NEGATIVE AD 3

3 22

sometimes used effectively and for good eg bulwark lincoln pjt

SEE DARK MONEY

SEE AI SLOP 2

see hype fear coming for your kids

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SEE AAN AAF ~ RUG/BBB

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HUFFPO 5 26 MAGA Attack Ad Uses AI To Show Thomas Massie 'Cheating With The Squad' | HuffPost Latest News

A new campaign advertisement uses video generated by artificial intelligence to depict Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in a romantic liaison with progressive Democratic women in the so-called Squad.

In the ad, made by a group aligned with President Donald Trump, a narrator accuses Massie of going against the president on key votes in Congress — while showing Massie going on a dinner date and then holding hands in a hotel lobby with Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

“Thomas Massie, caught in a throuple in Washington,” the ad’s narrator says. “He’s cheating with The Squad on the America First movement.”

It’s actually “worse than adultery,” the narrator says. “It’s a complete and total betrayal of president Trump and Kentucky conservatives.”

Massie is facing a Trump-backed challenger named Ed Gallrein in a Republican primary election this month. Limited polling suggests Massie holds a slim lead despite an onslaught of spending by Trump-aligned groups.

Omar called the ad despicable and said it should be taken down.

“Campaign attack ads are generally misleading, but AI-generated ads like this cross a line and should never have been allowed in the first place,” Omar said in a statement to HuffPost. “This ad must be taken down immediately.”

A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a social media response, Massie called the ad disgusting and defamatory. “It reeks of desperation, but they’re hoping the older generation won’t realize it’s an AI generated lie,” Massie wrote.

The libertarian-leaning Republican has voted against several pieces of legislation that have been top Trump priorities, including a massive tax cut bill last year, because of his longstanding opposition to federal budget deficits. Democrats and members of The Squad have voted against the bills for different reasons. Massie also went against Trump by pushing for the release of the government’s files on sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said the ad violates a law Congress passed last year intended to criminalize nonconsensual porn. The Take It Down Act outlawed the publication of intimate visual depictions or “digital forgeries” of identifiable people in an effort to cause them reputational harm.

“Thomas Massie NEVER dined, held hands with, or intimately engaged with AOC and Ilhan Omar,” Greene wrote on X. “Thomas Massie has voted with Trump 91% of the time EXCEPT when he’s pushing war, protecting Epstein pedophiles, violating your freedoms with warrantless spying FISA 702, or overspending your money into further ruinous debt!!!

Gallrein’s campaign and its allies have repeatedly suggested Massie is more at home with The Squad — the younger, highly visible progressive Democrats who happen to be women and minorities — than with his fellow Republicans.

Massie told HuffPost in an interview last month his closest friends in Congress are members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus. He scoffed at the idea he’s actually intimate with Ocasio-Cortez and Omar.

“I don’t make enemies with anybody, because on any given day, you’re going to need their votes,” Massie said. “We don’t go out to dinner or have secret handshakes or anything like that.”

===:

gotv outsrc to musk?

his superpac? rAN NEG ADS PRO HAMAS and PRO ISRAEL TO DIFF GPS

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morn joe tons of ads football kamala sex surgery prisoners

taxpayer prison sex change density of trigger terms

===

mma

October 24, 2024 edition of Fox News's The Five

JESSICA TARLOV, HOST: So Trump's message, which has admittedly been buried, I guess, over the last few days — he did give that speech yesterday at the Turning Point conference — but he has been talking about this "enemy within" stuff, he has talked about "women love me except for abortion" which is obvious the major issue in the election. Defending tariffs, talking about deporting illegals, and also that Kamala is terrible, and that will be the centerpiece of it.

But there was data I saw today that I found really interesting: the number one topic that Republicans are spending money on ads is about trans issues. So number five was the economy; number one, all of this anti-trans stuff, where they're saying Kamala is going to give sex changes to undocumented people in prison. That doesn't seem like the strongest message to end on, on a national campaign.

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an 12 23

the imagery is dark. The words are defiant. The message is dystopian. An ad for Republican Governor Ron DeSantis‘s presidential campaign, currently “in turmoil,” features the First Lady of Florida, Casey DeSantis, issuing a warning: “They’re coming after our children.”

The ad never quite says who is coming after the kids, but the video (below) includes clips of President Joe Biden and former Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of the war on COVID and the now-retired Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

While it was first released over the summer, it received little attention. Casey DeSantis on Friday reposted her “Mamas for DeSantis” ad. It comes in the wake of the alleged ménage à trois sex scandal involving an unnamed woman who has accused Christian Ziegler, the head of the Florida Republican Party of rape. His wife, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, who reportedly confirmed the consensual three-way sexual relationship, is Casey DeSantis’ “best friend,” according to Florida Politics publisher Peter Schorsch.

“In America, we’ve witnessed a lot and put up with enough,” Casey DeSantis says in a voiceover at the start of the two-and-a-half minute video.

“We’ve been forced into silence,” she charges, amid a baby crying and a COVID mask being put over a child’s face. “Into compliance.”

“Told that we must ‘trust the science,'” DeSantis continues, in a direct attack on Dr. Fauci, showing him speaking during the height of COVID in the Trump administration.

And in an attack on LGBTQ children and adults, she says: “We’ve been told that we must deny truth. Back down. And look the other way.”

“Enough is enough. When you come after our kids, we fight back. Because there’s nothing we won’t do to protect our children,” she says.

Seconds later, the video shows President Joe Biden declaring, “Our nation’s children are all our children.”

“We will not allow you to exploit their innocence to advance your agenda. We are no longer silent,” Casey DeSantis declares. “We are united. We have finally found our fighter.”

Casey DeSantis praises her husband, saying he will do for America what he did for Florida: “Schools: opened. Parents’ rights: defended. School choice: universal. Critical race theory: prohibited. DEI: stopped. Child mutilation: illegal. Girls’ sports: saved. Communities: protected. Our economy: growing. VIA INFLATION? And freedom: guaranteed.”

In the section where President Biden says, “Our nation’s children are all our children,” Casey DeSantis doesn’t explain that those words came from a White House celebration honoring Teachers of The Year from across the country. The President was praising an Oklahoma Teacher of the Year whose district includes students who speak 62 different languages, so she had to work hard to ensure everyone felt included. She had said, “There’s no such thing as someone else’s child.”

Nor did DeSantis acknowledge that Governor DeSantis’ performance for children has been poor.

The Florida Policy Institute, which says it is “an independent, non-partisan, and non-profit organization,” in September warned “368,728 youth aged 20 and younger” have been cut from Medicaid. “Because Florida has not expanded Medicaid, the vast majority of those losing insurance during this time have been children, parents, young adults, and new mothers.”

Florida ranks 35th in child well-being (with 1 being the best), according WUSF, citing the Kids Count Databook from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Some critics on social media blasted Casey DeSantis’ remarks.

“Republicans refused to extend child tax credits that pulled 2 million children out of poverty. They resist the idea of free school lunches. Yet they come up with bullshit about their opponents ‘coming after our children.’ Yes, we’re coming after them, to give them a sandwich,” wrote former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob.

Watch the Casey DeSantis video below or at this link.

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7 23 no lnx // desantis homophobe wingnuttery

no lnx

'If I was the deep state': Pro-Trump activists release disturbing campaign ad

Brandon GageJuly 25, 2023

Conservative pollster Frank Luntzon Tuesday shared a disturbing digital campaign spot to Twitter's rebranded X that alleges a vast conspiracy orchestrated by "the deep state" to hoodwink the American people. The one-hundred-ten-second video — which concludes by crediting the "Dilley Meme Team" and former President Donald Trump's "online war machine" — contains sinister male-voiced narration declaring that most significant events and major domestic issues in recent memory were lies.

"This is the most alarming political ad I've seen this year," wrote Luntz, who urged users to post their reactions.

The project's ten proclamations are virtually indistinguishable from indicted criminal defendant Trump's grievance-saturated attempt to return to the White House:

If I was the deep state and I wanted todestroy America, I would rig the election with a puppet candidate, one that was so compromised that they would never say a word about it. I would create a false flag that allows for mail-in ballots. I would be in charge of the ballot-counting machines.I would create a false flag to blame all who question the results of the election.

If I was the deep state,I would prosecute anyone that went against me. I would sue and prosecute anyone that spoke up about the fraudulent election. I would use my powers to shut down all your internet businesses and bankrupt you.

If I was the deep state, I would make everyone an example why you should never question a Democrat ever winning an election. I would imprison my foes. I would use my corrupt das and blackmail judgesto destroy you. I would make sure all crimes I ever committed never happened. I would prosecute my biggest competition. I would make sure they could never run for office ever again.

If I was the deep state, I would convince everyone that Ukraine Nazis were good and women are men.

If I was the deep state, I would own every politician that mattered.

If I was the deep state, I wouldpush my pedophilia ambitions on you.

If I was the deep state, you'd question your sexual identity, but not the medical establishment.

If I was the deep state, you would fear to ever resist me.

If I was the deep state, you would wish I was really the devil.

If I was the deep state, I would say mission accomplished.

READ MORE: Robert Reich: A Trump loss in 2024 will show that Americans 'reject fascism' and cherish 'the rule of law'

Watch below or at this link.

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unprecedented to attack non-elected?!

she is opus dei?!

rww 8 22 leo got 1.6b$ last year

[pix JCN President Carrie Severinocriticized the Supreme Court nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson in a March 2022 Fox News appearance.

Just days after FBI agents carried out a search warrant for secret documents wrongly being held at former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, a right-wing dark-money group that helped secure a far-right majority on the Supreme Court launched a $1 million digital and cable ad campaign attacking Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The Judicial Crisis Network has been at the core of the massive and secretly funded dark-money campaign by right-wing funders and groups like the Federalist Society to secure ideological domination of the Supreme Court and federal judiciary. The group backed former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s abuse of power to prevent the Senate from considering former President Barack Obama’s nomination of Garland to the Supreme Court, and then spent tens of millions promoting confirmation of Trump’s nominees. More recently, JCN led attacks on the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and dishonest smears against several of President Joe Biden’s Justice Department nominees.

The new JCN ad seeks to undermine Garland’s credibility, accusing him of “cowering to the woke mob.” A press release announcing the ad buy claimed that Garland has “consistently bowed to the radical left’s agenda.” In a statement, the group’s president Carrie Severino repeated a false right-wing talking point accusing Garland of “calling concerned parents ‘domestic terrorists.’”

The ad also claims that Garland has betrayed his former judicial colleague Brett Kavanaugh by not stopping activists from protesting outside the Supreme Court justice’s home. As CNN noted, the rarely enforced law that JCN and right-wing politicians are demanding Garland use against protesters could also be interpreted to forbid the kind of protests at the Supreme Court that anti-abortion groups mobilized for years. The JCN ad notably does not mention that Garland supported recent legislation to beef up security for Supreme Court justices and their families.

Right-wing media outlets have given JCN’s campaign a boost, with Fox News reporting JCN’s assertion that the Garland ad is part of a broader $10 million campaign attacking Democrats over the court that will include “paid advertising, earned media, research, grassroots activity, and a coalition enterprise.”

Tags: Carrie Severino Donald Trump Donald Trump Supreme Court Judicial Crisis Network

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aha manchin started when he shot a small hole in EPA? bill 10-12 years ago? -->crenshaw action hero, greitens rino hunt assault team/weapons

note: a la gingrich memo every gop soundbite starts with attack on linked/locked duo dems and lamestream media

A former pilot for the U.S. Navy has publicly criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for his new campaign advertisement inspired by the 1986 classic film, "Top Gun."

According to HuffPost, the campaign ad featured the Republican governor who "donned aviator shades and a bomber jacket and plopped into what appeared to be the pilot’s seat of a fighter jet as he talked about taking on the 'corporate media.'”

At one point during the ad, he described himself as the"Top Gov." in the ad, and Ken Harbaugh is not pleased. “It’s not just cringy,” said Ken Harbaugh. “It’s literally Navy pilot cosplay.”

Harbaugh, a former member of the U.S. Navy who now hosts the “Burn the Boats” podcast, was featured in a new clip posted to social media by MediasTouch.

In the clip, he displayed his jacket with authentic pilot wings as he offered a comparison of both their roles in the maritime service branch. “Now, unlike Ron DeSantis, I didn’t pick this jacket up at Party City,” Harbaugh said. “These are actual pilot wings.”

He also noted that while DeSantis did serve in the U.S. Navy, he did so as an attorney. While Harbaugh also acknowledged that there is "nothing wrong with that," he did criticize the governor for appearing to embellish his role.

“Nothing wrong with that,” Harbaugh said of DeSantis' work in the Navy. “Until you start strutting around the flight line wearing aviator shades and pretending to be a badass.”

Harbaugh went on to offer a critical assessment of the political ad and the persona DeSantis attempted to portray.

“This tough guy act is pathetic, especially from someone like Ron DeSantis. This campaign ad from Ron DeSantis is just one more example of a Republican politician appropriating the honor of others because he has none.”

To view Harbaugh's full reaction, watch below or at this link.

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hayes https://www.msnbc.com/all

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/analysis-viral-rino-hunting-ad-goes-too-far

corruption [fbk removed twt block sharing]

https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/hayes-for-the-far-right-violence-and-the-threat-of-it-are-the-point-142483525874

online ad rino hunt no bag limit

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/missouri-newspaper-slams-eric-greitens-for-vile-deeply-appalling-ad-promoting-violence-against-fellow-republicans/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/gop-senate-candidate-releases-rino-hunting-ad-aimed-fellow-republicans-rcna34388

nbc

ric Greitens, theembattled former Missouri governor-turned-GOP Senate candidate, released a campaign ad Monday in which he and a group of armed men in tactical gear are on the hunt for "RINOs" — Republicans in name only.

"We're going RINO hunting," a shotgun-toting Greitens, with a handgun holstered at his side, says before he bursts into a house with the men in tactical gear, one of whom throws what appears to be a flash-bang grenade.

"Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn’t expire until we save our country,” he says at the end of the video, which encourages donors to pay $25 for a "RINO hunting" sticker.

Earlier in the video, Greitens, who resigned as governor in 2018 amid a sexual misconduct scandal and a campaign finance felony charge that was later dropped, says, "The RINO feeds on corruption and is marked by the stripes of cowardice."

The video was posted on Greitens' YouTube page, and he tweeted out a link to the ad. Hours after the tweet, Twitter put it behind a warning that said it "violated the Twitter Rules of abusive behavior" but that the site had "determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."

A spokesperson for Facebook owner Meta said, “We removed this video for violating our policies prohibiting violence and incitement.”

David Lapan, a retired Marine colonel and former Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security spokesman,tweetedthat Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, "has dishonored himself, his oath, and the Navy.”

“This clear call for violence against his political opponents, using military images, is depraved & dangerous," he said.

"He is unfit for elected office & should be held accountable," Lapan said.

The Missouri Democratic Party tweeted that the ad was "Disgusting. But not surprising." It said it was another example of "violence, irresponsibility and reckless behavior from Greitens."

Greitens' campaign manager Dylan Johnson responded to the backlash by saying, "The response from America First voters to our groundbreaking ad has been overwhelming and supportive. Those who have an issue with the video and the metaphor are either lying or dumb. We believe Big Tech and its oligarchs are both."

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/31/republicans-guns-ads-posts/

no lnx

Guns are all over GOP ads and social media, prompting some criticism

The images have in recent years become more prevalent, and intentionally provocative, in Republican advertising, holiday greetings and other forms of communication with the public

Image without a caption

By Colby Itkowitz

May 31, 2022

audio: Mehmet Oz, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, posted a campaign ad addressing his support for the Second Amendment on April 29. (DoctorOz/Youtube)

Former hedge fund CEO David McCormick first shoots the hunting rifle he says he used as a teenager. Pow. Next, he cocks the rifle he says he used at the U.S. Military Academy and fires. Pow. Then he points a semiautomatic assault rifle like one he says he used in Iraq at a faraway target. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow.

Former television personality and surgeon Mehmet Oz loads a shotgun and shoots. “When people say I don’t support guns? They’re dead wrong,” Oz says. The camera then zooms in on Oz locking a magazine onto an AR-15 style rifle.

McCormick and Oz, the finalists in a high-stakes Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania that has gone to a recount, have spent months trying to showcase their conservative bona fides to GOP base voters and head off skepticism of their elite backgrounds on Wall Street and in Hollywood, respectively. Part of that strategy involved commercials showing them shooting guns.

On April 29 Republican Pennsylvania senate candidate Mehmet Oz posted a campaign ad addressing his support for the 2nd Amendment. (Video: DoctorOz | YouTube)

Although candidates in both parties have long used guns as a campaign prop, the images have in recent years become more prevalent, and intentionally provocative, in Republican advertising, holidays greetings and other forms of communication with the public. Such placements convey a cultural and political solidarity with conservatives more powerfully than most anything else, according to Republican strategists and aides.

“It is a very visual example. It’s an illustration of where both sides are in that the more the right feels they are going to lose their Second Amendment rights, the further they’re going to go to defend them,” said Terry Sullivan, a veteran Republican strategist.

But as the nation reckons with a pair of deadly mass shootings at a Buffalo grocery store and a Texas elementary school, some are warning that these photos and videos are harmful and glorify the use and ownership of firearms designed to kill.

“These ads create a dangerous impression that firearms, and assault-style firearms specifically, are casual tools rather than dangerous weapons,” said Kris Brown, the president of Brady, a gun violence prevention organization. “To use them to grandstand and to provocate is dangerous.”

Some Republicans rejected that position, arguing they are promoting safe and legal gun use.

Last Christmas season, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) posted a holiday photo on social media showing him and his family posed in front of a Christmas tree, all clutching military-style firearms.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who has built her political brand in large measure around her devotion to guns, responded to Massie’s tweet with a photo of her and her sons holding similar assault rifles with a message to her colleague: “The Boeberts have your six” — military jargon for having someone’s back.

While most representatives of the elected officials and candidates cited in this report did not immediately respond to a request for comment, John Kennedy, communications director for Massie, defended his boss’s decision to promote his photograph and said it did not send a dangerous message.

“Rep. Massie’s photo was so popular with his Kentucky constituents that the most commonly heard complaint we received was that this photo was not released as the actual Christmas card,” Kennedy said.

Over the past several election cycles, Democrats running in rural, conservative-leaning states have also featured guns in their ads. In 2010, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) famously shot a gun at a Democratic environmental and energy proposal bill in a campaign ad, and eight years later, he released another one shooting at a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act.

Democrats in recent years have outpaced Republican spending on gun-related ads, a signal of the party’s increasing inclination to campaign for stricter gun laws. But so far this year, Republicans have aired dozens more ads about guns than Democrats, according to data analyzed by AdImpact. The media-tracking firm identified 121 Republican ads dealing with guns and just 18 Democratic ones that are gun-related.

Sullivan said Republicans who highlight gun imagery in primaries where the competition for GOP base voters is intense might pay a political price in the general election. Others took a similar view.

“It seems to be a rite of passage now for Republicans in primaries to prove how tough they are protecting the Second Amendment,” said Neil Oxman, a Democratic communications strategist in Pennsylvania. “It is their calling card to tell Republican voters that they are conservative, and by doing that, you don’t really have to do anything else.By doing that, that’s enough for the Republican primary voters who have gone further and further to the right.”

Olivia Troye, who was a homeland security adviser to former vice president Mike Pence and worked on mass shootings and domestic terrorism issues, warned that the promotion of guns and violence by Republican candidates and elected officials has far reaching implications, in part by “normalizing and mainstreaming a weapon that is designed and meant to kill.”

Ron Filipkowski, a lifelong Republican who also broke with the party over former president Donald Trump and now tracks right-wing messaging, said he first noticed the uptick in gun-related GOP ads in August when he kept seeing Republican candidates sharing images of themselves with assault-style firearms and decided to tally them. He said he got to about a dozen before they became too frequent to keep up with in real-time.

“It’s really become a cultural thing now. It used to be a cultural thing as hunting goes, but these guys aren’t hunting … I’m talking about running around playing warrior. They view that as a sport now, and to participate in that sport, you need assault weapons,” Filipkowski said. “It’s the posing with them in pictures to say, ‘Hey, I’m a tough guy. I’m a badass. Come and take this away.' ”

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.)recently sent a mailer to constituents that showed her clutching an AR-15-style weapon in one picture and shooting a handgun in another. Kevin Knoth, Hartzler’s spokesman, said in an email that the mail was approved May 12 and sent for delivery May 13 before the deadly mass shootings at supermarket in Buffalo and an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex.

Knoth did not respond directly when asked if Hartzler regrets that some of her constituents received the mailer after those tragedies, saying only that the congresswoman “is praying for all those lost and their loved ones” and is urging support for legislation to allow off-duty and retired law enforcement personnel to carry concealed firearms on school grounds.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey pointed guns at protesters in St. Louis who were marching to call for the resignation of Mayor Lyda Krewson on June 28, 2020. (Video: Daniel Shular via Storyful)

Mark McCloskey, who once pointed a gun at Black Lives Matter protesters and is now running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Missouri, has images of assault weapons all over his social media. “Firearms are the ultimate equalizer,” one post says, over a photo of him holding a gun. On his campaign website, he boasts that his story “has empowered thousands of new gun owners across the country to purchase a firearm and learn how to defend themselves.”

This year, an Arizona Republican running to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly released an ad that portrayed him as a sheriff and showed him in an old Western-style standoff with actors playing Kelly, President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

In the ad, the GOP candidate, businessman Jim Lamon, says: “The good people of Arizona have had enough of you. It’s time for a showdown.” The three Democrats draw their weapons. Lamon points his gun and shoots the weapons out of their hands. The Kelly, Biden and Pelosi characters run away. The ad drew some criticism, including from Republican rivals.

Last spring, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) posted a video on Twitter of himself shooting an AR-15 in a gun range. “Now, why would anybody need to own an AR-15?” Graham asked in a follow-up post. “If there is a breakdown of law and order, and that can happen … it’s not impossible to find yourself in the modern world without any police protection, because that’s just the way the times are in which we live in.”

“Senator Graham is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment,” Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said, when asked about the senator’s social media posts.

Political campaigns and organizations have held contests gifting military-assault weapons to supporters. In Georgia, Josh Clark, a Republican Senate candidate who recently lost the primary to former football star Herschel Walker, said in March that he planned togive away an AR-15 every weekuntil the election. His goal, he said, was to “advance” the use of AR-15 rifles, which he said “should be one of the most commonly owned firearms across America.”

Last fall, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) gave supporters a chance to win a 50-caliber rifle she used in an ad to blow up a Toyota Prius with the word “socialism” emblazoned on its side.The footage showed the massive explosion from various angles and directed viewers to a website that allowed them to enter to win Greene’s rifle.

“This is the same type of gun that TRIGGERS theFake News Media and Democratsall across the country,” Greene’s webpage read. “And it’s the same type of gun the hate-America gun-grabbers in DC would love to BAN if they ever get the votes.”

In January, Greene posted a photo with the contest recipient, both smiling as he cradled the massive weapon.

Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.

---

https://thegrio.com/2022/06/08/karen-bass-rick-caruso-run-off-la-mayor/

no lnx

Karen Bass, billionaire Rick Caruso to face off in runoff for LA mayor

An early tally of mail-in ballots showed Caruso with 41% and Bass with 38%. A candidate needed to top 50% to avoid a runoff.

Jun 8, 2022

Democratic U.S. Rep. Karen Bass and billionaire developer Rick Caruso breezed past a large field of rivals looking to be the next mayor of Los Angeles and advanced Tuesday to a runoff election in November.

An early tally of mail-in ballots showed Caruso with 41% and Bass with 38%. A candidate needed to top 50% to avoid a runoff.

A dozen names were on the ballot, though several candidates dropped out.

Bass, a favorite of the party’s progressive wing, and the Republican-turned-Democrat Caruso easily distanced themselves from the rest of the field. City Councilman Kevin de Leon, a former state Senate leader, was a distant third with 7%.

Bass, who was on then President-elect Joe Biden’s short list for vice president, would be the first woman mayor of Los Angeles and the second Black person to hold the office.

Karen Bass on primary election run for LA mayor: ‘When home is on fire, you go home’

The race largely focused on homelessness and crime. More than 40,000 people live in trash-strewn homeless encampments and rusty RVs, and widely publicized smash-and-grab robberies and home invasions have unsettled residents.

Each candidate used their victory speeches to promise a better tomorrow while also taking shots at their opponent.

“Together we will make a city where you want to live because you feel safe, because the air you breathe is clean, and because people are no longer dying on our streets,” Bass said. “Not with empty promises from the past, but through a bold path forward.”

Caruso quoted Bass as saying that under her leadership homelessness would not be solved in her first term and that the most residents could count on would be “light at the end of the tunnel” after four years.

“Whoa. Whoa,” Caruso said. “Let me respond by saying this: The light at the end of the tunnel is shining bright tonight.”

Caruso, 63, who sits on the board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and was endorsed by the police union, has positioned himself as a centrist outsider running against City Hall’s progressive establishment. He blames Bass, 68, and other longtime incumbents for sprawling homeless encampments that have spread into virtually every neighborhood and concerns about unsafe streets.

“This is a great night because so many people have gone to the voting booth, and they’ve sent a message: We are not helpless in the face of our problems,” Caruso said. “We will not allow this city to decline. We will no longer accept excuses.”

His strong performance is an unwelcome sign for Democrats defending their fragile majorities in Congress and in other races around the country.

The last time City Hall veered to the political right was in 1993, when voters turned to Republican businessman Richard Riordan to lead the city in the aftermath of the deadly 1992 riots that erupted after four white police officers were acquitted of assault in the beating of Black motorist Rodney King.

Rodney King, the Los Angeles motorist whose beating by police was captured on videotape, smiles, 01 May 1992 in Beverly Hills, during a press conference, where he called for the end of violence in the city. (Photo credit should read ROBERT SULLIVAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Los Angeles, however, is much changed since Riordan’s days. It’s more Latino, less white and more solidly Democratic. Only 13% of registered voters are Republicans.

Caruso’s estimated $4.3 billion fortune allowed him to run a seemingly nonstop display of TV and online ads. His campaign’s spending — over $40 million as of early this week, most of it his money — topped all other candidates combined.

“It’s hard to defeat a people-powered campaign … no matter how much money is spent, and it’s hard to defeat folks who are committed to a cause, not just a candidate,” Bass said. “All of us stood strong against an onslaught, a $45 million onslaught to be exact, spent by a billionaire.”

By comparison, Bass’ spending hit about $3.3 million, though both campaigns were also supported by ads from outside groups.

There was competition over celebrity endorsements, as is typical in Los Angeles. Earvin “Magic” Johnson backed Bass, while Caruso had Snoop Dogg and Gwyneth Paltrow behind him.

The race took a nasty turn recently.

Ads run by Bass and her allies depict Caruso as a West coast version of former President Donald Trump, who is dodging taxes, blowing a “right wing dog whistle” and lying about Bass’ record.

In advertising from Caruso and his supporters, Bass emerges as an ethically compromised charlatan who missed key votes in Congress and counts an indicted city councilman in her circle of friends.

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/second-embarrassing-gop-campaign-ad/

in the space of three weeks, the National Republican Senatorial Committee overseen by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has watched two ads attacking Democrats that were blatantly misleading pulled off the air, according to a report from MSNBC.

According to Steve Benen of MSNBC, complaints about misrepresentation in attack ads are common, but what is less common is the offending ads being yanked from public view by local TV stations.

"It can be frustrating, but the vast majority of the time, stations don’t want to be in the business of deciding which commercials are so brazenly dishonest that they’re ultimately unsupportable," but that there are exceptions which Scott's committee found out the hard way in less than a month.

The first ad claimed that gas prices under Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) increased 23 percent during her prior tenure as governor -- which turned out to not only be false, but prices actually decreased according to the report the GOP cited.

The second ad went after North Carolina’s Cheri Beasley and accused her of setting free a "child porn offender,” when she served as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

As the New York Times reported, "On Friday, five TV stations in Raleigh and Charlotte said they would pull the ad or that they had 'paused' it pending an examination of its claims, according to emails from the stations to Courtney Weisman, a lawyer working for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which were reviewed by The New York Times. On Thursday, two Charlotte stations took the ad off the air."

According to Benen, who called the two ads an "embarrassing" black eye for Republicans, "For those keeping score, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has now had two television ads pulled over the course of three weeks. Election Day 2022 is still 22 weeks away, and I don’t imagine anyone would be too surprised if that total grows."

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https://americanindependent.com/american-action-network-ad-climate-change-joe-biden-socialist-wish-list-hurricane-tax-lizzie-fletcher/

no lnx vid

New GOP ad falsely claims climate change plan will result in 'hurricane tax' for Texans

By Josh Israel -September 23,2021

A new American Action Network ad invokes climate-fueled storms while calling a bill that addresses them a 'socialist wish list.'

A new ad from a right-wing dark money group invokes the names of three recent hurricanes that caused massive flooding in and around Houston, Texas. At the same time, it urges viewers to oppose President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion investment plan to address the climate change that is fueling storms like these.

The ad, posted online Wednesday by the American Action Network, is aimed at constituents of Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX), whose competitive 7th Congressional District includes parts ofHouston and its suburbs.

The ad features a narrator speaking over storm images. "Rita. Ike. Harvey. Names that haunt Houston. All leading to high insurance premiums that continue to rise.

"Now, liberals in Washington want to spend $3 trillion on a socialist wish list, funded by taxes that could make it even more expensive to insure your home. You'd pay more to protect your home so they can fund their socialist pet protects. Call Lizzie Fletcher.Tell her to vote against the hurricane tax."

The three hurricanes each caused significant damage to the Greater Houston area over the past 15 years. Experts say they were worsened by climate change and that global warming will make future storms like those more intense and more frequent.

"Communities all along the Gulf Coast need to adapt to a world where the heaviest rains are more than we have ever seen," Pennsylvania State University meteorologist David W. Titley told the New York Times in 2017 following Hurricane Harvey. He noted that "while a storm of Harvey's strength is still rare, it's not as rare as it once was."

The American Action Network, founded in 2010 and chaired by former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, is a dark-money 501(c)(4) tax-exempt group that has spent millions of dollars attacking Democrats and supporting Republican candidates. It opposes environmental regulations and promotes unfettered continued use of fossil fuels.

The group opposes Biden's Build Back Better agenda,which would roll back some of the tax cuts that the richest Americans and corporations received under then-President Donald Trump's 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act and invest billions of dollars in climate change, clean energy, and caregiving infrastructure.

The so-called "socialist pet protects" in the plan include funds to "create good-paying, union jobs, establish an energy efficiency and clean energy standard, expand and extend clean energy and electric vehicle tax credits, and enlist a new Civilian Climate Corps" to address climate change immediately, along with financing and tax cuts to lower housing costs and "bolster affordable and resilient housing, supporting the construction or rehabilitation of more than two million homes."

In small print at the bottom of the screen, the American Action Network ad sources its claims of a "hurricane tax" to conservatives who oppose the bill's proposed corporate tax hikes. Their argument is that if Congress raises the tax rates for corporations, insurance companies would then simply pass on those costs to homeowners by raising their premiums.

But even if that is true, their analyses do not take into account another major provision in the legislation: tax cuts for middle- and lower-income Americans. Congress' nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation predicted last week that Biden's plan would cut federal taxes overall for every group earning $200,000 a year or less. Those earning $1 million or more would see a tax increase of about 10.6%.

Biden warned on Sept. 7, after Hurricane Ida caused dozens of deaths, that without major investment things would be even more dire in the future. "Climate change poses an existential threat to our lives, to our economy," he said. "And the threat is here; it's not going to get any better. The question: Can it get worse? We can stop it from getting worse."

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

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[[https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/gop-lawmakers-face-barrage-of-questions-over-viral-russian-ad/

[vid]

an 322

Republican Party is being labeled as the "Party of Treason” in a new, scathing political ad chronicling all that has transpired since Russia invaded Ukraine.

According to HuffPost, the ad was released by Really American, a progressive political action committee (PAC). The video highlights Independence Day 2018 when several Republican lawmakers' traveled to Moscow to visit the Kremlin.

With the video, the PAC tweeted, "A day after the Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed Russia interfered in our elections, 8 Republicans flew to Russia for a photo-op. Now they're blaming Biden for the invasion of Ukraine while repeating Kremlin talking points."

Although the trip was reportedly intended to address Russian interference, the video notes that Sen.Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), "downplayed said established threat just days later."[twt]

the video's narrator posed a number of compelling questions to Republican lawmakers asking: "why Republicans have 'consistently taken' the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin by, among other things, voting to block election security bills and backing Donald Trump for threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on Joe Biden, misconduct that led to the first impeachment of the former president."

The narrator concluded by saying, “Putin has shown his goal is to destabilize Western democracy from Ukraine to the U.S. We can’t allow his puppets to sink their claws deeper into our government.”

In just a short period of time, the video has gone viral. Since its release on Thursday, March 10, it has received more than 850,000 views as it continues to circulate on social media.

[ron j, shelby, moran, daines, thune, kay granger, john kennedy hoeven

#partyoftraitors

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ref 2

... GOP is slammed as the “#PartyOfTreason” in a new viral ad from progressive PAC Really American.

The group’s spot recalls the visit to the Kremlin that eight Republican lawmakers controversially made on Independence Day in 2018,

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/06/626664156/gop-senators-spend-july-4-in-moscow no names ] a day after the Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

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ref july 2018

mADISON –Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is downplaying the threat Russia poses to U.S. elections, saying “these are not the greatest threats to our democracy.”

Johnson was part of a contingent of senators who met with Russian officials in Russia last week. He told reporters Tuesday that over half of their five-hour discussion focused on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Johnson says Russian interference is “unacceptable” and “serious,” but “when you look at threats to this nation I look at much larger threats.”

He says U.S. elections are very difficult to hack and remain secure, while Russia’s interference on social media in 2016 was minimal.

Johnson has been critical of Senate sanctions against Russia, saying they have been ineffective and don’t leave President Donald Trump with enough negotiating room on other issues.]]

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