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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
We live in a political era in which the alt-right (or whatever it prefers to call itself) enjoys a great deal of memetic popularity, even if most people don't literally agree with its political stances. This extends to the media as much as, or even more than, anything else. Any politician, in any state, who runs on that platform is going to enjoy a groundswell of support that makes them look way more mainstream than they should have any right to be.
I hope this is a passing phase, but the problem with this sort of ideology is that it gains enormous strength from its successes. Hungary (Fidesz), Brexit, Trump... these fuel the fire in an exponential fashion. The mainstream is fighting back, but it takes way more effort than the average person is comfortable with.
edited 2nd May '18 1:01:52 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I feel like there's some Fry side-eye needed here.
Also, we're talking about the France that incited week long riots by its Muslim minority and almost elected a Trump of its own, right?
It's not the place I would consider the Leftist of Left in the EU.
edited 2nd May '18 1:59:46 PM by CharlesPhipps
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
x4 You also have to have a concerted effort at the government level to combat information warfare. The Swedes have been dealing with it for years, here's a quote an officer gave about it:
Rather than fighting back you have to engage each issue on its merits. The Russians say X event happened? Don't try to argue with them, just publish the information that shows they're wrong. The most recent strike in Syria was a good example of this, compared to the last one the public has a much more realistic view of what happened because the Do D came out with slides and sat photos and third party verification right off the bat, and didn't try to debate any facts.
edited 2nd May '18 2:01:41 PM by archonspeaks
They should have sent a poet.
I'm not sure about that.
Germany has always seemed to me to be consistently more conservative then France. The only difference is that their fringe voices, particularly right-wing ones have not really had as much room to maneuver (at least for now) as they do in France.
@ironballs16: Well, if they think welfare spending is going to go down we can assure them that it's not going to be from a wellspring of new jobs from this tax bill, or even purchase of new capital.
Economically, Germany is pretty conservative. I can't speak to their social liberalism, but Krugman spent a lot of column space over the past few years arguing that the Ordoliberal doctrine was destroying the Eurozone.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Cambridge Analytica has filed for bankruptcy.
Basically, because all of their customers left in disgust.
That and their customer info security was shit. Alas, it's probably just a Blackwater situation.
In recent months, executives at Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group, along with the Mercer family, have moved to created a new firm, Emerdata, based in Britain, according to British records. The new company’s directors include Johnson Ko Chun Shun, a Hong Kong financier and business partner of Erik Prince. Mr. Prince founded the private security firm Blackwater, which was renamed Xe Services after Blackwater contractors were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians.
Cambridge and SCL officials privately raised the possibility that Emerdata could be used for a Blackwater-style rebranding of Cambridge Analytica and the SCL Group, according two people with knowledge of the companies, who asked for anonymity to describe confidential conversations. One plan under consideration was to sell off the combined company’s data and intellectual property.
edited 2nd May '18 2:28:53 PM by CharlesPhipps
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.![]()
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at least on paper they did.
All the power players formed a new firm, Emerdata.
And this time it has ties to Erik Prince (of Darkness).
- The power players behind Cambridge Analytica have set up a new company - and thedaughters of Donald Trump-supporting billionaire Robert Mercer have just joined as directors.
- Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer joined Emerdata on March 16, but it is shrouded in mystery.
- Alexander Nix, the suspended CEO of Cambridge Analytica, is also a director, as well as other executives from parent firm SCL Group.
- Emerdata also lists Johnson Chun Shun Ko, a Chinese executive from Frontier Services Group, the military firm chaired by prominent Trump supporter Erik Prince.
edited 2nd May '18 2:35:07 PM by megaeliz
Here's the full article about Emerdata, from a while back.
Rebekah and Jennifer Mercer, daughters of hedge fund tycoon Robert Mercer, have just joined the board of a mysterious new company set up by executives at scandal-hit political research firm Cambridge Analytica.
According to public filings at Britain's Companies House, Emerdata was incorporated in August 2017 and the Mercers were appointed to its board on March 16 this year.
Cambridge Analytica's now-suspended chief executive, Alexander Nix, is also listed as a director, as is Julian Wheatland, chairman of Cambridge Analytica parent firm SCL Group.
The filings show Wheatland set up Emerdata along with Cambridge Analytica's chief data officer, Alexander Tayler.
Nix's role in Emerdata is unclear given he has been suspended from Cambridge Analytica. A spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
It isn't clear what Emerdata does, though the company is listed under "data processing, hosting, and related activities." It shares an address in Canary Wharf with Cambridge Analytica's parent, SCL Group.
Emerdata is connected to controversial Trump supporter Erik Prince
Another notable company director is Johnson Chun Shun Ko, the deputy chairman of Frontier Services Group.
Frontier is a private security firm which mostly operates in Africa and is currently chaired by US businessman and prominent Trump supporter Erik Prince. Prince is best known for founding private military group Blackwater US and is the brother of US education secretary Betsy De Vos.
Prince also donated to the Make America Number 1 PAC, a Mercer-funded group that supported Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
Make America Number 1 paid Cambridge Analytica $1.5 million in 2015 and 2016. During undercover filming by Britain's Channel 4 News, CA executives revealed how Make America Number 1 was used to seed online attack ads against Hillary Clinton.
The appointments indicate the strong ties between the Mercer family and Cambridge Analytica.
Robert Mercer is the primary funder for Cambridge Analytica, and was also a major backer of Donald Trump's presidential campaign through the Make America Number 1 PAC.
He's also the major funder behind controversial right-wing news site Breitbart. Breitbart's former executive chairman and former White House advisor, Steve Bannon, once sat on the board of Cambridge Analytica.
Trump's team once appointed Cambridge Analytica to run its digital campaign - something the firm boasted about in secret recordings taken by Channel 4.
According to Politico, the Trump camp is now trying to distance itself from the company following revelations that it misused millions of Facebook users' information, plus incriminating undercover recordings which show the executives boasting of their ability to manipulate elections and even blackmail political opponents.
Nix was suspended from his role late on Tuesday after the recordings aired on Channel 4.
edited 2nd May '18 2:40:06 PM by megaeliz
Some @PresVillain fun:
AT SOME POINT I WILL HAVE NO CHOICE—! #PresidentSupervillain https://t.co/3LfKTc4fs6
A few not yet mentioned stories from the WTF Just Happened Today Twitter:
Iowa lawmakers passed the nation's most restrictive abortion legislation
Planned Parenthood and two other reproductive rights groups are suing the Trump administration to block a "radical shift" in the federal Title X program
A former contestant on "The Apprentice" is suing Trump for defamation after he called her a liar for accusing him of sexual assault
Trump has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him of violating the Constitution's Emoluments Clause
A group of House of Representatives formally nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize
edited 2nd May '18 4:16:06 PM by sgamer82
Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate questions 'cognitive thought process' of veterans who are Democrats. [1]
Asked by host Steve Scaffidi on the local station WTMJ
about Republican primary opponent Leah Vukmir's suggestion that her record as a Republican state senator should mean more to conservative voters than his military experience, Nicholson argued that to serve in the military is fundamentally conservative.
"And just because some people that don't call themselves conservatives and don't always act conservative do something conservative — like, let's talk about John Kerry — and signed up to serve this country, that doesn't mean that that's not a conservative thing to fundamentally protect and defend the Constitution," Nicholson said. "Because I'll tell you, the Democrat party has wholesale rejected the Constitution and the values that it was founded upon. So I'll tell you what: Those veterans that are out there in the Democrat party, I question their cognitive thought process because the bottom line is, they're signing up to defend the Constitution that their party is continually dragging through the mud."
Nicholson went on to tout "my time as a husband, my time as a father," as well as the endorsements of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Utah Sen. Mike Lee as further conservative credentials.
Nicholson's military service has been a focal point of his campaign to be the GOP nominee to unseat Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin in November, as has his journey from being a member of the Democratic Party as a younger man to becoming a Republican. Nicholson was president of the College Democrats of America and spoke at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. He later joined the Marines and told Politico in September 2017 that his deployment to Iraq in 2007 was key to changing his political views, saying he was "livid" with Democrats for calling the war a failure.
Nicholson campaign spokesman Brandon Moody elaborated on the candidate's remarks in an email to CNN's K File.
"Kevin made clear that all members of the military - regardless of their political party - sign up to defend and protect the Constitution and its principles," he said. "But Kevin also believes that the Democrat Party has become unmoored from the Constitution and has lost its way. Kevin left the Democrat Party years ago and became a conservative, in part, because liberal Democrats and the policies they promote have shown overt disrespect to our veterans."
CNN's K File reported
in February that both Nicholson's mother and father donated the legal maximum to Baldwin's primary campaign in December.
here's an example of what he tweets
Here's the Twitter of Tammy Baldwin, who he's running against

It's still not good that Le Pen got as far as she did in the first place.