How Russian Trolls Tried to Influence Ohioans using Twitter

From the Columbus Dispatch. I will cross post in General Discussion.

This is disgusting and infuriating. Wait till you read these headlines. And this complete BS was believed by many!

******

Ohio is roughly tied with fellow swing-state Florida for fourth place in the number of mentions by Twitter handles associated with Russia’s Internet Research Agency.

Although Twitter deleted those accounts, a full array of those tweets is now visible to the public for the first time.

The nonprofit news statistics site FiveThirtyEight obtained 2,973,371 tweets from 2,848 Twitter handles associated with Russia’s Internet Research Agency from June 19, 2015, to Dec. 31, 2017. The data were dug up by Clemson University Professors Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren. Using advanced social-media tracking software, the professors extracted the tweets from thousands of accounts that Twitter connected to the Russian troll factory in St. Petersburg. (“Troll” accounts are operated by humans, as opposed to “bots” accounts run by computer.)

FiveThirtyEight downloaded them to a GitHub site, from which The Dispatch downloaded the 6,669 tweets containing “Ohio” to see how the Russian government attempted to influence the state, which is typically a presidential bellwether.

Ohio is roughly tied with fellow swing-state Florida for fourth place in the number of mentions.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that Ohio is No. 4,” Linvill said. “If anything, I would have guessed you would be a little higher.”

More:

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180811/heres-how-russian-trolls-tried-to-influence-ohioans-using-twitter

And one more

(just for Glamrock)

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Everyday People

Who's That Lady

It's Your Thing

To All DUers

If I could sit out on the patio tonight on a warm summer evening with a nice cool drink and thank you all for saving my sanity this year .....

This is what I would play for us to listen to.

Happy Birthday, Edge

I heard this on the radio this morning

There is a talk show on local AM morning radio here that really brings out the hateful Trumpsters. I never listen to it, but....

I was in my car and searching for something else and by mistake came upon this fouling of the airwaves. They were talking about LeBron James. This guy on the phone -- I couldn't believe my ears -- was saying how LeBron's new school in Akron was the most terrible thing for our country .... because .... kids that get chosen to go there will get everything for free ..... breakfasts and lunch, books, computers, backpacks, school supplies, food pantry for the family, a bike, etc. etc. And all that does is teach them that everything in life should be free and that you don't need to work for anything because there's always some way to get it for free. And that makes them grow up into entitled adults!

I am so appalled that anyone could put this kind of spin on LeBron's school. I don't even know if I'd have been able to call in the show and rebut this fool, I was so angry and rattled.

How bad are the Mets?

NEW YORK (AP) — NEW York Mets fans struggling with their team's lousy season now have somewhere to cope besides sports talk radio.

An online mental health marketplace is giving free, confidential therapy sessions to Flushing faithful who fill out a form asking for their most difficult moments as fans.

New York-based UMA Health made the offer this week after Tuesday's 25-4 loss to the Washington Nationals, the worst loss in Mets history.

UMA says the lighthearted promotion is meant to bring attention to the important role of therapy. The company says it wants to eliminate the stigma of going to a therapist.

https://www.usnews.com/news/offbeat/articles/2018-08-04/amazin-frets-free-therapy-for-new-york-mets-fans