The Objective: "persuade Democrat voters to stay at home" The Funder: Mercer

[TygrBright]

The result: A quiet Big-Data coup pulling England and America under authoritarian control.

The Guardian: The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked

Facebook was the source of the psychological insights that enabled Cambridge Analytica to target individuals. It was also the mechanism that enabled them to be delivered on a large scale.

The company also (perfectly legally) bought consumer datasets – on everything from magazine subscriptions to airline travel – and uniquely it appended these with the psych data to voter files. It matched all this information to people’s addresses, their phone numbers and often their email addresses. “The goal is to capture every single aspect of every voter’s information environment,” said David. “And the personality data enabled Cambridge Analytica to craft individual messages.”

Finding “persuadable” voters is key for any campaign and with its treasure trove of data, Cambridge Analytica could target people high in neuroticism, for example, with images of immigrants “swamping” the country. The key is finding emotional triggers for each individual voter.

Cambridge Analytica worked on campaigns in several key states for a Republican political action committee. Its key objective, according to a memo the Observer has seen, was “voter disengagement” and “to persuade Democrat voters to stay at home”: a profoundly disquieting tactic. It has previously been claimed that suppression tactics were used in the campaign, but this document provides the first actual evidence.

The article is dense with detail, and a lot of the connections are speculative at this point.

Nevertheless, I believe it's worth studying carefully. The one thing these cockroaches fear is light shining on them. The more people who are aware of this, who can make connections, compare evidence, track the trails of people, money, and events, the more chance we have of finally blowing this creepy billionaire's coup out of the water before it's too late.

seriously,
Bright

[Sculpin Beauregard]

1. Yup, very, very important. These fuckers planned a coup to install a gang of sociopathic fascists.

It's important to understand all the ways they pulled it off, so people can defend against it and then write laws so that it never happens again.

[tech3149]

14. Agreed Most people are unaware of the ways they are manipulated

Soviet style propaganda? Childish Amateur hour compared to the 24/7 scientifically based manipulation we expose ourselves to every day.
Recognition is only the first step. A big problem is recognizing our inherent and subconscious biases that make it easier to be manipulated. That requires a level of self examination that most of us are not willing to endure.

[2naSalit]

2. K&R

[delisen]

3. Betrayed by our own Transparency

Knowledge is power. We gave it to them. They have the power. We have lots of shiny objects.

[iluvtennis]

6. Yep.

[delisen]

4. This is interesting. Thanks for posting.

[Duppers]

5. K & R

[NewJeffCT]

7. this is a huge issue

if Democrats can't come up with a way to combat this, they're going to keep losing elections. Cambridge is only going to improve their ability to suppress the vote and/or fire up their side.

[mr_lebowski]

8. Well, guess what? We're fucking smarter than they are ...

Not as underhanded and brazenly evil, granted, but smarter.

If Congress refuses to make it illegal, then come 2018, time to beat them at their own game.

Know who we need to convince to help us?

GATES.

And who knows, he just might.

[Lucky Luciano]

10. Mercer is profoundly intelligent for data analysis and predictive analytics - truly.

It will be hard to compete with that. But compete we must.

[BadGimp]

9. Great background reading... lot's of Dots connected nicely!

[dalton99a]

11. Kick.

[bucolic_frolic]

12. Yes voters were told online that HRC

was crooked, same corruption as Trump, shrill, the media's favorite ...
they used every innuendo possible to discredit her or dissuade voters
from exercising their franchise.

We must tell every voter we meet, Tea Party, GOP, Democrat, or Republican,
how these foreign powers and big money wants them to not vote so they can
steal our country, their income streams, their livelihoods.

[MelissaB]

13. Key Names

Key names

SCL Group
British company with 25 years experience in military “psychological operations” and “election management”.

Cambridge Analytica
Data analytics company formed in 2014. Robert Mercer owns 90%. SCL owns 10%. Carried out major digital targeting campaigns for Donald Trump campaign, Ted Cruz’s nomination campaign and multiple other US Republican campaigns – mostly funded by Mercer. Gave Nigel Farage’s Leave.EU “help” during referendum.

Robert Mercer
US billionaire hedge fund owner who was Trump’s biggest donor. Owns Cambridge Analytica and the IP [intellectual property] ofAggregateIQ. Friend of Farage. Close associate of Steve Bannon.

Steve Bannon
Trump’s chief strategist. Vice-president of Cambridge Analytica during referendum period. Friend of Farage.

Alexander Nix
Director of Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group.

Christopher Wylie
Canadian who first brought data expertise and microtargeting to Cambridge Analytica; recruited AggregateIQ.

AggregateIQ
Data analytics company based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Worked for Mercer-funded Pacs that supported the Trump campaign. Robert Mercer owns AggregateIQ’s IP. Paid £3.9m by Vote Leave to “micro-target” voters on social media during referendum campaign. Outside British jurisdiction.

Veterans for Britain
Given £100,000 by Vote Leave. Spent it with AggregateIQ.

BeLeave
Youth Leave campaign set up by 23-year-old student. Given £625,000 by Vote Leave & £50,000 by another donor. Spent it with AggregateIQ.

DUP
Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. Spent £32,750 with AggregrateIQ.

Thomas Borwick
Vote Leave’s chief technology officer. Previously worked with SCL/Cambridge Analytica and AggregateIQ.

ASI Data Science
Data science specialists. Links with Cambridge Analytica, including staff moving between the two and holding joint events. Paid £114,000 by Vote Leave. Vote Leave declared £71,000 to Electoral Commission.

Donald Trump
US president. Campaign funded by Mercer and run by Bannon. Data services supplied by Cambridge Analytica and AggregrateIQ.

Nigel Farage
Former Ukip leader. Leader of Leave.EU. Friend of Trump, Mercer and Bannon.

Arron Banks
Bristol businessman. Co-founder of Leave.EU. Owns data company and insurance firm. Single biggest donor to Leave – £7.5m.

[benpollard]

15. What to do about low-information voters?

There was a story on 60 Minutes this evening (yes, I still watch occasionally) about a family who supported Donald Trump. The father had been here illegally for 20 years. He had worked hard and owned his own restaurant that employed 20 people. Because of a minor infraction, ICE put him in prison and he's awaiting deportation.

The mother was in tears on the program. Her response when asked if she regrets voting for Trump? She said that next time, she'll pay more attention to the debates.

HOW ABOUT READING A BIT ABOUT THE CANDIDATES?!! Jeeze! That's just pure laziness. Take a few minutes and read about the candidates before you vote for the president. The debates just show who's the better debater -- not who will be a better president.

[JudyM]

16. K&R.