While most states agree that they need to prepare for more cyber attacks in the coming election cycles, few are ready to spend the money necessary for increased security.

Courtesy of Politico:  

The U.S. needs hundreds of millions of dollars to protect future elections from hackers — but neither the states nor Congress is rushing to fill the gap. 

Instead, a nation still squabbling over the role Russian cyberattacks played in the 2016 presidential campaign is fractured about how to pay for the steps needed to prevent repeats in 2018 and 2020, according to interviews with dozens of state election officials, federal lawmakers, current and former Department of Homeland Security staffers and leading election security experts.

These people agree that digital meddlers threaten the public’s confidence in America’s democratic process. And nearly everyone believes that the danger calls for collective action — from replacing the voting equipment at tens of thousands of polling places to strengthening state voter databases, training election workers and systematically conducting post-election audits. 

But those steps would require major spending, and only a handful of states’ legislatures are boosting their election security budgets, according to a POLITICO survey of state election agencies. And leaders in Congress are showing no eagerness to help them out. 

Not only are they showing "no eagerness to help them out," they are actively cutting funding from the agencies that currently DO help out.

In fact, some in the Capitol are trying to defund the 15-year-old federal agency that helps states and counties administer elections. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which has three full-time staffers examining elections, would also see budget cuts in the pending congressional spending bills.

“We just don’t fund elections,” said Lawrence Norden, deputy director of the Democracy Program at New York University Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice, who co-wrote a recent report on digitally securing America's elections. “Nobody’s really sure who’s responsible for this.”

“Nobody’s really sure who’s responsible for this?" Well that is certainly comforting.

I'm just going to say it, because it needs to be said.

The Republicans don't WANT to secure our voting systems because they habitually take advantage of the lack of security and if the Russians hacking helps to put THEIR guy in office they see no reason to do anything about it.

And that leaves the rest of us, you know the people who believe in free and fair elections, simply pondering a future where we will never be able to completely trust the outcome of any election in America for the foreseeable future.

Russian interference in our 2016 election may be more widespread than previously reported.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

The calls started flooding in from hundreds of irate North Carolina voters just after 7 a.m. on Election Day last November. 

Dozens were told they were ineligible to vote and were turned away at the polls, even when they displayed current registration cards. Others were sent from one polling place to another, only to be rejected. Scores of voters were incorrectly told they had cast ballots days earlier. In one precinct, voting halted for two hours. 

Susan Greenhalgh, a troubleshooter at a nonpartisan election monitoring group, was alarmed. Most of the complaints came from Durham, a blue-leaning county in a swing state. The problems involved electronic poll books — tablets and laptops, loaded with check-in software, that have increasingly replaced the thick binders of paper used to verify voters’ identities and registration status. She knew that the company that provided Durham’s software, VR Systems, had been penetrated by Russian hackers months before. 

“It felt like tampering, or some kind of cyberattack,” Ms. Greenhalgh said about the voting troubles in Durham.

Durham was certainly not the only areas to experience these complications, but without a forensic analysis we may never know exactly how widespread they were or who orchestrated the difficulties.

Intelligence officials in January reassured Americans that there was no indication that Russian hackers had altered the vote count on Election Day, the bottom-line outcome. But the assurances stopped there. 

Government officials said that they intentionally did not address the security of the back-end election systems, whose disruption could prevent voters from even casting ballots. 

That’s partly because states control elections; they have fewer resources than the federal government but have long been loath to allow even cursory federal intrusions into the voting process. 

That, along with legal constraints on intelligence agencies’ involvement in domestic issues, has hobbled any broad examination of Russian efforts to compromise American election systems. Those attempts include combing through voter databases, scanning for vulnerabilities or seeking to alter data, which have been identified in multiple states. Current congressional inquiries and the special counsel’s Russia investigation have not focused on the matter. 

“We don’t know if any of the problems were an accident, or the random problems you get with computer systems, or whether it was a local hacker, or actual malfeasance by a sovereign nation-state,” said Michael Daniel, who served as the cybersecurity coordinator in the Obama White House. “If you really want to know what happened, you’d have to do a lot of forensics, a lot of research and investigation, and you may not find out even then.”

Of course with Trump in the White House and Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate there appears to be no burning desire to get to the bottom of what caused this interference.

And why would there be?

After all if it helped to put a Republican in the White House and to help the Republicans maintain a majority in both houses, why would they want to find a problem? 

However if these issues are not addressed how can the American people trust the election results ever again?

Election recount update.

Broken seals on voting machines in Wisconsin.

There are a whole lot of moving parts on this recount thing so I thought I would try to include them in one update.

Here goes.

First off yes there are images and video of voting machines in Wisconsin with broken seals. However Snopes currently categorizes these stores as "unproven."

In other news we learned that Jill Stein has changed her strategy in the Pennsylvania recount effort by demanding an emergency federal court order: 

The announcement that it would seek an emergency federal court order on Monday for a recount came hours after it dropped a case in the state courts. 

"Make no mistake — the Stein campaign will continue to fight for a statewide recount in Pennsylvania," recount campaign lawyer Jonathan Abady said in a statement issued around 11:30 p.m. "We are committed to this fight to protect the civil and voting rights of all Americans." 

In the statement, Abady said barriers to a recount in Pennsylvania are pervasive and the state court system is ill-equipped to address the problem.

Along with that news is a report that Trump's margin of victory in Pennsylvania is now within 0.2% of a required recount:

On Friday, in response to President Elect Donald Trump’s application to stop the recounts in Pennsylvania, Green Party candidate and recount catalyst Jill Stein issued a statement where she noted that Trump’s margin of victory is now within 0.2% of an automatic recount. Stein cited this tweet from pollsters Decision Desk HQ for her figures.

Pennsylvania statewide with the Philadelphia tally now complete:
Trump 2,961,875
Clinton 2,915,440

— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) December 1, 2016

Because this is coming from Stein I remain a little skeptical, however if true this could really be a game changer.

We have also learned that a federal judge ordered that a recount in Michigan happen right away.

Now ultimately all of this might be much ado about nothing, OR we could actually find evidence that this election was stolen and this could be a very big deal indeed.

Whatever the case it has certainly gotten under Trump's skin.

The Green Party just dropped its recount suit in Pennsylvania and is losing votes in Wisconsin recount. Just a Stein scam to raise money!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016

Yep, it could be a scam.

But then again this recount thing might terrify Trump because there really is something there for it to find.

All I know is that right now I am keeping an open mind. 

CNN reporter bravely tries to reason with Trump supporters, almost breaks her brain.

Courtesy of Wonkette: 

CNN’s Alisyn Camerota sat down with some Trump-loving Americans to find out how dumb they are, and she was not disappointed! 

Here are some of the things Camerota learned according to Wonkette:

That whole thing with how Donald Trump has emboldened white supremacists and Nazis? One Trump lady says that’s no biggie, and would probably just go away, except for “the media has to hop on everything, and it’s wrong!” That’s right, DAMN THAT MEDIA for hopping on all the racists and bigots attacking minorities around the country. It’s probably Katy Tur’s fault! 

Having made one salient point, the original Trump lady takes an express train to Crazy Town, asserting that “Voting is a privilege in this country, and you need to be legal, not like California where three million illegals voted!” At this point, Camerota wants to know where lady got her information, and she responds that it was “coming all across the media!” It was even on CNN, she says! Camerota shakes her head and says “No” very quietly, because bless her heart. 

“Do you think that three million people illegally voted?” Camerota is obviously worried about the people in front of her. Trump lady says yes, in California, illegals voted. “How many?” NOBODY KNOWS! “Do you think three dozen or do you think three million?” Trump lady ain’t know! But she knows it happened because President Obama told illegals they could vote. 

(FACTCHECK: The fuck he did!) 

But all the Trump supporters heard him say that, with their ear holes! 

“WHERE?” Alisyn Camerota is trying not to take one million shots of whiskey and quit on the spot at this point. 

Trump supporters agree that you can find it on the Googles. 

And also on Facebook. 

Camerota actually Googles that last "factoid" right in front of these knuckle draggers, identifies it as made up garbage from Fox News, and...drum roll place.....it makes absolutely NO difference to them.

IN fact one of the little old ladies tells her that California allows illegal voting, causing this reaction:

Camerota tries desperately to correct their mistakes, but how can she?

After all they learned them on Facebook, which ALL Trump supporters know is the only source of truth.

Donald Trump gets booed while arriving at Manhattan polling place.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

Donald Trump got a hostile reception at his Manhattan polling place on Election Day. 

CNN’s Noah Gray posted on Tuesday morning that the crowd waiting outside PS 59 in New York City booed and catcalled as Trump’s motorcade pulled up outside.

Well that's certainly a comforting sign. 

Let's hope that is the way the voters all over the country treat this tangerine colored asshole today.

No Democrats you CANNOT text your vote for Hillary despite fake ads which tell you that you can.

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

First things first: There is no such thing as voting by text message. Period. If you want to cast a ballot, you can vote at your polling station or vote absentee. That’s it. 

But ads circulated on Twitter recently would have you believe otherwise. 

Lifting imagery directly from Hillary Clinton’s campaign materials, the ads encourage supporters of the Democratic nominee to “vote early” and “vote from home” by texting their candidate’s name to a five-digit number. 

“Save time. Avoid the line,” one reads. 

“Vote early. Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” says another. 

At least four such ads began making rounds on social media this week, each containing the Clinton campaign’s “H” logo and a line saying they were “paid for by Hillary for President.” 

And just when your thought you had already seen the Republicans go as low as they can go.

I don't really think there is a bottom to that.

The Liberal Redneck's plea for sanity.

Okay it is a little eerie but Crowder's explanation using a football metaphor is VERY close to one I used with a family member, only I suggested a Tennis coach instead of a Soccer coach.

I think I like his better, especially when he included "with the intelligence and fingers of a fucking six year old."

And as usual he makes very valid points in a very humorous fashion.

I think Comedy Central needs to seriously think about getting this guy his own show.

I can think of several other programs they could easily cancel to make room for it.

So Sarah Palin participated in early voting in Alaska. Gee, I wonder who she chose?

Courtesy of the Snowdrift Snooki's Facebook page:  

Great day - returning home from early voting to see Todd, Trig & Tripp shooting pucks on our already-frozen lake; planning logistics to get back on the campaign trail for the last week of this imperative fight for our kids' and grandkids' future in the greatest country on God's green earth! 

- Sarah Palin

Look Palin cannot even post about voting without bringing the kids into it.

And if she was really worried about their future she certainly would not have voted for the thin skinned, unqualified, misogynistic POS at the top of the GOP ticket. 

Not that it matters because Wasilla is without a doubt going for Trump, and chances are Alaska will as well.

So her participation is really inconsequential.

On the other hand I voted on Monday, only a half hour after early voting started in Alaska, and if my candidate, the only one in this race qualified to do the job, wins it will be historic and ground breaking.

And if she also wins the state of Alaska it will not only be historic, but it might help to erase our previous mistake of voting in the state's first female Governor, who not only quit halfway through the job but also made us look like a bunch of inbred idiots to the rest of the world.

Yeah, that's the one.

First Day of Early Voting in Alaska!

Well you know what I'M doing this morning.

I am going to stop by 2525 Gambell St. Suite 100 in Anchorage this morning on the way to my workout, to cast my vote for Hillary Clinton as well as all of the Democrats down ballot.

I have been looking forward to this day for over a year now, and it will feel really great to finally get a chance to do my small part for the good of the country.

Remember voting fraud may be a figment of the Republican's imagination, but voter suppression is a real and present danger to our democracy, so if you have the opportunity to vote early take it and send a message that NOBODY takes away your right to participate in our democracy.

Who knows, perhaps if enough progressives get out and vote in red states like Alaska, Texas, and Georgia we might be able to hand our first female President the largest electoral map victory in decades.

And wouldn't it be great to see Donald Trump trying to accept a defeat of that magnitude?

Here is a little good news to start your Sunday.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

When The Huffington Post’s presidential forecast model debuted on Oct. 3, Clinton had an 84 percent chance of winning, leaving Trump only a 16 percent chance of becoming president. Now, 11 days later, Trump’s chances are in the single digits. Clinton has a 91 percent chance of winning. The model gives her 341 electoral votes to Trump’s 197. 

Trump’s lower chances in the forecast stem from small shifts in polls across several states. Despite the poll changes in Utah, it’s still classified as a likely Trump win. Other states have seen small ― but important ― shifts toward Clinton. Michigan and Wisconsin are now over 90 percent likely to go to Clinton, which gives her 273 electoral votes just among states that she is 90 percent or more likely to win.

Once again I share this with you simply to start your day off on a positive note, but it in no way means that this election is over and that your vote does not matter.

Early voting in Alaska starts Monday, October 24, and if you do not think I will be there on day one to cast my vote for Hillary Clinton then you certainly do not know me very well.

Just a reminder to my fellow Alaskans before this upcoming election.

How to vote in Alaska: 

The deadline to register is in 42 days, on Oct. 9. 

You can vote by mail, early or on Election Day, Nov. 8. Early voting begins Oct. 24 and ends Nov. 8. 

When you go to vote, bring your identification. This ID does not have to include a photo.


This might seem silly, but you would be surprised at how many people do not know these dates or the pertinent information.

 

President Obama demonstrates five things that are harder than registering to vote.

Damn just watching the Prez trying to name all of the dead characters from my favorite cable TV show gave me a minor nerdgasm.

I'm going to resist the urge to say it again, but I think you all know what I am thinking.

California passes automatic voter registration. You're eighteen years old, you have a driver's license, and are not a Kardashian, congratulations you are a registered voter. (Okay I made up that Kardashian part, but I think we can all agree it's a good idea.)

California Governor Jerry Brown.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:

Gov. Jerry Brown has approved legislation to make California the second state in the nation to begin automatically registering eligible voters when they obtain or renew their driver's licenses. 

AB1461 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, aims to boost California's voter rolls by registering visitors to the Department of Motor Vehicles and was among dozens of bills that Brown announced Saturday he had signed. 

It follows Oregon's move earlier this year to adopt the nation's first automatic voter registration law. 

The legislation backed by Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla calls for data collected by the DMV to be provided to the secretary of state's office, which would verify a resident's legal eligibility to vote before registering them. Drivers would have the option to opt out or cancel their voter registration at any time. 

Padilla praised the signing of the automatic registration bill. 

"Citizens should not be required to opt-in to their fundamental right to vote," he said in a statement. "We do not have to opt-in to other rights, such as free speech or due process. The right to vote should be no different." 

You know that makes so much sense that it pisses me off that this is not the law in EVERY state.

In fact I would like to see it expanded so that you get per-registered on the day you are born, and on the day you turn eighteen you receive your voter ID in the mail.

And if THAT makes you respect California just a little more get a load of this courtesy of The Sacramento Bee: 

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed legislation to ban the concealed carry of handguns at colleges and schools, further tightening California firearms restrictions that are already among the strictest in the nation. 

Current California law makes it illegal to possess a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school or on a college campus without permission from administrators, but it exempts those with concealed carry permits. 

Senate Bill 707, by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, expands the prohibition on school and college grounds to include concealed weapons, while keeping the same rules in place for the 1,000-foot zone surrounding schools. Active and retire law enforcement officers are not covered by the law. 

I swear sometimes California does something that really sets it apart from the rest of the country in a good way.

If they were not always on the brink of bankruptcy, constantly on fire, and home to some of the most vacuous people on the planet, it might even be nice place to live.

Sarah Palin is hoping everybody skipped history class.

So I saw this on Palin's Facebook page and I was rolling up my sleeves to write up how stupid this was because as EVERYBODY with half a brain knows the Republicans party that voted for the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are in no way the same Republicans we see today.

However as I was getting ready to do this, I happened to look through the comments on the page and realized that folks were already beating me to it.

Take a look:

Emily Allen Most of these were back when the political ideologies of republican and democrats was switched. May I remind you for about 100 years, Texas was a democratic state. 

Robert Rebeck If you think this meme tells the whole story and is not misleading, then you are ignorant and uneducated. 

Tess Hoff Non comparison. A real history lesson would show how the two parties have completely changed positions since the first three examples. Back when these things were done, the Republican party was progressive. Now the Democratic party is progressive. Same kind of people that were Republican when these issues were current are the same kind of people that are Democrats now. 

Ken Green And since the 60's Civil Rights Act, enacted by Democrat Lyndon Johnson along with a Democratic congress, all those southern erstwhile democrats have jumped over the the GOP. They're all Republicans today - so trying to put on the mantle of Lincoln and claiming that the GOP IS enlightened and socially progressive just isn't going to fly... 

Drew Christiansen This was also the Republican party founded by Horace Greesly , a free-soilist and Marx-sympathizer. Different context, different time. Of course the right-wing meme creator behind this missed that wink emoticon. 

And these were just a sampling of the comments that had not yet been scrubbed by Palin's Facebook Oompa Loompas.

Of course to be fair there were few commenters just as ignorant as Palin in the mix.

Arlene Calabria The really sad part is, this is not in the history books and most African Americans are unaware of these facts. In a way keeping people on welfare for generations is just another form of slavery, it certainly is a loss of freedom.

I guess Palin can always count on a few poorly educated idiots to have her back, but it is becoming increasingly clear that her pool of supporters is drying up faster than a California reservoir.

Professor John Oliver educates us about U.S. Territories.

I don't know about all of you but I think I would like Jon Oliver to be the one to teach me everything about U.S. history, policies, and of course racism, from now on.

Senator Bernie Sanders has a great idea as to how to bring more people out to vote.

Courtesy of The Hill:  

Midterm election turnout is historically lower than presidential years, but preliminary returns indicate that Tuesday's vote saw the lowest participation rate since the 1940s. 

“Election Day should be a national holiday so that everyone has the time and opportunity to vote,” Sanders said Friday in a statement. “While this would not be a cure-all, it would indicate a national commitment to create a more vibrant democracy.” 

Sanders’s Vermont had its lowest voter turnout in recorded history, with 43.7 percent of registered voters participating. 

Sanders plans to file a bill once Congress returns next week that would add Election Day to the list of federal holidays. Since many jobs take federal holidays off, the move could reduce the costs associated with voting and free up voters to make it to the polls. 

“We should not be satisfied with a ‘democracy’ in which more than 60 percent of our people don't vote and some 80 percent of young people and low-income Americans fail to vote,” he said. 

“We can and must do better than that.”

Actually Sanders is not alone in this idea, according to the article Hillary and John Kerry sponsored a bill to do the same thing back in 2005 when they were both still in the Senate.

I think it's a great idea and I would like to see other incentives to vote as well.

Perhaps providing a tax incentive might be a good start. Americans seem to love those.

Was the 2014 loss due voter apathy on the side of progressives, or was there something else at play?

Courtesy of The Intercept:  

On Tuesday, older, white voters — who traditionally support Republicans — went to the polls in droves, while turnout among traditionally Democratic groups — the young, the minoritized, and women — was down. Indeed, overall turnout declined to an estimated 36.6% of eligible voters, the lowest rate of participation since the 1940s, despite the $3 billion spent by candidates, political parties, and super PACs. 

Yes, President Barack Obama’s poor performance and approval rating undoubtedly played a role in the lower turnout. But the evidence is piling up that systematic voter suppression, including voter ID laws and dubious vote-fraud prevention software, played a significant part in keeping people from casting ballots, as well.

The Intercept goes on to point out irregularities in both Texas and Georgia.  

Georgia, it must also be noted, is one of 27 states using the controversial software Crosscheck to weed out supposed voter fraud. Al Jazeera, which recently finished a months-long investigation of the program, found an astonishing 7 million Americans suspected of voter fraud on the Crosscheck lists. That despite the fact that voter fraud is almost unbelievably rare. One dogged investigator, a professor focused on election administration at Loyola University Law School, found just 31 credible incidents between 2000 and mid 2014, nationwide. 

Crosscheck scours the names of voters who live in the 27 states, and if a first and last name matches in two states both persons are flagged and purged. The surnames most likely to be flagged? “The lists are heavily weighted with names such as Jackson, Garcia, Patel and Kim — ones common among minorities”, Al Jazeera reported. “List matching is an inaccurate science that burdens, disproportionately, minority voters”, said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. Weiser also claimed that voter complaints to her group’s hotline were higher this year than ever before.

I think most of us have known that our voting rights have been under attack since as least 2000, and  it seems that as time goes on the Republican's ability to rob us of our fundamental right to vote is getting more sophisticated and harder to track.

If we are going to have any hope of electing a representative government in this country we are going to have to do something very serious about reforming our voting structure.

Are Democrats going too far in using the Ferguson shooting to drive blacks to the polls?

Courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  

Democrats and civil rights groups are trying to raise turnout among African-American voters around the country today by invoking a familiar and painful image: Ferguson. 

The civil rights group ColorofChange.org said Monday it has distributed fliers to black voters in seven states, including Illinois, with a photo of protests in Ferguson overwritten by the headline, “Enough.” 

“The people we elect on November 4th will be in charge of our police departments,” the flier says. “If we want to end senseless killings, like Michael Brown in Ferguson, we need to vote.” The flyer also says conservatives “hijacked the Supreme Court and struck down key provisions in the Voting Rights Act,” and accuses Republicans of trying to impeach President Barack Obama. 

The fliers, along with similar ones by Democratic Party groups, have raised debates over whether the invocation of the death of Michael Brown, killed by Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson, and that of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, is fair politics or race-baiting.

I think that this might have been what Ben Stein was alluding to in the post yesterday that inspired him to call the President the "most racist President there has ever been in America." Though how this tactic can be linked back to the President is unknown to me.

I have to say that I completely understand why this seems like a reasonable way in which to inspire minorities to come to the polls, however I am also aware that it might come off as a little unseemly and insensitive.

However I will leave it up to you all to share your thoughts and to tell us if this goes too far, or not far enough.

Don't let this be you.

The conservatives expect us to stay home, the pundits expect us to fail our representatives, and Koch brothers have spent a fortune to convince us that we are wasting our time and the election is already lost to us.

I want to prove all of them wrong.

How about you?

What we need much more of right now.

Finally something that describes me to a "T."

I need a t-shirt with this on it.