TubbersUK

TubbersUK's Journal

October 1, 2017

British courts may unlock secrets of how Trump campaign profiled US voters

'Legal mechanism may help academic expose how Big Data firms like Cambridge Analytica and Facebook get their information'

A US professor is trying to reclaim his personal data from the controversial analytics firm that helped Donald Trump to power. In what legal experts say may be a “watershed” case, a US citizen is using British laws to try to discover how he was profiled and potentially targeted by the Trump campaign.

David Carroll, an associate professor at Parsons School of Design in New York, has discovered a transatlantic legal mechanism that he hopes will give him access to information being sought by both the FBI and the Senate intelligence committee. In recent weeks, investigators looking at how people acting on behalf of Russia targeted American voters have focused on Trump’s data operation. But although the FBI obtained a court order against Facebook to make it disclose evidence, the exact way in which US citizens were profiled and targeted remains largely unknown.

“In the US election, the FBI has been trying to get information from the top down but this doesn’t help with regard to the French election or Brexit,” Dehaye said. “And we know we just cannot trust Facebook, even with good intent, to run our elections fairly. There are a few huge companies amassing vast amounts of data on vast amounts of people and there’s no democratic oversight.”

Pasquale said news that Facebook information had been used by Russian agents to target US citizens may prove to be a tipping point. “It shows this information has now been weaponised by a state actor. What we’re seeing is really a failure of the first order. Mark Zuckerberg wrote this 6,000-word letter about creating a global political community and yet we now know that Facebook was a platform for a devastating attack on the most robust democracy in the world.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/01/cambridge-analytica-big-data-facebook-trump-voters

September 27, 2017

US Bombardier ruling: Theresa May 'bitterly disappointed' at Trump administration tariff decision

Source: Independent

Prime Minister Theresa May is "bitterly disappointed'' by a US Department of Commerce decision to impose a tariff of nearly 220 per cent on a new model of passenger jet manufactured by Bombardier, one of Northern Ireland's biggest employers, Downing Street said.

The comment came after Ms May was accused of being "asleep at the wheel" as unions warned that thousands of jobs could be put at risk by the US move.

Canadian multinational Bombardier employs around 4,200 people in Belfast and thousands more jobs in Northern Ireland are supported through the manufacturer's supply chain, according to trade unionists.

Ms May had lobbied US President Donald Trump over the dispute, which was sparked by complaints from rival Boeing that Bombardier received unfair state subsidies from the UK and Canada, allowing the sale of airliners at below cost price in America.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/us-bombardier-ruling-northern-ireland-jobs-theresa-may-trump-tariff-commerce-a7969256.html

All that schmoozing for nowt.

A taste of things to come as the BREXIT nightmare continues.

September 26, 2017

TRUMP'S NFL FIGHT DATES BACK TO HIS FAILED USFL EXPERIMENT IN THE '80S

This is an informative read:

It was Trump's undying need to get into the NFL that drove the billionaire to buy his way into the upstart league in the '80s, the author said. But the big league wasn't a fan.

"They just saw him as this scumbag huckster," Pearlman told Newsweek. "He was this New York, fast-talking, kind of con-man."

In the course of Trump's NFL pursuit, he made a fair number of enemies at the USFL and helped shuttle the league to an early grave. He convinced other USFL owners to challenge the NFL directly in the fall, and then led the charge on an anti-trust lawsuit against the football giant that netted a massive...three dollars. The USFL was dead by '85.

His goal was to have an NFL franchise. He tried buying the Baltimore Colts a couple years earlier, didn’t get them. He wanted an NFL franchise and he saw this as a way to do it. He talked all happy-happy about the USFL and spring football until he got the team. And as soon as he got the team he was angling in every way possible to move them to fall to take on the NFL, so his team, somehow, would be absorbed by the NFL.

His entire goal was to get him an NFL team. He didn’t care how he got it. It wasn’t like, “Oh, I really hope I can lead you guys to a merger.” He didn’t give a shit about the other owners. Like, at all. Did not care. No interest, whatsoever. His goal was to get in the NFL. If it took a merger, so be it. If it took the entire USFL collapsing and he gets an [NFL] team, that’s fine too.

http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-nfl-fight-dates-back-failed-usfl-experiment-80s-jeff-pearlman-670843

September 22, 2017

Trump Versus his State Department

Oops!

https://twitter.com/LaurenWern/status/911362322442178560

Lauren Werner 🗽? @LaurenWern 7m7 minutes ago
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Trump calling Russian meddling a "hoax" put State Department spox Heather Nauert in an awkward situation:

September 15, 2017

Regarding Trump's dig at the UK police

Trump's swipe at The Metropolitan Police has caused a bit of a stir. Some wondered if he'd been formally briefed and then leaked the fact that the terrorists were on a watch list - however British authorities have described Trump's claim as 'speculation' so probably not.

The alternative (in my opinion stronger) theory is that Trump picked up some crap on Fox and spewed it out on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/908642277987356673

Donald J. Trump?Verified account @realDonaldTrump 7h7 hours ago
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Another attack in London by a loser terrorist.These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive!

https://twitter.com/yashar/status/908724826168336386

Yashar Ali 🐘?Verified account
@yashar
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Trump tweeted about Scotland Yard at 642 am. At 619 am on Fox/Friends @kilmeade talked about Scotland Yard having terrorists on their radar.

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