what have you done for democracy lately?

[JohnRoberts]

There is only one important vote for my district this time around, our rep in the house. I decided to suppress my mega-maga biases and learn more about both candidates. The local TV station aired a 30 minute interview format with both candidates separately getting 15 minutes each. They apparently declined to debate. The incumbent either a republican or independent depending on what day, has a track record of sorts from serving in congress. The challenger almost didn't sound like a democrat for the first few minutes of his interview talking about cutting taxes. But then he blamed republicans for the water crisis in Jackson so he sounded like a democrat again. Jackson is deep blue democratic run city forever.

I suspect the incumbent chose not to debate because it isn't a close race (? I haven't found any polls). I was impressed by how well spoken the democrat challenger was while his talking points didn't ring true. He mentioned in passing that some republican friends suggested that he becomes a republican.

Watching the interviews did not change my vote but i feel better about it, now.

JR

 

[hodad]

Jackson is deep blue democratic run city forever.

Sometimes problems at city level are caused by recalcitrance at the state level. That certainly has been an issue in Atlanta, with the state level leaders dictating how tax revenues could be used for public transit. It took decades for the city to come to any sort of reasonable understanding with the state that would help them to put money where it would do the most good for the help of the transit system. I don't know a ton about Jackson's water issues, but I'd not be at all shocked if you found that the state had hindered the city's effort to address their water issues.

EDIT: I did a quick search:
The NAACP filed a federal complaint on Tuesday accusing Mississippi state officials of violating civil rights law by repeatedly diverting federal funds meant for ensuring safe drinking water away from the state’s predominantly Black capital, Jackson, to smaller, white communities.

Jackson water crisis: Mississippi accused of ‘intolerable’ racial discrimination

 

[JohnRoberts]

well there you go...

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

Despite all the arm waving about the death of democracy here we should be paying more attention to our southern neighbor Mexico.

Tens of thousands protest Mexican president's electoral reform plan
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Tens of thousands took to the streets in Mexico on Sunday to protest President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's plan to overhaul the country's electoral commission INE in what they fear would concentrate power in the hands of the government.
==
"Democracy in Mexico is in danger," said Ana Lilia Moreno, an economist who attended the march in the capital with her eight-year-old daughter.

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2022/10/31/transitioning-backwards-amlos-electoral-reform/
On October 26th, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) approved a 21 Member Commission to set in motion a major political reform that would downsize the National Electoral Institute (INE); cut public funds and media time for political parties; and eliminate 200 of the 500 seats in the lower House of the Congress. The proposal also contemplates to make all posts in electoral institutions subject to popular vote. The Mexican Congress is scheduled to debate these changes in late November. The time was not randomly chosen, it is when the world will be too busy watching the FIFA World Cup to even pay attention to the dangerous developments in Mexican politics that could see the demise of Mexican democracy as we know it.

This is right out of the SA playbook for want to be dictators.

JR

 

[cyrano]

Mexico is worse than the middle east.

FSO's malware has been used extensively against reporters and human rights watchers, without a word from the USA (or the Mexican govt). It seems Israelis companies can do as the they please in Mexico. If that malware came from Iran or North Korea, it would be all over the US press.

So, what have you done for democracy lately? I propose you all start sending mail and letters to your favorite congressman, to explain to them that FSO's malware is being used worldwide to suppress the democratic process.

Meanwhile, drug gangs are left alone. The govt could use the same malware to fight drug imports into the USA. But they don't.

It still isn't clear if any US company will get the go-ahead to procure FSO. Some wanted, but have been advised not to. I can only see this as a way of telling them to leave the dirty business of corrupting foreign democracies and aiding drug traffickers to Israel.

Thanks for the Canadians; their universities have been tracking and documenting this for over a decade now. Fortunately, honesty and decency still exists:

https://citizenlab.ca/

 

[JohnRoberts]

I made need a more woke search engine... or are you talking about "Facility security officers (FSOs) may occupy the most unappreciated security role across federal organizations."?

JR

 

[cyrano]

FSO is a company selling spyware allowing you to spy on any smartphone in the world. I wouldn't mind if they only sold it to the good guys, whomever that might be. But they seem to sell mostly to oppressive regimes, and, worse even, to organised crime.

Citizenlab has been tracking their activities for a decade or so. Jamal Kashoggi was murdered after being tracked for over a year. They also spied on his wife.

Druglords in Mexico used the spyware to track down journalists, police and politicians. Some of these people got murdered too.

The world's police agent doesn't seem to concerned about it. Maybe because some of the people who work for FSO are ex NSA employees. They transferred from NSA to Saudi Arabia's intelligence service, to end up in Israel, with FSO.

If you type "FSO israel" into Google, you'll find they also look for people to hire, mainly from the USA, since you can apply via LinkedIn...

Apple tried to sue them, but that case seems to be of no interest to the press:

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211124-apple-sues-israel-spyware-company-nso/
If you type "Apple vs FSO israel" into Google, this is about the only link you'll find that is relevant. I wonder what's happened to that case.

So, you see, John, nothing woke about it. Just plain old fascism at work. Apparently that's OK for the USA, since the only thing they did was put the company on one of their many blacklists. And we all know how efficient that is...

 

[JohnRoberts]

Thanks for explaining what you are complaining about.

It is increasingly difficult to expect much privacy. I still don't understand the people who use alexa or similar applications.

I recently heard something in the news about a smartphone exploit that does not require being opened or clicked on.

JR

PS: I haven't used google for years. I used to advertise my drum tuner using Google ads.

 

[Tubetec]

You know the old saying about the US , the Irish built it , the mafia ran it and the Jews bankrolled it ,

I think your respsonse to Cyrano was a bit discurtious John , this is a subject very worthy of discussion in my opinion .

I'm steadfasty refusing to own a smartphone , your becoming part of the borg , your words are being filtered and used in a feedback loop to serve you up on a plate to marketing , everybody can feel the creep of literally the thoughts being robbed out of their heads , but their starting to get used to it now , being in the loop so to speak .

As far as I know there was a shake up in the Irish government a while back regarding smart phone security ,came in the wake of publicity about FSO ' gambleware , its like backing horses at the races , I wouldnt be surprised if half the politicians on the planet were only a bunch of goons all along, they must have most of them bagged up by now , 'Securitiseation' , the Israeli intelligence , its the pyramid with the eye .

Theres a murder case before the courts here just now , its tied into organised crime and drug dealing, a former Sinn Fein councillor was also accused but took a plea bargain and turned supergrass against a crime boss , in any case the Gardai were able to monitor and record the conversations of the two men and subsequently produce it as evidence in court .
Because most of the evidence was gathered while the men were in the North of Ireland , outside the jurisdiction of the warrant the defence is argueing it as inadmissable , never the less the juryless court is hearing the tapes and its all being put in the public domain .
I wouldnt be at all surprised if the so called 'listening device' refered to in relation to this case is in fact the mens smart phones ,via FSO hack , not something the Cops are likely to want to admit to or they'd enrage the big eye,
if the Gardai knew murders were going take place and delibertately allowed it to happen the justice system itself is in the doc,

The actual testimoney itself reveals the crime boss is approaching the IRA to seek mediation with the rival gang ,
to try and bring the killings to an end .
The murder was carried out by 4 men dressed in Gardai armed response unit uniforms at a boxing weight-in at a hotel in Dublin are few years back

 

[JohnRoberts]

Democracy is the new (old ?) thing.

Repressive regimes are getting pushback from emboldened citizens. It was remarkable to see Iranian football players refuse to sing their national anthem at the world cup, but demurred after the republican guard threatened their families. The US 1-0 win over Iran was mostly symbolic, but at least one protester in Iran was shot and killed for celebrating the US win (interesting times).
===
China is dealing with widespread protests over the brutal zero-covid policy. Apple removed the phone to phone communication capability to help the Chinese government shut down and monitor communication. The recent straw that inflamed the chinese public was a fire in an apartment building where the emergency exits were welded shut as part of a covid lock down, leading to multiple deaths.
===
The left is accusing Musk as being a threat to democracy for expanding free speech on twitter (WTF are they thinking). Elon has made some people nervous for offering to share evidence regarding how twitter interfered with the 2020 election. This will be pretty interesting.
===
Pretty much everywhere we look democracy is happening .... GA senate runoff is showing record early voting despite all the arm waving claiming voter suppression (worse than Jim Crow) .

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

It appears two authoritarian regimes have recently blinked...

Iran announced they are considering shutting down the morality police, and are reviewing relaxing the hair covering dictates. This was the proximate cause of the recent protest when a woman died in detention.

==

Also China is reportedly relaxing zero covid restrictions. Which are extremely unpopular.

JR