Monday, September 29, 2014

Catalist: Manipulation and Propaganda of the Far Left...

and I don't see anyone talking about this.

While I agree that a crazy person whacking off someone's head in an attack already being referred to as "workplace violence" is newsworthy, there are more important things going on.

When Google Reader shut down it's RSS feed, I switched to Feedly.  Unfortunately, Feedly is a poor substitute with erratic feeds, repetition, and dropped feeds.

What it does provide, if you view it in title-only format, is a simplified overview of all the blogs and news sites all neatly lined up on a page.  That means I can scan a whole page of titles, sometimes as many as three to four hundred, and see what I can only describe as an echo chamber.  It makes no difference if the news is old, new, or even true.  Certain bloggers with huge hit counters can post something and within mere minutes it's repeated over and over from blog to blog. 

Catalist

On September 17, PJ Media published an article by J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department Voting Section lawyer entitled  ‘CATALIST’: Obama’s Database for Fundamentally Transforming America.
Catalist, which was founded in 2006 with seed money from billionaire leftist George Soros and whose president is former Clinton Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes, specializes in “micro-targeting.” source
 I've read and reread the article a number of times, and each time I become more disturbed; not just about the purpose of Catalist, but by the massive amounts of data that has been collected on just about every citizen of this country.

From the Catalist website:
Catalist maintains and constantly updates a complete national (50 States, plus the District of Columbia) database of over 280 million persons (more than 190 million registered voters and 90 million unregistered adults). This sets us apart from other voter file vendors who assemble their database only immediately prior to election cycles or when customer demand for the data is high.  source
Now, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck.  I've never even been on the truck (okay, maybe once or twice).  I know advertisers target us with sophisticated data, much of which we have willingly handed over to them by way of store loyalty cards.

I know the NSA, a government agency, knows more about us than our own mothers do.  Knowledge is power and it swings both ways.  Their knowledge allows them to target us, but our knowledge that we are being targeted should help protect us somewhat.

Back to the Echo Chamber 

What I've found most disturbing about the PJ Media article is the fact that no echo chamber effect was present on my Feedly.  My first thought was that I must have all the wrong feeds, that maybe I wasn't hanging with the right crowd, so I did a Google search and, guess what?  About the only outlets that covered this were PowerlineThe Washington TimesFront Page MagWhite House Dossier (one of my favorites),  OneNewsNow, and  Journalist's Resource.

My question?  Why was there no echo chamber effect on this article?

 What I do see, is an overwhelming amount of focus on Obama when he is clearly not the problem, but only a symptom of what is plaguing this country.  I agree that his and his wife's bashing of the United States when they addressed the UN is troubling (I did a post on it), but does it really change the course of the upcoming election?

There are powerful and uber-wealthy people driving the agenda of this country and they aim to win by any means necessary.   With resources like Catalist and the general dumbing down of the populace, the outcome is almost a foregone conclusion.

 What's the answer to all of this?  I honestly don't know.  Do you?

Read the article at PJ Media and let me know what you think. 

‘CATALIST’: Obama’s Database for Fundamentally Transforming America. 



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