The New York Times is reporting that the Trump Campaign sucked in a whole lot of republican voters by asking for urgent donations but then treating them as regular rather than one off donations unless donors discovered and clicked on a well hidden check box.
Greta Thunberg is now aged 18. And her activism is still strong.
The Covid pandemic is entering into an interesting stage with vaccinations being administered at an increasing rate and infection rates declining. The opportunities for politicising the issue continue however.
Joe Biden’s attempt to redefine the American role in International Politics has been exemplified by a message to Jacinda Ardern on Waitangi day congratulating New Zealand about Waitangi Day and noting that the signing of the treaty was witnessed by the first US Consul to New Zealand in 1840.
You would think that after the Trump years the media would be turning away from the reporting of “both sides” of an issue and in many cases they are. But there is a recent example of a hold out urging that extremist views should be given media attention.
Revolt? Revolution? Pain in the ass? Depends, like comedy, on timing. And which side of history you end up on.
Now that Donald Trump has more time to play golf and attend court there will be jockeying for leadership of the Republican Party, or what will be left of it once Trump’s new Patriot Party emerges. One early contender is Ted Cruz. There is a problem with him however, he is an imbecile.
Donald Trump’s final decision as President may be to pardon a number of people. There is speculation that the exercise of the Presidential prerogative of mercy may have a price attached …
If we had seen our Prime Minister fall from power because three companies decided that their dominance in society should be used to bring her down, we would be outraged. Yet that pretty much just happened in the United States.
I have a problem with dimwits waving around a slogan of “free speech” without understanding it. Ignorant fools more interested in screaming slogans than understanding the constraints of their ‘right’. The events of the last 4 years in the USA have made that very clear. So I thought I’d point out a few facts of life about constraints on freedom of speech – with a sidetrack through Trumps’ incitements to riot.
Over the past few days Twitter has suspended not only Donald Trump’s twitter account but 70,000 accounts world wide many associated with the propagation of Qanon conspiracies.
Parler, which attracted right wing extremists because of its refusal to apply any rules to what people said, has had its application banned by Google and Apple and Amazon has now refused to host its data. But it has also had all of user’s data downloaded and archived and made available to everyone, including law enforcement authorities. Think Dirty Politics but on industrial scale.
Reading the effect of the Wednesday riot at the US Congress has been interesting. The Trump position has as usual been as infantile and self-adsorbed as all of his disaster of a presidency has been. The Republican politicians have been been more nuanced. But it looks to me like they would like to not rely on cheeseburgers to stop Donald Trump running again in 2024.
Wednesday’s insurrection further tarnishes America’s reputation as a credible democratic nation. Significant changes will be needed before this reputation can be restored and it is hard to be optimistic that the US political system is capable of reforming itself in the way it needs to.
America’s descent into chaos was almost completed yesterday. An amazingly inept display by local police saw a takeover of Congress and a temporary disruption of the confirmation of the clearly expressed view of the majority of Americans.
Short post to update on developments in Washington.
With crucial Senate run off races in Georgia and Congress meeting to receive the declared results of the US election and with Republicans determined to oppose the results at every turn the next couple of days will be very significant for America’s future. Update (lprent): The democratic senators from Georgia are called as victors. A riot pushed by an irresponsible President Trump happened at the Capitol building with people dead. Congress subsequently made a determined proclamation that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are confirmed a the newly elected president and vice-president. As for Donald Trump – goodbye to unstable rubbish..
Well after the emergence of a mutated Covid virus that is much easier to spread and faced with surging infection rates Boris Johnson has put England into a lockdown similar but not as strong as New Zealand’s original lockdown. But the question is, has he done too little too late?
Donald trump has in the past couple of days issued a number of pardons to people including former members of his campaign team, Jared Kushner’s father, a group of contractors involved in the massacre of 14 Iraqi civilians including a 14 year old boy and Ben Carson’s best friend.
Donald Trump has spent the past week stuffing up the vaccine roll out in some states, fighting attempts to cancel the Trump wall and blaming China for Russian hacks on American institutions and corporations.
The United Kingdom has used emergency procedures to approve for general use the Pfizer Covid vaccine. But this will nor provide overnight respite from Covid. How do you handle the mass vaccination of pretty well the whole planet? And what are the implications for New Zealand’s border policy?
Over in the US of A some amazing claims are being made with Trump’a lawyer claiming that in Georgia, which has perfected the art of disenfranchising Black American voters, there has been a deep seated conspiracy to lose the state for Trump. And Venezuela is involved.
The reality is that the United States is a poor example of a functioning democracy in 2020.
To win the Presidential Election Donald Trump has to win multiple legal challenges in multiple states. So far his cases have not gone very well.
Donald Trump will be back for another go at the Presidency in 2024. Progressives should underestimate the possibility of his winning. Unless the remaining centre-left generates strategies that are executed so well that people feel the difference good politics makes, the elements of populism arising again will stay ready like the elements of a bomb.
America is in some trouble. Covid19 is surging. The third wave is hitting hard. Suddenly 100,000 daily new infections is not a scary possibility, 200,000 is. And a group of Americans have been persuaded that Trump has had the election stolen off him.
Normally when you lose an election you say nice things about the winner and make way for them. But is Trump doing this in the US of A? No sirree. From refusing Biden transition resources to instructing officials not to cooperate with Biden’s team to mass sackings of Defense officials to various failed cases Trump is obstructing the transition every step of the way.
Now the dust is settling on the US election result the one question I have is why was it even close?
Over in the United States of America the country is descending into chaos. But so far the farcical type of chaos as opposed to the violent type of chaos and this is a good thing.
It is customary for outgoing Presidents to leave for the incoming President a short letter of introduction. The Standard has managed to obtain a early draft copy of Donald Trump’s letter to Joe Biden drafted while he was playing golf.
At last. All of the main US media organisations have now called the election for for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with Pennsylvania. The eventual electoral college vote looks to be over 300 – well above the 270 required as Arizona and Nevada are called. It looks like Georgia will wind up the same way.
I hope that I am not tempting fate by saying this but a Biden presidency seems almost inevitable. But presuming he prevails the transition is going to be one of the most difficult and most important in America’s history.
A surge in Covid infections in Europe and in the United States is raising the specter that the most pessimistic predictions about the disease and its effect on the health system may occur. And right wing governments appear to be spectacularly unable to deal with the crisis.
This year forecasting the U.S. election has an interesting additional element, with Trump and the Republican Party gearing up to steal the election if it is not a landslide for their opponents. It is going to be difficult with Joe Biden currently estimated at a 89% probability of winning the electoral college.
Had to laugh, albeit with a resigned anger, when I saw this in my emails today. This afternoon, the official Trump campaign website was hacked and defaced.
Trump deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell, who is also a Kiwi, has announced his candidacy to be head of the OECD. The Greens have announced their opposition because he has been part of inhumane decisions and also decisions that undermine international institutions. The right back him because he is a kiwi. What should Labour do?
