Russia Targets American Politics Again?-Bob Davis Podcast 809

Get ready. A sustained disinformation attack on the top democrat presidential candidates is already in progress. That’s the new story line. These days you can’t be sure. We’ll talk about it in Russia Targets American Politics Again?-Bob Davis Podcast 809.

Breaking News From Politico

Most noteworthy is a series of stories Politico has done about ‘hacking’ the US electoral process. The latest is an article which sources data analysts and other experts. Especially relevant? A new charge by experts. Russia is back to its old tricks.

We take a look at the story and the charge in In Russia Targets American Politics Again?

A Wide Ranging Effort

Natasha Korecki says her Politico story shows a wide ranging effort aimed at Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. She reports certainly it is up and running with signs foreign state actors are behind some of it.

It’s Happening Again

According to Politico Weaponized Propaganda picks at the most sensitive issues in our public discourse. Furthermore that propaganda is being pushed across a variety of platforms. It’s happening again.

Wait! Not All Of It Is Organized!

Wait though. Not all the activity is organized. In contrast, a lot of it appears to be regular Joe’s sharing stuff they think is funny or relevant on their feeds.

Sources For Politico Article Include Democrat Operatives

Finally sources for this story include Brett Horvath who has worked for the Mayor of Seattle as well as other operatives who have worked for democrats including Hillary Clinton. Or companies like Storyful who spy on reporters.

No Conclusive Evidence

Even more Korecki writes researchers and others cannot conclusively point to actors behind “the coordinated activity”.

We’re All Trolls Now

Maybe I’m churlish but it seems to me the writer, sources and Politico itself are getting a lot of mileage out of this. The principles in the story are sharing the story on their own feeds. Just slightly Troll Like, don’t you think? Maybe the Russians have switched sides this time!

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Russia Targets American Politics Again?-Bob Davis Podcast 809

Podcast 533-Matt Stevens

Podcast 533-Matt Stevens. Heads up for the North Metro Tea Party alliance as an Elk River man alleges serious campaign finance violations by officers of the North Metro Tea Party and Political PACs associated with it. In Podcast 533-Matt Stevens, the man who filed the complaint tells why he did it, and details his charges. As of post time I contacted the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, and North Metro Tea Party Officials who were not available, although Jake Duesenberg posted a note on his FaceBook page which I include in this podcast. It was pretty late, and Matt’s tweets had been gathering steam all day. At issue is the ongoing fight in Minnesota House district 35 between incumbent Republican and Speaker of the Minnesota House Kurt Daudt and his primary challenger Alan Duff. The primary is August 9th. Is this a dirty trick by the Daudt Campaign to blunt Duff’s challenge? Or is this is a question of competency as it pertains to political neophytes who have come into the process through Tea Party meetings. It’s all in the hands of the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board now. See for yourself, here’s Matt’s twitter feed, where you’ll find the tweets and links to the documents detailing his allegations, in a letter to the campaign finance board. If you’re interested here is one source detailing the campaign regulations/guidelines related to 501C3 corporations similar to the Tea Party which is an organization devoted to education, not a political action committee. It’s important to note that I know many of the principles in this story personally and they have always been gracious to me, and good to me. I do not know Matt Stevens, but most of the people I talked to the night of this podcast have a favorable impression of him. The fact is, we don’t know whether the allegations are true or false, we don’t know the motivation, and we don’t know whether the Tea Party officials made a mistake or there is no ‘there, there’, to turn a phrase. It’s all up to the Minnesota Board of Campaign Finance and it’s going to be a big story, so here is the first interview of record on the subject. We’ll see now what happens. Sponsored by X Government Cars.