Bernie Sanders’ team questions Microsoft’s involvement in Iowa Caucus app: Sanders’ camp still isn’t clear why Microsoft is a part of the election at all.

323  2016-01-30 by axolotl_peyotl

74 comments

This sort of thing should be open sourced and done by a non-partisan not-for-profit organization, not Microsoft.

Corporate take over.

It shouldn't be outsourced, it shouldn't be every single county doing its own thing. A single electoral office should run the whole show.

This is how we vote for the Parliament all across the country.

And this is how we vote for the Senate all across the country.

Nice and neat and simple.

Australian Electoral Commission runs the whole thing.

the hardest part about voting in Oz is dodging all the people handing out fliers outside. And they close the pubs on voting days.

Or we just do early mail in ballots.

I was watching RT last night, and Larry King was on with the editor of The Nation. First time I've ever heard Sanders speak. He seems pretty much the only sane candidate, tbh.

Vote on the primary date.

Vote on the primary date.

No eligibility I'm afraid. I'm not an American citizen. But I wish him the best.

You'd never seen Sanders before he was on RT??

You'd never seen Sanders before he was on RT??

Nope. I'm not in the US you see. I'd read a lot of stuff he has said, but that's it.

Every president talked a good game during their election campaigns. It is what they do while actually president that matters. Sander's great sounding plan involved raising taxes by $18trillion to cover his promises. And even that sounds like he just made big promises with no real plan to pay for them, then just threw together a whole bunch of tax increases at the last minute to look like he had a plan to pay for it. Typical socialist.

Isn't the 18 trillion the cost over 10 years? Also most of it is money already being spent, paid to private insurance companies.

It also doesn't cover the amount saved.

Raising taxes on the lower middle class is never good.

The new premium tax that will hit most Americans: Sanders would charge a 2.2% "income-based" premium. It would be assessed on taxable income (which includes wages, investment income, etc. minus certain tax breaks).Effectively, Williams said, this means marginal rates across the board will go up -- e.g., the 10% bottom rate becomes 12.2%; 15% become 17.2%, 25% becomes 27.2%, etc.In addition, employers would have to pay a 6.2% tax on each worker's wages to support the system. This payment would replace the money employers currently spend to subsidize employee health insurance.Who wouldn't have to pay the premium tax: The Sanders campaign estimates that about 26% of households -- or roughly 44 million filers -- will not have to pay the 2.2% premium because the value of their standard deduction plus personal exemptions will exceed their total income.That means, for example, a family of four making $28,800 or less would be exempt.

I do agree with that. And as a self-employed person, my payroll taxes would go up to 22%, which sucks because unlike other taxes, there's no getting around payroll taxes, no deductions, no progressive rates. However, I already spend an insane amount of money on healthcare.

However, I already spend an insane amount of money on healthcare.

Well you're in for a surprise if Bernie is elected. He is pushing for a single payers system. That means government nationalizes the role of the private insurers. What happens when government nationalizes something? Mortgages with Fannie Mae? How about when student loans were nationalized? Nationalizing equals rising cost and unsustainable economic bubbles every time.

USPS lowered costs for mailing. Already Medicare lowers costs. A big criticism of Medicare is that costs are too low and doctors are not paid enough (excluding rx drugs).

Actually, nationalization typically results in lower costs.

You're only going to see raised taxes if you are making 250k or more per year.

That is false. It clearly states that if a family of 4 makes $28k+ it will see a 2.2% tax increase. Don't lie to yourself.

They will also see a larger percent of savings on healthcare thus axing that 2.2% increase.

Nationalizing healthcare (single payer) historically makes things more expensive, then creates a bubble, then problems. Just look at the effect on nationalizing mortgages (freddie mac/fannie mae) it caused the housing crisis, just look at the student loan bubble now after government got in the business..

Putting monstrous bureaucracies in control of things always makes them more expensive.

Privatizing it has not worked. Single payer healthcare will be cheaper long term.

All of history shows that statement to be false. Let's not put reality aside just because it's Bernie plan.

Obama's insurance company bailout/gift didn't work because it did not address the problem. The main problem is price gouging by healthcare providers and big pharma. It cost me $7,000 to talk to a doctor for 2 minutes and get a cat scan (over a kidney stone).

ACA keeps the insurance companies in power. Universal healthcare ends that.

With universal healthcare it will cost you much less if anything.

Don't compare ACA to universal healthcare, it's not the same.

He's a democratic socialist. Huge difference.

Every president talked a good game during their election campaigns. It is what they do while actually president that matters. Sander's great sounding plan involved raising taxes by $18trillion to cover his promises.

I really hope he wins. I mean that genuinely.

Exactly, but since this is a Bernie Bot post on here, you can't say that. lol

Presidents have no power at all. No one is going to help Bernie pass anything.

People are falling for Bernie because of his words. So sad to see. He had 20 years to introduce bills, has done nothing significant.

bill gates is a billionaire and bernie is a threat

Yeah that's why they share all of the same goals. Gates loves the idea of GLOBAL SOCIALISM. Bernie is against the billionaires like dicks are against balls. They're working in tandem.

Crazy pills

I think you don't know your recent history all that well. The billionaire class loves the idea of government monopoly and slavery-er... Socialism. It's basically another form of feudalism. Everyone just getting by. Bernie is another step in the acceptance of that goal.

the rich want socialism

the rich want to be taxed

the rich want regulation on their practices

the rich want the rest of society to have a fair shake

Madness

What this is is a meme spread by the paranoid department of the rightwing noise machine to get people to turn away from alternatives to the current neoliberal economic system, to think anything else is just a big plot by Them, so you stay uninvolved and let the business community keep on with what they're doing because you've been convinced the alternative is all a con.

Good god, do you know nothing of how the billionaire class rolls? They put all of their money into tax exempt charitable foundations, they fund the same shit that Bernie is spouting. I DARE YOU to read the book "Foundations: Their Power and Influence". It lays out how in the 1950s a massive conspiracy of the richest people in the country,using tax exempt foundations, were funding a multigenerational plan to yu m merge the USA with the socialist system using academia and popular culture. Go see the things the billionaires fund, their " charitable " causes are all GLOBAL SOCIALISM under the UN. They like it because they're essentially becoming the overlords in the process. You're a useful idiot for their cause and you've been so brainwashed to think that a communist sympathiser like Sanders isn't totally in on the global government scheme. Get there fuck out of here you slow fuck. This Sanders cult shit is so obvious. Go over to /r/unagenda21 they are documenting all of this being brought into fruition. Socialist policies are the key to literal slavery because every aspect of your life will soon be regulated by these things. Give the govt control over your healthcare is giving them to power over everything. They want people in college because that's where the brainwashing really works, note the Sanders cult is most prevalent there. Etc etc.

Double madness.

There are groups that do not want you to think about alternatives to how things are. So they smear the alternatives, make insinuations, suggest that its all a plot by the Jews, the Communists, even the Business community itself in a real act of hubris, to ensure you don't do anything or get involved and just accept the way things are.

Reminds me of when I voted last primaries, mostly just to vote on local stuff, and the only security measure was having us sign in on a Ipad...

American/Australian elections always remind me of Terry Pratchet(mayherestinpeace)'s Discworld.

When "Mad Lord Snapcase" was suceded by "Homicidal Lord Winder" who immediately displayed a reversal of his campaign retoric like Obama not ending the war and signing extra executive orders.

anyway, here comes the new boss same as the old boss

And the beards have grown longer over night.

Or am I the only one who has noticed how beards went from the 3 day shadow to the mountain man look in the last few years.

Can't be any worse than Diebold could it?

Hanging chads

Criminal vote count ion.

All they need to do is change the word Microsoft for Major League Baseball and it'll all make sense.

sander's camp

kek

r/enoughsandersspam

My first post on Sanders ever.

I don't find it spam. Thanks for posting it.

Collective spam, i'm not singling you out.

That's exactly what you're doing, singling one person out for your biased perception.

And it is funny the result was it ends up spamming sanders.

LOOK AT ME EVERYBODY I DON'T LIKE SANDERS I'M DIFFERENT

So hipster it hurts.

oh, a thread.

Microsoft is involved purely due to logistics. As it stands, there's only really two major software developers that have the logistical know how to implement a large deployment of operating systems, security, and connectivity. Those companies being Apple, and Microsoft. While yes, it'd be nicer to have some of the open source systems like Linux used, the problem is that because Linux IS open source, it's not really secure. Anyone with a minimum of coding knowledge can exploit that to their advantage. Granted, while Microsoft isn't perfect, the code is largely proprietary, and unless you know every single thing that Microsoft does and how they do it (which let's be honest here, it's almost impossible to actually do. I know a lot, but not THAT much) then you're not going to be able to do much to damage them.

Logistically speaking then, it's just easier for Microsoft to be involved in the application, since they have the experience working with a large deployment, and the security that comes with extensive work in the field. As opposed to Linux, which is very decentralized, and a hackers dream.

I'm a computer programmer. Virtually everything you said is bullshit.

Right. The US DOD uses Linux, as does the bank of China, and others, for a reason. I'm not sure what to make of that user, lmao. Microsoft is by far the shittiest/most vulnerable OS out there.

I agree. Its Linux that is secure. And apple and Microsoft are far from the only companies that can do stuff large scale. They are just noticed because they are for the public.

"the problem is that because Linux IS open source, it's not really secure."

Not trying to be rude, but are you mentally disabled?

Fortune 250 Software Engineer here.

Everything you said is wrong.

[deleted]

"Engineer" as in "Custodial engineer"?

No.

1) Troll
2) Ignorant

Pick one.

Why not both?

Lol even if there's a shred of truth to what you said, why would they do all that for free?

PR

Publicity.

I guarantee you that the money they spent on R&D, debugging, logistics, and labor to only gain "publicity" in Iowa is unlikely to be the reason.

Linux is most secure because it IS open source. Everyone can see flaws in code and fix it.

The only ones capable of large scale roll outs?
Not in my experience.
I do contract work for a privately owned IT company that specializes in large scale tech roll outs for companies like walmart, regency theaters, dollar tree, etc... (One point of sales project I worked on used the exact same equipment that my states voting get machines use. The only difference was in how it was configured.)
The company I worked at wasn't the only ones in that field. We had plenty of competition from other IT firms.

Don't forget that Microsoft would not fuck it up just to potentially ruin their reputation if caught. I'm sure there's external QA and Dev teams scrutinizing every line. Sanders' groupies just want to, as always, swing at strawmen; they just want to swing at those big evil corporations because otherwise their pathetic little lives would be meaningless.

As to why MS would do this? Excellent PR opportunity.

They aren't going to "fuck it up", its going to go exactly as they expect it to. They get good PR for helping out, and the people they want to win the vote will then reward them. It's a win win.

That's real retarded, sir.

Why would they wait until less than a week before the primary to announce such generous announcement? Why would they do it for free? And how can a company who's employees have donated hundreds of thousands to Hillary's funds decide to hop into the process?

Four days ago, Microsoft predicted that Trump was going to be a slam dunk in Iowa.

None of that sounds weird? Please.

Ok. So. Microsoft posted to their blog that they were going to do this in June. Yet I'm searching major news networks and can't find any coverage. Until about 2-3 days ago. That's the gatekeeper.