Day: October 28, 2024

Those Political Donations

As we close in the vote it seems that the begging for bucks has gotten non-stop…..I do not blindly support any party especially with my cash…..but what about others?

All I can say is you need to beware of the robo-calls and such….

A CNN investigation has uncovered a troubling trend in political fundraising, one in which elderly Americans—particularly those with dementia—are unwittingly becoming major donors to campaigns. Both parties have benefited from the practice, which often begins with a small online donation to a candidate. But once the hooks are set, a barrage of texts and emails follow, often deploying deceptive practices that sign people up for recurring donations without them realizing it. Those donating commonly think they’re communicating directly with their favored candidate. The investigation reached out to more than 300 of the largest and most-frequent small-sum political contributors and found dozens of examples of “unwitting elderly donors.”

“The fundraising operations that have solicited money from vulnerable senior citizens use either WinRed or ActBlue, two juggernaut digital platforms that unite hundreds of political groups and campaigns under a single umbrella,” per the story. It’s a profitable enterprise: Each platform gets about 4% off each transaction. The FTC has logged more than 800 complaints about WinRed from 2022 through 2024, and 120 about ActBlue. The story includes multiple examples of families fighting to get back hefty sums, sometimes in the six figures. “He was old, lonely, and isolated,” says the son of an 81-year-old donor who wound up in debt after giving about $80,000 in small but constant increments. “‘Save America, help save America,’ that was the constant message,” adds the son. “He would get thanked for helping to save America.”

These creeps do not care about the person making the donations as long as they get a name and a number.

Please beware of these parasites.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

41 Years Ago

By now all the cheer leaders are drooling over the fact that Israel has finally attacked Iran after weeks and weeks of anticipation.

I would like to point out the there are 100 or so US troops stationed in Israel and now they may be painted with a target on their backs.

Why does this matter?

If you are a child of social media the date will mean nothing to you but it you are a bit older and can remember 1982 then you will understand….

Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, which was the beginning of an occupation that would not end completely until 2000. That Israeli invasion of Lebanon, like the current one, was directly related to the same Israeli policy of bashing and subjugating the Palestinians. Israel’s chief objective in 1982 was to destroy the capabilities, resident in Lebanon at the time, of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and to drive the PLO out of the Levant. Israel also sought to tip the balance of forces within Lebanon — which had already been engulfed in civil war — toward ones partial to Israel.

The Israeli invasion and occupation substantially increased the suffering of Lebanese as well as Palestinian refugees there. One of the most horrifying low points was the massacre in September 1982 at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Phalange militiamen slaughtered an estimated 3,000 civilians while the Phalange’s ally, the Israel Defense Forces, fired illuminating flares so that the killing could continue through the night.

A couple of weeks earlier, the United States under the Reagan administration had agreed to deploy U.S. Marines, alongside small military contingents from France, Britain, and Italy, as part of a multinational force in Lebanon. At least on the face of it, this deployment had a noble peacekeeping mission of quelling the violence in Lebanon. But Lebanese and other observers had reason to perceive the U.S. action as a weighing in on the side of Israel and the internal political forces it favored.

Besides, as with other deployments of U.S. military personnel to already dangerous places, the lethal logic of force protection kicked in, and peacekeeping morphed into offensive action. President Reagan authorized “aggressive self-defense” against hostile forces that posed a threat to the Marines, with those same hostile forces also being adversaries of Israel and its Lebanese militia allies. The U.S. engagement on the ground was supported by naval gunfire, which would later include the battleship New Jerseyfiring 16-inch shells at targets in the mountains near Beirut.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/marine-barracks-bombing-in-beirut/

You see our adventurism has a good chance of turning around and biting us on the ass.

I hope there is not a repeat of Lebanon….but do not hold your breath.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”