The Russians Are Coming!

Posted by TomCat at 9:54 am Politics

Feb 212020

When I was a child, I often hid under my desk, when told to duck and cover. Adults knew they could frighten us into behaving ourselves with the following threat: “The Russians are coming!” After awhile, it no longer worked, because we stopped believing the threat. Why? The Russians never came… until now.

Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, a disclosure to Congress that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him.

The day after the Feb. 13 briefing to lawmakers, the president berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place, people familiar with the exchange said. Mr. Trump was particularly irritated that Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the leader of the impeachment proceedings, was at the briefing.

During the briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Trump’s allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that he had been tough on Russia and that he had strengthened European security… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Criminal Fuhrer Trump* does not want you that his boss is at it again!

Russia is looking to help Trump win in 2020, election security official told lawmakers

I understand that horrid little twerp, Devin Nunes, slithered to his Fuhrer to tattle, and probably, to give him a BJ. Fuhrer Trump* reacted exactly as I would expect from the Republican Reich. Trump* will be looking for a new DNI who will be to Intelligence what AG Barrf is to Justice.

Warren On Reports That Russia Is Interfering To Help Trump In 2020 Race

Liz is right. What we do now is keep Trump*, Bought Bitch Midnight Moscow Mitch, and all their co-criminals on Front Street, dump the entire Republican Reich in November, and clean up the mess afterwards to ensure free , fair elections in which corporations are NOT people and money is NOT speech.

The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!! The Russians are coming!!! Are you scared? You should be! Are you going to behave? Then get off your ass and do your part to pull the plug on Putin and send the Republican Reich out of existence. Every Republican in office is one Republican too many!

RESIST!!

Open Thread–2/21/2020

Posted by TomCat at 9:53 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics

Feb 212020

It’s a yucky day here at the CatBox. My stomach has heartburn has been screaming all morning. I have to stay up, because Providence Home Medical Equipment is swapping-out a six pack of the portable O₂ tanks I use, when I’m out and about. TGIF to all!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:57 (average 5:49). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Cartoon:

Republicans alternate between blaming Obama, Hillary, Nancy and Bernie.

Short Takes:

Froom YouTube (Washington Post Channel): Resurfaced video shows Bloomberg referring to transgender people as ‘some guy wearing a dress’

We knew Bloomberg [R-NY] was racist and misogynist. Add homophobic to his unsuitable list. RESIST!!

From Washington Post: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) mounted a new defense Wednesday for the toxicity emanating from pockets of his presidential campaign’s supporters, implying it was possible Russian actors were again manipulating social media to incite Democratic divisions.

Sanders’s language was indirect, offered on the debate stage here as his opponents faulted him for the behavior of his most strident fans. It drew criticism from experts in disinformation, who said they had no direct evidence the Kremlin had masqueraded as Sanders voters to interfere in the 2020 race much as Russian trolls had done four years earlier.

“All of us remember 2016, and what we remember is efforts by Russians and others to try to interfere in our elections and divide us up,” said the senator from Vermont. “I’m not saying that’s happening, but it would not shock me.”

I tend to doubt that, because I remember the toxicity of many ‘Bernie Bros’ toward me in 2016, because, as a Bernie supporter, I committed to voting for Hillary, after Bernie asked his supporters to do so. ‘Bernie Bros’ were a factor in my switch to Liz Warren this year. I understand that some of the hate-mavens, threatening Democrats who disagree, are employees on Bernie’s paid staff. If so, he needs to identify and fire them immediately. That said, I would not put such skullduggery past Putin [R-RU] and his Puppet Pervert Trump* either. RESIST!!

From YouTube (Robert Reich Channel): Bloomberg Flounders, Warren Rebounds, and Bernie Brings the Heat

Of course the Reich on the left, Robert Reich, is right. Liz and Bernie were head and shoulders above the rest. And he’s right that the debate should have focused more on the evil Reich on the Right, the Republican Reich, and their criminal Fuhrer Trump*. I particularly liked how Robert used FDR as an example of democratic socialism. If Bloomberg [R-NY] wins the nomination in a brokered convention, it will destroy the Democratic Party and probably, the USA with it. RESIST!!

From YouTube (a blast from the past): Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival (HQ – 5.1 Studio )

Ah… the memories! RESIST!!

Vote Blue!!

Trump’s* Boss Hacked Burisma

Posted by TomCat at 8:50 am Politics

Jan 142020

Not long ago, Impeached Resident Donald Trump*, Fuhrer of the Republican Reich, withheld the Congressionally mandated military aid to Ukraine, and blackmailed Ukrainian President Zelensky to find or manufacture dirt on Joe Biden, arising from his son’s questionable employment at Burisma. Burisma is the Ukrainian gas company and was notorious for corruption when Hunter was there. But Trump* and his Reich handled the crime with such extreme incompetence, that they accomplished only Trump’s impeachment to become Trump*. Still needing dirt on the Biden’s, the Republican Reich has called in Trump’s* boss to do the job right, Vladimir Putin [R-RU].

With President Trump facing an impeachment trial over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden, Russian military hackers have been boring into the Ukrainian gas company at the center of the affair, according to security experts.

The hacking attempts against Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company on whose board Hunter Biden served, began in early November, as talk of the Bidens, Ukraine and impeachment was dominating the news in the United States.

It is not yet clear what the hackers found, or precisely what they were searching for. But the experts say the timing and scale of the attacks suggest that the Russians could be searching for potentially embarrassing material on the Bidens — the same kind of information that Mr. Trump wanted from Ukraine when he pressed for an investigation of the Bidens and Burisma, setting off a chain of events that led to his impeachment.

The Russian tactics are strikingly similar to what American intelligence agencies say was Russia’s hacking of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential campaign. In that case, once they had the emails, the Russians used trolls to spread and spin the material, and built an echo chamber to widen its effect… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Russia is trying to steal another election for Putin’s Pet Pervert, but exactly what are they up to? Both Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell have coverage:

Rep. Adam Schiff: NYT New Russian Hacking Report ‘Deeply Disturbing’

Fmr. FBI Official: ‘This Is A Full-On Attack On Our 2020 Election’

Here are the possibilities I see:

Russia is fishing for dirt, because they think Biden would beat their puppet, Trump*.
Russia thinks Trump* can beat Biden, and think their investigation will make Biden more likely to win.
Russia is just trying to create chaos an confusion to frustrate American voters and turn them off to the process.
Russia want’s Biden to win the nomination and found dirt on Joe and Hunter to spring as an October surprise.

The last choice worries me most, but I do have a suggestion. Joe and Hunter should both volunteer to testify at Trump’s* impeachment trial to show they have nothing to hide. On the other hand, if there is something to hide, Joe should drop-out now for the sake of the nation.

RESIST!!

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PHP is a programming language used to build websites. We have it at all through our hosting partner, BlueHost. In order to update it, we have to go through Bluehost. During his life, TomCat was the only one who had access to our account there. I (JD) am now the only one. I have been to BlueHost and investigated updating our PHP to 8.3 or even to 8.1. I found instructions to do so - in fact, I found two conflicting sets of instructions. I went through one set of the steps and got the message that Our site could not handle 8.3, but that it had successfully updated to 8.1. I then went back here to see what it looked like. But I couldn't get in - either as an administrator or as a reader. It was just gone. I had to reach BlueHost by phone. It was determined that Politics Plus is in fact not compatible with any version of PHP newer than the one we have. BlueHost therefore uninstalled it for me, and the site came back to normal. Of course, like everyone else, I care about security. But I also am aware that TomCat elected to use different providers for several of the services that BlueHost provides, for instance backups. We are backed up daily - but not by BlueHost. However, out PHP is through Bluehost. I feel that if they are not worried about the older version, I am not going to worry about it. I believe that our security here is all or mostly through WordFence, whom I trust.