Back in Obama’s first months on the throne, Rick Santelli, a TV personality, was “reporting” from the floor of the stock exchange. He responded to a question about Obama’s housing plan with a rant about socialism, finishing it off with a call for a new Tea Party. Whether it was spontaneous or choreographed is hard to know, but at the time people took it to be entirely spontaneous. Santelli is a carny barker prone to getting carried away on the air and his rant had the feel of an old fashioned stem winder.
Regardless of the intent or the execution, the rant went viral and the Tea Party Movement was born. Middle America was ready to be pissed off due to the terribleness of the Bush years, so Obama’s poor start put the normies in a fighting mood. Before long people were showing up at town hall meetings, dressed as Samuel Adams, giving their congressman the business about reckless government behavior that had made a hash of things. Since the Democrats were the majority, they got the brunt of the abuse.
It did not take long for the moonbats to declare the whole thing a racist conspiracy cooked up by the twelfth invisible Hitler in league with the eternal cyclops of the KKK. This was when the fake hate crime stuff got its start as a daily phenomenon. It was also when it became apparent to a lot of people that the news is mostly fake. The increasingly deranged Nancy Pelosi, slurring about “Astroturf” was so weird, it begged a challenge, but the news people carried on like it was manifestly true.
The claim that middle aged suburbanites, dressed in tricorne hats, were paid agents of a nefarious conspiracy was so nutty that the response from the press should have been laughter and then derision. After all, it has been known for decades that the Left uses rent-a-mobs. They pay people to show up and hold signs. Unions have been doing this since the days of Jimmy Hoffa. For the Democrats to clutch their pearls and call the Tea Party inauthentic should have been too much of a farce for even the very liberal press corp.
I’ve often wondered if that was when a lot of people started to think the corruption in Washington was worse than they imagined. The corruption of the Tea Party by Conservative Inc surely turned a lot of people to the dark side, but the priming agent may well have been the AstroTurf stuff. It was so obvious that the media was coordinating their coverage with the Left, it was hard not to notice it. The game was rigged and nothing in the media was on the level. It was not just bias, it was collusion.
The question is, how fake is it? The answer may be, more fake than you think.
A majority of online and social media defenders of Obamacare are professionals who are “paid to post,” according to a digital expert.
“Sixty percent of all the posts were made from 100 profiles, posting between the hours of 9 and 5 Pacific Time,” said Michael Brown. “They were paid to post.”
Since so much of the mass media is now intertwined with social media, the authenticity of social media is a useful proxy for the authenticity of the mass media. It’s right to assume that social media is mostly fake.
The largest network ties together more than 350,000 accounts and further work suggests others may be even bigger.
UK researchers accidentally uncovered the lurking networks while probing Twitter to see how people use it.
Some of the accounts have been used to fake follower numbers, send spam and boost interest in trending topics.
On Twitter, bots are accounts that are run remotely by someone who automates the messages they send and activities they carry out. Some people pay to get bots to follow their account or to dilute chatter about controversial subjects.
“It is difficult to assess exactly how many Twitter users are bots,” said graduate student Juan Echeverria, a computer scientist at UCL, who uncovered the massive networks.
Mr Echeverria’s research began by combing through a sample of 1% of Twitter users in order to get a better understanding of how people use the social network.
However, analysis of the data revealed some strange results that, when probed further, seemed to reveal lots of linked accounts, suggesting one person or group is running the botnet. These accounts did not act like the bots other researchers had found but were clearly not being run by humans.
This would explain the strange disparity in followers you see in Twitter. I’ve had people with tens of thousands of followers post a link to this site and the traffic was a few click throughs. On the other hand, a Ricky Vaughn tweet would net thousands of hits in minutes and it would last hours. That told me real humans were reading his timeline. It also suggests that those follower counts for allegedly famous people may be fake. We know people have bought followers for social media, but the scale has never been examined.
That may be changing. ZeroHedge used on-line traffic tools to figure out that major news sites have most likely hired Chinese click farms to help them game their traffic numbers, even though these sites are blocked in China. These sorts of solicitations come through the contact page of this site on a daily basis so it is nothing new. If the big major sites have succumbed to temptation in order to fraudulently boost their traffic counts, it is safe to assume all of them are doing it.
None of this surprises those who turned to the dark side when Darth Vader was still in knickers. The JournoList scandal was thrown down the memory hole, but the hate thinkers still remember it. The rampant fraud on Facebook with regards to their advertising is starting to impact on-line ads. That was entirely predictable if you have been following these things. But now, the general public is noticing that not only is the news fake, the people behind it look a lot like people our betters have been warning us about for years.
What may push everyone over the edge is the mother of all fake news stories, the entirely fictional Russian Hacking™ scandal. There is nothing about this that passes the laugh test. No one can even explain what it is the Russians supposedly did. No one can explain how Trump people talking to Russians is different from everyone else who regularly talks with Russians. It’s as if the media has been infected with a rage virus. Of course, it’s obvious that the hysteria is part of an orchestrated campaign to undermine Trump.
In other words, it’s all fake.
And it will end poorly.
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Turtles.
All the way down.
In the immortal words of the great philospher and poet Gordon Sumner written during the waning days of the Cold War:
We share the same biology, regardless of ideology.
But what might save us, me and you,
Is if the Russians love their children too
The Democrats should heed these wise words.
Obama and the Cult groveled to Russia for eight years, but now they want us to believe that Russia is the great Satan and Trump is his right hand man. It is the ultimate fake news story meant to bring Trump down. No one believes them, not even the dumbest college student. They don’t even believe it themselves. They know it’s a lie, and this makes them evil. Trump has to get into attack mode. I’m praying that he does soon.
This whole Russia thing was the fruit of the poisonous tree legal metaphor applied to society.
Just like juries discard evidence obtained illegally, so too had the media to discard those mails.
And because it worked so well, they are harping on it, of course the red cyber army is marching!
Hard to know what to make of the recent serial media sh*t storm in the Accela Corridor teapot. Our perspicacious proprietor points out the obvious confluence of interest between the Social Media Mafia, which need clicks to keep afloat the insiders’ stock options and the DNC-MSM complex which needs continuous agita to mulct their moon-bats and to put on a continuous threat display so as to intimidate the GOPe from touching their NGO-centered cash machine. The big uncertainty is, “Can this possibly work_?”. Sadly, it did work on both levels against President W as the breaking DOJ slush fund story… Read more »
Cut off all the slush funds immediately. Make them beg for the money and, in the process, demonstrate how much was spread around for how long, and what it went for. It’s a win-win. If they slink away, problem solved. If they raise a fuss, let people see what has been going on. There is no way to lose by doing this, and it is the right thing to do in the first place.
Agree. I got $100. that says it’s not just the DOJ with a slush fund.
In regard to the A.G;. Do you remember the hue and cry when the past A.G,. Eric Holder, was held in criminal contempt of congress? Neither do I. Schumer, Pelosi, Perez, Ellison, Franken..How can this party even hope to survive as a national party. If they do, how can we the people hope to survive.
Trump’s people need to rev up the “screw you” attitude. It is what got the Donald elected. Do it the Breitbart way, when the conversation comes up, be it Sessions, Flynn, recusal, whatever, respond with “So?”.
It worked wonders with my looney in-laws, it stopped them in their tracks.
“Fuck you. War.”
My father owns a small business and he has an outside contractor whose sole job is to manipulate google in the favor of the business.
Also, #gamergate. I play geek games(Dungeons and Dragons, etc) with my sister’s 19 year old son and his friends. They are all partially redpilled, I wouldn’t call them Trump voters, but when I ridicule Social Justice Warriors it’s clear they hate them almost as much as I do.
Tangential to the Sessions fiasco, my take on this is that Sessions needs to resign–not because he did anything wrong but because this episode revealed that Sessions is not the fighter that Trump needs in the AG position to make headway in cleaning up the swamp in Washington, which starts by cleaning up the Justice Department. Sessions folded like a cheap suit in response to pretty mild manufactured outrage from Schumer, Pelosi, and the MSM over events that, even if completely true, were utterly insignificant. His hasty decision to recuse himself from any investigation into Russian contacts only lends credibility… Read more »
It is very bad tactics to withdraw under pressure, for whatever reason or rationale.
Nah, he “recused” himself from a nowhere investigation about nothing. By “recusing” himself, he no longer has to answer any questions about it, and can continue to focus on enforcing the border.
“What? You want me to “recuse” myself from an investigation that would be an utter waste of my time and that isn’t going to uncover anything? Ummmm…OKAY!!! :-)”
With respect, by recusing himself from the investigation Sessions has given up any opportunity to manage an investigation in the DoJ, including the duration, scope, budget, and personnel. Democrats are calling for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor, and RINOs like Lindsay Graham and even Darrell Issa are joining the chorus. Session’s decision to recuse is a blatant admission that the AG can’t lead a department investigation in which the AG is a subject. After making this admission, Sessions has no viable grounds on which to refuse to appoint a Special Prosecutor. I was aghast when I watched the Sessions… Read more »
He can still control those things simply by diverting DOJ resources to higher priority tasks – like border enforcement and related prosecutions. Remember, there is not a “right / left” division in Washington. You cannot automatically assume that because they have an (R) next to their name, that they’re on “our side”. The new political alignment in the country is between the Government Party and the American Party. The Government Party is mainly the “cloud people” Zman writes about, and people who define themselves as progs/liberals. But the Government Party includes one hell of a lot of people who make… Read more »
I’m glad we have some common ground that Sessions should not have recused himself. As to your assertion that Sessions can still control the investigation by diverting DOJ resources: he absolutely cannot. Sessions has recused himself. All decisions relating to this investigation will be made by Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, an Obama appointee. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Boente If Boente recommends a Special Prosecutor, Sessions will be forced to appoint one. He can’t override Boente’s decision after recusing himself. It’s important to remember that the management layer of the DoJ is, for all intents and purposes, still the Obama DoJ. The Trump Administration… Read more »
I still haven’t decided if you’re right about Sessions resigning but he didn’t should not have recused himself from any DOJ investigation. That has fed the frenzy on the Left (CNN couldn’t wait to spend a solid hour last night talking about his recusal and the the “likely” scenarios that could lead to his resignation if more dirt can be manufactured. Bottom line: he should have told the Dems to go f&*k themselves. And the Republicans in Congress making anti-Russian, “Look at me I’m a patriot” noises need to focus on party solidarity in the face of a clear offensive… Read more »
“What may push everyone over the edge is the mother of all fake news stories, the entirely fictional Russian Hacking™ scandal. There is nothing about this that passes the laugh test.” This whole thing with Russia is hysteria but there are a lot of people who buy it. Every person I know who leans left in any minor way seems either deeply invested in this or believe that its true to some extent. Its beyond irritating; its maddening because its so obviously not just a lie but a very badly told one. There is a danger for the right to… Read more »
“Its beyond irritating; its maddening” Vox Day likes to point out that emotional pain is one of the few things that SJWs are capable of understanding. There’s a lot of truth to his observation. SJWs will push this Russia nonsense even if they don’t believe it (and most of them do) themselves simply to annoy their enemies. I’ve recently gotten to the point where I’ve stopped trying to debate anyone on the left, but I haven’t stopped insulting them on social media. I think it’s best to never show them your anger and to project an attitude where you seem… Read more »
“I’ve recently gotten to the point where I’ve stopped trying to debate anyone on the left, but I haven’t stopped insulting them on social media.”
Outside of a relative or two I don’t bother at all with the left; their behavior is at best childish. They lost one election after fifteen to twenty five years of mostly success and suddenly the sky is falling. The best meme I’ve seen recently on dealing with leftists goes something like:
Her: “I identify as non-binary fluid pan sexual.”
Him: (Trying to think of something to impress her) I’m mentally ill too.”
The Left has always been conspiratorial. That’s in part due to the natural paranoia that is part and parcel with hive mindedness. It’s also due to the fact that the Left is endlessly scheming to get around whatever obstacles lie between them and their desired goal. They just assume everyone else is scheming too. The things different now are a) the willingness of the Left to embrace batshit crazy nonsense like this Russia stuff and b) the growing number of mostly young people to push back just as hard on social media. In the old days, the Left could push… Read more »
So, the Spanish Civil War Scenario. Nobodyj expects the Spanish Civil War Scenario_!
“a) the willingness of the Left to embrace batshit crazy nonsense like this Russia stuff” Is it really so crazy that they are willing to accept it? The accusations are nuts but the willingness to think it isn’t as nuts given that what these people are looking at is the aftermath of a failed messianic movement. The left literally sold Obama as a messiah who would change everything forever; he was supposed to be the final culmination of the entire left wing drift since 1991, the person who would forever solidify everything the left created and gained in the last… Read more »
if trump is removed from office…. it will be mad max.
Batshit crazy indeed. Here’s a little game to play. Watch any of these people (Schumer, Pelosi, Franken, even the ex-Kentucky governor doing his rebuttal thing, Paul Krugman, and any number of MSM media people), and watch them with the sound off. It will creep you out. I used to do this with Obama and Hillary, but the disease has spread to all these other people. Do it with Trump and his crew, and you see normal people speaking, even though you cannot hear them. Someone recently posted the KY ex-governor’s rebuttal screen shot next to a photo of the wacky… Read more »
It serves little purpose but my own satisfaction, but I find it amusing to reply to this by welcoming this new progressive worry about the Russian threat and accepting their unoffered apology for the gross failures of their ancestors in this area.
When Al Franken claims to have been ‘Elected’ by the voters of his state, legally; he’s lying. The type of blatant vote fraud that put an idiot such as Franken in the US Senate and the role AG Jeff Sessions will have in rooting it out and prosecuting the guilty explains the targeting of Sessions by worried Democrats. The three angles of attack on the Progressives must be; Education, The Media and Vote Fraud. Betsy DeVor has education, President Trump is doing a magnificent job of letting the air out of the media balloon and AG Sessions needs to get… Read more »
Move quickly, hit them where it matters to them, and hit them hard. Liberalism is a “slush fund” form of governance. Eliminate the slush funds, and they got nuttin. The slush funds pay for all the rest of it. Like Daddy cutting off the allowance to a drunkard.
This is why the Left wants to get rid of Sessions, as he can derail the entire Leftist machine by letting states do VoterID and investigate for voter fraud not to mention investigating all those intel leaks which can and will land anyone caught doing it a 10-25 year stint in federal prison.
VoterID alone can be a game changer. This is why liberals always freak out about it. Remember the more they scream about someone the bigger the threat he is.
Would love to see it. Like the Soros hires who busted up things and people at the Inauguration, “I was following well-established limits of destruction, assault, and mayhem (which means you don’t actually kill anyone), and now I am looking at ten years”. Flood the zone with crackdowns on everything. The Left will claim they are being rounded up en masse, but actually they will be called to account for breaking the law. En masse. Because no one on their side obeys anything any more, it is part of their zeitgeist.
I’ve been watching the old show “The Untouchables” on H&I. Letting the lower echelon hoods lead them to the higher ups, the Frank Nitti and Al Capone types, was standard procedure.
I like to think that in a large and opulent room somewhere, George Soros is snarling to an underling “Sessions can’t lay a finger on me! I’m protected!”.
“Sure Frank, sure! You’re number one Boss!”
I’m way past the point of disbelief with this story. We are supposed to be outraged that a sitting U.S. Senator has had contact with the Russian Ambassador? Isn’t that part of both job descriptions?
They have jumped the shark with stories that so transparently biased and fake that they are destroying the media brands.
One wonders if this is a turning point. Will Trump’s own team surrender this soon? The Morlocks already have Flynn’s scalp, and if they get Sessions as well, we’re possibly returning to Cuck status quo.
It was fun while it lasted; but I often succumb to pessimism.
The 2018 Republican primaries can’t come fast enough.
The ’18 Republican primaries can’t come fast enough.
That Zerohedge article should make everyone’s eyes widen. While lots of goofy stuff comes out of there, that piece looks rock solid. Clickfarming looks like the only explanation. Then again, Walter Duranty’s noxious deceit hiding the USSR’s industrialized famine was over 50 years ago at the NYT. Think how much fake news we swallowed all those decades.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfHeWTKjag
Holy crap! I knew Facechimp was corrupt, but that was gut-bustingly hilariously corrupt.
It’s not going to change the dynamic. People have ossified into their positions, and they’re not going to move. That plays to Trump’s advantage because this “The Russians are Coming!” stuff is a 24/7 scream-fest of insanity. That is not something which can be sustained. I do think a way for the Trump folks to combat it is with humor. Just poke fun at it. In the meantime, Trump’s cabinet is getting approved. Perry got confirmed yesterday with 62 votes. The reason the Democrats and the Media are creating this sh**storm is because it is their last remaining weapon. They… Read more »
My initial reaction was, times awastin’ just declare war already with these fruitcakes. But I think you are right. Don’t back down, be serious about governing, point out with humor the insanity of this crew, and let Obama become a madman roaming the halls of his Kalorama manse. Tim
I don’t think you declare war on them. What you do is go to war with them covertly. A major weapon Trump has is his ability to define who gets a security clearance, and the classification of materials produced by the Executive Branch. He could slit a lot of throats without ever opening himself up to a court fight.
He can also write an executive order mandating that government departments under-spend their annual budgets by 25%.
Russians Hacking. Sure. That’s the ticket. In the meantime, the half-black POS Hussein sets up a shadow government a few blocks from 1600 with the Iranian agent and slumlord Jarrett in tow (and in residence) with the racist perjurer Holder proclaiming “Ready to Roll” in an effort to bring down a duly elected president by any means they can, along with an army of 30,000 OFA useful AstroTurf idiots salted across our land. When all the smoke clears from this Sessions debacle I pray Trump unleashes him to nail Chocolate Jesus and his cohorts to a tree. And then goes… Read more »