“Back to the Future”: Great Movie Series as Trump Tries to Make It Happen Now

 

Two Major Post Topics

(1st: Gen. Milley & others may be Court-Martialed)

 Afghanistan Fiasco August 26-30, 2021  

(2nd: Afghans trying to flee anyway possible)

Shocking story from NBC News with this sick and unprecedented headline:

“Trump transition team compiling list of current and former U.S. military officers for possible courts-martial”

Trump wants to nail all the officers involved in the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, even though independent reviews have blamed both Trump and Biden while GOP only blames Biden.

The Trump transition team is compiling a list of senior current and former U.S. military officers who were directly involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and exploring whether they could be court-martialed for their involvement, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plan. 

Officials working on the Trump transition are considering creating a commission to investigate the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, including: (1) gathering information about who was directly involved in the decision-making for the military, (2) how it was carried out, and (3) whether the military leaders could be eligible for charges as serious as treason, the U.S. official and person with knowledge of the plan said the person with knowledge of the plan said and added: “They’re taking it very seriously.”

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Matt Flynn, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for counter-narcotics and global threats, is helping lead the effort, the sources said. It is being framed as a review of how the U.S. first got into the war in Afghanistan and how the U.S. ultimately withdrew.

Trump has condemned the withdrawal as: “A humiliation and the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.” 

BELOW ARE THE FACTS AND HISTORICAL TIMELINE VIS-À-VIS THE ORIGINAL TRUMP DEAL AND THE REASON BIDEN CHANGED IT BASED ON KEY RESEARCH.

Below clearly stated is the rational reason early on about the chaos during the Afghanistan pullout – that shortly thereafter, and how and why President Biden got it on track … think of the details below explained in common sense and logical rational military thinking reported on here from the SLATE story with this headline (excellent report by Fred Kaplan. My key emphasis are noted in RED) the subject:

“We Now Know Why Biden Was in a Hurry to Exit Afghanistan”

The GOP does not want to talk about this part of the that moment in September 28, 2021 Senate hearing on the withdrawal from Afghanistan when it became clear why President Joe Biden decided to get the troops out of there as quickly as possible.

That moment came when General Mark Milley, Chairman of the JCS, explained why he and the other Service Chiefs all agreed that we needed to pull out by August 31 – based on the Doha agreement, which former President Trump had signed with the Taliban in early 2020, which had NO participation by the Afghan government, and which required a total withdrawal of all foreign forces.

Milley testified that if U.S. troops had stayed beyond August, then the Taliban would have resumed the fighting and, in order to stave off the attacks adding: “We would have needed 30,000 troops and would have suffered many casualties.”

Milley also testified that he, all the Joint Chiefs, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and other officers had all advised President Joe Biden to keep 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the August 31 deadline.

Milley added that the difference would be: “That those remaining troops wouldn’t be attached to or given any military mission, instead they would transition to a diplomatic mission. It was extremely unlikely that the Taliban would have observed the semantic distinction.”

In the Taliban’s eyes, the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops would be seen as 2,500 U.S. troops, regardless of their “diplomatic or military label.”

The fighting would have been fierce.

Milley said the Taliban would resume more fighting, as Milley said they would, and Biden would then have been faced with two horrendous choices: “(1) To pull out while under attack, or (2) Send in another 30,000 American troops.”

Some historical-psychological perspective is worth noting. In the first nine months of Barack Obama’s presidency, the generals were pushing for a major escalation of the war in Afghanistan — an increase of 40,000 troops — and a shift to a counterinsurgency (AKA: “Nation-building” strategy).

Biden, who was then vice president, was alone in suggesting an increase of just 10,000 troops, to be used solely for training the Afghan army and for fighting terrorists along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

As Obama recalls in his memoir, Biden urged the new and relatively inexperienced president not to be “boxed in by the generals” saying in essence: “Give them 40,000 troops now, and in 18 months, they’ll say they need another 40,000 to win the war.”

Mr. Obama later acknowledged that Joe Biden was right.

Likewise, as Gen. Milley was advising President Biden to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, even while acknowledging that another 30,000 might be needed if the Taliban resumed fighting.

It’s easy to imagine President Biden’s thinking: “They’re trying to box me in, just like they did before, just like they’ve always done since the Vietnam War,” (which BTW was raging when Biden first entered the Senate in 1973 and has shaped his views on war and peace ever since).

THE NBC NEWS STORY NOW CONTINUES:

It is not clear, though, what would legally justify “treason” charges since the military officers were following the orders of President Joe Biden to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan. 

Further, the 2022 independent review by the Special IG (Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) blamed both the Trump and Biden administrations for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in 2021.

More Historical Facts: Trump first reached an agreement with the Taliban in 2020 to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan, roughly 13,000 troops, and release 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison. 

The Biden administration then completed the withdrawal and badly overestimated the ability of Afghan government forces to fight the Taliban on their own.

Now, Trump’s choice for Defense Secretary is FOX News personality Pete Hegseth, who has criticized the withdrawal, saying the U.S. lost the war and wasted billions of dollars.

Hegseth wrote in his book: The War on Warriors the following: “The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired. The debacle in Afghanistan, of course, is the most glaring example.” 

Hegseth goes on to call the withdrawal a “humiliating retreat” and says leaders at the Pentagon were not held accountable for the deadly attack at Abbey Gate, which killed 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians. Nor were they held accountable for a subsequent U.S. airstrike in Kabul that officials thought would kill the Islamic State group leader behind the suicide attack but instead killed 10 innocent Afghans, including seven children.

Hegseth continued: “These generals lied. They mismanaged. They violated their oath. They failed. They disgraced our troops, and our nation. They got people killed, unnecessarily. And, to this moment, they keep their jobs. Worse, they continue to actively erode our military and its values — by capitulating to civilians with radical agendas. They are an embarrassment, with stars still on their shoulders.”

The transition team is looking at the possibility of recalling several commanders to active duty for possible charges. It’s not clear the Trump administration would pursue treason charges, and instead could focus on lesser charges that highlight the officer’s involvement.

Speaking to NBC News days before the 2024 election, Howard Lutnick, one of the two advisers leading the transition, said: “Trump learned after his first administration that he had hired Democratic generals, and he would not make that mistake again.”

Former officials who worked in Trump’s first administration have said they advised Trump against policies they thought would weaken U.S. national security, such as withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria.

They also advised him against actions that they thought might violate the Constitution or inflame tensions domestically, such as deploying active-duty U.S. troops to quell protests after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.

My 2 Cents: The Trump nominees thus far and now this one in particular ups the ante on insanity even more so just like this quote often attributed to Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But, Einstein did not say it or originate it, either.

ORIGIN: The quote was originally attributed to a fictional character named Jane Fulton in Rita Mae Brown's 1983 book “Sudden Death.” 

THE ACTUAL CREDIT: The quote is actually credited to sociology professor William Bruce Cameron, who included it in a 1963 textbook and a couple of articles. 

Einstein wasn't associated with the quote until the mid-1980s, but carries more weight, I suppose? 

Now with Trump today wanting to go after and nail officers re: the Afghanistan debacle, why not go back to the U.S. withdrawal in VN that gave North Vietnam the entire country.

Or, go back to our own Civil War with President Lincoln and famous Generals and their decisions?

That my friends is true insanity don’t you think? 

I say again, the facts matter always, but apparently not in MAGA world?

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Hitler & Trump Side-by-Side: Don’t Like Them But Comparisons Are Eerily True

 

Family Names Also Changed Over Time 

(Schickelgruber to Hitler; Drumpf to Trump)

Read carefully the key extracts from SALON here below and believe it or not – the truth always wins in the end no matter our opinions otherwise – the truth must prevail:

KEY PARTS FROM ARTICLE HEADLINE:

“Trump's Big Lie and Hitler's Big Lie: Is this how America's slide into totalitarianism begins?”

Hitler undermined Germany's democracy by lying about outcome of WWI. Trump and MAGA are constantly lying about the 2020 election outcome.

Thanks to the 2020 presidential election, there is now a convenient way to answer the above truth premise (in my view at least):

+ Hitler rose to power because he told a Big Lie about not losing WWI. Millions of people believed that Big Lie because they held more sinister beliefs; millions more likely didn't believe it, but weren't willing to denounce it as an outright lie at the time.

+ That same dynamic is true regarding Trump's claim that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election from him. (Still sustained today by Trump).

It is a Big Lie being embraced to advance a racist, anti-democratic agenda. Anyone who doesn't stand up to that Big Lie today would have likely been complicit in Hitler's Big Lie last century.

A lot of prominent Republicans (not all) try to worm their way around this issue by not quite saying they believe the Big Lie, but rather that it is somehow validated by the fact that many other people agree with it.

Two Examples:

First: Shortly before Trump egged on his supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued that America should rely on a white nationalist precedent to resolve the election (in Trump's favor) because: “Recent polling shows that 39% percent of Americans believe the election was rigged. You may not agree with that assessment; nonetheless it’s a reality for nearly half the country.”

Second:  Then add in this astonishingly shocking statement from Justice Clarence Thomas that he made in a similar argument one month later in a dissent about a case regarding the use of mail-in ballots in the swing state of PA. 

Thomas wrote in part: “That an election free from strong evidence of systemic fraud is not alone sufficient for election confidence, but that people on the losing side of an election need the assurance that fraud will not go undetected.”

(Note: My emphasis highlighted to the two above statements).

Never mind that there is literally no evidence that mail-in voting is particularly susceptible to fraud. 

Thomas' argument was essentially the same as Cruz's: “Even if there isn't evidence of fraud, if one side claims the other side might have stolen an election, that's enough to justify making it harder for the other side to vote.”

Let's call these things what they are: “Attempts by Republican officials (again, some not all) to exploit Trump's Big Lie to create permanent Republican rule, but without quite saying that they agree with the Big Lie itself. But even if those prominent Republicans (again, some not all) don't flat-out say that the Big Lie is true, refusing to denounce it, emboldens more people to believe it — and that emboldens our policy makers to change society based around it.”

My 2 Cents: I felt the above article and subject matter of the Big Lie used by Hitler and now Trump’s Big Lie were comparable in purpose. 

Some readers may not agree with that, but once Justice Thomas’ 2020 decent is factored in for that PA ballot case, I find it hard for anyone not be agree.

But, that’s who we are. Nevertheless the truth must always prevail, right?

Thanks for stopping by.

 

John Dougan: Ex-American Troll & Felon Disinformation Guru Now in Moscow

Dougan's #1 Key for Disinformation Posts 

(In the U.S. and Worldwide on Putin's Payroll)

“Bad Volf” is Dougan's Russian nom de plume

MAJOR UPDATE: As I said before, the growth and use of AI in this election will show some very nasty stuff, and now, well: Bingo!!! It’s here as seen in the excellent AP article below (refer to the several links in the article below) proving my prediction true with examples of Russian disinformation; AI stunts; and now this October 22 AP story headline (AP writer Melissa Goldin contributed to this report). The original and recent article follows this update:

“Russia is behind viral disinformation targeting Kamala Harris and now Tim Walz, intelligence official says”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Groups in Russia created and helped spread viral disinformation targeting Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday.

The content, which includes baseless accusations about the Minnesota governor’s time as a teacher, contains several indications that it was manipulated, said the official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (O/DNI).

Analysts identified clues that linked the content to Russian disinformation operations, said the official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the office of the director.

Digital researchers had already linked the video to Russia, but this announcement is the first time federal authorities have confirmed the connection. The disinformation targeting Tim Walz is consistent with Russian disinformation seeking to undermine the Democratic campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris and now Tim Walz, her running mate. 

Russia also has spread disinformation aimed at stoking discord and division ahead of voting, officials said, and may seek to encourage violent protests after Election Day. 

Two recent examples of disinformation:

(1). Last month, analysts at Microsoft revealed that a viral video that baselessly claimed Kamala Harris left a woman paralyzed in a hit-and-run accident 13 years ago was Russian disinformation.

(2). More recently, a video surfaced featuring a man claiming to be a former student of Tim Walz’s who accused the candidate of sexual misconduct years ago.

Private researchers at firms that track disinformation, including NewsGuard, already have concluded the video was fake and that the man in the footage isn’t who he claimed to be. The AP contacted a former employer of the man whose identity was used in the video. The employer, Viktor Yeliohin, confirmed the man shown in the video was an impostor.

Some researchers have also suggested the video may contain evidence that it was created using AI, but federal officials stopped short of the same conclusion, saying only that the video contained multiple indications of manipulation.

Russia, China and Iran also have sought to influence the election using online AI disinformation:

(1) Russia has targeted the Democratic campaign.

(2) Iran has gone after Republican Donald Trump with disinformation as well as hacking into the former president’s campaign.

(3) China, meanwhile, has focused its influence efforts on down-ballot races, and on general efforts to sow distrust and democratic dissatisfaction.

Officials also said there are no indication that Russia, China, or Iran are plotting significant attacks on election infrastructure as a way to disrupt the outcome.

Jen Easterly, director of the Cyber Security & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said: “Improvements to election security mean there is no way any other foreign adversary will be able to alter the results.” 

Note: Easterly, is a retired Army Colonel who replaced Kris Krebs whom Trump fired one day after he said the 2020 election was fair and NOT stolen as Trump advocated then and still today as seen in this reminder.

The main original article follows from here:

“Exceptionally Long Post re: Disinformation spreader, John Dougan” 

He is former American, but now is a Russian citizen in Moscow see site below (edited and formatted to fit the blog). Dougan is a traitor and turn-coat to the nation now serving as a Putin disinformation guru from Moscow.

What a story on Dougan’s ties and efforts to disrupt the 2024 election as a Russian citizen who got there via political asylum in 2016 as a runaway felon from Florida. Amazing story of a very sick man seen the video – just watch and listen to the video of the site owner, Steven Brill of Dougan broadcast below:

NewsGuard Technologies was founded in 2018 by Steven Brill and L. Gordon Crovitz, who serve as co-CEOs – they track and ID disinformation posters like John Dougan.

More info on Dougan: His emergence as a weapon of the Kremlin’s propaganda war follows a troubled life in the United States that included home foreclosures and bankruptcy. As a law enforcement officer in Florida and Maine, he faced accusations of excessive use of force and sexual harassment that resulted in costly lawsuits against the departments he worked for. He still faces an arrest warrant in Florida on 21 felony charges of extortion and wiretapping that resulted from a long-running feud with the sheriff of Palm Beach County.

Dougan is also a former deputy sheriff in Palm Beach County, FL where he sent voters an email posing as a county commissioner, urging them to oppose the reelection of the county’s sheriff.

After a four-year stint in the Marine Corps, Dougan became that former deputy police officer first in a small force in Mangonia Park, FL, and then with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office from 2005 to 2009.

He later masqueraded online as a Russian tech worker with a pseudonym to leak confidential information in violation of state law, fooling officials in Florida. He also has posed as a fictional NYC heir he called Jessica, tricking an adviser to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office into divulging improper conduct by the department.

Dougan said in a written response to questions for this article, in which he confirmed his role in these episodes: “Boy, did he ever spill ALL of the beans.”

His subterfuges were a prelude to a more prominent and potentially more ominous deception he has been conducting from Russia.

Dougan, 51, who sought and received political asylum after he fled to Moscow is now a key player in Russia’s disinformation operations against the West.

In 2016, when the Kremlin interfered in the U.S. presidential election, an army of computer trolls toiled for hours to try to fool Americans online.

Today, Dougan may be accomplishing much of those same tasks by himself, according to U.S. and European government officials and researchers from companies and organizations that have tracked his activities since August.

Those groups include NewsGuard, a company that reviews the reliability of news and information online; Recorded Future, a threat intelligence company; and Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub.

Dougan has built an ever-growing network of more than 160 fake websites that mimic news outlets in the United States, Britain and France. With the help of commercially available artificial intelligence tools, he has filled the sites with tens of thousands of articles.

Interspersed among them are also bespoke fabrications that officials in the United States and European Union have attributed to Russian intelligence agencies or the administration of President Vladimir Putin.

Dougan’s outlets have been cited or referred to in news articles or social media posts nearly 8,000 times, and seen by more than 37 million people in 16 languages, according to a report released from NewsGuard.

Two Examples:

1. The fakes recently included a fake San Francisco Chronicle website that said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had smuggled 300 kilograms of cocaine from Argentina.

2. Another false narrative appeared last month in the sham Chronicle and on another site, called The Boston Times, claiming that the CIA was working with Ukrainians to undermine Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Dougan, in a series of text exchanges and one telephone interview with The New York Times, denied operating the sites. A digital trail of clues, including web domains and IP addresses, suggests otherwise, the officials and researchers say.

A friend in Florida who has known Dougan for 20 years, Jose Lambiet, also said that Dougan told him in January that he had created the sites.

Steven Brill, a founder of NewsGuard, which has spent months tracking Dougan’s work, said: “He represents a massive incursion into the American news ecosystem.”

Dougan’s activities from Moscow, where he fled in 2016 one step ahead of the FL charges, continue to draw scrutiny from authorities in the United States. For example: Last year, he impersonated an FBI agent in a telephone call to Brill according to Brill.

Dougan, who acknowledged making the call in a text message this week, had been angered by a NewsGuard report in February 2023 that criticized YouTube for allowing videos parroting Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine, including some by Dougan himself.

The call prompted an FBI investigation that, according to Brill, traced the call to Dougan’s telephone in Russia. According to news reports and his own accounts, Dougan repeatedly clashed with superiors and colleagues, facing numerous internal investigations.

Earlier, in 2009, Dougan moved briefly to Windham, ME to work in another small-town police department. There he faced a complaint of sexual harassment that resulted in his dismissal before he completed his probationary period.

There also, Dougan started a website called WindhamTalk to defend himself. The website foreshadowed others he would create, including one devoted to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, PBSOTalk.

In February 2016, PBSOTalk posted confidential information about thousands of police officers, federal agents, and judges.

The next month, FBI agents and local police officers searched his home, seizing all of his electronic equipment.

Fearing arrest, he made his way to Canada and caught a flight to Moscow where he sought political asylum and has been there since.

He was indicted on the 21 Florida felony charges in 2017.

In April 2021, Dougan revived a website called DC Weekly and published fake articles about the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

According to a report in December 2021 by Clemson’s Media Forensics Hub, the domain and IP address were shared by PBSOTalk and Dougan’s personal website, as well as two marketing books he wrote in exile and a security firm he operated, Falcon Eye Tech, which offered “offshore security monitoring services.”

After Russia’s assault on Ukraine began in 2022, his site carried articles about the war.

Then, in August 2023, the site began to publish articles based on elaborate fabrications that the Western government officials and disinformation researchers said came from Russia’s propaganda units.

The baseless narratives included claims that relatives or cronies of Ukraine’s leader secretly bought luxury properties, yachts or jewelry, and that Prince Andrew, the brother of King Charles III of Britain, had abducted and abused children during a secret visit to Ukraine.

Dougan, became a Russian citizen in 2023, and he said in his messages to the NY TIMES said he now makes a living by selling security devices he designed for a manufacturer in China.

He denied being paid by any Russian authorities, claiming he funds his activities himself. While Dougan’s sites have focused on Russian narratives about the war in Ukraine, the researchers and government officials say he has laid the foundation for interference in the unusually large confluence of elections taking place around the world this year.

From the diplomatic service of the EU wrote in a report last month, in part: “This suggests a “risk of an expanded operation scope in the near future, potentially targeting diverse audiences and democratic systems in Europe and other Western nations for various strategic objectives.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

My 2 Cents: Once again for “poorly educated that Trump said he loves” that we all now call MAGA, I hope this reminder of the differences between “misinformation vs. disinformation” helps you improve your education level.

Here that refreshment:

Misinformation is information made or placed by a simple mistake not covertly and not made with malice, intent, or definite purpose – like a white or bold-face lie.

vs

Disinformation is information purposely placed with the full intent to cause harm, disruption, distrust, and chaos. In more modern times it is placed covertly to disrupt or topple established governments, competing political systems around the globe for self-interests, and for political, military, financial, or more devious purposes and gain.

The word “disinformation” is the English transliteration of the Russian word: “дезинформация.”

That  word was derived from the former KGB’s “Black Propaganda Department” handbook that shows how Joseph Stalin coined the term, even giving it a French-sounding name and falsely claiming it had Western origin, that being a false statement itself.

Precise Russian use of the word began in the now defunct USSR’s “Special Disinformation Office” in 1923.

Example: Operation INFEKTION (Operation: Infection) also was an old Soviet disinformation campaign to influence opinion that the U.S. had invented and spread AIDS that many believed.

A bit long post but a critical piece of information. Hope you agree.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

 

Trump vs. Tariffs: Lesson One Know What a Tariff is and Does to Our Economy

Step One Lesson One Page One for Trump

(Basic Tariffs 101)

Zip your pie hole and STFU, please

From BUSINESS INSIDER vis-à-vis Trump’s pledge to slap a 20% or higher tariff on all imported goods has this shocking headline:

“These 5 parts of the stock market are most at risk if Trump wins the election and implements wide-reaching tariffs, Barclays says”

Key Points According to Barclays:

§  Trump's proposed tariffs would lower S&P 500 earnings as much as 4.7% next year.

§  Trump has pledged to unleash universal tariffs on all U.S. trade if elected.

§  Barclays outlined five sectors that are the most exposed to losses if Trump wins and implements his tariff plan.

§  Trump's plan to tax virtually all imports would take a big toll on 2025 earnings (Barclays research found).

§  Current outlooks view the election as a coin toss between Trump and Kamala Harris.

§  The outcome has high stakes for trade policy, as the former president has committed to unleashing trade barriers around the U.S.

Trump said during the presidential debate with Harris: “Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we've done for the world. And the tariff will be substantial in some cases.”

Trump previously said that if he is re-elected: “All countries could face a 10% universal tariff, while duties on Chinese products would reach as high as 60%. Plus, a 100% tariff on cars imported through Mexico could also be in store.”

If implemented, Barclays expects these policies to cut into the S&P 500's earnings they said adding: “To be sure, U.S firms have some way of navigating higher costs associated with tariffs. That includes shifting supply chains or passing prices on to consumers as higher cost and tax on the item(s).”

Import duties will hit profit margins to a degree, as companies risk losing market share if they don't absorb some of the costs.

Barclays analysts wrote: “We find that SPX (S&P) earnings would be negatively impacted by 3.2% if the new Trump tariffs are enacted and another 1.5% if those countries were to retaliate with similar measures.”

Companies that rely more heavily on supply chains are especially at risk, with five sectors in most danger: (1) Materials, (2) Discretionary, (3) Industrials, (4) technology, and (5) healthcare.

1. Discretionary stocks would suffer the largest earnings-per-share impact from import tariffs alone — and sector earnings would fall around 10%.

2. Materials is most impacted by retaliatory tariffs on exports with sector earnings dropping close to 8%.

Other economists have loudly criticized Trump's tariff idea as fuel for inflation, given that prices will rise amid a pullback in foreign products. Accordingly, inflation would climb 0.09 percentage points in the short run, and U.S GDP could take a 1.2% hit in the first 12 months alone.

Barclays concluded: “While the new proposed tariffs would have a modest direct negative impact on corporate earnings if implemented, the second order effects from higher cost inflation and slowing economic growth would be an incremental headwind to corporate earnings, and cause further pain.”

My 2 Cents: I’m not an economist by any stretch, but I do have money on Wall Street earned or lost via my government TSP fund (C & G fund via the S&P).

I would be impacted by this insane Trump tariff plan outlined above. Even without my TSP I would lose money on prices (tariff is added tax) on things I need to buy that says “MADE IN CHINA.” 

The B/L: Trump is totally ignorant about tariffs and as the expression example above says “He doesn’t know a tariff from his ass or a hole in ground.” 

Thanks for stopping by.

GA Elections Board: Gumming Up the 2024 Election Count to Please Trump

 

GA State Elections Board in Trump's Pocket

(3-2 Guess who favors Trump)

More utter madness in this update on the GA State Elections Board that is total insanity with this headline from PROPUBLICA:

“Skeptics Are Running Some County Election Boards in GA. Their New Rule Could Allow Them to Exclude Decisive 2024 Votes”

An examination of a new election rule in GA suggests that local officials in just a handful of rural counties could exclude enough votes to affect the outcome of the 2024 presidential race.

Brief instruction to this the latest impact: An examination of a new election rule in Georgia passed by the state’s Republican-controlled election board suggests that local officials in just a handful of rural counties could exclude enough votes to affect the outcome of the presidential race. Their rule was backed by national groups allied with Trump.

It gives county boards the power to investigate irregularities and exclude entire precincts from the vote totals they certify. Supporters of the rule, most of whom are Republicans, say it’s necessary to root out fraud. Critics, most of whom are Democrats, say it can be used as a tool to disenfranchise select buckets of voters.

The Original Story: GA State Election Board (5 members:  3 GOP; 2 DEM; and 1 non-partisan appointed chairman) are way out control regarding election results certification reported on here from CBS News and most all other major media outlets with this headline:

“GA Democrats sue over rules they say could block election certifications”

Atlanta — The GA state and national Democratic parties sued to block two recent rules adopted by Georgia's State Election Board (3-2 GOP-leaning vote) that could be used by county officials who want to refuse to certify an election, potentially causing delays in finalizing the state's results.

1. The lawsuit, filed before a state judge in Atlanta, argues the rules violate a state law that makes certification a mandatory duty based on the actual votes and NOT based on personal hunches, guesses, or itchy palms.

Note My insert: The BOE acts as an umpire who reports election results NOT serve as referees who along the way make up or decide new on-the-spot rules willy-nilly. The lawsuit says the rules invite post-election chaos, which the board is defying

GA state law clearly states: “County officials shall certify.”

I Further Note: They are not to change the rules or be a judge along the way just to please Trump, et al).

Fact: More than a century of court precedent in GA finds county officials have no wiggle room.

2. The suit asks the judge to find the rules invalid because the State Election Board, now dominated by 3 Trump allies, is exceeding its legal authority under GA state law.

The BOE vote alarms DEMS & voting rights activists against the raw partisan struggle over procedures that even predate the 2020 election a battle in yet another state over what had long been an admin afterthought: State and local boards certifying results.

My 2 Cents: The general summary of the above once again to measure the ugly nasty impact of that GA BOE 3-2 vote:

Repeat of the Heart of the Issue and the Pending Lawsuit: BOE (3-2 vote) changing the rules invite post-election chaos, that the board is defying state law that clearly says: “County officials shall certify (not change or modify) the outcome.” More than a century of court precedent in GA finds county officials have no wiggle room.

The lawsuit states in this key part:  “According to the BOE drafters, these rules rest on the assumption that certification of election results by a county board is discretionary and subject to free-ranging action that the 3-2 board calls:

“REASONABLE INQUIRY” that may delay certification or foreclose entirely. But that is not the law in Georgia.

Impact if the unlawful rule (3-2 vote) is allowed to stand: It could impact other states as well and disrupt the entire 2024 election voter certification outcome.

The GA highest court, or the GA AG, and /or the GA SOS must overturn that wild and unlawful BOE vote. Now we wait to see, pending a Judge’s ruling now expected any day.

Thanks for stopping by.

Israel Hits Inside Lebanon: Major War Looms for Entire ME & Maybe U.S. Too

Previous Question: Will Israel Invade Lebanon

(They have - maybe more later)

Major terrorist Ibrahim Aqil killed in attack

(Details on Aqil seen below)

The Middle East and once again a major concern for the entire region from ABC News with this article headline:

“Israel and Hezbollah trade fresh border barrages as region braces for war”

Key background that the public may or may not clearly understand from this article is boxed off below and this key note:

Hezbollah suffered another serious security breach when an Israeli airstrike in a densely-populated Beirut suburb killed Operations Chief and well-known international terrorist leader Ibrahim Aqil and 14 other members.

Background on Aqil: The U.S. State Department said he was a “principal member of the Hezbollah terrorist Islamic Jihad Organization” that claimed the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983 that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans.

Aqil was also well-known for the U. S. Marine Corps barracks bombing in October 1983, which killed 241 U.S. personnel.

Aqil also “directed the abduction of American and German hostages in Lebanon” in the 1980’s.

LONDON – Sunday opened with a new barrage of Hezbollah fire into Northern Israel, according to the IDF, which continued its own campaign of cross-border strikes after a week of high-profile attacks across Lebanon.

The IDF said Hezbollah launched 150 rockets, cruise missiles, and drones toward Israel on Sunday, of which were fired within 45 minutes.

Hezbollah said the barrage was “an initial response to Israel's pager and walkie-talkie attacks in Lebanon last week.”

The IDF said it was striking “Hezbollah terrorist targets in Lebanon in response, having already bombed 400 targets through Saturday.”

IDF international spokesperson aid in a Sunday morning briefing: “There was heavy rocket fire by Hezbollah across multiple northern regions. This is a situation that is intolerable and Israel is committed to act to change this reality.”

Cross-border fire has been near-constant since October 8, when Hezbollah began attacks in protest of Israel's latest offensive into the Gaza Strip, which followed Hamas' October 7 operation in Israel. 

Hezbollah, which controls southern Lebanon and is backed by Iran, has vowed to continue its attacks until Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza. Tensions have been steadily mounting on the Israel-Lebanon border as the war drags on and cease-fire negotiations fail. Israel has long demanded Hezbollah withdraw its forces north of the Litani River – some 18 miles from the Israeli border – per the 2006 UN Security Council resolution that sought to end the last major clash between the two sides.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have left their homes in the border region since October, 8 under the threat of Hezbollah strikes. Their safe return is a key war goal for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.

My 2 Cents: Pluses and minuses from the above report. How much longer will this go on and will it get worse? 

That is key question for if it gets worse and drags in Iran and their allies against Israel, then we in the U.S. probably will be blamed and dragged into another all-out ME war there has been 7 since 1948 … this would the worst of all since Iran is now more heavily armed and allied with Russia, too.

I hope that does not happen. Key to not seeing that happen is PM Netanyahu. He is for his one-sided rule in that that area: “From the river to the sea” as that expression says. 

Thanks for stopping by.