The On-Crack Ass Clown for March, 2013

As we prepare to depart the seemingly never-ending month of March, the calendar gives us a third opportunity to provide targeted dishonor to a worthy recipient. And thus it is that we present the award for

The On-Crack Ass Clown for March, 2018

to

Cambridge Analytica

In case you are one of the two or three people who are unaware of the story, Cambridge Analytica is the company that harvested the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook account holders and used it to develop "psychographic profiles" that enabled the Trump campaign to develop and deploy political ads on Facebook that were precisely targeted to the personalities and preferences of potential Trump supporters. The company also apparently assigned dozens of non-U.S. citizens to provide campaign strategy and messaging advice to ­Republican candidates in 2014, an activity illegal under US election law. And in addition, the company CEO, Alexander Nix, is under investigation in the UK after he was captured on video claiming that Cambridge Analytica operatives could entrap political rivals in far-off lands with beautiful Ukrainian women.

Back in 1957, journalist Vance Packard published his landmark book The Hidden Persuaders that detailed how the advertising industry employed all sorts of clever tricks to manipulate consumers. Today, with all the vast amounts of data we expose, willingly or not, 21st century hidden persuaders like Cambridge Analytica can help shameless political hacks to steal elections.

Ladies and gentlemen, Dear Readers, Cambridge Analytica is named as our On-Crack Ass Clown for March, 2018. They've got your number.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, when Cartoon Saturday returns.

Bilbo