Tag: Election Tampering

‘Captain Screw Loose’ Is At It Again

So there is no confusion ‘Captain Screw Loss’ is for this post referring to Little Donny and his mouth….I know it could anyone of a hundred GOPers and their demented minds…..but this is only one person.

Donny is at it again….he has such animosity toward Canada he is injecting himself into their upcoming election.

Since he came into the seat of power he has been pushing the absurd idea that Canada should be the 51st state….and he continues with his mentally deranged rants.

To be honest he has dialed back his 51st state bullsh*t (for now) but he keeps belittling Canada on other fronts.

But he could not let the Canadian elections go without his brand of stupid.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Canada would “cease to exist” if it weren’t for the United States — comments that came just days before Canadians are set to vote in an election dominated by Trump’s remarks on the country’s economy and sovereignty.

Trump reinserted himself into Canada’s election during a signing ceremony inside the Oval Office, saying Canada “would cease to exist as a country” if the U.S. stopped buying its goods.

“I have to be honest, as a state, it works great,” said Trump, who previously threatened to make the country the 51st state through economic coercion.

Trump reiterated his claim that the U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada — including autos and oil.

We don’t really want Canada to make cars for us, to put it bluntly. We want to make our own cars,” Trump said.

In recent weeks, Trump has dialed back his talk of Canada becoming the 51st state. He stopped saying it after a call with new Prime Minister Mark Carney last month.

Trump also suggested Wednesday that he might increase import taxes on cars from Canada. Trump has a 25% tariff on autos, although there are some exemptions related to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, and automakers are seeking other policy changes to minimize the tariff burden. Trump has separate 25% tariffs on Canadian goods — ostensibly to address drug smuggling into the U.S.

https://apnews.com/article/auto-taxes-canada-trump-tariffs-carney-election-82848dc8973e527445eadcec85ece197

He still pretends that Canada will pay the tariffs….what idiot!

As my grandfather use to say ‘his problem is he fires off his mouth before his brain is loaded’.

Donny is making a fool of himself….as usual.

I cannot wait to see what moronic rant comes out of his mouth at the funeral for the Pope.

And you people voted for this clown….and I weep for this nation.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Russia Is Doing It

While we wait for the final tally and a candidate is pronounced as the president-elect…….I thought I would give my readers a few posts to take their mind off their agonizing wait…..

For 4 years we have been told that Russia has been at the heart of the election hacking……day after day the MSM has pointed numerous fingers at Russia…..and with little actual evidence other than”we told you so”.

I am by far no fan of Putin…but that does not mean that he can be blamed for everything that goes wrong in this country…..usually problems of our own making…..

To illustrate how easy it is to blame Russia with little actual proof….

How do you call something “Russian disinformation” when you don’t have evidence it is? Let’s count the ways.

We don’t know a whole lot about how the New York Post story about Hunter Biden got into print. There are some reasons to think the material is genuine (including its cache of graphic photos and some apparent limited confirmation from people on the email chains), but in terms of sourcing, anything is possible. This material could have been hacked by any number of actors, and shopped for millions (as Time has reported), and all sorts of insidious characters – including notorious Russian partisans like Andrei Derkach – could have been behind it.

None of these details are known, however, which hasn’t stopped media companies from saying otherwise. Most major outlets began denouncing the story as foreign propaganda right away and haven’t stopped. A quick list of the creative methods seen lately of saying, “We don’t know, but we know!”:

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/10-ways-to-call-something-russian

And if you just want to blame someone you can always rent a Russian to vent your propaganda toward….by renting one (this is satire)

The election of 2020 is in the bag and whatever results that are tabulated then there will be blame for loss and the best thing to do is blame Russia.

And the count goes on…..

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Does Anyone Remember The Hack Of 2016?

Closing Thought–23Mar20

I know that events and situations around this pandemic are moving at a break neck speed and issues of 4 years ago hold no interests these days…..but after all the exposure the Mueller thingy and the investigation digging and finding Russians were truly messing in our elections.

Does any of that ring a bell?

Just thought you might like to know……after all the pundits opinions, money spent, investigations and indictments issued…..the DOJ has decided to drop the cases……

Big news Monday night: Buried amid the panic over the corona virus. Robert Mueller’s prosecutors got the green light to flush down the toilet  one of their major cases alleging that Russia hacked the 2016 U.S. Presidential election – US District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich on Monday evening granted the DOJ’s motion to dismiss the case against Concord Management and Consulting. This is more than a black eye. It is an indictment and rebuke of a corrupt group of prosecutors who worked for Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. They filed a case without foundation and smeared a group of foreigners that they (the prosecutors) did not think would fight back. Big mistake.

Let me take you back to February 2018. The headlines of the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and The Atlantic blared the following propaganda:

A Cornerstone of Russia Hacked the 2016 Election Collapses

More on the decision…..

The Justice Department is moving to drop charges against two Russian companies that were accused of funding a social media campaign to sway American public opinion during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Prosecutors said they concluded that a trial, against a corporate defendant with no presence in the United States and no prospect of meaningful punishment even if convicted, would likely expose sensitive law enforcement tools and techniques, “potentially undermining their effectiveness.”

Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering were among three companies and 13 individuals charged in 2018 by special counsel Robert Mueller in a conspiracy to spread disinformation on social media during the 2016 presidential race. The effort was aimed at dividing American public opinion and sowing discord in the electorate, officials said.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/feds-to-drop-case-against-two-russian-companies-accused-of-2016-election-meddling-2020-03-16

So basically the whole investigation and indictment process was a massive waste of time and money.

Glad to see that DC is still the wasteful pile of manure it has always been.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“Citizen United” On The Ropes?

Now that the impeachment debacle is over the House has returned to trying to do the work of the people…..

Most Americans know and despise the “Citizen United” ruling by the SCOTUS that gave corporations unlimited power in our elections. But now the House is finally trying to change that damage….

Most Americans agree on background checks for gun purchases, lower prescription drug prices, and the need to take on climate change. But for years, an army of lobbyists and unrestricted outside political spending by corporations have blocked nearly every attempt to make these things happen.

A big reason for this, argues Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), is the the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, which he says has resulted in “the corrosion of our democracy.” The Supreme Court’s ruling notably allowed corporations to create super political action committees (PACs), which are not required to disclose their donors, and spend billions of dollars in US elections.

A growing number of Americans want to get money out of politics. Nearly seven in 10 Americans support a constitutional amendment that overturns Citizens United, according to a 2018 study by the University of Maryland School of Public Policy’s Program for Public Consultation. Now that almost 20 states and more than 800 local governments have called for a constitutional amendment that places reasonable limits on corporate campaign contributions, some members of Congress appear to be listening.

Congress (Finally) Considers Amendment to Overturn Citizens United

I like that idea…..but the House can pass all they want…it will be up to the Senate to come on board…..and I do not see that part of the Congress that is mostly controlled by corporations going against their masters.

In other House news……they have signed on to a pro-labor bill…..

Union leaders and labor rights advocates applauded the Democrat-controlled U.S. House for passing landmark legislation Thursday night that supporters have called one of the most notable efforts to expand workers’ rights in several decades.

House lawmakers voted mostly along party lines to approve the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act (H.R.2474), which passed 224–194 with 12 members not voting. See the roll call vote here.

“This is a watershed moment for the labor movement and shows what working people can accomplish when we come together to demand a voice on the job and a seat at the table,” said Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME, the nation’s largest trade union of public employees.

“Make no mistake, this is the most significant step Congress has taken to strengthen labor laws in the United States in 85 years and a win for workers everywhere,” said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, declaring the measure “the labor movement’s number one legislative priority this year.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/07/victory-workers-house-praised-passing-landmark-pro-act-strengthen-unions-and-labor

Another bill that will die a death in the Senate……

“The Senate where good bills go to die!”

Then there is a waning support for that abortion that Trump calls a “peace plan” for the Middle East…..

Over 100 House Democrats signed a letter, released on Friday, critical of President Donald Trump‘s peace plan for the Middle East.

The two-page letter, with seven pagers of signatures, was led by Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif., and warns that a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine would be impossible under the plan. At a White House ceremony on Jan. 27 unveiling Trump’s 200-page peace plan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to move forward on establishing additional settlements and exercising Israeli control of the disputed West Bank area.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/02/07/Over-100-House-Democrats-sign-letter-rejecting-Trumps-Middle-East-peace-plan/6031581102952/

I agree with these Reps but I need to add….their concern is way too late….the damage is being done…..

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

That Old Meddling Machine

Nope this not another post about the Russian meddling into our elections….this is about the state machine that the US used to meddling in elections around the world…..I have tried to keep my readers thinking….

https://lobotero.com/2018/03/12/when-is-meddling-not-meddling/

https://lobotero.com/2018/08/17/when-is-tampering-tampering/

the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy presented its 2018 Democracy Award to a collection of Korean activists who aim to topple the communist government of North Korea.

The event was timed to coincide with President Donald Trump’s peace summit in Singapore with Kim Jong-Un. The ceremony appeared to be the opening shot of a massive public relations effort aimed at stifling normalized relations with North Korea.

https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/20/inside-americas-meddling-machine-the-us-funded-group-that-interferes-in-elections-around-the-globe/

The US is not guilt free….people whine about the Russian meddling…..and unfortunately…..”what goes around comes around”……the US has always had the attitude that they may do as they wish with no penalty.

A short history of foreign entities that have meddled in US elections…..

Like I said earlier in this post….”karma is a bitch”!

When Is Tampering Tampering?

Have you heard that Russia may have tampered in our 2016 election?

If not….where the Hell have you been and how do I get there?

No this is not my take on whether Russia did or did not tamper….there has been enough speculation in this topic…I will leave that for others that have more visitors than I.

But as long as I have brought up the subject….do you know how many times the US has tampered in other nations elections since 2005?

No?

Then allow me to assist in your knowledge…….how about Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ukraine, etc…..

Read any article about the “Russian hacking” or “U.S. election interference” and you will likely see some reference to the United States’ own long history of election interference. Yet most of these articles defend the U.S. by claiming that such interference campaigns dropped off significantly since the end of the Cold War.

This assumption, however, is fundamentally wrong.

In the past 15 years alone, there are many cases of the U.S. interfering in the Democratic process of foreign nations. Below are some of the worst examples of this election interference.

https://theantimedia.com/5-times-us-meddled-foreign-elections/

Those are the ones that we know of…..I would bet the list is a lot longer and for more years than 13……and yes it is……

The truth is that the US has a long and storied history of tampering in elections……

While the days of its worst behavior are long behind it, the United States does have a well-documented history of interfering and sometimes interrupting the workings of democracies elsewhere. It has occupied and intervened militarily in a whole swath of countries in the Caribbean and Latin America and fomented coups against democratically elected populists.

The most infamous episodes include the ousting of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 — whose government was replaced by an authoritarian monarchy favorable to Washington — the removal and assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba in 1961, and the violent toppling of socialist Chilean President Salvador Allende, whose government was swept aside in 1973 by a military coup led by the ruthless Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/13/the-long-history-of-the-u-s-interfering-with-elections-elsewhere/

Maybe we could try the Golden Rule in this case……

Can I Get A Witness?

Thoughts?

Down South Of The Border

Time for me to venture into the arena of the region of the Monroe Doctrine……all that just means I am going to offer a bit of info about the region of Latin America.

For a couple of decades Latin America has moved toward a growing democracy movement…..and in the last few years that trend has evaporated and now more and more autocrats are coming to power.

Recently Venezuela just held an election and as usual something went wrong…..meaning that Washington will not appreciate the outcome……

Despite Venezuela’s people starving and refugees pouring out of the country, President Nicolás Maduro will stay in office for now. In a deeply flawed election marred by low voter turnout and opposition abstention, Maduro bested his opponents with nearly 70 percent of the vote. With his re-election, dictatorship is on the march in Latin America for the first time in a generation.

Democracy in Latin America has taken a beating over the past century. Every country in the region has toyed with it and periodically discarded it. But with the exception of Cuba, every Latin American country also returned to democracy in recent decades, marking a sea change in freedom and political competition. As recently as a few years ago, some expressed optimism that the end of dictatorship in Latin America was nigh.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/venezuelas-flawed-election-is-the-latest-in-a-regional-shift-toward-authoritarianism.html

Maudro of Venezuela has not been a friend to the US, neither was his predecessor, Chavez (amazing that few can remember the name when 10 years ago he was about to start a war with the US)…….so what happens when someone is elected that DC dos not want in power?

Don’t hurt yourself.  We meddle into their elections.

Watching the current eruptions and flowing lava in Hawaii is strangely similar to observing the ongoing crisis in Venezuela.

In both cases, the situations are fiery, unpredictable and very, very dangerous. And both seem to be moving in slow motion, but manage to convey a sense of a true disaster looming ahead.

Over the past weekend, incumbent Nicolas Maduro won an obviously rigged presidential election with a record low turnout; inflation is too high to sensibly measure; there are widespread food and medicine shortages; the oil industry is effectively out of commission; and millions of Venezuelans are fleeing the country. Violence levels are thought to be the highest in the world, surpassing those of Afghanistan, Somalia and Central America.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-05-23/like-hawaii-venezuela-is-about-to-explode

Look for more sanctions that will hurt the people with the hope they will rise up and take control….think Chile for an example……

Russia meddles….condemn, US meddles, applauded…..

My granddaughter made an observation……she said when we talked about the Russian meddling, “what goes around comes around”…….karma is a bitch huh?

Silly huh?

Closing Thought–13Mar18

Since the 2016 election there has been an on-going tale that the Russians were responsible for the tampering…..and of course the Trumpians out there have accused everyone with the exception of Putin and his gang of thugs…..so make my Trumpian readers happy I will pass on the words of Putin about the tampering allegations….

US leaders are hitting out at Vladimir Putin after statements he made appeared to some to be anti-Semitic. The Russian president was defending his government in an interview with NBC News’ Megyn Kelly Saturday when he said Jews may have been behind 2016 election meddling. “Repulsive Putin remark deserves to be denounced, soundly and promptly, by world leaders,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut wrote on Twitter following the interview, per the Washington Post. Blumenthal’s sentiment was echoed widely by fellow Democrats in Congress, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and others.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that some Democratic legislators have directly demanded that President Trump take a tougher stance on Russia following its leader’s comments. Putin critics have also assailed the leader for his apparent implication that Russian Jews aren’t true Russians. “Maybe they are not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews, but with Russian citizenship, which should also be checked,” Putin said, referring to whoever was behind the meddling. Putin went on to suggest a string of other possibilities behind the election disruption, including France or Germany or even America itself. “Maybe the US paid them for this,” he said. “How can you know that? I do not know, either.”

Maybe it was a 400 lb Jew sitting in his mom’s basement eating Cheetohs……now they have a new dialog they can push now since they do not want to believe that Putin could do this deed…..the tampering thing not the accusation of the Jews……