US election events

[Magda Hassan]

Wondering who the wing nuts are that voted for Cruz. Expect them to have been paid to attend by Koch brothers and co.

Sanders has not conceded Iowa despite the media giving it to Clinton. And it is being 'reviewed'. Saw some post about vote rigging in some precincts.

And how about that luck of the coin toss Clinton has? She should go try her luck at a casino. She's clearly on a winning streak....

Here's just how unlikely Hillary Clinton's 6-for-6 coin-toss victories were

Saved to Reading Li

By Philip Bump February 2 at 3:08 PM

Hillary Clinton in Des Moines on Monday. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
This post has been updated.The Iowa Democratic Party has an unusual system in the event that a caucus vote ends in a tie: They flip a coin.Given how close the Democratic race in Iowa was this time around, and given how well Hillary Clinton did at those moments that a tie needed to be broken, you probably already know this. But in case you don't, there were at least six caucus locations on Monday in which unallocated delegates were assigned by a coin toss.Campaign 2016 Email Updates
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Clinton won all six.Coin flips decide tied Iowa precincts


[FONT=FranklinITCProBold !important]Play Video[FONT=FranklinITCProLight !important]1:41[/FONT]


At least two precincts reported ties between Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton during the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, so they flipped a coin. Hillary Clinton won both tosses. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
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From a mathematical standpoint, that's pretty remarkable. We could demonstrate that by explaining the probability numbers behind it. But we have a better way.The odds that Clinton supporters would win all six of the coin tosses against Bernie Sanders supporters are pretty slim. (See the update below. There were other coin tosses that emerged today which Sanders won -- so, yes. Very slim.) Given the closeness of the race and the complexity of the caucus system, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Clinton earned her four-delegate statewide margin with six delegates earned via coin toss. But she didn't.The Iowa caucus process is thoroughly complicated, from start to finish. What matters here is that the delegates that were won with the coin toss were not actual convention delegates but county delegates. The tally that Clinton won by four delegates was "state delegate equivalents," a calculation that estimates how many delegates to the state Democratic convention will result from each side's winning enough county delegates. There were nearly 1,700 precincts that held caucuses on Monday and in most of them, according to the blogBleeding Heartland, four or more county delegates were identified. That's thousands more county delegates than the 1,400 delegates that will go to the state convention where the actual delegates that attend the nominating convention in Philadelphia will be chosen.Or put another way, it's like Clinton won six jump balls in the first game of the NCAA tournament, not that she was awarded free throws in the finals.

Which doesn't mean it's not an accomplishment. Clinton and Sanders may essentially have tied in Iowa, but in the coin tossing, Clinton achieved a remarkable victory.Update: The initial 6-for-6 report, from the Des Moines Register missed a few Sanders coin-toss wins. (There were a lot of coin tosses!) The ratio of Clinton to Sanders wins was closer to 50-50, which is what we'd expect.Here is video of one, which we are sharing mostly because of dude's mustache.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-...andom_2_na

[Magda Hassan]

Microsoft app used to tally votes at Iowa caucus fails in some areas [but did its intended job of giving H1-B visa advocate Marco Rubio an undeserved boost] | 02 Feb 2016 | As Republican and Democratic caucus voters used new Microsoft tallying apps during the Iowa caucuses, some took to Twitter to say the sites were crashing, while others complimented them on how swiftly they worked. In an emailed statement, Microsoft [lied and] said that the mobile apps for both parties worked without issue.

and then there is this

One of Marco Rubio's Biggest Financial Backers to Tally Iowa Caucuses | 31 Jan 2016 | Microsoft Corp. will be providing the technology to count the votes of Iowa caucus-goers, according to a new report. Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-VT) campaign is raising concerns about the corporation's potential conflict of interest in tallying the votes. As The Hill reports: 'Microsoft volunteered to provide the technology to help tally up the results of Iowa's caucus, free of charge...Pete D'Alessandro, who runs the Sanders operation in Iowa, last week questioned the tech giant's motivations...Other aides to Sanders noted that Microsoft employees have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Clinton campaign, according to MSNBC. "You'd have to ask yourself why they'd want to give something like that away for free," D'Alessandro said...As conservative columnist Michelle Malkin pointed out last month, "Microsoft, founded by leading H-1B/amnesty cheerleader Bill Gates, has been [Marco] Rubio's No. 2 corporate donor the past five years."

Marco Rubio did surprising well for some one who had no chance. Playing to be a viable alternative to the other two GOP loons.

[David Guyatt]

Rigging elections --- otherwise known as business as usual. We can't have voters and citizens messing things up for gawd's sake, can we.

[Drew Phipps]

That Dark Money book that just came out has some fascinating material on the campaign finances of the Koch Boys and Cruz, and Rubio, and Christie... and I haven't finished the book yet. It explains why these guys are arguing more about character and personality than issues: They all are pushing the same agenda.

I'd call them piranha, but I'd be insulting the fish.

[Magda Hassan]

In Bed Together Cruz, Fiorina, Romney Hit PACs Same Address, Same Bush Operatives

Posted on March 26, 2016 by Rick Wells in 2016 Election, Politics, Senator Ted Cruz, Take Our Country Back, Treason // 0 Comments

Cruz, Fiorina, Romney All Bush Establishment Tools Hit PACs Money Trail

On July 31[SUP]st[/SUP] the Washington Post reported on a strange transaction that went without explanation by those on both ends. "A super PAC supporting former tech executive Carly Fiorina's run reported raising $3.5 million with a half-million dollar lift from a super PAC supporting GOP presidential rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). The pro-Cruz PAC, Keep the Promise I, reported the disbursement Friday in a document filed with the Federal Election Commission. That is…unusual, to say the least."

Yes it is, quite unusual, and while speculation is surrounding the recent reports of Cruz being quite the ladies' man, as in at least five, among those rumored to be an upper tier Fiorina operative, another, more sinister explanation seems just as plausible. For that matter, one doesn't necessarily discount the other; both could be true.
The crowded field of candidates was populated by multiple operatives all working for the same establishment shadow oligarchy so that no matter what happened, their power structure would remain intact and in control. Two of those candidates are Cruz and Fiorina, the giver and the receiver of the $500K. Their PACs were working towards a common interest as early as June 2015, though it just as likely to have been the case since their inception.

It does lead one wonder about Cruz' fellow Texan, Bilderberg speaker and Bush family intimate, former Lieutenant Governor under George W. Bush, Rick Perry. Perry, as has Fiorina, has been prominent in his support of Cruz since shortly after he dropped out of the race. How many candidates were they throwing at the wall to see which one they could get to stick? The united front of the establishment Bush family machine is becoming increasingly apparent.
Ted Cruz claims to have known nothing about the actions of the Mitt Romney anti-Trump Super Pac that ran the hit piece against Melania Trump, a lie that only the most naïve and numb of skull would believe. The PO Box of the Mitt Romney-allied anti-Trump PAC, Make America Awesome Again, is the same as that of the Carly Fiorina Super PAC that received the $500,000 last summer. Clearly they're all part of the same organization, and it's unlikely that half a million dollars would travel out of the Cruz operation without him knowing about it; campaign finance rules were made to be broken.
We must also stretch credibility to think that the Romney people never discussed what was coming up in Utah with the Cruz people in the days ahead of the Make America Awesome attack. Super PACs create deniability, the plausibility of which is determined by the recipient. Fiorina, for all of her talk of honest government and a need to return the people to control is now clearly exposed as a Bush establishment shill. Her objective now may be to work off that $500k debt by pimping herself to Ted Cruz and the Bushes.
Cruz supporters, many of whom pride themselves on their patriotism, are truly being taken for a ride by the Bush machine and their shyster candidate. They may or may not recognize that Cruz is simply Jeb Bush by another name, a longtime family employee doing his job in the furtherance of Daddy Bush's glorious New World Order. Some will refuse to believe what their "lying eyes" are telling them about lyin Ted and his assault on America because it is too offensive to "possibly be true." They will stick to the lame argument that Cruz didn't know what the PAC was doing on his behalf. Half a million dollars doesn't leave the Cruz arsenal and enter the Fiorina coffers without communication. The fact that they work out of the same office is proof they are two heads of the same Hydra.
Like they always say, follow the money. Noting the PO Box is part of marking the trail. So much for that false "outsider" narrative, Cruz is a Bush insider, as strong as they come, now operating in the glare of the spotlight.
http://rickwells.us/archives/27771

[Drew Phipps]

I certainly agree that the half a million dollar gift from the Cruz bunch to the Fiorina bunch is significant, and the coincident addresses of the anti-Trump PAC and the Fiorina PAC argue against Cruz deniability, but I can't understand how that connects them to GHWB. Through Perry? That guy is a laughing stock. Through Romney? I agree that he's been tasked to participate in the anti-Trump parade, but how does that connect him to the money? Or the commercial? Because it was in Utah? How do we know that Romney was at the center of that?

I think rather you are looking at several arms of the "Kochtopus," who Trump challenged early and often, and who was the only Republican candidate NOT to attend the Koch fundraising event (and pledged not to take their money). They claimed not to invest any money in the election until after the primary, but it is clear that the libertarian-leaning Tea-Party-ish ultra right candidates like Cruz are ideologically aligned with the Kochs. And Koch dollars have built the foundation upon which the extreme right now sits. (See Dark Money)

I doubt that the Republican Establishment, represented by guys like the Bushes, are any happier about their primary being hijacked by the Kochs, than hijacked by Trump.

[Drew Phipps]

Here's an article that suggests that the Cruz infidelity rumor has been circulating for months, pushed by Rubio operatives:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ted-...2288769399

I do notice that this rumor didn't get published till after Rubio was done. I don't care who slept with who, but if this is a Rubio rumor, now being exploited to bash Trump, that seems to be a dirty trick worthy of journalistic attention.

[David Guyatt]

I certainly agree that the half a million dollar gift from the Cruz bunch to the Fiorina bunch is significant, and the coincident addresses of the anti-Trump PAC and the Fiorina PAC argue against Cruz deniability, but I can't understand how that connects them to GHWB. Through Perry? That guy is a laughing stock. Through Romney? I agree that he's been tasked to participate in the anti-Trump parade, but how does that connect him to the money? Or the commercial? Because it was in Utah? How do we know that Romney was at the center of that?

I think rather you are looking at several arms of the "Kochtopus," who Trump challenged early and often, and who was the only Republican candidate NOT to attend the Koch fundraising event (and pledged not to take their money). They claimed not to invest any money in the election until after the primary, but it is clear that the libertarian-leaning Tea-Party-ish ultra right candidates like Cruz are ideologically aligned with the Kochs. And Koch dollars have built the foundation upon which the extreme right now sits. (See Dark Money)

I doubt that the Republican Establishment, represented by guys like the Bushes, are any happier about their primary being hijacked by the Kochs, than hijacked by Trump.

Yes, it does seem that that article's only connection between the two is Kerry, a Bush insider. I suppose one could argue that Cruz is also a Texan then one could also look at that connection --- as Pete Brewton did in his book on Bush: "The Mafia, CIA and George Bush" that focused quite a bit of attention on the Texas "old boys" connections at the time. Brewton said in his foreward that he could easily have called the book, "The Mafia, CIA and Lloyd Bentson" had the latter won the presidency instead of Poppy Bush because they were basically two heads of the same Texan snake (Bentsen also being a Texan).

[Drew Phipps]

If memory serves, Bentsen was Dukasis' running mate when Dukasis ran against Bush. Also, Cruz isn't by any stretch a "good ole boy" from Texas, he's more of a "johnny come lately." But he got elected anyhow...

[Drew Phipps]

D.C. Madam's attorney says call log bombshell could upend presidential race
Mar 28th 2016 4:16PM

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/03/28/d-.../21334617/

A lawyer who represented the so-called "D.C. madam" says he has phone records that could influence the outcome of the presidential election, and he's threatening to release one or more names on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court if he's denied a hearing on his right to distribute them. Montgomery Blair Sibley, the late madam Deborah Palfrey's colorful attorney, has been subject to a restraining order since 2007 barring him from releasing the information, which he says includes 815 names, addresses and Social Security numbers of Verizon Wireless customers. "Time is of the essence because people are casting votes in primaries and caucuses," he says. "I believe this information is relevant to that political discourse."


Sibley first said the records could be relevant to the presidential race in January, when there were 15 high-profile candidates. Now, just three Republicans and two Democrats remain though Sibley won't say if any are implicated, citing fear of being jailed for contempt. He would not say if he was surprised by a National Enquirer report last week that alleged Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had engaged in five extramarital affairs. Cruz, currently in second place in the GOP contest, vigorously denied the report on Friday, and in doing so uncapped mainstream media coverage.


Cruz was first elected to the Senate in 2012 but represented Texas several times during Supreme Court arguments while Palfrey's business operated. Most of the other presidential candidates also lived in or visited the nation's capital while Palfrey's business operated, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Ohio Gov. John Kasich a former congressman. Billionaire GOP front-runner Donald Trump likely visited the region during the decade-long time period.


Complicating Sibley's bid to release one or more name from the records is that he's been having trouble getting a court to give him a hearing. In February, he filed a complaint of judicial misconduct against Richard Roberts, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, for allegedly instructing a clerk not to file his request for a hearing on modifying the restraining order. (Roberts resigned earlier this month on the day a woman filed a lawsuit claiming he sexually assaulted her while she was a 16-year-old witness in a case he prosecuted three decades ago. Roberts said the sex was consensual.)


About two weeks ago, Sibley asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to order the clerk to accept his filing and, feeling a sense of urgency and lacking a response, hand-delivered an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. "The footnote to the pleading I filed today says this: If I do not get the right to file my request to modify the restraining order and if I do not get an expedited hearing, I'm going to publicly release those records and see what happens," he says. "If they want to hold me in contempt of court for violating an order they will not give me a hearing on, I think they lose the right to enforce that order." By not promptly scheduling a hearing, he says, courts "are letting people vote blindly."


Palfrey became nationally famous following her 2006 arrest and was found dead with a nylon rope around her neck in her mother's shed in 2008. Before her apparent suicide, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and the then-leader of the U.S. Agency for International Development were outed as her clients. Their names came from a set of call records that revealed Vitter who remains a sitting senator called Palfrey during congressional votes. The large batch contained about 10,000 numbers released by Sibley and Palfrey in 2007. The records had carelessly been left in Palfrey's basement, Sibley recalls.


"When the Keystone Kop police came in to seize everything [from Palfrey's house] they walked by these boxes saying Pamela Martin Associates telephone records, 1996-2006, and they just left them there," Sibley says. "So I got my hands on them and released a portion of them." But about a third of the records were not released, he says. "We held back these 5,000," Sibley says. "I wanted to have something to negotiate with or surprise people at trial."


Before trial, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler authorized subpoenas for cellphone companies requesting personal information. Verizon Wireless returned a list containing the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of about 815 people, Sibley says a sizable subset of the 5,000 numbers not initially released. Other companies did not respond before a different federal judge, James Robertson, quashed the phone company subpoenas two months later. Palfrey was convicted of money laundering and other charges two weeks before her death.


Sibley is known for being a high-energy attorney with an eccentric client list, including Larry Sinclair, who despite his lengthy rap sheet for forgery and other crimes gained significant attention claiming he had sexual relations with President Barack Obama. Sibley's ability to practice law was suspended for three years in Florida in 2008 for filing "vexatious and meritless" lawsuits against judges and for a child support payment dispute. He faced reciprocal discipline in D.C. Sibley is not yet giving judges a deadline to allow for the release of information before he does so unilaterally. "Their delay, in hindsight, will seem like they're favoring one person over another," he says.