Billions will vote in #elections this year, ~½ the #global pop, in 1 of the largest & most consequential democratic exercises in living memory. The results will affect how the #world is run for decades.
At the same time, false narratives & #ConspiracyTheories have evolved into an increasingly #global menace.
Baseless claims of election #fraud have battered trust in #democracy. Foreign #influence campaigns regularly target polarizing domestic challenges. #ArtificialIntelligence has supercharged #disinformation efforts & distorted perceptions of reality. All while major #SocialMedia companies have scaled back their safeguards & downsized #election teams.
Over many years, #LaPierre & cronies allegedly used #NRA membership dues like a private piggy bank, financing everything from sweetheart employment deals to luxe travel & LaPierre’s shopping sprees….
A #judge wrote that the allegations convey “a grim story of #greed, self-dealing, & lax #financial#oversight at the highest levels of the National Rifle Association.”
Over many years, #LaPierre & cronies allegedly used #NRA membership dues like a private piggy bank, financing everything from sweetheart employment deals to luxe travel & LaPierre’s shopping sprees….
A #judge wrote that the allegations convey “a grim story of #greed, self-dealing, & lax #financial#oversight at the highest levels of the National Rifle Association.”
#WayneLaPierre, longtime ldr of the NRA, resigned Fri as chief exec, days before a #corruption#trial involving the #gun rights group begins in a NYC court.
LaPierre, 74, cited “health reasons” for his decision. He’s served as NRA's chief since 1991.
The development will change the shape of the NYC trial, since #NYAG#LeticiaJames was seeking to oust #WayneLaPierre from his position. She is also seeking financial penalties from #LaPierre & 3 other defendants.
LaPierre played a leading role in transforming #GunCulture in #America, but the last ½ decade of his tenure at the #NRA was marred by scandals & internal upheaval.
#SCOTUS clerks are… the sort of ambitious #lawyers likely to wield significant #influence in their post-clerk lives. What makes #Justice#ClarenceThomas’s #clerks so remarkable… is their success as loyal standard-bearers of his singular #ideology. …an examination of what the justice & his wife call #ThomasClerkWorld, based on interviews w/people in & around it & a review of private emails & the Thomases’ public stmnts, shows how meticulously the couple have cultivated the network over decades.
#Change doesn’t happen top-down, it happens person-to-person, through networks of trust, ”easily influenced people influencing other easily influenced people”
Intelligence agencies like the KGB have always known this. But previously only huge state actors were able to conduct #influence#operations on scale.
With #generative#ai, the cost of weaponised fake friendships if rapidly approaching zero. And #2024#election season, we should see the first instances of that.
…But it’s not just #Nehls….
Back in May, House Oversight…Chair James #Comer (R) made a comment remarkably similar…. He cited #Trump’s increasingly good poll numbers against #Biden & said…, “the media is looking around, scratching their head, & they’re realizing that the American people are keeping up w/our investigation.”
Judiciary Cmte Chair #JimJordan (R) last year pitched the investigations expressly as an attempt to #influence voters’ 2024 choices: “That will help frame up the 2024 race….”
The essence of a fictive, chosen, or voluntary kinship is rooted in a profound sense of connection. This connection isn't always immediately recognized or mutual, but it's never entirely unfamiliar or one-sided...
Mary #Trump and Kathy Griffin mock Joe #Rogan's “IQ of a turnip”
The duo discussed the controversial podcaster and how his ignorance means he has "terrifying" #influence
Mary Trump, the niece and ardent critic of Donald Trump, sat down with comedian Kathy #Griffin to roast controversial #podcaster Joe Rogan and his “terrifying” influence.
There is a market for lies (aka "confirmation bias"). There is huge amounts to be made from getting our attention.
The modern currency is #INFLUENCE, and there is currently no effective countermeasure in place against those who do not have any personal / moral limits in acquiring it.
Despite months of discouraging news about extreme weather conditions, the former Vice-President #AlGore still believes that there is a solution to the #ClimateCrisis clearly in sight. “We have a switch we can flip,” he tells David Remnick. The problem, as #Gore sees it, is that a powerful legacy network of #political & #financial spheres of #influence are stubbornly standing in the way.
#DianneFeinstein, centrist stalwart of the Senate, dies at 90
A trailblazer for women in politics, she led the Intelligence Committee and helped mold the federal bench. Amid health setbacks, she faced calls to resign.
Her #centrism — & her #influence — were vividly on display during her service on the #Senate#Intelligence Cmte, where in 2009 she became the first female chair. On many issues, she ranked among the most outspoken champions of the CIA & other intelligence organizations.…
Yet even as she championed the nation’s intelligence agencies, she subjected them to aggressive #oversight in a duality that aroused admiration as well as occasional perplexity among observers of her career.
(The #HatchAct) …prohibits govt ofcls from using their ofcl roles to #influence an #election. They say #Meadows saw “no distinction” between his WH work & the #Trump campaign & have pressed Jones to deny Meadows’ petition — an outcome which could have sweeping effect on other current & future #removal requests in the case, incl’g Trump’s expected petition.
American oligarchs have taken billions, no, make those trillions, from our own government. Some of the ways they scam people is by giving “defense” contracts to companies like Halliburton and Lockheed Martin
America’s oligarchy is seen in everything from healthcare and fossil fuels to the war business itself. More than half of all guns sold around the world are made by American Companies.