Category Archives: National Security

The German Election Result and What It Says About Europe

By tmess2 | Published October 3, 2021

Last Sunday, Germany held elections for the lower house of its parliament.  Given the mixed-member system that Germany uses, German elections are not immediately conclusive.  The results merely set the terms for the negotiations that will follow over the shape of the government.  But the election results do reflect the changes in Europe over the last 50 years.

The short version of the results is that the Social Democratic Party (the junior partner in the current government) made significant gains at the expense of the Christian Democratic/Social Union (the senior partner in the current government) and is now the largest party in parliament (206 seats vs. 196 seats).  The Green Party made significant gains to move from sixth place to third place (now at 118 seats).  The Free Democrats gained some seats but due to the big gains by the Greens stayed in fourth place (now at 92 seats).  The Alternative for Germany fell from third place to fifth place dropping eleven seats (now at 83 seats).  Finally, the Left lost about half of its seats to drop from fifth place to sixth place (now at 39 seats).  While the numbers have shifted, the essential facts of political life remain the same.  The only potential two-party majority is a grand union between the “Union” and the Social Democrats and a three-party coalition that features only one of the two largest party would require both the Greens and the Free Democrats (as the Left and the Alternative for the reasons noted below are not preferred options).

Hopping into the wayback machine, however, todays results would be unrecognizable to the German voter who voted in the 1980 election.  Back in 1980, West Germany was primarily three parties — the Union, the Social Democrats, and the Free Democrats.  At that time, the Free Democrats were essentially the balance in the center between the Union and the Social Democrats.  The Free Democrats had the power to decide who would form the government and used that power to keep either of the other two parties from shifting to far from center.  Over the 1980s, prior to unification, the Green Party formed and rivaled the Free Democrats for third party status. Continue Reading...

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Election Security

By tmess2 | Published February 24, 2020

In an announcement that should be a surprise to nobody, U.S. intelligence services have concluded that Russia is continuing its interference in American elections to benefit its puppet-in-chief currently occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.   And, of course, the Republican response to this news has been to downplay its significance.

Securing our elections from foreign interference is important, but not easy.  There are three significant aspects to election security:  vote counting, registration records, and disinformation.

The easiest of the three to secure is vote counting.  And there are several steps to it.  Some states and jurisdictions follow some of these practices, but all need to follow all of them. Continue Reading...

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People I Hate Today

By DocJess | Published January 3, 2020

Yeah, I know, “hate” is bad….but it’s that kind of morning.

I’m starting with supposedly Democratic Congressmen Dan Lipinski and Collin Peterson who yesterday joined with the Republicans in sending an Amicus brief to the Supremes asking for Roe v Wade to be rescinded. Our tent is not that big. Legalized abortions don’t cause abortion, just make the abortions that would occur otherwise less likely to kill the woman.

And then there’s Kevin McCarthy, who has been in Congress long enough to know that when the person in the Oval Office is going to start a war, PRIOR to launching a murderous drone attack, the Gang of Eight needs to be notified. And I’m thinking about the US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 11, which gives Congress (and only Congress) the right to declare war. Now, to be honest, it doesn’t directly call out “CAUSING” a war, but I think the implication is inherent. Continue Reading...

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The Desperation of Elected Republicans

By DocJess | Published October 24, 2019

Yesterday saw a couple dozen House Republicans, including their second in command, follow Matt Gaetz (and yes, that’s his mug shot) into the secure SCIF room in violation of all sorts of security protocols.

We can joke around about it, and normally there would be funny things to say, but this is a new low, even for the GOP. SCIFs exist to protect highly classified information, and in general, Republicans know this. But they are so desperate to disrupt the Impeachment Inquiry, that they seemed to have no other choice.

Let’s review: Matt and friends met with the Orange Menace on Monday and he approved this childish prank (albeit with potentially dire results once they brought their potentially compromised cell phones into the SCIF and started filming) because not one of them can answer to the actual facts in the case. Continue Reading...

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