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[Cerium]

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/26/facebook-russia-trump-sanders-stein-243172?lo=ap_a1

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was the beneficiary of at least one of the Russian-bought political ads on Facebook that federal government officials suspect were intended to influence the 2016 election.

Other advertisements paid for by shadowy Russian buyers criticized Hillary Clinton and promoted Donald Trump. Some backed Bernie Sanders and his platform even after his presidential campaign had ended, according to a person with knowledge of the ads.

The ads show a complicated effort that didn’t necessarily hew to promoting Trump and bashing Clinton. Instead, they show a desire to create divisions while sometimes praising Trump, Sanders and Stein. A number of the ads seemed to question Clinton’s authenticity and tout some of the liberal criticisms of her candidacy.

Earlier this month, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the Democratic vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said the 3,000 ads that Facebook has determined to have Russian links may be “the tip of the iceberg” and part of a far larger Kremlin plot to influence the 2016 election through Facebook and other social media platforms.

 

[Stinkles]

Well I’m shocked.

 

[whyamihere]

OUR Jill Stein?!?!

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

Watch Fuckerberg claim the ads didnt only support Trump to deflect responsibility.

 

[Laevateinn]

If I can't see Trump with handcuffs on, I hope to at least see Jill Stein being dragged away.

 

[RustyNails]

Yep, the Russians really wanted to defeat Hillary, and they succeeded by widening every crack and fissure they could find.

 

[Oersted]

Could someone look surprised for me?

 

[Hazmat]

Shocked, shocked I tell you.

 

[Alucrid]

jill stein? impossible. i bet she's never even been within ten feet of putin

 

[Deleted member 80556]

Some backed Bernie Sanders and his platform even after his presidential campaign had ended, according to a person with knowledge of the ads.

I'm not even surprised about this.

I'm glad this is being investigated. But all of this will be for naught if Facebook and other social media get their shit together and actually put systems in place to prevent this from ever happening again.

 

[-Plasma Reus-]

American voters played like a damn fiddle.
I can't believe millions couldn't just do the basic of 'let's make sure the billionaire who brags about grabbing pussies and committing war crimes, doesn't get in office.

I will say this though:
FUCKING SHAME.

 

[B-Dubs]

This is my shocked face -_-

 

[ThreePiMatt]

Either Jill Stein is a colossal idiot or she was actively complicit in Russia's meddling. I would hope she is in the scope of Mueller's inestigation.

 

[Evil Monkey DTT]

I was a Bernie supporter and I absolutely believe this. The ads we're extremely targeted and careful and I had a feeling something was up.

jill stein? impossible. i bet she's never even been within ten feet of putin

It's not that Jill was a part of this as much as it was Russia making sure Hillary lost. Those names aren't there because they all worked with Russia.

Edit: I change my mind, that picture raises alot of questions.

 

[rjinaz]

Putin was scared of Clinton. If I was a Trump supporter, I'd take some time to wonder why Putin and Russia would be so scared of Clinton and so happy with the choice I preferred.

 

[Not]

Well, maybe the next woman nominated for president will only get a tidal wave of bullshit instead of a triple hurricane

 

[Karsticles]

Either Jill Stein is a colossal idiot or she was actively complicit in Russia's meddling. I would hope she is in the scope of Mueller's inestigation.

Ditto.

Putin was scared of Clinton. If I was a Trump supporter, I'd take some time to wonder why Putin and Russia would be so scared of Clinton and so happy with the choice I preferred.

That would involve self-doubt and reflection.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

I kinda thought all of this was known info. I mean it's quite obvious Russia had slowly started taking the narrative away from Bernie and was highjacking Sanders fanbase. There was a lot of russian propaganda that impersonated Sanders' fans spreading false information which in turn made Clinton supporters hate Sanders supporters. While also misleading Sanders supporters.

 

[B-Dubs]

Doesn't sound like Stein or Sanders bought the ads. It sounds like someone used them in ads.

There's a difference.

No one said they did.

 

[WedgeX]

Unsurprising, sadly.

Either Jill Stein is a colossal idiot or she was actively complicit in Russia's meddling. I would hope she is in the scope of Mueller's inestigation.

Agreed.

 

[RustyNails]

I'm not even surprised about this.

I'm glad this is being investigated. But all of this will be for naught if Facebook and other social media get their shit together and actually put systems in place to prevent this from ever happening again.

Facebook said to congressional panel that they already put in place "measures". Something about if the ad buy is more than $10k, they will have to declare some stuff, better screening for bots, all ads must have "sponsored by" lines and that individual ad target group should be available for public to see. I dont think any of them work. Especially if your adversary is as adept as Russia who can easily bypass them.

 

[Galactic Barret]

Especially as a Sanders supporter, I'm not in the least bit surprised.

It was Hillary that they truly didn't want elected by any means.

I kinda thought all of this was known info. I mean it's quite obvious Russia had slowly started taking the narrative away from Bernie and was highjacking Sanders fanbase. There was a lot of russian propaganda that impersonated Sanders' fans spreading false information which in turn made Clinton supporters hate Sanders supporters.

This. I always felt the majority of 'Bernie Bros' were impersonators. The air of 'trying too hard', even after he lost the primaries, was wafting all over. No way you could support Bernie at first, see he was defeated, look at Trump and say: This is my guy. Doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

[Beer Monkey]

Either Jill Stein is a colossal idiot or she was actively complicit in Russia's meddling. I would hope she is in the scope of Mueller's inestigation.

If the Senate is looking at Stein I'm sure Mueller is.

http://thehill.com/policy/national-...widening-investigation-of-russia-and-trump-jr

 

[NihonTiger90]

jill stein? impossible. i bet she's never even been within ten feet of putin

I know this is probably sarcastic, but always worth mentioning:

 

[Escape Goat]

Well, maybe the next woman nominated for president will only get a tidal wave of bullshit instead of a triple hurricane

Hillary was unique. Republicans had 30 years of shit to hang around her neck, a lot of it was of her own making. A tidal wave for Kamala Harris is likely.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

Either Jill Stein is a colossal idiot or she was actively complicit in Russia's meddling. I would hope she is in the scope of Mueller's inestigation.

Given her actions post-election with the recount shenanigans. I'd say she was almost assuredly actively complicit in Russia's meddling.

 

[HyperZone<3]

I know this is probably sarcastic, but always worth mentioning:

man Iove that picture, its like a piece of evidence from a courtroom drama that seals the deal.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

Everything is straight out of the 1997 geopolitical playbook, Foundations of Geopolitics, for ex Soviet KGB based rule:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

Most everything major they've wanted to happen has happened (remember, this was written in 1997):

The book declares that "the battle for the world rule of [ethnic] Russians" has not ended and Russia remains "the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution." The Eurasian Empire will be constructed "on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the USA, and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us."[1]

Military operations play relatively little role. The textbook believes in a sophisticated program of subversion, destabilization, and disinformation spearheaded by the Russian special services. The operations should be assisted by a tough, hard-headed utilization of Russia's gas, oil, and natural resources to bully and pressure other countries.[1]

The book states that "the maximum task [of the future] is the 'Finlandization' of all of Europe".[1]

In Europe:

Germany should be offered the de facto political dominance over most Protestant and Catholic states located within Central and Eastern Europe. Kaliningrad oblast could be given back to Germany. The book uses the term "Moscow-Berlin axis".[1]
France should be encouraged to form a "Franco-German bloc" with Germany. Both countries have a "firm anti-Atlanticist tradition".[1]
The United Kingdom should be cut off from Europe.[1]
Finland should be absorbed into Russia. Southern Finland will be combined with the Republic of Karelia and northern Finland will be "donated to Murmansk Oblast".[1]
Estonia should be given to Germany's sphere of influence.[1]
Latvia and Lithuania should be given a "special status" in the Eurasian-Russian sphere.[1]
Poland should be granted a "special status" in the Eurasian sphere.[1]
Romania, Macedonia, "Serbian Bosnia" and Greece – "orthodox collectivist East" – will unite with "Moscow the Third Rome" and reject the "rational-individualistic West".[1]
Ukraine should be annexed by Russia because "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible.[1]

In the Middle East and Central Asia:

The book stresses the "continental Russian-Islamic alliance" which lies "at the foundation of anti-Atlanticist strategy". The alliance is based on the "traditional character of Russian and Islamic civilization".
Iran is a key ally. The book uses the term "Moscow-Tehran axis".[1]
Armenia has a special role: It will serve as a "strategic base," and it is necessary to create "the [subsidiary] axis Moscow-Erevan-Teheran". Armenians "are an Aryan people … [like] the Iranians and the Kurds".[1]
Azerbaijan could be "split up" or given to Iran.[1]
Georgia should be dismembered. Abkhazia and "United Ossetia" (which includes Georgia's South Ossetia) will be incorporated into Russia. Georgia's independent policies are unacceptable.[1]
Russia needs to create "geopolitical shocks" within Turkey. These can be achieved by employing Kurds, Armenians and other minorities.[1]
The book regards the Caucasus as a Russian territory, including "the eastern and northern shores of the Caspian (the territories of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan)" and Central Asia (mentioning Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan).[1]

In Asia:

China, which represents a danger to Russia, "must, to the maximum degree possible, be dismantled". Dugin suggests that Russia start by taking Tibet-Xinjiang-Mongolia-Manchuria as a security belt.[2] Russia should offer China help "in a southern direction – Indochina (except Vietnam), the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia" as geopolitical compensation.[1]
Russia should manipulate Japanese politics by offering the Kuril Islands to Japan and provoking anti-Americanism.[1]
Mongolia should be absorbed into Eurasia-Russia.[1]

The book emphasizes that Russia must spread Anti-Americanism everywhere: "the main 'scapegoat' will be precisely the U.S."

In the United States:

Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics."[1]

The Eurasian Project could be expanded to South and Central America.[1]

This is some scary ass shit. We in the west have been played like a fiddle.

 

[Jeels]

Of course they did. No offense but all you third party voters got duped and are the biggest suckers of all. Because of you America is in the toilet.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I'm not even surprised about this.

I'm glad this is being investigated. But all of this will be for naught if Facebook and other social media get their shit together and actually put systems in place to prevent this from ever happening again.

You don't need fucking Skynet to implement the "don't accept rubles for political attack ads during election season" rule.

You can go to a government website and even print out convenient copies, since it's totally against the law.

 

[Evil Monkey DTT]

Of course they did. No offense but all you third party voters got duped and are the biggest suckers of all. Because of you America is in the toilet.

I wanna fully agree but Republican voters exist. They literally vote against themselves rather then throwing theirs away.

 

[Knoxcore]

jill stein? impossible. i bet she's never even been within ten feet of putin

Seems to me they just wanted to kill Clinton’s candidacy. Divide the electorate.

 

[B-Dubs]

The article doesn't, but a lot of the posts in here, specifically the ones about Stein, have a strong implication behind them.

There's a reason for that when it comes to Stein. When you sit across from Putin and Flynn at a special dinner in Russia, then we all find out the Russians fucked with our election, likely with Flynn's help, among others, that tends to create a bit of suspicion when it comes to your actions.

 

[Foffy]

Seemed like they were totally on an anti-Hillary campaign.

Where does this put Rubio, though? Didn't they try and hack him in order for him to lose to Trump? You'd assume any candidate that wasn't Hillary was a target they'd back, not eliminate.

 

[CDX]

jill stein? impossible. i bet she's never even been within ten feet of putin

I know this is probably sarcastic, but always worth mentioning:

The classic photo.

Michael Flynn
Putin
Jill Stein

All together at the same dinner table in Russia.

I wonder what they made small talk about?

Either Jill Stein is a colossal idiot or she was actively complicit in Russia's meddling. I would hope she is in the scope of Mueller's inestigation.

She may in fact have only been a useful idiot to Russia. But one would hope, some investigation would at least take a look at her.

 

[Flo_Evans]

Seemed like they were totally on an anti-Hillary campaign.

Where does this put Rubio, though? Didn't they try and hack him in order for him to lose to Trump? You'd assume any candidate that wasn't Hillary was a target they'd back, not eliminate.

Rubio has always been vocally anti-Russia.

 

[TarNaru33]

jill stein? impossible. i bet she's never even been within ten feet of putin

OUR Jill Stein?!?!

I don't see why you guys are even doing that.. The Russians were trying everything they could to ensure Hillary lost, has nothing to do with Jill Stein as a person other than her just running and the Russians seeing it as a possible way to siphon some votes from Hillary.

It worked, but not because they decided to vote Stein.

It was literally only about making sure Hillary lost the election, stop with your BS so early on in this thread.

 

[BocoDragon]

I wonder if the DNC funded Trump ads too, given their misguided strategy to support the nomination of the most "defeatable" Republican opponent.

 

[madstarr12]

And it worked. Stein is a career candidate with no experience, but that didn't matter to many since Hillary was this "monster" that didn't "deserve" their vote. Played like a fiddle, such foolish fools.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

What, no support for Gary "what is Aleppo" Johnson?

That's what's wrong with politics in this country. Third party candidates can't succeed! We need reform where hostile foreign adversaries also give support to the little guy, not just the big-moneyed elitists.

 

[skullmuffins]

Seemed like they were totally on an anti-Hillary campaign.

Where does this put Rubio, though? Didn't they try and hack him in order for him to lose to Trump? You'd assume any candidate that wasn't Hillary was a target they'd back, not eliminate.

Perhaps they were particularly pro-Trump for ~reasons~.

Really though, if we get strong evidence that Russia was backing Trump (with his knowledge) from the beginning of his campaign, would it do anything to make Republicans more open to removing him? Like, Russia helped Trump beat Crooked Hillary, whatever, at least they didn't get a Democrat in the White House. But if Cruz, Rubio, or supporters of any of the non-Trump candidates start blaming Russia for handing Trump the nomination instead of their preferred candidate, maybe they'd want to do something about it? idk.

 

[googleplex]

But people will continue to pin this loss solely on Hillary's shoulders.

 

[Hickbilly Deluxe]

Of course they did. No offense but all you third party voters got duped and are the biggest suckers of all. Because of you America is in the toilet.

Pretty sure its already been shown that hillary would have needed something like 90% of all 3rd party votes to win. Which she never could have gotten.

But people will continue to pin this loss solely on Hillary's shoulders.

Not Hillary, but her entire campaign. Plenty of evidence that they botched it at almost every turn, the most painful pf which I would think is them ignoring key blue states that Trump was hammering with ads and rallies leading to snaging several blue states.

 

[Cerium]

Doesn't sound like Stein or Sanders bought the ads. It sounds like someone used them in ads.

There's a difference.

Russia bought the ads it's in the title.

 

[TarNaru33]

But people will continue to pin this loss solely on Hillary's shoulders.

Most of the blame do lie on her shoulders though. She was a bad candidate, the issues were seen from a mile away, but even then most of us thought she would win.

 

[Not]

Most of the blame do lie on her shoulders though. She was a bad candidate, the issues were seen from a mile away, but even then most of us thought she would win.

But the point of this whole thread is she DIDN'T win because of this interference. What don't you understand?

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

Most of the blame do lie on her shoulders though. She was a bad candidate, the issues were seen from a mile away, but even then most of us thought she would win.

Not really because 1) Trump obviously is worse, 2) Huge numbers of Americans voted for him.

So really most of the blame lies on Americans being so easily duped.

 

[TAJ]

Everything is straight out of the 1997 geopolitical playbook, Foundations of Geopolitics, for ex Soviet KGB based rule:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

Most everything major they've wanted to happen has happened (remember, this was written in 1997):



This is some scary ass shit. We in the west have been played like a fiddle.

Like I said last year, the Cold War never ended.

 

[TarNaru33]

Given her actions post-election with the recount shenanigans. I'd say she was almost assuredly actively complicit in Russia's meddling.

Just, no lol.

There's a reason for that when it comes to Stein. When you sit across from Putin and Flynn at a special dinner in Russia, then we all find out the Russians fucked with our election, likely with Flynn's help, among others, that tends to create a bit of suspicion when it comes to your actions.

People are just trying to find reasons to blame others for the election loss.

But the point of this whole thread is she DIDN'T win because of this interference. What don't you understand?

No... she didn't win because of many things INCLUDING this interference and the Comey letter. We have no way to measure how much the Russians actually influenced the election, just that we know they did.

Not really because 1) Trump obviously is worse, 2) Huge numbers of Americans voted for him.

So really most of the blame lies on Americans being so easily duped.

Well obviously Trump was worse, but yet he is President of U.S right now because Hillary was a worse candidate. Not because of her policies, but because of the baggage she had and the obvious calls of a populist rising. She could of won if people took Trump as more of a threat than they did and recognized Hillary's issues.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Despite my overt skepticism for the red baiting narrative in Washington i'm going to say something super controversial right now based on the hypothetical scenario that everything we've heard is true and Putin directly ordered hackers in the Kremlin or whoever to fuck with US politics to stop Clinton from winning...

Honestly with the way Clinton talked about putting us right up against Russia in syria with that insane no fly zone she proposed that would have put us straight on a track to a major war, i would have been scared if i was Putin too.

Considering Libya, Iraq, and other 'mistakes', i have no doubt Hillary would not have been afraid to exercise the military industrial complex(that for the record spends more than every other country combined) against Russia and Iran, who she always thought of as enemies, thus putting us straight on the path of WW3.

I am ambivalent on their hypothetical attack on our democracy as well considering how many governments and democratic institutions the US has toppled over the years DIRECTLY, with absolutely no apologies or recompense. Maybe keep our shit locked down tighter next time.

But the point of this whole thread is she DIDN'T win because of this interference. What don't you understand?

No, she didn't win because she had weaknesses that could be exploited by Russia(just like the DNC)and skeletons the size of dinosaur bones that sowed discontent within the electorate long before the general.. Whatever ads russia may have bought only reinforced the sentiments that already existed in reality from legitimate places.

Its dangerous to try and take the blame off of the candidate because of red baiting. That's the real fake news.