John Foelster's Research Into Alaska's AV-OS Voting Machines And How To Hack Them

As the early election results came in, I put the presidential race into a box and put it outside, turned off the radio, and did other things.  I wasn't ready to address what was happening.  I'm still not.

This post is something of a guest post.  I posted about John Foelster in 2014.  He alerted me several weeks ago that he was close to completing his website with all his evidence.  I wrote this last night but decided to wait until I'd slept before posting it.  I'm still not ready to address much and I have an afternoon appointment on something totally different today.  John's also posted this on Daily Kos.

My one bright bit of news this morning is that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.  Imagine Trump's supporters if he had won the popular vote but lost the electoral college.



I've never met John Foelster, but we have exchanged emails.  This 2014 post gives my thoughts about John and why I posted about his work then.  I got some education in computer voting hacking while covering the Anchorage Municipal election fiasco in 2012.  The posts on that election are listed in the 2014 post linked above.

I posted Foelster's stuff in 2014 and I'm posting his recent stuff for several reasons:
1.  While I don't totally understand all that he's saying, I'm convinced that he's done his homework on the technical side.  He's found everything that's to be found online about the machines we use in Alaska and how we handled them.
2.  He doesn't have an agenda other than righting what he perceives as a wrong.
3.  The work he's done should be seen by those who can review it technically and determine its value.  And if there are others looking at this topic, they may find John's work useful. Or can point out his errors.

I have less confidence in Foelster's ability to fill in the gaps that are left by what is NOT available online.  It's reasonable that he try to explain how this could have been done.  But I wish he'd talked to people to find out if his suppositions about how this was carried out have merit.

My thoughts on all this, including a list of my posts about the 2012 Municipal election fiasco are on the 2014 post I devoted to Foelster's work then.

I've looked at his private website.  It's massive.  There is lots and lots of information.  His statement is like a two second look through a hole in the fence around his work.  I couldn't get through it all.  Whether it is fact or fiction, it is, in its own way, a work of art.   While John may not have tied all the loose ends, and may have tied some of them incorrectly, he is not a crazy conspiracy nut.  He's done way too much detailed study and analysis to not be taken seriously.  If his work is full of holes, exposure to the world will demonstrate that.  If it is worthwhile, not putting it up would be wrong.  I'm willing to put it up here since all this is related to Alaska elections.

Here's what John Foelster has to say.


[I've cut this out based on a request from the author - see comments below.]

2 Incumbent Republicans Fall In Close Alaska State House Races

I put up the most recent tally, but checked for a later one before posting.  And it was there.  So you can see 23:32pm results, and then the 00:21am results.

Cathy Muñoz lost in Juneau, Liz Vasquez in Anchorage.


Anchorage

Senate District N  with 64% of the precincts reporting
Beltrami, Vince  (NA)          5699  49.58%
Giessel, Catherine A (REP)  5738 49.92%  (Incumbent)
Write-in Votes   58    0.50%

Incumbent has 39 vote lead.

With 100% reporting
Beltrami, Vince  (NA)          8040  48.02%
Giessel, Catherine A (REP)  8615  51.46%  (Incumbent)
Write-in Votes   87    0.52%

Incumbent by 575

HOUSE DISTRICT 22 with 71% of the precincts reporting

Darden, Dustin T.  (AI)  502   9.78%  
Vazquez, Liz  (REP)  2236  43.55%  (Incumbent)
Grenn, Jason S.  (NA)   2385 46.46%

Challenger has a 149 vote lead

With 100%
Darden, Dustin T.  (AI)  654   9.29%  
Vazquez, Liz  (REP)  3075  43.67%  (Incumbent)
Grenn, Jason S.  (NA)   3298 46.84%   Winner

Challenger by 224 votes

HOUSE DISTRICT 25  with  57.1 % precincts reporting

Higgins, Pat  (DEM)    2408  49.95%
Millett, Charisse E. (REP)  2389 49.55%  (Incumbent)

Challenger has 19 point lead

100% reporting
Higgins, Pat  (DEM)    3297  49.45%
Millett, Charisse E. (REP)  3342 50.12%  (Incumbent)

Incumbent by 46 votes.



HOUSE DISTRICT 27 with 75% of precincts reporting

Pruitt, Lance  (REP)          2685   50.93%   (Incumbent)
Crawford, Harry T. J (DEM)  2569 48.73%

Incumbent has a 117 vote lead.

Pruitt, Lance  (REP)          3737   50.60%   (Incumbent)
Crawford, Harry T. J (DEM)  3616 48.96%

Incumbent by 141


Juneau

HOUSE DISTRICT 34  with 100% of precincts reporting

Muñoz, Cathy  (REP)   3730  48.54%  (Incumbent)
Parish, Justin   (DEM)  3914  50.93%

Challenger wins by 184 votes

How Will the 2016 Election Affect Black Representation In Congress?

Overview:  There are currently 2 black US Senators and 46 black Members of Congress.  At this point it looks certain there will be one less black representative as Charles Rangel's replacement is likely to be Dominican Adriano Espaillat.  (I've not seen him identified as black.)  Where other black representatives are not running in the general election, their successors appear likely to be African-American.  One iffy black incumbent is Texas district 23 Republican William Hurd.
Kamala Harris is likely to be the third African-American in the US Senate (also she'll be the first Indian-American Senator.) That would be the most black Senators in the Senate at once. Robert 'Bobby' Scott of Virginia is hoping to be appointed to the Senate if Tim Kaine becomes Vice President.  If that happens he'd be the fourth African-American US Senator in the next Congress.  But then his House seat will be open.
[*UPDATE Nov 9, 2016 - I've found two more new African-American candidates for Congress and they have both won:  Florida District 10 - Val Demings;  Delaware at-large - Lisa Blunt Rochester.]

Background on this post:  I updated my list of black members of Congress after the 2014 election.  You can see it here.  [There were two corrections necessary after I worked on this post.  I had totally missed one new black member elected in a 75% white district in New Jersey - Barbara Watson Coleman.  I'd also misspelled Marc Veassel in Texas district 33.]

I figured I should get ready for this election to see what changes there might be after this election.  Are there other black candidates running in other districts?  This is always a bit tricky.  As noted above, in 2014 I missed Barbara Watson Coleman, though I did manage to find a few other new ones who were not in mostly black districts.  This year I was only able, so far, to come up with one African-American candidate not from a seat already held by an African-American:   Kamala Harris is running for US Senate from California.   But what about others?  If you know of any I missed, please let me know.  My email is in the right column above the blog archive.

[Note on racial identity:  I'd note that these posts give me some discomfort because of the emphasis on race.  This is a socially constructed idea that sometimes becomes tricky.  Often identifying a person's race is arbitrary.   I try to utilize the identifiers the candidates themselves use, or look for other indicators that someone has self identified as African-American or black.  For instance,  Wikipedia tells us about Kamala Harris

"Harris is the first female,[4] the first African-American,[5][6][7][8][9] and the first Indian-American attorney general in California.[10][11]"

But for the Democratic candidate in Harlem who is expected to replace Charles Rangel, I can only find reference to him being 'Dominican' and 'Latino.'

For political reasons, it is still relevant to have these categories, and groups like the Congressional Black Caucus are significant.  But it is also instructive to look at women in Congress, Hispanics/Latinos, and other ethnicities.  I'll leave those to others to do.  My posts on this subject came about in 2008 when I could not find a clear list of black members of Congress and ended up creating one.  That left me with the task of updating the list every election.]

There are some changes we know about already:

New York 

Charles Rangel is NOT running for reelection in New York's 13th district.
The Democrat running to replace him is Adriano Espaillat, who would be, if elected, according to Wikipedia, the first Dominican Member of Congress.  There's a  Republican candidate, Tony Smith, and a Green and a Transparent Government Party candidate.

Florida 

Rep. Corrine Brown from Florida's 5th district lost the Democratic primary to state senator Al Lawson after  a 24 count federal indictment.  This means the loss of one woman member of Congress, but a Lawson win would maintain this as a black seat.

Maryland 

Rep. Donna Edwards from Maryland's 4th district ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate seat vacated by Barbara Mikulski.  That means one less woman in the Senate (Mikulski) and one less woman in the House (Edwards).
Anthony Brown is the Democratic candidate hoping to take Edwards' House seat.  His bio says he was the first African-American student body president in his high school.


Pennsylvania

District 2  Chaka Fattah was convicted on 22 counts of corruption in July 2016 and resigned from Congress.  He had already lost in the April primary to Dwight Evans (also African-American.)


California

Democrat Kamala Harris is the front runner in the race for US Senate.  Her father, a university professor, was from Jamaica and her mother was a medical doctor from India.  Politico touts this race (under California's relatively new all candidate primaries where the top two run in the general regardless of party) as historic.  Kamala Harris' opponent is Rep. Loretta Sanchez.

"The election of either would be a historic first: Harris would be the first biracial woman and first Indian-American woman in the U.S. Senate; Sanchez would be the first Latina."

I guess since there has already been an African-American woman in the Senate, that aspect wasn't mentioned.


Virginia

Robert Scott from Virginia's 3rd district is hoping to be appointed US Senator if Virginia's current Senator Tim Kaine is elected Vice President of the US.


Below is from my list of black Members of Congress from 2014.  Most are from pretty safe districts. I've commented on some of the races and others just have links, mostly to Ballotpedia, which, since 2014, seems to have garnered all the top spots on Google for people looking up congressional elections.


Alabama

 District 7 Rep. Terri Sewell is the only candidate in November.

District 13 Rep.  Barbara Lee   got 90% in the primary (in California now all parties are on one primary ballot and the top two go to the primary.)

California

Rep. Karen Bass in California's 37th district got 80% in the primary and will run against the Democratic runner up Chris Wiggins.

Rep. Maxine Waters in Calfornia's 43rd district got 73% of the vote in the primary against her Republican opponent.

Deleware

[UPDATE Nov 9, 2016:  District-at-Large Lisa Bluint Rochester* won]

Florida

District 5  Al Lawson

[UPDATE Nov 9, 2016:  District 10 Val Demings (D)* won this seat with 65% of the vote.]

District 20 Alcee Hastings

District 24, Frederica Wilson is running unopposed.


District of Columbia

Eleanor Holmes Norton


Georgia

District 2 Sanford Bishop

District 4 Hank Johnson

District 5 John Lewis

District 13 David Scott running unopposed.

All the Georgia races at one link.


Illinois

District 1 Bobby Rush won the Democratic primary with 73% of the vote and over 100,000 more votes than his Republican opponent got in his primary.

District 2 Robin Kelly also got over 70% in primary.

District 7 Danny Davis is running against long shot Republican Jeffrey Leef whose unusual road to the ballot got Tribune coverage.


Indiana

District 7 Andre Carson got more than twice the votes in his primary than his Republican opponent got in hers.


Louisiana

District 2 Cedric Richmond is running against three other Democrats and a Libertarian.  (Louisiana  will have a runoff in December if no one gets 50% or more.)


Maryland

District 4 - see above discussion of Donna Edwards running (and losing) in the Democratic primary for US Senate.

District 7 Elija Cummings got 13 times as many votes in the Democratic primary than his opponent got in the Republican primary.


Michigan

District 13 John Conyers

District 14 - after redistricting there were two Democratic Members of Congress in this district. African-American/Bangladeshi Hansen Clarke was pitted against white Gary Peters in 2012.  Peters won.  In 2014, Peters ran successfully for the US Senate and was replaced in the House by African-American Brenda Lawrence who defeated Clarke in the 2014 Democratic primary.


Minnesota

District 5 Keith Ellison -


Missouri

District 1  Wm. Lacy Clay

District 5 Emanuel Cleaver II


Mississippi

District 2 Bernie Thompson


New Jersey

District 10 Donald Payne   It appears there were no opponents in the primaries. 5% of the district is Republican.

District 12 Bonnie Watson Coleman was the first African-American to win this district in 2014.  This district is 75% white, but leans Democratic.


Nevada

District 4 Black Rep. Steven Horsford lost his 2014 reelection bid to the Republican Cresent Hardy.  The Democratic candidate this year, Ruben Kihuen was born in Mexico and faces Hardy.


New York

District 5 Gregory Meeks

District 8 Hakeem Jeffries  Appears unopposed in primary, no Republican candidates, one Conservative.

District 9 Yvette Clarke

District 13 Charles Rangel - retiring - discussed above.


North Carolina

The two black districts in North Carolina (1 and 12) were subject to gerrymandering and ordered to be redrawn.

District 1 G.K. Butterfield - 

District 12  Alma Adams (who was first elected in a special election in 2014 to replace Rep. Melvin Watts who was appointed Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.)


Ohio

District 3 Joyce Beatty

District 11 Marcia Fudge


Pennsylvania

District 2  Chaka Fattah was convicted on 22 counts of corruption in July 2016 and resigned from Congress.  He had already lost in the April primary to Dwight Evans (also African-American)


South Carolina

District 6  James Clyburn


Texas

District 9  Al Green

District 18  Sheila Jackson Lee

District 23  William Hurd's (R) Democratic opponent Pete Gallego got more votes in his primary than Hurd got in the Republican primary. Gallego won this seat in 2012 but was defeated by Hurd in 2014.  This race is rated as a tossup, though the district is 55% Hispanic and  Wikipedia says:

"In the Texas House, Gallego served on the board of directors of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO), and four terms as Chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC), a caucus of Texas representatives who are of Mexican-American descent or who serve a significant Mexican-American constituency."

District 30  Eddie Bernice Johnson

District 33  Marc Veasey


Utah 

District 4 Mia Love (R)  The district is 84% white, 2% black, 15% Hispanic.  Love is the first Haitian American Member of Congress and the first black Republican woman in Congress.


Virginia

District 3  Bobby Scott  - see note above about him hoping to be appointed to US Senate if Kaine becomes vice president.


Virgin Islands

Long-time Virgin Islands delegate to Congress Donna Christensen ran unsuccessfully for governor of the Virgin Islands in 2014.  Stacy Plaskett was elected to replace Christiansen as the Virgin Island's delegate to Congress in 2014.


Wisconsin

District 4  Gwen Moore

What A Trump Presidency Would Look Like

I suspect a Trump presidency would be worse than many imagine, and not as bad as some imagine.  After Bush v Gore I proposed that there be a cable channel that followed what happened with the actual winner and a channel that created a world in which the other won.  I'd really like the Trump supporters to see what a Trump-led US would really look like.  But neither candidate will actually be able to do much until members of Congress start breaking bread with members across the aisle again.

But here's a bit of prognostication based on what we do know about Trump.

Preface:  I’ve done a several posts about Donald Trump and what makes him tick.  There’s a post about his father and grandfather. There’s the post about his mentor, Roy Cohn.  And we’ve all seen his behavior on the campaign trail.  Using that history, I think we can predict how he will behave as president.  We can’t predict specific actions, but I think we can predict the kinds of actions he’s likely to take.  What he actually does will depend on events, on other people, and on Trump’s ability to figure out how to make the US government apparatus work.

So, let’s start with his world view that underlies why he does what he does.  (A lot can be seen in his relationship with his father and with his brother who did not live up to his father’s ideal and thus was Donald’s first and closest example of a loser.  See the post on his father.)

Then we’ll look at the sorts of behaviors this world view leads to.

Finally, I’ll give some examples of those behaviors once Trump gains the White House.  


Trump’s World View:

• Power is everything.
• Life is a long poker session and while you're going to lose a few games, at the end of the night you want to go home a winner.   Poker is about bluffing.  Poker-face means being able to lie without people reading your thoughts.  Honesty is a handicap in poker.  You can call people all sorts of vile names during the game yet go home as friends.
• The worst thing you can be is a loser.  Losers are contemptible.  Not being a loser is one of Trump’s key motivations to have power.  To do or say whatever to have power.  And he trashes his opponents. And when he doesn’t have power, he at least has to look like he does.   (Would those missing tax returns show us he isn't as wealthy as he claims?)
• With power he can do whatever he likes with impunity.  Rules don’t matter if you have power.  Reward and punishment are the basic tools.  
• You do favors for people who can help you.  You try to stay nice as long as they have something you need - prestige, support for your projects, fulfillment of your lusts.  You can take what you want from the less powerful and they don’t have the power to do anything about it.  You can take the women you want.  You can stiff contractors because  taking you to court will cost them more than walking away. You can pay off the rule makers, such as politicians,  to bend the law to your will.  
• But if they don’t cooperate, you punish them.  
• You hire lawyers to fix what you’ve broken.  Lawyers, don’t simply defend you, they are also attack dogs to destroy those who cross you.

Trump’s behavior based on his need to be the most powerful.

The need to appear powerful means:

• Honesty is a handicap.  He says whatever makes him look good.  He denies all allegations of  wrong doing.   He lies about opponents.   The only truth is Trump power.  Facts that don't support him are lies.
• The center of attention is the best place to be.
• Promoting his private interests and fulfilling his needs are the basic goals.
• Putting the Trump name on everything he owns and even things he doesn’t own.
• Attack, counterattack, never apologize. (See post on Roy Cohn.)

Trump as President

Applying  his world view and the behaviors they lead to, we can anticipate the kinds of things he's likely to do as president.

Center of attention - Winning the presidency will assure this goal for as long as he holds the presidency - which could be briefly for any number of reasons, or, if he has his way, could be for his lifetime.

He’ll want to be seen with the world’s most powerful leaders.  Putin may well be the first one to be feted at the White House.  Watch for opulent displays of power and wealth with the rich and famous and powerful leaders of the world.

We can be sure his new Washington DC hotel will be the center of inaugural events as much if not more than the White House itself.   And we can assume that he will totally remodel the White House. Maybe a White Trump Tower?

The Trump name:  Look for the Trump name to appear on the White House and Air Force One.  If he can figure out a way to change  the name of the country to Trump’s United States of America, he will.  Maybe it will be on all passports.  On money.  On all signs for government buildings and national parks. How about Trump’s United States Marines?

Promoting his private interests, particularly his wealth:

Look for changes in the law that help Trump, starting with income taxes and deregulation.  He would find it useful to delete all the records of federal agencies that have records about him.  Again the IRS comes to mind and the court system.

He’ll want to make government properties available to his real estate empire.  Or make arrangements that benefit him for other businesspeople to take over government property.  He'll be privatizing agencies and land.  He might want to make National Parks into Trump resorts.  As with his campaign, he'll have the government contract with various Trump businesses.  When challenged on this, he'll say he's saving the country money and attack the challengers.  


Attack, Counterattack, Never Apologize

Nixon had an enemies list.  It will look tame compared to Trump's list.  It will have anyone who has blocked his path toward something he wanted,  anyone who mentioned his small hands or didn't do his bidding fast enough.   Top on the list are the media who can expose his lies and constantly make his life miserable.  He’s already promised to change the libel laws.  He’ll change whatever laws he can to stop the media from saying bad things about him.

Those who block his policies will suffer merciless attacks in all the ways we’ve seen on the campaign, plus whatever levers of government power he gets access to.  Republicans (Paul Ryan is toast) and Democrats who stand up to him will be subject to withering attacks, both visible and behind the scenes.  Comey will become the new J. Edgar Hoover, using the FBI as Trump’s private mafia.  If Comey doesn’t cooperate, there will be a new FBI chief quickly.

The first foreign leaders - including terrorist leaders - to belittle Trump, will see massive retaliation.  If they are white, western nations, there will be vitriol and threats of economic sanctions.  If they are part of the rest of the world, don’t be surprised to see Trump USA Air Force jets unleashed on them.


Surprises that shouldn’t be surprises

Given that Trump sees life as a game of negotiations, lots of what he's promised on the campaign is just bluffing.  Not everything will go as many expect.

The Clinton's - Since Trump’s world is a series of poker games, once he wins, the election will be over.  All the anti -Clinton talk was bluster to win the election.  All he's charged her with, he'd do himself.  It was just competitive trash talking.  If he can find the Clintons and their foundation and allies useful, he could be gracious to them and find ways to use them to increase his own power.

The Wall - I’m guessing there will be a symbolic move to start a wall along the Mexican border, but it might eventually evolve into a border-walk of casinos and hotels and a revised border patrol mission to help businesses get cheap labor and make deals with wealthy foreigners who can help the Trump mission.

Trump Supporters - They’ll continue to be fed Trump’s racist, sexist, nationalist, anti-semitic rhetoric, but other than that, their lives won’t be better.  He was nice to them while he needed them.  To the extent that he will need them for his next terms, he’ll feed them the lies they love.  He'll rant to them about those blocking his reforms.   But he has no real interest in them other than what they can do for him and he has no idea of how to actually improve their lives.  Trump’s tax plans will cripple   the economy and the hollowness of making America great again will become obvious.  Except for the very, very rich.  But even they will be vulnerable to a failing economy.


I could go on and on, but you get the idea.  These are the things that Trump would like to do if he could.  But I imagine he'll find the combined resistance of the Clinton supporters and the establishment Republicans he's displaced, of the bureaucracy which is intended to slow down despots, of the courts, and of women and  people of color will be overwhelming.   And don't forget the rest of the world.  Even his supporters will eventually figure out they've been had.

Preferably, Clinton will win and the Trump presidency can be the basis of cable television series.

We Can't Save Your Planet And Other Signs Of LA

Perhaps the most ominous sign I saw in LA was this one:

More encouraging was this one by the rack of Santa Monica community bicycles.  It's a little steeper price than in Paris.  I need to read more details.  I don't think there are as many bike racks either, but then Santa Monica doesn't have near the population density that Paris has.

And the new bus route that Santa Monica added to get people to the new Metro station has a bus stop very close to my mom's place.  We tend to take the bus to and from the airport, but that leaves us with a mile walk.  In fact there was no bus less than a mile away.  This new route connects us to the one to the airport with just a short walk.

And when we got to the airport shuttle, there was this giant billboard across the street.  Cynical me wanted to check to see if this billboard was pure Doublespeak or was reasonably close to what the proposition does.

Ballotpedia says:

"A "yes" vote supports regulating drug prices by requiring state agencies to pay no more than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) pays for prescription drugs.
A "no" vote opposes this measure to require state agencies to pay no more than the VA pays for prescription drugs."

It also says the Prop 61 campaign is likely to be the most expensive in US  on record with the drug companies spending $109 million so far to defeat it.

"The top ten donors to No on 61 are all pharmaceutical companies or companies with interests in the pharmaceutical drug industry. Over 99 percent of contributions to Californians for Lower Drug Prices came from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Polls indicate that support for Proposition 61 to be around 57 percent."

So folks, since the aliens can't save our planet, I guess we need to do it ourselves.

Does Election Day Mean Anything With So Many People Voting Early?

When I hear polls about the presidential race tightening up, the cynic in me thinks it's a ruse by the media to keep people watching the news.  Or by the parties to get they're people to turn out to vote.  But given that lots of folks have already voted, what exactly do the polls mean any more?  I expect political scientists, statisticians, and politicians will be studying that question a lot.

We left town before early voting was available.  So now that we're back, I went in today.  The line was to the far door when I got there.   This is the only place to vote in Anchorage for now.  There were probably 40 or so folks ahead of me.





Then it turns the corner where another 10 to 15 people (depending on squeezed together they are) are waiting.






















When you get around the corner, there were five people checking id's and pulling up a page for me to sign, that had my address and district and ballot number.  I took that over to get a ballot and then went into the booth to vote.

A poll worker came through the line telling us it would be about ten minutes and checking for people with issues.  One guy had moved within Alaska.  There was a woman who had moved to Alaska, and no, she hadn't checked off the 'register to vote' box when she got her Alaska drivers license and with less than a week left to election day, she'd missed the 30 day before the election cut off.  She got a questioned ballot, but it didn't sound like it should count.

In the end it took 23 minutes from start to finish.  The surprise on the ballot was how many judges were up for retention.  In Alaska, judges are appointed through one of the cleanest systems in the country - though Republicans who have a vested interest in their preferred outcomes rather than a fair process based on the law [of course, that's my interpretation not theirs], are trying to get that system changed.  I've written more about the Judicial Council which nominates and grades judges based on surveys of jurors, attorneys, court staff, court watchers, and other interested parties here.

I guess, sure, election day still means something, but I wonder how long we'll be using that term.  Not sure, though, what will replace it.  Voting Period?  Election Weeks?  Voting Crunch Time?

'They' Is Officially Singular; Midnight Diner; Airbnb's Anti-Discrimination Agreement

Here are three in one - just brief mentions of things that caught my eye.



1.  "They" is word of the year  -

Singular "they," the gender-neutral pronoun, has been named the Word of the Year by a crowd of over 200 linguists at the American Dialect Society's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. on Friday evening.

 "Friday evening" was last January.  This isn't new news, but I only just found it.  It's been a slow evolution for me, but it does make sense.  Now using 'they' as a singular pronoun (to avoid gender issues) is grammatically acceptable.


2.  Midnight Diner:  Tokyo Stories - Netflix television.  Season 1 Episode 1 is charming.   I don't want to say more.  If you want a light but wonderful visit to a Tokyo noodle shop, this is it.  If the link doesn't work, just google it or search for it in Netflix.


3.  Airbnb sent out an email telling members that they will have to sign a non-discrimination agreement if they want to continue to use AirBnB as client or a host.  Here's a link to the new policy.  Below is from the email.

The Airbnb Community Commitment

Hi,

Earlier this year, we launched a comprehensive effort to fight bias and discrimination in the Airbnb community. As a result of this effort, we’re asking everyone to agree to a Community Commitment beginning November 1, 2016. Agreeing to this commitment will affect your use of Airbnb, so we wanted to give you a heads up about it.

What is the Community Commitment?

You commit to treat everyone—regardless of race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or age—with respect, and without judgment or bias.

How do I accept the commitment?

On or after November 1, we’ll show you the commitment when you log in to or open the Airbnb website, mobile or tablet app and we’ll automatically ask you to accept.

What if I decline the commitment?

If you decline the commitment, you won’t be able to host or book using Airbnb, and you have the option to cancel your account. Once your account is canceled, future booked trips will be canceled. You will still be able to browse Airbnb but you won’t be able to book any reservations or host any guests.

What if I have feedback about the commitment?

We welcome your feedback about the Community Commitment and all of our nondiscrimination efforts. Feel free to read more about the commitment. You can also reach out to us at allbelong@airbnb.com.

The Airbnb Team

Not Guilty By Reason Of Too Much Alt-Right Media Coverage

From today's LA Times:

“Mark Feigin is a good, decent man. He has no criminal record and he is not a danger to anyone. He has worked as a Chinese translator , as a screenwriter and as a real estate developer,” the statement said. “If anything, Mr. Feigin was a victim of the toxic national discourse of this political season.”
   Feigin has been exposed to a lot of “alt-right” media coverage that vilifies Muslims, his attorneys said. The so-called alternative right is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a movement of groups and individuals — largely to be found on social media and the Internet — who espouse extreme right-wing ideology and white identity politics. The movement has gained a higher profile for its embrace of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

He was arrested for making threatening calls to an Islamic Center, threats to kill people there.

This is a guy who was influenced by those folks who talk about taking personal responsibility and who say that their talk doesn't influence people to actually take action.  Sarah Palin's denied any responsibility for Rep. Giffords being shot after posting a picture of Giffords' (and others') district with crosshairs over it.

"Palin noted that criminals are responsible for their own actions,"

So who is Mark Feign?

This seems to be the same guy.  Same name.  Picture looks very similar to the one in the CBS news link below.  Age seems about right.  And it says he speaks fluent Mandarin (and Polish.) Real estate.

Screenshot from realtor.com*

Oh, did I forget to mention that police found guns and ammunition in his home?  CBS News Channel 2 has a post with video (which I don't seem to be able to embed or link to, but which you can find at the link.)  The two pictures below are screenshots of from the video of the guns and ammo they found in his house.

Screenshot from CBS News

Screenshot from CBS News

Tony Ortega On Scientology at Underground Bunker paints a long and disturbing picture of Mark Feigin, apparently also known as Milosz, along with copies of tweets and other online tracks.  You can  compare what's there to Feigin's lawyer's statement above that he's a good and decent man and no danger to anyone.

I'd be willing to bet, given the Milosz moniker and his language fluencies, that he's an immigrant, likely from Poland.  And the Ortega post says he's a Trump supporter.  Anyone hear Trump calling for this guy to be deported?  (I'm guessing he's in the country legally and probably has US citizenship by now.)  [Yes, these are educated guesses on my part without proof.  I'm NOT calling for his deportation, I'm just pointing out a bit of likely irony in the situation.]

Note to readers:  I was struck by the defense claim of "victim of the toxic national discourse of this political season."  I think it's important to note when right wing suspects use that sort of contextual defense, since they totally reject such defenses for people of color.  That's all I really wanted to post about.

But as I tried to find a little more information it got more and more disturbing.  He's out on bail.  I'm assuming that the police confiscated the guns and ammo they found.




*I'm putting up the screenshot since I'm not sure how long the original will be available online.  His Facebook page is down.

Needed A Break From Cleaning - The Beach Did The Trick

We left my mom's house in pretty good shape last time, but there's still quite a bit of stuff to sort through, give away, throw out, etc.  But eventually I just had to get out of the house.  It had rained a bit during the day, but we decided to walk at the beach before it got dark.  The sound of the surf washed away all the negative thoughts from the house cleaning.

 





We walked along the water as it got darker and the lights on the Santa Monica pier got brighter and brighter.

We got to the steps from the beach and got the sand off our feet as best as we could.  As I waited for the roller coaster to come by for a picture, the janitor came by and emptied the garbage can.

You can see the roller coaster on the inside of the loop.  They also have a trapeze school on the pier and people were practicing doing flips and getting caught by the second person who was swinging upside down.  But it was too dark to get a good picture.

There were lots of people on the pier, musicians with loud speakers, and at the end of the pier there were night fishers.


It was nice to have a break.  Today was more cleaning.  I finally tackled the stuff suspended up on a platform in the rafters.  We got a lot cleaned out.

Bad Reporting, Or Is It Bad Editing?

Here's the short new snippet of news I read in the ADN online today.  It's the whole piece they printed.

"Kirk apologizes to Duckworth for remark about Asian heritage   CHICAGO — Sen. Mark Kirk apologized to Rep. Tammy Duckworth on Friday for a comment he made about her family’s ancestry and military background during a debate in the Illinois Senate race on Thursday night.
   “Sincere apologies to an American hero, Tammy Duckworth, and gratitude for her family’s service,” Kirk posted on his official campaign Twitter account.
   The apology came less than 24 hours after the first-term Republican created a social media firestorm over his remark to the two-term Democratic congresswoman, who is challenging him for his Senate seat.
   At one point during the 90-minute debate at the University of Illinois at Springfield, Duck-worth talked about her family’s long history of involvement in the U.S. military, describing herself as a “daughter of the American Revolution” who has “bled for this nation.”
   When it was Kirk’s turn to offer a rebuttal, he offered a single sentence: 'I had forgotten that your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington.'”

So, what did you think?  That Kirk was a racist, sexist pig who damn well should have apologized?  Or maybe you thought his George Washington comment was kind of funny and that political corrections has gone too far?

Going back to the article.  What exactly is a "daughter of the American Revolution?"  Did she mean it  figuratively written with a small 'd'?   Or literally and it should have had a large 'D'?  Did Kirk think, like the writer, that she meant it with a small 'd' and did he think as an Asian-American she didn't really understand the cultural meaning of "Daughter of the American Revolution?"  It wouldn't be the first time a male publicly dismissed a woman's claims about herself.  Did he think that women with Asian features couldn't possibly be in the DAR?

All Americans have absorbed a certain amount of unconscious sexism and racism.  It just comes with the environment - with tv and movies, and with the images and comments we hear beginning with "Is it a boy or a girl?"  It affects what we do and think every day.  I'm infected like everyone else, but at least I'm aware of it.  That doesn't mean it still doesn't catch me off guard on a regular basis.

At the end of the article I caught the humor in his comment and I briefly entertained the idea that maybe forcing him to apologize for this was a bit much.  That's how internalized racism and sexism and other isms work.  They shape our assumptions and conclusions before we're even consciously aware of what we're thinking.   But then we have to catch ourselves, test our assumptions, and get more information.  Something wasn't right here.  So I found the video tape of this exchange.  It's short.  Here it is:




The part the ADN left out is at the end.  After she says "I'm a Daughter of the American Revolution . . ." After he then makes his crack. When the moderator throws it back to Duckworth.

Duckworth: [Laughs.]  "There've been members of my family serving in uniform on my father's side going back to the Revolution. I belong to the William J. Penny chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution."

That last sentence totally changes everything.  She really is a capital D "Daughter of the Revolution."  She does know what that means.  She isn't some culturally naive American in name only.  She's a US Congresswoman for crying out loud.  But the ADN left all that out.  And as I went back over the original story, I realize the small 'd' for 'daughters of the American Revolution" contributes to the idea that she was not actually claiming to be a member of the DAR but was speaking figuratively.  How is it that the writer did that?  Was it a typo?  Or did the original writer take it the way Kirk did?

The average reader probably doesn't know she has an American father.  A reader, whose unconscious is filled with the race stereotypes we all have,  could easily think, from the ADN account, that Kirk's remark was actually funny.  Kirk certainly did.   Given they're running against each other, he ought to know more about her than the average ADN reader.  He didn't believe she was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution or he wouldn't have made his sarcastic remark.   It's not inconceivable that many readers thought the way he did and concluded that his apology was forced by rampant political correctness.

To the extent that happened, it confirms to many people their notions of political correctness making a simple humorous comment into a crime.

I'd say the ADN contributed to any such misconceptions by leaving out the last quote and also with the small 'd' 'daughter of the American Revolution' in the story.  I know this story wasn't written by an ADN reporter, it came over from the national news wires.  But people taking those stories at the ADN have a responsibility to be careful about what they take and how they edit those stories so they don't leave out crucial information.