July 8, 2017

Anyone watching MSNBC? Richard Engel doing a phenomenial job on Russia criminal history, dead

Russians - many more of them than we ever knew - how the country became the Russian mob; just getting into stolen money hidden in US and used to buy property here. I can see it leading right to Trump. Yeah, i love Rachel, but Richard is doing amazing work here.

Edited to add: doing a segment now on how Christian conservatives are falling in love with Russia - his words! because they consider Putin's values to be their values!!! "He is an honest person."
49% of repub voters consider Russia friendly or an ally!!!

July 6, 2017

When will Dems tire of analyzing their message & deal with the real reason they "lose"?

Dems seem to be endlessly obsessed with analyzing how they need to fix their message while ignoring the real reason they "lose". I have never been able to figure this out when computer security experts have been screaming about this since 2000.
(and this doesn't even take into account factors like Kobach's Interstate Crosscheck voter suppression system.) And yes, the Electoral College needs to be gone!

Elections officials outgunned in Russia’s cyberwar against America:

Detailed breakdown of the vulnerabilities of our election systems with a lot of data about specific states from 2016 - it's not just the Russians, and yes, voting machines can be compromised even if not connected to the internet. Hopefully all this info coming out will get Dem leadership to make the leap that if the Russians can do it, so can the GOP.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article157039299.html
*****
A computer science professor told the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday that voting machines that create an electronic record of the voters' decisions are open to fraud and computer hacking, vulnerabilities that are big enough to potentially change the outcome of some elections.

J. Alex Halderman: Our voting structure is vulnerable to sabotage, even to attacks that can change votes Computer science professor whose research focuses on computer security and privacy has (with colleagues) studied voting machines and tested and verified that they can be hacked by foreign actors. "The key lesson from 2016 is that these threats are real." What needs to happen: * Upgrade old voting machines to new ones that have optical character recognition to recognize votes made on paper ballots. * Use those paper backups to verify the ballot count is accurate. * Harden voting systems against sabotage by applying cybersecurity best practices. We can upgrade our election infrastructure by 2018.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4674512/j-alex-halderman-voting-structure-vulnerable-sabotage-even-attacks-can-change-votes

J. Alex Halderman, professor of computer science at Michigan University, said he and his team began studying "direct-recording electronic" (DRE) voting machines 10 years ago and found that "we could reprogram the machine to invisibly cause any candidate to win. We also created malicious software — vote-stealing code — that could spread from machine-to-machine like a computer virus, and silently change the election outcome."

Halderman's testimony comes as the committee is trying to assess the scope of Russia's attempts to not only spread disinformation in the 2016 elections, but also its efforts to hack into U.S. voting systems.

As a computer science professor, Halderman has not only run academic trials on hacking voting machines, he has also run real-time examples.

"The one instance when I was invited to hack a real voting system while people were watching was in Washington D.C in 2010, and in that instance it took less than 48 hours for us to change all the votes and we were not caught," Halderman said about the experiment.

More:
Computer expert: Some voting machines can be directly hacked:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/computer-expert-some-voting-machines-can-be-directly-hacked/article/2626633

At least he is saying it CAN be upgraded by 2018. At least the Russia hacks are bringing awareness to just how vulnerable our election technology is. Many have been trying to call attention for years...it is good that finally this is coming out in hearings.

It would, however, take the political will of those in power to do it.

July 6, 2017

Betsy DeVos Heads to North Korea to Reverse Its Progress in Math and Science (Borowitz)

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is being dispatched to Pyongyang in what the White House is calling a high-stakes mission to reverse North Korea’s years of progress in math and science.

DeVos, who is expected to arrive in Pyongyang later this week, plans to throw a monkey wrench in North Korea’s swiftly advancing nuclear program by replacing its current system of training scientists with a dizzying array of vouchers, sources said.

According to the White House, it is hoped that, after a few weeks in North Korea, DeVos will succeed in returning that nation’s nuclear program to pre-1970 levels.

At a press briefing announcing the mission, the White House deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, called DeVos “our nation’s best bet to stop North Korea.”

“If anyone can get North Korea’s missiles to start blowing up on the launchpad again, it’s Betsy,” Sanders said.

Andy Borowitz is the New York Times best-selling author of “The 50 Funniest American Writers,” and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes the Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news, for newyorker.com.

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/betsy-devos-heads-to-north-korea-to-reverse-its-progress-in-math-and-science

July 5, 2017

Trump-Endorsed Media Outlet Accuses NASA of Operating Child Slave Colony on Mars (No, not satire)

From Slate. Okay, guys, as near as I can tell, this is not satire. I know, it's getting harder every day to tell the difference.

"President Trump conducted an interview in December 2015 with noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones during which he praised Jones' reputation as "amazing," and the two reportedly remain in touch. (Jones' site InfoWars has reported, among other things, that the U.S. government planned 9/11 and that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged.) Trump's administration, meanwhile, appears to have distributed a February press release to InfoWars, and in May, the White House gave a press pass to an InfoWars "reporter." Trump's 2020 campaign organization also cited the publication in a mass email earlier this month, and Trump's son Donald Jr. has said that another well-known conspiracist (Mike Cernovich) now employed by the site deserves a Pulitzer Prize.

Unfortunately, the cozy relationship between Jones' operation and the current administration may now be in jeopardy: On Thursday, InfoWars accused NASA—which is part of the executive branch!—of running a slave colony for kidnapped children on Mars. From the Daily Beast's writeup of Jones' interview with an individual named Robert David Steele:

“We actually believe that there is a colony on Mars that is populated by children who were kidnapped and sent into space on a 20-year ride,” said Steele. “So that once they get to Mars they have no alternative but to be slaves on the Mars colony.”

Jones echoed Steele, saying “clearly they don’t want us looking into what is happening” because “every time probes go over they turn them off. Look, I know that 90 percent of the NASA missions are secret and I’ve been told by high level NASA engineers that you have no idea. There is so much stuff going on,” Jones said.

NASA has denied the allegations, which means Trump is now faces the classic political dilemma of having to take sides in a fight between the government agency he supervises and the friendly media outlet which is accusing that agency of kidnapping children in order to enslave them in space."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/06/30/alex_jones_trump_endorsed_infowars_site_exposes_nasa_s_martian_slave_colony.html

July 5, 2017

Where is the first place Rachel is posted after airing if we miss it live?

It's awhile after airing before it's posted on MSNBC. Is you tube faster? Any other tips for quickest access for us Rachel addicts who can't always catch it live?

Thanks!

July 2, 2017

Is your SOS one of 30 already providing Kobach data through his Crosscheck voter purging system?

So there has been this whole big stink about not providing data to Kobach in light of the letter that went out a few days ago. BUT, 30 states already use Interstate Crosscheck. This means they are already giving him much of the data he is requesting! So if your state is one of them, you might want to check this out and make some noise.

Crosscheck was developed by Kobach to supposedly stop voter fraud in the form of voters voting more than once. (Note: VOTER fraud is a myth invented by GOP to justify voter suppression, not to be confused with ELECTION fraud). Many speculate that Crosscheck purged enough voters to give Trump the swing states to "win." (I know, anonymous source, but just google it.)

All the voter data from at least 30 states is being funneled through Kris Kobach in Kansas:
see p.8 & 9 of this document:
Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program
http://www.nased.org/NASED_Winter_2013_PP_Presentations/KANSAS.pdf

***

Participation in the Interstate Crosscheck System (Center for American Progress)

"The Interstate Crosscheck system is a database used by officials in 27 states (now 30) to identify voters potentially registered to vote in more than one state. States need a mechanism to maintain accurate voter rolls, but the states participating in the Interstate Crosscheck system risk purging legally registered voters—with a significant oversampling from communities of color—from the voting lists.

The system flagged roughly 7 million names of “potential double voters” prior to the 2014 election; however, since 2014, not a single person has been convicted of double voting pursuant to Crosscheck data. This large number of false positives is due to Crosscheck not taking into account information that may disqualify a match: Social Security numbers should be disregarded if they do not match, “Jr.” and “Sr.” distinctions are often ignored, and many names on the list have mismatched middle names. Because nonwhite communities share surnames more commonly than white communities—in fact, 50 percent of Communities of Color share a common surname, while only 30 percent of white people do—this leads to a greater number of flagged potential double voters, and thus a significant overrepresentation of minority voters on the Crosscheck list: While white voter names are underrepresented by 8 percent, African American voters are overrepresented by 45 percent; Hispanic voters are overrepresented by 24 percent; and Asian voters are overrepresented by 31 percent.

more:
https://healthofstatedemocracies.org/factors/intercross.html

****

If You Care About the Right to Vote, Here Are Six Things You Need to Know About Kris Kobach (ACLU- excellent article)

"Kobach is the chief architect of the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck program, a notoriously flawed system which Kobach admits generates “a significant number” of “false positives” when trying to find people registered to vote in more than one state. A recent study found that Crosscheck “would eliminate about 200 registrations used to cast legitimate votes for every one registration used to cast a double vote.” And according to The Washington Post, Kobach “examined 84 million votes cast in 22 states to look for duplicate registrants. In the end 14 cases were referred for prosecution, representing 0.00000017 percent of the votes cast.”

https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/if-you-care-about-right-vote-here-are-six-things-you-need-know-about-kris-kobach

***

Controversial anti-voter fraud program risks disenfranchising voters through racial bias, report finds

Back in 2005, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach — who as chair of his state's Republican Party championed an illegal voter suppression technique called "caging" — launched a program called Interstate Crosscheck to compare voter registration data across states and ferret out evidence of double voting.

The program has since expanded to 30 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), but it's been controversial from the start. For one thing, it's resulted in very few actual cases of fraud being referred for prosecution, as alleged cases of double voting in multiple states turned out to be clerical and other errors. One tally found that while the program has flagged 7.2 million possible double registrants, no more than four have actually been charged with deliberate double registration or double voting.

Meanwhile, some states including Florida dropped out of the program due to doubts about the reliability of its data — though others, including the swing state of North Carolina, joined despite those issues.

https://www.facingsouth.org/2016/09/controversial-anti-voter-fraud-program-risks-disenfranchising-voters-through-racial-bias

July 2, 2017

Perfect protest sign for July 4

Originally posted by Kpete a few weeks ago, to give credit where credit is due.
Religious freedom. A big deal in this country.

July 1, 2017

Timely: The South African Song that Moved a Nation & showed injustice can be defeated over time

I am in a community choir and we just learned this song. I got curious about the history of it and discovered that not only did it have a huge impact in South Africa, but it is very timely for what we are dealing with today. This is an amazing rendition of it; very inspiring.

"It’s easy to become discouraged about the problems facing the gold and diamond mining industries. From violence, to child labor, to toxic mercury emissions, the problems plaguing these industries are both serious and difficult to fix. When will things ever change? And how do gold and diamond miners maintain hope?
One way they have done so, at least historically, is through music.

snip

The song (in video) is called “Shosholoza.” This joyful melody was once sung by South African gold and diamond miners as they worked in the dark and oppressive mines. As the miners sang, their spirits were lifted. The version below is performed by the Drakensberg Boy’s Choir, a renowned choir from a South African private school for boys.
(Be sure to go to the halfway point when the whole choir joins in with drums)

What is Shosholoza about? The lyrics of the song refer to the steam trains that used to carry migrant miners from Zimbabwe to South Africa. But as the melody suggests, the song is really about hope. Literally, Shosholoza means “go forward” in the Ndebele language. Notice that in the video, the boys are wearing gumboots. Gold miners in South Africa traditionally wore these boots because the gold mines were frequently flooded with dirty, stagnant water. To cope with these terrible conditions, the miners would sing Shosholoza. Often they would sing in a call and response style; a leader would sing out a line and the rest of the group would repeat. Miners would swing their axes in time with the music.

The melody of Shosholoza is uplifting, but is it too sentimental to be taken seriously? Actually, the history of Shosholoza gives reason to believe that, over time, some injustices really can be defeated. In the late 20th century, anti-apartheid activists found the song inspiring and used it to keep up their hopes. Then, when apartheid fell, the song became a vehicle for national reconciliation. As depicted in the movie “Invictus,” South Africans of all backgrounds joined together in singing Shosholoza in willing their team to victory in the 1995 rugby World Cup. Today, Shosholoza is an unofficial South African national anthem. If you watched the soccer World Cup held last year in South Africa, you may have heard Shosholoza.

Many of South Africa’s gold and diamond mines are still unacceptably dangerous. But thanks in part to Shosholoza and its role in building a new South Africa, the country’s mines are far less dangerous and exploitative than during the days of apartheid. Going forward, Shosholoza reminds us that change is possible—in diamond and gold mining and in society more generally. Hope, persistence, and a sense of common purpose can make it happen."

https://www.brilliantearth.com/news/shosholoza-the-mining-song-that-moved-a-nation-2/

July 1, 2017

Oregon SOS letter to Kobach: how to prevent disenfranchisement & get all eligible voters registered

Letter at link. Worth reading. Tells Kobach how to make elections more secure, get every eligible voter on voter registration rolls, prevent intimidation, how much fraud we don't have, etc. Kobach is not gonna like this letter.
http://sos.oregon.gov/Documents/dennis-richardson-response-PEIC-letter.pdf

June 30, 2017

Oregon SOS mum on Trump's request for voter data amid fraud investigation

Oregon Secretary of State mum on Trump's request for voter data amid fraud investigation

long snip

Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson has not made a public comment yet about the White House request, drawing criticism from democratic leaders. KGW reached out to Richardson's office Friday morning and has not yet received a response.

Oregon law states the Secretary of State must turn over a list of voter names for a $500 fee. Other data which Trump is requesting is not required to be released under state law, and some is protected under the state's address confidentiality program.

U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) called on Richardson to deny the White House request from Kris Kobach, the White House commission vice chairman.

"Richardson should follow the lead of other SOSs & not send Oregonians' voter data to Kobach's commission," Wyden tweeted. "There is no way the federal govt should get Oregonians’ sensitive information when it can’t even keep classified staffer data safe."

"Ron's got it right. The Kobach request is stupid!" Blumenauer responded.

Oregon representatives Barbara Smith Warner (D-Portland) and Rob Nosse (D-Portland) issued a joint statement, urging Richardson to protect the privacy of Oregonians.

"When President Trump signed an executive order in May creating the Advisory Commission, you reportedly said you would decline any invitation to participate, citing Oregon's 'open and honest' election system," Warner and Nosse said. "Please join with Secretaries of State and Governors in California, Virginia, and Kentucky who have already responded to Kobach, and reject this federal intrusion into our state system."

http://www.kgw.com/news/politics/amid-white-house-voter-fraud-probe-wash-secretary-of-state-reviewing-request-for-voter-data/453293570

See this thread from yesterday - report on my phone call to SOS office:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9269759

I called again just now and they have a recording saying that they are receiving a lot of calls and the SOS is reviewing the request. Under OR law, driver's license and SS number cannot be made public and to email concerns to elections.sos@oregon.gov.

Then they say stay on the line to talk to someone. The woman who answered was very nice and said they expect a statement by the end of the day-he is reviewing stuff. She said she personally has had about 60 calls today and there are five other people answering the phones. It's almost closing time so it will have to emails after 5 PDT.