Cambridge Analytica is under siege. And that's good news.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

British investigators on Friday night searched the London offices of Cambridge Analytica, the data-analytics company that harvested data from 50 million Facebook users to develop psychological profiles on behalf of political campaigns, including that of President Trump. 

About 20 investigators from Britain’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, descended on the company’s offices on New Oxford Street after obtaining a search warrant from the High Court. 

“We are pleased with the decision of the judge, and the warrant is now being executed,” the office of the information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said in a statement. “This is just one part of a larger investigation into the use of personal data and analytics for political purposes. As you will expect, we will now need to collect, assess and consider the evidence before coming to any conclusions.” 

Last Saturday, the same day The New York Times and The Observer of London published a detailed look at the company’s use of Facebook data, Ms. Denham’s office announced an investigation into “the circumstances in which Facebook data may have been illegally acquired and used.”

What is that passage in the Bible about reaping what you sow again?

If that were not enough bad news for Cambridge Analytica, they are also on Robert Mueller's radar.

Courtesy of the AP:

Special counsel Robert Mueller is scrutinizing the connections between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which has come under fierce criticism over reports that it swiped the data of more than 50 million Facebook users to sway elections. 

Mueller’s investigators have asked former campaign officials about the Trump campaign’s data operations, particularly about how it collected and utilized voter data in battleground states, according to a person with direct knowledge of the line of inquiry but not authorized to discuss it publicly. 

The investigators have also asked some of Trump’s data team, which included analysts at the Republican National Committee, about its relationship with Cambridge Analytica, according to two former campaign officials. The campaign paid the firm just under $6 million for its work in 2016, according to federal records.

And there is plenty to go after here, as this company had connections not just to the Trump campaign, but also past and current members of the Trump Administration.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

In an interview with the New York Times, Wylie says that Bolton’s PAC was alarmed by polling trends showing that more and more Americans viewed war unfavorably — and it wanted to construct an advertising campaign aimed at reversing those views. 

“The Bolton PAC was obsessed with how America was becoming limp wristed and spineless and it wanted research and messaging for national security issues,” said Wylie, a data expert who was a key figure in the founding of Cambridge Analytica. “That really meant making people more militaristic in their worldview. That’s what they said they wanted, anyway.” 

Bolton’s PAC hired Cambridge Analytica months after it was founded in 2014, and the firm’s work with Bolton’s group became an example that it used to pitch potential clients about the value of its data harvesting model. 

Emails viewed by the Times suggest that former Trump political strategist Steve Bannon had some role in setting up contacts between Bolton and Cambridge Analytica, as an email from a Cambridge Analytica employee sent to Bolton specifically mentioned Bannon in its subject header.

 I am guessing that Cambridge is out of the data analysis business for the time being at least.

And this is a warning shot to any others who may want to adopt their business model. 

H.R. McMaster out as Trump's National Security Adviser, will be replaced by John "bomb the hell out out everybody" Bolton.

I am pleased to announce that, effective 4/9/18, @AmbJohnBolton will be my new National Security Advisor. I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will always remain my friend. There will be an official contact handover on 4/9.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2018

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the battle-tested Army officer tapped as President Trump’s national security adviser last year to stabilize a turbulent foreign policy operation, will resign and be replaced by John R. Bolton, a hard-line former United States ambassador to the United Nations, White House officials said Thursday. 

General McMaster will retire from the military, the officials said. He has been discussing his departure with President Trump for several weeks, they said, but decided to speed up his departure, in part because questions about his status were casting a shadow over his conversations with foreign officials. 

The officials also said that Mr. Trump wanted to fill out his national security team before his meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. He replaced Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson with the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, last week. 

Officials emphasized that General McMaster’s departure was a mutual decision and amicable, with none of the recrimination that marked Mr. Tillerson’s exit. They said it was not related to a leak on Tuesday of briefing materials for Mr. Trump’s phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

"They said it was not related to a leak on Tuesday of briefing materials for Mr. Trump’s phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia." In other words that is EXACTLY what it is about.

(I just assume now that the truth is always the opposite of whatever the Trump White House says that it is. Real time saver. )

So now another grown up is out the door, leaving Trump surrounded by sycophants and conspiracy theorists.

And this new addition is DEFINITELY going to make things even more inane inside this White House.

John Bolton worked for the Bush Administration and was well known for wanting to bomb just about everybody, and who as Ambassador to the UN spent all of his time undermining it and shitting on its agenda.

After the Russians hacked the DNC, Bolton put forward the theory that it was a false flag operation orchestrated by President Obama.

You know, because THAT makes sense. 

Bolton also has ties to Cambridge Analytica, and once appeared in an advertisement for a pro-gun Russian group with ties to the NRA.

Fox News contributor, with ties to Cambridge Analytica, the NRA, and Russia.

Oh yeah, he is going to fit into this clown car just fine.

Trump's pick for deputy Secretary of State, John Bolton, thinks he knows who is behind these Russian hacks, President Obama.

Courtesy of TPM: 

Donald Trump’s reported pick for deputy secretary of state alleged Sunday that reports Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election may be a “false flag” planted by the Obama administration. 

“It's not at all clear to me just viewing this from the outside that this hacking into the DNC and the RNC computers was not a false flag operation,” former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said in an interview on Fox News. 

Bolton questioned why FBI Director James Comey said the agency did not find any “direct evidence of foreign intelligence service penetration” in its review of Hillary Clinton’s private email server, but found “cyber fingerprints” while looking into alleged hacks of the Democratic and Republican National Committees. 

“The question that has to be asked is why did the Russians run their smart intelligence service against Hillary's server but their dumb intelligence services against the election,” Bolton said.

Why did Comey not find “direct evidence of foreign intelligence service penetration?”

Because she was smart enough to have a private server and they could not find a way to hack her that's why!

How hard is that to figure out?

But no it makes so much more sense that the President orchestrated a hack of the State Department, the DNC, and the Clinton campaign in order to help the guy who accused him of not being born in America to win the presidency.

And THIS is the guy that Doanld Trump feels should be second in command of the State Department?

Bill Kristol, the man who was instrumental in discovering Sarah Palin, lays out the welcome mat for the 2016 presidential hopefuls. Gee let's see who's missing, shall we?

Courtesy of the Weekly Standard (Beware the Weekly Standard is essentially Breitbart news with an extra handful of brain cells.):

Seize the day. If you think you would be a good president of the United States, run. After all, if not now, when? The election of 2016 is not only winnable. It will be the most consequential since 1980. The country’s future is at stake. This is no time for anyone who thinks he or she has something to contribute to equivocate, to hold back, to calculate the odds for 2020 or 2024. 

So, channeling Thomas Paine, we say to John Bolton, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, John Kasich, Pete King, Mike Pence, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Rick Santorum, Joe Scarborough, Scott Walker, and Allen West: “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” Each of you would be a better president than Hillary Clinton. You would deserve the thanks of man and woman if you beat her. And if your name is not on this list, don’t feel slighted. Rather, feel free to volunteer. Dick Cheney, Tom Cotton, Mitch Daniels, Joni Ernst, Newt Gingrich, and Rudy Giuliani—you’re also more ready than Hillary. If you think you’re the right person .  .  . go for it. 

Some may say we’re taking “the more the merrier” to ridiculous lengths. Perhaps. But the winnowing process, once it begins in late 2015, will be merciless. The field will narrow soon enough. So while Democrats face the prospect of a forced march to a lackluster coronation, Republicans, at least for the next several months, can let a hundred flowers bloom. “Our love can thrive in company great; our honour more and never less.”

Yes let "a hundred flowers bloom." Why not. there is certainly plenty of manure available to use as fertilizer.

Let's see. Yep Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Mitt Romney are there representing the establishment candidates.

Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Paul Ryan, and Mike Huckabee are listed to represent the "always a bridesmaid but never a bride" category.

And there's Ted Cruz, Allen West, John Bolton, Pete King, and Ben Carson to remind us that the inmates are still trying to take control of the asylum.

Hmm, now who's missing?

Wait don't tell me, it's on the tip of my brain.

Oh damn it I lost it. Oh well I am sure it will come to me later.

President negotiates release of soldier held by Taliban since 2009. Receives universal praise. Well, almost universal.

President with parents of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

Courtesy of NBC News:  

The family of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was overjoyed when President Barack Obama personally called them Saturday and gave them the news they were desperately hoping to hear: Their son, captured by the Taliban in 2009, was still alive. And he was finally coming home. 

“We cannot wait to wrap our arms around our only son,” Bergdahl’s parents, Bob and Jani Bergdahl, said in a statement, thanking supporters and those who helped secure his return without a single shot fired. 

“And of course, we want to take this opportunity to thank all those in the many U.S. Government agencies who never gave up,” the statement continued. “Today, we are ecstatic!” 

Bergdahl, 28, was rescued Saturday evening local time (10:30 a.m. ET) in eastern Afghanistan — in exchange for five prisoners who were held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center — and is back in the hands of the U.S. military, officials said. 

“Sergeant Bergdahl's recovery is a reminder of America's unwavering commitment to leave no man or woman in uniform behind on the battlefield,” Obama said in a statement.

Apparently Bergdahl was captured after he wandered away from his  military base in eastern Afghanistan.

The exchange for his freedom happened without any shots being fired, and has been heralded by many as a victory of diplomacy.

Well unless you are former Ambassador to the UN John Bolton that is: 

Just hours after the president announced that 28-year-old Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had been freed, Bolton told Fox News host Jeanine Pirro that a dangerous precedent had been set by trading five Guantanamo Bay prisoners for one American. 

“The president has sent the Taliban an unmistakable signal that he will pay any price to get the United States out, and that’s a signal that’s bad for Taliban and al Qaeda to hear and our adversaries around the world,” Bolton opined. “And perhaps even worse, it is despicable for a president of the United States to grant moral equivalence to these terrorist in Gitmo compared to an American servicemember. The idea that there’s any equivalence at all between and American soldier and a terrorist, I think, is reprehensible.” 

Pirro argued that Obama was “putting us in jeopardy” by accepting Qatar’s assurances that the five prisoners would not return to the battlefield. 

“Well, he is,” Bolton agreed. “When you put a price on an American like Sgt. Bergdahl, you put a price on all Americans, and the Taliban know that.” 

“And basically teeing it up for Americans to be abducted!” Pirro declared.

Yes so much better to leave this man in the clutches of the Taliban for another five years, or until he dies, rather than to show any sign of weakness by negotiating for his freedom.

Personally I think that any advice coming from somebody in the Bush administration about what to do about our military, Afghanistan, or any other fucking thing, should be ignored completely.

After all these were the assholes that got us into this mess in the first place.