Politicians are being bought - and selling themselves, wholesale in Westminster. Corrupt and antidemocratic. And of course there will be a price to pay by all of us.
India is in the middle of its sprawling 6-week election season, where nearly a billion eligible voters will take part in the world’s largest democracy. Some of them will give their vote for a price. While bribing people to vote for candidates is illegal, India’s election commission says it has seized more than a billion dollars in cash, food, jewelry and other “freebie” inducements this year. NPR has more.
MSM needs to interview Independents too. Few will support the #Felon as the GOP presidential nominee, & most will likely support Pres Biden for president:
"Better late than never I guess. CNN did something that's been sorely lacking in the media these days, which is to talk to what's left of some of the sane voters in the Republican party who are disgusted with Trump and voted for Nikki Haley in the primary."
Just spotted this gem in the NYTimes on the court case from a true expert on 'democracy':
Mr. Putin last year called the various proceedings against Mr. Trump political “persecution” and said they had revealed the “rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy.”
His spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, reiterated the point on Friday in response to the verdict, saying it was clear to the entire world that the U.S. authorities were trying to eliminate political rivals “by all possible legal and illegal means.”
Israeli military recovers bodies of 7 hostages and pulls out of Jabalia area of Gaza due to widespread public outrage!!
Israeli forces have ended combat operations in the Jabalia area of north Gaza after destroying more than 10 kilometres of tunnels during days of intense fighting that included over 200 airstrikes.
This yearly celebration informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what WHO is doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people around the world can do to claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations.
Due to acute shortage of water in Delhi, government has imposed 2k fine for wasting water! Demand for water has peaked due to extreme weather conditions.
In all seriousness, I find that Trump supporters and Putin supporters are very alike, just like all supporters of far-right populist leaders everywhere, specifically in that they are: extremely ignorant, genuinely racist, and easily swayed by angry nationalistic rhetoric.
1/ Okay, while the Trump verdict has been very riveting, I'd like to talk about failure states in democracies for a bit.
Any stable democracy needs peaceful transfers of power. If a ruling government loses in an election and thus loses power, they are free to moan about it - but in the end, they should leave office without violence because (unless they screwed up bigly) they realize that they will likely return to power one day. They are invested in the system, and do not want to overthrow the basic democratic order of their country - because it works for them.
Thus, a country needs multiple parties with an investment in democracy, who are willing to form a government - but who are also willing to leave peacefully. If this is not the case, then the democracy in question is in a failure state.
An good (or rather, very very bad) example of a "proportional representation" democracy in a failure state was the late Weimar Republic. Starting in 1932, the NSDAP (Nazis) and the KDP (Communists) received a majority of the vote and thus representatives. Both wanted to overthrow the Republic and its democracy in its own way, and thus it became impossible to form a democratic government - let alone switch between different ones. But the Weimar Republic had problems in this regard even earlier, since there were numerous miniscule parties with only a very small number of candidates. They only cared about a small number of issues, had no motivation to compromise, and thus were not willing to join a working government.
This statement by #MAGAMike is disqualifying for the 2nd in line for the presidency. The rule of law is sacrosanct in America. House Dems shouldn’t save his speakership again. Speaker Johnson is lawless, & not worthy of serving in Congress. Ditto for the other traitors in the Senate & the House.
"TFG becomes first ex-president convicted of felonies in election fraud case."
-D Rothkopf
Jury in Donald Trump hush money trial has reached a verdict. No matter which way this goes, we can conclude one thing - Donald Trump has received a fair trial - No one in the Free world is above the law ...
The #UnitedStates is actively weighing whether to lift one of #POTUS#Biden’s longest-held precautionary measures of the #Ukraine war: a ban on the use of #US provided #weapons for offensive strikes inside #Russia.
The reassessment is a byproduct of Russia’s renewed cross-border assault on #Kharkiv, a chorus of pressure from #EU ofcls & a visit to Kyiv by Secy of State #Blinken that reinforced the peril facing Ukraine….
Each page yesterday took him just a little more than a minute, so this will take >30 mins.
Between that & the testimony readbacks, also expected to take >30 mins, there will likely be >1 hour this morning w/the jury in the courtroom, not actively deliberating.
Fucking hell; he will make millions on this #verdict from the chumps, the white supremacists, the angry, criminal, violent & privileged.
The #Trump campaign’s fundraising site, hosted by Republican fundraising platform Winred, is now back online & soliciting donations after crashing just minutes after today’s verdict. It bears Trump’s mugshot over the text “Never Surrender” & solicits donations ranging from $20.24 all the way to $3,300.