Friday, September 22, 2017

#StrongerTogether ! "The personal Facebook pages of Trump & Pence are running dark post ads that promise "A WALL (NOT A FENCE)," ... "



Focused Read in 2 minutes


THIS is what a personal Facebook page looks like, as referenced by Nancy Levine in the BuzzFeed story below. If you go to your page and click on the triangle in the upper right hand corner, then on settings, then on ads you can see what information is used to recommend (or to "target") ads for you and you can make some adjustments. (There's also a link in the article that will take you directly to your page.)

"Trump Is Using Targeted Facebook Ads To Reassure Supporters He Will Build The Border Wall

The personal Facebook pages of the president and vice president are running dark post ads that promise "A WALL (NOT A FENCE)," while asking for donations.

President Donald Trump is using targeted Facebook ads to reassure supporters that he still plans to build the border wall after his recent public comments caused many to question whether he would keep his promise.

"There's been a lot of noise and a lot of rumors," reads the text of a Facebook ad from Trump's personal Facebook page that was targeted to specific users in recent days. "....WE WILL BUILD A WALL (NOT A FENCE) ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF THE UNITED STATES..." The ad concludes with a pitch for donations.

That all caps declaration is in contrast to a widely discussed tweet last week in which the president said the wall was already underway "in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls." That led supporters such as Fox & Friends' Steve Doocy to ask"has the wall almost become symbolic?"

… The personal Facebook page of Vice President Mike Pence is also running a version of the ad. One difference between the Pence and Trump ads is the VP's refers to "Fake News media," while Trump's calls out the "mainstream media." Both ads include a dig against "liberals in congress."

A White House spokesman told BuzzFeed News the ads are being run by the Trump campaign, and referred all questions to it. The Trump campaign did not respond to emails or phone messages about the ads.

The ads are not visible on the timelines of the Trump or Pence Facebook pages. They are, therefore, so-called "dark post ads" because they can only be seen by people the campaign chose to target with the message. This is the same type of ad Facebook recently acknowledged was purchased by a Russian troll factory in order to target Americans during the election. That revelation has caused lawmakers such as Sen. Mark Warner to discuss the need to regulate online political ads.

"An American can still figure out what content is being used on TV advertising. ... But in social media there's no such requirement," Warner said, according to CNN.

The Trump and Pence ads also highlight how politicians can use targeted ads to push a message to supporters that walks back or contradicts a public statement.

"If candidates (and outside groups) can say different things to different voters, it is harder to hold them accountable for campaign promises," Erika Franklin Fowler, director of the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks political ads aired on broadcast television during state and federal elections, previously told BuzzFeed News.

These ads are also an example of how targeting can miss its mark. Nancy Levine, an author of books about pugs, was shown both ads in her News Feed and provided them to BuzzFeed News. She said she is far from a Trump supporter or potential donor.

"I wonder how was I targeted? Most everything I post on FB is of the 'Fuck Trump' variety," Levine said.

At BuzzFeed News' request she visited the ad preferences page on her Facebook profile, where anyone can view the interests the social network has identified for a user based on their behavior on and off the platform. To her surprise, Levine discovered her interests included "Donald Trump" and "Conservatism," as well as other outliers such as "Chainsaw."

"I don't even rake my leaves, much less use a chainsaw," she said

You can see more here


Focused Thought in 30 seconds



 ( The above excerpt was shared on Twitter by
the CAP Action Deputy Director Igor Volsky via data provided courtesy of AARP. )


Focused Action in 30 seconds to 10 minutes, 
depending on the action (s) you choose to take 



You can share my Tweet here


You can also Tweet the Democrats on the committee directly here (I've also provided the GOP Chair in case anyone would like to Tweet him):















* Update: I just picked up a great tip on contacting the Committee via email!



(Always make a copy of whatever you send to a committee on a topic and send a copy to your U.S. Senators and your U.S. Congressperson to keep them in your loop)

You can also share the meme via my Tweet here 

You can find more information on the Unites States Senate Committee on Finance here 


AND, keep calling your Representatives in D.C. to tell them to #StopGrahamCassidyHellerJohnson until their time is up! TY!




Focused Point of Interest in 5-6 minutes



"The First White President

The foundation of Donald Trump’s presidency is the negation of Barack Obama’s legacy.



IT IS INSUFFICIENT TO STATE the obvious of Donald Trump: that he is a white man who would not be president were it not for this fact.


... His political career began in advocacy of birtherism, that modern recasting of the old American precept that black people are not fit to be citizens of the country they built. But long before birtherism, Trump had made his worldview clear. He fought to keep blacks out of his buildings, according to the U.S. government; called for the death penalty for the eventually exonerated Central Park Five; and railed against “lazy” black employees. “Black guys counting my money! I hate it,” Trump was once quoted as saying. “The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.” After his cabal of conspiracy theorists forced Barack Obama to present his birth certificate, Trump demanded the president’s college grades (offering $5 million in exchange for them), insisting that Obama was not intelligent enough to have gone to an Ivy League school, and that his acclaimed memoir, Dreams From My Father, had been ghostwritten by a white man, Bill Ayers.



It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true—his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power. Trump inaugurated his campaign by casting himself as the defender of white maidenhood against Mexican “rapists,” only to be later alleged by multiple accusers, and by his own proud words, to be a sexual violator himself. White supremacy has always had a perverse sexual tint. Trump’s rise was shepherded by Steve Bannon, a man who mocks his white male critics as “cucks.” The word, derived from cuckold, is specifically meant to debase by fear and fantasy—the target is so weak that he would submit to the humiliation of having his white wife lie with black men. That the slur cuck casts white men as victims aligns with the dicta of whiteness, which seek to alchemize one’s profligate sins into virtue. So it was with VA slaveholders claiming that Britain sought to make slaves of them. So it was with marauding Klansmen organized against alleged rapes and other outrages. So it was with a candidate who called for a foreign power to hack his opponent’s email and who now, as...is claiming to be the victim of “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history. ... " 


You can read more here

You can also listen to a 50:27-minute audio version which is provided in the article...

~ Personal Commentary

* For the record, I disagree with very little in this essay, in fact and in the context of -- by virtue of my white privilege racism is not my experience, therefore I lean strongly toward trusting the analysis of those whose experience it is. I do, based on my own eyes and ears disagree with the assessment of some that "Hillary Clinton herself had endorsed the 'super-predator' theory of William J. Bennett, John P. Walters, and John J. DiIulio Jr. This theory cast 'inner-city' children of that era as 'almost completely unmoralized' and the font of 'a new generation of street criminals … the youngest, biggest and baddest generation any society has ever known.' The 'baddest generation' did not become super-predators. ... "

Despite what I believe to be the truth of the environment at the time, listening to the speech in which Hillary made her ignorant reference to 'super-predator,' my personal assessment is that it was not a blanket condemnation of all black youth in the context of the noted theory.

You can #Go2TheSource and listen to the 29-minute speech in its entirety and make your own assessment here

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 Direct sources for Democrats:

* ( Personal favored and most informative follows are shared here with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone.  #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify I am using a star rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )


The Democratic Party Website

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Also

C-SPAN (a good place for speeches & hearings direct source (s))


 Some of my favorite, most informative
 follows on Twitter include:


⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC
⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones 

⭐⭐⭐⭐ You can find Verrit:"Media for the 65.8M" here


 Some of the most credible media -- at the moment:





 Some of the most credible Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:





✔ Velshi & Ruhle on MSNBC


Thank you for Networking for Democrats today!

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(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.

It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."

You can read the Platform here



 (Remember 2018...)

   
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Curated by Gail Mountain, with occasional personal commentary, Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!

( You can also find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )


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Thank you for focusing!

g., aka Democrat



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