"Election Interference?" Arguing with the Daily Signal

 RantWoman does not usually read The Daily Signal. She made an exception for this article:

https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/12/17/how-democrats-attempted-a-2016-electoral-college-coup/ 

This article came to RantWoman on X / Twitter with the hashtag #ElectionInterference . Oh, you mean like #TFG (the former guy) saying out loud on the campaign trail "Russia are you listening?"  RantWoman does not here want to rehash all the tangles of the 2016 election but probably some of the public is going to need refreshers.

For now RantWoman considers it important to engage about the article because "Oh the Democrats did it too" is certainly going to be bandied about the court of public opinion even if it like whatever got presented in 60+ cases #TFG lost in 2020 it will not hold up in court. 

With that in mind, aiming to energize and motivate but hopefully not to overwhelm, RantWoman comments:

1. BOTH parties should do a better job of picking candidates and responding to the public mood. Start with some real basics like "Is this candidate eligible for a security clearance?" "Does the candidate already have so much legal action related to their business that one wonders how they have any time for their job?" "Will the candidate release 10 years of tax returns?"

2. In early 2016 there were already LOUD #GOP voices expressing concern about the presumptive nominee. How come that concern went nowhere?
3. For the Dems' part, RantWoman barely wants to touch Hillary's failure to build on Obama momentum, failure to look credible to Bernie bros, and failure at ALL to campaign in some key swing states. Hillary's assumption that she was winning, blinded her to LOTS of realities that opened the door to #TFG. Also, RantWoman recommends staying on the offensive against disinformation wherever it comes from.

4. Voters cannot rely only on parties (or the courts either). Voters ourselves need to stay engaged from the outset, shaping policy statements and messaging, registering voters, getting out the vote, monitoring vote counts....

5. No one should run unopposed! Saying it again, NO ONE should run unopposed! Who is willing to toss their hat into an election ring?

6. How electors get apportioned should be decided by states not by parties. That should avoid basically disenfranchising all the losing candidate's voters and reduce the odds of an electoral college victory wildly out of line with the popular vote. RantWoman is well aware the racist history of the electoral college and of concern that the electoral college gives low population states influence on Presidential outcomes way out of proportion to their population. Part of why RantWoman would prefer to do away with winner take all but not do away with the electoral college is that it could become too easy to ignore states that have small populations but important roles in the national economy. There is already two much division between large population mostly coastal states and the red heartland. The way to fix this is for there to be more diverse candidates in the heartland and for the coasts to listen better to heartland issues.

7. RantWoman here notes that around the 2017 inauguration, there were MASSIVE overwhelmingly nonviolent protest marches, massive marches with negligible numbers of either arrests or serious injuries. The airport occupations when #POTUS45 imposed his Muslim ban were also overwhelmingly nonviolent. Overwhelmingly nonviolent protests are AWESOME. By the time people were out protesting, though, it was really too late. This time around, people need to engage early and stay engaged,especially since the putative front-runner in one party is already promising to violate his oath of office almost as soon as he is sworn in.
RantWoman's impression of the 2016 campaign to switch electors is that it started comparatively late in the election cycle, maybe even after the election. In 2020 on the other hand, #TFG was already aware that he was losing and by early summer had already begun all the plotting that led up to the #J6 single biggest one-day violent crime wave in the US since 9/11 Bluntly, he was not going to leave office no matter what.

8. Another current thread in the national conversation is how do the #BLM #BlackLivesMatter protests of 2020 compare to #J6. This issue has swum out of the muck of #TFG talking about his plans for any future administration and for using the military against protestors in ways he was not allowed to do in 2020. 

     These comments acknowledge points that people in Seattle and Portland suspected. Forces of reaction seem eager, as often happens, to exploit reaction to the most negative images of protests. RantWoman is also turning into Protest Curmudgeon about people making their points without creating a lot of negative imagery. 

9. More alarming in terms of veering toward authoritarianism is concern RantWoman read on X/ Twitter that holding up military promotions and confirmation of diplomats is intended explicitly to leave lots of positions for a second #OrangeGuy administration to fill with loyalists who will do his bidding.

10. It's not like the US is shy about interfering in other countries' elections! RantWoman has a separate rant brewing about this point and the #OrangeGuy defending himself from conspiracy charges in Washington DC. Stay tuned.

The Ukraine war on two fronts

As much #Russia #Ukraine video etc watching as RantWoman is going to try tonight.

Farid Zakaria reports case iin rules-based order for international commission and using seized Russian assets to aid Ukraine reconstruction. 

Times Radio: John Herbst rumors of pressure for cease fire

for an added dimension, tonight's Kyiv worship brought a plea to hold in the Light a conscientious objector now being tried for refusing to kill.

Never too many tote bags!!!!

 Ooh, Ooh, Ooh. A very cool present arrived as RantWoman was in the middle of a tech support conversation about the raggedy edges of the internet.

FCNL swag RantWoman wasn't expecting.
Happy 80th anniversary FCNL

RantWoman is car-free by necessity. It does not hurt that riding transit reduces traffic congestion, makes cities more livable, and helps cut #GHG emissions, oh and builds community on wheels.

In any case, RantWoman can never have too many tote bags!

PS. It's #GivingTuesday. Never mind about match for other things. People who feel like giving to FCNL and don't  itemize can give straight to FCNL lobbying efforts.

RantWoman definitely means to do this, as soon as she can figure out how to make the donor portal stop arguing with her about her billing address.

FCNL approves new statement on reproductive healthcare

FCNL Revised policy on Reproductive Healthcare

Readers who just want to see the final text of the revised policy feel free to skip the rest of this.

 RantWoman should let the policy stand on its own, but RantWoman wants to offer particular appreciation for LOTS of points:

--Having easy online access to the final version of the document very shortly after the final wording was approved

--The last round of seasoning, one of those Quaker moments where it seems like something is almost done and suddenly like the loops of a labyrinth, there are two not exactly contradictory but powerful objections to wording. RantWoman lives on West Coast time even when Zooming for events on the East Coast soRantWoman just had to let wordsmiths wordsmith and leave the final decision to an Early Morning Meeting for business.

--The very well-led and carefully tended work of the FCNL policy committee between last year's annual meeting and the 2023 Annual meeting.

Maybe that is all RantWoman needs to say about this exact topic.

CHELYABINSK "Tractor Factory ON FIRE. Vlog 534: War in Ukraine

RantWoman does not watch Anna from Ukraine as often as other channels, but this video nails a whole bunch of issues. As Anna says, Chelyabinsk is a LONG way from Ukraine. 

No, RantWoman is NOT sorry the chelyabinsk "tractor factory" is on fire. 

In fact, RantWoman files this with other stories found on X / Twitter about the "Ukrainian Ministry of Accidental Russian Fires as events that have occurred. Whether the events get chalked up to Ukrainian resistance, Russian sympathizers, or average Russian inattention to safety issues, there is a considerable trail of such events occurring at various categories of locations such as defense plants.

RantWoman meant to collect a bunch of contradictory opinions about who is coming out worse, Russia or Ukraine, who is or is not just growing tired...

There is plenty of material to collect but not tonight.

Time Radio: Mark Galeotti says Putin las lost ability ...about security issues

Fertility! And Better than space lasers?

RantWoman presents Russian State TV commentator Margarita Simonyan and her, um, unusual ideas about what will solve Russia's demographic crisis:

Note. Video is in Russian. English translation on the screen is not screen reader accessible. RantWoman has neither validated the automated transcript nor tried to see what happens if the transcript lines are run the Russian transcript through Google translate. Enough of the preposterousness comes through to allow RantWoman to comment, after the video.

Well, yeah, MAYBE when pigs fly and hell freezes. Russia could also get crazy: stop making elites want to fly abroad to avoid military duty, stop feeding more ordinary people to the Ukraine war meat grinder, Russia would not have to rely on magical thinking about Russia somehow being in a position to seduce most people from the US into moving there.

Anther panel arguing about how to raise the birth rate in Russia

For another weird example of Russian propaganda voices, Olga Skabeeva and evgeny Popov

Meanwhile on this side of the pond recently elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson wants childbearing and particularly forced pregnancy in lieu of comprehensive health care options to solve fiscal problems with Social Security and Medicare, problems that are EASILY fixable with only modest increases in Social Security and Medicare taxes. And supporting existing families, whatever they look like, through things like restoring the #Pandemic era #ChildTaxCredit  would never hurt either.

RantWoman is going to leave things at that, for one thing because she has far too rich a tree of other possible rants and this is enough for one night.

How Russia treats those lost or injured and their families. Sinking of the Rostov on the Don submarine. and broader questions, with introductory rant

Full disclosure: RantWoman missed sessions at FCNL's recent annual meeting about the war in Ukraine. RantWoman means to see what is possible to review but in the meantime, RantWoman HAS OPINIONS and questions. RantWoman finds it hard to speak to some points one might reasonably be expected to lobby about. 

Some points RantWoman considers:

--There IS opposition to the war in Russia: journalists, military and political figures, and the families of troops. Conditions for opposition voices are brutal, but the opposition persists. Sensible voices should be amplified; there is also A LOT of garbage propaganda and disinformation and countering that is absolutely necessary.

--Sanctions are having an impact on Russia.

--Various scenarios come up about collapse of Russia, Putin being deposed or replaced in an election. IT will be VITAL to have informed specialists in the picture to influence the international impact of these possibilities.

--RantWoman supports Ukraine's right to territorial integrity and political self-determination.

--This point includes cluster bombs. Cluster bombs are monstrous weapons. One source (Beau)noted that Ukraine already knows they are going to have to invest in lots of de-mining after they drive Russians out, so what are some more explosives to deal with. Another source (Jake Broe) pointed out that Ukraine is disassembling cluster bombs and using the bomblets inside to arm drones. Both points are icky. RantWoman considers it appropriate to concentrate on analyzing the gee-whiz aspects of drone warfare, what help might be needed after the war and how to pay for the war damages through seized assets.

--For better or worse, RantWoman considers it appropriate for Russia's neighbors to have a role in the conduct of the war and which weapons get used how.

--In many cases US and European weapons shipments to Ukraine are cleaning out old stocks which of course will then be used to justify building newer better ones. Watch that issue play out.

--The war is mostly going VERY badly for Russia and Putin is making the some of the same mistakes Stalin made in WWII. That is unfortunate and Russia should stop it. RantWoman saying that is not going to make it so.

--Historian Anne Applebaum writes of the sequence of Putin foreign policy where he thinks he is continuing to win, partly because Western powers have not stood up to his assaults on Georgia, Ukraine, Syria as firmly as they might have. Fear of acting though for conflicts between nuclear powers makes firm statecraft all the more important. Timeliness also matters: Russia would be much less dug in in the territories it seized in 2014 if there had been firmer international response. RantWoman has no opinion her about what might have been possible in alternate realities.

--The legacy of Ukraine and Belarus giving Russia back nuclear weapons deployed on their territory when the Soviet Union fell apart needs to figure in thinking about both nuclear weapons issues and the how to manage a nuclear power plant under occupation concerns.

--There is a whole de-carbonize the global economy angle that RantWoman is not going to try to comb through with respect to European dependence on oil and gas exports from Russia as well as how India, China and other oil-producing countries interact with the sanctions regime. 

Here, though, RantWoman is going to continue to post videos she finds informative in hopes that others can draw useful information from what RantWoman culls off YouTube.

RantWoman thinks this channel MAY be created by AI and then edited by a human, either that or read by really good text to speech. However, RantWoman has no reason to doubt the substance of this story.

DW: Families of Russian troops in Ukraine protest war

Silicon Bites: DRAMATIC increase in many violent crimes among people returning from the front but others being used for patriotic education

Also fear of "afghan Syndrome."

HORRIFIC realities of trying to provide support to veterans

Oh Gee, you mean this stuff happens in Russia as well as the US?

Times Radio: how Russians really feel about Putin's invasion of Ukraine

CNN: Ukrainian drone pilot and congressman

The Icarus Project: should the world take Belarus sudden interest in resolving the conflict seriously?

When Lukashenko talks Putin is moving his lips.

Watch the whole video

What are different theories of victory?

Infographics: What do Russian military think of the war in Ukraine

Will western delay prompt Ukraine to undertake more desperate actions.

Russia: commitment to long war. Different perceptions in different countires. Watch the whole video.

See other videos from this channel.

Snark from X / Twitter and click through to the Timothy Snyder item

If #Russia wants out of the the #UkraineWar stalemate they should leave. Stop feeding untrained poorly equipped bodies to the meat grinder. Respect #Ukraine territorial integrity. Also listen to many antiwar voices inside Russia. https://t.co/JzzRp83JXC

— Dorene Cornwell (@DoreneFC) November 24, 2023