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Para Bellum Labs Will Attempt To Make the RNC a Political-Analytics Player
Nerval's Lobster writes "President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign relied on a sophisticated data-analytics platform that allowed organizers and volunteers to precisely target potential donors and voters. The centerpiece of that effort was Project Narwhal, which brought voter information—steadily accumulated since Obama's 2008 campaign—onto a single platform accessible to a growing number of campaign-related apps. The GOP has only a few short years to prepare for the next Presidential election cycle, and the party is scrambling to build an analytics system capable of competing against whatever the Democrats deploy onto the field of battle. To that end, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has launched Para Bellum Labs, modeled after a startup, to produce digital platforms for election analytics and voter engagement. Is this a genuine attempt to infuse the GOP's infrastructure with data science, or merely an attempt to show that the organization hasn't fallen behind the Democratic Party when it comes to analytics? Certainly the "Welcome to Para Bellum Labs" video posted by the RNC gives the impression of a huge office staffed with data scientists and programmers. However, the creation of a muscular digital ecosystem hinges on far more than building a couple of apps. Whatever the GOP rolls out, it'll face a tough opponent in the Democratic opposition, which will almost certainly emulate the robust IT infrastructure that the Obama campaign instituted in 2012 (not to mention Obama's massive voter and donor datasets). From that perspective, Para Bellum Labs might face the toughest job in politics."
>> Para Bellum Labs might face the toughest job in politics.
Nah...I think that belongs to the folks in charge of presenting Hillary as candidate of change and reform so Obama's coattails don't kill her campaign before it starts.
I know that 'Orca' pretty much sucked in the most hilarious ways possible, so I can understand wanting to ditch that name, and maybe cetacean-based names in general; but isn't 'Para Bellum Labs' kind of pitiful-IT-violence-nerd at best and creepy at worst?
While the Republicans probably have a lot of catching up to do in the tech department, they're still clueless as to why they are losing in the political arena, and it has nothing to do with tech. They've long since given up their founding principles of being pro-liberty (remember, most Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act) and internationally cautious and have instead become a hangout for corrupt Beltway extortionists and moonbat crazies in recent decades. When they do offer a political position, it's about 75 percent of what the Democrats offer, so what's the point of supporting them? Finally, dislike of government is a prominent Republican theme, but they've never seen a defense program they didn't like (by and large). All that adds up to a brand which is more damaged than New Coke and would take a cold, hard look in the mirror before it can ever expect to be resurrected, which they are not capable of doing. In ten years, the GOP will have largely gone the way of the Whigs, maybe winning some local elections, but increasingly irrelevant on the national scene.
Hmmm. What message are they giving here?
Parabellum, n
Definition: a type of semiautomatic pistol or machine-gun; also called Luger, also written parabellum
Etymology: Latin 'for war'
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
It would be an appropriate name if it were anti bellum, since nixon's southern strategy explains the disfunction of the GOP today. Para Bellum means "ultimate warfare".
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Only work if you believe them when they tell you things you don't want to hear, rather than make up reality that seems convenient. Otherwise, their only useful function is to provide intellectual pseudo technobabble to quasi justify your otherwise indefensible position.
You can have any position you like, but you either embrace the truth, or you don't. Obama himself may have lied and lied and lied, but he listened to his advisors and implemented their advice. How many would be dictators did otherwise and reaped the whirlwind for it?
Mitt Romney is from a religion that encourages you to invent the truth as you go along to comport to the greater truth that your Church is True, and in Romney's case he believed he was Chosen of God...so Rove kept insisting the numbers would serve him, rather than report the truth.
Let us presume that this Para Bellum labs will have all of the most brilliant people in the @#$@# world because Throw Money(tm)....the people RUNNING IT still can't seem to address the truth that people don't like their ideas, and they're growing resistant to the lies being generated, and NOW they've awakened real opposition...
The Clinton campaign was the first to extensively use cell phones, laptops, and email. The HW Bush campaign was still writing letters. That mobility was key to a relatively unknown Arkansas governor with plenty of scandal in his background winning that election.
anti-bellum would be "against war," which would be a good name for a pacifist party, but not so good for the Republicans, who are in general a pro-military, pro-war organization.
You're thinking "antebellum," before the war; in the U.S., usually referring (with nostalgia) to the slave-holding south before the Civil War.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
If Republicans wanted to win the last election, they wouldn't have picked Romney as their candidate. Either they had no idea that their own supporters would rather stay home than hold their noses and vote for him (and you didn't need fancy analytic software for that, just common sense), or they intentionally gave Obama the win.
Be nice if https://www.healthcare.gov worked just as well.
They keep babbling about needing to do a better job of getting their message out, and using technology like Obama did to spread their message. Well, bullshit, we heard their message and said "no". No to bigotry against gays, no to the notion that a single cell can be a human being with a soul and consciousness, no to pushing the lie they call "creation science" into the classroom, no to lying to rape victims about the mechanism by which emergency contraception prevents pregnancy, no to all the anti-intellectual garbage that springs from twisted wacko interpretations of the old testament.
But I guess they're not hearing what the voters said, and so it's going to take them using technology better, and suffering another spectacular loss, to start accepting the idea that the problem is the message, not lack of effectiveness in communicating it.
Sigh. You see, I really would like a president who understands the limits of the ability of the government to fix all problems with massive spending, and the negative side effects of massive new spending, and who would strike (in my opinion obviously) a better balance. But as long as the republicans keep nominating candidates who toe the anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-science, anti-intellectual line drawn by the party hard-liners, I will keep voting for the democrats.
I think its clear that in both elections Obama's first and his second campaigns. They focused on making the Republican Mitt Romney out as a rich person who cared so little about the working man. Plus the Obama campaign created a emphasis on getting people out to vote who wanted government help. It was clearly a we will help you and the Republicans won't. The issues of course is that this can easily get you elected but then turn against you when the results are so much different. Black's still seem so supportive of Obama and yet young Black unemployment is at ridiculously high levels. I truly believe the Black voter believed Obama could provide more help to them because he was a Black man himself. I think voters need to rethink the process of voting for a person. Obama to me is just a man without any experience in managing properly. He delegates to people incapable of doing the work assigned and Obama never punishes those that fail. The Federal government has failed because we now have so many in Congress and the White House who believe only in a ideology and agenda and its become a free for all on obtaining that agenda. Until we get people in Congress who are common sense middle road, working for the common good of American's. Not for Tea parties, extreme leftists agendas or more government bureaucracy. We will continue to see a ineffective government. Voters, sharpen your minds, do some homework and vote for people based on more then one topic or one ideology. Vote because overall the person is a level headed person devoted to the common good of America.
Stop voting against your own interests. You are not a wealthy Billionaire. Stop voting like you are one.
Buy a lot of pipes there. It will help you with that "Internet thingy"
From what I remember, the Romney campaign ignored their own polls that said they were losing. How would improving the data help when you won't pay any attention to it?
That statement speaks volumes about what is wrong about the electoral system, and US politics in general. It's all about winning and consolidating power. Few people are really interested in the process of governance. Jesus H. Christ, where are the adults?!
You might want to look into who the banksters supported financially.
But you won't. You wouldn't want facts to interfere with your religion.
Of the 52 Dixiecrats, 50 went back to the DNC, 1 to the GOP, 1 independent. Some years later 1 more went to the GOP.
Not sure why you feel the need to lie. The DNC has ALWAYS been the party that welcomes racists, from back in the 1850s to today. Robert Byrd died a Democrat, Al Gore Sr died a Democrat, and so on. The overwhelming majority who voted no on the Civil Rights Act died life long Democrats. There is a LONG history of racism in the DNC and support for the KKK in that party, no such thing exists for the GOP except in your own head.
i hate to break it to you, but politics was emotional, is emotional, and always will be emotional. the adults you seek never existed and never will. the only truth here is you fail to understand the ugly emotional game called politics. we're human beings, not robots
please don't shoot the messenger
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I'm sick of the Democrats, damn pimps of poverty. The USA paid and encouraged low income families to have lots of babies. The more babies they had the more money Uncle Sam sent them. That's how the democrats insured they will increase their votes. In the meantime, every hard working family that wanted to provide well for their families had one to two kids. There were some exceptions, like myself. My wife and I had three sons. Even though we had our first early (my wife 19, me 22) we never ever wanted government financial help and we provided well for our three sons. Now... fast forward 18 years... those low income families had 5 to 8 children living off the government, sworn democrats because the government supports thier lifestyle. Dependency = votes. The government wants them to be more self efficient so they make college grants available for low income kids and my wife and I have to scramble again, my employer goes belly up and I freelance while we drain money from our 401k to make sure our kids eduction does not skip a beat. Republicans let me down because they allowed Obamacare to pass and have not done anything to curb Outsourcing. If you are a CIO and are pro outsourcing, you are no better than a drug dealer. Why ???? Because you are willing to sell out your Nation's future and fellow citizen to make a buck. EOE = mediocrity. A Nationalist party that is willing to deport illegal immigrants that don't have a skill. The USA should have immigration policies similar to Canada and New Zealand. You should have a sponsor family, skill, and job lined up. We need to curb globalization. Isolationism isn't good, but outsourcing good paying jobs to low cost labor overseas isn't good either. We need policies in place that will promote companies that insource and tax companies that outsource. We need to reward companies for keeping jobs. I do not see ANY political parties offering that. All I have to say to the CIOs that like to Outsource. What are you going to do when all of us who earned $75k - $150k in the IT industry are unemployed and doing side jobs on our own to survive and no longer have enough funds to buy your goods and services ? Your not going to sell your goods to India. They get paid 1/4 of what an American working an American job makes.. .. yeah a Systems Admin performing a job that typically pays $80k in the US will get $20k. and that's if they are working in the US. if they are remote in India even less. We can only slow this down if we slap business that outsources with a hefty tax.
They won't because all the US politicians get financial backing for favoring outsourcing.
They all suck and I am getting tired of it. I am currently employed but the writing is on the wall. The new goal at work is to achieve 70% outsourcing.
I hope things get better. I've got 10 years left on my mortgage. no money in the 401k..I tapped it all. but no credit card debt.
I can't put any money back in the 401k yet because I am working on getting a consulting business together.
Now the USA has less hard working red blooded American people than ever before. More lazy people with no skills looking for handouts.
Bring back the Wig Party!
Our problem is lazy citizens looking for money > hardworking skilled people. We are now outnumbered. It took a while to get here. It's going to take a while to get out. Unfortunately I don't think it's going to happen in our lifetime.
Democrats got our Country in the shitter. They encouraged low income families to have lots of babies. Having a child actually got them a check from Uncle SAM. Families that were hardworking had smaller families. This is why Democrats now outnumber every body else. You don't have to be rich to be a Republican. I don't even think I would consider myself a Republican because they sold themelves out too. I would say I lean towards the Tea Party.
Who said anything about robots? You seem to entirely misconstrue the meaning of my original statement: being an adult involves having strong emotional reactions but it also means having the self-control and maturity to manage these emotions in a constructive manner. Being an adult means putting aside petty grievances and personal grudges to try and achieve something for the common good. Being an adult means that I no longer act nor think like a child and think it's all about me, me, me because even the staunchest libertarian will be forced to agree that even personal self-interest is sometimes best served through cooperation and not the miserable and petty one-upmanship that passes for political discourse in this day and age.
This political system is such an utter disgrace. Those who merely respond "that's just the way it is" are either too jaded or are utterly lacking in imagination to envision something better. And if you say it can never get better then I say: fine, but at least admit you are a nihilist and ascribe to no particular ethos, that the world merely is, that events merely are, that there are no moral categories, and that we are merely specks of flesh aimlessly wandering on a much bigger speck of rock, all of it soon extinguished and forever passing out of memory.
Seems funny in hindsight but Obama winning campaigns on strong metadata analytics? Should have seen it coming.
It's all about the niggers, amirite?
The Republican party wants to play in the real world again? Someone order a truck-load of red pills...
the point is you want politics to be something it never was and never will be
it's *politics*, not polite academic debate society
all of the ugliness in politics you dislike is the whole point of politics
all you are telling me here is you don't understand the subject matter. you can't just wave a magic wand and make people behave like robots. of course people aren't robots. but they behave like feral beasts in politics. of course people aren't feral beasts either. but in POLITICS they are
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Let's see. The RNC and it's friends want to teach Creationism as part of Science. They want to ignore mountains of data on Global Climate Change. They "unscewed" the polls last time around to believe they were going to win -- when their candidate was the most data driven businessman they could find. The economic evidence for austerity based changes or New Keynesian show the Keynesians have been much more accurate in predictions about things like inflation rates and GDP growth. We could go on and on. There's a reason that people say facts (or data) have a well known liberal bias. Someone who's really good with data is going to have to have some strange reasons to be a Republican. It will be hard for the Republicans to assemble a good team, knowing that they'll have to work for people that want to ignore what they have to say.
It's too bad it took 8 years of George W. Bush to teach this generation of the left that all it had to do was win elections.
> hardworking skilled people
Only 115.7 million (http://www.statista.com/statistics/192361/unadjusted-monthly-number-of-full-time-employees-in-the-us/) people work full-time and only 99,880,223 (http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/index.html as of 2005) paid federal income taxes. That means less than 1/3 of the people work hard enough to pay taxes, and an even smaller fraction of that are your "hardworking skilled" people. That is who the GOP tries to represent, but they just don't get that that is too few people to win elections. If the GOP promised to expand the negative tax rate to higher incomes, then they would win elections.
What's the point this time around? They'll get 80% of the vote if they oppose Obamacare and domestic spying.
lemme guess. you're one of the hard working ones.
wait, you dont do hard labor for 10 hours a day just so you can keep a place to
lay your head when you aren't?
I would have thought GOP would have preferred the name "Ante bellum" to be consistent with their views. (I mean present day GoP's views, not the views of GOP during antebellum era).
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
(Quoting from Ask.com) The term 'parabellum' refers to a type of semiautomatic pistol or machine-gun which is also known as Luger. The name was derived from a Latin saying which means ''if you wish for peace, prepare for war''.
So: we've got the threat of war, the name of a gun, and the fact that "antebellum" -- a term which is basically synonymous with the pre-Civil-War South -- might be appealing for exactly the reason you give. Sounds like a pretty good name choice for an RNC project.
Koans and fables for the software engineer
where the Republicans really are, and esp. the "Tea Party"... given the phrase ante bellum, and that Sen Cruz and Ms. Palin showed up during the Shutdown in front of the White House with a Confederate flag.
NeoConfederates, and this is the South (and my gorge) rising again.
And if you're reading or posting here, odds are you're not a millionaire, and if you're for them, there's a name for you: "sucker" (along with racist, bigot, and wouldn't know "enlightened self-interest" if it hit them with a semi).
mark
Seems more political driven versus "news for Nerds-Stuff that matters" I could see how that would bring some feeling in the setting of perhaps "CNN, or FOX"
"from the minds of our fabulous overLords"
tGk
They are about trying to keep a balanced budget.
In the last 40 years, the budget has been balanced 5 times. EVERY TIME BY DEMOCRATS. The score is 5-0.
.
Why do you buy into the rhetoric? People should be known for their behavior. The GOP has a long history of blowing up the budget through a combination of reckless spending and reckless tax cuts. It's just history.
Even the modern Tea Party doesn't really care about balancing the budget, because it could be done a reinstating taxes on the top 1%, and modest reforms to the tax code in general. And modest spending cuts. Incremental, minimal effect on society. Balanced. If you don't support that which will work, and that which is achievable, then you yourself do not support balanced budgets.
The most important rule in American politics is that when some politician, D or R, talks about balancing the budget, then they are actually talking about something else. If you want to really know what the GOP believes is far more important than balancing the budget, then you should know
Cue motivated reasoning.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
The Democrats claim to have used bits and pieces of data gathered over many years to feed a massive Obama-centric data processing engine for his re-election. I don't buy it. With the confirmed revelations of NSA, FBI and the IRS snooping into the personal information of Americans, its much more likely that the information feed wasn't from legal and open sources. Obama was re-elected with illegally gathered government spying. Project Narwhal was, at best, a cover story.
I hope that when they're computing pie charts, that they use 3.0 as the constant for PI, as their bible commands.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Actually, just "bellum" gives you the for war part, "para" is the imperative "prepare". In total that gives you "prepare for war".
And the thank-you for this massive *tech* effort will be more legislatures' banning the teaching of science that contradicts the Bible. Way to go, Para Bellum 'data scientists'
Paramecia live in aquatic environments, usually in stagnant, warm water. The paramecium evidently has some sense of movement because it responds when it bumps into something.
To that end, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has launched Para Bellum Labs, modeled after a startup, to produce digital platforms for election analytics and voter engagement.
The problem is they don't believe in science, so this is more then likely some brash fantasy. I love how they flat out attack anything science, to get there voters wound up, but then are trying to use it for there own advantage/greed..
Both sides have completely lost touch with reality, and there nothing more the bobble head dolls, being bought off by corporations/industries, and we haven't even touched on the powers-at-work that really run the government, getting politicians to pass or ignore the implication of the NSA, FBI, DEA, ect... to just do whatever they want.