Two thirds of American (68%) get their news via social media ( 2018 Pew Research Center) . Facebook is far and away where most people get their news. (1 in 4). 59% of all links shared on social networks aren’t actually clicked on at all , implying the majority of article shared aren’t based on actual reading. (Forbes Aug 2016)
The tools are simple. An attention grabbing headline. Filter that headline to a specific demographic. Liberal, Conservative, extremest etc. and within hours it will reach Facebook. Extreme views will often enter through the back door in the form of Direct Message (DM’s) and eventually make it to someones timeline. Because only 41% of these articles are actually read, they are rarely aged out.
October 2016: Various anonymous Twitter accounts began posting false rumors that Anthony Weiner’s laptop had been recovered by the FBI, and that on it was proof that he had been involved in child sexual abuse. The rumors quickly grew on the alt right community and among supporters of Donald Trump. Detail in the stories grew linking the Democrats to pedophila and human trafficking ring supposedly by New York PD. On various fake news sites.
Pizzagate is born
November 2016: What began as a conspiracy theory during the 2016 Presidential race went viral. After the personal email account of Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta was hacked and released by WikiLeaks. Theorist claimed the emails contained coded messages connecting restaurants and high ranking Democrats with an alleged sex ring involving the pizzeria “Comet Ping Pong” in Washington DC. Those involved in promoting pizzagate began to claim that a code was being used – that code included references to junk food, including “pizza”, which was supposedly used in place of the word “girl”.
While Pizzagate has been wildly debunked by the media, from Fox News to the New York Times and the stories have been removed by Facebook, Tweeter and other sites. Its far from dead. It’s still alive in the media universe. A story encouraged by Michael Flynn about the evil Democrats, Hillary Clinton, sex trafficking children in tunnels under the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria in Washington D.C.
December 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, a 28-year-old man from Salisbury, North Carolina. On the 4th, he fired three shots into the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria in Washington DC using a AR 15 rifle , striking walls, a desk, and a door. According to court documents, Welch attempted to recruit friends three days before the attack by urging them to watch a YouTube video about the conspiracy. Mr Welch is currently in prison,serving a four year term.
A few days later. 52 year old Yusif Lee Jones of Shreveport Louisiana intending to call Comet, mistakenly called Besta Pizza and told employees he was trying to “save the kids” and threatened to “shoot everyone in the place,” Mr Jones was sentenced to a month in Jail and two years supervised release.
January 2019, Ryan Rimas Jaselskis 22, of Northridge, Ca set fire to the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria in Washington DC. Workers in the restaurant successfully out the fire. He faces up to 20 years in jail .
Forget Russia or North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Britain may be the first country to attack the US. The official mouthpiece of the US has landed in the UK,
So far the man who personally has lost ONE BILLION DOLLARS. Is advising the country on Brexit. His need to attack British politicians is uniting Brits all of the county.
Last year, he broke protocol by keeping the 93 year old Monarch waiting for 15 minutes. Neither he or his wife bowed to the Queen and he walked in front of the Queen. No one walks in front of the Queen. That action caused a stir on social media in Britain.
At least he didn’t push her Majesty .
The President has once again attacked London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan . He has called him short and stone cold loser.
Before she was royalty, The President attacked Megan Markle who said she would move to Canada if he was elected President. His response was “I didn’t know she was nasty” . In Trumpian Style, he denied ever saying it and it was fake news. Of course is a tape. The good news, he wont cross paths with the Duchess or her husband Prince Harry, on this visit .
Newsworthy(Fake): Donald in planning to talk Trade with the Brits. Only on the condition that they agree to a Tariff before they meet.
There will be several protests during his three day visit. The largest will take place tomorrow. Some pro,but most anti Trump.
In the event, he doesn’t see Baby Trump.
Some clever Brits made their own signs below than can be seen on Air Force One
In what appears to be an act of protest against Tesla, a bunch of pickup truck drivers used their trucks to block access to a Supercharger station and reportedly yelled profanities about Tesla until they were removed from the premises.
The incident happened in Hickory, North Carolina last weekend.
A Tesla owner and Reddit user Leicina stopped to charge at the local Supercharger station located next to a Sheetz, but all the stalls were blocked by 3 large pickup trucks.
This is not exactly uncommon and it is referred to in EV community as ‘Icing’ a charging station – when ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles are occupying a space for an EV.
Most often than not, it’s a mistake from the driver or someone who simply doesn’t care, but the situation in Hickory appeared to be different:
It was certainly not a mistake and the pickup truck drivers actually appeared to be targeting Tesla in protest.
“I’ve never had a supercharging experience like this one. These trucks blocked all the chargers, chanted “F” Tesla, and were kicked out by a Sheetz employee.”
An employee from Sheetz, who is in charge of the parking lot, ended making them leave at the request of the Tesla owner.
Leicina said that it “took them 10 minutes or so and one of them did that ‘I’m going to hit you’ maneuver after circling the parking lot.”
Electrek’s Take
ICEd charging stations are certainly nothing new, but this is a particularly extreme case of it.
99% of my interactions with strangers related to my Tesla vehicles have been positive and I think that has mostly been the case for other owners so I wouldn’t want anyone to think that this is normal, but it’s still worrying.
I guess it also depends on where you live.
Leilani Münter, a racecar driver, environmental activist, and Tesla owner, also lives in North Carolina and reported truck drivers coal rolling, basically spewing black sooty exhaust fumes, on her when she is driving her Tesla.
Leilani Münter
✔@LeilaniMunter
This is scary. I’ve been coal-rolled in my Tesla by several trucks in NC, the drivers were hostile. If you don’t know what it is google “Stephen Colbert Coal Rolling.” One day these conflicts will end very badly. @Tesla@hickorypd@StephenAtHome@cleanairNC@cleanenergyorg@CMPD
Mike Hoffman@McHoffa
@LeilaniMunter careful charging in Hickory. The ignorant people are aware of us https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/a8rl0a/ive_never_had_a_supercharging_experience_like/?st=JQ0DQJLU&sh=73d632fe …
It’s hard to imagine the reasoning behind doing something like that or hating Tesla in general.
Even if you love gas-guzzling trucks, that doesn’t mean you should hate Tesla. I don’t know if something like this has ever happened to another car brand at some point.
I know that some American were insulting and shaming people who drove foreign vehicles back in the day, but I don’t know if it ever got to that point.
Speaking of that, what some of these morons forget sometimes is that Tesla is actually an American brand, creating a lot of American jobs.
I feel that the reason they hate Tesla is probably due to years of listening to the media back when they were attacking Tesla for taking subsidies from the government.
Of course, if there was any good logic behind their thinking they would go against pickup truck making brands like GM and Chrysler who not only took subsidies from the government but also took bailout money from them.
Perhaps there would be less outrage if the story was told by Wolf Blitzer or Jake Tapper.
There are many white men who are OUTRAGED!!! Here you have a black man stirring the racist pot. IF a white man said something about a Black man, they’d lose their jobs. Megan Kelly lost her job over “Blackface’ so here we have a black man calling white men terrorist, he should lose his job is only fair!
There are white men in this rapidly changing world who believe that they are under attack. It had gone too far and it far more difficult to be a white man in America and this morning advertisers and CNN will demand that Don Lemon lose his job.
THE OUTRAGE
In the course of a week, 14 bombs were mailed to prominent Democrats. On Wednesday, a white man attempted to enter a black church in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. Fifteen minutes later, he drove to near by Kroger Supermarket and killed two black people. As the gunman passed a white shopper in the parking lot he said, I won’t shoot you. Whites don’t shoot whites.” Saturday, a white man entered a synagogue and killed 11 worshipers and wounded six others including four Police Officers.
Cnn’s Don Lemon said Trump would have people believe immigrants are to be feared, but statistics reveal the biggest threats are home-grown. He went on to say, we have to stop demonizing people and realize that the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right, and we have to start doing something about them. So ,have to start doing something about them. There is no travel ban on them. There is no ban — you know, they had the Muslim ban. There is no white-guy ban. So what do we do about that?”
“the biggest terror threat in this country is white men.”
This is what some people heard! Other’s heard he called for a “white guy ban” Fox news said Lemon was ranting! Others called him a racist!
You decide, Listen.
There are many in this country who supported the Presidents ban on Muslims and individuals from the middle east based on a unsupported belief that, Muslims hate Americans and want to destroy America. The facts are white men are the principle source of terrorism in the United States and no one is proposing a ban on “white men” this is what I believe Mr Lemon meant.
When its not Fake News
Since 9/11 attacks in 2001, far-right violent extremists have killed 106 people in 62 attacks in the United States, while radical Islamist violent extremists have killed 119 people in 23 attacks.
From 2008 to 2016, there were almost twice as many terrorist incidents carried out on U.S. soil by right-wing extremists — many of whom are white — than by Islamist extremists. It showed there were 115 incidents involving right-wing extremists and that those that ended in death were more deadly than incidents carried out by other groups.
An analysis of the Global Terrorism Database by researchers at the University of Maryland published in 2017 shows a “sharp increase”in the share of attacks by right-wing extremists, from 6% in the 2000s to 35% in the 2010s. The share of attacks by religious extremists also increased, from 9% to 53% between the two decades.
White supremacists in the United States killed more than twice as many people in 2017 as they did the year before, and were responsible for far more murders than domestic Islamic extremists, helping make 2017 the fifth deadliest year on record for extremist violence in America, a new report states.
For decades,some members of the GOP have demonized immigrants from Mexico. They were accused of straining our resources and crossing the border to have babies and to get on welfare.
Presidential Candidate Donald Trump took it further, he said the people coming from Mexico were bringing drugs, bringing crime and-they’re rapist. There isn’t any subjective data that supports any of these claims.
A point of reference for some against Mexican immigration is the murder of Arizona Rancher Rob Krentz in 2010. Krentz’s property is near the Mexican border. The Krentz family was accustomed to undocumented migrants crossing their 35,000 acres. Because of this, many assumed he was killed by one of those undocumented migrants. His widow was convinced his was killed by an illegal immigrant. After an extensive search, no one has been linked to his murder. Today, many are convinced he was killed by a Mexican national.
Less than a year after the Death of Mr Krentz. Arizona passed a law requiring anyone suspected of being in US illegally to produce papers to the police.
Race Baiting 2018 (Donald Trump’s Evil Caravan)
Before I talk about our president current attempt to inject white fear in the midterms, I want to look back a few years.
But first thing’s first! What is “Race Bating?: The unfair use of statements about race to try to influence the actions or attitudes of a particular group of people
A look Back to 1986
In 1986, a convicted felon named Willie Horton — who was serving a life sentence for murder — was released from a Massachusetts prison on a weekend furlough program, during which time he escaped and raped a woman. Then-governor Michael Dukakis had supported the prison furlough program, and when he ran for President in 1988, his opponent, George H. W. Bush, used that to his advantage. The “Revolving Door” ad never mentions Horton by name, but the connection was clear and the ad received considerable news coverage.
Bush Played on the fears of whites who were terrified of blacks.
2018, President Trump, has told his base a Caravan is coming, filled with thugs, bad people, including people from the middle east. He has a few days to convince his base these horrific people filled with diseases (so says Fox News) will be here at any moment. In a world where facts don’t matter. These terrible people are walking and they only have 800 miles to reach our borders. Tuesday, if you believe the president. Bringing lawless people who will kill the men and rape the women. (a small exaggeration)
The footage is several years old and his story about Democrats allowing illegals in is patently false. Donald Trump is doubling down on his attack on brown skinned people using fear to get them to the ballot box.
Luis Bracamontes was first deported to his native Mexico in 1997, during the Clinton administration, after he was busted selling drugs. But, according to U.S. Immigration officials, Bracamontes managed return to the United States by 2001, when he was deported a second time for being in the country illegally. That was during the first year of the Bush administration.
Bracamontes was back in America again by 2002. He married a U.S. citizen and remained in the country even as the Bush administration deported people at a record rate, topped only by the Obama administration.
When Bracamontes shot and killed the two Sacramento county deputies in 2014, he had been deported once under a Democratic administration and once under a Republican administration. He had been back in the United States for at least six years during the Bush administration and five years under the Obama administration. He is currently on death row in San Quentin.
It’s 2018
Perhaps, some white men would have been more comfortable with CNN’s Jake Tapper or Wolf Blitzer talking about this subject. One would think, in 2018 we are beyond this. Apparently not.
By the reaction,s only black people should talk about black on black crime in cities like Chicago or Detroit. Or Hispanics in El Paso or Albuquerque. Don Lemon ins’t racist, he didn’t attack white men, he talked about the news and the double standard.
I can’t remember a time when a white reporter was dismissed after reading statics about black people or any other persons of color. I can remember when a reporter or personality was dismissed after saying spic, called black women nappy headed hoes, fag and other disparaging words or terms on air. Blackface, hasn’t been acceptable since the 1930’s neither are insulting ethnic impersonations.
Any day now, the Prez is going to send over FIVE THOUSAND TROOPS to protect our borders from thousands of menacing Latinos who are several hundred miles away.
Did I mention most are walking? Which means they won’t be here until EASTER.
Because not only are they coming they are coming with diseases. Some nice folks at Fox News says some members of the Caravan are bringing Small Pox others have Leprosy. Oh Wow!
There is nothing like a little fear and racism to motivate some of the base. Particularly those who don’t realize Small Pox was eradicated in the 70’s.
For some,on the right,this is GUARANTEED grade AA red meat. Good,possibly misguided people who will vote because while they don’t know what Leprosy is,they know they don’t want it.
Meanwhile at the border. It will be, sports, crushing boredom, videos and endless Uno games until these evil people appear at our borders. I forgot to mention there are middle easterners that he is convinced who are hidden in the caravan, who are hell bent to blow up something.
As we wait. The Prez wants to change the fourteenth amendment. To prevent those born on our pristine soil from automatically becoming citizens. This will appeal to his limited base. Who believe Immigrants ( code word Mexicans) is the problem with this country. They don’t speak American and come here to have babies to get on welfare!
Today, he will tell his base he will get it done by Executive order. Which is completely false. Like his proposed NEW STYLE tax cut for the middle class, both will evaporate after next week’s mid terms.
Finally, in a week where Donald Trump wants to convince his base he’s not a racist.
He thought he’d call the Black Florida Gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Gillum “A Stone Cold Thief”
President Trump loves the road. If he could just run his administration out of a Luxury Coach, life would be swell. He could cuss his staff out over the phone, no sour faces. He could tour states like Montana and Kentucky where they love him No rules, no you need to say……. No you have too’s……. No boring teleprompters. Just entertaining his base. Being, High school inappropriate, irrelevant. Working the crowd, ” Lock her up”
At a rally on Saturday, in an airport hanger in Murphysboro, Illionis a small town (population 8000) over 300 miles from Chicago. He was a bit subdued. A few hours to the east, a City and a nation was grieving
The president had told reporters to expect a more muted rally performance.
For the first time, Trump didn’t break out his usual, “Lock her Up” (a crowd favorite ) His performance WAS muted. He went after Elizabeth Warren, but it was a mild attack, in which he conceded he couldn’t use his trademark moniker for her since she took an ancestry test. “No, I can’t use ‘Pocahontas’ anymore,”
This was difficult for him. He knows his audience, this is were he gets the love. They love the attacks, the insults. But this night, the handlers said, we need you to be respectful, so bring it down and we mean it!!!
Remember this date, October 27, 2018
After 10 minutes he told the excited crowd. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to tone it down just a little bit,” “Is that OK?” The crowd responded NO!!!
“I had a feeling you might say that.”, said the President with a small smile.
“Paris is Burning”
The guys who aren’t any fun has told The President he has to go to Paris, or Pittsburgh. The midterms are a week away, his poll numbers are crashing and could pull the party down. Unlike, Montana, Kentucky, and Murphysboro there will be fewer people in red hats. For nearly two years, Trump has avoided blue areas like Pittsburgh, in fact he has avoided most of America.
More than 44,000 people have signed an open letter from progressive Jewish leaders saying President Trump is not welcome in Pittsburgh until he denounces white nationalism.
He isn’t going to denounce white nationalism, after declaring himself a nationalist. Throughout the day, moments before he addresses the Tragedy in Pittsburgh, his team is looking for a response that they hope will get them through next Tuesday.
There is a mobilization via Social Media. Pittsburgh is few hours drive from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington DC. Is there Love in Pennsylvania for the President?
Georgia’s NAACP claims that votes intended for Democrat Stacey Abrams are being changed to Republican Brian Kemp
By Matthew Rozsa/Salon Com
The Georgia NAACP is filing a complaint claiming that votes for Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams in that state’s race for governor have been changed to Republican candidate Brian Kemp.
The NAACP’s state conference electronically filed complaints with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office (which is held by Kemp himself) claiming that votes cast for Abrams in Bartow and Dodge counties were initially registered to Kemp, according to USA Today. As of Tuesday, the Georgia NAACP also had plans to file additional complaints in Henry and Cobb counties, likewise claiming that votes intended for Abrams had initially been changed to Kemp. Eight voters in total are alleging that they noticed their votes had been changed.
“We’ve experienced this before. They ended up taking these old dilapidated machines out of service. The ones giving the problems. They should have been replaced about 10 years ago,” Phyllis Blake, president of the Georgia NAACP, told USA Today. The paper included this troubling story from a Georgia voter named Pamela Grimes:
Grimes said she went to a polling site in Bartow County Thursday and tried to select Abrams, but the machine marked the box for Kemp. Grimes said she tried several times to clear the selection before it allowed her to vote for Abrams.
“I was not going to leave until everything was the way I wanted it,’’ recalled Grimes, adding she also paid close attention to other selections. “If I had not been focused, my vote would have went for him.”
Grimes said she has since warned other voters. “I’ve been telling people when you vote to pay attention,’’ she said.
As Salon reported earlier this month, Georgia has experienced considerable controversy for purging voters from its rolls. Journalist Greg Palast learned that 1 in 10 Georgia voters were removed from the rolls at some point in 2017, telling Salon that “I started this investigation for Al Jazeera and Rolling Stone in 2014. And Kemp has been stonewalling my requests for his purge lists and the reasons for them. And I finally got the list — not all the material we’ve asked for, and I should say that we sent a 90-day notice of a federal lawsuit if he didn’t provide these — and within hours of the deadline we got the list of the purged voters.”
He added that under Kemp the Georgia State Department “has identified people as having moved out of state, moved out of the congressional district, they should either be removed or forced to reregister. In fact, they haven’t the state, they haven’t left the congressional district. We found one woman who moved from one side of her building to the other.”
Abrams drew attention to accusations that Kemp has made it more difficult for nonwhites to vote during her debate with Kemp on Tuesday night, according to The New York Times. “Under Secretary Kemp, more people have lost the right to vote in the state of Georgia. They’ve been purged, they’ve been suppressed and they’ve been scared,” Abrams said during the debate.
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MATTHEW ROZSA
Matthew Rozsa is a breaking news writer for Salon. He holds an MA in History from Rutgers University-Newark and is ABD in his PhD program in History at Lehigh University. His work has appeared in Mic, Quartz and MSNBC.
