Midweek Mull - 23rd March 2018

THE MIDWEEK MULL

The minimum read for the maximum knowledge.

1. Australian Election Results (specifically, South Australia & Batman)

Although I explain the results in words below, please look above for an accurate & succinct image depiction of the Batman by-election, where Batman is played by, ahem, Batman, and The Greens are played by the shark caught in the ladder and being punched by Batman.

Onward.

South Australian State Election

The Liberals returned to power for the first time in 16 years after Steven Marshall beat Jay Weatherill last weekend. Weatherill will resign as leader of the SA Labor Party but will retain and serve in his seat of Churchill. Of note - the Nick Xenophon party received 14% of the vote but did not win an electorate. Also, the Danig Party received only 91 votes. Probs not a bad thing. My final interesting fact - after the Liberals, Labor, Xenophon Party and The Greens, Donkey votes had the next highest number of votes (disclaimer - votes are still being counted).

  • Have a look at all the stats for yourself on the ABC Results page.

  • Read about Jay Weatherill's resignation in this ABC article.

  • Here is an interesting article on the future of renewables in SA now that a Liberal Party is in power (The Labor Party led the world in moving to renewables, including installing Tesla battery packs)

Batman By-Election

There was a by-election in the seat of Batman due to Labor MP, David Feeney, being declared a dual citizen in early 2018. The Greens candidate, Alex Bhathal, was the favourite going in, but infighting in the Greens (some members came out accusing Bhathal of bullying) and the strength of Labor candidate Ged Kearney, resulted in a Labor victory. In a win for women (work! - subtle Hamilton reference), it is the first time that a woman has ever held the seat and the Labor federal caucus is now up to 48% woman.

2. Putin's Re-Election

Vladimir Putin has stormed to victory in the Russian election held on March 18th. It is not hugely surprising, given that the opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was imprisoned for (exceedingly questionable - my words) fraud charges. He was released the day of the election. All other opposition candidates were state-sanctioned. And the state is all run by Putin .Despite having no major opposition, there have been rumours of voter fraud and the party 'influencing' the turnout percentage to increase Putin's popularity. Regardless, he is the leader of Russia for another 6 years.

3. Cambridge Analytica and the Facebook Data Breach

A long update here, but I made it conversational so you feel as though you are a part of it.

This week it was revealed in a story by The Guardian, that data from 50M facebook profiles were 'harvested' in 2014, and subsequently used for commercial purposes by a company called Cambridge Analytica to influence democratic political elections. What does that all mean? Well!

How?

The data was collected through a personality app called 'thisisyourdigitallife' shared on facebook. All data was collected without the knowledge or consent of the participants.

Whoa heavy. What data was collected?

The profiles of people that completed the personality app surveys (and were paid to do so), plus their friends. This information included home addresses and likes.

But, why?

The app developer, Aleksandr Kogan, used these details to compile profiles of the users based on characteristics and personality traits. This was initially for his research but he passed it on to Cambridge Analytica, which was illegal. Personality traits he measured included openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, IQ, gender, age, political views, and religion. Another category split people by their 'sensational interests', which included:

  • militarism – guns and shooting, martial arts, crossbows, and knives

  • violent occultism – drugs, black magic, paganism

  • intellectual activities – singing and making music, foreign travel, the environment

  • credulousness – the paranormal, flying saucers

  • wholesome interests – camping, gardening, hill-walking

Sounds full on. Who are these Cambridge Analytica guys?

Well, Aleksandr Kogan worked for them, and they received Russian investment. A key founder is Robert Mercer, who is a prominent Trump supporter and donor. Steve Bannon (the former Chief Strategist for Trump and lead cheerleader for racist website Breitbart) served on the board. The Australian branch of Cambridge Analytica is headed by a used car salesman. Straya!

But why does this matter?

Cambridge Analytica was hired by Trump for his 2016 Presidential campaign. They were hired by the Brexit Leave campaign. The NRA use Cambridge Analytica. They were also hired by political campaigns in Nigeria, Kenya, Czech Republic, Argentina, and India, several of which had questionable results. (Side note - the SA Liberals WHICH WON THE ELECTION ON THE WEEKEND IN A SURPRISE RESULT hired a similar data firm, also backed by Trump supporters. The Victorian Liberals have employed the same company, i360, for the Victorian State election later in 2018).

Cambridge Analytica used the insights they had gained from facebook illegally and built psychological profiles of voters, then bombarded them with news, ads and videos (oft times content that scored 'low' on the fact checker) to sway their political opinions. They particularly targeted undecided voters and those that were leaning towards the opposition (of the company/side that Cambridge were paid by).

Jeez, that sounds bad. Surely there cannot be anything else to this drama?

Oh, would that it were. After this story broke,  Channel 4 in the UK sent in undercover journalists to speak to executives at Cambridge Analytica, and they recorded audio of these executives bragging about ensnaring oppositional candidates by hiring prostitutes to seduce them, and launching fake bribery stings - including in the 2016 US Presidential election.

Lordy! So, what about facebook then?

The response from Facebook has pretty much been 'meh. Not me' (barely even editorialised). They have banned Cambridge Analytica (and the minds behind it) from Facebook and their other platforms, WhatsApp and Instagram. Worth noting - they have only just banned them since this story was published, not since facebook knew in 2015...

Update (I did not send this out when I intended on sending it out).

Mark Zuckerberg released a fairly insipid statement today. You can read it here. Facebook shares dropped about 4.4% since the initial Cambridge Analytics announcement. But Zuckerberg still earns about $40M / day, so meh.

Sounds dodgy. What now?

The Brits, the EU and the US have all launched investigations into both Cambridge Analytica and facebook and there will undoubtedly be more news to break.

4. Dutton and his white farmers

Peter Dutton, the Minister for Home Affairs, has declared that white South African farmers should be granted emergency visas because of the distribution of land to black citizens. Rather than talking too much about this, I will give you a few gems.

Amusing Things

Man. I thought we'd never get here.

  • You need to see this house that is for sale in Detroit.

  • Shout out to my publishing crew with this Harlequin ad. They also have dates with a Viking, a Scotsman, a cowboy and several others. Would recommend.

  • I have found a new favourite instagram account for cheap laughs, Missed Ya Bus, and I think you should all check it out.

As of March 20th 2018, 14 women in Australia have been killed due to domestic violence.That is one death every five and a half days.