I had the feeling that something like this was true. I was reading a comment board a couple of days ago where someone was talking about phone banking, and the only person they reached was also phone banking. Facebook offers an unparalleled ability to target specific voters, and I never heard anything about the Clinton administration attempting it.
Time for my usual call for the death of all social media.
The speed of these firings or resignations fills me with dread. We can't count on Trump's incompetence and laziness; there are clearly some focused people (Bannon?) with fairly specific, simple goals working in the administration.
Time for my usual call for the death of all social media.
I am torn between my general impression that facebook was a malign force in the last election and thinking that most stories about "the one weird trick that determined the election" are probably false.
It sounds plausible, and maybe that did give Trump a significant boost, but it also seems plausible that "victory has a thousand fathers" and this is somebody just wanting to take credit, regardless of the significance of their contributions.
5: I don't want twitter and Facebook dead just because of their role in the election (although I think it's no accident that Trump is the twitter president), I want them dead because I think they've been a shitty influence on society in general.
Looks like the border patrol guy was done in by the agents' union. Also looks like the State Dept story is a little overblown: those people are gone, but it's just a small corner of the org chart.
I'm sure, though, that a whole lot of folks in senior govt positions are going to go. Why on earth would anyone have expected otherwise? The point of Trumpism is to defeat and destroy everyone who thinks he/she is smarter than Trump.
I hope the rogue Park Service employees understand that the NSA knows who they are, and that Trump is not going to leave them alone. They's better not have unpaid income taxes, child support, or parking tickets.
We all knew what the stakes were. And here we are.
More on State: https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/824695356436815872
Bigger deal than I suggested in 8,
I blame Obama for not shutting down the email investigation years ago, or ever letting it happen in the first place. Republicans are not going to make the same mistake.
9: I wouldn't claim that there are no upsides to social media, I'm just convinced that the negatives vastly outweighs the positives.
I wish all these appointees had abstained from the resignation letter tradition.
5 seems right. The political junkie fallacy when, to good approximation, all anyone heard was EMAILS.
The victory was so small that a thousand fathers can claim to have provided the margin of victory and be right.
Like Freddy Krueger, Trump was fathered by a thousand maniacs.
I also haven't seen any direct evidence that the Trump campaign was mysteriously competent. This is terrifying, if it's true, but my initial reaction is that the whole thing is a loony fantasy.
For one thing, turnout for Clinton wasn't surprisingly low among specific groups who you'd expect to vote for her. She lost white people by slightly more than you'd expect. Possibly she was headed for a real landslide powered by voters of color, and these tactics knocked it back to where the electoral college could flip it, but I don't see any good reason to believe that.
In the Miami neighborhood of Little Haiti, Cambridge Analytica regaled residents with messages about the failures of the Clinton Foundation after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti
Cambridge Analytica provides subscription-based services to libraries across the country. It would be a shame if librarians decided to stop renewing their subscriptions.
Further to 10: https://twitter.com/shebacrocker/status/824669216120967169
Called Feinstein's office today re her reported wavering in favor of a Yes vote on sessions (ALL CALIFORNIANS NEED TO CALL HER!!!), was nearly in tears talking to staffer about danger to refugee, undocumented and minority mock trial students & their families, managed to regain smidgen of composure by burying self in work then got a link*din update from former student now at a UC that he is working at an after school program that looks about as sweet and lovely as the best pie ever and was once more plunged into despair.
I guess I'm biased to believe it because the idea of microtargeting via Facebook ads occurred to me independently a couple of days ago. I was wondering if I could run "Josh Chaffetz fucks walruses" ads in his district.
I'd like to subscribe to your propaganda effort.
Cambridge Analytica provides subscription-based services to libraries across the country.
Ha! Cancel that, I was thinking of Oxford Analytica.
Cambridge Analytica's focus seems to be on assembling a massive database about the American people. Steve Bannon is on the board.
We can't count on Trump's incompetence and laziness; there are clearly some focused people (Bannon?) with fairly specific, simple goals working in the administration.
It seems like Bannon's calling the shots so far. He was apparently behind that spate of executive orders that don't really make sense and that neither Congressional Republicans nor Trump's own Cabinet appointees seem to have been told about in advance.
10: Whats interesting about the resignations is that they all came from the Office of Management. These aren't substantive or policy positions, but rather the ones charges with making sure the day to day business of providing support to the massive network of embassies and various other entities around the world. That's a part of the business where you can't really afford to lose people who know how to get things done. This will have a negative impact on things like - to take two random examples - embassy security and modernization of the email system.
David Cameron's 2015 campaign, the Breferendum Leave campaign, and the Trump campaign all chose to put the large majority of their digital spending into Facebook ads. There's a reason, after all, why Facebook's ads business is doing so damn well.
Also I remember going to a Blue State Digital UK training where we were briefed that one of the best things about Facebook was the built-in ad targeting tool (this was 2012ish), even if you weren't planning to buy any actual ads.
But who pays attention to Facebook ads? It seems like their message would be overwhelmed by the general content of the feed.
In other words, I think Trumps deal with Sinclair Media to broadcast his unfiltered propaganda to key media markets throughout the midwest probably had a bigger impact.
Sinclair Media needs to get fucked up.
If I recall correctly Joseph de Maistre had something to say about all of this.
The thought occurred to me when reading the stories about the farmers saying that leaving the TPP will cost them money or the railroad that makes most of its income shipping good to and from Mexico while donating to Republican campaigns.
I'm disposed to believe it because I've seen the conservatives in the U.K. do something similiar. It also seems as if the right are generally more inclined to adopt the latest marketing techniques (with one or two exceptions). See also the use of 'Take Back Control' used by the Leave campaign.
31 And now with the norm of divesting from business dealings that are an obvious conflict of interest broken that'll really be something.
And now with the norm of divesting from business dealings that are an obvious conflict of interest broken
No kidding. That is a thing that worked for a very long time, and which Trump has broken and which will not only enable his corruption, but those of future Presidents as well. Nice job, Shithead!
15 direct evidence that the Trump campaign was mysteriously competent Cambridge Analytica was with Ted Cruz before Trump.
Is there really a lot of new info in the OP link? Bloomberg had the main threads, it seems, in this pre-election piece
I think I heard about it before the election, and I assumed it was bullshit because Trump was obviously going to lose. Now that I know anything is possible, including Nazi druids riding Segways, I must reconsider.
If Guderian had a division mounted on Segways, he'd have taken the Soviet Union.
The Red Army would have collapsed laughing and been unable to resist.
30: Before the election I read someone talking about the possibility (in the context of discussing the age limit on the presidency, but still). At the time I thought it was ridiculous. Now, eh, if he runs in 2020 he won't be the worst candidate on the ballot.
My boyfriend has to work for the state department in 8 months. Is this terrible, or is there a chance to do good from within?
If 41 is addressed to me, it's the stipulations of a fellowship. I think he has to work for the state department for 2 years?
He'll be low down on the totem pole. Not much chance to effectively obstruct I'd guess but a good chance to gauge how career staff feel about our ongoing horrorshow.
Given the hiring freeze, I wouldn't count on it being possible, let alone terrible.
44
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that works. He's being funded by the state dept right now so I'd imagine they'd like to get their half of the bargain, but clearly what state department professionals want and what the Trump admin wants aren't the same thing.
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Which side is one on in this? Or do we just get the popcorn on?
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40-45: In the State Department's basement, nothing is different so far. Eight months from now, doing something fellowship-related, who knows.
Personally I'd probably take it on resume-building principles. As depressing as working in this DoS might get, the current administration is likely to neuter and cripple it, but probably not actually change it from benign to malign.
Dang, there are some nasty fires going on in Chile. 1000+ buildings destroyed.
OT: I have scotch, but it's way too peaty. I feel it would be churlish to complain to my sister about this even though she bought it.
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NMM to John Hurt.
Not even when he's prancing around in gold lamé brassiere and booty shorts.
Such a talented actor, my god.
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50: Fuck, that one hurts. So many great performances.
An actor that could sell a movie to me. My fucking God, so many achievements, large and small. Besides the obvious (Man for All Seasons, Midnight Express, Alien, Crisp, Caligula, Merrick, Raskolnikov, 1984, Scandal, Rob Roy), back before it was cool, Hurt would work in indies. The fucking best actor of his generation.
Sinful Davey, Cry of the Penguins, The Hit
Especially recommend a tiny movie, just a gentle character study, about an older British man who gets an obsession with a young straight American male actor (Jason Priestley) Love and Death on Long Island
This one makes me cry.
PS: Grew up disliking MTM. I know she played with and off it because it was what she was, but I always thought she was the quintessential early 60s "good girl."
Found a quote from Love and Death
Giles De'Ath: In Europe, it is often the case that a... a young man benefits from the... the wisdom and the experience of an elder. Why, there's almost a tradition of such friendships. Cocteau and Radiguet. Uh, Verlaine, Rimbaud.Ronnie Bostock: [mistaking the pronunciation of "Rimbaud"] Rambo?
Yeah, it's playing off Lolita and Death and Venice and many other things, but in a very humorous warm, nostalgic, kind way. And playing with continental vs American culture, without really dissing either.
I loved John Hurt. I am so grateful to him.
Such an amazing wide-ranging filmography. I regret never having seen him on the stage.
There's no proof that John Hurt wasn't the person who broke into my car and stole my golf clubs back in 1996.
Green Card Holders getting barred from entering the U.S. is seriously Banana Republic stuff. Terrifying.
"There is a Syrian refugee arriving in Dulles Airport today on a J2 visa. Anyone know a DC lawyer who can help?" anyone know a D.C. area lawyer that can help with J1 visa issues?
"Terrifying"
Last reading in the Routledge Neoliberal book went over NAFTA. At the same time commercial barriers were left border agents were increased etc.
Part of the point was to be sure Mexicans with jobs in Mexico, money, status, solid IDs could cross at will to go to sporting events in San Diego and shop at malls in San Ysidro while ensuring that the poor, unemployed, marginal Mexicans would be kept out. In other words, the previous border regimes were all about class, not race. Let desirables in, keep deplorables out.
Now that the cosmopolitan credentialled meritocratic high-skilled types are also being excluded it is "terrifying."
But I doubt that all refugees or immigrants were welcomed before Trump, and I wonder if the very rich tourists and business people are being excluded.
Great Emblematic Picture I was pointed to today.
The twenty foot fence with the refugees (sub-saharan blacks in this case) trapped on top
and the Golf Course with the players is an Spanish enclave on the edge of Morocco.
Wendy Brown, Walled States, Waning Sovereignty is good.
Neoliberalization is in part about the forced geographical separation of peoples according to classes (including educational attainment), at all sorts of scales, including Iowa and San Francisco, Dallas and rural Texas, etc. Housing prices and gentrification is one of the mechanisms.
You can donate to the ACLU here. I just gave them some money for staying on top of this. Seems like the most direct way to flip the bird to the nasty little orange fascist.
The scotch is still peaty, but it's growing on me. May try adding liquid smoke to vodka as a test.
55: What the fuckity fucking fuck? I'm so pissed I can barely see straight. This is going to fuck up a lot of people's lives.
Now I feel that my moment of personal growth is petty.
The good news is that the immigration order is perfectly set up for the Rohingya once the 120 days are up. They'll be on easy street.
A judge has issued a stay on Trump's executive order. Hooray!
Large protest crowd at JFK.
In retrospect I'm so glad that we started the day after the inauguration with the massive protests of the Women's Marches. It sets the template and the tempo for what we need going forward.
I'm thinking of drawing up a budget for this year for orgs to give to: ACLU, CAIR, rebuilding of burned mosques funds, MSF at Sea and so on. Gonnna be a rough four years.
I'm still focusing on the 2018 election. Nothing the ACLU does will last if something isn't done about who picks the judges.
The good news is that the immigration order is perfectly set up for the Rohingya once the 120 days are up. They'll be on easy street.
That occurred to me too. I wonder what'll happen when they start trying it.
In retrospect I'm so glad that we started the day after the inauguration with the massive protests of the Women's Marches. It sets the template and the tempo for what we need going forward.
Agreed.
66, 66, 66. Feel-good NGO giving treats symptoms, not causes.
Feel-good NGOs give them out, obviously.
We need to mobilize pop stars to make a "Don't They Know it's Halloween?" song for Moby, stat.
Which reminds me, happy Year of the Rooster, reprobates.
Do they celebrate White-People New Year there?
76: Yes, and have a day off, and use the Gregorian calendar. But local New Year is the end-of-year holiday season.
But do they all go to the Cracker Barrel for dinner or something?
No, they have fireworks and white people have parties in the tourist districts. I don't understand why the locals track it at all. They also do Christmas (most of the trees are still up) but that's an excuse for buying bits of garbage and giving them to people, so it does at least make sense.
As I'm sure you're all shocked to learn, I'm one of the anti-social assholes who hates Christmas.
I keep trying to turn it back into a holiday with more religion and drink and far less consumption of things that aren't food or drink. But everybody else wants me to buy stuff.
Even on the food, I think there's some overkill. Seven fishes isn't necessary if two of the fishes are shrimp and calamari.
I am more than my tentacles.
Are you supposed to eat fish at Christmas? Is that a Catholic thing?
Not Christmas, but Christmas Eve. But the rule has been gone for longer than I've been alive.
84: The not-tentacle part is what I usually eat.
Obtaining fish, let alone seven fish, at midwinter seems a little demanding.
I think it was more of a wealthy-Italian thing. My dad said they always ate oyster stew (canned oysters) on Christmas Eve.
87: Turns out calamari is just Italian for squid, so whatever.
88: Says the man who lives in the Tropics.
The history of Papal succession suggests that Catholicism is in fact identical with wealthy Italians.
Right, but you never seen just the head (which is what they call the part with the tentacles because science is a shithead) and I sometimes see just the foot (which is what they call the bag part).
Here in the Subarctic, people generally catch the fish in the summer then preserve them (either smoked or frozen) for the winter. We don't have a huge number of Catholics, though.
I don't know if squid have a brain or if you eat it and don't notice because of the batter.
92: Well, sometimes they emigrate to Argentina first.
91: I, personally, dwell a whole 1°30'' outside the Tropics; whereas my ancestors dwelt for millennia upon the howling shores of the North Sea.
All the Argentinians are Italian anyway.
The ones that aren't Welsh, anyway.
I think the Welsh were classified as fish by at least a couple of popes.
Do you know what I would get if I were mossy? San Bei calamari. Shit is bomb and native to roc Island, though chicken is canonical. They call it "basil squid casserole" or "three cups squid" or any number of things here. God I want squid.
If I go for a walk I'll vicariously eat some squid for you, fm.
97: Yeah, I wondered about that. But the Subtropics aren't exactly known for the oceans freezing up in the winter either.
Me too, now. But midnight is a bit late.
In contrast to the Subarctic, where I live, and where that totally does happen.
Goodnight insomniacs and western time zones.
105 to 103. I'm sure I could find some squid within walking distance if I were really committed to it, but I'm not.
102: Thank you. Or some octopus noodle soup with sha-cha sauce, that would also work.
Which reminds me, happy Year of the Rooster, reprobates.
Surely Unfogged house style would be "Year of the Cock"?
110 is rapidly becoming apparent, independent of anyone's house style.
90: North Sea trawlers definitely go out in midwinter, even in the most extraordinary conditions. Also there were fish farms in the middle ages: carp ponds etc.
88. I believe the Czechs, and maybe other mitteleuropeans, eat carp for Christmas dinner.
Article casting serious doubt on the OP:
http://littleatoms.com/news-science/donald-trump-didnt-win-election-through-facebook
re; 117
They do. On Christmas Eve. It's nice.
They are farmed:
http://www.fao.org/fishery/countrysector/naso_czechrepublic/en
