* * *
Here’s a very insightful excerpt from Professor
Heather Cox Richardson’s daily ‘Letters From an American’ posting which appeared on February 27. It explains how
democracy was perverted in Russia. Read
it carefully and you will understand how anti-democratic forces are trying to
do the same in the United States, where those same tactics are routinely used
by right-wing Republicans.
“Also in the news
today was the death of Gleb Pavlovsky, former top political consultant to
Russian president Vladimir Putin, after a long illness. Before quietly turning
away from Putin, Pavlovsky helped to engineer his rise through a concept called
“political technology,” a system that uses
technology to manipulate voters into rubber stamping the election of favored
political leaders.
According to
historian and political scientist Andrew Wilson, who specializes in Eastern
Europe, “political technologists” in the post-Soviet
republics created a virtual political reality by blackmailing opponents,
abusing state power to help favored candidates, sponsoring “double”
candidates with names similar to those of opponents in order to take their
voters, creating false parties to create opposition, and, finally, creating a
false narrative around an election or other event that enabled them to control
public debate.
Under such manipulation, usually delivered in a
firehose of outrageous and competing stories, people lost the ability to tell
what was real and lost faith that they could have any effect on the
political system.
In the hands of political technologists,
democracy was no longer about voters choosing their representatives, but was
simply a way to legitimize manipulation by corrupt politicians to keep themselves
in power.”
I recall how the Republicans won a 2020 State
Senate seat in the Miami area by running a third-party ‘ghost’ candidate with
the same last name as the Democratic candidate, to dilute his vote, one of the
tactics of ‘Political Technology’ mentioned above. Like in Russia, it worked. ‘Political
Technology’ is practiced here and
now by Republicans!
JL
* * *
G.O.P. Ignorance – Part 1 - Don’t Blame Georgia
Congresswoman Greene
Responsibility for this ignorant, coarse, bigot having a seat in the House of Representatives rests with the voters of her district who sent her there. They had a choice and they made it.
Her Georgia district, incidentally, borders on Florida’s
panhandle, which is filled with similar voters who, because of
gerrymandering, send a disproportionate
number of such Republicans to Congress, Matt Gaetz being a prime example.
 |
| Greene and Gaetz, disgraces to the letter 'G' |
And speaking of the devil, in questioning an Administration official at a hearing the other day, Gaetz quoted a source that the official pointed out was an official propaganda organ for the Chinese Communist Party. Gaetz' reluctant response after being told this ('Fair Enough') amounted to ‘Duh’ (which is why I often spell the name of the State in which he represents a district as ‘Floriduh’). Greene has no monopoly on ignorance.
JL
* * *
G.O.P. Ignorance – Part 2 – Representative Jamie Raskin
Tries to Teach a Lesson
For years, slimy Republicans have referred to the party opposing them as the ‘Democrat’ party, following a tradition established by the perennially unsuccessful seeker of the G.O.P. presidential nomination, Harold Stassen, during the last century.
Somehow, using the noun instead of an adjective has a pejorative
value. It’s like referring to a store
owner who happens to be Jewish as a ‘Jew store owner’ rather than as a ‘Jewish
store owner.’ Get it? It turns a description
into an insult.
Well, when Representative Lauren Boebert referred
to the other party as the ‘Democrat’ party, Congressman Jamie rose to the
occasion, pointing out that ‘Democrat’ is the noun. When you use it as an adjective, you say
‘Democratic.' This
puzzled Boebert who possibly doesn’t know the difference between a noun and an
adjective but certainly knows the negativity switching them accomplishes. She’s the one that wants to carry a pistol
with her in Congressional sessions.
JL
* * *
A Greater Danger to Israel than Iran’s Nuclear
Ambitions!
Some Jews in this country, fearful of growing
antisemitism here and attacks on our democracy, have always thought that should
worse come to worst, they could always emigrate to Israel. And this justified their continued support
of Israel against its enemies and antagonists.
Well, now some are having second thoughts about
that, in view of the political happenings in that country, where Netanyahu’s
right-wing government depends on extremists who talk about expelling Palestinians and taking over the West Bank. That would turn the world, including the
United States, against Israel, but some in Israel don’t seem to care about
where this might lead.
 |
| This is the map of Israel some of Netanyahu's extremist allies envision. It will not work. |
Find out more by checking out the frightening
column from the New York Times by Tom Friedman published on February 28 BY CLICKING HERE or by visiting https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/opinion/netanyahu-israel-palestinians-courts.html.
If that doesn’t work, let me know and I will
manage to send you a copy.
JL
* * *
Making Blogs Register? Sieg Heil!
One of the nut jobs in the Republican majority of
the Floriduh State Legislature is proposing legislation requiring blogs that
attack elected officials, like the Floriduh governor, to register with the
State. Fortunately, this does not affect JacksPotpourri because it would only
apply to blogs that receive some sort of compensation. This blog hasn’t fallen
into that category since about 2015 when we gave up running ads, donating
whatever compensation they produced to charities, because managing them was too
much of a time-consuming bother.
But it still illustrates the anti-democratic propensities of the Republicans in the State Legislature and the Governor as well. They don’t give a damn about the First Amendment, limiting their familiarity with the Constitution to the Second Amendment and the rarely mentioned Tenth Amendment which is the greatest single impediment to democracy in this country since George III. More about that will appear in future posting.
The full article from 'The Hill' about this totally unconstitutional idea can be accessed by CLICKING HERE or by visiting https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3882068-florida-bill-would-require-bloggers-to-register-before-writing-about-desantis/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
JL
* * *
Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is
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