Tuesday, 20 March 2018

Crunch Time

quote [ As Donald Trump's lawyers are desperately trying to protect him from a Robert Mueller interview and the top level firings keep piling up.Cambridge Analytica scandal rocks already rattled Trump world. ]

Trump is trying the old...I'll give you a written excuse" dodge with Mueller.
I wonder if they explained to him yet just how a Grand Jury works?

Getting spokey how this is mirroring Watergate.

Cambridge Analytica, Trump-Tied Political Firm, Offered to Entrap Politicians

Reveal
WASHINGTON ? Sitting in a hotel bar, Alexander Nix, who runs the political data firm Cambridge Analytica, had a few ideas for a prospective client looking for help in a foreign election. The firm could send an attractive woman to seduce a rival candidate and secretly videotape the encounter, Mr. Nix said, or send someone posing as a wealthy land developer to pass a bribe.

?We have a long history of working behind the scenes,? Mr. Nix said.

The prospective client, though, was actually a reporter from Channel 4 News in Britain, and the encounter was secretly filmed as part of a monthslong investigation into Cambridge Analytica, the data firm with ties to President Trump?s 2016 campaign.

The results of Channel 4?s work were broadcast in Britain on Monday, days after reports in The New York Times and The Observer of London that the firm had harvested the data from more than 50 million Facebook profiles in its bid to develop techniques for predicting the behavior of individual American voters.

The weekend?s reports about the data misuse have prompted calls from lawmakers in Britain and the United States for renewed scrutiny of Facebook, and at least two American state prosecutors have said they are looking into the misuse of data by Cambridge Analytica.

Now, the Channel 4 broadcast appears likely to cast an even harsher spotlight on the company, which was founded by Stephen K. Bannon and Robert Mercer, a wealthy Republican donor who put has put at least $15 million into Cambridge


The firm?s so-called psychographic modeling techniques, which were built in part with the data harvested from Facebook, underpinned its work for the Trump campaign in 2016, though many have questioned their effectiveness.

Less noticed has been the work that Cambridge Analytica and its parent company, the SCL Group, has done outside the United States. The operations of the two companies were set up with a convoluted corporate structure and are deeply intertwined.

Mr. Nix, for instance, holds dual appointments at the two companies. Cambridge Analytica is registered in Delaware and almost wholly owned by the Mercer family, but it is effectively a shell ? it holds intellectual property rights to its so-called psychographic modeling tools, yet its clients are served by the staff at London-based SCL and overseen by Mr. Nix, who is a British citizen.

SCL Elections has clients around the world, and it has experimented with data-driven microtargeting techniques in the Caribbean and Africa, where privacy rules are lax or nonexistent and politicians employing SCL have been happy to provide government-held data, according to former employees.

[ALSO READ: How Cambridge Analytica Harvested Facebook Data, Triggering a New Outcry]

But in the footage broadcast by Channel 4, Mr. Nix offered services that go far beyond data harvesting. The Times did not work with Channel 4 on its report about Cambridge Analytica.

?Many of our clients don?t want to be seen to be working with a foreign company,? he told the Channel 4 reporter, who was not identified. ?We can set up fake IDs and websites, we can be students doing research projects attached to a university, we can be tourists. There?s so many options we can look at.?

The Channel 4 reporter posed as a ?fixer? for a wealthy Sri Lankan family that wanted to help politicians they favored. In a series of meetings at London hotels between November and January, all of which were secretly filmed, Mr. Nix and other executives boasted that Cambridge Analytica employs front companies and former spies on behalf of political clients.

The information that is uncovered through such clandestine work is then put ?into the bloodstream to the internet,? said Mark Turnbull, another Cambridge executive, in an encounter in December 2017 at the Berkeley hotel in London.

?Then watch it grow, give it a little push every now and again, over time, to watch it take shape,? he added. ?It has to happen without anyone thinking, ?That?s propaganda.? Because the moment you think ?that?s propaganda,? the next question is, ?Who?s put that out???

The most damning footage, though, was of Mr. Nix?s suggestion that the company could entrap political rivals through seduction or bribery.

At a meeting in January, also at the Berkeley hotel, Mr. Nix was direct about the techniques SCL could use to aid a client.

?I mean, deep digging is interesting,? he said. ?But you know equally effective can be just to go and speak to the incumbents and to offer them a deal that?s too good to be true, and make sure that that?s video-recorded, you know. These sorts of tactics are very effective, instantly having video evidence of corruption, putting it on the internet, these sorts of things.?

Mr. Nix then suggested they could have someone pose as a wealthy developer. ?They will offer a large amount of money to the candidate, to finance his campaign in exchange for land for instance,? he said. ?We?ll have the whole thing recorded on cameras.?

Or, Mr. Nix said, they could ?send some girls around to the candidate?s house ? we have lots of history of things.?

The reporter asked what kind of girls, and Mr. Nix said they could find some Ukrainian women. ?I?m just saying, we could bring some Ukrainians in on holiday with us you know,? Mr. Nix replied. ?You know what I?m saying.?

?They are very beautiful,? he said. ?I find that works very well.?

To be sure, though, Mr. Nix said that he was speaking only in hypotheticals. ?Please don?t pay too much attention to what I?m saying because I?m just giving you examples of what can be done and what, what has been done,? he said.

Cambridge Analytica, in a statement issued after the Channel 4 broadcast, said the report was ?edited and scripted to grossly misrepresent the nature of those conversations and how the company conducts its business.?

The company said that it was the undercover reporter who had raised the idea of entrapping politicians, and that the executives had been trying to assess his intent. Mr. Nix and Mr. Turnbull ?humored these questions and actively encouraged the prospective client to disclose his intentions,? it said.

?They left with grave concerns and did not meet with him again,? the company said.

For Mr. Nix, the footage comes at an already perilous moment. Earlier this month, he told a parliamentary inquiry into fake news and Russian interference in Britain?s referendum to exit the European Union that Cambridge Analytica never used or possessed Facebook data.

But following the reports in The Times and Observer on Saturday, Damian Collins, the Conservative lawmaker leading the inquiry, said he planned to call Mr. Nix back to testify.

?It seems clear that he has deliberately misled the committee and Parliament,? Mr. Collins said in a statement this weekend.

Elizabeth Denham, the British information commissioner, told Channel 4 News that on March 7 she asked for access to Cambridge Analytica, setting a deadline of 6 p.m. Monday. Ms. Denham said she did not accept the response as satisfactory and so would be applying in court on Tuesday for a warrant.

?We need to look at the databases, we need to look at the servers and understand how the data was processed,? she said.

In a statement, Facebook said that it had ?hired a digital forensics firm, Stroz Friedberg, to conduct a comprehensive audit of Cambridge Analytica.?

But Mr. Collins, who is chairman of the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee, said he was concerned that Facebook might gain access to data before the information commissioner did.

?What are they doing?? Mr. Collins asked on Channel 4 News. ?Are they going in to physically recover data, to disturb the files? This investigation should be for the authorities.?

Mr. Collins said that the former Cambridge Analytica employee who came forward to disclose his company?s actions, Christopher Wylie, would be giving evidence to his committee. He said he wanted Mark Zuckerberg, or another senior executive from Facebook, to do the same.


Christopher Wylie, Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, speaks out on Facebook controversy

It then sold the data to Cambridge Analytica, which used it to create targeted political advertising. In total, some 50 million Americans may have been impacted.


In other political news Its looking more and more like the Dems can retake the House.

Pennsylvania Republicans Lose Late Push to Block Voting Map
This is a plus 3 to 5 seats over the seat won last week.

Paul Ryan has still not announced he is running for re election..getting Curiouser And Curiouser.

And the Dems are back to +10 on the generic ballot.
[SFW] [politics] [+4]
[by bbqkink@3:54amGMT]

Comments

satanspenis666 said @ 4:10am GMT on 20th Mar [Score:2]
steele said @ 12:16pm GMT on 20th Mar
Do you know about the SELink Tag?
mechanical contrivance said @ 1:35pm GMT on 20th Mar
Do you know about Tyler Durden?
steele said @ 1:37pm GMT on 20th Mar
Yes?
mechanical contrivance said @ 1:45pm GMT on 20th Mar
Your modesty is not very convincing.
satanspenis666 said @ 2:27pm GMT on 20th Mar
For youtube videos, I like the embedded videos more than the link. Any reason why you'd prefer the SE tag?
hellboy said @ 3:15pm GMT on 20th Mar
The SE tag has the embedded video too, just hidden in a spoiler box.
mechanical contrivance said @ 3:20pm GMT on 20th Mar
I like the SE tag version better because it shows the title of the video. That way, I can see what the video is without watching it.
steele said @ 12:56pm GMT on 20th Mar
Taxman said @ 7:56pm GMT on 20th Mar [Score:1 Interesting]
That is extremely interesting that you pulled that out.

Our department noticed this user's post.
steele said @ 8:01pm GMT on 20th Mar
steele said @ 10:04pm GMT on 20th Mar
Taxman said[1] @ 10:48pm GMT on 20th Mar
It's not what was posted, everything was using public links/knowledge.

The organization, timeline, and presentation by the user is what drew an eye or two. ;-)
gendo666 said @ 10:36pm GMT on 20th Mar

So I am ignorant of this so please someone tell me.
Can Trump legally directly fire Muller - or does it need to be done by someone else? - like a director head or someone?
And, if Trump can't legally do so and tries what happens?

Also does anyone think that Trump actually believes that if Muller is fired the investigation stops?

bbqkink said @ 10:46pm GMT on 20th Mar
No he can't fire Muller . Muller works for the justice department and would have to be fired by the AG...but seeing as the AG is "Sorta" recused from all things 2016 ast. AG Rod Rosenstein is the only person who can fire Muller and only for cause...admittedly something that doesn't mean as much after Trump fired Comey which also had to be for cause.
gendo666 said @ 4:30am GMT on 21st Mar

Thanks.
As someone sitting outside this I occasionally need someone to fill in the blanks.
Our Prime Minister is pretty useless as well but at least is not as malignant as Trump.

If he did Anything.
- anything it would be better than his world trips and useless gestures.
HoZay said @ 6:24am GMT on 21st Mar
Mueller reports to Rosenstein. Trump can arrange for Rosensein to be replaced with someone more to Trump's liking, who could then limit the scope of Mueller's investigation, or accept Mueller's final report, and then take forever to review it and never release it. You can bet there will be some attempt to elude justice, and the elected Republicans will not resist in the slightest way.
knumbknutz said @ 3:19pm GMT on 21st Mar
norok said[1] @ 2:23am GMT on 23rd Mar
Social Media Panic
"The moral panic over social media and the ‘misuse’ of information is ONLY about suppressing right-wing speech and taking away the tools of mass communication from people on the right.

That’s all it’s about and that’s all it’s ever been about. The Obama campaign quite literally wrote the book on social media manipulation and massive data harvesting. Nobody in the press or Silicon Valley cared, because he won.

Now that Trump won based on (largely organic) social media success, our democracy has suddenly been ‘corrupted’ by a ‘war’ of ideas and information that manipulates people into voting the wrong way.

The left had a monopoly on broadcast media for decades. They got to decide who was legitimate and who wasn’t. Then the internet came along and gave THE PEOPLE a voice — and surprise, it’s not working out so well for the left.

All these current social media recriminations are about is reestablishing the old order. Instead of the big-three broadcast networks where liberals decide what voices are heard, we’re headed into the big-three social media networks where, again, liberals decide what voices are heard."

How quickly we are expected to forget the media fawning over Obama's successful use of data mining to win his elections. The Left was beaten on their own turf and so now we need 'changes' to ensure such a thing does not happen again.
bbqkink said @ 2:53am GMT on 23rd Mar
Michael Simon
✔
@mbsimon

👋 I ran the Obama 2008 data-driven microtargeting team. How dare you! We didn’t steal private Facebook profile data from voters under false pretenses. OFA voluntarily solicited opinions of hundreds of thousands of voters. We didn’t commit theft to do our groundbreaking work. https://twitter.com/CamAnalytica/status/975081782625226752 …


No, Obama Didn’t Employ the Same Strategies as Cambridge Analytica

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