Tuesday, July 18, 2017

2018 Toxin - An Alt-Right Sampler

There's Hacking, but There's Also "Targeted Propaganda."

After the Trump Catastrophe, we need to be using the right words.

The US domestic media has been plying the "hacking" idea fast and loose. Just to make things painfully clear, "hacking" means prying one's way into someone else's computer and "stealing" private data from the files stored there.

"Hacking" is what happened to the DNC when the Russians managed to copy the Hillary campaign's email files. After that the stolen content was repackaged as a truly outrageous glop of "breaking news" and spread across the domestic media, the hope was that something to be found there would cripple the Clinton candidacy. It turns out that these "high hopes" for the revelation were not really going to amount to much.

So, THAT's "hacking" in the purest sense of the process.

However, there was another "hacking" scheme which turned out to be significantly more frightening. The basics were roughly the same as what happened to the DNC, but the results were exquisitely more material.

The "hackers" penetrated dozens [probably hundreds] of precinct voter registration files in 44 states, and the voter data -- party affiliation, voting history, records of military service, address, age and more -- were stolen. It got worse from here.

The Trump Campaign had retained several powerful analytics corporations to "help target the candidate's efforts." This would have normally amounted to some "improvements" to Trump's speeches based on what the analysis uncovered about voter priorities.

The really stinky part happened next. The Trump Campaign provided the analytics to the "hackers" who had grabbed all the voter data. Once this was accomplished, the Russians ["hackers"] were finally able to target voters for individual propaganda messaging.

The largest effect of this was to pump anti-Hillary messaging to possible Clinton voters with the goal of dissuading them from going to the polls to vote for her.

This is what happened. Trump's "victory" came from this effect.

Okay, Targeted Propaganda, but

What, Exactly, Was the Propaganda?

Gee whiz! It just HAD to be something pretty spectacular, right?

Nope.

With illiterate Trump voters? You've got to be kidding me.

Now, by this time FOX's right wing editorial "effectivity" had already been pretty much saturated into exhaustion. The wing nuts who regularly listen to Murdoch's propaganda had already pretty much heard everything. Further, potential Clinton voters weren't paying much attention to Murdoch's drivel. The challenge facing these Trump/Russian "hackers" could not be "in kind additions" -- simply more of the same incendiary traffic FOX was already broadcasting -- directed at these Clinton Democrats.

It had to be something even more incendiary. Happily, absolutely nothing the Trump supporters and Hillary haters were consuming was inhibited by even rudimentary fact checking.

Regular visitors to this blog -- much like old MeanMesa, himself -- actually have very little familiarity with the content of this material. As a consequence of this lack of information, MeanMesa has done a "little shopping" on YOUTUBE. The "items" listed below are not anything spectacular. [There is, actually, very little of this content which is particularly "spectacular."]

Nonetheless. here they are. There is a link provided by each example. [Meanmesa suggests that none of the examples be played all the way through. YOUTUBE algorithms will "pick up" on your interest and start showering you with way too much of this stuff. The "shine" dulls pretty quickly.]

Samples: The Alt-Right "Fills the Void"
After FOX's Hate Bucket Approaches Empty

Of course the Russians eagerly lent a helping hand.

The examples posted below are NOT the product of hours upon hours of tedious, painstaking investigation. These are very casual selections extracted from literally thousands of similar videos permanently lodged in the YOUTUBE files. These are interesting here because they represent typical "messages" which were entirely available for propaganda efforts once the "target voters" and "targeted precincts" could be accessed thanks to the Trump campaign's generous recruitment of the analytics corporations.

To keep things brief, MeanMesa will include just a few extra notes on each one.

1. Automated: Some of these videos are produced using actual people and voices, but others -- very suspiciously -- are narrated by computer generated voices. Why would someone "invested" enough to create a video use a computer voice to narrate it? This makes more sense if the video is created in a place where there are simply no "convincing" English speaking choices available.

2. Evidence and fact free narratives: Some of these videos amount to a "sterile narrative," an argument presented without any supporting evidence. In these cases the video narrative amounts to a "unitary diatribe." There is no effort directed at informing or persuading the viewer.

3. Single graphic: In these cases the narrative delivered by the video is accompanied only by a static photo. The video is essentially a single photograph accompanied by an audio narrative.

Remember, many of these "message" videos were produced deep in the Russian Federation or its satellite countries where state law enforcement is conveniently weak and complicit. Interestingly, one of the example videos was "removed" from YOUTUBE while this post was being composed.

Although a "sample" visit to these videos reveals very little which might attractive to large numbers of people, the YOUTUBE "view counter," surprisingly. shows a much greater interest. This is accomplished primarily by Russian bots which load the address of the video then link -- only long enough to be counted as a "view." However, when less savvy folks -- who actually watch one of these video -- see the high "views" number, they are lulled into the idea that thousands of others have identically the same reactionary political and religious "appetites" that they have. [By the way, MeanMesa only adds a visitor to the count after someone has spent a few minutes reading one of the posts.]

Don't spend too much time on any of these or YOUTUBE will start "suggesting" hundreds or thousands of them every time you link into it.

SHOCKING: What Obama Said About America Will Make Your Stomach Turn! religious extremists human narrator

Attribution: MLordandGod - alt-right religious.

The video shows multiple photos, but none of them proved an explanation or new data about the content of the narrative.

Narrative is read by an English speaking female. The narrative is heavily pro-Trump.

Sara Netanyahu Didn’t Know Melania’s Mic Was On When She Whispered Shocking Admission Everyone Heard

Attribution: Latest Conspiracy Theory News
Computer generated voice to deliver the narrative
Single photo without video through the entire "message"
Views: 195,000

MELANIA TRUMP MAKES GRUESOME DISCOVERY ON HER FIRST DAY LIVING AT THE WHITE HOUSE!

Attribution: Gotcha News Network

Narrated by English speaking female, video is a series of photos and photos of texts.

Narrative is very racist.

Leaked Pictures Of Obama’s White House Residence Will Make You Sick!

Attribution: MLordandGod

Video shows various photographs, and the voice delivering the narrative is an English speaking female. Narrative emphasis on Muslim religion and Sharia, implying Obama was Muslim. The video is narrated by an English speaking female.

Trey Gowdy Reveals Why Obama Really Fled to Indonesia

Attribution: To Tell the Truth
Gowdy photo, Obama in Indonesia to avoid extradition - machine voice all narrated with photo of Gowdy, no evidence

The Truth About The Clinton Pedophile Ring Exposed

Attribution: INFO WARS
Alex Jones
354,000 views

NYPD Has Pedophile Evidence On Clintons

Attribution: INFO WARS
Alex Jones
126.000 views

The Clinton Crime Family - On Pedophile Island

Attribution: America's Minuteman Watch - American Patriot
Features RT video feed. Video has intro graphics. It is narrated by an English speaking male.
Views: 274,600

BREAKING: A 'SEX SLAVE' BREAKS SILENCE, MAKES DISTURBING ACCUSATIONS AGAINST BILL CLINTON

Attribution: Next News Network
Slick into graphics, but video consists of a single photo and narrative provided by an English speaking male at a desk.

Watch Rachel Maddow AGAIN get that STUPID SMIRK wiped off by GA-06 | First Aid Fail Office Parody

Attribution: Ovation Eddie [Mark Dice]
Much of the video is taken from an episode of a television shows.
Views: 131,020

BREAKING: Trump Just Rained Down Hell On North Korea – Here’s What Kim Jong-un Is Doing Now

Attribution: Latest Conspiracy Theory News
Mechanical voice - video just removed by YOUTUBE minutes ago.
Narrative not factual.

Friday, July 14, 2017

Rachel Finally Wounds the Mighty FOX

A Brief Glimpse of New Trends in American Media:

FOX Is Wounded.

It's finally about time.

The prime time blowhards at FOX Broadcasting have spent the past few years wallowing in an irritating ebullience -- perhaps better described as an "irritating inebriation" -- while basking in the constantly darkening lamps of the reactionary network. All the while high FOX audience ratings rolled into Murdoch's executive offices daily, very dependably, further "stoking the flames" of the Hannity/Limbaugh/O'Reilly style ideological, show biz arrogance without interruption.

A very large part of Murdoch's "business success" was his corporate ability to purchase and dominatecontributions" from the wacky billionaire right kept the thing above water until it could develop a sufficiently reactionary audience to sustain it.

MSNBC's Dr. Rachel Maddow

hundreds of domestic media outlets. FOX was nowhere close to profitable during its earliest years, but huge amounts of out right "

By five years ago FOX "news stars" were the voices of hundred of hours of broadcast time every week. Limbaugh's hateful daily show was being broadcast and re-broadcast in some localities in the morning, early afternoon and evening. This saturation was made possible by the almost unlimited corporate war chest. Predictably, when the same rancid broadcast was all that was available in such markets, the audience ratings sky rocketed -- and stayed there.

For years it seemed that no power on Earth could "break the spell" of the FOX-billionaire juggernaut.

Then, THIS happened.

MSNBC beats Fox News and CNN

in ratings for the first time

[Excerpted. Read the entire article here:

MSNBC Beats FOX News Ratings/NYDailyNews]

MSNBC averaged about 611,000; CNN drew 589,000 and Fox News trailed with 497,000 — as Fox historically draws much older viewers who are considered less desirable to Madison Avenue executives.

The industry is rife with theories as to why this is happening now.

Some believe that Fox News and President Trump friendly surrogates like Hannity are doing a poor job covering the near daily scandals erupting around the Trump White House.

Others believe the discord and scandal that has rocked Fox News’ primetime lineup, especially the loss of Bill O’Reilly, who went down in a sexual harassment scandal, has severely weakened the once dominant channel.

Although this article was posted in the NY Daily News entertainment section, the impact of this development will probably enjoy a prominent place in the History of the United States through the 21st Century. FOX had been doing everything possible to undercut the American democracy, and FOX broadcast content had been entirely directed at "grooming" an electoral demographic into a state which, ultimately, began to deliver quite un-American election results.

We see Murdoch's "empire of deceit and persuasion" faltering -- big time -- with the news that Maddow and MSNBC have now topped FOX's ratings. MeanMesa is not at all convinced that the FOX front line actors precipitated this with their misogyny scandals. The audience currently driving the network ratings may have simply outgrown Murdoch's incendiary adolescence. A year ago Trump was FOX's most exciting, future "business asset." However, as viewers have had a chance to take a closer look at Trump, maybe they've also taken a closer look at FOX.

More than a few of them are currently manifesting the red faced embarrassment which accompanies buyer's remorse.

Breaking the FOX Spell

Gee whiz. This certainly seems to be moving quickly!

Who'd have thought -- after all these years?

How to frighten FOX viewers. [image]

There has been a major demographic of "default media consumers" which has been powering Murdoch's hate filled FOX News forward for the last few decades. By "default" MeanMesa is referring to the comatose, geriatric audience which found their automatic outrage to the network's endless incendiaries somehow gratifying enough to "slip" into the opinion that the drivel was, in fact, worth something.

Throughout these tedious decades Murdoch's propaganda machine brazenly promoted the election of every candidate with an "R" behind his name. The "other residents" of the American air waves languished under what appeared to be an unstoppable wave of top ratings for FOX.

MSNBC, originally "created" to compete with the Murdoch's rancid broadcast giant, was immediately beset with "growing pains." These got worse instead of better as things progressed -- until radio talk show host, Rachel Maddow [Yes, that would be DR. Rachel Maddow. She holds a PhD in political science from Oxford University.] came on board.

MSNBC has had more "growing pains" since then, but Maddow has set the theme for the network's progressive reporting.

Meetings of the "PhD Club" at FOX doesn't require many chairs.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The Bright Side of GOP Suicidal Health Insurance [Tax Cut] Bill

Just a Wee Bit About the GOP Health Insurance Bill

Take your choice - House version or Senate version.

Why "SUICIDAL?"

As a Republican Congressman, you understand that your "political career" really counts on being re-elected. The fundamental concept of representative government means that this "getting re-elected" business is based on pleasing these voters of yours. Now, even before Trump and his cronies started the American Health Care Act, the US House of Representatives and the US Senate were already enjoying a 21% job approval rating [GALLUP],

The House version of the GOP health insurance bill managed to eek out a 12%-17% approval rating. Approval of the blatantly horrible Senate bill will, most likely, be slightly less.

Now, back to "suicidal." Pretend that you're a Republican House of Senate member. Your Party's President is polling a roughly 30% approval rating.

Why are you doing this? More importantly, why are you in such a rush to do this? We'll need just a couple of details to make sense out of this.

By this time we have realized that these horrible "legislative efforts" have almost nothing to do with health care -- both of them are unimaginably huge tax cut schemes. The "big picture" is a confusing one which invites all sorts of mis-perceptions as Americans try to maneuver through the domestic media's twisted account. In order to keep this part of the post short, we can approach this by the numbers.

1. The ACA is "falling apart" -- as Trump has taken great pains to repeat over and over -- because the insurance corporations are running from the ACA "exchange plan." The reason the corporations are in full flight is because the Republicans in the Senate fatally injured what is called the "risk corridor" in their latest budget bill.

The "risk corridor" was a mechanism in the ACA to reimburse the insurance corporations for money they would lose from the ACA's requirement that health insurance HAD to be "guaranteed issue," that is, HAD to be available to everyone regardless of old age, poor health or simple poverty. The authors of the ACA knew that lots of expensive insurance "clients" would flock to get ACA coverage, and that this would cost the corporations a lot of money.

Senate Republicans stiffed these corporations in the GOP budget bill, allocating only around ten cents on the dollar of what had been agreed upon earlier. The insurance corporations, staring at huge losses in insuring these "expensive" clients, closed up shop.

THIS is what Trump and the mind fogged GOP Senators are talking about every time they make the point that "ObamaCare is failing."

2. The ACA was passed in "reconciliation," that it, the ACA was budget neutral. Of course the ACA cost the government plenty of money, but the original bill included tax increases [i.e. 3% on capital gains which is how the very richest Americans "make" their money.] to generate the funds for the plan. The Republicans have ended almost all of these tax increases, leaving the ACA essentially unfunded.

The "revenue neutral" GOP "replacement" is entirely intended to reduce these taxes and ACA coverage costs to create a $10 Billion dollar reduction in the deficit. Insurance coverage available under the rules of the new GOP plan would be painfully lacking compared to the ACA's "guaranteed" coverage of all sorts previously insured conditions.

A major part of these "savings" would come from "limiting" the growth of Medicaid seven years "down the road." 40% of Americans get their health care from Medicaid. These are the people comprising the population in the CBO estimate that 22 million Americans would lose coverage.

The billionaires who own the Republican Party would receive almost all of the "deficit reduction savings" as tax cuts. "Limiting" Medicaid, in addition to several other multi-billion dollar reductions, should "free up" more than $10 Billion in direct "deficit reduction." [$100 Billion in savings over ten years] Senator McConnell is applying around $8 Billion of this to make the GOP bill "revenue neutral," while offering the remaining $2 Billion in legislative bribes which could lubricate his Senatorial attempts to get 50 votes.

The owners of the Republican Party will NOT settle for any less than $100 Billion in tax cuts in the next ten years.

THIS is why the Republican "health insurance" bill is, once the lipstick has been removed, a gigantic tax cut bill.

Of course plenty of the Republican looters in the Congress are not rich enough [Although most of them are, in fact, millionaires, they are "small potatoes" compared to the GOP's owners.] to really "reap the full benefits" of this scheme. So-o-o-o, it's only to be expected that they "need" to grease their own palms with whatever they can steal in the meantime.

Take a look at the following DailyKOS article -- great reporting!

Republican lawmakers move to cash in on healthcare repeal by buying up stock in insurance companies

By Dartagnan

Saturday Jul 08, 2017

[Original article here/DailyKOS]

Representative Mike Conway [R-TX]

Who knew kicking 22 million people out of their health insurance could be so lucrative?

Just as the Republican bill to slash much of the Affordable Care Act moved forward, Rep. Mike Conaway, a Texas Republican and member of Speaker Paul Ryan’s leadership team, added a health insurance company to his portfolio.

An account owned by Conaway’s wife made two purchases of UnitedHealth stock, worth as much as $30,000, on March 24th, the day the legislation advanced in the House Rules Committee, according to disclosures.

Health care stocks have soared in recent weeks as insurance companies salivate over the prospect of gouging more Americans with inflated premiums and cuts in benefits. The Republicans have also promised to loosen the regulations that prohibit these same companies from denying coverage to whomever they choose, which promises to bump up the share price of conglomerates like United Health.

Conaway was not the only Republican cashing in on his plans for other people’s sickness and death:

As the health care system overhaul advanced last month on the other side of Capitol Hill, Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma purchased between $50,000 to $100,000 in UnitedHealth stock.

With the United States under Trump devolving into a Putin-esque kleptocracy, the stink of corruption has apparently become so normalized in Republican ranks that they’ve become completely desensitized to it. In Conaway’s case, however, enriching himself with insider information had already passed his personal smell test:

Conaway, who serves as a GOP deputy whip in the House, has a long record of investing in firms that coincide with his official duties. Politico reported that Conaway’s wife purchased stock in a nuclear firm just after Conaway sponsored a bill to deal with nuclear waste storage in his district. The firm stood to directly benefit from the legislation.

Making money off sick children and the elderly who your party plans to leave without any health care coverage represents a new low, even for a Texas Republican. However, the rest of his party (and some Democrats as well) have made every effort to help him along. In 2012 Congress made a big show of passing something called the STOCK act in an apparent attempt to curb insider trading among lawmakers and their staff. The bill was subsequently watered down and partially repealed, specifically those provisions which would have made congresspersons’ stock transactions accessible to the public. And when the Securities & Exchange Commission moved forward with its first investigation of alleged violations of the act, the Republican-led Congress filed a brief with the SEC claiming the act could not be applied.

New York Magazine’s Eric Levitz explains why Conaway’s and Inhofe’s trading in individual stocks timed to coincide with legislation they are working behind closed doors to pass is not just “business as usual”:

It’s worth noting that, for the ordinary investor, it’s rarely wise to buy and sell individual stocks — as opposed to investing in mutual funds — unless one has access to special information. And given that the mere appearance of corruption has a corrosive effect on our republic, it’s difficult to understand why members of Congress don’t restrict their investments to such instruments.

But then, the Trump-era Republican Party has grown quite comfortable with complicity in manifest corruption — let alone with giving the appearance of it.

With the entire executive branch awash in graft from the top down, it’s simply become ridiculously easy for members of Congress like Conaway to blend in with their own petty corruptions, without being noticed.

And as for the “corrosive effect on our Republic,” well, that ship sailed last November.

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Rachel and MSNBC Ratings Leaving FOX In the Dust

A Brief Glimpse of New Trends in American Media:

FOX Is Wounded.

It's finally about time.

We need more terrified suckers.[image]

A very large part of Murdoch's "business success" was his corporate ability to purchase and dominate hundreds of domestic media outlets. FOX was nowhere close to profitable during its earliest years, but huge amounts of out right "contributions" from the wacky billionaire right kept the thing above water until it could develop a sufficiently reactionary audience to sustain it.

For years it seemed that no power on Earth could "break the spell" of the FOX-billionaire juggernaut.

Then, THIS happened.

MeanMesa has included two reports. Interestingly, both articles were posted in the entertainment section of the publications.

Article 1: FORTUNE entertainment

MSNBC Has Beat Fox News in Prime Time

for the First Time in Years

Madeline Farber

Updated: Jun 06, 2017 3:37 PM ET
[Visit the original article here: MSNBC Beats FOX Prime Time Ratings/FORTUNE]

For the first time in 17 years, MSNBC has snagged the No. 1 spot in prime time cable news.

The move in May to the top spot in the weekday prime time ratings among the coveted 25-to-54 age demographic, The New York Times reports, is mainly thanks to network host Rachel Maddow and her show, The Rachel Maddow Show. The liberal anchor and the network as a whole has benefited from a time of great anxiety and unrest on America's political left in the era of President Donald Trump. What's more, MSNBC has been doing well with that key 25-to-54 age demographic. In May, the Times reports, it beat its rivals for the highest prime time viewership on weeknights in that age demographic. That's up 118% from a year earlier.

Nielsen ratings show that Fox News still remained the top cable news channel during primetime in overall viewers, and in total day viewership. And in daytime ratings, however, MSNBC is still ranked No.3. But its morning and afternoon audience is growing rapidly. In May, total viewership between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. almost doubled from the year before, the Times reports, far outpacing the growth of rivals Fox News and CNN.

Article 2: NY DAILY NEWS

MSNBC beats Fox News and CNN

in ratings for the first time

[Excerpted. Read the entire article here:

MSNBC Beats FOX News Ratings/NYDailyNews]

MSNBC averaged about 611,000; CNN drew 589,000 and Fox News trailed with 497,000 — as Fox historically draws much older viewers who are considered less desirable to Madison Avenue executives.

The industry is rife with theories as to why this is happening now.

Some believe that Fox News and President Trump friendly surrogates like Hannity are doing a poor job covering the near daily scandals erupting around the Trump White House.

This News Means Much More Than Cable Ratings

Perhaps the fever has broken, and we can have a sigh of relief.

Although these articles were posted in the NY Daily News and FORTUNE entertainment section, the impact of this development will probably enjoy a prominent place in the History of the United States through the 21st Century. FOX had been doing everything possible to undercut the American democracy, and FOX broadcast content had been entirely directed at "grooming" an electoral demographic into a state which, ultimately, began to deliver quite un-American election results.

More than a few of them are currently manifesting the red faced embarrassment which accompanies buyer's remorse.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Trump - President, Mafioso or Russian Oligarch?

Meet your new oligarchs. The Russians
knew how to do this.
[image source]

Ugly Facts About Trump's Plan to Finally Destroy the Democracy

The Russian Intelligence Agency [СВР РФ] hackers couldn't quite do it completely last time,

so Trump is making it easier for their next attempt.

Jeff Sessions -- Confederate Darling

Ever wonder why Trump and the Republican Senate chose to embarrass themselves by hoisting Jeffry Beauregard Sessions up to the Attorney General spot?

A repeat of the Civil War? Maybe.

Of course Sessions already had plenty of smelly baggage which was certain to attract the attention of the "always hungry to suppress minority voting" Republicans in the Senate. Among plenty of other "quite stinky" credentials, Beauregard earned his stars in the Confederacy by suppressing voting and other blatantly anti-democracy schemes through the years of his checkered political career. [Jeff Sessions as Spent His Whole Career Opposing Voting Rights/TheNATION]

Under the Trump-Russia-Goldman-Sachs "Presidency" Sessions will be responsible for the legality of US elections until he leaves office. If anyone expects this catastrophe to improve as it matures, go shopping for some good swamp property next to the ocean.

The Mysteriously Missing 3 Million Illegal Clinton Voters

Both before and after Trump lost the election by 3,000,000 votes, he was incessantly bellowing about the election being "rigged." The primary motivation for this endless lament was Trump's own psychological obsession with winning the popular vote. Ironically, even while these complaints were being issued to a grotesquely animated, Hillary hating rally crowd, the election was, in fact, "being rigged" -- by the bots and hackers patiently toiling for the Russian Federation Intelligence Service using the data generated by the private analytic companies hired by the Trump campaign.

However, following his Inauguration this incendiary line employed by Trump in his on-going effort to keep his now dwindling voter base energized brings a politically unavoidable "problem" with it. Hillary Clinton's rather impressive performance in the final death throes of the Republican "computer server" interrogation didn't phase the trailer park troglodytes blindly dedicated to being Trump loyalists. Most of them wouldn't be particularly interested in the difference between a private server and a granite tombstone.

There was never so much as a shard of evidence to support Trump's "explanation" of the election loss. MeanMesa's use of the term, "shard" includes even such arcane, possible sources as the ultra-right wing media -- the voices which Trump relies upon to provide his day to day "news" and political information.

Meet Kris Kobach's Voter Suppression "Cross Check"

If you're Trump, it's a marriage made in heaven.

Vote suppression expert, Jeff Beauregard Sessions, can be the flower girl.

Kobach's voter suppression scheme was a "thoroughly modern Millie." That is, Kobach's scheme would not have been possible until modern times made lists and lists of voter identifications into large, yet theoretically manageable data files which could be maintained by state governments. Now, Kobach was the Secretary of State of Kansas, a personal "garden" of the multi-billionaire, extra creepy Koch brothers -- two of the most rabidly "conservative" ideologues in the 20th Century. [Billionaire Daddy Koch founded and financed the John Birch Society shortly after the Korean War.]

The Koch brothers' "head gardener" for the "Kansas experiment" was another, eager, "conservative" ideologue named Sam Brownback, a right wing political hack who became Governor of Kansas. Sam implemented all sorts of Koch brothers-style tax reduction and other reforms, utterly bankrupting the State of Kansas which had, previously, enjoyed a healthy, robust agricultural economy. State economic matters have, currently, reached such a drastic state of collapse that the Republican State Legislature has now legislated the unthinkable -- tax increases in an effort to "stop the bleeding."

In fact this effort turned out to be "robust enough" that this State Legislature has now even over ridden Brownback's VETO of the tax increase bills. Remember, Kobach was Sam Brownback's hand picked Secretary of State.

Well, one very clear problem the Republicans were facing as they entered the 2016 political campaign was, stated generally, that there were far too many "wrong colored people" who were probably going to vote for Hillary Clinton. This was not only the case in Kansas, but also all across the "field of red" states. The Koch brothers, Sam Brownback and Kris Kobach simply HAD to do something. It was becoming an electoral "emergency" -- precisely the conditions which have always brought out the worst in Republicans.

In an effort lubricated quite generously by the billionaire Koch brothers, Kris Kobach devised a rather clumsy -- yet potentially effective scheme -- to "turn the tide" back into the favor of the old white men with all the money. This scheme turned into what is now called "Cross Check." Racists and crackers all across the Confederacy fell in love with Kobach's anti-democracy conspiracy immediately.

"Cross Check" first searched out names of Americans who could not legally vote for some reason. These unfortunate citizens were, at first, selected from Kansas voter registration rolls, but later the list of "unable to vote" Americans was rapidly augmented by names from the other states which were eagerly "on board" with the Kobach scheme. In no time Kobach's list was literally spilling out of the computer files where it had been stored.

Now, we must look at the "clumsy" part. It turns out that this part was not only "clumsy," but also devilishly ingenious.

If an American in, say, the State of Mississippi were name Alonzo Juan Sanchez, and Alonzo was not legally able to vote because he was, say, a convicted felon, "Cross Check" instantly reduced his name in the computer file to simply Alonzo Sanchez. At once, all the cracker states participating in Kobach's "Cross Check" scheme "de-registered" every Alonzo Sanchez from their corresponding voter registration lists. This was done very quietly.

The result was that when thousands of voters named Alonzo Sanchez -- voters who actually lived in other states and who were not convicted felons -- appeared at the polls to vote, they discovered that they were no longer registered. This happened to hundreds of thousands [possibly millions] of voters in the 2016 election.

When names commonly used by black Americans or Hispanic Americans were fed through this system, the result was...well...not only President Trump, but also dozens of states with band new, bright red, freshly "elected" Republican state legislatures.

Okay. This may stink, but in "Cross Check's" multi-state aftermath, not nearly enough parts of the US government remained to function as the historical representative democracy which could do anything about it.

Now, President Trump has appointed Kris Kobach as the Director of the his Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which is to be chaired by recent hate radio talk show host and Vice President Mike Pence. [What Is Kris Kobach Up To?/POLITICO]

The Presidential Advisory Commission

on Election Integrity

"We're not in Kansas
anymore." [OZ-YouTube]

Naturally, the Presidential Advisory Commission's first order of business will be to do something about finding the three million mysteriously illegal, Clinton votes.

However, no matter how obsessed with this vacuous idea the President may be, one of the "steps along the way" required to make Kobach's criminal election scheme either "work" or, at least, "look like it works" will, necessarily, be the creation of a gigantic data pool of all citizens who have ever voted. Kobach has already begun this process by soliciting the voter rolls from individual states.

The data he wants to incorporate into this file would include the name, address, age and party affiliation of each of these voters. Additionally, Kobach thinks that the President should also be able to look up the voting history of every one of the "registered to vote" Americans. [Forty-four states have refused to give certain voter information to Trump commission/CNN]

Now, all of this would be nasty enough, but there is more.

Finally, We Get To the Russians

The commercial US media has completely botched this story.

Americans are still left uncertain about what Trump and the Russians did to them.

There has been a credible narrative about what the Russians had planned to accomplish during the election. The foundation of this version of the tale is based on the fact that Putin absolutely hated Hillary Clinton after Russians protested against him earlier in 2015. The Russian dictator soundly blamed Clinton -- then US Secretary of State -- for "stirring up" his Russian subjects.

In this quite plausible narrative Putin's initial ambition was to seriously damage Clinton as a candidate with the further hope of weakening her as President later. In September or October of 2016 there were no active voices speculating a Trump victory beyond the rancid alt right media.

There is little doubt that the Trump campaign was already connected to the Russian effort at the hip. Since the election White House Trumpkins have been dragged kicking and screaming into "come to Jesus" moments during which they have finally admitted to extensive and repeated contacts with the Kremlin.

The Russian cyber attack breached the voter registration rolls in 39 states. [The following Denver Post article is excerpted. Visit the original article 2017/06/13/Russian-breach_in_39-states-US-elections/DenverPost]

Russian breach of 39 states threatens future U.S. elections

The new details show the scope of alleged hacking

that federal investigators are scrutinizing

In many states, the extent of the Russian infiltration remains unclear. The federal government had no direct authority over state election systems, and some states offered limited cooperation. When then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said last August that the department wanted to declare the systems as national critical infrastructure — a designation that gives the federal government broader powers to intervene — Republicans balked. Only after the election did the two sides eventually reach a deal to make the designation.

Were the Russians Trump's and Kobach's
own "flying monkeys." [image]

We all watched this Russian intervention deliver the White House to Trump, but we may have missed the scheme's additional, anti-democracy damage. Just as state after state handed Trump electoral college votes following his election loss, many of these same states were busily "electing" US Congressional and Senate candidates who were "riding the same wave" of patchy Russian propaganda.

However, while the Republican criminals were stealing the election for Trump, something else was also happening to the US election process.

By penetrating the state [and county] voter registration files the Russians were also tabulating a troubling collection of voter data. Yes, there were no direct election crimes such as the electronic interference with voting machines, but with the data collected from the state and county files, the Russians were able to delicately target individual voters in "contested" Congressional Districts as propaganda targets.

In the past propaganda efforts have been massive, targeting large populations. Those conducting these nation-wide propaganda efforts accepted the idea that no matter how persuasive the content might be, it would only be effective on a portion of the population targeted. All this changed in the propaganda efforts leading up to the 2016 election.

The Russians provided the Trump campaign with the voter information needed for this effort, but the Trump campaign -- in collusion with their Russian counter-parts -- provided the incredibly vast data available to them from the analytics companies Trump hired. Most of these data analysis contracts were conducted under the executive management of Jared Kushner.

Further, very little of this election crime was intended to sway particular voters from Clinton to Trump. Instead, the anti-Clinton propaganda was intended to dissuade potential Clinton voters from going to the polls at all.

THIS is how Trump and the Russian finally won the election. Trump's shockingly complete disregard for the importance of rectifying this vulnerability is easily understood.

Trump/Kobach For 2020!

No, MeanMesa isn't kidding.

Although ultimately successful, the Russian efforts were stymied by the fact that US voter data is distributed among so many state and county files. This is why the Russians were only able to penetrate critical voting districts in 44 states.

Thanks to the new data files in the Presidential Advisory Commission for Election Integrity, the Russians shouldn't encounter such "heavy lifting" when they re-install Trump in four years.