House Republicans make desperate move in face of 2018 Blue Wave
With less than four months until the 2018 midterm elections – possibly the most important and critical in our nation’s history – it appears that Republicans in Congress have become so desperate to protect themselves and Donald Trump that they are will do anything, including blatant cheating, to prevent Democrats from taking back the House or Senate. As Palmer Report has documented, cheating has long been the Republicans’ favorite tool for stealing elections. Through the use of gerrymandering and illegal voter suppression, now combined with hacked voter rolls, using stolen Facebook data to micro-target voters, and even assistance from foreign adversaries, Republicans have created pockets in America where they are attempting to hold power for decades.
With all data pointing to a blue wave in 2018, House Republicans stopped even pretending to hide their intentions with their votes this week. After passing a bipartisan bill last week to authorize appropriations for intelligence agencies for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, House Republicans on Friday voted on a spending bill that “would zero out election security grants that help states to fortify their systems against hacking and cyber-attacks.”
Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell expressed his frustration by tweeting “This was the scene on the House Floor this morning right before House GOP voted to zero out our election security funding, despite clear danger of ongoing Russian interference. SHAME on them.”
After Microsoft announced this week that hacking and cyberattacks on the 2018 elections have already begun, this move by House Republicans to intentionally prevent any defense against such attacks speaks volumes to their goal – protect themselves at the expense of democracy. “The refusal to appropriate a dime for state defense against Russian interference really represents nothing less than unilateral disarmament,” said Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett. There is no other way to look at this flagrant act of disregarding their oaths of office.
I’m a ceramic engineer living in Central New York, avid sports fan but find myself more interested in politics lately.