Interesting if true; interesting anyhow.
#usapolitics
Trump tells supporters, "Don't bother to vote." WTF??
Right-wingers sabotaging the vote in multiple ways nationwide.
#USAPolitics #Election2024 #Trump #Fascism #VoteInterference
Is Donald Trump the new Hillary (or Bill) Clinton?
Why Trump is having such a hard time adjusting to a new opponent
Washington Week PBS with The Atlantic
FTV: "The reason is he so obsessed about Biden is that now he can never avenge 2020." That's an interesting point. But I think he's also obsessed because he knew how to attack Biden (the same way the media were), and that doesn't work with Harris.
#USAPolitics #Trump #Harris #Election2024 #AmericanPsychology
Disturbingly plausible
More than just lying: How Trump's distortions are setting up his post-election scheme
Trump is laying the groundwork to reject the election results in case he loses. He did the same thing in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
#USAPolitics #Trump #Fascism #Plan #PlanToStealThe2024Election
Y'all know this. But it's still nice to be reminded.
‘Spiraling, whining, and miserable:’ Trump melts down as Harris surges in polls
Harris is surging. It seems a large number of Americans are happy to have someone sane (and young) running for POTUS.
Trump and his cult may finally be on the way out. For now. It's not like they're going away.
As you already know, what the MAGATs are working toward is what every sane person fears.
In case you can stomach the gory details, here they are:
Agenda 47: Trump's & the GOP's Dystopian Nightmare Plan for America Revealed
If you thought it can’t happen here, I have an old Sinclair Lewis book to share with you…
By Thom Hartmann
FTA: If Trump is re-elected, he’d be America’s 47th president, so he’s named the plans for his second term “Agenda 47.” At best, it’s a dystopian nightmare: at worst it means ending our current system of American government; aligning the US with Russia and other autocratic nations; and the USA leading the charge against democracy and in favor of authoritarian, strong-man forms of government across the world.
Over at his website, Trump lays out the details of his governing agenda, complete with short videos promoting each of the steps he plans to take. They, and his many statements about future plans, include:
[Each of these broad goals is accompanied by horrifying details that are worth reading. "Agenda 47" is a recipe for fascism. In case you don't believe that now ("Surely, all this talk of 'fascism' is hyperbole!"), you will understand it after reading the details. If you are sane, you should read it just to have an idea of what might be in your future. And if you like fascism, you should read it as an instruction manual.]
Criminalizing homosexuality...
Destroy academic freedom and gut our public schools...
Gut the EPA, OSHA, CPSB, IRS, the Labor Department, and other federal agencies that keep our air clean, our water pure, and protect average Americans from predation by the morbidly rich and their corporations...
Destroy the media and the truth...
Turning America into a vigilante police state...
Corrupting the federal government...
Making the nation’s police into Trump’s private enforcers...
“Freedom cities”
OK, this one deserves a bit more detail for those who don't bother to read the whole article in case you, like I, do not immediately get the reference:
... Trump is promising to build “freedom cities” in his second term. The main feature he’s discussed is that people will get around in them in “flying cars.”
While it’s being portrayed as a goofy stunt designed to make him seem like an imaginative idealist, in fact there has been a movement among rightwing billionaires for some time to create cities that they basically run as little feudal fiefdoms, the same way the morbidly rich run their companies and their football teams...
Ending democracy across Europe and the world...
Even more horrific than you're probably imagining.
#Trump #USAPolitics #Dystopia #Fascism
https://hartmannreport.com/p/project-47-trumps-and-the-gops-dystopian-3b1
An interesting analysis of the Ron DeSantis algorithm, an algorithm for fascism. A pathetically simple algorithm it is. And why, in this instance, the algorithm is likely to fail.
How pudding and a mouse ended DeSantis' White House dream
The crux, FTA: The Ron DeSantis method of politics is to watch enough television to learn what the new conservative culture war is supposed to be, upon which he adopts it as the newest fundamental aspect of his persona.
#DeSantis #Politics #USAPolitics #Fascism
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/1/2166955/-DeSantis-will-never-be-DePresident
Dems finally starting call Repubs on their shit
This is a big deal, folks. Biden exposes GOP deficit peacocks for the frauds they are
Murder rates in red and blue areas are the opposite of what republicans claim
Republicans love to claim that murder rates are higher in blue areas (mostly cities), but a look at the data shows that this claim, like everything else republicans say, is a bald-faced lie.
This should come as no surprise, but I for one (and I suspect many other liberals) am/are still surprised to learn that republicans have lied yet again. Not exaggerated; not stretched the truth; out and out fucking lied.
I think the reason I can't fathom this reality is that I am unable to empathize with republicans: There is simply no universe I can imagine in which I would lie with the reckless abandon -- the sheer disregard for truth -- with which republicans lie. I simply cannot imagine a species vile enough to do such a thing.
But this is what republicans are. And until we liberals give up trying to empathize with/understand these subhumans and deal with the reality of what they actually are, we will never defeat them and their fascist agenda: A person who plays by the rules can never defeat one who cheats unless they understand the ubiquity and nature of the cheating.
We don't have to stoop to their tactics, but we sure as hell have to understand them and adapt our own tactics to them. And the first step in this process is to accept that republicans will never be honest brokers in anything, ever.
GOP's packing SCOTUS is paying large dividends for authoritarians.
SCOTUS decision could lead to legislatures deciding outcome of presidential race
We are approaching the point where votes no effect on the outcome of "elections".
Environmental progress! (Back to where we were before Trump, but that's something.)
Federal judge throws out Trump administration rule allowing the draining and filling of streams, marshes and wetlands
Many farm and business groups backed the rule, but a U.S. district judge ruled it could lead to ‘serious environmental harm’
A federal judge Monday threw out a major Trump administration rule that scaled back federal protections for streams, marshes and wetlands across the United States, reversing one of the previous administration’s most significant environmental rollbacks.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez wrote that Trump officials committed serious errors while writing the regulation, finalized last year, and that leaving it in place could lead to “serious environmental harm.”
A number of business and farm groups had supported the push to replace Obama-era standards with the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, on the grounds that states were better positioned to regulate many waterways and that the previous protections were too restrictive.
The ruling in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, which applies nationwide, will afford new protections for drinking-water supplies for millions of Americans, as well as for thousands of wildlife species that depend on America’s wetland acreage.
... The decision underscores the extent to which legal fights are shaping environmental policy across the country. Just this month, the Interior Department said it would resume auctioning off new oil and gas leases to comply with an order by a Louisiana federal judge, while another federal judge blocked a controversial oil project planned for Alaska’s North Slope.
[Of course, money will fight back]
Home builders, oil drillers and farmers — who have long argued that earlier restrictions on developing land made it too difficult to do their work — are likely to appeal.
“The fallout for private property owners, especially farmers, is that they’re going to be cast back into a situation where they have a lot more uncertainty,” said Mandy Gunasekara, who served as EPA’s chief of staff during Trump’s last year in office.
In June, the Biden administration announced that it would write regulations to strengthen wetland protections but would keep the Trump-era rule on the books while it did so. But tribal and environmental groups pressed the court in Arizona to vacate the previous administration’s rule sooner, since some wetlands may be irreparably harmed during the time it would take to replace it.
“We came in and said, ‘No, no, no, no, you can’t leave this in place,’" said Janette Brimmer, a senior attorney for Earthjustice, which represented the Native American and green groups in court. She added, “This is hugely good.” [emphasis mine]
... With Monday’s court ruling, agencies will go back to applying water protection standards from the 1980s, which are more expansive than the Trump-era rule but not as sweeping as Obama’s.
#Environment #USAPolitics #Earthjustice
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/30/water-rule-trump/
As always, it's the Republicans who are committing election fraud.
Colorado Republican official accused after voting system passwords are leaked to right-wing site
A bizarre security breach of a rural Colorado county’s voting system has in a matter of days escalated into a criminal probe of the clerk’s office, a ban on the county’s existing election equipment, and heightened partisan divides over election-fraud claims.
Footage that showed passwords related to the county’s voting systems was surreptitiously recorded during a May security update and published last week on a far-right blog, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) said Thursday. Griswold determined Mesa County cannot use its existing equipment for its November election.
Griswold alleged Mesa County Clerk Tina M. Peters (R) allowed the breach. A spokesperson for Mesa County confirmed a criminal probe headed by the 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office was underway but said it was still in the early stages. [emphasis mine]
During a Thursday news conference, Griswold said Peters falsely passed off a man as a county employee and misled her office about his background check status. Days before the breach, she said Peters directed her staff to turn off the video surveillance of the voting machines, which she said has remained off until just recently.
“To be very clear; Mesa County Clerk and Recorder allowed a security breach and — by all evidence at this point — assisted it,” Griswold told reporters Thursday.
Peters did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment Thursday but released a statement earlier this week saying her constituents had voiced concerns about election integrity: “I have told them I will do everything in my power to protect their vote.”
Peters has spent the past several days in South Dakota at the “Cyber Symposium” held by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, one of the most ardent allegers of election fraud. (Lindell is being sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems, the company that manufactures Mesa County’s equipment.) In a keynote speech at the event Tuesday, Peters said Griswold’s investigation of her office was politically motivated.
[The fascist mentality:]
“We would be a big jewel in our governor and our secretary of state’s crown to take over my office and control the way you vote,” Peters said, according to a recording of her speech. [emphasis mine]
The situation in Mesa County is the latest instance of how debunked claims of fraud in the 2020 election continue to ripple through the country, down to the level of local politics.
Griswold on Thursday said her office’s investigation — separate from the criminal probe recently announced by Mesa County District Attorney Daniel Rubinstein — was about integrity, not politics.
“I think it is extremely concerning that an elected official from the state of Colorado is actively working to undermine confidence and spread misinformation about our award-wining voting system,” Griswold said.
The security breach did not affect any past elections nor will it impact future ones, on account of the roughly 40 pieces of voting equipment being decertified, Griswold said. Mesa County will be responsible for the cost of completely replacing its election equipment by the end of the month or rely on hand-counted ballots.
Colorado is widely credited as having the gold-standard for election security after implementing virtually all of the recommended protocols following Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Larry Norden, who directs the Election Reform Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, said Colorado invests in risk-limiting audits, multifactor authentication and testing before and after elections to ensure accuracy.
“If there was a [security breach] they would catch it — but you don’t want to be in that situation if you don’t have to be,” Norden told The Post. “You prefer the systems work right the first time.”
Griswold said the leaked passwords can only be used on a physical piece of equipment in the Mesa County Clerk’s Office; various authentications and safeguards make it unlikely a random person with the passwords could have meddled with the machines.
“Nobody has the keys to the castle,” she said. She conceded that it was not implausible a “bad actor” who somehow had access to both the passwords and the physical machines could compromise the security of the equipment.
After Griswold’s office learned of the breach, her investigators found an unauthorized person had been allowed into the May meeting where the secure software update was taking place. By county rules, the seven attendees are restricted to state civil servants, county employees and representatives from Dominion Voting Systems, the equipment and software manufacturer.
Peters had previously pushed for the update, known as a trusted build, to be public, which Griswold rebuffed. Griswold said the man’s presence was a violation of the rules, which Peters helped him evade.
Matt Crane, a Republican who heads the County Clerks Association and formerly served as Arapahoe County Clerk, blasted the situation in Mesa County as a “solo, intentional and selfish act.”
“We’ve heard people say that this is heroic. To be clear. There is nothing heroic or honorable about what happened in Mesa County,” Crane said while standing alongside Griswold on Thursday.
Still, he called any calls for Peters’s resignation premature: “Ultimately, it’s up to the people of Mesa County.”
Peters, who was elected in 2018, survived a 2020 recall effort. She is up for reelection in 2022.
#ElectionFraud #USAPolitics #Republican #Crime #AmericanFascism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/12/mesa-county-voting-machines/