We have got so used to the United States being an extremely violent danger to the rest of the world, that the prospect of it internalising its violence is fascinating as well as horrifying. I am hopeful that it is not however likely.
I have to admit I thought Trump was smarter. I expected him to fight for an election result good enough to give him some leverage, and then at a point about about 36 hours ago start to negotiating with Biden for immunity for his family and himself, no tax investigations, and perhaps some continued government boosting of his business affairs, in return for a concession in the election. One thing we know from Burisma and China is that old Joe Biden loves a bung, so I was expecting comfortable understandings to be reached between two immoral and grasping old men. I thought I possessed a fair store of worldly wisdom, but plainly I underrated how crazy Trump is.
The American political system is plainly broken. The Democrats almost managed to fail to defeat Trump, having yet again managed to ensure that the poor electorate was given the choice of two horribly unattractive candidates. The Electoral College system came within an inch of reimposing Trump against the wishes of a large majority of the popular vote.
I do know all the arguments for the electoral college system, that it gives a counterbalance to the huge populations of the cities and coasts and allows rural states to protect their interests. But what it means in the real world is that the votes of conservative white people have disproportionate effect. If Trump had won due to this system, the strain on the fabric of the American body politic would have been – rather like the strain on the UK from Scots being permanently ruled by English Tories. Californian votes in effect are worth less than other votes because they have to be discounted in electoral college representation, because there are so many Californians. Biden having squeaked it removes the acuity of this sore, but the sore is still there waiting to burst out again in 2024.
Having been wrong about Trump backing out, I am reluctant to predict further. My instincts are that Trump’s gun touting fanatics are blowhards and while I fear there may be a few fatalities and incidents, mostly this is going to fizzle out in a series of dead-end lawsuits. I don’t see widespread rioting by “deplorables”, rather long term nursing of grievance. I have no expectation at all that a Biden administration will carry our any meaningful social and economic reform to improve the lives of those whose feelings of alienation were manipulated so adroitly by Trump.
It is typical of the shallowness of the identity politics which have replaced real attempts at social progress and economic improvement for ordinary people, that we are supposed to be celebrating that Kamala Harris will be Vice President on the grounds of her gender and race, when she is a power hungry right winger of the most hardened kind.
America urgently needs a radical dose of social and economic reform as championed by Bernie Sanders. It needs the Green New Deal, and the world needs a real commitment in Washington to environmentalism. One prediction of which I am very confident is that we are not going to see any genuinely significant action on any of this. None of Trump’s poorer supporters will be changing their political minds due to an improvement in their livelihood and prospects over the next four years.
Of one thing I am sure; I am pleased for those who feel released tonight from a regime rooted in racism, and I hope they are right that Trump will now fade away into irrelevance. But as the social and economic position of middle class Americans continues to deteriorate, one thing will be plain in future. Trump was not the cause of America’s problems, he was only a symptom. The future is not bright.
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Craig,
You’re so right.
But so depressing
(We) urgently need a radical dose of social and economic reform as championed by Bernie Sanders. It needs the Green New Deal, and the world needs a real commitment …… to environmentalism.
Wise words (slightly edited) . We all need this!
Unfortunately, the Green New Deal might not be what it seems…
http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2020/09/11/the-unannounced-death-of-the-green-new-deal-part-1-what-happened-to-the-peoples-plan/
http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2020/11/05/the-unannounced-death-of-the-green-new-deal-part-2-an-object-of-projection/
Anyone who equates nuclear power with coal and fracking is insane and can be dismissed out of hand as a lunatic who doesn’t know what they are talking about. I am all for 100% clean power and fossil fuel ban, but neither is possible without nuclear (and in long term, fusion) power, period. And even if they were, one small, tiny nuclear power plant is still better for environment than enormous, dead glass/metal deserts made out of solar panels and windmills you’d need to power cities in regions north of Spain/Turkey.
I agree, but non-lunatics are rare. More precisely, the ability to make rational calculations is rare.
Wrong wrong wrong, how old are you ?
Don’t you remember this ? https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ijc.22037
I lived through it
As the cloud of radioactive material from Chernobyl fell on me and my children poisoned the earth I walk on poisoned the plants and other foods I’ve had no choice but to eat the water I’ve had to drink for the last three decades and more .
Millions poisoned by the nuclear fallout across Europe
Mr V you are foolish advocating nuclear power in any shape or form
Here is how safe nuclear is…..not safe at all
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/11/01/dumping-fukushimas-water-into-the-ocean/
Very true, Donald. But no one can be elected without gaining the approval – and permission – of either the Democratic or the Republican establishment. And they would never in a million years accept anyone remotely like Mr Sanders. He and Major Gabbard are by far the most sensible, realistic and humane politicians on the scene – and neither of them has an ice cube’s chance in hell of ever being elected to any important post.
Like the great reset that the world economic forum is pushing? O waw yes, let’s all be slaves under the guise of saving the dolphins, great idea
In my view, the US predilection for violence has always been there and it is equally assuaged whether indulging itself internally or externally.
One of the main motives for the American Revolution was that the government in London was too keen to prevent the settlers from wiping out the Native Americans and stealing their land. (Another one being the strong suspicion that it would soon start pushin for the abolition of slavery).
Resonances with Israel
Mr Trump will not need to negotiate. The convention that ex-presidents are not prosecuted or criticised is essential, as otherwise “who shall ‘scape whipping?”
Noam Chomsky pointed out, rightly, that if the Nuremberg Principles meant anything, every US president since (and including) FDR would have been hanged for war crimes.
They will continue to let sleeping dogs lie, for every four years the president becomes – potentially – the ex-president. They all commit horrible crimes daily, without the least concern, and they will go on doing so.
Tom, there are active prosecutions underway at the State level (especially NY) against Trump, not Federal. It’s highly unlikely these would stop as they are not formally controlled by the Federal Executive.
The only way that happens is for Biden to issue the same type of blank pardon as Gerald Ford did for Nixon (proclamation 4311) under the guise of reconciliation and national unity.
I hold it for likely even though it would be met with furor from Biden’s base. It’s even likelier in light of the lack of a “mandate” vote result for Biden.
Considering Trump’s behaviour, his incendiary language is probably a bargaining tool. “Give me immunity or I will rally my supporters to violence”.
It looks like Biden will win electoral college by nearly a hundred and popular vote by 5-6M so the rather nebulous ‘mandate’ may still be achieved.
Your comments about the Southern District of NY are spot on btw. Unfortunately Trump’s lawyers will be able to drag these cases out for years with delaying tactics and appeals. If Trumps ever sees the inside of a jail cell he will be a very old man indeed. That’s if he doesnt have another nasty case of bone spurs and avoids chokey on medical grounds…..
I am not so sure about Biden pardoning Trump though. When Ford pardoned Nixon politics in the US were completely different, with liberal Republicans to the left of conservative Democrats. There is only downside for Biden if he gives Trump a walk, and he did just call his son a junkie…
Nearly a hundred? How? It’s completely impossible even if you dumped mountain of votes for him in all undeclared states, and right now, he is losing half of them. Mind explaining how you came to this conclusion, because right now, it looks like he will barely win 290 to 260, maybe 300 to 250 if he collects Georgia too…
Why do you think there are 550 electoral votes available? There are 538 available and if Biden wins Georgia and Arizona he’ll be on 306 and Trump on 232. Ok, 74 is not nearly a hundred unless one squints really hard but hardly as preposterous as you are making it out to be and still a lot closer than your guesses, even with the extra 12 votes…..
His popular vote margin is also likely to be bigger than I suggested.
obama gave bush jr a walk, there is a long tradition in the u.s. for not prosecuting presidents after they leave office.
We’ll see. As Mark Twain remarked, “It’s a difference of opinion that makes for horse races”.
To prosecure and even punish Mr Trump would set a precedent that I don’t think any US politician would ever want to see. Even if they try to position him as an outlaw who got elected president by illegal means – he was still president for four years. I doubt if they would take the risk.
Labour’s centrists and its out-and-out right-wingers are gloating about this result. Claiming it’s somehow vindicates their centrist approach.
Given the favourable electoral circumstances due to the mishandled pandemic; a pandemic which was first dismissed as a hoax by some in the Trump clan and an ultra supportive media, for Biden to crawl across the finish line like this and the Democrats go backwards in the House and fail to gain the Senate can only be classed as an extremely poor result. One with warnings aplenty about future elections and the next presidential election against any half-competent Republican candidate.
The cardboard cut-out leadership of Starmer is very Biden-esque. Polling indicates Biden didn’t appeal much at all to voters, a visceral dislike of Trump decided it.
as nina turner put it, there were two bowls of crap to choose between, but i think she was unduly charitable to describe the bowl of biden as only half full.
“But what it means in the real world is that the votes of conservative white people have disproportionate effect”.
Actually, the only gender/racial segment to have turned decisively against Mr Trump since 2016 has been precisely white men. His popularity has increased among white women, black people, Latinos and “other”.
Such matters are far too complex to analyse with a few simple dogmatic rules of thumb. Otherwise one ends up like the Democrats – infuriated that the real world, and real people, persist on behaving contrary to the elite’s mental models.
No pandemic and Trump would’ve likely won easily.
The Democrats have spent four years prattling on about Russia as a means of avoiding necessary, meaningful introspection and self-analysis, finding out why poorer Americans and minorities felt they weren’t worth voting for.
Definition of insanity: keep doing the same thing and hope for a different outcome…
They don’t hope for a different outcome. The only thing that truly matters is heading off any attempt to improve the lives of ordinary people; given a choice between winning with a left-of-center “socialist” and losing to Trump, they’ll choose the latter every time.
The people who are truly insane by this definition are the lesser-evil voters.
While it is true that a lower proportion of white men has voted for tRump this time around, your statement is probably incorrect.
For one thing, the proportion was reduced slightly but still remains the largest tRump support group by proportion. A super-majority of white men voted for tRump in both 2016 and 2020, even though the proportion was less in 2020.
In addition, there was a significant net increase in total voter count. The electorate grew and the participation went through the roof. As a result, a smaller proportion of a larger number is pretty much a wash. About the same number of white men voted for him in 2020 as in 2016.
As for white women, the data I have seen does not appear quite conclusive yet. Exit polls typically need to be reprocessed once full results are available. However it appears he is flat there as well.
Stating that his popularity has increased among blacks does not accurately paint the picture. He may have gone from 12% support to 15% support. Yes, it’s an increase, but blacks overwhelmingly rejected him.
As for latinos, this is not a homogeneous constituency. In Miami, rich exiled Venezuelans and Cubans did support him massively. Elsewhere, where more latinos are of Mexican origins, that is not the case.
Maybe your analysis is indeed a bit too dogmatic in this case.
“I am pleased for those who feel released tonight from a regime rooted in racism…”
Not insofar as they still live in the USA, and are ruled by the US government. While lip service is paid to all the rules of political correctness, Americans are just as racist and sexist and all the rest of the -ists as most British people – and will continue to be.
Otherwise they might show some empathy and understanding for the progress made by Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela and other nations. And they might do something to help the people of Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan – or at least stop actively harming them.
Removing Mr Trump will have as much effect on US policy and the damage it does as removing a rude message from a Hellfire missile.
Not to mention the fact that Biden has built his political career on racism from opposition to busing, and alliance with Strom Thurmond,,to the Crime Bill which led to the incarceration of millions of, disproportionately African descended Americans. Then there were the wars and his cosiness with the neo-Nazis in Ukraine.
An excellent posting, Tom, pour yourself a double, it sums up in just three paragraphs the true outcome of the charade they call ‘an election’, the last paragraph deserves to make a splash on front pages of every single newspaper of the world, every other platform should run with it.
Spot on Tom. May I add Palestine to countries needing help. USA and Britain (Balfour) have in effect been (proxy) terrorising Palestine ever since WWII, regardless of who has been in power.
56 days of pointing at Biden and doing as he sees fit? A lot of time for a narcistic individual to try and be obnoxious, internally and internationally.
Craig, your last two paragraphs are the most relevant, significant, and sadly prescient.
Many of my Democratic friends will go to sleep tonight content that “the long nightmare is over”, without thinking of causalities and long term strategy. Trump is indeed primarily a symptom, with some dose of a catalyst. The issues remain and the situation will continue to deteriorate.
Concentration of wealth, social violence and institutionalized racism, increasing cost of healthcare and education, never ending growth of the militaro-industrial complex, imperialism, the environment, harsh immigration policies, war on drugs…These have all gotten worse for the past fifty years or so regardless of which party was in power.
Biden will present the smoother facade of a patrician and say sweet nothings about these while increasing the negative momentum of each of them. As you indicate, in four years (but also in two years at mid-terms), disappointed voters will vote again.
Trump is widely rumored to plan on a Trump TV network which he would use to sustain and grow his (counter) power (as well as fight in the court of public opinion any fight brought to him in courts of justice). And in four years, he can be a candidate again (or, if he has been found guilty in court, his daughter, who would proceed to pardon him).
Obama acted behind the scenes to suppress Bernie Sanders’ candidacy, obtaining from all other candidates that they all withdraw at the same time in favor of Biden, the man of the institution. Indeed we shall get Obama’s third term, minus the charm, and possibly with the same succession.
Thank you for your blog, sir.
Craig said:
“It is typical of the shallowness of the identity politics which have replaced real attempts at social progress and economic improvement for ordinary people, that we are supposed to be celebrating that Kamala Harris will be Vice President on the grounds of her gender and race, when she is a power hungry right winger of the most hardened kind. “
–
Very true Craig, this is my problem with the left of today. I think it is a dangerous path they are walking and I get less appealed by this message. The American people should be considered as ONE not divided into different identity-politics group divisions. That only cause polarization.
Also intresting:
Donald Trump Increases His Share of Black, Latino Voters: Election Exit Poll
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-increases-share-black-hispanic-vote-1544698
The lesson if anything is : If given the choice of two right-wing, pro- big corporate power parties, voters will always choose the more authentic one.
The Third Way needs to be consigned to the dustbin of history.
It’s not over yet but it does look like Biden will win and my opinion is that it’ll be a bad day for democracy. A Biden victory will give a green light to the fascist ‘Anti-Fa’ and once they really get going, in the words of a former US President, ‘You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet’.
You will NOT be allowed to have an opposing view. On anything.
You live in a world of fantasy, sir.
More likely the racial tension and aggro will calm if anything, without Trump there fanning it.
The real risk is protesters may switch demographics, to those among the far right & white supremacist groups who, for whatever reason, felt they had a sympathetic ear in the White House under Trump.
You are calling Antifa (which stands for Anti-fascist) fascists? Why? Because they believe in using counter-force against fascists who have historically murdered tens of millions for reasons of race?
Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with Antifa’s tactics on strategic grounds, I find it hard to criticise them on moral grounds and think it’s ridiculous to call them fascists. This isn’t an alt-right blog you know?
Until they defund the death-squads in the US, Antifa are bound to give aid to BLM and as the anti-racist/anti-facists said in South Africa: “You ANC nothing yet!”
Antifa is no more anti fascist than the Democratic Republic of Korea is democratic.
I think there is a big misunderstanding regarding the anti-fascism debate.
Anti-fascism as a stance is something every sane person should agree with.
However – Antifa, the “group”, is something completely different and should definitely not be supported since they use tactics of violence, intimidation, vandalism.
Chomsky have written about this
“Renowned academic says antifascist movement has initiated the use of force in ways that are ‘completely unacceptable’”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/noam-chomsky-antifa-us-alt-right-us-state-donald-trump-white-nationalist-a8044526.html
north korea is a country, antifa is more of a myth.
I dont understand how some people keep whitewashing these people.
Just yesterday, In Portland:
Portland protesters smashed windows of church that helps homeless, now they have to close for a time
https://nypost.com/2020/11/05/portland-protesters-smashed-windows-of-church-that-helps-homeless/
Video of the vandalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x169eNi_TtQ
Do you really believe these people care about social justice? Watch the video how the homeless person sleeping outside have to run away from these people.
Antifa is “an idea” – at least according to Joe Biden 😉
It is significant you have to explain what antifa actually means. Their actual position has to be disguised to justify urging people to hate and oppose them. What this suggests is that a majority of people in the West now think the wrong side won the second world war and they wish the Nazis, with their nice, orderly, racially divided vision of a prosperous society extending its grip over the rest of the world in order to fuel its factories and companies and so grow employment and good wages (with plenty of slaves to do the unpleasant work), had prevailed. Makes a nonsense of tomorrow’s commemoration, but that has been smudged by the rising militarism in the West for a long time now.
Perhaps you should remember that the Weimar republic was brought down by the chaos and the violence caused by BOTH the Communist and the Nazi Parties, both of whom used rioting and paramilitary squads to destabilise the Government and murdered their opponents with monotonous regularity. Violence by the Left is just as bad as violence by the right and you should recognise that.
and you should recongnize that violence by the right is a far greater threat and far more common in the united states.
Mist001
This is also quite problematic, there will likely be a witch-hunt on anyone that supported Trump.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Suggests ‘Trump Sycophants’ Should Be Held Accountable ‘In The Future’
https://dailycaller.com/2020/11/06/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-aoc-trump-supporters-held-accountable/
In part Trump act rational, this is his payback against the Democrats/establishment that tarnished his presidency early on with the conspiracy theory of him being a traitor/russian asset.
Although, he must have an endgame for this posture he put up with past days.
Trump has shown just how thin the veneer of civilisation is over the racist and gun toting militias of the US. In what other country do you have militias openly trying to intimidate at the polls and at the counts afterwards? Were this any other country we would condemn them for their lack of democratic means.
Nothing will change except a feeling of ‘who’s in charge’ The racists will have to hide themselves for a few years.
Didn’t Hillary Clinton get more votes than Trump in 2016, yet Trump became POTUS? And what about the Electoral College, haven’t they got the final say on who becomes POTUS? Maybe the Orange One isn’t dead in the water just yet.
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/11/05/the-invention-of-the-electoral-college/
«Didn’t Hillary Clinton get more votes than Trump in 2016, yet Trump became POTUS?»
The Electoral College votes are FPTP in most states, and that means that in safe states the popular vote is not representative, even without voting fraud, just like in the UK. Many people will not vote if the result in the state is known in advance, and there is no reason why that would be symmetric between the parties.]
This said, in 2016 won the popular vote in 49 states, that is except California, and the margin of the popular vote for H Clinton in California was larger than the combined margin for D Trump in the other 49 states. On a county level, D Trump won the popular vote in 2,626 counties while H Clinton won 487 (usually with bigger populations).
Most likely in 2020 the situation is similar, with a small switch from D Trump to H Clinton.
There are children abed in Syria and perhaps Iran tonight who will have to pay a high price for the self satisfaction the so-called liberal left are displaying just now.
I judge only by actions and the last four years have been fairly quiet in the brown child killing business.
But then again as long as you mouth the right PC inanities who gives a fuck about them.
Don’t think there’s the appetite in the US for more overseas military adventurism. It’s the one thing that DOES unite left and right.
The Syrian conflict is largely over, just rubble and misery left. As for Iran, Biden stood alongside Obama behind the JCPOA, Biden will likely feel duty bound to rejoin it as the least worst option. Obama campaigned for Biden so there’s really nothing to suggest any other approach. Iran could possibly emerge in quite a strong position if they can extract a price for their positive renewed engagement. The US never really honoured their side of the deal, even under Obama.
Biden should also take a much more consensus based approach to the Israel-Palestine question. Netanyahu may have made a strategic error by investing so heavily in Trump.
“Don’t think there’s the appetite in the US for more overseas military adventurism.”
Yes, I agree with that. You’re the first commenter I’ve seen who’s dared it to say it. I don’t think Biden’s election means going back to a policy of new wars. There’s not that much to achieve (they won’t attack China obviously), and the current wars haven’t gone well. Also Biden is old, not young and energetic. I wouldn’t expect a highly active policy.
So no new wars, but do you think that they’ll stop all the proxy overthrows of governments and installation of dictators in Latin America, stop supporting the neo-nazis in Ukraine reversing NATOs eastward-march, cancel obama’s pivot to Asia and reduce the build up of US forces in the Pacific to stop encircling China, and make a quiet exit from the middle east, withdrawing support for Israel’s brutal occupation of the Palestinians and stopping proxy support for ISIS and Al Nusra in Syria and Iraq via Turkey and Suadia Arabia?
It would be naive to expect miracles, though many commenters do.
“cancel obama’s pivot to Asia and reduce the build up of US forces in the Pacific to stop encircling China”
Are you so ignorant that you don’t know that it is China that is threatening it’s neighbours in Asia not the USA. China is indulging in a sea grab in the South China Sea (so named by Western sailors sailing to China, it’s not China’s sea any more than India owns the “Indian Ocean”). China claims that most of the sea between Vietnam, Borneo and the Philippines is Chinese territory. They even claim that islets belonging to Indonesia are Chinese territory! Take a look at a map and see how far south of China Indonesia’s Natuna Islands actually are.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_South_China_Sea
China has laid claim to various islets by the entirely fictitious notion that these were first discovered by Chinese sailors. This is a classic example of the arrogance and racism of the Han Chinese, who regard any non-Chinese peoples as backward and stupid barbarians. How likely is it that the inhabitants of Borneo and the Philippines, whose ancestors had sailed there in the first place to colonise those larger islands, were so lacking in nautical skill that they had never visited these islands or fished the surrounding waters? These islets were uninhabited because they lacked a source of fresh water. Indeed, the notion that the Chinese of past centuries were great sailors is entirely a work of Chinese propaganda. Trade to and from China was carried out by the foreigners – Southeast Asian, Arab and Persian merchants initially and Portuguese, Dutch and British latterly. The Chinese junk was copied from the Javanese Jong.
Many of the “islands” were no more than reefs submerged at high tide. China has dredged sand from the sea bottom to create artificial islands out of these reefs and to enlarge others to construct airstrips, anchorages and other military installations. Why are they doing this:
1) To sit astride the shipping lanes in the South China Sea and threaten trade with Japan, Taiwan and Korea
2) To lay claim to the fishing and mineral rights. Note that these islands lie close to the oilfields of Brunei and Sabah in Borneo and the seabed is widely considered to have prime potential for oil exploration.
3) To threaten the neighbouring countries of Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia and reduce them to vassal states.
China has attempted to interfere with ships and aircraft passing through “their territorial waters” ie the area they are illegally occupying. Chinese vessels have fired on fishing boats and other vessels in the South China Sea. This is naked aggression by China, not America.
An appetite in whom for overseas military adventurism?
Those who grow rich on the profits of armaments, and those who seek promotion and fame from war, will retain exactly the same voracious appetite they have always had.
As for the ordinary man and woman in the street (or rather, this year, huddled on their sofa watching TV), nobody cares what they think. The presidential election is over, and they will be completely ignored again for the next four years.
Although if you asked most of them they would probably be quite happy about overseas wars. Those allow the USA to impose itself – as Michael Ledeen so charmingly put it, “to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business”.
Yay! Yay! USA!!
I think Assad making it quite clear that zero reconstruction contracts would be awarded to US firms meant that the business model of ‘bomb a country to hell, then get them to pay Americans to rebuild it for them’ is down the toilet.
China and Russia are the beneficiaries of bombing Syria, not the USA.
Maybe that is what will make them change their minds.
Being told that those who reconstruct are not those who deconstruct first.
Any American who thought there might be juicy reconstruction contracts available in Syria would have had to be remarkably naive. All he/she had to do was look at the Syrian economy before the war.
A very good point, Rhys. I devoutly hope you are right.
It will also be deeply satisfying if the Chinese and whoever joins them end up by building such a fine new Syria that the shabby, run-down, excrement-littered US cities look like ancient Assyria in comparison.
there might not be the appetite in the population, but they have had their 5 sec. of democracy. whilst the companies that make up the military industrial complex, who sold billions under Obama will be knocking on Bidens door every day of the week.
But I can but hope you are right. Lets see what happens in Yemen and with reconcilliation visavis Iran, with Fraudulent BiBi screaming blue murder into Bidens ears.
If I recall correctly that’s kind of how it went in 2007, when the SNP asked for a recount after being told they’d lost, to then realise that they’d won by one seat defeating SLAB 47 to 46 seats, and the rest is history as they say.
Trump is a larger than life personality who said the “quiet bits out loud”
I don’t think he is any more racist than Biden – I suggest you look at the speech he gave about Reagan being too soft on crime and the speech in 1994 on the crime bill. That is a demonstration of racism. It is really scary and disgusting.
I hope for the sake of the rest of the world that America society goes through an upheaval and they are not able to cause too much trouble in the world.
That’s one of the best things about Trump he was not a neo – con and did not start any new wars.
Trump won awards for his lack of racism and was buddies with and invited to all the black leaders, showbiz and sport stars until he decided to run against Hillary. He has just received the highest ever Republican backing from non-whites in modern history.
Biden’s past is far darker.
Craig – “I have no expectation at all that a Biden administration will carry out any meaningful social and economic reform…”
Here’s a good quick description of Joe Biden – stuff you’ll never learn in the UK from the wall-to-wall non-coverage of the US election by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky and the rest of them.
Runs from 19.40 to about 26.00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFkOiDkFtBw
Wonder if a Biden victory will signify a different approach to Assange? There are back channels of communication, and while in theory a change in the US shouldn’t affect any extradition decision, we know how things work in practice. Assange is a hot potato the new administration may not want to handle. Wouldn’t be a good look continuing what many view as Trump’s assault on press freedom. Maybe that’s being too optimistic?
Goose
Trump plays tough at first in order to reach a better deal.
He might have done that with Assange.
At least you could see the mind working.
Now that we return to politician politics the opacity is total. You could kick Trump and he’d change his mind.
Biden is a waste of space. Utter peasoup darkness has descended not just on the American people, but the whole world.
Count every forged, vote. Vampire politics is back in power.
“Biden has been a KKK supporting racist his entire life. “
President Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.
President Jefferson Davis was a Democrat.
One freed the slaves. The other didn’t.
I think Trump is clever in a fast-talking, scam artist kind of way but he‘s a narcissist who is at the mercy of his rather fragile ego. So instead of using the close election result as a catalyst to keep himself out of court or jail he becomes obsessed with “winning” and staying in power.
Rather predictably his supporters are now Russiagating themselves by claiming the Democrats cheated etc. I’m surprised they haven’t blamed Xi yet for rigging the result.
Baalbek
I would rather talk to an ego that I can see, than to a political ego that wants to control the universe but keeps it concealed.
Attempting to bribe Biden would never work because Biden has too much integrity, and I reject Russian propaganda to the contrary. Trump could try the Nixon solution – resign in favour of his VP in the hope of receiving a pardon during the interregnum. But then he would be labelled as a loser and his ego won’t permit that. So he shall be driven out against his will and be totally humiliated.
I think that Biden will steadily but surely gain a clear victory in Pennsylvania plus all or most of the remaining states not called yet, and then be a unifying statesman such as Barack Obama was, and Hillary might have been. So I see things as hopeful for America, especially if the recount in Georgia enables the Democrat to wrest control of the Senate from the Republicans.
“Attempting to bribe Biden would never work because Biden has too much integrity”
Hahahahahaha! Nice one, I needed a good laugh tonight.
Yes – just when you were thinking that maybe human credulity had its limits…
I suppose Biden might be able to spell “integrity” – in one of his lucid periods, anyway.
“if the recount in Georgia enables the Democrat to wrest control of the Senate from the Republicans.”
Unlikely, as the recount is only for the 16 electoral college votes; the two Georgia Senate seats are going to a run-off because nobody got 50% +1 of the vote.
yeah and the repubs should win at least one of them.
If you refuse to ignore the overwhelming evidence of Biden taking bungs from Burisma Holdings it return for removing a Ukrainian official from office; if you refuse to look at Biden’s dealings with China, then I feel sorry for you.
If there is one human being in US politics with zero integrity right now, it is Joe Biden…..
Having it all censored on Facebook and Twitter does not change reality…..
“If there is one human being in US politics with zero integrity right now, it is Joe Biden…..”
Unfortunately your premise is hopelessly unrealistic, Rhys. There are millions of human beings in US politics with zero integrity.
Just as all the fish in the sea have the ability to obtain oxygen from water, and all the birds in the sky have the ability to fly.
Trump failed to persuade a Christian based country that China is evil just because covid 19 appeared to originate there. A people who believe in the concept of God’s Will are not easily persuaded to blame the other.
The violence will not be internalised for that reason.
Politicians love to pretend that ordinary people don’t notice illegal violent wars. It would be difficult for them to sustain their weird addiction to control if they understood the concept of submission to a higher being.
Trump is allowed to brat it out in American culture.
All that I learn from this election is that there is an equal number of honest people in the US who hate illegal war as desperate people who are too worried about survival to worry about illegal war.
I call that a truce.
Regarding the racism of Trump. I lived in the USA for many years and follow its politics closely. I don’t claim to be an expert but I don’t think Trump is as racist as claimed because our perception of him is seen through the lens of the MSM who have their own agenda. I also think Biden and Harris are more racist than they appear to be, if you look at the results of some of their previous policies.
In my view Trump has been a terrible president. Like Obama before him and Bush before him and the rest before him. I believe Biden will be no different except that he is more hawkish than Trump, and thus more dangerous to the world.
«I don’t claim to be an expert but I don’t think Trump is as racist as claimed»
Indeed, just one of the many lies, he has in the past decades made clear, instinctive comments against racism and against discrimination of gays. Socially he is fairly progressive, in part because he has been in the entertainment business and part of the entertainment jet set for a long time; for a while he was even the “god of rappers” apparently. But it is part of “whig” propaganda to misrepresent nationalism as racism, for example (except of course for countries governed by the extreme far right nationalist Likud…).
Oh and the “all Trump supporters are racist” thing the media has been running with for four years has been torpedoed by the fact that a record number of “people of colour” voted for Trump. The Republican presidential candidate hasn’t received this many ‘non-white ‘votes since 1960.
I also agree with the poster who says Biden is no more racist than Trump. Among other things Biden was pro-segregation during the civil rights era and in the 1990s he co-authored the bill that saw a huge increase in the number of black men jailed for non-violent crimes. Some of his comments during the election campaign to and about African-Americans were just as outrageous as anything Trump has said.
I am no fan of Trump (or Biden for that matter) but I never bought into the media’s hyperbolic characterization of him as an ideological white supremacist.
If Trump is an ultra racist what does that make the “woke” liberals who regularly portray white people as the fount of all evil?
And isn’t bombing, sanctioning and invading sovereign states in the name of ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ the ultimate expression of contemporary ‘white’ supremacy? Western liberalism is a supremacist ideology that believes in spreading its influence via the sword. That makes every NATO country’s leader a ‘white’ supremacist.
Perceptions could possibly tied to who has the endorsement of the NRA? Certain states love their guns and the Democrats are often seen as urban city liberals who want to take away Second Amendment gun rights.
Nonsense
A powerfully argued, thoroughly compelling reply, ColoradoFrench. The wealth of evidence you adduce is truly inspiring.
Although it would be nice if you told us whose comment you consider to be “Nonsense”. (Why would perhaps be too much to hope for).
Unfortunately, Craig misses the core of the demise of “ democracy “ in the US. It was never founded on democracy for the masses, as Professor Howard Zinn pointed out in his epic book The Peoples History of America, it was formed by wealthy slave owning landowners to suit their purposes. Moreover, “ democracy “ in the US has become two right wing faces of the business party which controls and funds both faces of the same coin. Much in the same manner as in the U.K.
I stand above Biden with a wooden stake close to his heart. As the curtain unfolds and reveals the stage of the Biden presidency, and when the searing pain of reparation for Iraq infiltrates into his mind, exposing the apathy, the numbness, the deceit, we shall see the monster that lives within the shell.
Yes, Biden who in 1998 argued “taking this son of a bitch Saddam down is the only way to guarantee Iraq’s disarmament, is the chief architect, the facilitator, the Iraq destroyer; We must recall Biden was chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations. Biden himself had enormous influence as chair and argued strongly in favor of the 2002 resolution granting President Bush the authority to invade Iraq.
Biden is the sordid relic of corrupt politics, of deceit and lies, of death and bereavement; 4,500 US soldiers, and nearly as many US military contractors, lost their lives; tens of thousands were wounded, with hundreds of thousands more suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Estimates of Iraqi deaths run as high as 1 million. 378,000 children, babies, toddlers and teens.
Now Biden must walk the path of atonement.
Trump came very close to winning — quite an achievement for an incumbent who had to run in the middle of a pandemic and with the MSM dead set against him. In office (and unlike his predecessors) he kept America out of war, presided over a period of economic growth for his country, fought tooth and nail against (and exposed) the Deep State, and even began the process of draining the swamp. No President, in recent times, has been as heavily criticized as Trump. However, that the power elites in the deep state hate his guts suggests to me that there is also much to appreciate in Donald Trump. Had the Coved crisis with its devastating effect on the economy nor occurred I think he would have been reelected in a landslide. Like him or hate him, we have not seen the end of Donald Trump.
Again I can sign every word. It is pleasant to find that such experienced people as Craig Murray share at least some of my world views.
The only point on which I disagree a little is the immediate continuation of the current power struggle. If Tronald does not succeed in turning the legal tide for himself, it is quite possible that he will let militias like the Proud Boys off the leash. There are many reasons to believe that he will go all the way to civil war in order to impose his will. As a society, the usa is already much more broken than superficially visible. There is a great potential for selfdestruction. Hopefully I am wrong.
I know a few militia members, even had members of my own family out “practicing” on the weekends prior to the election, and the thought that these people have the organizational capacity to stage something approaching a civil war is more than a bit laughable.
They could do considerable mischief to be sure, but they do not pose any threat whatsoever to the state.
by hallowed tradition, one piece of dogsh*t is replaced by another and the msm is breathless with excitement.