Democracy on the Front Lines: An After Action Report on Tabletop Exercises to Assess the Risk of Civil Unrest and Threats to the Rule of Law in the 2024 Presidential Election
https://www.penncerl.org/files/democracy-on-the-front-lines-an-after-action-report-on-tabletop-exercises-to-assess-the-risk-of-civil-unrest-and-threats-to-the-rule-of-law-in-the-2024-presidential-election/
#GOPWeirdos #DonaldTrump #TrumpWillLose2024 #Project2025 #NoRepublicansEverAgain #VoteBlueUpAndDown #USPol
"America’s choice: Do voters want to live in reality, or a dangerous dream world?"
~ Will Bunch
#Trump #KamalaHarris #fascism #authoritarianism #democracy #cruelty #PoliticsofHate #immigrants
/3
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/donald-trump-campaign-unreality-aurora-20241013.html
A timely reminder re #TrumpsNaziRally at MSG:
You can be an American or you can be a Nazi, but you cannot be both
Choose wisely
#StopProject2025Fascists
#NoNazisInUSA
"The real outrage is that Trump, given the public nature and extent of his repulsive record, should be invited to a fundraiser for an organization, Catholic Charities, that has long worked in the trenches to save and transform lives on society's farthest margins."
~ National Catholic Reporter
Think about this a lot. Growing up other kids dads had been to WWII and they were a very mature and serious bunch. There was no way they were going to let this kind of stupid nonsense even get started. But, somehow with their passing, the disease rose up again, and the boomer generation lost the moral leadership that experience with real hardship brings. For younger people today, it is just a video game. The blood isn't real.
Via Michele Norris:
As of yesterday, I have decided to resign from my role as a columnist for Washington Post — a newspaper that I love. In a moment like this, everyone needs to make their own decisions. This is the reasonfor mine. 🧵
WaPo decision to withhold an endorsement that had been written & approved in an election where core democratic principles are at stake was a terrible mistake & an insult to the paper’s own longstanding standard of regularly endorsing candidates since 1976. 1/…
Warner Bros. is now uploading classic LOONEY TUNES and TOM AND JERRY shorts to YouTube.
So far there are only a dozen, but it's a start.
@heidilifeldman If I hadn't cancelled my WaPo sub over the summer after their hit job on Biden, I'd be cancelling it so hard right now. I'm sticking with the #PhiladelphiaInquirer and a couple of other local outlets and podcasts -- and of course, ProPublica which does amazing work.
The President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, refused to recognize the results of the parliamentary elections in the country
Zurabishvili noted that "Russian elections" were held in Georgia and announced an opposition rally to be held on October 28 at 7:00 p.m. Previously, the opposition parties and coalitions also did not recognize the results of the parliamentary elections
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has called on citizens to take to the streets in protest, saying the ruling party used widespread fraud to win Saturday’s nationwide election.
In a speech alongside opposition leaders on Sunday, she said: “I do not accept this election. It cannot be accepted, accepting it would be accepting Russia into this country, the acceptance of Georgia’s subordination to Russia,” she said, inviting supporters to gather outside the country’s parliament at 7.00 p.m. on Monday to oppose the result, which she said had been rigged.
“We became witnesses and victims of a Russia special operation,” added Zourabichvili, who has become one of the most prominent critics of the ruling Georgian Dream party. “They stole our right to choice, they carried out a Russian election.”
Opposition parties cried foul after preliminary results showed a lead for the ruling Georgian Dream party, which took 53 percent of the vote compared the opposition bloc’s 38 percent.
The opposition Coalition for Change said their MPs would not take up their parliamentary mandates because the election results were rigged.
Violence erupted at multiple polling stations in Georgia on Saturday as voters cast their ballots. Observer organizations, such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), reported concerns over vote-buying, “imbalances in financial resources, a divisive campaign atmosphere, and recent legislative amendments.”
The National Democratic Institute’s international observer mission noted that the pre-election period was compromised by widespread threats, harassment and in some cases violence, affecting voters, activists and political actors.
The election is widely regarded as a pivotal for Georgia’s prospects of joining the European Union. Critics have slammed the government’s increasingly authoritarian trajectory and close ties with Russia.
Georgia’s EU membership prospects were stalled after the Georgian government adopted a controversial Russian-style “foreign agents” law, despite warnings that it could jeopardize Georgia’s bid to join the bloc.
In the lead-up to the election, the ruling party had also pledged to ban virtually all opposition parties, and has passed a string of Russian-style laws branding Western-backed human rights groups and media outlets as ‘foreign agents'.
A joint statement declaring the vote was “neither free nor fair” was signed by more than a dozen European and Canadian politicians, including the chairs of parliamentary foreign affairs committees in Germany, Lithuania, Ireland and Ukraine. “Against this background, the European Union cannot recognise the result,” it reads.
However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán moved to quickly congratulate Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and the Georgian Dream party “on their overwhelming victory at the parliamentary elections.” Orbán will visit Tbilisi on Oct. 28, the Georgian government announced, in a move likely to rile follow EU leaders.
European Council President Charles Michel decried the alleged intimidation and interference, and said “these alleged irregularities must be seriously clarified and addressed.”
“What a disgrace,” wrote Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže on X, commenting on the reports from the OSCE. “I applaud the Georgian people who came out to vote en masse despite intimidation. Their wish for a European future must be respected by any Georgian government,” Braže said.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna also expressed his concerns over “reports of irregularities,” writing on X: “Closely following the evaluations of international & local observers.”
So, thanks Jeff Bezos, now we see it all very clearly if we didn't see it before...
This election is The Billionaires vs. The People
And the billionaires are trying to hoodwink, lie, bride, cheat and steal enough votes to get over the line, and then end democracy for good. Screw them. We are not giving them our country.
Mostly reclusive and carrying slightly damaged goods. A survivor by some accounts. Definitely in need of much therapy. ;)
Staunchly anti-fascist
Bear in mind that, while I may "like" your "toot", about a person, event or particular topic, if it links to the "bird-site" I will no longer boost and inadvertently contribute to their grift. Everyone has a choice and a part to play when crimes go unpunished.
"We are dreamers, shapers, singers, and makers".
-Elric