April 20, 2017

100% Unverifiable Diebold Touchscreens Save the Day for GOP in GA06!

(Lots of links in article on website)

On today's BradCast, not that we enjoy saying "we told ya so," but, yeah, another election result goes south on 100% unverifiable Diebold touch-screen systems in a key election for Democrats, as we've been warning for weeks (years, really). [Audio link to full show follows below.]

In Tuesday's U.S. House special election in Georgia's 6th Congressional District, Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff appears to have soundly defeated a split Republican field in a very Republican district, in the "jungle primary" race for a House seat held by the GOP since 1978 and recently vacated by Trump's appointment of Rep. Tom Price as Director of Health and Human Services.

However, the final results of Tuesday's contest, as taken from the state's 100% unverifiable Diebold touch-screen voting systems, report that Ossoff just failed to go over the 50% threshold by which he would have won the seat outright. Instead, he'll compete in a run-off in June against the second place finisher on Tuesday, Republican Karen Handel, former GA Sec. of State.

So, are the reported results accurate? It is impossible, in fact, to know, as I've long been warning. That fact is made even more maddening by the fact that a reported central tabulator "error", said to have been caused by a faulty memory card from one of the voting machines, stopped all results from being reported for hours in Fulton County, as Ossoff results were stuck at 50.3%.

At the time, all counties in the district but Fulton (Handel's home county) had reported 100% percent of their results. Hours later, after the computer tabulator problem was said to have been corrected, and results started coming in again from Fulton, Ossoff's numbers dropped to 48.6%, below the threshold that would have prevented a run-off.

So, was the election stolen? Or was the all-too familiar problem during the tally just a routine error on the state's unverifiable, easily-manipulated, oft-failed voting system? The state's Diebold voting systems and tabulators were first installed in 2002. They are, shamefully, still used today, despite multiple massive vulnerabilities, including one that allows results to be flipped without detection, as first reported by The BRAD BLOG as early as 2006. At the very least, as I noted last night on Twitter during the hours long freak-out over the reported faulty memory card(s): "If I'm Ossoff, I get to court and have ALL of those memory cards in Fulton locked down and sequestered for forensic inspection."

Adding to the concerns in that GA-06 election: The reported "massive data breach" last month at the facility which programs both the voting machines and the state's electronic pollbook systems and, over the weekend, the theft of a number of those e-pollbooks from a poll workers car. (Widely mis-reported as a theft of "voting machines".)

http://bradblog.com/?p=12112

April 20, 2017

Rachel having Elizabeth Warren on tonight. Just announced it. Dirt on Prince/Russia/Tillerson now.

Talking about DeVos and Eric Prince right now...talking about the fortune you can make when you privatize war.
Edited to add: lots more Russia collusion dirt...too complicated to catch it all but now going into Tillerson oil deal.

April 19, 2017

Swing voters in key R districts want probe into Trump-Russia ties but dont trust Rs to conduct it

More than 70 percent of undecided voters in Republican districts that Democrats are targeting in 2018 back a bipartisan commission to investigate President Trump’s potential ties to Russia, according to new research from a Democratic polling firm.

In a survey conducted by Anzalone Liszt Grove Research, 71 percent of likely voters in districts targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) support an independent commission. Forty-three percent strongly support creating a commission, while 10 percent are strongly opposed.

While 65 percent are worried about Trump’s potential ties to Russia, 55 percent do not trust Congressional Republicans to conduct an investigation. Thirty-three percent trust the GOP with an investigation.

The group behind the poll said the results show that Republican hostility to an independent investigation could hurt them in the 2018 midterms.

"Americans overwhelmingly support an independent commission to investigate the growing scandal surrounding Donald Trump's ties to Russia — and that should have every Republican up for election in 2018 scared stiff,” said Jessica Mackler, the president of the liberal super PAC American Bridge, which commissioned the poll.

“The country is demanding accountability and impartiality that can only come from an independent commission, and Republicans who do Trump's bidding and stonewall this effort will face the consequences at the ballot box."

A majority of people surveyed, 59 percent, are also more likely to back a candidate who is in favor of an investigation, while 21 percent are less likely to support such a candidate.

More:
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/329600-majority-of-2018-undecided-voters-back-independent-investigation-into-trump

April 19, 2017

We just got huge sign US intel community believes Trump dossier is legitimate (Business Insider)

The FBI reportedly used the explosive, unverified dossier detailing President Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia to bolster its case for a warrant that would allow it to surveil Carter Page, an early foreign-policy adviser to Trump's campaign.

It's a key signal that the FBI had enough confidence in the validity of the document to work to corroborate it and present it in court.

"In my long experience in dealing with FISA processing, unconfirmed information about a potential target cannot (and has not been) included in the application?," said John Rizzo, the former acting general counsel of the CIA.

"So, if the CNN report is accurate, then I have to believe that the FBI and Department of Justice concluded (and the Court agreed) that the info in the dossier about Page was reliable," Rizzo said, "and in all liklihood was backed up by other available intelligence."

The FBI has been using the dossier as a "roadmap" for its investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election since last year, the BBC's Paul Wood reported last month. The document itself was not central to the bureau's argument before a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that Page could have been acting as an agent of Russia, according to CNN.

But the raw intelligence contained in the 35-page collection of memos — written by the former British intelligence operative Christopher Steele, who spent 20 years spying for MI6 in Moscow — apparently helped the FBI convince the court that Page could be acting as an agent of a foreign power.

More:
http://www.businessinsider.com/carter-page-fbi-dossier-fisa-warrant-case-2017-4

April 19, 2017

Trump-Russia: Putin-linked group drew up plan to swing US election (Sydney Morning Herald)

Washington, DC: A Russian government think tank controlled by Vladimir Putin developed a plan to swing the 2016 US presidential election to Donald Trump and undermine voters' faith in the American electoral system, three current and four former US officials say.

They described two confidential documents from the think tank as providing the framework and rationale for what US intelligence agencies have concluded was an intensive effort by Russia to interfere with the election.

US intelligence officials acquired the documents, which were prepared by the Moscow-based Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, after the election.

The institute is run by retired senior Russian foreign intelligence officials appointed by Putin's office.

The first Russian institute document was a strategy paper written last June that circulated at the highest levels of the Russian government but was not addressed to any specific individuals.

It recommended the Kremlin launch a propaganda campaign on social media and Russian state-backed global news outlets to encourage US voters to elect a president who would take a softer line toward Russia than the administration of then-President Barack Obama, the seven officials said.

A second institute document, drafted in October and distributed in the same way, warned that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was likely to win the election. For that reason, it argued, it was better for Russia to end its pro-Trump propaganda and instead intensify its messaging about voter fraud to undermine the US electoral system's legitimacy, the seven officials said.

The current and former US officials spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the Russian documents' classified status.

More:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/donald-trumprussia-vladimir-putinlinked-group-drew-up-us-election-plan-20170419-gvo7nb.html

April 19, 2017

Reminder: Adam Schiff is Daily Show guest tonight!

April 18, 2017

Jared Kushner Calls Kim Jong-un Totally Unqualified Person Who Got Job Only Through Nepotism

Satire from the Borowitz Report
Jared Kushner Calls Kim Jong-un “Totally Unqualified Person” Who Got Job Only Through Nepotism
By Andy Borowitz 07:03 P.M.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Offering a stunningly blunt appraisal of the North Korean leader, Jared Kushner said on Tuesday that Kim Jong-un was a “totally unqualified person” who attained his position of power only through nepotism.

“Here you have a guy who has no government experience, and he’s in charge of the whole thing,” Kushner said, in an interview with Fox News. “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of.”

Kushner noted that, instead of working his way up and acquiring the skills necessary to do his job, the North Korean leader had been given huge responsibilities and power “only because of family connections.”

“There’s only one word for that,” he said. “Nepotism.”

Kushner called the notion of such an unqualified person conducting foreign policy “beyond belief.”

“I mean, why would you let someone with no experience in foreign affairs anywhere near such important decisions?” Kushner added. “Why would anyone take someone like that seriously?”

Kushner said that the people of North Korea must look at the powerful position attained by the “totally inexperienced and unqualified” Kim and shake their heads. “They’ve got to be asking themselves, ‘Who elected him?’ ” he said.

http://www.newyorker.com/?p=3339783&mbid=nl_041817%20Borowitz%20Newsletter%20(1)&CNDID=49083371&spMailingID=10847686&spUserID=MTgzMjI2MTM1NTc2S0&spJobID=1141439975&spReportId=MTE0MTQzOTk3NQS2

April 18, 2017

HUGE: Federal judge orders Interstate Crosscheck architect Kobach to share docs from meeting w Trump

A little background before the main article:
Kris Kobach, KS Secretary of State, advisor to Trump on immigration during the campaign and member of Trump’s transition team, is the architect of Interstate Crosscheck, the software program used to purge millions from voter registration databases on the grounds that it is keeping people from voting twice. Crosscheck is now being used by 30 states.

https://thevotingnews.com/tag/interstate-crosscheck/

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-gops-stealth-war-against-voters-w435890

…”top-level Trump staffers have pointed to the Kansas official as the source behind the president’s unsubstantiated claim that millions of illegal voters enabled Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the popular vote.” (See link to article below)

Now for the main article:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article145076069.html#storylink=cpy

Federal judge orders Kobach to share documents from his meeting with Trump
Kansas City Star
Bryan Lowry
April 17, 2017

In November 2016, the top election official in Kansas claimed that millions voted illegally in 2016, but can't point to hard evidence to support that.

A federal magistrate judge has ordered Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to disclose documents outlining a strategic plan he presented to then-President-elect Donald Trump in November, a decision that could have ramifications from Topeka to Washington.

Kobach, who served on Trump’s transition team, was photographed in November holding a stack of papers labeled as a strategic plan for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. That plan, as revealed by the photograph, included the recommendations that the U.S. block all refugees from Syria and engage in “extreme vetting” of immigrants from countries considered high-risk.
It also contained a reference to voter rolls, which was partially obscured by Kobach’s hand in the photograph.

The American Civil Liberties Union sought the documents’ disclosure as part of an ongoing lawsuit over a Kansas law that requires voters to provide proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, when they register to vote. The ACLU argued that if Kobach lobbied Trump on changes to the National Voter Registration Act, commonly called the motor voter law, then the documents may contain material relevant to the case.

Judge James O’Hara in Kansas City, Kan., ordered Kobach to share the documents Monday after privately reviewing them earlier in the month. The judge will allow Kobach to redact portions of the documents unrelated to the case, but he wholly rejected Kobach’s argument that the papers were protected by Trump’s executive privilege. He also questioned whether Kobach had met his duty of candor as an attorney in his efforts to prevent the ACLU from reviewing the papers.

snip

Trump met with Kobach multiple times before his inauguration, and top-level Trump staffers have pointed to the Kansas official as the source behind the president’s unsubstantiated claim that millions of illegal voters enabled Democrat Hillary Clinton to win the popular vote.

O’Hara noted that Kobach is not a member of the executive branch able “to assert the privilege himself.” Kobach had previously been rumored as a candidate for positions in Homeland Security and the Justice Department, but so far nothing has come to fruition.

snip

The motor voter law allows U.S. citizens to register to vote when they go to the DMV to obtain a driver’s license. The federal case concerns whether Kobach has the authority to require DMV voters to provide proof of citizenship under this law. The ACLU has argued that if Kobach sought changes to the law, it would amount to an admission that the current federal law does not grant him this authority.

Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, said in an email that there “is considerable interest in what Secretary Kobach has proposed about changing the motor voter law, because we know the President has listened to his views on voter fraud in the past.”

Dale Ho, the executive director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in an email that the judge’s order, which found that Kobach “has engaged in ‘word-play meant to present a materially inaccurate picture of the documents,’ speaks for itself.”

snip

Ho of the ACLU noted that the court “suggested that Secretary Kobach violated his ‘duty of candor’ and his ‘duty not to assert frivolous arguments,’ which should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed his exaggerations about a supposed epidemic of non-citizen voting.”

Kobach’s office announced last week its first conviction of a noncitizen voter since he became the only secretary of state in the nation with prosecutorial power. The defendant in the case was charged with voting illegally before he became a citizen.

State Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat who has sought to strip Kobach of his prosecutorial power, said Kobach’s “treading on the edge of unethical conduct” should serve as “one more strike against the secretary” as lawmakers weigh whether to preserve his expanded power.

“It should come as no surprise to anyone that the federal court has lost patience with Mr. Kobach,” Carmichael said.

Jonathan Shorman of The Wichita Eagle and Anita Kumar of McClatchy’s Washington Bureau contributed to this report.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article145076069.html

I ran across this article in The Voting News by Verified Voting. Anyone interested in voting/election issues can sign up for their newsletter. They are at the forefront of working for clean elections:

https://thevotingnews.com/federal-judge-orders-kobach-to-share-documents-from-his-meeting-with-trump-the-kansas-city-star/

Incidentally, Kobach is also in favor of a Muslim registry and Mexican border wall and was instrumental in crafting the R party platform.

http://heavy.com/news/2016/11/kris-kobach-donald-trump-attorney-general-kansas-secretary-of-state-immigration-position-law-arizona-alabama-bill-lawsuit-voter-id/

April 18, 2017

Adam Schiff is gonna be the Daily Show guest tonight!

This will be good...he is great on Rachel. It will be interesting to see him with Trevor, who also asks pointed questions. His tweets indicate a good sense of humor.

?quality=0.85&width=332&height=332&crop=true

April 18, 2017

Dem AGs join front lines of Trump opposition

Democratic state attorneys general are taking a leading role in fighting the Trump administration’s environmental policies.

Top legal officers from blue states, led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, have gone to court to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) attempt to repeal the Clean Power Plan. They’re also fighting the Energy Department’s delay of energy efficiency standards.

snip

Schneiderman, Jepsen and 15 other state attorneys general and the top legal officers from a handful of localities have sought this month to prevent the Trump administration from halting a court case against the Clean Power Plan while the EPA reviews the policy.

Snip

Democratic attorneys general have lined up against Trump on other issues as well. Washington’s Bob Ferguson and Hawaii’s Doug Chin, for example, have notched wins against Trump’s executive order banning travel to the United States from several countries. That policy remains in legal limbo.

State attorneys general have long used their power to shape federal policy, and their involvement in a case can have a significant impact, often giving litigants legal standing to challenge the government.

“From a legal perspective, it’s really helpful for a state to be on the case,” said Mark Templeton, head of the environmental law clinic at the University of Chicago’s law school, and a former environmental regulator in Missouri.

snip

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/328928-dem-ags-join-front-lines-of-trump-opposition