Donald Trump, the first week is BAD. What next? Come all ye Beautifuls!

[Roussette]

Here we are!

shakeyospeare, it was worth posting twice!

In fact I'll post it a third time, though it's quite a long article and I haven't finished reading yet: Trump Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself, Antidotezine.

It's about how the Trump campaign used psychometric profiling and Facebook data, not just to encourage people to vote for him, but to suppress the votes of those who'd never vote for him.

"Trump’s conspicuous contradictions and his oft-criticized habit of staking out multiple positions on a single issue result in a gigantic number of resulting messaging options that creates a huge advantage for a firm like Cambridge Analytica: for every voter, a different message."

You need to write BIG tweets now.

(oh, and check your spelling. It's not a big thing normally but when you're POTUS, it should be)

Unless this is another dead cat. But there are a lot of DEAD cats. It's like a whole field of dead CATS. I don't know which one to look at.

What's a dead cat (other than the obvious)?

It's the idea that if you want to distract someone from something in a meeting, throwing a dead cat onto the table is a good way to do it. (Or a totally outrageous story to the media - a dead cat story).

I've just had a thought, and I hope a certain someone doesn't read it, in case it gives them ideas.

How long, do you think, until that certain person signs an order to have his physiognomy on the side of US mintage?

What's a dead cat (other than the obvious)?

If you watched Cameron at PMQs, he was very good at it. Say something so outrageous that it becomes the focus of the story and other stuff gets ignored. Cameron was an expert.

See also: dog whistle politics.

Just one of many CATS.

blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/did-david-cameron-adopt-the-dead-cat-strategy-at-pmqs/

'Bunch of migrants'

think-left.org/2016/02/25/camerons-sartorial-dead-cat-manoeuvre/

Do up your tie and wear a decent suit...

Just for Spicer.

Dominic Cummings ('career psychopath') wrote this about the software they used to target the campaign material for Vote Leave:

"Data flowed in on the ground and was then analysed by the data science team and integrated with all the other data streaming in. Data models helped us target the ground campaign resources and in turn data from the ground campaign helped test and refine the models in a learning cycle – i.e. VICS was not only useful to the ground campaign but also helped improve the models used for other things. (This was the point of our £50 million prize for predicting the results of the European football championships, which gathered data from people who usually ignore politics – I’m still frustrated we couldn’t persuade someone to insure a £350 million prize which is what I wanted to do.) In the official 10 week campaign we served about one billion targeted digital adverts, mostly via Facebook and strongly weighted to the period around postal voting and the last 10 days of the campaign. We ran many different versions of ads, tested them, dropped the less effective and reinforced the most effective in a constant iterative process. We combined this feedback with polls (conventional and unconventional) and focus groups to get an overall sense of what was getting through. The models honed by VICS also were used to produce dozens of different versions of the referendum address (46 million leaflets) and we tweaked the language and look according to the most reliable experiments done in the world (e.g. hence our very plain unbranded ‘The Facts’ leaflet which the other side tested, found very effective, and tried to copy). I will blog more about this."

They made the software open-source. People do need to be aware how things will be amended to directly target them.

dominiccummings.wordpress.com/2016/10/29/on-the-referendum-20-the-campaign-physics-and-data-science-vote-leaves-voter-intention-collection-system-vics-now-available-for-all/

Lweji

Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩

The whole psychology of what we believe and read is fascinating. When comments are moderated on websites so only those that tend to agree are published. Just nudging people towards a view.

I might place a bet.

I think they should put it on toilet paper instead...

I see a need in the market for that.
Proudly made in the USA.

Sigh. Another day down the rabbit hole.

‘I can’t believe that!’ said Alice the American People.

‘Can’t you?’ the Queen Kellyanne said in a pitying tone. ‘Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.’

Alice The American People laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said: ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’

‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen Kellyanne. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
― Lewis Carroll (paraphrased)

noblegiraffe it is fascinating isn't it. I work in tech and I confess I am also a massive SF fan. I think people need to learn that the most valuable thing they own is their data. Everyone leaves a trail behind them now and all that information can be followed, tracked and used. We are all used to targeted adverts after we browsed something on Amazon, there is a view that this is a benign thing and that if you aren't doing anything dodgy it's not a problem. It is a huge problem though. This information can be used as above to influence and mislead people, by presenting information in a way they are most likely to relate to or hiding information they would disagree with. It could also be used by a less benign government to find and target people who do not support them. This is not a dystopian SF scenario, it can and does happen.

If you haven't watched it I would really recommend the Edward Snowdon documentary citizenfour. It is on Netflix and will scare the shit out of you. What the government can do is terrifying, especially now it is most definitely in the wrong hands. Of course the UK isn't any better, we just don't have a batshit crazy person in charge right now.

I adore John Oliver and this video was shown early last year and gives some good facts around voter fraud. The candid footage of senators in action is just

I understand Trump is about to give a speech about the wall....

also what does he mean by this:

If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!

ie, why is carnage in quotation marks?

I just saw the rogue national park service now have almost half a million followers on Twitter. Got to love them

Place marking - this is a great thread, a great thread

It seems some of my favourite bits of fiction are not only coming to life, they're evolving. 1984, definitely. We've allowed that bit by bit. The Handmaiden's Tale? I can see that happening and it is terrifying.

Even more terrifying are the people who say, Trump is a breath of fresh air! Let's see what he does?

Yup, let's sit back with some popcorn and watch the world burn.

One of my favourite quotes: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

How can we collectively prevent what we know will happen?

@singasong12 A TREMENDOUS THREAD! A BIGLY THREAD THAT IS GREAT, SO GREAT, BELIEVE ME, IT'S GREAT!

We have to be a bit careful what we criticise though: military fly-pasts and marching soldiers for state occasions? Um, erm, yep, British speciality.

And if local or national government tried to require people to vaccinate their children in order to get a place in state schools, I think many people, not just anti-vaxxers, would be rather cross. I know I would.

Seriously thinking of applying for that second passport in my father's nationality so we have a refuge just in case.