So, There's This...

Petition Before SCOTUS Seeks To Nullify Election

The main argument for the writ is that, per Article IV § 4 of the U.S. Constitution, it is the job of the federal government to keep U.S. territory safe from foreign invasion. The Constitution stipulates, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion." The petition cites evidence of such an invasion, namely the Russian hacking, and asks that the entire 2016 election be nullified, all the way back to the primaries, on the grounds that cyber-territory in the U.S. was invaded with the intention of altering the results of our Presidential election. [Source]

It makes sense, to me, but I don't know if it'll actually go further. Still, cyber-warfare, no longer the stuff of SciFi, is becoming an increasingly worrying problem, much of it focused lately on Russia's tinkering with various elections, including, most pertinently, the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. I can't think of an area that qualifies more as cyber-territory than a nation's election programs, and I firmly believe that it is something that has to be clarified last year sometime in order to address these sorts of situations.

But I'm not a political scientist, and I'm really hoping to hear better analysis from someone who is. If I see it, I'll let you know.


Links!

• Library Land
• 'The Poky Little Puppy' And His Fellow Little Golden Books Are Turning 75 "There were a lot of reasons that Golden Books became an instant success when they were first published. The most obvious one was the price — they cost just 25 cents. Up until then, children's books were found mostly in libraries or high-end book stores and were meant to be handled with care." 
• Protect Your Library the Medieval Way, With Horrifying Book Curses 

Given the extreme effort that went into creating books, scribes and book owners had a real incentive to protect their work. They used the only power they had: words. At the beginning or the end of books, scribes and book owners would write dramatic curses threatening thieves with pain and suffering if they were to steal or damage these treasures.

They did not hesitate to use the worst punishments they knew—excommunication from the church and horrible, painful death. Steal a book, and you might be cleft by a demon sword, forced to sacrifice your hands, have your eyes gouged out, or end in the “fires of hell and brimstone.”

• Senate bill would require library in every Nevada school "Every school in Nevada would be required to establish and maintain a library — with a dedicated librarian — under a proposal presented to the Senate education committee.  Sen. Becky Harris, R-Las Vegas, introduced Senate Bill 143 Thursday, which also mandates a librarian on staff because 'a collection of books is not enough,' she said."
• Badass librarians of the Internet Archive "In this age of alternative facts and disappearing government websites, hear how this small group of badass librarians is working to preserve knowledge and empower investigative reporters and ordinary citizens to find webpages those with something to hide would rather you didn't find."
• Health, Science, & Technology
• Sen. Wyden: Border Searches of Digital Devices Should Require a Warrant "This week Sen. Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly stating that he will soon introduce legislation that would require law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before searching the data on digital devices at the border. We applaud Sen. Wyden for taking a stand on this important privacy issue.  Sen. Wyden said that he wants to 'guarantee that the Fourth Amendment is respected at the border.'"
• Randomnesses
• IKEA Releases Free Design For Garden Sphere That Feeds a Neighborhood Want. So. Bad.
• International
• Mexican officials tell US: We don't agree A major disagreement seems to be Trump's plan to send non-Mexican immigrants out of the U.S. to Mexico - and Mexico doesn't plan on taking them, since they aren't, y'know, Mexican. 
• Who is Nils Bildt? Swedish ‘national security advisor’ interviewed by Fox News is a mystery to Swedes "Nils Bildt, billed as a 'Swedish defense and national security advisor' by Fox News, told O'Reilly that...there had been big problems with integrating immigrants into Swedish society. 'These things are not being openly and honestly discussed,' Bildt said.  It was only a brief segment, but it quickly caused controversy back in Sweden, where reporters and experts suggested that Bildt was unknown within the Swedish national security world."
• U.S. Matters
• Republican lawmakers introduce bills to curb protesting in at least 18 states "Since the election of President Trump, Republican lawmakers in at least 18 states have introduced or voted on legislation to curb mass protests in what civil liberties experts are calling 'an attack on protest rights throughout the states.'...Critics doubt whether many of the laws would pass Constitutional muster. 'The Supreme Court has gone out of its way on multiple occasions to point out that streets, sidewalks and public parks are places where [First Amendment] protections are at their most robust,' said Lee Rowland, a senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union."
• Related: Tennessee bill would make drivers immune from civil liability if they hit protesters in street Hey, Mary, now you have something new to discuss on your calls to legislators! 
• San Diego Police Target African American Children for Unlawful DNA Collection "Specifically targeting black children for unlawful DNA collection is a gross abuse of technology by law enforcement. But it’s exactly what the San Diego Police Department is doing, according to a lawsuit just filed by the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties on behalf of one of the families affected. SDPD’s actions, as alleged in the complaint, illustrate the severe and very real threats to privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights presented by granting law enforcement access to our DNA. SDPD must stop its discriminatory abuse of DNA collection technology."
• He yelled ‘Get out of my country,’ witnesses say, and then shot 2 men from India, killing one "The father of one of the people injured pointed to the election of President Trump, who has routinely described a threat posed to Americans from people outside the country’s borders, and pleaded with parents in India 'not to send their children to the United States.' The White House responded by calling the link to Trump’s rhetoric absurd, according to Reuters."
• Democrats elect Tom Perez, former Labor secretary, as new party leader "Perez, the party's first Latino leader, won with 235 votes in a second round of balloting after coming one vote short of a majority in the initial round. His opponent, Rep. Keith Ellison, co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, received 200 votes.... Perez announced he would make Ellison a deputy chair as the room erupted in applause. Ellison urged everyone to support Perez. 'If we waste even a moment going at it over who supported whom we are not going to be standing up for those people,' he said, referring to struggling Americans."
• Trump will not attend the White House correspondents’ dinner

Shortly after Trump’s tweet, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, which sponsors the annual event, said in an email that the dinner would take place even without Trump’s attendance.

“[The dinner] has been and will continue to be a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic,” said Jeff Mason, WHCA president. “We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the best political journalism of the past year and recognizing the promising students who represent the next generation of our profession.”

• Immigration
• Muhammad Ali Jr. detained by immigration at Fla. airport "Mancini said officials held and questioned Ali Jr. for nearly two hours, repeatedly asking him, 'Where did you get your name from?' and 'Are you Muslim?' When Ali Jr. responded that yes, he is a Muslim, the officers kept questioning him about his religion and where he was born. Ali Jr. was born in Philadelphia in 1972 and holds a U.S. passport."
• After first travel ban, Syrian family relieved to be reunited in "the land of justice"  "Among the vast crowds rallying in downtown Seattle on the evening of Jan. 29 were Emtisal and Ahmed Bazara, refugees from Syria. Their two older children had been barred from entering the United States because of an executive order issued by President Trump two days earlier."
• Syrian who worked on nominated film can't attend Oscars Yeah, really working hard to keep out 'the bad guys'. 
• Donald Trump Rejects Intelligence Report on Travel Ban "The compilation and disclosure of an intelligence report so directly at odds with top White House priorities marks an unusually sharp rupture between the administration and career public servants. It also underscores the difficulty President Donald Trump has had in converting his confrontational and bombastic campaign rhetoric into public policy."
• American Citizen Faced Deportation "Caraballo said he repeatedly told officers that he was born in Puerto Rico and therefore an American citizen.  His mother also presented his birth certificate, but despite that and his state-issued ID, officials told him he was facing deportation."
• Does Donald Trump Really Want to Deport Family Members of Deployed Military Members? Apparently - yes. Yes, he does.
• Trump Administration Makes Its First Move to Build Border Wall "President Donald Trump’s administration is soliciting ideas from contractors on how to build its promised wall between the U.S. and Mexico, a first tangible step toward delivering on the president’s signature campaign promise to curb unauthorized immigration." This, despite the fact that most Americans don't support it. 
• Other National Legislation
• States' rights for bathrooms, but not for marijuana More accurately, it's States' rights when they align with Trump's agenda, but not when they don't. Trump isn't interested in legislation and execution of law - he's interested in seeing his will done, and will use any tool he can to accomplish that.
• GOP Obamacare Plan Would Cover Fewer People; Blowback Grows "While the Republican plan would provide tax credits to help people buy insurance, similar to Obamacare, those subsidies would be based on age rather than income. That means poorer people wouldn’t get additional money to help them afford insurance, potentially putting coverage out of financial reach. Republicans have also threatened to roll back an expansion of Medicaid. About 10 million people are covered in Obamacare’s individual insurance markets, and about 12 million have coverage through the Medicaid expansion."
• Key congressman: It’s ‘a good thing’ if more Americans lose coverage 
• Trump Orders Agencies To Reduce Regulations "Of course, one person's job-killing regulation is another's lifesaving rule. Environmentalists warned the president could go overboard in his deregulatory zeal." We'll see what matters more - corporate profit or people's well-being.
• Scandalous
• White House Power Player Jared Kushner Is Keeping Parts of His Real Estate Empire "Kushner’s decision to keep some of his business, ethics lawyers say, raises questions about how he will recuse himself from government matters that could affect his own bank account....Given the sprawling and complicated nature of the Kushner family business, the issue is not academic."
• Trump administration sought to enlist intelligence officials, key lawmakers to counter Russia stories "The Trump administration has enlisted senior members of the intelligence community and Congress in efforts to counter news stories about Trump associates’ ties to Russia, a politically charged issue that has been under investigation by the FBI as well as lawmakers now defending the White House.  Acting at the behest of the White House, the officials made calls to news organizations last week in attempts to challenge stories about alleged contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, U.S. officials said."
• The Trump Administration’s Not-So-Benign Neglect "We cannot ignore the scandals du jour. The Trump administration’s Russia ties represent a threat to national security and the rule of law; its immigration order threatens to tear apart the constitutional fabric that binds us together. However, we must see these scandals in context and stop Trump from leveraging our distraction to disassemble the government in front of our eyes."
• Trump Intensifies His Attacks on Journalists and Condemns F.B.I. ‘Leakers’ I thought he'd decided those 'leakers' didn't exist - that the press was making them up? I'm confused...