A team of analysts at Politico found a small group of 200 accounts—specifically these guys—drove a “disproportionate” amount of racist and negative disinformation, over a 30-day period, targeting four Democratic presidential candidates for 2020: Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke. In fact, between 2-15% of all Twitter mentions concerning these candidates over that timeframe originated from this small group.

This is the same group that generated or were mentioned in over 140 million tweets in the run-up to the 2018 midterms. Their focus then was on non-existent “voter fraud,” and the false claim that millions of undocumented immigrants vote in elections. The researchers said this group uses highly coordinated techniques to go viral, including funneling their tweets to other suspicious, knowingly automated accounts; the group also deployed sophisticated tactics that seem to easily bypass current detection methods.
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So that racist, sexist tweet you saw smearing Kamala Harris over her former relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown? That supposed “blackface” doll in Warren’s kitchen? That claim that O’Rourke left a racist phone message?

You can thank these guys.

On Friday, Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins struck down two of the state constitutional amendments passed by North Carolina voters last November. But the reason he gave for his decision was remarkable: in his view, the state legislature is so gerrymandered as to be an illegitimate body that doesn’t really represent voters, and thus had no authority to alter the state constitution.

“An illegally constituted General Assembly does not represent the people of North Carolina and is therefore not empowered to pass legislation that would amend the state’s constitution,” wrote Collins.

Congressional Democrats are setting the stage to demand transparency from Trump administration officials even before special counsel Robert Mueller wraps up his report on possible Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In two letters sent to the Department of Justice (DOJ), top Democrats in the House of Representatives said the public has the right to know Mueller’s findings and get honest answers from DOJ officials.

On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) criticized former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker’s use of executive privilege during a February 7 hearing in which Whitaker refused to answer questions about his conversations with the White House.

In a separate joint letter sent Friday, six House committee chairs told Attorney General William Barr they expect him to make Mueller’s highly anticipated final report public.

“We write to you to express, in the strongest possible terms, our expectation that the Department of Justice will release to the public the report Special Counsel Mueller submits to you — without delay and to the maximum extent permitted by law,” the letter states.

I believe that cows chew cud, pigs can’t fly, and night is darker than day, and also that there is water between Dover and Calais. When I believe these things, I believe them to be true. And I certainly hope that you believe them, too.

Any of us could continue the list indefinitely for ourselves. Some might put things on the list that others doubt, but there will inevitably be a great deal of overlap. Even Donald Trump has not tweeted that the USA lies north of Canada.
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One of the most sinister is the “availability cascade,” defined as a self-reinforcing process of collective belief formation, a chain reaction in which particular stories or bits of evidence balloon into common certainties, often helped on its way by activists or “availability entrepreneurs.”

In other words, the madness of crowds, whereby a few simple memorable stories, “my child had an MMR jab and now has autism”, have greater influence than a whole library of well-conducted blind tests showing that the one has nothing to do with the other.

Once caught up in a cascade or chain reaction, people refuse to listen to evidence. They ground themselves in bubbles or silos, only listening to voices like their own. And there is no certain way of curing people who wear such blinkers.

The Trump administration has taken aim at Planned Parenthood by issuing a rule barring groups that provide abortions or abortion referrals from participating in the $286m federal family planning programme.

The move, announced on Friday, is expected to redirect tens of millions of dollars from the women's health provider to faith-based groups.

The change means federally funded family planning clinics can no longer refer a patient for abortion and must maintain a “clear physical and financial separation” between services funded by the government and any organisation that provides abortions or abortion referrals.

In an interview with Politico, GOP Gov. Kristi Noem (SD) took a shot at President Donald Trump for starting a trade war with China that is devastating farmers in her state.

According to the Republican governor, agriculture is a major part of her state’s economy, and the farmers are hurting with many feeling they will lose their family farms.

“South Dakota has been devastated by the trade wars that are going on,” Noem explained adding that the woes of farmers affect “every main street business, everybody that has another entity out there that relies on a successful ag industry.”

“I have consistently been an advocate for wrapping up these trade discussions and making sure we’re getting access to better markets,” she continued, before adding, “The problem is that this has gone on now for a long period of time.”