Let's call Cambridge Analytica what it is

[SHRED]

Link to tweet

Kaz Weida
@kazweida
Could we stop calling Cambridge Analytica a data company?

It’s funded by the Mercers and formerly run by Steve Bannon to exploit data illegally to swing elections for the GOP.

They also dabble in prostitutes, bribery & blackmail.

It’s more criminal enterprise than corporation.

[spanone]

1. K&R...

[YessirAtsaFact]

2. Just like the Trump crime family, legit looking front

Crooks to the bone

[vlyons]

31. Ditto the republican party

[volstork]

3. Spot-on.

It's a Potemkin Village with a garbage dump in the back.

[OhNo-Really]

4. 1967 Mafia Boss said

"We will send our boys to Ivy League Colleges to legitimize the Business."

The Many Mob Bosses' kids did just that.

Now, we have a well-educated, global mob behind the curtains of politics, corporations, think tanks, non-profits, and poppy fields.

[wiggs]

8. That's exactly right. Those in media who portray this as just a political battle between a few

power hungry, despotic republicans and some American democrats are missing the forest for the trees.

This is a global battle...and the oligarchs have already concentrated wealth and power to a degree that makes this an uphill battle for the 99.9%.

And those worldwide corporations, oligarchs, crime families, think tanks, RW owned media outlets will not sit on the sidelines while their fates are determined by minor mid-term elections in the US. They ARE NOT sitting on the sidelines and have been gearing up for this for a LONG time. So...it has to be all hands on deck for the mid-terms and beyond.

[erronis]

11. And possible all-hands on deck before and after elections

Based on recent history it is totally conceivable that the elections will be rigged (like don's BFF country). It is also conceivable that there will be nation-changing actions happening outside of any "peaceful" transfer of power.

Don't place all of our faith in a fair ballot box.

[wiggs]

32. post from Seth Abramson on Twitter:

I don't mind saying—only because this is certainly what historians will say 50 years on—that Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign was the largest and most far-ranging criminal enterprise to ever take on the guise of a political operation in the history of American politics.

Seth

[marlakay]

5. And yet that truth is not heard

On mainstream. Listening to the girls on view arguing about it and Megan saying that Obama’s data mining was the same.

Sunny said it wasn’t but not for this reason just because they were sneaky in getting info with quizzes.

She also said Obama was doing it to spread his message not to spread fake news.

[bigbrother05]

10. Obama used voter registration and visitors to his site

to build lists to get volunteers to phone bank, etc. Those then gather info given from the people contacted with permission. They didn't use stolen data or push polls the way the GOP does routinely.

Cambridge used Facebook's ad sales apparatus to devise clickbait that then mined (stole) user data to expand beyond anything they paid for or had authority to use. This helped them refine their fake news & RF'ing to swing enough to elect Trump. They weren't paid enough by the Trump campaign to cover what they did ($6M vs. $100M estimated value), so who else was paying for their work?

Facebook didn't really care as long as they got their initial cut via sales tools and the extra dollars for clicks. It only became an issue for them when their users called them out.

[marlakay]

25. I know i just hate that what you said

Isn’t what most people hear, they hear he did the same which like all other lies out there get believed and drives me nuts!

[bigbrother05]

38. Trump never tried grassroots organizing, they just bought their way in

He didn't need the little people, except as a backdrop for his rallies and even then he couldn't fill the places.

[Initech]

6. The whole damn GOP is a criminal enterprise at this point!

They need to go!

[diva77]

27. +1,000,000 THIS!!!

[OregonBlue]

7. Let's refer to them as a data mining and extortion syndicate.

[lame54]

9. Corporation criminal enterprise potato potahto

[Farmer-Rick]

36. Yup, yup, yup

Do folks really believe most corporations are not crooked?

Corporation or organized crime syndicate, one in the same.

[neohippie]

12. It looks like SCL/CA might actually belong to the Russians

This thread seems to indicate a link between Alpha bank and SCL the parent company that started Cambridge Analytica

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210383859

I posted links in there with more information about CA that needs to be looked into

[bettyellen]

19. Theres no way that Cambridge professor randomly gave the info away to CA - he had deep ties to

Russia- including funding. No one gives that much data away.

[Farmer-Rick]

37. He got "grants" from the Russian government for research.

[bettyellen]

39. I just saw hes coming out saying CA is scapegoating him and it didnt happen the way they say.

But he’s playing super dumb. That he was told “everyone does it” and he’s such a silly happy go lucky guy that he’s the furthest thing from a spy you’d ever imagine! Oh man. That also didn’t ring true!

[Blue_Tires]

13. LOL

Link to tweet

[orangecrush]

14. K&R

[jayschool2013]

15. And they are propagandists

Prostitutes, bribery, blackmail and propaganda.

[saidsimplesimon]

16. thank you, Shred

[SHRED]

24. You're welcome

[Nitram]

17. Yup, "more criminal enterprise than corporation."

Black ops, bribery, extortion, blackmail -whatever it takes. for money.

[suffragette]

18. With their extensive use of former alphabet agency spies, its starting to look more like a private

global CIA, MI5, etc operation that is targeted at ensuring the far right is heading governments and agendas.

They are ranging far beyond Le Carre’s Fiction.

[bettyellen]

20. Which is really concerning since Trump has talked about privatizing or creating new agencies

loyal to him only of course. Same template.

[suffragette]

22. It is remarkably the same template. Very good catch.

Thank goodness there are still string investigative news teams at places like The Guardian and Channel 4.
The stronger privacy laws in the UK mean we might learn more about all of this.

[peggysue2]

21. Criminal Enterprise is A-okay with me

The shoe that fits. Particularly after hearing the admissions from Nix himself on the Channel 4 expose. Ukrainian women, compromising video and bribery with a capital "B". This is fraud and exploitation for all who can afford it.

The irony, of course, is that it's compromising video that has crumbled the enterprise's shell, marked it for what it is: a concerted assault on constitutional democracies around the world. For power and profit of obliging billionaires and mobsters.

One piece of the globalized Mafia is unravelling before our eyes.

There will be others.

[Drahthaardogs]

23. Extortion Ring!

This is really getting good

[Sparko55]

26. Are we talking TREASON of the Trumpistas, Mercer's, GOP Senators and Reps that used CA

Just wondering if all the check boxes of TREASON have been met.

Especially, the one about give aid and comfort to the enemy during times of War. Seems like we have been at war now for some 15+ years, and the GOP is damn happy to keep the spending going for their ultimate military adventurism started by Dubya. How's that working for ya now that everything hidden is being uncovered.

Seems the same with the Facebook.

If the Supreme Court in all it's wisdom, called Corporations "People", then we need to see Texas put some corps to death (as has been said many times)

Or at least strip them and Zuck of all their ill gotten gains.

As they say in Russian:

Za Vstrechu (To our meeting)

To their meeting(s) indeed.

[Thunderbeast]

28. Robert Mercer made his Fortune by gaming the markets

As a hedge fund manager, Mercer developed algorithms that would place "stalking" trades and watch how others responded to them. By instantly seeing and analyzing these market moves, Mercer's firm would place bigger bets. When the markets shifted, the algorithms would make instantaneous transactions to maximize their gains.

The same technology was applied to political market segmentation so that messaging could be tailored to the folks with the most leverage on elections around the world. Posts made on social media would be placed, and Cambridge Analytica would closely monitor who and how many people responded and filter those results through their modeling tools. By precise targeting of emotional messages, and fueling a metastatic spread of these messages through social media, Cambridge Analytica has succeeded in changing leadership of nations, and begun a breakup of the European Union.

In overlaying blackmail operations through bribery and prostitutes, Cambridge Analytical became a "full service" elections corruption shop. The Mercers and Steve Bannon should be prosecuted under RICO statutes in the US, and privacy law violations in the UK where penalties are harsher.

[FakeNoose]

33. Good point

I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out Robert Mercer wrote the proprietary code that was developed for CA. I'm sure he's more than just a financial backer, because this stuff is right up his alley. Maybe it will be enough to finally put this guy in jail. Save a cell for Rebekah too, just in case.

[pecosbob]

29. At what point does the Mercers and CA and Fox become co-conspirators in this criminal conspiracy?

There was in fact a criminal conspiracy. It may not currently be illegal for the Mercers and Cambridge Analytica and Fox to intentionally manipulate the electoral process the way they did in 2016 (I'm betting it is, though), but prior knowledge of the involvement of foreign participants (said participation being a felony) makes all the above listed part of the criminal conspiracy right along with the Russian nationals.

[Kablooie]

30. They won't be.

The Mercers have too many well paid connections in government to ever suffer any consequences.

They belong in prison but they will remain free to corrupt every election in the future.

[Cha]

34. K!

[SunSeeker]

35. Cambridge wants its name back.