Coeur d’Alene Election

March 30, 2017

SSCI Hearings: Russian Influence on the 2016 US Presidential Election

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Coeur d'Alene Election, Counterintelligence, Disinformation, MSS, News Reporting, Trump Impeachment, Voter Fraud — Bill @ 8:24 pm

On Thursday, March 30, 2017, the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) held an entire day of public hearings in Washington, DC. The SSCI was looking into the allegations that the Russians had influenced the outcome of the 2016 presidential election which elected Donald F. Trump to be the 45th President of the United States. The nature of its duty, Congressional oversight of US intelligence activities, results in very few open public hearings.

OpenCdA watched these hearings lasting just over five hours. Congressional hearings are nearly always predominantly boring speechifying by self-serving elected Congressional representatives. These two hearings today were not boring, and there was nearly no partisan speechifying.

The Senators on the SSCI were exceptionally well-prepared and asked on-point, insightful questions. The content of their questions and the perspectives and expertise offered by the witnesses suggested that Congress has finally recognized the ongoing threat that information warfare or information operations presents to the United States. Senators took these hearings and the information from them very seriously. We should, too.

OpenCdA urges citizens who are serious about understanding how effectively the Russians use information warfare strategies and tactics to offset a superior kinetic warfare force will find these five hours of hearings remarkably understandable and educational. The same readers will also better understand just how effectively Russia has manipulated our free press (AKA: the skews media) to influence public opinion. Unfortunately, the hearings also revealed in living color just how derelict our elected officials have been since about 1990 in recognizing the existence, let alone the gravity of info war and info ops.

Here are links to video of Thursday’s hearings.

Morning Hearing: Disinformation: A Primer in Russian Active Measures and Influence Campaigns

Afternoon Hearing: Disinformation: A Primer in Russian Active Measures and Influence Campaigns

OpenCdA hopes that especially younger readers will take time to watch these hearings. You need to understand just how your choice of news delivery platform, often social media like Twitter and Facebook and not just the traditional print and broadcast media, is being manipulated to shape the disinformation you read every day. You will also hear just how easily the Russians turned President Trump’s frequent Tweets against him.

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December 3, 2012

Brannon Petition for Rehearing Filed

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Coeur d'Alene Election, News Reporting — Bill @ 9:03 am

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The parties and their attorneys in the 2009 Coeur d’Alene election contest lawsuit were notified by the Idaho Supreme Court that Brannon’s Petition for Rehearing Pursuant to I.A.R. 42 was filed this morning.

With this morning’s filing, the Petition is now a matter of public record and can properly be published in its entirety. OpenCdA chose not to publish the Petition until after it became a public record with the filing today.

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November 17, 2012

2009 Election Contest Lawsuit Appeal Decision

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Coeur d'Alene Election, Dan English, Mike Kennedy, Sandi Bloem, Voter Fraud — Bill @ 11:52 am

On Friday, November 16, 2012, the Idaho Supreme Court filed its decision affirming the trial court’s decision in the 2009 Coeur d’Alene election contest lawsuit. Here is a link to the Supreme Court’s decision.

In response to OpenCdA’s request, appellant Jim Brannon provided this prepared statement.

Thanks to the efforts, diligence, and integrity of Jim and Christine Brannon, Starr and Matt Kelso, and the many volunteers who donated time, money, and labor beginning November 6, 2009, many flaws in Idaho’s election laws and many failures of duty by city, county, and state public officials have been exposed for public scrutiny. To the extent those flaws either have been corrected by the election of new officials or legislative action, the election contest lawsuit served to benefit all legal voters in Idaho. (more…)

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September 9, 2012

“I’d Follow the Law”

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Coeur d'Alene Election — Bill @ 7:59 am

On September 19 when the Idaho Supreme Court convenes in Coeur d’Alene to hear oral arguments in the election contest lawsuit Brannon v. City of Coeur d’Alene et al, it will have been exactly 1024 days (2 years, 9 months, 20 days) since the lawsuit was filed to try and restore integrity to the Kootenai County and State of Idaho election processes.

Due in large part to an undisguised effort by our local and regional news media to avoid reporting just how badly the November 2009 Coeur d’Alene City election was administered by the City of Coeur d’Alene and its contractor Kootenai County, most people still have only a vague idea why the election contest was filed. Many voters accepted the propaganda line spewed by the City and County: “Sour grapes by the loser.” That’s a convenient and easy excuse for lazy minds to accept and even lazier election officials and “journalists” to promote, but it is wrong. (more…)

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September 5, 2012

Malconduct?

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Coeur d'Alene Election, Dan English, Mike Kennedy — Bill @ 6:39 am

When the Idaho Supreme Court convenes in Coeur d’Alene (City) on September 19 to hear the oral arguments in the 2009 election contest lawsuit Brannon v. City of Coeur d’Alene et al , one of the issues on appeal is whether Senior Judge Charles Hosack “erred in dismissing the [Brannon] claim of malconduct, refusing to permit the complaint to be subsequently amended to assert a claim of malconduct, and holding that there was insufficient evidence in the record to find malconduct.”

I believe Judge Hosack ruled incorrectly and that there was sufficient evidence already in the record to have proven malconduct committed by the City and Kootenai County (County) if the Court had allowed the complaint to be amended.

“Malconduct” and the information supporting my opinion that it took the form of frauds against voters and candidates in the 2009 City election are explained in detail in my paper titled Malconduct in the 2009 Coeur d’Alene City Election. (more…)

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July 30, 2012

2009 City Election Contest Lawsuit Update

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Coeur d'Alene Election, Dan English, Mike Kennedy, Voter Fraud — Bill @ 3:42 pm

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The Idaho Supreme Court has notified the parties’ attorneys that oral arguments in the 2009 election contest lawsuit appeal (Brannon v. City of Coeur d’Alene, et al) will be heard Wednesday, September 19, 2012, at 11:10 a.m. at the Kootenai County Courthouse.

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May 21, 2012

Correct Information

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Coeur d'Alene Election, Public Corruption, Recall Election, Sandi Bloem — Bill @ 12:17 pm

Those of us who have been out gathering signatures on the petitions for recall of Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem, Council President Mike Kennedy, Councilman Woody McEvers, and Councilman Deanna Goodlander have become accustomed to people expressing both agreement and disagreement with the recall effort.

Sunday afternoon between noon and 4 p.m. my wife and I were twirling recall signs and gathering signatures just north of the Midtown Shopping Center (Safeway, Joann Fabric) between Birch and Miller on 4th Street. A man whom I recognized as a high-level employee of the Coeur d’Alene Public Library left the shopping center parking lot, and as he drove past me at a distance of 8-10 feet, he shouted, “You’re responsible for taking away my vote, A__h___e!” Then he went north on 4th and turned right on Birch. (more…)

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May 3, 2012

Is He Believable?

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Administrative Incompetence, Coeur d'Alene Election, Recall Election — Bill @ 7:09 am

The More-or-Less Press news/views/skews online posting on May 2 titled County drops suit, wants petitions by June 11 indicated that Secretary of State Ben Ysursa’s letter of May 1 to City Clerk Susan Weathers and County Clerk Cliff Hayes had played an important role in the County’s decision to dismiss its petition for declaratory relief.

In his May 1, 2012, letter, Ysursa stated that his determination [now] is that Recall CdA has some unspecified amount of time but clearly fewer than 75 days to gather valid signatures on its recall petitions. (more…)

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May 2, 2012

Does Ysursa’s Opinion Really Matter?

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Coeur d'Alene Election, Disinformation, Recall Election — Bill @ 8:12 am

According to this morning’s article in the More-or-Less Press, the CdA Ministry of Disinformation has persuaded Secretary of State Ben Ysursa to help them defeat the effort by a large number of Coeur d’Alene citizens to recall Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem, Council President Mike Kennedy, Councilman Woody McEvers, and Councilman Deanna Goodlander.

The MinDis induced the Secretary of State Ben Ysursa to sign a very official-looking and -sounding letter in which he suggests that he and no other should be considered the supreme and final authority on the interpretation of the state’s election laws. (more…)

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February 5, 2012

Relaunch the Satellites?

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: Coeur d'Alene Election, Voter Fraud — Bill @ 9:38 am

OpenCdA’s August 22, 2011, post titled Pulling the Plug on Satellites explained that Kootenai County Clerk Cliff Hayes had decided to close all but one absent electors’ voting place in Kootenai County.

According to an Associated Press article on November 10, 2011, other county clerks in Idaho had made the same decision — limit absent electors’ polling places to one, and have it located in the county’s elections administration office. That same article observed that Idaho’s Secretary of State Ben Ysursa would likely support some changes to the election consolidation law which had taken effect only eleven months earlier. Whereas the county clerks were concerned about election integrity and ballot security, Ysursa was apparently primarily concerned about voter convenience.

Still, there may be a way county clerks could relaunch satellite voting locations in municipalities without sacrificing election integrity and ballot security.

(more…)

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