I earlier wrote that the West’s elites were too tentative in their approach to lawfare, using Trump (where I’m right) and Georgescu as examples. With Goergescu they had initially just annulled an election, but let him run again.
Seems I was wrong about Georgescu. Using charges of Russian influence after “finding” weapons and cash and whatnot in his network. I’m—skeptical, at best, this looks like a stitch up to me, but I can’t rule out that the evidence isn’t planted.
So Romania has now banned Georgescu from running at all.
But here’s the thing, take a look at the polling:
The runaway leader. By far. So they’ve banned the most popular choice from running.
It’s hard to say this isn’t anti-democratic. If I were Romanian I’d feel fully justified in starting or joining a revolution in response and as a foreigner, I rather hope that’s what happens, because if it doesn’t, then this sort of election interference will spread in the West. “Vote for anyone you want, as long as the candidate is someone current incumbent can stand.” It’s not hard to imagine this being used against the left as well as the right: a populist left-winger like Corbyn, for example. (Remember there were threats that if Corbyn won the military would launch a coup.) Melenchon’s left wing might face the same fate if it it wins the Presidential election.
So far I haven’t seen the EU condemn this, and I rather assume it’s done with Brussel’s approval. A bad omen for change in Europe. And if change can’t be peaceful, at some point it will be violent.
The neoliberals have ruled for too long, and are too full of themselves to believe that anyone else even has a right to rule. The old post-war order disagreed with Thatcher and Reagan and their heirs, and had ruled for about the same amount of time, but they allowed the transfer of power to a new ideology.
Democracy requires this: if you can’t choose something radically different at the ballot box, then you don’t really have elections.
Bob
We should be all taking it for granted that Western states are not democracies. Otherwise it starts sounding like North Koreans saying – oh, it looks like we might not be living in a democracy or something equally silly.
Even when these states are being nice to their citizens, it’s at their pleasure and not due to some tangible influence the public has. Benign authoritarianism is not democracy. It suits the ruling class to get nasty now and there’s no mechanisms to stop them.
Mark Level
I agree with Bob. Also, if the “foreign” influence over Georgescu had been Israel, he would’ve been promoted, and not banned, by TPTB. And yes, I’d assume whatever “evidence” of Russian control they “found” had 95% likelihood of being planted, at a minimum. Let’s remember before the 2020 election here when Blinken got 51 “Intelligence Community (gag!) experts” to declare the Hunter Biden Laptop was a fake.
The “Rules Based Order” has thrown aside the “Democratic” mask, to anyone who has their eyes and mind open. As frequently observed, the RBO means “We make the Rules, and We give the Orders.” No due process.
Trudeau freezing and stealing Trucker protesters’ assets. GoFundMe stealing money I tried to donate to the Grayzone. Both failed in the short term– Trudeau’s theft was overturned in the courts. I filled out a form to get the money grabbed by GoFuckMe back, boosted it by 20% and donated thru a different platform. But that likely won’t happen in the future. The Senate (R)’s just passed a law in the US to allow “debanking” of people who the ADL (a group that’s fine with Elon throwing Nazi salutes, but calls protesters against the Gaza-West Bank Holocaust unhinged “anti-Semites”) will get to decide whose assets to confiscate, who to starve and make homeless, if the Dems roll over in the House and go along with it.
Anybody in the DC-supporting crowd want to bet they won’t go along with the program? I wouldn’t. Trump, egged on by Mark Andriessen (who stole millions with the bankruptcy of one of his non-FDA-approved banking entities that “went broke”) on Joe Rogan lied that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was a “debanking” entity when, in fact, it prevented debanking and restored around $20 billion over the last 4 years to consumers bilked by the big Corporations. Trump’s first targets to destroy were the National Labor Relations Board, and the CPB. Wonder why?
The Dems will protest the loss of those “wonderful people” at the AID and NED, coup-organizing agencies with a thin veneer of also doing legitimate charity. They won’t protect ordinary people ripped off by Wall St., landlords, etc. The R’s promote Curtis Yarvin feudalism, the D’s promote CIA Narrative control. Nobody is on the side of those who aren’t connected and in “the club” that George Carlin used to joke about.
Feral Finster
Of course it’s undemocratic. Of course it was done with the approval and support of Brussels. Of course it will spread.
What do Romanians propose to do about it?
Tallifer
So what is your take on Navalny?
Jan Wiklund
Apparently at least some Romanians do: https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/3/10/protests-erupt-as-romania-bars-pro-russian-presidential-candidate
mago
The Finster is right. What’s anybody going to do about this widespread repression?
At least the Romanians are rioting if reports are true.
How about the disappearance of the Palestinian Columbia activist, married to an American and possessor of a green card? Who’s giving effective voice to his plight, or to anyone who speaks out about the unspeakable?
Protest is futile, and there’s no revolutionary momentum that’s going to reverse these dystopian trends.
Perhaps events will accelerate to such extremes that everything crashes and burns and a new order rises phoenix like from the ashes. Gonna be a whole lotta hurt before that happens. . .
miss jennings
Actually, Politics is simply the Entertainment Divison of the whole Intel-Military-Industrial thingy
Ask yourself this:
What do a dead spook and child pornography have in common? A: They’re both created in CIA brothels that are protected by federal and local cops! (Not a joke.)
Secret Services, Creative Exposures:
https://booty.substack.com/p/secret-services-creative-exposures
Now, having read the above link thoroughly and ingested it properly, simply imagine the utter depravity on display here.
Now ask yourself if the same power center (TPTB) that uses such means would ever in a trillion years allow an honest voting mechanism among
‘we the people’the proles?Remember that author Nick Bryant (who wrote a book on the Franklin child sex scandal) was one of the original investigators who was given info on Epstein that was subsequently published in Gawker, I believe.
And Bryant reminded us that when Acosta said that he was told Epstein was intel and to lay off, that this order could only have come from the Attorney General acting in the interest of the executive.
In this particular case and at that particular time, the MIC character playing the role of sociopath in the interest of the people was Barack Obama.
Now, having read the ‘Secret Services, Creative Exposures’ article thoroughly one will immediately realize that the Hoover-McCarthy deep state power dynamic is intimately tied to our current white house sociopath via the ‘liason’ of a one Mr Roy Cohn. ‘Liason’ here engendering any and all of its glorious meanings.
———
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkppN14ugMo
Are there any more non-commodified Mexican ponchos to speak of? Killing them off was the plan, right?
Now, Sears is out of business. That was ultimately in the cards as well.
Will Mexican ponchos return along with subsistence chicken backyards?
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1e/80/d6/1e80d6a4e004690743a19b4fb1e48832.jpg
someofparts
Post up at NC about DOGE with a blistering video at the end of Chris Murphy in the Senate giving a horrifying summary of the corruption highlights we have seen already from the Trump/Musk gang. Also a cheerful little news segment about people torching Teslas in Seattle.
On Breaking Points they mentioned Mark Andriessen going on Rogan and floating that preposterous lie about the CFPB. They also had a depressing segment about a meeting among the Dems to rethink their strategy. One of the bullet points in their plan was that they must distance themselves from small donors because such input distorts the political process too much. So only money from big donors produces political results they find acceptable.
None of the damage that Musk is doing will hurt them personally. They are already experienced courtiers and they know that this skill set will enable them to glide through the Trump reign without losing any of their advantages. Welcoming small donors, however, is a roll of the dice. Who knows how well their cherished advantages will fare in a world re-calibrated by the electorate?
miss jennings
My post may seem out of place but the point is that every country is involved in these sick antics to one degree or another. The more powerful the country, the worse it is.
That’s how it works.
We will see if the massive protests in Romania amount to anything. Will they be sustained? What other mechanisms are at work?
Watch for false flag events. Always.
—-
Question: How do the US bases in Romania affect the overall security picture?
Russia has expressed deep concern about these in the past.
There is no sign of these being dismantled, in fact they are expanding the 57th at Mihail to handle up to 10,000 ‘NATO’ (or whatever) troops.
This article is from last year but this project continues apace:
‘Russian Senator and Foreign Affairs Committee Vice President Andrei Klimov said the base represents a “threat to Bucharest.”
“The NATO suicide club drags ordinary civilians into such adventures that can end very badly for their families and children. I’m not trying to scare anyone, I’m just reasoning logically. There won’t be any benefit for Romania from this and there will be more threats, this is a fact,” he said in a discussion reported by local media.
Klimov added that the “closer it is to Russia’s borders, the more likely it is to be among the first targets for retaliatory strikes.”
NATO continues to survey Romania’s eastern flank, employing airborne warning and control system aircraft in its patrols to monitor Russian military activity.’
https://thedefensepost.com/2024/03/21/largest-nato-europe-base-romania/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoAF_57th_Air_Base#cite_note-defense2019-5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deveselu_Military_Base
——
And, for those not already familar with the song, you have to listen to the very end of Zappa’s ‘Camarillo Brillo’ to get the Mexican poncho-Sears reference.
bruce wilder
Remember Mario Draghi in Italy?
Feral Finster
Even if Navalnyii were George Washington, Braveheart, King David and Ho Chi Minh all rolled into one (pro tip: he wasn’t): that has nothign to do with Romania and Tallifer is trying to change the subject.
Feral Finster
While we’re doing whataboutism, let’s pretend Russia were to cancel an election that Navalnyii had any chance of winning.
Every diplomat from Sydney to Tallinn would be howling in outrage, every MSM Talking Head would be wrapping his eyebrows around his nose and pompously proclaiming that We All Are Romanians Now.
But since it’s one of the european pets? Crickets.
Revelo
EU is burning its soft power as fast as USA is burning its, which is saying a lot. It will be a standing joke: “Election will be according to EU democratic rules. Meaning we repeat the election as many times as necessary until we get the results we want. Please keep that in mind when voting, so we don’t have to waste time and money repeating the election.”
Oakchair
While the establishment has the power to cancel elections, ban candidates, and stuff ballot boxes they are doing it from a position of declining competence, and relative weakness.
If they had true power and control —like they used to have– all the above would be completely unnecessary. They are gambling that the masses are too sedated, sick, propagandized, and comfortable to care enough to respond in kind. Even if that is currently true blatant displays of dystopia can quickly become self defeating as the pretense are abandoned and people recognize the propaganda, authoritarianism, and corruption for what it is.
Take a look at polls before and after Romania canceled the 2024 election. Support for anti-establishment candidates increased.
More candidates will be banned from the election in the coming weeks.