Why Is Russian Focused on Killing Democracy ?

[bodysong]

Why Is Russian Focused on Killing Democracy ?

All around the world, the criminal enterprise that we call Russia,
is interfering with Democracy

Russia has been America's Nemesis, for a very long time.

Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe, and shouted ”We will bury you !”

I never expected that American citizens would pick up a shovel to
help the Russians to bury Democracy. Then, again, when the citizens
of China made their bid for Democracy, they did not expect Chinese
people to murder Chinese people.


Feckless Cunt, Individual #1 Goon

Trumpypants is the useful idiot, that has his own motives,
for actions that damage and weaken America, and betray everything
that keeps America strong and resistant to Russia's efforts to
undermine Democracy.

What has America lost, since November 8, 2016 ?


Kyle Griffin
Kyle Griffin Verified Account
@kylegriffin1

Trump promised to put 'American truckers first.'
Drivers say he hasn't delivered.

"I've seen an $8,000 increase in my taxes this year."
"Last year I owned 10 trucks, 10 trailers."
"This year I own one truck, one trailer because of all the taxation."

(link NBC news)

11:35 AM - 9 Jun 2019

Trump promised to put 'American truckers first.'
Drivers say he hasn't delivered
Republican-led changes to the tax law
have left some truckers feeling pinched.

NBC News NBC News @NBCNews

 

[bodysong]

Why All of Trump’s Deals Are Bad

- Jonathan Chait

I’ve been working up a brilliant moneymaking scheme.
My plan is to throw a bunch of wild accusations at my neighbors.

Whatever payoff I could jack out of them with crazy threats would simply
be a short- term monetization with long-term costs.

Donald Trump’s negotiating style as president is basically
the plan I just described writ large.

Of course, it also borrows heavily from the negotiating style
Trump used in his business career.

Much of the analysis of Trump’s deals is devoted to figuring out
which ones contain actual wins as opposed to face-saving retreats.

Trump manages to extract some value and the deals where
he backs down and gets nothing misses the broader point:
Properly accounted for, all the deals are losses.
Even when Trump “wins,” he is ignoring the invisible costs
on the opposing side of the ledger. The goodwill of American
allies is an extremely valuable asset, built up over generations,
that Trump is drawing down.

Trump doesn’t care in the slightest what happens to future
generations of Americans. Trump’s deals are designed with
the purpose of creating “wins” that he can tout as evidence
of his negotiating prowess. His goal is to extract value for
Donald Trump, and he is counting on the fact that nobody
will think very hard about who will pay the bill.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/why-all-of-trumps-deals-are-bad.html

 

[bodysong]

Trump tried to save face by claiming that Mexico
had caved into his tariff threats, so now he
doesn't have to do tariffs.

This was a lie, as was immediately exposed by the New York
Times, which reported that most of the concessions on immigration
control given by Mexican officials had been agreed to months earlier.

So why is our so-called president so wound up over an issue that most
people, even his bigotry-blinded followers, don't really care about?

Trump has grown accustomed to the Times elevating his propaganda
efforts, and was likely genuinely surprised and offended that they
didn't play along this time.

Trump is also furious because this entire incident illustrates that
he is not the super-genius he imagines himself to be — and is
constantly told he is by enablers like Miller or his former adviser
and white nationalist shill Steve Bannon.

Trump, of course, has no idea what tariffs actually do or who they
would actually impact, writing that "Mexico will begin paying tariffs"
when trying to defend his bizarre idea on Twitter. This is flatly false.
The tariffs are an American tax on imports, to be paid by Americans
who purchase goods coming over the border. This inability to understand
the basic mechanics of how tariffs work has been a persistent feature
of Trump's efforts to start trade wars around the world. It remains
apparently impervious to repeated efforts by his advisers and others
to explain to him that he can't actually levy taxes on the citizens of
China or Mexico, no matter how much he wishes he could, and that
his tariffs are in fact paid by American consumers.

All of which helps explain why, even after making a big deal out of
his false claim that Mexico buckled under his tariff threats, Trump is
still threatening to impose them anyway. This isn't about negotiations
or about the underlying issues, which Trump doesn't understand anyway.
It's about his tough-guy self-image, and how he wants to be seen as a
racist bully winning through threats and intimidation. Unfortunately,
many of Trump's voters and his propaganda troops at Fox News are
just as ignorant, or at least are willing to pretend they are. They love
the play-acting at being "tough," even though none of it makes any
sense.

https://www.salon.com/2019/06/10/trumps-tariff-tantrum-another-symptom-of-his-massive-ignorance/

 

[bodysong]

June 8, 2019

Websites of The Washington Post and the Guardian appear to now
be blocked in China as the country’s government further tightens
its so-called “Great Firewall” censorship apparatus as it navigates
a politically sensitive period.

Until this weekend, The Post and the Guardian were among the
last few major English-language outlets that were still regularly
accessible from mainland China without the use of virtual private
networking software, according to the censorship tracker -

Greatfire dot org

Outlets such as Bloomberg, the New York Times, Reuters
and the Wall Street Journal have been blocked for years.
So have social media services such as Facebook and Twitter
and all Google-owned services, including YouTube.
Other popular services such as Dropbox, Slack and
WhatsApp are also prohibited.

International business lobbies, media freedom groups
and Western government officials — including U.S.
trade negotiators — say the Great Firewall amounts
to not only a restriction on speech but also fair practice.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...e4fb76-8a56-11e9-b1a8-716c9f3332ce_story.html

 

[bodysong]

A hitman, to kill every agency that protects
everything that is good about America.

International conglomerate corporations have been
transformed into Demi-Gods.

Demi-Gods do not answer to mortals.

Raw Story Verified Account
@RawStory

Trump’s consumer protection chief ramps up efforts
to destroy the agency from within

(link)

10:20 AM - 11 Jun 2019

Trump’s consumer protection chief ramps up efforts
to destroy the agency from within — purges...

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney,
in his role as acting director of the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (CFPB), has fired all 25 members of
the watchdog group’s advisory board....

Raw Story Raw Story @RawStory

In his final days as EPA chief, Pruitt was seeking to
sign away the EPA’s right to veto certain projects t
hat cause major harm to the environment.

Proposed EPA budgets under Pruitt were draconian,
almost dystopian. Funding for toxic clean-ups –
supposedly a priority for Pruitt – was winnowed
away, money for the remediation of lead poisoning,
a looming issue in the wake of the water supply
disaster in Flint, Michigan, was slashed.
Every vestige of action, research or even mention
of climate change scrapped.

These cuts didn’t find support in Congress, where even
Pruitt’s staunchest supporters began to wobble as the
scandals mounted. Most Republicans shared Pruitt’s
view that the EPA had become overbearing and a
burden upon business – he repeatedly, erroneously
claimed “every puddle” in the US was regulated by
clean water rules – but lawmakers were too squeamish
about the deep cuts to basic environmental protection
put forward by the administrator.

“Scott Pruitt will go down in history as a disgrace
to the office of EPA administrator,” said Ken Cook,
president of the Environmental Working Group.
“He will forever be associated with extraordinary
ethical corruption,” he continued. .

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/05/scott-pruitt-epa-impact-on-environment-analysis

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler

Wheeler suddenly and highhandedly terminated the subcommittees
working to develop recommendations for the particulate standard,
as well as the standard for ozone pollution (which CASAC will review next).

The full weight of providing advice now falls solely on the seven
CASAC members. The science underlying particulate standards
is especially complex, and the scientific discipline of epidemiology
is central to understanding the health effects of both particulates
and ozone. But CASAC, for the first time in memory, lacks a
single epidemiologist.

Wheeler has appointed four state agency members to CASAC,
an unprecedented majority. All work for Republican governors.
The current chairman of CASAC is a consultant who also works
for industry clients.

Moreover, Wheeler promulgated a new rule that prohibits scientists
funded by the EPA from providing the agency with advice. While
the ostensible justification for this rule is to root out any pro-EPA
bias, the effect is to disqualify the best scientists from advising
the agency. Meanwhile, industry representatives and consultants —
including those from polluting industries with a clear interest in
lax standards — are welcome to provide advice.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html?noredirect=on