I'm pleased that other Dem candidates publicly stood up for "one of us" ~ that, in itself, sends a powerful message ~ ~ Sooz

Rivals defend Kamala Harris against online attacks they compare to 'birtherism'
Dennis Romero and Deepa Shivaram / 14 hrs ago

A number of hopefuls for the Democratic nomination for president found common ground Saturday as they defended rival Sen. Kamala Harris against online allegations that she is not an "American Black."

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who clashed with Harris at Thursday's Democratic debate in Miami after she criticized his position five decades ago against school busing, said the social media attacks against the senator from California were clear echoes of "birtherism."

"Birtherism," promoted by some Republicans, including Donald Trump before he assumed the presidency, was a movement that denied former President Barack Obama was a natural-born U.S. citizen, implying he was ineligible to be president.

"The same forces of hatred rooted in 'birtherism ' that questioned @BarackObama's American citizenship, and even his racial identity, are now being used against Senator @KamalaHarris," Biden tweeted. "It's disgusting and we have to call it out when we see it. Racism has no place in America."

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, also compared the online attacks, which claim Harris is not a black American because her father is Jamaican, to "birtherism," whose proponents claimed incorrectly that Obama was born in Kenya.

"The attack on @KamalaHarris is racist and we can't allow it to go unchecked," Ryan tweeted. "We have a responsibility to call out this birtherism and the continued spread of misinformation."

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, tweeted, "The attacks against @KamalaHarris are racist and ugly. We all have an obligation to speak out and say so. And it's within the power and obligation of tech companies to stop these vile lies dead in their tracks."

Other presidential hopefuls who came to Harris' defense included Bernie Sanders, who called Donald Trump Jr. a racist for retweeting a claim that Harris is not a black American; South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who called the attacks racist and "birther-style;" Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who said, "The Trump family is peddling birtherism again;" Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York; and former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas.

Harris' campaign also compared the allegations to "birtherism."

"This is the same type of racist attacks used to attack Barack Obama," campaign spokeswoman Lily Adams said. "It didn't work then and it won't work now."

The barrage of statements against Harris started during Thursday's debate, after she criticized Biden for opposing busing that integrated public schools.

Harris was widely seen as winning the second of the back-to-back Democratic debates in Miami.

She was born in Oakland, California, to an Indian mother and Jamaican father.

After the clash with Biden, a Twitter account under the name Ali Alexander posted, "Kamala Harris is implying she is descended from American Black Slaves. She's not. She comes from Jamaican Slave Owners. That's fine. She's not an American Black. Period."

Donald Trump Jr. retweeted the remark, but then deleted it.

Behavioral scientist Caroline Orr noted this week that a number of Twitter accounts seemed to be posting the same message in lockstep, a sign of a coordinated influence campaign.

"What a weird coincidence that a group of accounts, starting with Ali, decided to tweet the exact same thing (verbatim) about Kamala Harris within minutes of each other tonight," she tweeted.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rivals-defend-kamala-harris-against-online-attacks-they-compare-to-birtherism/ar-AADCHQc?li=BBnbfcL

Yet another downside to "social media" is how the cons manipulate it ~ ~ Sooz

Viral anti-Biden website that was supposedly run by nonpartisan linked to Republican consultant
An anti-Biden website that implied it was run by an ordinary citizen has been linked to a Republican consultant.
Matthew Rozsa / June 30, 2019 4:00PM (UTC)

A popular parody website that pretends to promote former Vice President Joe Biden's presidential campaign has been linked to a Republican political consultant — despite implying that it was not linked to partisan politics by claiming that "it is not paid for by any candidate, committee, organization, or PAC."

The creator of the website joebiden.info is Patrick Mauldin, who with his brother Ryan runs a Republican political consultancy firm called Vici Media Group, according to The New York Times. Mauldin said he paid for the website with his own money but does not deny creating it in order to damage Biden's presidential campaign. The Times reports Mauldin saying he created the website to help Democrats "face facts" and insisted that he created it anonymously because "people tend to dismiss things that they don’t like, especially if it comes from the opposite side."

The Times also identified how Mauldin, despite insisting that the website was his own idea, nevertheless represents a troubling development in terms of how President Donald Trump may run his upcoming campaign.


T. J. Ducklo, a spokesman for Biden's campaign, responded to the news about the website by telling the Times, "Imagine our surprise that a site full of obvious disinformation is the handiwork of an operative tied to the Trump campaign."

The website, which first started garnering public attention last month, opens by saying, "Uncle Joe is back and ready to take a hands-on approach to America’s problems! Joe Biden has a good feel for the American people and knows exactly what they really want deep down. He’s happy to open up and reveal himself to voters and will give a pounding to anybody who gets in his way!" It includes pictures of Biden touching women in ways that seem to make them uncomfortable and highlighting some of his past controversial stances on issues like school busing, abortion, the Iraq War and increasing prison sentences. It also includes Biden's infamous quote about President Barack Obama back when he was running for president during the 2008 election cycle, when he said that "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

Biden is apparently not the only 2020 presidential candidate to be a target of Mauldin's websites. He also has a site called "Millionaire Bernie" that mocks Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., "Kamala Harris for Arresting People," which focuses on the prosecutorial record of Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and "Elizabeth Warren for Chief," which ridicules Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for claiming to have Native American ancestry.

https://www.salon.com/2019/06/30/viral-anti-biden-website-that-was-supposedly-run-by-nonpartisan-linked-to-republican-consultant/

Get used to it. The next 17 months is going to be filled with this crap. Eventually a Swift Boat or Birther meme will emerge that will lead the crowd but there will still be room for lots of other garbage to clog up the internet and keep our groups busy.

One thing to remember is that right wingers are not particularly deep thinkers. If it sounds good or feeds into their prejudices that's good enough for them to believe it with all their hearts. That it makes absolutely no sense or is physically impossible doesn't sway them in the least.

Like our Conservatives, the Repubs have no coherent policies so they attack.

I agree with both jim and oskar ~ the libs are far from "perfect", but the cons have flagrantly swapped "we the people" for raging personal greed ~ and that raging greed allows them to lie and distort at will ~

While I see human nature playing a role, I'm thinking it kicked into high gear with the birth of Fox media ~

Sooz

Fox News, that's what I'm saying since a decade or even longer.