Cambridge Analytica-- How Mercer Used Data Mining To Elect The Clownish Señor Trumpanzee

Mercer and his dog

Cambridge Analytica was founded in 2013, specifically to participate in U.S. elections, though it is a subsidiary of a British company, Strategic Communication Laboratories, famous for military disinformation campaigns and for fomenting coups. Before the Mercers ordered them to do data mining and analysis plus "strategic communication" (a kewl phrase that was formerly called propaganda) for Trumpanzee, they helped Tom Cotton (R-AR), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and dozens of other Republicans to steal elections. They also helped British neo-Nazis win the Brexit vote.

On Friday, CNN decided to try to explain what Cambridge Analytica is and how it's invoked with Putin-Gate. "There is a web of connections between the Trump campaign, the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks and the public disclosures it injected into the presidential campaign," explained CNN. "Federal investigators are examining some of these relationships and whether any of them were part of an effort to coordinate with Russia's election-meddling campaign. This week, a new thread emerged: Multiple sources confirmed to CNN that the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, contacted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in summer 2016 to ask for access to emails from Hillary Clinton's private server. Sources told CNN that he asked for the emails because he wanted to catalog them on a searchable database that would be made available to the Trump campaign or a pro-Trump PAC."

Starting in June, 2016, the billionaire/fascist Mercer family began taking over aspects of the Trump campaign and placing their own people-- including Bannon and Kellyanne Conman-- into key positions including incorporating several Mercer/Cambridge Analytica employees. On July 29 the Trump campaign made its first of 5 payments to Cambridge Analytica, cutting a check for $100,000, according to records from the FEC. The second payment (August 18) was for $250,000 and two weeks later they paid Cambridge Analytica $5 million. In all, Trump paid the firm just under $6 million.

Between July 21 and July 31, 2016-- Cambridge Analytica CEO emails WikiLeaks

Alexander Nix, the chief executive of data firm Cambridge Analytica, emailed Assange seeking access to emails from Clinton's private server so he could turn them into a searchable database for the campaign or a pro-Trump political action committee.There is no evidence that Clinton's deleted emails were ever hacked or that WikiLeaks ever had possession of them.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the email was sent in late July 2016 at some point following the Republican National Convention. This was around the same time Cambridge Analytica started working for the Trump campaign as part of its three-pronged data operation based in San Antonio, Texas.

Right-wing firebrand Steve Bannon was a member of the Cambridge Analytica board when Nix sent the email, according to the New York Times.

The Guardian explained the relationship-- and what Cambridge Analytica did for Trump-- in more detail. Although a top Trump campaign official-- Michael Glassner-- claimed the other day that they used their own (RNC) data-- so the $6 million was just for fun?-- a Cambridge Analytica executive, Molly Schweickert, admitted that the campaign used their own data, not the RNC's or anything else from the Trump campaign. "Any claims that voter data from any other source played a key role in the victory are false," said Glassner, a boldfaced liar.