As of the last two days, Putin is militarily wasting his missile force on nonsense. Fascism is inefficient in war. A warning Americans need to hear
The fascist state of Kremlin Russia right now is wasting its resources, militarily in a way which is bankrupting Russia: Why is this happening ? It is due to the endless yes man chorus about Putin. A warning to American fascist enablers whom will rue the day a genuine fascist America rises from the ashes of the US Constitution
quote
Putin’s genocide?against our allies and fellow advocates of democracy, Ukraine.
c.?????Here in TX, R support for Putin is a roller coaster of sorts. The one point that stands out is that R Texans, who still support Trump never have a really bad opinion of Putin.?Their support comes and goes for Putin’s immorality but so long as trump gives them a thumbs up, they will not criticize Putin. My congressman, Tony Gonzales, TX 23 wouldn’t even say the word Russia for the majority of his term and never once condemned Putin, until the GOP gave him the go-ahead. Governor Abbott, like other high-profile TX Rs, has scrubbed his social media to erase all support for trump regarding Russia
end of quote
Right now the hero of MAGA, Vladimir Putin is getting his clocked cleaned, and it is due to the fact of how INEFFICIENT a fascist state really is. Argentina, with good military equipment was devastated in the Falklands war by a severely overstretched UK. And that fight would not have been one sided, in favor of the UK if at the time Argentina had been a DEMOCRACY
God bless the Ukrainians where ever they are for keeping the same blight out of their country.
quote
Citizens of Ukraine living in Georgia are holding a pro-Ukraine rally near the Parliament of Georgia.
According to the participants of the rally, Russia should be recognized as a terrorist state.
According to the organizers, the Russian Federation has carried out and continues to carry out massive missile and air attacks on the territory of Ukraine and the whole world should know about their crimes!
end of quote
I will say it here. PUTIN IS LOSING HIS WAR IN UKRAINE BECAUSE HE RUNS A FASCIST STATE. Ukraine, warts and all IS NOT A FASCIST STATE. It means that what should have been a Russian walkover isn't and that now Ukraine will beat RUSSIA by December hands down
The record of enfeeblement of states using fascist models is so well know that only an idiot would ignore it.
Whereas we need to ask, WHY would ANYONE in America want what is destroying Russia in its Ukraine war ?
quote
What you need, in other words, are people who have the time and resources to engage in bureaucratic meddling. Trump is very fortunate in that regard — by far his largest and most robust vein of support comes from people of retirement age. (People over 65 turned out for Trump in greater numbers?than any other group of voters.) A veritable army of Fox News-drunk grandparents is forming, ready to interfere every step of the way with the systems that turn out, collect and count votes.
Last week, in?a segment for the "Fever Dreams" podcast, Daily Beast journalist Will Sommer reported that the popular Trumpist website Gateway Pundit has put together a?surprisingly intense 11-page "how to" guide?for jamming up elections on a local level. Of course, the guide doesn't admit that's the goal; it claims to be designed for taking "proactive" steps to "prevent Democrats from cheating and stealing elections."
Reading the guide, however, clarifies that the goal is to hinder the ability of election workers to do their jobs
end of quote
The Retirees stumping endlessly for Fascism in America, really need to read their history.
Do they, self proclaimed PATRIOTS, want to have America saddled with the same governance Model destroying Russia?
Russia right now is a dying nation.
Is that what the GOP wants to do to America too ? Kill it as Russia dies from day to day ?
It is a question which demands an answer.
Now as to how the latest 2 day temper tantrum of fascist Russia is getting them ZIP
quote
Still, the assault was far from an outright success for Russia. Ukrainian officials said the country's forces had shot down more than half of the missiles fired by Russia on Monday evening.?
Launching multimillion dollar equipment to?damage pedestrian bridges?and kill civilians is?militarily "nonsensical," Miles said.
"The Russian military can only hope to achieve effects through?terror bombings?like this," he added.
end of quote
If Russia were a democracy this idiotic waste of missiles would NEVER have happened.
Does MAGA want America to be addled the same way Russia is today with PUTIN ?
quote
When extremism is on the ballot, America loses
Today's Republican party is extremist, not conservative
5 hr ago
1
One of today’s headlines in the Associated Press, triggered me to write about it today. If you are a true, “principled conservative” you won’t like what I have to say but above all else, you need to hear it, for our nation’s sake.
My standard disclaimer: I despise big money political parties and see them as an affront to our founders’ dreams, for our “great experiment.” I was raised by a principled, lifelong Democrat father and a lifelong, Republican mother. Both crossed party lines at the ballot box when the facts demanded it. They discussed those issues openly and from a well-informed point of view. I consider myself an, “Eisenhower Republican” which today makes me so “middle-of-the-road” that I am not terribly welcome in either party. This suits me just fine.
I do not comment publicly on politics. It’s family tradition, which I adhere to scrupulously. Although many will see today’s post as, “political,” it is not. Today’s post is about the failure of most of Americans, right or left to define today’s Republican party as an extremist organization. Yes, media fails horribly at this as well. Extremism was and still is, a core expertise of mine and something I spent my time working on directly, while deployed in combat zones, often yearly.
Extremism as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Definition of?extremism
1:?the quality or state of being?extreme
2:?advocacy of extreme measures or views:?RADICALISM
Political Party definition from the folks at Merriam-Webster:
:?a group of persons organized for the purpose of directing the policies of a government
Since mid-2015, with the onset of a serious Trump candidacy for president, the Republican party has rapidly descended into extremism. Yes, there are extremists on both sides of the aisle but on the left, the more extreme have little voice within the party. On the right side of the aisle, extremism dominates the party. Hence, it is simply now an extremist movement, in denial about true American values, laws and traditions.
Why do I say this and what are some examples?
(As a Texan, I often use my home state as an example, for obvious reasons)
Well, let’s start with election denial.
1.????Election denial
a.??????A full sixty percent of American voters will have an election denier?on their ballot in Nov. Election denial is a?Trump conspiracy theory?fully embraced by the dominant wing of the party.?Here in TX, like most so-called, “red states” election denial is an official party of the Republican platform.
b.????There are a variety of reasons that election denial or more commonly known as the?“big lie,” is a conspiracy theory. The only reason that matters, is that the Rs (Republican party) has this as their foundation in the upcoming Mid-terms. Any party that operates on the premise of a myth/ conspiracy theory is not dealing with reality. How would any voter trust someone, regardless of party if they believed exclusively in fantasy, myths and conspiracy theories? You cannot solve our nations problems unless you deal with reality.
c.??????Trump’s conspiracy theories have infected the entire R party since 2015, claiming alternate truth. Again, fantasy is no place to solve real problems.
d.????Election denial, like all other?conspiracy theories erode our democratic republic.
2.????Anti-American initiatives:
a.??????Banning and burning books are extremism and are exemplary of anti-American values, by default. Oddly, it’s the trump crowd that whines incessantly about censorship that is doing the banning and burning. Apparently, they really don’t care about the 1st Amendment after all.?Book bans and burns are a literal assault on the first amendment.
?Amendment I
Congress shall make?no law respecting an establishment of religion?or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or?abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
US Constitution
First Amendment
Since most book burns and bans are based on religious underpinnings, these bans/ burns violate the first amendment of multiple levels.
b.?????Book-burning and book-banning
i.????Texas, like the other red states are increasingly embracing book banning and some, like?Texas and Tennessee book burning.
c.?????For the record, all across America, the same school districts and libraries run for decades by the right, are the ones who originally approved the books they now ban for largely religious and political reasons.
3.????Guns
a.?????The obsession for guns is anti-American in the extreme and the existing R opinion has attempted to translate guns and the equivalent of being patriotic. What utter nonsense.
b.????There is nothing wrong with responsible Americans owning most guns, provided that they are well-trained and can pass universal background checks. The Rs, like my congressman?Tony Gonzales?refuse to even listen to these points.
c.??????TX governor, Greg Abbott?along with Gonzales and?Sen. Ted Cruz?met with Uvalde parents and refused to support any common-sense legislation on guns.
d.?????NRA and Russia
???????????????????????????????????????????????????i.????Let’s not forget that the?NRA funneled millions of Russian dollars into R campaigns?and especially, millions into trump’s campaign.?The US R party is compromised?(kompromat in Russian) by Russian money acceptance. Putin uses this leverage to get?acquiescence from the R party on a variety of issues, most prominently, sanctions relief.
?????????????????????????????????????????????????ii.??????Mitch McConnell argued to give his favorite Russian oligarch sanctions relief.
4.????Religion in schools
a.?????Texas is one of those states who approve of and advocate for school vouchers. These vouchers rob constitutionally decreed, free public education of funding.?Private schools would allow religious instruction with tax-payer dollars. This could hardly be more of an affront to the US Constitution’s, first amendment. New laws passed?that require, “In God we trust” in every public school, erodes the constitutional separation between, “Church and State.”
5.?????Republican support for Putin
a.?????Putin is a top tier, human rights violation, including actual and cultural genocide against the Ukrainian people. Why is the right tolerant of and often supportive of Putin?
b.?????Putin’s genocide?against our allies and fellow advocates of democracy, Ukraine.
c.?????Here in TX, R support for Putin is a roller coaster of sorts. The one point that stands out is that R Texans, who still support Trump never have a really bad opinion of Putin.?Their support comes and goes for Putin’s immorality but so long as trump gives them a thumbs up, they will not criticize Putin. My congressman, Tony Gonzales, TX 23 wouldn’t even say the word Russia for the majority of his term and never once condemned Putin, until the GOP gave him the go-ahead. Governor Abbott, like other high-profile TX Rs, has scrubbed his social media to erase all support for trump regarding Russia.
6.????Voting rights
a.?????Part of the activity surrounding the conspiracy theory of election denial, is that across the nation,?Republican states are desperate to suppress or deny constitutionally guaranteed voting rights. Nothing could be more un-American. If this doesn’t convey extremism attitudes towards our national values, nothing will convince you. Evidence of voter fraud is nearly non-existent.?Supporting laws that restrict voting rights?is supporting a “solution, looking for a problem.” In most cases, the handful of voter fraud crimes pertain to Republicans, not the opposition.
b.?????Again, using Texas as an example, our new voting laws passed by an extremist Republican legislature is better defined, as Jim Crow, 2.0.?Radical Gerrymandering has also significantly marginalized people of color. This in a state with an exceptionally high Hispanic population, is the antithesis of democracy, harkening back to Confederacy systems of the pre and immediately post-Civil War era.
What I have so far presented, very clearly demonstrates that the current GOP, is extremist, not a political party. The actual party is held hostage by the extremist, Trump wing. There is no other way to see an alleged political party that dines on a steady diet of conspiracy theories, dishonesty and anti-American values. To make things worse, their agenda is not only extremist but attempts to refine true patriotism with an anti-American agenda. Supporting our adversaries, curtailing our constitutional rights in voting, education, religion in government etc. are anti-constitutional issues. Advocacy for such is by definition, extremist and anti-American.
Yes, today’s TAT post beats up the current GOP. That beating is well-deserved, and my beating has been exclusively factual. I have zero issues with opposing parties arguing passionately for their legitimate American point of view but, draw a hard line at arguing extremism vs. principled liberalism.
领英推荐
America is designed for those passionate to argue their point of view, fairly. It’s what makes us Americans. Since Trump and to some extent, the Newt Gingrich era, the right has become extremist dominated. This doesn’t mean the right is all extremist. It’s just that the “nuts are running the asylum.” There are millions of truly principled conservatives, just like my mom was. It’s their voice that has been silenced, by their own party. Until the principled conservatives regain control of their party, they have no voice and worse… if they still vote Republican, are empowering the extremists, not their political or national values.
Our nation has several very serious problems to address. Well-informed debate from opposing sides normally delivers a better result. Principles arguing against conspiracy theories delivers the destruction of our values and our democratic republic. Someone must stand up and tell the truth.
I wish the mainstream media would stop calling extremism, conservatism. This only prolongs our time in the swamp of right-wing extremism. Yes, we’ve had the opposite as well, during my youth. That should have been enough to ward off the current opposite with the right but… so far, it hasn’t. Only being honest with ourselves and each other can we wade out of this swamp together, as principled Americans. If we continue to allow extremists a say in our government, we all get what we deserve.
America, please do better. Be honest, courageous with your voices and above all, embrace, not redefine American values. We are at our best when principled parties and candidates argue with truth, integrity and reality, not when extremists challenge a political party.]
end of quote
Whereas
quote
COMMITTEE PRINT { 115-21
======================================================================
PUTIN'S ASYMMETRIC ASSAULT
ON DEMOCRACY IN RUSSIA AND
EUROPE: IMPLICATIONS FOR
U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY
__________
A MINORITY STAFF REPORT
PREPARED FOR THE USE OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
One Hundred Fifteenth Congress
Second Session
January 10, 2018
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: https://www.fdsys.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
28-110 PDF WASHINGTON : 2017
end of quote
Whereas
quote
October 11, 2022
?????
In Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told supporters he would bring back jobs to the depressed steel town (AFP)
According to the media and the House committee investigating January 6, the?face of rising fascism has been a young one. Or young-ish, anyway, especially in?a graying country like the United States. A lot of attention has been?paid to the incel and 4chan communities, or?other places where young men in their teens?and early 20s are being radicalized. The?2017 "Unite the Right" riot in Charlottesville, Virginia?crystallized the image of modern fascists as college-aged men with floppy haircuts and polo shirts. A number of authoritarian groups have grown up under Trump, but by far the?most attention has been paid to the Proud Boys, whose name and manner of dress cast an image of youthful streetfighters. In the American imagination, "fascists" are young men,?such as Hitler's Brownshirts,?who are believed to have the energy and stomach for the skull-cracking necessary to impose their will to power.
As demonstrated by January 6 and?the years of street fights in Portland, Oregon, this threat of relatively youthful violence should not be ignored. But there's a quieter, more pernicious threat to democracy: Older, retiree-aged Trump fanatics.
To understand the threat, it's crucial to look at how elections are being undermined in 2022 and ahead to 2024. As January 6 showed, violence may make a big splash, but it's harder to actually hijack elections that way in the high-tech 21st century. For that, you need systematic breakdowns. The GOP has long used red tape regulations to gerrymander and suppress voter turnout. Even Trump, despite his fascination with violence, first tried to get the courts to steal the 2020 election for him, before resorting to inciting the Capitol riot. Even then, the violence of January 6 ultimately revolved paperwork: Preventing electoral votes from being counted in hopes of invalidating the election.
What you need, in other words, are people who have the time and resources to engage in bureaucratic meddling. Trump is very fortunate in that regard — by far his largest and most robust vein of support comes from people of retirement age. (People over 65 turned out for Trump in greater numbers?than any other group of voters.) A veritable army of Fox News-drunk grandparents is forming, ready to interfere every step of the way with the systems that turn out, collect and count votes.
Last week, in?a segment for the "Fever Dreams" podcast, Daily Beast journalist Will Sommer reported that the popular Trumpist website Gateway Pundit has put together a?surprisingly intense 11-page "how to" guide?for jamming up elections on a local level. Of course, the guide doesn't admit that's the goal; it claims to be designed for taking "proactive" steps to "prevent Democrats from cheating and stealing elections."
Reading the guide, however, clarifies that the goal is to hinder the ability of election workers to do their jobs. The guide tells readers to insist they "be stationed at major ballot transfer locations," which includes every post office, "loading dock at the central tabulation centers, and possibly at the print vendors." The guide instructs readers to routinely demand "investigations" of any box of ballots at any point in time and to throw fits if their unreasonable intrusions are rebuffed. Instructions are included for various ways to slow down the process, challenge the counting of ballots and otherwise make it difficult, if not impossible, for ballot counting to move smoothly and efficiently. The guide recommends readers "rent a motor home for the very problematic tabulation centers" and "[p]ark it close to the facility as the command center" for teams of election meddlers to work from. ("Problematic" is unsubtly defined as "Democrat run facilities" — basically a way to direct their readers to districts where Democrats vote.)
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The guide admits its elaborate plans for election obstruction would take a lot of time and energy to realize: "This is hard work so have some fun too!"
That's why it matters that Trump's allies have an army of retirees to draw on — the kind of people who have the motor homes to use as "command centers" and the time on their hands to spend harassing election workers.
Last month, the Washington Post reported?election officials in various swing states are complaining about "an unprecedented wave of public records requests" that "may be intended to hinder their work and weaken an already strained system." The requests often use the exact same wording. What appears to be happening is a campaign of copy-pasting from guides spreading online in right wing forums, much like the one published by Gateway Pundit. At least one surge of nuisance records requests has been traced back to?MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who explained on his pro-Trump podcast how his listeners could overwhelm election officials with these requests.
Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter?Standing Room Only.
Lindell claims he's not trying to disrupt elections offices by overwhelming them with pointless busywork, but the timing and repetitiveness of the requests say otherwise. At the same time, many of those filing requests can't explain, when asked, exactly what they're looking for. It all points to the same goal, according to the Post: "[M]aking it more difficult to run smooth elections and giving critics new openings to attack the integrity of election administration."
Mail-in ballots are being sent out, early voting has started and elections offices are gearing up for the final crunch time, and there's every reason to worry this campaign will only ramp up. It's hard to track the spread of these guides, but it's reasonable to worry they are finding a significant audience through community spread, as Trump supporters share with each other through email forwards and on social media. Masses of Trump supporters, mostly retired, with plenty of time to badger and harass election officials could do a lot of damage by slowing down and perhaps stopping the collection and counting of ballots, all under the guise of fighting "fraud." Imagine?thousands of Ginni Thomases, drunk on conspiracy theorists and blessed with nothing but free time to act on them.
The perennial organizing problem for fascists and other flavors of authoritarianism is that they are usually unpopular, rarely getting more than 25-30% of the public's support. (Even the?recent election of "post-fascist" Giorgia Meloni?in Italy was accomplished with only 26% of the vote.) They win in part because the opposition is divided and distracted. But political success, for authoritarians, also means putting in the work hours necessary to overwhelm the will of the majority. Hitler's Brownshirts were young, but they also had a lot of free time?due to high levels of unemployment. With low unemployment, nearly everyone in the U.S. is too busy right now to give much time or energy to political organizing, except retirees. Retired right wingers could be the secret ingredient to making Trumpism succeed despite its unpopularity.
end of quote
Whereas
quote
Russian missile strikes in Ukraine are militarily 'nonsensical' and represent an 'extraordinary tantrum' on Putin's part, Russia expert says
Erin Snodgrass?1 hour ago
Russia launched a series of missiles throughout Ukraine on Monday and Tuesday.
Russia's?spate of deadly missile strikes across Ukraine?this week is indicative of President Vladimir Putin's?rapidly decreasing options amid his country's struggling war effort, according to a Russia expert.
"It was basically an extraordinary tantrum," Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and a historian of the Soviet Union and US-Soviet relations, told Insider.
The?bombardments, which?killed at least 21 people on Monday and Tuesday, were another marked escalation by Russia and the biggest air strike yet in the nearly eight-month war. The attack also knocked out power, water, and heat in parts of the country.?
Putin said in a televised speech on Monday that the strike was?retaliation over a blast that damaged a key bridge?connecting Russia and Crimea over the weekend. But?Ukrainian officials?later suggested that?Russia had plans to launch missiles before the bridge was ever hit.
Putin also claimed that the strikes were directed solely at Ukrainian military, energy, and communications targets, but?photos and videos show the aftermath of Russian munitions in civilian areas.
Still, the assault was far from an outright success for Russia. Ukrainian officials said the country's forces had shot down more than half of the missiles fired by Russia on Monday evening.?
Launching multimillion dollar equipment to?damage pedestrian bridges?and kill civilians is?militarily "nonsensical," Miles said.
"The Russian military can only hope to achieve effects through?terror bombings?like this," he added.
The Russian army has suffered a series of significant setbacks in recent months amid mounting?military losses,?depleted manpower?and?morale, and a?fierce Ukrainian resistance. Their ground forces are unequipped to change the course of the war from the battlefield, Miles said, thus prompting Putin's ineffectual air strike.
"This reeks of desperation," Miles told Insider.?
While Russia's recent strikes won't be a one-time occurrence — the country unleashed a second bombardment throughout Ukraine on Tuesday — it is a tactic that is likely to be short-lived.
"I don't think they can keep doing it because they're running out of these tools, so that's another reason why this makes little sense," Miles said. "It's expanding precious, scarce resources on nothing of any military value."
He added that the "morally reprehensible" attacks could be a stalling technique as Russia hastily tries to put its recent?mobilization order?to effect, training hundreds of thousands of reservists that the country hopes?can generate some land victories in the coming weeks.
But several military and intelligence experts?previously told Insider that the partial call-up is unlikely to turn the tides of war?given Russia's depleted military infrastructure and Ukraine's 'sky-high' morale.?
Putin's recent escalations — the mobilization order, his?nuclear threats, and the missile strikes — are all half-baked solutions to?a problem of his own making.
The Russian president launched the war?under the guise of ridding Ukraine of "neo-nazis"?and predicated violence on a lie that?Ukraine was not a sovereign nation.?Now, months into a war that should have been a quick and easy defeat for Russia,?Putin's domestic power is increasingly at risk,?which leaves the once sacrosanct leader in a?tenuous position with few options.
"I think what he's trying to accomplish is he's trying to break the Ukrainian population's will to fight," Miles said. "If he thinks that's on the table, he's woefully misinformed."
In the aftermath of this week's attacks, Ukraine issued a clear message: the country will mourn its dead, fill the holes, and continue to fight, Miles said.
"Putin's sort of fantasy of Ukraine as this national house of cards has been proven wrong time and time again," he added.
end of quote
Whereas another post USSR state knows its history
quote
10.10.2022 / 20:39
a
a
Rally in support of Ukraine underway in Tbilisi
Citizens of Ukraine living in Georgia are holding a pro-Ukraine rally near the Parliament of Georgia.
According to the participants of the rally, Russia should be recognized as a terrorist state.
According to the organizers, the Russian Federation has carried out and continues to carry out massive missile and air attacks on the territory of Ukraine and the whole world should know about their crimes!
According to Kozak Katerina, the organizer of today's rally, Russia does not want the territories of Ukraine. Russia wants Ukraine to be at war, in fear, and at the same time to show the world that they could be next.
The participants of the rally are holding Ukrainian symbols and posters.
Political parties are also joining the pro-Ukraine rally, among which are?European Georgia,?Strategy Builder,?Shame Movement.
end of quote
Andrew Beckwith, PhD