Comrade Trump

[Uncle Ted]

Do you know how much a Google ad costs ... of course you do, but if you were to reveal the amount (low-end $1, high-end $15) that would undermine your post. Of course we all know they didn't just 'advertise' on Google:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/09/new-...ction-ads.html



and of course that $100,000 was spent on ads that were likely between $5 and $50 ... It's a matter of scale Ted, but of course you know that.

Of course I do...


Trump and Clinton spent $81M on US election Facebook ads, Russian agency $46K

[Uncle Ted]

Good thing the Russians are so dumb that they think the only way to interfere is through Google ad buys.

Yes, "Russia meddled -- by telling us what Hillary did!"

[tooblue]

Of course I do...


Trump and Clinton spent $81M on US election Facebook ads, Russian agency $46K

Great link. I especially liked the update:

[Update: However, since the IRA was using incendiary, divisive, eye-drawing content about polarizing issues, it likely was able to squeeze more impressions and engagment out of each dollar of spend than Trump and Clinton’s ads driving awareness for the candidates That’s because Facebook’s ad auction system preferences engaging ads by providing lower rates. By focusing on hot-button issues and playing into people’s biases, the IRA’s ads got widely re-shared for free by viewers.]

I think—but can't be certain—but isn't that like when things go viral? ... lol

[Uncle Ted]

Great link. I especially liked the update:



I think—but can't be certain—but isn't that like when things go viral? ... lol

OMG! Facebook users are Russians! I'm going to unfriend all those basturds.

[tooblue]

OMG! Facebook users are Russians! I'm going to unfriend all those basturds.

Is this a type of reductio ad absurdum?

[Uncle Ted]

2Blue... since you like wired:

HOW TRUMP CONQUERED FACEBOOK—WITHOUT RUSSIAN ADS

Why Russia’s Facebook ads were less important to Trump’s victory than his own Facebook ads.
[...]
The candidate who can trigger that feedback loop ultimately wins. The Like button is our new ballot box, and democracy has been transformed into an algorithmic popularity contest.
[...]
(Another way to picture it: Your social network resembles a nutrient-rich petri dish, just sitting out in the open. Custom Audiences helps mercenary marketers find that dish, and lets them plant the bacterium of a Facebook post inside it. From there, your own interaction with the meme, which is echoed in News Feed, spreads it to your immediate vicinity. Lookalike Audiences finishes the job by pushing it to the edges of your social petri dish, to everyone whose tastes and behaviors resemble yours. The net result is a network overrun by an infectious meme, dutifully placed there by an advertiser, and spread by the ads and News Feed machinery.)
[...]
If we’re going to reorient our society around Internet echo chambers, with Facebook and Twitter serving as our new Athenian agora, then we as citizens should understand how that forum gets paid for. Rarely will the owners of that now-privatized space deign to explain how they’re keeping the lights on. Plotting Russians make for a good story, and external enemies frequently serve an internal purpose, but the trail of blame often leads much closer to home. It’s right there, topped by a big, blue bar on our smartphone screens, and could very well be how you arrived at what you’re reading right now.

https://www.wired.com/story/how-trum...t-russian-ads/

[tooblue]

2Blue... since you like wired:


https://www.wired.com/story/how-trum...t-russian-ads/

OK wait, let me square your logic: Russian meddling via ads on social media was ineffective because they spent relatively little money on said advertising, but you are now asserting that by using those same (or similar) tactics Trump's campaign was highly effective to such an extent, per the headline, Trump was able to conquer Facebook?

You are not winning this argument. In fact, it can be argued you have now unwittingly drawn a connection between the Trump campaign and Russia, because from whom exactly did Trump's team learn the tactics necessary to 'conquer Facebook' if not from their comrades in the Kremlin?



Ted just proved Mueller's case ... someone get the FBI on the phone!

[PaloAltoCougar]

In the absence of additional evidence that Trump coordinated directly with the Russians (and in that regard it's funny Trump claims he has been vindicated even though Mueller has yet to make any public comment about Orange Julius), his campaign team's bumbling around with the Russians and the false statements to the press still wouldn't make my top ten list of damaging things Trump has done.

[Uncle Ted]

OK wait, let me square your logic: Russian meddling via ads on social media was ineffective because they spent relatively little money on said advertising, but you are now asserting that by using those same (or similar) tactics Trump's campaign was highly effective to such an extent, per the headline, Trump was able to conquer Facebook?

You are not winning this argument. In fact, it can be argued you have now unwittingly drawn a connection between the Trump campaign and Russia, because from whom exactly did Trump's team learn the tactics necessary to 'conquer Facebook' if not from their comrades in the Kremlin?



Ted just proved Mueller's case ... someone get the FBI on the phone!

If the $4,700 the Russians spent on Google ads was so damn effective then the Clinton campaign should have thrown some money at them to do their marketing for the campaign... oh wait, they did:

The Clinton campaign sought dirt on Trump from Russian officials. Where’s the outrage?
[...]
the Clinton campaign proactively sought dirt on Trump from Russian government sources. They did it through cutouts. In April 2016, Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias retained opposition research firm Fusion GPS to compile incriminating information on Trump. Fusion GPS in turn hired Christopher Steele, a former British MI6 operative with sources among Russian government officials. The result was the salacious dossier, whose sources included “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure” and “a former top level intelligence officer still active in the Kremlin.” Steele’s work was paid for by Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. That means a paid agent of the Clinton campaign approached Russian officials for damaging material on Trump.
[...]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.5e908d84c2e5

[Uncle Ted]

In the absence of additional evidence that Trump coordinated directly with the Russians (and in that regard it's funny Trump claims he has been vindicated even though Mueller has yet to make any public comment about Orange Julius), his campaign team's bumbling around with the Russians and the false statements to the press still wouldn't make my top ten list of damaging things Trump has done.

Yeah, it would make my top ten list either on how the Russians could have thrown the election to Drumpf. I am still convinced they hacked the voting machines but given the Dems always say there is no such thing as voter fraud I guess that can't be the case.

[tooblue]

If the $4,700 the Russians spent on Google ads was so damn effective then the Clinton campaign should have thrown some money at them to do their marketing for the campaign... oh wait, they did:


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.5e908d84c2e5

We've been down this road before:

wiretap.jpg

[Uncle Ted]

We've been down this road before:

[ATTACH]9273[/ATTACH]

Of course, the Russians were involved, they spent $4,700 on google ads, but as explained by Rosenstein there is no evidence that they "altered the vote count or changed any election result". But did Rosenstein examine all those voting machines? I think not!

[Walter Sobchak]

Of course I do...


Trump and Clinton spent $81M on US election Facebook ads, Russian agency $46K

Ted, not sure you understand yet. $46k goes a long way when you are running ads with cartoon Bernie in a speedo.

[tooblue]

Ted, not sure you understand yet. $46k goes a long way when you are running ads with cartoon Bernie in a speedo.

What's more amazing is 40+k is not enough money spent for the Russians to influence the election but it is more than enough, and in fact likely too much money for Trump to 'conquer Facebook.'

Oh, and I found a great gift for the MAGA fan in your life:

https://www.zazzle.ca/trump_putin_20...31294067702971

Here's the lovely pic on the mug:

[frank ryan]

Maria Butina’s boyfriend claimed he set up Trump-Russia NRA “conduit” as campaign funds flowed
Republican operative Paul Erickson claimed in an email he’d set up a private Russia-GOP channel through the NRA

Admitted Russian spy Maria Butina’s Republican operative boyfriend wrote in private communications that he was involved in setting up a “very private line of communication” between Russia and the Trump campaign using the National Rifle Association as a “conduit.”

Butina, a 30-year-old Russian gun rights activist, worked for years to cultivate relationships within Republican and NRA circles. She was charged with working as an agent of the Russian government earlier this year and on Monday agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges and cooperate with prosecutors.

In her plea deal, Butina admitted that she and “US Person 1,” who is longtime Republican operative Paul Erickson, “agreed and conspired, with a Russian government official,” whose description matches Russian banker and close Putin ally Alexander Torshin, for Butina to “act in the United States under the direction of Russian Official without prior notification to the Attorney General,” ABC News reported.

Under Torshin’s direction, the document said, Butina “sought to establish unofficial lines of communication with Americans having power and influence over U.S. politics.”

According to ABC News, federal prosecutors have notified Erickson, who had a romantic relationship with Butina, that he is now a target in the ongoing investigation.

According to her agreement, Butina admitted that with Erickson’s help she drafted a proposal called “Description of the Diplomacy Project” in March of 2015 in which she wrote that she had “laid the groundwork for an unofficial channel of communication with the next U.S. administration.”

According to prosecutors, Erickson “worked with Butina to arrange introductions to U.S. persons having influence in American politics,” including the NRA and the organizers of the National Prayer Breakfast.

In 2015, Butina organized a trip for former NRA presidents and officials to Moscow, where she arranged a meeting for them with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“We should let them express their gratitude now, we will put pressure on them quietly later,” she wrote to Torshin after the meeting.

Around the same time, Erickson appears to have known about Butina’s work and was helping her establish connections.

“Unrelated to specific presidential campaigns,” Erickson wrote in October 2016, in an email to an acquaintance now in possession of the FBI, “I’ve been involved in securing a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key [unnamed political party] leaders through, of all conduits, the [unnamed gun-rights organization].”

FBI investigators raided Erickson's South Dakota home and found a note in which he mused, “How to respond to FSB offer of employment?” The FSB is Russia’s intelligence agency and the successor to the infamous KGB.

Butina continued to attend “friendship dinners” with prominent conservatives and later arranged for a group of Russians to attend the National Prayer Breakfast in February of 2017.

https://www.salon.com/2018/12/12/mar...-funds-flowed/