JK22

Det er bemerkelsesverdig at det ser ut til å være mangel på tradisjon for solidaritet i den russiske kulturen, dessuten hadde Putin arbeidet meget hardt med å slå ned enhver tilløp på selvstendig tenkning - selv barnefotballklubber kunne bli utsatt for hans politikk.

507,000 i bare ett år, og det er snakk om alvorlige skadde! Det er antatt at hvis det er under 400,000 døde og alvorlige skadde så langt, skulle jo "bare" 200,000 til 250,000 ha blitt ført inn på listen. Det er ikke rapporter om naturkatastrofer, økning i ulykker eller epidemier siden februar 2022 i selve Russland. Det er mulig at det er mørketall som skyldes senvirkninger og sykdom som har blitt registrert i de nye opplysningene i tillegg til de alvorlige skadde. Og det er notert at opplysninger om aldersgruppen 18-30 ikke er tatt inn.

John Roberts kan ha avfyrt et fatalt bunnskudd rett i skuta for republikanerne. Han hadde lenge vært frustrert over at lavere rettsinstanser kunne overstyre sentrale bestemmelser på svak grunnlag, og at det var mulig for saksøkerne å velge fritt blant dommerne for å finne den rette dommeren for egne preferanser. Dette kalles "judge shopping". Under diskvalifiseringssaken mot Trump var det observert en autoritær tendens hos Roberts som sikte på en sentraliseringsprosess, da han vil begrense andres fullmakter og tvinge gjennom et hierarkimessig system. Roberts er ikke bare høyesterettsjustitiarius for den føderale høyesteretten, han er også sjef for den toneangivende komiteen U.S. Judicial Conference sammen med dommer Jeff Sutton, formannen i komiteen. En gang hvert halvår finner den viktige konferansen sted, som skal bestemme hvordan dommerne skal praktisere sitt embeter, og hvordan rettsprosessene skal berammes med viktige regler. John Roberts Just Dropped the Hammer on Rogue, Lawless Trump Judges (msn.com) John Roberts Just Dropped the Hammer on Rogue, Lawless Trump Judges For more than a decade, conservative plaintiffs have been gaming the judiciary by filing lawsuits before a hard-right judge who’s guaranteed to rule in their favor. Worse, a handful of Republican-appointed judges have made a habit of issuing sweeping decisions that apply nationwide—hobbling the federal government, short-circuiting the democratic process, and transferring inconceivable amounts of power into the hands of a few unelected jurists. The Judicial Conference of the United States, which makes policy for the federal courts, finally struck a blow against this cynical gamesmanship on Tuesday, announcing a new rule to restore the random assignment of cases and close the loophole that lets plaintiffs hand-pick their judges. Det tok Roberts mange år, han startet arbeidet i 2021 - men nå er han nådd hans mål. Dette gjør McConnell så sinna at han ber dommere om å ignorere beslutningen. " - We can glean that under this rule, when somebody files a lawsuit in federal district court that challenges some kind of federal policy—specifically, if it seeks a nationwide injunction or other sweeping relief—it must be randomly assigned to any judge in that district. The lawsuit cannot simply be glued onto the one judge who happens to sit in the division of the district where the plaintiffs strategically filed to prevail in their case - " Sutton; “I actually think the story is about national injunctions. That’s been a new development, really in the last 10 years and maybe the last two or three administrations, where that has become a thing.” Dette satt han et halt på. " - Look at Kacsmaryk’s decision purporting to remove medication abortion from the shelves of every pharmacy and doctor’s office in all 50 states. That is just king-level arrogance. It is monarchic. It is czarist. It is transferring so much power away from Congress, from the executive, from the people, into the hands of this one guy in Amarillo - " Godt sagt, dette setter respekten for det amerikanske rettsvesenet i fare. Dommer Kacsmaryk var rett og slett helt sprø; det er mulig at det var embryosaken i Alabama som fikk komiteen til å sette ned foten. Republikanerne glemt at politikk og rett skulle skilles fra hverandre, og McConnell avslørt at han er demokratifiendtlig; All the worst people are throwing total hissy fits about this. Especially from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which reviews and upholds a lot of injunctions from Kacsmaryk and his disgraceful ilk. Judge James Ho, a Trump appointee, is complaining about it. Judge Edith Jones is complaining about it. Josh Blackman wrote multiple semi-coherent rants about it. None of these people have been able to raise a single, even mildly plausible defense of the current system. All they can do is whine and gripe about the Judicial Conference allegedly overstepping its bounds and making policy. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell himself, from the floor of the Senate, delivered a screed against this policy, calling it an “unforced error” and also encouraging district courts to defy the Judicial Conference’s authority and ignore the new policy. McConnell actually sent a letter to the chief judge of every district court in the country, co-signed by GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, encouraging them to disregard the policy, basically saying it’s illegal. So we’re seeing Republicans telling courts to defy the chief justice of the United States and his ultimate authority as head of the entire Article III judiciary. We might see an intra-war branch within Article III between judges who accept the policy and judges who don’t. Dette er ikke i tråd med amerikansk lov. Konferansen er lovrammet med basis i 28 U.S. Code § 331 som gjør den ansvarlig for den amerikanske rettsordningen siden 1922, og er det viktigste arvet etter William Taft, en politiker som klarte å gjøre det umulige kunststykket ved å være president i 1909-1913 og deretter høyesterettsjustitiarius for den føderale høyesteretten i 1921-30, som i likhet med Earl Warren er legendarisk. Taft var en sterk forkjemper for institusjonalisering av det amerikanske rettsvesenet, og som Roberts anså som hans viktigste inspirasjonsfigur. Artikkel 3 er det tredje grunnlovstillegget av 1789-konstitusjonen som regulere det føderale rettssystemet. Med dette har Roberts og Sutton satt et halt for republikanernes underminerende taktikk gjennom bruk av korrupte dommere for å fremme uaksepterte prosedyrer og stoppeordrer. Congressional Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York have long criticized "judge-shopping." In a statement after the new policy was announced, Schumer said the practice “has given MAGA-right plaintiffs the ability to hijack and circumvent our federal judiciary by targeting courts that would all but guarantee a handpicked MAGA-right judge who would rule in their favor,” he said in a statement this week after the new policy was announced. Nå er det forbudt for saksøkerne å velge ut deres egne dommere, som nå skal velges helt tilfeldig for fremtidige rettsaker i tråd med eldre praksis som var respektert (stort sett) fram til 2010-årene. Ikke minst fordi det har vært en meget seriøs belastning på rettsvesenet fordi dommerne måtte stadig går i vegen for hverandre. Litt mer her; A crackdown on this key judicial loophole has three Republicans telling on themselves (msn.com) On Tuesday, the little-known Judicial Conference of the United States — the policymaking arm of the federal judiciary — made some unusual headlines by announcing a new effort to make it harder for plaintiffs in certain lawsuits challenging state or federal policies to hand-pick the specific judge who hears their case. This crackdown on “judge shopping” is long overdue. It has also provoked a rather telling reaction from Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz and Thom Tillis. In a letter to the chief judges of all 94 federal district courts on Thursday, the senators urged those jurists to ignore the new policy — which they laid at the feet of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — because, in their view, these judges should ignore “partisan battles in Washington, D.C.” But it’s judge shopping itself, not efforts by the judiciary to rein it in, that have become a “partisan battle.” The McConnell/Cruz/Tillis letter, ironically, only drives that point home. By way of background, every state has at least one federal district court; some states have as many as four — staffed by somewhere between two and 28 active judges (along with “senior” judges, many of whom still hear cases). To help ensure that litigants don’t have to travel too far to reach their nearest federal courthouse, district courts are further subdivided — so that, in Texas, for instance, the four district courts have a total of 27 divisions. Because of these variations, district courts have long been left to their own devices to decide how to divide cases. And in some parts of the country, especially Texas, the result has been to allow a single judge to hear every case filed in a particular division. Although this reality isn’t new, plaintiffs have increasingly taken advantage of these “single-judge” divisions to steer nationwide federal policy challenges to specific, ideologically sympathetic judges. For example, the nationwide challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone (one of two drugs used in the most common and safest abortion procedure) was filed in Amarillo, Texas — not a courthouse with any specific connection to mifepristone, but one in which it had a 100% chance of being assigned to a certain Trump-appointed district judge, former anti-abortion advocate Matthew Kacsmaryk. Kacsmaryk remarkably, if predictably, ruled against the FDA’s approval of the drug — an approval that occurred 23 years ago. A nationwide challenge to Biden administration efforts to combat social media disinformation was filed in Monroe, Louisiana — where it had a 100% chance of being assigned to Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty. And the state of Texas, which has filed 37 different lawsuits in Texas district courts challenging Biden administration policies, has filed a majority of them in single-judge divisions — and none in Austin (where the Texas government is actually located) or Houston or Dallas or … you get the point. The problem quickly became evident: Many of these cases were being filed in these remote jurisdictions entirely because it allowed the plaintiffs to hand-pick the specific judges who would hear them. Indeed, Texas publicly conceded that it was filing challenges in immigration cases in the Victoria division of the Southern District of Texas in order to draw Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton. Even if the rules didn’t specifically prohibit exploiting the process this way, its repeated abuse became especially visible when two of the judges at issue — Tipton and Kacsmaryk — loudly rejected requests to transfer cases that had been shopped to them. Quietly, some courts changed their case assignment rules. And some judges in single-judge divisions, like Judge Jeff Brown in Galveston, changed their local rules to require litigants to provide some justification for why a lawsuit with no obvious geographic tie to that division was nevertheless filed there. But these reforms were scattershot. Bigger changes required intervention at a higher level. Enter the Judicial Conference, which includes, by statute, 26 judicial members (including the chief judge of each of the 13 federal circuit courts of appeals). Chief Justice John Roberts presides over the body. As the conference’s website notes, it “convenes twice a year to consider administrative and policy issues affecting the federal court system, and to make recommendations to Congress concerning legislation involving the Judicial Branch.” Reflecting the tenure and age requirements for chief circuit judges, 15 of the conference’s 26 current members were appointed by President George W. Bush (10 of the other 11 were appointed by President Barack Obama; one was appointed by President Bill Clinton). Against that backdrop, the charge from McConnell, Cruz and Tillis that the Judicial Conference is engaged in “partisan” behavior rings more than a little hypocritical. The whole point of the proposal is to reduce the appearance of partisanship on the part of the federal courts. Randomly assigning judges isn’t partisan. To take the Northern District of Texas as an example, 10 of its 11 active judges were appointed by Republican presidents, along with five of the six senior judges currently hearing cases. Thus, under the Judicial Conference’s proposal, a nationwide challenge to a federal policy filed in Amarillo would still have a roughly 90% chance of being assigned to a Republican appointee; the proposal just dramatically lowers the odds of which Republican appointee it will be. So why are these three Republican senators so upset by the proposed reform? The answer is obvious: because it will make it harder to guarantee that specific judges will hear specific lawsuits — whether individual Republican appointees hearing challenges to Democratic policies, or vice versa. And a world in which such manipulation of the legal process is not just possible, but is a common occurrence, is a world in which the courts have already become the very fonts of partisan political behavior that these senators are purporting to decry — and that the Judicial Conference is correctly seeking to curb. Dette er så ANTIDEMOKRATISK som det kunne bli. Da er det ikke rart at Trump, hans MAGA, kristenfascistene og konspirasjonsgærningene hadde fri bane i GOP.

En verden som ikke lenge vestifiseres, fram til 2011 var vestifiseringsprosessen i full gang over hele verden, det var bred aksept for innføring av vestlige normer og skikker i en globalisert samfunnsutvikling, som bare motarbeides av den muslimske islamiseringen. Land etter land adoptere vestlige styremodeller, vestlige maktverktøyer og vestlige væremåter over hele verden som en fortsettelse av det vestlige hegemoniet siden midten av 1800-tallet. Det var kannibalske stammesamfunn i slutten på 1800-tallet som hadde blitt så vestifisert, at man først observert menneskekjøtt på tallerkener (!) for å realisere dette. Men det vestlige hegemoniet avhengiges av rivaliserende tendenser fra ledende land som USA, Storbritannia, Spania og Frankrike som Tyskland. Amerikanismen feidet til side all motstand og skape monokulturelle tendenser - som da ledet til motreaksjoner. Dessuten hadde nettet fulgt til at meget mange i ikke-Vesten for første gang kunne se hva de hadde, og hva det vestlige hegemoniet innbar. Da Irak-invasjonen hendt; var dette et sjokk - men det var forbigående. Det blir helt annerledes i mars 2011. Hele den ikke-vestlige verdenen var dypt rystet av den vestlige intervensjonen i Libya, forlangelsene mot Assad-regimet i Syria, fordrivelsen av Mubarak fra makten i Egypt og deretter omfattende misbruk av privilegier som med sanksjonsregimer, mot enhver som "ikke passe inn". Dessuten hadde finanskrisen kastet verden ut i en økonomisk selvgranskning, hvor det var konkludert med at man må satse på selvforsyning og økonomisk styrkning fremfor integrering. Kina etter Xi kom til makten i 2012 og India etter Modi kom til makten i 2014, valgt å satse på økonomi som en politisk styrkning på bekostning av vestlige interesser. "Det vestlige hykleriet" blir mer og mer merkbart, og etter hvert begynte land etter land å retirere ut av den vestlige sfæren. Nå er det vestlige hegemoniet under meget seriøs trussel for første gang på flere århundrer.

Media learns main reason why Germany does not supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles (msn.com) The key reason why German Сhancellor Olaf Scholz is actively opposing the supply of Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine may be connected with special features of the targeting system missiles. Source: European Pravda with reference to the t-online portal Details: The information which Scholz called "secret knowledge" at the latest debates on the Taurus missiles in the Bundestag was disclosed at the special meeting of the parliamentary defence committee on 11 March. At the meeting, Carsten Breuer, General Inspector of the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) made a 20-minute speech about the special features of these missiles. The main problem Breuer pointed out was that a huge amount of data and a special computer program only the Bundeswehr has are needed for this missile to be used efficiently. In case Germany supplied Ukraine with Taurus it would no longer have access to these systems itself and would significantly disrupt its own defence capability, as reported by t-online with reference to the participants of the meeting. The details of this system are classified, so the sources of t-online were not able to estimate how long it would take Berlin to recover. At the same time, there is a possibility to supply Kyiv with these missiles in a "reduced" format, without the targeting system. In this case Taurus would be a complement to less powerful British cruise missiles Storm Shadow. "After Beuer’s speech the public went silent. Even those who always make loud demands this time had no questions," t-online reported. Another participant of the meeting stated that the speech made him reconsider his positions on supplying Ukraine with cruise missiles. Earlier, Scholz publicly gavedifferent reasons for why Germany refused to supply Ukraine with Taurus missiles – from avoiding a possible escalation and involvement in the war with Russia to being concerned that the missiles would be used to strike Moscow. David Cameron, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UK, stated that London was considering all options, including the exchange of the Taurus for British Storm Shadow missiles in order to provide Ukraine with long-range armament. Herregud... så det er ikke politiske eller tekniske årsaker; det er rett og slett en våpendoktrinefeil. Her hadde tyskerne skreddersydd et våpensystem så sterkt, at de har skapt en "catch 22", et logisk dilemma der man kom ut for sine egne regler eller begrensninger. De kan ikke sende Taurus-missiler fordi de har et computersystem som er for sterkt integrert med de tyske spesifikasjoner, og må fjernes - da vil de ikke være annet enn Storm Shadow-kloner, og hvis disse skulle havne i hender på russerne ved feil eller vrakfunn, kan dette sette den tyske bruk av Taurus i stor risiko.

Enig; og jeg tror at det ikke bare er de savnede som ikke kunne redegjøres, men også de mange stridende som hadde blitt drept uten at de var tatt inn i listene som da det kom en innrømmelse fra Hamas om at over 6,000 hadde blitt drept. Jeg tror det nå er mellom 40,000 og 50,000 drepte og savnede. De store sivile tapene hadde jeg tidlig forklart i et eldre innlegg, det skyldes simpelt at man angrep der militante oppholdt seg sammen med sine familier. Det er også voksende mistanke om at meget mange angrep var ikke forsvarlig, som hadde kunne gjennomføres pga. et AI-program omkring målutvelging. "Helikopterangrepet" på Kuwait-rundkjøringen synliggjøre faren ved å rykke inn i Rafah, ettersom armerte sivilister var observert i menneskemengder uten å skille seg ut, og at disse er svært skruppelløst ved å drepe sitt egne folk som var i gang med å plyndre mat. Dette var sett før; i 1993 hadde militante skutt mot pakistanske FN-soldater som kalt inn amerikanske kamphelikoptre som skjøt mot militante som var sammen med meget mange uvæpnede sivilister, flere hundre ble meiet ned - flere dusin var funnet døde. Det var i Mogadishu, Somalia. De militante hadde på mange steder tvunget sivilister med seg som skjold, og mange av sivilistene var med på å hjelpe militante; det var sett meget mange ganger under Gaza-stridigheter fram til 2023 at sivilister og militante ofte var i felles mengder i stridsområder. At militante eller en forsvarende militærstyrke utgjør en fare for sitt egne folk, er ikke så uvanlig som en skulle tro; da tyskerne invaderte Belgia og Frankrike i 1940, var det oppdaget at belgiske og franske soldater kunne angripe sitt egne folk for å plyndre og drepe dem for egne vinning. Det var endog en massakre med flere dusin drepte, som hadde blitt hysjet ned i ettertiden. Jo mer ukontrollert, fragmentert og fanatisk, jo større vil faren være. Da tamiltigrene utryddes i mai 2009, hadde de myrdet hundrevis av sitt egne folk og regelrett pinet i hjel hundretusener som var blitt sjelløse brikker i øyne på de meste fanatiske militante som kunne skåret over strupen på småbarn for å sette skrekk på disse som skulle være under "beskyttelse". Et skrekkscenario kan være at Hamas militante vil utrydde alt levende rundt seg.

Det var fordi Putin hadde ganske dyktige økonomieksperter - og fordi han hadde satset meget sterkt på en selvforsyningsøkonomi siden 2014. Og det burde ikke glemmes at han har en unaturlig hell som er djevelsk i seg selv; ikke-Vesten støtter ham ved å kjøpe massevis av olje på rabatt samtidig som OPEC under kontroll av bin Salman som vil tvinge Trump tilbake til det hvite huset (Trump er korrupt og lett å kjøpe) har gjennomført omfattende oljekutt. Dessuten hadde Russland, som for bare tjue år siden var en importør av mat, blitt den største eksportør av hvete og annet i hele verden. Dette skyldes i virkeligheten klimaendringer fordi Russland var for kjølig; nå er det passe varmt nok. Putin har dessuten bygd opp et nettverk med systematisk korrupsjon, slik at store deler av Vesten ble lammet og utsatt for farefull manipulering - og det var med på å uthule sanksjonsregimet. Putins største hell først og fremst ligger i to steder: den europeiske maktelitens ufattelige inkompetanse og det republikanske partiets selvdestruktive atferd i USA. Men Putin har aldri brydd seg om langsiktige konsekvenser, og skiftet om til krigsøkonomi har nå fulgt til katastrofale tendenser som kan få det hele til å kollapse. Den russiske økonomien er dypt avhengig av olje, gass - og kunstgjødsel som eksportvarer. Det er bin Salman som alene opprettholde oljeprisnivået som nå er langt høyere enn etterspørselen slik at hele verden kastes ut i resesjon mens disse som har adgang på rabattolje fra Russland, Iran og Venezuela gjør det bedre - og her har India vunnet meget sterkt; på rekordtid hoppet den indiske økonomien rett opp uten stans. Modi er i likhet med Putin en landtyver, ettersom han annekterte Kashmir som fikk han inn i en grensekonflikt med Kina - og er IKKE en venn av Vesten. De to mennene sammen med Xi i Kina er blitt Putins redningsmenn. Fordi uten olje kan ikke Putin opprettholde krigsinnsatsen og holde ned folkelig misnøye nå som han har brukt opp alt som var spart i forveien. Vesten; på den andre siden, har mistet mange venner. Den ekstraterritoriale intervensjonsretten gjennom misbruk av de universelle menneskerettighetene som med Libya-intervensjonen, støtte til opprørsbevegelser i Syria og lovvedtak som Magnitskij-loven som muliggjøre ulovlige legale inngrep i et annet lovområde - som er folkerettslig forbudt - hadde gjort at mange regimer følt seg utsatt for Vesten, som i øyne på disse hadde "rablet helt" i februar-mars 2011. Gulfaraberne hadde dessuten valgt å trekke seg vekk, da de følte at den amerikanske anti-Assad stemningen var helt urasjonelt og da amerikanerne holdt i livet konflikten med Iran uten en rask avgjørelse. India som tidlig var lyttebart, hadde tatt en vending til det verste etter Modi - som var sanksjonert av USA kun på menneskerettighetsbrudd - overtok, og har vist seg å være mer og mer lik Kina før 2008 enn tidlig. Russlands korneksport: - Kunne sett ut som djevelen (dagbladet.no) Fram til 2022 var Ukraina den viktige korneksportør for afrikanske land, men Russland i 2024 er blitt den største i verden og med korn kunne Putin nå kommer i kontakt med afrikanere, spesielt Vest-Afrika som er dobbelt rammet av klimaendringer og islamistisk vold som hadde i øyne på mange oppstått gjennom Vestens dumhet omkring Libya, som hadde en stabiliserende virkning.

To artikler som burde leses; Seriously, how dumb is Trump? - Alternet.org Seriously, how dumb is Trump? My definition of stupidity is continuing to do something that has so far cost you a minimum of $91 million because you won’t stop doing it. In recent days, Trump has again publicly charged that E. Jean Carroll’s allegation of sexual abuse, for which he has been found liable in court, is “false.” When a jury last year found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll, Trump responded at a CNN town hall by defaming Carroll again. So when it came time earlier this year for another jury to decide what Trump owed Carroll in the second defamation lawsuit, her attorneys asked jurors to make sure it was enough to “make him stop.” The second jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million (which, with interest added in, is $91 million). But it apparently is still not enough to make Trump stop. Trump has just renewed his attacks on Carroll in much the same terms as before — claiming that she “made up” the story and that he had “never heard” of her. Unsurprisingly, Carroll’s attorney now suggests there could be a third lawsuit, because the previous verdict was obviously not enough to dissuade him from more defamation. I have to wonder why the mainstream media isn’t discussing Trump’s extraordinary stupidity. The media continues to discuss Trump’s criminal indictments, and is — finally! — noticing that Trump is becoming less and less coherent. But why isn’t it reporting on something almost every lawmaker and journalist in official Washington knows — that Trump is remarkably stupid? I don’t mean just run-of-the-mill stupid. I mean extraordinarily, off-the-charts, stupifyingly stupid. n December, Trump said his comments about immigrants “poisoning the blood” of America were not inspired by similar statements made by Adolf Hitler about Jewish people, because Trump “didn’t know anything” about Hitler. In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump explained that “I’m not a student of Hitler. I never read his works. They say that he said something about blood, he didn’t say it the way I said it either, by the way, it’s a very different kind of a statement.” The media interpreted this as Trump trying to backpedal from his Hitler-ish remark. But what if Trump in fact doesn’t know anything about Adolf Hitler? After all, he recently claimed that magnets don’t work in water, that the Civil War was unnecessary because it should have been “negotiated,” and that no one would know who Lincoln was if he hadn’t gone to war. Still don’t believe Trump is stupid? Consider the views of the people who worked most closely with him during his presidency. Anyone remember when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a “f—---- moron?” Or when National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster called him a “dope?” And Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, and even Rupert Murdoch all referred to Trump as an “idiot?” (Technically, Murdoch called him a “f—---- idiot.”) Trump’s chief economic adviser Gary Cohn described Trump as “dumb as s---,” explaining that “Trump won’t read anything — not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored.” When one of Trump’s campaign aides tried to educate him about the Constitution, Trump couldn’t focus. “I got as far as the Fourth Amendment,” the aide recalled, “before his finger is pulling down on his lip and his eyes are rolling back in his head.” Of course, Trump doesn’t think he’s stupid. “Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart,” he tweeted. As he recounted, “I went to an Ivy League college … I did very well. I’m a very intelligent person.” Trump wasn’t exactly an academic star, however. One of his professors at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Finance purportedly called Trump “the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.” Trump biographer Gwenda Blair wrote in 2001 that Trump was admitted to Wharton on a special favor from a “friendly” admissions officer who had known Trump’s older brother. But hold on. I ask myself: How could Trump have become president, and now clinch the Republican nomination for the presidency for a third time, if he doesn’t have something in the brain bank? Even if Trump doesn’t read, can’t follow a logical argument, and has the attention span of a fruit fly, I keep believing he must have some intelligence. Well, it turns out there’s another form of intelligence, called “emotional intelligence.” Emotional intelligence is a concept developed by two psychologists, John Mayer of the University of New Hampshire and Yale’s Peter Salovey, and popularized by Dan Goleman in his 1996 book of the same name. Mayer and Salovey define emotional intelligence as the ability to do two things: “understand and manage our own emotions,” and “recognize and influence the emotions of others.” True, Trump hasn’t displayed much capacity for the first. He’s thin-skinned, narcissistic, and vindictive. As dozens of Republican foreign policy experts have put it: “He is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood. He does not encourage conflicting views. He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate criticism." Okay, but what about Mayer and Salovey’s second aspect of emotional intelligence — influencing the emotions of others? This is where Trump’s brain outperforms the brains of ordinary mortals. He knows how to manipulate people. He has an uncanny ability to discover their emotional vulnerabilities — their fears, anxieties, prejudices, and darkest desires — and use them for his own purposes. To put it another way, Trump is an extraordinarily talented conman. I believe he’s always been a conman. He conned hundreds of young people and their parents into paying to attend his nearly worthless Trump University. He conned banks into lending him more money even after he repeatedly failed to pay them. He conned contractors to work for him even with a well-deserved reputation for stiffing them. He’s been an even greater political conman. In November 2016, he conned 62,979,879 Americans into voting for him, getting them to believe his lies about Mexicans, Muslims, African Americans, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and all the “wonderful,” “beautiful” things he’d do for the people who’d support him. And now he’s conned most Republican voters into believing his utterly baseless claim that he won the 2020 election. Political conning is Trump’s genius. This genius — combined with utter stupidity in every other dimension — poses the clearest and most terrifying danger to America and the world. Trump sneakers and the MAGA uniform: Merchandising fascism to the mainstream (msn.com) Trump sneakers and the MAGA uniform: Merchandising fascism to the mainstream Donald Trump is basically a political cult leader. His MAGA followers are his flock. A cult has the following features: It is a collective unhealthy relationship where individuals lose their sense of self to the larger group and where those new relationships supersede the other, presumably, more healthy relationships in a person’s life. In essence, the former person is replaced by the new cult identity. In this model, the cult leader exerts undue and harmful influence over the members. They, in turn, sacrifice their well-being and autonomy in service to the leader's wants and needs. In addition to emotional and psychological abuse, the cult leader usually engages in physical violence (including sexual abuse) and financial exploitation. Donald Trump has apparently directly engaged in or encouraged all these behaviors to varying degrees. In a 2020 conversation with me here at Salon, Steven Hassan, who is a leading authority on the psychology of cults explained: * Donald Trump fits the stereotypical profile of all destructive cults. These traits include malignant narcissism. Trump can easily be compared to Jim Jones, Sun Myung Moon, and other cult leaders. Trump always had a cult of personality around him in terms of his businesses and his social interactions with people. But once Trump attained the presidency, he took over the Republican Party and instituted a fiefdom where he rewards loyalty and punishes anyone who displeases him. * As for definitions, a "destructive cult" is an authoritarian pyramid-structured group with someone at the top who claims to know all things and says God is working through him or her. Trump does that as well. Donald Trump is also trying to control people's behavior, the information they have access to, and their thoughts and emotions, to make them dependent and obedient and under his control. Consider the novel coronavirus pandemic and how Trump has all these followers who do not trust real experts and only take what Trump says to be true. Trump's followers also don't believe in science and medicine. For decades, Donald Trump has shown himself to be especially adept and skilled at financially exploiting his followers and public through fraud and other such criminal behavior. In keeping with how he is a type of professional wrestling “heel” (villain), Trump is a type of confidence man huckster right out of “carnie” culture. This “Trump merchandise industrial complex” has proven to be very lucrative and likely worth many millions of dollars. The Trump merchandise empire is part of a larger fundraising operation where the corrupt ex-president’s followers have given him many tens of millions of dollars. Trump, who claims to be a billionaire, is soliciting his MAGA people to give him money that will be used for his legal defense and fines in his civil case (that at this point now total almost 500 million dollars). There is even a GoFundMe started by one of Trump’s loyalists to aid in his legal defense. On an almost daily basis, Donald Trump and his campaign send out emails – sometimes several emails in one day – announcing the newest Trump merchandise, which his followers are encouraged to buy as a show of love for the Dear Leader. Like any fake “collectibles” business model, the goal is to produce an endless supply of items so that there is always something new, valuable, and more exclusive than the previous item. For example, on Tuesday, Trump sent out an email proudly announcing a new “limited edition gold MAGA hat!”. The day before, Trump announced a new “exclusive” membership card: " - I wanted to reach out to you personally to let you know that I’ve launched a prestigious membership program. This membership is exclusive and spots are running out… My Official Trump Gold Card is the key to unlocking your membership. It's METAL! - " The Trump merchandise machine is infinite. On Thursday, as I was writing this essay, I received an email announcing a new "limited edition" Trump MAGA hat — this time in black and white. Trump is always selling special and “exclusive” trips to visit him at his Mar-a-Lago headquarters, as well as special “top secret” videos for his most loyal followers. And as though he is some type of saint or other holy man, Trump, who has declared himself “chosen by God” and a type of fascist messiah and prophet whose quest to take back the White House is preordained, is even selling pieces of the suit he wore during one of his criminal arraignments. And, of course, there are the Donald Trump sneakers, cologne, flags, stickers, NFT superhero trading cards and a seemingly endless variety of other merchandise. Those outside of the MAGAverse and TrumpWorld laugh at Trump’s followers for being “stupid” because they give him money for such “junk”. Moreover, that the MAGA people would do such a thing is more proof of how “gullible” they are. The liberal schadenfreude in the Age of Trump knows no limits; liberal schadenfreude may feel good for those who bask in it, but it does and has done little to nothing to stop Donald Trump and the American neofascists and their assaults on democracy and freedom. If anything, Donald Trump and his MAGA people and the other neofascists feed off the disapproval and condemnation. This signals a large failing of too many Democrats, liberals, progressives, and especially the professional centrists and hope peddlers in the mainstream news media and political class, even after more than seven years of experience in the Trumpocene. Too many still do not understand the power of emotion and identity in fascism and other forms of fake right-wing populism. These are political movements and belief systems – and in the case of Trump and the MAGA movement, they are best understood as charismatic personality cults – that exist outside of normal politics and its idealized assumptions about rational voters who act out of material self-interest. Trumpism, like fascism more broadly, is first and foremost a type of corrupt power. Fascism is not an ideology per se. It is an imagination based upon rage, anger, hatred, and where violence and destruction are viewed as legitimate if not preferred means of getting and keeping revolutionary power. Sadopolitics, necropolitics, the cult of personality and the will to power cohere the fascist imagination. In total, fascism is a force that gives its followers a sense of personal and collective meaning as they engage in violence and other forms of harm and suffering against “the enemy.” In many ways, fascism and other such political projects are “identity” politics in some of its worst forms. Donald Trump and his MAGA merchandise and assorted regalia are a way of creating meaning and a sense of belonging – and of identifying one’s place in the hierarchy of that fascist movement and subculture relative to the Dear Leader and his or her own inner circle. In that way, the MAGA merchandise functions as a type of fascist uniform. Are Trump’s sneakers “ugly” and an offense to the sneaker collecting subculture? Sure. But Trump’s MAGA people don’t care. Trump’s sneakers sold out almost immediately upon their release. Trump’s hats and other clothing have been mocked as being “cheap looking” and “tacky.” OK. But again, Trump’s MAGA people don’t care. The MAGA people continue to buy these things because they make them feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves. Are the MAGA people who purchased “Trump Bucks” because they thought they were real money and an “investment” gullible and apparently not very bright? Absolutely. But they will remain loyal to Donald Trump even though they were defrauded online by people who took advantage of their love for him. Business Insider provides these details: Supporters of former President Donald Trump are reportedly being scammed out of thousands of dollars through the sale of commemorative "Trump Bucks" that fraudsters say can be exchanged for real cash. Several companies are allegedly using advertising tactics including creating AI-generated videos of Trump…. to claim the worthless "Trump Bucks" will make them rich, according to a new report from NBC News. Some of the people who bought the Trump memorabilia have attempted to exchange it for real US dollars at banks, and told NBC News that bank employees are reporting it as a growing issue. Several companies have been identified for marketing and selling the false currency, NBC News reported, including a number of businesses seemingly based in Colorado with names like Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future, and USA Patriots. "President Trump wants you to finally open your eyes and believe in his power for a better tomorrow!" reads a banner message on one of the sites advertising a "TRB Black Card," which sells as a single card for $90 or packs of up to 10 cards for $500. As we try to escape the Trumpocene, fortunately, there are a few sharp voices and guides who correctly understand the power of emotion and identity and its role in the Trump MAGA fascist subculture and larger American (and global) fascist movement. We should listen very closely to these guides. In a very insightful essay at the Conversation, anthropologist Alexander Hinton traveled to this year’s CPAC event to better understand the enduring (and alluring) power (and dangers) of Trumpism and the MAGA subculture: "- Everywhere I turned, people wore MAGA regalia – hats, pins, logos and patches, many with Trump's likeness. I spent breaks in the exhibition hall, which featured a Jan. 6 insurrection-themed pinball machine featuring "Stop the Steal," "Political Prisoners" and "Babbitt Murder" rally modes and a bus emblazoned with Trump's face. Admirers scribbled messages on the bus such as, "We have your back" and "You are anointed and appointed by God to be the President." Those on the left who dismiss the CPAC as a gathering of MAGA crazies and racists who support a wannabe dictator do not understand that, from this far-right perspective, there are compelling and even urgent reasons to support Trump. Indeed, they believe, as conservative politician Tulsi Gabbard stated in her CPAC speech on Feb. 22, that the left's claims about Trump's authoritarianism are "laughable." This is because CPAC attendees falsely perceive President Joe Biden as the one who is attacking democracy. -" At the New York Times, Vanessa Friedman locates Trump’s “Never Surrender sneakers” and other such merchandise relative to late-stage capitalism (what philosopher Nany Fraser has brilliantly described as “cannibal capitalism”), criminogenic politics, an American pathocracy, and a culture experiencing a deep crisis of meaning, community, and shared values that is “amusing itself to death”: '' - [T]he $399 Never Surrender sneakers unveiled over the weekend at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia? They are like a road map to Mr. Trump’s value system and electoral strategy in sartorial form. Gilded hightops as shiny as the chandeliers at Mar-a-Lago, they have an American flag wrapping the ankle like the forest of flags that spring up behind Mr. Trump whenever he takes a stage. They have red soles made to match his trademark red ties (and the flag) and perhaps as a sly nod to Christian Louboutins and the semiology of luxury footwear. Also, there’s a large embossed “T” on the side and on the tongue. While they are “bold, gold and tough, just like President Trump,” according to the Trump sneakers website, allowing potential owners to “be a part of history,” they boast zero technical performance attributes. While they have a shape similar to Nike Air Force 1s (get it? Air Force One!), they are unabashed imitations of the original…. Yet the merching of the moment is more dangerous than it may initially appear. There has been a lot of eye-rolling since the sneakers’ debut, and jokes about the fact that, given the millions of dollars in penalties levied on Mr. Trump in his various civil cases, he has to make more money somewhere. And there was a lot of focus on the boos that met his appearance at Sneaker Con. (To be fair, the sneakerhead community is not the market for the kicks since there’s nothing original about them; it’s the MAGA market.) It’s easy to get distracted by the sheer absurdity of it all — a former president, selling sneakers! - " Friedman concludes: " - Despite the fact that, as of Sunday, the website claimed that the 1,000 pairs of numbered Never Surrender sneakers had sold out, leaving the somewhat less exciting T-Red cherry knit sneaks and Potus 45 white knit sneaks available at $199 each, it’s hard to imagine a circumstance in which the shoes provide any meaningful source of income. What they offer is something else. Like Mr. Trump’s tendency to turn every courtroom appearance into a form of entertainment that can be used as a campaign op, his effort to commoditize his legal jeopardy is a long-term strategic play. In reducing his indictments to a slogan on a consumer good, he is reducing their gravity. It’s a form of insidious trivialization, the sort of tactic that plays perfectly in the landscape of late-stage capitalism in which everything is a product for sale. Oh, those old federal charges? They’re not serious; they’re a style choice. He’s transforming indictments into accessories, a language everyone speaks. The more product he sells, the more he makes a mockery of his situation. That’s where the real profit lies. - " Writing at the Nation, Chris Lehmann uses President Biden’s State of the Union address and the Trump regalia worn by some of the Republicans in attendance as a way of assessing the power of the MAGA movement: - The stable of imagery associated with the right-wing Trump insurgency is showing signs of wear and tear. Where Trump-branded messaging and merchandise once had the power to upend establishment mores and expectations, they now feel like the political equivalent of a rock ensemble’s county fair tour: a purely formalist effort to satisfy the nostalgic longings of a diminishing fan base. What was most telling about Greene’s stunt wardrobe was the date on the hat: Instead of being minted for the looming 2024 general election, it came from Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, which—despite the lies of Trump, Greene, and other MAGA leaders— he lost decisively. And make no mistake: Greene, a perfect specimen of do-nothing right-wing congressional service, lives for these camera-ready moments of political theater. She certainly didn’t descend to the same level of sartorial carelessness back when she dressed as a Chinese spy balloon. Amazingly, Greene’s get-up wasn’t even the most outlandish clothes-themed show of MAGA sympathies in the chamber. That honor fell to Texas Representative Troy Nehls, who wore a “Never Surrender” T-shirt featuring Trump’s mugshot and displayed a Laken Riley badge of his own on his lapel. To pull the look together, he sported an American flag bow tie. The outfit didn’t evoke a fearless mustering of Real American patriots so much as a Chippendale dancer gone to seed. - Lehman continues: - “Liberal commentators were put off by the vulgar display—which, of course, was part of the point. Democratic detractors of the hat typically fixated on the hypocrisy of its manufacture—like other Trump gear, it was made at least in part from materials sourced in China, the great bogeyman of Trumpian trade tirades and economic-nationalist appeals. But such caviling overlooked the broader, and pointedly inclusive, nature of the Trump campaign’s iconography. Where liberal critics read MAGA regalia as divisive and insular, it actually represented a welcoming gesture from the leaders of a right-wing movement who formerly telegraphed their ideological purity, during the Tea Party’s heyday, by cosplaying as colonial revolutionaries. But just as Trumpism itself has curdled into a brackish series of glosses on its founding resentments, the MAGA aesthetic has gone sour.” - Donald Trump is 77 years old. He will not be the leader of the MAGA movement and the American neofascist cause forever. But in their obsessive focus on Donald Trump the man and the leader, the mainstream news media and the country’s mainstream political class have overlooked how he represents a force, a type of permission structure for authoritarianism and other antidemocratic values and beliefs that will far outlive him. The Trump merchandise empire will inevitably end but that energy will be transferred to the next Great Leader. At this point, MAGA is a brand, and like most lucrative brands, there will be someone waiting to leverage it for their own purposes. Disse to artikler forteller hvor farlig Trump er, og at han har framskapt noe meget farefullt som må nøytraliseres. Ettersom Trump er 77 år gammel, har man allerede sett at flere har begynte med å manøvrere seg inn i plassen etter ham - en av disse er James David Vance (JD Vance) som en Politico-artikkel har avslørt er enda mer radikalt. Is There Something More Radical than MAGA? J.D. Vance Is Dreaming It. - POLITICO “For me, this is not a limited-government thing — this is a democracy thing. Like, you need the bureaucracy to be responsive to the elected branches of government,” he said. “The counterargument is, you know, ‘Aren’t you promoting a constitutional crisis?’ And my response is no — I’m recognizing a constitutional crisis. If the elected president says, ‘I get to control the staff of my own government,’ and the Supreme Court steps in and says, ‘You’re not allowed to do that’ — like, that is the constitutional crisis. It’s not whatever Trump or whoever else does in response. When the Supreme Court tells the president he can’t control the government anymore, we need to be honest about what’s actually going on.” There is a lot that the country still doesn’t know about J.D. Vance, but as I walked away from our final conversation, I realized that Vance had just told me what kind of leader he aspires to be. Charles de Gaulle was prepared to transform his country’s entire constitutional system to preserve what he believed to be the essence of his beloved nation. So is J.D. Vance. Det aller siste USA trenger er en mann som sier "Amerika, det er meg!" i de Gaulle-tradisjon. Vance her avslørt at man aktet å bryte 1789-konstitusjonen "for å redde Amerika".

Demokratene er nederlagsdømt. It Will Take More than a Bench for Democrats to Win. They Need a Major Course Correction Those who argue for replacing Biden with a younger, more vital candidate—Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, for example—solve only half of the problem: Democrats increasingly Left-wing economic, social and foreign policies have proven very unpopular with voters. The 2022 issues of abortion and Trump's looming presence in the midterms eclipsed this reality and intoxicated Democratic elites into believing they should stay the course, despite mounds of polling evidence to the contrary. Let's take the first of these two problems: the candidate himself. The New York Times/Sienna poll shows 61 percent of voters don't believe Biden has the needed mental capacity for a second term. That surely reflects more than just the incoherent, unscripted public meanderings (which we saw again in Pennsylvania last week), or Biden's allusions to his recent conversations with dead French and German leaders. Voter concern is not just about an occasional verbal hiccup. Rather, the deeply and widely held unease is more about whether there is a steady hand at the helm, particularly in an increasingly unstable world. For example, it was nearly three years ago when Biden insisted that his national security team agreed with his total withdrawal from Afghanistan. But his senior advisers then testified before Congress they disagreed. A skeletal team of 5,000 troops could have kept President Hamid Karzai afloat, prevented the Taliban's tyrannical takeover and Al Qaeda's return there. In public interviews, Biden didn't appear to be aware of this crucial fact. This segues into the next problem for Democrats: policy. In recent years, the Democratic party has ceded policymaking to the intersectional Left, which tirelessly insists on identity politics, statism, and the abandonment of strong deterrence on the global stage—philosophies fundamentally out of step with most voters. Prominent liberal writers Bari Weiss, Ruy Teixeira, and others point to the culture of illiberalism and intolerance of dissent that enforces the resulting self-defeating groupthink. Public opinion surveys have consistently pointed to the unpopularity of Biden's open borders' policy on immigration; 70-80 percent of voters disapprove. It's no wonder: Eight million unassimilated, largely economic migrants continue the downward pressure on working class wages—something white, Black and Hispanic working voters know too well. Biden could fix this today with the stroke of a pen, but he doesn't for fear of offending the parties far-Left activists who represent about six percent of voters. Or take the economy; Biden inherited a recovering economy, albeit supply-constrained, but pushed dreamy-eyed Rooseveltian and Keynesian deficit spending, now responsible for over $2 trillion in annual deficits, that was more appropriate for recession economy. Starting with the profligate American Rescue Plan, the spending spree effectively dumped trash bags of unneeded cash into our economy. Many if not most of the resulting jobs created were either COVID-rebound jobs or government-funded, and voters know that the resulting inflation robbed them of income during the Biden presidency. Bipartisan infrastructure legislation surely had its merits, but much of the authorized building hasn't even gotten off the ground. Clean energy is badly needed, but the EV fiascos in the U.S. and Europe have many auto makers now running away from future investments amid huge economic losses and unsold EVs piling up on the dealership lots. For the most part, it's only the self-congratulatory beltway elites that discuss things like "legislative accomplishments" during their Chardonnay hours; most voters know they didn't lose income under Trump as they did under Biden. The patronage politics of student loan giveaways reinforce the negative images of elitism and welfare statism, instead of a more meaningful plan to grow the economy in a way that helps working class voters—the largest single voting block, which Republicans own today despite Democrats telling us they represent working people. Similarly, the constant pandering on race issues is also failing. Axios reports this week that non-white voters are abandoning the party in record numbers. Democratic positions on affirmative action and school choice are also increasingly unpopular with Black voters, who are much more moderate than Democratic elites. Finally, on foreign affairs, America's critical role in global deterrence has clearly cratered, much to voters dismay. Say what you will about the erratic Trump years, Putin didn't invade anywhere during his presidency, Iran was largely contained, the breakthrough Abraham Accords brought historic peace to the Mideast, and China wasn't nearly as belligerent on Taiwan or in the South China Sea. We had no Afghanistan-like embarrassments, and there were no failed appeasement strategies on Iran (which started with Obama and continued with Biden), which clearly failed to contain Hamas, the Houthis and other Iranian terrorist surrogates. Does this mean I've totally given up on the Democrats? No; it means that I believe the Democrats have to return to what worked so well for them in the past: economic growth rather than statism and over-regulation, equal opportunity rather than "equity", legal rather than illegal immigration, and global deterrence with moral clarity rather than appeasement and both-sides-isms. I was one of the first to argue that while Biden has had a distinguished career, he may be the only candidate who can't beat Trump and should pass the baton (he still can). For sure, Democrats have a bench—Senators like John Tester, Joe Manchin, and Shapiro, all of whom possess vigor and common-sense centrism in line with voting majorities. But it will take more than a bench if Democrats want to win in 2024. It will take a major course correction. Julian Epstein was Democratic Chief Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee and Staff Director to the House Oversight Committee. Interessant artikkel; men Epstein fattet ikke at den militære situasjonen i Afghanistan var katastrofalt før Biden kom inn i det hvite huset, slik at kollapsen bare kunne ha blitt unngått om en massiv intervensjon - som det ikke fantes politisk aksept for i Washington - var lansert tidsnok. Her hadde Trump 100 % ansvar for det som hendt, selv om Bidens håndtering var preget av pedantiske styring med en solid dose arroganse. Abrahamavtalene i virkeligheten fulgt til Hamaskrigen fordi "det palestinske spørsmålet" var ikke forsøkt løst, og dette fostre fram en desperasjon som måtte eksplodere i slutten. Iran var ikke "contained", den hadde løsnet seg fra lenkene som den hadde frivillig akseptert, som et resultat av Trumps uintelligente politikk og var allerede i full gang med å planlegge aggresjon i Midtøsten lenge før Trump tapte presidentvalget i 2020. Da araberne falt ut, gikk Iran sterkt inn - spesielt motivert av hevn mot amerikanerne og israelerne. Kinas aggressivitet mot Hong Kong startet i Trumptiden - det var i juni 2020 sikkerhetsloven for Hong Kong ble vedtatt, dette var grunnlaget for avslutningen på det selvstendige selvstyret. Biden rakk ikke engangs å bli varm i presidentstolen da den kinesiske overtagelsen fullbyrdes. Biden kom sterkt ut med hans støtte til Taiwan i kontrast til Trump, som flere republikanske hauker hadde vært meget dypt frustrert over, så forverrelsen hendt gjennom kinesisk ensidighet fremfor alt annet. Epstein ser ikke faktumet om at Iran er den sterkeste militærmakten i hele Midtøsten etter Israel og dermed ikke klarte å se den farefulle potensialiteten som i dag hadde tvunget Biden til å holde tilbake selv i møte med houthiene, som hadde forresten amerikansk moralstøtte pga. saudiarabernes hensynsløse bombeoffensiv med titusener av ofre. Men; han har rett i dette med at Biden ikke var en god president for det amerikanske folket på det økonomiske feltet fordi energikrisen, matpriskrisen (nå er matvarer basert på hvete svært billig pga. russisk produksjon) og deretter inflasjonen som skyldes en kombinasjon av uvettige overforbruk i året 2021 etter epidemien og krigen i Ukraina, hadde rammet amerikanerne sterkt, som ikke evnet å innse at dette er nye tider. Partilojalitet er ikke lenge hva det hadde vært; minoritetsvelgerne lekker ut, gradvis, men sikkert, de fargede er ikke lenge opptatt av rase og diskriminering, de har blitt opptatt av sosialstabilitet - for mange småbarn skytes ned - og konservative verdier fordi de har et sterkt behov for trygghet. Her hadde demokratene vist at de på mange steder var for snillistisk og for naiv. Latinos tiltrekkes av det kristenfascistiske budskapet - det er forresten nå mulig at nettbasert pornografi vil forsvinne i USA i fremtiden - og mange hadde sett seg lei på dreiningen langt til venstre, "woke" som i begynnelsen var velment, hadde åpnet for rødegardisttendenser i det yngre utdannede sjiktet av befolkningen - og dette i slutten støtter fra seg folk fremfor å lokke dem. Mange yngre som vil stemme demokratisk, eldes - og mange har gått ut i arbeid, hvor de deretter har et fokus på økonomisk overlevelse. Men - dessverre nok - hadde ikke demokratene justert ned på sin trofasthet mot nyliberalisme mens Trumps med hans løgner kunne overbevise folk med urealistiske forventninger. Bidens største feil er at han trodde man kunne betale seg ut som hans gigantiske støttepakkene vedtatt i 2021-22 var et eksempel på, fremfor å satse på reformer og økonomisk stabilitetstiltak - her var han ikke forskjellig fra 90 % av alle profesjonelle politikerne i USA. Det hendt i et galt tidspunkt, Putin hadde allerede før Trump tapte, bestemt seg for å angripe Ukraina og utløse energikrisen som opprettholdes med støtte av bin Salman som nekte å redusere oljeprisen og sendt verden ut i resesjon i 2022-23. Immigrasjonskrisen kom helt uventet på alle; samfunnsoppløsningsutviklingen i Latin-Amerika som skyldes organisert kriminalitet hadde blitt sterkere slik at enda flere valgt å flykte, og det skipes inn et lite, men voksende og meget ressurskrevende immigranter fra andre kontinenter. Nå er det slikt at det skapes skremselstilstander selv om det i virkeligheten er snakk om nærkulturelle folk fra det samme kontinent som dem selv, og meget mange klarte ikke å innse at arbeidsmarkedet i USA eksisterer på tilgang på arbeidsvillige immigranter. Det kommer de til å merke om Trump skulle deportere flere millioner immigranter. Epstein leser ikke hele bildet. Men han har rett i det med at demokratene kan ikke vinne.

Presist det; å score poeng. Dette er hva Netanyahu gjort med 7. oktober i møte med den israelske opinionen og det internasjonale presset når det kom berettiget kritikk mot måten militæroperasjonene hendt i Gazastripen, akkurat som de skamløse politikerne i den forgylte tiden brukt borgerkrigen som et våpen mot hverandre hadde man tatt i bruk de mange opptakene og bevismengdene for å skape en stemning som gjør at man vanskelig kunne rette kritikk - og som i realiteten overskygge overtredelsene pågått på egne side. Dette er Netanyahus våpen mot Biden. De meget mange massehenrettelsene begått av israelske soldatene i 1948-1978 bare skyldes at disse var seierherrer, og det finnes ikke tvil om at det hadde vært en slik praksis den gang, da mange soldater og offiserer hadde en bakgrunn som imperiale militære og krigsveteraner fra 2.vk - det var fram til 1949 standard praksis for også vestlige offiserer å bedrive massemord på mistenkte som anklages som franktirører, da krigsforbrytelsesprosessen pågikk mot nazistene, var de vestlige sivilpolitikere, intellektuelle og den globale opinionen sjokkert da dommerne måtte informere verden om at en meget stor del av nazistenes forbrytelsene ikke kunne straffes. Flere hundre var henrettet i Norge som "ulovlige stridende". Denne "uvanen" ble stoppet så snart offiserene ble for gammelt for felttjeneste. Da hadde Genevekonvensjonene gjort denne ulovlig. Why Israeli Democracy Is in Crisis | Journal of Democracy Som demokrati er Israel i fri fall, som "ufullstendig demokrati", den israelsk-palestinske konflikten hadde tæret meget sterkt på det israelske demokratiet som nå er sterkt ustabilt ikke pga. palestinerne, men israelernes egne dreining til høyre som skjøt fart i de siste tjue år - nå er de sekulære israelerne i åpen konfrontasjon med de religiøse og sionistiske israelerne, spesielt bosetterne. Det hadde vært uavbrutt krig siden 1982 i mer enn førti år for det israelske folket, da "det libanesiske eventyret" avsluttes i 2000, hadde en ny krig startet i Vestbredden og Gaza. Intet samfunn kunne forbli uberørt. Netanyahu, in Defiance of Biden's 'Red Line,' Authorizes Plans for Rafah Offensive (msn.com) Netanyahu valgt å vise fingeren mot Biden fordi han vet at republikanerne vil støtte ham, og har godkjent angrepet på Rafah som kan starte når som helst.

Bondevik hadde Høyre med seg. Vi har meget sterke konsensuspolitiske tradisjoner i Norge mens ordet "konsensus" synes ikke-eksisterende i den israelske knesset hvor man er mer opptatt av hodeløse hestehandler. "Lite bevis"...? Massehenrettelsene i 1948-1978 har vært behøvelig dokumentert også på israelsk hold så denne fornektelsen er uakseptert, ettersom dette antyder at israelske soldater ikke kan gjøre noe galt; "melmassakren" hendt da stridsvogner skjøt mot palestinske folkemengder - uansett om det var som varselskudd eller ikke - var en meget alvorlig feilhandling ved at dette utløse massepanikk og fikk trailersjåfører til å kjøre over mengder av folk. Dette var et meget alvorlig feilgrep som endog kan være straffbart. Du bruker "den blodige skjorten" ved å henvise til 7. oktober uten videre. Dette er Netanyahus taktikk for å stå mot presset og bli værende med makten. Suvorov hadde rene militære hensikter da han skulle ta festningsbyen for å tvinge fram en kapitulasjon, for ved å ta Praga hvor den polske motstandsfronten hadde sin sterkeste bastion, vil han knuse oppstanden med et avgjørende slag. Likedan med israelernes planer om å angripe Rafah.

Veldig interessant artikkel. Ukraine’s Flying Claymore Mines Cut Down Russian Infantry FPV drones are kamikaze racing quadcopters, usually carrying an RPG-7 warhead. They are effective against vehicles, from self-propelled guns to personnel carriers and heavy tanks, but individual footsoldiers make difficult targets. Recent videos show Ukrainian forces using FPV drones with airburst shrapnel warheads far more lethal against personnel in the open – in effect, flying Claymore mines. Small Agile Targets FPVs are normally fused to explode on impact. This means that, against personnel, they need to score a direct hit or strike the ground close by. The basic RPG warhead is designed to pierce armor and throws out little shrapnel, so the intended victim may not be harmed by a near-miss. Some Ukrainians have been adding ‘fragmentation sleeves’ to RPG warheads to improve the shrapnel effect, but these increase the weight and are of questionable value. Small agile targets are a challenge. Soldiers on both sides are aware of this limitation, and FPV operators slow down on the final approach to an enemy on foot. This leads to black comedy videos where the FPV chases the target around obstacles like destroyed vehicles before catching them — or where the target dodges the FPV at the last second and walks casually away. Engineers on both sides have been looking at ways to make their FPVs more effective against personnel. The recent videos suggest they have succeeded by adapting battle-proven technology. Front Toward Enemy The U.S. Army’s M18A1 Claymore Mine is a legend, described by one site as “the world’s most famous mine.” Named after a fearsome medieval Scottish two-handed sword, it is a four-pound munition standing on four short folding legs and consists of 700 steel ball bearings embedded in a curved block of explosive,. One face is prominently stamped with the words FRONT TOWARD ENEMY. (This phrase has become a meme, seen on T-shirts, ball hats and bumper stickers). Unlike most mines which are set off by the victim, the Claymore is command-detonated: the operator pushes a button on the handheld M57 firing device, connected to the mine by a wire, to blast a wall of shrapnel towards the enemy. This effect covers a 60-degree arc so it is fifty yards wide at a range of fifty yards, and at that distance the cloud of ball bearings is dense enough to virtually guarantee a hit on a human-sized target. Each ball bearing strikes with roughly the force of a bullet. In theory no fragments fly backwards, but a danger zone extends sixteen yards behind the mine where troops are advised to be behind cover. The Claymore mine was first used in Vietnam in 1966 and soon gained a reputation for annihilating infantry charges. Soldiers even mounted Claymore mines on the sides of armored vehicles as anti-ambush weapons. The design was copied by other countries, and more than a dozen similar munitions are in use worldwide. In particular, the Russians developed their Minnoye Oskolochonym Napravenien (“Directional Fragmentation Landmine”) series. The MON-50 is a direct copy, with к противнику (“TO THE ENEMY”) printed on the front. First Drone Claymores Last March Russian social media carried a video of four FPV drones loaded with MON-50s on a test range with human dummy targets. A month later images on Russian social media showed two different types of small FPV drone with MON-50s attached, and Russian television carried a report with a soldier holding up a drone and describing how it could be armed with a MON-50. But these do not seem to have been used widely, and Russian FPV attack videos continue the show the standard version. In a discussion last year Steel Hornets, a Ukrainian volunteer group which makes drone munitions, told Forbes they were working on a Claymore weapon for clearing trenches and similar tasks. Last year Russians captured an FPV with a directional warhead. This was not a MON-50 but a smaller, circular improvised device. As well as preventing the target from dodging, command detonation solves the problem of loss of contact as the FPV drops lower. Mykola Volokhov, commander of the Terra drone unit explained this in a YouTube video on the different types of munition his unit employs. He holds up a plastic disc, the casing for a directional munition specifically designed for FPV use, similar to the one captured by the Russians. “When the FPV drone approaches the target in the last phase of the attack there is a big problem with communication,” says Volokhov. “As a rule it is lost and the drone…depending on many factors it successfully arrives or it does not.” This is seen in the vast majority of FPV attack videos: the camera feed cuts out well before impact, because as the drone descends it loses radio contact with the operator because line-of-sight is lost. Having the operator trigger detonation some distance from the target solves this problem. “This thing produces a directed blast…to hit the enemy in mid-flight, not in contact with the target, by pushing a button,” says Volokhov. “It’s like firing a shot at it, which definitely increases the effectiveness.” Ukrainian company Shock Wave Dynamics has also shown off directional fragmentation warheads for FPV drones, and Russian videos show that identical units have been captured, indicating they are in use. Yet another recent captured drone image shows it is fitted with a Chilean M18A1 mine, another Claymore clone. Munitions which explode in all directions waste much of their blast. But the entire effect of a flying claymore is directed towards the target giving a high chance of a kill. More Drones Than Soldiers Recent videos include this one from the Shadow Warriors unit and this one from Moskals, and this one by the Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade which shows a high-altitude airburst at :05 which catches a group of Russian soldiers. The soldiers involved are trained and know to lie down or get behind a tree when an FPV approaches, But this time, the tactic is useless. In all of these attacks the beaten zone where shrapnel impacts the ground is rectangular, suggesting the warhead is shaped like the original Claymore mine rather than circular. This should make it effective against lines or rows of troops, as well as in clearing trenches. In the early stages of FPV use in late 2022 they were scarce and employed in small numbers. Now the $400 are increasingly plentiful – Ukraine aims to build a million of them in 2024 and acquire another million from allies. That means that, for less than a billion dollars, Ukraine can individually target every single Russian soldier with a precision guide airburst shrapnel munition. Small drones may already be destroying more tanks than any other weapon in this war. In the next phase, they may also become the most feared threat to infantry. Hele TO MILLION FPV-droner er underveis! Det er sett at FPV-droner med termittstridshode er svært effektiv likedan disse "flygende claymorer" som kan nå angripe soldater i det åpne og pepre feltfortifikasjoner, opplysningen om at FPV-droner kom utenfor kontroll når disse går i angrep, avslører at droneoperatørene forhindres av topografien ettersom det må være direkte forbindelse som kan raskt går tapt hvis dronen dukket "under" sikten. Da er det ikke rart at det var opplysninger om "dronningsdroner" som gjør det mulig å styre droner fra oven. RPG er forresten mer effektivere mot infanteri enn hva forfatteren tror; i den sovjetiske doktrinen var RPG først og fremst ment som et infanteristøttevåpen ikke bare mot pansrede kjøretøyer, men også mot befestede mål, upansrede kjøretøyer og infanteri. Det er sett at meget mange FPV-droner har ikke de vanlige HEAT stridshoder, men HE-Frag stridshoder og endog Frag stridshoder. Et stridshode av type PG-7V - det var bygd flere millioner i sovjettiden - kunne ikke bare ta ut kampkjøretøyer, men også drepe soldater på minst et par meter hold. Fordi FPV som regel angrep svake punkter fra oven og bak, er det ikke et behov for kraftige RPG-stridshoder - slik at det ikke er uvanlig å se gjentatte angrep på panserkjøretøyer - og dermed kan meget gamle ammunisjon som PG-7V og OG monteres på FPV-dronene med en vekt på mellom 2,0 og 2,6 kg. Et direktetreff kan river et menneske fra hverandre som sett på mange opptak. Med termittstridshoder, claymore-miner og annet kan ukrainerne i praksis erstatte all artilleri opptil 5 km dypt inn i fiendtlig territorium. Ingen vet hvor mange RPG-stridshoder har vært produsert siden 1961, men det kunne være snakk om flere titalls millioner - minst.

"Mer demokrati"? Et demokrati hvor ekstreme krefter i minoritetsrollen hadde fått meget stor innflytelse? Et demokrati hvor en statsminister kan trosse rettsstaten? Et system basert på ekstreme individuelle og kollektive motsetninger som stundom er uoverkommelig? Dette er en type demokrati som kan kalles krisedemokrati ved at man vil befinne seg i krisetilstand med en sterk mulighet for kollaps - det var borgerkrigsvarsel i 2021-2023. IDF tok Khan Younis, men bare fordi de gradvis sprengte seg framover hus for hus, naboskap for naboskap, slik at sivilbefolkningen kunne komme seg bort mot Rafah og kysten. Men Rafah har en grenseovergang som gjør at altfor mange bli værende fordi de trenger nødhjelp, samtidig som det finnes en mulighet for å komme seg i sikkerheten om grenseovergangen åpnes ved et eller annet tidspunkt. Dette gjør at de bli værende. Som med Warszawa/Praga, det er den siste skansen for det gazapalestinske folket. Mange i Rafah har mistet all tro på israelerne, spesielt etter nødleveransetragedien 29. februar, det som nå kalles "Melmassakren" da 118 ble drept under beskytning av israelske stridsvogner. Hvis israelske soldater skulle tvinge seg inn i møte med sterk motstand, er faren for at de kommer til å gå berserk meget stor; disse er først og fremst mennesker som kan miste selvkontroll og fatningen når disse er for langt presset. Det kommer flere og flere opplysninger om drap på enslige sivilister, suspekte massemord, bortføringer av savnede og man har sett i nettet at flere israelske soldater var stolt av at de skjøt ned og drepte vergeløse folk. IDF har en meget stygg fortid fra 1948-1978 hvor disse hadde stått bak dusinvis, om ikke over ett hundre, masseskytningsepisoder mot fanger, sivilister og tilfeldige som kunne telles i tusentall. Det var en Praga-episode i IDFs historie; Khan Younis-massakren i 1956. 275 ble drept i Khan Younis og 111 ble drept i Rafah den 3. november 1956 da israelske styrker rykket inn i disse byene under pågående strid med fedayeen terrorister - i ettertiden ble det oppdaget at flere tusen menn var anholdt av israelerne, som ifølge palestinske opplysninger tok flere hundre til siden og henrettet dem ved å stille dem mot vegg, og deretter sanket de døde som kastes i massegraver, som var senere funnet. Den gang mente israelske soldater at man kunne fritt henrette franktirører ved det minste tegn på mistanke uten bevisbyrding. Palestinerne mener det kan ha vært massehenrettelse under stridighetene i Gazastripen.

Var det ikke mange israelske erklæringer med ordet "bananrepublikk" under valgkaoset i 2022? Helt siden Knesset fragmenteres inn i flere dusin partier har den demokratiske utviklingen blitt satt på hold i de siste tjue år, slik at det åpnet for minoritetsstyring både som utøvende og som lovgivende makt med stor gjennomkraft for ekstremistiske krefter som hadde Netanyahu som døråpner for dem. Det var en meget stor feil å ha så lav sperregrense på kun 3,25 % (det var 2 % før 2014) - i Norge er den på 4 % - og den aktuelt er høyere ved at det handler om utjevningsmandater. I Israel hadde det vært hele fem valg i bare fire år fra 2018 til 2022, og det munnet ut i politisk kaos som endt med at Netanyahu kunne skifte en ekstremistisk regjering i desember 2022 - som straks kom ut i omfattende politisk uro fram til 7. oktober. Det israelske demokratiet har lenge vært i krisetilstand, først og fremst på grunn av Netanyahu selv. Nå er situasjonen meget alvorlig, aldri tidlig er det så sterk folkelig misnøye med en regjering i krigstid, og Netanyahu er så sterkt upopulært at han skulle ha retirert, men han blånektet og har støtte av israelnasjonalistiske krefter som bruker 7. oktober-massakrene for egne fordel, blant annet for å gjøre ideen om en tostatsløsning så upopulært som mulig og åpner for deshumanisering av det palestinske folket som ikke kan frita seg fra skylda omkring 7. oktober. Motstand mot tostatsløsning og lettelse for det palestinske folket er meget sterk i det israelske folket fordi Hamas hadde etterlatt seg flere timer videoopptak av de meste bestialske forbrytelser som formidles som en israelsk versjon av "the bloody shirt" fra USA. Da "den første rekonstruksjonen" pågikk i 1865-1878 var det meget blodige borgerkrigsliknende tilstander i de okkuperte sørstatene, og da republikaneren Benjamin Butler fra Massachusetts holdt en tale om tilstandene i kongressen, oppsto det rykter om at han viftet med en blodig skjorte etter en carpetbagger som var overfalt og pisket av en Ku Klux Khan-aktivist som den gang myrdet flere tusen fargede (og hvite) i en terrorkampanje. Dette ryktet som ikke var sant, ble straks benyttet av demokratene den gang om at "den blodige skjorten" var en gimmick for å ha emosjonell påvirkning på velgere og på delegater, ved å antyde at blodet på skjorta som kom fra soldater under borgerkrigen, skulle hevnes - og dermed motarbeides. 7. oktober har etterlatt seg en "blodig skjorte" som nå viftes rundt hver eneste time døgnet rundt av høyresiden for å kue all motstand og tvinge fram samhold mot "de andre", i bevisste deshumanisering - og som mottiltak mot utenlandsk press som bare vokser og vokser. I USA har dette fulgt til at mange vendt seg bort, spesielt da man så at dette bare rettferdiggjøre mer og mer lidelse i Gaza og større undertrykkelse i Vestbredden. I huset i kongressen kom det et vedtak som forby TikTok selv om den er svært populært i den yngre befolkningen, først og fremst fordi det var mye desinformasjon gjennom TikTok omkring Hamaskrigen - som gjør at man på mange steder ser noe som likner på kollektiv galskap i store deler av ungdommene og yngre folk i USA. Ennå må det sies at Netanyahu og Gallants strategi har vært noe av de verste feiltagelsene noensinne i Israels historie; istedenfor å etablere okkupasjonspraksis valgt de å kaste Gaza ut i anarki, istedenfor å etablere sivilkontroll holdt de sine soldatene på avstand, istedenfor å undertvinge seg befolkningen under en pågående militæroperasjon valgt de å dytte dem foran sine stridsvogner. Istedenfor å gå militært til verk med høy aksept for tap - 5 til 10 % tap ville ha vært mulig å akseptere - sparer man på egne menn, bombardere på avstand og bryr seg ikke om egne RoE eller krigsregler. Dermed kunne Hamas bare unngå dem gang på gang helt til det siste. Hvis Sharon hadde ansvaret, ville han ha brukt et par uker for å avslutte oppdraget selv om det kunne koste 10,000 israelske soldater - han var ikke kjent som en offiser som verdsatt hans mennenes liv fremfor fullbyrdelsen av oppdraget, noe som gjort ham noe kontroversielt, men også en av de beste generaler i Israels historie. Gallant - derimot - helt siden 2006 var det sett at han foretrakk indirekte krigføring på avstand. Dette vinner ikke kriger. Nå er israelerne kommet i en Praga-situasjon. Netanyahu aktet å angripe Rafah som fremdeles har flere hundretusener sivilister - minimum - uten å bry seg om at dette kan utløse katastrofale konsekvenser. Da Suvorov sto foran Warszawa under Kościuszkooppstanden i 1794, hadde han under en mesterlig gjennomførte militæroffensiv vunnet en rekke seirer som ødela den polske motstanden slik at de gjenværende drives mot sin hovedstad, som den gang var en grenseby fordi grensen mot Preussen var bare et par mil vekk i vest. Det var en meget bitter konflikt hvor væpnede sivilister sloss sammen med uniformerte soldater, med forbrytelser begått av begge sider, og de russiske soldatene hadde kommet til å forakte motparten. Suvorov trenger å ta festningsbyen Praga for å åpne opp vegen inn til Wasrzawa, så han beordret en storming den 4. november. Stridighetene spredt seg inn i byen hvor russerne deretter gikk berserk og begynte med å massakrere sivilbefolkningen. Rundt 20,000 var drept. Massakren sjokkerte hele Europa og forseglet inntrykket av den russiske armeen som en barbarisk hær - og dette inntrykket har aldri forsvunnet. Det vil ikke være overraskende om både amerikanske og israelske militæroffiserer er bekymret over muligheten om en Praga i Rafah, og det kan ha bidratt meget sterkt til det voksende amerikanske presset på Israels politiske ledelse som har inngått en allianse med den militære ledelse som under Gallant lot til å nekte å lytte på velmente advarsler fra egne offiserer og etterretningsfolk.

Johnson DEFINITIVT prøver å drepe all hjelp til Ukraina. Ikke bare lagt han fram et rent GOP-forslag utviklet av meget få representanter; han også vil gjøre i en tidsperiode kalt "suspension calendar", slik at det nye forslaget må ha helt to tredjedeler av stemmene - noe som i praksis betyr at muligheten for at det kan komme gjennom, er dårlig. Han hadde valgt å ignorere hjelpeavtalen framforhandlet av senatet og deretter bevisst skape et brudd mellom huset og senatet, og han hadde nektet å lytte på advarsler på advarsler fordi "forslaget" er basert på Trumps ide om lån. Johnson says he expects to take up Ukraine aid with Democratic votes - POLITICO Johnson faces make-or-break moment on Ukraine aid as pressure mounts (msn.com) Hva Johnson vil, er å drepe hjelpepakken som kan vedtas med flertall, for han mener bestemt at det nye "forslaget" betyr at hjelpepakken må suspenderes - det betyr å drepe den slik at den ikke engangs kan skrinlegges. Og han endog vil ikke vurdere noe som helst hjelp til utenlandske allierte før nødfinansieringen er ordnet den 22. mars, slik at det må vedtas et hastevedtak - som han utvilsomt tror kommer til å bli avvist. Han vil ikke høre på folk som advart om at Ukraina har dårlig med ammunisjon og at det hastes med å sende hjelp snarest mulig. Johnson prøver å dytte en ren GOP-løsning rett ned i gapet på senatorene som hadde brukt mange måneder på å sette sammen hjelpeavtalen, og utvilsomt vedder på at hvis det kommer gjennom i huset, kan det avvises av de sinte senatorer. Det er en synlig avgrunn mellom huset og senatet som bare vokser for hver dag. Og det er kaos i huset; det er altfor mange smålige kongressmedlemmer som simpelt har mistet mål og mening i deres enfoldige motstand uansett om det handler om Ukraina, Israel, grensen og finansiering. “The choice that Mike Johnson faces at this point is binary: Give us a vote on the Senate bill, or abandon Ukraine,” Dette så Adam Smith som er ikke lite sint over tilstandene i kongressen som er kastet ut i kaos som et resultat av Trumps innblanding gjennom de fanatiske MAGA som er villig til å sabotere enhver og alt, slik at Johnson ønsker å tviholde på speakervervet, men jo lengre dette fortsette jo mer sintere vil demokratene bli. Alt tyder på at de er gått lei av ham. Men tiden løper ut; nå er det slik at man kan ikke ha en effekt før senest i mai og da er det helt sikkert at russerne kan ha oppnådd et gjennombrudd - for Syrskyj er blitt meget dypt bekymret; han er meget smertelig klart over at hver gang russerne brøt gjennom var det fordi frontstyrkene hadde blitt rotert; slik at ferske og dårlige egnede styrker kan lettere bryte sammen - men på den andre siden er han nødt til å hente ut de meste erfarne styrker for å ikke slite dem til ingenting, for meget strengt nødvendig R&R. Han har allerede retirert fra mange viktige posisjoner i Nordøstfronten, Bakhmutfronten og Donetskfronten. "Bottom line, the pipeline is nearly empty,” Quigley said. “Let’s just say we resolve this next week. It's gonna take a while to fill the pipeline and get stuff into the battlefield. We're losing time." Det går mot katastrofe, og det er republikanernes skyld - fordi de skulle ha stoppet en galning, Donald Trump!

Ukrainian Air Defense Downs Shahed-136 Equipped with Modem and Camera, This Requires Attention | Defense Express (defence-ua.com) Det er mer; Images have appeared in open access showing that one of the downed russian kamikaze drones, Shahed-136, intercepted by the Ukrainian air defense, had installed video camera and 4G/WiFi modem. Likely, this setup operates as follows: the camera transmits the "picture" through the modem, and the operators of the russian UAVs receive images from the broadcast as if through a transmission in Telegram. This is mentioned in the publication of the Telegram channel "Colonel GSH". The authors of the resource suggest that the russians resorted to such makeshift "upgrades," presumably to document hits or misses on designated targets. This may also be to fixate points where our air defense systems are operational. "Considering the low level of technological sophistication of such a solution, it can be assumed that these measures are currently being implemented with on-site launches to confirm the impact on targets (possibly to receive monetary compensation)," the authors of the resource suggest. From Defense Express, we will add that this is currently the first publicly available documentation of russians installing video cameras on their Shahed drones. At the same time, as we can understand from the above, it is currently only about the tool for capturing important information, rather than the modification of the long-range kamikaze drone control system. However, this is not the first instance where russian occupiers have resorted to such makeshift methods of attaching devices to their UAVs, possibly for the purpose of documenting the locations of drone shoot-downs and, consequently, the points where the Ukrainian air defense operates. For example, in January 2024, it became known about the discovery of a tracker for UAV navigation on the Orlan-10. Det virker som at ukrainerne er noe usikkert på hva meningen med kameralink mellom droneflyet og droneoperatøren er ment for, det ser ut som grunnløse spekulasjoner fordi det ukrainske luftvernsforsvaret er ikke statisk. Det er kjent at de russiske Shahed-droner har større manøvreringskapasitet enn de iranske og kan lettere styres. Men det er latt merke til at det er mange kameraopptak fra russiske droner formidlet på Telegram som hvis disse kom direkte fra selve kampøyeblikket som sett med de mange angrepene i februar-mars. "Prinsipp for drift: Bildet fra videokameraet overføres via WiFi til 4G / WiFi-modemet, hvorfra det kommer inn på Internett ved hjelp av 3G / 4G-nettverket." Kan det være mulig at det er aktive basestasjoner så nær frontlinjen på ukrainsk og russisk side? Da hvor stor er rekkevidden mellom en basestasjon og en terminal som modemet i et dronefly? Har alltid hadde inntrykk at det er ganske liten dekning omkring basestasjonene som i seg selv er tårner ment for mobilnettdekning.

Russia’s New Exploding Drone Piggybacks On Ukraine’s 4G Cell Network (forbes.com) Litt mer her om 4G trådløs internettforbindelse; Russia is installing 4G modems and Ukrainian SIM cards in explosives-laden Shahed drones, potentially allowing them to piggyback on civilian cellular networks—and possibly making them smarter and more dangerous. But if the cellular kluge works, there’s no reason Ukraine couldn’t copy it. And a drone that plugs into civilian 4G is more dangerous to Russia than it is to Ukraine. Ukrainian air force technicians discovered something new and strange when they inspected the wreckage of a Russian Shahed drone Ukrainian forces recently shot down. The Shahed, painted black to help it blend into the night sky, was one of hundreds of the 440-pound, exploding drones the Russians have flung at Ukrainian cities in the 22 months since Russia widened its war on Ukraine. What was weird about this particular Shahed was its 4G modem, paired with a Kyivstar SIM card. A propeller-driven Shahed shouldn’t need a modem: the satellite-guided drone is highly autonomous and doesn’t have to relay data—a video feed, for example—back to an operator during its long flight. But if a Shahed could relay video, it might afford an operator an opportunity to adjust the drone’s course—and nudge it toward the most vulnerable targets. Piggybacking on the enemy’s own 4G cell network might be the cheapest and easiest method of connecting a drone to an operator, and the most difficult to hack or jam. It also is possible the modem-SIM-combo is an autonomous navigational aid. By pinging cell towers, a drone could triangulate its location and reduce its reliance on satellites. This upgrade would address an obvious problem: the Ukrainians jamming Russian satellite links. Whatever the purpose of the Shahed add-on, it’s possible the Ukrainian air force already knew about it. “It is not always necessary to disclose whether we know something or not,” said Yuriy Ignat, an air force spokesperson. And the development might end up hurting the Russian war effort, by nudging the Ukrainians toward building their own 4G-aided explosive drones. Ukraine is small compared to Russia and Russian deep-strike munitions already can range across the whole of Ukraine. All this is to say, the Kremlin isn’t desperately in need of a cellular drone. By contrast, Ukraine’s own deep-strike weapons tend to travel no farther than Moscow, 350 miles from the Ukrainian border. A 400-pound, propeller-drive drone—which Ukraine clearly has the ability to produce—can fly for 24 hours straight with an explosive payload equivalent to an artillery shell, allowing it to range potentially thousands of miles. At extreme range, guidance and data-sharing might become a challenge. But not if the drone is riding on a cellular network. Smuggle in enough Russian SIM cards, and Ukraine could produce its own exploding cellular drones, and vastly extend its strikes across Russia. Jeg tror ukrainerne hadde allerede for lengst gjort det; å sette inn 4G-utstyret med russiske SIM-korter i enveisdroner og sendt dem ut; de var mer destruktivt i det siste. Det er kjent at flere intakte eksempler var tatt av russerne, som kan ha blitt inspirert til å kopiere ukrainerne da de sendt ut sin første Shahed med 4G-utstyr sannsynlig først ment for navigasjon, men i mars 2024 - fem måneder siden det første funnet - oppdaget man at 4G ikke benyttes for navigering når det settes inn DGPS, men for dronekontroll med videokamera. Selv om russerne kan benytte den ukrainske internettdekningen gjennom mobilsignalnettverket ved å benytte de mange mobilnett-tårner rundt omkring, er ikke dekningen særskilt god i Ukraina. Ukrainernes jamming hadde vært meget virkningsfullt i møte med Shahed-dronene. Satellittbasert dekning ville ha gitt et kontinuerlig link. Det er veldig mulig at russerne brukt en liknende løsning for sine SuperCam-droner som kan ha Starlink-forbindelse med terminaler opptil 50 km vekk.

Defense Express has obtained photos of a newly discovered new type of Shahed-136 loitering munition, taken down by Ukrainian air defense. Besides the standard equipment, the drone has a camera and a 4G wireless access point. While these novelties deserve a separate analysis, more importantly, one of the photographs features a device with all factory marks physically erased and instead, DGPS inscribed along with a series of numbers. Most probably, this drone was equipped with a DGPS, or Differential GPS, a technology that could improve the accuracy of Shahed attacks on Ukraine. In more detail, the Differential Global Positioning System is a technology that improves the precision of locating a satellite navigation device. The DGPS is used in both military and civilian domains, for example in agricultural machinery to facilitate even and precise field operations. Open sources also provide the following description to the working principle of the DGPS: it requires two receivers, one of them is stationary which is deployed in a spot with well-known coordinates, while the other is on the move. The data received by the former helps the mobile receiver to tune up its own navigation in real-time. If the hypothesis about russians using DGPS on Shahed-136 is correct, then the purpose of the camera and internet access point on the same drone, originally thought to help at adjusting the current location data, becomes less clear. The camera-network unit either complements the DGPS module or duplicates it, in a sort of experimental way to find out which is better. Shahed-droneflyet har utstyr som gjør at det kan tilkobles et navigasjonssystem - og et 4G trådløst internettlink sammen med et kamera som betyr i virkeligheten at droneoperatøren kan være i kontakt med droneflyet som under normale omstendigheter er autonomt, og kan benytte kameraet for å orientere seg og finne sitt mål, sannsynlig med videolink som kan sendes ut. DGPS-utstyret hjelper droneflyet med å finne seg fram mens droneoperatøren kan bruke det som en gigantisk FPV gjennom en trådløs forbindelse - som er umulig; det er flere hundre kilometer mellom operatøren og hans mål, da er satellittbasert internett det eneste alternativet. Internettdekning i Ukraina er notorisk upålitelig om man ikke er tilkoblet satellittene.

Shahed-136 Potentially Got DGPS Navigation Units: Why russians Install Them and What Advantage They Offer | Defense Express (defence-ua.com) Dette er definitivt ikke russiske satellittkommunikasjonsutstyr. Russerne hadde gått så langt at de slettet bort alle identitetsmarkør på utstyret som er av vestlig opprinnelse, i Shahed-dronen som trolig var skutt ned med en VAMPIRE som bare ødela motoren - og deres SATCOM bruker ikke trådløs internett. Russisk SATCOM er minst en generasjon bak vestlig SATCOM, de har ikke den nødvendige teknologien eller kunnskap om hvordan å skape samtidskommunikasjon på et begrenset område. SuperCam-droneflyet er bygd på benyttelse av vestlige komponenter og har derfor vært sjeldent sett i Ukraina, de hadde uteblitt helt til desember 2023 da ukrainerne skjøt ned et slikt dronefly. Siden har OSINT notert at mange av opptakene i februar-mars så ut til å være med kamerautstyret for SuperCam, som er simpelt for liten for større ombygging - som Kahuna spekulere, et enslig komponent av mindre størrelse kan være tilstrekkelig. Russerne trenger terminaler for å kunne kontrollere disse bevegende dronene og deretter sende ilmelding til forberedte enheter som kan stå klar med oppstilt våpen for øyeblikkelig benyttelse. Og; da de ukrainske motoffensivene gikk galt pga. manglende Starlink-dekning i 2022, var det sagt at det ikke finnes dekning i den okkuperte Ukraina og Russland - men i 11. februar 2024 kom det ut at det er Starlink-dekning i Russland som forbli utappet fordi man må ha terminaler for å koble seg på Starlink. Rett fra munnen på Egon Musk. Ifølge ukrainerne hadde russerne benyttet Starlink i flere måneder først for kommunikasjonsbenyttelse - og det var fram til Musk i twitter/X kom med denne innrømmelsen den 11. februar offentlig sagt at det ikke var dekning i verken den okkuperte Ukraina eller i Russland. Så kom det fram at det ER Starlink-dekning også i Krim-halvøya, selv om ukrainerne ikke kan bruke Starlink der. Muligheten for at Starlink brukes som våpen mot ukrainerne bare vokser, funnet i Shahed-dronevraket gjort det klart at de har internettforbindelse mellom et dronefly og en droneoperatør, noe som ikke tidlig var sett fordi Shahed er autonome droneflyer. Hvis et intakt speiderdronefly med Starlink-utstyr blir funnet av ukrainerne og undersøkt av Pentagon-representanter, kan dette utløse alle tidenes største forræderiskandale i USAs historie. Spesielt ettersom Starlink skulle ha formelt overført ansvaret for det ukrainske dekningsområdet til det amerikanske militæret som definitivt aldri ville ha tillatt en slik utvikling.

Uansett må de gjøre det. Disse terminalene som russerne har fått tak på, må nøytraliseres snarest mulig. Ettersom disse terminalene har adresser som gjør det mulig å finne dem på Starlink, skulle det ikke være vanskelig å lokalisere disse i den russiskokkuperte territoriene i Ukraina.

Men først må man finne ut hvordan russerne hadde slik ufattelig suksess på mindre enn en måned. 2 angrep på NASAMS. 2 angrep på HIMARS/HIMARS attrapp. 1 angrep på Patriot. 4 angrep på komponenter av SAM-batteri som S-300. Dessuten har ukrainerne mistet altfor mange panserkjøretøyer og artilleri i det siste, minst to Archer SP fra Sverige er slått ut. Dette tyder på at russerne har fått så avansert ISR kapasitet at dette er kommet meget overraskende på alle, dette bryter helt med russisk modus operandi. Problemet er ikke bare dronefly, det er sett at et enslig angrep kunne ha flere forskjellige opptak som kan tyder på at ukrainerne kunne skyte dem ned, men de små SuperCam droner er vanskelig å oppdage med sovjetiskbygde radarutstyr og de ser ut til å komme ut i et stort antall. Problemet er at reaksjonsevnen er altfor raskt, mye raskere enn det ukrainerne var vant til som sett da de var gjentatte ganger tatt i overraskelse. Og det er kjent at ukrainerne har jammingsutstyr som fungert godt mot Shahed-droner, spesielt mot speiderdronefly dypt inn i egne luftrom. Disse droneflyene var ikke i det minst plaget av jamming; hvilken bare kan tyder på satellittbasert datalink som Starlink, som ikke kan jammes. Med Starlink er det mulig å få øyeblikkelig observasjon og hvis man kan ha Starlink til tilgjengelige enheter - minst tre forskjellige våpensystemer; Iskander, Tornado-3 og luft-til-overflate missilvåpen er sett - kan man få øyeblikkelig reaksjon. Hvis det er Starlink som hadde gjort russernes suksess mulig, må man finne ut hvorfor SpaceX ikke hadde deaktiverte Starlinkadresser i den okkuperte Ukraina. Dette er høyforræderi om det ikke var tatt affære.

De kan jo bare lage "tønnebomber" eller IRAM som sett under den syriske borgerkrigen hvor rakettseksjonen med drivstoffet monteres med et improvisert stridshode.

Dette må granskes raskest mulig. Shahed-vraket er en seriøs vekkelse om at noe er meget galt her, og det som har hendt så langt med tapet av to Patriot rakettramper, et HIMARS kjøretøy, oppdagelsen av en HIMARS attrapp og angrepet på et NASAMS batteri - og nå tapet av to kamphelikoptre - har hendt i et for kort tidsrom til dette kan ansees som tilfeldigheter - dessuten har det blitt ganske hyppige Lancet-angrep som har kommet veldig overraskende på ukrainerne i det siste; selv om russernes materielle tap er fremdeles større, har det vært sett at færre ZALA droner var observert, ennå er det sett en økning i suksessfulle Lancet-angrep slik at flere dusin stridsvogner, SP og panserkjøretøyer har blitt slått ut (heldigvis er de fleste bare skadet, mindre og raskere Lancet varianter var benyttet...). Russerne er kanskje suicidale og enfoldige mennesker med trellementalitet, men de er ikke dumme - de ville ikke ha skaffet seg Starlink om de ikke kan bruke dette, og de ville ikke ha monterte kamera og SATCOM-utstyr basert på vestlig originalitet i sine Shahed-droner om det ikke finnes et fungerende konsept å benytte dem med. Reaksjonsevnen i det siste er altfor raskt, mye raskere enn det er normalt hos russerne. Mer lik det man vil finne hos ukrainerne med Starlink.

Utviklingen er i ferd med å bli utålelig, to Mi-8 helikoptre har blitt ødelagt takket være det mystiske droneflyet som er i stand til å operere uten å bli oppdaget av de ukrainske radaroperatører. Det kommer til å bli helt umulig å bruke HIMARS, SAM og annet som SP skyts i møte med russerne så lenge ukrainerne er uten av stand til å forhindre disse droneflyene. Ifølge OSINT-bataljonen er det snakk om små dronefly av type SuperCam som egentlig skulle ikke være vanskelig å oppdage. Noe er veldig galt her; det er ikke bare dronefly, det er altfor liten tid mellom lokalisering og angrep - og dessuten er det noe viktig å merke seg; hvordan kunne russerne ha sine dronefly akkurat der tidsnok? Dette må betyr at de har vært i stand til å finne og peile inn kommunikasjon knyttet til strategiske styrker, noe som de aldri tidlig hadde kapasitet for. Det er kommet spekulasjoner om at Starlink kan ha vært involvert. Det spekuleres at russerne med adgang på Starlink kan finne Starlink-operatører på ukrainsk side. HIMARS, Patriot SAM og helikoptre er tilknyttet satellittkommunikasjon - mest notert Starlink. Da et vrak etter en Shahed var undersøkt, ble det oppdaget til ukrainernes overraskelse at den hadde en "Differential Global Positioning System" (DGPS) - og 4G wireless internettforbindelse som bare er mulig med Starlink-liknende nettverk gjennom satellitter! Med dette utstyret kan droneoperatøren navigere seg og "se" med kamerastyring fordi det monteres kamerautstyr på droneflyet slik at det i praksis bli en gigantisk FPV. Dette har ukrainerne ikke vært i stand til å utvikle fordi det ikke er mulig å bruke satellittbaserte internettforbindelse i Russland. Men her ser det ut at russerne har våpen og droner som kan bruke akkurat denne kapasiteten. Congress tells SpaceX: Explain how Russia got Starlink • The Register Det virker som at det er slått alarm i Pentagon, slik at kongressen har kommet på banen for seks dager siden og nå ser det ut at suksessen russerne har hatt, kan ikke skyldes stealth dronefly eller improviserte C3 ordning - men Starlink. Starlink terminals are reportedly being used by both sides in Russia's war against Ukraine, but now Congressional representatives want to know why. In a letter addressed to SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, a pair of Democratic reps asked SpaceX to provide a better explanation than what was provided on Twitter last month for how Russia may have obtained and operated Starlink terminals. The letter, penned by Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), ranking member of the Oversight' Committee's Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. The pair claim Starlink's use by Russian forces was alarming, and potentially a violation of US sanctions and export controls. "According to Ukraine, the misuse of Starlink terminals is 'systemic,' raising additional questions about the efficacy of your company's safeguards and compliance with U.S. sanctions and export controls," Raskin and Garcia said. "We are concerned that you may not have appropriate guardrails and policies in place to ensure your technology is neither acquired directly or indirectly, nor used illegally by Russia." Both SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk denied supplying Starlink technology to Russia shortly after reports emerged in early February. "SpaceX does not do business of any kind with the Russian Government or its military," The company said on X. "Starlink is not active in Russia, meaning service will not work in that country." Musk has already called claims that SpaceX supplied terminals to Russia "categorically false," and stating "to the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia." "Starlink satellites will not close the link in Russia," Musk added in a February X post. Talk about dodging the question While Musk and SpaceX both assert Starlink won't work in Russia, that's not what Ukrainian officials have claimed, nor what the letter from Congress accuses it of allowing. On February 11, 2024, Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence released intercepted audio communications between Russian soldiers that indicated Russian forces "illegally deployed and activated Starlink terminals in certain Russian-occupied areas in Eastern Ukraine," the Congressional letter states. Neither Musk nor SpaceX have addressed claims that Starlink is being used by Russian forces in occupied territories - the actual question. SpaceX has not responded to requests for comment. The possibility that Starlink is being used by Russian forces isn't out of the question given SpaceX's coverage map of Ukraine, which shows significant overlap with territory Russia has controlled since its invasion of the country in 2022. SpaceX has been providing the Ukrainian military with Starlink service since Russia invaded the country, albeit at times under duress. While some of the easternmost portion of Ukraine, including the hotly-contested city of Donetsk, aren't covered by Starlink, other regions are. There is no formal accusation that SpaceX is doing business with Russia directly - only that it might be failing to properly police redirection of its equipment to sanctioned entities like the Russian government. "Ukrainian intelligence officials assert that Russian forces have obtained Starlink terminals illegally through third-party actors via neighboring countries," Raskin and Garcia wrote in the letter. "the Departments of Commerce, the Treasury, and Justice repeatedly issued … guidance to U.S. private industry, specifically noting Russian efforts to illegally obtain technology and items through obfuscated third parties." The question is whether SpaceX is actually paying attention to that guidance. Raskin and Garcia asked Shotwell to explain whether SpaceX has received complaints regarding illegal acquisition of Starlink terminals by Russia and whether it's examined those reports, as well as what sort of policies SpaceX has in place to prevent illegal acquisition or trade of Starlink hardware, among other things. "Russian procurement of, use of, or interference with Starlink terminals each has the potential to advance Russia’s brutal and illegitimate invasion of Ukraine," the letter states, which "poses a serious threat to Ukraine’s security, Ukrainian lives, and U.S. national security." The representatives have asked SpaceX to respond to the letter and provide a briefing on the matter by March 20. We reached out to the Committee and the representatives, but haven't heard back. Tilfeldigheter finnes ikke i krigstid. Shahed-vraket har en DGPS som tillatt satellittkommunikasjon - og dette er IKKE standard SATCOM-utstyr av russisk originalitet. Med dette er internettforbindelse og navigering mulig - helt presist hva man vil finne på ukrainske våpen som benytter Starlink. HAR SPACEX BEGÅTT FORRÆDERI? Det skulle ikke være vanskelig å finne ut om det hadde vært uautorisert bruk av Starlink i Ukraina!

MAGA Devours the GOP With the election of Lara Trump and Michael Whatley to the Republican National Committee, the MAGA movement now has significant control of the Republican Party, according to multiple commentators. The former president's daughter-in-law was elected co-chair of the RNC on Friday alongside long-time Donald Trump supporter Whatley. The changes came after Ronna McDaniel, who was backed by Trump to lead the RNC in 2017, resigned after being blamed for a series of funding issues. She was also criticized for the Republicans losing multiple elections since 2020. Since then, according to Politico, which cited two unnamed people close to the Trump campaign and the RNC, more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments are being asked to resign. The website reported that in a letter to some political and data team staff, Sean Cairncross, the RNC's new chief operating officer, said that the incoming leadership was "in the process of evaluating the organization and staff to ensure the building is aligned" with its vision. "During this process, certain staff are being asked to resign and reapply for a position on the team," the communication read, per Politico. Meanwhile, according to one source quoted by The New York Times, the party only had about 200 people on the payroll at the end of last month. Newsweek was not able to verify this independently and contacted an RNC representative by email to comment on this story. Speaking to Newsmax on Saturday, Donald Trump Jr. celebrated MAGA's strength within the GOP. He said: "I think the RNC is going to be a bit more of that old-school establishment, that Republican Party frankly no longer exists outside of the D.C. beltway, but it takes a little while to make that transition. "But again, I think the moves that happened today, I think that's the final blow, people have to understand that America first. The MAGA movement is the new Republican Party, that is conservatism today." Writing on X, formerly Twitter, political commentator Richard Hanania said the changes to the RNC showed the "MAGA night of the long knives." Turning Point founder and political commentator Charlie Kirk called reports of the layoffs a "bloodbath" in a post on X. "This is excellent," Kirk added. "The anti-Trump sleeper cells all have to go. The RNC is getting ready to win." Former Trump aide Olivia Troye urged Republicans on Saturday to "stop donating" to the RNC, alleging that it was becoming a "Trump legal defense fund." Adam Kinzinger, a former GOP Illinois representative and a vocal critic of Trump, said changes to the Republican governing body showed it was becoming "Trump's toilet." "The RNC, in deciding to become Trumps toilet and slush fund, is going to do real damage to down ballot races," he wrote on X. "They deserve it for capitulating... how far they have fallen." MAGA Devours the GOP (msn.com) The Freedom Caucus Has Been Wreaking Havoc On Washington. Now It’s Exporting the Chaos to the States. Since its founding in 2015, the hardline House Freedom Caucus has been a polarizing presence, using confrontational and obstructionist tactics to push Congress, and the Republican Party, to the right on a variety of issues. In the process, the group ousted a Republican House speaker and became a far-right conservative power center of its own. But it’s come at considerable cost to the House as a legislative body, and created an even more factionalized and dysfunctional chamber. Now, those same issues are surfacing in statehouses across the nation where in recent years the Freedom Caucus has exported its model. Many of the 11 legislatures with state-based Freedom Caucuses have seen their Republican majorities splinter and descend into bitter conflict with the application of the Congress-honed tactics. “It’s the same kind of battles that are going on with the Freedom Caucus in Washington, D.C.,” said South Carolina state Rep. Jay Kilmartin, who has been a member of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus since 2022. “We ran because we got frustrated with what we were getting out of our state Republican Party for so long.” Few states have experienced as much intraparty turmoil as South Carolina, where state Freedom Caucus members and more mainstream GOP leaders have clashed over a wide variety of issues, leading to litigation and sparking numerous primary challenges. Freedom Caucus members have used the state budgeting process to bring up social issues like diversity initiatives within universities, spoken out against what they call government handouts to private companies and pushed for more restrictive bans on gender-affirming care. “They are a ‘let’s govern by bumper sticker’ entity,” said South Carolina state Rep. Micah Caskey, a Republican who is an outspoken critic of the caucus. “I have a general contempt for what I see as the lack of integrity and honesty with which they approach legislating.” Freedom Caucus-aligned legislators who spoke with Nightly said that their support came from grassroots activists, but they also receive significant help from the State Freedom Caucus Network, a D.C.-based group that is helping the upstart caucuses go toe-to-toe with the established GOP order. The network pays the salaries of state directors who help legislators read bills, do policy analysis and act as a kind of connective tissue for ideologically similar lawmakers across the nation. That organization launched in December of 2021 in connection with the Conservative Partnership Institute, a rapidly growing conservative group tied to former Donald Trump chief of staff and Freedom Caucus co-founder Mark Meadows. Andy Roth, the network’s president, said that the idea for the network came from state lawmakers who were interested in pursuing the “business model” of the D.C.-based House Freedom Caucus in their own states. Roth said the eventual goal for the group is to have Freedom Caucuses in all 50 states. “State lawmakers are often part-time, they don’t have an office, and they have very little when it comes to support to help read bills and do policy analysis,” Roth said. “We basically just provide another set of eyes and ears to help these lawmakers.” The effect, however, has been to sow the seeds of division in places like Wyoming and Missouri, where there’s already bad blood with a Freedom Caucus outpost that was only officially formed in January. Missouri Republican leaders were so frustrated by the caucus’ tactics that they stripped members of committee assignments and even certain choice parking spots. “The year started off with the Freedom Caucus being attacked before we even stepped foot in the building,” said Freedom Caucus member state Sen. Nick Schroer. Schroer was the one behind an attention-grabbing draft rule change in January that would have permitted dueling between state lawmakers to settle disputes. He said that he circulated the rule to make a point about the incivility that had taken over the chamber. Caskey, the South Carolina Republican, laments that the Freedom Caucus tactics are stunts that, in the end, don’t enable lawmakers to pass more conservative legislation. “They are an emotional annoyance and a nuisance more than anything,” he said. “But they all stay on message, and that has allowed their insurgency to metastasize.” The Freedom Caucus Has Been Wreaking Havoc On Washington. Now It's Exporting the Chaos to the States. - POLITICO De to artikler avslører at det er borgerkrig innad i GOP for tiden mellom de konservative republikanerne og MAGA fanatikere som er i full gang med å ta kontroll gjennom finansielle støtteordninger til dise "Freedom Caucus" i 11 delstater, og i RNC er det kommet signaler om at de vil deretter bare støtte "lojalister" gjennom noe som kalles "election integrity division" som skal settes inn i alle komiteer over hele USA. Dette er noe som skremmer mange i USA, fordi i 2020 hadde Trump prøvd å overstyre republikanerne etter han klarte å ta kontroll over RNC som valgt å samarbeide med ham i forkanten av valgene i november 2020 - for å avverge disse som ikke er i samsvar med hans lojalitetskrav fra å søke politiske stillinger. Siden januar 2021 hadde Trump arbeidet med å ta kontroll over valgstøtteordningene. Republican Party Co-Chair Lara Trump: RNC's "Election Integrity Division" Seeking Volunteers To Prevent Cheating In 2024 | Video | RealClearPolitics Newly installed RNC co-chair Lara Trump (wife of Eric) speaks with FNC's Maria Bartiromo about her plans to lead the party into the 2024 election. "I can guarantee you that, over the next eight months, you are going to see things happen at the Republican National Committee unlike you have ever seen before, because this is a must-win election," she told Bartiromo on FNC's "Sunday Morning Futures." "We're going to expand all of it -- a nationwide network of volunteers, whether it's poll watchers, trained poll workers. These are people who can physically go in, count ballots that are coming in, know how many are coming in, how many are going out. Volunteer and paid attorneys. If you are an attorney who wants to volunteer, we want you." Trump har stjålet til seg GOP, nå er han i full gang med å ødelegge partiets integritet. McConnell hadde prøvd å nærmere seg Trump, som den typiske feigingen han er, men angrepet på Johnson tyder på at han også har sett skriften på veggen; at partiet han er så lojal mot, er i ferd med å gå under.