NPR has published Apple's Feb. 17, 2016 response to a federal magistrate judge in New York who requested information the day before on instances in which the Feds are seeking assistance unlocking encrypted data on iPhones. You can view it here. The case is In re Order Requiring Apple Inc. to Assist in the Execution of a Search Warrant Issued by the Court, No. 15-MC-1902, Eastern District of New York. The Magistrate Judge is Jamie Orenstein, who has long been concerned about the privacy intrusions inherent in government requests for cell phone data. Here's an example from last October. [More...]

Harry Reid has endorsed Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

Reid said he took pains to remain neutral in the competition between Clinton and Bernie Sanders so he would not be accused of rigging the caucuses.

John Kasich is not dropping out.

Kasich's campaign is running a strategy that relies on surviving through the March 1 Super Tuesday contest and winning Michigan's March 8 primary. Kasich says people need to "chill out" because there's a "long way to go" in the GOP nominating contest.

[More...]

Bernie Sanders seemed very tired tonight at the Democratic town hall.

Hillary is on now. She was just asked about going to a women's college by a law student who presupposes that no one takes women seriously. Is this really 2016? Maybe the law student secretly prefers John Kasich who talks about his supporters who left the kitchen to work on his campaign.

I'm just as tired of the Levi jeans ad with Alicia Keyes touting women and Weight Watchers' "empowering" ads with Oprah.

What is up with these women law students and their "woe is me" attitude? Law schools today are half female. When I went to law school, there were 5 or 7 females out of a class of 200 and I didn't feel discriminated against. I had the same opportunities as every other student. My advice: Get over it. Pick a different career. Celebrate what you have instead of whining and maybe people will take you seriously. Stop feeding victimhood. [More...]

Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome.

Emma Colonel Aispuro, the 26 year old beauty queen wife of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, gave an extensive interview to journalist Anabel Hernandez. It aired on Telemundo last night.

The purpose of the interview: Emma says she fears for El Chapo's life due to the unbearable conditions under which he is now being held.

The close captioning on Xfinity was pretty bad, but here's what I understood her to say [This is from memory, I didn't take notes during it]: [More...]

Hillary Clinton flew from Nevada to Texas late yesterday and gave a speech at Texas Southern University. (She had a coughing fit, and for about a minute, her voice was a whisper. Did no one have a bottle of water to give her? )

Lines were long and people were enthusiastic to see and hear from the presidential candidate in person.

She hit every topic a few times, from discrimination against the LGBT community, to racism, the criminal justice system, income inequality, immigration, education, etc. She hit Bernie Sanders hard, saying he shouldn't be making promises he can't keep -- like his promises of free tuition for all. (He can't make it happen with the current Republican Governor of Texas.) She said we shouldn't be raising taxes of the middle class. [More...]

Jeb Bush suspended his campaign tonight following his dismal performance in South Carolina.

Jeb blew through $150 million. He had the largest war chest of any Republican. His campaign was an epic fail. Whose fault is it? Those who encouraged him to run, those who ran his campaign, or the boring Jeb himself?

The TV coverage tonight is all about South Carolina, there's very little about Nevada.

I could only stand to watch under a minute each of Rubio and Cruz' speeches. I think they will be irrelevant after the southern states are done. Republicans in the big states like New York and California will figure out that Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or any evangelical is unelectable in November against any Democrat. This country is just not going to elect a radical right extremist as President. [More...]

Hillary Clinton bested Bernie Sanders today in the Nevada Democratic caucuses. As of now,
Hillary has 52.5% to Bernies 47.4% with 86% of the vote in. The LA Times reports Bernie won the northern Nevada counties that Obama took in 2008, while the Washington Post says her support among African-Americans was very strong, and Bernie did pretty well among Latinos.

But according to preliminary entrance polls reported by CNN, she won among black Democrats by a whopping 76 percent to 22 percent. African Americans made up 13 percent of the electorate, according to the entrance poll, while 19 percent were Hispanic and 59 percent were white. Sanders held an eight-point edge among Hispanic voters, who accounted for roughly 1 in 5 caucus-goers, and the two candidates split white voters about evenly.

The LA Times also says Hillary won the casino vote. The Caesar's precinct chair says the vote was 190 for Hillary and 81 for Sanders. More on this from the Wall St. Journal. Here's a photo of Bill in the Caesar's ballroom at caucus time: [More...]

Donald Trump wins the South Carolina primary. Cruz and Rubio battle for second.

Trump's victory was sweeping. He won among veterans and non-veterans, moderates and conservatives, evangelicals and non-evangelicals, women and men, according to the results of the exit poll conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and the major television networks.

As he has throughout the campaign, Trump dominated the vote of Republicans without a college education and those with incomes below $100,000. College graduates were closely divided among backers of Trump, Cruz and Rubio. Those with incomes above $100,000 split their vote between Trump and Rubio, the exit poll indicated.

Why am I watching the Late Late Show with James Corden for the third time this week (having never seen it before?) Because he's so happy.

I'm serious. I'm really tired of bickering, negativity and Republicans. And bedtime has to be the worst time to watch, read or write about politics.

Since we already have new threads up today on South Carolina, Nevada, Trump and Hillary, here's an open thread for non-election related topics. All other topics welcome -- happy or not.

Today is caucus day for Nevada Democrats. Will Nevada Latinos buy into Bernie Sanders? Or will they take a pass? Nevada civil rights activist Dolores Huerta is pushing hard for Hillary. She says Bernie Sanders is a spoiler on immigration.

©ivil right activist Dolores Huerta intercepted potential voters as they lined up to make their lunch orders [at Tacos El Gordo restaurant] and urged them to caucus for Hillary Clinton.

"I was reminding them -- these are young Latinos, children of immigrants -- that way back in 2007, we had a great opportunity to pass immigration reform," Huerta said. "And Hillary Clinton also co-authored that bill with Senator [Ted] Kennedy. But Bernie Sanders came out against the vote."

"He was a spoiler on the immigration bill and he’s a spoiler in this campaign."

Her online editorial recounts Bernie's immigration vote as an Independent in the Senate and calls him a "Johnny Come Lately" on immigration reform: [More...]

It's finally time for Republicans to vote in South Carolina. Last minute predictions?

Time Magazine reports:

For Republicans, South Carolina offers 50 pledged delegates, about 2% of the convention total, of which 29 will will be awarded to the highest statewide vote getter, and three will be awarded to the higher vote getter in each of the state’s seven congressional districts. The hybrid system may allow multiple candidates to find a reason to claim success.

Ted Cruz is fighting Trump and Rubio for the evangelical vote. [More...]