Politicians to Watch For 2012, 2016

[Ivanhoe]

An amusing dissection of the Gary Johnson campaign;

 

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2017/tle908-20170129-02.html

[Panzermann]

smear campaign against recount or just an angry student?

 

Forged racist emails cause stir at University of Michigan

Yesterday

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) Someone sent racist and anti-Semitic emails to University of Michigan students and made it look like they were from a computer science professor who pushed for presidential election recounts in several states.

About 40 students protested early Wednesday outside the home of the school's president, Mark Schlissel, about the spoofed emails that appeared to be from J. Alex Halderman, a computer security expert who called for recounts of the election results in some states to ensure that a cyberattack hadn't manipulated the totals.

Halderman denied sending the messages, calling them a "cowardly action." He told the campus newspaper, The Michigan Daily, that it requires little technical sophistication to forge a sender's name in an email.

After meeting with Schlissel and Halderman outside of Schlissel's home shortly before 1 a.m. and discussing racial incidents on campus, student protesters said they were convinced Halderman didn't send them.

"We were in shock," junior Mary Wills said of the emails. "But then we talked to some others and realized someone had done something to his email. There's no way he would have sent this out."

The emails were sent mostly to engineering students Tuesday with subject lines such as "African American Student Diversity" and "Jewish Student Diversity." Two messages included the phrase "Heil Trump."

A school spokesman, Rick Fitzgerald, said it wasn't a hack and that campus police are investigating. It's not known if the emails were connected to Halderman's activism after the election.

https://apnews.com/d5d3cfdfcc3345c2967a74fb28aaf838

[Stuart Galbraith]

Im not sure this is the right thread, but we dont seem to have a 'Because Italy' thread. And im not putting it on the Skripal thread because everyone will ignore it.

 

https://www.pattayatoday.net/berlusconi-sex-trial-witness/

Italy is investigating the mysterious death of a former model and witness at Silvio Berlusconi’s sex trial, with a newspaper suggesting on Saturday she may have been poisoned with a radioactive substance.

Milan prosecutor Francesco Greco said an investigation had been opened following the death on March 1 of Moroccan-born Imane Fadil at one of the city’s hospitals.

The 33-year-old had been brought to the hospital on January 29 with unexplained stomach pains.

Fadil was one of the witnesses who testified at the trial of the former Italian premier and media mogul on charges of having sex with an underage prostitute at one of his notoriously hedonistic bunga-bunga parties.

According to Italy’s Corriere della Sera daily, the hospital had run a battery of tests to determine the cause of her failing health, but finding nothing, had sent off samples to a specialised laboratory in the northern town of Pavia.

The results came back on March 6, five days after her death, suggesting the presence of “a mixture of radioactive substances which are not normally available for purchase”, the paper said, citing unnamed sources.

Fadil’s lawyer, Paolo Sevesi, said she had spoken to him about “her fear of having been poisoned,” the AGI news agency reported.

The former model first hit the headlines in 2012 when she gave detailed testimony about the goings on at Berlusconi’s orgiastic parties at his villa in Arcore near Milan.

She testified that the first time she went to a party, she saw two young women in nun costumes stripping in front of the then prime minister. Later, she said he himself handed her 2,000 euros ($2,600) in cash, telling her: “Don’t be offended.”

Berlusconi has faced a string of charges over the so-called Rubygate scandal linked to his parties and the underaged prostitute Karima El-Mahroug, also known as “Ruby the heart-stealer”.

Now 82, the billionaire businessman is currently on trial for paying a witness to give false testimony about his parties.

Berlusconi is already being investigated or prosecuted for witness tampering in Milan, Sienna, Rome and Turin, each time for allegedly paying people to keep quiet about his bunga-bunga parties.