Something that's always bugged me about the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica/Russia story.

[Girard442]

I've been reading about what the Russians have been up to ever since the Cuban Missile Crisis happened when I was a kid. One thing I've seen about the Russians is that they have a deep streak of pragmatism and straight-line thinking -- these are the people who didn't bother to make a fancy-shmancy argon-pressurized ballpoint pen that would write in space when a pencil got the job done just fine.

This is what seems wrong to me about the FB/CA/Russia thing. It's not that they don't have the tech skills. They do. It's not like they have moral reservations. They don't. It's not even like I don't think they did it. I do. It's just that the data thing seems to me to be way too much of a three-cushion-bank-shot thing for the Russians to use as their main strategy. They're the guys who take your money in the pool hall, not with a slick hustle, but by pranging you over the head with a cue.

My gut feeling is that they visited the CEOs of major media with a suitcase full of cash in one hand and a baseball bat in the other. Maybe that's just me.

[cheyanne]

1. If the Russians can buy republican congresscritters, they can buy the media.

but i think that the social media blitz was a straight shot of cocaine into the blood stream of american. buying media ceo's is more of a bank shot.

[Girard442]

2. Well, whatever else happens, all of us will have learned a lot when this is all over.

Assuming we live through it.

[KPN]

3. I dunno. They play chess pretty well, and that's a pretty complex game at proficient levels.