Two US State Election Systems Hacked to Steal Voter Databases — FBI Warns M

"A group of unknown hackers or an individual hacker may have breached voter registration databases for election systems in at least two US states, according to the FBI, who found evidence during an investigation this month.

Although any intrusion in the state voting system has not been reported, the FBI is currently investigating the cyberattacks on the official websites for voter registration system in both Illinois and Arizona, said Yahoo News.

The FBI's Cyber Division released a "Flash Alert" to election offices and officials across the United States, asking them to watch out for any potential intrusions and take better security precautions."

rest at http://thehackernews.com/2016/08/election-system-hack.html

Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protest is fundamentally American

"Just about every major change in this country to bring America closer to its ideals has been brought about by protest. The women's suffrage movement, the Montgomery bus boycott, labor protests, the Stonewall riots – how much time do you have? If someone can call a group of armed ranchers occupying federal buildings over cattle grazing rules "patriots" while labeling one man sitting to protest the murder of thousands of American citizens "un-American", it's time for them to examine their biases and priorities."

rest at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/29/colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-protest-fundamentally-american?CMP=share_btn_tw

dangerous political climate may have led to racist American murdering lebanese man

The political climate and rhetoric of this election may have definitely set this racist off, who was able to still obtain a gun even though there was a restraining order in place to prevent him from doing so. The legal system completly failed this victim and let this crazy American asshole racist, who had beef with all types of races, commit an act of murder.

from http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/16/the_story_of_khalid_jabara_s_murder_is_devastating_and_infuriating.html?sid=5388d005dd52b8417a002df5&wpsrc=newsletter_slatest

"It's very hard to know where to begin with the murder of Khalid Jabara, whose story is one of the most devastating and infuriating accounts of systemic failures in the legal system you are likely to read about. That's the takeaway from a harrowing telling of Jabara's death published in the Washington Post on Tuesday.

Jabara's family had allegedly been stalked for years by Vernon Majors, who had described them at one point to police as "filthy Lebanese." According to a police report described by the Post, Majors confessed last year to nearly killing Jabara's mother in a horrifying hit-and-run. After initially being denied bail for assault and battery with a deadly weapon among other crimes and spending eight months in jail, District Judge William LaFortune reversed that decision and allowed Majors to be released on bond in May. On Friday, Jabara called police to inform them that he had heard Majors had acquired a gun—as part of a restraining order Jabara's mother had taken out on Majors, which he had been charged with violating, the 61-year-old was not allowed to possess firearms. The police told Jabara that there was nothing they could do and left his home. Eight minutes later, according to the account Tulsa Police Homicide Sgt. Dave Walker gave the Post, neighbors reported hearing gunshots. Majors had allegedly shot and killed Jabara on his front porch while the 37-year-old was on his cellphone with his family and getting the mail. "When one neighbor screamed at Majors to leave, he pointed his gun at the neighbor before fleeing in his bare feet, leaving footprints in blood and then mud between the two houses," according to the Post's telling of the police account. Majors was found hiding behind a tree, arrested with a six pack of beer nearby, taken to the hospital for illness, and police say he will be charged with first-degree murder as soon as he can leave the hospital.

"The Constitution allows for people to bond out," Walker told the Post of the failures that led to Jabara's death. "That said, certainly, knowing what we know today, decisions would be made differently."

Victoria Jabara Williams, Jabara's sister, described on Facebook the period leading up to her brother's murder:

This suspect had a history of bigotry against our family. He repeatedly attacked our ethnicity and perceived religion, making racist comments. He often called us "dirty Arabs," "filthy Lebanese," "Aye-rabs," and "Mooslems"—a fact highlighted by the Tulsa Police Department who also heard these comments from the suspect. The suspect's bigotry was not isolated to us alone. He made xenophobic comments about many in our community -- "filthy Mexican" and the "n" word were all part of his hateful approach to anyone from a different background.

….

This [case] is troubling at any time, but profoundly disturbing given the current climate of our country and the increase nationally in cases of hate crimes.

Our brother Khalid was just 37 years old and had his whole life ahead of him. He was a kind spirit, loving brother, uncle and son. Khalid's heart was big. He cared for our entire family, our friends and people he didn't even know. He created every Jabara family joke and filled our lives with love and laughter. All of that has been taken away from us by this hateful man and a system that failed to protect our community.

Another of Khalid's siblings, Rami Jabara, posted this on Facebook about his brother:

While one cannot explain irrationality and evil, one thing I can explain is that indifference and inaction were major factors leading to Khalid's death. As an attorney, I have seen the system fail defendants, but it also seems to fail the victims just as much or perhaps more. I feel like my family lost, my community lost. My brother lost. We all lost. I feel like we did everything we possibly could do advocate for and protect ourselves. In the past few days while grieving my brother, I can't help but think about those victims who might not have the knowledge of the legal system to advocate for themselves, or who don't know the doors to knock on. What about them? For those of you who didn't know my only brother, he was hilarious, quirky, very intelligent, and really would give all of himself for anyone he loved. I miss him. And I know that I'll miss him more with every day that passes. I love you Khalid

If all of that weren't wrenching enough, the details of Majors' history with the family make the case even more tragic.

On Aug. 6, 2013, Jabara's mother, Haifa, filed a restraining order against Majors saying he "harassed" and "stalked" her by "knocking at windows late at nite, harassing me with ugly sex words over the phone, taking pictures and harassing my helper in garage." In March of 2015, Majors was arrested for violating the restraining order, having accosted her and told her "F––– you and I want to kill you," according to a police report cited by the Post, and his trial on those charges was set for October.

On Sept. 12, 2015, Haifa was discovered on the side of the road with a "severely broken left arm, a broken nose, and road rash all over her body," according to a police report cited by the Post.

From the Post:

When police located Majors inside an apartment complex near the scene of the hit-and-run, "he was extremely drunk and urinating, without the use of his hands, through his open pants," according to an incident report.

"Is she ok? Haifa?" Majors said, according to the police report. "I was out driving my car, drunk. I'm always drunk and you guys never stop me. And there was this rabbit, and Haifa jumped out in front of my car."

"Majors went on to repeat this with variations including that he 'hit her' and 'I left because I was scared,'" the officer wrote in the report. Police found his car with its windshield shattered and "what appeared to be blood or tissue stuck on it."

Majors, who court records showed was married to a man in 2014, told police that the family "were filthy Lebanese and they throw gay people off roof tops," a police report stated. Majors was charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon, leaving the scene of a collision involving injury, violating a protective order, and public intoxication.

Then eight months after his arrest, according to the Tulsa World, LaFortune ignored a plea from prosecutors who argued that Majors should not be offered bond—or to have bond set higher than it was—because he "demonstrated a wanton disregard for the life of the victim and the safety of the public." Bail was set at just over $70,000, Majors posted bond, and was released.

Family friend Rebecca Abou-Chedid told the Post that she felt the current political climate was partially responsible for the deaths. "After 9/11 you did not see the rhetoric that you see now. It's gotten so much worse," she said. "If crazy people keep hearing that Mexicans are rapists and Arabs are terrorists, well then who are crazy people going to take their craziness out on?" While Majors' hatred was reportedly directed explicitly at Muslims, Abou-Chedid told the Post that the Jabara family was Christian."

rest at http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/16/the_story_of_khalid_jabara_s_murder_is_devastating_and_infuriating.html?sid=5388d005dd52b8417a002df5&wpsrc=newsletter_slatest

Judge in Trump university lawsuit did Donald a solid by not releasing video of his testimony

from https://verdict.justia.com/2016/08/05/trump-university-lawsuit-continues

"Bottom line: "The core question is whether the public's interest in viewing the demeanor of [Trump] in the deposition videos outweighs the impairment to judicial efficiency likely to result. The Court concludes that it does not." Or as the judge more bluntly stated it, he "is loath to increase the difficulty of the challenge of seating an impartial jury in order to achieve a limited public benefit" in releasing the videos.

Clearly, of these two most recent rulings, the more significant is the fact that the case is now going to trial in November, along with two related cases. But the class-action RICO case is the greatest threat to Trump, and a loss that would be unbecoming a president-elect, should he win in November. For if he loses the RICO case not only will he have been found to have committed serious federal felonies, but he is subject to treble damages and attorney fees, which could result in a personal bankruptcy."

rest at https://verdict.justia.com/2016/08/05/trump-university-lawsuit-continues

Harvard Republican Club Will Not Support Party Nominee Donald Trump

from http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/8/5/republican-club-not-support-trump/

"The Harvard Republican Club announced it would not support Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump, and called for Republican leaders to withdraw their support of the candidate they called a "threat to the survival of the Republic" in a press release Thursday.

In the scathing statement, the largest conservative group at Harvard cited "both policy and temperamental concerns" about Trump and condemned his divisive campaign rhetoric they say "is poisoning our country and our children."

The Republican Club polled its members earlier this week and found that 10 percent of Harvard Republicans intend to support Trump for president, while an "overwhelming majority"—80 percent of polled club members—indicated they would not support the party nominee and 10 percent remained undecided.

"His authoritarian tendencies and flirtations with fascism are unparalleled in the history of our democracy," the Republican Club said in a statement. "He hopes to divide us by race, by class, and by religion, instilling enough fear and anxiety to propel himself to the White House.""

rest at http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/8/5/republican-club-not-support-trump/

REMINDER: Republicans were trying to steal this election and the courts stopped them

from http://www.eclectablog.com/2016/08/reminder-republicans-were-trying-to-steal-this-election-and-the-courts-stopped-them.html

"The most openly racist GOP nominee ever is spewing the right's most racist lies to attack voting rights

The last few weeks has seen a series of victories for voting rights like we haven't seen since 2012 — the last time the GOP tried to sway a presidential election by placing unnecessary burdens on voting.

The Nation's Ari Berman explains:

In the past 10 days, courts have issued six major decisions against GOP-backed voting restrictions in five different states.

On Friday, an array of new voting restrictions were struck down in North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Kansas. This followed rulings the previous week softening voter ID laws in Texas and Wisconsin and striking down Michigan's ban on straight-ticket voting. When you include a court decision in Ohio from May reinstating a week of early voting and same-day registration, anti-voting laws in six states have been blocked so far in 2016.

These victories happened to coincide with Donald Trump's sudden and pendulous drop in the polls following his poorly received Gathering of the Trumpalos and Democrats' well received convention.

Facing less than 100 days in the campaign and three debates in which he would be expected to know things that weren't on Hannity last night, Trump decided his best bet was to pull the rip cord on the race and American democracy itself.

"The whole thing with voter identification I think is really—I mean people are going to walk in, they are going to vote 10 times maybe," he told Bill O'Reilly.

As with birtherism, the issue that made him a racist conservative hero, Trump didn't invent the fake crisis of voter fraud."

rest at http://www.eclectablog.com/2016/08/reminder-republicans-were-trying-to-steal-this-election-and-the-courts-stopped-them.html

Comcast Wants To Charge Broadband Users More For Privacy

from http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Says-It-Wants-to-Charge-Broadband-Users-More-For-Privacy-137567

"In a new filing with the FCC (pdf), Comcast argues that charging consumers more money to opt out of snoopvertising should be considered a "perfectly acceptable" business practice.

"A bargained-for exchange of information for service is a perfectly acceptable and widely used model throughout the U.S. economy, including the Internet ecosystem, and is consistent with decades of legal precedent and policy goals related to consumer protection and privacy," Comcast said in the filing. The company proceeds to claim that banning such options "would harm consumers by, among other things, depriving them of lower-priced offerings."

In short, Comcast is arguing that protecting your own privacy should be a paid luxury option, and stopping them from doing so would raise broadband rates. But as we've noted for years it's the lack of competition that keeps broadband prices high. It's also the lack of competition that prevents users upset with broadband privacy practices from switching to another ISP. That's why the FCC thinks some basic privacy rules of the road might be a good idea."

rest at http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Says-It-Wants-to-Charge-Broadband-Users-More-For-Privacy-137567

Pocket Constitution Sales Soar After Trump Feud With Khan Family

from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/us/winner-in-trump-feud-with-khan-family-the-constitution.html

The Constitution appears to be having a moment.

When Khizr Khan, the Harvard-educated lawyer and father of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq, chastised Donald J. Trump at the Democratic National Convention last week, he made his point with a small, but deeply symbolic prop.

"Let me ask you," said Mr. Khan, directly addressing the Republican presidential nominee, "have you even read the United States Constitution?"

As the audience erupted in cheers, Mr. Khan pulled a miniature version of the founding document from his coat pocket and shook it in the air. "I will gladly lend you my copy," he said.

It was a star turn for the Constitution that stirred the hearts of dozens of organizations across the country dedicated to promoting its tenets.

By the weekend, a pocket-size copy of the document published by the National Center for Constitutional Studies, a conservative group, had rocketed up Amazon's list of best-selling books. On Monday, it was holding strong in the No. 2 position, trailing only "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child." (The Times does not track the Constitution for its own best-seller rankings.)

rest at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/us/winner-in-trump-feud-with-khan-family-the-constitution.html

Ireland jails three top bankers over 2008 banking meltdown

from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ireland-banking-court-idUSKCN10912E

"Three senior Irish bankers were jailed on Friday for up to three-and-a-half years for conspiring to defraud investors in the most prominent prosecution arising from the 2008 banking crisis that crippled the country's economy.

The trio will be among the first senior bankers globally to be jailed for their role in the collapse of a bank during the crisis.

The lack of convictions until now has angered Irish taxpayers, who had to stump up 64 billion euros - almost 40 percent of annual economic output - after a property collapse forced the biggest state bank rescue in the euro zone.

The crash thrust Ireland into a three-year sovereign bailout in 2010 and the finance ministry said last month that it could take another 15 years to recover the funds pumped into the banks still operating.

Former Irish Life and Permanent Chief Executive Denis Casey was sentenced to two years and nine months following the 74-day criminal trial, Ireland's longest ever.

Willie McAteer, former finance director at the failed Anglo Irish Bank, and John Bowe, its ex-head of capital markets, were given sentences of 42 months and 24 months respectively.

"DISHONEST, DECEITFUL AND CORRUPT"

All three were convicted of conspiring together and with others to mislead investors, depositors and lenders by setting up a 7.2-billion-euro circular transaction scheme between March and September 2008 to bolster Anglo's balance sheet.

Irish Life placed the deposits via a non-banking subsidiary in the run-up to Anglo's financial year-end, to allow its rival to categorize them as customer deposits, which are viewed as more secure, rather than a deposit from another bank.

"By means that could be termed dishonest, deceitful and corrupt they manufactured 7.2 billion euros in deposits by obvious sham transactions," Judge Martin Nolan told the court, describing the conspiracy as a "very serious crime"."

rest at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ireland-banking-court-idUSKCN10912E

Reminder: the GOP has been attacking veterans and their families for years

from http://boingboing.net/2016/08/02/reminder-the-gop-has-been-att.html

"After Donald Trump attacked the family of a dead Army captain, fallen in the field, on the ground that they were Muslims, many were shocked at the new low that the Republican presidential candidate had sunk to.

But as Corey Robin reminds us, the GOP has made a standard practice out of smearing and libelling US military veterans. Who can forget the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth?

But the Lying Swift Boaters were just the highest-profile example. The beta-test for them was former Georgia Democratic Senator Max Cleland, a US Army vet who lost both legs and part of one arm in Vietnam, whose 2002 GOP challenger, Saxby Chambliss, ran TV ads comparing him to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

Then there Cindy Sheehan, another Gold Star mother mercilessly smeared by the GOP and its supporters for speaking out against an illegal and immoral war.

So if veterans and their bereaved families have been fair game for the GOP for more than a decade, why is Trump's attack on Khan being denounced within his own party? According to Robin, it's the same reason the GOP eventually turned on Senator Joe McCarthy: because he'd become a loose cannon that was doing the party more harm than good.

What finally did Joe McCarthy in was not Joseph Welch. It was the fact that the GOP was getting decreasing returns out of redbaiting the Democrats—redbaiting and McCarthy had helped them get liberals booted out of the Senate and get the Democrats to purge whatever remaining elements of the left they had not already purged in the late 1940s—and the fact that McCarthy had begun to turn on the GOP (and the security establishment), too. Within four short years, their wonder-boy asset had become an increasingly erratic, almost sclerotic liability.

Welch's question—have you no decency left—could more properly be posed as: Have you no utility left? When the good and the great finally denounce the bad and the worse, it's not because the latter has crossed some Rubicon of decency; it's usually because they're useless or threatening to established interests. And it takes no great act of courage to denounce them; often, that's just a sign that the object of denunciation is already down or defeated."

Trump's Indecent Proposal [Corey Robin/Crooked Timber]

rest at http://boingboing.net/2016/08/02/reminder-the-gop-has-been-att.html

In the last four days Trump has gotten into two feuds with local fire departments.

from http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/01/trump_has_now_accused_two_fire_marshals_of_being_conspiring_against_him.html?sid=5388d005dd52b8417a002df5&wpsrc=newsletter_slatest

"If you were teaching an alien to run for president in the United States and had to write out a list of absolutely unbreakable rules to follow during a political campaign, these two would probably be on it:

• DON'T PICK A FIGHT WITH THE PARENTS OF A FALLEN PURPLE HEART RECIPIENT
• DON'T QUESTION THE INTEGRITY OF FIREFIGHTERS

Having violated the first rule in re: the Khan family in the same week that he also disparaged a four-star general, Trump has now moved on to number two: Picking a fight with America's firemen. Twice in the last four days, the Republican nominee has accused a local fire marshal of being politically biased against him. The first incident was on Friday in Colorado Springs. As quoted inThe Hill:

So I have to tell you this. This is why our country doesn't work. We have plenty of space here. We have thousands of people outside trying to get in. And we have a fire marshal that said, 'Oh we can't allow more people.' ... And the reason they won't let them in is because they don't know what the hell they're doing. Hey, maybe they're a Hillary person. Could that be possible? Probably.

Trump later added that the fire marshal is "probably a Democrat." The Colorado firefighters' union responded in a statement that "occupancy levels are set to protect the public's safety and we find it unfortunate that Trump's campaign would question our judgment." (City firefighters, as it happens, had retrieved Trump from a stalled hotel elevator shortly before he attacked them onstage.)"

rest at http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/01/trump_has_now_accused_two_fire_marshals_of_being_conspiring_against_him.html?sid=5388d005dd52b8417a002df5&wpsrc=newsletter_slatest

longtime Trump associate and political adviser says Khizr Khan is a terrorist.

from http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/01/roger_stone_says_khizr_khan_is_a_muslim_brotherhood_saboteur.html?sid=5388d005dd52b8417a002df5&wpsrc=newsletter_slatest

"Donald Trump campaign's response to bereaved Muslim American military father Khizr Khan's speech at the Democratic National Convention has been, shall we say, erratic. Trump suggested Khan's wife, Ghazala Khan, had appeared beside him but not spoken as the result of misogynistic Muslim oppression; she subsequently wrote in the Washington Post that Trump was wrong. Trump also asserted that Khizr Khan "has no right" to attack him for being ignorant of the Constitution; as many observers immediately pointed out, the Constitution itself grants Khan that right. Then Sunday night, at about the same time that Trump's running mate Mike Pence put out a respectful statement praising the Khans' son for his sacrifice, longtime Trump adviser and friend Roger Stone escalated things way, way further than all but the most cynical/drug-addled among us could have imagined:

Mr. Khan more than an aggrieved father of a Muslim son- he's Muslim Brotherhood agent helping Hillary https://t.co/mJuUYw60nK

— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) August 1, 2016

The link goes to an article on a low-budget conspiracy site, which purports to prove that Khizr Khan is "likely ... a Muslim plant working with the Hillary Clinton campaign" on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood. In reality, the Muslim Brotherhood is a conservative Middle Eastern Islamic organization that may have some connections to terrorist activity; in the world of American far-right conspiracy theories, however, the Brotherhood is believed to be seeking to infiltrate and destroy the U.S. government. The article Stone links to asserts that Khizr Khan is connected to elements planning a "military conquest" of the United States, citing an alleged "fatwa" which reveals that the U.S. "will be [brought into] the House of Islam by force in the near future." It also implies that Humayun Khan, an Army captain who posthumously received a Purple Heart, may have been planning a suicide attack on American soldiers. Concludes the piece, threateningly if not quite coherently: "What part of 'they will be in the House of Islam by force in the near future' don't these democrats understand? More dead Americans?" (The previous article published on the site, incidentally, is titled "The Biggest Church Coverup in All History About Bible Prophecy, Islam and the Soon Coming Armageddon EXPOSED.")*

"

rest at http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/08/01/roger_stone_says_khizr_khan_is_a_muslim_brotherhood_saboteur.html?sid=5388d005dd52b8417a002df5&wpsrc=newsletter_slatest

conservatism cannot survive a strong-willed liberal majority on the Supreme Court

One of the most important issues, if not THE most important issue of the upcoming election is the impending need to nominate new Supreme Court Justices. These nominations will solidify the left or right-leanings of the court for decades to come.

Reagen-era appointments to the Appellate Court level in Washington (the Supreme Court fast track) dominated Judgeships with conservative leaning judges. Currently, Republicans have obstructed many of President Obama's Appellate appointments in order to obstruct what Reagan did in the 1980's. Now, with the Senate obstructing Judge Garland's appointment process, the next POTUS will have the opportunity  to solidify the leaning of SCOTUS for years.

A conservative writer says it better than I ever could. See below:

from http://www.hughhewitt.com/supreme-court-stupid/

"Of course I am voting for Donald Trump. You should be too if you are a conservative. Let me break this down into three arguments, the first of which is Trump's trump card on the #NeverTrumpers.

If Hillary Clinton wins, the Left gavels in a solid, lasting, almost certainly permanent majority on the Supreme Court. Every political issue has a theoretical path to SCOTUS, and only self-imposed judicial restraint has checked the Court's appetite and reach for two centuries.

That restraint will be gone when HRC's first appointee is sworn in. Finished.

This is not hyperbole. I have the advantage of having taught Con Law for 20 years, of having argued before very liberal appellate judges like Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the very liberal Ninth Circuit, of practicing with the best litigators in the land, and I know what a very liberal SCOTUS means: conservatism is done. It cannot survive a strong-willed liberal majority on the Supreme Court. Every issue, EVERY issue, will end up there, and the legislatures' judgments will matter not a bit.

So vote for Hillary Clinton (or sit it out) and then prepare for the deluge of court-ordered solutions to every social problem, bench-drawn congressional districts and extraordinary deference to every agency of the federal government combined with a sweeping away of federalism."

rest at http://www.hughhewitt.com/supreme-court-stupid/

Clinton And Trump Are Both Promising An Extreme Supreme Court

from http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/clinton-and-trump-are-both-promising-an-extreme-supreme-court/

"One of the most enduring legacies of the next president will flow from a few words in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution: the power to nominate justices to the Supreme Court. With the court still shorthanded after the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, and with two of its sitting justices older than 80, the next president will shape the court, and through it the law of the land, for decades to come.

This has not been lost on the candidates.

• "The replacement for Justice Scalia will be a person of similar views and principles. This will be one of the most important issues decided by this election," Donald Trump said in his convention speech last week.
• "If you don't believe this election is important, if you think you can sit it out, take a moment to think about the Supreme Court justices that Donald Trump would nominate and what that would mean to civil liberties, equal rights and the future of our country," Bernie Sanders said this week at the Democratic National Convention.
• And Hillary Clinton said in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention: "We need to appoint Supreme Court justices who will get money out of politics and expand voting rights, not restrict them. And we'll pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United!"

Clearly, the court will take a different shape under a President Trump than it would a President Clinton. But just how different, and how quickly? Very different and, if Clinton wins, very quickly. If Donald Trump is elected president, the Supreme Court may, seat by vacated seat, move rightward toward its most conservative position in recent memory. If Hillary Clinton is elected, the court may quickly become the most liberal it's been in at least 80 years."

rest at http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/clinton-and-trump-are-both-promising-an-extreme-supreme-court/

Comcast sued for $100M by Washington state AG, alleging 1.8M violations of consumer protection law

from http://www.geekwire.com/2016/comcast-sued-100m-washington-state-ag-alleging-1-8m-violations-consumer-protection-law/

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson this morning announced a $100 million consumer protection lawsuit against Comcast.

"The lawsuit accuses Comcast of engaging in a pattern of deceptive practices constituting more than 1.8 million individual violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act," the AG's office says in a media alert. "The company's conduct impacted approximately 500,000 Washington state consumers."

Update, 9:30 a.m.: In a statement to GeekWire, Comcast indicates that the dispute involves its Service Protection Plan, a monthly fee that covers maintenance of in-home wiring for Xfinity TV, Internet and voice, and troubleshooting for customer-owned equipment.

"The Service Protection Plan has given those Washington consumers who chose to purchase it great value by completely covering over 99% of their repair calls," said Beth Hester, vice president of external affairs for Comcast in Washington state. "We worked with the Attorney General's office to address every issue they raised, and we made several improvements based on their input. Given that we were committed to continue working collaboratively with the Attorney General's office, we're surprised and disappointed that they have instead chosen litigation.  We stand behind our products and services and will vigorously defend ourselves."

Update, 10:35 a.m.: Speaking at the news conference, Ferguson said Comcast "grossly misrepresented the service protection plan," saying that it was a "comprehensive" service when in fact it was limited, he said. Ferguson cited evidence including internal Comcast customer service scripts, alleging that the company overstated the coverage provided by the service protection plan.

Comcast charges $4.99 a month for the Service Protection Plan, and Ferguson says Washington consumers paid more than $73 million in subscription fees for the plan since January 2011.

"The bottom line is, I refuse to allow Comcast to put profits before people," he said.

Responding to Comcast's statement, Ferguson acknowledged that the company has "corrected some of our concerns," but said "for the better part of a year, they did nothing," and it took the imminent filing of the AG's complaint to get Comcast to take action.

"This was not just on occasion, once in a while, at all," Ferguson told reporters. "This was systematic, over a period of years in which they set about to induce Washington state consumers — hundreds and hundreds of thousands of them — to put their hard-earned dollars for a product that was not what Comcast promised. That's not OK."

rest at http://www.geekwire.com/2016/comcast-sued-100m-washington-state-ag-alleging-1-8m-violations-consumer-protection-law/

@comcast @att working against u - Trade groups, AT&T urge U.S. court to reverse 'net neutrality' rules

from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-internet-idUSKCN1091OS

Trade associations representing wireless, cable and broadband operators on Friday urged the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reverse a ruling upholding the Obama administration's landmark rules barring internet service providers from obstructing or slowing consumer access to web content.

A three-judge panel in June, in a 2-1 decision, backed the Federal Communications Commission's so-called net neutrality rules put in place last year to make internet service providers treat all internet traffic equally.

Wireless trade association CTIA said in a court filing on Friday seeking a rehearing that "few final rules of any federal administrative agency have ever had so much potential to affect the lives of so many Americans."

AT&T also urged the court to reverse the ruling. And in a separate petition, US Telecom and CenturyLink Inc (CTL.N) asked the court to reconsider the ruling, as did the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and American Cable Association.

The cable groups said the court should correct "serious errors" in a decision "that radically reshapes federal law governing a massive sector of the economy, which flourished due to hundreds of billions of dollars of investment made in reliance on the policy the order throws overboard."

The FCC rules prohibit broadband providers from giving or selling access to speedy internet - essentially a "fast lane" on the web's information superhighway - to certain internet services over others.

In siding with the FCC, the court treated the internet like a public utility and opened the door to further internet regulations.

"It comes as no surprise that the big dogs have challenged the three-judge panel's decision," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement. He said he was confident the full court would agree with the panel's decision.

Broadband providers such as Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), AT&T and Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) fear the rules may make it harder to manage internet traffic and also make investment in additional capacity less likely.

In its filing on Friday, the CTIA said it was illegal to subject broadband internet access to "public-utility style, common carrier regulation" and illegal to impose "common-carrier status on mobile broadband."

The FCC decided in 2015 to reclassify internet service providers as common carriers under a 1996 law.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bill Trott and Leslie Adler)

Trump makes fool of himself with lack of knowledge on Ukraine

"With his mafioso expression, he said about Putin, "He's not going into Ukraine, OK, just so you understand. He's not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down. You can take it anywhere you want."

"Well, he's already there, isn't he?" Stephanopoulos countered. Putin took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Without missing a beat, Trump tried to cover up. "OK -- well, he's there in a certain way. But I'm not there. You have Obama there. And frankly, that whole part of the world is a mess under Obama with all the strength that you're talking about and all of the power of NATO and all of this. In the meantime, he's going away. He takes Crimea." "

rest at http://boingboing.net/2016/07/31/trump-makes-fool-of-himself-wi.html