Trump’s* Boss Hacked Burisma

Posted by TomCat at 8:50 am Politics

Jan 142020

Not long ago, Impeached Resident Donald Trump*, Fuhrer of the Republican Reich, withheld the Congressionally mandated military aid to Ukraine, and blackmailed Ukrainian President Zelensky to find or manufacture dirt on Joe Biden, arising from his son’s questionable employment at Burisma. Burisma is the Ukrainian gas company and was notorious for corruption when Hunter was there. But Trump* and his Reich handled the crime with such extreme incompetence, that they accomplished only Trump’s impeachment to become Trump*. Still needing dirt on the Biden’s, the Republican Reich has called in Trump’s* boss to do the job right, Vladimir Putin [R-RU].

With President Trump facing an impeachment trial over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden, Russian military hackers have been boring into the Ukrainian gas company at the center of the affair, according to security experts.

The hacking attempts against Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company on whose board Hunter Biden served, began in early November, as talk of the Bidens, Ukraine and impeachment was dominating the news in the United States.

It is not yet clear what the hackers found, or precisely what they were searching for. But the experts say the timing and scale of the attacks suggest that the Russians could be searching for potentially embarrassing material on the Bidens — the same kind of information that Mr. Trump wanted from Ukraine when he pressed for an investigation of the Bidens and Burisma, setting off a chain of events that led to his impeachment.

The Russian tactics are strikingly similar to what American intelligence agencies say was Russia’s hacking of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential campaign. In that case, once they had the emails, the Russians used trolls to spread and spin the material, and built an echo chamber to widen its effect… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Russia is trying to steal another election for Putin’s Pet Pervert, but exactly what are they up to? Both Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell have coverage:

Rep. Adam Schiff: NYT New Russian Hacking Report ‘Deeply Disturbing’

Fmr. FBI Official: ‘This Is A Full-On Attack On Our 2020 Election’

Here are the possibilities I see:

Russia is fishing for dirt, because they think Biden would beat their puppet, Trump*.
Russia thinks Trump* can beat Biden, and think their investigation will make Biden more likely to win.
Russia is just trying to create chaos an confusion to frustrate American voters and turn them off to the process.
Russia want’s Biden to win the nomination and found dirt on Joe and Hunter to spring as an October surprise.

The last choice worries me most, but I do have a suggestion. Joe and Hunter should both volunteer to testify at Trump’s* impeachment trial to show they have nothing to hide. On the other hand, if there is something to hide, Joe should drop-out now for the sake of the nation.

RESIST!!

Samantha Bee: Make Voting Fair Again

Posted by TomCat at 9:04 am Politics

Jan 092020

The Republican Reich is an ever shrinking minority party. They get votes from the voters they represent: billionaires, Corporate Criminals, racists, religious bigots, homophobes, misogynists, fascists, deplorables, white supremacists, and every kind of hate monger I forgot to list. They also get votes from people they do NOT represent but hoodwink into thinking they do. More and more are seeing through their lies. That leaves their party with two choices: they can steal elections, or they can lose elections.

These have not been good times for Democrats wanting a fair shot at representation. The Supreme Court’s 2012 decision to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act was the beginning of a series of rulings rubber-stamping just about every tactic the Republican Party has come up with in its comprehensive war on voting rights, which includes everything from voter ID laws to voter purges to making registering voters all but illegal to partisan gerrymandering.

So when Democrats get any kind of victory in this ongoing battle, as they just did on Tuesday [article from 9/4/2019], it’s a remarkable development. And it shows one path for them to overcome a Supreme Court that is determined to make sure Republicans can continue to rig elections in their favor:…

…Proving the effect of partisan maps, it should be noted, is precisely what the Supreme Court said was impossible to do when it ruled two months ago that the federal courts have no business even trying to judge whether any gerrymander is too partisan, no matter how much it discriminates against voters from one party… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

Samantha Bee knows!

Full Frontal Rewind: Make Voting Fair Again

I love the way she makes painful truths funny!

There are two other problems that need attention:

First, the Electoral College gives unfair advantage in Presidential elections to rural states with low populations. A voter in Wyoming gets three times the electoral representation that one in California does. But to ratify a Constitutional Amendment to fix it, would require the support of those states that gain unfair advantage from it. The solution is a National Popular Vote.

Second, the plurality takes all voting system makes it virtually impossible for independent and third party candidates to get votes without helping the major candidate with the opposite ideology. For example, Republicans have volunteered for and financed Green Party Presidential candidates (Nader and Stein) on two separate occasions, so that the Democratic Candidate lost enough support in key swing states to allow GW Bush and Trump to steal the White House. The solution is Ranked Choice Voting. It allows people to vote their conscience, and vote strategically too.

RESIST!!

Open Thread – 1/4/2020

Posted by TomCat at 7:58 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Jan 042020

It’s a tired Saturday here in the CatBox. I had a kink in my back last night that was so severe, that I finally gave up at around 2:00 AM and took an Oxycodone. The Republican war to retain power still dominates the news, and since I covered that yesterday, this is my only article today. Today and tomorrow are Holy Days in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, the Festival of Cards Gone Wild. Good luck, Pat! Tomorrow is also a WWWendy day to de-stink the rancid TomCat. We have lots of chores to do do, so please expect no more than a Personal Update from me. Have a peaceful weekend.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:03 (average 5:11). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Short Takes:

From Crooks and Liars: The reasons that Donald Trump would need a massive distraction at this point are numerous. Every day seems to produce fresh evidence that the White House was fully aware that Trump’s delay of military assistance to Ukraine was simply against the law, and that multiple officials engaged in a criminal conspiracy to cover up for Trump and retroactively create an excuse for an inexcusable act. Somewhere right now, Mitch McConnell is probably drafting a statement claiming that the Senate could not possibly consider an impeachment trial “during a time of war.”

But onto that stack of dog-wagging rationales add this one: According to Forensic News, Trump’s loans from Deutsche Bank were underwritten by a Russian state-owned bank. That news reportedly comes from a whistleblower with access to documents from both Deutsche Bank and Russia’s state-owned VTB Bank. VTB Bank was also the proposed lender on the never-completed Trump Tower Moscow project.

The question of why Deutsche Bank would extend a series of huge loans to Trump has been dangling since before he ever announced his candidacy for president on a golden escalator ride. When Trump first went to Deutsche Bank, he was worse than broke. He had just finished bankrupting multiple casinos in New Jersey, and then had convinced investors to back a takeover of those casinos at a fraction of the original value. Then Trump deliberately allowed the investment group to go bankrupt so he could grab the whole deal himself at a fraction of what his investors had paid. Then he went bankrupt. Again. And along the way he was socked with a massive fine for money laundering at his now bankrupt (again) casino.

Trump was so fiscally radioactive that no American bank would let him in the door. But Deutsche Bank turned around and gifted Trump with loans that gave him a fresh start and an apparently miracle turnaround of his New York real estate empire. Those loans have always been the subject of head-scratching over just what Deutsche Bank could have been thinking. But if Forensic News is right, what Deutsche Bank was thinking was that it wasn’t risking a damn thing, because the Russian government was actually vouching for Trump through VTB Bank. If Trump didn’t come through, Vladimir Putin was offering to make it good.

As I have said for over a year, Trump* is Putin’s Pet Pervert! RESIST!!

From YouTube (CNN Channel): Erin Burnett calls Trump’s 2011 video about Obama and Iran ‘unbelievable’

Is that projection or what? To be fair, if the Reich can show evidence that the “immanent threat” they claim is real, and that assassinating a leader of one sovereign nation in the territory of another sovereign nation can ameliorate that threat, I’ll be the first to say I am wrong. In the interim, the Republican track record for lying us into three wars, and the Trump* track record for lying about virtually everything, demand disbelief of every claim they make without proof. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): The Doors – Riders on the Storm (Official Audio)

I can’t stand the words to this song, but the music is incredible. Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

It’s Not Just the South

Posted by TomCat at 9:03 am Politics

Dec 242019

The Republican Party has little to offer in programs and policies. Therefor, in all but the most brain-dead areas, they would lose any fair election. As a result, Republicans have become expert at preventing fair elections, and it’s not just in the South.

Democrats in a key battleground state have a plan to use state open records laws to fight back against Republican voter suppression.

“Last week in Wisconsin a county judge sided with a conservative legal group in a lawsuit that will remove more than 200,000 voters from that state’s voter rolls,” Velshi noted.

“Democrats for their part are doing everything they can to push back against these Republican efforts,” he reported. “In Wisconsin, the state Democratic Party plans to use the open records law to find the names of everyone who’s been purged and then work to re-enroll likely Democratic voters.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Raw Story>

Ali Velshi has more.

Democrats Strategize Against Renewed GOP Vote Suppression Efforts

Kudos to Wisconsin Democrats. As a response to Republican harassment, bullying, and intimidation, they are working hard to meet voters at the point of their need!

RESIST!!

Voting Rights is Dead until 2021

Posted by TomCat at 9:27 am Politics

Dec 072019

I’m pleased that House Democrats, aided by a single,solitary Republican, passed the Voting Rights Enhancement Act. It updates the Voting Rights Act to restore it to its former state, before SCROTUS (Republican Anti-Constitutional VD) allowed the Republican Party to disenfranchise millions of Black, Latino, and other minority voters

On Friday, House Democrats passed the Voting Rights Advancement Act, a bill that would restore and expand the protections of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court’s Republican majority gutted in 2013. The bill passed 228-187 with all 227 Democrats and Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick voting in favor while the other 186 Republicans and Republican-turned-independent Rep. Justin Amash voted against the bill.

The new legislation would establish a new formula to determine which states and localities must “preclear” any proposed changes to election laws and procedures with the Justice Department. The previous preclearance regime, which was struck down in 2013, applied to states and localities—largely in the South—with a history of racial discrimination in their voting laws.

Under the new setup, any state where officials have committed at least 15 voting rights violations over a 25-year period would be required to obtain preclearance for 10 years. If the state itself, rather than localities within the state, is responsible for the violations, it would take only 10 violations to place it under preclearance. In addition, any particular locality could individually be subjected to preclearance if it commits at least three violations.

Based on this formula, the VRAA would put 11 states back under preclearance: Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. While most of these states are still in the South (and also under Republican control), the list also includes the two largest Democratic-leaning states in the country, California and New York…

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

Note that the bill is fair, as it targets areas where there has been some Democratic abuse, in addition to all the areas of extreme Republican abuse today.

Trump immediately threatened to veto it.

Trump WH Threatens To Veto Restored Voting Rights Act

Trump will never get the chance to veto it. Bought Butch Moscow Mitch knows that Republicans cannot win fair elections, so they have to make sure there are no more.

In 2020, we need to keep the House, win the White House, win the Senate, and nuke the Filibastards to make this law!

RESIST!!

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