Ted Cruz uses extensive data-mining to court potential voters

What is Cambridge Analytica?


Cruz app data collection helps campaign read minds of voters
archive.is/c5sSn
original link:
bigstory.ap.org/article/2db0fc93cf664a63909e26e708e91c67/cruz-app-data-collection-helps-campaign-read-minds-voters

Protecting the privacy of law-abiding citizens from the government is a pillar of Ted Cruz's Republican presidential candidacy, but his campaign is testing the limits of siphoning personal data from supporters.

His "Cruz Crew" mobile app is designed to gather detailed information from its users' phones — tracking their physical movements and mining the names and contact information for friends who might want nothing to do with his campaign.

That information and more is then fed into a vast database containing details about nearly every adult in the United States to build psychological profiles that target individual voters with uncanny accuracy. Cruz's sophisticated analytics operation was heralded as key to his victory in Iowa earlier this month — the first proof, his campaign said, that the system has the potential to power him to the nomination.

After finishing a distant third in New Hampshire, Cruz is looking to boost the turnout of likely supporters in South Carolina and in Southern states with primaries on March 1, where voters are more evangelical and conservative.

The son of mathematicians and data processing programmers, Cruz is keenly and personally interested in the work. "Analytics gives the campaign a roadmap for everything we do," said Chris Wilson, data and digital director. "He has an acute understanding of our work and continually pushes me on it."

Data-mining to help candidates win elections has been increasing among both Republicans and Democrats. Mobile apps by other presidential campaigns also collect some information about users. But The Associated Press found the Cruz campaign's app — downloaded to more than 61,000 devices so far — goes furthest to glean personal data.

Other urls found in this thread:

archive.is/c5sSn
archive.is/bhx40
washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/05/ron-paul-warns-republicans-not-to-vote-for-ted-cruz/
informationliberation.com/?id=53968
archive.is/0fspz
bloomberg.com/politics/features/2016-01-20/what-kind-of-man-spends-millions-to-elect-ted-cruz-
twitter.com/danpgabriel
twitter.com/Banished_Mind
fastcompany.com/3058639/cruz-campaign-abandons-cutting-edge-behavioral-voter-targeting-tech-say-sources
archive.is/aChiN
archive.is/XJOE2
technologyreview.com/s/509026/how-obamas-team-used-big-data-to-rally-voters/
twitter.com/danpgabriel/status/725427604598210562
twitter.com/SooperMexican/status/725422893543231488
latimes.com/politics/la-na-cruz-donors-20160502-snap-story.html
newsday.com/long-island/politics/spin-cycle/robert-mercer-li-cruz-backer-to-stay-active-in-election-1.11762474
fortworthbusiness.com/news/big-spending-fracking-family-behind-cruz-won-t-back-trump/article_b407cfa0-12d4-11e6-8b85-570b2fe19e5c.html
bloomberg.com/politics/trackers/2016-02-20/renaissance-tech-founder-simons-gives-3-5m-to-pro-clinton-group
wallstreetonparade.com/2016/04/hedge-funds-are-part-of-a-tricky-money-maneuver-to-put-hillary-in-the-white-house/
twitter.com/AppliedMemetics
veterans.jobs/applied-memetics-llc/careers/
monster.com/jobs/c-applied-memetics-llc.aspx
linkedin.com/jobs/applied-memetics-llc-jobs
careerjet.com/jobs/a/applied_memetics.html
careers-appliedmemeticsllc.icims.com/
ziprecruiter.com/jobs/applied-memetics-llc-858b0a10
glassdoor.ca/Jobs/Applied-Memetics-Jobs-E879741.htm
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

The Cruz app prompts supporters to register using their Facebook logins, giving the campaign access to personal information such as name, age range, gender, location and photograph, plus lists of friends and relatives. Those without a Facebook account must either provide an email address or phone number to use the app.

By contrast, the app offered by GOP candidate Ben Carson's campaign asks supporters to surrender the same information as Cruz from their Facebook accounts, but also gives an option to use it without providing any personal information. Carson's app separately asks users to let the campaign track their movements and asks them to voluntarily supply their birthdate and gender — including options for "male," ''female" and "other."

Ohio Gov. John Kasich's campaign app doesn't request personal information from supporters, but it repeatedly nags users to let the campaign track their movements until they answer yes. Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders' app, "Field the Bern," requires supporters to sign in using their Facebook account or an email address, and it also repeatedly asks to let the campaign track their movements until they answer yes. The other 2016 presidential contenders, including Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, appear not to have officially sanctioned campaign apps in Apple and Android stores.

The Cruz app separately urges users to let it download their phone contacts, giving the campaign a trove of phone numbers and personal email addresses. The campaign says that by using its app, "You hereby give your express consent to access your contact list," but Wilson said the campaign will not do this to anyone who declines to allow it when the app requests permission.

Cruz's app also transmits to the campaign each user's physical location whenever the app is active, unless a user declines to allow it. The campaign said it does this "so that we can connect you to other Cruz Crew users based on your particular geographic location." The campaign tells users it can share all the personal information it collects with its consultants or other organizations, groups, causes, campaigns or political organizations with similar viewpoints or goals.

It also shares the material with analytics companies. Cruz's campaign combines the information with data from a group called Cambridge Analytica, which has been involved in his efforts since fall 2014. A Cambridge investor, Robert Mercer, has given more money than anyone else to outside groups supporting Cruz.

Cambridge has a massive 10 terabyte database — enough to fill more than 2,100 DVDs — that contains as many as 5,000 biographical details about the 240 million Americans of voting age. Cambridge considers its methodology highly secretive, but it may include such details as household income, employment status, credit history, party affiliation, church membership and spending habits. Cambridge uses powerful computers and proprietary algorithms to predict Americans' personality traits.

The Cruz campaign paid Cambridge $3.8 million in 2015, accounting for more than 8 percent of all its spending. Two outside groups supporting Cruz, including one directly funded by $11 million from Mercer, paid the firm $682,000 since December. Cambridge has five employees at Cruz headquarters in Houston and 70 others split between New York City and the Washington suburbs.

The power of Cruz's data-driven systems was on display in Iowa.

The GOP candidates held similar positions on issues such as abortion and gun control. Cambridge helped differentiate Cruz by identifying automated red light cameras as an issue of importance to Iowa residents upset with government intrusion. Potential voters living near the red light cameras were sent direct messages saying Cruz was against their use.

"Everything in this campaign is data-driven. I've never seen anything like it," said Jerry Sickles, a paid field representative in Hooksett, New Hampshire, who uses the Cruz Crew app. "We just know exactly who our voters are, and we will make sure they get out to vote."

Cruz, the junior senator from Texas, has been outspoken about protecting Americans' personal information from the government, including the National Security Agency. "Instead of a government that seizes your emails and your cellphones, imagine a federal government that protected the privacy rights of every American," he said when announcing his campaign.

Cruz campaign officials say it's different for the government versus a campaign to collect data. Sickle said Cruz is building on the use of big data pioneered by the successful Democratic campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. "It's not like we're giving it to the NSA," Sickle said. A campaign spokeswoman, Alice Stewart, added: "Why wouldn't we want to use every tool available to us to win?"

The scope of Cruz's system is formidable. Cambridge's database combines government and commercial data sets such as voter rolls and lists of people who liked certain Facebook posts, along with consumer data from grocery chains and other clients that can provide a voter's preferred brand of toothpaste or whether he clips coupons. In Iowa, where identifying evangelical voters was key to Cruz's victory strategy, Cambridge's employees scoured the Internet for such useful information as church membership rolls.

Cambridge CEO Alexander Nix said the company categorizes every American into one of five basic personality types derived from academic research and up to 50,000 questionnaires conducted each month.

"We've quantified the personalities of every adult American," Nix said. "We can reach out and target those different clusters with messages about the things they care about most, but that have been nuanced to resonate with their personality type."

For example, a Cruz campaign worker about to knock on the door of a house would access information about the household's members through the Cruz Crew app, receiving prepared scripts about what issues each person was likely to care about, modified to appeal to their personality.

Even within issues such as the right to bear arms, Nix said personality types will tailor the message. For voters who care about traditions or family, a message may resonate about guaranteeing the ability of a grandfather teaching shooting lessons. For someone identified as introverted, a better pitch might describe keeping guns for protection against crime.

Cambridge and the Cruz campaign stressed that anyone providing personal information through the app does so voluntarily. Data uses are outlined in legal disclosures available on the campaign's website.

Cambridge said it operates behind firewalls on its computer servers to secure its data and follows all applicable U.S. laws. Cambridge runs its operations out of the U.S.; they would be illegal in Europe under stricter privacy laws there.

In the hours before the Iowa vote, the campaign pushed urgent messages through its app to users who had Iowa contacts listed in their phones. The app displayed pre-written text messages the supporters were encouraged to forward to their Iowa acquaintances, urging them to caucus for Cruz.

The chief technologist at the privacy advocacy group Center for Democracy and Technology, Joe Hall, said politicians are unlikely to strengthen privacy protections as their campaigns become more and more reliant on mining personal data to squeeze out votes. "This is a form of political-voter surveillance," Hall said. "If people understood that this amount of fine-grained, sensitive data was being used by political campaigns, they would likely feel betrayed."

Does he try to look like the guy from Clockwork Orange on purpose or what the hell?

All campaigns do this faggot

He has an almost 'uncanny valley' look to his face. It's like looking at one of those robots that always have dead eyes.

...

there's this neurologist who analyzed Cruz's face and he didn't like what he saw:

So the problem with Archive.is not archiving Holla Forums threads is fixed?

anyway, the article was already archived here:
archive.is/c5sSn

archive.is/bhx40
original link:
washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/05/ron-paul-warns-republicans-not-to-vote-for-ted-cruz/

"It was very brief," said a Rand Paul supporter named Brandon Ross, "something to the effect of, 'Since Ted Cruz has proven that he's a defender of the Constitution, can he count on your vote on Tuesday?' Something like that. I responded that I didn't think that was proven at all, thanked her for the call, and disconnected… how Cruz's Super PAC got my name and that number so quickly? I don't know. But it's definitely creepy."

...

and what would be the identikit of a potential cruz voter?

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, appear not to have officially sanctioned campaign apps in Apple and Android stores.

Any politician with an (((app))) should be disqualified.

why dont trump use something like this if its so good?

Because he doesn't have to fine tune his flattery to every type of voter imagineable? He has a general message that resonates with a lot of people.

Cruz speaks and acts like a dishonest preacher so that's why he needs this hi-tech data-mining to try to court specific voters in hopes that their support will spread to other voters later.

Reminder that Ted Cruz employs a so-called volunteer named Dan Gabriel, a CIA agent specialized in propaganda who founded a company named Applied Memetics LLC.

Dan Gabriel was likely the one who came up with the dirty tricks used by Cruz against Carson in Iowa. [2nd picture]

Ex-CIA Agent & Cruz Supporter Who Runs Professional Shilling Company Allegedly Spread Lie About Carson Dropping Out & Tried To Frame Trump

informationliberation.com/?id=53968

And I remember a few weeks ago I'm not sure when exactly I think it was in January there was a thread on Holla Forums clearly made by a butthurt Applied Memetics shill, he kept posting the Vote Trump Get Clinton meme over and over with a photo of a baby with Trump's head. Maybe it was Dan Gabriel himself ?

bamp

I don't think it is good though - all it seems to be doing is reinforcing loyalty to Cruz among existing and probable Cruz voters. It's not improving his crossover appeal to Trump/Rubio/Kasich supporters or Democrats that might be inclined to vote Republican

Also
A politician that promises everything to every man like Cruz will end up delivering nothing

Rubio actually had one of the best comebacks to Cruz on abolishing the IRS: "Well, who's gonna collect your VAT tax?" I don't understand how anyone can hear "abolish the IRS" and not stop and say "wut"

I have to say after reading this article that Robert Mercer doesn't sound like a bad guy, quite the contrary - he's against Agenda 21, against the Anthropogenic Global Warming propaganda, against the Fed, for a return to the Gold standard. It's just unfortunate that he chose to bet on Ted Cruz.

But now I'm beginning to think that Mercer told Breitbart.com that he wasn't taking a side in the Cruz Vs Trump fight. If he had known Donald Trump would have been in the race two years ago he probably wouldn't have financed Cruz's campaign.

What Kind of Man Spends Millions to Elect Ted Cruz?

archive.is/0fspz
bloomberg.com/politics/features/2016-01-20/what-kind-of-man-spends-millions-to-elect-ted-cruz-

"Mercer is the co-chief executive officer of one of the country’s largest and most secretive hedge funds, Renaissance Technologies, but people who’ve spent time with him say he hasn’t shown any interest in advancing its agenda in Washington. They say he disdains the establishment wing of the Republican Party, which he sees as too cozy with Big Business and Wall Street. Unlike many of his peers in New York financial circles, he doesn’t shrink from the culture wars. He’s supported a campaign for the death penalty in Nebraska and funded ads in New York critical of the so-called ground-zero mosque. He and Rebekah have also directed money to an anti-abortion group and a Christian college, though people who know the father and daughter say they don’t talk about religion.

(…)

“He’s a very independent thinker,” says Sean Fieler, a conservative donor in New Jersey who’s worked with Mercer on advocating a return to the gold standard. “He’s a guy with his own ideas, and very developed ideas, and I wouldn’t want to speak on his behalf.”

Four people who’ve discussed the matter with him say Mercer is preoccupied with the country’s monetary and banking systems, which he sees as hopelessly compromised by government meddling. He was the main financial backer of the Jackson Hole Summit, a conference that took place in Wyoming last August to advocate for the gold standard, two of these people said. His name wasn’t anywhere on the agenda. According to video shot at the event, he sat with Rebekah toward the back of the audience, an unobtrusive, silver-haired gentleman with dark brows, wire-rimmed glasses, a navy suit, and a red tie. At dinner that night, he sat at a table while other guests chattered around him, softly whistling to himself.

(…)

According to Neugebauer, Cruz laid the groundwork for his run in February 2014, at a private meeting on the deck of the Palm Beach home of prominent donors Lee and Allie Hanley. Joining the Hanleys around a table in the Florida sun were Cruz and his wife, Heidi; his strategist, Jason Johnson; Neugebauer; and Robert and Rebekah Mercer. The topic was Cruz’s chances in the election. A pair of researchers hired by Mercer and Hanley presented some intriguing findings. The country was ready for a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington figure—they used the phrase “Trump-like,” Neugebauer says—meaning that an outsider candidate should have a good shot in 2016. The elder Mercer, as usual, sat silently in his suit and tie as the group spent seven hours discussing how a race might play out. "

(…)

"Mercer is also a passionate critic of a central element of the modern financial system known as fractional reserve banking, these people said. Essentially, it’s the practice of banks lending out their depositors’ money to others. Banks have been doing this for hundreds of years, but a few out-of-the-mainstream economists consider it a form of fraud—akin to conjuring currency out of thin air. According to one associate, a thinker said to be influential with Mercer is Murray Rothbard, the late economist who called the modern banking system “a shell game, a Ponzi scheme.” It’s unclear how Mercer’s views on the banking system square with his hedge fund activities; it emerged in the Senate tax investigation that Renaissance, to boost returns, sometimes sought leverage of as much as 20 times the value of its assets from giant banks such as Barclays. " (…)

It's a long article but it's worth reading.

This is what's wrong with democracy. Pandering to ignorant majorities. By contrast, someone like Trump makes decisions because he wants to make America great again, not because he wants to gain favor with as many people as possible.

Any news on Dan Gabriel?

Pre-emptive bump. I may have something about Dan Gabriel later

this is Dan Gabriel's twitter account by the way

twitter.com/danpgabriel

I kek'd tbh

How do I get a job trolling people?

hello cruzbot.

I don't know. The Cruzbots are real but I'm not sure where they're recruited.

...

Anyone knows who owns Cambridge analytica?

Is Holla Forums right again?

Fuck my life.

Robert Mercer is apparently the man who owns Cambridge Analytica - I don't know the details - but he actually sounds like a good guy

pre-emptive bump

Bump

Apparently Dan Gabriel created a troll account to try to discredit Trump supporters:

twitter.com/Banished_Mind

Proud #Athiest

he can't even spell atheist LOL

keeping a good thread alive

again, just a little bump in case it would have been gone tomorrow morning

bump because

REPORTED.

Reported for what? It's a good thread. If I don't bump the good threads from time to time they disappear.

sage

We should take Dan Gabriel's meme and turn it around:

Vote Cruz Get Clinton.

Even with Cambridge Analytica's help he's not going to be able to beat Clinton in the general election.

Notice what? What's your problem with me bumping a good thread on Ted Cruz?

Do you work at Applied Memetics?

bumpitty

Cruz Campaign Abandons Cutting-Edge "Behavioral" Voter Targeting Tech, Say Sources

fastcompany.com/3058639/cruz-campaign-abandons-cutting-edge-behavioral-voter-targeting-tech-say-sources

archive.is/aChiN

"The Ted Cruz campaign has quietly stopped using a new "behavioral" voter targeting technology from Cambridge Analytica, which has been called both "the new kid on the block" in campaign tech and Cruz’s "secret weapon," according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

The Cruz campaign had been using the Cambridge Analytica data, technology, and some of its people since mid-2015. But two well-placed sources tell Fast Company that after testing the data and technology, it’s been abandoned in favor of older but more battle-hardened targeting methods.

The Cruz campaign, however, continues to employ four Cambridge Analytica data scientists. "We cannot comment on any existing clients, and we don't comment on rumors," a Cambridge Analytica spokesman told Fast Company.

The experiment proved to be an expensive one for the Cruz camp, which, according to FEC filings, has paid out at least $3.8 million to Cambridge Analytica during the campaign.

The British company has its roots in military "psy-ops" research, and only arrived on the U.S. political data analytics scene in 2014.

The company provides a method of analyzing the personality traits of voters to determine which political messages might move them to action. The company creates personality models based on the "big five" traits known as the OCEAN scale: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

A voter who scores high on the neuroticism and openness scales might be targeted with an ad about the the threat of the government taking their guns away, says one Cambridge Analytica executive.

Cambridge also scraped millions of Facebook profiles for "likes" pointing to personality traits of Facebook users. The "likes" data was then matched to the correct voters in the Cambridge Analytica voter file. A Facebook rep told Fast Company that it stopped the practice soon after learning that Cambridge was doing it.

Cambridge is at least partially owned by the family of the secretive New York hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, Politico reported last year. The Mercers contributed most of the $37 million raised during 2015 by four political action committees (PACs) supporting Cruz."

This thread is a good place to post Applied Memetics related news / links.

since we seem to have an Applied Memetics Cruzbot in here at the moment, bump.

...

longevity bump

longevity bump

Will Dan Gabriel be hired by the Clinton campaign?

since we seem to have many Cruzbots right now, bump

longevity bump

Mods stop the shills sticky

interesting, I saw that here:

some of the pro-Cruz shills are working for Hillary because they know Trump is the real threat to her

Hillary is going to use something similar in the general election:

How Obama’s Team Used Big Data to Rally Voters

archive.is/XJOE2
technologyreview.com/s/509026/how-obamas-team-used-big-data-to-rally-voters/

Many of those who went to Washington after the 2008 election in order to further the president’s political agenda returned to Chicago in the spring of 2011 to work on his reëlection. The chastening losses they had experienced in Washington separated them from those who had known only the ecstasies of 2008. “People who did ‘08, but didn’t do ‘10, and came back in ‘11 or ‘12—they had the hardest culture clash,” says Jeremy Bird, who became national field director on the reëlection campaign. But those who went to Washington and returned to Chicago developed a particular appreciation for Wagner’s methods of working with the electorate at an atomic level. It was a way of thinking that perfectly aligned with their ­simple theory of what it would take to win the president reëlection: get everyone who had voted for him in 2008 to do it again. At the same time, they knew they would need to succeed at registering and mobilizing new voters, especially in some of the fastest-growing demographic categories, to make up for any 2008 voters who did defect.

Obama’s campaign began the election year confident it knew the name of every one of the 69,456,897 Americans whose votes had put him in the White House. They may have cast those votes by secret ballot, but Obama’s analysts could look at the Democrats’ vote totals in each precinct and identify the people most likely to have backed him. Pundits talked in the abstract about reassembling Obama’s 2008 coalition. But within the campaign, the goal was literal. They would reassemble the coalition, one by one, through personal contacts.

wheresmypreviouspost?

Dan is asking for a second glass of Cruz Kool-aid:

twitter.com/danpgabriel/status/725427604598210562

REMEMBER: #Carly won 4.2 million votes in 2010 #CA senate race. #CruzFiorina

twitter.com/SooperMexican/status/725422893543231488

Carly Fiorina Trending #1 right now. #tednado!!


Tednado!! ?? LOL

Hahaha, ok, we get it, you want to remind us that shills operate here.

Don't expect anyone on Holla Forums to believe that screencap is genuine though, it's insulting to the intelligence.

If you get found out so easily and do a bad job it's no wonder he's an ex-agent

Doesnt matter where, he always has a look that just makes me want to deck him in the face.

I don't know if it's a real screencap but it was posted on Holla Forums a few days ago so that's why I reposted it in this thread. It wouldn't be that surprising to see pro-Clinton shills try to attack Trump and promote Cruz because they know Donald Trump is the toughest opponent for Hillary.

He's still alive. Bump.

Reminds me of when random people were receiving e-mails from Waldron's non-pac

Visibility bump. It looks like some people haven't heard of Applied Memetics.

It did not help in predict how bad the whole stolen votes thing was going to play out.

...

"You mean my numbers are all fake? No one actually likes me?!" – El Rato

I have the feeling Applied Memetics is going to keep on attacking Trump for the next 6 months.

Cruz's faltering campaign shows the risks of depending on a few wealthy donors

latimes.com/politics/la-na-cruz-donors-20160502-snap-story.html

(…)

One of the three primary donors to Cruz’s presidential efforts, a private equity manager who recruited the other two top donors, has refrained from spending the vast majority of his $10 million contribution to bolster the Cruz campaign. He is instead fighting openly with the top strategist for the super PACs that were set up to spend the money.

The man at the center of the fight, Toby Neugebauer, is a close friend of Cruz and his wife, Heidi. Neugebauer and his own wife have vacationed with the Cruzes, and he still counts himself a major supporter. But he has refused to spend $9 million of the $10 million he put into a super PAC.

“He was going to go up with ads in October or November. That came and went, and then he said he’s saving it for Super Tuesday,” said Kellyanne Conway, who oversees a network of super PACs supporting Cruz.

“I don’t know if he’s having a $10 million party in Cleveland, or what. It became apparent almost immediately that his money wasn’t really there.”

Neugebauer, though, said he was alarmed by the profligate spending of other super PACs that spent vast sums on candidates who flamed out. He said he is relieved to have set up a strategy where he and two other major donors dictate how their money is spent.

“How we set up in these big PACs was a response to how unhappy people were in 2012,” he said in an interview. “Trust me, all the other big donors wish their PACs were set up the same way.”

(…)

To counter the risk of a repeat of 2012, Neugebauer, the son of Texas Rep. Randy Neugebauer, helped set up three super PACs last year to support Cruz, each using a variation of the name Keep the Promise — one for each major donor. The groups, forbidden by law to communicate with the Cruz campaign, planned to divvy up responsibilities for aiding his candidacy.

(…)

Neugebauer said he would not start spending money on Trump during the primary but declined to disparage Trump’s credentials for office, as many other Cruz backers have done.

“Ted and I are close friends. I am going to support the nominee. I’m not 'Never Trump,'" he said, referring to the effort among some Republicans to deny Trump the nomination. "I think all that talk is just disgusting and shows a complete lack of understanding of what the middle class is going through in America. I want those voters for Ted in November.”

If the other two donors are frustrated that the man who helped recruit them to the effort appears to be bailing on it, they have not said so publicly. Neither Robert Mercer, who has donated $13.5 million to help Cruz, nor Farris Wilks, who along with his family donated $15 million, agreed to be interviewed or responded to written questions submitted to their representatives. The Cruz campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Mercer will likely support Trump in some way or another, Wilks and Koch are probably going to discreetly support Clinton or focus on Congressional elections.

Robert Mercer, LI Cruz backer, to stay active in election

newsday.com/long-island/politics/spin-cycle/robert-mercer-li-cruz-backer-to-stay-active-in-election-1.11762474

WASHINGTON — Long Island hedge fund executive Robert Mercer will keep spending money this election cycle on as-yet-to-be-determined candidates after his preferred presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, quit the race, his super PAC’s spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

(…)

“Also, we would like to add that from the beginning we (Keep the Promise I) indicated we would support other candidates for federal office, while focusing primarily on supporting the Ted Cruz for President efforts. KTP I intends to continue operating throughout this election cycle and will determine which candidates to support and how to express that support in the coming months,” she wrote.


Big-spending fracking family behind Cruz won't back Trump

fortworthbusiness.com/news/big-spending-fracking-family-behind-cruz-won-t-back-trump/article_b407cfa0-12d4-11e6-8b85-570b2fe19e5c.html

Add the conservative Wilks family of Texas, among the biggest spenders in the presidential race so far, to the list of donors who won't support Donald Trump in the general election.

The fracking billionaires plan to sit out the presidential race after their candidate, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination this week, according to Jon Francis, a Wilks family member and treasurer of the super-PAC that brothers Farris and Dan Wilks and their wives set up last year with $15 million of their own money.

Trump "could have just as easily (and probably more legitimately) run as a Democrat," Francis said in an email. "He is certainly not a conservative. And, although one wouldn't have thought it possible, he appears to lie more than the current resident of the White House."

Francis didn't directly comment on the family's political plans, but a person with knowledge of their activities said they are likely to shift focus to other lower-level political races such as state contests in Texas. As of March 31, the Wilks' Keep the Promise III PAC had $8.3 million cash on hand, and had raised $2.2 million in addition to the $15 million from the family, elections records show.

The withdrawal of Cruz and John Kasich from the race this week left Trump as the de facto Republican nominee, likely to face Democrat Hillary Clinton in the general election. A billionaire real-estate developer turned entertainer, Trump disavowed fundraising during the primary contest, paying for most of his expenses out of his own pocket. But he's already laying plans to raise money from donors for the general election, where he may need to raise as much as $1 billion.

Many of the party's biggest donors oppose Trump. Paul Singer, a New York hedge-fund billionaire who is among the most active Republican fundraisers, recently helped arrange an anti-Trump advertising campaign. Charles Koch, the Wichita industrialist who oversees a powerful conservative donor network, has called Trump's suggestion of a travel ban on Muslims "reminiscent of Nazi Germany."

This thread is worth keeping for a while. Applied Memetics related links should be posted here.

failing to realize no one fucking wants you and you have no path to the presidency is not what I'd call acute understanding.

Applied Memetics.
Longevity bump.

It's really annoying that it only takes 2 days for a thread to go from the top to the bottom and if nobody posts a comment it disappears. There should be some kind of preservation mechanism.

I mean it's good info but… why? Just let it die, and post a new thread if new information comes to light.

Robert Mercer's former boss James Simons will back Hillary:

Renaissance Tech Founder Simons Gives $3.5 Million to Pro-Clinton Group

bloomberg.com/politics/trackers/2016-02-20/renaissance-tech-founder-simons-gives-3-5m-to-pro-clinton-group

James Simons, the billionaire founder of Renaissance Technologies, donated $3.5m to Priorities USA Action, a super-PAC that’s aiding Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as an independent entity.


wallstreetonparade.com/2016/04/hedge-funds-are-part-of-a-tricky-money-maneuver-to-put-hillary-in-the-white-house/

Federal Election Commission records show that S. Donald Sussman, founder of hedge fund Paloma Partners, gave $343,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund while also donating $2.5 million to Priorities USA, the Super Pac supporting Hillary. Hedge Fund billionaire George Soros donated $343,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund while sluicing a whopping $7 million into Priorities USA to enhance Hillary’s efforts to move into the Oval Office. Jay T. Snyder of HBJ Investments, a private equity firm, gave over $300,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund.

Dozens of other hedge fund and private equity operators gave lesser amounts to the Hillary Victory Fund. For example, Scott Shleifer of Tiger Global Management kicked in $167,000 while Mark Gallogly of Centerbridge Partners anted up $66,800.

''Other hedge fund billionaires have skipped the Hillary Victory Fund while writing out stunning amounts to the Super Pac supporting Hillary. On January 11 of this year, James Simons, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, who now runs a family office called Euclidean Capital, wrote out a single check for $3.5 million to Priorities USA.

Who wants to work for Applied Memetics? It looks like they're recruiting people in many states, not just in Virginia where their main office is located.

twitter.com/AppliedMemetics

Now HIRING Washington DC-based Digital Media Analyst

We are #hiring Software Engineer in Minneapolis, MN

We are #hiring ERP Programmer (senior) in Fairfax, VA

We are #hiring Desktop Support Specialist (junior) in Lincoln, NE

We are #hiring System Administrator, senior in Radcliff, KY

We are #hiring Desktop Support Specialist (junior) in Butler, PA

We are #hiring Desktop Support Specialist (junior) in Saint Louis, MO

We are #hiring System Administrator, senior in Louisville, KY

We are #hiring QA/Test Automation Engineer in Chantilly, VA

We are #hiring Security Analyst, Senior in Manchester, NH

We are #hiring Desktop Support Specialist (junior) in Kansas City, MO

248 Jobs

veterans.jobs/applied-memetics-llc/careers/

Fairfax, Virginia
Chantilly, Virginia
Charleston, South Carolina
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Manchester, New Hampshire
District Of Columbia
North Carolina
Maryland
Hines, Illinois
Orlando, Florida
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Butler, Pennsylvania
Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania
Radcliff, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
St. Louis, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Montana
Lincoln, Nebraska
Youngstown, Ohio
Little Rock, Arkansas

245 jobs

monster.com/jobs/c-applied-memetics-llc.aspx

Chantilly ,VA
Charleston ,SC
Fairfax ,VA
Butler ,PA
Hines ,IL
Manchester ,NH
Radcliff ,KY
Lincoln ,NE
Orlando ,FL
Pittsburgh ,PA
Cranberry Township ,PA

255 jobs

linkedin.com/jobs/applied-memetics-llc-jobs

more:

careerjet.com/jobs/a/applied_memetics.html

careers-appliedmemeticsllc.icims.com/

ziprecruiter.com/jobs/applied-memetics-llc-858b0a10

glassdoor.ca/Jobs/Applied-Memetics-Jobs-E879741.htm

bump for this

I thought Applied Memetics LLC was a small company but it looks pretty big.

It's not really about Cruz anymore but Applied Memetics LLC. Maybe I should start a new thread just about Applied Memetics.

...

...

ugly so ugly