Suppose They Gave an Election and Nobody Came?

Well nobody, or at least very few of them, cast their ballots in yesterday's Russian election. Consequentially, Putin's party will run the Duma for another term - and he'll still be the President.  What's special about any of this is that the election has totally made all the world's other cares go away - as we are directed to focus on what we can't do to help the poor, downtrodden non-voting Russians.

                                                   Walking it the doggie 'Putin  huylo!'
                                                 "Sic it nasty coppers Putin-huylo, sic it!"
                                     
 We could hope they'd hit the streets, fill a square or two with the detritus of protest and, hopefully, the blood of more martyrs for democracy, human rights and free markets ... and give us something to be gladder about.

What all this does do  is  take our minds off the need to respond to a couple of terror attacks in America. One of those targeted a Mall - the place where George Bush told the American public they were going to 'win the war on terror' by shopping.  Another thing they hate us for is Piggly Wiggly's open 24/7 and The Gap.  A 'jihadi' stabbed nine full-grown American men, causing a panic in Minnesota, until he was 'stopped' by an 'off-duty', ex-police chief who maybe shouldn't have been carrying a gun in a 'gun free' Mall.  Why would Americans need 'gun free' Malls, if the President declared them a war zone?

But I diverge.

The Toronto Star, usually a font of wisdom, but of late just another member of somebody's publishing cartel, took the world outrage about 'Russian election cheating' to a  'higher level'. Along with the ballot-stuffing and double voters and bad stuff busting out all over Russian polling places,  the Star accompanied the standard pap with visual proof that "disorders" had accompanied the polling.






Ukrainians celebrate the Russian election
by lynching a Jew (just pretending - that only happens to gypsies).

  

Striking a blow for democracy in Kyiv

  

                                                  Giving a kick for democracy in Kyiv

They were right,  disorders had accompanied the Russian election, but not in Russia.  Ukraine, the unfriendly neighbor to the west,  had announced, early last week, that it would not brook any Russian elections on EUkrainian territory. While they were understandably incensed that the vote went on, as planned, in "occupied" Crimea - which is 'de facto' a part of Russia - they also turned out the security forces to guard the Russian embassy in Kyiv from the 'protestors' who were scheduled to appear. The right-wing Volkstrurm Frontline Fighters Association   that doesn't exist in dignified Eukrainia, did appear with their EUkraino-doggies and 'slava EUkrinies!!'  and prevented any unpatriotic Russian expats from getting near the election booth inside. Not only that,  those 'security forces' actually arrested a 'Russian' for "voting irregularities" - a Ukrainian crime covering a Russian election. The forces of freedom in the democratic west should be so observant. 

                                            A Russian caught election-rigging in Kyiv

Probably most people in the world and, from the amount of ink expended on the subject, very few members of the western media, were aware until this morning,  the Russians were having an election at all.  Like how could anybody,  threatening world peace in eastern Europe, holding massive military manoeuvres to threaten EUkrainia, backing-up the Chinese and Assad  in world trouble spots,  or making the poor, recently-discovered yet massively acclaimed  "White Helmets" of Aleppo  starve in the rubble of the city they helped destroy,  take time out for an election?

Everybody on earth - shy a bad dose of hydrocephalus - knows that a real election is taking place in America. It has been for almost a year now. And we also know, again from those media sources which we trust for the 'truthiness', that the evil 'Merlin of Moscow' has been 'hacking' into  the US electoral system to such an extent that he has, single-handedly, or with a division of militarized computer geeks,  successfully reduced the slate of candidates and left Americans with only two choices for 'Commander-in-Chief'.  We know as well, and perhaps more importantly, that there is the imminent likelihood that his 'hacking' will do to America what his election shenanigans have done in Russia, elect one of those Korean War era  'mongoloid candidates ' to sit in the Oval Orifice!

Putin's apt to calling-up on November seventh to say, "Congratulations Mr. President on the big win."  And really meaning it.

Since the Last Time....

Not to be outdone by the Ottomans,  the New Russian Empire itself took up the bombing of the  jihadis in Syria. Like the Turks bombing the Kurds, the Russians targeted  America's allies and bombed the 'anti-Assad forces near their bases on North western Syria. That earned Putin more 'mad dogging' and almost more sanctions - if anybody could think of any. Where any of this goes remains within the 'Mystikal 8 Ball'.
  

 The change in Russian 'attitude' - from an 'interferer' to a bombing pal,  came after the Prez and the President traded  stink-eyes and unminced words at the UN General Assembly last week.   Apparently Putin came away from that either unknowing, or unconvinced, that the good guys knew better about where he should be dropping his bombs.  The UTube coverage after the first raids was the kind of thing only a real warfighter would want, no shredded women or babies to be seen. Only what the coalition calls 'fighting aged males' - on stretchers or carrying them away.  Surprising since that category seems to make up a significant proportion of the refugees pouring into Europe. But hey, fighting age males have everything going for them.


Speaking of the upside of media coverage. As the Coalition of Justis got ready for a little recorded ass-kicking in Kunduz this past week, they ran afoul the twitterverse when MSF started complaining that somebody with an air force had treated their hospital in that place, to 90 minutes of the best high- rate firepower a first-world military-industrial complex can produce. The shooting killed more 20 staff  and patients and wounded  a good number more.


MSF pulled out of Kunduz.

Nothing out of the ordinary, either in the event - they happen all the time to Afghans- or in the Coalition reaction.  First of was was the doubt over who'd done it, or if it wasn't a fairy tale.  That was followed by the 'mistake' mantra  and the 'well the bad guys were in the hospital wire' malarky.  The latest ' evolution'  of the story is that the Afghans asked fore close air support after 'being attacked' in the area of the hospital. Washes for me if we recall that the C130 'Spooky' and 'Spectre' gunships are the cutting edge of accurately-placed fire. If  you've seen John Wayne in 'The Green Berets' you've seen how they can stitch a lead  seam between gooks and good guys - and that outfit was primitive. Today we're told 'eyes on the ground' designate targets with laser and the guns put the ammo within centimeters - just to make sure they don't shred the wrong people. The Hospital in some weird battle zone prescience,  informed the good guys of their GPS location to save them having to look it up in combat. That apparently didn't happen either.

You'd think the Coalition would train the Afghans better before giving them a designator?  After all wasn't it Afghans who called in an airstrike that wound up 20 miles from the guys who needed it causing an international incident when the attack helos shot up a post 14 miles inside Pakistan?   But that was before the days of Afghans with laser designators ... and MSF 'battlefield' hospitals.


See the update to the story  - Nov 26


Closer to home the Canadian election is entering the home stretch.  The incumbent leader continues to pointing out the danger of switching horses in mid-stream but generally doesn't appear to have much first-hand knowledge of the stream itself. Maybe the horse does. He equates this go-round with not spending money like he has done for 8 successive years now. Almost like magic a budget surplus of $2 billion he said he knew he had,  just 'appeared' in time for the election.  I was reading to-day how the government had 'trimmed back' public housing this year and guess what?  It saved 4 billion dollars!  I think he may have promised it away in new spending.

His other big thing is banning the niqab at citizenship ceremonies. Since the candidate for citizenship would have to identify herself (this isn't gender issue, yet) to the Judge and probably to one other agent of the crown, it matters naught what she has on when she takes her oath - although dignified clothing is mandated for all attending - within abilities, genders and other rights and freedoms. You can't  be sporting a set of bodacious ta-tas, even though a woman's right to do just that in public has been enshrined at least in the Province of Ontario. Most 'old stock' Canadians are 'up in arms' about the topic, swinging the election round to the Steverino who has removed more rights than any premier before him, and some of those were fighting real wars.  Now if Steve were to mandate that all those 'old stockers' also had to attend a citizenship ceremony, say sometime before the age of 18 and twenty-five, and also risk 'decitizenshipment' and exile should they 'turn foul traytor' or become an unwanted criminal, he would lose this election.

The yanks are still playing around getting ready for the first primary, next Spring.

And that refugee crisis in the news for the last two weeks. It's gone just like Yemen, and magic.