Keeping an eye out for propaganda, trolls, moles, & cheaters

Corruption Current News Ops Watch

Who is Guo Wengui, the Chinese billionaire who owns the boat Steve Bannon was arrested on?

WASHINGTON — Earlier this month, a sunburned Steve Bannon, holding a lit cigar and wearing a blue polo shirt with the collar turned up, stood in front of a camera on a yacht owned by his friend Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire. A YouTube video shows Wengui putting his arm around Bannon as the former […]

Current News Ops Watch Trump Admin

Facebook removes troll farm posing as African-American support for Donald Trump

Facebook removed hundreds of accounts on Thursday from a foreign troll farm posing as African-Americans in support of Donald Trump and QAnon supporters. It also removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to conservative media outlet The Epoch Times that pushed pro-Trump conspiracy theories about coronavirus and protests in the U.S. Facebook took down the accounts […]

Current News Ops Watch Voting & Elections

Kanye West: Republicans with ties to Trump are helping the rapper get on general election ballots – CNNPolitics

The effort is raising questions about whether Republicans are pushing for the rapper’s addition to the ballot as a way to potentially siphon voters from presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Until Tuesday, West’s attempts to get his name on the ballot have only focused on states that are either dominated by Republicans or Democrats […]

Current News Ops Watch Oregon Trump Admin

‘They Just Started Waling On Me’: Violence In Portland As U.S. Agents Clamp Down: NPR

Federal agents disperse protesters near the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on Monday in Portland, Ore. State and local officials say the federal law enforcement officers have incited violence in the city. Noah Berger/AP Federal agents disperse protesters near the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on Monday in Portland, Ore. State and local officials say […]

Criminal Justice Current News New York Ops Watch

Head of NYPD union gives Fox News interview with QAnon mug in background – CNN

The mug was positioned behind Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, during a roughly seven-minute interview on the Fox News show “Your World with Neil Cavuto.” Followers of the QAnon conspiracy believe there is a “deep state” within the US government that is controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. According to the […]

Current News Ops Watch Oregon

Federal Law Enforcement Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab Protesters Off Portland Streets . News | OPB

UPDATE (7:46 p.m. PT) — In the early hours of July 15, after a night spent protesting at the Multnomah County Justice Center and Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, Mark Pettibone and his friend Conner O’Shea decided to head home. It had been a calm night compared to most protesting downtown. By 2 a.m. law enforcement […]

Current News Ops Watch Oregon Social Justice Trump Admin

Federal officers respond to Portland protests with gas, munitions Thursday amid growing attention from Trump administration – oregonlive.com

Portland protests continue for 50th straight night Portland demonstrators reacted Thursday to a wave of national attention from President Donald Trump and his administration by once again amassing throughout the city to decry police violence against Black Americans. Federal officers responded to one late-night demonstrations downtown by using gas, smoke and impact munitions to press […]

Ops Watch Wonk Me

10 ways to spot online misinformation

Propagandists are already working to sow disinformation and social discord in the run-up to the November elections. Many of their efforts have focused on social media, where people’s limited attention spans push them to share items before even reading them – in part because people react emotionally, not logically, to information they come across. That’s […]

Current News Ops Watch Trump Admin

Federal judge blasts William Barr for Mueller report rollout – CNNPolitics

  Judge Reggie Walton asked if Barr’s actions were a “calculated attempt” to help President Donald Trump and opined the attorney general had a “lack of candor” with the public and Congress. “The Court cannot reconcile certain public representations made by Attorney General Barr with the findings in the Mueller Report,” Walton wrote on Thursday. […]

Ops Watch

4 ways to protect yourself from disinformation

You might have fallen for someone’s attempt to disinform you about current events. But it’s not your fault. Even the most well-intentioned news consumers can find today’s avalanche of political information difficult to navigate. With so much news available, many people consume media in an automatic, unconscious state – similar to knowing you drove home […]