MY SIDES! Those 3,000 ‘Russian Troll Farm’ Facebook Ads ‘Showed Support for Clinton’

With the Trump-Russia narrative nearly extinguished under the weight of its own lunacy, the latest log tossed on the dying pyre of credibility was the revelation earlier this month that a “Russian troll farm” had purchased up to $150,000 worth of ads – 3,000 total, through 470 phony Facebook accounts.

Initial reports were that the ads were mostly taken out in 2015 and did not support a specific candidate. Facebook initially published the following information when they announced their findings:

• The vast majority of ads run by these accounts didn’t specifically reference the US presidential election, voting or a particular candidate.
• Rather, the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.
• About one-quarter of these ads were geographically targeted, and of those, more ran in 2015 than 2016.
• The behavior displayed by these accounts to amplify divisive messages was consistent with the techniques mentioned in the white paper we released in April about information operations.

and after Facebook turned over the 3k ads to congressional investigators, a little bird whispered to the Washington Post – which reports that some of the 3,000 ads highlighted support for Hillary Clinton.

And while the Washington Post was happy to paint in broad brush strokes, leaving out specifics and declining to print examples of the actual ads – they’re happy to conclude that Russia’s objective was to “sow discord.”

Via WaPo:

The Russian campaign — taking advantage of Facebook’s ability to simultaneously send contrary messages to different groups of users based on their political and demographic characteristics – also sought to sow discord among religious groups. Other ads highlighted support for Democrat Hillary Clinton among Muslim women.

So it appears we have pivoted from “Russia helped Trump” to “Russia used pro-Hillary ads to ‘sow discord’ and beat Hillary by dividing her base.”

Sure, and virtually the entire GOP rejecting Trump as their nominee after the primaries didn’t divide the right as much as the Russians and their 3,000 ads.

Wapo goes on to report:

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said he hoped the public would be able to review the ad campaign.

“I think the American people should see a representative sample of these ads to see how cynical the Russian were using these ads to sow division within our society,” he said, noting that he had not yet seen the ads but had been briefed on them, including the ones mentioning “things like Black Lives Matter.”

There you have it; Russia placed pro-Hillary ads in 2015 and influenced the election by dividing the country. Devious.

Anthony Weiner, 53, has been sentenced to 21 months of the two year prosecutors had sought in his high profile sexting scandal with a 15 year old girl. The pedophile husband of Hillary Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, sent and requested lewd photos with the minor victim in January of 2016 – which quickly evolved into live chats and skype calls.

The former lawmaker will have to register as a sex offender upon release.

Weiner’s lawyers had argued he should have received probation in the case which Hillary Clinton blames in part for her election loss. In arguments before the court, Weiner told judge Cote that he was “a very sick man for a very long time,” calling his crime “rock bottom” as he wept through a prepared statement.

Buzzfeed provides some bullet points on the sentencing:

• Weiner cries as he is sentenced to 21 months in prison with 3 years supervised release.
• Weiner also must pay $10,000 fine
• Weiner must surrender to prison by Nov 6
• Weiner cries as he delivers statement: “I have a disease but I do not have an excuse”
• “If I had done the right thing I would not be standing before you today” – Weiner
• “The crime I committed was my rock bottom… I was a very sick man for a very long time” – Weiner

Last week, US Attorney for the district of NY, Joon Kim, laid out:

In the evening of January 23, 2016, a 15-year-old girl (the “Minor Victim”) initiated contact with the defendant by sending him a direct message on Twitter. Over the next several hours, the Minor Victim and Weiner exchanged a series of messages, ranging from the mundane to the provocative. Early in the exchange, the Minor Victim revealed to Weiner that she was in high school. Despite knowing he was communicating with a high school student, Weiner participated in increasingly suggestive exchanges…

As January turned to February, their intermittent exchanges grew more lascivious. This was despite the fact that there could be no reasonable doubt in Weiner’s mind that he was chatting with a minor – in addition to having revealed that she was a high school student, the Minor Victim told Weiner that she was getting her learner’s permit. She explained in Facebook chats that she has “parents that wouldn’t approve of some of the things” she does, and that she likes “older guys,” “[b]ut that’s illegal.” The defendant correctly observed, “You are young,” in one Kik message.

Against that backdrop, between February 17 and 23, 2016, Weiner and the Minor Victim participated in three video chat sessions on Skype.

It was then that the Minor Victim made clear that she was not just a minor – she was, in fact, only 15 years old. That did not stop Weiner. During the latter two Skype sessions, on February 18 and 23, 2016, and in a Snapchat communication on March 9, 2016, the defendant used graphic and obscene language to ask the Minor Victim to display her naked body and touch herself, which she did. He also sent an obscene message to the Minor Victim on Confide, describing what he would do to her, if she were 18. Part and parcel of these disturbing – and criminal – exchanges, the defendant also sent the Minor Victim adult pornography.

Weiner, a grown man, a father, and a former lawmaker, willfully and knowingly asked a 15-year-old girl to display her body and engage in sexually explicit conduct for him online. Such conduct warrants a meaningful sentence of incarceration.

Despite the fact that he will likely be separated from the general prison population, one wonders how Weiner will fare. Non-pedo inmates hate child abusers.

NBC’s Sunday Night Football ratings took a hit last night as dozens of players kneeled during the National Anthem to protest the 480 mostly black on black murders in Chicago this year racial injustice.

More than 150 NFL players have defied President Trump by kneeling during the US national anthem https://t.co/zlpfQEgPtK pic.twitter.com/DpX23jTVEp

— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 25, 2017

As Deadline reports:

In metered market numbers, the primetime matchup that saw the Washington Redskins beat the Oakland Raiders 27-10  snared an 11.6/20, the worst SNF has performed this season so far. It’s an 8% dip from the early numbers of last week’s game, Atlanta’s 34-23 win over Green Bay. Amid cheers and boos from fans at FedEx Field in Maryland last night, the third week of the SNF  season declined 10% from early numbers of the comparable game of last year on September 25, 2016.

It wasn’t all bad, however – as an intense game between Green Bay and Cincinnati gave CBS a slight ratings bump.

Last Friday at a rally in Huntsville, Alabama in support of Republican Luther Strange – President Trump started calling out the NFL over players ‘disrespecting’ the flag by kneeling.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners,” said Trump, “when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’ ”

And just like that, a nation kneels before Trump:

Oh my lord, Trump has tricked his critics into kneeling before him. pic.twitter.com/5YeWiyAUtn

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 25, 2017

The Russian Defense ministry released a cache of photos from Syria allegedly showing ISIS, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the United States working side-by-side against Russian and Syrian government forces in the town of Dier ez-Zor.

Photos from two weeks ago of what Russia claims are U.S. Special Ops Forces (SOF) Hummer vehicles operating at ISIS strongholds were posted on Twitter early Sunday morning:

The aerial photos of ISIS' territory north of #Deir_ez_Zor where #USA special operation troops are seen https://t.co/lH6u8H9bvZ pic.twitter.com/gjqlQubi9o

— Минобороны России (@mod_russia) September 24, 2017

The Russian Defense Ministry issued the following statement on the matter:

“#US Special Operations Forces (#SOF) units enable US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (#SDF) units to smoothly advance through the ISIS formations.

Facing no resistance of the ISIS militants, the #SDF units are advancing along the left shore of the #Euphrates towards #Deir_ez_Zor.

The aerial photos made on September 8-12 over the ISIS locations recorded a large number of American #Hummer vehicles, which are in service with the #America‘s #SOF.

The shots clearly show the US SOF units located at strongholds that had been equipped by the ISIS terrorists. Though there is no evidence of assault, struggle or any US-led coalition airstrikes to drive out the militants.

Despite that the US strongholds being located in the ISIS areas, no screening patrol has been organized at them. This suggests that the#US_troops feel safe in terrorist controlled regions”.

The photos were posted within hours of the death of Russia’s top military commander in the region, Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov, who came under shelling from ISIS holed in near Deir Ez Zor. While news of Asapov’s death came after the photos were tweeted, it is unclear when exactly the Lt. General was killed. In other words, was the top-ranked Russia in Syria killed in retaliation for the satellite photos, or were the photos released in retaliation for the attack?

Proxy forces

As Adam Garrie reports, via The Duran, it has long been thought that the US proxy militia SDF is operating in collusion with ISIS in various parts of Syria. This has especially been the case in respect of Deir ez-Zor. In Deir ez-Zor, the Russian Defense Ministry has previously stated that the Syrian Arab Army and their allies are fired on most intensely from positions known to be held by the SDF.

A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov recently said,

“SDF militants work to the same objectives as Daesh [ISIS] terrorists. Russian drones and intelligence have not recorded any confrontations between Daesh and the ‘third force’, SDF”.

Konashenkov added that Russia will target SDF forces that pose a threat.

If the U.S. is working with SDF forces, and the SDF is aligned with ISIS – then the fact that SDF forces allowed ISIS terrorists to peacefully leave Raqqa and head towards Deir ez-Zor – now the largest ISIS stronghold east of Libya.

Let’s also not forget the Wikileaked email from the 2016 election which revealed a 2014 email sent from Hillary Clinton to John Podesta revealing Saudi “clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”

Let’s also not forget the U.K. government report prime minister Theresa May is sitting on, purportedly detailing the flow of money from Saudi Arabia to extremist groups in the UK.

Where does ISIS get such wonderful toys?

In 2015, ISIS posted a propaganda video showcasing its giant arsenal of heavy artillery, featuring tanks, heavy artillery, and a fleet of Toyota trucks rolling around the desert. After U.S. counterterrorism officials asked Toyota exactly how that many trucks fell into the hands of the terrorist organization, the automaker shrugged it off – claiming they have no idea.

At the end of 2015, Reuters reported that ISIS jacked a bunch of U.S. equipment abandoned by Iraqi fighters, including:

• Innumerable small arms and ammunition

• 52 Howitzer M198 mobile gun systems

• 74,000 machine guns

• 40 main M1A1 battle tanks

• Unknown qty. anti-tank missiles

In light of the new reports of U.S. special forces working with Islamic militants in Syria, one wonders exactly how ISIS really took possession of their toy collection.

Some thoughts from William Craddick of Disobedient Media:

There's two things that could be happening here, one is that the vehicles/equipment was in IS possession since 2015https://t.co/tWISJ04qbv

— William Craddick (@williamcraddick) September 25, 2017

The other possibility is that US forces or a group using American made gear is interacting with ISIS, possibly via working w the "FSA"

— William Craddick (@williamcraddick) September 25, 2017

While a clown-car full of retarded NFL players ‘bend the knee‘ to protest police brutality, Trump, and whatever else their brain damaged craniums can think of – several NASCAR team owners and executives reportedly said they won’t condone “anyone in their organizations” protesting during the National Anthem.

Via AP:

Richard Childress, who was Dale Earnhardt’s longtime team owner, said of protesting, “It’ll get you a ride on a Greyhound bus.” Childress said he told his team that “anybody that works for me should respect the country we live in. So many people gave their lives for it. This is America.”

Former NASCAR champion Richard Petty took it one step further, stating “anybody that don’t stand up for the anthem oughta be out of the country. Period. What got ’em where they’re at? The United States.

Lone commie

One NASCAR team owner, however, decided to show his true commie colors. Chip Ganassi of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America said he supports comments made by Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who said that players would remain in their locker room and that the team was “not going to let divisive times or divisive individuals affect our agenda.”

SOME of us still respect God and Country…

How retarded is this knee-bending bullshit? The latest episode of clown-car lemmingbowl was kicked off in 2016, when former San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the National Anthem in protest of white cops shooting black people.

A handful of other players joined the now unemployed quarterback in his knee-bending, which has since morphed into an anti-government / anti-Trump gesture.

Fast forward to a Friday night rally in Huntsville, Alabama in support of Republican Luther Strange – in which President Trump started veering off topic to the NFL.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners,” said Trump, “when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’ ”

President Trump on NFL players disrespecting the American flag & national anthem: "Get that SOB off the field right now – HE'S FIRED!"
?? pic.twitter.com/G1pSDD3D0W

— Alex ?? (@SoCal4Trump) September 23, 2017

Trump followed up with a tweet the next day: 

Roger Goodell of NFL just put out a statement trying to justify the total disrespect certain players show to our country.Tell them to stand!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2017

The President didn’t stop there: 

If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast. Fire or suspend!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2017

Aaaaand it’s a shit show…

Kneeling. Locked arms. Raised fists. Today, NFL players showed unity in defiance of Trump https://t.co/peCx206iUX pic.twitter.com/tuzlbyOR9g

— CNN (@CNN) September 24, 2017

The entire Pittsburgh Steelers team stayed in the locker room, with the exception of former US Army Captain, Ranger, and Bronze Star recipient Alejandro Villanueva – who served three tours in Afghanistan.

The entire Pittsburgh Steelers team stayed in the locker room for national anthem except for Villanueva who served 3 tours in Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/6kvGDls8wQ

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) September 24, 2017

Yes – the NFL, whose players are arrested an average of every seven days, which fines players for dancing in the endzone, is suddenly the new face of the ‘resistance’ against tyranny.

Fuck me to tears, I’m with Ben Shapiro on this:

Players kneel.
Stupid.
Trump says owners should fire players for kneeling.
Stupid.
Dems say all players should kneel.
Everything is stupid.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 24, 2017

For the first time in nearly a decade, the Wall St. Journal ventured to North Korea for a tightly controlled government tour of Pyongyang – featuring sculptures of atoms, children playing with toy guns, and a generally militaristic attitude among its ‘tightly controlled’ population.

“During a recent visit, the first by The Wall Street Journal since 2008, the city’s atomic aesthetics reinforced the message government officials conveyed repeatedly to the Journal reporters: North Korea won’t part with its nuclear weapons under any circumstances and is resolved to suffer economic sanctions and risk war with the U.S. to keep them.”

At Pyongyang's science library, young students learned English by watching videos in an airy atrium.@LyonsNotes https://t.co/hXJuCSSH2Q pic.twitter.com/O7Z3WkIGVx

— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) September 23, 2017

A N. Korean official told the WSJ that North Korea has ‘grown up,’ and isn’t interested in ‘dialogue that would undermine our newly built strategic status.’

Photos from the WSJ tour:

WSJ offers rare glimpse into North Korean capital of Pyongyang pic.twitter.com/IJzsJau4at

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) September 23, 2017

London’s governing body responsible for transportation, Transport for London (TfL), has yanked Uber’s license to operate in the city, affecting nearly 40,000 drivers and 3.5 million passengers. Uber has 21 days to appeal TfL’s decision, and will be allowed to operate throughout the appeals process.

I have just been informed by @TfL that it has today informed Uber that it is not fit & proper to hold a private hire operator licence. pic.twitter.com/5spe5xcuDm

— Claudia Webbe (@ClaudiaWebbe) September 22, 2017

The decision was made on the grounds of “public safety and security implications,” following several incidents of sexual assault committed by Uber drivers against passengers.

London Mayor, Sadiq Kahn commented on the decision, stating “I fully support TfL’s decision – it would be wrong if TfL continued to license Uber if there is any way that this could pose a threat to Londoners’ safety and security.”

“Public safety and security”

Between May 2015 and May 2016, UK police had investigated 32 drivers for rape or sexual assault of a passenger according to a report by The Sun last year.

Last month, UK’s Metro Police inspector, Neil Billany, informed TfL of his concern over Uber’s handling of claims against its drivers – noting that the ride sharing service continued to employ a driver after he was accused of sexual assault. The same driver proceeded to rape a second female passenger before he was fired.

“By not reporting to police promptly, Uber are allowing situations to develop that clearly affect the safety and security of the public,” wrote inspector Billany.

Sneaky Uber, tricks are for governments

Uber was also caught using a tool called “greyball” last March in the United States, which uses personal data to ensure that Uber drivers don’t pick up local government officials or their associates in order to circumvent local and state regulations where the service is not licensed to operate.

In the U.S. it was found to be in use in Portland, Philadelphia, Boston, and Las Vegas, while internationally the greyball system was deployed in France, Australia, China, South Korea and Italy.

Uber denies using the software in the UK, however the TfL expressed concern over Uber’s “approach to explaining the use of Greyball in London.”

Invalid

The TfL also informed Uber this month that thousands of drivers had submitted invalid identities for background checks. The drivers were given 28 days to reapply before losing their license – a moot point now.

The Sun also reported that many Uber drivers had obtained falsified medical certificates, clearing them for work.

Sexual harassment in and out of cars

Last but not least, Uber has been rocked by reports of sexual harassment and sexism among upper management. Former engineer Susan Fowler wrote a 3,000 word blog post which tears the ‘toxic culture’ in Uber’s Silicon Valley office.

“I was told by both HR and upper management that even though this was clearly sexual harassment and he was propositioning me, it was this man’s first offense, and that they wouldn’t feel comfortable giving him anything other than a warning and a stern talking-to. Upper management told me that he “was a high performer” (i.e. had stellar performance reviews from his superiors) and they wouldn’t feel comfortable punishing him for what was probably just an innocent mistake on his part.”

On my last day at Uber, I calculated the percentage of women who were still in the org. Out of over 150 engineers in the SRE teams, only 3% were women.  –Susan Fowler

Let’s be fair though…

32 people under investigation for sexual assault out of 40,000 Uber drivers is just 0.008 percent of its London workforce. Out of any population of 40,000 taxi drivers, what’s typical?

In Halifax, Nova Scotia, there are 1,000 taxis licensed to operate, and there have been 12 reported cases of sexual assault in the last four years – a rate of 1.2%.

In 2013, the Gatestone Institute reported in 2013 that in the UK, “No woman is safe in a cab,” following a 2011 London Metro Police estimate an average of 1,125 sexual assaults per year committed by London cab drivers, out of roughly 104,000 total cab drivers in the city – a rate of just over 1 percent, in line with Halifax.

So, 0.008 percent of Uber drivers are sexually assaulting passengers – at a rate far lower than average, and London pulls their license to operate.

Looks like non-Uber cabbies in London can knock back a pint or two over their recent windfall – assuming of course that Uber loses their appeal.

S&P Global Ratings has downgraded China sovereign debt from A+ to AA-, following through on a warning issued earlier in the year after the country failed in an endeavor to ‘de-risk’ the country by reigning in its debt-fueled growth.

Via Reuters

“Despite the fact that the government has shown greater resolve to implement the deleveraging policy, we continue to see overall credit in the corporate sector to stay at a 9 percent point”, Kim Eng Tan, an S&P senior director of sovereign ratings, said in a conference call to discuss the one-notch downgrade to A+ from AA-.

China’s new bank lending and total social financing (TSF) – a broad indicator of credit and liquidity, will set record highs again in 2017 following record lending of 12.65 trillion yuan ($1.84 trillion USD) – roughly the size of Italy’s economy. TSF also hit a new record at 17.8 trillion yuan ($2.7 trillion USD).

According to Kim Eng Tan, senior director of sovereign ratings at S&P, China has allowed lending to grow unchecked while at the same time neglecting to deleverage and de-risk its existing debt structures.

“We’ve now come to the conclusion that while we do expect some deleveraging in the next few years, this deleveraging is likely to be much more gradual than we thought could have been the case early this year,” Tan said, adding that rising bank lending “was the key metric that we look at…and we believe while this growth of aggregate debt financing could come down somewhat over the next few years, it’s not likely to come down very sharply.”

They mad

China scoffed at the S&P downgrade, calling it a ‘wrong decision’ that ignores China’s growth and treats them like children.

Bloomberg writes:

The government is fully capable of maintaining financial stability if it remains prudent on lending, strengthens supervision, and controls credit risk, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement Friday, a day after S&P cut China’s sovereign rating for the first time since 1999. The decision is “perplexing” because the economy is on a solid footing, the ministry said.

The Sydney, Australia launch of Apple’s new iPhone 8 was met with crickets Friday, as nobody wanted to wait in line for a phone with features Samsung has offered for two years or more, such as wireless charging and facial recognition.

Hundreds of people have historically gathered at the Sydney Apple store for new releases, with lines of camped out iFanatics stretching down the street for blocks.

On Friday, fewer than 30 people were standing outside of the store before it opened, a witness told Reuters. The first customer in line, Mazen Kourouche, started camping outside the store eleven days ago, thinking he’d beat the crowds. Karouche reviewed the phone on YouTube, and said there were ‘modest refinements.’

“(It) is pretty similar to the iPhone 7 but it shoots 4k 60 frames per second and it’s got a new glass back instead of the metal which is apparently more durable,” he told Reuters. “There aren’t too many new features to this one.”

Bad crowds, poor reviews

If the dismal turnout in Sydney wasn’t enough, the iPhone 8 has been receiving poor reviews – driving shares down to lows of $152.75 on Thursday, the lowest it’s been in almost two months.

iTWire.com’s tech editor Alex Zaharov-Reutt suggested that the iPhone 8 may have a limited audience of ‘those who ant a new version but do not want to pay a hefty $999 for the iPhone X,’ adding ‘Yes there is a new iPhone coming in a couple of months and plenty of people would want that.’

Tim Cook has called the new iPhone X ‘the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone.’

We’ll see how the lines go…