On today’s BradCast: We explain that new Microsoft app set to be used at the Iowa Caucuses and get the latest from Oregon following the arrest of the militant leaders (and the shooting death of one of them) at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. [Audio link to complete show is posted below…]
First up, independent investigative journalist Arun Gupta, who has been in Burns, Oregon over the past week covering the “Patriot Movement” standoff for Raw Story, joins us with the latest. He is dubious about the FBI’s explanation for the killing of one of the leaders of the occupation; explains how the Rightwing protesters are “essentially wanting to overthrow the U.S. Government”; and how the treatment of the armed demonstrators differed from the treatment of Occupy Wall Street protesters, which he had also covered.
“There’s a lot of anger out there around this,” Gupta tells me. “There’s a lot of anger about land management issues, about a lack of economic development, and there’s a lot of extreme Rightwing groups — many of them pretty racist, white supremacists — that can take advantage of this. So I don’t think we have seen the end of this.”
Then, late news on the “debate debates” on both the Republican and Democratic sides of the aisle — with veterans groups hitting Donald Trump for hiding behind them while pulling out of Thursday’s Fox “News” debate and Bernie Sanders playing hardball over the addition of new debates on the Dem side.
Next, while we’ve been working on this story for a while, it seems that everyone today has noticed that Microsoft has created a free app — two of them, actually — for the Democratic and Republican parties to use to help tally votes in the first-in-the-nation caucuses in Iowa next Monday.
Now that the Sanders camp has become “suspicious of Microsoft’s influence in the Iowa Caucus,” as MSNBC reports it, a lot of folks have begun freaking out about the matter. “You’d have to ask yourself why they’d want to give something like that away for free,” a Sanders spokesman is quoted as saying, even as both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns have created their own apps for tracking local results at caucus sites next week.
I explain what the Microsoft apps do and don’t do — for each of the parties — and if they, or you, should be concerned about it…no matter which candidate that you may or may not support in either of the parties holding caucuses next week in the Hawkeye State.
Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report on Florida mayors calling out Marco Rubio for his climate change denial, an update on Flint and America’s poor bearing the brunt of toxic pollution in the U.S., a win for coal miners in the fight against black lung disease, and much more in another busy BradCast today!…
Download MP3 or listen to complete show online below…
[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman_ArunGuptaOregon_IowaCaucusMicrosoftApp_012816.mp3]
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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Sanders supporters would do well to video record the results as they are announced at each caucus site. This and the campaign’s use of its own app to track results at the caucus level would provide a solid evidentiary base for challenging an erroneous central tabulation.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina…
Some people at polling precincts will treat you like you’re stepping out of bounds to video what’s going on, and it’s an uncomfortable thing to do anyway, but it’s the only way to make sure things work correctly.
Do it people!
Re Larry Bergern @2
Caucuses are not like polling stations. Electioneering is not allowed inside polling stations. Electioneering is encouraged at caucuses. Both Clinton & Sanders supporters will encourage O’Malley supporters to join them after Martin fails to secure the 15% floor.
So video/audio record not a problem at a caucus.
Another reason to make sure everything gets documented.
I sure hope Bernie Sanders’s people are on top of this. The new comers registering on caucus night are going to have be well informed.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/02/200pm-water-cooler-212016.html
By Lambert Strether of Corrente
“In a somewhat ominous sign for [Trump and Sanders], the registration numbers have not increased much for either party, and although there is same day registration, the Iowa hands all point out that the Obama upset was presaged by very substantial registrations of new Democrats for months ahead of time†[Digby, Salon]. Sketchy sourcing, though…
And here’s one reason why: Microsoft wrote really bad software that will keep new voters from registering [ABC]:
Three days before voting begins, residents around Iowa are making plans to caucus, but new online tools launched by both the state Democratic and Republican parties designed to inform people where to go Monday evening were built with one major hole, the parties confirmed to ABC News.
The systems were only built off the list of registered voters’ addresses. As a result, for new voters who have never registered in the state and who live at addresses where no one else has registered, the online feature does not work.
“[Daniel] Lewin, Microsoft’s vice president, … said Microsoft has only interacted with the parties†[The Hill]. Who controls the spec controls the software. And who controls the software controls the vote (or, in this case, the registration). Since it would be irresponsible not to speculate, one can only wonder if the Iowa Democrat controlling the spec took her cue from Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s manipulation of the debate schedule. Meanwhile, the Sanders campaign wrote its own vote-counting software, but I’m not seeing evidence they wrote their own registration software. Which means all that work with young, first-time voters could go for naught. Yikes!
………..
Picked up by Mark Crispin Miller
http://markcrispinmiller.com/2016/02/hillary-stole-iowa-3-microsoft-which-only-interacted-with-the-parties-didnt-count-young-first-time-voters/
Hillary stole Iowa (3): Microsoft, which “only interacted with the parties,†didn’t count young, first-time voters
……..
http://markcrispinmiller.com/2016/02/hillary-stole-iowa-2-iowa-precinct-captain-was-paid-clinton-campaign-staffer-not-from-iowa/
Hillary stole Iowa (2): Iowa precinct captain was paid Clinton campaign staffer (not from Iowa)
………..
http://markcrispinmiller.com/2016/02/hillary-stole-iowa-1-clinton-team-miscounted-votes-in-precinct-43-as-caught-on-c-span/
Hillary stole Iowa (1): Clinton team miscounted votes in Precinct #43 (as caught on C-SPAN)