October 24, 2019

Third Party Candidates and Tim Canova

(I realize this is borderline GD: DP, but I think there are issues that go beyond the primary itself in here. If mods find it necessary to repost, I will.)

Hillary Clinton's charge against Tulsi Gabbard--implied, since she did not bother to use her name, and yet Tulsi immediately confirmed it was all about her--that Gabbard was being used as a propaganda tool for the Russians and could even be groomed as a potential third party disruptor candidate, was received by some as a wild conspiracy theory.

However, to say the notion of a candidate of Gabbard's ideology might "go rogue" is some ridiculous, far-fetched notion is actually a shaky premise. There has already been an example of one such candidate.

In 2016, a professor named Tim Canova decided to challenge then-DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her Florida Congressional Seat.

Many Democrats--including here at DU--who had some gripe or grievance as to Wasserman-Schultz's handling of the DNC were quick to jump aboard the Canova bandwagon, offering their vocal--and sometimes even monetary--support. Canova fashioned himself a "good liberal" and an alternative to what he claimed was the epitome of the party establishment. And he took prominent stances on environmental issues and civil rights, issues we seemingly could all agree with.

But at the very same time, he was doing some very questionable things. Such as appearing on the radio show of Joyce Kaufman, an extreme far-right local talk show host who was once tapped to be one-term Republican Allen West's chief of staff and once proclaimed at a tea-party rally, "If ballots don't work, bullets will!" Kaufman offered Canova her support in his campaign against DWS, and Canova gladly took it. I remember raising the alarm about this at DU when it happened, but it mostly went unnoticed.

Canova continued to receive positive word-of-mouth support from many Democrats as his candidacy continued, perhaps less as an endorsement of Canova as instead a way to complain about whatever irked them about DWS's leadership.

Then in the summer of 2016, the DNC famously got hacked and emails of party officials--including DWS--popped up on Wikileaks. Canova decided the best reaction to this criminal activity (which intelligence has since confirmed was the act of the Russian government) was to file an FEC complaint against DWS, citing to these emails as evidence of some sort of plot by her against him.

In the end, Canova's 2016 primary challenge fell short. DWS beat him by about 14%, which was narrower than some of her previous challenges but still a comfortable win on her part representing thousands of votes in her favor.

Following his defeat, Canova did not go graciously, however, alleging that thousands of votes in his favor were destroyed. His gripes against the DNC only got worse, and by early 2017 he was going on record supporting wild conspiracy theories about the DNC supposedly murdering its staffer Seth Rich.

His vocal pronouncements--including over his Twitter account--seemed to support an odd policy, decrying any sort of engagement against the Syrian Assad government and also insisting that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 in support of Donald Trump was a "hoax" and the investigation by Robert Mueller into such interference was a "witch hunt." He is a vocal supporter of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and frequently retweets pieces by quasi-left media figures Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate, Michael Tracey, and others. He recently posted pictures "in solidarity" with the Paris "Yellow Vest" movement, a movement many believe has benefited from covert Russian support in an effort to destabilize the center-left French Macron government.

And by 2018, Canova decided he was going to quit the Democratic Party for good. He would still challenge Debbie Wasserman Schultz as an independent though. This time, DWS won in a rout--Canova received only about 5% of the vote, but Canova again astonishingly claimed he was the victim of voter fraud. He then attached himself onto Republican efforts to stop a recount of votes in Broward County that actually dealt with the razor-thin results in the Governor and US Senate Races.

By all appearances, Canova seems to have resigned himself to being nothing more than an agent of chaos. And if you go to his Twitter feed (but be careful not to levy any sort of criticism his way, or he will block you--I know this personally), you will find a most bizarre amalgamation of feeds. You'll see occasional left leaning pronouncements on environmental issues, a lot of support for Julian Assange, a lot of re-tweeting of quasi-left pundits, and increasingly more and more a lot of retweeting of Republicans and conservative figures without criticism, including many tweets by Donald Trump himself. Most of these deal with attacks on the Democratic Party or the investigation into Russian interference with our elections.

Tim Canova and Tulsi Gabbard share many of the same beliefs and ideologies, and if you want to get a sense how Gabbard might end up, the road paved by Tim Canova since 2016 seems to be a good guess.

October 10, 2019

Trump campaign manager admits he's getting help from man working for Russian media and hackers

This was posted on Brad Parscale's (Trump's campaign manager) Twitter feed recently:

https://twitter.com/parscale/status/1181210619468484610

The man he mentions, Lee Stranahan, is an employee of Sputnik News, which is owned/controlled by the Russian government. He is also the man who has openly admitted to helping to get Roger Stone in contact with Guccifer 2.0 during the 2016 election. Guccifer 2.0 is who US intelligence has said is the outfit run by Russian intelligence agencies and who is responsible for hacking the DNC.

And if you visit his Twitter feed, it's full of demands to repeal the Magnitsky Act sanctions against Russia (you know, the ones the Russians lobbied about during their 2016 Trump Tower meeting.)

(According to his Wikipedia page, he also is a part time erotic photographer, but that's neither here nor there.)

More on Stranahan here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Stranahan

Anyways, Stranahan's most recent work seems to be pushing the theory that it was the DNC who was the real miscreant in the 2016 elections, not Trump or the Russians. He's been focusing--almost obsessively--on a woman named Alexandra Chalupa, who is the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants and who did some contract work with the DNC. Their theory is that the DNC sent Chalupa to Ukraine, where she was able to get proof of illicit payments Paul Manafort was getting from deposed autocrat and Putin ally Viktor Yanukovych. These items then helped with Manafort's ultimate conviction for tax fraud.

Now, it is true that Chalupa was able to get a hold of the Manafort payment records, which were actually proven to be genuine by Manafort's own accounting; however, there's no evidence whatsoever that the DNC sent Chalupa to get those records, or even if it did, whether that would actually constitute a crime.

But that truth's all secondary to these guys---they just desperately want any shiny non-story to distract from the actual story of Russian interference and hacking in the 2016 campaign on behalf of Donald Trump.

And the fact that the Trump campaign is still--still!--in 2019 reaching out to persons known to be agents of Russian media and Russian hackers is absolutely astounding IMHO.

But we're seeing these guys at their last resort. They're desperate at this point, and will do anything. Anything.

October 9, 2019

BREAKING NEWS: White House sends second letter, asks Trump not be subjected to contested elections

In the wake of a letter sent yesterday by counsel for President Trump indicating the White House's intent not to comply with ongoing impeachment inquiries in the House of Representatives, the White House counsel has sent a second letter which states that Trump should not be forced the "indignity" of having to run for re-election next year.

"Forcing the President to take time out of his busy schedule to run a cross-country campaign, all while he could be using such ever valuable time to focus on important matters of policy and governance, is an unjust burden," the letter reads. "Frankly, it is something that no President should be forced to have to do, and we are not aware of any President before Donald Trump being subjected to such ridiculous requirements of having to pander to the public's often frivolous demands."

The letter went on to request that the traditional form of elections--wherein after a series of primary elections and caucuses, each party nominates a candidate, who then face off in a general election in November--be scrapped in 2020 and replaced with a more simplified public referendum on President Trump's job performance.

This unified national referendum would ask a simple question: "Has President Donald J. Trump #MadeAmericaGreatAgain?" and would be followed by two separate answers. One would read, "Yes, I'm all aboard the Trump Train! Woo-woo!", while the second would read, "Not yet, all because of the obstructionist Democrat (sic) Party."

"We believe the notion of a Presidential election that involves dueling candidates places an unnecessary emphasis on personalities over the idea of the one person whose job it is to serve the best interest of his people," the letter added.

The letter went on to question the necessity of other long-running facets of American democracy, such as the checks-and-balances system, judicial oversight of the executive branch, Presidential term limits, and the concept of opposition political parties in general.

Details at Eleven.

October 7, 2019

Trump's goal is to do to the terms "impeachment" or "treason" what he did to "fake news."

Because "fake news" used to be a real thing. It used to be about false stories being spread via dubious fly-by-night websites over social media, which overwhelmingly favored Donald Trump and was heavily supported by foreign governments (i.e. Russia).

Then after he was elected, and knowing how he was elected and who was responsible for getting him elected, Trump began to use the "fake news" term not to describe any actual news that was fake, but instead towards any media outlets who dared not to paint him in the most flattering light.

Trump having run the term completely into the ground, it is now functionally meaningless to the public. It's now nothing more than a joke, a meme, a silly retort.

And now Trump is doing the same thing to the notion of "impeachment" and "treason."

Representative Schiff, Speaker Pelosi....even Republican Senator Mitt Romney must now be "impeached" for the "high crimes and misdemeanors" of criticizing Donald Trump. Their actions--in Schiff's case doing little more than paraphrasing the contents of a telephone call--constitute nothing less than "treason."

Never mind that members of Congress cannot be "impeached."

Never mind that the President of the United States should know that members of Congress cannot be "impeached" and certainly not for the mere "crime" of criticizing a sitting President, which is something that has taken place for over 230 years now and is a sign of a healthy democracy.

Trump's intent is to strip all terms of their actual meanings and turn them into cheap jokes. Nothing more and nothing less.