2020 Democratic Presidential nominee

App Made By Clinton Campaign Veterans' Firm is Behind Iowa Caucuses Debacle

https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-02-04/clinton-cam...

"An app that could instantaneously relay the numbers as soon as precinct chairs input them, developed by Democratic Party loyalists, looked like the perfect solution. It turned out to be a crushing failure..."

Or the perfect solution.

"The same corporate Democratic hacks who've been warning us for three years that Russia aims to undermine confidence in our elections have done just that. They exploited Russiagate to rustle up money for the scammy  digital 'voter protection' tech that wrecked Iowa Caucuses."

https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1224580487756296192

Bears repeating:

'We're Not Allowed To Talk About Anything Wrong in the Party' AOC Trashes the Democratic Establishment

https://on.rt.com/a8iq

"Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, one of the chief architects of the Democrats' leftward shift, has hit out at her party's fielding candidates like the centrist Joe Biden and said 'we're not allowed to talk' about party divisions. 'In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party, but in America, we are,' she said..."

Left Turn wrote:

iyraste1313 wrote:

apparently, the voter turnout for the Democratic Party was dismal? Inspite of Sanders popular rallies?

This would suggest that the Party is in big trouble!

This would suggest that the caucus system did what it was designed to do -- ie. supress turnout.

Strangely enough, the caucus system was said to favour Sanders in 2016.

Aristotleded24 wrote:

Left Turn wrote:

iyraste1313 wrote:

apparently, the voter turnout for the Democratic Party was dismal? Inspite of Sanders popular rallies?

This would suggest that the Party is in big trouble!

This would suggest that the caucus system did what it was designed to do -- ie. supress turnout.

Strangely enough, the caucus system was said to favour Sanders in 2016.

The two things are not mutually exclusive. The caucus system, by requiring voters to stand around for several hours, does result in lower voter turnout than if it was a primary election where voters only had to be there for as long as it takes to stand in line and cast a ballot. That it can also favor a candidate such as Sanders doesn't change the fact that it does create lower voter turnout.

iyraste1313 wrote:

apparently, the voter turnout for the Democratic Party was dismal? Inspite of Sanders popular rallies?

This would suggest that the Party is in big trouble!

Or it could just be a post-Super Bowl hangover.

Sean in Ottawa wrote:

contrarianna wrote:

Aristotleded24 wrote:

So we still don't have any results from the Iowa Caucus. Ridiculous! So instead of the talk about the winner having momentum going into New Hampshire, the talk is going to be around how messsed up the process was for the Iowa Democratic Caucuses? ....

Clearly, the main loser in this debacle is the ascendant Sanders, losing momentum and changing the narrative, as you describe.
Who benefits?. Trump, the Republicans, the security state, and those Democratic elite and their backers who see Sanders as a bigger threat to their interests than Trump.

Though speculation and investigation on the possibility of sabotage  does not constitute conspiracy theory (and thankfully the "Putin did it" meme has not, yet, gained traction for this), until credible evidence shows otherwise Hanlon's Razor is still my guidance in this fiasco:
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"
 

 

I do not even think that we can discount accident either. Much of what they are doing appears to invovle new and previously untested coding (in a real environment). I do not think there is reasonable evidence yet to presume that the only options are stupidity or a consipracy within or without the party....

"Accidents" which are the result of drunken driving are also "stupid".  At a minimum, "stupid" is a perfectly "app"t description of a poorly tested, hasty development with an ill-conceived reliance on a company with a dubious record, as is well laid out by the NYT:

Faulty Iowa App Was Part of Push to Restore Democrats’ Digital Edge

The faulty smartphone app behind the chaotic aftermath of Iowa’s Democratic caucuses was the work of a little-known company called Shadow Inc. that was founded by veterans of Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential campaign, and whose previous work was marked by a string of failures, including a near bankruptcy....

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/us/politics/iowa-caucus-shadow-app.html

At least Nevada may have learned from this debacle:

Quote:

The Nevada State Democratic Party on Tuesday announced it has abandoned plans to use the mobile app at the center of Iowa's election mess in Nevada's Feb. 22 caucus amid fears the technology could throw another presidential contest into chaos.

"NV Dems can confidently say that what happened in the Iowa caucus last night will not happen in Nevada on February 22nd," William McCurdy II, chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party, said in a statement. "We will not be employing the same app or vendor used in the Iowa caucus. We had already developed a series of backups and redundant reporting systems, and are currently evaluating the best path forward."

McCurdy's statement came after Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign urged Nevada Democrats to ditch the app, which was developed by the secretive for-profit technology firm Shadow Inc. with the stated goal of getting election results to the public more quickly. Shadow is owned by the Democratic digital non-profit organization ACRONYM.

"Stated goal of getting results more quickly?" That's a laugh!

Here's the link that NorthReport failed to post.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/04/politics/donald-trump-gallup-poll/index.html

This is the most damning indictment of the American people we have had here: they like their presidents to be dishonest thieves out for themselves.

Or, more likely, the ones who like him don't recognize him to be a dishonest thief out for himself.

Plus, there's always a section of the swing-vote that's impressed when someone who regularly screws up manages to have a week where things go his way, even if he doesn't actually do anything good.

Putin Prepares To Release Iowa Caucus Results

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/02/putin-prepares-to-release-the-iowa...

"Pro-Israel Buttigieg backer Seth Klarman is top funder of group behind Iowa's disastrous voting app. A prolific funder of pro-settler Israel lobby organizations, Klarman has also contributed directly to Pete Buttigieg's campaign..."

Cody87 wrote:

Sean in Ottawa wrote:

Left Turn wrote:

Here's the link that NorthReport failed to post.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/04/politics/donald-trump-gallup-poll/index.html

This is the most damning indictment of the American people we have had here: they like their presidents to be dishonest thieves out for themselves. They deserve what they get -- or roughly half do. The others should consider emigration.

If true: The US is not just a big polluter -- as a country it is pollution.

On the other hand the poll could be trash.

woooow...relax alan

hehe +1

Krystal Ball: Iowa Was 'Rigged', Here's the Proof

https://youtu.be/nDO2kHGEoY0

"Krystal Ball criticizes the behavior of the Iowa Democratic party in releasing partial results."

The Iowa Results Are Still Wrong

https://twitter.com/RealSteveCox/status/1225174229181591552

"So, should the numbers match? Or are we being 'divisive' by asking for the numbers to match?"

"I know this isn't adding much but can you fucking believe they still haven't posted the full vote totals, still haven't explained about what happned, still haven't explained how they selected the result they did release, and still won't say when it will be finished?"

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1225079369334501377

'Russians Did It!' Democratic Congresswoman Finally Says What Russiagaters Have Been Thinking About Iowa Caucuses Fail

https://on.rt.com/aai8

"A Texas congresswoman has suggested that Russians were responsible for the problems with the Democratic Party's Iowa Caucus app and suggested the party call in the FBI to investigate. How did this take so long...?"

'Russiagate? It's so farcical I barely read the reports. It's a bad joke. The whole world is laughing.' - Chomsky

JKR wrote:

Hopefully this will finally end the archaic, prejudicial, and undemocratic caucus system.

 

Yes.  Bad enough there's a electoral college in the general election.

Meanwhile, looks like Sanders may end up ahead in the delegate allocation in addition to winning the vote.  And in Republican dirty tricks news:

Supporters of President Donald Trump flooded a hotline used by Iowa precinct chairs to report Democratic caucus results after the telephone number was posted online, worsening delays in the statewide tally, a top state Democrat told party leaders on a conference call Wednesday night.

Bloomberg is the 9th richest person in the U.S.  He's going spend hundreds of millions, if not more, to win the white house.  And he might be able to do it.

Mobo2000 wrote:

I agree with Michael on Bloomberg.   The Trump attack ads practically write themselves.   A billionaire media mogul running for president gives quite a lot of legitimate weight to Trump's fake news narrative.   Bloomberg's editorial direction to his news teams to not report negatively on his Democratic rivals is outrageous.     Hardly inspiring to progressive Democrat voters.   To me he's worse than Biden, I hope he spends all his money and crashes out.

Many of the daily columnists I read in the paper edition of the Korea Herald are syndicated by Bloomberg, and while some of them are pretty good, eg. Pankaj Mishra, I do wonder how they are going to handle the full-disclosure thing in the event of their paymaster becoming POTUS.

NDPP wrote:

From a Republican Oligarch to a Democrat one seems a natural sort of American political progression to me.

I don't have an a priori objection to someone from an oligarchical background becoming president. The patrician FDR was less beholden to the economic views of the ruling class than was Hoover, the son of a Quaker blacksmith and a self-made engineer.

Not that I think anyone in politics today is going to be like FDR, but that's less to do with their personal class standing, and more to do with just the nature of politics.

voice of the damned wrote:

And FWIW, Ralph Klein, who for a while epitomized neo-liberal politics in Canada, was about as far from being an oligarch as you can get. The son of a wrestler, attended the decidedly non-elite Athabasca Univeristy before becoming a local news reporter and then making a run for the mayor's office in the 80s.

It is quite common for ambitious non-oligarchs to advance their own careers by worshipping the oligarchic value system. Klein is but one example of many.

josh wrote:

Attack ads?  People would be exposed to Bloomberg attack ads against Trump morning, noon and night.  He would spend Trump's campaign to the ground and drive up the ad rates.

Since he owns so much media he might recoup much of the money with the higher rates. You have to love "democracy" in a "free market" environment.

NDPP wrote:

'Russians Did It!' Democratic Congresswoman Finally Says What Russiagaters Have Been Thinking About Iowa Caucuses Fail....

Russians in league with Trumpists, that's the ticket, 'cause those claims worked soooo successfully in the past.

Actually, though a few outliers will inevitably make that connection, I still doubt it will gain traction in this instance, for multiple reasons.

There was indeed Trumpist phone interference, after the app fail,  urged on through 4chan, though it would seem to be of minimal effect:....

“A lot of calls came in at a certain point where it was clear somebody had published the hotline number somewhere,” Sand said.

He cautioned that he could not speak for other people who were taking calls and said he did not get any calls that said they were from Trump supporters. He added that the system prevented people from reporting fake results.

He also said he was able to identify fake calls quickly.
“If I picked up the phone and it was clear after the first handful of words that someone was not calling to report the results, I just hung up,” Sand said.
....
Iowa Democratic Party officials said that party staff members and volunteers flagged and subsequently blocked repeat callers who appeared to be reaching out in an attempt to interfere with their reporting duties. These included callers who would hang up immediately after being connected and callers who expressed support for Trump and displeasure with the Democratic Party.

It’s unclear how many prank calls the party received or how much they contributed to wait times. Some calls came from Iowans looking to confirm details of their evening’s caucus, party officials said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/clog-lines-iowa-caucus-hotline-pos...

On the technical side of the disasterous app, the otherwise unpleasant techy Micah Lee makes some good points:

The Iowa Democratic Party Did the Opposite of What It Should Have Done to Secure Its Disastrous App

Throughout Monday’s caucuses in Iowa, according to press reports, precinct chairs across the state struggled to use a hastily-built and inadequately tested mobile app, developed by a shadowy for-profit tech company, to report results to the Iowa Democratic Party. This seems to have been the main cause of massive delays in the publishing of results from the caucuses.
....
Hiding the details of how a computer system works does nothing to make it more secure. This is known as “security through obscurity,” and it provides a false sense of security, while making it harder for people to have confidence that the system actually works as expected.

Election systems should instead rely on the information security principle of “open design.” The National Institute of Standards, the federal agency responsible for recommending standards that industry and government agencies should follow, lists open design as an important principle for designing secure computer systems. “System security should not depend on secrecy of the implementation or its components,” NIST’s Guide to General Server Security says.
This open design practice is commonplace in the software industry, particularly in systems that handle very sensitive data. The Signal app, for example, is widely known as one of the best designed end-to-end encrypted messaging apps. Unlike the Iowa caucus reporting app:

    Signal’s source code is freely available on the internet for anyone to inspect. You can find the Android source code in this repository on GitHub, the iPhone source code in this one, and the desktop app source code in this one.
    The inner workings of Signal’s encryption algorithm are publicly documented, and the implementation has been peer-reviewed.

While it’s possible that cyberattackers could use this wealth of information about how the app works to find vulnerabilities, the benefits of open design by far outweigh the risks. When flaws are inevitably found, they are more likely to get fixed rather than to be quietly exploited by attackers, and the software ecosystem as a whole improves because of it. And, perhaps most importantly, open design gives users confidence in the security of the app without having to blindly trust the claims of the developers....

https://theintercept.com/2020/02/05/iowa-caucus-app-election-system-secu...

New Details Show How Deeply Iowa Caucus App Developer Was Embedded in Democratic Establishment
Lee Fang

Democratic operative Tara McGowan is denying that her high-profile liberal firm ACRONYM played a role in the Monday evening caucus debacle, claiming that her firm was merely an investor in the company Shadow Inc., which developed the app at the center of the controversy. But internal company documents, a source close to the firms, and public records show a close and intertwined relationship between Acronym and Shadow.
....
David Plouffe, a former campaign manager to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential bid who joined Acronym’s board, also distanced himself from the company during an MSNBC panel last night. “I have no knowledge of Shadow,” said Plouffe. “It was news to me.”

But previous statements and internal Acronym documents suggest that the two companies, which share office space in Denver, Colorado, are deeply intertwined....

https://theintercept.com/2020/02/04/iowa-caucus-app-shadow-acronym/

Given the commission, development, and implimentation of this app was tightly bound to the establisment biased DNC leadership, the many "fails" involved do suggest something other than sheer incompetence at work:

Hanlon's Razor "Never attribute to malace what can be explained by incompetence" is teetering under the sheer number of "unfortunate events":

The Myth Of Incompetence: DNC Scandals Are A Feature, Not A Bug
February 6, 2020 •
....Following the failure of an extremely shady app developed by vocally anti-Sanders establishment insiders which reportedly was literally altering vote count numbers after they were entered, Black Hawk County supervisor Chris Schwartz shared the election results in his county on Facebook so the public could have some idea of what’s going on as the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) slowly trickles out the results of the caucuses.
Sanders supporters quickly highlighted the fact that the IDP’s reported numbers for Black Hawk County were wildly different from those reported by Schwartz, with votes taken from Sanders and given to minor fringe candidates Deval Patrick and Tom Steyer. The IDP then announced that it would be making “a minor correction to the last batch of results”, which just so happened to be in Black Hawk County and just so happened to give Sanders back some votes (but still remains different from that reported by Schwartz)....

....if this party wants to screw over progressive voters, you’d expect that they’d at least try to hide it a little bit so they don’t alienate their progressive base before November.

The flaw in this expectation is its premise that Democratic Party elites care if their party wins in November. They do not.

Put yourself in the shoes of one of the leading movers and shakers within the Democratic Party for a minute. Pretend you’re getting a nice paycheck, pretend you’re getting great healthcare benefits, pretend you get plenty of prestige and exclusive access and invitations to classy parties. And pretend you’re the type of person who’s willing to manipulate and deceive and kiss up and kick down and do whatever it takes to get to the top of such a structure.

Now ask yourself, if you were such a person in such a situation, would you care if voters pick Donald Trump or Pete Buttigeig in November? Would it affect your cushy lifestyle in any way whatsoever? Would you lose your job, your prestige or your influence? No party elites lost those things in 2016. Why would you expect this time to be any different?

But you might be at risk of losing your cushy lifestyle if a forcefully anti-elitist progressive movement gets off the ground and takes control of your party. So you’d stand everything to gain by doing everything you can to prevent that from happening, and, because you don’t care if Trump gets re-elected, you’d stand absolutely nothing to lose....

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/06/the-myth-of-incompetence-dnc-scand...

Ending on a more positive note on Bernie's chances--and a call to action--there is this:

The DNC can't steal the election from Bernie Sanders despite the Iowa chaos
Bhaskar Sunkara
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/05/the-dnc-cant-steal...

DNC Chair Tom Perez Wants Iowa Caucus Recanvass Because Bernie Sanders is About to Win [Youtube Video]