Trump is a fake contrived by Mark Burnett. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/...d-donald-trump-as-an-icon-of-american-success
Let's take a look at Twitter right-wing disinformation peddler, "Black Insurrectionist. The 'Black Insurrectionist' was actually white. The deception did not stop there https://news.yahoo.com/news/black-insurrectionist-actually-white-deception-163241294.html WASHINGTON (AP) — “Black Insurrectionist,” the anonymous social media persona behind some of the most widely circulated conspiracy theories about the 2024 election, can be traced to a man from upstate New York. He's also white. With a profile photo of a Black soldier and the tagline “I FOLLOW BACK TRUE PATRIOTS,” the account on the platform X amassed more than 300,000 followers while posting dubious claims about Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Some were amplified by former President Donald Trump, his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, and their Republican allies in Congress. The most salacious claims have come in the closing weeks of the campaign. Last month, the account posted what Black Insurrectionist claimed was an affidavit from an ABC News employee, alleging Harris was given questions in advance of the network’s debate with Trump — which ABC News vigorously disputed. Trump approved, though, declaring, “I love the person.” More recently, Black Insurrectionist posted a baseless claim alleging inappropriate behavior between Walz and a student decades ago, a falsehood that U.S. intelligence officials said sprang from a Russian disinformation campaign. The reach that the Black Insurrectionist account attained with assistance from Trump and his allies demonstrates the ease with which unverified information from dubious sources can metastasize online to shape public opinion. The speed and scale of disinformation has been an animating force in the presidential campaign, with the potential to affect the outcome in a close election. The Black Insurrectionist account is linked directly to Jason G. Palmer, who has his own questionable backstory, starting with the fact that he isn't Black, according to an Associated Press review of public records, open source data and interviews with a half-dozen people who interacted closely with Palmer over the past two decades. The records and personal accounts offer a portrait of an individual who has repeatedly been accused of defrauding business partners and lenders, has struggled with drug addiction and whose home was raided by the FBI over a decade ago. He also owes more than $6.7 million in back taxes to the state of New York. “He's far from African American,” said Kathleen Albano, who said her deceased husband was involved in a failed business venture with Palmer. In emails and phone conversations, Palmer, 51, made a series of seemingly contradictory claims about his ties to the account, which was deactivated last week several hours after the AP first reached out to Palmer for comment. He acknowledged in an email that he was involved with the account, but said that he did not create it. He also claimed to have owned it at one point before selling it in April or May to a person who he declined to identify. “I do not know what is going on with this account,” Palmer wrote in an email last Thursday. But in an interview on Tuesday he said he participated in making claims about Walz that were posted to the account this month. And he suggested that he worked as a “researcher” with a broader group. “We did that with big people. National people,” Palmer said. “I have no comment on anything else regarding that.” He also said that the account was primarily operated by a friend of his who is Black. He repeatedly declined to identify who that was, or put the AP in touch with the person. A spokesperson for X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, did not respond to a request for comment. The AP traced the account to Palmer based on posts made by Black Insurrectionist that included biographical details about living in upstate New York, a screenname and an email address. Those details cross-referenced with information available online that the AP tracked down with assistance from Gisela Pérez de Acha, an open source reporting specialist for the Human Rights Center at University of California, Berkley. A video posted in March by Black Insurrectionist shows a computer screen displaying the docket of Trump's election case in the Georgia. His initials “JP” are visible in an icon on the web browser’s toolbar. And Palmer's email address can be seen in the corner of the screen, indicating that he used it to log into the state's online court system. The email address is linked to a phone number, according to opensource data provider Osint.Industries, that is listed for Palmer in New York court records. The same email is also linked to a Skype account with the username “jg palmrt,” according to the opensource data provider Epieos. Palmer’s middle initial is “G.” Palmer also used similar iterations of the email address in the past, according to court records. A separate Black Insurrectionist post on X from January 2024 complained about Microsoft Network's content moderation policies and included a screenshot revealing that an individual with the username “jg palmrt” had posted a comment on a news story that was censored by MSN. The suggestion that Palmer was involved with an account that spread falsehoods about the upcoming election was not a surprise to those who have had business and personal dealings with Palmer over the past two decades. “He owes me a ton of money,” said Albano, whose late husband had a business relationship with Palmer. “He has a way of roping people in. I always had his number. I knew exactly who he was. But unfortunately my husband got caught up in a lot of those dealings." Albano said Palmer purchased a Webster, New York, home from her and her husband but failed to make payments. She said Palmer talked her husband into a investment venture to recoup the money, which also ended poorly. "None of it materialized ever," Albano said. Unlike other Palmer business associates, Albano said the couple chose not to sue because "you can't get blood from a stone.” Palmer denied Albano's account. He said that Albano’s late husband was his accountant and that he paid off a mortgage on the home. He denied that they ever had extensive business dealings. In the mid-2000s, Palmer embarked on a real estate venture, buying up commercial properties in downtown Rochester. It ended with a string of lawsuits from creditors and former business partners, seeking tens of millions of dollars in unpaid loans and assets. Palmer blamed his troubles with the venture, in part, on an opioid addiction he had at the time. Some former business partners alleged Palmer tried to seize control of buildings using documents with their signatures forged, according to court records. In a 2020 case in Oneida County, New York, a forensic specialist conducted a detailed analysis of a document signing over an apartment complex to a company in which Palmer held a stake. The specialist concluded that “the evidence indicates that the signatures and the notary seal” were produced “by way of cut and paste or digital manipulation.” Palmer said that it was actually his former business partner, William Mendick, who had defrauded him. The case, which was brought by Palmer, was dismissed in 2022. Maureen Bass, a bankruptcy attorney in Rochester, said she wasn't shocked by Palmer's connection to an X account spreading conspiracy theories. Bass represented Wells Fargo in a commercial foreclosure case against Palmer and recalled that he once sent her old firm a lengthy email “manifesto” that accused local government officials of conspiring against him. “It was rambling. He had been a victim of the ‘Axis of Evil.’ Politicians had done things to him, and had taken his assets," Bass said. “So this doesn't surprise me."
More Russian disinformation being spread by the MAGA idiots and Russian propagandists. FBI: Russian actors made fake video showing destroyed mail-in ballots in PA U.S. officials said in a statement sent by the FBI that they believe the video was "manufactured and amplified" by Russian actors. https://abc7ny.com/post/election-20...llots-bucks-county-pennsylvania-fbi/15470894/
Russia is effectively at war with the U.S. and Europe --- and it is long overdue that we recognize this. It is time to call Putin out on it and tell him to stop his aggressive actions or he will be in a real shooting war with the western world. Sending explosive packages to intimidate the populations of countries is an act of war.
A pro-Trump influencer says a Russian agent paid him $100 to post a fake voter fraud video. It wasn’t the first time https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/04/...oting-video-russian-disinformation/index.html An American social media influencer said he was paid $100 by a pro-Kremlin propagandist to post a fake video of Haitian immigrants claiming to vote in the US presidential election. The payment was one of several the man said he received from the propagandist- a registered Russian agent - to post on social media in the run-up to the election. The pro-Trump influencer, who uses the @AlphaFox78 handle on X, is an American man living in Massachusetts, CNN has learned. He agreed to speak to CNN about the posts on condition of anonymity. The account, which has a history of posting right-wing memes in support of former President Donald Trump, was the first to post the now-debunked video that purportedly showed a Haitian immigrant claiming he would vote at least twice in Georgia for Vice President Kamala Harris. The Georgia Secretary of State said everything in that video was faked, from the actors to the ID cards, and was produced and disseminated by Russian influence actors. In phone and text interviews with CNN over multiple days, the person behind the account, which has amassed more than 650,000 followers on X, said he posted the video without fact-checking the claims made in it. “I don’t have any idea where it came from or anything - I’m just the guy who shared it,” he said. The man said Simeon Boikov, a Russian propagandist podcaster known online as “AussieCossack,” offered him $100 to post the video, which he agreed to. A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to CNN that multiple payments were sent from Boikov to the Massachusetts man. Documents reviewed by CNN show that Boikov is a registered foreign agent for Russia in Australia, where he works for Russian state media, writing and posting online in English and Russian. Boikov, who was recently given Russian citizenship and is seeking asylum in the Russian consulate in Sydney, has a history of posting pro-Kremlin disinformation. A previous CNN investigation found that Boikov has played a role in Russia’s disinformation campaigns, including ones targeting the 2024 US presidential election. But his exact role and where he sits inside the disinformation network’s hierarchy, remains elusive. The working relationship between AlphaFox and Boikov which has not been previously reported, reveals yet another means in which Russia has attempted to inject disinformation into the 2024 presidential election. US and European intelligence sources previously told CNN that Russia’s disinformation network produces staged propaganda videos that are later promoted by American social media influencers. Much as a legitimate business would rely on a popular influencer to boost its sales, Russian operatives are also targeting online figures to leverage their highly engaged followers, according to Darren Linvill, a disinformation expert and co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University. “There is a reason marketing companies and political campaigns both use social media influencers to promote their messages, they do it because it works,” Linvill told CNN. “The digital world has become the real world, and people trust social media influencers like they trust their real-world friends.” Boikov, and an associate based in Russia, did not respond to CNN requests for comment. AlphaFox said that Boikov explicitly told him not to speak to CNN and has since blocked him on the platform Telegram. The FBI did not comment on the payments. The Russian and Australian Foreign Ministries did not respond to CNN requests for comment. The price of disinformation: $100 a pop On their social media accounts, both Boikov and AlphaFox have repeatedly shared narratives that the US intelligence community has determined originated with a Russian disinformation network dubbed “Storm-1516.” AlphaFox said the staged Georgia video wasn’t the first time he was paid to post content on his X account. On roughly 10 other occasions, Boikov paid him $100 to post memes and videos on the account, he said. “It started with memes, and it seemed innocent,” he told CNN. When Boikov’s requests then shifted to posting election-related videos, like the fake Georgia voter fraud footage, “I didn’t think anything of it,” he said. He insisted to CNN he did not know Boikov worked for Russian state media. AlphaFox sent CNN cropped screenshots that he said showed him questioning Boikov about the authenticity of the video before he posted it. But Boikov purportedly responded that he had no reason to doubt the video’s authenticity and that “some big accounts have posted it.” “My guard was down because it’s just sharing memes,” AlphaFox said, repeatedly justifying his posts to CNN by saying he didn’t realize what he was getting himself into. After speaking with CNN, AlphaFox deleted the post, which at the time had generated more than 2.6 million views. He also admitted he was paid to post content that targeted Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, claiming that the couple had tipped off embattled musician Sean “Diddy” Combs ahead of Homeland Security raids. The US intelligence community has since determined that the claim originated as a Russian influence operation. Deleted video’s message lives on AlphaFox said he was remorseful for sharing Russian disinformation, and adamant that he was the one who was tricked. “People need to be more vigilant when they share things,” he told CNN. “I never wanted to misinform anyone.” AlphaFox believes himself to be just “the guy who shared” a disinformation video. But that role is key to Russia’s plan to disrupt the US election, according to Linvill, the disinformation expert. “Real people have become important vehicles of Russian disinformation. It’s not all about fake accounts anymore,” Linvill said. “Storm-1516 has been successful because it takes advantage of the trust users have in influencers they have followed for years.” While AlphaFox removed the fake Georgia video the following day, after it had been viewed more than half a million times on X, various forms of the video continue to be shared on social media platforms. As Americans cast their ballots in the presidential race, election officials like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have been forced to dedicate resources to knocking down disinformation like the video posted by AlphaFox. “As Americans, we can’t let our enemies use lies to divide us and undermine our faith in our institutions - or each other,” Raffensperger said in a statement calling the video “likely a production of Russian troll farms.” Despite the foreign influence efforts, AlphaFox continues to post on X, including about the 2024 election, and the posts continue to receive significant attention, some with millions of views.
Russian disinformation accelerates toward the election A new report tracks efforts to sow discord in the U.S. — even beyond Tuesday. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/04/a-new-window-into-russian-disinformation-ops-00187261
Russia is still at it -- trying to disrupt the U.S. election. Non-credible bomb threats against Atlanta-area polling places were from Russia, secretary of state says https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/05/us/georgia-non-credible-bomb-threat-russia/index.html