[The Soup Nazi]

Bits from Zakaria's Global Briefing:

Does America’s Election Measure Up?

How does America’s election measure up against international standards of freedom and fairness? At The Atlantic, Nina Jankowicz recently reflected on her overseas vote-monitoring experience and concluded America’s 2020 election might raise red flags: Notably, if President Trump’s supporters show up at polling places to watch other people vote, as he has exhorted them to, that’s a hallmark of trouble in any country, Jankowicz wrote.

At Foreign Policy, Democracy International President and Election Reformers Network Chair Eric Bjornlund concurs, writing that America’s Nov. 3 elections “increasingly resemble those in struggling democracies and autocratic countries. I speak from experience, having led or managed some 40 election observation efforts in 22 countries over more than 30 years.” Election Day voter intimidation is one telltale sign of a weak democracy, Bjornlund writes, but so are allegations of “fraud” and candidates questioning the results (as Trump has begun to do before next week’s vote, and as he did in 2016 despite winning the presidency).

“In the struggling democracies and autocracies where I have observed elections, much of the argument is about the integrity of the rules and process,” Bjornlund writes. “In fact, you can tell that a country is not (or not yet) a successful democracy when the losers of its elections blame fraud for their loss and attack the legitimacy of the process.” Bjornlund compares the US to Bangladesh, where “in each of the six national elections since the country’s transition away from authoritarianism in 1991, the losing party has accused the winning party of rigging the vote.” Bjornlund finds examples of contested results in Egypt since its 2011 revolution, Afghanistan in 2019, and Kenya in 2007; he notes premature claims of victory or questioning of the vote count by candidates in “Afghanistan in 2014, Honduras and Kenya in 2017, and Guyana and Malawi this year.”

His conclusion: “In large part because of Trump’s attacks on the process, elections in the United States look more and more like those we have observed in less-than-democratic countries. These are the kinds of problems that trigger substantial international concern.”


The Threat of Interference Doesn’t Disappear After Election Day

We tend to think of political interference as an attempt to disrupt an election before or as it happens, but the US could see interference ramp up after Election Day, “when the country may actually be most vulnerable,” Laura Rosenberger of the German Marshall Fund writes for Foreign Affairs. That’s because overseas meddlers don’t just seek to tip the vote in one direction or another, but rather to sow chaos and doubt in the election itself, Rosenberger writes. For instance, hacks into local voting systems can be used to make people wonder if the election results were tampered with, rather than to actually skew them.

Citing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan report on Russian interference, Rosenberger notes that Russia’s Internet Research Agency “actually increased its activity after Election Day in 2016. ... Americans should remember above all that the goal of foreign interference is to make them lose confidence in democracy itself,” Rosenberger writes. “They must refuse to let that happen.”


All The President’s Auto Plants

At The New York Review of Books, Mark Danner writes of a President Trump rally in Michigan, where Trump led with, and continued to harp on as a “leitmotif,” a claim that he has delivered a plethora of new auto plants to the state since being elected. “We brought you a lot of car plants, Michigan! We brought you a lot of car plants,” Danner quotes Trump as saying. “You know that, right?”

Except, as with many things Trump says, it’s not true. Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler has noted Trump’s repeated claims that auto-manufacturing plants have sprung up left and right during his presidency; in reality, plans for five have been announced nationwide, “three in Michigan, one in Alabama and one in Texas.” Two are foreign owned. Dave Boucher and Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press call the claims “wildly inaccurate,” noting plans for only one “major” new plant in the state have been announced during Trump’s term, while the auto industry has struggled.

Danner draws from this episode a lesson about Trump support: that Trump’s backers believe in such fantasies, and that believing is not about reality but about protest—an act of rebellion against the elites whose power Trump’s campaign takes as a target. “I had no idea he had done so much for the state! I mean, people hardly even talk about it,” Danner quotes one woman as saying. “She was a nurse, trained in anatomy, physiology, biology—science, that is to say. But to her the president’s word was Truth; the idea that ‘people hardly even talk about’ the car plants because they don’t exist was not only heretical but inconceivable.” Similarly, Danner finds “consensus” among supporters that a Trump loss could only mean the other side cheated. As such, Danner concludes, their grievances will linger, regardless of what happens on Nov. 3.


Imagining a Lame-Duck Trump

If President Trump were to lose next Tuesday’s election, what might he do in his final months in the White House?

Outgoing presidents often begin bold initiatives, particularly in foreign policy, that foist upon their successors the jobs of continuing them or carrying them out, historian Timothy Naftali recently wrote for Foreign Policy. But Trump will have ways to disrupt things domestically, too, Garrett M. Graff writes for Politico Magazine.

“The lame duck period is always a time when outgoing presidents feel free to stir up controversy,” Graff writes, after surveying legal experts. “Even presidents who care deeply about their legacies and abide by democratic norms often take uniquely unpopular actions in the closing weeks of their presidencies: George H.W. Bush pardoned six officials behind the Iran-Contra scandal; Bill Clinton pardoned more than 140 people on his final day in office … including financier Marc Rich, a controversy that dogged him as he moved into the post-presidency … Just days before he left office, Barack Obama commuted the sentence of leaker Chelsea Manning.”

Trump could pardon allies caught up in the Russia investigation or preemptively pardon his family members or himself, Graff suggests. He could fire top officials or seek revenge on those in the bureaucracy he dislikes. His aides could refuse to brief an incoming Biden administration, leaving them in the dark as to policy initiatives already underway, and there will be a temptation to destroy documents, Graff writes. (Trump reportedly tears up papers, requiring a staffer to tape them back together to adhere to federal record-keeping law.) He could launch a military action—though, it has been noted, Trump has shown no penchant for starting wars—or “just cease any effort to combat the pandemic,” choosing instead to “retir[e] to Mar-a-Lago to tweet and golf out the remainder of his presidency.” If it’s any comfort, Graff writes, “the sad truth is that the White House has been so disengaged from the pandemic response for so long that a total abdication of its role wouldn’t likely look all that different.”

[Bytor Peltor]

Originally Posted by Silver ✴ Rocket

https://www.bitchute.com/video/S55HwMyFjSP3/

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

Thing is, we've seen him get upset and walk outseveral times throughout the years so why you think he isn't this time is beyond me. Actually it's not beyond me as it's obvious (and always has been) that trump could shit on your face and you'd still back him up.

If Biden had done the same you'd be wetting yourself with glee about it and you know it.

From the link and quotes I provided that were 100% backed up and confirmed by the link SilverRocket provided, President Trump DID NOT storm off in the Leslie Stahl interview. It’s sad individuals such h8kurdt who use pathetic reasoning to try and twist TRUTH to fit their narrative and continue to get it WRONG!

It’s for people like h8kurdt that President Trump had to record and tweet the TRUE interview because the free minded freethinkers are so easily duped into believing anything.

Any and EVERYTHING I’ve posted about Sleepy Joe has been 100% accurate, and I’m guessing 99% of the time it was in Joe’s own words! Don’t get the TRUTH I share confused with your inaccuracies!!!

[!@#$%!]

the only way for repukes to win is to stop people from voting

[Savage Clone]

Sometimes your friends let you down. Bytor is
a longtime friend.
Oh well.

[tw2113]

My planned in person, vote next tuesday for not trump should be for sure getting counted, from the looks of things.

[h8kurdt]

the free minded freethinkers are so easily duped into believing anything

We including you believing every word that comes out trump's mouth?

[Bytor Peltor]

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

We including you believing every word that comes out trump's mouth?

Once again I will set the record straight!

You’re not quoting and replying to something I’ve said or misrepresented. You are the one finding humor in the false narrative that President Trump stormed off.

Pointing out once again when you or others here continually get it wrong is not me defending President Trump, it’s simply me pointing out that you are wrong again!

You weren’t even responding to someone with your “hot take” regarding the Leslie Stahl interview......just you slinging your poo against the wall to see if it would stick!

Then when I provide the documented TRUTH, you respond with throat tightening and we’ve seen him walk off before???

I haven’t mentioned or referenced some previous interview, all I did was correct your inadequate take on how the 60 Minutes interview ended.

Why would you post something NOT TRUE then act offended when someone points it out?

All I’ve done is respond like a rational mature adult and I haven’t belittled or attacked anyone simply because they believe something different than myself. Most importantly, I’ve treated those here at SYG with respect......wether you consider me your friend or not!

[h8kurdt]

If a person who has a pattern of walking off from interviews is seen doing the same again it's generally leading towards the idea that he is cutting an interview short. Which he was. That's all there is to it and we'll leave it at that.
I'm far from offended by you showing your narrative. In fact, I find it funny.

And continually get it wrong? Please waste your time and show where any of us have continually got it wrong about trump being a thin-skinned, angry mutant who can't stand criticism in any form.

[h8kurdt]

Anyway, if you could go back to ranting about Hunter Biden's laptop that'd be great. Seems like that story has gone strangely cold. Shall we put it next to Obama's nationality, Hillary's emails (LOCK HER UP...please?), Obama's spygate. Stories that you spent god knows how many hours bleating about only to stop mentioning it because they turned out to be false narratives to keep you occupied.

[Bytor Peltor]

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

Anyway, if you could go back to ranting about Hunter Biden's laptop that'd be great. Seems like that story has gone strangely cold. Shall we put it next to Obama's nationality, Hillary's emails (LOCK HER UP...please?), Obama's spygate. Stories that you spent god knows how many hours bleating about only to stop mentioning it because they turned out to be false narratives to keep you occupied.

Don’t have time for such TRUTH right now, I’m currently on a five day golf vacation with my dad, brother and best friend. We started out in West Texas Monday, but the sleet and cold eventually drove back towards Montgomery County where the weather is cold but sunny. I’ll return home tomorrow afternoon for a weekend of Halloween and birthday parties. I’ve pretty much been absent from news and political shenanigans as A) it’s always nice to take a break and B) internet service can be spotty in the West Texas Hill Country.

The FBI has the laptop and the Hillary Clinton investigation is still ongoing, so don’t go anywhere!!!

[!@#$%!]

 

[h8kurdt]

Originally Posted by Robert Schunk

No, that's NOT misspelled! She's clearly asking "Why is there no two?", the implication being that she has only a Barbie doll to play with, and no Ken doll. She is apparently unaware of the fact that sales of Ken dolls plummeted with the introduction of G.I. Joe, and Barbie clearly preferred the man in uniform to the California beach bum!

Gotta quote this one. Sorry not sorry.

[Silver ✴ Rocket]

How can you accuse of others of lack of critical thinking but then turn a blind eye to the Biden's family association with corrupt companies and individuals and the communist regime?

[Silver ✴ Rocket]

And why don't you talk about policy...

e.g.
Joe Biden's and Kamala Harris' criminal justice record... are those fabrications too?

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by h8kurdt

Gotta quote this one. Sorry not sorry.

what does that mean though? is he having a stroke?

 

Originally Posted by igor ✴ putin

whataboutisms and crapola

 

[Silver ✴ Rocket]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

spam

You call others bots, but you're the one spamming threads and trying to suppress dialogue.

[Silver ✴ Rocket]

We are going the way of ending free speech and a free press, and you are all okay with it.

Nothing to see here.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by igor ✴ putin

dialogue.

 

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by igor ✴ putin

free speech

hilarious fabrications

[Silver ✴ Rocket]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

hilarious fabrications

Should we appoint you to the Ministry of Truth?