Chapter 5 – Anonymous Voters
Spain
Cristobal has just finished packing for Italy to follow his friend Angelino. Angelino is due to be deported. It is also election day today in Spain. Cristobal wants to make sure he gets out to vote for Danilo Campo's party. He is leading the polls with 70% of the vote. But one of Spain’s main news networks, Nueva Visión del Siglo, has released a number of revelations two nights before, showing a video of Danilo Campo having sex with an alleged prostitute. They followed it with another interview from a woman who claims she was paid by Danilo Campo for her service. Cristobal has always felt the sensationalist Nueva Visión channel is biased. They obviously timed the revelation to cause outrage but not enough time to verify the truth other than Danilo's denial. Cristobal is also not comfortable with the new voting machine or the introduction of mail-in ballots. But despite public opposition, the government of Diego Ortega was able to push these new voting regulations through the Congress that is dominated by his party. But if the polls hold, that would hopefully change. Cristobal grabbed his bag to head out to vote and then onto the airport.
After the polls close, Cristobal is already in Italy with things on his mind other than what he considers a sure win for Danilo Campo. The Spanish media are busy with pundits talking excitedly about their predictions. Exit polls are showing Danilo Campo leading, albeit with a drop to 60% from the pre-election and pre-scandal poll of 70%. Nueva Visión del Siglo breaks with the rest of the media in calling the exit poll too close to call. This causes some head scratching from the other media since the margin of error is much smaller than the difference. But Nueva Visión surely know something they do not. But once Junta Electoral (Electoral Commission) announces the ballot counting has started, it only takes 30 minutes for all results to be in. The announcement comes as a shock as Diego Ortega is announced the winner.
The pundits immediately go on a frenzy trying to offer possible explanations for the surprise turn of events. One network points out that exit poll is unreliable, citing a former U.S. presidential election that saw a candidate named Bush set to lose based on exit polls but ended up winning. Another pundit disagrees that exit poll are unreliable since few months after that, Ukraine had an election and exit polls showed who was going to win. When the results proved otherwise, it led to a revolution.
Nueva Visión del Siglo’s resident pundit offers his own explanation, citing the 2 nights before election scandal as having an effect. “You know the 70% poll is already bloated. So it is actually lower. So after the scandal, his rating have dropped considerably leading to his defeat.”
While this live show is broadcast to Spain nationally, a visitor is standing behind a one way mirror room with the network CEO. He is a tall, muscular guy with a large frame. His face has a permanent smirk on it. He congratulates the CEO. He bids farewell and leaves the building. The CEO’s assistant, who has been holding back his questions, finally asks the CEO, “Who is that guy?”
“That guy is someone you want to be on your side. He might not be a well recognized public figure but his power extends globally. Let me just say, our success tonight is in large part due to his advice and help.”
It is no secret for the staff here that they are rooting for Daniel Ortega. But if asked publicly, they would claim impartiality.
“What is his name?” asks the staff member.
“Not that you will remember or would have heard of him. But he is Morris Stark.”
Condominium in Spain
Back in the penthouse of the more than half-billion dollar condo hotel owned by the conglomerate, Morris Stark is pretty proud of himself. He is sure the chief of the conglomerate will be as well. The chief has taught him well and rescued him from a pending jail term. Morris was turned into one of the most powerful men in the world.
The Conglomerate has grown in influence by starting with lobbying for corporations. Their effectiveness at getting things done and “taking care of business” has increased their support. It has since branched out into various satellite companies investing in media, financial and technology firms. The chief of the Conglomerate is only known to a few people. Morris Stark is the face more popularly known by their client. Morris Stark was in trouble with the law as a youth but the chief who was monitoring him was impressed with his talent at committing fraud, and cracking computers and internet securities, has come to the rescue. Together they have erased any trail of Morris Stark's link to his days as the black hat hacker Caliphate, considered the blackest of the black hats for not only his computer crime but willingness to commit physical crime.
One of the first things the chief taught him was about the Art of Effective Deception. Some of those skills he transferred to TV network like Nueva Visión del Siglo. He taught them to use the tone of a pundit's voice trying to sound outraged, maligning, and ridiculing of any critique. “Shame, bully and ridicule them into silence,” the chief would say. It usually works very effectively, and viewers enamored by sensationalist and over the board shows of the network are soon swayed by their anchor's opinion. Soon the other networks follow them even to the point of not criticizing Daniel Ortega. Ortega's men are capable of creating so much fuss or ruckus making life difficult for any network who dare criticize them. Daniel Ortega thought it would make them think twice before criticizing him again in the future. Their influence on social media also helps shapes and change public opinion by unleashing lots of virtual persona bots pretending to be actual posters to sway public opinion and create a perception of popular opinion.
Among the many things taught to him about the art, the chief seems to be most proud of one thing - “The Big Lie.” Coined by Hitler, it is a technique to fabricate truth in a big way that people are not able to comprehend that someone could tell such a big lie. Hitler believe people will more readily believe a big lie than a small lie. And if you repeat it often enough, it would become the truth in people's mind. The chief also said that people would also rather believe that such a big lie is possible than admit they have been had in a big way. Morris Stark has seen that theory works so many times that it has become part of the routine for their networks of media outlets across the world. Their media and their automated bots at social media work in concert to spread a message. Soon after, people in the street are talking about it as if it is the fact. The chief praised Hitler and Germany's philosopher as geniuses. “But I have the opportunity to do what they have failed to achieve. And without having to send a single army of my own,” the chief once boasted.
But this election has required some extra work on Morris’s part to help their chosen leader for Spain, Diego Ortega. The last public poll showed Danilo Campo at 70%. But their own secret poll actually showed him rising higher than that with momentum to carry him to the election. So the fabricated video and scandal have to be released to make the vote rigging more believable. Their Art of Deception referred to that as “The T minus zero smoke bomb.” Otherwise, all their hard work to push through the voting machine and mail-in ballots would have gone to waste. If everything else fails, there is always the “diversion” technique. It could be as bad as the situation demand. Should there be a widespread protest that could topple their supported government, an external threat could be created, an actual attack carried out if needed. Anyone who persists in protesting, despite the country being under attack, could be arrested for enabling their enemy or being unpatriotic or traitors. Morris has personally looked after executions of “diversion” tricks at various South American countries recently. The fear of external attack has rallied people's support around their unelected leader, silencing the dissenters. “Fan the flame of nationalism,” the chief had said. They almost had to use it in U.S. when the current president was having trouble in the middle of his term.
Morris helped Diego Ortega pushed through the voting machine despite widespread public outcry. Introducing mail-in ballots and marketing it as a means to encourage voters’ participation. He helped designed the system to be
counted in offices rather than under the eyes of party scrutineers during the election night. Lots of anonymous runners were also hired claiming to be from Junta Election helping seniors fill out and mail their ballots in. In the poor neighborhoods, they have runners paying voters if they can show them who they vote for and hand over their ballot for the runner to mail. All runners don't know who their employers actually are, just in case some government officials caught wind of it and start an investigation.
The voting machine is much easier to manipulate. They provided the software for all to see and scrutinize. So poll watchers can scrutinize all they want but the trick is in the hardware that is digitally locked. Access to processors is also physically locked with GPS to quickly recover any stolen machines. Thanks to the copyright, patent and anti-circumvention law that the conglomerate helped their client push through, all attempts at breaking and reverse engineering digital locks are now illegal subject to fine and imprisonment. The bills were called “Promoting Innovation Act.” That trick is called “Call it what it is not” on the Art of Effective Deception, a derivative of the Big Lie. The chief used to explain that if you want to lower quota against logging in the forest, you call the bill “Future for the Forest Act.” In another bill they helped a pharmaceutical company client by passing what was called the “Cheaper Drugs Act” that extends data exclusivity of drugs to 20 years on top of existing patents. This blocked the possibility of cheaper generic drugs being produced for longer periods of time. It won't lower the drug cost, in fact it will have an opposite effect, leading to a windfall for their client. But they can always claim it promotes innovation and jobs. More innovation and more drugs means cheaper drugs. “Spin it to the opposite and people could be confused into believing it is the intent,” Morris was told.
Another technique is what the chief referred to as “Framing.” If you can create doubt in people's mind about a person, pretty soon anything the person does, people would try to fit into that doubt. The chief relates the tale about a man accused of murder, and people started looking at everything he did to fit the profile he is accused of. He was carrying an axe and chopping wood and people would say, “Look at how he handles that axe, he does look like a murderer.” Of course they later found the real murderer. The media can magnify this, the chief explains. “And we could use this to our advantage.” “Fear mongering” can be use in tandem with “Framing,” because fearful people are easy to manipulate and control. Social media is a good medium for that, using a fake persona bot to spread the message. Use in conjunction with “I am one of you,” where the fake persona starts the post with 'I hate also, but....'. That would make the reader think you are not an apologist for the person they are criticizing then insert spin after the 'but.' Or other variety of mock dissent followed by defence of the current subject of criticism. Or “put your words in their mouth” like saying “I agree with you when you say this....” even if that's not what they are saying and twist the person’s words or take their words out of context. This is also referred to as “Context is adjustable.” It works nicely on political campaign ad, especially when used along with “framing.” As the chief says, you have to “twist and exaggerate or overgeneralize and oversimplify.”
One technique that has got a lot of politicians out of hot water is taking advantage of ambiguity, or as what Morris’s boss taught him, “Ambiguity and mock innocence provide plausible deniability.” The Italian PM used it to great effect while other political allies were able to award contracts using loopholes in the law and non-explicit prohibition. Then simply use that technique to slip through further scrutiny.
And for their critics, TV networks use the technique “the least common denominator.” They pick a really lousy and poor speaker as their guest to represent the opposing side and apply the “shame and bully them to silence” tactic to discredit and ridicule them. The guest from the side they support then has free reign to say what they want.
Then there is also the “strike from the shadow,” based on theory that people don't react to something until it has reached disastrous proportions. When faced with unpleasant truth, they yearn to be convinced it isn't so and would readily believe a pleasant lie. “So try to lay low and change the law under the radar,” the chief explains. “For example, one person dying from contaminated water won't get much attention. A large number of people dying will get a reaction and action or law passed to prevent it from happening again, such as more water testing.” The chief has also told Morris that “we have positive precedence when it comes to oil. Law passed following Exxon Valdez Oil Spill was watered down. But murmurs started again after the far wider and damaging BP oil spill. So we need a strong leader at the top able to ride out the storm of public criticism and offer cosmetic laws or watered down laws to appease the public. Or use the 'call it what it is not' to lead people to think a remedy has been effected. The general public is not going to read the law word for word. But the leaders should come up with a good spin to convince any rowdy congressman. When it comes to our competing technology like solar, we can use activists like Idia Alea to encourage laws that would make the new technology financially and bureaucratically unfeasible. But when it comes to protecting our investment we should use the 'Free Market' claim to prevent any regulation.”
Morris Stark's thoughts are interrupted by a phone call. He removes the strip from his cellphone watch and mounts it on his ear. “Hello.” Morris paused for a minute to listen to the person on the other line. “So he is back in Italy? Good!” Morris hangs up with a smile of satisfaction on his face. The day just keeps getting better, another fish under their net. Does this pesky hacker really think he can get away with compromising one of the conglomerate's supported leaders in Italy? He will be locked up forever in a place where murder in the hands of a hardened criminal is not that uncommon.