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Big Data Pys-Ops is the new Military-Industrial Complex

Tamsin Shaw
The New York Review of Books
Wed, 21 Mar 2018 02:26 UTC
Alexander Nix
© Bryan Bedder/Getty Images
Alexander Nix, CEO of Cambridge Analytica, addressing the Concordia Summit in New York, September 19, 2016
Apparently, the age of the old-fashioned spook is in decline. What is emerging instead is an obscure world of mysterious boutique companies specializing in data analysis and online influence that contract with government agencies. As they say about hedge funds, if the general public has heard their names that's probably not a good sign.

But there is now one data analysis company that anyone who pays attention to the US and UK press has heard of: Cambridge Analytica. Representatives have boasted that their list of past and current clients includes the British Ministry of Defense, the US Department of Defense, the US Department of State, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and NATO. Nevertheless, they became recognized for just one influence campaign: the one that helped Donald Trump get elected president of the United States. The kind of help the company offered has since been the subject of much unwelcome legal and journalistic scrutiny.

Carole Cadwalladr's recent exposé of the inner workings of Cambridge Analytica shows that the company, along with its partner, SCL Group, should rightly be as a cautionary tale about the part private companies play in developing and deploying government-funded behavioral technologies.


Comment: For more on the shady SCL Group, see: SCL, Parent Company of Cambridge Analytica, is Military-Intelligence Front For British Establishment


Her source, former employee Christopher Wylie, has described the development of influence techniques for psychological warfare by SCL Defense, the refinement of similar techniques by SCL Elections through its use across the developing world (for example, a "rumor campaign" deployed to spread fear during the 2007 election in Nigeria), and the purchase of this cyber-arsenal by Robert Mercer, the American billionaire who funded Cambridge Analytica, and who, with the help of Wylie, Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon, and the company's chief executive Alexander Nix, deployed it on the American electorate in 2016.
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Attention

UK government has issued warrants for seizure of Russian capital "of dubious origin"

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 15:26 UTC
Gavin Williamson
Countries around the world have announced that they would expel Russian diplomats in a show of solidarity with the UK, but now the Queen's government is taking things one step further:
It's preparing to enforce a newly passed law that will allow the government to confiscate or freeze any Russian capital "of dubious origin" - a measure clearly intended to permit a crackdown on Russian oligarchs living in London.
According to Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson, warrants for the seizure of Russian capital and assets of doubtful origin have already been issued, according to Sputnik News. The goal is to ensure that any property attained by unknown means is registered, according to the law. Williams said during his speech that Russia's goal was to divide Europe, but that actions of solidarity by Estonia and other European countries have shown "that's not possible."
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Heart - Black

Poll shows French oppose arms sales to Saudi's for their slaughter in Yemen


Reuters
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 03:14 UTC
French President Emmanuel Macron
© Photo by AFP
French President Emmanuel Macron addresses a press conference in the Indian city of Varanasi on March 12, 2018
Pressure has been mounting on Macron to scale back military support for the two Gulf Arab states over concerns that French weapons are being used in the offensive, which marks its third year on Monday.

The two Gulf Arab states are leading a coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi group that controls most of northern Yemen and the capital Sanaa. The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than three million.

The poll showed that 88 percent of respondents believed their country should stop arms exports to all countries where there is a risk they could be used against civilian populations and specifically 75 percent for those operating in Yemen.

Comment: It's not just France. But when has that ever stopped psychopathic politicians in their lust for power?

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Fire

Fire filmed engulfing high-rise apartments in Chechnya, Russia


RT
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 17:15 UTC
Fire engulfs roof of high-rise in Russia's Chechnya
© Said Tsarnaev / Sputnik
A major fire has consumed the roof and upper floors of a multi-storey block of flats in the city of Grozny. More than 200 people have been evacuated, as firefighters work on extinguishing the flames.

The attic of the 12-storey building in Grozny city center caught fire on Monday evening, spreading across some 200 square meters. According to preliminary reports, no one has been injured in the fire, the region's emergencies ministry has said.

Some 155 firefighters with 44 pieces of equipment were rushed to the scene, eventually managing to extinguish the blaze. Rescuers also had to evacuate mall-goers from a nearby shopping center.

Comment: What's with all these fires around Easter?

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Ambulance

Texas teen beaten and abused with hot cooking oil for refusing arranged marriage

Seraphim Hanisch
The Duran
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 15:06 UTC
Maarib Al Hishmawi

Maarib Al Hishmawi
FOX News reported on March 25th about a teenage girl in Texas who was beaten and had hot cooking oil poured on her, allegedly by her parents. She ran away from home in January of this year, and was not found until mid-March when she was taken in by an organization that cared for her after she ran away.

This all according to San Antonio, Texas, television station KSAT. Now while this is a heinous act on its own merit, there is a further aspect to this that must be attended to.

The girl, Maarib Al Hishmawi, and her parents Abdulah Fahmi Al Hishwami and Hamidyah Sabah Al Hishwami, are all Iraqi immigrants to the United States. The reason for this abuse allegedly is because Maarib's parents had arranged for her to be married to a man in another city for $20,000.
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Attention

Coddling snowflakes: All-women's college asks profs not to call students 'women'

Toni Airaksinen
Campus Reform
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 13:50 UTC
no genders gender neutral
Mount Holyoke College, an all-women's school, is asking professors to avoid calling students "women" or otherwise referring to "the two genders."

The Supporting Trans and Non-Binary Students guide was created by officials at the college, which touts its legacy as an all-women's college, in an effort to promote a "gender neutral" classroom environment.
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Alarm Clock

Massachusetts high school partners with data analytics company in hopes of detecting early signs of violence in students

Blake Harper
Fatherly
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 14:14 UTC
young students
© Wikimedia
Schools all across the country are struggling with how to keep their students safe, but a high school in Massachusetts is hoping that AI will help prevent future violence. Shawsheen Valley Technical High School has decided to partner with Social Sentinel, a data analytics company that claims it's able to detect potentially violent behavior in students' online activity before anything violent or dangerous actually happens. Ideally, the program will be able to identify at-risk students, similar to technology used by the Police to help monitor potentially dangerous students.

According to Social Sentinel founder and CEO, Gary Margolis, the AI program has a library of 450,000 violent indicators - including sings of depression, resentment, and isolation. The company also worked with linguists and psychologists to make sure the program would be able to recognize any social media or online behavior that might indicate a student planning to do harm to themselves or others.

Comment: Liberal Authoritarianism & The Great Mills School Shooting

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Arrow Up

'Australia will not join countries to boycott World Cup' - Foreign Minister Julie Bishop


RT
Tue, 27 Mar 2018 12:08 UTC
World Cup
© Reuters
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the government will not join the countries which are diplomatically boycotting the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

"There are a whole range of options of further actions that could be taken [against Russia]. The World Cup is one of the further actions," Bishop stated on Monday, talking about the steps Australia could take in addition to the expulsion of two Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK, which many Western countries blame on Moscow.

Comment: Five countries - Poland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, and Japan, are reportedly ready to boycott the 2018 World Cup. Let them stay home.

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Airplane

'It makes your blood run cold': Passengers of Air France flight discover huge hole in plane cabin after aircraft landed


RT
Tue, 27 Mar 2018 13:24 UTC
Air France
© Panoramic / Global Look Press
A French airline has launched a major investigation after a massive hole opened up in the cabin of one of its planes during a domestic flight. The drama began halfway through Sunday's 90-minute HOP! service with a 'loud noise.'

However, the 48 passengers aboard the flight from Paris to Aurillac in the south of France only discovered the full scale of the problem once the aircraft landed at around 9.30pm local time, when the hole was actually spotted, France 3 reports.

Photographs of the short-haul regional airliner ATR 42, posted across social media, show the full extent of the damage.

"We were very scared," said passenger Lydie Ribes, a France 3 journalist. "I was on the plane with my kids. I had fallen asleep when a loud noise woke me up."
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Bad Guys

Maduro call Spain's persecution of Catalan leaders 'shameful'


teleSUR
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 13:34 UTC
Nicolas Maduro
© Reuters
Maduro called for solidarity with Catalans and their struggle for freedom.
In total 25 Catalans will be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience for their participation in the Oct.1, 2017 independence referendum.

After five Catalan pro-independence leaders were arrested Saturday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro slammed the Spanish authorities over persecution of the Catalan leaders and people simply for independence aspirations.

"What's happening in Spain is shameful, Catalan politicians jailed only for their ideas... whether or not you agree with these elected lawmakers' ideas, their persecution is an embarrassment," Maduro warned in a speech during an international meeting on African decendents rights in the region in Caracas Saturday.

Comment:

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