US Politics Mega-thread - Page 3704

On April 29 2016 13:16 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Cruz campaign imploding...?

The FBI doesn’t know how the hack used to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5C works, and yet it paid in the region of $1m for the mechanism, which can used again to unlock any other iPhone 5C running iOS 9, according to reports.

Several US government sources told Reuters that the amount paid for the hack, bought from professional hackers, was substantially less than previous reports indicating a value over $1.3m. The technique can also be used as many times as needed without further payments.

The FBI director, James Comey, said last week that the agency paid more to get into the iPhone 5C than he will make in the remaining seven years and four months he has in his job, suggesting the hack cost more than $1.3m, based on his annual salary.

The Justice Department unlocked the iPhone in March with the help of the hackers, leading the FBI to drop its attempt to force Apple to create software to unlock the iPhone 5C, which the company fought, saying it would compromise the security of all iPhones.

The FBI bought a physical mechanism used to unlock the phone, but does not know the details of the hack that makes it work. The identity of the hackers who made it is also such a closely guarded secret within the US law enforcement agency that its director does not know who it is.

On April 30 2016 00:56 LegalLord wrote:
I found that one highly effective technique for being a successful troll is to say provocative things, get people to react in a stupid way that is not good for their cause, and call them out for it in a way that is not good for their cause. It almost always works to undermine the position of the other side. It seems Trump took that idea and implemented it on a much grander scale.

Republican Donald Trump's presidential campaign is planning its next coup: vying for the votes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) supporters who say they won't back Hillary Clinton in a general election.

"You have two candidates in Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders which have reignited a group of people who have been disenfranchised and disappointed with the way Washington, D.C. and career politicians have run the country," campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told CNN on Friday.

"Bernie Sanders has large crowds – not as large as Mr. Trump's, but large crowds – and so there is a level of excitement there for people about his messaging and we will bring those people in," he also said.

Trump has long claimed his ability to garner support from Democrats and independents, but a recent poll found just 13 percent of Democratic-leaning voters who support Sanders have a favorable view of the outspoken billionaire.

On April 30 2016 02:52 Plansix wrote:
I don't know what Apple expected expect this. Someone is going to make some bank being the sub contractor who breaks every new version of Iphone encryption.

On April 30 2016 02:52 Plansix wrote:
I don't know what Apple expected expect this. Someone is going to make some bank being the sub contractor who breaks every new version of Iphone encryption.

On April 30 2016 02:56 Blitzkrieg0 wrote:


You say this like the FBI was going to pay Apple to open the iphone in the first place and they're losing money.

On April 30 2016 03:20 Plansix wrote:

That wasn't my point. Its that now there is a crack out there for the phone they have no information on and have no control over. And that will happen over and over every time the FBI needs to get into an iphone that is locked. Their effort to protect the costumers privacy has put that privacy in the hands of an unknown third party.

On April 30 2016 03:26 Gorsameth wrote:

As opposed to what?
If Apple had complied with the FBI this third party would still have had their iphone crack, peoples privacy would be in just as bad a place (arguably worse place) then it is now.

How did Apple hand over customer privacy? do tell.

The Agony of a Trump Delegate
Rules may say they’re bound to The Donald, but many are thinking through their options.

Donald Trump, fresh off his Northeast sweep, declared himself the “presumptive nominee.” He presumes too much.

For all the news of Mr. Trump’s victories and Ted Cruz’s veepmate, the essential action of this GOP contest continues to take place far from the media lights. It’s happening in towns like Harrisonburg, Va., where Republican voters will gather this weekend to pick a slate of delegates for the Cleveland convention. That’s the action that matters, and it’s not going Mr. Trump’s way.

With the media all but anointing the mogul, it’s worth a short primer on presidential nominations, why Mr. Trump is still far from claiming the title, and why (by the way) this is, in fact, democracy in action.

Start with this: The GOP is a collection of 50 state parties. Each gets a voice in choosing who the national party nominates for president. In long-standing deference to states’ rights (a concept conservatives are supposed to revere), the state parties have total control over how they pick delegates to the national convention.

Some states, like Colorado, still do this purely the old-fashioned way. Republicans meet at the precinct level, at the district level, and at the state level, and vote for delegates who will speak for them. This isn’t a “rigged” system, but representative democracy.

Other states think it useful to canvas wider views. They hold what the media call primaries, but what are technically “presidential preference polls.” (Note those words.) In many states, the results of these polls are supposed to bind “delegates” to candidates at the national convention.

Only here’s the rub: Even states with primaries still go through an independent process to elect the actual people who will serve as delegates. The Republicans at these events can still choose whomever they want. And they aren’t electing delegates who personally support Mr. Trump.

Look at Virginia. The Old Dominion held its statewide preference poll (primary) on March 1, and 35% of voters (who included independents and Democrats) preferred Mr. Trump. Some 17% preferred Mr. Cruz. On paper, the delegates are automatically apportioned based on these results.

Yet at the two district conventions so far (in Virginia’s 9th and 10th congressional districts), attendees have elected five delegates who personally support Mr. Cruz and only one who supports Mr. Trump. At the statewide convention in Harrisonburg this weekend, 4,000 attendees will choose another 13 delegates. Cruz supporters will likely dominate.

This is happening across the country, and no surprise. While some attendees at these events are “the establishment”—party officials and operatives—many more are intensely committed GOP activists. These are the people who brought you the tea party, the rebels in the U.S. House, and the cheers for government shutdown.

They are into principle and ideology—and that is Mr. Trump’s problem. Sources suggest to me that of the 950 “Trump” delegates, as many as half despise the former reality-TV star. Meaning that of the 2,472 delegates slated for Cleveland, maybe one-quarter currently want him as the nominee.

But aren’t his delegates “pledged” to vote for him on the first ballot, regardless? A vocal—and growing—faction of delegates is saying they are not. A ringleader is Curly Haugland, an unbound delegate from North Dakota, and a longtime member of the GOP’s rules committee. In an open letter in March, he argued that there was only one convention in history (1976) in which GOP delegates were “bound,” and that this requirement was rescinded in 1980. He says delegates can vote their conscience.

Is he right? What matters is that some delegates think so. Many are unhappy that their state legislatures have imposed “open primaries” that allow independents and Democrats to vote. Many view it as a bedrock constitutional principle that a party retains its right to choose its own nominee. Many are deeply troubled by Mr. Trump. Some are just ornery.

With razor-tight margins, it wouldn’t take much to upturn the convention—even if Mr. Trump does get 1,237 “pledged” delegates. All it would take is a small (potentially very small) bloc of Trump delegates to defect—or simply abstain—that first round. The outrage from Trump supporters would be huge. Then again, many delegates have concluded that outrage from one side or another is inevitable. So pick your poison.

This is why Mr. Trump’s team is now trying to craft a new Trump, one harder for the delegates to overthrow. It’s why Mr. Trump bangs on about rigged elections—to exert public pressure on delegates to stay in line. And it’s the main reason why the coming races matter: Mr. Trump wants to create a sense of inevitability that will further compel “his” delegates to stick. His early success this week in wooing unbound Pennsylvania delegates suggests the pressure may be helping.

Still, if conservative activists are anything these days, they are energized and unpredictable. They are the force to reckon with in this nomination contest. And they, more than the TV stations, are the ones to watch.

On April 30 2016 03:41 TheTenthDoc wrote:


One could argue that it's less safe to have a public, possibly available-for-purchase hacker crack available with high publicity compared to the government alone having it. I'm not sure where I fall on that argument to be honest.

On April 30 2016 03:20 Plansix wrote:

That wasn't my point. Its that now there is a crack out there for the phone they have no information on and have no control over. And that will happen over and over every time the FBI needs to get into an iphone that is locked. Their effort to protect the costumers privacy has put that privacy in the hands of an unknown third party.

On April 30 2016 03:41 TheTenthDoc wrote:
One could argue that it's less safe to have a public, possibly available-for-purchase hacker crack available with high publicity compared to the government alone having it. I'm not sure where I fall on that argument to be honest.