Political Randomness

[Isgrimnur]

It has your IP address. And ISPs haven't been really good about keeping business records secret.

[stessier]

An IP address isn't a person. I have court cases to prove it.

[Isgrimnur]

Companies would never make decisions based on interpretation of specious information.

[stessier]

Your conspiracy requires them to contact the ISPs and collect that info - they weren't accused of that and my ISP is actually half way decent at standing up to people according to the last report I saw. I'm really not worried about that end.

[malchior]

It doesn't. You deanonymoize your IP all day if you use Google logged in, use Facebook, use retailers on the web, etc. Take it from someone who does it for a living an IP and a time are all they need. No ISP required.

[Paingod]

Seriously. Consider your IP as your mailing address. Every time you leave the house (go online), you're handing business cards to every store saying "Hi, I'm Bob. I live at 37 Shady Lane, Denver, CO." They don't need to go to the Post Office and ask for a list of residents. It's overly simplifying a more complex system, but I think it's a good approximation.

Your TV knows this address, and sends it back to the manufacturer. "Hey, Bob (at 37 Shady Lane) is watching Baywatch again." Manufacturer calls up Advertising buddy - "Hey man, you got anything on this Bob at 37 Shady Lane?" Ad agency: "Oh, yeah. He's into pr0n on Tuesdays and Thursdays when his kids aren't searching for Fart jokes on YouTube. He's gone to the Olive Garden a few times this year, and maybe has a rash on his ass. We haven't figured that out yet, but we're probing with butt-cream ads to see if he responds." Manufacturer: "Oh, well, hey - I've got some new data for you. Same price?" Ad agency: "Hell yeah!"

Disabling cookies, tracking, and other things means you get to leave the house and go about your business without handing out business cards to every person you pass by out there. A recent article (or story) I came across said that Facebook makes about $12 per year selling your personal information to ad agencies. Basically, they've set up a reality TV show with you as the star, and the agencies are using that as a Pay Per View service.

[LordMortis]

It doesn't. You deanonymoize your IP all day if you use Google logged in, use Facebook, use retailers on the web, etc. Take it from someone who does it for a living an IP and a time are all they need. No ISP required.

No kidding. Even with privacy settings on paranoid. Facebook and Amazon know enough to track every where I go at work and home and crossreference both locations to figure out how to advertise to me. Then other sites just steal what FB and Amazon know. Linkedin was the worst of the lot. It stole all of addressbook information from both my webmail accounts when they were open and my MS Exchange account without even asking and then started building a and publishing a web of contacts also without asking. I suppose I should have expected this, given its stated purpose but I only joined because someone tried to contact me through the service I didn't have an account for.

[malchior]

As a perfect example, I've been working at home more lately and am into fitness. All of a sudden I'm getting ads for standing desks that are priced for the home market. Not a coincedence. #creepyasfuck

[Pyperkub]

Except of course, we *can't* currently put a man on the moon (in part because we are incarcerating so damn many people, etc.).

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) pointed to one of man’s greatest scientific achievements as evidence that his state could build more prisons.

Noting that 2019 would mark the 50th anniversary of his state putting a man on the moon, Bentley argued that Alabama should be able to build more facilities.

“If Alabamians can put man on the moon, we can build new prisons,” Bentley said

Last I checked, we were years away from being able to put a man on the moon again were we to decide to do so.

[LordMortis]

Except of course, we *can't* currently put a man on the moon (in part because we are incarcerating so damn many people, etc.).

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) pointed to one of man’s greatest scientific achievements as evidence that his state could build more prisons.

Noting that 2019 would mark the 50th anniversary of his state putting a man on the moon, Bentley argued that Alabama should be able to build more facilities.

“If Alabamians can put man on the moon, we can build new prisons,” Bentley said

Last I checked, we were years away from being able to put a man on the moon again were we to decide to do so.

As far as I know "Alabama" is scheduled to have a deep space rocket ready this year. Bloated federal government waste gave them seven billion in entitlement spending in the last three years alone to accomplish this task.

[Holman]

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) pointed to one of man’s greatest scientific achievements as evidence that his state could build more prisons.

Noting that 2019 would mark the 50th anniversary of his state putting a man on the moon, Bentley argued that Alabama should be able to build more facilities.

“If Alabamians can put man on the moon, we can build new prisons,” Bentley said

Give Von Braun due credit!

"If Nazi scientists can put a man on the moon, Alabamians can build new prisons."

[Rip]

Except of course, we *can't* currently put a man on the moon (in part because we are incarcerating so damn many people, etc.).

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) pointed to one of man’s greatest scientific achievements as evidence that his state could build more prisons.

Noting that 2019 would mark the 50th anniversary of his state putting a man on the moon, Bentley argued that Alabama should be able to build more facilities.

“If Alabamians can put man on the moon, we can build new prisons,” Bentley said

Last I checked, we were years away from being able to put a man on the moon again were we to decide to do so.

How about we build some prisons on the moon? Win-win.

[Pyperkub]

Except of course, we *can't* currently put a man on the moon (in part because we are incarcerating so damn many people, etc.).

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) pointed to one of man’s greatest scientific achievements as evidence that his state could build more prisons.

Noting that 2019 would mark the 50th anniversary of his state putting a man on the moon, Bentley argued that Alabama should be able to build more facilities.

“If Alabamians can put man on the moon, we can build new prisons,” Bentley said

Last I checked, we were years away from being able to put a man on the moon again were we to decide to do so.

As far as I know "Alabama" is scheduled to have a deep space rocket ready this year. Bloated federal government waste gave them seven billion in entitlement spending in the last three years alone to accomplish this task.

Deep Space rocket yes, but it can't land on the moon, and we have let that technology slide for decades. Here's an article from a few years back:

NASA's current rockets and space shuttles aren?t capable of surpassing low-Earth orbit to reach the moon with the amount of gear required for a manned expedition.

"The amount of rocket energy it takes to accelerate those kinds of payloads away from Earth doesn?t exist anymore," said Jeff Hanley, NASA's Constellation program manager. "It exited in the Apollo era with the Saturn V. Since that time this nation has retired that capability."...

And that was before Obama shitcanned the Constellation project for the SLS - which won't even be capable of a Lunar flyby until August 2021.

[Max Peck]

How about we build some prisons on the moon? Win-win.

That would probably end well.

[Isgrimnur]

Guardian

Wikipedia editors have voted to ban the Daily Mail as a source for the website in all but exceptional circumstances after deeming the news group “generally unreliable”.
...
The editors described the arguments for a ban as “centred on the Daily Mail’s reputation for poor fact checking, sensationalism and flat-out fabrication”.

[Jaymann]

Except of course, we *can't* currently put a man on the moon (in part because we are incarcerating so damn many people, etc.).

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) pointed to one of man’s greatest scientific achievements as evidence that his state could build more prisons.

Noting that 2019 would mark the 50th anniversary of his state putting a man on the moon, Bentley argued that Alabama should be able to build more facilities.

“If Alabamians can put man on the moon, we can build new prisons,” Bentley said

Last I checked, we were years away from being able to put a man on the moon again were we to decide to do so.

Again? You might want to check out some of the "moon hoax" videos. I scoffed at first, but the evidence is pretty compelling.

[Max Peck]

Again? You might want to check out some of the "moon hoax" videos. I scoffed at first, but the evidence is pretty compelling.

[Zarathud]

If there was a moon hoax or aliens, Trump would be tweeting about it now.

[RunningMn9]

Please be joking. Please be joking. Please be joking.

There is no compelling evidence whatsoever, unless you have no idea what you are looking at.

[hitbyambulance]

didn't you hear - random conspiracy theories are all the rage now. i expect more people to take up previously-debunked bs opinions just because they're novel and different (and if someone in a position of influence does, watch the acceptance of such 'alt-facts' spread among certain parts of the populace.)

[Holman]

This ends with Trump blowing up the moon, doesn't it?

[Unagi]

didn't you hear - random conspiracy theories are all the rage now. i expect more people to take up previously-debunked bs opinions just because they're novel and different (and if someone in a position of influence does, watch the acceptance of such 'alt-facts' spread among certain parts of the populace.)

A few years ago a virus was unleashed in the population that makes people more paranoid and prone to thinking up and believing in conspiracy theories.

[Pyperkub]

didn't you hear - random conspiracy theories are all the rage now. i expect more people to take up previously-debunked bs opinions just because they're novel and different (and if someone in a position of influence does, watch the acceptance of such 'alt-facts' spread among certain parts of the populace.)

A few years ago a virus was unleashed in the population that makes people more paranoid and prone to thinking up and believing in conspiracy theories.

Just the Internet and people who only read stuff they agree with, regardless of the source.

[LawBeefaroni]

how? It didn't know anything about me. Feel free to take what I watch - you still can't match it to a user.

It knows your IP and advertisers know the devices associated with that IP. They'll get a match. Big Data, folks.

[Paingod]

how? It didn't know anything about me. Feel free to take what I watch - you still can't match it to a user.

It knows your IP and advertisers know the devices associated with that IP. They'll get a match. Big Data, folks.

Seriously. I mean, come on - Facebook was telling people you were gay before you even thought about coming out of the closet.

[LordMortis]

how? It didn't know anything about me. Feel free to take what I watch - you still can't match it to a user.

It knows your IP and advertisers know the devices associated with that IP. They'll get a match. Big Data, folks.

Reading a book right now and while not specifically about data collection. 40 pages in, it's pretty clear we are exponentially moving toward the Internet knowing just about everything about every one.

[LordMortis]

how? It didn't know anything about me. Feel free to take what I watch - you still can't match it to a user.

It knows your IP and advertisers know the devices associated with that IP. They'll get a match. Big Data, folks.

Seriously. I mean, come on - Facebook was telling people you were gay before you even thought about coming out of the closet.

I thought that was TiVo.

[Smoove_B]

I thought that was TiVo.

Target knows you're pregnant.

[LordMortis]

I thought that was TiVo.

Target knows you're pregnant.

This is precisely the sort of thing the Book I am reading is about (at about 40 pages in to it). They even use the same word disruption as a primary way to describe the evolution of the modern life/business organization relationship.

[Enough]

I thought that was TiVo.

Target knows you're pregnant.

This is precisely the sort of thing the Book I am reading is about (at about 40 pages in to it). They even use the same word disruption as a primary way to describe the evolution of the modern life/business organization relationship.

Has anyone linked this big data story on how it may have been key for Trump to win the election?

Psychologist Michal Kosinski developed a method to analyze people in minute detail based on their Facebook activity. Did a similar tool help propel Donald Trump to victory? Two reporters from Zurich-based Das Magazin went data-gathering.​

[LordMortis]

Marked for later reading. Can't tackle that in 30 second bites.

[Paingod]

Marked for later reading. Can't tackle that in 30 second bites.

TL;DR - Facebook knows the color of your poop, even if you didn't tell anyone. Trump used your vital poop color data to win the election. Summary of the summary: Trump = Poop

Lots of scary reality about how your data is used. Probably the most important paragraph of the article, though...

Nix candidly explains how his company does this. First, Cambridge Analytica buys personal data from a range of different sources, like land registries, automotive data, shopping data, bonus cards, club memberships, what magazines you read, what churches you attend. Nix displays the logos of globally active data brokers like Acxiom and Experian—in the US, almost all personal data is for sale. For example, if you want to know where Jewish women live, you can simply buy this information, phone numbers included. Now Cambridge Analytica aggregates this data with the electoral rolls of the Republican party and online data and calculates a Big Five personality profile. Digital footprints suddenly become real people with fears, needs, interests, and residential addresses.

Then Trump hires this firm, sends out targeted ads to dissuade people from voting for Clinton (or voting at all), and does things like this:

From July 2016, Trump's canvassers were provided with an app with which they could identify the political views and personality types of the inhabitants of a house. It was the same app provider used by Brexit campaigners. Trump's people only rang at the doors of houses that the app rated as receptive to his messages. The canvassers came prepared with guidelines for conversations tailored to the personality type of the resident. In turn, the canvassers fed the reactions into the app, and the new data flowed back to the dashboards of the Trump campaign.

A delicious twist...

Another big winner is Cambridge Analytica (the company Trump hired). Its board member Steve Bannon, former executive chair of the right-wing online newspaper Breitbart News, has been appointed as Donald Trump's senior counselor and chief strategist.

[Zarathud]

My sister works in advertising and admitted she was happy she used the vast demographic information they had access to only for selling soap and food. Whatever you post on Facebook and Google or buy with a credit card profiles you. Your phone betrays your detailed shopping habits.

Even giving your ZIP Code to a retailer ends up profiling you -- Best Buy can narrow down those houses which did not use credit cards but were likely to buy a TV. When the TV sends out your IP address, they can cross-reference to aggregate you. It's scary shit -- and worse if you believe in conspiracies.

[Apollo]

America may be first under Donald Trump, but the Netherlands makes a strong case for being second:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELD2AwFN9Nc

[Max Peck]

America may be first under Donald Trump, but the Netherlands makes a strong case for being second:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELD2AwFN9Nc

It's the start of a movement. I particularly like the German version -- no fucks are given with that one.

[NickAragua]

So, what do you guys think, should I attempt to engage with a facebook "friend" who claims that "the Democrats are anti-Israel and anti-Semitic", or just call it a day?

[Pyperkub]

So, what do you guys think, should I attempt to engage with a facebook "friend" who claims that "the Democrats are anti-Israel and anti-Semitic", or just call it a day?

I'd say call it a day, but not supporting Netanyahu and the Settlements does not equal not supporting Israel. Just as not supporting Obama did not mean not supporting America (most likely for your friend).

[Rip]

I could understand saying they don't support Israel although that is disputable and hardly cut and dry either way. But anti-semitic is a ridiculous charge, although some members of the party may be it certainly isn't representative of the party.

Still such logic doesn't stop numerous people on the left from making the silly assertion that many of those on the right are anti-semitic.

This article verbalizes my feelings on the subject fairly well.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.755056

Donald Trump isn’t an anti-Semite and neither are Steven Bannon, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. The fact that this is the subject of any public discussion at all is the poisonous product of identity politics and the internet.

Identity politics is supposed to create political blocs around racial, ethnic and religious affiliations that have been shortchanged by the system, and fight for their interests. But it inevitably morphs into an ideology with a narrative of victimization and a political program that seeks out enemies.

The best narrative is constructed of symbolic acts, which can rally the faithful far better than facts, and the internet is the tool of choice for building this narrative, being a seemingly endless treasure-trove of information that can find factoids to back up almost any and every prejudice.

If ye seek, ye shall find incidents of spray-painting or hurled insults. You will probably find any given public figure in the wrong company, at some point, or caught blurting something that can be construed as hateful. Social media gets the word out, and organizations fighting racism or sexism abet this phenomenon, too.

Jews aren’t the only ones who do this, but since our subject is the anti-Semitism canard, let’s see how it works there.

The Anti-Defamation League is a responsible organization, but the press release for its annual audit of anti-Semitism (“Anti-Semitic Assaults Rise Dramatically Across the Country in 2015”) is nothing less than alarmist.

Scroll down to the data and you discover that all anti-Semitic incidents in the United States were up just 3% last year to 941. Assaults grew by 55%, which seems dramatic, until you see that against an American Jewish population of 4.2 million there were only 56 cases.

Scroll down some more and you find that the assaults were mainly one-off incidents of people being called names and having eggs, paintballs and rocks thrown at them. Anti-Semitic yes, but evidence of rising anti-Semitism?.    

Usually identity politics is the modus operandi of the left. In the Jewish world, it has been the property of the right, which has used it to hammer people and organizations it didn’t think were sufficiently friendly to Israel.

Being anti-Israel or anti-settlement doesn’t quite cut it as a weapon to hurl against your political opponents. But accuse them of being anti-Semitic and you conjure up images of pogroms or worse: Your opponent doesn’t just think settlements are a human rights violation, he actually hates you and your fellows Jews for who you are. End of debate, we have to fight back, no matter what we might think of settlements.

It’s a pity now that the left in Israel and liberals in America are pulling out the same weapon. Donald Trump has made troubling statements about Mexicans and Muslims and hasn’t been especially fast and forthright in disavowing racists like David Duke who have endorsed him.

That is a good reason, along with many, many others, to dislike Trump and actively oppose his agenda. But to hate Trump because he’s anti-Semitic?

Trump has been a public figure for more than three decades and is a long-time figure in New York real estate, which is tantamount to a fourth major branch of Judaism (or is that anti-Semitic? I was quoted out of context -- my Jewish friends will vouch for me). Yet somehow his hatred of Jews failed to get noticed until he ran for president.

Now the weapon is now being aimed at Steven Bannon, Trump’s campaign chief and newly appointed strategic adviser, whose anti-Semitic record consists of two things: A headline that appeared in Breitbart News, the right-wing website he heads, that called Bill Kristol a “renegade Jew,” and Bannon’s ex-wife’s claim in divorce court that he refused to send their daughters to a certain school because there were too many “whiny” Jewish students there.

That is thin gruel for what must have been hundreds of man-hours trawling the internet.
Bannon and Breitbart have a lot of things to answer for, but anti-Semitism isn’t one of them. Tarring Bannon with it is meant to tar Trump by association and turn him into no-go territory for American Jews. This is a tried-and-true tactic of the right but should be disavowed by anyone who has an ounce of political sanity.

The essence of democratic politics is engagement with your opponents. Boycotting them is something you do on very rare occasions  against the most odious people and movements. Trump and his West Wingnut aren’t one of them.

[hepcat]

It's hilarious to read that you agree with everything in that article, considering you basically accused Obama of being anti-semitic during his last spat with Netanyahu a while back.

[Rip]

It's hilarious to read that you agree with everything in that article, considering you basically accused Obama of being anti-semitic during his last spat with Netanyahu a while back.

I don't recall saying that. You will have to point me back to it.

He was certainly anti-Israel/anti-zionist but not anti-semitic.