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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 6 months

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Dennis Draughon, CBC

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 2, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 03, 2024

Almost six months have passed since President Joe Biden asked Congress to appropriate money for Ukraine in a national security supplemental bill. At first, House Republicans said they would not pass such a bill without border security. Then, when a bipartisan group of senators actually produced a border security provision for the national security bill, they killed it, under orders from former president Trump.

In February the Senate passed the national security supplemental bill with aid for Ukraine without the border measures by a strong bipartisan vote of 70 to 29. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) cheered its passage, saying: “The national security bill passed by the Senate is of profound importance to America’s security.”

The measure would pass in the House by a bipartisan vote, but House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has refused to take it up, acting in concert with Trump.

On March 24, on Washington Week, foreign affairs journalist Anne Applebaum said: “Trump has decided that he doesn’t want money to go to Ukraine… It's really an extraordinary moment; we have an out-of-power ex-president who is in effect dictating American foreign policy on behalf of a foreign dictator or with the interests of a foreign dictator in mind.”

On Thursday, March 28, Beth Reinhard, Jon Swaine, and Aaron Schaffer of the Washington Post reported that Richard Grenell, an extremist who served as Trump’s acting director of national intelligence, has been traveling around the world to meet with far-right foreign leaders, “acting as a kind of shadow secretary of state, meeting with far-right leaders and movements, pledging Trump’s support and, at times, working against the current administration’s policies.”

Grenell, the authors say, is openly laying the groundwork for a president who will make common cause with authoritarian leaders and destroy partnerships with democratic allies. Trump has referred to Grenell as “my envoy,” and the Trump camp has suggested he is a frontrunner to become secretary of state if Trump is reelected in 2024.

Applebaum was right: it is extraordinary that we have a former president who is now out of power running his own foreign policy.

For most of U.S. history, there was an understanding that factionalism stopped at the water’s edge. Partisans might fight tooth and nail within the U.S., but they presented a united front to the rest of the world. That understanding was strong enough that it was not for nearly a half century that we had definitive proof that in 1968 Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon had launched a secret effort to thwart incumbent president Lyndon Baines Johnson’s peace initiative to end the Vietnam War; Nixon had tried very hard to hide it.

But the era of hiding attempts to undermine foreign policy ended in 2015, when 47 Republican senators openly warned Iranian officials that they would destroy any agreement Iran made with then-president Barack Obama, a Democrat, over nuclear weapons as soon as a Republican regained the White House. At the time it sparked a firestorm, although the senators involved could argue that they, too, should be considered the voice of the government.

It was apparently a short step from the idea that it was acceptable to undermine foreign policy decisions made by a Democratic president to the idea that it was acceptable to work with foreign operatives to change foreign policy. In late 2016, Trump’s then national security advisor Michael Flynn talked to Russian foreign minister Sergey Kislyak about relieving Russia of U.S. sanctions. Now, eight years later, Trump is conducting his own foreign policy, and it runs dead against what the administration, the Pentagon, and a majority of senators and representatives think is best for the nation.

Likely expecting help from foreign countries, Trump is weakening the nation internationally to gain power at home. In that, he is retracing the steps of George Logan, who in 1798 as a private citizen set off for France to urge French officials to court popular American opinion in order to help throw George Washington’s party out of power and put Thomas Jefferson’s party in.

Congress recognized that inviting foreign countries to interfere on behalf of one candidate or another would turn the United States into a vassal state, and when Logan arrived back on U.S. shores, he discovered that Congress had passed a 1799 law we now know as the Logan Act, making his actions a crime.

The law reads: “Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”

Trump’s interference in our foreign policy is weakening Ukraine, which desperately needs equipment to fight off Russia’s invasion. It is also warning partners and allies that they cannot rely on the United States, thus serving Russian president Vladimir Putin’s goal of fracturing the alliance standing against Russian aggression.

Today, Lara Seligman, Stuart Lau, and Paul McLeary of Politico reported that officials at the meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) foreign ministers in Brussels on Thursday are expected to discuss moving the Ukraine Defense Contact Group from U.S. to NATO control. The Ukraine Defense Contact Group is an organization of 56 nations brought together in the early days of the conflict by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and then–Joint Chiefs chair General Mark Milley to coordinate supplying Ukraine.

Members are concerned about maintaining aid to Ukraine in case of a second Trump presidency.

Jim Townsend, a former Pentagon and NATO official, told the Politico reporters: “There’s a feeling among, not the whole group but a part of the NATO group, that thinks it is better to institutionalize the process just in case of a Trump re-election. And that’s something that the U.S. is going to have to get used to hearing, because that is a fear, and a legitimate one.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richarson #NATO #foreign policy #history #MAGA Republican #authoritarianism #war in Ukraine #Putin #Russian aggression #trump interference in foreign policy #trump undermining us foreign policy #Logan Act

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nevermind-i-forgot-whats-that · 2 months

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Sometimes, as much as I love internet communities and spaces, I really think a lot of people have spent so much time in sanitized, morally pure echo chambers that they lose sight of realism and life outside the internet.

I live in Alabama. My fiancée and I cannot hold hands down the street without fear of homophobic assholes. We have an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. We are one of the poorest states in the US with some of the lowest scores on metrics related to quality of life, including maternal mortality, healthcare, education, and violence. It’s not a coincidence that we are also one of the most red, one of the most Republican states in the Union. In 2017 the UN said the conditions in Alabama are similar to those in a third-world country.

Trump gave a voice to the most violently racist, sexist, xenophobic groups of people who, unfortunately for most of us in the Southern U.S., run our states and have only grown more powerful since his rise to power. The Deep South powers MAGA, and we all suffer for it.

We have no protections if they don’t come from the federal government.

I know people are suffering internationally and my heart is with them. However, this election is not just about foreign policy - we have millions of Americans right here at home living in danger, living in areas where they have been completely abandoned by their local leaders. We need this win.

No candidate is perfect, but for the first time in my voting lifetime I’m excited to vote. I’m excited for the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz ticket because they are addressing the issues close to home. They’re advocating for education as the ticket to a better life, but without the crippling student debt. They’re advocating for the right to love who you love without fear and with pride. Kamala has always been pro-LGBT+ and so has Tim. Again, if you’re queer in the South, we don’t have support unless it comes from the federal government, and we absolutely will not have support if the Republicans regain the White House.

Kamala speaks in length about re-entry programs to reduce recidivism and help people who have been arrested and imprisoned regain their lives. Tim Walz supported restoring voting rights to felons. In the South, you know who comprise the majority of felons? Members of minorities. It’s one of the major tools of systemic racism and mass disenfranchisement, and arguably the modern face of slavery (there are some fantastic documentaries and books that explain the connection between the post-Reconstruction South and the disproportionate rates of imprisonment for BIPOC). Having candidates who recognize this and want to restore the freedom and rights to people who have come into contact with the criminal justice system? And keep them from having to go to prison in the first place? That’s refreshing. That’s exciting.

I would *love* to live in a country where women’s rights are respected, where LGBT+ rights and protections are a given, where we treat former criminals and individuals experiencing mental health crises with respect and dignity. I would *love* to live in a country where education is free of religious interference and each and every citizen is entitled to a fair start and equal opportunities.

But I don’t live in that country. Millions and millions of Americans find their rights and freedoms up for debate and on the ballot.

Project 2025 poses the largest threat to the future of our democracy as we know it. We are being called to fight for the future of our country.

We have to put on our oxygen masks first before we can help others.

You don’t have moral purity when you wash your hands of the millions of us who are still fighting for own freedoms right here.

The reality is that a presidential candidate is a best fit, and not a perfect fit. But comparatively speaking? Kamala is pretty damn close.

#us politics #kamala harris #vote kamala #vote blue #don’t forget about the southern states please #we’re still here

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foreverlogical · 1 year

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How is this changed if the actions taken by Musk caused the deaths of soldiers in the alliance America is part of? And how is this changed if after having calls with Vladimir Putin, Musk starts advocating publicly for Ukrainian surrender? And what if he is making money off this?

And what do we do with the reports that Musk privately acknowledged that he was “in” the Russia-Ukraine War—but not, per the evidence we currently have, on the same side as America?

Is there some reason the House GOP is scared to investigate this? Or DOJ? What am I missing here?

How is all this inflected by the data confirming Musk complies with the demands of hostile foreign governments at a far higher rate than his Twitter predecessors did? And how is that inflected by the fact that his Twitter coowners are autocratic Saudi butchers allied with Russia?

And in the midst of all this he comes out publicly and tells 150 million followers to vote Republican? At a time we know both the Russians and the Saudis have secretly interfered in American elections on behalf of the Republicans? And then he starts making all sorts of changes...

...to what is more or less a public utility (even if it is privately owned) that benefit hostile foreign governments, agents of hostile foreign governments, American disinformation agents operating as “useful idiots” for hostile foreign governments, and anti-American Kremlinists?

And as I recall, didn’t he at one point threaten to stop providing resources to the American government that he’d previously provided *while* he was simultaneously advocating for a Ukrainian surrender following multiple phone calls with Vladimir Putin? Like—that seems really bad?

Again, I’m not an expert in this, but I’m asking at what point Musk runs afoul of FARA? Or the Logan Act? Or something rather more serious that relates to military conflicts in which the United States is involved? All of this seems really serious to me and everyone’s ignoring it.

America just went through an eight-year period in which a narcissistic sociopathic far-right White male billionaire colluded with Russia and the Saudis to interfere in our elections and advance illegal Russian adventurism. Is it just me or is the exact same thing happening again?

(PS) Obviously I’m leaving a ton of things out here, e.g. the fact that Musk, like Trump, has repeatedly been accused of fraud, or that Kremlin policy inside the U.S. is to foment racial and religious divisions to weaken America... and Musk has been doing exactly that on Twitter.

(PS2) Are we sure we’re not in the middle of a national security situation here? Is it wrong to think the Senate Intel Committee should be holding hearings to find out what Musk has been doing secretly with the Russians—and whether or how it’s connected to Twitter and the Saudis?

(PS3) If Elon Musk will do the bidding of Vladimir Putin in terms of disabling Ukrainian military equipment and proposing that Ukraine surrender a good portion of its land area to Putin and his war criminals, what *else* is he doing at the bidding of the Kremlin or Saudi royals?

(PS4) When we see Musk simultaneously pushing the “Ban the ADL” hashtag even as hostile foreign agents intending to cause chaos in the U.S. are doing the same thing, and we know who Musk is holding secret calls with... uh, isn’t that all super concerning from a NatSec standpoint?

(PS5) And not for nothing, but many of you will remember the major media report I just posted in which Musk confesses that he wants to “take over the world’s financial system.”

Uh, for whom? Will he seek to benefit Russia and Saudi Arabia and harm the United States in that, too?

(PS6) Remember how Trump led with racism and antisemitism and other forms of ethnic and religious bigotry that caused *chaos* in the United States, only for us to learn he was in cahoots with Russia and the Saudis?

Does that not feel... familiar, now?

I have some concerns here.

(PS7) I’ve never claimed to be an expert in these particular areas, which are a subspecialization within federal criminal practice that very rarely comes into play. But I certainly—as a citizen and voter—am wondering why the *hell* we’re not having congressional hearings on this?

(PS8) There’s no question whatsoever that Congress has an obligation to exercise its oversight responsibilities very aggressively here—as if I’m understanding correctly Elon Musk has a defense contract. The revelations in the new book about him are therefore very f*cking serious.

(PS9) And remember how Trump always accuses others of what he has just done or is about to do? Just as concerns that Musk could be doing the bidding of hostile foreign nations arise, he starts threatening to sue others for “controlled speech.” We have seen this playbook before...

(PS10) I would think the FBI, DOJ, FTC, FCC, NSA, SEC and *many* others would want to be all over this situation right now. Instead we are getting radio silence. Or, not radio silence, but Musk and his allies pushing racial and religious division inside the U.S. on a daily basis.

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sansculottides · 3 months

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𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗦 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝘁𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗙𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀

On June 14, 2024, international news agency Reuters exposed a secret disinformation campaign by the US Department of State meant to discredit Chinese-manufactured COVID-19 vaccines amongst Filipinos. The US anti-vax fake news campaign ran from 2020 to 2021, and involved the use of dummy social media accounts posting false and unscientific information about the efficacy of Chinese vaccines, as well as weaponizing pervasive racist conspiracy theories that the COVID-19 pandemic was created and spread by the Chinese government.

We demand an immediate investigation by the Philippine government on the matter, and for decisive action to be taken by the government to hold the US accountable for its deception campaign against the Filipino people. The Reuters exposé has uncovered a clear national security threat to the Filipino people. The US carried out its fake news campaign at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was ravaging the Filipino people, and worsened already widespread anti-vaccination beliefs amongst the public.

We are appalled by the glaring lack of Philippine media coverage on the Reuters exposé. An international scandal has just been uncovered. How can truth be spoken to power, and how can political action be taken by citizens, if the media does not play its part? Silence is silence, whether due to the threat of repression or the suffocating consensus by media capitalists that unsavory things be left unsaid. We call on all media workers, whether working at mainstream media organizations, independent media, social media, or campus media, to take the lead themselves and focus public attention on this issue.

The year-long campaign clearly demonstrates the untrustworthiness of the US as a strategic diplomatic and military partner of the Philippines and of all Global South countries. The campaign was initiated by the Trump administration and was first focused on the Philippines. Later on, the project was expanded further into Central Asia and the Middle East. It took the Biden administration three full months to end the globalized and state-sponsored mass disinformation project.

This issue is not just a problem of specific administrations. The year-long campaign should remind the workers and the masses of the Philippines and the world that the US remains the world’s foremost imperialist power. Its overriding foreign policy concern is the maintenance of its dominant global military and economic position, and its means are deception and force.

The US’ covert effort to corrupt public discourse in the Philippines should prompt the Marcos administration to question the intentions of its close diplomatic and military ally. The disinformation campaign was motivated primarily by the US’ geopolitical rivalry with China, which has, since the former’s Pivot to Asia in 2012, increasingly taken on a more militarized and antagonistic form. US military and intelligence agencies are manufacturing consent in the Philippines to win the hearts and minds of the Filipino masses in its effort to overpower China through military means. This is its real goal, and not to aid the Filipino people to address Chinese maritime aggression.

The US has no legitimacy to pose as a champion of international laws and norms and as a partner to secure the Philippines’ national sovereignty. It conducted its campaign to serve its own geopolitical interests with no regard for the immense need of the Philippines to vaccinate its citizens against the pandemic. Once again, Washington D.C. has Filipino blood on its hands.

US interference in Philippine public life cannot be left without consequences. Philippine foreign policy should pivot away from its longstanding reliance on the US and towards ASEAN, and away from addressing Chinese aggression through militarized means and towards regional multilateral diplomacy. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙗𝙚 𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨. 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨!

📷 AP

Reposted from SPARK - Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (Union of Progressive Youth), a socialist youth organization in the Philippines.

#anti imperialism #us politics #global politics #anti capitalism #philippines

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mylionheart2 · 4 months

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And the hits keep coming. (Updated 6/7/24)

Meet Donald Trump's Criminal Enterprise.

Donald Trump: Former so-called President & Convicted Felon: Found Guilty On All 34 counts Of Business Document Fraud. Found Liable For Se*ual Assault of E. Jean Carroll

Rep. Chris Collins: Trump's Former Mouthpiece in Congress - Convicted

Rick Gates: Trump's Former Deputy Campaign Manager - Convicted

Paul Manafort: Trump’s Former Campaign Chair - Convicted

George Papadopoulos: Trump's Former Foreign Policy Advisory - Convicted

Mike Flynn: Trump’s Former National Security Adviser - Convicted

Michael Cohen: Trump's Former Attorney and Fixer - Convicted

Roger Stone: Former Political Consultant for the Trump Campaign - Convicted

Steve Bannon: Former Trump White House Chief Strategists and Senior Counselor To Trump - Convicted

Allen Weisselberg: Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization - Convicted

Jenna Ellis: Former Trump Lawyer – Convicted

Sidney Powell: Former Trump Attorney – Convicted

Peter Navarro: Former Trump Advisor – Convicted

Mark Meadows: Former White House Chief Of Staff - Indicted

Rudy Giuliani: Trump's Former Attorney - Indicted

John Eastman: Former Trump Attorney – Indicted

Christina Bobb - Former Trump Attorney – Indicted

Boris Epshteyn: Former Trump Attorney – Indicted

Walt Nauta: Trump Aide - Indicted

Kenneth Cheseboro: Right-wing Attorney – Indicted

Michael Roman: Former Trump Campaign Official – Indicted

Jeffrey Clark: Former Trump Administration Official - Indicted

The Trump To Prison Pipeline:

18 People Indicted In Fulton County, GA

18 People Indicted For Election Interference In AZ

15 People Indicted For Election Forgery In MI

3 People Indicted For Fake Electors Scheme In WI

2 People Indicted For Obstruction Of Justice And Mishandling Of Classified Documents In Florida

1,400 people Arrested For January 6th, 2021 Insurrection At the U.S. Capitol

#trump #donald trump #trump convicted felon #guilty #guilty on 34 counts #stormy daniels #trump crime syndicate #vote blue #vote blue to save democracy #vote biden #biden 2024

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mariacallous · 2 months

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Three days after Kamala Harris was sworn into the Senate in early January 2017, the U.S. intelligence community released a stunning declassified report that concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an influence campaign meant to sway the previous year’s presidential election in favor of Donald Trump and undermine faith in U.S. democracy.

The revelations spurred three high-profile investigations into Russian election interference by lawmakers and special counsel Robert Mueller and would come to dominate headlines for much of the Trump presidency.

As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which conducted a wide-ranging three-year investigation of Moscow’s interference efforts, Harris had a front-row seat to reams of highly classified material about Russian intelligence operations targeting the United States. The experience left a long-standing impression on the vice president, according to current and former aides who characterize it as a highly formative experience that left her with few illusions about Moscow’s intentions.

“I see those first few weeks as pivotal, because those were both her and Donald Trump’s first few weeks in Washington,” said Halie Soifer, who served as national security advisor to Harris in the Senate.

A Republican source familiar with Harris’s time on the committee said that during the Russia investigation, members were exposed to “borderline raw intelligence” on Moscow’s interference efforts, which they described as an eye-opening experience, even for long-standing members of the committee. “I think it was sobering for everyone,” said the source, who requested anonymity to share their insights.

The Senate’s final report, which spanned over 1,000 pages across five volumes, is generally regarded to be the most detailed look at aggressive Russian intelligence efforts to make inroads with the Trump campaign and to sway the election in favor of the former president.

The report did not reach a conclusion as to whether the Trump team had actively sought to collude with Moscow for its own advantage.

As part of its investigation, the committee reviewed over 1 million pages of documents and interviewed more than 200 witnesses.

While much of the day-to-day work of the probe was carried out by committee staffers, senators from both sides of the aisle have described Harris as a quick study whose advice on questioning witnesses was sought by seasoned committee staff, according to a 2019 BuzzFeed article.

In public hearings on both the Intelligence and Judiciary committees, on which she also sat, Harris developed a reputation for her prosecutorial style as she interrogated senior members of the Trump administration.

“Members get out of it what they put into it, and she put a lot of time and energy and effort into it,” said the Republican source.

Former aides to the vice president have spoken of how her background as a lawyer also informs her view on foreign policy, placing particular emphasis on the importance of international laws and norms. In a 2019 interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, Harris described the U.S. role in building a “community of international institutions, laws, and democratic nations” as America’s biggest foreign-policy achievement since World War II.

While the House Intelligence Committee Russia investigation was beset by political infighting, the Senate investigation remained bipartisan and largely free of public drama—something Harris has spoken fondly of.

“Every week, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee would walk into that wood-paneled room—no cameras, no public, no devices,” said Harris during a memorial service last year for the late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who had been a long-standing member of the committee.

“Senators of both parties who would take off their jackets and literally roll up their sleeves, putting aside partisanship to discuss what was in the best interests of our national security,” she said.

Harris served on the Intelligence Committee, which, alongside the House panel, provides oversight of the sprawling U.S. intelligence community, throughout her four years in the Senate.

In 2018, Harris backed an amendment that would compel law enforcement to obtain a warrant before accessing the communications of American citizens inadvertently gathered under a controversial program that enabled intelligence agencies to conduct wide-ranging foreign electronic surveillance.

She also used the perch to stress the need for greater investments in election security in light of Russia’s attempt to sway the vote, co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation on election cybersecurity.

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lasttarrasque · 1 month

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Typical American

Making everything about yourselves

This is so funny to me because I think your trying to make the argument that the US isn't explicitly invested in overthrowing the government of Venezuela in order to expand it's imperialist reach, like it should be clear to everyone, even if you are not familiar with Venezuelan history, just how ridicules of a argument that is.

Like here is an article about how former national security adviser John Bolton admitted to planning to overthrow the government of Venezuela.

Like the US has a placed extreme deadly sanctions and embargos on Venezuela for years now, and is only ramping them up after Venezuelan people once again refused to open their country up the US oil before. And before anyone says "they are because Muraro is a dictator" remember that the US has no problem with the absolute monarchies of the gulf states. We had no qualms about installing Augusto Pinochet. If these sanctions are really about democracy, then why are they not applied to the Gulf Monarchies? These sanctions are not something to brush off by the way, according to a report from the Centre for Economic and Policy Research back in 2019, the sanctions have cost the lives of some 40,000 people, many of them children (who are most venerable to poverty-based health problems such as malnutrition and disease) due to forced poverty. Since then, many, many more people have died, and as the US further ramps up these sanctions, things will only get worse.

Furthermore the history of US imperialist interventions in South America should be well known to just about anyone, the following is an (outdated) map detailing most of the US military interventions in South America and the Caribbean.

Ofc it's not just military interventions, the US has also supported both rightwing candidates and right wing death squads throughout the years. For example the US provided Juan Guaidó (former opposition leader) $52 million in a clear case of foreign election interference (that does not sound very democratic) as detailed in this artical (an artical which learly has zero love for Mudaro).

I could go on but I think you get the picture

#venezuela #Venezuelan election #mudero won #us imperialism #western imperialism

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theaceofwords · 4 months

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Like. We do very much all understand that Russia is trying to interfere in all western elections, right? Russia, China, and Iran have ideological and territorial goals which they cannot realise in the existing global status quo.

Russia wants Ukraine (and really I think they want as much of Europe as they can get). They want to own it, stomp out everybody who fights back, and force them all to speak Russian. But they know also that the EU (and, I guess, NATO, the e bugs of the situation) will supply Ukraine with weapons as long as they keep fighting (which I also think is monstrous, frankly, but that's another thread).

China's government wants Taiwan. The US has been one of Taiwan's most vehement allies (which. you know. not always a good thing), but until recently it was taken as a simple fact that any move China made towards Taiwan would get stomped into the channel by the nearest US aircraft carrier.

Iran's leadership wants more regional control--they sponsor a variety of, let's say passionate nongovernmental activists, throughout the surrounding nations, and their current government is pretty strongly opposed to "modern" (Western) values like freedom of speech, human rights, etc. They're also pretty boxed-in by nations which are propped up by oil money, mostly US oil money.

These nations are coordinating. We know this for a fact; in the most obvious example, Russia is using Iranian drones and Chinese manufacturing to supply its ongoing violence against Ukraine. They all understand that their foreign policy objectives are perfectly compatible, and in fact more than compatible, are mutually reinforcing--because the cases of Ukraine and Taiwan are analogous, these industrial/agricultural centers which are not ostensibly part of regional alliances but which have been trying to join the modern world for decades.

But here's the thing. Now we have these hard-right political movements brewing throughout Europe and the Americas. Not by accident--hard-right groups are coordinating and sharing notes in south, central, and north America, as well as in the EU. And these hard-right political parties are not at all interested in the status quo of Western force projection--they take an isolationist, authoritarian view of foreign policy where the great powers do what they like and the small countries deal with it and are absorbed.

Russia, China, Iran, and the smaller, shittier nations that work with them (the governments of which are shut out of the modern world largely for being such shitbag authoritarian despots that even the US can't swallow working with them)--these nations all recognize that their best chance to achieve their goals is to help the hard right win in Europe. In America. Everywhere. Anywhere they can get someone into party who, like Trump, will refuse to honor treaties with Ukraine and Taiwan--who will go on record saying that he doesn't give a shit about Europe, that the US should pull out of NATO.

This is the state of the world. Do you understand that this is the state of the world? This is why Russia/China are pushing such massive disinformation on the internet, why there is so much pro-PRC and pro-Russian brigading on reddit and Twitter and Tumblr. It's not because they're nebulously evil Red Threats that we think are malevolent for no reason. They have extremely specific policy goals which they cannot achieve without a shift in the current world order. This means they have a strong interest in changing the world order as quickly and radically as possible.

These relationships are not the matter of speculation. These are not my personal conspiracy theories, they are facts. The A to B in this situation is extraordinarily clear.

The internet is not a neutral ground. There are hostile actors here who have decided that the internet is one of the best means by which to realise goals which are antithetical to free, open, and civilized society. You cannot take information here at face value. You must do your own research, confirm facts across multiple sources with different interests, draw and hold your own convictions and change your opinions when the evidence dictates it.

And above all else, do not be taken in by the idea that the world is awful and nothing can be done to save it. That nihilism is being pushed upon you. If you believe the world can do nothing, there is no point in defending Ukraine. If you believe the world is beyond saving, there's no reason to recognize Taiwan. If you believe both sides are awful, there is no point to pressing for Palestinian statehood.

Apathy does not serve a brighter tomorrow--because the world never remains good. It is made good every day by the effort of billions. The world we live in is the result of centuries of people giving their lives to push the needle further to peace. To international cooperation and understanding.

Get your head in the game. It's the only game going around here. You're playing whether you like it or not, so you might as well know who you're playing against.

#politics

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justinspoliticalcorner · 5 hours

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Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

Imagine if Vice President Harris publicly called on a foreign nation that has a history of interfering in our elections to help her defeat Donald Trump. The response would’ve been wall to wall media coverage and members of the GOP would’ve been calling for a DOJ Investigation. But when Donald Trump did that exact thing on Thursday, it barely received any coverage from the corporate media. Yet there was Trump at an event organized by Trump’s close ally Miriam Adelson—the widow of billionaire Sheldon Adelson and a supporter of far-right policies in Israel—calling on Israel to defeat Harris. I don’t mean Trump inferred he wanted the help of Israel to win, he stated it point blank.

That is when Trump declared: “More than any other people on Earth. More than any other people on Earth, Israel, I believe, has to defeat her. You know that?” He then repeated that Israel—not Jewish Americans—need to help him defeat Harris, stating, “And I’ve never said this before. And I’m thinking, Miriam, more than any people on Earth, Israel has to defeat her. I really believe that.” There is no wiggle room here. Trump twice asked Israeli leaders to help him defeat Harris in a room filled with people like Adelson who has very close ties to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Where is the outrage that Trump wants a foreign nation to interfere in our election?!! What could Netanyahu do to help Trump? Well one example is the online interference type campaign they were engaged in 2016 that I detail below. Or far worse and what is what we are seeing over the past few days and that is spark a deadly war with Lebanon.

[...] To that end, in the last few days we’ve seen an unparalleled escalation of attacks by Netanyahu on not just Hezbollah—but the nation of Lebanon. It began with the pager bombings that may have been targeting Hezbollah militants but ended up killing and wounding innocent people including children. In the days that followed, Netanyahu’s military bombed targets in the suburbs of Beirut that killed 45 people, including three children and seven women. Two Hezbollah leaders were killed as well but we as we’ve seen in Gaza, there is no limits to the civilians Netanyahu will kill. And then there is the more traditional type of online election interference. For those unaware, the Israeli government under Netanyahu has a documented history –even noted in Israeli media outlets like Haaretz--of interfering in other nation’s elections, including the United States, to elect people supportive of his right wing views. That was the very point made by The Nation in a detailed deep dive article in 2023 titled, “The Trump Campaign’s Collusion With Israel.” As The Nation explained, “In the spring of 2016, no issue was more important to Benjamin Netanyahu than Donald Trump winning the White House.” The reason was simple: “The GOP presidential candidate was key to everything he was after, from ending the Iran nuclear agreement, to recognizing Jerusalem—rather than Tel Aviv—as Israel’s capital, to continuing the occupation of” the West Bank.

To that end, Netanyahu personally directed a “covert operation” that “aimed to use secret intelligence to clandestinely intervene at the highest levels in the presidential election on behalf of Trump.” The Times of Israel in 2020 even addressed this plot noting Trump close ally Roger Stone was the point person for key Israeli figures, writing, “the Trump campaign, was in contact with one or more apparently well-connected Israelis at the height of the 2016 US presidential campaign, one of whom warned Stone that Trump was “going to be defeated unless we intervene” and promised “we have critical intell[sic].”

[...] Trump publicly asking Israel to help defeat Harris, of course, conjures up Trump’s infamous comment during the 2016 campaign when he declared about Hillary Clinton’s missing emails, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” And as the Mueller report detailed, “the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome.” Adding importantly about Trump: “the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts."

Israel Apartheid State PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s escalation of war with Lebanon serves one purpose: put Donald Trump back in office as “President” in the USA.

#Donald Trump #Benjamin Netanyahu #Israel/Hamas War #Israel/Hezbollah War #Lebanon #Israel #Israel Apartheid State #2024 Presidential Election #2024 Elections #Miriam Adelson

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darkmaga-retard · 1 month

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Our Future

Paul Craig Roberts

Over the course of my life I have watched interest in ideas die. Ideas have been replaced by agendas, and emotion has taken the place of reason.

American political campaigns have always been burdened with mudslinging and misrepresentations, but I can remember when presidential campaigns also involved contrasting ideas about domestic and foreign policies. The issues might have been false ones, like John F. Kennedy’s “missile gap,” but candidates were supposed to have some idea of issues at home and abroad and how to deal with them.

In the current presidential campaign the Democrats’ main issue is that Trump is a dictator who will destroy democracy. This from a Democrat regime that has turned law into a weapon against political candidates such as Trump who is currently fighting four felony indictments and as many civil indictments in the midst of the presidential campaign. Clearly, the Democrat Department of Justice (sic) and the Democrat New York attorney general are using law to interfere in the election. All of this is underway while one of the Democrats’ indictments of Trump is that he interfered in an election by the way he reported a business expense. The corrupt Democrat judge presiding over this farce intends to sentence Trump next month.

The double standards are extraordinary and go far beyond mere mudslinging. We are watching the party in power use the police powers of the state in an effort to control the outcome of an election. As for the Democrats’ commitment to democracy, how strong is this commitment when some of them are saying that they will not accept the election outcome if Trump wins? Doesn’t this make them “January 6 insurrectionists”?

Once you start thinking, you will understand how deplorable our situation is.

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 2 months

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Nobody

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 2, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Aug 03, 2024

Today, Aaron C. Davis and Carol D. Leonnig of the Washington Post reported that there is reason to believe that when Trump’s 2016 campaign was running low on funds, Trump accepted a $10 million injection of cash from Egypt’s authoritarian leader Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. It is against the law to accept direct or indirect financial support from foreign nationals or foreign governments for a political campaign in the United States.

In early 2017, CIA officials told Justice Department officials that a confidential informant had told them of such a cash exchange, and those officials handed the matter off to Robert Mueller, the special counsel who was already looking at the links between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian operatives. FBI agents noted that on September 16, Trump had met with Sisi when the Egyptian leader was at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City.

After the meeting, Trump broke with U.S. policy to praise Sisi, calling him a “fantastic guy.”

Trump’s campaign had been dogged with a lack of funds, and his advisers had begged him to put some of his own money into it. He refused until October 28, when he loaned the campaign $10 million.

An FBI investigation took years to get records, but Davis and Leonnig reported that in 2019 the FBI learned of a key withdrawal from an Egypt bank. In January 2017, five days before Trump took office, an organization linked to Egypt’s intelligence service asked a manager at a branch of the state-run National Bank of Egypt to “kindly withdraw” $9,998,000 in U.S. currency. The bundles of $100 bills filled two bags and weighed more than 200 pounds.

Once in office, Trump embraced Sisi and, in a reversal of U.S. policy, invited him to be one of his first guests at the White House. “I just want to let everybody know, in case there was any doubt, that we are very much behind President al-Sissi,” Trump said.

Mueller had gotten that far in pursuit of the connection between Trump and Sisi when he was winding down his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He handed the Egypt investigation off to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D C., where it appears then–attorney general William Barr killed it.

Today, Brian Schwartz of CNBC reported that Elon Musk and other tech executives are putting their money behind a social media ad campaign for Trump and Vance, and are creating targeted ads in swing states by collecting information about voters under false pretenses. According to Schwartz, their America PAC, or political action committee, says it helps viewers register to vote. And, indeed, the ads direct would-be voters in nonswing states to voter registration sites.

But people responding to the ad in swing states are not sent to registration sites. Instead, they are presented with “a highly detailed personal information form [and] prompted to enter their address, cellphone number and age,” handing over “priceless personal data to a political operation” that can then create ads aimed at that person’s demographic and target them personally in door-to-door campaigns. After getting the information, the site simply says, “Thank you,” without directing the viewer toward a registration site.

Forbes estimates Musk’s wealth at more than $235 billion.

In June the Trump Organization announced a $500 million deal with Saudi real estate developer Dar Global to build a Trump International hotel in Oman.

In January 2011, when he was director of the FBI, Robert Mueller gave a speech to the Citizens Crime Commission of New York. He explained that globalization and modern technology had changed the nature of organized crime. Rather than being regional networks with a clear structure, he said, organized crime had become international, fluid, and sophisticated and had multibillion-dollar stakes. Its operators were cross-pollinating across countries, religions, and political affiliations, sharing only their greed. They did not care about ideology; they cared about money. They would do anything for a price.

These criminals “may be former members of nation-state governments, security services, or the military,” he said. “They are capitalists and entrepreneurs. But they are also master criminals who move easily between the licit and illicit worlds. And in some cases, these organizations are as forward-leaning as Fortune 500 companies.”

In order to corner international markets, Mueller explained, these criminal enterprises "may infiltrate our businesses. They may provide logistical support to hostile foreign powers. They may try to manipulate those at the highest levels of government. Indeed, these so-called 'iron triangles' of organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders pose a significant national security threat."

In a new book called Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, journalist Anne Applebaum carries that story forward into the present, examining how today’s autocrats work together to undermine democracy. She says that “the language of the democratic world, meaning rights, laws, rule of law, justice, accountability, [and] transparency…[is] harmful to them,” especially as those are the words that their internal opposition uses. “And so they need to undermine the people who use it and, if they can, discredit it.”

Those people, Applebaum says, “believe they are owed power, they deserve power.” When they lose elections, they “come back in a second term and say, right, this time, I'm not going to make that mistake again, and…then change their electoral system, or…change the constitution, change the judicial system, in order to make sure that they never lose.”

Almost exactly a year ago, on August 1, 2023, a grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted former president Donald J. Trump for conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding. The charges stemmed from Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. A grand jury is made up of 23 ordinary citizens who weigh evidence of criminal activity and produce an indictment if 12 or more of them vote in favor.

The grand jury indicted Trump for “conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted, and certified by the government”; “conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified”; and “conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.”

“Each of these conspiracies,” the indictment reads, “targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.” “This federal government function…is foundational to the United States’ democratic process, and until 2021, had operated in a peaceful and orderly manner for more than 130 years.”

The case of the United States of America v. Donald J. Trump was randomly assigned to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who was appointed by President Obama in 2014 and confirmed 95–0 in the Senate. Trump pleaded not guilty on August 3, after which his lawyers repeatedly delayed their pretrial motions until, on December 7, Trump asked the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals to decide whether he was immune from prosecution. Chutkan had to put off her initial trial date of March 4, 2024, and said she would not reschedule until the court decided the question of Trump’s immunity.

In February the appeals court decided he was not immune. Trump appealed to the Supreme Court, which waited until July 1, 2024, to decide that Trump enjoys broad immunity from prosecution for crimes committed as part of his official acts. Today the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to Chutkan, almost exactly a year after it was first brought.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#WAPO #bribery #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #corrupt SCOTUS #Chutkan #certification of the presidential election #voting rights #disenfranchising voters #organized crime

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rapeculturerealities · 8 months

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The Case for Ending the “Global Gag Rule” and the Helms Amendment | Guttmacher Institute

The global gag rule prevents foreign nongovernmental organizations from using their own, non-U.S. funds to provide abortion services, information, counseling, referrals or advocacy. Since it was first created in 1984, the policy has historically been put in place by Republican presidents and rescinded by Democratic ones. The Trump administration put the global gag rule on steroids, massively expanding it multiple times and making additional attempts to do so even as it was leaving office.

Although President Biden has rescinded the global gag rule, that is only a short-term solution to the long-term problem of this devastating policy. The new administration and Congress have a unique opportunity to end the global gag rule permanently by supporting and passing the Global Health, Empowerment and Rights (Global HER) Act, which was reintroduced in the House and Senate on the same day as President’s Biden executive action. The bill would prevent future presidents from unilaterally reinstating the global gag rule via executive action and end the policy’s intermittent use. With 177 cosponsors in the House of Representatives and 46 in the Senate just two weeks after reintroduction, passing the Global HER Act is politically feasible, if leadership makes it a priority. Enacting the bill would end U.S. interference in what organizations do with their own money, but would not address restrictions on whether U.S. money can be used to fund global abortion services.

#Global gag rule #Abortion #reproductive rights #Global HER #Helms amendment

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tomorrowusa · 19 days

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It's clear that America's autocratic enemies desperately want to elect Trump. It's the cheapest way for kleptocrats in Russia, North Korea, Iran, and North Korea to weaken the United States.

Foreign dictators manipulating US media is not new. But now we see Putin making direct monetary investments in platforms which promote stooges for the Kremlin.

The indictment unsealed in New York’s Southern District accused two employees of RT, the Kremlin’s media arm, of funneling nearly $10 million to an unidentified company, described only as “Company 1” in court documents. CNN has independently confirmed that “Company 1” is Tenet Media, which is a platform for independent content creators. It is self-described as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues,” according to its website, which matches language contained in the newly unsealed indictment. The alleged Russian operation tapped two people to set up the company in their names to add to its legitimacy and the two founders were aware Russian money backed the operation, according to the indictment. The goal of the operation, according to prosecutors, was to fuel pro-Russian narratives, in part, by pushing content and news articles favoring Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and others who the Kremlin deemed to be friendlier to its interests. Among the commentators listed on Tenet Media’s website are right-wing personalities Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin. All have released statements saying they were victims of the alleged Russian scheme and they maintained editorial control of the content they created. Each has a loyal fanbase online, with a combined roughly 6 million followers on YouTube alone. Pool interviewed Trump on his podcast in May.

Tenet Media was just one of Putin's tentacles in US media.

The DOJ’s revealing of the alleged Russian plot was part of a wider set of actions the Biden administration announced Wednesday it was taking to tackle a major Russian government-backed effort to influence the 2024 US presidential election including sanctions on 10 individuals and entities, and the seizure of 32 internet domains. At Russian President Vladimir Putin’s direction, three Russian companies used fake profiles to promote false narratives on social media, US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. Internal documents produced by one of those Russian companies show one of the goals of the propaganda effort was to boost the candidacy of Trump or whoever emerged as the Republican nominee for president, according to an FBI affidavit.

Putin tried to deflect the negative publicity by claiming he liked Kamala Harris's laugh. Of course his puppet Weird Donald doesn't have a laugh – just a malicious sneer.

Putin will continue to try to interfere in elections until it becomes too costly for him to do so.

RELATED: The Kremlin has Putin-friendly influencers sowing pro-Trump propaganda.

Unsealed FBI Doc Exposes Terrifying Depth of Russian Disinfo Scheme

Of particular note, the documents released Wednesday included an affidavit that noted a Russian company is keeping a list of more than 2,800 influencers world wide, about one-fifth of whom are based in the United States, to monitor and potentially groom to spread Russian propaganda. The affidavit does not mention the full list of influencers, but is still a terrifying indicator of how deep the Russian plot to interfere in U.S. politics really goes. The Doppelganger program and its “Good Old USA Project” aimed to mimic mainstream media outlets to push pro-Russian policies through fake social media accounts. Documents show that the Kremlin specifically targeted Trump supporters, minorities, gamers, and swing-state voters by spreading far-right conspiracies and capitalizing on existing divisions in U.S. politics. ”They are afraid of losing the American way of life and the ‘American dream,’” Ilya Gambashidze, an architect of the project, wrote, outlining his scheme. “It is these sentiments that should be exploited in the course of an information campaign in/for the United States.” To do so, the Russian government would emphasize that Republicans are “victims of discrimination of people of color” and promote conspiracies that white middle-class people are being discriminated against. The “guerrilla media” plan needed to not only plant falsehoods, but also spread them far and wide. They targeted gamers and chatroom users, who they described as the “backbone of the right-wing trends in the US segment of the Internet,” and monitored social media influencers.

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reading-writing-revolution · 2 months

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$10M cash withdrawal drove secret probe into whether Trump took money from Egypt - The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/08/02/trump-campaign-egypt-investigation/

Trump can do the crime, so let's let him do the time.

August 2, 2024 (Friday)