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All political ads running on Google in the US

adstransparency.google.com

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Re: All political ads running on Google in the US

#161

Post by JumpCrisscross »

imiric wrote: post #154
cedws wrote: post #67

Political advertising just makes democracy look like a total joke. If you can buy votes by shoving ads in peoples’ faces that’s not a democracy, that’s an oligarchy.

Political advertising is just the tip of the corruption iceberg. When lobbying and gerrymandering is legal, can you really claim you're living in a democracy?

> When lobbying and gerrymandering is legal

Have you ever given money to the EFF? They're lobbyists. Call your represenatative? That's lobbying. Lobbying, i.e. constituents talking to electeds, is fundamental to democracy.

Re: All political ads running on Google in the US

#162

Post by JumpCrisscross »

triceratops wrote: post #149
GeneralMayhem wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> same-sex marriage prop (which I believe is purely symbolic... Same-sex marriage is currently outlawed by the California constitution as a result of Prop 8 from 2008. That clause is void as a result of the Hollingsworth and Obergefell decisions, but there are multiple members of the Supreme Court who have explicitly said that they would like to overturn Obergefell, so it's a good idea to get ahead of the potential c…

Doesn't the Respect for Marriage Act [1] ensure they can't roll back same-sex marriage like they did abortion? 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respect_for_Marriage_Act

> Doesn't the Respect for Marriage Act [1] ensure they can't roll back same-sex marriage like they did abortion?

No. RMA lets states ban gay marriage. It just requires them to honour other states' gay marriages.

Re: All political ads running on Google in the US

#163

Post by pvaldes »

ggregoire wrote: post #53
fallingknife wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also media outlets are free to propagandize all day. You can't restrict that because we don't want to restrict freedom of the press. But then that begs the question, don't all companies and individuals have the same freedom of the press that media companies do?

This is the most shocking part from an outsider POV. In Europe* mainstream media must obviously be neutral about each candidate but also give the same amount of airing time to each candidate. So like if candidate 1 is invited for a 10 min interview, candidate 2 must be invited too and offered the same airing time. Meanwhile here Fox can just call Harris "stupid" (and CNN reciprocally call Trump whatever they want), l…

In Spain, public TV must show a list of parties with a minimum same time for even the tiniest craziest parties several times a day. After that, they are free to keep doing their thing.

But the biggest parties can buy more time by several subterfuges. In resume they can pay somehow for receiving a special treatment. Every politician has a market value and TV programs always compete for showing adds to the most eyeballs possible, so they will try to fill their programs with the more popular politicians 'for free'.

If I'm not wrong, private channels, funded without public money, can show people making pancakes all day it they want, but they will also try to maximize their advertising revenues.

Re: All political ads running on Google in the US

#164

Post by [deleted] »

lucianbr wrote: post #49
Dwedit wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When one campaign raises 3 times as much money as the other campaign, that tends to happen.

Interesting that money is considered to have a large influence on US elections, one side has a lot more money, and yet the race is incredibly close.

[deleted]

Re: All political ads running on Google in the US

#165

Post by NotBoolean »

If the spend figure is right the difference between the money spent in the USA and UK is larger than I expected.

Highest weekly spend in the UK is just under £1M (Dec 2019) while in the US it’s £50M (Oct 2024). That’s 10 times more spending with only 5 times the population.

Re: All political ads running on Google in the US

#166

Post by jodacola »

jodacola wrote: post #98
amadeuspagel wrote: post #90

Fascinating stuff. I went down a rabbit hole with this particlar ad: https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR132650406472... It links to a website called fultongrandjury.com, which I at first thought would be an official government website, and what initially made me curious was the idea of spending money to advertise a government website, getting this additional credibility. Like, if the facts are so strongl…

Small Town Truth says it's a registered 501(c)(3). I just found it by searching here: https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/ It leads to further rabbit holes I don't have the time to dig into now, but I might later, because now I'm very curious where it leads.

Meetings ended and I couldn't wait to get back!

So, searching via that Exempt Organization Search led to a 501(c)(3) letter being issued to Small Town Truth, mailed to a residential address in the care of the "Better Narrative Group" - another "interesting" site[0].

Doing a little more searching, I've found another 501(c)(3) in care of Better Narrative Group: Soul of a Nation Media. Similar setup. In trying to find more information to connect some dots, I found Soul of a Nation Media's taxes were filed by ChurchBiz[1], but this hasn't led to anything interesting.

Both Small Town Truth and Soul of a Nation Media changed addresses to a PO Box in Virginia in 2022.

Oh, and here are another two I just found related to Better Narrative Group: American Volunteer Corps[2], Better Neighbors Network[3].

To not assume malice, maybe it's a concerned citizen trying, in their own way, by establishing these organizations. Something feels off about the sites, though - not much content, a little dead behind the eyes, and I can't put my finger on the actual purpose of the sites. Odd.

[0] https://www.betternarrativegroup.org

[1] https://www.churchbiz.com

[2] https://www.americanvolunteercorps.org/

[3] https://www.betterneighborsnetwork.org/

edit: formatting

Re: All political ads running on Google in the US

#167

Post by FirmwareBurner »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #160
maxerickson wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What analogy are you proposing with the Chamberlain thing? Are you mad the US hasn't declared war on Russia and worried that it is going to have dire consequences for the US?

> Are you mad the US hasn't declared war on Russia and worried that it is going to have dire consequences for the US? We've absolutely been slow rolling aid to Ukraine because the Biden White House bought Putin's bullshit. If we'd provided the weapons we're providing Kyiv with now at the outseet they would have been able to capitalise on the Russian army's lack of preparedness to draw frontlines much more advantageou…

Have you thought to consider that the slowness in aiding Ukraine is a feature, not a bug?

Re: All political ads running on Google in the US

#168

Post by analog31 »

imiric wrote: post #154
cedws wrote: post #67

Political advertising just makes democracy look like a total joke. If you can buy votes by shoving ads in peoples’ faces that’s not a democracy, that’s an oligarchy.

Political advertising is just the tip of the corruption iceberg. When lobbying and gerrymandering is legal, can you really claim you're living in a democracy?

Gerrymandering isn't legal. The Constitution says that the states shall have a republican form of government. The founders intended this to mean an elective republic. If the government chooses its own electors, then it's not a republic by any wild stretch of the imagination.

Re: All political ads running on Google in the US

#169

Post by JumpCrisscross »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #167
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are you mad the US hasn't declared war on Russia and worried that it is going to have dire consequences for the US? We've absolutely been slow rolling aid to Ukraine because the Biden White House bought Putin's bullshit. If we'd provided the weapons we're providing Kyiv with now at the outseet they would have been able to capitalise on the Russian army's lack of preparedness to draw frontlines much more advantageou…

Have you thought to consider that the slowness in aiding Ukraine is a feature, not a bug?

> Have you thought to consider that the slowness in aiding Ukraine is a feature, not a bug?

Yes. Unless the goal is undermining American and NATO interests, it doesn't make sense. One could conclude from that corrupt motives. Hanlon's razor suggests a more parsimonious solution. (The same folks who were convinced Russia would be in Kyiv in weeks in '22, and then '23, and then '24 keep getting quoted as experts.)

Re: All political ads running on Google in the US

#170

Post by reaperducer »

leereeves wrote: post #156
tgv wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bezos simply told one of the leading newspapers what to do. Musk buys votes. Oligarchy is about to become reality, and it's powered by useful idiots.

Musk pays people to sign a petition, which is legal.

So legal that he stopped after being warned by the feds.
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