The Brave New World of Targeted Campaign Ads

Let’s talk about this story on Sixty Minutes last night.  It seems President Trump had a secret campaign coordinator that flew below the media radar but in reality was the most important person.  It’s this guy who coordenates with Facebook to give targeted campaign ads against a very narrow constituency of the public at large.  The ads seemed almost tailored to each individuals hopes, fears, and prejudices.  Apparently Facebook learns information about the prospective target of the ads.  They will do (?) a hundred thousand different ads and all of them are a little different.  They may differ by signs and posters you see in the background, or even the color of the button you press to donate.  Stephanie Miller believes the Russians are behind the whole thing.  This guy they interviewed did not deny that Russians could be behind a lot of the ads but he personally didn’t collude with Russia.  It makes you wonder whether we really are in a “Brave New World”.  Now it isn’t just sound and vision but feelings.  The ads have to be touchy-feely to stroke the person just right.  Hillary was offered the same chance to work with Facebook in this micro-targeted manner, but she turned down this key opportunity.  Just think though that it’s liberal democrats giving far right Republicans the means to sabotage them! 

Wayne La Pierre has reversed his position on bump stocks that enable rapid fire of assault weapons.  Now he says congress shouldn’t do anything about it.  He accuses Dianne Feinstein of that old “slippery slope”.  He accused her of wanting to ban all firearms and this bump stock thing is just a foot in the door so she can get all the rest of it passed.  His thinking is highly illogical.  If congress won’t respond to this ONE issue, how on earth is congress magically going to haul off and pass an ultra liberal democratic agenda of a firearms ban?  I think this would now make an excellent issue for democratic congressmen to run on next year because ordinary heartland Americans were killed in this Las Vegas rampage. 

Over the weekend Mike Pence was at a fun raising activity in Las Vegas.  Then he flew an executive jet to Indianapolis to watched the ‘49ers and Colts play a game.  But when several of the ‘49ers took a knee, VP Pence left in outrage.  He refused to watch any more of the game before it had even started.  That’s pretty stupid.  All of these people are stupid.  President Trump told him to walk out of the game if any player took a knee.  Shawn Hannity talked about this on his show today.  He says the NFL will go out of business all because a few players take a knee.  This is absurd hysterics.  Shawn will make an issue out of anything.  He said that a vastly greater number of cops get shot as opposed to the ones who shoot criminals.  This is an out and out lie.  It was now ten to three and I made my way over to the Norman Goldman program.  I had to allow plenty of time for the computer to warm up, and I had WCPT up before three.  Norman says that if the Trump administration is allowed to “tell the protestors what they are really protesting about” then he’s allowed to label these far right republicans as not Christian.  The two are utterly non related.  People aren’t protesting the flag or patriotism.  They’re protesting violence against Black people.  Perhaps it’s not the best venue to do this.

This is Monday October 9, 2017.   I got cigarettes in the morning about a quarter to ten.  I had Thom Hartman on.  I went for morning snacks and got a red punch and a graham cracker.  Then I turned on “The Price is Right” of my own volition.  We had a hot ham sandwich on a crescent with potato chips and coleslaw.  I got another half sandwich and more coleslaw from Rene.  We had strawberry ice cream for dessert.   I noticed it looked a little yellow outside and I didn’t know if it was my eyes or not.  It turns out there is a fire in the Anaheim and Orange hills.  The smoke spread from just the southeast portion of the sky and then about half the sky and then most of the sky with just the northern horizon in blue.  Finally the entire sky was smokey.  Ten houses at least have been destroyed by the fire.  Some have tile roofs, which turn out not to be that safe because they’re heavy and collapse the house.  Windows break out from radiant heat and then the drapes and all the interior catches fire and so the fires burn from the inside out.  They have a lot of horses and green spaces in this area.  I had Gary and Shannon on for a while.  Then I turned on CBS and then NBC TV and had coverage from before one to about two o clock.