Secret Service, DHS Scramble To Secure America's Election (yahoo.com)

Secret service agents rushed Donald Trump off a stage in Nevada Saturday night, CNN reports. "A scuffle could be seen breaking out in the audience, but it was not immediately clear what happened... Secret Service and police tactical units rushed in to detain a man [who] was then rushed by a throng of police officers, Secret Service agents and SWAT officers armed with assault rifles to a side room... A law enforcement official told CNN no weapon was discovered. The GOP nominee was apparently unharmed and returned to the stage minutes later to finish his speech." Meanwhile, an anonymous reader writes: "All but two U.S. states have accepted help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to probe and scan voter registration and election systems for vulnerabilities, a department official told Reuters." Ohio is relying on the National Guard's cyber protection unit, while Arizona says they've held discussions with the FBI, DHS and state-level agents on cyber security. But in addition, "U.S. military hackers have penetrated Russia's electric grid, telecommunications networks and the Kremlin's command systems, making them vulnerable to attack by secret American cyber weapons should the U.S. deem it necessary, according to a senior intelligence official and top-secret documents reviewed by NBC News."

American officials believe Russian hacking efforts will continue through 2018, according to the Wall Street Journal. "By hacking and dumping emails, Russia is trying 'to denigrate the American electoral system, to make it look chaotic, make it look manipulable, make it look subject to intrusion, cheating and vulnerable so you can't trust it...to make us look no better than the Russian electoral system,'" said one senior White House official. Russia is also expected to extend their efforts toward elections in Europe.

Comments

Obviously, a failed time travel mission

[BenJeremy]

So close...

Re:Obviously, a failed time travel mission

[dgatwood]

I expect the Clinton sequel to be as successful as The Matrix sequel ...

Crash. Wham. I forgot how good that movie was. Too bad they didn't make any sequels.

Re:Obviously, a failed time travel mission

[Darinbob]

The best thing about polls is that there are so many and they agree so rarely that you can pick any subset of them to prove anything you want.

Re:Obviously, a failed time travel mission

[Anonymous Coward]

Followed by FBI and AG announcing charges for treason, obstruction of justice, illegal firing of government employees of White House Travel Office, conflict of interest and using public office to direct White House Travel Office contract to friends who performed the same function when they were in Governor's Mansion, theft of government property, and pay-to-play with Clinton "Charity"

Oh, and since she supported enabling private US citizens to sue a foreign Government for 9/11, the Osama Bin Laden family is suing Clinton for murdering him on foreign soil. Careful what you think is good for us, because others will do the same thing -- this is the failed policy and actions that have been a pillar of the Clinton's careers.

Re:Obviously, a failed time travel mission

[h33t l4x0r]

He's got a 34.2% chance according to 538. That's not small. That's why we need everybody to get there and vote for Hillary. Twice.

Re: Obviously, a failed time travel mission

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not the most direct path to victory for Trump.

Most polls show Trump with a small lead in Ohio, though still within the margin of error. It's more likely than not that Trump will win Ohio.

Georgia, Iowa, and Arizona are also considered toss-ups, but most polls show Trump with small leads in those states. For each of those states, it's more likely than not that Trump wins. They're within the margin of error, but Trump seems to be the likely winner in each.

Let's assume that Trump wins Ohio, Arizona, Georgia, and Iowa. If he also carries Florida, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Nevada, he would have 269 electoral votes. This assumes, of course, that nothing crazy happens in Utah. In this instance, the election would go to the House of Representatives, with Trump being the likely winner.

Maine has four electoral votes, two going to the statewide winner, and one for the winner of each congressional district. There's a larger margin of error in predicting individual districts, but there are indications that Trump is slightly ahead in the second congressional district of Maine. If he carries that along with each of the aforementioned states, that would give him 270 electoral votes.

Recent polls show Trump with a small lead in Nevada, though early voting there probably favors Clinton. Nonetheless, RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight show Trump as having a small edge in Nevada.

RCP shows Trump as having a small edge in recent polls in New Hampshire. However, 538 projects Clinton as being slightly more likely to win there than Trump.

RCP shows Trump with a tiny edge in North Carolina, though well within the margin of error. He is also given justly slightly better than a 50-50 chance of winning there by 538.

RCP shows Clinton with a small lead in recent polls of North Carolina, though well within the margin of error. However, 538 projects Trump with slightly better than also 50-50 chance of winning there.

The most likely path to victory for Trump is to win Arizona, Iowa, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, and the second district of Maine. None of these would be particularly crazy, considering the current polls and projections.

Beyond that, Colorado may be the next best chance for Trump. Next on the list would be Pennsylvania. However, Clinton is projected to have slightly larger leads in those states. Michigan, New Mexico, and the two statewide electoral votes from Maine are still within the margin of error, but seem still less likely to go to Trump. If Michigan were to go to Trump, it's very possible that Wisconsin might follow, too. If the polls were really off that much, Virginia might also be in play. But all of this is getting quite unlikely.

It's more likely than not that Clinton wins, but I think 538's projections of roughly 65%-35% are about right. I don't think Trump must get Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes to win, and I'm not sure that's the most likely scenario. That said, if Trump loses Florida, he'd probably have to win Pennsylvania and Colorado to have a chance. He'd need Pennsylvania if he loses North Carolina. And Colorado would suffice if he loses either New Hampshire or Nevada. If he lost New Hampshire and Nevada but carried Colorado and the second district of Maine, it would probably end up a tie.

Re:Obviously, a failed time travel mission

[amiga3D]

The bad thing is that a lot of what they're saying is true. Provably true. It's gotten to the point that even if she wins she loses. She's going to start her presidency with a cloud of scandal. The majority of the people that are going to vote for her think she's a liar and corrupt....because she is. That's leaving out the 40 percent that just flat hate everything about her. It's going to start bad and then get worse. Once people start to dig into your history they don't stop and there's plenty of dirt there with no real need to invent it.

It was a guy with a sign ...

[thrillseeker]

... that said "Republicans Against Trump", and then some unidentified asshole yelled "gun!" and the crowd went wild - hope they find the asshole that yelled "Fire in a crowded theater" just for the hell of it, and hang his ass.

The summary forgot to mention something...

[__aaclcg7560]

It doesn't help that someone shouted "gun" when the protester stood up with a sign.

A Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement that an "unidentified individual" shouted "gun" in the audience, though no weapon was found after a "thorough search."

I wonder how they will target europe

[Anonymous Coward]

Since at least in the Netherlands (and presumably in the rest of Europe) we don't use electronic voting and we require voter ID.

And that's how it is done

[frovingslosh]

All but two U.S. states have accepted help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

I would much rather have someone that I trust helping than the D.H.S.

Re:And that's how it is done

[frovingslosh]

Who do you think runs the T.S.A.?

not in N.C.

[frovingslosh]

In N.C. the feds struck down our law to require ID because it discriminated against those wanting to commit voter fraud.

Re:not in N.C.

[ShanghaiBill]

In N.C. the feds struck down our law to require ID because it discriminated against those wanting to commit voter fraud.

It was a bit more complicated than that. NC Republicans hired consultants and statisticians to analyse voting patterns, and then legislated restrictions on early voting, closed polling places in minority neighborhoods, and yes, instituted voter ID requirements. All of this was carefully planned and scientifically designed to suppress minority voting. Basically, NC Republicans Moneyballed racism.

Re:not in N.C.

[MightyMartian]

Voter fraud is extremely rare, and the courts are enforcing federal law that makes sure people like you can't use it for cover to disenfranchise minorities.

Re:not in N.C.

[Orgasmatron]

I applaud you sir! You have, in your mind, defined the problem so narrowly that you are only willing to see evidence that cannot possibly exist. You must've been paying attention in Gaslighting 101.

I assure you that only diehard fanatics like yourself obsess over whatever activity you specifically define as "voter fraud". Most of us humans, however, are gravely concerned about honest and fair elections, and the threats are many, including voter fraud, election fraud, and whatever other forms of fraud could possibly interfere.

Indiana

California

Florida (Note that the response to this was to send out 173,000 more blank ballots.

More Florida

Anyone that cares to spend a little time searching can probably find similar stories from nearly any state. Oh, and of course the Project Veritas Action videos show people discussing the mechanics of successful fraud, clearly from a position of personal knowledge.

Keep in mind that a lot of this fraud is very hard to prove. In nearly every story, the people involved protest their innocence. Bank robbers caught in the act tend to do that too, of course, as do innocent people. A year from now, we'll know the extent of the fraud that was caught and prosecuted, and maybe have an idea of the fraud that was caught, but not prosecuted, and absolutely no idea how much fraud was not caught.

Further info:

Racist India

Racist Mexico

Re:not in N.C.

[DNS-and-BIND]

Obama is encouraging illegals to vote in our election. I love the part about voter fraud being extremely rare. What a laugh. Ever been to Chicago?

Re:not in N.C.

[frovingslosh]

Lets be sure we all understand what has long been going on. For decades the Democrats were in power and set up voting districts. There was one insanely gerrymandered district that cut across a large portion of the state, and the Democrats were quite clear that they had done it for racial reasons. When the Republicans finally got power and drew up districts the Democrats claimed they improperly used race as a basis to create the districts, and Democratically controlled federal courts sided with them. See anything strange there?

Re:not in N.C.

[sexconker]

Scroll up. There are far more instances of voter fraud in favor of Democratic candidates.

Using a puffed-up New York Times deflection piece (written and published in response to the revelations of the Democrats cheating, as referenced above) doesn't help your non-argument.

Re:not in N.C.

[quantaman]

Anyone that cares to spend a little time searching can probably find similar stories from nearly any state. Oh, and of course the Project Veritas Action videos show people discussing the mechanics of successful fraud, clearly from a position of personal knowledge.

Keep in mind that a lot of this fraud is very hard to prove. In nearly every story, the people involved protest their innocence. Bank robbers caught in the act tend to do that too, of course, as do innocent people. A year from now, we'll know the extent of the fraud that was caught and prosecuted, and maybe have an idea of the fraud that was caught, but not prosecuted, and absolutely no idea how much fraud was not caught.

This happens every election cycle. Republicans claim they've found absolute proof of countless cases of voter fraud and the right wing media starts freaking out that the election was stolen!

Then authorities investigate, and they find a bunch of administrative errors and no actual cases of ineligible people voting or voter impersonation, although sometimes a permanent resident will get confused while filling out paper work and end up registering to vote as well.

Of course the right wing media doesn't actually follow up to let the audience know it was just a big misunderstanding, so the audience just goes on believing it was proven that the election was stolen.

Re:not in N.C.

[swb]

Why is there a Republican conspiracy to prevent minorities from voting, but no Republican conspiracy to keep minorities off airplanes or any other location that requires positive ID?

Frankly I'm more worried about the every day constraints on free movement than the periodic and de minimis reduction in voting.

Re:not in N.C.

[AmiMoJo]

You links are all innuendo and speculation. Not one links to an actual investigation showing proof that fraud took place. That's because...

Voter fraud really isn't a big problem. 31 probable cases out of over 1 billion votes cast.

The precision with which they target African American voters is pretty shocking. For example, they researched various types of ID and then banned the ones most common with African Americans, only allowing the types that white people are more likely to have. They blocked early voting because African Americans were often motivated to vote by their church on a Sunday.

These laws are not about stopping largely imaginary and totally insignificant fraud. Stop believing Trump, he doesn't have any evidence that its rigged against him or he would have requested a formal investigation. They are about stopping Democrats voting, by targeting certain groups, often by race.

Re:not in N.C.

[swillden]

See anything strange there?

Nope. The Democrats used to be the party of the racists, which is why they controlled the deep south. Then LBJ got the Civil Rights Act passed, and enforced it, which caused the racists in the deep south to switch to the Republican party... but the racists remained in control.

So, nothing strange at all. The racists gerrymandered districts on a racial basis, regardless of which party they claimed to be in.

Note that I'm not saying the Democratic party used to be racist, or that the Republican party is now. One particular (and large) voting bloc in the south is overtly racist, and that bloc embraced one party and then the other. Neither party rejected the power the racist bloc gave them.

Re: not in N.C.

[Bartles]

Lots of people are saying black people lack the ability to get identification. It's one of the glaring instances of racism perpetrated by Democrats.

Does anyone else think this is insane?

[Okian Warrior]

But in addition, "U.S. military hackers have penetrated Russia's electric grid, telecommunications networks and the Kremlin's command systems, making them vulnerable to attack by secret American cyber weapons should the U.S. deem it necessary, according to a senior intelligence official and top-secret documents reviewed by NBC News."

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that this is insane?

Assange never gives out details about who his leakers are, but even he took the time to state categorically that the Podesta leakers are did not come from the Russian government.

Clearly he feels that there is some danger here for him to take this extraordinary step.

Instead of setting up a hair-trigger response shouldn't we first have an investigation, and then approach this through diplomatic channels?

Ye gods, Putin has to keep the appearance of strength in his country. What do you think he'll do if we start messing with their electrical grid?

And in other news, we have Obama encouraging illegals to vote, which would appear at first glance to be Obama committing a felony on camera.

What the fuck is happening to this country?

Re:Does anyone else think this is insane?

[quantaman]

Assange never gives out details about who his leakers are, but even he took the time to state categorically that the Podesta leakers are did not come from the Russian government.

Clearly he feels that there is some danger here for him to take this extraordinary step.

Or his source has never clearly identified itself as the Russia government and he's trying to maintain plausible deniability as to not destroy Wikileaks' credibility.

And in other news, we have Obama encouraging illegals to vote, which would appear at first glance to be Obama committing a felony on camera.

Which is why you should take a second glance. Did you notice how her question doesn't actually make sense? That's because someone cut off the first part of it and I'm very suspicious of what they left out. What seems to be the general question and answer is the following:

Interviewer: American citizens who are the children of illegal immigrants are scared to vote because they they'll draw scrutiny and cause their families to be deported.

Obama: That will not happen.

What the fuck is happening to this country?

People are lying to you about the state of the world, and you believe them.

Someone isn't very tech savvy

[wasted]

"By hacking and dumping emails, Russia is trying 'to denigrate the American electoral system, to make it look chaotic, make it look manipulable, make it look subject to intrusion, cheating and vulnerable so you can't trust it...to make us look no better than the Russian electoral system,'" said one senior White House official.

"Hacking and dumping" emails is not the same as changing vote counts or forcing people to vote a certain way. The exposure of the content of emails was likely embarrassing to the Democratic Party and HRC, but it isn't election tampering.

Re:Someone isn't very tech savvy

[phantomfive]

It's not even clear Russia did anything.
And the American electoral system looks chaotic enough on its own. It's the people running who make it look bad, not foreign hackers.

Re:Someone isn't very tech savvy

[bradley13]

If Russia is behind this, shame on them. However, there is no proof that this is the case. The Hillary campaign declares this, to distract from...

...the actual, important issue: the corruption and criminality exposed by those emails. Interestingly, no one is saying that the information is actually incorrect.

Paper Ballots Counted At The Precinct Level

[TheNarrator]

You want to prevent all hacking? Just use paper ballots counted at the precinct level. India has a billion people and it works just fine. Our election is important enough that it's foolish to trust it to unauditable, easily hacked voting machines when the alternative of hand counting is not that hard.

Got any reality to go with your hallucinations?

[Okian Warrior]

Massage is done. After this election stunt, even if Ecuador let's him stay, he's brought Wikileaks disrepute that the press will ignore him. Snowden had taken his mantle.

Everything you've said is completely and totally bogus.

1) "Ecuador lets him stay": Ecuador has repeatedly reaffirmed their intention to let him stay, even after cutting his internet access.

2) "Disrepute": Wikileaks recently published the DKIM proofs for the Podesta E-mails, putting the lie to any claims of tampering. For example, Donna Brazile claimed that E-mails showing her giving debate questions to Clinton were tampered, but they were vetted using Google's gmail.com DKIM signature.

3) "Massage": Learn Engrish.

4) "Stunt": He's been publishing pretty-much continuously for 10 years, and you think "stunt" describes his actions?

5) "Press will ignore": Uh... yeah. Right. You think this is what will happen?

6) "Snowden": Snowden took his mantle... without being in the news or having done anything of recent significance?

In general, everything you said is simple sock-puppetry intended to sway uninformed people. It's intellectually dishonest, and it doesn't even promote the mainstream view.

I mean, really. Absolutely *no one* in the media is making any of your claims.

I'd ask for links, but in this case I don't think that's possible.

Re:rare and well done

[MightyMartian]

And you have actual citations for these claims (and no, some alt-right blog is not a reference). Provide actual citations, preferably actual electoral records. Otherwise, I call bullshit.

I always wonder

[jenningsthecat]

How many of these 'crises' are either enormously exaggerated, or manufactured out of whole cloth? After all, they are so very useful for creating jobs, justifying power and autonomy grabs by various TLA's, and distracting the masses from noticing that their basic rights are being systematically torn down and burned.

Yes, by all means, protect this election. Protect it from becoming a third-rate reality show - a freaky, depraved, but strangely irrelevant spectacle that proudly and defiantly puts the 'circus' in 'bread and circuses'. Oh, wait... it's way too late for that.

I'm starting to see the attractions of the Libertarian point of view. It's delusional and naive, to be sure - but would it produce a hell any worse that what we're currently experiencing?

Re:rare and well done

[ShanghaiBill]

And you have actual citations for these claims

Of course not, because they are nonsense. These bullet points are copied verbatim from a viral image that has been circulating among alt-right kooks, including my idiot brother-in-law. All of these claims have been thoroughly debunked.

Re:rare and well done

[whoever57]

I think that you copied your bullet points from Snopes. Perhaps you should have noted the large "False" image on the page also?

But thanks for outing yourself as yet another person who lacks critical thinking skills.

Re:hardly losing

[flargleblarg]

because come Wednesday morning, we'll have a woman in the white house.

I'm not a constitutional scholar, but I believe we won't have a woman in the White House (serving as President) until January 20, 2017.

Not russians as they would use for blackmail

[EmperorOfCanada]

I very very very much doubt that this is the work of the russian government. Simply put, given all these emails, they would use them to better understand who is really in power, and then use them for blackmail. AFTER she became president. They wouldn't even blackmail her, but would blackmail some of the various players who wouldn't want these coming out.

.

Our Government in the US

[hackus]

Some things I find disturbing:

"By hacking and dumping emails, Russia is trying 'to denigrate the American electoral system, to make it look chaotic, make it look manipulable, make it look subject to intrusion, cheating and vulnerable so you can't trust it...to make us look no better than the Russian electoral system,'" said one senior White House official. Russia is also expected to extend their efforts toward elections in Europe..."

Let me get this straight.

Even IF Russia was dumping Emails, and let me be clear...they are not...all of these Emails have been verified by FBI sources. Which, means, the democratic party has voters who do not care if their candidate is a treasonous criminal, the are voting for Hillary anyway.

Secondly:

"U.S. military hackers have penetrated Russia's electric grid, telecommunications networks and the Kremlin's command systems, making them vulnerable to attack by secret American cyber weapons should the U.S. deem it necessary, according to a senior intelligence official and top-secret documents reviewed by NBC News."

This is an act of war. Not on a goat herding nation that can't fight back. These VERY DESPERATE OLIGARCHS are trying to start a distraction from their criminal activities, and provoke a NUCLEAR POWER, that could wipe out the eastern seaboard in about 20 minutes.

No Russia is not Iraq, far from it.

These people kicked Napoleans ass, Hitlers ass while European fags cowered in their boots and some, Like the French surrenderd without even a fight in World War 2.

All of this activity by the US government is TREASON, they have no right to start a war without full authorization from Congress let alone attack another country either cyber or physically wise.

One more thing.

These Executive orders effectively has made the President a king. These have to be immediately reversed an stopped.

No individual branch of goverment has that sort of authority except congress with a majority vote of 2/3rds.

incompetence

[Tom]

Russia is trying 'to denigrate the American electoral system, to make it look chaotic, make it look manipulable, make it look subject to intrusion, cheating and vulnerable so you can't trust it...

No need to do anything on that front. All of Europe has been laughing about the US voting process for decades. You've got the most complicated, error-prone, untrustworthy election system I personally have ever seen or heard about. The fact that you're incapable of fixing it is the best proof that the whole system is broken beyond repair.

I'm not just talking voting machines, I also mean Gerrymandering, the fact that you vote on a working day (seriously?) or that there are hour-long queues. You are holding elections the way 3rd world countries hold their first election in history, and it's just absolutely pathetic.

What could Russia possibly do to discredit this abomination? If I were the russian general in charge, I'd tell my hackers to stay out of this, lest they accidentally fix something and make it better.

Wouldn't that impression reflect reality?

[Morpf]

By hacking and dumping emails, Russia is trying 'to denigrate the American electoral system, to make it look chaotic, make it look manipulable, make it look subject to intrusion, cheating and vulnerable so you can't trust it...to make us look no better than the Russian electoral system.

I'm going out on a limb here, but wouldn't that impression be the actual truth? How the democrats rigged against Sanders, that apparently the Democrats and their candidat got hacked, we know for ages that voting machines are not trustworthy, there is the concept of gerrymandering, and how on earth became Trump even a candidate, not speaking about that the charges against Hillary were dropped.

Not sure whom to attribute those hacks, but isn't it actually a good thing, that this knowledge is now spread between the voters so they can make a more informed decision? Isn't it better to know what is going on than to life in fluffy unicorn land?

All the governments are always saying: No need to fear, if you have nothing to hide. Well...

Brought to you by people who enjoy #spiritcooking

[Xenographic]

You might want to check the Project Veritas video--we have people like Zulema Rodriguez to thank for those protests turning violent. And we can fact check that all the way back to her illegal actions at the AZ protest, lying to cops, and being on the Democratic payroll thanks to the FEC site. So you might be inclined to believe the people you don't like are violent, but we have videos that can be independently corroborated, as well as discussions in the Podesta email dump to tie it all together.

And there was also this guy who attempted to steal a gun: http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/19/...

So we can hardly rule out any sort of dirty tricks here, especially with Hillary's poll numbers taking a dive lately.

There were also fake pedophile smears against Julian (Todd & Claire) as well as Trump (Epstein has way more ties to Bill, and Podesta has a ton of pedo friends apparently, including the former Republican speaker/convicted child molester so one really wonders what *they* have in common...) with that lawsuit now being voluntarily dismissed after being debunked even by Jezebel, Popehat and many other sources.

Re:It was a guy with a sign

[Xenographic]

Bought media? You mean like Correct the Record and the other media we can see being in the bag thanks to Podesta's emails? Or are you going to repeat the lie that they're "altered" even though we have DKIM authentication from Google's servers (among others) for the relevant emails? Or like the Washington Post which held an illicit fundraiser with the DNC that their lawyers would "never" allow? I've linked to all of these previously many times.

And if you want to talk about terrorists, you might want to see who has been destabilizing Syria for fun -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

We wouldn't have a lot of this crap like the migrant crisis if they weren't trying to destabilize the area and take over.

Not just a troll, but a lie

[s.petry]

Funny that you don't mention Bob Creamer in your comment, or any of the dozen or so people seeding provocateurs into not just Trump gatherings but Sanders gatherings. You don't mention the people on campuses shutting down speeches, visits, and gatherings for people who are conservative leaning. Being "alt-Right" is not an excuse to deny someone's first amendment rights. These are not one time gigs, but on Campuses have been going for years and for the election over a year.

Also consider that the only candidate to have someone actively attempt to assassinate them was Trump, when a whacko attempted to steal a gun from a guards belt to shoot at him.

If you actually recognize those real events, you would understand that someone behaving oddly would be at least suspicious. If he was reaching into his jacket pocket to get a phone and looked that far out of place you bet your ass people would think and perhaps say "gun".

Now consider the massive amount of emails found on Weiner's laptop and what we know the NYPD was investigating. Not just child pornography, but trafficking. Podesta being invited to events most people would say are occultist. How many politicians are going to be implicated by Weiner's laptop? I'm sure there are plenty of politicians worried right now. People who find information outside of the politically controlled media are, and should be, on high alert. Citations should not be needed, you know damn well how to perform Google searches and type search terms into Wikileaks. The UK has very recent examples of Government involvement in sex trafficking and pedophilia at massive scale. Politics is not immune to corruption, it attracts it.