Tag Archives: friday

I Just Texted With the DNC Hacker…

by FinlayYgqh Posted on August 13, 2016

Mother Jones

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The hacker or hackers working under the pseudonym “Guccifer 2.0” released another set of documents Friday, this time posting a series of documents that appear to have been stolen from the internal Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee network. The latest dump includes personal contact information for dozens of members of Congress, along with memos related to a campaign in Florida’s 18th Congressional District, and other internal DCCC documents, and is titled “Guccifer 2.0 Hacked DCCC.”

The hacker(s)’ site had been dormant for nearly a month before the DCCC documents were posted Friday evening, and over the last several weeks multiple news outlets have cited anonymous US government officials as saying that they believe the hacks are not the work of a lone hacker—as the hacker claimed in interviews with Vice News’ Motherboard and Mother Jones, among others—rather they’re the work of Russian intelligence groups or hackers working with the Russian government in an alleged effort to divide Democrats and aid Republican nominee Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that US government officials believe the hack, which was first publicly acknowledged by the Democratic National Committee on June 14, was much wider than initially thought, and could have targeted several Democratic political organizations along with the private email accounts of more than 100 Democratic Party officials and other groups.

Shortly after the documents were released Friday, Guccifer 2.0 answered a series of questions for Mother Jones via Twitter direct messaging. Here’s our semi-casual exchange:

At that point, the hacker(s) stopped communicating with me.

The initial release of hacked documents from the DNC, and the subsequent release of nearly 20,000 DNC emails and thousands of attachments by Wikileaks, showed signs that some Democratic Party officials did not like Bernie Sanders and discussed ways to undermine his campaign. The controversy led to the resignation of then-DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and several other top party officials, and cast a shadow over the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The DNC later publicly apologized to Sanders for “inexcusable” behavior of those officials.

The hacker(s) included a message about US elections along with the stolen documents posted Friday: “As you see the U.S. presidential elections are becoming a farce, a big political performance where the voters are far from playing the leading role. Everything is being settled behind the scenes as it was with Bernie Sanders. I wonder what happened to the true democracy, to the equal opportunities, the things we love the United States for,” the hacker(s) wrote. “The big money bags are fighting for power today. They are lying constantly and don’t keep their word. The MSM are producing tons of propaganda hiding the real stuff behind it. But I do believe that people have right to know what’s going on inside the election process in fact.”

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I Just Texted With the DNC Hacker…

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North Carolina Is Being Sued for Gerrymandering

by AidaClunie Posted on August 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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A group of Democrats, voters, and activists joined with Common Cause, a public advocacy group, and filed a lawsuit Friday alleging that the way North Carolina Republicans drew up the state’s congressional districts constituted a blatant partisan gerrymander and violates the US Constitution. If the case is successful, it could go a long way in helping courts define when redistricting with partisan intent violates voters’ rights to elect officials of their choosing.

“What is at stake is whether politicians have the power to manipulate voting maps to unjustly insulate themselves from accountability, or whether voters have the fundamental right as Americans to choose their representatives in fair and open elections,” Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, said in a statement. “We believe this is a vital case that could strike at the very foundation of gerrymandering.”

In 2011, after Republicans took control of both legislative houses in North Carolina, they created a new redistricting plan for the state’s 13 congressional districts that sought to entrench a Republican majority in the state’s congressional delegation. On February 5, 2016, a state district court ruled that the plan constituted illegal racial gerrymandering by populating two districts disproportionately with African American voters, thereby white-washing the other districts and ensuring Republican victories. It ordered the state Legislature to redraw the districts. North Carolina has appealed that ruling to the US Supreme Court in Harris v. McCrory, but the case has not yet been decided.

Meanwhile, the Republicans redrew the districts again after the district court ruling. During that process, state Republicans made it clear that they planned to redraw the districts to preserve the state’s 10-3 Republican congressional delegation majority. Friday’s lawsuit argues that the Republicans clearly drew the districts to disenfranchise Democratic voters by essentially letting the candidates choose their voters, and not the other way around.

The coalition’s lawsuit points out that state Republicans’ effort to lock in their party’s 10-3 advantage for the state’s congressional delegation flies in the face of representative democracy because voter registration data shows that Republicans make up just 30 percent of all registered voters, compared with 40 percent for Democrats. The remaining 30 percent register as unaffiliated.

Two of the Republicans involved in redrawing the maps said in a statement Friday that the districts are fair and legal, and that the lawsuit is “just the latest in a long line of attempts by far-left groups to use the federal court system to take away the rights of North Carolina voters.”

The lawsuit filed Friday notes that Common Cause is nonpartisan, and that the organization is currently opposing the efforts of the state Democratic party to gerrymander in Maryland.

See the full lawsuit below:

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North Carolina Is Being Sued for Gerrymandering

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Clinton Admits She "May Have Short-Circuited" in Characterizing Emails

by FelipaHagelthor Posted on August 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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Hillary Clinton admitted Friday that she may have “short-circuited” when claiming in a recent television interview that the director of the FBI had stated that her public comments about her private email server were “truthful.”

Speaking at a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Washington, DC, Clinton sought to smooth over an apparent contradiction between her statements and those of FBI Director James Comey regarding her handling of classified emails on her server. Clinton explained that what she meant in an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace was that Comey had said her statements to the FBI were truthful, and that what she said to the FBI was consistent with the statements she had made publicly.

“I may have short-circuited it and for that I, you know, will try to clarify because I think, you know, Chris Wallace and I were probably talking past each other because of course, he could only talk to what I had told the FBI and I appreciated that,” Clinton said. “But I do think, you know, having him say that my answers to the FBI were truthful and then I should quickly add, what I said was consistent with what I had said publicly. And that’s really sort of, in my view, trying to tie both ends together.”

Clinton has faced increasing criticism for not holding press conferences, unlike her publicity-hungry GOP rival Donald Trump. She took questions from reporters at Friday’s conference after laying out a number of policy proposals on criminal justice reform, federal spending in “underinvested” communities, and other issues. The reporters were quick to ask her about the subject where she’s faced the greatest scrutiny: her emails.

Clinton said the three classified emails she sent on her private server were not physically marked as such, so she didn’t know they were classified when she sent them.

Watch Clinton’s full speech and Q&A session below.

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Clinton Admits She "May Have Short-Circuited" in Characterizing Emails

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Trump Backs his Supporters’ "Lock Her Up" Chant

by AlexandraNail37 Posted on July 29, 2016

Mother Jones

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After a bipartisan assault on Donald Trump at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, from people ranging from leading Democrats such as Hillary Clinton to lifelong Republicans to ordinary citizens, Trump fired back during his first general election rally in Colorado on Friday afternoon.

The liveliest moment occurred when Trump supporters in Colorado Springs launched into a round of the “Lock Her Up!” chant aimed at Hillary Clinton. The chant was a nightly fixture at last week’s Republican convention, but Trump rejected it at the time. “I said, ‘Don’t do that,'” he told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. “I really—I didn’t like it.” Today he told his supporters, “I’m starting to agree with you.”

His remarks in Colorado weren’t Trump’s first rebuttal to Thursday night’s roast at the DNC. Though Clinton taunted Trump for his short fuse on social media—”A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons,” she said during her acceptance speech—the GOP nominee didn’t hesitate to unleash a series of Twitter attacks on Friday against Clinton and other speakers. Trump claimed that Gen. John Allen, the former Marine Corps commandant who savaged him during a fiery endorsement speech for Clinton on Thursday, “failed badly in his fight against ISIS.” He also took aim at former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who endorsed Clinton on Wednesday and mocked Trump as a con artist.

This afternoon, Trump stuck to his familiar attacks and went on several long tangents. He started the rally by complaining the fire marshall permitted too few people into the venue. “Probably a Democrat,” he said.

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Trump Backs his Supporters’ "Lock Her Up" Chant

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The Virginia Supreme Court Tried To Kill A Key Voting Rights Order—And This Democratic Governor Won’t Let Them

by JinaGirardi Posted on July 22, 2016

Mother Jones

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Virginia’s Supreme Court on Friday blocked Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s attempt to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons. The 4-3 ruling, which could have a significant impact on the potential swing state in November, comes three months after the Democratic governor issued an executive order to enfranchise felons who had completed their sentences and parole or probation as of April 22.

In May, Virginia Republicans sued the governor over the use of taxpayer money to make such an order, suggesting that the order would aid Democratic turnout in the general election. State Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Normen, Jr. said in a statement at the time that McAuliffe had “overstepped the bounds of his authority and the constitutional limits on executive powers.” McAuliffe struck back, stating that the lawsuit would “preserve a policy of disenfranchisement that has been used intentionally to suppress the voices of qualified voices.”

The Virginia Supreme Court found that McAuliffe overstepped his clemency authority in granting 206,000 felons the right to vote through executive order and that it violated the state constitution. The ruling could affect the one in five African Americans who are disenfranchised as a result of a felony conviction in the state.

“Never before have any of the prior 71 Virginia governors issued a clemency order of any kind—including pardons, reprieves, commutations, and restoration orders—to a class of unnamed felons without regard for the nature of the crimes or any other individual circumstances relevant to the request,” wrote Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons in the majority opinion.

“To be sure, no governor of this commonwealth, until now, has even suggested that such a power exists,” the justice wrote.

The court’s decision made Virginia “an outlier in the struggle for civil and human rights,” McAuliffe said in a statement Friday. He criticized Republicans’ lawsuit.

“I cannot accept that this overtly political action could succeed in suppressing the voices of many thousands of men and women who had rejoiced with their families earlier this year when their rights were restored,” he said, adding that he would “expeditiously sign” orders to restore voting rights to 13,000 felons. It was immediately unclear if the court’s order would affect McAullife’s plans to grant rights for those people.

You can read the judges’ opinions here.

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The Virginia Supreme Court Tried To Kill A Key Voting Rights Order—And This Democratic Governor Won’t Let Them

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Is Brexit Delayed Brexit Denied?

by TodBannanqcwij Posted on July 17, 2016

Mother Jones

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Hmmm….

Theresa May has indicated that Brexit could be delayed as she said she will not trigger the formal process for leaving the EU until there is an agreed “UK approach” backed by Scotland.

The Prime Minister on Friday travelled to Scotland to meet Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, and discuss plans for Britain’s Brexit negotiation….Ms Sturgeon has promised to explore every option to keep Scotland in the EU, and has repeatedly warned that if that is not possible as part of the UK, it is “highly likely” to lead to a second independence vote.

This sounds an awful lot like a way to ensure that Brexit never happens. Or am I missing something?

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Is Brexit Delayed Brexit Denied?

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The Obama Administration Finally Revealed How Many Civilians Have Died in Drone Strikes

by AntonyDodson Posted on July 1, 2016

Mother Jones

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The Obama administration announced on Friday that the United States has killed a much lower number of civilians in drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia than have been previously estimated by outside researchers.

A report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said airstrikes (overwhelmingly by drones) killed between 64 and 116 civilians in those four countries from 2009 to 2015. The numbers excluded “areas of active hostilities” such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

The report is the first time the Obama administration has provided official estimates of the death toll in the secretive drone war. President Barack Obama also issued an executive order on Friday that requires the government to deliver an unclassified report on drone strikes each year that includes the number of combatants and noncombatants killed. The order also instructs the government to ramp up its efforts to avoid civilian casualties and acknowledge them when they do occur. Hina Shamsi, the director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, reacted to the order on Twitter by calling it a “positive step but riddled with caveats and weak formulations.”

The official numbers are significantly lower than the totals compiled by journalists and researchers. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a London-based investigative news outlet, calculates that the Obama administration has killed at least 325 civilians in drone strikes outside of war zones (and possibly hundreds more). The liberal-leaning New America Foundation counts anywhere from 247 to 294 civilian deaths. In both cases, the minimum numbers are more than double the government’s maximum estimate. Those estimates also exclude strikes in Libya.

The government’s report acknowledged that official numbers would vary from outside estimates. While calling some of the nongovernmental data “credible reporting,” the report argued that the US government is more experienced in assessing strikes, and better informed, thanks to classified information about the strikes that outside sources can’t access. “The U.S. Government uses post-strike methodologies that have been refined and honed over the years and that use information that is generally unavailable to non-governmental organizations,” it noted.

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The Obama Administration Finally Revealed How Many Civilians Have Died in Drone Strikes

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TransCanada’s latest move perfectly illustrates why so many people hate free-trade deals

by PatrickY96 Posted on June 27, 2016

Ceci n’est pas une pipeline

TransCanada’s latest move perfectly illustrates why so many people hate free-trade deals

By on Jun 27, 2016Share

TransCanada is demanding that the U.S. fork over $15 billion to make up for the fact that the company didn’t get to build the Keystone XL pipeline. That’s one damned expensive temper tantrum.

On Friday, TransCanada filed a formal request under NAFTA seeking to recover costs and damages related to the thwarted pipeline project, following through on a threat it made in January. The Canadian firm claims that the Obama administration’s decision to reject the pipeline was unjustified and violated the U.S.’s obligations under NAFTA. “[T]he rejection was symbolic and based merely on the desire to make the U.S. appear strong on climate change,” TransCanada complained in its filing.

Climate activists and other environmentalists say this is a perfect example of why they oppose many trade deals, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which Obama is currently trying to get approved. “The TPP would empower thousands of new firms operating in the U.S, including major polluters, to follow in TransCanada’s footsteps and undermine our critical climate safeguards in private trade tribunals,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club.

The State Department argues that the Keystone rejection was consistent with NAFTA requirements, but some trade experts say there’s a real chance TransCanada could win its case.

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TransCanada’s latest move perfectly illustrates why so many people hate free-trade deals

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The Clinton Campaign Just Released a Video Mocking Donald Trump’s Response to Brexit

by Abraham Lowe Posted on June 24, 2016

Mother Jones

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Hillary Clinton’s campaign released a short video on Friday afternoon lampooning Donald Trump’s response to Brexit. The presumptive GOP nominee weighed in on the referendum to leave the European Union—a move he has recently championed—during a press conference at his golf course in Scotland, Turnberry. The video intercuts news footage depicting the havoc Brexit unleashed on world financial markets with footage of Trump calmly saying that a weaker pound will benefit his business. “When the pound goes down, more people are going to Turnberry,” Trump said.

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The Clinton Campaign Just Released a Video Mocking Donald Trump’s Response to Brexit

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Friday Cat Blogging – 24 June 2016

by GabrielLancaste Posted on June 24, 2016

Mother Jones

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Here are the cultural references in this morning’s four blog posts:

Bette Davis, All About Eve.
New York Daily News, October 30, 1975.
The Sun, April 11, 1992.
Sinclair Lewis, It Can’t Happen Here.

And here is Hilbert, one of the primary cultural references for Friday catblogging. How could you possibly walk by this and not give him a tummy rub?

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Friday Cat Blogging – 24 June 2016

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