CAUGHT IN THE WEB

STOP, LOOK, LISTEN!
Caught in the Web
As you know, this list is a completely subjective roundup of whatever caught my attention this week. This particular fall down the rabbit hole is about media, politics, and privacy. Also, vulture poop.
Next weekend is the 4th Women's March on Washington. There are no official March events planned in Spain, but we want you to join us for beer and voter-registration strategy when we meet later this month. Details to come!
And another thing:

• Please contact us with your own suggestions, via email at [email protected] or on the Resistance WhatsApp group.
• A big thank you to Karen Watson for her help and support.
• Thanks to Sage McCotter for your encouraging words!

—Kathy Sherretts

History Lesson:
Encyclopedia Britannica: Iran Air flight 655
An Iranian passenger plane was shot down by the missile cruiser USS Vincennes on July 3, 1988, killing all 290 people on board.

Screen Time:
Buzzfeed: Disinformation For Hire: How A New Breed Of PR Firms Is Selling Lies Online by Craig Silverman, Jane Lytvynenko, William Kung
Clients buy an end-to-end online manipulation system, which can influence people on a massive scale — resulting in votes cast, products sold, and perceptions changed.
Slate/What Next Podcast: How Targeted Ads Started Watching Us All (17 min)
In 2019 more advertising money went toward targeted digital ads in the U.S. than to radio, television, cable, magazine, and newspaper ads combined.
Washington Post: Trump campaign turns Iran attack into massive Facebook ad blitz by Tony Romm and Isaac Stanley-Becker
Trump’s team defended the killing of Qasem Soleimani with online ads, which also solicited personal information from voters.
ARSTechnica: It’s the network, stupid: Study offers fresh insight into why we’re so divided by Jennifer Ouellette
Social perception bias might simply be an emergent property of our social networks.

Department of Karma:
Quartz: Feces from a giant kettle of vultures is disrupting CBP communications on the US-Mexico border by Justin Rohrlich
Vultures also “regurgitate a reeking and corrosive vomit” which eats away at the metal in radio towers.
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Ready to do more?
 
• Learn about the Green New Deal.
• Read the Indivisible Guide 2.0. 
• Check out the weekly action plan from Progressive Action, Global Exchange (PAGE) which mobilizes progressives living overseas. 
• Sign up for the Americans of Conscience Checklist, a weekly action list that also provides encouragement and good news. 
• Learn about climate solutions and actions at ClimateRecovery.org, a group organized by community activists and members of American Resistance Sevilla.