#Debunking Putin’s root causes claims

#Putin is after not just a rollback of of #NATO membership or Ukraine’s neutrality in Ukraine & beyond . It’s about turning #Ukraine into subservient vassal state

False narratives serve useful purpose for #Russia

When Putin says root causes of his war, he is using a framework he claims justifies Russia’s #aggression by #falsely placing #blame on Ukraine

He uses narratives to blame #Ukraine as instigator of #Kremlin’s #war

https://kyivindependent.com/why-did-russia-invade-ukraine-moscows-claims-of-root-causes-unpacked/

Republicans have unleashed a flurry of lawsuits challenging voting rules and practices ahead of the November elections,
setting the stage for what could be a far larger and more contentious legal battle over the White House after Election Day.

The onslaught of litigation,
much of it landing in recent weeks,
includes nearly 90 lawsuits filed across the country by Republican groups this year.

The legal push is ️already more than three times the number of lawsuits filed before Election Day in 2020,
according to Democracy Docket, a Democratically aligned group that tracks election cases.

Voting rights experts say the legal campaign appears to be an effort to prepare to #contest #the #results of the presidential election after Election Day should Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, lose and refuse to accept his defeat as he did four years ago.

The lawsuits are concentrated in swing states
— and key counties
— likely to determine the race.

Several embrace #debunked #theories about voter fraud and so-called stolen elections that Mr. Trump has promoted since 2020.

In Montgomery County, Pa., the state’s third-largest county, the party is seeking to force local officials to count ballots by hand, evoking debunked conspiracy theories about corrupted voting machines.

A case filed by the Republican National Committee in Nevada this month #falsely asserts that nearly 4,000 noncitizens voted in the state in 2020,
a claim that was rejected at the time by the state’s top election official, a Republican.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/29/us/politics/trump-2024-presidential-campaign-election-lawsuits.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Cleanup on Aisle MAGA. -- Trump Bends to Conservative Abortion Critics

In the end, Donald Trump, a master of evasion, could only obfuscate for so long.

After hemming, hawing, avoiding, and rambling, he finally admitted Friday night that he opposes his home state’s abortion-rights ballot initiative.

Insiders had expected him to end up there.

️But Trump had shown a remarkable ability to just say nothing at all.

For months, he was coy about the Florida initiative, which would overrule the state’s current #six-#week #ban by creating a right to abortion in the state constitution.

He said he’d let his position be known at some point and then offered vague responses that didn’t address the fundamental, binary choice of which way he’d vote.

But pressure and anger mounted from social conservatives after he made muddled remarks to NBC that led to a conservative backlash.

And a day later, Friday, he finally made his position clear in a safe-space interview with Fox News.

He started by saying that while he would prefer to extend Florida’s cutoff so that abortions are permitted beyond six weeks
—“you need more time than six weeks”
—he has ultimately decided to vote against #Amendment4 because it would allow for later-term abortions, all the way through birth:
“The nine months is just a ridiculous situation, where you can do an abortion in the ninth month.”
“I’ll be voting no for that reason,” Trump said.

He then #falsely claimed that in “some of the states, like Minnesota, and other states, have it where you could actually execute the baby after birth.”

It was a major relief for evangelicals.
“#Mission #accomplished,” said an evangelical Trump confidant, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/cleanup-on-aisle-maga-trump-bends

In #Montana, Trump repeatedly mentioned what he still #falsely says was a “#rigged election” in 2020

and said the Republican National Committee was working at an effort to #repeat those efforts this year.

He made #xenophobic comments about migrants coming to the U.S. illegally,
falsely said Harris was letting some “roam free” to assault, #rape and #murder Americans,
and falsely claimed she would give undocumented immigrants all the benefits Americans enjoy.

“It’s going to be called a #Trump #mass #deportation, because we have no choice. We have no choice. If Harris wins, a never-ending stream of illegal alien #rapists,” Trump said, ironically.

He also made snide comments about Senator #Jon #Tester’s appearance, chided his support for the Inflation Reduction Act,
-- which has brought hundreds of millions of dollars to Montana, and called Tester a “big slob.”

Trump brought Rep. #Ronny #Jackson, R-Texas, a former physician to the president, on stage to air his animus for Tester
six years after Tester helped tank Trump’s effort to put Jackson in as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2018 by bringing to light complaints Jackson had #overprescribed certain medications and was #drinking on the job.

“This man tried to destroy me. He tried to destroy my family. I’ve been waiting for six years to get back here for this night, to be with this man right here, to come after (Tester),” Jackson said, calling Tester a “Swamp hippopotamus

https://dailymontanan.com/2024/08/10/trump-rallies-thousands-in-bozeman-in-support-of-gop-senate-candidate-sheehy/

https://jontester.com

An FBI informant charged with lying to investigators about a fictitious bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company has “had contact with foreign intelligence services, including Russian intelligence agencies,” prosecutors alleged  in court documents on Tuesday. 

Alexander #Smirnov's contacts included a figure prosecutors called "Russian Official 1," whom the the informant allegedly described as "the son of a former high-ranking Russian government official, someone who purportedly controls two groups of individuals tasked with carrying out assassination efforts in a third-party country."

#Smirnov was indicted last week on charges he lied to the FBI, #falsely telling them that executives with now-defunct Ukrainian energy company #Burisma had paid #Hunter and Joe #Biden $5 million each in bribes.

The informant's claims have been a pillar of a months-long effort by congressional #Republicans to impeach the president.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/02/20/hunter-biden-accuser-smirnov-russia-intelligence/72676162007/

@lawdork - "Sen. #LindseyGraham #falsely #claimed multiple times on 3/2/23 that all 9 #SCOTUS justices signed on to #ChiefJustice #JohnRoberts’s letter declining #SenateJudiciary Committee Chair #DickDurbin invitation to attend the committee’s #hearing on #SupremeCourt #EthicsReforms. Building on that false premise, Graham later claimed, “I just want people to understand court as a whole has a problem with this, whether they’re right or wrong.” #SCOTUS #republicans #epicenter #corruption #lies

The #president of a #Canadian #university has #apologized & is taking a #LeaveOfAbsence after #allegations that she #falsely #claimed to be #Indigenous, in the latest #highProfile case of apparent #cultural #IdentityFraud .

Vianne Timmons, who is president of #MemorialUniversity of #Newfoundland , said that she would be taking a six-week leave after the #CBC published a report last week questioning her claims that her father’s great-great-grandmother was #Mikmaq .

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/15/vianne-timmons-canadian-university-president-indigenous-claim