Tag: #Putin

Posted in Non-fiction, Politics

Protect Your Voting Rights!

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Americans today have an issue with maintaining their right to have free and fair elections. There are issues about voter suppression; specifically, the defunding of the postal service and voting by mail. There is also evidence that Russia is, once again, trying to manipulate our 2020 Presidential election.

In the 2016 Presidential elections, it is known that Vladimir Putin of Russia and his intelligence agency tried to manipulate the election and succeeded, at least to some extent. The Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Marco Rubio (R-FL), knows that Putin is trying to do it again in the 2020 Presidential election. Putin is, and always has been, in favor of bringing down American democracy.

Russian interference is affecting your voting rights.

Several states have had 100% voting by mail for a number of years. Those states are Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. There has been less than 1/2% fraud. Despite that, Trump is against the vote by mail option, even though many people prefer to vote by mail this year due to the spread of COVID19. In the face of the facts that there has been virtually no fraud in the elections of those five states, he insists there is fraud. Then recently, he allowed the state of Florida to vote by mail. But no other state! Why, if he believes, fraud is likely? Trump is trying to suppress the vote because he knows that fewer voters are always better for Republican’s running for office than more voters.

Voter suppression through the vote by mail option is affecting your voting rights.

The U.S. Postal Service has been operating on a shoestring. Trump is trying to defund the postal service by installing one of his cronies as Postmaster General. The new Postmaster General fired the top personnel and any overtime work has stopped. Postal workers have been encouraged to leave mail undelivered and work shorter hours. Trump’s goal is to make sure that the Postal Service can’t handle the load of mail-in ballots which is another voter suppression tactic.

Voter suppression by defunding the United States Postal Service is affecting your voting rights.

Trump does nothing to stop Putin’s antics regarding our votes. He is actively trying to suppress our votes by defunding the Postal Service and trying to stop vote by mail.

Is this a man who should be President of the United States? Americans need to take back their right to vote.

Posted in Creative Nonfiction Essays, Politics, Uncategorized

Threat – Trump and the Russian Connection

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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The Challenge here is to use your creative talent to bring light into the current distress in the world around you, in whatever form that talent takes. Please remember that we are reaching out to a world that is facing upheaval and possibly a great number of changes. Let us reach out to that world and bring it the lessons we have learned by becoming artists and writers. “The word for this challenge is Threat.”

As both a writer and a U.S. citizen, the word “threat” has been in my vocabulary lately. I think many Americans have had that word in mind in recent weeks and even months when we think of the political situation in our country. The current administration has found out that Russia hacked the 2016 Presidential Election communications which may have affected the results of the election. Even if it did not affect the results of the election, it is alarming that Russia could have such easy access to computer records in our country.

The question is how do we know this is true and how is it a threat to the U.S.? That Russia did, indeed, hack into the computer records of those who had access to private election records. That Russia is a threat to the security of the U.S.

U.S. intelligence agencies were able to get evidence that Russian agencies tried to hack into the White House and the State Department. They also tried to hack into campaign  officials for the Clinton campaign. They did this by sending out thousands of phishing emails and hoping someone clicked on them. John Podesta, campaign manager for Hilary Clinton, did. They targeted Clinton because they thought if Trump won the election, he was more likely to lift sanctions against Russia.

What is President-Elect Donald Trump’s connection to Russia? Trump has sold many high-end condos in New York and Florida. Russians seem to like Trump’s condos. He and his children have also traveled to Moscow to discuss building condos and other business dealings in Moscow. Nothing much came of that. Trump did make many powerful friends in Russia, including the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, since he has been not only interested in Russia but very complimentary of the country.

How is this a threat to the U.S.? First, U.S. President’s, according to the Constitution, are not supposed to profit from their relationships with other countries. There is a definite conflict of interest here. Second, if you factor in Rex Tillerson’s appointment to the position of Secretary of State, it appears that a foreign country has captured a number of U.S. interests given that country’s relationship with the man soon to be our President and with the man  soon to be our Secretary of State. Rex Tillerson is a former Chairman of Exxon/Mobil and possesses much insider information about our oil and gas industry.

We must understand why this is so serious. Russia is another superpower like the United States. They do not have the same value system as the U.S. It is an authoritarian society while ours is a republic. World War II ended in the 1940s. It is now 2016. Generations of Russia’s have lived under Communist rule . They do not understand a market economy or a republic. Putin is a former KGB (Secret Police) officer.

The entire explanation for the animosity between Russia and the U.S.deserves its own blog post. But, briefly, after World War II, a Cold War began between the two superpowers. There were no diplomatic relations. There was constant fear, on both sides, that someone would push the red button. But, the Cold War eased in 1989 and gradually diplomatic and trade relationships between the two countries were established. There is, and has never been, trust between the governments and no understanding between the people.

If it is true that Russia has American secrets and did, indeed, try to throw the American election to Donald Trump, it is alarming and a threat to our country. Vladimir Putin does not wish us well. He wishes Russia well. Chances are, he considers those concepts mutually exclusive. If Donald Trump is either ignorant of this or complicit, that, in itself, is a threat.

 

#amblogging #amwriting #writing #Russia #politics

*This post is in response to Creativity Challenge 26