3 Dangers In The Blow-Up Over Cambridge Analytica, Trump’s Computer Gurus

By Greg Palast

There are three dangers in the blow-up over Trump’s computer gurus Cambridge Analytica.

First, this is not a "bad apple" story. The dark art of dynamic psychometric manipulation in politics was not pioneered by Cambridge Analytica for Trump, but by i360 Themis, the operation founded by the Koch brothers. That’s why Mark Swedlund, himself an expert in these tools, explained in our film that i360 dynamically tracks you on 1800 behaviors, or as Swedlund graphically puts it, “they know the last time you downloaded porn and whether you ordered Chinese food before you voted.“ Swedlund adds his expert conclusion: "I think that’s creepy."

By focusing solely on Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytica and their cyber thieving, we lose the fact that bigger players like the Kochs and Karl Rove, with his monster Data Trust program funded by right-wing billionaire Paul "The Vulture" Singer, are also committing serious vote manipulation evils.

Way too much is made of the importance of stealing data through a phony app. If you’ve ever filled out an online survey, Swedlund told me, they’ve got you — legally.

The second danger is to forget that the GOP has been using computer power to wipe away voting rights of Black and Hispanic voters for years — by "caging," "Crosscheck," citizenship challenges based on last name (Garcia? Not American!?!) and more — a far more effective use of cyberpower than unconsciously manipulating your behavior through Facebook ads.

The third danger is to overplay the important of cyberwar techniques in elections. Cambridge Analytica worked for Ted Cruz in the GOP primary AGAINST Trump — and what happened. That Hillary Clinton arrogantly defended NAFTA in Michigan, did not deign to visit Wisconsin once during the campaign, never visited or met with jobless auto workers at a closed plant in Ohio, as Trump did — this had more to do with her loss than computer geeks playing mad scientist in Britain.

* * * * *

The story, of course, was reported by The Guardian and Observer in 2015 — when Cambridge Analytica was working AGAINST Trump. Did we listen? Did any US paper carry the story? So, my first reaction reading this story was nostalgia — for the time when I was a reporter with The Guardian and Observer investigations team. When you could spend a year digging deep into complex stories, working with crazy insiders. By moving back to America, I had to give up any work with US papers. They truly fear deep investigation. And THAT, fear of digging out the truth, is a greater threat to America than Steve Bannan.

* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!

Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.

Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!

Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.

Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

GregPalast.com

The post 3 Dangers In The Blow-Up Over Cambridge Analytica, Trump’s Computer Gurus appeared first on Greg Palast.