(Oct 19, 2021)
Youngkin’s campaign issued a statement Saturday attacking Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe and Dominion.
McAuliffe’s campaign declined to answer questions, including whether McAuliffe was aware of the PAC’s involvement.
Archiv: advertising / ads
Virginia Energy Giant Funds Fraudulent Attacks On Youngkin From The Right
(October 19, 2021)
The amount represents the company’s largest donation to any statewide political committee in Virginia this year — despite Youngkin opponent Terry McAuliffe having sworn that he would not take contributions from Dominion.
In its bid to weaken Youngkin’s support among conservative voters in the commonwealth, the Accountability Virginia PAC has been running social media ads questioning the Republican candidate’s record on gun rights.
Virginia energy giant quietly boosts McAuliffe
(Oct 16, 2021 )
Virginia Democrat Terry McAuliffe has sworn off money from the Richmond company Dominion Energy. But the utility has found more subtle ways to back McAuliffe’s gubernatorial bid, records show.
Driving the news: Dominion’s political action committee has donated $200,000 to a murky political group called Accountability Virginia PAC, a group with ties to prominent Democrats that’s been running ads attacking Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin from the right.
Democratic PAC Poses as Right-Wing Group to Turn Rural Virginians against Youngkin
(September 28, 2021)
In the tightening race to become Virginia’s next governor, Democrats are resorting to attacking Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin from the right in an effort to depress GOP turnout in rural parts of the state.
From behind the veil of the nondescript “Accountability Virginia PAC,” Democratic operatives are haranguing Youngkin for not having been endorsed by the National Rifle Association in ads popping up on Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook among other mediums.
Dems‘ sneaky sabotage
(Sep 28, 2021)
The intrigue: While clearly designed to hit Youngkin from the right, all indications point to Democrats behind the PAC.
Accountability Virginia’s online donation page is hosted by the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue. Its bank account is at Amalgamated Bank, a labor union-owned financial institution popular with Democratic political groups.
The PAC was incorporated in Virginia by compliance consultants at the MBA Consulting Group, which works uniformly with Democrats.
This is a very smart and insightful article on why groupthink is so pervasive among corporate journalists — especially those online — and why both the miserable economics and miserable culture of the media corporations where they work require conformity and herd behavior:
The Problem With Media
This is the tragedy. The local news die-off is real and lasting. Whole regions of the country now lack reliable news. The suffering is not always obvious because it is more about absence than outright destruction. Today’s 28-year-old living in an exurb doesn’t understand how much coverage of a town meeting, a county executive’s office, or a public school they would’ve read 20 or 30 years ago. They merely see nothing and learn to live with it. Many of the remaining small newspapers hardly function at all; they are living ghosts printing wire copy.
We’re not pursuing homomorphic encryption for @WhatsApp . I’ve been asked this before (link below). We should be skeptical of technical claims that apps like ours could see messages in „good“ cases only. That’s just not how technology works.
(03.08.2021)
Facebook will soon be able to scan your texts – sparking privacy panic
(06.08.2021)
Other companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are also said to be working on homomorphic encryption.
Facebook Researchers Hope to Bring Together Two Foes: Encryption and Ads
(03.08.2021)
Facebook is bulking up a team of artificial intelligence researchers, including a key hire from Microsoft, to study ways of analyzing encrypted data without decrypting it, the company confirmed. The research could allow Facebook to target ads based on encrypted messages on its WhatsApp messenger, or to encrypt the data it collects on billions of users without hurting its ad-targeting capabilities, outside experts say.
YouTube CEO: We’ll remove “hate speech” from elected officials but media outlets are allowed to reupload it with their own “context”
Wojcicki made the comments during an interview with The Washington Post when she was asked whether YouTube would remove President Trump’s videos if they contained statements that were similar to those made in his tweet that was censored by Twitter last month.
The YouTube CEO said that while it’s difficult to comment on theoretical situations, if an elected official posts “content that is hateful or promotes violence in some way,” it would be removed.
Facebook removes Trump ads with symbol once used by Nazis to designate political prisoners
The red triangle appeared in paid posts sponsored by Trump and Vice President Pence, as well as by the “Team Trump” campaign page. It was featured alongside text warning of “Dangerous MOBS” and asking users to sign a petition about antifa, a loose collection of anti-fascist activists whom the Trump administration has sought to link to recent violence, despite arrest records that show their involvement is trivial.
Sanders: Bloomberg Doesn’t Have The Right To Buy This Election, „Obscene“ That He Skipped Early States
SANDERS: You know, we pride ourselves on being the longest-standing democracy in the world. And we’re proud of that. To me, what that means, one person, one vote. If you want to run for president, you run for president. You’ve got good ideas, maybe you win, maybe you don’t win.
But I do think it’s a bit obscene that we have somebody who, by the way, chose not to contest in Iowa, in Nevada, in South Carolina, in New Hampshire where all of the candidates, we did town meetings, we were talking to thousands and thousands of people, working hard. He said, I don’t have to do that. I’m worth $60 billion. I have more wealth than the bottom 125 million Americans. I’ll buy the presidency. That offends me very much.
And tomorrow night…
(APPLAUSE)
Bloomberg’s Rising Polls Show The Power Of Billionaire Narrative Control
Back in November Mike Bloomberg was polling at four percent nationally and had the highest disapproval rating of any potential Democratic presidential candidate, and understandably so; the man has a uniquely horrible record and no redeeming traits to speak of.
Now, after spending $400 million in broadcast, radio and cable ads, $42 million on Facebook ads, $36 million on Google ads, and an unknown fortune on other shady manipulations, a national Quinnipiac poll released last week put him at 15 percent nationally in the Democratic primary. This week national polls released by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist and Zogby put him at 19 and 20 percent, respectively.
NEW: Bloomberg has reserved more than $30 million TV ads beginning on Monday. A huge show of financial force. Story:
I’m disgusted by the idea that Michael Bloomberg or any billionaire thinks they can circumvent the political process and spend tens of millions of dollars to buy elections. If you can’t build grassroots support for your candidacy, you have no business running for president.
2018 Midterm Elections: This Republican Super PAC Raised $51 Million to Try and Save the Party’s House Majority
(12.7.2018) The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), a Republican Super PAC aligned with retiring House Speaker Paul Ryan, said Thursday that it raised a record-breaking $51 million in the second quarter of 2018, and has $71 million cash on hand.
This is more money than the group raised in the entire 2016 election cycle. $30 million of this haul came from mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, as Politico reported in May.
Michael Bloomberg Will Spend $80 Million on the Midterms. His Goal: Flip the House for the Democrats.
(20.6.2018) By siding so emphatically with one party, Mr. Bloomberg has the potential to upend the financial dynamics of the midterm campaign, which have appeared to favor Republicans up to this point. Facing intense opposition to President Trump and conservative policies, Republicans have been counting on a strong economy and heavily funded outside groups to give them a political advantage in key races, especially in affluent suburbs where it is expensive to run television ads.
Billionaire Koch brothers network unveils phase one of multimillion-dollar ad campaign against Trump’s tariffs
(20.6.2018) Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch are unveiling a multimillion-dollar ad campaign against President Trump’s tariffs.
The first phase of the ad campaign, which is funded by the Koch network’s Freedom Partners organization, will air on TV and radio starting Monday.
The campaign will call on Congress to support free trade policies and abandon Trump’s protectionist goals.
Exclusive: Secret money funds more than 40 percent of outside congressional ads
(12.7.2018) Secret donors financed more than four out of every 10 television ads that outside groups broadcast this year to influence November’s high-stakes congressional elections, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Kantar Media data.
Leading the way: organizations affiliated with billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, whose conservative donor network plows hundreds of millions of dollars into politics and policy debates each election cycle.