Focused Read in 3-4 minutes
( * ICYMI, sometimes we miss things and that's exactly what #TrumpPenceGOPRussia want ! )
“Facebook has already detected suspicious activity trying to influence the 2018 elections...
Facebook isn’t sure if it’s Russia, but it looks a lot like what Russia did in 2016. (Jul 31, 2018)
Someone is trying to influence the midterm elections by sowing divisions among Americans on social media, according to Facebook — though the company won’t say it’s necessarily Russia that’s to blame.
On Tuesday, Facebook announced that it had removed more than two dozen pages and accounts from its platform because they were involved in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” in the lead-up to the midterm elections.
While it could not explicitly link the suspicious activity to Russia, Facebook said it is “consistent with” what it saw from the Russian troll farm the Internet Research Agency before and after the 2016 presidential election.
The accounts masked themselves as groups dedicated to specific causes and appeared to have been designed to appeal to progressives. ...
Soon after the Times reported on Tuesday about the forthcoming announcement, Facebook said it had removed 32 pages and accounts from Facebook and Instagram after determining they were involved in “inauthentic behavior” that’s not allowed on Facebook.
Facebook detected the first of eight pages, 17 profiles, and seven Instagram accounts about two weeks ago and removed them on Tuesday morning. In total, nearly 300,000 accounts followed at least one of the pages, which were created between March 2017 and May 2018.
Some of the pages and accounts had no followers or next to none, while others had many...The accounts pushed content on divisive social issues — just like they did in 2016
Facebook released examples of the content the accounts created.
For example, the Resisters page created a Facebook event scheduled for August to protest a planned second act to the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
It also created a job posting for a part-time event coordinator and posted memes promoting women’s rights and criticizing President Donald Trump.
Resisters’ Unite the Right event duped legitimate pages, which signed on to co-host the event.
The Black Elevation page also posted job ads for an event coordinator and created event announcements. The Times reported that content around the “Abolish ICE” movement was also detected.
The fake accounts and pages homing in on divisive social issues is what happened in the Russian disinformation campaign in the 2016 election, but Facebook says it hasn’t been able to link the activity this time around directly to Russia.
“These bad actors have been more careful to cover their tracks, in part due to the actions we’ve taken to prevent abuse over the past year,” Nathaniel Gleicher, the head of cyber security policy at Facebook, wrote in a post on Tuesday.
Facebook said it’s working with law enforcement and others to gather all the facts and figure out who’s behind the activity, though the company acknowledged that’s no easy task.
... “The lack of firm attribution in this case or others does not suggest a lack of action,” (Chief security officer Alex) Stamos wrote. “We have invested heavily in people and technology to detect inauthentic attempts to influence political discourse, and enforcing our policies doesn’t require us to confidently attribute the identity of those who violate them or their potential links to foreign actors.”
Facebook isn’t the only party raising a red flag about potential hacking and meddling ahead of the 2018 midterms.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said earlier this month that the “warning signs are there” for cyber attacks from Russia and other foreign governments.
And a Microsoft executive at the Aspen Security Forum said in a panel that the company had detected phishing attacks targeting three US congressional candidates, though he didn’t say which party they were from. ... "
You can read more, including more examples of suspect accounts here
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"Making a Commitment to America’s Workers
An Overview of the Center for American Progress’s Blueprint for the 21st Century
Despite the low unemployment rate, America’s economy is still far from achieving full employment or delivering the wage growth that working-class Americans deserve.
Indeed, if the labor force participation rate for 16- to 65-year-olds were to return to its 2000 peak level, their unemployment rate would rise from 4.2 percent to 8.7 percent.
This jobs shortfall, primarily owing to insufficient demand for the labor of workers without a four-year college degree, has exerted powerful downward pressure on wages, employment, and economic opportunities for America’s diverse working class.
It has also led to persistent distress in communities that have not seen the gains from America’s broader economic growth as well as in communities that have been persistently poor for decades, including because of racism and inequality.
The Center for American Progress proposes to address these significant economic challenges with the Blueprint for the 21st Century.
This Jobs Blueprint will create approximately 4 million jobs—primarily for workers without four-year college degrees—while raising wages, increasing the power of workers in our economy, and making the physical and human capital investments that America’s economy and society need to thrive in the 21st century.
A summary of the plan’s key initiatives is below.
Nationwide investments that would modernize the economy and advance American workers
Five large-scale investments would bring the U.S. economy into the 21st century; boost working-class economic security; and create more than 3 million jobs.
These strategic investments include:
1)
ensuring that all families have access to quality, affordable child care;
2)
rebuilding America’s infrastructure;
3)
modernizing K-12 schools;
4)
making homes and communities more efficient, solar-ready, and prepared for extreme weather;
5)
and helping older Americans and people with disabilities thrive in their communities by investing in services and supports.
The investments promise to boost wages and expand job opportunities for working-class Americans across the nation for at least a decade; increase families’ economic security; and strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness.
Creating a promise to communities left behind
The United States has experienced real growth as the forces of globalization and technology have rewarded parts of the U.S. economy.
But these forces are not helping all communities equally.
Some areas have fallen behind due to automation, offshoring, market concentration, or extreme weather, while other areas have experienced persistent poverty or lack of opportunity for decades.
The Jobs Blueprint proposes a federal job guarantee designed to help workers and communities overcome these challenges.
In these communities—which comprise 10 percent of the U.S. population, including in urban and rural areas—the Jobs Blueprint proposes that all long-term residents who want to work be guaranteed a job.
CAP estimates that 1.2 million workers per year in eligible communities will participate in the program, including both jobs created by the national investments and via additional publicly supported jobs to satisfy the guarantee.
Offering workers a ladder up
The Jobs Blueprint is a long-term commitment to Americans trapped in a cycle of low-wage work with little opportunity for advancement.
Many of the jobs our proposal would create require training beyond high school, and the Jobs Blueprint will support paid training for participants in a relevant field.
To raise standards for participating workers, all jobs and training opportunities created under the Jobs Blueprint would provide decent pay and benefits; allow workers the freedom to join together in unions; and include strong protections to prevent discrimination.
Raising wages and rebuilding economic power for all American workers
The Jobs Blueprint would enact bold reforms across the economy to shift economic power toward workers. ...
Moving forward
The initiatives proposed in the Jobs Blueprint are just part of the changes that are needed to boost economic opportunity for working families. In the coming months, CAP also intends to offer additional proposals to address the growing concentration of economic power; support small business; create affordable housing opportunities; invest in rural America; and more.
The Jobs Blueprint envisions a United States committed to economic security and upward mobility for working Americans. "
You can read more here
You can also read more detail here
→ Focused Monthly Inspiration
Among many other things,
former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was
noted to be the driving force behind the
creation of The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
"... By 1948, the United Nations’ new Human Rights Commission had captured the attention of the world. Under the dynamic chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt—President Franklin Roosevelt’s widow, a human rights champion in her own right and the United States delegate to the UN—the Commission set out to draft the document that became the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Roosevelt, credited with its inspiration, referred to the Declaration as the “international Magna Carta for all mankind.” It was adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.
In its preamble and in Article 1, the Declaration unequivocally proclaims the inherent rights of all human beings: “Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people....All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
The Member States of the United Nations pledged to work together to promote the thirty Articles of human rights that, for the first time in history, had been assembled and codified into a single document. In consequence, many of these rights, in various forms, are today part of the constitutional laws of democratic nations. ... "
You can read more here
( #its2018now )
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→ Direct sources for Democrats:
* ( Personal favored and most informative follows are also 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 -- even if it's me. 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
Also, NOT exactly a Democratic Party specific source under a GOP majority but a good place for to hear and to watch speeches & hearings directly C-SPAN
→ Some of my favorite, most active organizations -- some existing & some developing to elect Democrats:
Born from conversations between Governor Howard Dean and Secretary Hillary Clinton in the aftermath of the 2016 election, Onward Together was established to lend support to leaders — particularly young leaders — kicking off projects and founding new organizations to fight for our shared progressive values. here
→ Fact checking organizations courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists
in alphabetical order...
→ 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
→ Some of my favorite, highly credible media -- at the moment:
📰📰📰 Mother Jones
📰📰📰📰 The Washington Post
→ Some of my favorite Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
→ Some of my favorite media/panelists -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
✅✅✅ Jennifer Rubin Conservative blogger at @ WashingtonPost's Right Turn,MSNBC contributor
intel community. @ NBCNews/@ MSNBC contributor
→ Some of my favorite Democrat Party Leaders to follow on Twitter, not in elected office but proving knowledge & experience are positives & not negatives are:
Note: I rarely get involved in primary races -- outside of those in my own area and unless there is a glaring reason that can not be ignored, I support Democratic Party nominees in general elections. I don't support bashing Democrats.
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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."
*
Curated by Gail Mountain, this blog is often gently edited and/or excerpted for quick reading, with occasional personal commentary in the form of the written word and/or in the form of emphasis noted. 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 find me on Twitter
( You can also find me on Facebook
at https://www.facebook.com/ProgressDems/)
*
See the League of Women Voters website:
Vote411 here
*
...for Networking for Democrats today!
g. (Unapologetic Democrat)
✊ Resisting "Fake News"
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