Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Politics

It's The Culture War, Stupid! - How The Far Right Uses Religious and Ethnic Identity to Mobilize Voters

" Impeach Trump Rally " by  Geoff Livingston  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 .

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg - Who Claimed That China's Xi Jinping Is Not A Dictator - Now Wants To Run For President

Michael Bloomberg (image by AFGE  via Wikimedia Commons) Billionaire business mogul and ex-mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg is reportedly preparing to enter the Democratic presidential primary  . Last March Bloomberg had ruled out running for president, but he is now "increasingly concerned that the current field of candidates is not well positioned" to defeat President Trump, as his adviser Howard Wolfson told NPR. Wolfson was a high-profile aide on Hillary Clinton's 2008 primary campaign. What exactly prompted Bloomberg to change his mind is not clear, but it is possible that he feels increasingly concerned about the rise of left-wing candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Other wealthy individuals, like Bill Gates, have recently expressed their opposition to wealth tax plans. Bloomberg's entry into the primary race clearly shows what is wrong with the American political system, dominated by elites who think that the US gover

Russian "Active Measures" Social Media Campaign - Excerpts from the Mueller Report

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meet at the 2017 G-20 in Hamburg, 7 July 2017 (Source http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/55006/photos , by Kremlin.ru) On April 18, a redacted version of the "Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election," commonly referred to as the " Mueller Report ," was released to the public.  The 448 pages-long document details Russia's propaganda and manipulation tactics through social media,  as well as cooperation between the Trump Campaign and Russian entities for the purpose of damaging Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.  The following excerpts from the Report describe Russia's "active measures" on social media: ---- II. Russian "Active Measures" Social Media Campaign The first form of Russian election influence came principally from the Internet Research Agency, LLC (IRA), a Russian organization funded by Yevgeniy Viktorovic

Why The Deification Of Donald Trump By Right-Wing Christians Reminds Of Hitler Germany

2018 State of the Union (by The White House via Wikimedia Commons) "Our Lord has made us free by sending us a man like Adolf Hitler as a leader," said  Arnold Gustavs , pastor in the small northern German island of Hiddensee, in one of his sermons in the 1930s. " Heil Hitler ! we shout. And day after day millions of arms are raised for this salute, and millions of lips speak out these words ... We often read the word Heil ['salvation', 'hail '] in the Old and the New Testament: but salvation is always given by God. Therefore, when we say Heil Hitler !, we wish him God's salvation. This salute is actually a prayer, for we pray that God save this man, our FĆ¼hrer , that he protect and bless him, that he give him the helmet of salvation so that he may bravely carry on the struggle for the renewal of the German people."  Pastor Gustavs was only one of many church leaders in Nazi Germany who enthusiastically supported Hitler, and who port

Republicans Spread Fake China Hacking Story To Deflect From Trump's Subservience To Russia

FBI headquarters (by Aude via Wikimedia Commons ) On August 29 Donald Trump tweeted: "Hillary Clinton’s Emails, many of which are Classified Information, got hacked by China." Hillary Clinton’s Emails, many of which are Classified Information, got hacked by China. Next move better be by the FBI & DOJ or, after all of their other missteps (Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr, FISA, Dirty Dossier etc.), their credibility will be forever gone! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2018 The tweet came shortly after Fox News reported on a story by the right-wing media outlet  Daily Caller alleging that China had hacked Hillary Clinton's e-mail server .  "A Chinese-owned company operating in the Washington, D.C., area hacked Hillary Clinton’s private server throughout her term as secretary of state and obtained nearly all her emails," the report claimed, citing "two sources briefed on the matter." However, on Augu

Michael Avenatti Fails To Answer Simple Questions in Interview

Michael Avenatti, the California lawyer representing porn star Stormy Daniels, is considering running for president on the Democratic ticket in 2020. “I believe that the Democratic Party must be a party that fights fire with fire,” he told Iowa Democrats at a fundraising dinner on August 10. “When they go low, I say we hit harder."  But does he have what it takes to defeat Trump and become the next Commander-in-Chief? In an interview on "This Week" Sunday with ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl, Avenatti was unable to answer simple questions regarding economic and foreign policy.  "Would you repeal all of the Trump tax cuts?" Karl asked Avenatti. "I haven't decided yet. I'm still analyzing the issue," he said.  Embed from Getty Images Karl then asked Avenatti what the biggest national security threat facing the United States right now is.  "I think it would be the situation in the Middle Ea

Leader Of Hong Kong Pro-Independence Party Requests More Time To Respond To Government Ban Threat

On July 16 the Hong Kong police notified Andy Chan Ho-tin (é™³ęµ©å¤©), the founder and leader of the Hong Kong National Party (香ęøÆ갑ꗏé»Ø, HKNP), that his party might be banned  for threatening China's "national security."  Hong Kong Secretary of Security John Lee Ka-chiu (ęŽå®¶č¶…) said at a press conference that any Hong Kong-based society may be banned in order to protect national security and public order, or to protect the rights and freedoms of others. Protecting national security means safeguarding the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the People's Republic of China, he added.  Embed from Getty Images Andy Chan was given 21 days to submit a written reply to the Secretary of Security, explaining why the HKNP should not be outlawed.  On July 26 Mr. Chan told Hong Kong-based newspaper HK01 that the previous day he had sent a letter to the Security Bureau (äæå®‰å±€) requesting to be given 2 months, instead of only 21 days, to respond to the government.  H

Why Neil Gorsuch Should Be Impeached - Political Judges, The Supreme Court And Democracy

United States Supreme Court (by Jeff Kubina, via Wikimedia Commons) In August 1971, shortly before accepting Richard Nixon's nomination to the Supreme Court,  Lewis Powell  wrote a confidential  memorandum  to the US Chamber of Commerce. In the document, Powell argued that the American system of free enterprise was under attack by leftist groups, and he envisioned a strategy to fight back against those forces that were, in his view, anti-business. "[B]usinessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system, seeking insidiously and constantly to sabotage it," Powell wrote. He praised business executives for having performed "very well indeed" the role "to manage, to produce, to sell, to create jobs, to make profits, to improve the standard of living, to be community leaders, to serve on charitable and educational boards, and generally to be good citizens." However, he argued th