I strenuously object to the end of fact-checking for Facebook and Instagram because I’m afraid it will lead to an even greater spread of mis/disinformation.
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays and/or Just Jot It January! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/01/08/one-liner-wednesday-jusjojan25-the-8th-stop-following-me/
Aftermath – part 1
(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)
My apologies for the long gap from United States Election Day and this post. We’ve been having a lot happening on the health front here and my limited brainpower had to tend to that over blogging. This post will concentrate on the aftermath of the election itself, not dealing with things like Trump’s staffing decisions and policy pronouncements for his impending administration.
If you have been reading this series, you know that I am upset and worried that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz lost the election. I am, however, grateful that my district (New York 19) elected Democrat Josh Riley over incumbent Republican Marc Molinaro and kept in place State Senator Lea Webb and Assemblymember Donna Lupardo, both of whom were instrumental in the passage of the ban on carbon dioxide fracking in our state.
While I am very worried about the impact that Trump and MAGA Republicans will have on the country, I was encouraged by the reaction from organizations with which I am involved, commentators and experts that I read, and from Vice President Harris herself that we would all continue to work to protect democracy, people, and the planet, especially those who are most vulnerable. Because I have a long history working on environmental/climate and social justice issues, I was comforted to receive so many supportive messages from trusted people and organizations. Many are already making plans within their expertise to protect our civil rights, enforce environmental laws, expose corruption, etc.
I have been somewhat puzzled by those who are saying that the Democrats failed in their message and policy ideas. They tend to say that the Democrats should have talked about fighting inflation, increasing affordable housing, health care, labor issues, and affordability in general, but the thing is, they were talking about those things – over and over for months. Somehow, though, these people missed it.
I think the biggest reason for Trump’s victory, narrow as it was in that more people voted against him than for him, is that there was a massive amount of mis- and disinformation in the campaign. Much of it came directly from the Trump campaign itself but there was also a lot coming from our Republican campaigns, PACs and superPACs, and from foreign entities, including Russia, China, and Iran. For example, Russia put out a fake video purporting to show non-citizens voting in the state of Georgia in the days before the election. There was also a flood of mis/disinformation coming through Elon Musk’s X, as well as other online platforms. Besides Musk, other billionaires and rich heads of companies spent heavily on behalf of Trump and Republicans.
Because our NY-19 House of Representatives district was so hotly contested, we saw this sort of misleading information effort in action. We got mail every day for weeks with lies about crime statistics, immigration, economics, reproductive rights, and more, trying to get votes for the Republican incumbent. Everything was designed to invoke fear and grievance.
Enough people in our district saw through these tactics to elect the Democratic challenger, who was also able to tout his hometown roots, but, nationally, the disinformation held enough sway that Harris lost. There also appeared to be a lot of voters, especially non-college-educated, young, male, lower-income ones, who voted for Trump without having much information at all. One of the most popular Internet searches on election day was about if Joe Biden was running, which seems incredible to those of us who follows news consistently, but apparently there were a lot of people heading to the polls without even knowing who the main party candidates were. There have also been reports of many Trump voters being surprised to find out that he actually intends to follow through on his rhetoric regarding tariffs, deportation, cutting government services, etc.
I can understand how some of the Trump voters fell for the lies and felt they needed a strongman to protect them from these perceived, if not actually real, threats. Unfortunately, fearmongering and grievance can work. I am disturbed, however, by those who voted for Trump because the racism, sexism, and/or Christian nationalism appealed to them. There was so much hateful rhetoric during the campaign and there have been increased threats and harassment against women, people of color, non-Christians, and members of the LGBTQ+ community both during the campaign and since the election. Some of this has impacted people that I know personally while others have been large-scale, such as threatening texts and emails sent with racist or homophobic messages.
I am grateful that the Biden-Harris administation is dedicated to the peaceful transfer of power and we don’t have to worry about violence in the streets or in Washington from Harris’s supporters as we saw from Trump’s after his loss in 2020, especially on January 6, 2021.
I’m afraid that Trump will pardon all the people who committed crimes in connection with Jan. 6th, which he has re-cast as a “day of love,” even though we all saw the violence and destruction in the Capitol that day.
Don’t fall for Trump’s lies.
Find knowledgeable, factual sources and stand up for truth.
Millions of others will be standing with you.
I’ve written a number of posts over the years decrying the malign behavior of Russia. They have interfered in elections in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and other countries, poisoned and killed Russian dissidents at home and abroad, jailed people on trumped up charges, invaded and taken land from Ukraine, used fossil fuels as a weapon, corruptly concentrated wealth in the hands of a few oligarchs while their population as a whole suffers, hacked into computer systems, and spread disinformation and dissension across the globe.
The US has placed sanctions against Russia in the past. There have also been charges filed against Russian operatives, including over a dozen resulting from the Mueller investigation. Russian personnel have been expelled.
The former administration was not very robust in carrying out sanctions against Russia that had passed through Congress, but the Biden administration did take action in the past week, sanctioning Russian individuals and companies, prohibiting US banks from trading in Russian bonds, expelling personnel, and strengthening cybersecurity. It’s also possible that other measures were taken that are not being announced publicly. This sometimes happen, especially in cyberspace.
Interestingly, the administration acknowledged something that had been suspected but never so clearly stated by the government. A Treasury Department statement on the sanctions states:
Konstantin Kilimnik (Kilimnik) is a Russian and Ukrainian political consultant and known Russian Intelligence Services agent implementing influence operations on their behalf. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, Kilimnik provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy. Additionally, Kilimnik sought to promote the narrative that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Kilimnik was an associate of Paul Manafort, who was one of Donald Trump’s campaign managers in 2016. He gave internal campaign polling data to Kilimnik. This is the first time that there has been official acknowledgement from the government that that information was given to the Russian Intelligence Services. It’s already known that the Russians targeted certain groups and localities in their 2016 election interference operations. This data would increased their effectiveness, especially in an election where Trump lost the popular vote by a significant margin but won the electoral college by winning in a few key districts in three states.
This is what most people would call “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Although I wish Russia and Kilimnick had been held to account more vigorously and much sooner, I’m grateful that more is now being done. I also hope that the American people will be more attentive to the veracity of what they see on social media and even what they hear from some politicians who have spouted some of the lies that Russia planted.
The Russians want to divide the people of the United States. We must not let them do that. President Biden is trying to help all Americans to come together after the upheaval of the pandemic, its economic impacts, centuries-old racial/ethnic/religious divides, and environmental degradation. He is the duly elected president. There was not widespread fraud in the election. COVID-19 is a serious public health threat that has killed over half a million Americans, but we can fight it with masks, distancing, vaccines, therapeutics, and other public health measures. Climate change is real and needs to be addressed quickly and decisively to contain the worst impacts.
Don’t let Russia tell you otherwise.
Joanne Corey 