Category Archives: racism

Here’s How Much Bots Drive Conversation During News Events | WIRED

Late last week, about 60 percent of the conversation was driven by likely bots. Over the weekend, even as the conversation about the caravan was overshadowed by more recent tragedies, bots were still driving nearly 40 percent of the caravan conversation on Twitter. That’s according to an assessment by Robhat Labs, a startup founded by two UC Berkeley students that builds tools to detect bots online. The team’s first product, a Chrome extension called BotCheck.me, allows users to see which accounts in their Twitter timelines are most likely bots. Now it’s launching a new tool aimed at news organizations called FactCheck.me, which allows journalists to see how much bot activity there is across an entire topic or hashtag.

Source: Here’s How Much Bots Drive Conversation During News Events | WIRED

Friday Open Thread | Ex-Florida GOP chair shreds Trump: The worst “social poison to afflict our country in decades” | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Al Cardenas, a frequent Trump critic, tweeted his comment in response to the president’s new campaign ad on immigration. “You are a despicable divider; the worse social poison to afflict our country in decades,” Cardenas tweeted in a post that has since been deleted. “This ad, and your full approval of it, will condemn you and your bigoted legacy forever in the annals of America’s history books.”

Source: Friday Open Thread | Ex-Florida GOP chair shreds Trump: The worst “social poison to afflict our country in decades” | 3CHICSPOLITICO

How Vilification of George Soros Moved From the Fringes to the Mainstream – The New York Times

“He’s a banker, he’s Jewish, he gives to Democrats — he’s sort of a perfect storm for vilification by the right, here and in Europe,” said Michael H. Posner, a human rights lawyer and former State Department official in the Obama administration. Mr. Soros has given his main group, the Open Society Foundations, $32 billion for what it calls democracy-building efforts in the United States and around the world. In addition, in the United States, Mr. Soros has personally contributed more than $75 million over the years to federal candidates and committees, according to Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service records.

It’s spooky how much the virus linked to “polio-like illness” isn’t coming from immigrants – Virology Down Under

EV-D68 is not a new virus to the US of A Maybe you checked out the dedicated US CDC webpage on EV-D68? Or the Wikipedia page? Maybe the page by the American Council on Science and Health?  How about this American Academy of Pediatrics story or this one in Vox, or this in the LA Times? One thing the links above all have in common; they mention that EV-D68, was first discovered in children in California in 1962. Yeah, that California. The one in the US, where AFM cases are currently occurring. Not Central America, the current source of migrants fleeing corruption, gangs and poverty for a better life.

Source: It’s spooky how much the virus linked to “polio-like illness” isn’t coming from immigrants – Virology Down Under

Trump eyeing an executive order to end citizenship for unauthorized residents’ children born in U.S. – Los Angeles Times – feed hate and fear is all he knows – he’d kick his grandparents out and send his wife’s family back to where they came from!

Source: Trump eyeing an executive order to end citizenship for unauthorized residents’ children born in U.S. – Los Angeles Times

Trump’s veiled anti-Semitism comes home to roost in Pittsburgh | +972 Magazine

Trump does not need to mention Soros’ Jewish identity at all; the implication of mentioning Soros in the first place is totally clear. That’s the beauty of dog-whistling — the president doesn’t have to talk about “the Jewish agenda” to make clear to his followers who or what he is referring to. And while Trump may actually only be talking about Soros — who holds significant political and economic power — his most radical followers make no distinction between Soros as a person and Soros as codeword for “Jews.” Robert Bowers may have despised HIAS and its support for refugees and immigrants, but his attack on a Jewish place of worship is proof that Trump’s brand of veiled anti-Semitism is no less dangerous than the kind one finds on the front page of the Daily Stormer. That is what precisely makes it so sinister: the president knows exactly what he is doing. He is well aware of what kind of violence his remarks can inspire and fuel, yet he continues to make them anyway.

Source: Trump’s veiled anti-Semitism comes home to roost in Pittsburgh | +972 Magazine

A Coup in Asia’s Oldest Democracy: A Statement by Sri Lankan Students – Groundviews

Security forces outside the Petroleum Ministry after a shooting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday. Photo Credit Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press 28th October 2018 We are a group of Sri Lankan stu…

Source: A Coup in Asia’s Oldest Democracy: A Statement by Sri Lankan Students – Groundviews