Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Russia Continues Attacks on U.S. Politics



If you thought Putin’s attempts to destroy the United States had ended think again.
Or do you really believe U.S. Sen. John McCain, a war hero, would call Vice President Mike Pence “an asshole.”
Here is one fake news piece that originates from Russian TV that states just that. But you won’t find his voice saying it, in this url or others.
YouTube
The Republican Party, often more anti-Russian than liberal Democrats, have given up their heritage.
But there were plenty of regular Republicans, members of Congress, including Benghazi hoaxster Trey Gowdy, pushing the pro-Russian line. He told the Senate that Russians have been doing it for decades and it was nothing new.
Earlier this year he pooh-poohed warnings from U.S. intelligence. Now, there has been so much evidence that Donald Trump is a Russian plant that the U.S., for the first time ever, needs to restage a presidential election.
The Republicans have lost their right to participate in this vote. It should be between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
Even with all the Russian intervention Clinton got 3 million more votes. Perhaps more, if there had not been so much voter suppression, particularly in the states that gave Trump a lead in the electoral college.
The Washington Post reported: “As Russian hackers and propagandists tried to manipulate the American election last year, the C.I.A. noticed a series of suspicious contacts between Russian government officials and associates of Donald J. Trump’s campaign, John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, said Tuesday.
“In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Brennan described a nerve-fraying few months as American authorities realized that the election was under attack and worried that Mr. Trump’s campaign might be aiding that fight. His remarks were the fullest public account to date of the origins of an F.B.I. investigation that continues to shadow the Trump administration.
“I know what the Russians try to do. They try to suborn individual and try to get individuals, including U.S. individuals, to act on their behalf, wittingly or unwittingly,” Mr. Brennan said. When he left office in January, he said, “I had unresolved questions in my mind as to whether or not the Russians had been successful in getting U.S. persons involved in the campaign or not to work on their behalf.”
Washington Post




Sunday, May 7, 2017

Is Donald Trump a populist?


More and more writers are declaring him one.
There are so many definitions it is difficult to say whether Trump qualifies.
In America’s political history a populist was someone who worked to help the poor. Democrat William Jennings Bryan ran three times for the presidency, losing each time.
“In his three presidential bids, he promoted Free Silver in 1896, anti-imperialism in 1900, and trust-busting in 1908, calling on Democrats to fight the trusts (big corporations) and big banks, and embrace anti-elitist ideals of republicanism,” said Wikipedia.
He was called “the Great Commoner.”
The one thing Trump does have in common with him is an opposition to the theory of evolution.
After Bryan came Robert M. La Follette.
“Robert M. La Follette was an American Republican and politician who is best known as a proponent of progressivism and a fierce opponent to corporate power. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Governor of Wisconsin and a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin during his career. He also ran for President of the United States in 1924,” according to Wikipedia.
There were many others who sought to fight for the poor.
It would seem that other descriptions might be more appropriate for Trump. His America First makes it clear he is a nationalist, although he has not avoided using the White House to add to his billions.
He got help from Russian President Putin in defeating favorite Hillary Clinton, though she got 3 million more votes than he did.
It cannot be ruled out yet that he arranged to win three states, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, which gave him a victory in the the electoral college. The race in all three, traditionally Democrat states, was extremely close.





French Crush Putin-Trump Fascist Hack Campaign


Despite a massive hack with four minutes to go in the French elections, Emmanuel Macron won with two-thirds of the vote.
Marine Le Pen, the candidate supported by Putin and Trump, barely got one-third of the vote.
“Jack Posobiec, a sympathizer of the American extreme right, accustomed to spreading false information, was one of the first very follow-up accounts to relay the pirated documents on Twitter,” Le Monde reported.
It said
“… Posobiec, the man who gave all their visibility to the documents emanating from the pirates of the messaging of members of the campaign of Emmanuel Macron, is not an unknown. In Washington, he works for the militant site The Rebel, resolutely in favor of Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen , who regularly takes false information,” Le Monde said.
The Washington Post reported: “France on Sunday shrugged off the siren call of right-wing populism that enchanted voters in the United States and United Kingdom, rejecting anti-E.U. firebrand Marine Le Pen and choosing as its next president Emmanuel Macron, a centrist political neophyte who has pledged to revive both his struggling country and the flailing continent.”
The Post added: “The outcome will come as a major relief to Europe’s political establishment…”
The Trump-Putin duo had appeared unbeatable, partly because of their effective use of cyberhacking. Critics say they stole the U.S. presidential election and persuaded British voters to leave the EU.

Their agents were active in several other European nations, but it became tougher after investigators pointed out their work.