Cynthia Coffman Goes After Facebook Re: Cambridge Analytica

As the Denver Post’s Jesse Paul reports:

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman on Monday joined 36 of her colleagues from across the U.S. in a letter demanding answers from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg amid reports that user information from the social media site was provided to third parties without consent.

“As the chief law enforcement officers of our respective states, we place a priority on protecting user privacy, which has been repeatedly placed at risk because of businesses’ failure to properly ensure those protections,” the attorneys general wrote. “… Early reports indicate that user data of at least 50 million Facebook profiles may have been misused and misappropriated by third-party software developers.”

The letter comes in the wake of the revelation that the data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica improperly used Facebook user data to target voters, including for President Donald Trump’s campaign. The firm says it helped Republicans win the state Senate majority in Colorado and may have helped Cory Gardner in his 2014 U.S. Senate victory over incumbent Democrat Mark Udall.

Attorney General Cynthia Coffman is in a pickle here, like every other Republican in America trying to keep the cognitively dissonant notions of backing their party’s President while being honest about the methods and foreign influence that helped him win from annihilating their consciences like matter vs. antimatter. The violations of law–not to mention consumer good faith–underlying the scandal of Cambridge Analytica’s psychoanalytic campaign to persuade American voters generally and Colorado voters proximally are absolutely something that state attorneys general should be vigorously investigating.

Except for one big problem for Cynthia Coffman. What Cambridge Analytica did to goose Republican turnout in 2014, helping give Colorado Republicans a majority in the state Senate, helping catapult Cory Gardner into the U.S. Senate, and yes, even helping elect Cynthia Coffman as the state’s attorney general–well, it worked. How do you investigate in good faith something you have to thank for your own success?

The likely answer: “investigate” just enough to keep up appearances. Way to sign that form letter! The next step is to call all the Colorado Republicans who have been named in the.stories about Cambridge’s work in Colorado and find out what they know about the data used in those campaigns. Hint: she already has their number.

Fat chance, we know.

Even More Outrageous Treatment of GOP Sexual Harassment Victims

Republican State Sen. Randy Baumgardner.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen increasingly audacious attempts by Republicans in the Colorado Senate and their surrogates in the media to discredit proven-credible claims of sexual harassment against two Republican Senators: Sens. Randy Baumgardner of Hot Sulphur Springs and Jack Tate of Centennial.

After the original allegations of widespread sexual harassment in the Colorado General Assembly broke last fall, there was a well-organized PR campaign quickly organized to defend Tate in particular–first by enlisting lobbyists to defend Tate, which backfired after their massive conflicts of interest were exposed, and more recently by a an extremely unethical attack via a “legitimate” news outlet, the Phil Anschutz-owned Colorado Springs Gazette, citing the “personal indiscretions” of the victim in Tate’s case by a Republican legislative aide. That aide was fired the next day after his own highly insensitive comments about sexual harassment were released to the media, but the damage was done.

This weekend, a blog associated with the right-wing Independence Institute released a new story seeking to undermine the credibility of one of the victims of Sen. Randy Baumgardner and the investigation that determined the allegation against Baumgardner is credible. That story was picked up by Marianne Goodland of the same Colorado Springs Gazette involved with the questionable defense of Tate, and run uncritically with the headline “Report on sexual harassment allegations against Baumgardner raises questions of credibility.”

You might notice that we aren’t linking to those stories directly in this blog post. There’s a reason: the Independence Institute is circulating a “redacted” copy of the investigative report that positively identifies the victim in Baumgardner’s case. Needless to say, or at least it should be, to out a victim of sexual harassment who wishes to remain anonymous under any circumstances is an enormous breach of journalist ethics. We’re not accusing anyone at the Independence Institute of journalism, of course, but Goodland and the Gazette is another matter.

Folks, we understand that the GOP-controlled Colorado Senate is in a very unpleasant predicament, and that they have chits they can call in in an emergency to get a surprising degree of deference–even assistance–from friends they’ve made in local media.

What is happening to these women who are only trying to get justice after this culture of sexual harassment has been allowed to fester for literally as long as women won the right to participate in government at any level above the secretarial, is totally unacceptable. It does appear to be increasingly centered on one conservative media outlet with limited accountability either to the marketplace or journalistic standards, but this is a terrible lesson in how hard women have really had it in the workplace. The General Assembly, and every other.

When this is over, there will be journalists like KUNC’s Bente Birkeland who can take pride in the historic work they’ve done, and the lasting good exposing and ending the culture of harassment in the Colorado legislature will do for generations of women to come.

And there will be a few who have to live with the knowledge that they helped the bad guys.

Reyher equates guns with scissors and forks and believes young people “don’t understand” what they are marching about

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

A Colorado lawmaker says she can “no longer be silent” about “so many good young people” who “can’t even see reason” and “don’t understand” what they are marching about.

State Rep. Judy Reyher (R-Swink) made the comments on Facebook, where she wondered why protesters aren’t concerned about scissors, forks, steak knives, keys, and the “spike heel on shoes.”

“And every one of those items can cause bodily harm or death,” wrote Reyher. “The spike heel on shoes can cause death if used as a weapon. Yet none of these items are in danger of being banned from use.”

Last week, Reyher shared a Facebook post stating that if the students who are “walking out of school to protest gun violence” would stop bullying “their peers to the point of mental breakdown in the first place, this wouldn’t be happening.”

Reyher’s comments on Facebook (African Americans are “hatred-filled beings.”) and to The Denver Post (Black people “hate white people with a passion.”) generated national media attention last year, prior to her appointment to fill a vacancy seat in the Colorado State House. Reyher insists she is not a racist.

Reyher wrote on Facebook this week that “the protestors have been lied to for so long and can’t even see reason. I will never give up my guns and know many people who feel the same way. I am a Patron Life Member of the National Rifle Association and am a supporter. It makes me very sad that so many Americans are falling for the notion that disarmed is safer.”

On Facebook, Reyher explaind that a  “mom” contacted  Reyher to express the view that it’s “‘cheaper’ to take all of the guns than it would be to pay for school safety measures.”

“To my way of thinking,” wrote Reyher, “that is an odd way to say you want your children safe. But this is just an example of how warped the thinking of these people are who think disarmament is the way to go.

Reyher faces a primary challenge from fellow Republican Don Bendell.

Cory Analytica: Controversial Group’s Colorado Connection Deepens

Senator Cory Gardner (R).

The Denver Post’s John Frank continues to run down the expanding story of the role of embattled foreign political strategy group Cambridge Analytica in Colorado’s 2014 elections–an election that for the first time in a decade witnessed something like real setbacks for Democrats who have dominated Colorado politics in recent years, with the state senate narrowly flipping to GOP control and Democrats losing the U.S. Senate race–easily the greatest defeat for Democrats since 2004.

In a prelude to what would come in 2016, Republicans in Colorado outmatched Democrats who had had their number for 10 years–and now we may know why:

The post-election report, first published by The Washington Post, also revealed that the company designed digital advertisements for two political organizations as part of a campaign to boost Republican turnout and help U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner defeat incumbent Democrat Mark Udall…

The document also reveals new details about how Cambridge Analytica and SCL Elections strategized with Republican state Senate leader Bill Cadman to identify four seats the party could capture. The firm took credit for the decision to target the open seat in state Senate District 24 and the election of Republican Beth Martinez Humenik — a win that gave the party the majority. [Pols emphasis]

The firm’s post-election report describes how Cadman and his team were initially reluctant to target the seat, “but we were eventually able to use the data to illustrate that it presented a better opportunity for achieving a Republican victory than other options. This was ultimately the correct choice.”

There is still much we don’t know what the interactions between Cambridge Analytica and local Republicans, but this latest document asserts that the organization’s work significantly altered the strategy of Colorado Republicans in 2014 with the result of flipping a decisive state senate seat–as well as contributing to Cory Gardner’s narrow and demoralizing victory over incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.

If that’s true, Cambridge played more than a role. They played a decisive role.

Again, the principal controversy surrounding Cambridge’s work to influence American elections is the use of improperly obtained social media data about millions of American voters. That data was presumably used to model and target Colorado voters in 2014, and in addition Frank reports that foreign consultants from Cambridge were involved in formulating Colorado electoral strategy, which may itself have violated federal law.

And within Cambridge’s report on their Colorado operations, one little side that made us crack a smile:

While the project in Colorado was largely successful, some issues did present themselves. This was particularly the case in the early stages of CA-SCL’s engagement with local campaign staff:

• There was significant confusion amongst local staff regarding the role that CA-SCL operatives would be playing in the campaign. This generated problems early on, and although these were overcome, making our team’s role clearer from the outset should be a priority in future.

• One aspect of this integration process that arose was the vested interest that some local staff had in using certain vendors. [Pols emphasis] In some cases this generated tensions, with local operatives seeking to restrict communication between the CA-SCL team and printers, for instance…

Apparently, Cambridge Analytica found our local Republicans to be kind of stupid–and that’s not all.

In Colorado Republican politics, it’s common if unspoken knowledge that if you wanted to get anywhere running for the state senate before 2016, you had to use Senate President Bill Cadman’s print shop. We don’t know if that has changed since Cadman left office as Senate President, but this delightfully corrupt little arrangement ensured Cadman stayed very well off indeed on his part-time lawmaker’s salary–and it doesn’t surprise us in the least that outside operatives found the arrangement a little weird.

In hindsight, the whole business looks bad–and with Cambridge Analytica calling the shots for Cadman and company to run with, it looks even worse. Kudos to John Frank for continuing to work the local angles of this enormously important national story. We assume there are many other such stories out there, but not every town has competent journalists to tell them.

And stay tuned, because we don’t think this one is over.

Social Media Helps Bust Coal-Rolling Asshole

As the Steamboat Pilot and Today reports, Saturday’s March for Our Lives demonstration against gun violence in the northwest Colorado ski resort town of Steamboat Springs was marred by a particular form of vehicular belligerence that has been recently outlawed in the state of Colorado, and we’ve discussed in this space a few times–“rolling coal.”

A driver was cited by Steamboat Springs police Sunday after interrupting a peaceful demonstration with an obnoxious cloud of dark exhaust.

The local “March For Our Lives” demonstration was held early Saturday evening on the Routt County Courthouse lawn. It was part of a nationwide movement aimed at raising awareness around gun violence and school safety…

Saturday’s peaceful protest turned hostile when a blue pickup drove by and spewed exhaust at the demonstrators on the sidewalk.

Demonstrators took pictures of the incident, and the truck’s license plate was clearly visible.

CBS Denver reports that one coal-rolling counterprotester in Steamboat Springs was identified from photos taken by demonstrators as Alex Graham, 20-year-old journeyman asshole from Routt County. You’ll notice in the photo above that Graham’s mean machine is a bit of a jalopy–featuring a number of missing parts we assume were cannibalized to keep the trailer Graham lives in from collapsing while he watches The Price is Right and smokes cigarettes in his off-off-white underwear on weekday mornings. CBS also has a photo of a second coal-roller in Steamboat who has yet to be identified:

Who you can also rank among life’s winners!

It’s possible that these fine gentlemen were not aware that the Colorado General Assembly passed a law last year specifically outlawing the practice of “rolling coal,” which has only increased in popularity as right-wing diesel truck owners sought out an appropriate response to the growing demonstrations against guns, groping, and other unsavory ole-boy pastimes since Donald Trump became President.

We’re sorry, but while ignorance can certainly be offensive, ignorance of the law is no defense.

Mike Coffman Loves, Hates Omnibus Spending Bill

Rep. Mike Coffman. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As a footnote to last week’s passage of a 2,200-page spending bill, here’s Rep. Mike Coffman’s press release explaining his sort-of no vote on the legislation–keeping in mind that Coffman voted yes on the motion to proceed to debating the bill, unlike a number of fellow Republicans who lodged a protest vote against debating a bill they hadn’t read.

Which was Coffman’s stated reason for voting against the bill himself:

“Today, I voted against the omnibus for the same reason I have done so in the past. While the omnibus contains some very good policy, I could not in good conscience vote on a 2,232-page, $1.3 trillion bill, without adequate time to review it. And let there be no doubt about it — while too many in my party have been obstructionist on DACA, Congressional Democrats have made it clear with this larded-up spending deal that the Democratic Party prioritizes pork barrel spending on items like subsidized trains in the northeast over finding a fix for DACA kids. This is a very bad day in the nation’s capital.”

But here’s the thing–Coffman did vote to proceed to debating the bill, which given the much wider margin on the final vote for passage was arguably the more decisive vote. And despite Coffman’s deploring of the rushed consideration of bill, he nonetheless praised it:

You would have no idea that Coffman voted against the bill from that Tweet, would you?

What you have here is just another case of Rep. Coffman hoping to have it both ways on a divisive issue–like voting against repeal of the Affordable Care Act after repeatedly calling for Medicare cuts, or running campaign ads implying, context-free, support from Planned Parenthood without mentioning Coffman’s repeated votes to defund Planned Parenthood. In this case, Mike Coffman wants credit for passage of a line-item for veteran’s mental health he supports without mentioning that he actually voted against it.

Once in awhile, it looks like principle. When it’s every single big vote, he just looks silly.

Stormy Daniels 60 Minutes Interview Open Thread

(Obligatively promoted by Colorado Pols)

Did you watch Stormy Daniels’ interview with Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes” tonight? Probably. I did.  You can see video highlights on CBS 60 Minutes Overtime here:

Wikimedia Commons Stormy Daniels

By Toglenn (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

I  was frankly impressed with Stephanie (“Stormy Daniels”) Clifford.  I found her story to be believable. She did not claim victimhood, took responsibility for her own decision to go alone to Trump’s hotel room, was frank about seeing her involvement with Trump as a business decision.

Her description of the threats against her and her daughter were chilling, and also quite credible. We know that the President is a ruthless man.

 

We know he surrounds himself with ruthless and truthless people, who by some saving grace are also mostly incompetent at their jobs.

It seems likely that it all went down as “Stormy” said it had, and that the subsequent Non-Disclosure-Agreement, hush-money coverup, and legal brangling had also happened  as she recounted.

Expect Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer and attack dog,  to be the next person thrown under the Trump bus. (If he doesn’t turn against Trump first) Since he paid out $130,000 to Ms. Clifford, why did he pay it? If there was no affair, as Trump says, then why pay?

Since no one who signed the NDA was using their real names, does it have any force in law? Is it a legally binding document?

Was the $130,000 a campaign contribution from Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to the Trump campaign? If so, why wasn’t it reported? And why was it paid to a pornographic movie actress?

Prosecutor Mueller will likely be investigating these and related questions. Cliffords’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, said on Twitter: “Tonight is not the end — it’s the beginning.” – CNN

Meanwhile, here’s the “money quote” (pun intended) from Ms. Clifford, on the occasion of her declaring intent to run against Louisiana Congressman “Diaper Dave” Vitter:

“Daniels said she has been a registered Democrat throughout her life. ‘But now I cannot help but recognize that over time my libertarian values regarding both money and sex and the legal use of one for the other is now best espoused by the Republican Party’.”[25]

Massive #MarchForOurLives Completes Full Circle From 2013

As the Denver Post reports, though plenty of our readers are still unwinding and resting their feet:

Thousands of protesters filled Civic Center park Saturday afternoon for Denver’s rally and march against gun violence, one among hundreds taking place across America and around the world following last month’s Florida high school shooting that claimed 17 lives…

Demonstrators — their ranks punctuated by schoolchildren and parents and many carrying signs denouncing gun violence in schools — began marching through downtown Denver after a nearly two-hour rally, during which many were crowded shoulder to shoulder.

CBS Denver:

James McDermott, a senior at Jefferson County Open High School, said Saturday’s rally and march is part of a larger movement for student safety. He told CBS4 he got involved in the organization of the event because he believes a change in laws to protect students like him is long overdue.

“Quite frankly I’d like to just see some action and some legislation. It’s been 20 years without much legislation and with the dogs that died on airlines — a tragedy in itself — it took days for Congressmen to say enough is enough with that, and how many school shootings does there have to be before they realize that student lives are important,” McDermott said.

We haven’t seen an estimate of the crowd that turned out yesterday to march in support of stronger gun control laws, but from the aerial video you can see above the crowd was quite massive–easily the biggest such event since the Women’s March in January. Since the school shooting in Parkland, Florida in February, the movement for stronger gun laws in America has exploded into the popular consciousness in much the same way the treatment of women in the workplace was catalyzed into a broadly unifying issue by President Donald Trump’s election. The public is speaking out en masse to create space for change that the politicians heretofore have not shown the courage to get behind.

Former Colorado Senators John Morse and Angela Giron (D-Vindicated).

Except in Colorado. In 2013, following another terrible mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora the previous year, Colorado’s Democratic-controlled legislature took the lead on this issue with new laws addressing background checks as well as the magazine capacity of semiautomatic weapons–both key to reducing the number and severity of mass shootings.

Democrats in Colorado paid a heavy price for their foresight, with two state senators recalled before 2013 ended and a third who chose to resign rather than suffer the same fate. For a little while, before Democrats retook all of those seats in the next two elections, it seemed like Colorado’s experience with gun control might be a cautionary tale rather than a model.

In the streets of Denver and across the nation yesterday, that question was put to rest forever.

Meet Rep.-Designate Alex Skinny Winkler While You Can

Rep.-designate Alex Skinny Winkler (R).

As the Denver Post’s Jesse Paul reports–after Colorado Republicans decided to go ahead and own the legacy of expelled Rep. Steve Lebsock by claiming the right to appoint Lebsock’s replacement due to Lebsock switching parties literally one hour before his expulsion, there was, as there always is, an opportunity for them to make a smarter choice. Perhaps to nominate a brilliantly qualified and locally-beloved statesman who would be able to put up an actual fight for a district that, while trending Democratic, might be flippable under a certain set of circumstances.

Yeah, you knew that wasn’t going to happen!

[Alexander “Skinny”] Winkler lost to Lebsock in 2014 and made a failed bid in 2016 to become an Adams County commissioner. He said he doesn’t think he would have voted to expel Lebsock if he had been part of the legislature when the decision was made — “I don’t think the proper procedure was followed,” he said — though he thinks there should have been discipline for the allegations leveled against the former lawmaker…

Winkler said he most identifies with Rep. Justin Everett, R-Littleton, in the Colorado House. Everett is known as “Dr. No” for his propensity to reject legislation.

“I’m a small government fella,” Winkler said. “Any bills that seek to lessen the role of government, if you will, would win my favor.”

So, the first thing we’d like to get resolved with Rep.-designate Alex Skinny Winkler is whether or not the (we assume) nickname “Skinny” is meant to be written with quotation marks. We do see that’s what the Denver Post did, but they could have been following the AP Manual of Style or something rather than, you know, Skinny’s preference. On Skinny’s Facebook page, you’ll notice that he does not use quotation marks, so we expect in the very, very limited time we’ll be talking about Skinny Winkler we’ll follow his lead.

As Paul notes above, Skinny lost to Rep. Lebsock in 2014 by 9.8%. In 2016, Skinny lost by a similar margin to incumbent Adams County Commissioner Eva Henry. Skinny in fact lost by a bigger margin to Lebsock in 2014 than a subsequent Republican challenger did in 2016, though a Green candidate in 2016 did pull some votes away from Lebsock. The point is that Skinny has not ever even come close to performing well in an Adams County election. Given that Skinny’s introduction to the Colorado political big-time after his appointment consisted of defending Lebsock, who was expelled from the House by an overwhelming bipartisan margin, and promising to govern in the style of one of the legislature’s biggest (and sleepiest) Ayn Randian obstructionists, we’re not seeing anything like a good fit here.

In November, we fully expect Skinny’s legislative career to end as ignominiously as it began.

Walker Stapleton Sweating Signatures

Does Walker Stapleton have enough petition signatures to make the Republican Primary ballot for Governor?

We mentioned this briefly on Tuesday in a story about the gubernatorial candidacy of Republican Barry Farah, but it’s worth revisiting as the days drag on without word from the Secretary of State’s (SOS) office. Stapleton started talking about participating in the party caucus/assembly process soon after he was the first Republican gubernatorial candidate to submit petitions for ballot access, perhaps out of concern that he might not have enough valid signatures.

Consider: Stapleton submitted 21,000 signatures to the SOS office on February 23, just two days after Democrat Michael Johnston became the first candidate for Governor to turn in nominating petitions. On March 16, Johnston learned that he had qualified for the Democratic ballot, but just barely — Johnston’s petitions only carried a 56% validity rate. Johnston also submitted 1,500 more signatures than Stapleton, so the Republican has less of a margin for error.

Today is March 23, and there is still no indication from the SOS that Stapleton has qualified for the June Primary ballot (candidate petitions are supposed to be checked in the order they were received, so Stapleton’s numbers theoretically could have been ready earlier this week). Several candidates for state legislative seats learned today that they had gathered enough signatures for ballot access, but not Stapleton.

Of course, Stapleton could still make the primary ballot through the assembly process, but it would be a significant blow to his frontrunner status if he isn’t able to qualify by petition alone. Stapleton’s campaign has no shortage of money thanks to his Bush family ties, so failing to make the ballot through the petition process would be an indication of mismanagement rather than a lack of resources. Farah’s surprise entry into the GOP field is no doubt related — at least somewhat — to unease in Stapleton’s campaign; Farah wouldn’t likely have jumped into the race so late if he didn’t have some indication that the GOP frontrunner was beatable.

GOP caucus-goers in Jeffco go for Stapleton, Everett

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

The Jefferson County Republican Party has released its caucus results, in advance of tomorrow’s Jefferson County meeting where delegates from caucuses will select representatives for the state-wide GOP convention April 14.

Treasurer Walker Stapleton was the clear winner in Jeffco with 436 votes, with Attorney General Cynthia Coffman second at 126 votes, businessman Victor Mitchell third at 99, followed by former Parker mayor Greg Lopez at 81, and former Trump campaign official Steve Barlock at 75. A whopping 377 caucus-goers were undecided.

For state treasurer in Jeffco, State Rep. Justin Everett scored a decisive victory, with 355 votes. State Sen. Kevin Lundberg got 204. There were 435 undecided votes.

The Denver County Republican Party also released results on Facebook, showing Stapleton won with 44 percent of votes, followed by Coffman at 34 percent, Barlock at 33 percent, and businessman Doug Robinson at 28 percent, followed by other candidates.

The Denver GOP totals exceed 100 percent, so they must be discounted as meaningless at press time.

(more…)

Colorado Lawmaker Says Walkout Didn’t Stop Maryland Shooting

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

With teenagers and adults from around the country set to rally in Washington DC tomorrow for expanded gun safety laws, one Colorado lawmaker is apparently dismissing recent student activism because it wouldn’t have prevented a school shooting this week.

Reacting to Tuesday’s shooting at a Maryland high school, Colorado State Rep. Hugh McKean (R-Loveland) wrote on Facebook:

“Apparently, the #walkout these students participated in last week didn’t serve as any means to stop this kind of violence, but a #walkUp certainly could have,” wrote McKean on Facebook.

The “walkUp” referred to by McKean is a idea promoted by conservatives to offer help and kindness to those who appear to need it. It’s person-to-person approach, offered as an alternative to the public activism in support of policy changes that’s been undertaken by teenagers, led by students from Florida.

McKean did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking to know if he thinks the walkout and other activism by students should be completely halted in favor of the WalkUp approach.

New laws, like those sought by student activists, could not possibly have prevented the Maryland shooting because such laws are not in place yet.

(more…)

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