MARKETWATCH
"Russia used every major social network to aid Trump, Senate report finds"
By Mike Murphy
Published: Dec 17, 2018 10:36 a.m. ET
A new report prepared for the Senate concludes that Russia used every major social network to support Donald Trump during the 2016 election and continued to support him after he was elected president.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that it had obtained a draft copy of the report, which studied millions of social-media posts on Facebook, Twitter, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and other platforms, for the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The report is expected to be made public this week.
The tech companies provided data for several years of posts, through mid-2017, the Post reported.
The report by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and network analysis company Graphika found that a Russian disinformation campaign using thousands of accounts targeted American voters over the course of years, with evolving messages that peaked around key moments, such as the party conventions and presidential debates.
“Trump is mentioned most in campaigns targeting conservatives and right-wing voters, where the messaging encouraged these groups to support his campaign,” the report said, according to the Post.
“The main groups that could challenge Trump were then provided messaging that sought to confuse, distract and ultimately discourage members from voting.”
The report found that Russia used the issues of gun control and immigration to energize conservatives, while discouraging African-Americans — traditional Democratic voters — from voting by undermining their faith in the electoral process and spreading lies about how to vote.
While the main social networks used for disinformation were Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube, the report found Russia also used Facebook-owned Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and Verizon Communications Inc.’s Tumblr.
The report warned that in the U.S. and other parts of the world, social networks have moved away from their original purpose of sharing and community toward “being a computational tool for social control, manipulated by canny political consultants and available to politicians in democracies and dictatorships alike.”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/russi ... ewer_click
RUSSIA
Re: RUSSIA
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR December 17, 2018 at 9:35 pm
Paul Plante says :
Stacy, what has any of that drivel got to do with Democrat demagogue Adam Schiff trying to shred our Constitution?
You tell us “(I)t’s a long, complicated story, which is part of why the MSM has so utterly dropped the ball covering it,” and then you tell us that Donald Trump is a con man and his father had mob ties.
What of it, Stacy?
What is the point?
And how is that any different than John F. Kennedy and his father?
Weren’t they close to the mob?
And then you tell us “Trump inherited those ties and established new ones, especially after he failed with casinos in Atlantic City and banks won’t lend to him.”
Have you even a shred of proof to back any of that up?
And Stacy, again, what of any of that?
Trump IS the president, is he not?
Are you saying that because he is mobbed up, that he can’t be president?
And then you come out with this gem: “That’s when he got into international money laundering.”
Okay!
Again, how is that relevant to anything this Democrat demagogue Congressman Adam Schiff is doing, or about to do?
Please enlighten us, because to me, it seems very much like you are taking us on a speculative wild goose chase with all this mob stuff and money laundering and all.
Let’s say it’s all true, Stacy – WHAT OF IT?
Then you come at us with this: “Trump ran for president as a cynical bid to increase the value of his brand.”
UH, didn’t Obama do the same, Stacy?
Dude comes into office without enough money to buy a decent pair of shoes or a suit that fit him right, and he leaves office ahead millions of dollars!
What’s up with that, Stacy?
And what about the Fox News article “The Obamas are on their way to becoming a billion-dollar brand” by Alex Pappas on 19 November 2018, where we are told as follows:
The cash keeps rolling in for Barack and Michelle Obama.
And it may not be long before they’re billionaires.
The New York Post reported the Obamas are on their way to becoming a billion-dollar brand, amid highly lucrative deals for books, speeches and Netflix videos.
The former president makes $400,000 per speech.
end quotes
How about Hussein Obama ran for president as a cynical bid to increase the value of his brand?
And then you come back with this: “The Apprentice TV shows weren’t bringing in as much money, so he decided to run for president (again — he dipped his toe in the water in 2012).”
What, Stacy, do you want us to make of that?
Should that have served as a disqualification for office, do you think – that his motives weren’t pure?
And that question takes us back to this assertion, to wit: “Trump has been on Russia’s radar since he visited in the 80s to try to build Trump Tower Moscow.”
“Putin seems to have some serious blackmail on him; that’s why Trump is so deferential to the Russian dictator/president.”
“At this point Russian government is effectively the Russian mob.”
end quotes
Stacy, let me tell you, you have a real talent for drama, you know that?
But of course you do.
So can we expect Adam Schiff, who is making money off of being the “resistance” to Trump, as if the Constitution somehow gave a Congressman like Adam Schiff the duty to be the “resistance” to a sitting president, to expose this serious blackmail Putin has on Trump?
Is that where this is going?
And no, Stacy, I am not going to go over to TWITTER, of all places, to try and find out either truth or facts, because TWITTER is the last place I would expect to find either, and frankly, Stacy, I am surprised and concerned that you are letting that crap on TWITTER get into your head to rot your mind!
And here we come, it seems, to your finale, to wit: I believe that eventually, somehow Trump will end up spending the rest of his life in jail.
He has betrayed the United States in his quest for money and fame.
Most of his family will get jail time, too.
Mueller is playing it smart; he’s working with state prosecutors so Trump can’t pardon everyone around him and himself for everything.
You may not believe a word I wrote.
That’s fine.
It’s your prerogative.
end quotes
I thought Mueller was supposed to be investigating Russian interference in our elections, Stacy, which incidentally, has never yet been proven.
Where is he getting all this extra authority from?
And where are these state attorney generals getting any Constitutional authority to conduct criminal investigations of a sitting American president?
And Stacy, I don’t know about anyone else, but I never thought you were a Hillary-loving libtard who wants to tax everyone to kingdom come and take everyone’s guns away, and I’m glad to hear you are not.
And like you, I too would like to see competent people running the government, because as you so accurately stay, this country has serious problems, and they’re not getting solved by the clown show in D.C.
Given that Adam Schiff is a big part of that clown show then makes this expose even more relevant to the times we are in, does it not?
And Stacy, thank you for having the courage to make your opinion known!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-107789
Paul Plante says :
Stacy, what has any of that drivel got to do with Democrat demagogue Adam Schiff trying to shred our Constitution?
You tell us “(I)t’s a long, complicated story, which is part of why the MSM has so utterly dropped the ball covering it,” and then you tell us that Donald Trump is a con man and his father had mob ties.
What of it, Stacy?
What is the point?
And how is that any different than John F. Kennedy and his father?
Weren’t they close to the mob?
And then you tell us “Trump inherited those ties and established new ones, especially after he failed with casinos in Atlantic City and banks won’t lend to him.”
Have you even a shred of proof to back any of that up?
And Stacy, again, what of any of that?
Trump IS the president, is he not?
Are you saying that because he is mobbed up, that he can’t be president?
And then you come out with this gem: “That’s when he got into international money laundering.”
Okay!
Again, how is that relevant to anything this Democrat demagogue Congressman Adam Schiff is doing, or about to do?
Please enlighten us, because to me, it seems very much like you are taking us on a speculative wild goose chase with all this mob stuff and money laundering and all.
Let’s say it’s all true, Stacy – WHAT OF IT?
Then you come at us with this: “Trump ran for president as a cynical bid to increase the value of his brand.”
UH, didn’t Obama do the same, Stacy?
Dude comes into office without enough money to buy a decent pair of shoes or a suit that fit him right, and he leaves office ahead millions of dollars!
What’s up with that, Stacy?
And what about the Fox News article “The Obamas are on their way to becoming a billion-dollar brand” by Alex Pappas on 19 November 2018, where we are told as follows:
The cash keeps rolling in for Barack and Michelle Obama.
And it may not be long before they’re billionaires.
The New York Post reported the Obamas are on their way to becoming a billion-dollar brand, amid highly lucrative deals for books, speeches and Netflix videos.
The former president makes $400,000 per speech.
end quotes
How about Hussein Obama ran for president as a cynical bid to increase the value of his brand?
And then you come back with this: “The Apprentice TV shows weren’t bringing in as much money, so he decided to run for president (again — he dipped his toe in the water in 2012).”
What, Stacy, do you want us to make of that?
Should that have served as a disqualification for office, do you think – that his motives weren’t pure?
And that question takes us back to this assertion, to wit: “Trump has been on Russia’s radar since he visited in the 80s to try to build Trump Tower Moscow.”
“Putin seems to have some serious blackmail on him; that’s why Trump is so deferential to the Russian dictator/president.”
“At this point Russian government is effectively the Russian mob.”
end quotes
Stacy, let me tell you, you have a real talent for drama, you know that?
But of course you do.
So can we expect Adam Schiff, who is making money off of being the “resistance” to Trump, as if the Constitution somehow gave a Congressman like Adam Schiff the duty to be the “resistance” to a sitting president, to expose this serious blackmail Putin has on Trump?
Is that where this is going?
And no, Stacy, I am not going to go over to TWITTER, of all places, to try and find out either truth or facts, because TWITTER is the last place I would expect to find either, and frankly, Stacy, I am surprised and concerned that you are letting that crap on TWITTER get into your head to rot your mind!
And here we come, it seems, to your finale, to wit: I believe that eventually, somehow Trump will end up spending the rest of his life in jail.
He has betrayed the United States in his quest for money and fame.
Most of his family will get jail time, too.
Mueller is playing it smart; he’s working with state prosecutors so Trump can’t pardon everyone around him and himself for everything.
You may not believe a word I wrote.
That’s fine.
It’s your prerogative.
end quotes
I thought Mueller was supposed to be investigating Russian interference in our elections, Stacy, which incidentally, has never yet been proven.
Where is he getting all this extra authority from?
And where are these state attorney generals getting any Constitutional authority to conduct criminal investigations of a sitting American president?
And Stacy, I don’t know about anyone else, but I never thought you were a Hillary-loving libtard who wants to tax everyone to kingdom come and take everyone’s guns away, and I’m glad to hear you are not.
And like you, I too would like to see competent people running the government, because as you so accurately stay, this country has serious problems, and they’re not getting solved by the clown show in D.C.
Given that Adam Schiff is a big part of that clown show then makes this expose even more relevant to the times we are in, does it not?
And Stacy, thank you for having the courage to make your opinion known!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-107789
Re: RUSSIA
FEDERALIST No. 68
The Mode of Electing the President
From the New York Packet.
Friday, March 14, 1788.
HAMILTON
To the People of the State of New York:
THE mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States is almost the only part of the system, of any consequence, which has escaped without severe censure, or which has received the slightest mark of approbation from its opponents.
It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided.
This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any preestablished body, but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture.
It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.
A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.
It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder.
This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States.
But the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an effectual security against this mischief.
The choice of SEVERAL, to form an intermediate body of electors, will be much less apt to convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements, than the choice of ONE who was himself to be the final object of the public wishes.
And as the electors, chosen in each State, are to assemble and vote in the State in which they are chosen, this detached and divided situation will expose them much less to heats and ferments, which might be communicated from them to the people, than if they were all to be convened at one time, in one place.
Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption.
These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.
How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?
But the convention have guarded against all danger of this sort, with the most provident and judicious attention.
They have not made the appointment of the President to depend on any preexisting bodies of men, who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment.
And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office.
No senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States, can be of the numbers of the electors.
Thus without corrupting the body of the people, the immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task free from any sinister bias.
Their transient existence, and their detached situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it.
The business of corruption, when it is to embrace so considerable a number of men, requires time as well as means.
Nor would it be found easy suddenly to embark them, dispersed as they would be over thirteen States, in any combinations founded upon motives, which though they could not properly be denominated corrupt, might yet be of a nature to mislead them from their duty.
Another and no less important desideratum was, that the Executive should be independent for his continuance in office on all but the people themselves.
He might otherwise be tempted to sacrifice his duty to his complaisance for those whose favor was necessary to the duration of his official consequence.
This advantage will also be secured, by making his re-election to depend on a special body of representatives, deputed by the society for the single purpose of making the important choice.
All these advantages will happily combine in the plan devised by the convention; which is, that the people of each State shall choose a number of persons as electors, equal to the number of senators and representatives of such State in the national government, who shall assemble within the State, and vote for some fit person as President.
Their votes, thus given, are to be transmitted to the seat of the national government, and the person who may happen to have a majority of the whole number of votes will be the President.
The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.
Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.
It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.
PUBLIUS.
THIS CLAIM THAT THE RUSSIANS USED SOCIAL MEDIA TO HELP TRUMP WIN THE ELECTION FALLS FLAT ON ITS FACE BECAUSE IN AMERICA, BECAUSE THE PEOPLE ARE SO EASILY MISLED, IT IS THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE THAT ELECTS THE PRESIDENT, A TASK THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CAN'T BE TRUSTED WITH …THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR December 18, 2018 at 8:01 pm
But enough about the Russians, my goodness, we have heard so much about them that hearing some more is like trying to eat hot dogs every meal for a year or two – you reach a point of where they will no longer go down, and so it is with all this bull**** from Adam Schiff about “Russian interference” in our 2016 presidential race.
Unless and until Adam Schiff has investigated each and every member of the electoral college who voted for Trump to make sure they were not tainted by the Russians in some nefarious way so that they would vote for Trump, and not Hillary, and has presented us with that evidence that a member or many members or even all the members of the electoral college had been tampered with, there is no Russian interference, plain and simple.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-108060
AND TRUMP LOST THE POPULAR VOTE TO HILLARY …
SO MUCH FOR ALL THIS SUPPOSED RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE PUTTING TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE …
And so ...
THE WASHINGTON POST
"New report on Russian disinformation, prepared for the Senate, shows the operation’s scale and sweep"
Craig Timberg, Tony Romm
17 DECEMBER 2018
A report prepared for the Senate that provides the most sweeping analysis yet of Russia’s disinformation campaign around the 2016 election found the operation used every major social media platform to deliver words, images and videos tailored to voters’ interests to help elect President Trump — and worked even harder to support him while in office.
The report, a draft of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the first to study the millions of posts provided by major technology firms to the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), its chairman, and Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), its ranking Democrat.
The bipartisan panel hasn’t said whether it endorses the findings.
It plans to release it publicly this week.
The research — by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika, a network analysis firm — offers new details of how Russians working at the Internet Research Agency, which U.S. officials have charged with criminal offenses for interfering in the 2016 campaign, sliced Americans into key interest groups for targeted messaging.
These efforts shifted over time, peaking at key political moments, such as presidential debates or party conventions, the report found.
The data sets used by the researchers were provided by Facebook, Twitter and Google and covered several years up to mid-2017, when the social media companies cracked down on the known Russian accounts.
The report, which also analyzed data separately provided to House Intelligence Committee members, contains no information on more recent political moments, such as November’s midterm elections.
“What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party — and specifically Donald Trump,” the report says.
“Trump is mentioned most in campaigns targeting conservatives and right-wing voters, where the messaging encouraged these groups to support his campaign."
"The main groups that could challenge Trump were then provided messaging that sought to confuse, distract and ultimately discourage members from voting.”
Representatives for Burr and Warner declined to comment.
The report offers the latest evidence that Russian agents sought to help Trump win the White House.
Democrats and Republicans on the panel previously studied the U.S. intelligence community’s 2017 finding that Moscow aimed to assist Trump, and in July, they said investigators had come to the correct conclusion.
Despite their work, some Republicans on Capitol Hill continue to doubt the nature of Russia’s interference in the last presidential election.
The Russians aimed particular energy at activating conservatives on issues such as gun rights and immigration, while sapping the political clout of left-leaning African American voters by undermining their faith in elections and spreading misleading information about how to vote.
Many other groups — Latinos, Muslims, Christians, gay men and women, liberals, Southerners, veterans — got at least some attention from Russians operating thousands of social media accounts.
A second report — released Monday after being prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee by researchers for New Knowledge, Columbia University and Canfield Research — emphasized this aspect of the Russian operation, saying, “The IRA created an expansive cross-platform media mirage targeting the Black community, which shared and cross-promoted authentic Black media to create an immersive influence ecosystem.”
This report, though largely tracking with the one from Oxford and Graphika in its conclusions, also offered some new statistics, including that the Russians posted more than 1,000 YouTube videos for their disinformation campaign and that Instagram generated more than twice the “engagement” among users than either Facebook or Twitter.
Such metrics track user comments, shares, likes and other actions that go beyond having an item merely appear on their screens.
Both reports also offered some of the first detailed analyses of the role played by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, and Instagram, owned by Facebook, in the Russian campaign, as well as anecdotes about how Russians used other social media platforms — Google+, Tumblr and Pinterest — that have received relatively little scrutiny.
The Russian effort also used email accounts from Yahoo, Microsoft’s Hotmail service and Google’s Gmail.
The authors of the report by Oxford and Graphika, while reliant on data provided by technology companies, also highlighted the companies' “belated and uncoordinated response” to the disinformation campaign and, once it was discovered, their failure to share more with investigators.
The authors urged that in the future they provide data in “meaningful and constructive” ways.
Facebook, for example, provided the Senate with copies of posts from 81 Facebook pages and information on 76 accounts used to purchase ads, but it did not share posts from other user accounts run by the IRA, the report says.
Twitter, meanwhile, has made it challenging for outside researchers to collect and analyze data on its platform through its public feed, the researchers said.
Google submitted information in an especially difficult way for the researchers to handle, providing content such as YouTube videos but not the related data that would have allowed a full analysis.
The YouTube information was so hard for the researchers to study, they wrote, that they instead tracked the links to its videos from other sites in hopes of better understanding YouTube’s role in the Russian effort.
Facebook and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a statement, Twitter stressed it had made “significant strides” since the 2016 election to harden its digital defenses, including the release of a repository of the tweets that Russian agents previously sent so that for researchers can review them.
“Our singular focus is to improve the health of the public conversation on our platform, and protecting the integrity of elections is an important aspect of that mission," the company added.
Facebook, Google and Twitter first disclosed last year that they had identified Russian interference on their sites.
Critics previously said that it took too long to come to an understanding of the disinformation campaign, and that Russian strategies have likely shifted since then.
The companies have awakened to the threat — Facebook, in particular, created a “war room” this fall to combat interference around elections — but none has revealed interference around the midterm elections last month on the scale of what happened in 2016.
The report expressed concern about the overall threat social media poses to political discourse within nations and among them, warning that companies once viewed as tools for liberation in the Arab world and elsewhere are now threats to democracy.
“Social media have gone from being the natural infrastructure for sharing collective grievances and coordinating civic engagement to being a computational tool for social control, manipulated by canny political consultants and available to politicians in democracies and dictatorships alike,” the report said.
Researchers also noted that the data includes evidence of sloppiness by the Russians that could have led to earlier detection, including the use of Russia’s currency, the ruble, to buy ads and Russian phone numbers for contact information.
The operatives also left behind technical signatures in computerized logs, such as Internet addresses in St. Petersburg, where the IRA was based.
Many of the findings track, in general terms, work by other researchers and testimony previously provided by the companies to lawmakers investigating the Russian effort.
But the fuller data available to the researchers offered new insights on many aspects of the Russian campaign.
The report traces the origins of Russian online influence operations to Russian domestic politics in 2009 and says that ambitions shifted to include U.S. politics as early as 2013 on Twitter.
Of the tweets the company provided to the Senate, 57 percent are in Russian, 36 percent in English and smaller amounts in other languages.
The efforts to manipulate Americans grew sharply in 2014 and every year after, as teams of operatives spread their work across more platforms and accounts to target larger swaths of U.S. voters by geography, political interests, race, religion and other factors.
The Russians started with accounts on Twitter, then added YouTube and Instagram before bringing Facebook into the mix, the report said.
Facebook was particularly effective at targeting conservatives and African Americans, the report found.
More than 99 percent of all engagement — meaning likes, shares and other reactions — came from 20 Facebook pages controlled by the IRA, including “Being Patriotic,” “Heart of Texas,” “Blacktivist” and “Army of Jesus.”
Together, the 20 most popular pages generated 39 million likes, 31 million shares, 5.4 million reactions and 3.4 million comments.
Company officials told Congress that the Russian campaign reached 126 million people on Facebook and 20 million more on Instagram.
The Russians operated 133 accounts on Instagram, a photo-sharing subsidiary of Facebook, that focused mainly on race, ethnicity or other forms of personal identity.
The most successful Instagram posts targeted African American cultural issues and black pride and were not explicitly political.
While the overall intensity of posting across platforms grew year by year — with a particular spike during the six months after Election Day 2016 — this growth was particularly pronounced on Instagram, which went from roughly 2,600 posts a month in 2016 to nearly 6,000 in 2017, when the accounts were shut down.
Across all three years covered by the report, Russian Instagram posts generated 185 million likes and 4 million user comments.
Even though the researchers struggled to interpret the YouTube data submitted by Google, they were able to track the links from other sites to YouTube, offering a “proxy” for understanding the role played by the video platform.
“The proxy is imperfect,” the researchers wrote, “but the IRA’s heavy use of links to YouTube videos leaves little doubt of the IRA’s interest in leveraging Google’s video platform to target and manipulate US audiences.”
The use of YouTube, like the other platforms, appears to have grown after Trump’s election.
Twitter links to YouTube videos grew by 84 percent in the six months after the election, the data showed.
The Russians shrewdly worked across platforms as they refined their tactics aimed at particular groups, posting links across accounts and sites to bolster the influence operation’s success on each, the report shows.
“Black Matters US” had accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr and PayPal, according to the researchers.
By linking posts across these platforms, the Russian operatives were able to solicit donations, organize real-world protests and rallies, and direct online traffic to a website that the Russians controlled.
The researchers found that when Facebook shut down the page in August 2016, a new one called “BM” soon appeared with more cultural and fewer political posts.
It tracked closely to the content on the @blackmatterus Instagram account.
The report found operatives also began buying Google ads to promote the “BlackMatters US” website with provocative messages such as, “Cops kill black kids."
"Are you sure that your son won’t be the next?”
The related Twitter account, meanwhile, complained about the suspension of the Facebook page, accusing the tech company of “supporting white supremacy.”
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... id=HPDHP17
Re: RUSSIA
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR December 20, 2018 at 7:26 pm
Paul Plante says :
WOW, Chas Cornweller!
GADZOOKS!
ZOUNDS!
When you let loose like you just did here, you remind me of Wellington’s infantry (me) confronted by Napolean’s massed cannon (you).
WHEW, Chas Cornweller, you really skinned me there, didn’t you, with this biting and cutting comment, to wit: “Besides, I thought your ilk thought the Left too stupid to even get out their own way!?”
Actually, my dear friend and fellow American patriot (and don’t let him kid you here, people, because Chas knows this same stuff better than I), in the minds of the founding fathers, suffrage was up to the states, period, and it was never intended to be universal, as that was seen by the founders, based on solid historical evidence which modern Americans aren’t even aware of, being more concerned with what will happen next, as opposed to yesterday, and ignore at their peril, but more importantly, the peril of the nation, as the best way to destroy the nation, by opening it up to foreign intrigue, which is exactly what has happened in the United States of America since Barack Obama became president,
We have people in this country, my dear friend and fellow natural-born American citizen Chas Cornweller (I know, I know, that counts for less than anything in America today but I am old and it is hard to change ingrained ways) who were actually misled by RUSSIANS who were able to tell these people, presumably Democrat voters, since the RUSSIANS were trying to elect Trump and hurt Hillary, which they failed to do since Hillary still won the popular vote, not Trump, the wrong way to vote, because these people who can vote had no idea how to do it.
These are the people who didn’t have suffrage in America at the time of the founding, and with good reason, Chas Cornweller – they were concerned with trying to save a failing nation, and they didn’t want or need the advice of people who didn’t even know how to vote, so they could be misled by RUSSIANS, coming into the picture.
And now, thanks to the Democrats, we are chock-a-block with people in this country, Chas Cornweller, and we know this is true from the Senate report the Brits did that showed how many people in this country are either totally owned by the RUSSIANS or are in thrall to the RUSSIANS.
That wasn’t supposed to be able to happen, Chas Cornweller.
But it obviously has.
We have met the enemy and it is us, Chas Cornweller.
We are getting in real time to see what happens when a nation opens up its insane asylums in a quest for full voter enrollment.
We got here by ourselves, Chas Cornweller.
By the way, Chas Cornweller, are you one of those in this country who is led around by the nose by the Russians?
Or do you think you think for yourself?
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-108962
Paul Plante says :
WOW, Chas Cornweller!
GADZOOKS!
ZOUNDS!
When you let loose like you just did here, you remind me of Wellington’s infantry (me) confronted by Napolean’s massed cannon (you).
WHEW, Chas Cornweller, you really skinned me there, didn’t you, with this biting and cutting comment, to wit: “Besides, I thought your ilk thought the Left too stupid to even get out their own way!?”
Actually, my dear friend and fellow American patriot (and don’t let him kid you here, people, because Chas knows this same stuff better than I), in the minds of the founding fathers, suffrage was up to the states, period, and it was never intended to be universal, as that was seen by the founders, based on solid historical evidence which modern Americans aren’t even aware of, being more concerned with what will happen next, as opposed to yesterday, and ignore at their peril, but more importantly, the peril of the nation, as the best way to destroy the nation, by opening it up to foreign intrigue, which is exactly what has happened in the United States of America since Barack Obama became president,
We have people in this country, my dear friend and fellow natural-born American citizen Chas Cornweller (I know, I know, that counts for less than anything in America today but I am old and it is hard to change ingrained ways) who were actually misled by RUSSIANS who were able to tell these people, presumably Democrat voters, since the RUSSIANS were trying to elect Trump and hurt Hillary, which they failed to do since Hillary still won the popular vote, not Trump, the wrong way to vote, because these people who can vote had no idea how to do it.
These are the people who didn’t have suffrage in America at the time of the founding, and with good reason, Chas Cornweller – they were concerned with trying to save a failing nation, and they didn’t want or need the advice of people who didn’t even know how to vote, so they could be misled by RUSSIANS, coming into the picture.
And now, thanks to the Democrats, we are chock-a-block with people in this country, Chas Cornweller, and we know this is true from the Senate report the Brits did that showed how many people in this country are either totally owned by the RUSSIANS or are in thrall to the RUSSIANS.
That wasn’t supposed to be able to happen, Chas Cornweller.
But it obviously has.
We have met the enemy and it is us, Chas Cornweller.
We are getting in real time to see what happens when a nation opens up its insane asylums in a quest for full voter enrollment.
We got here by ourselves, Chas Cornweller.
By the way, Chas Cornweller, are you one of those in this country who is led around by the nose by the Russians?
Or do you think you think for yourself?
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-108962
Re: RUSSIA
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR December 23, 2018
Op-Ed: On the Imbecility of Government Today
Special Opinion to the Mirror by Paul Plante.
In one of those cosmic confluences of events associated with the Cape Charles Mirror, perhaps because of its location over that huge meteorite from somewhere out in outer space buried down deep in the earth in the sea-floor mud beneath Cape Charles itself, more or less, anyway, that draws people from not only America itself, but from the wider world as well, back to the Cape Charles Mirror from week to week, just to see what is going to happen next, especially now that it has turned cold here in the frozen wastelands to the north of Cape Charles, and people are hunkered in for the winter, in sore need of some intellectual stimulation, just the other day, I posted this following from “An Address to the People of the State of New-York On the Subject of the Constitution, Agreed upon at Philadelphia, The 17th of September, 1787” by John Jay, member of the New York State Convention, printed by Samuel Loudon, Printer to the State, 1788, to wit:
From this new and wonderful system of Government (the Articles of Confederation), it has come to pass, that almost every national object of every kind, is at this day unprovided for; and other nations taking the advantage of its imbecility, are daily multiplying commercial restraints upon us.
end quotes
That, people, was 230 years ago, now, that those words of wisdom were spoken to the People of the State of New York by John Jay, an author of some of the Federalist Papers, and this nation’s first chief justice, about the imbecility of our national government, and those words were barely dry on the pages of the Cape Charles Mirror when to prove to us American people 230 years later that other nations are still taking advantage of the imbecility of our national government, which is of, by, and for the American people, the Washington Post was out with an article entitled “New report on Russian disinformation, prepared for the Senate, shows the operation’s scale and sweep” by Craig Timberg and Tony Romm on 17 December 2018, as follows:
A report prepared for the Senate that provides the most sweeping analysis yet of Russia’s disinformation campaign around the 2016 election found the operation used every major social media platform to deliver words, images and videos tailored to voters’ interests to help elect President Trump — and worked even harder to support him while in office.
The report, a draft of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the first to study the millions of posts provided by major technology firms to the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), its chairman, and Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), its ranking Democrat.
The bipartisan panel hasn’t said whether it endorses the findings.
It plans to release it publicly this week.
The research — by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika, a network analysis firm — offers new details of how Russians working at the Internet Research Agency, which U.S. officials have charged with criminal offenses for interfering in the 2016 campaign, sliced Americans into key interest groups for targeted messaging.
These efforts shifted over time, peaking at key political moments, such as presidential debates or party conventions, the report found.
The data sets used by the researchers were provided by Facebook, Twitter and Google and covered several years up to mid-2017, when the social media companies cracked down on the known Russian accounts.
The report, which also analyzed data separately provided to House Intelligence Committee members, contains no information on more recent political moments, such as November’s midterm elections.
“What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party — and specifically Donald Trump,” the report says.
“Trump is mentioned most in campaigns targeting conservatives and right-wing voters, where the messaging encouraged these groups to support his campaign.”
“The main groups that could challenge Trump were then provided messaging that sought to confuse, distract and ultimately discourage members from voting.”
Representatives for Burr and Warner declined to comment.
The report offers the latest evidence that Russian agents sought to help Trump win the White House.
end quotes
Now, people, ponder on that last sentence for a moment, and then think back to your high school civics class, and ask yourself this essential existential question, to wit: “Could that possibly be true?”
Does that report done by the Brits of all people, offer any evidence at all that Russian agents sought to help Trump win the White House?
Or is it just some more political hog**** being thrown at us by our imbecilic national government?
And before I answer that question, because I believe you should never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to (that is a no-brainer, by the way, for an American), the word “imbecilic” shows up several times in the Federalist Papers, and with good reason as we first see in FEDERALIST No. 9, “The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection,” for the Independent Journal to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton circa 1787, to wit:
A distinction, more subtle than accurate, has been raised between a CONFEDERACY and a CONSOLIDATION of the States.
The essential characteristic of the first is said to be, the restriction of its authority to the members in their collective capacities, without reaching to the individuals of whom they are composed.
It is contended that the national council ought to have no concern with any object of internal administration.
An exact equality of suffrage between the members has also been insisted upon as a leading feature of a confederate government.
These positions are, in the main, arbitrary; they are supported neither by principle nor precedent.
It has indeed happened, that governments of this kind have generally operated in the manner which the distinction taken notice of, supposes to be inherent in their nature; but there have been in most of them extensive exceptions to the practice, which serve to prove, as far as example will go, that there is no absolute rule on the subject.
And it will be clearly shown in the course of this investigation that as far as the principle contended for has prevailed, it has been the cause of incurable disorder and imbecility in the government.
end quotes
Incurable disorder and imbecility in the government!
That is us today he is talking about, people, as we can clearly see from that stunning report the Brits just did for the United States Senate, where the Brits who did the study proved pretty conclusively that the Russians aimed particular energy at left-leaning African American voters by undermining their faith in elections and spreading misleading information about how to vote.
Which raises the question all these years later of how can somebody be an American citizen and not know how to vote?
Imbecility then shows up again in FEDERALIST No. 15, “The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union,” for the Independent Journal to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton, as follows:
Is respectability in the eyes of foreign powers a safeguard against foreign encroachments?
The imbecility of our government even forbids them to treat with us.
end quotes
Today, as that report to the Senate by the Brits makes incandescently clear, the imbecility of our national government has the American people being led around by the nose by the Russians in seemingly huge flocks, according to that report.
So what is up with that does anyone think?
And then we come back to imbecility in FEDERALIST No. 18, “The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union, continued,” for the Independent Journal to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, as follows:
The Achaeans (Greeks), though weakened by internal dissensions and by the revolt of Messene, one of its members, being joined by the AEtolians and Athenians, erected the standard of opposition.
Finding themselves, though thus supported, unequal to the undertaking, they once more had recourse to the dangerous expedient of introducing the succor of foreign arms.
The Romans, to whom the invitation was made, eagerly embraced it.
Philip was conquered; Macedon subdued.
A new crisis ensued to the league.
Dissensions broke out among it members.
These the Romans fostered.
Callicrates and other popular leaders became mercenary instruments for inveigling their countrymen.
The more effectually to nourish discord and disorder the Romans had, to the astonishment of those who confided in their sincerity, already proclaimed universal liberty throughout Greece.
With the same insidious views, they now seduced the members from the league, by representing to their pride the violation it committed on their sovereignty.
By these arts this union, the last hope of Greece, the last hope of ancient liberty, was torn into pieces; and such imbecility and distraction introduced, that the arms of Rome found little difficulty in completing the ruin which their arts had commenced.
The Achaeans were cut to pieces, and Achaia loaded with chains, under which it is groaning at this hour.
end quotes
And now the Russians are doing it to us, people, so how about that?
Those who don’t know history, and that is most modern Americans today, are grist for the mill of those who do, plain and simple.
And note that the form of government those Greeks had was called Democracy!
And that in turn takes us to FEDERALIST No. 68, “The Mode of Electing the President,” from the New York Packet to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton on Friday, March 14, 1788, where we learn about our form of government, as follows:
THE mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States is almost the only part of the system, of any consequence, which has escaped without severe censure, or which has received the slightest mark of approbation from its opponents.
end quotes
Now, here people, is where I become curious as to why our United States Senate is seeking input on how our government is supposed to function from the Brits, who would be the last to know, given that they are ruled by a queen, whose subjects they are, while some of us remember being a free people not owned or in thrall to a foreign power like Great Britain, or Russia, for that matter.
Why doesn’t our United States Senate know how the Chief Magistrate of the United States is appointed?
How can they be so ignorant?
Is it because they are put in office by people in this country who either don’t know how to vote, or have been misled by the Russians?
Getting back to Federalist No. 68, we have, to wit:
It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided.
This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any preestablished body, but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture.
It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.
end quotes
Now think about that, people, as we hear all this hype and hysteria the Brits are feeding to our imbecilic Senate which makes it sound as if the Russians are actually the ones who elected Donald Trump to office, as opposed to a body of men and women in this country most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.
Are the Brits, and by extension, the members of our Senate who are getting their facts from the Brits, who seem to know more about what is going on over here than do the members of our Senate, telling us that minds of these men and women in this country most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice have been contaminated by the Russians to such extent that they were nothing more than Russian stooges?
Is that what the Brits and the U.S. Senate are telling us when they say this report offers the latest evidence that Russian agents sought to help Trump win the White House?
Because in America, pursuant to our mode of electing our president, the only way the Russians could have succeeded was by literally taking over the electors of the president, and where is there any proof that that happened, people?
Getting back to Federalist No. 68, we have:
A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.
end quotes
Discernment requisite to such complicated investigations, people, where discernment can be taken to mean the ability to judge well.
So are we to believe that these electors were actually then stupid enough to be taken in by Russian disinformation on FACEBOOK and TWITTER?
If these electors are chosen because they possess discernment requisite to such complicated investigations as are required to elect an American president, people, do we really think they are going to be conducting their investigations on either FACEBOOK or mindless TWITTER?
And that thought about Russian interference in our affairs over here, which has been going on since at least WWII, takes us back to Federalist No. 68 as follows:
It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder.
This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States.
But the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an effectual security against this mischief.
end quotes
WHOA, stop the presses here, people – the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration for electing the president of the United States of America promise an effectual security against mischief!
So how did the Russians manage to thwart that security to affect our presidential election by tainting the electors through a campaign of disinformation?
Has our electoral system broken down so that it now no longer provides us any security from Russian control of the minds of the American people?
Getting back to Federalist No. 68:
The choice of SEVERAL, to form an intermediate body of electors, will be much less apt to convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements, than the choice of ONE who was himself to be the final object of the public wishes.
And as the electors, chosen in each State, are to assemble and vote in the State in which they are chosen, this detached and divided situation will expose them much less to heats and ferments, which might be communicated from them to the people, than if they were all to be convened at one time, in one place.
end quotes
So, okay, people, who are we to believe here?
What these Brits at Oxford University are telling us is that today, with FACEBOOK and mindless TWITTER in the virtual control of the Russians, there no longer is any possible way to keep our presidential electors from being exposed to heats and ferments concocted by the Russians in order to put Donald Trump in the White House.
Can that be true?
And back once again to Federalist No. 68 we go, to see the following:
Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption.
These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.
end quotes
AHHHHH!
Do you see that, people?
Two hundred thirty years ago, the founders of this nation already anticipated that the Russians would try to interfere in our national elections today, as the Brits are telling the United States Senate happened, and in their wisdom, they put in place every practicable obstacle they could to oppose cabal, intrigue, and corruption in our presidential elections.
So how were these obstacles surmounted by the Russians in 2016?
And the answer to that question is that they weren’t!
It is almost 2019 now, and to date, not one shred of evidence has been put forth by anyone, including our so-called “intelligence” agencies, and the Mueller investigation, that any presidential electors in this country were turned by the Russians, or influenced in any way.
Getting back to the safeguards built into our mode of electing a president in this country so as to keep foreign powers like Russia or Great Britain, for that matter, from gaining an improper ascendant in our councils, Federalist No. 68 continues as follows:
How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?
But the convention have guarded against all danger of this sort, with the most provident and judicious attention.
They have not made the appointment of the President to depend on any preexisting bodies of men, who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment.
And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office.
No senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States, can be of the numbers of the electors.
Thus without corrupting the body of the people, the immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task free from any sinister bias.
Their transient existence, and their detached situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it.
end quotes
But, people, if we are to believe these Brits about the Russians using social media to put Trump in the White House, then we are being asked to believe that these electors were not free of sinister bias when they voted to put Trump in the White House over Hillary Clinton, a pathological liar deemed too untrustworthy to be an American president and the leader of a free people.
Getting back to Federalist No. 68, and the Russians corrupting our presidential electors, we have:
The business of corruption, when it is to embrace so considerable a number of men, requires time as well as means.
Nor would it be found easy suddenly to embark them, dispersed as they would be over thirteen States, in any combinations founded upon motives, which though they could not properly be denominated corrupt, might yet be of a nature to mislead them from their duty.
end quotes
Today, of course, we have fifty states, so are we really to believe that the Russians are so powerful in this country that they can literally reach into each state to corrupt the electors?
Isn’t that thought verging on hysteria?
Back to Federalist No. 68, to wit:
All these advantages will happily combine in the plan devised by the convention; which is, that the people of each State shall choose a number of persons as electors, equal to the number of senators and representatives of such State in the national government, who shall assemble within the State, and vote for some fit person as President.
Their votes, thus given, are to be transmitted to the seat of the national government, and the person who may happen to have a majority of the whole number of votes will be the President.
The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.
Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.
It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.
end quotes
HMMMMMMMMM!
I wonder how these Brits at Oxford University are going to get around that – it will not be too strong to say that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.
If that is no longer true, then it would seem that these Brits at Oxford University owe us a duty to explain to us how it was that the Russians were able to breach all these protections and safeguards to corrupt our presidential electors in this country so that they would put Trump in office instead of Hillary.
When can we expect that critical answer to be forthcoming?
Stay tuned for further developments, and don’t touch that dial!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-today/
Op-Ed: On the Imbecility of Government Today
Special Opinion to the Mirror by Paul Plante.
In one of those cosmic confluences of events associated with the Cape Charles Mirror, perhaps because of its location over that huge meteorite from somewhere out in outer space buried down deep in the earth in the sea-floor mud beneath Cape Charles itself, more or less, anyway, that draws people from not only America itself, but from the wider world as well, back to the Cape Charles Mirror from week to week, just to see what is going to happen next, especially now that it has turned cold here in the frozen wastelands to the north of Cape Charles, and people are hunkered in for the winter, in sore need of some intellectual stimulation, just the other day, I posted this following from “An Address to the People of the State of New-York On the Subject of the Constitution, Agreed upon at Philadelphia, The 17th of September, 1787” by John Jay, member of the New York State Convention, printed by Samuel Loudon, Printer to the State, 1788, to wit:
From this new and wonderful system of Government (the Articles of Confederation), it has come to pass, that almost every national object of every kind, is at this day unprovided for; and other nations taking the advantage of its imbecility, are daily multiplying commercial restraints upon us.
end quotes
That, people, was 230 years ago, now, that those words of wisdom were spoken to the People of the State of New York by John Jay, an author of some of the Federalist Papers, and this nation’s first chief justice, about the imbecility of our national government, and those words were barely dry on the pages of the Cape Charles Mirror when to prove to us American people 230 years later that other nations are still taking advantage of the imbecility of our national government, which is of, by, and for the American people, the Washington Post was out with an article entitled “New report on Russian disinformation, prepared for the Senate, shows the operation’s scale and sweep” by Craig Timberg and Tony Romm on 17 December 2018, as follows:
A report prepared for the Senate that provides the most sweeping analysis yet of Russia’s disinformation campaign around the 2016 election found the operation used every major social media platform to deliver words, images and videos tailored to voters’ interests to help elect President Trump — and worked even harder to support him while in office.
The report, a draft of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the first to study the millions of posts provided by major technology firms to the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), its chairman, and Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), its ranking Democrat.
The bipartisan panel hasn’t said whether it endorses the findings.
It plans to release it publicly this week.
The research — by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika, a network analysis firm — offers new details of how Russians working at the Internet Research Agency, which U.S. officials have charged with criminal offenses for interfering in the 2016 campaign, sliced Americans into key interest groups for targeted messaging.
These efforts shifted over time, peaking at key political moments, such as presidential debates or party conventions, the report found.
The data sets used by the researchers were provided by Facebook, Twitter and Google and covered several years up to mid-2017, when the social media companies cracked down on the known Russian accounts.
The report, which also analyzed data separately provided to House Intelligence Committee members, contains no information on more recent political moments, such as November’s midterm elections.
“What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party — and specifically Donald Trump,” the report says.
“Trump is mentioned most in campaigns targeting conservatives and right-wing voters, where the messaging encouraged these groups to support his campaign.”
“The main groups that could challenge Trump were then provided messaging that sought to confuse, distract and ultimately discourage members from voting.”
Representatives for Burr and Warner declined to comment.
The report offers the latest evidence that Russian agents sought to help Trump win the White House.
end quotes
Now, people, ponder on that last sentence for a moment, and then think back to your high school civics class, and ask yourself this essential existential question, to wit: “Could that possibly be true?”
Does that report done by the Brits of all people, offer any evidence at all that Russian agents sought to help Trump win the White House?
Or is it just some more political hog**** being thrown at us by our imbecilic national government?
And before I answer that question, because I believe you should never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to (that is a no-brainer, by the way, for an American), the word “imbecilic” shows up several times in the Federalist Papers, and with good reason as we first see in FEDERALIST No. 9, “The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection,” for the Independent Journal to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton circa 1787, to wit:
A distinction, more subtle than accurate, has been raised between a CONFEDERACY and a CONSOLIDATION of the States.
The essential characteristic of the first is said to be, the restriction of its authority to the members in their collective capacities, without reaching to the individuals of whom they are composed.
It is contended that the national council ought to have no concern with any object of internal administration.
An exact equality of suffrage between the members has also been insisted upon as a leading feature of a confederate government.
These positions are, in the main, arbitrary; they are supported neither by principle nor precedent.
It has indeed happened, that governments of this kind have generally operated in the manner which the distinction taken notice of, supposes to be inherent in their nature; but there have been in most of them extensive exceptions to the practice, which serve to prove, as far as example will go, that there is no absolute rule on the subject.
And it will be clearly shown in the course of this investigation that as far as the principle contended for has prevailed, it has been the cause of incurable disorder and imbecility in the government.
end quotes
Incurable disorder and imbecility in the government!
That is us today he is talking about, people, as we can clearly see from that stunning report the Brits just did for the United States Senate, where the Brits who did the study proved pretty conclusively that the Russians aimed particular energy at left-leaning African American voters by undermining their faith in elections and spreading misleading information about how to vote.
Which raises the question all these years later of how can somebody be an American citizen and not know how to vote?
Imbecility then shows up again in FEDERALIST No. 15, “The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union,” for the Independent Journal to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton, as follows:
Is respectability in the eyes of foreign powers a safeguard against foreign encroachments?
The imbecility of our government even forbids them to treat with us.
end quotes
Today, as that report to the Senate by the Brits makes incandescently clear, the imbecility of our national government has the American people being led around by the nose by the Russians in seemingly huge flocks, according to that report.
So what is up with that does anyone think?
And then we come back to imbecility in FEDERALIST No. 18, “The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union, continued,” for the Independent Journal to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, as follows:
The Achaeans (Greeks), though weakened by internal dissensions and by the revolt of Messene, one of its members, being joined by the AEtolians and Athenians, erected the standard of opposition.
Finding themselves, though thus supported, unequal to the undertaking, they once more had recourse to the dangerous expedient of introducing the succor of foreign arms.
The Romans, to whom the invitation was made, eagerly embraced it.
Philip was conquered; Macedon subdued.
A new crisis ensued to the league.
Dissensions broke out among it members.
These the Romans fostered.
Callicrates and other popular leaders became mercenary instruments for inveigling their countrymen.
The more effectually to nourish discord and disorder the Romans had, to the astonishment of those who confided in their sincerity, already proclaimed universal liberty throughout Greece.
With the same insidious views, they now seduced the members from the league, by representing to their pride the violation it committed on their sovereignty.
By these arts this union, the last hope of Greece, the last hope of ancient liberty, was torn into pieces; and such imbecility and distraction introduced, that the arms of Rome found little difficulty in completing the ruin which their arts had commenced.
The Achaeans were cut to pieces, and Achaia loaded with chains, under which it is groaning at this hour.
end quotes
And now the Russians are doing it to us, people, so how about that?
Those who don’t know history, and that is most modern Americans today, are grist for the mill of those who do, plain and simple.
And note that the form of government those Greeks had was called Democracy!
And that in turn takes us to FEDERALIST No. 68, “The Mode of Electing the President,” from the New York Packet to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton on Friday, March 14, 1788, where we learn about our form of government, as follows:
THE mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States is almost the only part of the system, of any consequence, which has escaped without severe censure, or which has received the slightest mark of approbation from its opponents.
end quotes
Now, here people, is where I become curious as to why our United States Senate is seeking input on how our government is supposed to function from the Brits, who would be the last to know, given that they are ruled by a queen, whose subjects they are, while some of us remember being a free people not owned or in thrall to a foreign power like Great Britain, or Russia, for that matter.
Why doesn’t our United States Senate know how the Chief Magistrate of the United States is appointed?
How can they be so ignorant?
Is it because they are put in office by people in this country who either don’t know how to vote, or have been misled by the Russians?
Getting back to Federalist No. 68, we have, to wit:
It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided.
This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any preestablished body, but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture.
It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.
end quotes
Now think about that, people, as we hear all this hype and hysteria the Brits are feeding to our imbecilic Senate which makes it sound as if the Russians are actually the ones who elected Donald Trump to office, as opposed to a body of men and women in this country most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.
Are the Brits, and by extension, the members of our Senate who are getting their facts from the Brits, who seem to know more about what is going on over here than do the members of our Senate, telling us that minds of these men and women in this country most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice have been contaminated by the Russians to such extent that they were nothing more than Russian stooges?
Is that what the Brits and the U.S. Senate are telling us when they say this report offers the latest evidence that Russian agents sought to help Trump win the White House?
Because in America, pursuant to our mode of electing our president, the only way the Russians could have succeeded was by literally taking over the electors of the president, and where is there any proof that that happened, people?
Getting back to Federalist No. 68, we have:
A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.
end quotes
Discernment requisite to such complicated investigations, people, where discernment can be taken to mean the ability to judge well.
So are we to believe that these electors were actually then stupid enough to be taken in by Russian disinformation on FACEBOOK and TWITTER?
If these electors are chosen because they possess discernment requisite to such complicated investigations as are required to elect an American president, people, do we really think they are going to be conducting their investigations on either FACEBOOK or mindless TWITTER?
And that thought about Russian interference in our affairs over here, which has been going on since at least WWII, takes us back to Federalist No. 68 as follows:
It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder.
This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States.
But the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an effectual security against this mischief.
end quotes
WHOA, stop the presses here, people – the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration for electing the president of the United States of America promise an effectual security against mischief!
So how did the Russians manage to thwart that security to affect our presidential election by tainting the electors through a campaign of disinformation?
Has our electoral system broken down so that it now no longer provides us any security from Russian control of the minds of the American people?
Getting back to Federalist No. 68:
The choice of SEVERAL, to form an intermediate body of electors, will be much less apt to convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements, than the choice of ONE who was himself to be the final object of the public wishes.
And as the electors, chosen in each State, are to assemble and vote in the State in which they are chosen, this detached and divided situation will expose them much less to heats and ferments, which might be communicated from them to the people, than if they were all to be convened at one time, in one place.
end quotes
So, okay, people, who are we to believe here?
What these Brits at Oxford University are telling us is that today, with FACEBOOK and mindless TWITTER in the virtual control of the Russians, there no longer is any possible way to keep our presidential electors from being exposed to heats and ferments concocted by the Russians in order to put Donald Trump in the White House.
Can that be true?
And back once again to Federalist No. 68 we go, to see the following:
Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption.
These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.
end quotes
AHHHHH!
Do you see that, people?
Two hundred thirty years ago, the founders of this nation already anticipated that the Russians would try to interfere in our national elections today, as the Brits are telling the United States Senate happened, and in their wisdom, they put in place every practicable obstacle they could to oppose cabal, intrigue, and corruption in our presidential elections.
So how were these obstacles surmounted by the Russians in 2016?
And the answer to that question is that they weren’t!
It is almost 2019 now, and to date, not one shred of evidence has been put forth by anyone, including our so-called “intelligence” agencies, and the Mueller investigation, that any presidential electors in this country were turned by the Russians, or influenced in any way.
Getting back to the safeguards built into our mode of electing a president in this country so as to keep foreign powers like Russia or Great Britain, for that matter, from gaining an improper ascendant in our councils, Federalist No. 68 continues as follows:
How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?
But the convention have guarded against all danger of this sort, with the most provident and judicious attention.
They have not made the appointment of the President to depend on any preexisting bodies of men, who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment.
And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office.
No senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States, can be of the numbers of the electors.
Thus without corrupting the body of the people, the immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task free from any sinister bias.
Their transient existence, and their detached situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it.
end quotes
But, people, if we are to believe these Brits about the Russians using social media to put Trump in the White House, then we are being asked to believe that these electors were not free of sinister bias when they voted to put Trump in the White House over Hillary Clinton, a pathological liar deemed too untrustworthy to be an American president and the leader of a free people.
Getting back to Federalist No. 68, and the Russians corrupting our presidential electors, we have:
The business of corruption, when it is to embrace so considerable a number of men, requires time as well as means.
Nor would it be found easy suddenly to embark them, dispersed as they would be over thirteen States, in any combinations founded upon motives, which though they could not properly be denominated corrupt, might yet be of a nature to mislead them from their duty.
end quotes
Today, of course, we have fifty states, so are we really to believe that the Russians are so powerful in this country that they can literally reach into each state to corrupt the electors?
Isn’t that thought verging on hysteria?
Back to Federalist No. 68, to wit:
All these advantages will happily combine in the plan devised by the convention; which is, that the people of each State shall choose a number of persons as electors, equal to the number of senators and representatives of such State in the national government, who shall assemble within the State, and vote for some fit person as President.
Their votes, thus given, are to be transmitted to the seat of the national government, and the person who may happen to have a majority of the whole number of votes will be the President.
The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.
Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.
It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.
end quotes
HMMMMMMMMM!
I wonder how these Brits at Oxford University are going to get around that – it will not be too strong to say that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue.
If that is no longer true, then it would seem that these Brits at Oxford University owe us a duty to explain to us how it was that the Russians were able to breach all these protections and safeguards to corrupt our presidential electors in this country so that they would put Trump in office instead of Hillary.
When can we expect that critical answer to be forthcoming?
Stay tuned for further developments, and don’t touch that dial!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-today/
Re: RUSSIA
VOX.com
"4 main takeaways from new reports on Russia’s 2016 election interference - One includes Russia’s deliberate targeting of African Americans online."
By Alex Ward
Dec 17, 2018,12:25pm EST
Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 political landscape — and presidential election — was a much wider effort than previously understood.
Two new reports released on Monday, prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee by independent researchers, reveal that Moscow’s intelligence officials reached millions of social media users between 2013 and 2017, in part by exploiting existing political and racial divisions in American society.
Vox obtained the two reports before their planned release.
Using data provided by social media companies to the Senate panel, researchers from New Knowledge, Columbia University, and Canfield Research along with others from the University of Oxford and Graphika have for the first time revealed a broad extent of the years-long efforts by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a group of Russian agents that use social media to influence politics.
Special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 IRA members in February for interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
Taken together, the reports are bad news for President Donald Trump.
They clearly show that Russia aimed to help him win the election and hurt Hillary Clinton, although none of the reports say Russia’s efforts definitively won the White House for Trump or changed any votes.
There’s a lot to unpack in the reports.
Here are the four main takeaways.
1) Russia favored Trump over Clinton
The IRA’s content unquestionably favored Trump over his opponent, supporting him as early as the primaries.
Pro-Trump content featured mainly on conservative pages and rarely appeared in left-leaning circles.
There are other pieces of evidence.
One is that Russia aimed to stop people from voting, and lower turnout historically favors Republican candidates.
Another shows that the IRA disparaged Clinton in nearly all of its social media pages on every platform, regardless of whether the page targeted conservatives, liberals, or racial and ethnic groups.
And here’s one of the more shocking revelations: Russia promoted violence in the event of a Trump loss.
In nearly 110 Facebook posts including fake images of election machine error messages or ballots, the IRA targeted conservative users with false information about supposed widespread voter fraud aimed at helping Clinton win.
More than 70 of those posts went up the month before the election.
They made a variety of false claims, including that states were secretly working to help Clinton win; that militias were organizing to stop the fraud; and that citizens could call a (fake) 1-800 number to report discrepancies.
Posts also aimed to boost Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — Clinton’s toughest primary challenger — and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Put together, it’s now clearer than ever that Russia did what it could to make Trump look good and Clinton look bad throughout the entirety of its online campaign.
2) Russia especially targeted African Americans
“The most prolific IRA efforts on Facebook and Instagram specifically targeted Black American communities and appear to have been focused on developing Black audiences and recruiting Black Americans as assets.”
That’s one of the stunning conclusions from the report by researchers from New Knowledge, Columbia University, and Canfield Research LLC.
In other words, Russia deliberately aimed to sow and exploit racial divisions in the United States.
The IRA created domain names such as blackvswhite.info, blackmattersusa.com, and blacktolive.org.
It made YouTube channels — such as “Cop Block US” and “Don’t Shoot” — to spread anti-Clinton videos.
About 1,060 videos produced by 10 distinct channels discussed Black Lives Matter or violent police actions; 571 of the videos included keywords about the police and their abuses.
Some of the IRA’s work focused on Muslim or Christian culture, Texas culture, and even LGBTQ culture, but no other racial or social group received as much attention from the Russians as black Americans.
“While other distinct ethnic and religious groups were the focus of one or two Facebook Pages or Instagram accounts, the Black community was targeted extensively with dozens; this is why we have elected to assess the messaging directed at Black Americans as a distinct and significant operation,” the report says.
What’s worse, Russia found unwitting Americans to serve as assets who helped spread the IRA’s propaganda.
According to the report, that tactic “was substantially more pronounced” on accounts that targeted black social media users.
The report doesn’t explain why the IRA targeted African Americans most of all.
One possibility, though, is that black voters skew more Democratic, and the election occurred during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, which sharply divided liberals and conservatives.
Targeting Black Americans — and trying to keep them from either voting for Clinton or voting altogether — would serve to help Trump.
3) Russian content focused mainly on political and national security issues, not the election itself
Only 11 percent of the IRA’s social media content was about the election, leading people to engage with it about 246 million times.
A lot of the content had to do with gun rights, veterans issues, patriotism, feminism, and even the movement to have California secede from the US.
It’s very likely, though, that the IRA aimed to stoke divisions based on those issues in part to influence the election.
National security issues also featured prominently in the IRA’s content, including the war in Syria — a conflict in which Russia has a huge stake.
Instagram and Facebook had 3,000 posts on Syria alone.
“(A)cross all targeted communities,” one report reads, the IRA used “narratives to convey Russian’s state-sanctioned talking points on the Syrian conflict.”
Russia even had three channels — which produced 30 videos — about the Syrian civil war and other conflicts in the Middle East.
Syria content was surprisingly consistent among all targeted groups — racial, ethnic, and ideological — “but the nuance was tailored for each group,” the New Knowledge-led report says.
The narrative mainly supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s actions in the country, which includes financial and military support for the Assad regime.
4) Russia’s use of social media was wider than we thought
Facebook and Twitter have received the bulk of the attention and blame regarding Russia’s use of their platforms to influence the election.
But the two reports show the trolls used multiple websites to disseminate their narratives.
Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Medium, YouTube, Vine, and Google+, among others, carried IRA propaganda content.
But Instagram was by far the most used platform that has largely remained out of the public eye.
The Facebook-owned company saw an estimated 20 million users engage roughly 187 million times with IRA content.
(By contrast, Facebook saw 76.5 million engagements that reached about 126 million people.)
In fact, Russia moved much of its operations to Instagram in 2017, when most of the world’s attention centered on Facebook and Twitter.
As the report notes, Facebook executives seemingly avoided addressing the extent of Instagram’s use by Russia during open congressional testimony.
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/12/17/18 ... -instagram
"4 main takeaways from new reports on Russia’s 2016 election interference - One includes Russia’s deliberate targeting of African Americans online."
By Alex Ward
Dec 17, 2018,12:25pm EST
Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 political landscape — and presidential election — was a much wider effort than previously understood.
Two new reports released on Monday, prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee by independent researchers, reveal that Moscow’s intelligence officials reached millions of social media users between 2013 and 2017, in part by exploiting existing political and racial divisions in American society.
Vox obtained the two reports before their planned release.
Using data provided by social media companies to the Senate panel, researchers from New Knowledge, Columbia University, and Canfield Research along with others from the University of Oxford and Graphika have for the first time revealed a broad extent of the years-long efforts by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a group of Russian agents that use social media to influence politics.
Special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 IRA members in February for interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
Taken together, the reports are bad news for President Donald Trump.
They clearly show that Russia aimed to help him win the election and hurt Hillary Clinton, although none of the reports say Russia’s efforts definitively won the White House for Trump or changed any votes.
There’s a lot to unpack in the reports.
Here are the four main takeaways.
1) Russia favored Trump over Clinton
The IRA’s content unquestionably favored Trump over his opponent, supporting him as early as the primaries.
Pro-Trump content featured mainly on conservative pages and rarely appeared in left-leaning circles.
There are other pieces of evidence.
One is that Russia aimed to stop people from voting, and lower turnout historically favors Republican candidates.
Another shows that the IRA disparaged Clinton in nearly all of its social media pages on every platform, regardless of whether the page targeted conservatives, liberals, or racial and ethnic groups.
And here’s one of the more shocking revelations: Russia promoted violence in the event of a Trump loss.
In nearly 110 Facebook posts including fake images of election machine error messages or ballots, the IRA targeted conservative users with false information about supposed widespread voter fraud aimed at helping Clinton win.
More than 70 of those posts went up the month before the election.
They made a variety of false claims, including that states were secretly working to help Clinton win; that militias were organizing to stop the fraud; and that citizens could call a (fake) 1-800 number to report discrepancies.
Posts also aimed to boost Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — Clinton’s toughest primary challenger — and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Put together, it’s now clearer than ever that Russia did what it could to make Trump look good and Clinton look bad throughout the entirety of its online campaign.
2) Russia especially targeted African Americans
“The most prolific IRA efforts on Facebook and Instagram specifically targeted Black American communities and appear to have been focused on developing Black audiences and recruiting Black Americans as assets.”
That’s one of the stunning conclusions from the report by researchers from New Knowledge, Columbia University, and Canfield Research LLC.
In other words, Russia deliberately aimed to sow and exploit racial divisions in the United States.
The IRA created domain names such as blackvswhite.info, blackmattersusa.com, and blacktolive.org.
It made YouTube channels — such as “Cop Block US” and “Don’t Shoot” — to spread anti-Clinton videos.
About 1,060 videos produced by 10 distinct channels discussed Black Lives Matter or violent police actions; 571 of the videos included keywords about the police and their abuses.
Some of the IRA’s work focused on Muslim or Christian culture, Texas culture, and even LGBTQ culture, but no other racial or social group received as much attention from the Russians as black Americans.
“While other distinct ethnic and religious groups were the focus of one or two Facebook Pages or Instagram accounts, the Black community was targeted extensively with dozens; this is why we have elected to assess the messaging directed at Black Americans as a distinct and significant operation,” the report says.
What’s worse, Russia found unwitting Americans to serve as assets who helped spread the IRA’s propaganda.
According to the report, that tactic “was substantially more pronounced” on accounts that targeted black social media users.
The report doesn’t explain why the IRA targeted African Americans most of all.
One possibility, though, is that black voters skew more Democratic, and the election occurred during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, which sharply divided liberals and conservatives.
Targeting Black Americans — and trying to keep them from either voting for Clinton or voting altogether — would serve to help Trump.
3) Russian content focused mainly on political and national security issues, not the election itself
Only 11 percent of the IRA’s social media content was about the election, leading people to engage with it about 246 million times.
A lot of the content had to do with gun rights, veterans issues, patriotism, feminism, and even the movement to have California secede from the US.
It’s very likely, though, that the IRA aimed to stoke divisions based on those issues in part to influence the election.
National security issues also featured prominently in the IRA’s content, including the war in Syria — a conflict in which Russia has a huge stake.
Instagram and Facebook had 3,000 posts on Syria alone.
“(A)cross all targeted communities,” one report reads, the IRA used “narratives to convey Russian’s state-sanctioned talking points on the Syrian conflict.”
Russia even had three channels — which produced 30 videos — about the Syrian civil war and other conflicts in the Middle East.
Syria content was surprisingly consistent among all targeted groups — racial, ethnic, and ideological — “but the nuance was tailored for each group,” the New Knowledge-led report says.
The narrative mainly supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s actions in the country, which includes financial and military support for the Assad regime.
4) Russia’s use of social media was wider than we thought
Facebook and Twitter have received the bulk of the attention and blame regarding Russia’s use of their platforms to influence the election.
But the two reports show the trolls used multiple websites to disseminate their narratives.
Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Medium, YouTube, Vine, and Google+, among others, carried IRA propaganda content.
But Instagram was by far the most used platform that has largely remained out of the public eye.
The Facebook-owned company saw an estimated 20 million users engage roughly 187 million times with IRA content.
(By contrast, Facebook saw 76.5 million engagements that reached about 126 million people.)
In fact, Russia moved much of its operations to Instagram in 2017, when most of the world’s attention centered on Facebook and Twitter.
As the report notes, Facebook executives seemingly avoided addressing the extent of Instagram’s use by Russia during open congressional testimony.
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/12/17/18 ... -instagram
Re: RUSSIA
ALJAZEERA
"Turkey-backed rebels 'move forces' near Kurdish-held areas - Syrian rebels deploy fighters and armoured vehicles ahead of expected Turkish operation, a pro-Turkish commander says."
24 DECEMBER 2018
Turkish-backed Syrian fighters have sent reinforcements to the front line along the northern Syrian areas controlled by Kurdish fighters, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Monday, days after Washington took an unexpected decision to withdraw troops from the war-torn country.
The Hamza Division, a part of the Syrian rebels supported by Turkey, dispatched fighters and armoured vehicles to the border between the areas controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Forces (YPG) and the Syrian regime, Abu Yazan, a commanding officer, told the agency.
He said the troops will take up important tasks during an expected Turkish military operation in the northern Syrian border city of Manbij.
"Our units headed out to contact regions" controlled by the YPG, Abu Yazan said.
A Turkish operation in Syria is expected to target some of the areas under the control of YPG fighters, who Ankara considers to be terrorists.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his threats to target Kurdish fighters as he sent more troops to the border with Syria ahead of an imminent US withdrawal.
The US has an estimated 2,000 US troops in Syria.
Turkey was in Syria "to return the freedom of our Arab brothers and sisters, to return the freedom of our Kurdish brothers and sisters", Erdogan said during a speech in Ankara.
A Turkish military convoy arrived overnight on Monday at the border with Syria, with local media reporting that some vehicles had entered Syria, AFP news agency reported.
In the past two years, Turkey has conducted two offensives into northern Syria, dubbed "Euphrates Shield" and "Olive Branch".
Surprising decision
US President Donald Trump's surprise decision to withdraw forces from Syria on Wednesday has created shock among members of the US Congress, including Republicans, as well as among Washington's Western allies.
Erdogan's spokesman said on Monday that US military officials will come to Turkey this week to discuss coordination on Syria.
Washington has for years supported the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group in Syria.
A senior Syrian Kurdish official said they were reaching out for help to protect the Kurdish-administered areas against a possible Turkish offensive following the US withdrawal.
"We will deal with whoever can protect the good and stability of this country," the Associated Press news agency quoted Ilham Ahmed as saying on Monday.
Ahmed reportedly said they were in talks with Russia, the Syrian government and European countries to discuss ways to deal with the US withdrawal - without elaborating further.
SDF delegation in Moscow
Meanwhile, a delegation of the SDF arrived in Moscow on Monday for talks.
Pavel Felgenhauer, a military analyst, said that Syrian Kurds are likely to turn to Moscow and Damascus after US forces leave the region.
"[Syrian] Kurds have a longtime relationship with Russia."
"They have an unofficial embassy in Moscow."
"They are likely to turn to Russia and possibly the Syrian regime for protection," he told Al Jazeera from Moscow.
When the US forces leave, Russia, Turkey, the regime and Iran will try to carve a solution that determines who gets to control the oil-rich Deir Az Zor region, the border and other areas.
Ankara claims the YPG is an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged attacks on Turkish soil since the 1980s as they sought autonomy.
SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/ ... 31699.html
"Turkey-backed rebels 'move forces' near Kurdish-held areas - Syrian rebels deploy fighters and armoured vehicles ahead of expected Turkish operation, a pro-Turkish commander says."
24 DECEMBER 2018
Turkish-backed Syrian fighters have sent reinforcements to the front line along the northern Syrian areas controlled by Kurdish fighters, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Monday, days after Washington took an unexpected decision to withdraw troops from the war-torn country.
The Hamza Division, a part of the Syrian rebels supported by Turkey, dispatched fighters and armoured vehicles to the border between the areas controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Forces (YPG) and the Syrian regime, Abu Yazan, a commanding officer, told the agency.
He said the troops will take up important tasks during an expected Turkish military operation in the northern Syrian border city of Manbij.
"Our units headed out to contact regions" controlled by the YPG, Abu Yazan said.
A Turkish operation in Syria is expected to target some of the areas under the control of YPG fighters, who Ankara considers to be terrorists.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his threats to target Kurdish fighters as he sent more troops to the border with Syria ahead of an imminent US withdrawal.
The US has an estimated 2,000 US troops in Syria.
Turkey was in Syria "to return the freedom of our Arab brothers and sisters, to return the freedom of our Kurdish brothers and sisters", Erdogan said during a speech in Ankara.
A Turkish military convoy arrived overnight on Monday at the border with Syria, with local media reporting that some vehicles had entered Syria, AFP news agency reported.
In the past two years, Turkey has conducted two offensives into northern Syria, dubbed "Euphrates Shield" and "Olive Branch".
Surprising decision
US President Donald Trump's surprise decision to withdraw forces from Syria on Wednesday has created shock among members of the US Congress, including Republicans, as well as among Washington's Western allies.
Erdogan's spokesman said on Monday that US military officials will come to Turkey this week to discuss coordination on Syria.
Washington has for years supported the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group in Syria.
A senior Syrian Kurdish official said they were reaching out for help to protect the Kurdish-administered areas against a possible Turkish offensive following the US withdrawal.
"We will deal with whoever can protect the good and stability of this country," the Associated Press news agency quoted Ilham Ahmed as saying on Monday.
Ahmed reportedly said they were in talks with Russia, the Syrian government and European countries to discuss ways to deal with the US withdrawal - without elaborating further.
SDF delegation in Moscow
Meanwhile, a delegation of the SDF arrived in Moscow on Monday for talks.
Pavel Felgenhauer, a military analyst, said that Syrian Kurds are likely to turn to Moscow and Damascus after US forces leave the region.
"[Syrian] Kurds have a longtime relationship with Russia."
"They have an unofficial embassy in Moscow."
"They are likely to turn to Russia and possibly the Syrian regime for protection," he told Al Jazeera from Moscow.
When the US forces leave, Russia, Turkey, the regime and Iran will try to carve a solution that determines who gets to control the oil-rich Deir Az Zor region, the border and other areas.
Ankara claims the YPG is an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged attacks on Turkish soil since the 1980s as they sought autonomy.
SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/ ... 31699.html
Re: RUSSIA
MARKETWATCH
"Syrian military says it’s entered Kurdish-held northern city Manbij"
By Associated Press
Published: Dec 28, 2018 3:38 p.m. ET
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s military said Friday it had entered the key Kurdish-held town of Manbij in an apparent deal with the Kurds, who are looking for new allies and protection against a threatened Turkish offensive as U.S. troops prepare to leave Syria.
Turkey and American troops patrolling the town denied there was any change of forces in the contested area, contradicting the Syrians and highlighting the potential for chaos in the wake of last week’s surprise pronouncement by the United States that it was withdrawing its troops.
Since the U.S. announcement, forces have been building up around Manbij and further east, ushering in new alliances and raising the chances for friction.
The Kurds’ invitation to Syrian troops shows they’d rather let Syria’s Russian- and Iranian-backed government fill the void left by the Americans than face the prospect of being overwhelmed by their top rival Turkey.
Meanwhile, a flurry of meetings is expected in the coming days as all sides of the conflict scramble to find ways to replace the departing U.S. troops.
They include one Saturday in Moscow, where Russia will host top Turkish officials in a possible sign that the two sides could be working on a deal to avert a Turkish offensive into Syria.
Russians officials have said they expect Syrian government troops to replace the U.S. troops when they withdraw.
Turkey considers the U.S.-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which now controls nearly 30 percent of Syria, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders.
Kurdish-controlled Manbij has been at the center of rising tension between the U.S. and Turkey.
There were conflicting reports Friday on the location of the Syrian troops, who said they had moved into Manbij and raised the Syrian flag in the town.
The Kurdish militia said it has invited the Syrian government to take control of Manbij to protect it against “a Turkish invasion.”
But a Kurdish official said the government deployment has so far been limited to the front line with Turkey-backed fighters, based north and west Manbij.
And U.S. officials in Washington said Syrian regime forces and some Russian forces had moved a bit closer to the city and were largely south or southwest of the city.
The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the troop movements publicly.
The U.S.-led coalition said the announcement that government troops had entered the town was “incorrect,” and called “on everyone to respect the integrity of Manbij and the safety of its citizens.”
Russia and Iran, meanwhile, welcomed the Syrian announcement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it a “positive step” that could help stabilize the area.
Iran hailed it as a “major step toward establishing the government’s authority” over all of Syria.
Russia has signaled it expects the Syrian government to deploy where U.S. forces leave.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Syrian government move was “a psychological act,” and the situation in Manbij was uncertain.
He spoke as Turkey-allied forces in Syria said they were fortifying their front line positions ahead of the possible military offensive.
But Erdogan also noted that his country’s goal is to oust the Kurdish militia from along his country’s borders.
“If terror organizations leave, then there is no work left for us anyway,” Erdogan told reporters.
In Washington, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who broke with U.S. President Donald Trump on his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, tweeted that reports about the Kurds aligning with Assad were a “major disaster in the making.”
Graham, a leading GOP voice on foreign policy and national-security issues in Congress, warned the development would be a “nightmare for Turkey and eventually Israel.”
Graham tweeted that the “big winners” are Russia, Iran, Assad and Islamic State militants.
National-security adviser John Bolton is expected in Turkey in the new year.
Friday’s announcement by the Syrian military comes as Turkey and allied Syrian fighters have been sending in reinforcement to the front lines and threatening an offensive to dislodge the Kurdish forces.
In response, the U.S. first warned against unilateral action and increased patrols and observation points in northeastern Syria.
Then, in a surprise move, Trump announced he was withdrawing troops from eastern Syria.
He later said the withdrawal would be coordinated with Turkey.
The decision left U.S.’s Syrian Kurdish partners in a conundrum.
With no backing from the U.S., the Kurdish forces looked to new allies to protect their Kurdish-administered areas.
Partners since 2014, the U.S-led forces and the Kurdish group have liberated most of east Syria from Islamic State militants.
Ilham Ahmed, a senior Kurdish official, said an agreement is being worked out between the Russians and the Syrian government.
She said the U.S. troops have not yet withdrawn from Manbij, but said Syrian troops would take over once U.S. withdrawal is complete.
“The aim is to ward off a Turkish offensive,” Ahmed said.
“If the Turks’ excuse is the (Kurdish militia), they will leave their posts to the government.”
The Syrian government has said it welcomes the Kurdish group returning to areas under its authority.
But government officials have stated they will not accept an autonomous area, a main demand for the Kurds.
The Syrian military declaration came shortly after the Kurds invited the government to seize control of Manbij to prevent a Turkish attack.
Pro-state Syrian al-Ikhbariya TV aired footage from inside Manbij of commercial streets on a rainy day, but didn’t show any troops.
It carried images of a military convoy driving late at night, purportedly to Manbij.
A timetable for the U.S. withdrawal has not yet been made public.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/syria ... ewer_click
"Syrian military says it’s entered Kurdish-held northern city Manbij"
By Associated Press
Published: Dec 28, 2018 3:38 p.m. ET
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s military said Friday it had entered the key Kurdish-held town of Manbij in an apparent deal with the Kurds, who are looking for new allies and protection against a threatened Turkish offensive as U.S. troops prepare to leave Syria.
Turkey and American troops patrolling the town denied there was any change of forces in the contested area, contradicting the Syrians and highlighting the potential for chaos in the wake of last week’s surprise pronouncement by the United States that it was withdrawing its troops.
Since the U.S. announcement, forces have been building up around Manbij and further east, ushering in new alliances and raising the chances for friction.
The Kurds’ invitation to Syrian troops shows they’d rather let Syria’s Russian- and Iranian-backed government fill the void left by the Americans than face the prospect of being overwhelmed by their top rival Turkey.
Meanwhile, a flurry of meetings is expected in the coming days as all sides of the conflict scramble to find ways to replace the departing U.S. troops.
They include one Saturday in Moscow, where Russia will host top Turkish officials in a possible sign that the two sides could be working on a deal to avert a Turkish offensive into Syria.
Russians officials have said they expect Syrian government troops to replace the U.S. troops when they withdraw.
Turkey considers the U.S.-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which now controls nearly 30 percent of Syria, a terrorist group linked to an insurgency within its own borders.
Kurdish-controlled Manbij has been at the center of rising tension between the U.S. and Turkey.
There were conflicting reports Friday on the location of the Syrian troops, who said they had moved into Manbij and raised the Syrian flag in the town.
The Kurdish militia said it has invited the Syrian government to take control of Manbij to protect it against “a Turkish invasion.”
But a Kurdish official said the government deployment has so far been limited to the front line with Turkey-backed fighters, based north and west Manbij.
And U.S. officials in Washington said Syrian regime forces and some Russian forces had moved a bit closer to the city and were largely south or southwest of the city.
The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the troop movements publicly.
The U.S.-led coalition said the announcement that government troops had entered the town was “incorrect,” and called “on everyone to respect the integrity of Manbij and the safety of its citizens.”
Russia and Iran, meanwhile, welcomed the Syrian announcement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it a “positive step” that could help stabilize the area.
Iran hailed it as a “major step toward establishing the government’s authority” over all of Syria.
Russia has signaled it expects the Syrian government to deploy where U.S. forces leave.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Syrian government move was “a psychological act,” and the situation in Manbij was uncertain.
He spoke as Turkey-allied forces in Syria said they were fortifying their front line positions ahead of the possible military offensive.
But Erdogan also noted that his country’s goal is to oust the Kurdish militia from along his country’s borders.
“If terror organizations leave, then there is no work left for us anyway,” Erdogan told reporters.
In Washington, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who broke with U.S. President Donald Trump on his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, tweeted that reports about the Kurds aligning with Assad were a “major disaster in the making.”
Graham, a leading GOP voice on foreign policy and national-security issues in Congress, warned the development would be a “nightmare for Turkey and eventually Israel.”
Graham tweeted that the “big winners” are Russia, Iran, Assad and Islamic State militants.
National-security adviser John Bolton is expected in Turkey in the new year.
Friday’s announcement by the Syrian military comes as Turkey and allied Syrian fighters have been sending in reinforcement to the front lines and threatening an offensive to dislodge the Kurdish forces.
In response, the U.S. first warned against unilateral action and increased patrols and observation points in northeastern Syria.
Then, in a surprise move, Trump announced he was withdrawing troops from eastern Syria.
He later said the withdrawal would be coordinated with Turkey.
The decision left U.S.’s Syrian Kurdish partners in a conundrum.
With no backing from the U.S., the Kurdish forces looked to new allies to protect their Kurdish-administered areas.
Partners since 2014, the U.S-led forces and the Kurdish group have liberated most of east Syria from Islamic State militants.
Ilham Ahmed, a senior Kurdish official, said an agreement is being worked out between the Russians and the Syrian government.
She said the U.S. troops have not yet withdrawn from Manbij, but said Syrian troops would take over once U.S. withdrawal is complete.
“The aim is to ward off a Turkish offensive,” Ahmed said.
“If the Turks’ excuse is the (Kurdish militia), they will leave their posts to the government.”
The Syrian government has said it welcomes the Kurdish group returning to areas under its authority.
But government officials have stated they will not accept an autonomous area, a main demand for the Kurds.
The Syrian military declaration came shortly after the Kurds invited the government to seize control of Manbij to prevent a Turkish attack.
Pro-state Syrian al-Ikhbariya TV aired footage from inside Manbij of commercial streets on a rainy day, but didn’t show any troops.
It carried images of a military convoy driving late at night, purportedly to Manbij.
A timetable for the U.S. withdrawal has not yet been made public.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/syria ... ewer_click
Re: RUSSIA
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR DECEMBER 31, 2018 AT 8:03 PM
Paul Plante says:
Before I continue on with the four main takeaways the United States Senate wishes us to believe in from this Oxford University report, as outlined in the excellent VOX.com expose entitled “4 main takeaways from new reports on Russia’s 2016 election interference – One includes Russia’s deliberate targeting of African Americans online” by Alex Ward on Dec. 17, 2018, where we were told that Russia’s alleged efforts to influence the 2016 political landscape — and presidential election — was a much wider effort than previously understood by the United States Senate which is quite a statement about that body today compared to what the nation’s founders intended it to be at the time of this nation’s beginning in 1788, which thought takes us to FEDERALIST No. 70, The Executive Department Further Considered, from the New York Packet to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton on Tuesday, March 18, 1788, where it was stated as the intent of the founders with respect to the executive magistrate as follows:
Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government.
It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.
end quotes
Now, as we ask ourselves the essential existential question as American citizens of exactly what is it that is going on here with this Oxford report, which quite frankly is amateurish and stupid, betraying a lack of knowledge of government in the country as well as our history as it related to partisan politics and an affinity for and fascination with the Communists and Russia by a large segment of the U.S. population that identified as Democrats, we need to give some serious consideration to these words from Hamilton, to wit: to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.
And never were words from our beginnings as a nation so relevant to us as a people today as those words about securing OUR liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition and of faction.
Getting back to Federalist No. 70, Hamilton continued on as follows:
A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government.
A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.
end quotes
And that describes exactly where we are today in this country, with ambition in the form of Democrat Senator from New York City Charley “Chuck” Schumer and faction in the form of the Democrat party doing their utmost to enfeeble Trump, and by doing so, to intentionally undermine the functioning of our executive department which is outlined FEDERALIST No. 72 from the New York Packet to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton on Friday, March 21, 1788, as follows:
THE administration of government, in its largest sense, comprehends all the operations of the body politic, whether legislative, executive, or judiciary; but in its most usual, and perhaps its most precise signification, it is limited to executive details, and falls peculiarly within the province of the executive department.
The actual conduct of foreign negotiations, the preparatory plans of finance, the application and disbursement of the public moneys in conformity to the general appropriations of the legislature, the arrangement of the army and navy, the directions of the operations of war, these, and other matters of a like nature, constitute what seems to be most properly understood by the administration of government.
end quotes
So what is really up here, people?
This report by Oxford University did not come from thin air for no purpose, because that is not how the game of partisan politics is played in this country, which takes us back to an article in the GOTHAMIST entitled “New Yorkers Put Schumer On Blast: Stand Up Or Get Out Of The Way” by Raphael Pope-Sussman on February 1, 2017, as follows:
Hundreds of New Yorkers braved freezing temperatures Tuesday night on Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza at a rally calling upon U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to take a firm stand against the Trump administration.
Hae-Lin Choi, of the Democratic Socialists of America and Resist Trump NY, took the stage first, announcing herself as an immigrant and telling the crowd why organizers had called for the protest.
“Senator Schumer must be bold and stand with the working class,” she cried over the loudspeaker.
“He has to champion the resistance or get out of the way and we’ll find someone that will.”
end quotes
Is this Oxford University report part of that resistance to Trump that Charley “Chuck” Schumer owes the Democratic Socialists of America whose tool he is?
And as you ponder that, consider that by 1950 anticommunism, which means the Russians, people, trying to infiltrate and take over control of our national government, had become perhaps the most important theme in American politics.
That is how long we have been dealing with Russian interference with our internal affairs, people, quite a long time, actually, which is a measure of exactly how persistent the Communists and Russians are in fulfilling their goal of world communism.
Back then the Republicans were deeply frustrated by their inability to win a presidential election, and to them, Truman’s upset victory over Thomas E. Dewey in 1948 was particularly galling.
The New Deal and the permanence of the emerging welfare state in America had left the Republicans without a compelling domestic issue. so in the aftermath of Truman’s victory, the party leadership decided that it could no longer afford a me-too position on American foreign policy.
With Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy charging that the administration had permitted infiltration of the federal government by Soviet espionage agents, and Senators Robert Taft and Everett Dirksen indicting Roosevelt and Truman for selling out Eastern Europe to the Kremlin, the Republicans launched a relentless campaign to portray the Democrats as soft on communism.
The effect of this campaign was to create an anticommunist consensus in the United States of monumental proportions.
In late January 1950, President Truman directed the State and Defense departments “to make an overall review and reassessment of American foreign and defense policy” in light of the fall of China to the communists and the detonation of an atomic bomb by the Soviet Union (both in 1949).
The result was National Security Council Document 68 (NSC68), a policy paper committing the United States to combating the forces of international communism “on every front,” to use the historian Thomas G. Paterson’s phrase.
This paper led to a fourfold increase in defense budgets and committed the United States to defending democracy against communism on the global stage.
It paved the way for the transformation of the United States into a national security state and institutionalized a Cold War between the United States and its allies on the one hand and the Soviet Union and its allies on the other that would last until 1989.
It led to U.S. intervention into the Korean War and provoked a series of brushfire conflicts throughout the developing world with the Soviets or Communist Chinese backing one side and the United States the other.
Meanwhile, the Republicans continued to hammer the Democrats with the soft-on-communism issue.
So what is going on today, people?
Same old same old, is it not?
But stay tuned, because there is more on this story yet to come.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-113626
Paul Plante says:
Before I continue on with the four main takeaways the United States Senate wishes us to believe in from this Oxford University report, as outlined in the excellent VOX.com expose entitled “4 main takeaways from new reports on Russia’s 2016 election interference – One includes Russia’s deliberate targeting of African Americans online” by Alex Ward on Dec. 17, 2018, where we were told that Russia’s alleged efforts to influence the 2016 political landscape — and presidential election — was a much wider effort than previously understood by the United States Senate which is quite a statement about that body today compared to what the nation’s founders intended it to be at the time of this nation’s beginning in 1788, which thought takes us to FEDERALIST No. 70, The Executive Department Further Considered, from the New York Packet to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton on Tuesday, March 18, 1788, where it was stated as the intent of the founders with respect to the executive magistrate as follows:
Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government.
It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.
end quotes
Now, as we ask ourselves the essential existential question as American citizens of exactly what is it that is going on here with this Oxford report, which quite frankly is amateurish and stupid, betraying a lack of knowledge of government in the country as well as our history as it related to partisan politics and an affinity for and fascination with the Communists and Russia by a large segment of the U.S. population that identified as Democrats, we need to give some serious consideration to these words from Hamilton, to wit: to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.
And never were words from our beginnings as a nation so relevant to us as a people today as those words about securing OUR liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition and of faction.
Getting back to Federalist No. 70, Hamilton continued on as follows:
A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government.
A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.
end quotes
And that describes exactly where we are today in this country, with ambition in the form of Democrat Senator from New York City Charley “Chuck” Schumer and faction in the form of the Democrat party doing their utmost to enfeeble Trump, and by doing so, to intentionally undermine the functioning of our executive department which is outlined FEDERALIST No. 72 from the New York Packet to the People of the State of New York by Alexander Hamilton on Friday, March 21, 1788, as follows:
THE administration of government, in its largest sense, comprehends all the operations of the body politic, whether legislative, executive, or judiciary; but in its most usual, and perhaps its most precise signification, it is limited to executive details, and falls peculiarly within the province of the executive department.
The actual conduct of foreign negotiations, the preparatory plans of finance, the application and disbursement of the public moneys in conformity to the general appropriations of the legislature, the arrangement of the army and navy, the directions of the operations of war, these, and other matters of a like nature, constitute what seems to be most properly understood by the administration of government.
end quotes
So what is really up here, people?
This report by Oxford University did not come from thin air for no purpose, because that is not how the game of partisan politics is played in this country, which takes us back to an article in the GOTHAMIST entitled “New Yorkers Put Schumer On Blast: Stand Up Or Get Out Of The Way” by Raphael Pope-Sussman on February 1, 2017, as follows:
Hundreds of New Yorkers braved freezing temperatures Tuesday night on Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza at a rally calling upon U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to take a firm stand against the Trump administration.
Hae-Lin Choi, of the Democratic Socialists of America and Resist Trump NY, took the stage first, announcing herself as an immigrant and telling the crowd why organizers had called for the protest.
“Senator Schumer must be bold and stand with the working class,” she cried over the loudspeaker.
“He has to champion the resistance or get out of the way and we’ll find someone that will.”
end quotes
Is this Oxford University report part of that resistance to Trump that Charley “Chuck” Schumer owes the Democratic Socialists of America whose tool he is?
And as you ponder that, consider that by 1950 anticommunism, which means the Russians, people, trying to infiltrate and take over control of our national government, had become perhaps the most important theme in American politics.
That is how long we have been dealing with Russian interference with our internal affairs, people, quite a long time, actually, which is a measure of exactly how persistent the Communists and Russians are in fulfilling their goal of world communism.
Back then the Republicans were deeply frustrated by their inability to win a presidential election, and to them, Truman’s upset victory over Thomas E. Dewey in 1948 was particularly galling.
The New Deal and the permanence of the emerging welfare state in America had left the Republicans without a compelling domestic issue. so in the aftermath of Truman’s victory, the party leadership decided that it could no longer afford a me-too position on American foreign policy.
With Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy charging that the administration had permitted infiltration of the federal government by Soviet espionage agents, and Senators Robert Taft and Everett Dirksen indicting Roosevelt and Truman for selling out Eastern Europe to the Kremlin, the Republicans launched a relentless campaign to portray the Democrats as soft on communism.
The effect of this campaign was to create an anticommunist consensus in the United States of monumental proportions.
In late January 1950, President Truman directed the State and Defense departments “to make an overall review and reassessment of American foreign and defense policy” in light of the fall of China to the communists and the detonation of an atomic bomb by the Soviet Union (both in 1949).
The result was National Security Council Document 68 (NSC68), a policy paper committing the United States to combating the forces of international communism “on every front,” to use the historian Thomas G. Paterson’s phrase.
This paper led to a fourfold increase in defense budgets and committed the United States to defending democracy against communism on the global stage.
It paved the way for the transformation of the United States into a national security state and institutionalized a Cold War between the United States and its allies on the one hand and the Soviet Union and its allies on the other that would last until 1989.
It led to U.S. intervention into the Korean War and provoked a series of brushfire conflicts throughout the developing world with the Soviets or Communist Chinese backing one side and the United States the other.
Meanwhile, the Republicans continued to hammer the Democrats with the soft-on-communism issue.
So what is going on today, people?
Same old same old, is it not?
But stay tuned, because there is more on this story yet to come.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-113626
Re: RUSSIA
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR JANUARY 1, 2019 AT 8:03 PM
Paul Plante says:
So what, besides cheap politics, is going on here, people?
And for that answer, we only need go back to the VOX.com article “4 main takeaways from new reports on Russia’s 2016 election interference – One includes Russia’s deliberate targeting of African Americans online” by Alex Ward on Dec. 17, 2018, as follows:
Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 political landscape — and presidential election — was a much wider effort than previously understood.
Two new reports released on Monday, prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee by independent researchers, reveal that Moscow’s intelligence officials reached millions of social media users between 2013 and 2017, in part by exploiting existing political and racial divisions in American society.
Vox obtained the two reports before their planned release.
Using data provided by social media companies to the Senate panel, researchers from New Knowledge, Columbia University, and Canfield Research along with others from the University of Oxford and Graphika have for the first time revealed a broad extent of the years-long efforts by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a group of Russian agents that use social media to influence politics.
Special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 IRA members in February for interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
end quotes
There it is right there, people – despite having no evidence whatsoever, besides the wild accusations of the loser Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, that the 2016 presidential election was interferred with in any way, as we see from the VOX.com article’s statement that none of the reports say Russia’s efforts definitively won the White House for Trump or changed any votes, because that would be outright lying if they did, Special counsel Robert Mueller did in fact indict 13 members of Internet Research Agency (IRA) in February for interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
So, as we can clearly see here, Mueller has gotten himself into a bind with that indictment, given he can’t back it up with proof that would stand up before a jury, which is what we are, people, in a court of law, or the court of public opinion, so the cavalry are riding in now trying to save Mueller with evidence gathered after Mueller’s indictment which purportedly now substantiates the indictments, but since the reports are ridiculous horse**** that you would have to be a moron or ignoramus to accept as proof of anything other than that like everybody else in the world, including the Brits who prepared the Steele dossier in an attempt to put Hillary Clinton in the White House by turning public opinion in this country against Trump, the Russians are as concerned today with who leads this country as they have been for the last 200 years or so, which is something we Americans learn as children.
I grew up with all the fear-mongering back in the 50s about how we were going to get invaded by Russian paratroopers who were going to take over this country to turn it into a Communist Worker’s Paradise like the Soviet Union, to which a lot of people in America paid homage to back then, and it is ridiculous to think that any of these Senators responsible for these reports could be ignorant of any of that, given that the Oxford University Press, in the American History section of its Oxford Research Encyclopedia tells us as follows concerning Russian influence in our internal political affairs, as follows:
The largest and most important revolutionary socialist organization in US history, the Communist Party USA was always a minority influence.
It reached considerable size and influence, however, during the Great Depression and World War II years when it followed the more open line associated with the term “Popular Front.”
end quotes
The Great Depression, people, was in the 1930s, which is an indication of how long the Russians or Communists have been vying for control of our national government.
As the Oxford University Press Research Encyclopedia tells us, in these years communists were much more flexible in their strategies and relations with other groups, though the party remained a hierarchical vanguard organization.
It grew from a largely isolated sect dominated by unskilled and unemployed immigrant men in the 1920s to a socially diverse movement of nearly 100,000 based heavily on American born men and women from the working and professional classes by the late 1930s and during World War II, exerting considerable influence in the labor movement and American cultural life.
end quotes
And HUH?
Hey Mueller, dude, help us out here if you have a clue as to how to do so – how come we are reading about the COMMUNISTS (Russians) exerting considerable influence on American cultural life back in the 1930’s at the same time we are reading about you blowing through millions of dollars of our tax money to get some indictments of Russians in Russia for using the internet instead of the print media to exert influence on American cultural life in 2016?
How come you stopped at 13, Mueller?
Is that all of them you could find?
Getting back to Communist or Russian involvement in our internal political affairs, the Oxford University Press article on Communism in this country continues as follows:
In these years, the Communist Party helped to build the industrial union movement, advanced the cause of African American civil rights, and laid the foundation for the postwar feminist movement.
end quotes
HOLY ****, people, the Communist Party advanced the cause of African American civil rights in this country, which is something the Democrats also try to take credit for, so no wonder we are reading today in the VOX.com expose that Russia especially targeted African Americans.
WOW, people, just think of it, after advancing the cause of African American civil rights in this country back in the 1930s, the Russians are still reaching out to their black brothers and sisters in this country they have a rapport with, as we see from the VOX.com expose as follows:
“The most prolific IRA efforts on Facebook and Instagram specifically targeted Black American communities and appear to have been focused on developing Black audiences and recruiting Black Americans as assets.”
That’s one of the stunning conclusions from the report by researchers from New Knowledge, Columbia University, and Canfield Research LLC.
In other words, Russia deliberately aimed to sow and exploit racial divisions in the United States.
end quotes
HUH?
Seriously, people, given the actual history here, can you believe this bull**** we are being pitched here by the United States Senate with these absurd reports?
If in the 1930s, the Russians or Communists were advancing the cause of African American civil rights in this country, wouldn’t that be a textbook example of the Russians deliberately exploiting racial divisions in the United States for political gain, which by the way, according to the United States Supreme Court is not unlawful or illegal conduct?
And what am I saying, of course it is.
So what kind of horse**** is Mueller trying to feed us then, along with the United States Senate, about what the Russians today are doing with respect to the black folks in this country, when it is exactly what they have been doing now since the 1930s?
Which takes us back to the VOX.com expose of these bull**** reports as follows:
The report doesn’t explain why the IRA targeted African Americans most of all.
One possibility, though, is that black voters skew more Democratic, and the election occurred during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, which sharply divided liberals and conservatives.
Targeting Black Americans — and trying to keep them from either voting for Clinton or voting altogether — would serve to help Trump.
end quotes
Talk about clutching at straws (try any route to get out of a desperate situation, no matter how unlikely it is to succeed), people, there it is, right before our eyes above here.
How about the Russians are targeting the black folks in America today, because that is what they have been doing since the 1930’s?
So, people, ask yourself this important existential question: am I actually stupid enough to believe a word these absurd U.S. Senate Reports are saying about Russian interference in our 2016 presidential election in an effort to pull Mueller’s fat from the fire for him?
As for me, I am not, and I resent being treated as if I were addle-pated by our United States Senate.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-114088
Paul Plante says:
So what, besides cheap politics, is going on here, people?
And for that answer, we only need go back to the VOX.com article “4 main takeaways from new reports on Russia’s 2016 election interference – One includes Russia’s deliberate targeting of African Americans online” by Alex Ward on Dec. 17, 2018, as follows:
Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 political landscape — and presidential election — was a much wider effort than previously understood.
Two new reports released on Monday, prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee by independent researchers, reveal that Moscow’s intelligence officials reached millions of social media users between 2013 and 2017, in part by exploiting existing political and racial divisions in American society.
Vox obtained the two reports before their planned release.
Using data provided by social media companies to the Senate panel, researchers from New Knowledge, Columbia University, and Canfield Research along with others from the University of Oxford and Graphika have for the first time revealed a broad extent of the years-long efforts by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a group of Russian agents that use social media to influence politics.
Special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 IRA members in February for interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
end quotes
There it is right there, people – despite having no evidence whatsoever, besides the wild accusations of the loser Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, that the 2016 presidential election was interferred with in any way, as we see from the VOX.com article’s statement that none of the reports say Russia’s efforts definitively won the White House for Trump or changed any votes, because that would be outright lying if they did, Special counsel Robert Mueller did in fact indict 13 members of Internet Research Agency (IRA) in February for interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
So, as we can clearly see here, Mueller has gotten himself into a bind with that indictment, given he can’t back it up with proof that would stand up before a jury, which is what we are, people, in a court of law, or the court of public opinion, so the cavalry are riding in now trying to save Mueller with evidence gathered after Mueller’s indictment which purportedly now substantiates the indictments, but since the reports are ridiculous horse**** that you would have to be a moron or ignoramus to accept as proof of anything other than that like everybody else in the world, including the Brits who prepared the Steele dossier in an attempt to put Hillary Clinton in the White House by turning public opinion in this country against Trump, the Russians are as concerned today with who leads this country as they have been for the last 200 years or so, which is something we Americans learn as children.
I grew up with all the fear-mongering back in the 50s about how we were going to get invaded by Russian paratroopers who were going to take over this country to turn it into a Communist Worker’s Paradise like the Soviet Union, to which a lot of people in America paid homage to back then, and it is ridiculous to think that any of these Senators responsible for these reports could be ignorant of any of that, given that the Oxford University Press, in the American History section of its Oxford Research Encyclopedia tells us as follows concerning Russian influence in our internal political affairs, as follows:
The largest and most important revolutionary socialist organization in US history, the Communist Party USA was always a minority influence.
It reached considerable size and influence, however, during the Great Depression and World War II years when it followed the more open line associated with the term “Popular Front.”
end quotes
The Great Depression, people, was in the 1930s, which is an indication of how long the Russians or Communists have been vying for control of our national government.
As the Oxford University Press Research Encyclopedia tells us, in these years communists were much more flexible in their strategies and relations with other groups, though the party remained a hierarchical vanguard organization.
It grew from a largely isolated sect dominated by unskilled and unemployed immigrant men in the 1920s to a socially diverse movement of nearly 100,000 based heavily on American born men and women from the working and professional classes by the late 1930s and during World War II, exerting considerable influence in the labor movement and American cultural life.
end quotes
And HUH?
Hey Mueller, dude, help us out here if you have a clue as to how to do so – how come we are reading about the COMMUNISTS (Russians) exerting considerable influence on American cultural life back in the 1930’s at the same time we are reading about you blowing through millions of dollars of our tax money to get some indictments of Russians in Russia for using the internet instead of the print media to exert influence on American cultural life in 2016?
How come you stopped at 13, Mueller?
Is that all of them you could find?
Getting back to Communist or Russian involvement in our internal political affairs, the Oxford University Press article on Communism in this country continues as follows:
In these years, the Communist Party helped to build the industrial union movement, advanced the cause of African American civil rights, and laid the foundation for the postwar feminist movement.
end quotes
HOLY ****, people, the Communist Party advanced the cause of African American civil rights in this country, which is something the Democrats also try to take credit for, so no wonder we are reading today in the VOX.com expose that Russia especially targeted African Americans.
WOW, people, just think of it, after advancing the cause of African American civil rights in this country back in the 1930s, the Russians are still reaching out to their black brothers and sisters in this country they have a rapport with, as we see from the VOX.com expose as follows:
“The most prolific IRA efforts on Facebook and Instagram specifically targeted Black American communities and appear to have been focused on developing Black audiences and recruiting Black Americans as assets.”
That’s one of the stunning conclusions from the report by researchers from New Knowledge, Columbia University, and Canfield Research LLC.
In other words, Russia deliberately aimed to sow and exploit racial divisions in the United States.
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HUH?
Seriously, people, given the actual history here, can you believe this bull**** we are being pitched here by the United States Senate with these absurd reports?
If in the 1930s, the Russians or Communists were advancing the cause of African American civil rights in this country, wouldn’t that be a textbook example of the Russians deliberately exploiting racial divisions in the United States for political gain, which by the way, according to the United States Supreme Court is not unlawful or illegal conduct?
And what am I saying, of course it is.
So what kind of horse**** is Mueller trying to feed us then, along with the United States Senate, about what the Russians today are doing with respect to the black folks in this country, when it is exactly what they have been doing now since the 1930s?
Which takes us back to the VOX.com expose of these bull**** reports as follows:
The report doesn’t explain why the IRA targeted African Americans most of all.
One possibility, though, is that black voters skew more Democratic, and the election occurred during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, which sharply divided liberals and conservatives.
Targeting Black Americans — and trying to keep them from either voting for Clinton or voting altogether — would serve to help Trump.
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Talk about clutching at straws (try any route to get out of a desperate situation, no matter how unlikely it is to succeed), people, there it is, right before our eyes above here.
How about the Russians are targeting the black folks in America today, because that is what they have been doing since the 1930’s?
So, people, ask yourself this important existential question: am I actually stupid enough to believe a word these absurd U.S. Senate Reports are saying about Russian interference in our 2016 presidential election in an effort to pull Mueller’s fat from the fire for him?
As for me, I am not, and I resent being treated as if I were addle-pated by our United States Senate.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-114088