Connect with us

News

Russian “Elections” of 2024 Under Scrutiny: Uncovering Anomalies and Falsifications

Russian Elections of 2024 Under Scrutiny Uncovering Anomalies and Falsifications

(CTN News) – On March 18, the Russian Central Election Commission announced the result of voting in the presidential “elections”: according to preliminary data from the commission, Vladimir Putin, who ran as a self-nominated candidate, received 87.28% of the votes with a turnout of 77.44%.

Both figures are the highest in contemporary Russian history. Because the CEC, weirdly enough, continues to disclose data for individual polling stations (and election analysts continue to download and organize it), it is feasible to determine exactly how these record figures were attained.

If we remove the conditions for holding “elections” and focus solely on vote counting, the short answer is: with unprecedented levels of falsification.

This time, all analytics on the voting results, both in this text and in  other publications , are based on data collected from the Central Election Commission website and made publicly available by programmer and electoral analyst Ivan Shukshin – they contain 98% of PECs, including with annexed Crimea, but without mainland Ukraine. Ivan Shukshin’s analysis of election results may be found here.

And this analytics clearly shows that there were falsifications?

Some of the statistical irregularities revealed in the PEC data are obvious signs of fabrication because they cannot be explained by anything else. Others simply look very suspicious, but, in principle, may be the result of other reasons. In other words, anomalies are different and should be considered independently.

In recent Russian elections, there has been a correlation between the leader’s outcomes and turnout, as well as peaks in both turnout and results. This time, the magnitude of both anomalies exceeded previous records.

Sergei Shpilkin, a physicist and electoral analyst, has been examining vote distribution and turnout in Russian elections since the early 2010s.He proposed a method for distinguishing between normal and fake voices.

The idea of this technique is as follows: the exact number of voters who came to the polling stations and the amount of votes they cast for different candidates depends on several random factors.

Therefore, we can predict that, in general, the distribution of distinct PECs in terms of turnout and candidate results will be characteristic of random processes, that is, normal, Gaussian , bell-shaped.

Therefore, on a two-dimensional diagram of the distribution of PECs by turnout and candidate results, polling stations should look like one symmetrical spot.

If departures from this distribution arise in the distribution of turnout and votes—and they have been documented during Russian elections since at least 2004—such results are deemed anomalous and require a different explanation.

The most obvious explanation is the physical stuffing of ballots for the government candidate into voting boxes or the addition of a certain number of ballots to the protocols. Such falsifications increase both turnout and the final percentage of votes for the government candidate.

The PECs where such stuffing occurs form the growth of the right shoulder in a normal distribution, and on a two-dimensional graphic (where turnout and the percentage of the candidate in power are depicted) they look like the tail of a comet extending to the upper right corner.

This is the two-dimensional distribution of PECs based on turnout and Vladimir Putin’s results in the 2018 presidential election.

It can be seen that the tail of anomalous votes is already making a very large contribution to the overall result, even if judged simply by the number of PECs where anomalous results are observed.

And here’s what the same distribution looks like in the current “elections”:

The core of typical PECs at the current “elections” simply gone, almost only aberrant parts remained. At roughly 40% turnout, one may observe a faint symmetrical area, reminiscent of the usual core of earlier elections. If you look at the regional breakdown, you will notice that almost all of this core consists of Moscow PECs.

Even in Moscow polling stations, where turnout appears to be symmetrical, the distribution of Vladimir Putin’s results shows two clusters centered at between 65 and 85 percent.

This could be explained by the fact that within the capital, there are “two Moscows” with fundamentally opposing views on this candidate. No prior elections in Moscow have produced such a picture.

One possible explanation for this picture is the impact of mass remote electronic voting (DEG) on individual PECs, which increases the percentage of candidates who lose power. The identical picture can be given by rewriting votes from one candidate to another without stuffing and a commensurate change in the overall turnout.

In St. Petersburg, the picture is fundamentally different: there is no cluster of polling stations with average turnout, but rather an almost “pure” tail of a comet (as well as “steps” of individual PECs, where the results were clearly drawn).A similar, but more pronounced, picture may be seen in annexed Crimea and Sevastopol.

Conclusion: Shedding Light on the Erasure of Normal Distribution in Russian Elections

The heterogeneity of Russian regions could be used to explain the anomalous picture of vote distribution, which no longer resembles the Gaussian.

The nationwide distribution of PECs is divided into regions, with turnout and support for the current government varying greatly due to local characteristics and traditions. Even in the absence of gerrymandering, one would expect a non-Gaussian vote distribution.

This protest could be strong, if not for one thing: elections in Russia have been going place for numerous years, but only now, in 2024, the usual distribution of votes throughout the country has been completely eliminated.

The graph below depicts the distribution of votes in all presidential elections since 2000.It demonstrates that what was once considered a deviation has become the norm, and the norm has vanished entirely.

News

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

google

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

Continue Reading

News

2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

trump

Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

Continue Reading

News

The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

SEE ALSO:

Could Last-Minute Surprises Derail Kamala Harris’ Campaign? “Nostradamus” Explains the US Poll.

Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

Continue Reading

Trending