Russia's secret weapon: Facebook!

Holy smokes, Russia has infiltrated the United States in a diabolical, covert operation that makes Mission Impossible seem amateurish. They, are you ready for this, bought ads on Facebook. Yeah. But the theory is these ads contained subliminal messages that hypnotized voters into voting for Donald Trump. Not only that, they hypnotized voters into voting the same people back into Congress time and again, even though most Americans are totally dissatisfied with Congress. That is some ass-kickin' brainwashing right there.

Well, not exactly.

Facebook announced yesterday, September 21, that ads it sold to "Russian linked" accounts will be handed over to the Senate and House Intelligence Committees for review. It will take some time before any findings are released. First, these ads will have to be scrutinized to determine their connection with the US presidential election. Hopefully these committees will refer it to the appropriate federal law enforcement agencies, or one of these agencies will subpoena the ads if it becomes necessary.

Just how much did ads influence the election? Nobody knows. Since no one knows, it seems logical that Democrats should not overstate the significance of these ads and Republicans should not understate their significance. But when has politics been logical?

And why are people shocked? What did they think would happen to social media? Did they think it would magically remain free from manipulation by criminal, corporate, and political interests? What area of life has?

And why all the anger against Facebook for its lack of transparency? When people sign up they basically sign away their right to privacy so they can post countless pictures and selfies to prove to other people that they are happy, successful, and living the dream! Facebook is the ultimate exponential expression of self-absorption. People would donate organs to sign up.

And all this criticism toward Mark Zuckerburg? Hell, he's a success story, in my opinion. This kid ran with a semi-stolen idea because he had the vision to turn into into something others did not, and marketed it into billions. That's fucking brilliant. His statue should be the next to be erected on the National Mall in Washington - maybe him taking a selfie in front to the Lincoln memorial. Better yet, a statue of Lincoln taking a selfie in front of a statue of Mark Zuckerberg! I think most of the criticism of Mark Zuckerberg is because all the jocks, popular kids, and bullies from high school can't stand it to see a nerd become successful. 

But back to the ads.

First, it is no secret that, beginning in 1999 or 2000, elements of the Russian government have used web brigades to influence social media opinion within Russia, and that they eventually expanded internationally.

There is no concrete evidence that these adds significantly influenced the 2016 presidential election as of yet, though there is some evidence that attempts were made. Unfortunately, it seems the election of President Trump was a particularly American phenomenon, homegrown right here in the USA. That one is on us.

However, it is important that the US government and American people are informed about the extent of Russia’s attempts, regardless of which candidate they favored. President Trump likes to talk about US sovereignty, and attempts by a foreign power to influence US elections are a clear infringement upon US sovereignty. Let’s see if he handles it that way. Let’s see if Congress has the fortitude to handle it that way instead of making it a purely partisan political fight.

Meanwhile, if you want to sign a petition to put a statue of Mark Zuckerberg on the National Mall. . . .