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They are like holding elections on NextDoor.com The Washington Post reports: Bob Ray has participated in Iowa’s Republican caucuses in the past, but not this year. Ray is blind, and with snow clogging the roads and subzero temperatures gripping the state, showing up on Monday is a non-starter. “I’m 75 years old, and I’m not going to want to get out that night,” he said. To some here, the Iowa caucuses are an exemplar of democracy, binding communities together and allowing everyday voters to connect with candidates who, a year from now, may be running the country. To others, they are an antiquated system that excludes those who — due to a disability, a work shift, a flat tire, child care needs, extreme weather or any other factor — can’t turn up on the one night every four years when Iowa voters get a say in picking presidential nominees. Voters must be at their precincts at 7 p.m. Central time on Monday, where they will hear speeches from representatives of the candidates, fill out ballots and, if they want, observe as the votes get tallied. No early or absentee voting is allowed, except for a tiny number of military service members.
With recent polls giving Donald Trump a reasonable chance of defeating President Biden in the November elections, commentators have begun predicting what his second presidency might mean for domestic politics. In a dismally detailed Washington Post analysis, historian Robert Kagan argued that a second Trump term would feature his “deep thirst for vengeance” against what the ex-president has called the “radical Left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country,” thereby launching what Kagan calls “a regime of political persecution” leading to “an irreversible descent into dictatorship.” So far, however, Trump and the media that follow his every word have been largely silent about what his reelection would mean for U.S. foreign policy. Citing his recent promise... Read more
Source: Trump the Terminator? appeared first on TomDispatch.com.
For no particular reason.
They lose even when they cheat The Prince William County Office of Elections in northern Virginia has confessed to an underreporting error in the 2020 presidential election results on Thursday, January 11. The error resulted in a margin of victory for President Joe Biden over Donald Trump that was 4,000 votes lower than reported. This admission comes after the discovery of discrepancies in vote counts as part of a criminal case in 2022. Eric Olsen, the current registrar of the county, has clarified that the errors did not significantly impact the outcome of any race, according to WTOP News. Although the counts were also off for the US Senate and US House of Representatives races, the discrepancies in these cases were less significant. Mistakes do happen and that’s probably all this was. But imagine if the discrepancy had favored Biden. It would be screaming headlines on right wing media. Trump would never shut up about it.
A rise in the polls for Opposition leader Peter Dutton has forced the country to rethink what it would be like should the member for Dixon were to become Prime Minister. For his colleague, the former deputy Prime Minister Barnaby... Read More ›
Take this little tidbit for example from the new NBC-Des Moines Register poll: In case you didn’t watch the whole thing, he reveals that a quarter of voters told the pollster that they would vote for Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the general election. Wow. Meanwhile, the new CBS poll shows this: Republican voters continue to believe Trump is their best bet to beat Joe Biden in November, even as Nikki Haley leads Joe Biden by a wider margin in a general election match-up than either Trump or Ron DeSantis. We show why in this analysis. They are wrong. Trump is less likely to beat Biden. There are other ideas and statements from the frontrunner that have brought criticism from Trump’s political opponents. On immigrants: One of those is his use of the phrase “poisoning the blood of the country” when describing immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally. While most voters overall disagree with this language, eight in 10 Republican primary voters say they agree with it — and that includes majorities of both MAGA voters (97%) and non-MAGA voters (65%) in the GOP electorate.
Among the superstitious political elites in Japan, recent events like the earthquake, the plane collision at Haneda and the arrest of a lawmaker in a major political slush fund do not bode well for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, already unpopular. AUKUS can be another nightmare for Fumio Kishida, albeit external in nature. The decision for Continue reading »
Western nations are always ready to proclaim their system of governance as superior, particularly in regards to China, dismissed as being authoritarian. Increasingly however, ‘western liberal democracy’ finds itself under scrutiny with trust in government falling. Growing numbers feel alienated, believing that the democratic system has been taken over by elites with little or no Continue reading »
Josh Burns, Labor MP for Macnamara, in Victoria, has been visiting Israel. During this visit he did not even follow his own party’s weak calls for a ceasefire. He said there must not be a ceasefire in Gaza. We live in Macnamara and the following poster appeared at the Sunday rally protesting the obscenity of Continue reading »
Australia has just completed major reviews of two of its largest public expenditures – the NDIS and Employment Services. Each program manifests problems predicted by two lesser-known economic theories: the Jevons Paradox in the case of the NDIS and Goodhart’s Law in the case of employment services. Neither were mentioned in either review. Today I Continue reading »
Climate experts have issued a grim warning for Australians this summer, predicting that 2023 will be the hottest year on record. While the Australian government has recognised the threat of climate change and has committed billions of dollars in disaster relief and the energy transition, the challenges and opportunities they present are unlikely to be Continue reading »
In all our lives we get to a point where we have to draw lines in the sand. Sometimes those lines are in the relationships we forge, and sometimes they are in the movements we occupy. Many criminalised people struggle with drawing those lines. For many of us, our boundaries and lines haven’t been respected Continue reading »
The outcome of US-led conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia will have a profound impact on the developing world order. Washington has already lost the former, and its major adversaries are vested in making sure it loses the latter too. Republished from The Cradle, 2 January 2024 Geopolitical analysts broadly agree that the war in Continue reading »
But there are moments when you realize it is setting:
The Houthis have now banned US and UK ships from transiting the Red Sea.
"Previously, we focused only on maritime shipping associated with Israel. Today, US and British ships will no longer dare to cross the Red Sea – Yemen Council member Muhammad Al-Buhaiti pic.twitter.com/pSpRLP3okP
— LogKa (@LogKa11) January 14, 2024
The people of the mountain have checkmated the people of the sea. As commenter VietnamVet wrote:
THE COFFS Coast Ocean Swims have been scheduled to take place on Sunday 7 April at the Jetty in Coffs Harbour. “In setting the date there were a number of things to consider,” Race Director Kerry Bayliss from Sawtell Surf Lifesaving Club told News Of The Area. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s...
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THE Coffs Harbour Branch of the Australian Native Bee Association (ANBA) has installed a native beehive at the Coffs Coast Wildlife Sanctuary (CCWS) as part of its Host a Hive program. This is the second hive installed by the Branch, the first being located in the North Coast Regional Botanic Garden in Coffs Harbour. Advertise...
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THE private garden of the Coffs and Woolgoolga Garden Clubs’ Vice President Sheena Peden and partner David is the setting for the group’s Friendship Day on Thursday 25 January. The garden, at 208 Heritage Drive, Moonee Beach, welcomes visitors from 10am to 12noon. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your...
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A YOUNG man from the Hunter region has tragically died after his vehicle hit a tree in Woolgoolga. At about 5.50pm last Friday, 5 January emergency services responded to reports a vehicle had crashed into a tree along Lakes Road, Woolgoolga. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message...
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Sanity? Will it last? Following up on Tom’s post below about the Haley-Biden voters, check this out from Greg Sargent who is now at the New Republic: Last month, Trump said of the hundreds of people charged or convicted in relation to January 6, “I don’t call them prisoners. I call them hostages.” Then on Meet the Press last Sunday, Stefanik brashly echoed his language: “I have concerns about the treatment of January 6 hostages.” The way vulnerable Republicans ran from this is telling. “They’re criminal defendants, not hostages,” said Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
Your polls will blow Don’s mind Donald Trump will take this personally. NBC News: DES MOINES, Iowa — Most likely Republican Iowa caucusgoers say they’ll vote for former President Donald Trump in the general election if he’s the GOP nominee, regardless of the candidate they’re supporting on caucus night. That is, except supporters of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, with nearly half of them — 43% — saying they’d vote for Democratic President Joe Biden over Trump. These new findings from the latest NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of Iowa further illustrate the degree to which Haley is bringing in support from independents, Democrats and Republicans who have been uneasy with Trump’s takeover of the GOP. Fully half of her Iowa caucus supporters are independents or crossover Democrats, according to the survey results. Overall, Haley took 20% for second place in the survey, compared to 48% for Trump. The poll also shows three-quarters of caucusgoers believing Trump can defeat Biden despite the former president’s legal challenges.