Kate Starbird

Fascinating. Horrifying.

The Propagandists’ Playbook by Francesca Bolla Tripodi is the book to read if you want to understand a big part of why certain words trigger such different responses.

Bellingcat’s New Tool to Explore Historical and Spatial Flight Data Turnstone can visualise historical trends in flight data or filter them by geography, aircraft type and other parameters.

Trying to make sense of an aircraft’s movements during a conflict? Context is everything. That’s why we built Turnstone, an open source tool that searches historical flight data to allow researchers to explore flight patterns over time and in specific locations. www.bellingcat.com/resources/20...

Yeah. I can see why the website mistake would look intentional. And it could very well have been. I'm probably biased against reading the election admin errors as intentional from years of studying Stop The Steal rumors and conspiracy theories.

I think the point of intent here is that the rules were changed in a way that was (1) going to make it harder to vote; and (2) going to cause confusion on election day. And we're going to see A LOT more of that this cycle. Save ACT. Kicking people off rolls. Messing with mail-in ballot timing. Etc.

But I've also been watching election rumors for a few cycles now, & seen a lot of "falsely attributed intent" to election officials for honest mistakes or things out of their control. Maricopa 2022 had broken tabulator machines that impacted mostly GOP voters and we saw similar claims about intent.

I agree: that's a pretty egregious error and it's going to seem intentionaly, especially if those in charge have political party affiliations that are different from those impacted. <See next post, though.>

That’s troubling. I don’t know that I would assume that to be intentional. It could be, but mistakes do happen. Election admin errors are common. It’s a complicated process. But rule changes that restrict voting set election officials up to fail.

AI generated image of a yellow flag sitting on top of a stack of ballots, with an American flag in the background. The referee is calling a penalty. Overlaid text says "Penalty: Federal Interference".

There does seem to be a memo circulating. Let see if our institutions (especially our state AGs) have the capacity to call them out for federal interference.

Oh my...

bsky.app/profile/vote...

The legacy of the Big Lie lives on... and this next generation of the "rigged election" strategy is going to be even more challenging than the last.

Re: the debacle in the Texas primary today: Lies about voter fraud (from past elections) motivate and justify retaliatory actions and policy changes that make elections less fair and lead to more turmoil, more confusion and uncertainty, more rumors and legitimate greivance, and diminished trust.

I hear you, and thanks for the polite nudge here. Yes: SAVE act. Attempts to end mail-in and early voting. Kicking voters off the rolls without reason. Changing timing of mail-in voting and mail processing. Infrastructure to help people get their vote counted despite ratf*cking will be critical.

2026 is likely to continue to feature rule changes, often justified by “rigged election” myths from 2020, used to make it harder (for some people) to vote. Disentangling the messiness of elections from the intentional efforts to tip the scales will be challenging… even for folks studying this stuff.

The 1st post in this thread is a 2nd version of a now deleted post that was perhaps too dismissive of intentionality in this case. Rule changes causing disenfranchisement are more likely to reflect some intent (to make it harder to vote) that say, broken machines or glitches on Election Day.

Later stay of the decision to extend voting hours: bsky.app/profile/base...

More context, initial judge decision: bsky.app/profile/base...

This case is a primary & both candidates seem to be asking for extended hours. Hopefully courts will decide to count late votes (currently being separated out) to ensure trust in the process. Voter education efforts going into the general are going to be critical. The attention to this might help.

Regarding judge extending hours and then another court staying that decision: bsky.app/profile/kate...

Election Day confusion due to rule changes can lead to disenfranchisement — people aren’t able to vote or their vote isn’t counted due to wrong place, wrong time. The disenfranchisement isn’t necessarily intentional, but can impact outcomes. And it often sparks rumors about intent.

I retract “very rarely” from the first post, and suggest “not always”. Will repost.

Maricopa County judge denies GOP lawsuit to extend poll hours, delay voting numbers The poll hours will stick with ending at 7 p.m. and early ballot results will be released around 8 p.m.

There have been similar examples where courts have declined extending voting hours, for example Maricopa County in 2022, where many voters were impacted by broken tabulator machines: www.azfamily.com/2022/11/09/r...

Let me rephrase this. Rule changes lead to Election Day confusion. Confusion can lead to disenfranchisement. That’s going to spark a lot of theorizing about intent, especially if the issue costs one candidate more than another (which is likely in this case.)

Thanks! Rule changes leading to confusion and disenfranchisement… likely not intentional, but frustrating and could impact outcomes. Hopefully courts can help (delaying close), but they often resist changing hours. Maricopa in 2022 might be a good comparison.

Anyone know why the first judge tried to extend hours?

CBP Tapped Into the Online Advertising Ecosystem To Track Peoples’ Movements An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations. ICE has bought access to similar t...

SCOOP: An internal DHS document obtained by 404 Media shows for the first time CBP used location data sourced from the online advertising industry to track phone locations.

This surveillance can happen through all sorts of apps, such as video games, news apps, weather trackers, and dating apps.

Gen. Paul Nakasone, ex NSA chief, says at an event that he was distressed by the rift between the Pentagon and Anthropic, including the unprecedented ban on contractors using Anthropic on security grounds: “This is not a supply-chain issue.”

Caricaturizing the outgroup through amplifications of the most extreme voices among them is a favorite pastime of outrage baiters.

The Fashionable Notion of 'Free Speech Culture' Is Justifying State Censorship, Ironically It'll convince people that free speech is a sham

Donald Trump and Elon Musk decried "cancel culture" while building machinery for state censorship. Far too many "free speech defenders" fell for it.

Exclusive | Trump Administration to Drop Defense of Law Firm Sanctions The Justice Dept. plans to abandon its defense of the president’s executive orders that targeted Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, and Susman Godfrey.

WHOA: WSJ reporting that DOJ is dropping its appeals of the four law firm executive order rulings as soon as today. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...