, so even if they understood that the racsim could be exploited, they would still need help to carry it out effectively.

    Two, they also targeted left wingers, and pretty sophisticatedly.

  29. 29.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 20, 2018 at 7:10 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Love these kids!!! They’re on fire. The NRA has met its match.

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 7:10 am

    @Kay:

    I’m having trouble with the assumption that is some complex, super-smart psy-ops. Have you seen what these people pass around? Obama with a bone in his nose? The Russian government wouldn’t need the expert guidance of Steve Bannon to know “the people passing that around would probably respond to racist appeals”.

    But the unreachable-only vote would not have been enough to put Shitgibbon over the top.

    Of course, when you factor in voter suppression in key states, it took a lot less to flip them to Lying Littledick.

  31. 31.

    satby

    March 20, 2018 at 7:11 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning! Happy primary day, fingers crossed we can throw some bums out today (looking at you Dan Lipinski!)?

  32. 32.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 7:12 am

    @Baud:

    Two, they also targeted left wingers, and pretty sophisticatedly.

    Why, whatEVAH do you mean, suh?

  33. 33.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:12 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Robert Gibbs is useless

    Robert Gibbs was always terrible. He was a lousy spokesperson Obama’s first years in office. I think it was a costly mistake. He picked dumb fights that elevated Robert Gibbs rather than the President’s agenda and he didn’t engage at all in the fights that mattered.

    I think he works for McDonald’s now. I want a crawl underneath these people that lists who they actually work for, and their compensation. That seems like the minimum information the public needs. It’s deceptive to put them on and pretend they aren’t on specific lobbying payrolls. It’s a game and the public isn’t told the players or the rules.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    March 20, 2018 at 7:13 am

    Goddamn, this Jim Jordan is an asshole.

  35. 35.

    satby

    March 20, 2018 at 7:13 am

    @Kay: the Trumpites aren’t the smart psy-ops folks, they just hired the smart guys.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    March 20, 2018 at 7:14 am

    Take care, Betty. News says you are getting hit with some weather.

  37. 37.

    debbie

    March 20, 2018 at 7:14 am

    @rikyrah:

    Why no mention of the Mercers? Are we supposed to believe they’re innocent dupes?

  38. 38.

    Woodrowfan

    March 20, 2018 at 7:15 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: but according to the righties, some kids ate Tidepods on Youtube so we need not pay attention to anyone under the age of 30 or so

  39. 39.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    March 20, 2018 at 7:15 am

    I assume many of you have heard this already but if not, you’ll want to. It’s Tonight/Found, the mash up Lin-Manuel and Ben Platt made in support of March for Our Lives.

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    March 20, 2018 at 7:16 am

    @Kay

    Rules? It’s Calvinball all the way down.

  41. 41.

    debbie

    March 20, 2018 at 7:17 am

    @Kay:

    Steve Bannon is who they should look to in regard to coordination. This was just one part of his plan to orchestrate his “moment in history.” I haven’t heard anyone mentioning him, and I have to wonder why.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:19 am

    @SFAW:

    I’ll give you my super-smart data-based take on Trump’s opiate speech. White Republican opiate addicts have decided to blame their problems on immigrants and black people. Their communities are collapsing and they don’t want to talk about that, so they have decided to follow Donald Trump when he tells them they don’t have to take responsibility for it- they can blame it on outsiders “coming in” to their communities.

    They know this isn’t true- after all, they live in these places- but it makes them feel better about themselves.

  43. 43.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 20, 2018 at 7:20 am

    @Kay: Yeah, he spoke about some environmental endeavors McDonalds was engaging in. Useless.

  44. 44.

    NotMax

    March 20, 2018 at 7:21 am

    @debbie

    He’s currently busy over in Europe expressing his worship of Mussolini.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    March 20, 2018 at 7:22 am

    @Kay:

    White Republicans opiate addicts have decided to blame their problems on immigrants and black people. 

    They are nothing if not consistent.

  46. 46.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 20, 2018 at 7:22 am

    @SFAW: pettifoggers?! Why, that is defamatory—I demand satisfaction!

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 7:24 am

    @Kay: It’s the American way: IT’S THEIR FAULT!!!

  48. 48.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:26 am

    @debbie:

    That’s one of the reasons I wish there were more people than Mueller looking at it. And I know it’s not “Mueller” alone but he’s the lead. There should be more people looking at it because different sets of people working at the same time catch things each team (alone) misses. Investigators settle on theories of what happened. They all deny this and say they are “following facts” but if they had different teams they would be less likely to fall into that trap.

    But, apparently, all we get is the special counsel. And Stormy Daniels lawyer, who is really quite good but isn’t a public servant.

  49. 49.

    satby

    March 20, 2018 at 7:29 am

    @Kay: pretty confident that there’s a few states attorneys also investigating aspects of this as it applies to their state laws. We know the NY one is, for instance. Wouldn’t be surprised to find out the California is as well, since FB is based there.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:29 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    environmental endeavors McDonalds was engaging in. Useless

    Guffaw. He’s not subtle! He’s a moron.

    He went to work for McDonalds just as the Obama Labor Dept was lobbying for new rules for franchises as far as wages and just as the NLRB issued a decision that scared the shit out of low wage employers and just as the Fight for Fifteen campaign was having some successes. That wasn’t a coincidence.

  51. 51.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 7:33 am

    @Steve in the ATL:

    pettifoggers?! Why, that is defamatory—I demand satisfaction!

    I’d send my second, but who the hell knows where you are this week? SFO? ATL? Shemya? Pago Pago? Moskva?

    Or does the “satisfaction” you’re talking require me to send an “escort” over to your place?

    And besides, I never said that. Fake BlogComment News!

    ETA: By the way: doesn’t something have to be untrue for it to be considered “defamatory”? Asking for that same friend as in comment #2

  52. 52.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:33 am

    @satby:

    THIS is kind of interesting. COUNTY prosecutors in Ohio are pursuing opiate marketing lawsuits. Purdue Pharma. I was blown away by this. They’re forming a kind of coalition, which they will need because each office won’t have the resources for litigation like that. My county joined. They have 5 prosecutors and one investigator. They wouldn’t be able to do it alone.

    They’re doing it because our corrupt AG (who is also the GOP candidate for gov) is pretending it didn’t happen.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    March 20, 2018 at 7:36 am

    @Kay:

    What did you think of Trump’s proposal to impose the death penalty on pharmaceutical companies that distribute opoids?

  54. 54.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 20, 2018 at 7:36 am

    @SFAW: DFW

    And d’oh! Yes, truth is an absolute defense to defamation.

  55. 55.

    debbie

    March 20, 2018 at 7:36 am

    @Kay:

    I just listened to Jim Jordan insist that Mueller should wrap it up because he hasn’t come forward with anything. As if anything should be brought forward before the investigation is completed! And he says that after stating he went to law school (but didn’t graduate and pass the bar)! Gah!

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 7:38 am

    @Kay:

    White Republican opiate addicts have decided to blame their problems on immigrants and black people.

    Yeah. His speech in NH talked about Lawrence, MA, a city with a relatively high Latino/Hispanic population. I wonder why he would have singled them out?

    Reminds me of the good old days when John Silber talked about Cambodian welfare cheats in Lowell, MA.

  57. 57.

    B.B.A.

    March 20, 2018 at 7:38 am

    Theresa May has threatened a boycott of the World Cup in response to Russia’s actions on British soil.

    See, libtards? Trump isn’t in Russia’s pocket, because America is already boycotting the World Cup!

    …oh, wait. :(

  58. 58.

    satby

    March 20, 2018 at 7:40 am

    And I missed the thread John put up last night about FB, but he isn’t far wrong really. The ads were targeted to people based on what they unknowingly revealed about their biases and personality, and yeah that’s bad, but the people already were inclined to vote however they did. I still think the larger threat has always been our news media, which doesn’t even bother to do investigative reporting like the British news that broke this story. Without widely disseminated factual news to counter FB memes, Twitter twaddle, and hate radio the country was a sitting duck.

  59. 59.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 7:40 am

    @Steve in the ATL:

    And d’oh! Yes, truth is an absolute defense to defamation.

    I rest my case. Figuratively speaking, that is, because I wouldn’t want to be accused of practicing law without a license. [Not to be confused with those who DO have a license, but … uh, never mind.]

  60. 60.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    March 20, 2018 at 7:41 am

    Michael S. Schmidt
    ‏ @nytmike

    Dowd wants to quit. Trump’s talking about firing Cobb. Another lawyer — who says FBI made up evidence against Trump — was hired today and more new lawyers may be on the way.

    42 replies 126 retweets 170 likes

    So much winning

  61. 61.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 7:41 am

    @debbie: How many indictments has Mueller come forward with so far? Jordan must have slept thru those parts.

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 7:42 am

    @B.B.A.:

    Theresa May has threatened a boycott of the World Cup in response to Russia’s actions on British soil.

    It would mean more if she were talking about the team boycotting, not the government officials alone. Or has she changed since last week?

  63. 63.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    March 20, 2018 at 7:42 am

    Despite being the son of a billionaire, Donald Trump Jr. reportedly was stingy with his wife Vanessa Trump — to the point where she had to ask her parents for money.

    Page Six reported Monday that according to friends, Trump Jr.’s soon-to-be ex-wife is divorcing him because he “treats her like a second-class citizen,” and kept her on a much “tighter budget” than one would expect.

    “He gives her very little help and has been keeping her on a tight budget,” a source close to the divorce told Page Six. “She doesn’t live a lavish life and can very rarely pick up a check at dinner.”

    It’s as if Drumpf really isn’t rich.

  64. 64.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 7:43 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Jordan must have slept thru those parts.

    Well, it could be that he was awake, but just a moron.

  65. 65.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    March 20, 2018 at 7:43 am

    Jealous Corey Lewandowski leaked info about Rob Porter’s abuse because he wasn’t over Hope Hicks: report

    Run the government like a business.

  66. 66.

    Amir Khalid

    March 20, 2018 at 7:44 am

    @NotMax:
    He was just in France, not long after that interview, telling the Front National to wear their racism as a badge of honour. Maybe he’ll show up in Germany next to say nice things about AfD.

  67. 67.

    satby

    March 20, 2018 at 7:44 am

    @debbie: Jim Jordan is a Republican and his task is to help throw doubt on the Mueller investigation. The journalist’s job should have been to counter what he said, exactly as you just did. Sadly, no journalists on the morning circle jerk.

  68. 68.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 7:44 am

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    because he wasn’t over Hope Hicks

    And Porter was?

    Sorry

  69. 69.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:45 am

    Rural white people need to put some effort into figuring out why their kids are so fucked up. “Outsiders” didn’t do this, and “liberals” didn’t do this. They run these places, top to bottom. My county has one of the highest overdose rates in the state (per population) and it is 100% conservative from the school board to the mayor.

    They need to look at why they lose so many young men to drugs and repeat incarceration and why so many of their young men can’t hold a job- any job- and are VIOLENT- obsessed with weapons and hurting people and on a kind of hair trigger where they’re constantly offended and lashing out These are the young people THEY raised.

    They spent 20 years moaning about “urban dysfunction” and meanwhile their own children were falling off a fucking cliff. They lost a whole generation and they’re letting Donald Trump tell them it’s the fault of Mexican immigrants? Cowards.

  70. 70.

    Tony Jay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:45 am

    @Kay:

    I think Bannon was the one who said, before the Election, the key to their operation was ‘suppressing Democratic support’, and that’s where the Cambridge Analytica/RNC/KGBot stilleto wedge was inserted most effectively. Sure Trump could rely on the wholehearted support of the Wingnut Base, he was their dream candidate, a real Tribune of the Deplorables, but they weren’t enough. His campaign needed to peel away Left and Squishy Centrist support from Hillary and make it internally justifiable for a large chunk of the 2016 Electorate to either vote 3rd Party or hold their nose and vote for Trump. They did that by targetting a wide range of lies, propaganda and conspiracy theories towards the groups whose online data records suggested they’d be most vulnerable to them. Everyone got their own bespoke version of why Hillary Clinton/The Democrats/The Other were dirty, corrupt, in hock to Wall Street/The Saudis/Ben & Jerry, war-mongering neocons/peacenik appeasers, etc, etc. Whoever you were, as long as you were following social media or a mainstream media source that took its slant from whatever tasty memes were trending out there, you were the target of a sustained campaign to leverage the idea that Hillary Clinton was just as if not more corrupt than Donald Trump and it was morally excusable to punish her at the voting booth.

    And it worked. Leaving aside the possibility/probability of actual fiddling with vote rolls to suppress votes even further the 2016 Election saw a candidate who – should – have won the votes of at least 60% of the electorate lose to a racist POS. It. Worked. Like you’ve said yourself many times it’s vitally important to nail down the how and the why to stop it happening again. The Cambridge Analytica story starts doing that in a way people can follow and understand.

  71. 71.

    JMG

    March 20, 2018 at 7:47 am

    Here’s one element of this I don’t think has been mentioned here. When I was in the business, newspapers and especially local TV news loved “man in the street” stories where random citizens spouted off on some event or other. Now this has been replaced by “what’s trending on social media” which is far cheaper to do. Insipid as man on the street stories were, at least they involved real people, which is more than social media can say for itself much of the time. Local TV news is far and away the most influential journalistic enterprise in our society.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:47 am

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    I think they are cheap. Trump wanted to arm “volunteers” in schools because it was “free”.

    They’ll spend a million dollars on helicopter flights to haul their useless asses around but they’re looking for cheap fixes for school shootings.

  73. 73.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 7:48 am

    @SFAW: She is being sympathetic to the fans and athletes who wait 4 years for the chance to stand on top of the football world.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:48 am

    @Tony Jay:

    Thanks. That makes more sense to me. They probably would need help with exploiting the divisions in the Democratic Party.

  75. 75.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 7:50 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Can’t tell if you’re snarking.

  76. 76.

    bystander

    March 20, 2018 at 7:50 am

    @debbie:

    Goddamn, this Jim Jordan is an asshole.

    Why, yes. Yes, he is. He’s a B-movie Nazi posing as a tennis playing country clubber.

  77. 77.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 7:51 am

    @JMG:

    Local TV news is far and away the most influential journalistic enterprise in our society.

    Well, then, thanks be to FSM that Sinclair Broadcasting is fixing that.

  78. 78.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 20, 2018 at 7:52 am

    It was so easy to characterize Hillary Clinton as unhinged and paranoid when she said these things. If anything it was a toned-down version of the truth.

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 7:53 am

    @SFAW:

    Sorry

    No you aren’t, you’re SFAW.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:54 am

    @Tony Jay:

    My 15 year old told me at one point in the campaign “Hillary Clinton is a liar”. I was really taken aback by this because he was so certain. He saw some kind of mash-up video on you tube. That I believe. That manipulating liberals was effective. Manipulating conservatives was effective too- I just question whether one needs “data” to do that.

  81. 81.

    Baud

    March 20, 2018 at 7:54 am

    @Matt McIrvin: Remember, they laughed at her when she warned of the vast right wing conspiracy. Once again, she was right and the haters were wrong.

  82. 82.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 20, 2018 at 7:55 am

    @Kay: They can always blame TV, movies, video games, rappers with saggy pants…

  83. 83.

    bystander

    March 20, 2018 at 7:55 am

    The LEGO Movie is on Nick. What a great distraction from Moanin’ Joe with some Saudi apologist and smug, self-aggrandizing David Ignatius.

  84. 84.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 20, 2018 at 7:55 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Like what is an impeachable offence, what constitutes war is what the Congress thinks is war.

  85. 85.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 7:55 am

    @Kay: What, you mean take responsibility?

  86. 86.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 7:56 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Robert Gibbs is useless. He’s trying to do a “both sides” argument on Morning Joe. Mika had to stop him. Sigh.

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

  87. 87.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 7:56 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It’s frustrating to me that Americans see such unequivocal action in the UK in response to this and we get this bullshit dissembling and “it’s not bad enough yet to do anything” here.

  88. 88.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 20, 2018 at 7:58 am

    @SFAW: Fucking Trump. Lawrence is practically my backyard, I know people there, I’ve done jury duty there. ICE is yanking people from meetings with immigration officers there and deporting them. He’s fucking with my neighborhood.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 7:59 am

    @SFAW: Try this then: Football fans are very passionate. And they vote.

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:01 am

    @HillaryClinton testifies for 11 hours on live television, answering every question put to her. Yet coward @realDonaldTrump refuses to be questioned by Mueller in private while doing everything he can to discredit the US Justice system…on Putin”s orders? #RyanMcConnellAreSilent

    — Cassandra (@CassandraApollo) March 20, 2018

  91. 91.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 8:02 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It’s really hard! This problem they have is a hard problem and instead of wasting time blaming immigrants they better get cracking. I don’t know what’s wrong with these young men, but something is. They have a kind of sick culture where they are aggrieved. They are so angry! It isn’t working for them. They’re not really growing up. Trump will be the fucking death of them. He was the last thing they needed.

  92. 92.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:02 am

    @SFAW:

    What’s the “hurdle” that must be cleared for the Mercers’ activities to be declared treasonous?

    Asking for a friend.

    Long past treasonous, IMO.

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:03 am

    Cambridge Analytica scandal rocks already rattled Trump world

    As Donald Trump’s lawyers are desperately trying to protect him from a Robert Mueller interview and the top level firings keep piling up, Rachel Maddow looks at a whole new arena of scandal for the Trump team.

  94. 94.

    Lapassionara

    March 20, 2018 at 8:04 am

    @Tony Jay: This. I had a FB friend who was convinced that HRC stole the nomination from Bernie, and whose rants during the election seemed unhinged to me. I do not know where she got her supposed “proof” of the alleged crimes, but she was spreading the types of allegations that someone who thinks 9/11 was an inside job would spread.

    Poisonous.

    Good morning, everyone

  95. 95.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 20, 2018 at 8:05 am

    @Amir Khalid: I remember the interviews in the US where Bannon was trying to distance himself from Richard Spencer, implying the “alt-right” wasn’t him. He’s such a liar. The only thing he doesn’t like about Spencer is that he’s an obvious loser.

  96. 96.

    Baud

    March 20, 2018 at 8:05 am

    @Lapassionara:

     I had a FB friend who was convinced that HRC stole the nomination from Bernie, 

    You’re Facebook friends with Elizabeth Warren?

  97. 97.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:07 am

    @Tony Jay:

    Humpty Trumpty ran on a Wall
    Humpty Trumpty had a great Fall
    All the Tsar’s hackers and all the Zuck’s men
    Couldn’t keep Trumpty out of the Pen.

    LMAO!!!

  98. 98.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 20, 2018 at 8:08 am

    @rikyrah:

    By my recollection, Gibbs was Bernie-curious in 2016.

  99. 99.

    oldgold

    March 20, 2018 at 8:08 am

    Is there any evidence CA/ Trump shared this targeting information with the Russians?

    If proven, that’s the ballgame – collision.

  100. 100.

    Tony Jay

    March 20, 2018 at 8:09 am

    @Kay:

    It’s also worth saying that none of this would have worked as effectively as it did if the US Media hadn’t gone all in on mainstreaming the torrent of propaganda aimed at Hillary Clinton and giving it all a veneer of their own credibility, while at the same time suppressing any stories that would actually hurt Trump’s campaign by comparing his real, documented, well-evidenced corruption against the scaffolding of lies built around hers.

    I refuse to believe that no one at FTNYT, CNN, ABC, etc, etc knew what was going on with Trump’s campaign. They all have their sources within the Intelligence community, they must have heard something about the real concerns about Trump and his Russian links. But they made an affirmative decision to shield him and savage her. I’d like to know the how and why and when of those decisions too.

  101. 101.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:09 am

    @debbie:

    Why no mention of the Mercers? Are we supposed to believe they’re innocent dupes?

    OH NO…
    The data ALWAYS
    ALWAYS

    Led to KUSHNER and THE MERCERS

    Uh Huh

  102. 102.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:10 am

    @Kay:

    I’ll give you my super-smart data-based take on Trump’s opiate speech. White Republican opiate addicts have decided to blame their problems on immigrants and black people. Their communities are collapsing and they don’t want to talk about that, so they have decided to follow Donald Trump when he tells them they don’t have to take responsibility for it- they can blame it on outsiders “coming in” to their communities.

    They know this isn’t true- after all, they live in these places- but it makes them feel better about themselves.

    So, you mean, cling to the Whiteness, Kay?
    No shock in the least about that.

  103. 103.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 8:11 am

    @Kay:

    Trump will be the fucking death of them. He was the last thing they needed.

    But he gave them what they wanted: Somebody to blame.

    In my headbanging against a brick wall conversation with my neighbors FOX indoctrinated sister, she would blame immigrants for something, I would shoot holes in that bogeyman, then she’d blame them for something else and I would destroy that too and it was off to the next thing to blame them for ad nauseum. When trump finally nukes N Korea it will be illegal immigrants that made him do it.

  104. 104.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    March 20, 2018 at 8:11 am

    I went out to the Baldwin Hills to shoot some pics of the snow on the mountains before the rain later this week washes it away. Hit the bathroom before hiking to the place I’m going to take pics. Guy walks in with his dog and starts to pee and says to the dog, “I watch you piss all day long, now it your turn to watch me.”

  105. 105.

    satby

    March 20, 2018 at 8:11 am

    @Kay: just take everything they ever said about black folks and realize it actually was projection. Every single thing.

  106. 106.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 20, 2018 at 8:12 am

    @rikyrah: It’s almost as if they’re clinging bitterly!

  107. 107.

    Anonymous At Work

    March 20, 2018 at 8:12 am

    For ABSOLUTELY NO REASON AT ALL…what’s our extradition treaty with UK like?

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:13 am

    @Kay:

    That’s one of the reasons I wish there were more people than Mueller looking at it. And I know it’s not “Mueller” alone but he’s the lead. There should be more people looking at it because different sets of people working at the same time catch things each team (alone) misses. Investigators settle on theories of what happened. They all deny this and say they are “following facts” but if they had different teams they would be less likely to fall into that trap.

    Kay,
    I believe that there is coordination with certain State AG’s.

  109. 109.

    Amir Khalid

    March 20, 2018 at 8:13 am

    @SFAW:
    Theresa May has considerable influence as PM, but she is not the boss of England’s Football Association, which is after all a private organisation. It’s not in her power to withdraw England from the World Cup. The FA will have to decide if it wants to do that, and throw away all the time and money invested in qualifying, mess with the players’ careers, and shit on the hopes of England fans. Those England fans, who also vote, are not going to think kindly of the Tory government if there is a boycott.

  110. 110.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 8:13 am

    @Baud:

    I’m not sure we can wholly blame Russian interference for the liberal side of this equation. They did the same thing with Gore.

    Actually media did the same thing with Gore too. The Gore/Bush coverage sucked as much as the Clinton/Trump coverage and the NYTimes was the lead on that, too. The NYTimes then compounded their own crap work by promoting Iraq, and for the same reasons- because they wanted access.

    Russia had nothing to do with any of that.

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 8:14 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Try this then: Football fans are very passionate. And they vote.

    Got it. Thanks for clarifying

  112. 112.

    NotMax

    March 20, 2018 at 8:15 am

    OT, too good not to share.

    In the time travel show mentioned above, the head of the secret government ministry and the 17th century artist Diego Velázquez are both being held hostage in the 21st century present day by Nazis (don’t ask), Velázquez is shown sketching one of the Nazi guards.

    Minister: Is this really the time and place to be making drawings?

    Velázquez: It’s either that or shit my pants.

    Minister: If those are the choices, go ahead and keep on drawing.

    /amusing interlude

  113. 113.

    Steeplejack

    March 20, 2018 at 8:15 am

    Against all odds, my day is off to a good start—well, an okay start. The cupboard is close to bare, and I need to do a grocery run. In particular, I’m out of coffee. I don’t drink it every day, but I was jonesin’ this morning. Cold and rainy here in NoVA this morning. But I threw on the tactical gear (pants) and made a quick run to McD. to get a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit and a cup of java. Brought that home and joined Morning Joe in progress. Biscuit hit the spot. Coffee not bad with a big dose of heavy cream in it.

    The ongoing Trump fiasco had me going through a trough of despond last week, but now I feel like I’ve turned a corner, at least a little bit. I think it might be the Facebook/​Cambridge Analytica thing. It is going to be huge: it affects everybody—or at least everybody will feel that it could affect them—and the British videos are damning documentation. So it will be hard to hand-wave it all away or “both sides” it. And it’s another big chink in Trump’s wall (not the Mexican one).

    A while ago one of the talking heads said that Trump is fuming in the residence, doesn’t feel “protected” by his staff, his lawyers or the Republicans. That cheers me greatly. Suck it, asshole. Your day will come.

    P.S. No Joe on Morning Joe. Nice bonus!

  114. 114.

    different-church-lady

    March 20, 2018 at 8:15 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I guess there’s little or no hope of convincing any of them to leave the cult. The only hope is to outnumber them.

    Well, if we and all other liberals were to simply die, they’d inevitably turn on each other. Who’s with me?

  115. 115.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 8:16 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    No you aren’t, you’re SFAW.

    JHC, don’t tell anyone, OK?!?!?!

  116. 116.

    Baud

    March 20, 2018 at 8:16 am

    @Kay: Agreed. Russia exploited more than it created.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 8:16 am

    @Tony Jay:

    Okay, agreed, but the US media went all in on Gore too. Al Gore was less corrupt than both Bill Clinton and George W Bush, yet they somehow managed to portray him as a deeply corrupt Washington insider. They’re bad. With or without Russia.

  118. 118.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:18 am

    @Tony Jay:

    And it worked. Leaving aside the possibility/probability of actual fiddling with vote rolls to suppress votes even further the 2016 Election saw a candidate who – should – have won the votes of at least 60% of the electorate lose to a racist POS. It. Worked. Like you’ve said yourself many times it’s vitally important to nail down the how and the why to stop it happening again. The Cambridge Analytica story starts doing that in a way people can follow and understand.

    I still say the Voter Suppression part was more important.
    Those voters denied the franchise because of Voter Suppression was 2 -3 times larger than Dolt45’s victory in those pivotal states.

  119. 119.

    Peale

    March 20, 2018 at 8:18 am

    @Kay: yep. I have a nephew in Ohio who has been given a new lease on life after mixing a bunch of prescription drugs and alcohol and ending in the emergency room. Turned his life around for two weeks before doing it again. None of us know what to do. We can’t force him to do anything. He’s 21. Claims to be bored. Claims that if he goes to rehab no one will hire him. It would almost have been easier to deal with had he done this at 14.;

  120. 120.

    different-church-lady

    March 20, 2018 at 8:21 am

    @NotMax: I think the difference this time is that the GOP has shown every indication they’re willing to go kamikazi, rather than make even a late attempt to save their own butts.

  121. 121.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 8:21 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Met some friends at Festival of Nations a couple years ago. we’re sitting at one end of a picnic table and an older distinguished black woman is sitting at the other end.

    Dave says, “So Tom, seeing as you don’t have TV what do you do out there for entertainment?”
    I reply, “I go pee in my front yard, just because I can.”

    About half a can of soda came out the poor woman’s nose.

  122. 122.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 8:24 am

    @Anonymous At Work: Pretty tight. That’s why Assange is hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy.

  123. 123.

    Amir Khalid

    March 20, 2018 at 8:26 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I am torn between admiration for you and concern for that poor woman.

  124. 124.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:28 am

    Democratic senator calls on Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Congress
    CBS News
    Alan He

    The tech giant Facebook is facing a growing backlash on Capitol Hill as more lawmakers demand that CEO Mark Zuckerberg testify about reports that Cambridge Analytica, a political data consulting firm utilized by the Trump campaign, harvested the information of up to 50 million users.

    “Mark Zuckerberg needs to testify under oath in public before the Judiciary Committee. He owes it to the American people who ought to be deeply disappointed by the conflicting and disparate explanations that have been offered,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, told reporters Monday evening. The former Connecticut attorney general warned, “Zuckerberg ought to be subpoenaed to testify if he won’t do it voluntarily.”
    Fallout over Cambridge Analytica’s harvesting of data from 50M Facebook users
    So far Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has not tipped his hand on what he intends to do.

    Two other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, John Neely Kennedy, R-Louisiana, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, sent a letter on Monday to Grassley requesting a wider hearing with tech CEOs from Twitter, Facebook, and Google.

    “A hearing featuring testimony with CEOs would provide the Committee the opportunity to hear an update on the progress of these companies’ voluntary measures to combat attempted foreign interference and what is being done to protect Americans’ data and limit abuse of the platforms, as well as to assess what measures should be taken before the next elections,” they wrote.

  125. 125.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 8:28 am

    @SFAW: Your secret is safe with me.

  126. 126.

    TS

    March 20, 2018 at 8:29 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Robert Gibbs is useless. He’s trying to do a “both sides” argument on Morning Joe

    Been like that ever since he left the Obama administration – big fail

  127. 127.

    Feathers

    March 20, 2018 at 8:29 am

    We may get an admission from the right of what they did and fell for, but I fear the Bernsters will never surrender. By this I mean, that they did what the Russians were wanting them to do. The deplorables will claim them as allies, the purity ponies will go to their graves believing Hillary was worse than Trump, and talking about the Russians is slander and a distraction.

    There are enough tech bros that would have volunteered to do the data side of this. And… machine learning and AI are insanely difficult to do well, but not that hard to do shittily, assuming you have the basic skills.

  128. 128.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:29 am

    Mike Flynn back in public eye to endorse dubious candidate

    Rachel Maddow reports on disgraced former Trump NSA Mike Flynn’s endorsement of Omar Navarro, a fringe Republican candidate running against Maxine Waters.

  129. 129.

    satby

    March 20, 2018 at 8:30 am

    Well, I’m off to the market. Everyone have a good day.

  130. 130.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 8:30 am

    @Peale: You should point out to him that no one will hire him if he’s dead.

  131. 131.

    cosima

    March 20, 2018 at 8:31 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I actually find this one breaks down into similar patterns as with other passions. When we lived in Denver (beautiful glorious Denver), we had loads of fervent Bronco fan friends, but many of them spouted the ‘my vote doesn’t matter’ shite when I was at peak Obama canvassing and talking to everyone about the importance of voting. Wouldn’t be surprised to see football fan voting numbers huge when there’s an overlap with south + religion, but for those in ‘safe’ blue states (Colorado), or futile red states (Alaska, where I also lived), there’s a lot of ‘meh’ about voting amongst football nuts.

    I hate football. Always have. And have always been in the minority in the places that I’ve lived (until here in the UK, yay!). Although perhaps there is not a place in the US where football is a big deal. Vermont? Maine? Will have to check with my oldest (in VT).

  132. 132.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:32 am

    Democrats seek tech company probe as part of election protection

    Senator Amy Klobuchar talks with Rachel Maddow about the need for tesimony and investigations into the abuse of American voters’ personal information on social media sites vulnerable to unscrupulous bad actors.

  133. 133.

    Jeffro

    March 20, 2018 at 8:33 am

    I guess FB should get its own week in the spotlight during the eventual Truth & Reconciliation Commission…

    …and then be shut down, as an object lesson to traitors and their enablers.

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:33 am

    Trump corrupting Mueller probe by attacking witnesses, officials

    Neal Katyal, former U.S. acting solicitor general, talks with Rachel Maddow about how out of line Donald Trump is with his attacks on law enforcement officials and witnesses in Robert Mueller’s Trump Russia investigation.

  135. 135.

    NotMax

    March 20, 2018 at 8:39 am

    @different-church-lady

    Deep down I fear you may be correct and the most craven are far beyond mustering courage. However it is still a long time until November and there’s more to be revealed between now and then.

    Putting aside for an instant the intrinsic gross (and self-serving) stupidity of continuing to support him, it requires a Big Step. Once done there is no recanting, no being welcomed back into the fold.

  136. 136.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 20, 2018 at 8:39 am

    @satby:
    The smart pay-ops folks came to them and said “We’re going to fuck the election for you. We might as well do it together.”

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
    Domestic abuser men view women as their property, and have a shit fit when she moves on to another man. Although in that cesspool of misogyny, I’m sure that’s the tip of the iceberg.

  137. 137.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 20, 2018 at 8:40 am

    @cosima: What the hell? Colorado isn’t even a safe blue state–it’s maybe more of one now, but in 2008 anyone who watched presidential elections would call it a red-leaning swing state. These people don’t even know what they’re talking about on a practical basis.

  138. 138.

    different-church-lady

    March 20, 2018 at 8:40 am

    @Kay: They needed it to make the base’s toxic gruel palitable to borderline deplorables and persuadeables. And also put a different meal down in front of Bernie Bros.

  139. 139.

    cosima

    March 20, 2018 at 8:40 am

    But f*cking walk UP not OUT.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/school-shooting-great-mills-high-school-maryland-many-people-shot/

    Several people are reported being shot at another school shooting. at Great Mills High School in Maryland, WJLA reported.
    While the sheriff’s office is on the scene and the event is contained, the school is still in lockdown.

  140. 140.

    GregB

    March 20, 2018 at 8:41 am

    I think there is enough evidence to declare that Trump stole this election. I think people need to say this. Trump needs to be stripped of his legitimacy because he is illegitimate. His win was a loss that was stolen.

    He needs to be treated like the liar and cheater he has always been.

  141. 141.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:41 am

    Lips pursed.

    From WaPo:

    President Trump’s attorneys have provided the special counsel’s office with written descriptions that chronicle key moments under investigation in hopes of curtailing the scope of a presidential interview, according to two people familiar with the situation.

    Trump’s legal team recently shared the documents in an effort to limit any session between the president and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to a few select topics, the people said.

  142. 142.

    Tony Jay

    March 20, 2018 at 8:44 am

    @Kay:

    That manipulating liberals was effective. Manipulating conservatives was effective too- I just question whether one needs “data” to do that.

    I think it’s like this. Conservative A responds to ‘defecit concerns’ about the expense of American military force being used abroad but she doesn’t like it when those concerns are voiced by women, minorities or foreigners. Conservative B likes the feeling he gets when he sees American military force being used abroad, but is vociferous about not being racist and never likes or forwards any race baiting memes. Data-scraping and modelling tells the people crafting propaganda this and they can make sure the messages sent their way are formulated and presented in ways that will elicit a positive response from them.

    Conservative A gets lots of stories about Hillary being a warmonger, Trump being the candidate to ease tensions with Russia, all presented by white American men, and she also gets nudged with racist memes about BLM, Voter Fraud, Immigration, to take advantage of her discomfort with dark skinned people telling her what to do. Conservative B would be hugely turned off by getting a propaganda package like this, but tell him that Trump is the guy to make the military strong again and show the foreigners who’s boss, and feed him memes about the Democrats being the ‘Plantation Party’ with ties to the KKK and he’s much more in his comfort zone.

    It saves time, money and effort if your social media operation knows in advance what lies you’re more likely to believe and what topics to avoid. All you need then is the money to flood their feeds with bespoke BS and they’re much more likely to press the button for Trump than they would be without the comforting propaganda.

  143. 143.

    raven

    March 20, 2018 at 8:45 am

    School shooting in Maryland

  144. 144.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 20, 2018 at 8:45 am

    @NotMax:
    I am amused by stories like that Young Republican leader who came out against the NRA. He was so shocked when he started receiving threats and harassment! These are your people, dude.

  145. 145.

    gvg

    March 20, 2018 at 8:46 am

    I say investigate the source of Mercers money. What I have heard was he was a super smart guy who did something with computer programs that enabled his stock investment company to be hugely profitable. It is turning out that CA may have used old fashioned blackmail and lies to achieve results and the tech stuff may be over rated. Not unimportant, just not the sole reason CA got results. And the people they “helped” are complicit so they help cover it up. That actually also means they are being politely blackmailed, although they probably don’t think of it that way, but it tends to explain why so many in authority aren’t doing anything. I think this implies that the Mercer tech genius rep should be looked at suspiciously and the whole investment structure should be looked at for fraud. Also check out who profited from him. they might be compromised too all the way back not just this recent company CA.
    Kushner is just a shady buyer. He isn’t smart enough to be the planner. IMO he thought dad in law wants to win, who helps GOP winners the most, looked around and the CA rep seems like the kind of thing that would appeal to him. But once they were involved, they became complicit again.

  146. 146.

    cosima

    March 20, 2018 at 8:47 am

    @Matt McIrvin: That’s not news to me — I was out 4-5 days a week canvassing or phoning. I heard the hate, I heard the apathy. I heard ‘voting’s not part of our culture’ from a really sincere & kind Hispanic guy, and I said to him ‘why can’t it start with you?’ We had close friends, the husband was ?? generation Hispanic (since 1800s, certainly), multi-racial children, who couldn’t be arsed to vote, in spite of being told regularly to go back to Mexico by shitheels. I watched from here as Colorado went red, then to blue, with despair that turned to relief (but ultimately back to despair) in the presidential election. We had rich friends with an obviously LGBT son, who couldn’t be arsed to vote Dem because the husband works tangentially with the oil industry, and there are still some stupid people out there who believe Rs are better for oil than Ds, similar vein of stupidity as the military thinking.

    Totally shite. But they all LOVE their Broncos and held big huge football-watching parties!

  147. 147.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:48 am

    @GregB:

    I think there is enough evidence to declare that Trump stole this election. I think people need to say this. Trump needs to be stripped of his legitimacy because he is illegitimate. His win was a loss that was stolen.

    He needs to be treated like the liar and cheater he has always been.

    tell it

  148. 148.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 8:49 am

    @cosima: It’s pretty big in STL. We should have an MLS team “but it’s a baseball town”.

  149. 149.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:49 am

    @gvg:

    I say investigate the source of Mercers money. What I have heard was he was a super smart guy who did something with computer programs that enabled his stock investment company to be hugely profitable. It is turning out that CA may have used old fashioned blackmail and lies to achieve results and the tech stuff may be over rated. Not unimportant, just not the sole reason CA got results.

    Sounds good to me. Investigate them all.

  150. 150.

    raven

    March 20, 2018 at 8:50 am

    Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County is on lockdown after a shooting there Tuesday morning, the school district confirmed.

    “The Sheriff’s office is on the scene additional information to follow,” St. Mary’s County Public Schools wrote on its website.

    State police spokesman Ron Snyder said troopers were responding to Great Mills High School on Tuesday morning for reports of a shooting. He did not immediately have additional information.

    The county sheriff’s office urged parents to report to Leonardtown High School.

    “There has been an incident at Great Mills High School,” the department tweeted. “Parents please DO NOT respond to the school.”

    This story will be updated.

  151. 151.

    afanasia

    March 20, 2018 at 8:51 am

    @Kay: Yeah, I’ve wondered about this a lot. What have they done to produce such desperate children?

  152. 152.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 8:53 am

    This is why local elections matter. Democrats with majorities in state governments flip voter suppression on its head by making voting and democracy more inclusive NOT less. https://t.co/Tjj9du4zhO

    — Nate Lerner (@NathanLerner) March 20, 2018

    ✔ WA Voting Rights Act
    ✔ Same-day registration
    ✔ Automatic voter registration
    ✔ Pre-reg. for 16/17-year-olds
    ✔ DISCLOSE Act

    They are law! #voting #votingrights #democracy #vra #waleg pic.twitter.com/Nqm5amJwoV

    — WA Senate Democrats (@WASenDemocrats) March 19, 2018

  153. 153.

    cosima

    March 20, 2018 at 8:54 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Ah glob — were you talking about football (the beautiful game, soccer to Americans)? I actually love baseball, and have since I was young. Football, no. Soccer-football, yes, especially when I was able to watch Becks (IRL, took off his shirt at the end to make us happy). Now if we’re talking about soccer-football fans in the US, I would certainly believe that most of them vote, as they skew younger & more educated.

  154. 154.

    GregB

    March 20, 2018 at 8:56 am

    @oldgold:

    The professor from Cambridge Analytica also worked at a college in St. Petersburgh. The troll factory was in SP.

    The troll army wasn’t just wantonly producing content and throwing it at random digital walls.

    All that information from those servers at Trump Tower and the Mercer’s company and Russia were doing the dirty work of transferring targeting for the propaganda.

  155. 155.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 20, 2018 at 8:58 am

    @cosima: Maybe we needed to see Trump rip the mask off.

  156. 156.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 20, 2018 at 8:59 am

    @Kay: The British in India and elsewhere didn’t create the divisions of caste or religion. They ruthlessly exploited the divisions that were already there. First playing one kingdom against another and when they ruled over the entire country, they played one group against another. When they left they fucking partitioned the places they had squatted in, for decades or centuries.
    Palestine-Israel, India-Pak, Ireland-N-Ireland, to name but a few examples.

    ETA: Cambridge Analytica is drawing on a rich history.

  157. 157.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 8:59 am

    @Peale:

    None of us know what to do

    No one knows what to do. Really smart experts don’t know what to do. So they just keep trying things, because it’s all we can do.

    We lost 3 under 21 over one weekend 2 weeks ago. I knew one of them. He has been in and out of rehab for 4 years.

    My son’s contractor had an overdose on a job site. They drug test but one of the supervisors took pity on the addict and didn’t report his dirty test. They test them in court now, all the time. They know they will test dirty so they say they can’t pee and so there will be a line of them sitting on the first floor, because the judge makes them sit there until closing. I have heard the “can’t pee” excuse so many times I want them to spare me that because it’s pathetic. They don’t have to say anything- I get it.

  158. 158.

    gvg

    March 20, 2018 at 9:03 am

    @SFAW: What good would England’s team boycotting the World Cup do? it punishes England not Russia. Now if they could get the World Cup to not permit Russia to play, it would make a point, although I am not sure a sports organization would want to be involved in that. She needs to focus more on sanctions and building the ability into her countries internet and media to detect and resist Russian interference in the future. Some jail time for British collaborators would probably help. Also confiscating some Russian money of property.
    This turns out not to be a good time to be at outs with the rest of the EU. I still think their government should just say not splitting. Bad for the countries interest.

  159. 159.

    cosima

    March 20, 2018 at 9:04 am

    @Kay: Sounds an awful lot like my family in rural NY. Two boys in & out of jail, raised by a mother who worked her butt off at the local Welch’s right up to retirement. Dad owned a very successful motorcycle shop that my cousins got when he died, then proceed to sell everything off piecemeal (to fund drugs/drink/partying). I don’t know where the despair comes from. And I don’t know how to save them, though I did try with one of my cousins, invited him to come live with us, get a job, save money. He couldn’t make the break from his ‘friends.’ When he was ill, with no jobs & no health insurance, I told him to go to social services and ask about Medicaid and he went off on some rant about ‘f*cking Obamacare’ and blah blah blah so I hung up on him.

    Those areas need someone to be in there with sleeves rolled up, talking sense to people, talking about ideas for jobs directly with the people. It doesn’t mean anything to those people what is said in NYC, they’re pissed because they don’t have jobs, but have high state taxes. It’s a mess.

  160. 160.

    different-church-lady

    March 20, 2018 at 9:04 am

    @rikyrah: All he’d do is try to convince congress to move all their web content to Facebook.

  161. 161.

    frosty

    March 20, 2018 at 9:04 am

    @Tony Jay:

    Everyone got their own bespoke version of why Hillary Clinton/The Democrats/The Other were dirty, corrupt, in hock to Wall Street/The Saudis/Ben & Jerry, war-mongering neocons/peacenik appeasers, etc, etc.

    Friends of mine (smart, well read, aware) are still posting about the Corporate Democrats. Most of them were on the progressive end of the scale to start with, but they’ve gone further to trashing the only party that can put a stop to Trumpism. I don’t think anything I can say will change it.

  162. 162.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 9:05 am

    @GregB:

    He needs to be treated like the liar and cheater he has always been.

    Oh, bullshit. I’m sure there was a period of six or so months after he was born, where he didn’t yet speak.

    After that, however — can’t argue.

  163. 163.

    d58826

    March 20, 2018 at 9:07 am

    OT but I wonder if GOP will spend as much time on this

    Soldier in Bloody Niger Mission Had Warned of Gaps, Defense Officials Say

    as they have on Benghazi. Nope I don’t have to wonder. it will Niger who?

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/soldier-in-bloody-niger-mission-had-warned-of-gaps-defense-officials-say/ar-BBKrHHO?ocid=spartandhp

  164. 164.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 9:08 am

    @gvg:

    What good would England’s team boycotting the World Cup do? it punishes England not Russia.

    Understood. My attempted point was that threatening to have the Royal Family, or other English dignitaries, boycott the Copa is sort of a yawner in my mind.

  165. 165.

    Feathers

    March 20, 2018 at 9:09 am

    @schrodingers_cat: This is also what the Spanish did in South America. There was a fascinating NOVA about archeologists doing digs at the battle sites. The armies were Incas on both sides. Their was a daughter married off to a Spaniard. Of course the alliance didn’t last long.

  166. 166.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 20, 2018 at 9:11 am

    @frosty: I have some who seem weirdly fond of essays counterintuitively espousing some right-wing position on further-left-than-the-goddamn-Democrats grounds. Any one of them individually might be an interesting thing to read and think about. But when the pattern starts to manifest, I wonder what’s going on–if it’s the person or if they’re being fed by something else.

    I am getting sick of Corey Robin saying the push to characterize Trump as some unusual tyrant is all overblown because the shitty Democrats are just trying to trick you into supporting them.

  167. 167.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 9:11 am

    Spencer Haywood says he sees ‘tinge of slavery’ with treatment of college players
    USA TODAY SPORTS
    Tom Schad

    Hall of Fame basketball player Spencer Haywood told Sporting News that he sees “a tinge of slavery” in the treatment of college basketball players.

    Haywood, the leading scorer on the United States’ 1968 Olympic basketball team, told the website that he agreed with a sentiment expressed late last month by Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy, that there’s often a racial component to arguments against paying college basketball players.

    “Let’s think about it,” Haywood told Sporting News in a story published Monday. “If you have 11 blacks on your team and you are say, in Kentucky, and they’re creating all this wealth but not getting paid? It does have a tinge of slavery.

    “It is what it is. It is very racist because they’re not helping the communities where those kids come from, Chicago and Detroit and so on.”

  168. 168.

    Tokyokie

    March 20, 2018 at 9:15 am

    @rikyrah:

    @debbie:

    Why no mention of the Mercers? Are we supposed to believe they’re innocent dupes?

    OH NO…
    The data ALWAYS
    ALWAYS

    Led to KUSHNER and THE MERCERS

    Uh Huh

    What struck me about yesterday’s revelations is that Cambridge Analytica would seem to fit the definition of an ongoing, interstate criminal enterprise per the RICO statute. That framing, which could lead to forfeiture of all assets related to said criminal activity, could mean the end of Cambridge Analytica, as well as the Mercers.

  169. 169.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 9:16 am

    @Kay:

    They drug test but one of the supervisors took pity on the addict and didn’t report his dirty test.

    The Carpenters did all our testing. I was one of the most tested guys out here, at one point 7 times in less than 2 years. I always joked that it was because they knew I was clean. At least, I think I was joking.

  170. 170.

    JMG

    March 20, 2018 at 9:18 am

    @SFAW: A couple of things about Russia and the World Cup. 1. FIFA, the international soccer organization, is the most corrupt sports organization in the world, which is setting the bar very high indeed. Putin got the Cup over England’s bid through straight up bribery.
    2. While England’s team may not boycott the Cup, its fans might, not from idealism, but from concerns over their own safety. Large and well-organized groups of Russian soccer hooligans assaulted English fans in Marseille during the 2016 European championships. In fact, ticket sales for the Cup are way down as European fans say, “Russia, no thanks.”
    Empty seats for the world’s biggest sports event would hurt Putin in the wallet and ego.

  171. 171.

    GregB

    March 20, 2018 at 9:19 am

    @Kay:

    They believe the Trump take.

    Remember Governor LePage in Maine with this binders full of minority drug dealers……..90% of them!

    Got his ass FOIA’d and the numbers of minorities was around 30%,

  172. 172.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 9:20 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    At least, I think I was joking.

    But you can’t remember because you were so high at the time?

  173. 173.

    Gex

    March 20, 2018 at 9:24 am

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Really late here but I love this framing. I get the sense that people loved to view the fiscal conservatives as the heart of the GOP and the culture warriors were the “put them over the top” demos. The truth is quite the opposite.

  174. 174.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 9:25 am

    @GregB:

    Unpossible! He had names of some of the dealers — remember D-Money, Smoothie, and Shifty? And I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that he talked about the darkies impregnating the pure white girls of T3R9 Township. [For the non-Mainers: there are parts of Maine where the towns have no other designation than “names” like “T3R9.”]

  175. 175.

    SFAW

    March 20, 2018 at 9:27 am

    @JMG:

    Empty seats for the world’s biggest sports event would hurt Putin in the wallet and ego.

    Not disputing your points at all, but I think Vlad would get over the blow to his ego pretty quickly.

  176. 176.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 20, 2018 at 9:28 am

    @SFAW: It was the 70’s, Man. If you remember, you weren’t there.

    (snark, this was actually the ’00s but I love the DeNiro line)

  177. 177.

    Katdip

    March 20, 2018 at 9:31 am

    @Kay: That would require them to admit they have been feeding their kids white resentment and anger for several generations, and have been duped (or honestly believe?) that their economic woes are somehow caused by pro-choice atheists who want to take their guns. Unlikely.

  178. 178.

    Katdip

    March 20, 2018 at 9:35 am

    And this resentment has been deliberately cultivated by the GOP to advance the interests of their corporate overlords, to distract from the real reasons for their economic woes.

  179. 179.

    rikyrah

    March 20, 2018 at 9:38 am

    @Tokyokie:

    What struck me about yesterday’s revelations is that Cambridge Analytica would seem to fit the definition of an ongoing, interstate criminal enterprise per the RICO statute. That framing, which could lead to forfeiture of all assets related to said criminal activity, could mean the end of Cambridge Analytica, as well as the Mercers.

    So much of everything around DOLT45 can have RICO attached to it.

  180. 180.

    danielx

    March 20, 2018 at 9:44 am

    @Kay:

    Rural white people need to put some effort into figuring out why their kids are so fucked up. “Outsiders” didn’t do this, and “liberals” didn’t do this. They run these places, top to bottom. My county has one of the highest overdose rates in the state (per population) and it is 100% conservative from the school board to the mayor.

    Word.

  181. 181.

    Elizabelle

    March 20, 2018 at 9:49 am

    I feel like we are in the calm before the storm. (What passes for “calm” these days. I am sure we are all unsettled.)

    Excited about the March for Our Lives this weekend. Find one near you. You know you want to march.

  182. 182.

    cosima

    March 20, 2018 at 9:49 am

    As this is an open thread, I’m going to float a question — can we have a thread (CamAnal centred if necessary) that is about how to get delete Facebook but remain connected easily? I’m not very tech-savvy, and don’t use FB much. Actually went dark on FB when awaiting our residency because I didn’t want Big Bro to be able to easily peek into my (very boring, but still, private) life if that was part of their process when processing applications. However, it’s by far the easiest way to share/communicate with our daughter who lives in VT. I could live without it no problem. But there must be good messaging platforms (WhatsApp = FB, so have never succumbed to that). And somewhere I once read how to download FB info prior to deleting, but can’t remember where.

    Lots of tech-savvy folk on BJ. Can we have a thread about this? I don’t care about sharing photos, memes or recipes, and am happy to go back to bookmarking websites/companies that I like, it’s really about ease of communication. I don’t know why, but the youngs seem to think email is too much work!

  183. 183.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 9:50 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    They all had to tromp down and spend half a day testing after the overdose.

    A group of former addicts have a you tube channel here. They do stuff on staying away from heroin. It’s popular. I know one of them quite well because he has a juvenile record. He was smart – is smart.

    That’s kind of what I mean. He’s not blaming Mexicans. He’s talking to his own people and he found something they will listen to.

  184. 184.

    Kay

    March 20, 2018 at 9:52 am

    @Elizabelle:

    I get upset but it is “coming out”. Slowly but surely we’re finding out what happened.

  185. 185.

    Jager

    March 20, 2018 at 10:00 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Whew, I’m not the only one who has brought that with his dog.

  186. 186.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 20, 2018 at 10:00 am

    A semi-obscure Russian publication scored an interview with one of the creators of Novichok who is still living in Russia. He says a) there are several dozen people who know the formula and b) there is no antidote, so he expects Skripal and his daughter will die.

  187. 187.

    Kathleen

    March 20, 2018 at 10:04 am

    @NotMax: Is that the “Embrace Your Inner Nazi” tour?

  188. 188.

    schrodingers_cat

    March 20, 2018 at 10:06 am

    @Kathleen: Is there anything inner about his Nazi? He is an out and proud Nazi.

  189. 189.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    March 20, 2018 at 10:11 am

    @NotMax:
    Are you talking about Timeless?

  190. 190.

    Ruckus

    March 20, 2018 at 10:11 am

    @Patricia Kayden:
    Useless is not the right term.
    Useless would indicate that what he is trying to do is not harmful. But that isn’t the truth.
    The truth is that he is fucking lying.

  191. 191.

    Ruckus

    March 20, 2018 at 10:16 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:
    War has been defined in the past as people being slaughtered. This is not the past.
    Warfare is, like most everything else, changing. You no longer need bullets to win a war, you need electrons. They are cheaper, they can be hurled everywhere and they do damage outside of their intended function and weight class.
    We are at war.
    It is not a declared war, it may never be one. But make no mistake we are at war.

  192. 192.

    Ruckus

    March 20, 2018 at 10:24 am

    @Kay:

    but it makes them feel better about themselves.

    It makes them think they don’t need to do anything personally about the situation they got themselves into. What is wrong about it is that they will never get better until they figure out they are the problem, conservatism has failed them by looking for every excuse in the book except the correct one. They need a mirror not a boogyman.

  193. 193.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    March 20, 2018 at 10:39 am

    Maybe this has been mentioned but Facebook seems to be high on their own supply:

    Facebook is reportedly demanding to inspect the phone and computer of Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie.
    According to the Guardian’s Carole Cadwalladr, Facebook demanded to inspect Wylie’s devices on Tuesday morning. In response, Wylie seemed surprised by the request and asked Cadwalladr whether they wanted to “look through my d*ck pics.” Wylie himself then went on Twitter to clarify that he has been “proactively working with the UK authorities for months before this story came out.”
    “Facebook is not the authority here,” he added.

  194. 194.

    Kathleen

    March 20, 2018 at 10:43 am

    @Feathers: He and his cult are continuing to do what Russia is paying them to do. I suspect there’s a blackmail threat hanging over them as well. Also Devine has vanished.

  195. 195.

    Steeplejack

    March 20, 2018 at 10:52 am

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    He said “Spanish time travelers on Netflix” up above, so he’s probably talking about The Ministry of Time.

  196. 196.

    Kathleen

    March 20, 2018 at 11:00 am

    @GregB: I still maintain it was a coup.

  197. 197.

    Kathleen

    March 20, 2018 at 11:12 am

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes he is. He’s enabling others. I expect infomercials with DVD’s to sell next. The Ronco Salad Shooter of Nazis.

  198. 198.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 20, 2018 at 11:26 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    Maybe he’ll show up in Germany next to say nice things about AfD NSDAP

    –& get his flabby arse thrown in jail to rot for violating the rather stringent anti-Nazi laws. Until Bobby 3Styx comes to collect what’s left. One can only hope…

  199. 199.

    different-church-lady

    March 20, 2018 at 11:41 am

    @cosima:

    I don’t know why, but the youngs seem to think email is too much work!

    The youngs need to get a grip.

  200. 200.

    LAO

    March 20, 2018 at 11:47 am

    Because, of course he did:

    #BREAKING @AFP (Moscow) Trump 'congratulated' Putin on re-election: Kremlin— Andrew Beatty (@AndrewBeatty) March 20, 2018

  201. 201.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    March 20, 2018 at 11:56 am

    I think it’s time to bring this up again:

    https://www.upguard.com/breaches/the-rnc-files

    In what is the largest known data exposure of its kind, UpGuard’s Cyber Risk Team can now confirm that a misconfigured database containing the sensitive personal details of over 198 million American voters was left exposed to the internet by a firm working on behalf of the Republican National Committee (RNC) in their efforts to elect Donald Trump. The data, which was stored in a publicly accessible cloud server owned by Republican data firm Deep Root Analytics, included 1.1 terabytes of entirely unsecured personal information compiled by DRA and at least two other Republican contractors, TargetPoint Consulting, Inc. and Data Trust. In total, the personal information of potentially near all of America’s 200 million registered voters was exposed, including names, dates of birth, home addresses, phone numbers, and voter registration details, as well as data described as “modeled” voter ethnicities and religions.

    This data leak was not an accident. This is the true source of the ability to create “bespoke” targeted ads… the rest of the stuff was done to fine-tune campaigns for such a large number of cohorts of US voters.

    The Republican Party is going to do nothing because they are in it up to their eyeballs.

  202. 202.

    J R in WV

    March 20, 2018 at 12:09 pm

    @Tony Jay:

    I refuse to believe that no one at FTNYT, CNN, ABC, etc, etc knew what was going on with Trump’s campaign. … they made an affirmative decision to shield him and savage her. I’d like to know the how and why and when of those decisions too.

    I hate to say it, even more hate to think it… the mainstream media were owned, lock stock and barrel, whether by purchase, conversion, blackmail, but owned and controlled from CEOs down to reporter holding mike for interview. They were nearly all in the bag for Trump, from early on in the primary season.

    I suppose early on it may have been easy to say, “Oh, well, Trump makes for such great juicy headlines, and he has no chance of winning it all, so we’ll go along with the game for the sake of the ratings!” But that was such an easy mistake. They are supposed to be professionals, but I think like Hollywood, the top management is people who don’t really know anything about the real news business from the ground up.

    Hollywood stays in business copying the last blockbuster, The news media is doing the same today. Which is part of why they’re failing, that’s not a business plan for success.

  203. 203.

    kent

    March 20, 2018 at 12:12 pm

    I deleted my facebook account yesterday! Better late than never.

  204. 204.

    J R in WV

    March 20, 2018 at 12:16 pm

    @Kay:

    I’m not sure we can wholly blame Russian interference for the liberal side of this equation. They did the same thing with Gore.

    Actually media did the same thing with Gore too. The Gore/Bush coverage sucked as much as the Clinton/Trump coverage and the NYTimes was the lead on that, too. The NYTimes then compounded their own crap work by promoting Iraq, and for the same reasons- because they wanted access.

    Russia had nothing to do with any of that.

    Why do you think Russia had nothing to do with Iraq/Bush/Gore? They’ve been working to penetrate our society since 1922, and every time someone takes the time to investigate any major event, there are Russians standing all around that event, looking bored, uninterested, uninvolved, but they’re all around it.

    Why are there Russians and their friends standing next to all these events if they aren’t involved? Now I know I start to sound like a Joe McCarthyite, but there are facts showing Russians standing all around all the time. Not even arm’s length away!

    How long ago did the Russians buy total control of the NRA?

    What other conservative agents have they owned for the last 2 generations? ALEC? Who keeps making up terrible law for statehouses to adopt? Why would they do that if not to damage the US?

  205. 205.

    Miss Bianca

    March 20, 2018 at 12:22 pm

    @NotMax: what is this show, and would it be available on DVD at all?

  206. 206.

    sukabi

    March 20, 2018 at 12:25 pm

    @Kay: when this all shakes out, I’m pretty sure that Cambridge Anal will be proven to be nothing more than an organized, corporatized enticement and blackmail organization (criminal) that uses lists of people supplied by Facebook to target their “campaigns” to.

    I doubt that there is much psychographics involved.

  207. 207.

    different-church-lady

    March 20, 2018 at 12:26 pm

    @different-church-lady: Huh, by coincidence I see in “another forum” that Facebook is active in convincing peope that youngs never use e-mail anymore.

    FB is omniverous and insatiable.

  208. 208.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    March 20, 2018 at 12:55 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    It’s probably The Ministry of Time. U.S.-format DVDs not readily available.

  209. 209.

    lethargytartare

    March 20, 2018 at 1:00 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    and shit on the hopes of England fans.

    isn’t that their national team’s job anyway?

  210. 210.

    TenguPhule

    March 20, 2018 at 1:22 pm

    @SFAW:

    What’s the “hurdle” that must be cleared for the Mercers’ activities to be declared treasonous?

    Two reliable witnesses or a video of them caught in the act.

  211. 211.

    SgrAstar

    March 20, 2018 at 2:42 pm

    @rikyrah:

    I still say the Voter Suppression part was more important.
    Those voters denied the franchise because of Voter Suppression was 2 -3 times larger than Dolt45’s victory in those pivotal states.

    Agree, rikyrah, but I think that a real effect of the CA ratf**king was to drive BS supporters further into the arms of third-party candidates, rendering their votes worthless. I saw this play out in my own family, when the BS supporters kept sharing crazy info about HRC’s supposed crimes. I just could not get them to step back and evaluate the sources of these stories. I think CA was very good at amplifying peoples’ anger and frustration by seeding their feeds with false stories. Jysk, I have never used fb.

  212. 212.

    NotMax

    March 20, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    @Miss Bianca

    As Steeplejack correctly mentioned above, El Ministerio del Tiempo. Premise is absurd but if one can get past that, it’s kind of fun.

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