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Spies Eavesdropping on Trump Complain He Is Speaking in Indecipherable Language |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=9160"><span class="small">Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker</span></a>
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Friday, 26 October 2018 14:16 |
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Borowitz writes: "Russian and Chinese spies who have been eavesdropping on Donald J. Trump's unsecured iPhone calls complained on Thursday that he has foiled their efforts by speaking in a language that is infuriatingly indecipherable."
Trump using his phone. (photo: Getty)
Spies Eavesdropping on Trump Complain He Is Speaking in Indecipherable Language
By Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
26 October 18
 The article below is satire. Andy Borowitz is an American comedian and New York Times-bestselling author who satirizes the news for his column, "The Borowitz Report." 
 ussian and Chinese spies who have been eavesdropping on Donald J. Trump’s unsecured iPhone calls complained on Thursday that he has foiled their efforts by speaking in a language that is infuriatingly indecipherable.
According to the spies, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, what they had hoped would be a treasure trove of valuable intercepts has amounted to little more than unintelligible gibberish.
“Trump has been communicating in an impenetrable code entirely of his own creation,” a Chinese spy said. “These phone calls might as well be triple-encrypted.”
A Russian spy who has monitored Trump’s calls around the clock said that the only words that could be identified clearly were “I” and “me,” but that they were used so frequently that they became virtually meaningless.
Both the Russians and the Chinese have given their top cryptologists the task of decoding Trump’s utterances, but many of these experts have quit within days, complaining of burnout, headaches, and depression.
“Trying to decipher Trump’s calls has reduced some of our top codebreakers to tears,” one Russian spymaster said. “They all miss Obama.”
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The Connection Between Hateful Rhetoric and Terrorizing Acts Is Glaringly Obvious, but Some Refuse to See It |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=43579"><span class="small">Margaret Sullivan, The Washington Post</span></a>
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Friday, 26 October 2018 14:15 |
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Sullivan writes: "The Trump effect is a straight line from years of his hateful rhetoric to real-world danger. It's a line that goes directly from disrespect to pipe bomb."
Mail bombing suspect's van. (photo: Twitter)
The Connection Between Hateful Rhetoric and Terrorizing Acts Is Glaringly Obvious, but Some Refuse to See It
By Margaret Sullivan, The Washington Post
26 October 18
 he gesture was small, but it contained multitudes.
At a raucous rally in Montana last week, a Trump supporter — juiced up by the president’s crude praise of a congressman who body-slammed a reporter — looked directly at CNN reporter Jim Acosta.
Then he ran his thumb across his throat. And laughed.
Later, Acosta described “the Trump effect.”
“It has normalized and sanitized nastiness and cruelty in a way that I just never thought I would see,” he said, shortly after that Montana rally.
The Trump effect is a straight line from years of his hateful rhetoric to real-world danger. It’s a line that goes directly from disrespect to pipe bomb.
And — almost inevitably — it will eventually go from failed attempt to spilled blood.
If you can’t see it, you aren’t looking.
But on Wednesday, plenty of people weren’t looking.
The news reports of bombs sent to the most frequent objects of President Trump’s sustained criticism brought a torrent of nonsense. This was a false-flag operation, some charged, instigated by Trump’s enemies to bring sympathy.
Ann Coulter tweeted that bombs have been, throughout history, “a liberal tactic.”
And radio behemoth Rush Limbaugh, as quoted in HuffPost, jumped in with his view that Republicans don’t do this sort of thing, and a Democratic operative was the more likely culprit.
But let’s get real. Everyone targeted by the pipe bombs had been the subject of endless hours of Fox News commentary. The list of targets read like Sean Hannity’s pre-broadcast crib notes: Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama and former CIA chief John Brennan — and, as the representative of evil mainstream media — CNN.
As usual, Trump himself projected blame everywhere but where it belongs.
In what Katie Rogers and Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times described as the president’s “rhetorical jujitsu,” he combined swipes at the news media and Democrats with a call to “come together in peace and harmony.”
And in a reprehensible Thursday-morning tweet, Trump doubled down: “A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. .?.?. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”
There is no story now — even one about terrorist acts — that doesn’t devolve into the hyperpartisan blame game, led by the president.
In this case, placing the blame appropriately required nothing but common sense.
CNN boss Jeff Zucker got it right: “There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media. The President, and especially the White House Press Secretary, should understand their words matter. Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that.”
(That Zucker, both at NBC and at CNN, undoubtedly helped create Trump as president doesn’t take away the truth of his statement. )
There’s real danger in these assaults.
There’s danger in “lock her up,” in birtherism, in retaliating against former CIA director Brennan by revoking his security clearance. There’s danger in calling reporters “the enemy of the people” and in celebrating Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte who roughed up Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs.
Examples abound. Previously a Montana Republican official resigned her post after not only cheering Gianforte’s body-slam but, in remarks on a radio show, taking it an ugly step further:
“If that kid had done to me what he did to Greg, I would have shot him,” she said.
When a gunman shot and killed five employees of the Capital Gazette last summer in Annapolis, Md., it seemed wise not to tie the tragedy to Trump’s anti-media assaults. After all, Jarrod Ramos had been harassing journalists at the small daily newspaper for years, carrying a grudge about coverage of him he found unfair.
Now I’m not so sure. Trump’s rhetoric makes the unthinkable seem possible. Worthy of a second thought — or more.
What I am certain of is that the danger that came from the top — from Trump — will worsen unless he does everything in his power to change.
To model, in words and actions, the peace and unity that he tepidly endorsed on Wednesday.
To recognize his own gargantuan role in the problem, to honestly confront “the Trump effect.”
Of course, there’s no reason to think that will happen.
And so — dreadful as it is to say — we know what will.
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FOCUS: Brazil's Far-Right Candidate Jair Bolsonaro Is a Threat to the World |
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Friday, 26 October 2018 11:22 |
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Excerpt: "Brazil is going through the worst crisis in its history since the civil-military coup and the establishment of the dictatorship in 1964."
People demonstrate against presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 29, 2018. (photo: Reuters)
Brazil's Far-Right Candidate Jair Bolsonaro Is a Threat to the World
By Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben, Guardian UK
26 October 18
Women and LGBT activists, human rights defenders, environmentalists and indigenous peoples are all at risk from the far-right candidate
 razil is going through the worst crisis in its history since the civil-military coup and the establishment of the dictatorship in 1964. On 7 October, in the first round of the presidential election, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro obtained an impressive 46.03% of the votes cast, or one-third of the registered voters. This result triggered a first wave of hate violence: more than 70 attacks were recorded against LGBT people, against women, against any opponents of extreme rightwing candidates or against journalists.
On the evening of the first round, capoeira master Moa do Katendê, an antiracist activist and educator, was stabbed to death by a Bolsonaro supporter. Katendê had declared that he had voted for leftwing candidate Fernando Haddad. In the south of the country, a 22-year-old woman was attacked on the street. We fear that this is only a foretaste of a deadlier wave of violence.
This hatred and violence is clearly being stirred up by Bolsonaro and his party’s elected representatives. By repeating their misogynous, racist, homophobic and transphobic speeches and provocations, by displaying their firearms, by glorifying the military dictatorship, by spreading false information, they implicitly call for the brutalisation, even murder, of all those who do not resemble them: women and LGBT activists, human rights defenders and indigenous peoples, progressive activists or journalists.
If Bolsonaro is elected head of the Brazilian state, this hatred risks becoming institutionalised and this physical violence unleashed. Brazil is already, unfortunately, one of the most violent countries in the world: 61,619 homicides were committed in 2017 according to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, representing nearly 170 people killed every day, including a young black man every 23 minutes. Human and environmental rights defenders were already particularly threatened and increasingly targeted.
Furthermore, Brazilian democratic institutions have also been dangerously weakened by the political-financial scandals affecting all political parties and the controversial dismissal of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. We fear that these institutions will not be able to enforce the democratic rule of law in the event of Bolsonaro’s victory.
As the second round approaches on 28 October, the far-right candidate enjoys the support of the most conservative and reactionary sectors of Brazilian society: the pro-weapons lobby, representatives of large landowners, many industrialists, powerful evangelical churches, part of the army and police forces. They will bear their responsibility for what awaits Brazil.
The international community, and in particular France and the European Union, must take action and support Brazilian democrats, regardless of the outcome of the presidential election. This is particularly so because Bolsonaro’s ideas represent a deadly threat to freedom, fundamental rights, achieving any Earth balance to climate change and Brazil’s young democracy.
This piece was drafted by the Paris-based Association Autres Brésils, and signed in support by:
Celso Amorim, diplomat, Brazilian; Frei Betto, author, Brazilian; José Bové, member of the European parliament (Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance), French; Chico Buarque, musician, Brazilian; Noam Chomsky, linguist, American; Ada Colau, Mayor of Barcelona; Karima Delli, member of the European parliament (Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance), French; Benoît Hamon, politician, French; Naomi Klein, journalist, Canadian; Noel Mamère, politician, French; Joana Mortágua, MP (Left Bloc), Portuguese; Bill McKibben, author, educator, environmentalist, and co-founder 350.org; Bresser Pereira, economist, Brazilian; Carol Proner, lawyer, Brazilian; Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, diplomat, Brazilian; Chico Whitaker, co-founder of the Brazilian World Social Forum.
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FOCUS: The Plot Twists in Georgia's Ratfcked Election Are Becoming Laughable |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=11104"><span class="small">Charles Pierce, Esquire</span></a>
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Friday, 26 October 2018 11:05 |
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Pierce writes: "The Georgia Secretary of State, whose minions are going to Get Right On This, happens also to be the Republican candidate for governor."
Republican Brian Kemp. (photo: Getty)
The Plot Twists in Georgia's Ratfcked Election Are Becoming Laughable
By Charles Pierce, Esquire
26 October 18
Meanwhile, in Texas, voting machines are taking on a mind of their own.
 elcome to another episode of the runaway hit of our fall season, What Is This Shit, Anyway? We go now to Texas, where the machines have a mind of their own—or, failing that, anybody's mind except that belonging to the poor bastard trying to vote. From ABC-13 in Houston.
Mickey Blake was one of the voters in those early voting lines in Houston earlier this week. "I hit straight Democratic ticket," Blake said. She says she expected all Democrats to come up on her screen, especially Rep. Beto O'Rourke, but when she got to the last screen to review her choices, she noticed a problem. "It's all Democratic except for Ted Cruz was checked," Blake said. So she backed up and did it again. And again."I tried it a third time and the same thing happened," she said. The same thing happened to Cordell Hosea in Fort Bend County. "When I got to the end, I just so happened that I glanced at the screen, I saw Ted Cruz was selected as my senator," Hosea said. He too voted straight ticket Democrat. But it's not just a Democrat problem. Voters who select straight-party Republican unselect Sen. Cruz and wind up voting for no one. Either way, officials say it's a rare issue that happens, but not to everyone.
Remember back in 2012, when Irish voters got so fed up with their voting machines that the government decided to scrap them? Yeah, that was cool. The only voting machine I ever will trust is made by Eberhard Faber.
Our series is based, you may recall, in the state of Georgia, where hilarious plot twists abound. The latest is in DeKalb County—already notorious for good government initiatives—where someone allegedly put some stuff in the wrong file and fed it to the office dachshund. From WSB:
Channel 2 investigative reporter Aaron Diamant has learned that leaders of the Democratic Party of Georgia contacted officials in Kemp’s office, claiming the party had evidence that as many as 4,700 DeKalb County voters never received the absentee-by-mail ballots they requested for November’s election.A representative for the secretary of state’s office told Diamant as soon as the call came in, state elections director Chris Harvey and another investigator headed to DeKalb County and met with the county’s elections director and other county election leaders. By email, the chair of DeKalb’s elections board told Diamant that the state Democratic party did hand over a list of about 4,700 registered DeKalb voters the party claims requested absentee ballot forms through a mailer sent out by the party. But in that same email the chairman said: “After reviewing the list of names, there is only evidence that the county received 50 of those voter absentee ballot request forms. All 50 of those forms have been processed. At this time, there is no evidence that there are any missing or lost absentee ballot request forms. The Elections Department receives request forms daily and processes them within three days of receipt. At this time there are approximately 250 forms pending processing.” The secretary of state’s office says it has no proof of any missing absentee ballot requests and is still waiting for the party to provide them with any evidence they may have but that it takes complaints seriously and will continue to investigate.
For those of you new to our breakthrough fall series, the Georgia Secretary of State, whose minions are going to Get Right On This, happens also to be the Republican candidate for governor. Wild and unpredictable!, raves the Daily Segretti. And remember, children, those rats won't fck themselves.
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