US Politics

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

 

 

 

Well... ****** around and found out, I guess.

Edited July 8, 2021 by wanna-b-fanboy

[Tracker]

'Unhinged' GOP congressman claims Google 'absolutely' changed its algorithm to 'move 15 million votes' to Biden
   
U.S. Rep Ken Buck (R-CO) says Google flipped 15 million votes away from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Buck last year, on tape, as the chair of the Colorado GOP, allegedly tried "pressuring an El Paso County GOP official to falsify election results in the State Senate District 10 race."

"Google, by the way, changed its algorithm, in May of 2020 to disadvantage Donald Trump and to advantage Joe Biden," said Buck in a secret recording (below) made by Lauren Windsor, who was posing as a Trump supporter.

"Changed its algorithm. And when you ask them about this, I know people that, that own newspapers and asked them about it. They say, 'Oh, well it's just a technical thing we don't know what the result was we just know that we did that a technical person did this.' Nonsense. They chose the winner. They can move, the estimates are, they can move 15 million votes, because every time you ask for an article on Donald Trump or every time you Google 'Donald Trump,' and people here, obviously Google in a more sophisticated way, but, but people out there. They're hearing about Donald Trump and they're wondering, you know, Donald Trump/Hunter Biden?"

"I heard what you said about Google, that they changed the algorithm and penalized President Trump. Can you talk more about that, like, they flipped 15 million votes to Biden?" Windsor asks Buck.

"What I've heard from some of the academics on this issue is that by, by changing the algorithm, you can flip 15 million votes, you can influence 15 million people to move one direction or another, in that situation," Buck claimed.

(How can anyone who is elected to office in the US think that Google affects votes? Amazing!)

[17to85]

1 hour ago, Tracker said:

'Unhinged' GOP congressman claims Google 'absolutely' changed its algorithm to 'move 15 million votes' to Biden
   
U.S. Rep Ken Buck (R-CO) says Google flipped 15 million votes away from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Buck last year, on tape, as the chair of the Colorado GOP, allegedly tried "pressuring an El Paso County GOP official to falsify election results in the State Senate District 10 race."

"Google, by the way, changed its algorithm, in May of 2020 to disadvantage Donald Trump and to advantage Joe Biden," said Buck in a secret recording (below) made by Lauren Windsor, who was posing as a Trump supporter.

"Changed its algorithm. And when you ask them about this, I know people that, that own newspapers and asked them about it. They say, 'Oh, well it's just a technical thing we don't know what the result was we just know that we did that a technical person did this.' Nonsense. They chose the winner. They can move, the estimates are, they can move 15 million votes, because every time you ask for an article on Donald Trump or every time you Google 'Donald Trump,' and people here, obviously Google in a more sophisticated way, but, but people out there. They're hearing about Donald Trump and they're wondering, you know, Donald Trump/Hunter Biden?"

"I heard what you said about Google, that they changed the algorithm and penalized President Trump. Can you talk more about that, like, they flipped 15 million votes to Biden?" Windsor asks Buck.

"What I've heard from some of the academics on this issue is that by, by changing the algorithm, you can flip 15 million votes, you can influence 15 million people to move one direction or another, in that situation," Buck claimed.

(How can anyone who is elected to office in the US think that Google affects votes? Amazing!)

I think what he's getting at is the Googles kept having negative things about Donald Trump show up in searches and it influenced people's voting.... now the man is still clearly a ******* moron with no idea what he is talking about, and maybe even believes that Google changed votes! But sad that elected officials are so ignorant. Honestly all elected officials should have to pass a technology competence test before taking office. 

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, 17to85 said:

I think what he's getting at is the Googles kept having negative things about Donald Trump show up in searches and it influenced people's voting.... now the man is still clearly a ******* moron with no idea what he is talking about, and maybe even believes that Google changed votes! But sad that elected officials are so ignorant. Honestly all elected officials should have to pass a technology competence test before taking office. 

Well, he sorta does have a point- its pretty obvious that there are a lot of weak-minded people out there who can be conned into voting for morons. Trump has conclusively proven that.

[Mark F]

"punching above their weight"

 

"But the evangelicals who thought they were about to take over America were destined for disappointment. On Thursday, P.R.R.I. released startling new polling data showing just how much ground the religious right has lost. P.R.R.I.’s 2020 Census of American Religion, based on a survey of nearly half a million people, shows a precipitous decline in the share of the population identifying as white evangelical, from 23 percent in 2006 to 14.5 percent last year. (As a category, “white evangelicals” isn’t a perfect proxy for the religious right, but the overlap is substantial.) 

nyt

Theres a netflix doc called The Family about the influence of evangelicals in american gubmint. have not watched it, out of fear.

the right is far more determine and ruthless than the left. much more money behind it probably.

Edited July 9, 2021 by Mark F

[HardCoreBlue]

2 hours ago, 17to85 said:

I think what he's getting at is the Googles kept having negative things about Donald Trump show up in searches and it influenced people's voting.... now the man is still clearly a ******* moron with no idea what he is talking about, and maybe even believes that Google changed votes! But sad that elected officials are so ignorant. Honestly all elected officials should have to pass a technology competence test before taking office. 

Much more than just a technology is needed. 

[17to85]

31 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Well, he sorta does have a point- its pretty obvious that there are a lot of weak-minded people out there who can be conned into voting for morons. Trump has conclusively proven that.

But also, if you don't want Google to show negative things about a person stop doing negative things! 

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, 17to85 said:

But also, if you don't want Google to show negative things about a person stop doing negative things! 

Ooooooh.....a heretic. Bring forth the holy hand grenade of Antioch.

[Mark F]

6 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Honestly all elected officials should have to pass a technology competence test before taking office. 

 

[Tracker]

If you need any further proof that Trump's GOP has become as crazy as shithouse rats, here is their seven point plan to re-install him in the next 30 days:

                 Andrew Solender on Twitter: "CPAC attendee sent me this pic of a card they were handed about a “7-pt. plan to restore Donald J. Trump in days, not years,” which involves installing Trump as speaker and ousting Biden & Harris. https://t.co/dS0tQ5jW7b" / Twitter

 

[Mark F]

Bipartisan Joe Biden and climate

https://gizmodo.com/bipartisanship-is-climate-denial-1847211362

"The backslapping bipartisan we’ve seen does not offer up transformational change. Biden’s opening bid of $2 trillion for infrastructure already lacked the money to meet the moment. The bipartisan version is a shell of that already inadequate policy push. Biden’s plan included $174 billion for electric vehicles. The bipartisan plan offers $15 billion. The American Jobs Plan had $85 billion earmarked for public transit. The Joe Manchin-Bill Cassidy special offers $48.5 billion. The only areas where the two bills are roughly on par are related to highways and airports, both of which lock in decades of more carbon pollution.

The idea that the ideal policy position to address climate change sits squarely between left and right is like saying the best place between the edge of a cliff and thin air 10 feet out is 5 feet beyond the brink. Choose the middle ground, and you will still fall to your death."

 

corporate Joe, with another bill written by Exxon. Don't think he's going to get away with this crap this time. 

Edited July 11, 2021 by Mark F

[Tracker]

1 hour ago, Mark F said:

Bipartisan Joe Biden and climate

https://gizmodo.com/bipartisanship-is-climate-denial-1847211362

"The backslapping bipartisan we’ve seen does not offer up transformational change. Biden’s opening bid of $2 trillion for infrastructure already lacked the money to meet the moment. The bipartisan version is a shell of that already inadequate policy push. Biden’s plan included $174 billion for electric vehicles. The bipartisan plan offers $15 billion. The American Jobs Plan had $85 billion earmarked for public transit. The Joe Manchin-Bill Cassidy special offers $48.5 billion. The only areas where the two bills are roughly on par are related to highways and airports, both of which lock in decades of more carbon pollution.

The idea that the ideal policy position to address climate change sits squarely between left and right is like saying the best place between the edge of a cliff and thin air 10 feet out is 5 feet beyond the brink. Choose the middle ground, and you will still fall to your death."

corporate Joe, with another bill written by Exxon. Don't think he's going to get away with this crap this time. 

This will only further increase the disillusionment and cynicism by Americans about the effectiveness of their political system. Which will serve the GOP and Russian agendas.

[Tracker]

Adviser to pro-Trump GOP group sent out a newsletter ‘so racist’ it could ‘make a Ku Klux Klansman blush’: report
   
Pro-Trump Republicans often engage in subliminal racism or "dog whistle" attacks — that is, code words that they will insist aren't racist. But when Florida resident Rip McIntosh, an adviser to far-right Trumpista Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA, sent out a fundraising newsletter on April 29, there was nothing subtle or subliminal about the racism in the newsletter.

In the newsletter, Talking Points Memo's Nick R. Martin reports, someone going by the pen name E.P. Unum wrote that Blacks have "become socially incompatible with other races" and that "American Black culture has evolved into an unfixable and crime-ridden mess." Martin described Unum's rant as being "so racist it might make a ku klux klansman blush."

According to Martin, the newsletter that McIntosh e-mailed, "also said White people aren't racist but 'just exhausted' with Black people. It portrayed post-Civil War America as a 150-year-long 'experiment' to see whether Black people could be 'taken from the jungles of Africa,' enslaved, and then integrated into a majority-White society. It said that experiment had failed."

McIntosh is on Turning Point USA's advisory council. Although McIntosh is 85, Turning Point is a youth outreach organization; its mission is to convert Millennials and members of Generation Z into far-right Republicans.

Martin explains, "The newsletter, which McIntosh says has more than 25,000 subscribers and which he sometimes publishes as often as five times a day, is frequently filled with culture war rants, conspiracy theories, racism, and other types of bigotry, but this e-mail stood out even among that toxic stew. In an interview, McIntosh said neither Turning Point nor its co-founder Charlie Kirk, whom he considers to be a personal friend, has any role in the publication of his newsletter. McIntosh also denied writing the essay, which was published under the fictitious byline 'E.P. Unum.'"

McIntosh told Talking Points Memo and The Informant that E.P. Unum is "a nom de plume of a friend" who "doesn't want his name out there because he's a teacher" and "doesn't want to be canceled."

Unum's racist rant in the newsletter was headlined, "On the Question of Systemic Racism in the United States."

Martin writes, "McIntosh acknowledged that the essay, which it turns out borrowed heavily from an article first published years ago on a prominent racist website, was 'a bit extreme,' but said he had no regrets about publishing it. He also said he believed both Turning Point and Kirk would stand by him.

Adviser to pro-Trump GOP group sent out a newsletter ‘so racist’ it could ‘make a Ku Klux Klansman blush’: report - Alternet.org

[Tracker]

Leaked police documents show violent plots continued following Jan. 6 insurrection

Hackers leaked Washington, D.C., police documents showing that lawmakers received numerous threats in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, right-wing extremists plotted further attacks around the nation's capital.

The leaked documents, which were stolen and published by the ransomware attack group Babuk, show metropolitan police recorded threats to lawmakers and public facilities after Donald Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, and law enforcement stepped up surveillance on far-right groups, reported The Guardian.

"[The group Patriot Action for America is] calling for others to join them in 'storming' state, local, and federal government courthouses and administrative buildings in the event POTUS is removed as president prior to inauguration day," police said in one Jan. 13 bulletin.

Some of the stolen documents were redistributed by the transparency organization Distributed Denial of Secrets and showed intelligence indicated that anti-government Boogaloo groups planned to attack various targets around Washington, and mentioned a possible second suspect in the placement of pipe bombs near the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters before the riot.

A Jan. 22 bulletin shows a heavily armed Pennsylvania man was arrested for sending threats to Democratic senators.

"I'm going to DC to kill people and want to be killed by the police," the man said, according to the bulletin.

Leaked police documents show violent plots continued following Jan. 6 insurrection | Salon.com

[Tracker]

 

Historian Annette Gordon-Reed: Jan. 6 was a "turning point" in American history 

Pulitzer-winning Harvard historian on the battle for the past and the fragile state of American democracy:

In the past six months, since the events of Jan. 6, I have been meditating a great deal on William Faulkner's wisdom and warning: "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

American history is a puzzle, full of contradictions and complexity. But some people, instead of studying this history so as to make better decisions in the present and future, choose to take a hammer to the puzzle. They smash it and then hammer the pieces back together so as to fit their self-serving lies and distortions.

Consider the moral panic created by the white right against "critical race theory." Of course, as deployed by right-wing propagandists, "critical race theory" possesses little if any resemblance to the epistemological framework of the same name. For the white right it's a term that means everything and nothing, a convenient vessel into which they can pour white rage, white fear, white victimology and white supremacy in an ongoing attack on multiracial American democracy.  

Writing at the Atlantic, historian Ibram X. Kendi summarizes this:

The United States is not in the midst of a "culture war" over race and racism. The animating force of our current conflict is not our differing values, beliefs, moral codes, or practices. The American people aren't divided. The American people are being divided.

Republican operatives have buried the actual definition of critical race theory: "a way of looking at law's role platforming, facilitating, producing, and even insulating racial inequality in our country," as the law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who helped coin the term, recently defined it. Instead, the attacks on critical race theory are based on made-up definitions and descriptors. …

Right-wing hysteria about "critical race theory" is not happening in a vacuum. It is part of a much larger project by the Jim Crow Republicans, neofascists and the broader white right to legitimize a new type of American apartheid in which nonwhites — especially Black people — do not have equal rights with white "conservatives" and others loyal to their cause.

This crisis of democracy has forced questions of history and public memory to the forefront of America's struggle against neofascism and authoritarianism.

In an essay for the New York Times, historian Timothy Snyder warns of the threat to democracy posed by Republican attempts to whitewash American history — quite literally — through Orwellian laws that ban the teaching of "critical race theory":

"This spring, memory laws arrived in America. Republican state legislators proposed dozens of bills designed to guide and control American understanding of the past. As of this writing, five states (Idaho, Iowa, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma) have passed laws that direct and restrict discussions of history in classrooms. The Department of Education of a sixth (Florida) has passed guidelines with the same effect. Another 12 state legislatures are still considering memory laws. …

Democracy requires individual responsibility, which is impossible without critical history. It thrives in a spirit of self-awareness and self-correction. Authoritarianism, on the other hand, is infantilizing: We should not have to feel any negative emotions; difficult subjects should be kept from us. Our memory laws amount to therapy, a talking cure. In the laws' portrayal of the world, the words of white people have the magic power to dissolve the historical consequences of slavery, lynchings and voter suppression. Racism is over when white people say so.

We start by saying we are not racists. Yes, that felt nice. And now we should make sure that no one says anything that might upset us. The fight against racism becomes the search for a language that makes white people feel good. The laws themselves model the desired rhetoric. We are just trying to be fair. We behave neutrally. We are innocent."

[Mark F]

2 hours ago, Tracker said:

Historian Annette Gordon-Reed: Jan. 6 was a "turning point" in American history 

 

frightening interview at salon of an expert on genocide, about where they are at in America.

now trump praising the January 6th criminals.

one guy turned a country into a madhouse.

[Tracker]

Could genocide really happen here? Leading scholar says America is on "high alert"
Alexander Laban Hinton on his new book, Trump's snake metaphor and the rising danger of white-power movements

Even the title of Alexander Laban Hinton's new book provides a chilling summary of the current danger facing this nation: "It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the U.S."

Hinton is one of the world's leading authorities on genocide and atrocity crimes. He is the author of 12 books on the subject and directs the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University. He testified as an expert witness, at the trial of Nuon Chea, who was prime minister of Cambodia during the genocidal tyranny of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.

With sober analysis and in assiduous detail, Hinton explores the ways the United States is "simmering at a low boil," and evinces every risk indicator for widespread mass atrocity crimes. White supremacist organizations and armed militias are mobilized for political action, the Republican Party has declared war on multiracial democracy and right-wing voters have become increasingly radical and hostile, falling into the personality cult of Donald Trump and the apocalyptic cult of QAnon.

As historian Timothy Snyder, philosopher Jason Stanley and former Republican insider Mike Lofgren have also warned, the U.S. is teetering at the edge of fascism. With "It Can Happen Here," Hinton brings his knowledge and experience to bear on a dynamic history of the Trump administration — taking his readers inside his classroom, to white power rallies and to his own testimony at the Chea trial. One of the book's strengths is its accessibility. Written with literary style rather than in dry academic prose, it makes for fascinating, albeit deeply disturbing, reading. 

Could genocide really happen here? Leading scholar says America is on "high alert" | Salon.com

(The entire article is well worth the read)

[Tracker]

Furious Trump demanded leaker who revealed he fled to his bunker during protests be executed: report
   
According to Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender's bombshell book, "Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost, a furious Donald Trump demanded that officials in his government find out who leaked the story that he fled to his bunker during the George Floyd protests in D.C. and wanted them tried for treason and then executed.

As the report notes, Trump, his wife Melania and son Barron were escorted to the bunker -- news of which quickly made it to the press, which caused the president to blow up.

Bender reports the former president, "held a tense meeting with top military, law enforcement and West Wing advisers, in which he aired grievances over the leak."

According to his book, "Trump boiled over about the bunker story as soon as they arrived and shouted at them to smoke out whoever had leaked it. It was the most upset some aides had ever seen the president," with Bender reporting Trump yelled, "Whoever did that, they should be charged with treason! They should be executed!"

Furious Trump demanded leaker who revealed he fled to his bunker during protests be executed: report - Alternet.org

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

- George Orwell

 

 

 

[FrostyWinnipeg]

 

[Tracker]

Watch: MSNBC produces stunning video exposing Trump's 'bonkers' lies about the Capitol riot

   
Fox News' Maria Bartiromo has been drawing a great deal of criticism for her Sunday, July 11 interview with former President Donald Trump, who described the January 6 insurrection as a "lovefest" comprised of "peaceful people." Bartiromo is being slammed as reckless and irresponsible for encouraging Trump to promote such nonsense on her show. But one cable news pundit who clearly isn't promoting that description of the January 6 attack is MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan, who aired graphic video showing that the Capitol insurrection was hardly a "lovefest."

An incredulous Hasan, on his Sunday-night show, tore Trump's comments to pieces, telling viewers, "Lovefest? I'm sorry, that's bonkers!"

Hasan then aired graphic January 6 images showing just how violent the assault on the U.S. Capitol Building was, while Trump is heard saying — on Bartiromo's show — "There was such love at that rally. And they were peaceful people. These were great people. The crowd was unbelievable, and I mentioned the word 'love.' The love in the air — I've never seen anything like it."

While images of the Capitol rioters attacking police officers aired on Hasan's show, Trump could be heard telling Bartiromo, "And frankly, the doors were open, but there was also a lovefest between the police — the Capitol Police — and the people that walked down to the Capitol. People who walked with no guns, with no nothing. And they're tremendous — in many cases, tremendous people."

The "tremendous people" Trump referred to on Bartiromo's show could be heard chanting, "Hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence." On January 6, some of the insurrectionists set up a hangman's gallows outside the U.S. Capitol Building, showing their intention to lynch the former vice president if they got ahold of him."

Watch: MSNBC produces stunning video exposing Trump's 'bonkers' lies about the Capitol riot - Alternet.org

[Tracker]

GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn tweets swastika to attack Black Lives Matter, deletes after criticism

Freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., tweeted a picture of neo-Nazis last week, only to delete it days later following criticism on Twitter. 

The controversy, first reported by The Asheville Citizen-Times, centers on a tweet Cawthorn posted on July 9 in an attack on Black Lives Matter members who claimed that flying the American flag is an expression of racism. 

"The American flag symbolizes unity, patriotism, independence, pride, and love for our country. BLM continues to expose their radical hatred of this country," Cawthorn wrote in response. Contained within his tweet, however, was a link to a New York Post article whose thumbnail featured neo-Nazis from the National Socialist Movement – a far-right white supremacist organization – marching on the ground of the Capitol building in 2008. 

GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn tweets swastika to attack Black Lives Matter, deletes after criticism | Salon.com

(Republicans have given up all pretense of not being Nazis)

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

39 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

 

Wait... Whaaaaaaat?

Whatintheactualfuck? 

GQP=Death Cult. 

 

You know- it's quite unreal when looked at in isolation... but once you put into the context of every other batshit crazy thing he GQP champions (Election Lies, Anti-science, destroying democracy and what ever the opposite of facts evidence are) you kind of shrug and say.. "yeah, that's on Brand".

 

You look at all this and say "why?" - aim is Cultural Division for political gain. Divide and Conquer to win power. It's really that simple. No amount of death and destruction is too much for political control.

[Tracker]

Federal Judge Dismisses Roy Moore Lawsuit Against Sacha Baron Cohen

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Roy Moore against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who ridiculed the former Alabama Chief Justice on his 2018 Showtime series “Who Is America?”

U.S. District Judge John Cronan of the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment in favor of the comedian and dismissed Moore’s suit with prejudice so it cannot be refiled, according to AL.com.

Showtime Networks Inc. and its parent company CBS Corporation were also granted summary judgment.  The failed Alabama Senate candidate filed the suit in September 2018, accusing the comedian of defaming him by calling him a pedophile and a sex offender. 

Moore also alleged fraud in the court filing on the grounds that Baron Cohen tricked him and his wife into flying to Washington to accept a nonexistent award for his support of Israel.

Moore, who lost a 2017 special election to Democrat Doug Jones after being accused of sexually assaulting multiple teenage girls, said Baron Cohen mocked him during the TV segment using a “device supposedly invented by the Israeli Army to detect pedophiles.”

Federal Judge Dismisses Roy Moore Lawsuit Against Sacha Baron Cohen | HuffPost

[the watcher]

8 hours ago, wanna-b-fanboy said:

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

- George Orwell

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

 

F ###  me. This is beyond comprehension.