News bits

Russia demands desatanization of Ukraine

Russian propagandists are learning fast from American Christian nationalist propaganda techniques and creative QAnon style crackpottery. Ukrainska Pravda writes:

Russia's Security Council claims there are "hundreds of sects" in Ukraine

and demands "desatanisation"

Aleksey Pavlov, assistant secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, has said that Ukraine should be "desatanised".

Details: Pavlov claims that Ukraine has turned into a "totalitarian hypersect" where citizens have abandoned Orthodox values, and therefore "desatanisation" is becoming an urgent issue. Pavlov admits that the exact number of sects in Ukraine is unknown, but "the number is in the hundreds."

Quote: "Using internet-based manipulations and psychotechnology, the new government [formed after 2014 - ed.] has turned Ukraine from a state into a totalitarian hypersect. Moreover, the authorities in Kyiv were the first to turn into militant fanatics whose views are directly opposite to those of normal people.

Not disclosed, is what "internet-based manipulations" and "psychotechnology" are. One European observer of this Russian intelligence mused out loud in the comments section of a reposted version of this article, I wonder what desatanized means from a metrics viewpoint? One commenter hypothesized, from what I have seen from the Russians, it means you invade a country with a Jewish president and bomb the holocaust memorial. . . . . They appear to be going full Ghandi on this.

Dissident Politics will be keeping a close eye on how Russia's desatanization pogrom is going and make discreet inquiries into what internet-based manipulations, psychotechnology and a totalitarian hypersect might be.

Disclaimer: I think the quoted reporting is not sarcasm or humor. The site it comes from is credible and has a good fact accuracy rating.

From the well duh files: Pledged climate change efforts are failing

The NYT writes:

Countries around the world are failing to live up to their commitments to fight climate change, pointing Earth toward a future marked by more intense flooding, wildfires, drought, heat waves and species extinction, according to a report issued Wednesday by the United Nations.

Just 26 of 193 countries that agreed last year to step up their climate actions have followed through with more ambitious plans. The world’s top two polluters, China and the United States, have taken some action but have not pledged more this year, and climate negotiations between the two have been frozen for months.

Without drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the report said, the planet is on track to warm by an average of 2.1 to 2.9 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels, by 2100.

All indicators remain the same: Party hardy (formerly party hearty) while the lights are still on.

From the advances in dirty tricks files

The NYT writes:

Two right-wing political operatives have pleaded guilty in Ohio to a telecommunications fraud charge for arranging thousands of robocalls that falsely claimed that the information voters included with mail ballots could be used by law enforcement and debt collectors, prosecutors said.

The operatives, Jacob Wohl, 24, of Los Angeles, and Jack Burkman, 56, of Arlington, Va., entered their pleas on Monday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Cleveland, prosecutors said.

The men were indicted in 2020 after they were accused of using the robocalls to intimidate residents in minority neighborhoods to refrain from voting by mail at a time when many voters were reluctant to cast ballots in person because of the coronavirus pandemic. The calls also claimed that the government could use mail-in voting information to track people for mandatory vaccination programs, prosecutors said.  

They face up to a year in prison and a fine of $2,500 when they are sentenced on Nov. 29, he said.

Up to a year and up to a $2,500 fine? Pffft! They will probably get probation for a couple of months and a $50 fine for being just playful, but naughty boys. 

Accumulating evidence continues to point to voter fraud efforts being committed by Republicans, not Democrats. Republican claims of serious vote fraud are just projections of what they desperately want to do themselves, i.e., cheat and steal elections. Just more shameless hypocrisy.

Racketeering Catholic church style 

The NYT writes:

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo has agreed to submit to sweeping government oversight of its operations in a legal settlement reached on Tuesday with the New York attorney general, Letitia James, resolving a lawsuit that accused the church and its officials of a yearslong cover-up of sexual abuse.

Those monitors will be overseen by Kathleen McChesney, a former high-ranking F.B.I. official who also led the child protection office at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. As part of the settlement, two former Buffalo bishops, Richard Malone and Edward Grosz, will also be banned for life from holding any fiduciary role in a charity registered in New York.

According to the suit, the two former bishops shielded more than two dozen accused priests from investigation by the Vatican, and allowed them to either retire or go on medical leave.  

Instead of following church policy and referring the accused priests to a Vatican investigation that might result in their expulsion from the priesthood, the bishops classified the men as “unassignable,” a category that allowed them to retire with benefits or go on medical leave.

That kept the priests on the diocesan balance sheet, which prosecutors said constituted a misuse of charitable funds and an abrogation of fiduciary duty.

Us dumb taxpayers. We are forced by law to support the criminal Catholic church organization with massive tax breaks. And this is how the arrogant, criminal Catholic church shows its gratitude for what it is generously given. As the ex-president might say, while praising Catholic racketeering operations and for its stand against, and abuse of, the rule of law, taxpayers are suckers and losers. He would be right about that.