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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#235901: Mar 21st 2018 at 4:53:43 PM

[up][up][up] I'm pretty sure he thinks Putin is a friend or ally. That would fit with Putin's MO, and would explain a lot of Trump's behavior on the issue.

Let's not forget that Putin trained at a KGB school notorious for its spycraft, served as a intelligence officer in East Germany during the height of the Cold War, and ran the FSB for a while. He knows how to play people, and foreign intelligence in particular was a specialty of his. It shouldn't be surprising that he's been able to manipulate Trump to this degree.

edited 21st Mar '18 4:54:02 PM by archonspeaks

They should have sent a poet.
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#235902: Mar 21st 2018 at 4:57:06 PM

[up] So what in the world is Putin doing that not even the Republican Party is doing with Trump?

PhysicalStamina ain't nothin' but a party y'all (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
ain't nothin' but a party y'all
#235903: Mar 21st 2018 at 4:58:10 PM

[up]Not advising him to not to stupid/dangerous stuff? Maybe Trump thinks the Republican Party treats him like he doesn't know what he's doing, unlike Putin.

edited 21st Mar '18 4:58:47 PM by PhysicalStamina

Do not spare the feelings of those who would not spare yours.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#235904: Mar 21st 2018 at 4:58:24 PM

This comment about Trump's meeting with Russia made me laugh.

Unless the first words out of Trump's mouth are "we're going to build a firewall and make the Kremlin pay for it", this meeting is fucking pointless.

Mark Zuckerberg response to the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, but in GIFs.

edited 21st Mar '18 4:59:00 PM by megaeliz

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#235905: Mar 21st 2018 at 4:59:12 PM

[up][up][up]In Trump's eyes he's the height of strength and masculinity, he's an authoritarian right-wing defacto autocrat. All the things that Trump loves and wants to be, while the Republicans are just cuckservatives who exist to be used by him.

edited 21st Mar '18 4:59:52 PM by Fourthspartan56

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#235906: Mar 21st 2018 at 5:14:58 PM

[up] Pretty much this. I would assume Putin treats Trump like the big manly autocrat he wishes he was.

They should have sent a poet.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#235907: Mar 21st 2018 at 5:18:04 PM

Bringing up this thread again, because it explains everything so nicely.

People with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) seem erratic but they're actually ultra-predictable. They are simple machines. There are only two driving impulses:

  1. Avoid shame
  2. Collect adoration and esteem.

That's it. There is no other priority or concern

Trump will do anything humanly possible to try to avoid being publicly shamed/diminished in others' eyes.It's an impulse he can't control

Take Russia/Putin. If Trump were to acknowledge Russia interfered, he'd be admitting he was less worthy of the presidency.

Donald Trump would literally sell out his entire family and the country as well to avoid acknowledging that he didn't deserve the office. He is pathologically incapable of doing anything which admits to the world his worst internal fear: he's unworthy of being seen as special.

Now, he has no choice on how he has to play this. He HAS to actually make Putin look worthy of partnership. He has to make the shameful thing, look unshameful somehow. He has to make shameful hacking and potential collusion somehow seem smart or purposeful or dignified.

It cannot be done. It makes no logical sense. It will fall apart and as it does, Trump's behavior and lying will get more outlandish.

But make no mistake, Donald Trump is clinically incapable of doing anything other than what he is doing: trying to avoid the shame of being discovered to be illegitimate and unworthy of public respect.

He has an uncontrollable compulsion to avoid that awful truth.

This actually explains a lot.

edited 21st Mar '18 5:49:27 PM by megaeliz

Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#235908: Mar 21st 2018 at 5:35:52 PM

Didn't Trump also owe Russian banks money?

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
unknowing from somewhere.. Since: Mar, 2014
#235910: Mar 21st 2018 at 5:47:22 PM

[up][up][up]This explain the whole Charlestonville/Kneeling player controversy: He is very wary of denuncing the Alt right because they praise him but he dosent mind dying on a hill in tweeter because some dudes just kneel in a damn again.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#235911: Mar 21st 2018 at 5:58:15 PM

Special Counsel studies Trump campaign ties to Cambridge Analytica, sources say

As questions have mounted about data firm Cambridge Analytica’s alleged misuse of Facebook data from up to 50 million user profiles, it has not only caught the eye of Congressional investigators but also the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team for the last several weeks has had a growing interest to better understand the relationship between the campaign, the Republican National Committee, and Cambridge Analytica, sources tell ABC News.

The company is also under investigation by British officials for its use of Facebook users’ data.

Sources tell ABC News several digital experts who worked in support of Trump’s bid in 2016 have met with Mueller's team for closed-door interviews. The staffers, most of whom were employed by the RNC, served as key members of the 2016 operation working closely with the campaign and the data firm, the sources said. The company worked closely with the Republican candidate’s political team.

The Trump campaign declined to comment and the Republican National Committee has not responded to ABC News' request for comment.

Cambridge Analytica was brought on by then-Trump campaign digital advisor Brad Parscale in early June 2016, after the data science firm pitched him on its services, sources told ABC News. Three Cambridge Analytica employees, including two data scientists, immediately moved to San Antonio to embed with Parscale's firm and by August, the number of fulltime staffers in Texas ballooned to 13.

The team led by Matt Oczkowski, who served as the data firm's chief product officer, was divided into three groups focusing on data science, research and polling and marketing.

Parscale would eventually leave Texas to move into Trump Tower in September, and the data firm sent a mid-level employee with him to interpret daily polling reports, according to sources.

Cambridge Analytica was one entity involved in creating the voter information and fundraising database now known as Project Alamo, built jointly by staffers from the RNC, the Trump campaign and Parscale's firm with data supplied by the RNC and the campaign, sources said.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign told ABC News in a statement that they “used the RNC for its voter data and not Cambridge Analytica. Using the RNC data was one of the best choices the campaign made. Any claims that voter data were used from another source to support the victory in 2016 are false.”

A source with direct knowledge who has met with the special counsel's team tells ABC News investigators have asked former senior level campaign staff about the digital operations, specifically how data was collected and used and how assets were targeted specifically in the battleground states. Mueller's team has asked witnesses about the process of "micro targeting" which is the process of using data to identify specific groups of individuals and thereby influence their thoughts and potentially their actions.

From the start, Trump and his top advisors have touted the campaign’s mastery of spinning pithy social media messages into votes.

"I understand social media. I understand Twitter, I understand the power of Twitter I understand the power of Facebook. Maybe better than almost anybody, based on my results," Trump said at a 2015 town hall in South Carolina.

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Parscale are among those who credited the use of targeted Facebook advertising – a strategy developed by Cambridge Analytica.

“We found that Facebook and digital targeting were the most effective ways to reach the audiences. After the primary, we started ramping up because we knew that doing a national campaign is different than doing a primary campaign," Kushner told Forbes Magazine just after the election. "That was when we formalized the system because we had to ramp up for digital fundraising. We brought in Cambridge Analytica.”

The Trump campaign paid the data firm more than $5.8 million for “data management” during the 2016 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Overseeing that effort was Parscale, the Trump family confidante who has been tapped to run Trump’s 2020 reelection bid. Parscale coordinated work with Cambridge Analytica executives to identify voters who were undecided and use social media to motivate them to support Trump over Hillary Clinton.

"I think Donald Trump won, but I think Facebook was the method–it was the highway in which his car drove on," Parscale told 60 Minutes last year.......

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/special-counsel-studies-trump-campaign-ties-cambridge-analytics/story?id=53903252

edited 21st Mar '18 6:29:50 PM by megaeliz

TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#235912: Mar 21st 2018 at 6:38:17 PM

So now I can say 'We sacked one to Saccone'.

Sadly, he'll be running in one of the districts created by the new map, so we may be seeing the idiot in Congress after November.

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
Imca (Veteran)
#235913: Mar 21st 2018 at 6:44:30 PM

I don't know how it is even a scandle or something people expect facebook to apologize over.....

The data wasn't leaked, that is LITERALY facebook's entire business model.

Asking them to apologize is like asking an executioner to apologize for executing people, it does absolutely nothing, worse then ntohing really because if it upsets you you should go after the position itself. :/

And it really should be gone after.

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#235914: Mar 21st 2018 at 6:46:22 PM

It probably will be gone after, when their defense is "we do this all the time" well... that's just asking to create public will for direct action.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
Imca (Veteran)
#235915: Mar 21st 2018 at 6:47:26 PM

And I hope they finaly do, it has been able to get away with this for way too long, and I wish people had realized sooner. :/

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#235916: Mar 21st 2018 at 6:59:59 PM

Agreed, but such is life. People generally are bad about noticing the insidious threats until they stop being insidious.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
TheWildWestPyro from Seattle, WA Since: Sep, 2012 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
#235917: Mar 21st 2018 at 7:01:40 PM

We do not tend to take danger seriously until it's knocking at our door or in our face.

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#235918: Mar 21st 2018 at 7:03:17 PM

[up] Usually not even then.

They should have sent a poet.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#235919: Mar 21st 2018 at 7:06:20 PM

All of this has made me feel even better about never using my Facebook account for anything.

Disgusted, but not surprised
TheWildWestPyro from Seattle, WA Since: Sep, 2012 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
#235920: Mar 21st 2018 at 7:07:11 PM

[up]

I do have a Facebook account, but I only really use it for the occasional brief communication with loved ones or in one case, pictures of nice weather.

Otherwise I never post or reblog anything, and the account sits there collecting dust. Which is good.

edited 21st Mar '18 7:07:40 PM by TheWildWestPyro

Reflextion from a post-sanity world (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
#235921: Mar 21st 2018 at 7:11:53 PM

All of this has made me feel even better about never using my Facebook account for anything.

Yeah, next time my sister or The Old Bitch call me paranoid/antisocial for not using Twitbook, I'll just point at the Cambridge Analytica situation.

EDIT: Yay, awkward pagetoppers!

edited 21st Mar '18 7:12:29 PM by Reflextion

Someone did tell me life was going to be this way.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#235922: Mar 21st 2018 at 7:13:05 PM

[up] Twitter has problems, but is better privacy wise at least.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#235923: Mar 21st 2018 at 7:13:11 PM

No Wastebook, no Fritter, no Whatasap, no Instacrap...

Disgusted, but not surprised
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#235924: Mar 21st 2018 at 7:13:37 PM

[up][up][up]Still completely accurate, I never made a Facebook account simply because I didn't care for it as a service but it's nice to be vindicated in a completely unrelated way.

edited 21st Mar '18 7:14:35 PM by Fourthspartan56

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#235925: Mar 21st 2018 at 7:15:27 PM

[up] I have a Facebook but I very rarely use it. I do like Twitter though.


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