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Current Affairs published an in-depth editorial on recent revelations about a $1 million astroturfng campaign by Correct the Record:
Astroturfing makes me angry. It should make you angry. It should make you fucking well see red. It's marketing evolved into something incredibly scary, sophisticated, and evil. It's essentially thought warfare, or psychological warfare, which takes away much of what was supposed to make the internet a new and beautiful frontier of communication. Worse yet, if you actually identify and approach these operatives, they'll gaslight you and deny that they are such an operative. These are people who are paid to psychologically abuse you. Do you get this? It's an ugly and evil thing, and not only does it take away our ability to take information and fact at face value, but it takes away our ability to take opinions, feelings, and personal stances at face value as sincere and legitimate.
takyon: For some additional context, "Hillary-supporting super PAC invests $1 million to hit back at online Clinton critics":
Correct the Record, a super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton's bid to become US president, has promised to invest more than $1 million to respond to users criticizing its candidate on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and other social media services. The super PAC says its new "Barrier Breakers digital task force" will to respond "quickly and forcefully to negative attacks and false narratives found online," in addition to thanking major supporters and "committed superdelegates" directly.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday April 26 2016, @01:16PM
It's more accurate to characterize the Clinton Foundation as an influence laundering shop. Rich "Friends of Bill" give the operation a chunk of money, say $40 million. Bill creates an "Initiative" to use that money to "help" people somewhere, in some way. Maybe $10K of that $40 million goes to buy some kids in Haiti some backpacks. The rest goes to salaries for the friends and family of other Friends of Bill who need to pad out their resumes in some way, operating expenses for the rest of the "Foundation," and fees paid to consulting companies run by Friends of Bill.
The donor gets access to Bill Clinton's rolodex of Friends of Bill and PR value of co-founding a philanthropic venture with Bill Clinton. That latter part is particularly attractive if you're a heinous mofo from the 3rd world. That access, in turn, results in favorable legislation/trade deals, government contracts, etc.
No money actually goes directly through the Foundation to Bill or Hillary Clinton's pockets. They make their money from honoraria for speeches. Those $250K speeches Hillary gave to Goldman Sachs? That is the form that kickbacks take, but that's a direct transaction between the company and the Clintons.
By the way, the whole scheme is not of the Clinton's making. Their pal, Vernon Jordan came up with it.
Yes, she committed multiple felonies. She must go to jail. The email server episode demonstrates how inept she is when it comes to technology and law. Her decision to set it up in the first place was entirely political. She wanted to control the narrative of what was said about her stint as Secretary of State when it came time to run for President again. A private email server has a much different discovery process than a government server. I would not be surprised if she had incriminating messages on that server wherein she was peddling influence, or at least setting up the in-person meeting when she said the really good stuff.
The million dollar question is, will the FBI prosecute her? It is rather a litmus test for the Rule of Law in the United States at this point. Do they let a brazen felon into the Whitehouse? If they do, then We the People will have final confirmation of what we have long suspected, and increasingly know.
Washington DC delenda est.