Mark Zuckerberg has been quietly advising Pete Buttigieg on who to hire — and some of those recommendations are now part of the Democrat’s campaign staff.https://t.co/VgrhzYz1Ye
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 21, 2019
This is not fair to Buttigieg; Zuckerberg is most comfortable treating politics as another form of boutique consumerism, and his social circles overlapped with Buttigieg’s back in college. From CBS:
… “This shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement. We have several mutual friends in college who introduced me” several years ago to the future presidential candidate, Zuckerberg said…
Zuckerberg also had been asked by CBS News whether he made similar overtures to other presidential campaigns, but he did not answer that question.
News of Zuckerberg’s outreach to Buttigieg was first reported Monday by Bloomberg News, which reported that Zuckerberg, 35, and Buttigieg, 37, attended Harvard University at the same time and had mutual friends. While at Harvard, Zuckerberg developed the now omnipresent social media platform, originally just for Harvard students. Buttigieg was one of Facebook’s first 300 users…
A campaign spokesperson said the recommendations were unsolicited and that the campaign received 7,000 resumes over the course of a month from Buttigieg’s CNN town hall in March to the campaign’s April launch…
It has been widely reported that Zuckerberg regards Elizabeth Warren as a serious threat to his control of Facebook’s monopoly. It is also obvious that Biden’s frontrunner status has made him a primary target of Russian bot activity on social media, including Facebook — no point duplicating efforts, right? The Sanders campaign doesn’t seem to have drawn much attention from Zuckerberg, for whatever reason (my best guess would be unsympathetic). Under the circumstances, it’s hardly surprising that Zuckerberg is casting around for a more sympathetic Democratic frontrunner-in-waiting… and it’s hardly Buttigieg’s fault that Jeff likes his potential.
This is correct.
"Facebook isn’t free speech, it’s algorithmic amplification optimized for outrage"https://t.co/LW42hxZPR4
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) October 21, 2019
Facebook is under pressure to stop a repeat of the 2016 presidential election in the U.S., when Russian trolls spread disinformation on the platform. https://t.co/23OXOs9RxV
— NPR (@NPR) October 21, 2019
.
Mary G
Zuck’s a billionaire. That tax cut was sweet.
ETA: Do I need to know what the Osuna” thing is?
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G: “I want a President who’ll give me another tax cut, or at least not come after me with anti-monopoly laws. Oh, and will let me continue with election ratfucking.”
Paul W.
Hey there jackels, I know not everyone likes to see intra-party battles for Democratic seats but my partner and I have been running against a very tired (she has fallen asleep at several events recently) House Representative Carolyn Maloney since March. It’s a deep blue district, and she is 98% funded by people giving >$200 while we are averaging somewhere around $30 per donor, and the people here can do so much better than someone whose track record shows she is in no way prepared for a leadership role while filling the late, great Elijah Cummings seat on the Oversight Committee.
My partner is Lauren Ashcraft and we just made her campaign intro video public, and we’re really feeling the momentum after getting endorsed by Brand New Congress (AOCs first big endorsement). Anyways, I would be really delighted if anyone here lives in the district or could just check out the video and spread the word about her candidacy. Here’s the link to her tweet releasing our video.
?BillinGlendaleCA
OT(just a bit): Next Tuesday is the Internet’s 50th birthday.
lamh36
lamh36
I want him to be able to fuqn’ sue they azzes off
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: What do you get something that already has everything?
Mary G
Ruh roh:
Of course, since the referral goes to Bob Barr, the ambassador is safe. The DOJ is working hard to find dirt on Amb. Taylor, the radical bureaucrat.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: Not sure but you can drop them off here.
lamh36
Ugh…but where is the lie tho…
Major Major Major Major
Jeff?
Mary G
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
“What hath baud wrought?”
(As opposed to Baud!)
;)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: The first characters over the internet(sent from UCLA to SRI) were “lo” at which point the system crashed, later in the day they were able to send the full phrase, “login”.
lamh36
In case you missed it in one of the other threads.
This gentleman travelled from Indianapolis to Iowa to give this pin to Kamela from his late wife with this message:
“Those who say it cannot be done, shouldn’t interrupt the people doing it.”
mrmoshpotato
@lamh36: ? “We’re Democrats. We can walk, chew gum, campaign for improving America for the people, and kick the GrOPers in the ass at the same time.”
Mary G
[Gomer Pyle voice] Surprize, surprize, surPRIIIIZE, the FTFNYT is still fucking Hillary over:
lamh36
Welp…when you have as old a career as Biden, there is a lot of information for oppo-research…
MEH…BTW…I find Yashar to be a shit thrower mostly, and shit throwing instigators…gonna instigate…
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Lo and don’t behold.
;)
So old can remember the celebrations over The Mother of All Demos.
Going a hop and a skip further back in time –
LuciaMia
In the interest of needing escape fro the ongoing craziness, “Its The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” is on tonite, 8PM on ABC
Fair Economist
@Mary G: The issue for all these conspirators is that if Americans take control of the Presidency back from Putin in 2020, they can still be prosecuted. Barr can ignore the referrals, but he can’t make them not have happened.
Sab
@Paul W.: Isn’t she slated to replace Elijah Cummings?
Betty
@Mary G: Another case of domestic violence not handled well by Astro’s management.
mrmoshpotato
@LuciaMia: Thank you.
lamh36
Some paper or something posted an article about a focus group of SC Black voters convened by Mayor’s Pete campaign or something for some focus group testing. I’m sure you already know which angle the paper or whoever decided to take as it’s lead on why SC Black voters aren’t feeling Mayor Pete…but whatever.
It’s not the stereotypical Black voters that Pete has to really worry about…this type of voter is the one sitting in hiding who gets in the booth and doesn’t vote for Pete most just won’t say it aloud
The focus and attack is always on Black voters, and voters like this guy above are the REAL true enemy…
If it’s homophobia from Black folks keeping Pete’s Black voter numbers low…then what is it for Liz Warren or Kamala Harris, or even any of the others low voters?
Anyway, all this to say, if Pete’s camp strategy is to call Black voters homphobic…then good luck with bringing those numbers up…
Again, this focus group was in July, why it’s coming out now…if the campaign didn’t want it to…IDK, your guess is as good as mine
M31
@Mary G: Russians, GOP, even the NYT can’t tell them apart
lamh36
GTFOH Kristen
Nobody believes this shit
mrmoshpotato
@M31: Same thing with Twitter auto-banning Nazis; it would catch too many GrOPers in the dragnet. Wonder why. ?
Dan B
Apparently Pete’s team hired 2 of Zuckerberg’s recommendations. It sure doesn’t seem like a takeover.
The more serious looming problem may be Bezos who is currently trying to make Seattle more corporate friendly with $1.45 million dumped into city council races. The current council would like to tax wealthy corps so we can address a serious homelessness crisis partially caused by skyrocketing prices exacerbated by….. Amazon’s highly paid employees. 10,000 + homeless and Bezos doesn’t want to pay a penny more in taxes.
The next targets will likely be Warren and anybody else that wants fair taxation.
lamh36
ICYMI:
Barbara
The fact that Buttigieg and Zuckerberg travel in the same social circles is not a plus for the mayor of South Bend and the fact that it is offered as an excuse is incredibly tone deaf. IMHO.
dexwood
Poor Mark. Fuck em.
Drive by comment. One and out for the night.
RAVEN
The fishing was not too great but the sunset. . .
lamh36
Damn shame Castro is struggling to stay in, but folks like Yang et al still makes it into the debates…smh
mrmoshpotato
@lamh36: Oh, that’s rich. “Too much Naziing. I had to leave.”
lamh36
@lamh36:
mrmoshpotato
@RAVEN: The fish were too busy setting the sky on fire.
lamh36
Well deserved and pretty cool
I don’t mail letters anymore, but I’m def gonna have to get some for my mom!
chopper
@lamh36:
it is 100% true, if not more.
jeffreyw
@Major Major Major Major:
Who is not me!
different-church-lady
As many of you know, I’ve been telling people all this for years, but they keep insisting Facebook is the only way they can keep in touch with distant relatives with whom they refuse to use any of the other available means of communication.
oatler.
Again, Zuckerberg took the Mayor to an exceedingly
high mountain, and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world, and their glory.
Dan B
@lamh36: The Root had a post about how black people should support LGBT civil rights because it’s the same struggle. The comments were immediately disheartening, “It’s a choice.” “Gay people were never lynched.” “It’s a lifestyle.” etc. At the same time a latinx / native friend has been on a rant about how white gay men are all racist. (His partner and adopted kids are white.. go figure.)
It seems as though there may be a Rusdian bot campaign to turn our imperfections into cause for war instead of reason to come together and find common ground.
different-church-lady
@Dan B: It’s the Monsters are Due on Maple Street all the way down.
different-church-lady
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’ve turned 50, and I advise against it.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Iowa Poll — Suffolk University — Oct 16 thur 18
Biden…………18%
Warren………17%
Pete…………..13%
Wilmer………….9%
HA!
I don’t care if Pete is having tea with Mao’s ghost as long as he pushes Wilmer into a humiliating SINGLE DIGIT defeat.
chopper
@oatler.:
and zuckerberg said “but you will not live to see these places” and the mayor said “wait, what?” and then zuckerberg pushed him off the mountain and smote him, and then he went to get a coffee.
lamh36
@Dan B: The Root is not run by Black folks and the comment thread is alway overrun by bots.
Pay attention to the comment sections at your own peril
ETA: Believe me when i tell you that Black folks “homophobia” aint’ the reason why Pete isn’t catching on with them.
PJ
@different-church-lady: As Patrick Henry said so long ago, and reiterated by Jello Biafra, “Give me convenience or give me death!”
Mary G
I never say this, but if a Democratic president had done this…
His true crime is that he kept some of the monet foreign countries gave him for Trump. The Don doesn’t forgive.
lamh36
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Well phones haven’t been invented yet.
Kent
@Dan B: I don’t think you can necessarily blame Russian bots homophobia in the black community It’s real and long-standing.
That said, they will be looking for any wedges. But so will all the Republican rat fuckers. We have plenty of home grown ones too.
lamh36
@lamh36:
BTW…anyone else find it amazing how Kamala Harris has managed to find more Black folk in Iowa than any one who’s had a rally at an HBCU…
Kent
@lamh36: What do you see as the reason? I mean there is frankly no reason he should be catching on as there are so many other good candidates. I’m frankly surprised as hell he is where he is in sole possession of 4th place after the 3 big dogs.
Tazj
@Mary G: Wonder if they’ll apologize for that? Of course not, they figure the correction is enough even if hardly anybody saw it. I’d also like to see all those pundits and politicians including fellow Democrats admit they were wrong, but I know they won’t.
Tulsi can’t take back any of the things she said, they were too crazy. She outed herself as a cook.
Millard Filmore
@different-church-lady:
Fate is the same for everybody: you live until you die.
Let there be glory on this day.
lamh36
@Kent: he’s were he is because he was boosted up with nothing but positive press and mentiones before he ever issued a policy statement even though his the least experienced of all the top tier candidates and also less experienced than half the folks polling below him.
That’s it. Just because the majority folks have dismissed the South Bend stuff, it hasn’t been forgotten by Black folks. There was no outreach, there has been no outreach to speak of. If there is one thing Black voters dont’ seem to like is pandering or just outright ignoring them.
I can tell ya nothing pisses Black folks off more than how a white man/woman with less experience or skills or whatever is able to get ahead of a Black person or minority who has more experience and skills and yet still has to jump through multiple hoops and levels just to get on a even field with the inexperienced white guy
?BillinGlendaleCA
@different-church-lady: 50 was almost a decade in the rear view mirror for me.
Barbara
@different-church-lady: Why would you pass up an opportunity to wallow in shallow, stupid and boring posts? I just found out via FB messages (can’t seem to turn it off) that one of my many first cousins is currently at Planet Fitness three states away.
lamh36
@lamh36: btw, if you check the article, the focus groups thought Buttigieg was too young & didn’t have any experience. They also don’t think he can beat Trump in comparison to Biden, but homophobia is the better stereotype for some folks to latch on to
Kent
@lamh36That was my take too. Just curious if you were going to say the same thing. He is the poster boy for the young white phenom who jumps the line. Whether in business or politics. He is Nathan Peterman to Colin Kapernick. All “potential” with a lightweight resume.
Kent
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Wow. Still kind of disappointed that it’s 3 white dudes at the top with the most diverse field we have ever had.
geg6
He was never my guy and he has done nothing to impress me. But I wasn’t actively cheering for him to lose. Now I want him to flame out in a specular conflagration. Dude wants to hang out with that scum Zuckerberg, I want him humiliated at the ballot box.
geg6
@Kent:
Dudes?!?!? Seriously?!?!?!?
Cuz white women don’t count, I guess? They have all the privileges of white men? Are you seriously going to go with that?
RAVEN
@mrmoshpotato: I caught a few undersized pompano and what looked to be a 4 or 5 ft shark. I say looked to be because something, probably a way bigger shark, hit it and took everything but the head in a milisecond.
Another Scott
@Paul W.: Well done. Best of luck to both of you!
Donated.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@RAVEN: ?Shark head, shark head, rolly polly shark head, shark head, shark head, eat it up yum!?
Dan B
@lamh36: I’m aware of the bots on The Root.
I also agree that Pete hasn’t caught on with black people for several reasons, one of which is he didn’t focus effort on outreach. Even Dsvid Axelrod was concerned early on, at the launch specifically. I see Pete as very well spoken and remarkably steady but as not seasoned.
He’s great for a lot of gay men who can’t believe that a gay man could be a candidate for president. I’m also concerned that he’ll be used to divide POC from LGBT people (and immigrant, minority religious groups) because the story he promoted is that even a gay man could succeed in America. The story should have been I will fight for eveyone’s chance at success. The bots know how to divide us by identity.
The good side is he does seem to appeal to some of the anxious soft-racist whites. But that is not necessarily a winning strategy.
Two steps forward and one back, sigh. I got involved in Civil Rights in 1964 and here we still are.
RAVEN
@mrmoshpotato: Here ya go.
Starfish
Speaking of Sanders folks, @mattbc had to lock down his account due to abuse from Sanders folks.
Matt is a disability rights advocate who has a law degree and maybe Celiacs. He is in the hospital all the time and constantly having coverage for expensive medication taken away.
People were adoringly quoting as Sanders rally saying that Sanders told everyone to turn to the person next to them and ask if they would fight as hard for that person as they would fight for themselves.
Matt said that he would fight harder for himself than others, and he was flooded with abusive comments and had to lock down his account.
West of the Rockies
@lamh36:
Maybe black folks think Pete lacks big-time national-stage experience. I’m white, and that’s my reason for not wanting him to be Prez.
I think he is bright and decent and can be a solid contributor, but not as president, certainly not now.
I still hope it is Harris, then Warren. I like Cory and Julian, too.
Dan B
@Kent: Yep, the homophobia is longstanding. Our neighbors go to a black church where the minister rails on about homosexuals. Our neighbors are very loving and a bit embarrased about it.
And there are so many great civil rights leaders who were LGBT or supportive. I dated a half dozen black gay men and there was always something eye opening. It’s tricky negotiating where you don’t fit into either community. If you’re black and gay you don’t know if you can be safe from racism or homophobia.
I think of one guy who is one step below president of a major second tier ivy. I was so head over heels and he was so far out of my league. And his understanding of the pitfalls of his worlds was humbling.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Starfish: that’s hilarious, as Wilmer has never worked hard for anyone other than himself.
Kent
@geg6: sorry. I’m on my phone. Obviously I meant 3 out of the top 4. I’m a Warren fan. I haven’t forgot her. If Harris is no longer viable by the time this thing gets to WA then she has my vote
Starfish
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: The behavior of the Sanders groupies on Twitter is awful, and Twitter should just ban a whole bunch of them for running coordinated attacks on everyone with minor opinions.
Kay
I just think the shape-shifting with Buttigieg is hard to explain outside of raw ambition- which is fine! They’re all ambitious and they’re all to a greater or lesser degree cutthroat or they would have chosen a different line of work, but, wow. It’s pretty.. abrupt to go from “earnest heartland progressive” to “savvy business-friendly centrist” in, like, 13 days.
I don’t know. If he found it this easy to drop his early 2019 persona you wonder what the next shape shift could bring.
At this rate we could end up with a young Mitt Romney by 2020 :)
randy khan
Reposting from an earlier thread, since it seems to fit better here:
So this happened today:
As part of my usual political posting on Facebook, I mentioned and provided a link to the NARAL Virginia voters guide for the elections. It was blocked as violating community standards. I tried posting the native link, in case there was something in my text that somehow triggered the block. I got the same response.
I have, needless to say, objected and sent a message to Zuckerberg’s official account, but I don’t expect much in the way of a response. (I also told the NARAL Virginia folks, who are good people and needed to know.)
different-church-lady
@Starfish: But that’s what Twitter is for!
BruceFromOhio
@RAVEN: Thats a really cool photo!
Ladyraxterinok
@lamh36:
A truly beautiful woman!
Ohio Mom
@Starfish: IIRC*, Matt has very intractable Crohn’s disease, and a deeply informed critique of Bernie’s Medicare proposal (he has a health policy background in addition to his law degree).
He maintains that Bernie’s plan would deny him the expensive medications that he needs to survive, so it isn’t just an academic argument, it is intensely personal to him.
The people offended by his answer that he would fight hardest for himself have no idea how much fighting with the system it takes for him to stay alive. As a metaphor, they wouldn’t be able to honor any commitment to fight on his behalf, so he did them a favor by giving them an out.
* I used to drop by Matt’s Twitter feed when I was going through a phase of reading lot of disability advocactes. Haven’t thought about him in months, you jogged my memory.
smintheus
@Kay: Been saying for at least a year that Buttigieg is as phony as a four dollar bill. I don’t understand at this stage why other Democrats cannot see it. He is right out in the open with his hypocrisy, flip flopping, and GOPesque trolling.
cain
@Paul W.: @Paul W.:
A wonderful initial video! Congratulations. I don’t know anybody in New York, but she would get my vote :)
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@smintheus: could be worse. atleast he’s not a NRA asset who voted for Dump’s racist wall and voted against the Magnitsky Act.
Another Scott
@Another Scott: Whoops. Retweeting Snowden? Really?!?
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.