2020 Presidential Primaries

Discussion in 'The Red Room' started by Nova, Nov 7, 2018.

  1. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    Don't play stupid, you and I both know the government wants to stay at war and keep themoney flowing from Boeing, Raytheon and the like.
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  2. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti Staff Member Administrator

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    Sits just fine, unless you can demonstrate they provided patently false info.
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  3. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    What part of it's a disinformation shop do you not understand? It's run by a former CIA operative. Did you even read the thread from Blunenthal or are you just dismissing it out right?
  4. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti Staff Member Administrator

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    I reject the characterization of its purpose as "disinformation." I'm totally fine with it being run by an ex-CIA agent. :techman:

    Blumenthal has less than zero credibility because he has frequently promoted pro-Assad and pro-Russia narratives.
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  5. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    So you're going to ignore any evidence that this is a hit job and totally believe Gabbard is a Russian asset with no proof whatsoever? And you're totally okay with the CIA pushing disinformation so we can stay perpetually stay at war?
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  6. Zombie

    Zombie dead and loving it

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    Can you stop with the bullshit?

    Here's what Hillary said:

    Clearly Hillary is talking about Tusli Gabbard being a Russian asset and taking a jab at Jill Stein who Clinton feels probably hurt Clinton in the general election in 2016.
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  7. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti Staff Member Administrator

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    I don't buy into the anti-America, conspiratorial worldview. The CIA is composed of dedicated men and women who put their lives on the line and do their best to protect our country. Our enemies must not be allowed to prevail, even if it means a few more years of war. Hope that clears a few things up.
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  8. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti Staff Member Administrator

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    "Asset" usually means somebody who is on the payroll and taking orders from a foreign government. Clearly that is not the case for Gabbard, but that doesn't mean Russia wouldn't find it suits their purposes to promote her candidacy.
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  9. Zombie

    Zombie dead and loving it

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    Bullshit.

    It can also mean "useful idiot" in the sense that they are managing to push Gabbard in ways they want without her knowing it.
  10. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti Staff Member Administrator

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    I won't call her an idiot, but she is useful to Russia. Though I don't see how they have had to push her.
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  11. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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  12. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti Staff Member Administrator

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    I once was lost, but now… :enty:
  13. Tererune

    Tererune Troll princess and Magical Girl

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    Yes, I can.
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  14. Tererune

    Tererune Troll princess and Magical Girl

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    Yet again, intellectual dishonesty.
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  15. Tererune

    Tererune Troll princess and Magical Girl

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    The people on the payroll are clearly trump and rudy. They are the ones who have taken payment from russian sources.
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  16. Order2Chaos

    Order2Chaos Ultimate... Immortal Administrator

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    That's "agent". Assets can be unwitting, and certainly unpaid.
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  17. Tererune

    Tererune Troll princess and Magical Girl

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    So what you are saying is rightforge, the republicans, and the trumpistas are all agents of russia.

    I totally agree, as long as you are including @Federal Farmer
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  18. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    Then by all means, go right ahead.
  19. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    Yet again, show me how.
  20. Tererune

    Tererune Troll princess and Magical Girl

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    Thank you for permission, but don't let me interrupt you being the best example of my point. I am quite fine with you continuing in your intellectual dishonesty while I point it out.

    Please do not tell anyone about my secret identity as captain obvious. Oh, and shouldn't you be complaining about how the mods deleted dayton's blue room thread? Just sayin.
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  21. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    So just like every other time I challenge you to produce quotes, once again you fail. I'll remember this from now on and just ignore you next time.
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  22. Tererune

    Tererune Troll princess and Magical Girl

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    I am telling you that you are making the quotes yourself. Good try for dayton points, I will give you a couple hundred, but @Dinner just used the NY post as a source and you are going to have to do better if you want to be our new dayton.
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  23. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti Staff Member Administrator

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    Facebook: Russian trolls are back. And they're here to meddle with 2020


    New York (CNN Business) — People linked to the Internet Research Agency, the Kremlin-backed troll group indicted by the United States for its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, are laying the groundwork to do the same in 2020, new information released by Facebook on Monday suggests.

    Profiles originating in Russia had since the beginning of this year been building a network of accounts on Instagram designed to look like groups in swing states, the company said. Instagram is owned by Facebook (FB).

    Although the accounts posed as Americans from all sides of the political spectrum, many were united in their opposition to the candidacy of former Vice President Joe Biden, according to Graphika, a social media investigations company that Facebook asked to analyze the accounts. The Russian trolls who used social media to interfere in the 2016 election employed a similar tactic, going after Hillary Clinton from the right and also trying to spread a perception on the left that Clinton was not liberal enough and that liberals and African Americans especially shouldn't bother voting for her.

    The accounts Facebook revealed Monday, 50 of which were on Instagram and one of which was on Facebook, were designed to look like they were advocating on a broad range of issues across American life.

    Accounts with usernames like @black.queen.chloe and @michigan_black_community_ looked like they were run by black activists. There were also pro and anti-Trump accounts, and accounts posing as feminists, LGBTQ rights advocates, and environmentalists. Other account names included @stop.trump2020, @bernie.2020__, @iowa.patriot, and @feminist_agenda_, according to Graphika.

    Facebook said the accounts combined had more than 250,000 followers, more than half of which were based in the U.S. Facebook did not disclose how many of those followers were real and how many might have been fake or bot accounts designed to make the main accounts look more legitimate. Facebook says it has removed the accounts.

    "It looked like there was a systematic focus on attacking Biden from both sides," Graphika director of investigations Ben Nimmo, who analyzed the accounts, told CNN Business.

    Nimmo also observed attacks on other candidates, including Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but said those attacks seemed more the result of "character building" in which the accounts were sharing content to bolster their respective personas -- for instance, liberal-looking accounts attacked Trump, while conservative-looking accounts posted negative content about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

    "Among the accounts focused on black activism, there was strong support for Bernie Sanders along with a moderate amount of content opposing Kamala Harris," Graphika said in its analysis. "Education reform and student debt relief were two of the most commonly mentioned reasons for supporting Sanders, while Harris's record as a California DA was mentioned as a reason to oppose her candidacy. Mixed in with these was a small amount of content attacking Joe Biden, primarily due to gaffes related to his previous handling of racial issues."

    Nimmo said the accounts sent just under 75,000 posts, the majority of which were not directly related to the 2020 election, but to broader political and social issues in the US.

    Facebook said Monday those behind the operation had taken steps to conceal their identities and locations. The company did not publicly say how it had determined the accounts were linked to the Internet Research Agency but said it had shared details with law enforcement.

    The campaign mostly recycled existing memes and posts from real American news organizations and political groups.

    "This wasn't Russians targeting Americans with Russian content, this was Russians targeting Americans with American content," Nimmo said.

    The decision to recycle existing content, rather than create new material, might have been part of the campaign's strategy to conceal its Russian links, Nimmo said. However, errors in some of the accounts' posts suggested the accounts weren't run by native English speakers.

    "What the future for their children will be?" the caption read on one post apparently criticizing Americans who don't remember the Confederacy fondly. Another account posted "What a bullsh**."

    Nathaniel Gleicher, who leads Facebook's team investigating foreign influence operations, said the company had caught the operation in its early stages and that the Russian group had been focusing on audience building. Gleicher said the accounts were "trying to make themselves look like ordinary citizens" in a way that could later have lent credibility to their posts.

    Facebook has taken extensive steps to crack down on foreign disinformation on its platforms since the 2016 election, including hiring former intelligence officials to root out campaigns like those run from Russia. Gleicher said that the steps Facebook had taken appeared to make it difficult for the Russian accounts "to build the following among authentic communities."

    "People in Russia are still trying this," Nimmo told CNN Business on Monday. But, he said, they are finding it a lot harder because the social media companies "are hunting them."

    "In 2016, you could have set up an account posing as a Tennessee Republican and have it registered to a Russian phone number," he noted.

    Facebook also announced Monday that it had removed several networks of Iranian accounts, some of which targeted Americans. One of the accounts directed audiences to content about Black Lives Matter -- a tactic that was very popular among the Russian trolls in 2016. The network had a relatively small following of more than 7,000 accounts.

    While most of the focus on online foreign interference in the US has been devoted to Russia, over the past 12 months, Facebook has detected multiple Iranian campaigns targeting the United States
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  24. T.R

    T.R Don't Care

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    So if Russia wants Gabbard as the candidate, does that mean that Trump is no longer considered a favorite of Russia? Not that I believe any of this bullshit, but just trying to keep up with the latest conspiracy theory.
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  25. tafkats

    tafkats scream not working because space make deaf Moderator

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    Since Gabbard would be relatively easy for Trump to beat, no.

    But on the off-chance that she did win, they'd probably still be reasonably happy compared with somebody who wouldn't significantly diminish America's presence on the world stage.
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  26. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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    There's an old saying, "You can be honest, or you can be a politician. You can't be both."
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  27. Order2Chaos

    Order2Chaos Ultimate... Immortal Administrator

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    Why do you think Russia wouldn’t want to win no matter which party wins the White House?
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  28. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti Staff Member Administrator

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    You don't believe Russia seeks to influence American elections and domestic politics? :wtf: Which rock have you been living under?

    Russia's activities are within the realm of proven fact, not theory or conjecture. But they don't limit themselves to supporting a particular candidate. Their goal is maximum disruption, division, and distraction. That is why they promote both pro- and anti-Trump memes, as well as pro-BLM and pro-police memes. They want to push the right and the left to become more and more extreme, and alienate the middle so they lose all interest in politics.

    The candidates they do favor are anti-establishment and have isolationist leanings, which is why Trump and Gabbard are both favorites.
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  29. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    So you’d like to continue to be the world police and be perpetually at war?
  30. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    She’s not isolationist, she’s specifically said she’s against regime change wars. Not against war and she’s not for pulling out of the world stage. You guys continue to grossly misrepresent what she says, I don’t know if it’s on purpose or not, but you’re almost as bad as CNN.