Mind Manipulations to influence Election Results

January 06, 2017

by Peter Koenig

“Hacking” to influence election results? Ridiculous! That may have been a thing of the past. Or not even. It’s an evil invention of the evil losers of the evil Hillary camp, supported by a criminal departing President Obama, who will be leaving office, of course, not with a bang, not even with a whimper, but with a disgrace for his nation and for the truth loving people all around the world. What a legacy the first ‘black’ US President leaves behind – as an assassin by thousands of indiscriminate and illegal drone killings, by starting 5 new wars, being currently involved in seven unjustified and illegal armed conflicts around the globe, killing millions of people and, finally, as a miserable liar.

Already back in August 2016, NSA whistleblower William Binney stated on Aaron Klein Investigative Radio that “the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) server was not hacked by Russia, but by a disgruntled US intelligence worker.” Binney went on to proclaim that “the NSA has all of Clinton’s deleted emails, and the FBI could gain access to them if they so wished.” He concluded that there was no need for Trump to ask the Russians for the emails, he could just ask the FBI or NSA to hand them over.

So, one of President Obama’s last deeds in this illustrious office of the Presidency of the United States, is lying to the American people and lying to the world. – Bravo!
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The truth behind Donald Trump’s ‘surprise’ election may lay somewhere else. It’s called Psychometrics, a method based on massive behavioral data collection of people to be targeted by propaganda, or more accurately expressed by mind manipulation. A 34-year old Polish researcher at the University of Cambridge, Michal Kosinski, is the chief architect of this new refined brainwashing technology which is being marketed, sold and applied by a small London-based data analysis firm, called ‘Cambridge Analytica’.

The research firm first worked for Republican Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz, U.S. Senator from Texas, who was little known by most Americans. Cambridge Analytica increased his popularity to 40%, but not enough to win the Republican nomination. The data analysis firm was then hired by Trump’s campaign team – successfully as it appears. In this 11-minute YouTube, Alexander Nix, CEO of Cambridge Analytica, explains the method on the case of Ted Cruz.

As reported by the Swiss newspaper, ‘Tagesanzeiger’ (TA), Psychometrics, or Psychographics, as such is not new. It was developed in the 1980, as a scientific tool to help determine people’s personalities. Psychologists concluded that every trait of a person’s character can be categorized into five personality dimensions. The system is called OCEAN, for Openness, Consciousness, level of Extraversion, Amicability (compatibility) and Neuroticism.

Kosinski claims that based on about 70 Facebook-Likes, he can determine with 95% accuracy whether a person is black or white, with 88% whether he / she is homosexual and with 85% whether he /she is a Democrat or Republican. With 150 ‘Likes’ he knows a person better than his / her parents, and with 300, better than his / her partner. These are impressive claims. But Are they correct? Many critics dispute them, mainly arguing there is no proof that targeted people (i) actually do vote, and (ii) that they vote according to their profile. In any case, it would be difficult to verify to what extent Cambridge Analytica helped Donald Trump to win the elections. Cambridge Analytica also claims credit for the BREXIT vote.

Facebook entries are not the only input to “Big Data”. In addition to tens of thousands of ‘likes’ collected, data on peoples’ google browsing, eating and consumer habits, what cosmetics and rock bands they like, whether they are drug, cigarettes and / or alcohol addicts, or just users, what type of alcohol, brand or type of car they prefer, their banking customs, even the speed with which they remove their cell phone from their pockets when it rings – and-so-on – are also entered into “Big Data”. We are indeed living in the age of no holds barred as far as disrespect for privacy and universal data collection is concerned. As long as we let it happen, it will only get worse.

Hundreds of thousands of people are literally being ‘profiled’ for targeted and personalized propaganda messages to convince segments of people and individuals of think-alikes to vote for or against a candidate. The TA concludes, that’s why Trump’s campaign messages were often contradictory and confusing, difficult to establish a clear picture of where he really stands. This is still the case today.

According to Kosinski, in the ‘olden days’, social research firms had to get people filling-in cumbersome questionnaires, based on demographics. Today this approach is outdated. We have internet and Facebook. Not all women, blacks, Hispanics, gays, straights – vote alike. This false assumption was still used by Hillary’s campaign and demonstrated to be deceptive. Even though Hillary had about 2.7 million more popular votes, she lost the election by electorates. Cambridge Analytica worked on swing states. Within these States, they targeted specifically the ‘vulnerable’ or undecided, or motivated those with no intention to vote to get off their butts and cast their vote for Trump, or against Hillary, depending on their profile.

For example, Haitians in Florida, who had no intention to vote, but would have leaned Democratic, i.e. for Hillary, were targeted with propaganda describing the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and how the Clintons ruined Haiti’s economy. So – they went to vote for Trump as an anti-Clinton vote. At least this was the plan and apparently, it worked in sufficient cases to be effective.

Although we will never know for sure to what extent Cambridge Analytica has contributed to Trump’s election win, we can be certain that the method, inexpensive as compared to demographic profiling, will be used masively in the future, most certainly in the upcoming elections in France and the Netherlands (Spring 2017) and Germany (Fall 2017).

Thanks goodness for President Putin (I must have said this many times before) to give Mr. Obama and all the people around him, a lesson on how to behave like a statesman and not like a losing looney what he is. President Putin did not retaliate Obama’s flagrant lie-based expelling of 35 Russian diplomats with families just before New Year’s Eve, in full preparation of year-end festivities. Instead he invited US diplomats in Moscow and their kids to celebrate the year-end festivities with their Russian colleagues. Obama’s act of cowardice was framed as ‘sanction’ for ‘Russian interference in US elections’ – a blatant lie. Mr. Obama, the master puppet of the deep state that pulls the strings on his lips and mind – he, (nominally) President Obama, knows it’s a sham.

Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik, PressTV, The 4th Media, TeleSUR, TruePublica, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.

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