News bits: China’s cyberwar update; The GOP’s spinectomy; Dark free speech on the march

This is just a reminder. The brutal dictators who rule China wage a constant cyberwar against the US. The war will not end for decades, assuming it ever ends. The WaPo reported about recent attacks: 

China’s cyber army is invading critical U.S. services

The Chinese military is ramping up its ability to disrupt key American infrastructure, including power and water utilities as well as communications and transportation systems, according to U.S. officials and industry security officials.

Hackers affiliated with China’s People’s Liberation Army have burrowed into the computer systems of about two dozen critical entities over the past year, these experts said.

The intrusions are part of a broader effort to develop ways to sow panic and chaos or snarl logistics in the event of a U.S.-China conflict in the Pacific, they said.

Among the victims are a water utility in Hawaii, a major West Coast port and at least one oil and gas pipeline, people familiar with the incidents told The Washington Post. The hackers also attempted to break into the operator of Texas’s power grid, which operates independently from electrical systems in the rest of the country.

Several entities outside the United States, including electric utilities, also have been victimized by the hackers, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.  

The disclosures to The Post build on the annual threat assessment in February by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which warned that China “almost certainly is capable” of launching cyberattacks that would disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure, including oil and gas pipelines and rail systems.

So, while TARRRs (treasonous, authoritarian radical right Republicans) in congress piss precious time away with vicious stupidity like bitching about Biden and impeaching him for no particular reason, our enemies continue to gnaw away at democracy, truth and the American people. 

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 Senate TARRRs are undergoing a public spinectomy. This delicate medical operation to remove the GOP’s spine is nauseating but informative to see. The Hill reports:

Senate Republicans allied with former President Trump are stepping up calls for the rest of the GOP to rally around him as the party’s inevitable nominee for president and warn that fellow Republicans who hold back are giving aid and comfort to Joe Biden.

Trump’s commanding lead in the polls has strengthened his influence with Republicans in Congress, tilting political momentum on Capitol Hill in favor of demands for major border security reforms and away from funding the war in Ukraine.

GOP senators have softened their public skepticism about the push in the House to impeach Biden — which Trump has encouraged House lawmakers to pursue — and have largely stopped entertaining the hope that someone other than Trump may emerge as the victor in next year’s primary.

The failure of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) or former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.) to break through as the viable alternative to Trump in any of the four Republican presidential debates is prompting Trump’s Senate allies to now call for an early end to the race.

Since re-election for the TARRRs is more important than anything, one can reasonably expect the morally rotted cowards to fall in line and support DJT. They will pretend he is just another garden variety Republican patriot candidate instead. They will assiduously avoid any mention that he is an utterly corrupt fornicating liar and traitor. Here the vaunted and popular KYMS tactic will be enthusiastically employed, while the TARRRs maintain a high level self-righteous roar and howl over impeaching Biden and getting to the bottom of what is on Hunter’s laptop.

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CNN reports about self-professed dark free speech “absolutist”, bullshitter, liar and hypocrite Elon Musk ramping up efforts to increase the level of lies, slanders and crackpot conspiracy theories on his Xitter hellscape:

Elon Musk said the account of right-wing extremist Alex Jones would be reinstated on X, reversing a 2018 decision by the company’s previous management to deplatform the notorious conspiracy theorist after he repeatedly broke rules prohibiting harassment and hate.

On Saturday morning, Musk posted an unscientific poll to his account asking users of the platform if Jones should be reinstated. By Saturday evening when the poll closed, about 70% of nearly 2 million respondents had voted “yes.”

Early Sunday morning, Musk replied to the poll saying, “The people have spoken and so it shall be.” [bullshit]

Musk acknowledged Saturday that reinstating Jones would “be bad for X financially,” [liar] but he argued “principles matter more than money.” [? Bwaaahahahaha!! liar] Musk has sought to portray himself as a free speech absolutist, though he has taken action to curtail the speech of critics. [hypocrite]

Musk said last year that he would not lift the ban on Jones because of his false claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax. But in recent days, following an interview with Tucker Carlson — another extremist right-wing personality who was fired by Fox News earlier this year — there has been significant pressure aimed at Musk from Jones’ right-wing allies demanding his account be restored.

Musk’s flip-flop [shameless hypocrisy]

Musk said last November that he would not reinstate Jones’ account, even as he brought back other controversial figures. The billionaire explained his position at the time by citing Bible verses and his own personal experience losing his first child to sudden infant death syndrome.

“My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat,” Musk tweeted. “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”

[liar] [here Musk refers to what Jones said about the murdered children at Sandy Hook elementary school]

For context about Jones’ not-quite free speech filth (it was held to be illegal defamation in a lawsuit) that Jones spewed from his InfoWars hellscape that got him banned from the Xitter in the first place:

“One of the questions I really have to just get out of the way and I and you’re probably talking about this already before is the whole Sandy Hook thing,” Musk ask Jones. “So what exactly did you say and what is wrong with that situation?”

In response, Jones said that he was simply trying to cover the news of the mass shooting [liar], noting that he fell victim to a politically motivated judge [liar], noting former President Trump’s ongoing legal challenges in New York.

 
“And so suddenly I would wake up and there would be sometimes 100 articles or more a day, every major news channel saying that I was currently saying nobody died [truth] currently sending people to their houses, currently peeing on graves,” Jones added.

Jones also said that he had to give numerous apologies for his comments about Sandy Hook, claiming that he was just playing “devil’s advocate” [liar] and he did not believe the shooting was staged [liar].

.... I’m really just a guy [liar]…talk radio host. So I do that on the Internet. I just take calls and interview guests and that I play devil’s advocate,” [liar] Jones explained. “And if that hurt people’s feelings, I apologize [liar]. But I did not send people to your houses [liar]. I did not pee on graves [liar]. I don’t know any of the stuff that went on. [liar]”  

Jones received massive criticism and scrutiny for promoting conspiracy theories, including his one on Sandy Hook. He stated that the massacre, which left 20 children dead, was a so-called false flag event that was designed to shore up support for gun control.

It would be reassuring and nice to say that things can’t get worse in America. Unfortunately, things can get a hell of a lot worse. America has not yet come very close to hitting a rock bottom bigoted, kleptocratic tyranny built on lies, slanders, hate and racism. We're just at a point along the path to hell where the dark free speech filth like what Alex Jones spews in public is now publicly celebrated by  morally rotted, authoritarian radical right elites. Filth speech is now normalized and on an equal footing with respectful honest speech.  

Woof! That was fun and invigorating. 😊

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The right balance…

From an economic standpoint, when it comes to the type of government people want, they are generally of two different mindsets.  Here’s my subjective breakdown:

The Type 1 Mindset

They prefer a limited (small) government that stays out of ALL financial aspects of their lives (here in the U.S., often thought of as Republicans who resist all regulations, especially when big capitalistic personal profits hang in the balance).  Or…

The Type 2 Mindset

They prefer an overarching (big) government that oversees and coordinates the larger society’s financial business (often what has been called the “tax and spend Democrats”).  

And then you got your third and fourth groups:

The Type 3 Mindset

They have no real opinion.  The "Clueless."  They go with the flow, accepting whatever comes their way, no questions asked (“Hey, wake me up when it’s over. I haven’t got time for the pain and nonsense of politics.”). Or…

The Type 4 Mindset

They want some kind of combo-platter; a little of this and a little of that. For this type, whether to limit or broaden the government, depends on what’s at stake.  Menu-like, they will pick and choose, giving a thumbs up or thumbs down, based on categories such as national debt, budget, regulations, military, social safety nets, infrastructure and other societal improvements, etc. and etc.).  I'm guessing these types consider themselves the "Independents."

Of course, for drama, I overly simplify here. Like most everything in life, it’s much more complicated than I’m making it out to be. But, for conversation’s sake, humor me here. 😉

So finally, here’s the question: Generally speaking, what kind of grouping, category, that I’ve laid out above, do you more fit into?  Type 1, 2, 3, or 4?  Or are you a Type 5 (other)?

Explain yourself. 

News bits: An encouraging global warming poll; Romney’s irrelevance; Journalist's irrelevance; Etc.

 CNN reports about a poll it conducted:

CNN poll: Large majority of US adults and half of Republicans agree 

with Biden’s goal to slash climate pollution

Nearly two-thirds of US adults say they are worried about the threat of climate change in their communities, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. More than half are worried about the impact of extreme weather, as the climate crisis touches every region in the form of extreme heat, devastating storms and drought.

Even more want the federal government to do something about it. A broad majority of US adults – 73% – say the federal government should develop its climate policies with the goal of cutting the country’s planet-warming pollution in half by the end of the decade.

That’s good news.

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USA Today reports: 

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, threw cold water on House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, saying he does not “see any evidence” that the president's actions warrant his removal from office.

Romney, who has long criticized the GOP's direction, said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that House Republicans “ought to have some evidence” of wrongdoing before opening an impeachment inquiry.

House Republicans “ought to have some evidence” of wrongdoing? It’s a safe bet that those comments won't change many minds, if any.

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Business Insider reports: 

Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly said former President Donald Trump is not as “mentally sharp” as he once was.

“There's no question that Trump has lost a step or multiple steps,” Kelly told conservative commentator Glenn Beck on Friday. “He is confusing Joe Biden for Obama. I know he's now saying he intentionally did that — go back and look at the clips, it wasn't intentional.”

She noted that he is making mistakes “repeatedly,” including “confusing countries, confusing cities where he is.”

Making mistakes, confusing Biden for Obama? Although it is true, it’s a safe bet that won't change many minds, if any.

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A snippet from reddit law (r/law):

Elon Musk on suing Media Matters in every country that they operate, along with everyone who funds them, and two minutes later how freedom of speech is the bedrock of democracy

The peanut gallery had a couple of interesting observations:

1. It's almost as if he's some kind of hypocrite.
2. What the rich asshats really mean -“If we erode freedom of [my] speech....” 

3. Nothing says free speech like a good old lawsuit suing someone for exercising free speech.

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News bits: US-Israel policy; DJT's legal war update; Israel-Hamas poison update

The WaPo reports:

U.S. plans to sell more weapons to Israel 

after vetoing cease-fire resolution

The United States drew criticism from rights and aids groups for blocking a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, as well as the unconditional release of all hostages, on Friday. The resolution had near-unanimous support from member states. The State Department is selling $107 million of tank supplies to Israel and subverting congressional approval to do so.

Human Rights Watch said the United States was at risk of “complicity in war crimes,” and the Palestinian Authority’s president said the United States was responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinians. A U.S. envoy defended the veto, calling the resolution “divorced from reality” and noting that it did not condemn the Hamas attack. Israel’s ambassador, characterizing the resolution as “distorted,” praised the U.S.

The Biden administration has approved a $107 million sale of Army tank ammunition and equipment to Israel after invoking an emergency declaration that will bypass Congress’s typical review period for weapons sales.

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DJT continues to argue that the lawsuits against him are politically motivated, based on false allegations, DJT broke no law, the judges are totally biased against him and everyone ignore all the evidence of his obvious innocence. As he keeps publicly shooting his filthy, lying mouth off, his attitude is being spread, normalized and accepted by growing numbers of Americans. In my firm opinion, this is extremely dangerous and extremely damaging to the rule of law. From what I have seen so far, this is a point the MSM rarely raises. When it does come up, its importance and urgency are either misunderstood and/or downplayed for whatever reason(s) the MSM is failing us. ABC News reports about how extreme DJT's antics now are:

Judge denies defense's 4th request to end trial

The second day of testimony from the defense's expert accounting witness prompted an argument between attorneys for the two sides over the basic question of what the case is about -- leading defense lawyers to make their fourth unsuccessful request for a directed verdict to end the trial.

The arguments came toward the end of direct testimony by accounting expert defense Eli Bartov, who asserted the New York attorney general's case lacked merit because there was no evidence of any fraud on Trump's statements of financial condition, and that any errors about the values of Trump's properties were unintentional and therefore immaterial.

When the defense attempted to question Bartov about those values, state attorneys objected -- prompting defense attorney Christopher Kise to leap from his seat.

"If they don't call anyone to dispute our values, how have they proven their case?" Kise said.

Judge Arthur Engoron, in a pretrial ruling, already decided that Trump conducted a decade's worth of business using fraudulent financial statements, and state attorney Kevin Wallace suggested that Bartov's findings do not change those findings.

"You can't use false statements in business. That's what the summary judgment decision is all about. I think it is pretty much what the rest of this case is about," Engoron said in response to Kise's question.

Kise argued that if the attorney general doesn't prove what Trump's asset values should have been, the case is a "completely rudderless ship" that needs to be "moored to some sort of standard."

"You can't just say it's a misstatement because you feel like it," Kise argued.

"The standard is truth," Engoron responded.  

The exchange prompted Trump's legal spokesperson, Alina Habba, to make the defense's fourth motion for a directed verdict, arguing that Engoron is "wasting our time" if he won't consider their expert testimony.

"They have not proven their case. They haven't," Habba said in her request for a directed verdict.

"Denied," Engoron said within seconds of the request, without hearing a response from lawyers for the New York attorney general.

DJT's supporters are absorbing his lies and coming to believe they are truths. This is like the stolen 2020 election propaganda tactic all over again. Just keep repeating the lies and denying the evidence, and eventually significant public opinion will shift in the liar’s favor.

If one considers this carefully, one can see a serious weakness inherent in the law. All a defendant has to do in court is find a witness who will lie and then use that false testimony to undermine the entire legal system. This is what DJT is doing right now. There is no shame or morality in it. This is pure politics intended to poison and rot society and then use that fertile poisoned ground to rot and kill democracy and the rule of law. 

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The NYT reports about Israel’s use of Hamas and a bad miscalculation about how much control Israel had over it:

‘Buying Quiet’: Inside the Israeli Plan That Propped Up Hamas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gambled that a strong Hamas (but not too strong) would keep the peace and reduce pressure for a Palestinian state

For years, the Qatari government had been sending millions of dollars a month into the Gaza Strip — money that helped prop up the Hamas government there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel not only tolerated those payments, he had encouraged them.

During his meetings in September with the Qatari officials, according to several people familiar with the secret discussions, the Mossad chief, David Barnea, was asked a question that had not been on the agenda: Did Israel want the payments to continue?

Mr. Netanyahu’s government had recently decided to continue the policy, so Mr. Barnea said yes. The Israeli government still welcomed the money from Doha.

Allowing the payments — billions of dollars over roughly a decade — was a gamble by Mr. Netanyahu that a steady flow of money would maintain peace in Gaza, the eventual launching point of the Oct. 7 attacks, and keep Hamas focused on governing, not fighting.

The Qatari payments, while ostensibly a secret, have been widely known and discussed in the Israeli news media for years. Mr. Netanyahu’s critics disparage them as part of a strategy of “buying quiet,” and the policy is in the middle of a ruthless reassessment following the attacks. Mr. Netanyahu has lashed back at that criticism, calling the suggestion that he tried to empower Hamas “ridiculous.”  

In interviews with more than two dozen current and former Israeli, American and Qatari officials, and officials from other Middle Eastern governments, The New York Times unearthed new details about the origins of the policy, the controversies that erupted inside the Israeli government and the lengths that Mr. Netanyahu went to in order to shield the Qataris from criticism and keep the money flowing.  

Even as the Israeli military obtained battle plans for a Hamas invasion and analysts observed significant terrorism exercises just over the border in Gaza, the payments continued. For years, Israeli intelligence officers even escorted a Qatari official into Gaza, where he doled out money from suitcases filled with millions of dollars.

What is ridiculous here is Netanyahu’s denial that he and his Israeli government propped up Hamas for years. His denial is an outrageous insult. Again, when authoritarians are up against inconvenient facts, truths and reasoning, their go-to tactic is to shamelessly lie, deny, deflect and distract. Dictators like Netanyahu will do and say anything to avoid accountability for their bad or illegal behavior, corruption, and/or embarrassments. That's just like the dictator DJT in America today.

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The redneck Christmas parade

 

Crowds at a ‘redneck Christmas parade’ come up with one solution for their troubles: Trump

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/08/politics/louisiana-red-neck-christmas-parade-trump/index.html

West Monroe, Louisiana

CNN

 — 

Bryan Baker stuck a roll of toilet paper on a paint roller that he’d attached to a leaf blower, and switched the leaf blower on. A stream of white paper shot into the air and fluttered delicately to the ground. It was Baker’s twist on a tradition of the Bawcomville Redneck Christmas Parade, where marchers throw toilet paper – as well as toothbrushes, ramen noodles, beads, and candy – at spectators along the road in West Monroe, Louisiana.

The parade route went past people living in an RV and a tent, abandoned stores, a pawn shop, and a couple Dollar Generals. More than 30% of Bawcomville residents live below the poverty line, and the surrounding Ouachita Parish was deemed a persistent poverty county in a 2022 report by the Congressional Research Service. A 2015 documentary called “The Other Side,” which follows a man addicted to meth, was filmed in Bawcomville. The area is well-known locally as a poor community in need of better housing, and there’s a derogatory definition of a resident on Urban Dictionary (“characterized by having at least two broke-down vehicles on their front lawn…”).

West Monroe residents told CNN the economic strife they see every day affects how they plan to vote next year.

Jane Temple said she couldn’t wait for the general election for Trump to get back in and fix the economy. “We’re counting on him,” she said. “I think he cares. I may be wrong, but I think he does.” She said Trump wasn’t perfect but added, “For the most part, when he was in office, even with everything going on, he accomplished a lot.” As for Biden, Temple said: “I don’t think that he has a clue.”

William Thompson owns a convenience store in the area. Working there, he’d seen a lot of people struggle with meth and fentanyl. “I blame Biden for that, too,” he said. Given the chance, he will be voting for Trump in 2024, he said, “because he’s the only president in my knowledge who’s given back to the people and helps the people.”

“If he’s in jail, I’d vote for him,” Thompson said.

Christian nationalist agenda and tactics of deceit

National Association of Christian Lawmakers

MSNBC reports:

At the Museum of the Bible on Tuesday night, just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol, House Speaker Mike Johnson evaded scrutiny by reporters. He was there to receive the American Patriot Award for Christian Honor and Courage at a gala hosted by the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, a small Christian nationalist nonprofit group based in Conway, Arkansas. While reporters were allowed to watch other portions of the gala, they were not permitted to watch Johnson’s keynote.

Or so Johnson thought. According to Rolling Stone magazine, the speaker was “perhaps unaware that the event was being recorded for the NACL Facebook page.” The video is no longer available, but Rolling Stone reports that Johnson thanked the organization for not letting journalists in. “I’ll tell you a secret,” he said, “since media is not here.” God had spoken to him throughout Republicans’ weekslong effort to find a new Speaker, Johnson said. Eventually, God revealed to Johnson that he would be a Moses-like figure leading the GOP and the country through a “Red Sea moment.”

The attempt to hide these remarks from the public came the same week that Johnson announced that, in releasing security footage of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Republicans would blur out the faces of rioters “because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ.” He is clearly telling Americans that he and his extremist friends want to carry out their assault on our Constitution in secret and without accountability.

At the NACL, Johnson knew he had a receptive audience. The group’s founder and president, Jason Rapert, a former Arkansas state senator, recently fretted to a reporter that “with all the troubles facing our country, with Democrats and leftists that are advocating cutting penises off of little boys and breasts off of little girls, we have reached a level of debauchery and immorality that is at biblical proportions.” He has called LGBTQ people a “cult” that promotes “unholiness, unrighteousness and immorality in our nation.” He has expressed hope that in 2024, Americans “will re-elect Jesus to be on the throne here again in our country.” Rapert believes fetuses have constitutional rights, and that abortion is worse than slavery and the Holocaust. As a state senator, he sought to amend the U.S. Constitution to obliterate the rights of LGBTQ people through a statement that marriage “is between a man and a woman.”

To most Americans, these views are extreme. In Johnson’s world, they are unremarkable. They are at the core of the “biblical worldview” that he and Rapert share as the singular lodestar of American government.

A keynote speech by the speaker of the House is a huge get for the NACL. Relative to other Christian nationalist organizations, the NACL, founded in 2019, is new and small potatoes. One might think that the speaker, who is trying to keep the truculent GOP caucus together as they resist even basic functions of governing, might have more pressing matters on his plate. But Johnson’s top priority, above all else, is holding the sprawling army of Christian nationalist agitators — from his friends inside the Beltway to every corner of red America — in a tight embrace. And the NACL will exponentially increase its exposure through Johnson, who in his short time as speaker has done much to raise public awareness about the wide-ranging network of Christian nationalist organizations, radio programs, books and conferences that most people outside of his insular evangelical world have never heard of.

At this point, the goals and tactics that ARRCN (authoritarian radical right Christian nationalist) elites routinely employ are clear and undeniable. Like global warming and the human role in it, there is no rational basis left for denial.

• The elites who drive the ARRCN wealth and power movement ruthlessly deceives, lies and slanders using unwarranted opacity, omission of facts, faux history and other outright lies to minimize the fact that what theocratic ARRCN elites want is unpopular with most Americans, amounting to a heartless, bigoted, profoundly corrupt minority running some form of a theocratic-plutocratic dictatorship.

• The elites intend to (i) force all Americans to life by Christian Sharia laws that allow open discrimination against groups that God deems unworthy, and (ii) obliterate tolerant secularism and replace our secular Constitution with a deeply kleptocratic Christian Sharia version of the Constitution, thereby forcing the US back to a modern version of a theocratic-plutocratic Dark Ages dictatorship. 

For ARRCN elites, the Biblical commandment to not lie is simply null and void.

NACL elites praying for the fall of democracy and the rise of 

intolerant, kleptocratic theocracy under Christian Sharia law

Hm. Some NACL elites doing the Nazi salute??

Or is that a Christian God tribute thing?