Foreign Affairs

Falun Gong

• It's my contention that all authoritarian regimes are, by their nature, Right Wing.
• It's my contention that there's no such thing as a Left Wing authoritarian regime.

The Chinese Communist Party has been authoritarian and autocratic from the beginning.

Falun Gong is no different, it's just that they grew out of the old ways of the Chinese imperial dynasties, with some perverse, monstrously affectatious element of "spirituality" attached to it, in an attempt to give itself some kind of gravitas or credibility.

So yeah - they're pitted against each other - both wanting supreme power over people.

And Falun Gong is no more "religious" than the American evangelicals. It's politics, just as religion has always been politics.

And every business, every church, every political organization needs PR.

BTW, I told ya BKjr is a fuckin' loon.

Ukraine

This is called an incitement to commit genocide. It's a war crime.

These guys will be dragged to The Hague, or they'll be cowering in sponsored exile as guests of sympathizing asshole regimes, or they'll be dead (likely by their own hand).

If the Kremlin’s intentions weren’t already clear enough, here is former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev saying today that the concept of an independent Ukrainian identity must "disappear for good" pic.twitter.com/hqnPvXq4oA

— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) March 4, 2024

Genocide:

A crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part.

Genocidal Intent:

The mens rea (mental element) for the crime of genocide. "Intent to destroy" is one of the elements of the crime of genocide according to the 1948 Genocide Convention. 

We're All Suckers Eventually

Covert Israeli Disinfo Campaign Targeted Black Democrats

The Israeli government last year paid a firm to create fake “news” websites, and hundreds of fake American accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, which then urged Black Democrats to support funding Israel’s military, the New York Times reported this morning.

Israel, it’s worth noting, is a U.S. ally and already receives billions of dollars in support from the U.S.

Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs paid a Tel Aviv marketing firm $2 million to use the fake accounts to pressure more than a dozen U.S. lawmakers, “particularly ones who are Black and Democrats,” the Times says. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) are specifically named. So is Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY).

The accounts not only pushed pro-Israeli messages, but also sought to stoke concerns about alleged campus antisemitism.

Scholars of social-media bullshit told the Times this is the first confirmed case of the Israeli government using such campaigns to influence U.S. lawmakers. Ooookay.

The Israeli ministry denies its involvement, which unnamed Israeli officials told the Times was a naughty, naughty lie, even though hundreds of “Americans” agreed with it on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The Times says that the influence campaign had several aspects in common with Israel’s military campaign in Gaza:

• It used artificial intelligence
• It hit the wrong targets (drawing 40,000 followers, many of them fellow bots)
• It was executed poorly (profile pics didn’t match bios)
• It didn’t work

Some of the examples of incompetence are kinda hilarious, notwithstanding the actual human suffering of two million human beings, obvi. At least twice, accounts with profile pics of Black men posted messages about what things are like for them, as a “middle-aged Jewish woman.” And 118 posts passed on pro-Israeli articles with the following, totally human, hear-it-all-the-time phrasing: “I gotta reevaluate my opinions due to this new information.”

The Times didn’t immediately get reaction from U.S. lawmakers, but presumably they gotta reevaluate their opinions due to this new information.

Today's Quote

Keep your imaginary friends

out of my government

Overheard

I don't know if they're telling me they just finished a meeting with Don Jr, or I'm supposed to steal 3rd base, or what.

What is it with these guys, anyway?

It's A Puzzlement

Is MTG so absolutely sure of her re-election that she's abandoned every consideration to make and keep allies? Not friends - I can't imagine she has any - but how does she expect to do anything?

And holy crap, how does she have a lover? Seriously, I wouldn't fuck that skank with somebody else's dick.

"The kinda gal that has marks all over her - from people touching her with a 10-foot pole."  --Rodney Dangerfield

What is this shit really about?

Today's TweeXt

If the arrest booking photographer doesn't tell Ken "say Cheese, Bro", then this entire MAGA experiment was for nothing.

— 🚀 John Bourscheid (@johnbourscheid) June 4, 2024

All The Bad Guys

I don't believe in any of that junk, but there's a strong feeling that a karmic thing is going on here.

After all the elections we've meddled in over the last many decades, are we're getting a little taste of our own medicine?

Or are we just now finding out about it?

Or can we really claim there's been no meddling?

What about when a candidate invites that meddling?

Like when Reagan went to the Iranians behind everybody's back to fuck Carter in 1980?

Or when Nixon sent Kissinger to Paris to fuck up the peace talks with Vietnam in 1968?

Or when Trump told Russia to go ahead and hack the DNC's email accounts in 2016 - and he did it live on the air during a televised debate?

Or whatever every POTUS has probably done (since at least Teddy Roosevelt) to project American power, and get things to turn out the way we wanted?

?

Biden on foreign election meddling: ‘All the bad guys are rooting for Trump’

President Biden said in a new interview there is evidence China is meddling in the upcoming U.S. election, quipping that “all the bad guys” are rooting for former President Trump in November’s race.

“There is evidence that meddling is going on,” Biden told Time magazine in an interview published Tuesday, declining to go into greater detail.

When a reporter interjected to say it sounded as if China was meddling, Biden said China “would have an interest in meddling.”

“Everybody, all the bad guys are rooting for Trump, man. Not a joke,” he added.

Biden earlier in the interview, conducted May 28, recounted how foreign leaders frequently tell him it’s important for him to win reelection to protect democracy in the U.S. and abroad.

The president’s comments come after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in April, following a three-day trip to China, that there were signs Beijing was attempting to influence and potentially interfere in the upcoming U.S. election.

CNN reported that Biden warned Chinese President Xi Jinping during a November meeting in San Francisco not to interfere in the 2024 elections.

Taiwanese groups earlier this year outlined a major disinformation campaign employed by Chinese actors during the island nation’s national elections, which concluded in January and delivered a blow to Beijing with the victory of a pro-U.S. candidate.

The alleged tactics from Chinese actors involved using generative artificial intelligence to manipulate videos and sow discord in Taiwan, including by completely distorting the words of at least one U.S. member of Congress, raising concerns about the risks in the U.S. election.

Foreign efforts to influence U.S. elections would not be new. Federal officials concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 election between Trump and then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

The National Intelligence Council released a report in March 2021 that found Russia and Iran carried out efforts to influence the 2020 presidential election. Russia, the report stated, sought to denigrate Biden’s candidacy, while Iran sought to sow division and undercut Trump’s prospects.

The same report found China “considered but did not deploy” influence efforts in the 2020 election.

Either Or

To a guy like Trump, the whole world has to be divided into two factions - everybody is either friend or foe. There's no middle ground, and there's no crossover except when he decides to change somebody's designation.

His friends are expected to pay him fealty at all times, and do whatever he requires of them, even though they know he'll never reciprocate in kind if it's inconvenient for him.

His foes (ie: everybody who won't bend to his whim) are de-humanized, and deserve every shitty thing the worst of his "friends" can think of doing to them.

It's a total Manichean proposition. Everything is either all and only one way, or all and only the other way.

I know, I know - you know all this. But it bears repeating, and must be repeated until a much bigger majority of Americans understand what we're up against.

I'm also willing to accept the possibility that I'm overstating the problems I see with Creeping Authoritarianism and the alarm that I feel at a very basic, visceral level.

But hey -

I may be paranoid

but that don't mean

nobody's out to get me

Bought And Sold

Why rich people should be flogged - and filleted as necessary.