Tag: 2024 elections

Under the fog of war, Ukraine cancels its 2024 presidential elections

A very significant political event occurred in Ukraine earlier this month, and almost nobody noticed.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, the leader of the war-torn country, just received approval from his parliament to extend Martial Law another 90 days. There have been many parliamentary extensions of the wartime mandate, but this one carried special significance because the 2024 presidential elections in Ukraine were scheduled for March 31, 2024, coinciding with the end of Zelensky’s five year term. Now that Martial Law is in place to cover that time period, Ukraine’s presidential elections have been canceled indefinitely.

There is currently no set date for a next election, as lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) have failed to entertain the matter. They only agreed that elections should take place no sooner than six months after the end of the war with Russia.

While it’s not particularly unreasonable to want to postpone elections during a devastating war, the case of Ukraine deserves a closer examination, given the series of events leading up to the decision to extend Martial Law.

In November, a former Zelensky adviser named Oleksiy Arestovych announced that he would be challenging Zelensky for the presidency, promising to focus on a negotiated settlement to end the war with Russia. Arestovych was fiercely critical of Zelensky’s approach to the conflict, maintaining that a settlement was in the best interests of Ukrainians. Far from a pro-Moscow shill, the Russian government has an active arrest warrant out for him.

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Joe Biden, Unlike Trump, Didn’t Take Cognitive Test in Annual Exam, Sanjay Gupta Says

President Joe Biden is considered perfectly fit for duty after a physical exam Friday, according to a report from the president’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor.

Additionally, the president, unlike his immediate predecessor, did not undergo a test of his cognitive abilities, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta said.

During an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Anderson Cooper 360, Gupta was asked if Biden had taken any type of exam to measure his mental state.

“There’s been a lot of focus on his cognitive abilities, questions raised by opponents and others, and in 2018 the former president [Donald Trump] had a test that measured mental acuity, was that part of today’s test?” Cooper asked Gupta.

“It doesn’t seem like it,” Gupta replied. “I read pretty carefully through the doctor’s report and they mention neurological exam, but that was more in terms of testing motor strength and sensation and things like that.”

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‘Extremely Alarming’ Election Threats Trigger Warning From FBI

An FBI official warned that state election systems are being targeted as the 2024 election approaches, describing them as “extremely alarming.”

“The threat environment, unfortunately, is very high,” said Tim Langan, executive assistant director for the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch of the FBI during a Washington conference with secretaries of state, according to Stateline. “It is extremely alarming.”

Officials said that voter databases could be hacked via phishing or ransomware attacks. They also warned about the rising use of artificial intelligence (AI) that could be used to potentially trick voters, according to the report.

Eric Goldstein, the executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), told the news outlet that there have been significant advancements that could allow China, North Korea, and Russia to target election systems.

“We are in a really difficult cybersecurity environment right now,” he said. “Every single location is at risk regardless of size, regardless of sector,” he added

Neither official provided any concrete examples in the report. But during the event, Kentucky Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams said last month that a bomb threat was called into the state capitol in Frankfort, saying that explosives would “make sure you all end up dead.” No bombs were found, and eight other state capitols received threats.

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New York Times Publishes Op-Ed Calling for Biden to Step Aside and Allow Another Democrat to Run

The New York Times has published an opinion piece calling for Joe Biden to step aside and allow another Democrat to run in 2024.

The article by Ross Douthat was titled “The Question Is Not If Biden Should Step Aside. It’s How.”

Douthat began by pointing to the special counsel report released Thursday that found Biden had mishandled classified documents, but should not be charged, at least in part, because of his failing memory.

The report referred to him as an “elderly man with a poor memory” and “significant limitations.”

“Joe Biden should not be running for re-election,” Douthat’s article began. “That much was obvious well before the special prosecutor’s comments on the president’s memory lapses inspired a burst of age-related angst. And Democrats who are furious at the prosecutor have to sense that it will become only more obvious as we move deeper into an actual campaign.”

The writer explained that he does not necessarily believe that Biden is currently unfit for the presidency, but that he may not be during a second term.

“Saying that things have worked OK throughout this stage of Biden’s decline, though, is very different from betting that they can continue working out OK for almost five long further years,” the article continued. “And saying that Biden is capable of occupying the presidency for the next 11 months is quite different from saying that he’s capable of spending those months effectively campaigning for the right to occupy it again.”

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DNC Files FEC Complaint Against RFK Jr. Alleging Illegal Super PAC Coordination

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is accused of receiving an illegal contribution from the super PAC working to get him elected president, according to a Federal Election Commission complaint filed by the Democratic National Committee.

Mr. Kennedy’s campaign is “in the process of accepting a $15 million unlawful in-kind contribution by coordinating their efforts to get him on the ballot,” DNC legal counsel Bob Lenhard said in a Feb. 9 call detailing the FEC complaint.

Mr. Kennedy’s campaign “has acknowledged that it is time-consuming and expensive for a first-time candidate to get on the presidential ballot in all 50 states. Rather than doing that hard work itself, using money raised in compliance with the candidate contribution limits, the campaign is taking a shortcut outsourcing what is otherwise a core campaign function to a super PAC,” Mr. Lenhard added.

American Values 2024 is ignoring federal law, according to the complaint, Mr. Lenhard noted.

“The law does allow the super PAC to raise unlimited amounts of money from wealthy individuals, corporations, and unions for independent expenditures. But it remains illegal for a super PAC to provide goods and services directly to a campaign,” Mr. Lenhard said.

Mr. Kennedy announced in April 2023 that he would challenge President Biden for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. He has generated wide-ranging support from conservatives, moderates, independents, and Libertarians throughout his campaign, although he hasn’t gained the same favor from many Democrats.

Campaign finance reports have shown that Mr. Kennedy is getting more support from Republican-leaning donors than from Democrats.

For months, Mr. Kennedy was confronted with roadblocks from the Democratic National Committee, which he said was “rigging” the primary process to favor President Joe Biden. On Oct. 9, he declared his candidacy for president as an independent.

American Values 2024 said late last year that it plans to spend as much as $15 million to help get Mr. Kennedy on the ballot in multiple states deemed important to winning the election.

Mr. Kennedy has so far qualified to appear on the ballot in one state—Utah. Late last month, he reported that his campaign gathered enough signatures to appear on the ballot in New Hampshire. Mr. Kennedy is traveling the country and holding voter rallies in his effort to get on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, a feat he believes he will accomplish.

Mr. Kennedy noted that his favorability ratings were better than President Biden and President Trump, and he is ahead of both candidates among Americans under the age of 45 in six battleground states, and among independents, according to polls.

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YouTube CEO Vows To Censor “Hate Speech” and Boost “Authoritative Sources” in Recommendations When People Look for Election News in 2024

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan has a post up on the company blog just in time to, well in advance, reiterate the giant platform’s policies regarding the upcoming elections.

Even though Mohan’s “letter” is supposed to deal with the “four big bets for 2024,” the bit concerning the elections is of most interest, given the ramifications of YouTube’s previous and continued restrictive approach and unprecedented levels of censorship.

Just in case anyone worried things might improve, the post reassures them: YouTube will use its massive resources and the way the platform is structured, such as search and recommendations, to wipe out what it chooses to consider “hate speech” and at the same time “boost authoritative sources” even more.

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VP Kamala Harris Touts Marijuana Pardons In Pitch To Black And Young Voters, Saying ‘Nobody’ Should Be Jailed For ‘Smoking Weed’

Vice President Kamala Harris says the administration’s move to pardon people for federal marijuana possession offenses is an example of how it is delivering for Americans, particularly young and Black voters who could be key to President Joe Biden’s reelection bid this year.

The White House also cited the cannabis clemency move in a new fact sheet on efforts to “advance racial justice and equity and ensure the promise of America for all communities.”

Speaking with Gray DC in South Carolina ahead of the state’s primary election last weekend, Harris was asked about the significance of the Black youth vote for the Biden-Harris campaign. She stressed the importance of reaching that demographic and said cannabis clemency is one action that should be uniquely appealing.

“Another issue [is] what we have done to pardon tens of thousands of people for simple marijuana possession under the federal law—because, frankly, nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed,” Harris said.

“So these are some of the things that we have done that I think really do resonate with young people, with Black voters and young Black voters, with young Black men,” she said, also citing efforts to increase access to high-speed internet and fund historically Black colleges and universities. “And there’s more to do.”

While Harris said “tens of thousands” have been pardoned under President Joe Biden’s October 2022 and December 2023 clemency proclamations, the Justice Department estimates that roughly 13,000 people have been granted relief under the executive action.

But inflated rhetoric around the pardons has been a consistent theme, with Biden himself frequently exaggerating the impact by falsely suggesting that people were released from prison over marijuana and that criminal records were expunged. A pardon simply constitutes formal forgiveness, and nobody who received a pardon was actively incarcerated in federal prison over simple possession.

As advocates have also pointed out, there are still people in federal prison over other non-violent marijuana offenses. They’ve pushed the Biden administration to do more, including keeping his key cannabis campaign pledge to decriminalize marijuana.

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Dark Money Group Plows Millions Into Biden Campaign

President Joe Biden’s reelection effort will count on help from some anonymous friends.

In the 2024 general election, President Biden will be supported by numerous campaign committees and funds. One of the most significant will be FF PAC, also known as Future Forward. FF PAC has collected and will likely continue to collect millions from a nonprofit group, Future Forward Action USA, that shares leadership and a name with FF PAC.

According to FF PAC’s year-end financial summary filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Jan. 31, the hybrid political action committee brought in $25.3 million in total receipts in 2023. Future Forward Action USA sent FF PAC about $8.3 million, or about a third of its total fundraising for the year.

In 2020, when then Vice President Joe Biden was squaring off against incumbent President Donald Trump, Future Forward USA Action was one of the most important benefactors of FF PAC. According to FEC records, it sent FF PAC $61 million between 2019 and 2020. That’s around 40 percent of the about $151.4 million FF PAC collected in the cycle.

For the 2022 midterm cycle, Future Forward Action USA sent about $16.3 million to FF PAC. That’s around 53.4 percent of the about $30.6 million FF PAC raised between 2021 and 2022.

Future Forward USA Action is a tax-exempt, non-profit 501(c)(4). This type of organization, according to the Internal Revenue Service, is often a so-called social welfare organization. The agency also bars private enrichment and supporting or opposing a specific political candidate. However, social welfare organizations are allowed to engage in some political activities as long as they are not the primary activity.

FF PAC is a hybrid PAC. It can solicit and accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labor unions, and other political committees, according to the FEC. It must maintain two bank accounts—one for independent spending on advertisements or voter drives and another for making direct contributions to federal candidates.

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Democrat Megadonor Reid Hoffman, Who Visited Epstein Island, Donated to Ohio Senate Candidate Frank LaRose

Democrat megadonor and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, who visited alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s island, donated to Ohio Secretary of State and Senate Republican candidate Frank LaRose.

In 2022, Hoffman donated $13,700 to LaRose. Hoffman was also once a fellow at the Aspen Institute, a George Soros-funded globalist institution described as a “retreat for the liberal elite.”

Hoffman once spent $4.5 million to work with several media firms and the anti-Trump Lincoln Project to produce ads attacking former President Donald Trump.

Hoffman, who reportedly visited alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s island, helped fund former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s (R) presidential campaign.

In May 2023, Hoffman admitted to visiting Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James, which is more infamously referred to as “Pedophile Island.”

Hoffman also backed E. Jean Carroll’s civil case against Trump.

Hoffman is one of the Democrat Party’s largest donors. He, alongside leftist billionaire George Soros, helped run the clandestine group known as the “Good Information Foundation” and is accused of election meddling.

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