Mediaboss Marketing

US Congressman Mo Brooks

Huntsville, AL- Today, the Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund (herein Tea Party Patriots) endorsed Congressman Mo Brooks in the Alabama Special Election to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Tea Party Patriots is one of Americas largest grassroots conservative political organizations and was created to counter the Washington lobbyist and special interest groups that fund establishment candidates like Luther Strange and Mitch McConnell. Since the conservative groundswell of 2009, Tea Party groups have successfully defeated countless liberal Republicans masquerading as conservatives.

The Tea Party Patriots endorsement follows the endorsements of national conservative thought leaders Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham, along with Congressmen Mike Rogers of Alabama, Lamar Smith of Texas, and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows of North Carolina.

Congressman Brooks said, There is no bigger fight for the heart of the Republican Party than that between establishment Republicans who are funded by lobbyists and special interests and principled conservatives who put America First, before the greed of special interest groups. I welcome the endorsement and help of Tea Party Patriots as we work together to fight Washington special interests that hope to buy Alabamas senate seat.

Brooks Continued, Alabama voters must send a message to the Mitch McConnell, Luther Strange, and Washington special interests groups and lobbyists that simply hate the idea that Alabama might elect a principled senator. Trump promised to drain the swamp. In this election the swamp is fighting back, as evidenced by the millions of dollars that fund the deceptive attack ads Luther Strange has aimed at me. I ask Alabama voters to defeat the swamp by defeating Luther Strange and electing Mo Brooks to fill a Senate seat formerly held by another great principled conservative, Jeff Sessions.

In its endorsement, Tea Party Patriots praised Congressman Brooks, stating:

When Sen. Jeff Sessions accepted President Trumps nomination to serve as Attorney General, we at Tea Party Patriots were of two minds on the one hand, we were thrilled, because we knew Jeff Sessions would return to the Department of Justice a reverence for the Constitution and the rule of law that had been sorely lacking through eight years of the Obama Administration; on the other hand, we were concerned over who would replace him in the Senate, as he has been a champion for our principles over the course of his two decades in office.

Then Congressman Mo Brooks decided to run for the seat, and we were thrilled again.

On virtually every issue that is important to Tea Party Patriots activists, Mo Brooks has been a fearless leader and a fighter. He has fought to secure our borders and strengthen enforcement against illegal immigration; he has been a strong defender of the 2nd Amendment; he has championed our efforts to fully repeal ObamaCare and return us to health care freedom; and he has fought for trade and tax policies necessary to defend and grow good American jobs.

Its no wonder hes been endorsed by conservatives like Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham, and members of his own House Republican Conference who know him well, including U.S. Reps. Mike Rogers, Mark Meadows, and Lamar Smith. Both NumbersUSA and the NRA have given him A ratings, and he has the strongest conservative voting record in the Alabama delegation.

Consequently, on behalf of Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, I am pleased to endorse Mo Brooks for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, and I urge all voters in Alabama to make a plan to be a voter for him in the August 15 special primary election, and, if necessary, the September 26 special runoff, and the December 12 special general election.

Here is the original post:
Tea Party Patriots Endorse Congressman Mo Brooks for US Senate - Shoals Insider

Ukraines official Twitter account is no stranger to memes.Courtesy of Adult Swim

When a massive cyberattack hit Ukraines airport, government agencies, and national bank in early June, the countrys official Twitter account, @Ukraine , responded with a GIF. Some of our gov agencies, private firms were hit by a virus. No need to panic, were putting our utmost efforts to tackle the issue, read the tweet, which was accompanied by an illustrated GIF of a dog sitting in a room ablaze, drinking coffee, saying This is fine.

The cartoon, a meme generally used to signify disastrous government inaction, seemed to send the wrong message: Guys youre doing this meme thing wrong, one journalist replied on Twitter.

But the oddball tweet had the intended effect: it garnered 7,800 retweets, 10,600 likes, and brought the accounts follower count to 42,000 (its now 45,400). And it wasn't unique: Since May 2016, @Ukraine has been engaging in twiplomacy in a similarly self-deprecating, sardonic tone, making consistent use of GIFs and emoji. Some tweets highlight Ukraines natural beauty and national holidays (#BeautifulUkraine), while others enter the diplomatic fray, at times sarcastically trolling official Russian accounts (#DecommunizationBenefits) and giddily @ing friendlier nations (Hey @Nigeria!).

Whos behind it? Fortune tracked down the team with the gumption to casually refer to a "bromance" Sweden, and blatantly troll Russian accounts. They are Yarema Dukh, 30, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenkos press attach, Oleg Naumenko, 24, a Cambridge graduate who helped build the Ukrainian governments communications team before joining the private sector, and Artem Zhukov, who coordinates strategic digital communications for the presidential administration. All three became politically active during Ukraines Maidan Revolution three years ago, joining Poroshenkos new administrationwhich took office with the aim of reforming and modernizing the country.

Dukh registered the account after discovering Canadas official accounts ( @Canada and, in French, @AuCanada ), which advertise the nations abundant natural beauty, and he thought Ukraine should have a similar outlet. The effort to turn a faceless institutionbe it a country or companyinto a personable online presence will be familiar to anyone who follows U.S. corporate accountssee Wendys , Square, and Delta . But for a nation at war, the stakes are considerably higher.

Throughout much Ukraine's long-running conflict with Russia, Russian leadership repeatedly insisted the country did not have troops in Ukraine. Details have only recently started to reach the public. On Twitter, though, @Ukraine is spreading the word, and periodically reminds its followers of the wars ongoing toll. That includes calling out accounts like @Russia , a promotional Twitter feed run by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The feeds most famous clash came this spring. During a speech in Paris, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that French-Russian relations date back to an 11th century French queen whom he called Russian Ani. @Ukraine promptly responded, clarifying that Russian Ani was in fact Anne de Kiev, who married French King Henry I in 1051, when Moscow did not yet exist.

We are proud of our common history...which should unite our nations, not divide us, @Russia shot back, prompting to @Ukraine to respond with a Simpsons GIF equating Russia and the Soviet Union, adding, You really dont change, do you?

The levity was a conscious choice for @Ukraine's creators. Humour, even the sardonic kind, is the only thing that allows us to talk about hard topics and see the bright side even in the most tragic situations, Naumenko says.

The tweets are also intended to counterbalance the Russian messaging and propaganda that has become increasingly pervasive on social media sites. At the very beginning, @Russia tweeted something like, Welcome to Crimea, a beautiful Russian land, recalled Dukh. Crimea was a part of Ukraine Russia forcibly annexed in 2014. We reply to their claims, and we always get more likes and retweets than them.

On Twitter, at least, Ukraine can reclaim lost ground in late June, Dukh registered the @Crimea handle. When the official Twitter of the Russian Embassy to the U.S. tweeted, Goodnight America! #VisitRussia #travel #Crimea, @Crimea replied, If youre a tomb raider, this could be a good movie. But sanctions & isolation is the only prize you get for violating int law, accompanied by a GIF of a gun-toting Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft (in which she is, presumably, breaking into UNESCO World Heritage sites).

Soon, Dukh hopes, every Ukrainian region will have its own official account. @Ukraine is already broadcasting the countrys latest diplomatic news. It celebrated the European Parliaments approval of visa-free travel to the EU with a Minions GIF, and congratulating Lithuania on its independence day with a GIF of a jubilant Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson, on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. It can also strike a somber tone, at times reminding followers of how many Ukrainian servicemen have lost their lives at war in the east, and of Russias Crimea annexation.

But @Ukraine was not created solely to respond to Russian propaganda or aggression. Its primary focus is still to promote a positive image of the country, and to provide a means of reaching out to fellow nations. Ukrainians are extremely open-minded and friendly nation with a great sense of humor. Twitter is just the mirror, Zhukov says.

Its a good opportunity for international interaction, Dukh wrote in an email. Not necessarily to settle beef with Russia, but to have a nice exchange with friendly countries like Poland, Israel, Canada or Lithuaniawe're happy to have some banter and to raise a glass of e-wine! 🙂

The feed has been remarkably, if haphazardly, successful at doing so, one follower at a time. It gives a new, unconventional perspective on Ukraine and puts the country on the map of English-speaking world, says Dukh. Even if you need to use a few memes and Simpsons GIFs to do so.

A version of this article appears in the Aug. 1, 2017 issue of Fortune with the headline "First the World War, Now the Flame War."

Go here to see the original:
Meet the Millennials Who Started Ukraine's Twitter War With Russia - Fortune

BBC News

Georgia ex-leader Saakashvili plans defiant return to Ukraine BBC News The former Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, says he will go back to Ukraine to mobilise his supporters there, in defiance of Kiev's decision to strip him of Ukrainian citizenship. Mr Saakashvili moved to Ukraine in 2013 and served as governor ... Ukraine strips Saakashvili of his only citizenshipAljazeera.com Democracy, rule of law thrown under bus by Ukraine dictator PoroshenkoHuffPost Ukraine's President Sidelines Opponent by Stripping His CitizenshipNew York Times RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty -FRANCE 24 all 133 news articles »

Original post:
Georgia ex-leader Saakashvili plans defiant return to Ukraine - BBC News

Angelina Diash in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2010 (Terrell Jermaine Starr)

Angelina Diash is a black woman, a native-born Ukrainian patriot.

She loves her country but hates the direction in which its headed. Corruption is rampant. The leadership talks a good game about democracy, but at times, she says it feels like a dictatorship. Though with a new, western government in office, Diash felt she at least had freedom of expression.

Her harsh reality check came last week when she was arrested after baring her breasts in protest during a ceremony where Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko signed documents of cooperation between their countries. Human-rights abuses are rampant in Belarus, which former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once called the last dictatorship of central Europe. Diash believed that Poroshenko didnt need to be seen shaking hands with someone most of the world thinks is a tyrant.

Diash made her way into the ceremony last Friday afternoon, bared her breasts with long live Belarus written on them and began shouting the phrase. The refrain is commonly used by the Belarusian opposition against Lukashenko. Two large men dressed in black suits quickly whisked her out of the packed ceremony as journalists snapped photos, shot video and looked on.

Lukashenko and Poroshenko grinned calmly. Watch the video of Diashs protest for yourself:

After sharing a jail cell with three other women overnight, she was released the following morning and placed in a holding cage in court, where she heard the stiff charges against her.

At most, Diash figured shed get arrested, be slapped with a small fine and released after a few hours. Instead, she faces between two and five years in prison for hooliganism with aggravating circumstances, according to the Kyiv Post. The police allege that she resisted arrest as she was carried out of the ceremony, thus the stiff jail time. Diash denies that claim.

Its not normal, she said. Im really frustrated. [Ukraine] wants to move toward Europe. The United States supports us. We want democracy to develop in our country, but our authorities show that they are not ready. Dont know whats happening with them. Im really surprised.

Diash is part of a feminist group called Femen whose members are known for staging protests by showing their breasts. Founded in Ukraine in 2008, the group of sextremists, as they are called, made a name for themselves protesting against the Ukrainian and Russian governments in this manner. Their tactics drew reactions ranging from curiosity to out right hostility. Though as the group continued their protests and gained international coverage, the Ukrainian government began cracking down on them, and its key members were forced out of Ukraine. Femen is now based in Paris, France.

I met Angelina in Ukraine during my Fulbright program in 2009, and she participated in my Black Women in Ukraine Photo Project, which you can find here. Diash has always been passionate about political and social justice issues in her country and has never been shy about discussing the racism she deals with.

And that is what makes Diashs current case so unique: She is a black woman in Ukraine fighting against what she feels is creeping authoritarian rule, all while fighting against racism from her own people. When news of her arrest hit social media, the language people used toward her wasnt pretty.

She says some of the comments included, Why is a black monkey protesting in our country? and of course, the universal slur for black people, nigger.

Its really frustrating that people judge me by the color of my skin, she said. Theres not a lot of black people in Ukraine, especially those who were born here.

Diash was born in western Ukraine to a Ukrainian mother and an Angolan father who studied in Ukraine during the 1980s on a Soviet scholarship. In her small town, she was one of a few black kids, and their classmates were quite cruel. Schoolchildren would tell them they should feel cold because they were outside of Africa. They were constantly called Negros.

As hurtful as the taunts were, Diash didnt allow it to break her spirit. In 2009, she sat through a college lecture where a professor said that mixed-race children had a bad gene that made them criminals. Worst of all, the professor was her adviser and had to sign off on her graduation papers. Furious, Diash stormed to the professors office and demanded that she explain the science behind her logic. Of course, the professor could not.

When the Euromaidan protests against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych took place at the end of 2013, Diash was on the streets in the freezing cold with millions of other Ukrainians demanding a new government. Government forces shot at protesters, killing dozens. When Yanukovych fled to Russia and a more western-minded leadership took over, Diash was optimistic that the new government would transition the country out of its authoritarian past.

But as I see, its not true, she said. And I do not know why all of those people were dying and standing in the rain. And now they want to put me in the prison. I made a protest action, she added, emphasizing that she was peaceful and feels the charges against her are extreme.

During our 30-minute conversation on Facebook video, Angelina sounded confident, but she admitted she is very scared and doesnt want to go to prison.

Her mother supports her activism but was reduced to tears after realizing her daughter could get five years for a protest that lasted less than 20 seconds. Diash has never traveled outside of Ukraine. Her first trip abroad was supposed to be for her sisters wedding in Chicago in September, but her passport has been confiscated, and her travel is reduced to Kyiv.

She doesnt know her court date, which is further exacerbating her anxiety. It is Diashs hope that the case will be dismissed soon and shell be able to see her sister, whom she hasnt seen in over a year.

I asked her if she regrets the protest and if shed do it over again. Without hesitation, she said yes to doing it over. Even though many Ukrainians do not see her as one of their own, Diash is resolute. Ukraine is her country, and she doesnt plan on leaving. She is a black feminist Ukrainian patriot who risked her life protesting with millions of other Ukrainians for a better future. Diash wont abandon her country noweven if it means serving prison time.

If she is thrown in prison, Diash says it will prove that Ukraine is not the free and open society it claims to be.

It will really show how truly our country is moving towards democracy, Diash said. And [it will prove] how interested the authorities are in being in Europe and being a normal country.

Editors note: We have reached out to the Ukrainian National Police and Diashs lawyer for comment and will update this article with their remarks.

Read more:
Black Ukrainian Woman Faces 5 Years In Prison After Baring Breasts During Protest - The Root

There was a time when Mikheil Saakashvili was seen as the Wests great hope for reform in the former Soviet Union.

But since Thursday, he has had a more pressing problem: He is a man without a country.

He was in New York when he learned that Ukraine, his adoptive home, had stripped him of his citizenship. He had already lost his citizenship in his native Georgia, where he was once president.

"I have only one citizenship, that of Ukraine, and I will not be deprived of it," he said Friday, vowing to return to the country where until last year he had been the governor of the southern port city of Odessa and mobilize his supporters.

The Ukrainian migration service said in a statement that the decision was made after it was discovered that Saakashvili had supplied false information about pending corruption charges in Georgia when he filed citizen registration papers in 2015.

But Saakashvili, who has said the charges in Georgia are politically motivated, blamed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for the decision to leave him stateless.

"Poroshenko decided to deprive me of my citizenship in an underhanded way, while I am out of the country!" Saakashvili wrote on his Facebook page.

Saakashvili, 49, was born in Georgia and went on to lead the country in a bloodless Rose Revolution to overthrow a Soviet-era president in 2003. He was elected president the next year and earned a reputation for implementing reforms in Georgia that forced out criminal gangs and corruption.

During his second term, Saakashvili fell out of favor as critics accused him of consolidating his power. He fled the country in 2013, did a stint as a professor at Tufts University in Boston and eventually landed in Ukraine, where the post-Soviet nation was undergoing its own revolution.

Mass street demonstrations in the Kiev, Ukraines capital, led to the 2014 ousting of Kremlin-favored President Viktor Yanukovych, who is currently on trial in absentia on corruption-related charges. Russia, angered by pro-Western popular revolt in Ukraine, annexed Crimea in 2014. A war with pro-Russia separatist militias in eastern Ukraine followed.

Poroshenko, who was elected Ukraines president in 2014, invited the Western-educated Saakashvili to become the governor of Odessa, where corruption and criminal gangs were notorious. The two men had been university classmates in Kiev.

Poroshenko granted him Ukrainian citizenship in 2015, prompting Georgia to take away his citizenship.

As Odessa governor, Saakashvili soon ran up against Ukraines entrenched oligarchies, which pushed back on his attempts to break up monopolies.

Saakashvili blamed the government in Kiev for stalling on reforms that were both needed to move the country out of its post-Soviet haze and required by international donors, who were banking on Ukraines pro-Western stance.

Saakashvili announced he was resigning as Odessa governor in November in a fiery speech in which he accused Poroshenko of dishonesty and Ukraine's central government of sabotaging his efforts to implement crucial reforms.

"How much can you lie and cheat?" Saakashvili, looking straight into news cameras, asked the Ukrainian president.

Saakashvili proceeded to start his own political movement of people who opposed to Poroshenkos ruling party and advocated for Western standards of rule of law and democracy.

Still, current opinion polls show popular support for Saakashvilis movement at less than 2%.

Saakashvili said the Ukrainian governments move to strip his citizenship is part of a worrying trend in Ukraine.

"I am being subjected to the same approaches that are used by Ukraine's prosecutors or bureaucrats against regular Ukrainians, whose rights are spat upon," Saakashvili said in a video posted on his Facebook page.

Balazs Jarabik, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that by eliminating Saakashvili as an opposition force, Poroshenko is narrowing the competition ahead of the 2019 presidential election.

What Poroshenko is doing is consolidating his power to make sure he is reelected, he said.

A recent opinion poll showed that only 11.6% of voters support Poroshenko, whose office declined to comment Friday.

Though the United States and European leaders have thrown their support behind the democratic and economic reforms Ukraine promised after the Maidan revolution, change has been frustratingly slow for Ukrainians. The average monthly salary still hovers around $263. Corruption still permeates Ukrainian bureaucracy, and oligarchs still dominate the ruling elite.

Poroshenko, himself a tycoon in the candy industry, has blamed the slow progress on the ongoing war in the east, which has claimed more than 10,000 lives, and Russian aggression against Ukraine.

The European Union recently granted visa-free travel to Ukrainians in what many saw as a sign of good faith that Ukraine was committed to democracy.

So far, the West has remained silent on Saakashvili losing his citizenship.

Sergei Solodkyy, an expert on international affairs at the World Policy Institute, a think tank in Kiev, said the move will be seen as a gift to the Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government, which has had an extremely contentious relationship with Saakashvili since 2008, when Russia sent troops to back a revolt in northern Georgia.

Saakashvili has been a fierce critic of Putin's autocratic style of governing.

Putin was afraid that this virus of democracy would come into Russia would destroy the regime of Putin, Solodykyy said. If Ukraine demonstrations negative trends leaning toward autocratic rule, it will demonstrate to Putin that democracy is not possible in Ukraine.

sabra.ayres@latimes.com

Twitter: @sabraayres

Ayres is a special correspondent.

View original post here:
Ukraine strips Saakashvili of his citizenship, leaving the hero of the Rose Revolution without a country - Los Angeles Times