Cambridge Analytica by another name? I wonder if the Mercer's and other deep pockets are keeping their distance from Bannon or will once again, meddle (possibly illegally) in elections far and wide?
The foundation, which Bannon said would be called The Movement, will offer polling, advice on messaging and data targeting and research to a network of rightwing parties across Europe that are enjoying a significant surge in support.
Cambridge Analytica by another name?
He appears optimistic, however, about his potential impact on the European stage, buoyed by the knowledge that the leave campaign’s victory in the Brexit referendum was achieved on a £7m budget.
I wonder if the Mercer's and other deep pockets are keeping their distance from Bannon or will once again, meddle (possibly illegally) in elections far and wide?
Of course they’ll meddle again. Until there’s a conviction, there’s no reason for them not to. Even then, as long they’ve secured elected officers ready to commute or pardon there’s even less...
Of course they’ll meddle again. Until there’s a conviction, there’s no reason for them not to. Even then, as long they’ve secured elected officers ready to commute or pardon there’s even less reason for them to stop.
This is what absolutely stymies me, the lack of even a wet noodle wrist slap for the worst offenders, not just in the US but also in the UK. Cambridge Analytica worked in Africa and elsewhere to...
This is what absolutely stymies me, the lack of even a wet noodle wrist slap for the worst offenders, not just in the US but also in the UK. Cambridge Analytica worked in Africa and elsewhere to 'ensure' election outcomes.
I'm gobslmaked that so far, none of the people responsible are even breaking a sweat.
It’s totally infuriation. Small moral victory (I guess) when Cambridge Analytica declared bankruptcy — and then like a week later everyone came back together at Emerdata. Just like Blackwater...
It’s totally infuriation. Small moral victory (I guess) when Cambridge Analytica declared bankruptcy — and then like a week later everyone came back together at Emerdata.
Just like Blackwater reformed into Xe and many others I’m sure.
It seems like as long as the crime is big enough and empowers/enriches enough powerful people, nothing happens to the criminals.
So what is it that gives them this power besides money? I really have a tough time with the idea that failed ideologies have made a resurgence on hate, racism and misogyny in western societies in...
So what is it that gives them this power besides money? I really have a tough time with the idea that failed ideologies have made a resurgence on hate, racism and misogyny in western societies in large numbers.
I never even heard about Dominonism until a few years ago. I still can't figure out how a fringe religion has infiltrated western democracies politically.
I think there maybe a problem with contagious spine melting disease.
There’s the idiom of the upper class getting the middle class to blame the lower class for all their problems. Maybe I’m being naive, but one thing I think that gives bigotry so much power is the...
There’s the idiom of the upper class getting the middle class to blame the lower class for all their problems. Maybe I’m being naive, but one thing I think that gives bigotry so much power is the promise of an eternal lower class.
Whether that class was slaves, indigenous Americans, Catholics, black people, Japanese Americans, migrants, refugees, etc. there would always be someone below the “average” person on whom they could lay their blame who would be powerless to do anything about it. I think there’s a lot of seductive power in that and I think the people with money are happy exploiting it.
At the highest level, where once there was an international, popular collaboration around an ideology of "making the world safe for democracy", things have devolved to the point where there's an...
At the highest level, where once there was an international, popular collaboration around an ideology of "making the world safe for democracy", things have devolved to the point where there's an international, oligarchic conspiracy to make the world safe for autocracy and corruption.
The Qui bono? in all of this is a tiny coterie of 12-figure multi-billionaire plutocrats who seek exemption from all law and taxation. It's not "Russia", it's the personal fortunes of Putin and other oligarchs; it's not "Britain", it's Murdoch and an assortment of other big old money names; it's not "America", it's the Koch, Mercer, Mellon-Scaife, De Vos families.
Dominionism, "white nationalism", fundamentalist religion, and the other far-right ideologies are just tools to ensure that the plutocrats can take and hold power. There would be 99% opposition if the economic power structure was clear to electorates, and votes weren't being suppressed or distorted by Bannon and his ilk - autocracy is the only way the families can maintain their wealth intact and safe from scrutiny of the harms caused in its accumulation.
On good days I've thought this might be a last gasp coordinated attempt to shore up the diminishing status quo of failed ideologies and therefore their influence and power. On bad days, I think...
There would be 99% opposition if the economic power structure was clear to electorates, and votes weren't being suppressed or distorted by Bannon and his ilk - autocracy is the only way the families can maintain their wealth intact and safe from scrutiny of the harms caused in its accumulation.
On good days I've thought this might be a last gasp coordinated attempt to shore up the diminishing status quo of failed ideologies and therefore their influence and power.
On bad days, I think overcoming the many faceted forces at play, with seemingly endless wealth to use as a means to their ends, a near impossible task.
These days, I have more bad than good days. It is clearly war; but as I expressed before, for those who are leaders that have committed crimes there appears to be few consequences of significance.
Thank you, it makes me feel better that I am not alone. It also makes me feel worse in that I'm not blowing it out of proportion and others feel the same way I do.
Thank you, it makes me feel better that I am not alone. It also makes me feel worse in that I'm not blowing it out of proportion and others feel the same way I do.
I think it's reassuring to see that there are so many people who are becoming more aware of the widening class inequalities and the methods that are being used to enforce those inequalities. I...
I think it's reassuring to see that there are so many people who are becoming more aware of the widening class inequalities and the methods that are being used to enforce those inequalities. I think that the more people who are aware, the more likely it is that some kind of corrective action will be taken -- either by those at the top, or those at the bottom -- and the opportunity or environment for change will exist. I hope.
Here's the problem I have with hope. Hope doesn't change anything, its alright to hope, it is necessary to hope but to hope without working towards what one hopes for is useless, quite frankly....
Here's the problem I have with hope. Hope doesn't change anything, its alright to hope, it is necessary to hope but to hope without working towards what one hopes for is useless, quite frankly. (I'm not dinging you personally, just the general passive internalization).
When Nixon resigned, his poll approval ratings were around 24%. There will always be a portion of the population that will be sheep, those who P.T. Barnum recognized as 'suckers' (although Barnum probably wasn't the original source of that quote). There are also those who are willfully ignorant, we have a bumper crop of those currently. It is just reality one has to accept.
My largest exasperation currently is the feeling of completely personal inadequacy to effect a change. The system rigged so completely now it will take a titanic effort and force to turn the tide and that is a young persons game by and large. This is a long game, these changes to the system happened over a long period time, in the dead of night in the halls of congress with additions to must past legislation at the 11th hour of a 25K page piece of legislation. What we are seeing now are the consequences of many lost battles none of us even knew were taking place.
My heart sinks when I see stories like this:
Poll: only 28 percent of young voters say they will certainly vote in the 2018 midterms
The challenges are gigantic from gerrymandering, to eduction, human rights, income inequality, and particularly that of the oligarchs foreign and domestic working diligently by any and all means to turn progress back centuries so they can once again be the lords over a permanent powerless underclass.
I can't talk to my own brother anymore as he has bought into authoritarianism hook, line and sinker and simply will parrot talking points instead of listening and having an honest discussion. It shocks me and pains me horribly.
I apologize, your comment is a good one but set off a train of thought that sends me off the rails when I consider it in total.
It terrifies me to say it, but I'm not sure there's effective legal praxis any more, and it's going to take willingness to face jail time even for the mildest non-violent action. Citizens of...
It terrifies me to say it, but I'm not sure there's effective legal praxis any more, and it's going to take willingness to face jail time even for the mildest non-violent action.
Citizens of Western democratic nations haven't had experience of what an insurgency really requires, for most of the last three generations, and we're all living in surveillance states now.
Yes, I agree and some already have in protests over time but in relatively small numbers as compared with other times in history. Hundreds Arrested During Women’s Immigration Protest in Washington...
it's going to take willingness to face jail time even for the mildest non-violent action.
Yes, I agree and some already have in protests over time but in relatively small numbers as compared with other times in history.
Closer to what is required are the mass protests in the '60 and 70s led by MLK and others. There were more than arrests then, there were deaths, beatings, hangings.
Then there was the shooting at Kent State University by National Guardsman on unarmed Vietnam protestors.
It can and should be done, the question remains about the will to do it however.
My only hope is that we can learn from what happened in the US. Bannon was not as public a figure when he started as he is now. That may be both a blessing and a curse: far-right parties will...
My only hope is that we can learn from what happened in the US. Bannon was not as public a figure when he started as he is now. That may be both a blessing and a curse: far-right parties will flock to him but the de-platforming tactics used in the US can be used again.
Cambridge Analytica by another name?
I wonder if the Mercer's and other deep pockets are keeping their distance from Bannon or will once again, meddle (possibly illegally) in elections far and wide?
Of course they’ll meddle again. Until there’s a conviction, there’s no reason for them not to. Even then, as long they’ve secured elected officers ready to commute or pardon there’s even less reason for them to stop.
This is what absolutely stymies me, the lack of even a wet noodle wrist slap for the worst offenders, not just in the US but also in the UK. Cambridge Analytica worked in Africa and elsewhere to 'ensure' election outcomes.
I'm gobslmaked that so far, none of the people responsible are even breaking a sweat.
It’s totally infuriation. Small moral victory (I guess) when Cambridge Analytica declared bankruptcy — and then like a week later everyone came back together at Emerdata.
Just like Blackwater reformed into Xe and many others I’m sure.
It seems like as long as the crime is big enough and empowers/enriches enough powerful people, nothing happens to the criminals.
So what is it that gives them this power besides money? I really have a tough time with the idea that failed ideologies have made a resurgence on hate, racism and misogyny in western societies in large numbers.
I never even heard about Dominonism until a few years ago. I still can't figure out how a fringe religion has infiltrated western democracies politically.
I think there maybe a problem with contagious spine melting disease.
There’s the idiom of the upper class getting the middle class to blame the lower class for all their problems. Maybe I’m being naive, but one thing I think that gives bigotry so much power is the promise of an eternal lower class.
Whether that class was slaves, indigenous Americans, Catholics, black people, Japanese Americans, migrants, refugees, etc. there would always be someone below the “average” person on whom they could lay their blame who would be powerless to do anything about it. I think there’s a lot of seductive power in that and I think the people with money are happy exploiting it.
At the highest level, where once there was an international, popular collaboration around an ideology of "making the world safe for democracy", things have devolved to the point where there's an international, oligarchic conspiracy to make the world safe for autocracy and corruption.
The Qui bono? in all of this is a tiny coterie of 12-figure multi-billionaire plutocrats who seek exemption from all law and taxation. It's not "Russia", it's the personal fortunes of Putin and other oligarchs; it's not "Britain", it's Murdoch and an assortment of other big old money names; it's not "America", it's the Koch, Mercer, Mellon-Scaife, De Vos families.
Dominionism, "white nationalism", fundamentalist religion, and the other far-right ideologies are just tools to ensure that the plutocrats can take and hold power. There would be 99% opposition if the economic power structure was clear to electorates, and votes weren't being suppressed or distorted by Bannon and his ilk - autocracy is the only way the families can maintain their wealth intact and safe from scrutiny of the harms caused in its accumulation.
On good days I've thought this might be a last gasp coordinated attempt to shore up the diminishing status quo of failed ideologies and therefore their influence and power.
On bad days, I think overcoming the many faceted forces at play, with seemingly endless wealth to use as a means to their ends, a near impossible task.
These days, I have more bad than good days. It is clearly war; but as I expressed before, for those who are leaders that have committed crimes there appears to be few consequences of significance.
I don’t know if it’ll make you feel better or worse to know you’re not alone in feeling this way.
At the very least, I’m with you in this.
Thank you, it makes me feel better that I am not alone. It also makes me feel worse in that I'm not blowing it out of proportion and others feel the same way I do.
I think it's reassuring to see that there are so many people who are becoming more aware of the widening class inequalities and the methods that are being used to enforce those inequalities. I think that the more people who are aware, the more likely it is that some kind of corrective action will be taken -- either by those at the top, or those at the bottom -- and the opportunity or environment for change will exist. I hope.
Here's the problem I have with hope. Hope doesn't change anything, its alright to hope, it is necessary to hope but to hope without working towards what one hopes for is useless, quite frankly. (I'm not dinging you personally, just the general passive internalization).
When Nixon resigned, his poll approval ratings were around 24%. There will always be a portion of the population that will be sheep, those who P.T. Barnum recognized as 'suckers' (although Barnum probably wasn't the original source of that quote). There are also those who are willfully ignorant, we have a bumper crop of those currently. It is just reality one has to accept.
My largest exasperation currently is the feeling of completely personal inadequacy to effect a change. The system rigged so completely now it will take a titanic effort and force to turn the tide and that is a young persons game by and large. This is a long game, these changes to the system happened over a long period time, in the dead of night in the halls of congress with additions to must past legislation at the 11th hour of a 25K page piece of legislation. What we are seeing now are the consequences of many lost battles none of us even knew were taking place.
My heart sinks when I see stories like this:
Poll: only 28 percent of young voters say they will certainly vote in the 2018 midterms
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/2018/7/18/17585898/young-voter-turnout-polls-midterms-2018
The challenges are gigantic from gerrymandering, to eduction, human rights, income inequality, and particularly that of the oligarchs foreign and domestic working diligently by any and all means to turn progress back centuries so they can once again be the lords over a permanent powerless underclass.
I can't talk to my own brother anymore as he has bought into authoritarianism hook, line and sinker and simply will parrot talking points instead of listening and having an honest discussion. It shocks me and pains me horribly.
I apologize, your comment is a good one but set off a train of thought that sends me off the rails when I consider it in total.
It terrifies me to say it, but I'm not sure there's effective legal praxis any more, and it's going to take willingness to face jail time even for the mildest non-violent action.
Citizens of Western democratic nations haven't had experience of what an insurgency really requires, for most of the last three generations, and we're all living in surveillance states now.
Yes, I agree and some already have in protests over time but in relatively small numbers as compared with other times in history.
Hundreds Arrested During Women’s Immigration Protest in Washington
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/us/politics/womens-march-arrests-dc.html
Closer to what is required are the mass protests in the '60 and 70s led by MLK and others. There were more than arrests then, there were deaths, beatings, hangings.
Then there was the shooting at Kent State University by National Guardsman on unarmed Vietnam protestors.
It can and should be done, the question remains about the will to do it however.
My only hope is that we can learn from what happened in the US. Bannon was not as public a figure when he started as he is now. That may be both a blessing and a curse: far-right parties will flock to him but the de-platforming tactics used in the US can be used again.