The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

... In the bitterly contested race for the White House, abortion remains a glaring vulnerability for the Republican nominee.

“You know it’s an important issue because Trump is trying to change his position,” said Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic pollster.

As a candidate, Trump has held conflicting positions on abortion, alternately boasting that he appointed three of the nine supreme court justices whose votes were decisive in overturning Roe, while complaining that Republican extremism on the issue has cost his party at the ballot box.

​He recently appeared to endorse a ballot measure to expand abortion rights in his adopted home state of Florida, only to announce one day later – after sparking backlash among prominent conservative groups – that he would vote against it. He has also previously hinted at support for a 15-week federal ban only to insist that the issue should be left to the states. His campaign has said Trump would not sign a national abortion ban as president.

While the economy remains the top election issue for voters this November, a New York Times/Siena College poll released in August showed that a growing share of battleground state voters, particularly women, say abortion will be central to their decision. Among women younger than 45, abortion has eclipsed the economy as their single most important issue.

In the final months of the campaign, Democrats are aiming to harness the unabated anger over the loss of federal abortion protections, especially among women and young people, and unifying around a platform that seeks to protect what remains of abortion access and the availability of reproductive healthcare, including contraception and fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF)...

It's our top winning issue.  It helps that it's also in the right, and on the right side of history.

The bad:

Russia is increasingly turning to American social media stars to covertly influence voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to U.S. officials and recently unveiled criminal charges.

“What we see them doing is relying on witting and unwitting Americans to seed, promote and add credibility to narratives that serve these foreign actors’ interest,” a senior intelligence official said in a briefing on Friday. “These foreign countries typically calculate that Americans are more likely to believe other Americans’ views.”

 

The approach is widely viewed by American security agencies as one of Russia’s preferred tactics this cycle in order to make their foreign psychological operations appear more authentic. Broadly, these missions typically seek to anger Americans, highlight societal divisions and emphasize partisan talking points while questioning the U.S. government’s effectiveness and role in global security, experts say.

“We're focusing on these tactics because the American public should know that content that they read online, especially on social media, could be foreign propaganda, even if it appears to be coming from fellow Americans,” another senior U.S. intelligence official said in a July briefing with reporters on election security. “In short, foreign influence actors are getting better at hiding their hand and using Americans to do it.”...

The recent indictment of employees of media outlet Russia Today (RT) for providing malign content to MAGAt media company Tenet, plus the indictment of actors in Russia's "Doppelganger" operation are the tip of a very large iceberg that is using American outlets to spread pro- Trump, pro- Russia propaganda. 

The ugly: 

For millions of Venezuelans and dozens of foreign governments, Edmundo González was the undisputed winner of the country’s July 28 presidential election.

But on Sunday, he joined the swelling ranks of once-prominent government opponents who have fled into exile, leaving his political future uncertain and tightening Nicolás Maduro’s grip on power.

The former presidential candidate arrived at a military airport outside Madrid after being granted safe passage by Maduro’s government so he could take up asylum in Spain. His surprise departure came just days after Maduro’s government ordered his arrest.

González, 75, burst onto Venezuela’s political scene less than five months ago. His candidacy was as accidental as it gets after opposition powerhouse María Corina Machado was barred from running and a handpicked substitute was also blocked.

In April, a coalition of more than 10 parties settled on González, who overnight went from being a virtually unknown retired diplomat and grandfather to a household name in whom millions placed their hopes for an end to more than two decades of single-party rule.  [snip]

In the weeks since the disputed vote, both opposition figures went into hiding amid a brutal crackdown that led to more than 2,000 arrests and the deaths of at least 24 people at the hands of security forces. González stayed out of public view while Machado appeared at sporadic rallies seeking to keep the pressure on Maduro.

Machado tried to put a positive spin on González’s departure late Saturday, assuring Venezuelans he would be back on Jan. 10 for a swearing-in ceremony marking the start of the next presidential term.

“His life was in danger, and the increasing threats, summons, arrest warrants and even attempts at blackmail and coercion to which he has been subjected, demonstrate that the regime has no scruples,” Machado said on X. “Let this be very clear to everyone: Edmundo will fight from outside alongside our diaspora.”...

By all accounts, Maduro lost the election handily, and now the likely winner is in at  least temporary exile.  Maduro's forces have surrounded the Argentine embassy in Caracas which is sheltering several of his political opponents.  No wonder the Malignant Loser muses about decamping to Venezuela if/ when he loses in November.  It handles the opposition as he would.