Tax documents clearly map the recipients of Mercer's support. Unsurprisingly, the Heritage Foundation, the Media Research Center, the Government Accountability Institute, and the Heartland Institute are on the list. Mercer also paid for an ad against the placement of a mosque near the World Trade Center locality.
In 2011, Mercer invested $10 million in Breibart News, developing a designated media arm to promote his point of view. Steve Bannon took over the Breibart helm and publicly pronounced his goal of "deconstructing the government of the United States."
As the 2016 election season geared up, Mercer backed Ted Cruz and put $13 million into Cruz's "Keep the Promise" campaign. As Trump decimated his opponents, Mercer shifted his allegiance to Trump -- to the tune of $15 million.
With major money invested in Trump, Mercer moved to take over the campaign reins in July of 2016. His daughter Rebekah met with Trump and offered more money --along with the "talents" of Bannon to spearhead the campaign. Conway, formerly on board the Mercer train for Cruz, and Bossie, joined the team.
Trump remaining unbeholden to outside interests was no longer remotely tenable. Key clues to the incestuous entanglements became clear when monies and paper trails became evident by looking at records filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). There were no payments in the Trump campaign for Bannon's salary. However, through a Mercer PAC, there are recurring payments to Glittering Steel, the company run by Bannon. In five months, the production company received $302,000.
The Campaign Legal Center has filed a complaint maintaining that Glittering Steel is a front for Bannon, while noting that Mercer's company and Breitbart News are in the same office building.
The third, and most powerful section, is what Huchon has been building toward. He tracks back to his original query: How did Trump win the election?
That piece of the puzzle begins with the London firm, Strategic Communications Library (SCL). Their mission is to evaluate data to determine "what impacts people and how they think." It's known as "Psychological operations (PSYOP)."
SCL claims they provide "behavioral influence planning and evaluation" for clients who want to "influence or treat a problem." It references a roster of clients like NATO, the British Ministry of Defense, the NSA, and the U.S. State Department. They polish their creds with the example of how their tactics helped to advance "healthcare in Ghana."
The flip side isn't as magnanimous. These methods are implemented to manipulate people without their awareness; often utilized to create a problem -- in order to solve it. Instigated to organize protests in Nigeria in 2007, as Cadwalladr pointed out, "It's been used by authoritarian regimes."
SCL started a "subsidiary" branch to manage data in 2013 called Cambridge Analytica. They set up shop in the United States and partnered with Mercer. Bannon became Vice President. Their tagline was, "The right message in front of the right person at the right time."
Cambridge Analytica employed "data-modeling" by taking readily available personal data off the web (age, income, address, religion, gun ownership), as well as buying it from banks, credit card companies, and the social media giants Google, Facebook, and Twitter. They were able to accrue four to five thousand pieces of data for 230 million adults in America.
And it's all legal.
Added into the mix are data points that determine consumer and lifestyle behaviors, as well as political viewpoints. The personality traits of "openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism" (OCEAN) get calculated. "Behavioral micro-targeting uncovers what "motivates" individuals -- to influence their vote.
Expert Michal Kosinski explains digital data and psychological profiling. He created a test specifically for Facebook, and explained how Facebook "Likes" can create an accurate assessment of a subject's religious views, politics, sexual orientation, personality and intelligence.
Cambridge Analytica offered their services to Trump, who was not interested until he learned they had worked on the successful Brexit initiative. The two parties connected in June 2016. By the end of July, Trump had forked over $6 million to Cambridge Analytica. Another $5 million would be forthcoming.
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