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ck4829

ck4829's Journal
ck4829's Journal
March 20, 2022

When the Right praises "Daddy Putin", this is what they mean

This is what they want for America.

Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections?
0/4
Nope. "Constitutional amendments adopted in 2020 allow Putin, but not future presidents, to run for an additional two terms as president, potentially extending his rule to 2036. Like past elections, President Putin’s 2018 reelection campaign benefited from advantages including preferential media treatment, numerous abuses of incumbency, and procedural irregularities during the vote count. His most influential rival, Aleksey Navalny, was disqualified before the campaign began due to a politically motivated criminal conviction, creating what the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) called “a lack of genuine competition.” The funding sources for Putin’s campaign were also notably opaque."
Republicans need the electoral college to win.

Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections?
0/4
Nope. "the Kremlin, as usual, eliminated any serious opposition candidates before the election took place, and their candidates won all 18 governors’ races and 11 regional legislative elections. In the 22 regional capital city council elections, Navalny’s allies were able to win a few seats in Tomsk and Novosibirsk, preventing the Kremlin from maintaining its majorities and demonstrating Navalny’s influence even outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg."

Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies?
0/4
Nope. "Russia’s electoral system is designed to maintain the dominance of United Russia."

Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings?
1/4
Nope.
There are... parties besides United Russia, but don't ever expect United Russia to become the minority.

Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through elections?
0/4
Nope.
You will never see a party besides United Russia take the reins of power. It's part of the system.

Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government?
0/4
Nope.

Is there freedom for nongovernmental organizations, particularly those that are engaged in human rights– and governance-related work?
0/4
Nope.

Is there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies?
0/4
Nope.

Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population?
0/4
Nope.
No guarantee of equal treatment of segments of the population? Forget mere interest, right-wingers will ditch their spouses and the people they are having affairs with on their spouses, and want to put a ring on this concept!

www.freedomhouse.org/country/russia/freedom-world/2021


Brought to you by the No Trumps and No Flynns Club.
March 18, 2022

Saying "I am a moron" does not necessarily mean one is, in fact, a moron

More likely it means the person saying this made a mistake and feels pretty bad about making that mistake, it may also mean the person saying it has a lack of confidence in their own mental abilities and they may be not a moron at all, these two things are not mutually exclusive, and there may be other issues at play here as well.

Now, saying "I stand with Putin" on the other hand...

March 18, 2022

MTG COULD be out there saying "Why won't Joe Biden say 'Radical Russian Terrorist'? Huh? Huh? Huh?!"

And it would be right up her alley too, almost copying her messiah's work in 2016.

All you have to do is change one word...

I remember this being a big issue in 2016. I seem to remember there was even a small contingent here on DU saying it made Obama look weak, it made the Democrats look weak, and that it would hurt our chances in the election.

Here are some choice pieces from that time, and it wasn't backrooms chatter on 8chan or whatever mass shooter manifesto-posting place it's called now, no, it got in Obama's face, they put it in Hillary's face, and they made it an issue.

President Obama fielded some difficult questions on his role as Commander in Chief during a town hall hosted by CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday night.

At one point, Gold Star mother Tina Houchins asked President Obama why he refuses to use the term "radical Islamic terrorist" to describe the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations that have organized attacks against Americans.

"The truth of this matter is that this is an issue that has been sort of manufactured," Obama said.

Several political opponents, including Republican nominee Donald Trump, have criticized Obama for not using the term radical Islamic terrorism, and have said it indicates the president is soft on terrorism.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/09/28/obama-town-hall/91245328/


Here's Trump speech on it:
Yet, Hillary Clinton – for months and despite so many attacks – repeatedly refused to even say the words "radical Islam," until I challenged her yesterday to say the words or leave the race.

However, Hillary Clinton – who has been forced to say the words today after policies she supports have caused us so much damage – still has no clue what Radical Islam is, and won't speak honestly about what it is.

She is in total denial, and her continuing reluctance to ever name the enemy broadcasts weakness across the world.

In fact, just a few weeks before the San Bernardino slaughter, Hillary Clinton explained her refusal to say the words Radical Islam. Here is what she said: "Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people, and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism."

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-saint-anselm-college-manchester-new-hampshire-0


It didn’t take long for the massacre in Orlando to become politicized. Hours after the news broke on Sunday, President Obama addressed the nation and called the mass shooting “an act of terror.” He did not use the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism,” however, prompting Donald Trump to tweet that the president “should immediately resign in disgrace.”

On NBC’s Today show on Monday, Hillary Clinton took a different tack. Referring to the Orlando massacre, she said “…we face terrorist enemies who use Islam to justify slaughtering people. We have to stop them and we will. We have to defeat radical jihadist terrorism, and we will.” She added that “…radical jihadism, radical Islamism, I think they mean the same thing. I’m happy to say either, but that’s not the point.”

Simply using a phrase the president rejects made Clinton’s TV appearance a news item in Politico. And Donald Trump was thrilled, saying she “broke” after he criticized her for not using the term.

https://fortune.com/2016/06/13/obama-trump-clinton-radical-islamic-terrorism/


It's funny, "Radical Russian" is an alliteration. A person is more likely to remember something if it's alliteration. So that means voters will remember that.

So when Marjorie, Boebert, Mandel, Gosar, Trump, blah, blah, blah are out campaigning, tweeting, or attending Neo-Nazi conferences; they could totally be out there DEMANDING that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and other Democrats say "Radical Russian" or "Radical Russian Terrorist", and yet they're... not.

And it kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies. And now I can't un-think it, you know?

So what's going on?
March 18, 2022

Most Medical Debts to Be Removed From Consumers' Credit Reports

The biggest credit-reporting firms will strip tens of billions of dollars in medical debt from consumers’ credit reports, erasing a black mark that makes it harder for millions of Americans to borrow.

Equifax Inc., Experian, and TransUnion are making broad changes to how they report medical debt beginning this summer. The changes, which have been in the works for several months, will remove nearly 70% of medical debt in collections accounts from credit reports.

Beginning in July, the companies will remove medical debt that was paid after it was sent to collections. These debts can stick around on a consumer’s credit report for up to seven years, even if they are paid off. New unpaid medical debts won’t get added to credit reports for a full year after being sent to collections.

The firms are also planning to remove unpaid medical debts of less than $500 in the first half of next year. That threshold could rise, according to people familiar with the matter.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-medical-debts-to-be-removed-from-consumers-credit-reports-11647604803

Go down in the article, this is because of Biden's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Big stuff!

March 15, 2022

Russia's "stop list" has basically polonium-ed the idea that "both parties are the same"

2016 - Hillary Clinton (D) vs Donald Trump (R)

2020 - Joe Biden (D) vs Donald Trump (R)

But yet only two of the three people here were sanctioned by Russia today.

March 15, 2022

You can get some pretty cool scientific swag from Fisher Scientific

You can get tubes, test tubes, tubes designed for immunological assays, you got flasks, cell culture flasks, you can get some Erlenmeyer flasks, it's the place to get some beakers, if you want sera for some reason, vials, and you can get some histology stuff.

What's the point of this post?

Well you see, this is the amazing thing about ALL of these items... You can photograph them. You can make videos of them. You can hold them. You can look at the labels on them. You can compare them to other samples. You can even take a little bit out of them to do your own science stuff on them. And if nobody believes you, can hold it up to the world and say "Look at this! Look at it! It exists! It is real!"

Amazing, right?

Something more physical and substantial than "Dude trust me" or "Just take Russia's word for it about the biolabs" and isn't that amazing? Right, Tucker Carlson? Right, Tulsi Gabbard? Right, QAnon acolytes?

March 15, 2022

Can GoFundMe continue to safely operate in Texas, Idaho, Missouri, etc.?



According to the letter of the law in Texas, this anonymous donor just used GoFundMe to knowingly aid and abet a Texan woman's abortion.
March 13, 2022

Maybe it's time to declare Russia as suffering some sort of psychosis event. This is NOT normal



While Tetyana Vlasenko lay there seriously hurt, she recalls a Russian military officer saying, “I’m sorry for doing this but we have an order to shoot everything that is moving, and you cannot imagine how many cars like this we have full of Nazis who are trying to bomb us,” Tetyana, 42, told NBC News on Wednesday from her bed in Kyiv City Hospital 17.

Her husband, Roman, 50, and their daughter, Katherina, 16, were also hit in their legs.

The officer’s comments echoed President Vladimir Putin’s accusations of Nazi elements within Ukraine, his stated reason for invading Russia’s western neighbor. Experts have slammed the allegations as slanderous and false.

Tetyana, a former shop worker, said the Russian soldiers she encountered “truly believe that everyone around is a Nazi.” She added that the soldiers “were all terrified,” and she had spoken calmly with them prior to the shooting.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/don-t-know-survived-family-093014932.html


Take away some zeroes from the number of Russians in Ukraine right now, and you know what you have? You'd have a mass shooter screaming about "secret biolabs" that they can not substantiate and giving weird labels to everyone including 16-year-old girls, while they are shooting at unarmed men, women, and children, and what do we call that here? We don't call that war or terrorism, we call that "mental illness" when it happens here over and over again.

Just putting that out there.
March 11, 2022

Remember, if you're quoting an article and it features a conservative mentioning "tyranny", "woke",

"critical race theory", "liberalism", "freedom", "REAL America", "socialism", "Marxism", etc.

Be sure to include my handy dandy disclaimer...



For example:

Rep. Madison Cawthron (R-N.C.) broke from his party’s support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and told supporters the embattled leader is a “thug,” newly released footage of the remarks shows.

“Remember that Zelenskyy is a thug,” Cawthorn, 26, says in the clip obtained by North Carolina TV station WRAL on Thursday. “Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/madison-cawthorn-zelenskyy-thug_n_622a3c6de4b029615838316a



In addition to the disclaimer being true, doesn't it just complete the look?
March 10, 2022

Going Negative on Inflation. A magic cure for inflation is not coming, so time for Plan B

Voters are not going to want to hear "It'll all be over soon", "don't worry about it", "lalala, I can't hear you! Lalala!", etc.

If Republicans ran on that, they would get trounced. If that's going to be our strategy, we are going to get trounced.

So it's time to get dirty, get nasty, get low, and get downright filthy. Point the finger, blame people and institutions, accuse, and complain.

Talk about "Record Profits in the Time of Inflation" for example.

Or

"Marjorie Taylor Greene says serious social issues like school shootings are hoaxes, her ideas on how to combat inflation must be genius right? Or maybe if Republicans suddenly get all the power, they'll start saying all the inflation is also a hoax. Problem solved, right?"

Fight dirty or see McCarthy, Greene, Mandel, Boebert, Gosar, etc. in the Republican majority. And no, I'm not going to see these crackheads as legitimate.

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