GotNews and Zero Hedge is IMO just about as reputable as Superstation95 and Infowars (UFO’s and ancient pyramids in Antarctica “articles” notwithstanding - /s).
The Zero Hedge “article” is a copy and pasted verbatim from Charles C. Johnson’s GotNews site.
Charles C. Johnson likes to think of himself as an “investigative journalist” but he has a rather inconsistent and somewhat shady reputation.
Johnson does do some good research and he gets a few things right, i.e. the Rolling Stone “Jackie” article, finding out that Elizabeth O'Bagy, a foreign policy analyst did not have a Ph.D. from Georgetown University as she had claimed on her application to the Institute for the Study of War. Then again some claim Johnson’s own resume is a bit puffed up.
Johnson also gets a lot wrong and his “research” is often sloppy and sometimes irresponsible, i.e. publishing a picture and some personal information of someone he believed to be that of the said “Jackie” which turned out to be not the same person; falsely accusing U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) of soliciting underage prostitutes in the Dominican Republic (not that Menendez isn’t dirty as Hell but this particular accusation fell apart – a criminal investigation of the case found no evidence and the women making the allegations later admitted they had been paid to make the claims by a local lawyer, someone with possible ties to the Cuban government); and publishing an article reporting that New York Times reporter David D. Kirkpatrick was arrested for exhibitionism and posing for Playgirl - Johnson's source for the Playgirl claim was a January 22, 1990, article in The Daily Princetonian, which was later revealed to be satirical. FWIW - Johnson was forced to apologize to Kirkpatrick.
He also IIRC was involved in and offered money for photos of Senator Thad Cochran’s wife in her nursing home bed.
And IIRC, Johnson may have also been the original source for the “story” picked up by many other sites including ConservativeTree(Nut)House and Breitbart that claimed that the Liz Mair – anti-Trump - Make America Awesome PAC that ran the ad with a semi-nude Melania Trump pic was connected to a Carly Fiorina PAC and ergo to Ted Cruz, because both PAC’s shared the same PO Box address, but that was only because they happened to use the services of Chris Marston and his company Election CFO – which many PACs and Republican campaigns use.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3414857/posts?page=95#95That alone makes me at least somewhat suspicious of Johnson’s claims regarding the PO Box addresses, especially since many charities will use an outside accounting firm that will perform among other things like the tax filings, may also collect and deposit and process donations and use a common PO Box belonging to that firm, used for many of their clients.
As to the Ashley Madison claim, I just don’t know. Yes, many people including the pervy Duggars’ son were outed as a result of the AM hack, but then again some people have been the subject of having their email addresses hacked and their ID’s and CC numbers stolen and used for nefarious purposes, so I’d like to see more evidence before I’d use Johnson’s screen shot alone as convicting Suprum.
Heck. I still every month or two, get spam emails from hardcore porn sites from my eldest niece’s ex-husband’s email address after she signed him up, using his Yahoo email and his CC info to sign him up for them as revenge against him during their very nasty and protracted divorce. He has changed his password many times and tried to close and no longer uses that email address, but I still occasionally get spam emails from it.
The bankruptcy is IMO no big deal. Heck I went through one. My older brother went through two. That doesn’t make me or my brother bad persons (I hope) and Trump has utilized bankruptcy laws to his advantage more than once – just saying.
As to “electors” not voting as their state did, I’d have to research more. I believe that individual states legislate as to how their electors must vote or whether or not they allow uncommitted electors or allow “faithless” electors.
I will point out however that we are a Republic and not a Democracy.
The Electoral College mechanism and the peculiar phenomenon of faithless electors provided for within it, was, in part, deliberately created as a safety measure not only to prevent a scenario of tyranny of the majority, but also to prevent the use of democracy to overthrow democracy for authoritarianism, dictatorship, kleptocracy, or other system of oppressive government.[4] American founding father
Alexander Hamilton writing to Jefferson from the Constitutional Convention argued of the fear regarding the use of pure direct democracy by the majority to elect a demagogue who, rather than work for the benefit of all citizens, set out to either harm those in the minority or work only for those of the upper echelon. As articulated by Hamilton, one reason the Electoral College was created was so "that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications."[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_electorLet’s say, just for the purposes of speculation and discussion, that between today and when the EC casts their votes, that something really bad comes out about Trump, something so bad such as irrefutable proof of Trump working directly with Putin to throw the election in Trump’s favor or something else just as bad if not worse, something so bad that it would or should disqualify him from being sworn in as POTUS. Conversely, if Hillary had won the electoral vote and likewise additional information came out irrefutably disqualifying her from serving.
Should the electors in that case be forced to vote as their state voted in early November or allowed to, presuming the voters had made a bad choice based on information not available on election day, save the Republic from the voter’s bad choice?
Hamilton seemed to think they had that discretion.
In truth and IMO, something that many people forget is that when we go to our polling place on the first Tuesday in November every four years to cast our ballot for POTUS, we are NOT actually voting for the POTUS and the VP candidate BUT we are voting for the slate of our state’s electors, voting for them to be our representatives in the Electoral College.
As the electors are for the most part elected by either their Republican or Democratic state party apparatuses, the slate of state electors elected are going to cast their votes accordingly based on if that state voted for either the Republican or Democratic slate of electors.
But if the electors are forced to vote as their state voted, then why have any electors at all?
Why have an Electoral College at all?
Why not just eliminate it all together and assign the EC college votes based on the results of the election immediately after the election results are certified and without the “formality” of having any electors voting, or why not just eliminate the EC college all together and go with the popular vote?
What you say isn't really correct. The electoral college as originally envisioned was supposed to be a special institution made up of representatives selected by the states, the sole purpose of which was to select the next president. It wasn't intended to represent the views of the populace particularly, but to make a sober selection of the best person to hold the position of president for the next four years. Read this for more elucidation:
http://www.electoralcollegehistory.com/electoral/federalist68.asp
Thanks.
The story goes that as Benjamin Franklin emerged from Independence Hall at the close of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 18, 1787, a woman asked him, “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”.
Mr. Franklin replied, “A republic, madam – if you can keep it.”
