Tuesday, April 3, 2018

POLITICO's Cambridge Analytica Collection (3/27/18)

I’m told among the first rules of any contest are: know your opponent, followed by: don’t underestimate your opponent. The DNC and DCCC has repeatedly failed on both counts, as demonstrated by serial catastrophic failures: Gore’s loss; Obama/DNC failure to build/maintain an informed engaged grassroots infrastructure; Judge Merrick Garland capitulation; the 2016 campaign debacle.  Now we're entering another election season and it seems nothing has changed, ...          (to be continued after this index) 

POLITICO's Cambridge Analytica Collection

           By MARK SCOTT | 3/27/18
           By MARK SCOTT AND LAURENS CERULUS | 3/26/18
           By NANCY SCOLA | 3/26/18
           By LORRAINE WOELLERT 03/26/2018
           By MARK SCOTT  3/25/18
           By CARMEN PAUN | 3/25/18
           By SARAH WHEATON | 3/24/18,
           By JOSH MEYER | 3/22/18,
           By ANNABELLE DICKSON AND MARK SCOTT | 3/22/18
           By ZACH SAYER | 3/21/18
           By PAUL DALLISON | 3/20/18
           By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM | 3/20/18
           By JACK BLANCHARD 3/20/18
           By LAURENS CERULUS | 3/19/18
           By POLITICO | 3/19/18
           By MARK SCOTT | 3/18/18
           By STEVEN OVERLY | 3/17/18
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           By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM 10/25/17
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           By KENNETH P. VOGELBEN SCHRECKINGERALEX ISENSTADT AND DARREN SAMUELSOHN | 9/26/16

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(continued)  ... if the Democratic Party emails I receive are any indication.  Different names, but the same old pathetic boiler plate donation pitches - nothing to inform, nothing to engage people's interest, let alone to get them excited, no community networking to rally forces, no attempts to draw out and connect talent and like minds, no nothing imaginative, just the same old hat being passed.  


These times demand better than that, fortunately other organizations are stepping up, yet we still depend on the Democratic Party, so must work to reform it.

Heck, look at the interwoven Americans for Koch Prosperity, Tea Party, Alt-right movement with their passionate alternative reality and disregard for truth and facts and its phenomenal success.  A success that's dependent on them using juvenile tactics like distracting from the topic at hand, ruthless scapegoating, creating straw man battle fields populated with hypotheticals and endless melodramatic emotionalizing.

Who knows where we go from here, I sure don't, all I know is that sanely moving into our challenging future will require honestly assessing physical facts and objective knowledge. That's why I'm going to the Colorado State Democratic Convention. I'm hoping to find some younger Democrats with brains, a plan, and a passionate desire to rattle (or topple, if they have it in 'em) the current complacent Democratic Party power structure which has turned its back on their future.  

Another thing I do know, is that a healthy democracy demands an informed and engaged citizenry. Toward that end I offer this collection of articles that Politico has published regarding the developing Cambridge Analytical story.  I'll update it from time to time.

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Back to the frightening, fascinating Bannon's Cambridge Analytica revelations, with selected quotes. 

March 27, 2018

Cambridge Analytica helped ‘cheat’ Brexit vote and US election, claims whistleblower
Giving evidence to MPs, Chris Wylie claimed the company’s actions during the Brexit campaign were ‘a breach of the law.’

By MARK SCOTT | Updated 3/29/18, 9:18 PM CET

LONDON — Misuse of data and “cheating” by Cambridge Analytica and other companies associated with the firm may have altered the outcome of both the U.S. presidential election and the U.K.’s Brexit referendum, a company whistleblower told British lawmakers.
Chris Wylie, the former director of research at Cambridge Analytica, which has been accused of illegally collecting online data of up to 50 million Facebook users, said that his work allowed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to garner unprecedented insight into voters’ habits ahead of the 2016 vote.
He added that a Canadian business with ties to Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, SCL Group, also provided analysis for the Vote Leave campaign ahead of the 2016 Brexit referendum. This research, Wylie said, likely breached the U.K.’s strict campaign financing laws and may have helped to sway the final Brexit outcome.
“If we allow cheating in our democratic process … What about next time? What about the time after that? This is a breach of the law. This is cheating,” he told British politicians Tuesday. “This is not some council race, or a by-election. This is an irreversible change to the constitutional settlement of this country.” …


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March 26, 2018

Facebook data scandal opens new era in global privacy enforcement
The growing data-mining scandal that Facebook faces is upping the pressure on global privacy regulators.

By MARK SCOTT AND LAURENS CERULUS | Updated 3/31/18, 7:00 AM CET

The global storm over allegations that more than 50 million Facebook users had their online data collected without their knowledge is pushing privacy watchdogs from the fringes of law enforcement into the political fray.
On both sides of the Atlantic, data protection authorities are under fresh pressure to enforce existing privacy rules and better police the digital space. But they face nagging doubts over whether they have the resources, clout and willpower to regulate tech giants like Facebook.
These questions are bound to dominate a two-day get-together of data protection authorities that starts in Washington on Tuesday. Gathered for the first time since Zuckerberg pledged to “fix” his company and took out full-page ads in British and U.S. newspapers to promise change, privacy chiefs are expected to discuss where they fell short on data protection and how they might restore trust with the public.

… The pressure will only grow when the EU unveils a revamped set of privacy rules at the end of May — rules that have become the de facto global standard. …


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March 26, 2018

US regulator confirms investigation of Facebook
     ‘The FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook.’

By NANCY SCOLA | Updated 3/26/18, 5:21 PM CET

WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission today confirmed it’s investigating Facebook in the wake of revelations that the company allowed the Trump-linked firm Cambridge Analytica to improperly obtain data on 50 million Facebook users.
“Companies who have settled previous FTC actions must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements,” Tom Pahl, acting director of the FTC’s consumer protection bureau, said in a statement. “Accordingly, the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook. Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices.”
In 2011, Facebook entered into a consent decree with the FTC over its privacy practices.
A source familiar with the matter told POLITICO last week that the FTC had launched an inquiry into Facebook. …


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March 26, 2018

Justice and FEC asked to investigate Cambridge Analytica

By LORRAINE WOELLERT 03/26/2018 12:42 PM EDT

A government watchdog on Monday asked regulators and federal prosecutors to investigate whether Cambridge Analytica’s work for the campaign of President Donald Trump broke laws against foreign interference in U.S. elections.
In complaints filed with the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission, the nonpartisan group Common Cause said Cambridge Analytica and its affiliate, SCL Group Limited, violated a ban on foreign nationals participating in the “decision-making process” of campaigns or political committees.
The complaint names several Cambridge Analytica employees, including Alexander Nix, who was suspended as the company’s CEO last week. The data firm, staffed almost entirely by non-U.S. workers, did nearly $6 million worth of work for the presidential campaigns of Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) during the 2016 election, according to the complaint.
“These companies and individuals ignored the law, enriched themselves performing millions of dollars of prohibited work for candidates and committees, and then boasted about the effectiveness of their activities in swaying U.S. elections,” Common Cause’s president, Karen Hobert Flynn, said in a statement.
In 2016, Cambridge Analytica also provided more than $800,000 in services to John Bolton’s political action committee. On Thursday, Trump said Bolton would join the White House as national security adviser, replacing the ousted Gen. H.R. McMaster.


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March 25, 2018

Facebook’s digital empire hard to shake despite Cambridge Analytica scandal
People are leaving Facebook in droves. But they are not escaping the social media giant’s empire.

By MARK SCOTT Updated 3/27/18

LONDON — Following revelations that roughly 50 million U.S. Facebook users may have had their data harvested without their knowledge, people from Copenhagen to Chicago are rushing to leave the world’s largest social network.
Good luck with that.
Since its creation in Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard University dorm room in 2004, the social media giant has extended its reach across the digital world. Its global reach now makes it almost impossible for people to disentangle themselves completely from an online empire that has made Facebook one of the richest — and most politically influential — companies in the world. …


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March 25, 2018

Activist suggests Vote Leave broke spending rules in Brexit campaign
Donation to youth group allegedly went to a Canadian data analytics firm.

By CARMEN PAUN | Updated 3/25/18, 1:41 PM CET

The main pro-Leave campaign in Britain’s EU referendum may have broken spending rules by donating money to a pro-Brexit youth group, according to an account by a senior figure in the youth organization published by the Observer newspaper on Sunday.
The accusations come from Shahmir Sanni, who served as secretary and treasurer of the BeLeave group. He told the Observer that a £625,000 donation to the group from the Vote Leave campaign was never under the control of his organization.
“Vote Leave didn’t really give us that money,” he said. “They just pretended to. We had no control over it. We were 22-year-old students. You’re not going to just give nearly a million pounds to a pair of students and let them do whatever.” …
… But Sanni said the donation went straight to Canadian data analytics firm AggregateIQ (AIQ), which did extensive work for the Vote Leave campaign.

But Sanni said the donation went straight to Canadian data analytics firm AggregateIQ (AIQ), which did extensive work for the Vote Leave campaign, 
That company has “undisclosed links” to Cambridge Analytica, the Observer reported. Cambridge Analytica is at the heart of a scandal over alleged harvesting of Facebook users’ data without their consent for use in Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential campaign. The company denies wrongdoing. …


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March 24, 2018

UK authorities raid Cambridge Analytica HQ
Around 18 investigators were seen entering the company’s London office after obtaining a warrant to search its database and servers Friday night.

By SARAH WHEATON | Updated 3/24/18, 11:32 AM CET

U.K. authorities raided Cambridge Analytica’s offices overnight amid an investigation into whether the political consulting firm illegally acquired Facebook data to target voters.
Around 18 investigators were seen entering the company’s London headquarters after obtaining a warrant to search its database and servers Friday night, the Guardian reported. The search lasted seven hours, according to the BBC.
“This is just one part of a larger investigation into the use of personal data and analytics for political purposes,” the Information Commissioner’s Office said late Friday after receiving the warrant. “As you will expect, we will now need to collect, assess and consider the evidence before coming to any conclusions.” …


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March 22, 2018

British data protection agency takes center stage in investigating Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook data
The alleged privacy breach is a major test for Britain’s chief data regulator.

By ANNABELLE DICKSON AND MARK SCOTT | Updated 3/28/18,

LONDON — When Elizabeth Denham became the U.K.’s privacy regulator in 2016, data protection was hardly the hot-button topic it is today.
Fast-forward 18 months, and the world has changed. Denham is now in the eye of a storm over allegations that roughly 50 million Facebook users had personal data harvested without their consent by a British-based researcher connected to Cambridge Analytica, a political research firm with ties to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The scandal — in which both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica deny wrongdoing — is exposing Denham and her previously little-known U.K. data protection agency to an unprecedented level of scrutiny, as lawmakers wonder whether she has the resources, power and political backing to take on a privacy investigation involving one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Denham’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is now leading the global investigation into whether Cambridge Analytica — which used data from Facebook to try to help U.S. President Donald Trump get elected — ran afoul of Britain’s tough data protection standards. As of Thursday, she had yet to obtain a warrant to seek information from the firm. …


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March 22, 2018

Cambridge Analytica boss went from ‘aromatics’ to psyops to Trump’s campaign
While Alexander Nix draws headlines for his role in the Trump 2016 digital operation, his colorful business partner Nigel Oakes may be an equally important figure.

By JOSH MEYER | Updated 3/23/18, 4:17 AM CET

WASHINGTON — Long before the political data firm he oversees, Cambridge Analytica, helped Donald Trump become president, Nigel Oakes tried a very different form of influencing human behavior. It was called “marketing aromatics,” or the use of smells to make consumers spend more money.
In the decades since, the Eton-educated British businessman has styled himself as an expert on a wide variety of “mind-bending” techniques — from scents to psychological warfare to campaign politics.
But some 25 years after his foray into aromatics, a bad odor has arisen around his use of data to influence voter behavior. Oakes and his partners, who include Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix, are under intense scrutiny over their methods in the 2016 campaign, including the alleged improper use of Facebook data. Some news reports have also found links to Russia that the company has downplayed.
Oakes and the company he co-founded in 2005 along with Nix, SCL Group, have now drawn the interest of congressional officials. Three Republican senators wrote Oakes a letter this week requesting information and a briefing related to Facebook’s sudden suspension last Friday of Cambridge Analytica, which is a closely affiliated subsidiary of SCL. …


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March 22, 2018

British data protection agency takes center stage in investigating Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook data
The alleged privacy breach is a major test for Britain’s chief data regulator.

By ANNABELLE DICKSON AND MARK SCOTT | Updated 3/23/18, 2:07 PM CET

LONDON — When Elizabeth Denham became the U.K.’s privacy regulator in 2016, data protection was hardly the hot-button topic it is today.
Fast-forward 18 months, and the world has changed. Denham is now in the eye of a storm over allegations that roughly 50 million Facebook users had personal data harvested without their consent by a British-based researcher connected to Cambridge Analytica, a political research firm with ties to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The scandal — in which both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica deny wrongdoing — is exposing Denham and her previously little-known U.K. data protection agency to an unprecedented level of scrutiny, as lawmakers wonder whether she has the resources, power and political backing to take on a privacy investigation involving one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Denham’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is now leading the global investigation into whether Cambridge Analytica — which used data from Facebook to try to help U.S. President Donald Trump get elected — ran afoul of Britain’s tough data protection standards …


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March 21, 2018

Cambridge Analytica academic who mined Facebook data: I’m a ‘scapegoat’
Researcher Aleksander Kogan claimed he had ‘no knowledge’ of data’s use.

By ZACH SAYER | Updated 3/21/18, 11:35 AM CET

Aleksandr Kogan, the Cambridge University researcher at the center of Facebook’s data breach allegations, said today he is being used as a “scapegoat” by the social network and Cambridge Analytica, the analytics firm that acquired the data.
“The events of the past week have been a total shell shock, and my view is that I’m being basically used as a scapegoat by both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica when… we thought we were doing something that was really normal,” Kogan told BBC 4’s Today Program.
“We were assured by Cambridge Analytica that everything was perfectly legal and within the terms of service,” he said.
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie last week told the Observer that data collected by an app Kogan created was used target voters in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The firm mined the information of about 50 million Facebook users, according to Wylie. …


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March 20, 2018

Cambridge Analytica suspends CEO Alexander Nix
Boss told undercover Channel 4 News reporters his company was heavily involved in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

By PAUL DALLISON | Updated 3/22/18, 9:13 AM CET

Cambridge Analytica was heavily involved in Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential campaign, the boss of the scandal-hit data firm told an undercover reporter.
In the latest installment of a wide-ranging investigation into the London-based firm by Channel 4 News, broadcast in the U.K. Tuesday evening, Alexander Nix said of his work for Trump: “We did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, we ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy.”
Cambridge Analytica suspended Nix as the program aired Tuesday. “Mr. Nix’s recent comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 and other allegations do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation,” the company said in a statement.
The data company was already in the spotlight following reports in the New York Times and the Observer that it illegally collected Facebook data from roughly 50 million American voters. This information, the newspapers suggested, allowed Cambridge Analytica to target messaging to these voters based on their personal lives and political leanings. …


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March 20, 2018

Trump campaign sprints away from Cambridge Analytica
As the scandal around the data analytics firm intensifies, the Trump camp dramatically downplays its ties to the company.

By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM | Updated 3/20/18, 11:15 PM CET

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his allies are well-practiced in the art of distancing themselves from their own campaign officials and activities once they run into controversy.
The swiftly intensifying scandal involving Cambridge Analytica is no different.
With the data analytics firm battling headlines over a breach of Facebook users’ private data as part of their work to elect Trump and over its now-suspended CEO’s secret pitch of honey traps to influence elections around the world, the Trump team is once again deploying a hardly-knew-‘em defense.
A Trump campaign official — who did not wish to be named — told POLITICO on Tuesday …


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March 20, 2018

POLITICO London Playbook: Russia next steps — Getting into Cambridge — Brexit scoop

By JACK BLANCHARD 3/20/18, 8:05 AM CET


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March 19, 2018

Europe’s data protection authorities eye Facebook, Cambridge Analytica
The social media company and the political consultancy could face fights with UK and EU authorities.

By LAURENS CERULUS | Updated 3/19/18, 5:18 PM CET

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, two companies at the center of allegations of massive misuse of personal data, could face a flurry of investigations and inquiries in Europe as the Continent takes a stricter approach to data protection.
The British Information Commissioner’s Office said Monday that an ongoing investigation into micro-targeting in political campaigning using personal data will include “any new information, statements or evidence that have come to light in recent days.”
“This is a complex and far reaching investigation for my office and any criminal or civil enforcement actions arising from it will be pursued vigorously,” reads a statement from privacy chief Elizabeth Denham. …


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March 19, 2018

Cambridge Analytica boasts of dirty tricks to swing elections
The data firm told an undercover reporter it used secretive tactics to influence elections.

By POLITICO | Updated 3/19/18, 9:32 PM CET

The CEO of Cambridge Analytica, the data firm used by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, boasted to an undercover reporter about the company’s use of honey traps and secretive campaigning tactics to influence elections around the world.
Filmed as part of an investigation by Channel 4 News, which aired Monday, Alexander Nix told an undercover reporter posing as a prospective client that his company could gather damaging material about opponents using a range of tactics including sending “some girls round to the candidate’s house.”
“We’ll offer a large amount of money to the candidate to finance his campaign in exchange for land, for instance, we’ll have the whole thing recorded on cameras. We’ll blank out the face of our guy and we’ll then post it on the internet,” Nix said.
The fresh allegations intensify pressure on the data company, already in the spotlight following reports in the New York Times and the Observer that the company illegally collected Facebook data from roughly 50 million American voters. …


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March 17, 2018

Trump-linked firm exploited data on 50M Facebook users: report
The breach is sure to raise more questions about the social media giant’s role in politics.

By STEVEN OVERLY | Updated 3/19/18, 8:22 AM CET
The data analytics firm that used voter-targeting tactics to help President Donald Trump clinch the White House improperly collected information on more than 50 million Facebook users, the New York Times alleged Saturday in a report that raises further questions about both companies’ conduct during and after the 2016 election.
The Times article, and a companion piece published by the Observer in London, landed hours after Facebook announced that it had suspended the firm, Cambridge Analytica, while investigating whether it had improperly kept data on as many as 270,000 users.
But the newest reports raise the prospect that the breach was far broader than what Facebook copped to Friday night — while tying the privacy violations directly to Cambridge’s work for Trump’s campaign and its alleged entanglements with Russia.
The Times quoted an anonymous Cambridge employee as saying that hundreds of gigabytes of unencrypted Facebook data still exist on Cambridge’s servers, contradicting assurances given to congressional investigators.  …


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March 18, 2018

Politicians worldwide raise questions about Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook data
The reality of 21st century politics is its increasingly played out on social media.

By MARK SCOTT | Updated 3/20/18, 7:11 PM CET

LONDON — Facebook is again under fire over its role in politics.
Politicians in the U.S. and Europe rushed to condemn allegations that millions of the social network’s users may have had their personal information harvested without their knowledge to swing voters for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
The revelations, described by the New York Times and the Observer over the weekend, highlight the growing difficulty in policing 21st century political campaigns. Parties in Europe, the United States and farther afield increasingly rely on digital advertising, largely on Facebook, to woo voters.
These allegations reignited demands that Facebook and other platforms do more to police what happens within their digital empires. Policymakers, particularly in Europe, have been calling for online platforms to take greater responsibility. In the U.S., officials also accused Facebook and Twitter of helping to spread Russian-backed digital misinformation to sow dissent among voters in the 2016 electoral cycle. …


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October 25,2017

Assange: Trump-tied firm sought WikiLeaks help before election
‘We have confirmed the approach and rejection only. Not the subject,’ Assange said.

By MATTHEW NUSSBAUM 10/25/17, 8:00 PM CET

One of the Trump campaign’s top data firms sought to connect with Julian Assange before the 2016 election, the Wikileaks founder said on Twitter on Wednesday.
“I can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica [prior to November last year] and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks,” Assange wrote.
The interaction was first reported by the Daily Beast, which said the firm approached WikiLeaks about finding emails sent during Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state that were not made public by the State Department. Assange, however, did not specify in his tweet who from Cambridge Analytica approached him or what they sought.
“We have confirmed the approach and rejection only. Not the subject,” Assange later added on Twitter. …


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December 11, 2017

As Russia probes progress, one name is missing: Bannon’s
People close to the probe say the former campaign and White House strategist will be a key witness for prosecutors and Hill investigators.

By DARREN SAMUELSOHN | Updated 12/11/17, 1:28 PM CET
 …

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March 6, 2017

Mega-donor urged Bannon not to resign
Trump’s strategist threatened to leave the White House after clashing with Jared Kushner.

By ELIANA JOHNSON, KENNETH P. VOGEL AND JOSH DAWSEY | Updated 4/6/17

The man credited with honing Donald Trump’s populist message and guiding him into the White House has grown frustrated amid continued infighting in the West Wing, so much so that in recent weeks a top donor had to convince him to stay in his position.
Five people, including a senior administration official and several sources close to the president, tell POLITICO that Bannon, one of Trump’s closest advisers, has clashed with the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who’s taken on an increasingly prominent portfolio in the West Wing. Bannon has complained that Kushner and his allies are trying to undermine his populist approach, the sources said.
Republican mega-donor Rebekah Mercer, a longtime Bannon confidante who became a prominent Trump supporter during the campaign, urged Bannon not to resign. “Rebekah Mercer prevailed upon him to stay,” said one person familiar with the situation.
Another person familiar with the situation, a GOP operative who talks to Mercer, said: “Bekah tried to convince him that this is a long-term play.”
Bannon has worked closely with Mercer not only at the right-wing website Breitbart News, where her family is a major investor and where he served as executive chairman until joining the Trump campaign in August, but also at Cambridge Analytica, the data-analytics firm owned largely by the Mercers. Bannon is a part owner of the firm, though he’s trying to sell his stake, and until recently he served as vice president of the company’s board. …


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February 26, 2017

US billionaire who helped Trump campaign also helped Leave.eu
Breitbart co-owner Robert Mercer is a long-time friend of Nigel Farage.

By HELEN COLLIS | Updated 2/26/17, 11:28 AM CET

A U.S. billionaire who co-owns right-wing Breitbart News and helped bankroll Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, also played a key role in the Brexit campaign, according to the Observer.
Robert Mercer is a long-time friend of former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, the paper said. During the referendum campaign, he offered the Leave campaign free services from his business Cambridge Analytica, to sway swing voters on social media through targeted ads.
Cambridge Analytica, an offshoot of British company SCL Group, claims to offer “cutting-edge data enhancement and audience segmentation techniques” to profile and target audiences, such as voters.
The Trump campaign paid the firm more than $6 million for the company’s services. The Leave campaign did not file a donation from the company; all gifts over £7,500 must be declared by law to the electoral commission.
Leave.eu filed documents saying the company was a “strategic partner,” but in December, …


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September 26, 2016

Trump team builds ‘psychological profile’ of Clinton for debate
The Republican nominee and his team are taking a more sophisticated approach to debate preparation than previously known.

By KENNETH P. VOGEL, BEN SCHRECKINGER, ALEX ISENSTADT AND DARREN SAMUELSOHN | Updated 9/26/16, 11:09 AM CET

Donald Trump’s team has created a detailed analysis of Hillary Clinton’s debate style — including her body language and verbal tics — with the goal of helping the Republican nominee exploit weaknesses during Monday’s debate, according to three sources familiar with Trump’s preparations.
The “psychological profile,” as the analysis is being called, is based on a statistical analysis of videos from 16 years’ worth of Clinton’s debates, dating back to her 2000 campaign for Senate in New York, according to the operatives. They said it was assembled with assistance from a political data firm called Cambridge Analytica that specializes in “psychographic” modeling of voters and donors, and that Trump’s top advisers have been pleased with the results.
The advisers believe that the profile proves that Clinton has significant weaknesses and that they have identified her ‘tells’ …


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bonus







New details emerge about Steve Bannon's ties to Cambridge Analytica

Brennan Weiss March 24, 2018

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has deep ties to the embattled data firm, Cambridge Analytica, which has come under scrutiny for using the Facebook data of 50 million people without permission.

Bannon, who helped found the data company and served as its vice president, has denied knowing about the firm's purchase of the Facebook data.

But a former employee at the company contradicts Bannon's claims and recently posted a page from an alleged letter indicating that Bannon was, at least in part, aware of Cambridge Analytica's activities related to the US election.


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