Information warfare is being waged upon us by enemies of democracy both foreign and domestic.

[ArtTownsend]

They will use everything against us in this election.

They’ll sow division and discord. They’ll make personal attacks and tell lies and half-truths. They’ll make things up. Make us more suspicious and frustrated and angry and upset and paranoid. They’ll even make us feel like we’re losing touch with reality.

They’ll promote controversial candidates who don’t have a chance at winning, knowing full that we’ll react. The creation and exaggeration of internal conflict and mutual distrust is precisely the point. The petty back-and-forth over third-party candidates, who to vote for or not voting at all - anything to turn our diversity of backgrounds (in every sense), experiences, thought, and worldview as voters of the Democratic Party, that makes us who we are, that rightly celebrated diversity that represents this country’s people - they’ll take that precious diversity, and weaponize it against us.

And make no mistake: whomever wins the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 will face the full force of this effort, and it will be directed at us (Democrats) as much as anyone. Think of the issues and policies that are most important to you. Think of what makes you really angry or upset. I guarantee you that the foreign and domestic enemies of democracy have already learned how to weaponize it against you.

Instead of “out of many, we are one” it will be “out of many, there is no ‘we”.” That’s always been the goal - the ongoing project of dividing this country (and others) against each other for the political and personal benefit of a transnational crime syndicate. That division isn’t targeted at just white against persons of color, Republicans against Democrats, etc. No, the REAL focus for these vultures and has criminals is dividing progressives and liberals, leftists and left of center people, against one another, most especially within Democratic politics.


We must be more vigilant than ever - all of us!

[Cha]

1. Thank you! KR!

[ancianita]

2. Just yesterday ... From The Daily Beast today

Facebook on Monday removed nearly 200 newly discovered fake accounts linked separately to Iran and to Russia’s Internet Research Agency. The takedowns demonstrate that foreign influence operations are already targeting the 2020 election, but provide evidence that Russia’s notorious troll farm is struggling to regain anything close to the influence in held in 2016.

The Iranian accounts included 21 Instagram accounts and 135 fake Facebook accounts propping up 26 phony organization pages and four Facebook groups.

one stands out as eerily reminiscent of Russia’s 2016 efforts—a Facebook page called “BLMnews” that purported to be a news site covering the Black Lives Matters movement. The page had a meager 45 followers, and, according to Facebook, was devoted to driving traffic to an associated website ...

As tallied by Graphika, the personas are the usual Russian mix of accounts pretending to be arch-conservatives in the heartland, and a roughly equal number pretending to be African American activists. A smattering of accounts were focused on more specific issues, like gun rights on the right or LGBTQ rights on the left.

The accounts were largely devoted to sowing division, but when they directly addressed the 2020 election, they followed the IRA’s 2016 playbook to the letter. The “conservative” accounts attacked liberals and heaped praise on Donald Trump, while “liberal” accounts derided the president while vocally supporting Bernie Sanders over Democratic frontrunners. Joe Biden is singled out for criticism in much the same way as Clinton in 2016.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/facebook-shuts-down-new-accounts-from-iran-and-russia-spreading-disinformation?ref=scroll

[ArtTownsend]

3. Yup...I saw that too.

[betsuni]

4. K&R