Category: Editorial

Theoretically, one should never say never, but as my mind stands right now, this will likely be my final post loosely based on the lying liar that a minority of voters chose to ascend to the office of President of the United States – Donald J Trump.

It’s just my opinion, but most of those who voted for Trump took the blue pill on November 8.

They chose to ignore the fact that their country is changing in a way that is unstoppable.

They chose to ignore the fact that Trump lied over, and over, and over again.

They chose to ignore his demonstrable lack of character, even when it came from his own mouth.

They chose to ignore the truth about why people lost jobs in the rust belt, even though example #1 was likely playing a custom ringtone in their pockets.

They chose to ignore fiscal logic and kept complaining about the size of the deficit, even though Trump’s taxation and spending plans will blow the deficit out bigly.

They chose to ignore a million different indicators. I’m sick of listing them.

Trump proved himself to be the PT Barnum of the political world. I honestly don’t understand how people could know what they were voting for because his positions changed on nearly every issue throughout the campaign. Indeed, it’s now come out that those ‘positions’ weren’t really policies, they were just “starting points for negotiations”.

He was going to drain the swamp but he’s got Wall Street lining up to provide Treasury Secretary. And haven’t the banks loved it, by the way? Against all predictions (including mine), bank stocks have risen in the last two weeks and it’s said to be mostly down to Trump’s plans to water down banking rules. What could possibly go wrong? It’s like the GFC never happened. Snouts in, boys!!

To those few that I met who actually cited policy positions as their reasons for voting for Trump, I hope you get what you were after.

To the rest who just hated Hillary and/or trolled your support all the way to the ballot box – you own this. You own every dark corner of it. You own every peg of the ladder you fall down. You account for every dollar taken from a single mother and given to an heiress. You own every piece of racist, misogynist messaging. You own it because you saw the truth about this guy and said “screw it, I like him anyway”.

——

There are quite a few reasons why, against my own inner drivers and motivations, I’m going to abstain from inflicting you with my opinion on this car-crash presidency.

My job. I have the best job in the world and I don’t want to compromise it in any way for this nutcase. When I cover stuff, I tend to cover it obsessively. I can’t tell you how many hours a day went in to TS and SU. You wouldn’t believe me. I can’t do that again, for two main reasons.

1. The realistic awareness that nothing I say on this website is going to make a lick of difference. I’ve written persuasively and effectively on causes before and made a difference to those, but those campaigns were via sites that had an audience. This is just my own tiny personal corner of the internet and I know it doesn’t mean spit. The effort that would go into covering the Pussygrabber-in-chief in the way I think he should be covered wouldn’t be justified by the effect it would(n’t) have.

2. The amount of time that could be wasted correcting unadulterated bullshit from people I thought would be old enough to know better. I’ll write more on that in a moment.

I did receive a lot of private messages, emails, etc from people saying they appreciated the work I put into my couple of pre-election pieces and those messages were very encouraging and spirit lifting. Those people didn’t want to comment publicly, presumably because of the attacking nature of those who disagree with them.

I also got trolled a lot by ‘friends’ who turned out to be grandfather-aged trolls acting like 12-year-olds camped in their mother’s basement, spouting garbage from agenda-filled websites masquerading as news sites. That was bitterly disappointing. I can absolutely understand and respect people having a different point of view but the level of aggression combined with the craptastic nature of the sources they quote adds up to time-wasting of epic proportions for anyone who actually wants a fact-based, well-reasoned discussion.

I don’t have the time or the patience. And I have other things in my life that deserve the time that these fact-thieves would take.

——

On that note…..

I’m a steadfast believer in the nobility of truth-based journalism and soundly-backed opinion. Please, please, please buy subscriptions to your preferred newspaper. I don’t care if it’s a lefty paper or a Murdoch right-wing rag; it’s so important to support the work of actual journalists in this day and age.

Journalism, as a profession, has taken a massive kicking in the last few decades and it’s not completely undeserved.

The tabloids started the rot with the print version of clickbait many years ago. Now that we’ve entered the internet age and any goose with $50 can get a premium WordPress theme, it’s hard to tell a respectable source from a partisan one in visual terms UNLESS you read critically and across a number of well-sourced stories. And not many people do that in 2016.

The media took a massive kicking during the campaign but let me tell you, if Steve Bannon gets his wish and eliminates the fourth estate, it will be a sorry day for the United States. For the world.

What do dictators and invaders invariably take out first? The news services.

Journalism, at its best, is an accurate recording of history, taking note of the things that matter. Fearless journalism is the only way people have of knowing what’s going on with the government that controls the laws under which they live.

Yes, newspapers have their editorial leanings, which is why you should read from multiple sources and make up your own mind. Generally speaking, though, the good ones will criticise both sides of the aisle. Remember, it was the New York Times that broke the story about Hillary Clinton’s email server.

If your candidate is getting a lot of negative press, that’s not necessarily newspaper bias. It could be that your candidate is being a dick.

Support the press. Recognise untruth where you see it and support the good work that dedicated journalists do. Read widely. Buy subscriptions. Read things from respectable sources that you don’t agree with, if only to better hone your own point of view. But don’t support rubbish.

The reason rubbish exists? To whip you up, keep you coming back and most of all, to earn money. Like the guy who’s sad about BS websites being targeted from search results because he makes $10K a month writing BS stories for them.

——

This little website exists so that I can keep writing about things that interest me. Things that matter to me. Many of the issues that a Trump presidency will raise are things that matter, but they’ll be better covered elsewhere by better people.

Part of me wants to step into this fight but my life’s at a reasonably fragile point right now and I need to preserve that which is good. I need to grow it. I don’t want the negativity that this fight would spark inside of me, either. I don’t like writing some of the things that I’ve written in this post. I don’t like thinking less of friends, much less losing them.

The cause is noble and I will undoubtedly stay interested, but not embroiled.

So in my own way, I’m taking the blue pill, too. I’m choosing to leave the indignity of a Trump presidency be. I’m choosing to let others deal with that, others who are much better placed and much more articulate than I am, while I cheer from the sidelines. I choose to go back to my own world and grow that, instead.

——

EPILOGUE

I know this sounds a lot loftier than it should. I’m just some speck in the corner of the web, after all.

It just felt important to me to sign off on this episode somehow. It’s opened up some wounds and killed off some (tenuous) friendships. It feels important to acknowledge that and let it go.

The soapbox is back in the cupboard……. for now.

I didn’t see it coming, but then I’m far from the only one who’s saying that today.

I am quite convinced that the Trump camp themselves didn’t see it coming, which is why they built the voter fraud narrative around a month ago as a side dish to the ‘rigged system’ main course. Notice how nobody’s complaining about the rigged system now?

Donald J Trump is the President-Elect of the United States.

I take only very slight solace from the fact that he’s the fifth president in US history to lose the popular vote and still win the presidency via the electoral college.

Let me say from the outset that despite what you’ll read below, I honestly wish Donald Trump well in his presidency. The US is an important country and a stable, prosperous United States helps the rest of the world be more stable and prosperous.

I have quite a few friends in the States. Some of them are Republicans, some of them are Democrats and some of them are third-party voters. I wish you all well.

To my Democrat mates, keep the flame burning. Your cause for a more caring, inclusive society is true. These things come and go. It went unexpectedly this time but the chance will be back sooner than you think.

I hope my third party friends got the Libertarian vote up high enough for them to be funded. I haven’t checked. A third force holding the balance of power (keeping the bastards in both major parties honest, as we say in Australia) wouldn’t be a bad thing.

I hope my Republican voting friends enjoy their victory and take it with grace. More than that, I hope you get what your country paid for.

——

Let me show you a quick video that’s illustrative of one of the reasons I think Donald Trump won this election. It’s from an event in Australia back in 2011. It goes for 3 minutes. Ignore the title.

There are two take-aways from this video that give you an insight into the way Trump operates; the way he conducted his campaign.

First, in the initial part of the video, he tells the crowd “get even with people. If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard”.

Ruthlessness. Self-explanatory. It’s not the way I like to live my life but each to their own.

Second, when he thought that Jennifer Hawkins was going to disrespect him by not turning up to introduce him, his plan was to tell people “she’s beautiful on the outside but she’s not very bright.”

He goes on to say “it wouldn’t have been true, but I would have said it anyway.”

That’s pretty much what Donald Trump did during this campaign. When left to his own devices he would say whatever came to mind, whatever was convenient enough to move on to the next point, truth be damned. During the campaign, he said whatever he thought needed to be said in order to buy people’s votes. He combined populist slurs, insults and promises with a couple of well-honed slogans – credit to him for the slogans – he mixed it up with a healthy dose of good old fear and BANG, he’s your next president.

Here’s another video, from Australian comedian, Jim Jeffries. He sums up Trump’s populist approach pretty well at the 3:05 minute mark but the whole damn this is quite poignant and very funny. Beware – lots of swearing in this one…..

——

I honestly wish you all well but I believe Donald Trump has sold you a lemon. He’s made you a big bunch of promises that are questionable, at the least, beyond reason in most cases and downright immoral and illegal at worst.

His plan to build a wall – which Mexico is not going to pay for, despite his blustering – is either not going to happen or is going to come at a financial and moral cost that I don’t think the American people will want to pay.

His plan to reduce taxes (government revenue) flies in the face of his plan to rebuild inner cities, roads, bridges, hospitals, airports, etc. All of that costs money he’s promising he won’t collect. 370 economists, including 8 Nobel laureates, published a letter in the Wall St Journal stating that Trump’s economic plans were based on “magical thinking and conspiracy theories over sober assessments of feasible economic policy options.”

His 1950’s style protectionist plans to tax companies into bringing back factories, presumably to the rust belt, are both naive and economically irresponsible. The jobs of the future for Michigan and Wisconsin don’t involve building air conditioners at wages 5 or 10 times the going rate. The rust belt has been sold an unfeasible dream.

Yes, an American president ought to put America first but making yourself an unreliable business partner for the rest of the world is not going to encourage investment. His various trade plans could quite possibly start a trade war with either/both of Mexico and China that’ll lead to consumer goods prices that people will not want to pay. America can’t just trade with itself.

His plan to dismiss science and de-fund any contributions to UN climate change activities and pull the US out of the Paris accord is horrifying. As is his plan to dismantle the EPA. It is outright inter-generational theft and environmental vandalism. But that’s of no consequence to many of his voters. Until it is, of course.

——

I could go on, but this is not going to be another 3000-word epic. I have neither the time or the patience. The deed is done.

The real potential harm for America doesn’t arise from the policy outcomes of the Trump presidency. His Supreme Court pick will resonate for some time but hopefully he can be restrained in a legislative sense by some more sensible people in Congress (yes, I know how absurd that sounds).

The real potential harm from Donald Trump’s election is the precedent it sets.

The idea that a candidate can be so secretive about their business dealings and finances, so morally bankrupt, that they can demonise whoever they see as their opponents, that they can have such a flimsy policy footing, that they can lie repeatedly and have those lies confirmed and then lie about lying, that they can have such a poor temperament, that they can prey on fear and employ delusional conspiracy theories to do so, that they demonstrate all of this with their own words and deeds and STILL be elected…… that sets a terrible precedent for the future.

Much has been written about how divided America is. This is the ultimate expression of that division. The precedent set by Donald Trump’s election provides no easy remedy or path to healing.

——

I said it a few weeks ago and I have to say it again: Hillary Clinton was a crap candidate. Despite the slurs and the ritual humiliation she’s been subject to, I have no doubt she would execute the job of being president more competently than Donald Trump.

But she was a terrible candidate.

Enough Americans are ready to accept a female president. Just not this one.

Hillary was carrying too much baggage and was unable to communicate an effective message. Jeff Daniels, in his role as Will McEvoy in the Newsroom’s pilot episode, labelled Democrats as losers, because they lose too often. It’s just a TV drama, but it’s true and the 2016 presidential election was a prime case in point. Maybe it’s because too many on the left try to cling to outdated concepts like policy, truth and ethics. Maybe the left just isn’t politically ruthless enough.

The Dems have a lot of thinking to do.

——

If I may borrow an expression from one of our former Prime Ministers, maybe Donald Trump is the president America had to have. Maybe this was the inevitable result of a star-fu*#er culture taken to its natural conclusion. If it’s right that the Clinton era is over – and it is – then this might be the price America has to pay to put them out to pasture.

I just hope that everything I fear from a policy perspective proves to be unfounded.

And I hope one of his generals has the courage to remove the ‘football’ from his grasp if he gets an itchy trigger finger.

——

For reasons relating to my own sanity, I’ve disabled comments for this post. Neither you or I have any need to engage in the inevitable, disagreeable back and forth. I know what you’re going to say and you know how I’m going to counter. I don’t have enough patience or enough faith in humanity right now to trust some people to act with good grace. I have work to do and some personal issues to sort out. I really don’t need the gloating or the complication right now. I wrote this primarily because I didn’t want to be accused of ducking the outcome, and to get it all out of my system. Job done.

You have my concession. You have my congratulations. You have my unbridled best wishes for the next four years because no matter how protectionist or isolationist you want to be, our futures are all tied together to some extent.

If you’re really determined to give me a piece of your mind or otherwise let me know what you think, you most likely have my email address already.

I have a full day of work ahead of me so I’ll write my thoughts about the US election result when I get home tonight.

For now, he’s something poignant from Radiohead that’s been on my mind since The Donald got The Big Mo around 12 days ago.

“You do it to yourself……”

How many of you are exhausted now that we’re down to the last weekend before the election? I know I am. I’ve been watching this debacle since the primary season began and the only solace that I can take is at least it’s not my country that’s beating itself up – again.

A few things that have happened recently….

This week, Donald Trump either twisted the truth or blatantly lied in his stump speeches about the following: the likelihood of an investigation into Hillary Clinton leading to charges, the number of emails under investigation, the destruction of emails, the Clinton Foundation, the issues on the southern US border, Hillary Clinton’s open borders, violent criminal aliens, murder rates in the US, tax increases, the supposed depleted condition of the US military and the reasons why, workers’ hours and wages being cut, Obamacare premium rises, Obamacare deductibles, ISIS, and social media burying stories.

This week, Hillary Clinton somewhat misrepresented Trump’s positions in her stump speeches about the following: nuclear weapons, Japan and North Korea, 9/11 (a little, maybe), Tiananmen Square (again, just maybe), his ability to fix everything, equal pay, voter suppression and the Muslim ban.

If you actually read those links, you’ll see that I’m not mis-characterising my descriptions when I say outright lies for one and misrepresentations for the other.

The FBI has been exposed as a body in conflict with itself, within which there is a group of partisan operatives that may be pressuring their Director, but at the very least are leaking information with a view to swinging the election towards one particular candidate.

That fact alone should make an honest citizen’s blood freeze.

Rudy Giuliani has exposed himself as being in touch with this group, knowing well beforehand that leaks were going to happen and that the Comey letter was going to come out. Giuliani is a top surrogate for Trump.

Militia groups in Georgia are training, just in case Hillary Clinton becomes President.

One arrest was made for voter fraud. It was a woman voting twice for Donald Trump in Iowa.

Several instances of voter suppression have been reported, especially in North Carolina, where the number of early voting sites was initially well down on 2012. That number has since been raised.

Voters were added back to the rolls in North Carolina thanks to the judiciary after being removed following private campaigns by right-affiliated voter watch groups

A judge in Ohio granted a restraining order preventing Trump’s poll watching army and his ally Roger Stone from engaging in voter intimidation. This is actually happening.

Melania Trump gave a speech where she said her focus as First Lady would be to try and put a stop to bullying, especially on social media. I can’t fault the nobility of her cause, but seriously….

Hillary Clinton kept saying “When they go low, we go high.” Then she’d go low. As with Melania, I can’t fault her reasoning. Just stop saying the slogan and be honest. Hillary is a crap candidate who got too cocky 10 days ago and has seen the momentum go to Trump because of it. She should have kept her foot on his neck back then.

John Podesta was accused of participating in a Satanic ritual involving menstrual blood, semen and breast milk. I had to laugh hearing Alex Jones say that out loud. The alt-right – which you can’t really dismiss as a bunch of crazies right now given that one of its doyens is the CEO of a candidate’s campaign – ran with this story as being a serious thing that actually happened. It did not.

Wikileaks, which was the sworn enemy of conservatives a few years ago when it showed video of US military helicopters killing unarmed civilians in Iraq, is now the conservative’s darling.

It was announced yesterday that the US added 161,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate is down to 4.9%. It was 10% in October 2009. Wages growth is at 2.8%.

——

The US was divided back in 2008 when it came to the issue of electing a black man as President for the first time. But even that was nothing like what we’re seeing in 2016.

Sadly, tragically, I think there may be some people killed next Tuesday at voting places in America. I think that could actually happen. I sincerely hope it doesn’t happen, but tensions are so high right now that it’s a possibility.

The Republican Party has a despicable nominee. He’s had 3am Twitter fights with beauty pageant contestants. He’s proposed a ludicrous scheme to build a wall (have you seen the sums on that) and deport 11.3 million people (which, aside from being immoral, will come at a cost of $400 billion and a loss of $1 Trillion to the US GDP). His own words on how he’s treated women condemn him as a perpetrator of serial sexual assault and ritual misogyny. He’s threatened to stifle press freedom through litigation and he’s also threatened to jail his political opponent. Both of those proposals are usually the preserve of iron-fisted dictators in tin-pot countries.

Donald Trump has consistently lied throughout this campaign. This is not a point for discussion. It’s just a fact. Politifact rate 70% of his statements as either “Mostly False”, “False” or “Pants On Fire”. He has used his personality to persuade people that untruths are true and he’s played on people’s fears to whip them into a state of frenzy. He’s a political PT Barnum of the highest order and sadly, there are plenty of wounded people willing to line up behind him.

Sadly, the left doesn’t have much to offer, either. While I believe Hillary Clinton to be a fundamentally decent person, a tireless worker and someone with the temperament and experience to actually do the job of being president, there’s no doubt she’s a flawed and compromised candidate.

Her candidacy is shrouded in smoke and whether you believe there’s fire there or not, her Presidency will be a torrid affair. Members of congress have vowed to block her Supreme Court nominations and others are already preparing investigations that they say will last for years.

While I feel like I know a reasonable amount about US politics for an outsider, I don’t yet know all the pitfalls and bumps. But it seems to me that there’s something fundamentally broken with the US political system.

This whole thing of 18-month political campaigns with billions of dollars being spent to elect someone to the highest office in the land, with the responsibility for both security and prosperity – and it all coming down to what’s basically a popularity contest with no experience necessary – that’s a broken system.

A system where the elected representatives can stall legislation just by standing up for crazy periods of time and talking about anything is a broken system.

A system that allows lawmakers and lobbyists to hijack the mandate given by the people is a broken system.

And right now, that broken system is breaking your country.

I can see why Trump appeals to some people. I can see the need to have someone come in and shake up the establishment in Washington. I can wholly understand why some people are crying out for it.

But Donald Trump is not the man for the job.

Yes, you’ll get another 4 years of potential gridlock with Hillary Clinton but at least you’ll have another 4 years of representative democracy where the country won’t be in much danger of crumbling around your feet. She will annoy some people and she will implement some things that various interest groups won’t like (even if a majority of people, over all, do like them – like closing the gun show loophole).

With Trump, it’s a total crap shoot. The markets are already saying there’ll be a 3% to 5% fall in index values. Immediately. If he does press ahead with his plan for massive tax cuts along with his deportation force, the wall, military spending (so un-needed when you already spend more than twice as much as the #2 military spender) and other infrastructure spending, then your deficit is going to blow out … bigly. His protectionist trade talk isn’t going to bring jobs back to the rust belt and his plan to double-down on coal is both an epic denial of accepted climate science and cheating the country out of new technology jobs.

And that’s saying nothing about what happens if an international leader keeps him up tweeting to all hours of the night.

America is divided. Sadly, neither of these candidates is likely to heal that rupture. That will have to wait until both parties – or a third party (Imagine that!) – can serve up candidates that can both inspire change and carry it through.

Until then, I hope you elect the candidate that will keep the country functioning.

——

Hillary Clinton is going to win on Tuesday. She’s not going to win by as much as I had hoped, but she’s going to win.

I hope she can do the job that will be entrusted to her. The first female Presidency should be a cause for celebration, but it won’t be. Like everything else at the moment, it’ll be a scrap. A fight with few winners and plenty of losers.

The one positive that might come from it is that it’ll make life easier for the next female US President.

I hope that on November 9 people can start treating each other with some kindness again.

Maybe the one thing that saddens me most is that the US I see on the news at the moment isn’t the US that I’ve visited a number of times. When I visit the States, I spend time with some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, having interesting conversations and doing some great things.

It’s sometimes said that America is the home to best and the worst of everything. That’s not actually true, but it’s close.

I hope the country’s better angels get some oxygen again soon.

I wrote a piece last week on Donald Trump so it’s only fair that I write a piece this week on Hillary Clinton, right?

It should be noted that an hour or so before I began writing this article, the FBI announced that it has discovered a bunch of new emails that it considers may be relevant to the previously closed investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. Consequently, the FBI is going to review these emails to see if any classified information is included and whether the emails appear relevant to the enquiries they’ve made previously.

This is all fair enough. Clinton has admitted publicly that her use of a private server was an error of judgement. The FBI has investigated and said that the practice was extremely careless but that no charges would be brought against anyone. It’s right and fair that they look at this new content.

Clinton says that she wants the voting public to see these emails as soon as possible, that a bomb like this should not be dropped on the public just 11 days before an election without more information. I think she has a fair point. I think if this issue had Donald Trump at the core instead of Hillary Clinton, the cries about a rigged system would be deafening and the pitchforks would finally come out of the shed.

Donald Trump’s reaction to this news sums up The Clinton Situation quite succinctly, I think. At his rally in New Hampshire only minutes after the news came through, he said the following, as quoted in the New York Times:

“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office.”

After deriding the F.B.I. for weeks as inept and corrupt, Mr. Trump went on to praise the law enforcement agency.

“I have great respect for the fact that the F.B.I. and the D.O.J. are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made,” Mr. Trump said. “This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understand. It is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected.”

The nutshell, as per the mind of the right:

Clinton is guilty. Anybody who says otherwise, regardless of who they are and whether they should be worthy of respect or not, is inept and corrupt (unless they eventually agree with us, then they’re OK).

The Clintons are a massive target. They’ve been involved in public life in one way or another since Bill Clinton took over the job of Arkansas Attorney General in the late 1970s. When you’ve been involved in politics for that long, you make a lot of contacts. And when you’ve been successful in politics for that long – and despite their controversies, they have been successful – you make a LOT of enemies.

Those enemies are now lining up, foaming at the mouth. Everyone wants to be The Man who Brought Down The Clintons. It’s got to the point now where nobody’s crossing lines of decency or morality anymore because those lines have been erased.

There is no moral line in America’s public discourse right now. People have been offered $5,000 to interrupt Clinton rallies shouting that Bill Clinton is a rapist. You’d be forgiven for thinking that that is an extremist position and there’s no way someone making an offer like that could get close to the next President. But no.

The guy making the offer was granted an interview with Trump during the primary season and Trump has spouted some of his ‘globalist’ conspiracy theories at times during the campaign.

This is the depth to which people seem happy to drag what is supposed to be the highest office in the United States, one of the most responsible positions in the world. All in the name of bringing Hillary Clinton down. The political hucksters of the right want her head on their wall and there are no bridges-too-far in this quest.

——

What do I think of Hillary Clinton?

I think there are only two people in this election who can rise to the office of the president – Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

I also think that’s a bit sad, but that’s the way it is.

I think Hillary Clinton is – by a long margin – the most experienced, the most suitable and the most qualified out of those two candidates.

Hillary Clinton has seen the job up close as First Lady. She’s seen the job up close as Secretary of State. She’s a policy expert with plenty of experience in the way Washington works. And make no mistake, Washington is still going to work exactly the same way regardless of who wins.

Hillary Clinton is stable. She is tough. She is smart. She uses proper sentence structure and speaks beyond a grade 3 level. Sorry, that was petty of me, wasn’t it?

Hillary Clinton has had consistent positions on all the issues throughout her campaign. Yes, she’s moved to the left a little in response to the success of Bernie Sanders (with Elizabeth Warren lurking, at stage left) but that’s what’s called political pragmatism. More on that, later.

Hillary Clinton has been subject to more scrutiny than any other candidate in political history. That scrutiny is not confined to this campaign. It’s dogged her for most of her adult life. Whitewater, cattle trading, Troopergate, Bill’s indiscretions, paid speeches, Benghazi, the Clinton Foundation, and now her private email server. No candidate has had his or her dirty laundry exposed as completely or as often as Hillary Clinton. Not even her husband.

And yet she just keeps on getting cleared, not always un-bruised but always cleared, and keeps on working.

I don’t necessarily think that Hillary Clinton is the best America could do. I think Bernie Sanders would have beaten Donald Trump in a landslide because he has none of the Achilles heels that continue to dog Hillary and he would have mobilised the youth vote in a massive way.

But Hillary Clinton is the Democratic candidate, right or wrong. And she’s way more qualified, competent and temperamentally fit for the job than Donald Trump, who is the worst candidate of my lifetime and an embarrassment to his adopted party.

——

Why don’t people like Hillary Clinton?

I hate to say this, but I think a lot of it is down to a combination of personality and biology. A lot of women don’t like her because she’s of an age when women were supposed to be stay-at-home mothers, and she wasn’t a quiet little stay-at-home mother.

She’s not seen by many as being a warm person. That’s an interesting observation from my point of view, because it feeds into the biological argument.

Being ‘warm’ is not a criterion that would be a decider for many male politicians, if any at all. Some male politicians get a definite advantage from being especially charming. Bill Clinton comes to mind. But being ‘warm’ is not usually a thing for male politicians. If they’re hard-nosed and determined, they’re just being hard-nosed and determined, a desireable quality in a political representative.

The other side of the biological argument is nothing more complex than plain old misogyny. There are some people on the conservative end of the spectrum who think that Hillary Clinton is unfit for office simply because she has a vagina. Most of them, like this guy, have penises. According to these types, people who have vaginas can only have authority over other people with vaginas, not over people with penises.

People with vaginas should not even ask questions of people with penises, really.

If you felt put off by my use of the words penis and vagina just then, there’s a chance you might be one of those people. And if you’re one of those people, how you can offer even tacit support for a guy who brags about grabbing women “by the pussy” beggars belief. But I digress.

I have a feeling there are more people out there who think like this than anyone in America cares to admit. They hate Hillary because she’s a Clinton. And they hate her even more because she’s a woman who might become President.

Then there are the ‘scandals’.

Forget the old stuff. That was Bill’s baggage and despite what Donald thinks, Bill’s not running for office.

Actually, let’s bring up one of the old things because the right made it part of the demonisation of Hillary Clinton – her supposed treatment of women Bill Clinton had been involved with.

I find it astounding that the right brings this up. Even if Hillary Clinton did characterise these women poorly after they were involved with her husband, what do people reasonably expect that she would do in that situation? Invite them over for tea? Hillary was one of the victims of Bill’s indiscretions and yet the right makes her out as the villain. Again, it’s plain, old-fashioned misogyny at play. Blame the woman, even if the pain is happening to her.

To the more recent ‘scandals’, then…..

The private email server – dealt with at the top of this article. The investigation was ‘closed’ but the FBI has just announced that they’ve found new emails on the device of one of Clinton’s top advisers. These emails were discovered while the FBI were looking into an unrelated matter. They don’t know if the emails will be relevant at all, but they’ve owned up to finding them and they’re going to look at them. Hopefully they shed more light on them soon, lest they destabilise what will already be a rocky start to a new Presidency. Yes, I still think Hillary will win. The investigation has not be re-opened, technically. They’re assessing these emails for relevance.

Benghazi – Hillary Clinton is basically held out by the right to be personally liable for both the terrorist attack itself and the way the whole Obama administration handled it. Subsequent investigations, including 11 straight hours of questioning earlier this year, found no grounds for action against Clinton.

Still, if you throw enough mud, some of it begins to stick. That’s exactly what the Republican candidates did during the primaries. Leave questions open, even if they’ve been asked and answered. Nobody bothers to check anymore, right?

The Clinton Foundation – The insinuations about the Clinton Foundation centre around ‘pay-to-play’.

Prior to this US election campaign, the Clinton Foundation was one of the world’s most respected private charities. It has an ‘A’ rating from Charity Watch. It has a ‘Platinum’ rating from Guidestar. It spends approximately 88% of the money it raises on its charitable work, which is a very high percentage compared to similar institutions. It costs the Clinton Foundation just $2 to reel in a $100 donation. I’ve read reports of Australian charities having to spend up to $40 to attract similar donations. It’s fair to say, then, that the Clinton Foundation is very efficient.

The Clinton Foundation is not only efficient, it’s effective, too.

The Clintons were pioneers in lobbying for AIDS treatment effectiveness and the Clinton Foundation has lowered the price of AIDS treatment by up to 90% for over 11.5 million people in poor countries.

Read that again: the Clinton Foundation has lowered the price of AIDS treatment by up to 90% for over 11.5 million people. That’s staggering.

Donald Trump’s foundation – which he hasn’t actually contributed to himself in nearly 10 years – bought a six-foot high portrait of Donald Trump. And it settled a lawsuit for his business. Damn. There I go again.

Back to the Clintons…. as well as saving people’s lives from lack of AIDS medication, the Clinton Foundation has a lot of health and wellness programs around the world, including school programs in every US state. It’s a charitable behemoth and again, prior to the smearing it’s received during this election campaign, it would have gone down as one of the best philanthropic undertakings in modern times.

The pay-to-play accusations are just that – accusations. Political enemies of the Clintons suggest that countries or interest groups that wanted favourable treatment while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State gave donations to the foundation to grease the tracks.

It’s a reasonable premise but completely unsupported by actual evidence.

The Clinton Foundation is noted by charity watchdogs for filing all of its reports, accounts, etc, in a timely and transparent manner. But when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State she gave undertakings to provide extra reporting, over and above that which was legally required, in order to protect the reputation of the foundation. This reporting related to lists of donors, etc. The allegation is that the Clinton Foundation did not disclose these extra reports in full.

There’s your smoke.

The fire has come in the form of Donald Trump and the right calling the Clinton Foundation – which is still ‘A’ and ‘Platinum’ rated – a morally and actually corrupt institution.

The Clinton Foundation has been criticised, for example, for taking donations from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has a shocking human rights record, especially as pertains to the treatment of women. Should the Clinton Foundation accept money from Saudi Arabia? I don’t know about you, but I think $25 million dollars is better spent helping thousands of young, disadvantaged girls get an education than it is buying another fleet of Rolls Royces for a Saudi prince.

The Clinton Foundation, on balance, has been a massive force for good in the world. Yes, there should be steps taken to ensure its independence and the proper use of funds raised. You expect that from all charitable institutions.

But this is a massive, massive beat-up. It’s the target on the Clintons’ back writ large.

Paid Speeches

To quote The Donald……. Give. Me. A. Break.

Politicians the world over give paid speeches when they retire. It’s a fact. And when you’re a couple with the experience, the war stories and the connections that the Clintons have, there’s going to be plenty of demand. And those pant-suits are expensive!

The Clintons are far from being the first to do it and they will definitely not be the last. Obama’s going to make millions per year from this – and so he should. Just do it, and use it, the right way, Barack.

Ronald Reagan got an estimated $2 million – in 1989 dollars – for a series of speeches and meetings with business leaders in Japan in the first year after his presidency.

George W Bush has made around 200 speeches in the last eight years, at between $100,000 and $175,000 a throw.

Clinton-haterz cite the content of her speeches as the problem, so let’s look at that.

Hillary Clinton wants ‘open borders’…. is a claim touted by Trump at his rallies. He says that she wants to let people just pour in. Politifact dissected this premise and rated it as Mostly False:

Although she wants to make it easier for some undocumented immigrants to stay here, she has repeatedly said she supports border security, so Trump is exaggerating when he says she wants open borders.

In a brief speech excerpt from 2013, she called for “a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable.” Clinton has said she was talking about clean energy, but we can’t fully evaluate her remarks to a bank because we don’t have the full speech.

We rate this statement Mostly False.

Hillary Clinton is too cosy with Wall St and wants to let it regulate itself……. err, no.

Hillary Clinton wants to get people with Wall St experience and get them on board to help draft regulations that will affect Wall St. Sure. That’s normal. That’s smart. You get people with industry experience who are also politically sympathetic to come in and help govern the industry. They know it best.

From the excerpts:

At a securities law firm in September 2014, Clinton said that as a senator, she had “worked with so many talented principled people who made their living in finance” and “did all I could to make sure they continued to prosper.” But she added that she supported reforms to the industry too, saying she had long called for “closing the carried interest loophole,” “addressing skyrocketing CEO pay,” and “regulating derivatives and overcomplex financial products.”

Finally, Clinton said at an October 2013 Goldman Sachs symposium that she’d likely turn to the financial industry for regulatory advice, because they know the industry best:

“There’s nothing magic about regulations, too much is bad, too little is bad. How do you get to the golden key, how do we figure out what works? And the people that know the industry better than anybody are the people who work in the industry.”

It’s sound practice and it’s been done for decades. You don’t ask your local florist for financial advice. You go to an expert. It’s the same with government – you get industry experts in and mix them with legislators to get the right balance. It’s balance that’s the key.

Hillary Clinton has private and public positions on things….. yes, she does. And I bet most political operatives do, to some degree, as well. It’s called pragmatism.

Politics is the art of the possible. It’s played out in a field full of compromises made in the name of actually getting something done instead of nothing. Clinton’s explanation citing Abraham Lincoln during the second debate was poorly spelt out and stumbling, but essentially correct.

People compromise all the time. Marriages are built around it. Businesses are built around it. It’s the measure we have to take sometimes in order to make progress.

In meetings that precede such progress, opening gambits will be made that might be contrary to the final position. And we have to allow those opening gambits because the process of discussion and negotiation around those points is the starting point for a decision eventually being made.

It’s a matter of the idealist vs the pragmatist.

——

I guess you could call me a Clinton pragmatist.

My private thoughts are that I don’t warm to her and I think she’s quite flawed. But I also recognise that she’s done a lot of good in her public life and she’s far more qualified for the job.

I think her judgement in the last 4 weeks of this campaign has been terrible. She had Donald Trump dead to rights after three debates that made him look like the bad-tempered, ill-considered imp that he is – and she took her foot off his neck. She counted on Donald being Donald when she should have been reinforcing again and again how morally bankrupt and inexperienced he is.

Where has the pressure been on his tax returns? We learned from just three pieces of paper that he’d lost nearly a billion dollars in one year, enough to realistically not pay any federal taxes for nearly 20 years. Imagine what we could learn from proper disclosure. There’s been no pressure on that issue at all. That’s poor judgement from the Hillary campaign, and it’s not the only example.

But still, when you’ve got these two candidates and you want to put one of them in charge of the Oval Office, with all that that entails…… I would select Hillary Clinton in a heartbeat.

She has experience. She’s got things done. She’s a policy wonk who actually has proper policies and can tell you about them. She’s tougher than leather and has been the subject of more scrutiny than anyone running for president, ever. She has had a target the size of Texas on her back for decades and she’s been scrutinsed in much more detail than men in equivalent positions.

And yet she’s still standing.

If the alternative were someone like John Kasich or even Marco Rubio, I think it’d be a much tougher contest for her.

But if the alternative is Donald Trump, then I’m With Her.

NOTE: This is a long read. 3400 words. I tried a shorter version but it felt like I was selling the effort short. Sorry.

——

If there’s one thing you can say about the western political landscape prior to 2008, it’s that we generally accepted the results of elections and got on with our lives.

Here in Australia, we’ve had a bunch of contentious, polarising Prime Ministers over the years but we usually accepted our lot and got on with things after an election – until the sacking of Kevin Rudd in 2010. He was replaced by Julia Gillard after an internal coup. She ended up forming a minority government after a bitter election later in 2010 and was then replaced by Rudd again when her polling fortunes sank in 2013. Rudd lost to Tony Abbott in a landslide but Abbott abused his mandate, wasted his political capital and was ousted by Malcolm Turnbull in 2015 after another internal coup. That’s five Prime Ministers in 5 years – the most hostile 5 years of politics of my lifetime.

The most contentious US election in recent history was the 2000 presidential election when George W Bush won Florida, and the presidency, in dubious circumstances that ultimately saw the Supreme Court intervene to stop a re-count. Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, received 500,000 more votes than Bush on a nationwide basis, but Bush had more electoral college votes and was named President.

Gore may have hated the court’s decision and I’m sure he whined about it personally to any friend who would lend an ear. But still, he did one important thing at the time – he went on national TV and accepted it. Here’s an excerpt from Al Gore’s concession speech:

Now the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court’s decision, I accept it. I accept the finality of this outcome which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College. And tonight, for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession. I also accept my responsibility, which I will discharge unconditionally, to honor the new President-elect and do everything possible to help him bring Americans together…..

That speech was an exhibition of leadership. Democrats may have been fuming with the court’s decision but Gore’s message was “we’ve got a new President, let’s get on with things” and I’m sure that George W Bush’s presidency had an easier first 12 months than what it might have had otherwise, because of it.

18 months later, of course, September 11 happened and Bush’s reaction to that event is at the core of the political climate that greets us every morning when we wake up and scan the news. Everything we see now has its roots in what happened then.

America was justifiably outraged at what happened on September 11. The vast majority of the world’s population and governments were outraged. George Bush gathered great support for his attack on Afghanistan in retaliation. I thought it was right. And I still do.

Then came Iraq.

There’s a lot of mileage made in election campaigns these days with regards to who supported the war in Iraq. It’s mostly bullshit. It wasn’t as large a majority but it was still a vast majority, more than 2-to-1. The vote was taken based on evidence that we now know was – at the very least – the result of poor intelligence gathering and analysis. At worst, it was a flat-out lie designed to get the American war machine moving on a country with lots of oil. Where you land on that spectrum is completely up to you and for the purposes of this article, moot.

The war in Iraq continued. Bush won another election the year after it began but things were turning sour. A higher-than-expected death toll, stupid things like ‘Mission Accomplished’ and scandals such as Abu Ghraib all contributed to a turning of the tide.

——

A fresh-faced representative from Chicago with a good turn of phrase made use of this turning tide. He’d already impressed everyone with his speech at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. So much so, in fact, that people began to expect him to run for president. Less than 3 years later, in February 2007, he announced his candidacy and it was bigger than Michael Jordan returning to basketball in 1996.

His message was “Change” and with Bush being a national embarrassment and Iraq becoming a national debacle, plenty of people were ready for Change.

(It shouldn’t be but) It was significant that America had finally elected a black president. Speaking as an outside observer – and I know that I’m not alone on this – it felt like it was about time. In fact, if America allowed for a president to serve a third term and polled the rest of the world, I reckon Obama would win with 95% or more of the vote against the current Republican nominee. He’d beat the Democrat nominee by a handy margin, too. Again, a moot point.

I don’t know if the timing is simply coincidental or not, but a year after Obama was elected, America saw the rise of a political movement called The Tea Party. The Tea Party was a deliberately de-centralised group of like-minded citizens with a focus on economics. They were concerned that government was getting too big, the deficit was too big and taxes were too high. They were zealous. They felt disenchanted by a Republican party that they thought had become too absorbed in issues that government should stay out of. Social issues, etc.

As mentioned, I find the timing of the Tea Party’s rise in 2009 to be curious.

The ‘birther’ movement – people questioning Barack Obama’s birthplace, citizenship and therefore his right to run for president – started back in 2004 and it gathered pace during the election campaign. Republican presidential candidates in 2008 largely let the matter slide but Republican supporters, especially those on the radical fringes, did not. The Republican party largely serves a white-voter demographic and certain elements within this demographic could see the writing on the wall in terms of Obama’s winning momentum.

The Tea Party’s subsequent rise and virulent anger after the election of the first black president is, at the very least, curious. I know you might need proof of my theory. So here’s a gallery of serving and recently-retired American politicians identifying as part of the Tea Party Caucus. You might notice there’s a certain demographic similarity shared by the vast majority of them.

OK, it’s not ALL white people. Just 81 out of the 83 pictured. And it’s not all men. There are 8 women in there. That’s nearly 10%! Progress!! Diversity!!

I know that some of these people are genuine Tea Party types and some of them probably just embraced the Tea Party movement simply to remain popular. And I know that the vast majority are decent people at their core – except for Ted Cruz, who is slimy and who’s father apparently killed JFK (I read that on the internet so it must be true!!).

Some of them might actually be using their office to do some good.

I’m simply pointing out here that there’s a certain demographic being elected here, by a voting bloc that, for the most part, shares those demographic traits.

Maybe I should stop mincing words right here……

There are a number of people who didn’t like a black man being elected as president and the vast majority of them were white. For some of them, it became a source of motivation and they became politically active – some of them in the Republican party, some of them in the Tea Party movement but as independents, and some of them outside the direct political framework.

Lots of them don’t like the idea of a female president, either.

——

The Republican Party is to the right of the political spectrum. Tea Party candidates tend to be to the right of the Republican party. For some, however, even the Tea Party is not far enough to the right. They see the Republican party’s embracing of the Tea Party as proof that their grassroots movement has become mainstream and therefore, compromised.

Enter Donald John Trump.

Lauded for being the anti-establishment candidate, Donald Trump swept through the GOP primary race like an orange mist. It really is amazing that he wasn’t found out during the Republican primaries, when the issues were actually debated more than they have been during the election campaign.

Trump flip-flopped on so many of these issues, his stance changing from week to week according to the wind. And still, his opponents could barely land a blow. Trump was able to bat them off one by one. Sadly, this was due to nothing more substantial than his celebrity and his salesmanship. It certainly wasn’t because of policy.

Even stranger is that we could now be forgiven for thinking of those Republican primary days as being the era of The Good Donald. His focus was on belittling only his Republican opponents. It was the fight-within-the-fight at this point and while it contained some shocking moments – his mocking of a disabled reporter, for example – he was still doing the Dems work of picking off candidates with actual policies behind them.

I urge you to watch this video presentation from Keith Olbermann for GQ magazine. It was released mid-September and it outlines 176 outrageous things Donald Trump had done to that point, most of them during the primary season.

As mind-blowing as that list is, consider the stuff that’s come out about Trump since that video was made…..

It doesn’t contain anything to do with the release of parts of his 1995 tax return, which indicated a claimed loss of more than 900 million dollars. That’s enough to reasonably see him paying no tax for nearly 20 years. It also raises 900 million questions about his business acumen (pronounced ah-KYOU-men in Donald-land).

It doesn’t contain anything about the audio recording where he talks openly about sexual assault – the uninvited kissing of women he doesn’t know and the seizing of their pet cats without asking. All of which he says is OK because he’s a celebrity and he can get away with it.

It doesn’t contain anything about the number of women (9, and counting) who have come out since the second presidential debate and told their stories of him doing to them exactly what he said in the audio recording.

It doesn’t contain anything about the way he’s abused those women again with his characterisations of them – mocking some of them with regard to their looks (“she wouldn’t be my first choice”).

It doesn’t contain anything about his admissions to Howard Stern – more audio recordings in his own voice – where he brags about walking into womens’ dressing rooms unannounced while he owned several beauty pageants.

It doesn’t contain anything about the conspiracy theories he is now espousing about secret cabals looking to take over the world.

It doesn’t contain anything about his 3am Twitter-fest and week-long argument with a beauty queen after the first debate. A beauty queen.

It doesn’t contain anything about his threat – to her face in the second debate – to appoint a special prosecutor and direct that prosecutor to jail his political opponent. And, by the way, that’s a threat that is a) usually the reserve of tinpot dictators, and b) beyond his actual power as president.

And I’m sure there’s more.

It feels like Trump has got away with these outrages, mostly because he’s still in the race. He has suffered from them, of course – as of today, Hillary Clinton has a likelihood of winning the election of around 86% according to fivethirtyeight.com. But that still means that Trump has a 14% chance of winning, and Donald Trump winning this election would be an unparalleled indictment on the American voter.

How has he survived?

Donald Trump has not survived because of his ability to explain the details of his policies. He spends at least 50% of his time on the stump talking about his opponent. Usually more. His policy talk is all populist generalisations – we’re going to win with trade, we’re going to defeat ISIS, we’re going to blah blah blah. It’s all just themes. It’s more important for him to mention the words Radical. Islamic. Terrorism. than it is to talk about healing the racial and religious divides within his own country. Details are left to his surrogates and even then, those details are vague.

Donald Trump has survived because he is a sociopathic, narcissistic egomaniac for whom no gutter is too deep, no lie too outrageous. He’s survived because he has deliberately and directly appealed to the lowest common denominator in politics – fear – and he has a rusted-on following that’s been primed, pumped and is more than ready to embrace that fear and receive their saviour.

What does their saviour do? He promises them things that do not stand up to any scrutiny.

He promises to build a wall that would be both ineffective and completely impractical. He promises to impose tariffs on goods made outside the United States, tariffs so big that companies would feel compelled to bring their factories back to America. He doesn’t tell people how much more they’ll be paying for those goods, or that those prices would make those businesses uncompetitive and force them to close. That’s too much information.

He promises to reduce tax from 35% to 15% AND spend more on roads, bridges, and other infrastructure AND reduce America’s national debt. Magic maths.

He damns a supposed lack of jobs in America and promises to create a rather unbelievable 25 million new jobs (remember when Republicans claimed that government doesn’t create jobs?).

Note: The unemployment rate was 6.8% when Obama was elected in November 2008, reaching a high of 10% in October 2009 because of the GFC. It’s now at 5%.

And that’s just a handful of his flawed arguments. There are plenty more.

——

America, like the rest of the world, has changed. Those changes have brought diversity, progress and great wealth – the Dow Jones index has nearly tripled during Obama’s presidency, from 6626 in March 2009 to over 18,100 today – but that wealth has not been shared by everyone.

Progress has seen some industries stripped of their need for a human workforce. While new industries have created new jobs, especially in the technology sector, there have been others in older industries that have lost their jobs, some of them at an age where re-training is neither easy nor practical. That’s tough, it’s true. And it’s felt more keenly in small towns that used to be prosperous but are now being abandoned. The depth of feeling is understandable.

What is neither understandable or forgivable, however, is the exploitation of those feelings by the fringe-dwellers that are now occupying some of the advisory seats around the Trump table. Combine that change in the American economy with the nationalism discussed at the beginning of this piece and then sprinkle in some fear of domestic terrorism and you’ve got a toxic brew.

Donald Trump now has a guy named Steve Bannon as the CEO of his election campaign. Bannon was the Chairman of Breitbart News, the far-right (or alt-right) website that encompasses a worldview full of conspiracy theories about one-world governments and other nasties. It’s an outfit that works similar to the propaganda wings that we’ve seen in places like Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, China and North Korea. You make your own news, or twist real news according to your worldview, and you repeat it over and over again. And in 2016 you can do it with a slick website and a Youtube channel.

From a story at CNN (or the Clinton News Network, as they’ve been dubbed by the alt-right)

“This is the journalism of affirmation, not verification,” Tom Rosenstiel, the executive director of the American Press Institute, said of right-wing news sites. “It’s designed to reaffirm what you’re thinking.”

For some reason, the irony of a deliberately partisan website stating that independent media can’t be trusted on objectivity has been lost on its readers.

And if you think Trump has a strong enough mind to regulate the input of someone like Bannon, think again. He’s gone from being caustic and bombastic in the primaries to being flat-out conspiratorial in the last week:

Donald Trump on Thursday railed against a conspiratorial plot by the Democrats, corporations and the mainstream media; renewed calls for the imprisonment of his political opponent; and portrayed himself as a populist hero battling a globalist elite.

You’ve heard Trump talk about the media at rallies every day, right?

My mind isn’t made up yet as to whether he really believes this stuff or if he’s just laying the groundwork for the various scapegoats he’ll name when he loses next month.

But either way, it’s dangerous.

Another man who’s been named as an ‘informal’ advisor to Trump is Roger Stone, a lobbyist and political operative since the late 1960’s, and a guy so nuts that he actually has a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back.

More irony – the guy who calls his opponent Crooked Hillary being advised by a guy with a tattoo of Richard “I am not a crook” Nixon.

Stone also has his own radical right-wing website and online radio show. Right now he’s selling Clinton Rape Whistles and encouraging people to blow them at Democrat events.

A close ally of Roger Stone is Alex Jones, the nut behind a website called Infowars. If you’ve seen people interrupting Democratic events while shouting “Bill Clinton is a rapist” and wearing a ‘Rape’ T-shirt in the style of Obama’s iconic ‘Hope’ image, that’s not necessarily because those people are politically committed. It’s because Jones offered them $5000 to do it.

Jones also did a video recently where he claimed he spoke to Secret Service sources who assured him that Hillary Clinton is demon-possessed and smells like sulphur. Go to the last minute of the video for that quote. Or watch the whole five minutes if you want to see Crazy in full effect.

These are the grade-A idiots that are looking to hi-jack the right side of the political spectrum.

This is who the Republican establishment lost to. Do you think some reform is needed on the right? Mmmmmm.

The end game?

Some people are saying that there could be a Brexit event here, where the polls do not predict the outcome and Donald Trump actually wins office.

That is the the nightmare scenario.

I continue to have faith in the American people, however; Faith that they won’t vote for this hateful, racist, opportunistic, lying, egotistical, misogynistic windbag who doesn’t actually know his policy base.

My hope is that there will be a win for Hillary that’s big enough to put these far-right nut jobs in the frame. Theirs is not a solution. It’s a power-grab, pure and simple. And who knows what would follow? I’m not sure even they do.

America is saddled with this two-party situation where other voices struggle to be heard. It needs at least two valid alternatives for people to choose from. They don’t have this right now. The Republican Party itself needs the alt-right to be set at heel in order for it to get its act together. Again. The population of the US is not skewing white in the future and the GOP needs to articulate a platform that retains conservative values but poses these ideas in a color-free way.

Sadly, I don’t think there’ll be an elegant concession speech from Trump, though he did surprise many by coming up with an expression of admiration for Clinton’s toughness at the second debate. I confess we may be subjected to an inauguration ceremony for America’s first female president that’s marred by interference from Trump’s followers.

My bad dream scenario is one forshadowed by Australia’s former Foreign Minister in today’s paper:

If Clinton takes office on January 20 she will have been defined as “crooked Hillary” by Republican attacks over emails, the family foundation and paid speeches to Wall Street. Only one voter in three sees her as honest or trustworthy and she may have the lowest approval rating of any victor since polls began. No honeymoon. Little goodwill.

Add lashings of misogyny to this toxic atmosphere and all is tailored for a Republican revival, and a revival with strong elements of Tea Party radicalism and Trump’s populist white nationalism.

Trump 2.0.

For Trump himself, there is talk that he might join up with some of his nutbag advisors and start a TV network, probably web-based, that’s far to the right of Fox News. Some sort of conspiracist wonderland, maybe, where the seeds will be sown to have another far-right tilt at the presidency with a younger, fresher candidate in 2020.

That’s a scenario that needs to be stopped.

Do you ever wish you could be the world’s benevolent dictator? We’re actually all better off than we think. We’re living longer, we’re more educated, richer and believe it or not, more peaceful as a species than we’ve ever been (thanks to Jeroen for that link).

That’s not to say we’re over the screw-ups, though. That’s not to say we couldn’t all benefit from an omnipotent kick in our collective pants.

I wouldn’t mind getting in on the whole dictator thing and of course, I have a few people and things I’d get out of the way so that we can all get on living in peace and harmony. (Or my version of it, at least, which would be compulsory of course. Being King has its privileges.)

So……. When I am king, these will be first against the metaphorical wall…..

Religious Fundamentalists

I don’t care what religion you are. You’re free to believe and free to practice what you like, as long as you don’t hurt anyone else in that religion’s name.

For centuries, civilisations that sprang up around the place had a couple of basic things in common. One of them was a localised belief system that sought something outside of their own humanity to give them purpose in this life and keep them preserved after death. Many had gods in nature, worshipping the sun, the moon or the stars. Some made sacrifices to keep their god(s) happy, fearing for both their present and their future if they didn’t.

The desire to hope for something else after we’re gone is not unusual. Whether it be the Romans, the Greeks, the Norsemen, the Aztecs, the Moors or the Whoeverelses, they all did it, most of them developed their beliefs independently and they all thought they were 100% correct. Amazing, isn’t it?

If you feel the need to fill your god-shaped hole with a god, that’s fine. Please feel free to fill that space however you like. Talk to your friends about it, if you wish. Gather with like minded people and enjoy it together. Whether you’re Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or Pastafarian, it doesn’t matter to me.

Just don’t push it down anyone’s throat and do not commit violence in the name of your religion.

The law of Swade will subject you to a year of being tickled, non-stop.

Doof Doof music

One of the things I’ve learned while living in Sweden is that there hasn’t been a song written through all of history that can’t be re-jigged and set to shitty doof-doof dance music. They love it here.

They say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something and that might – might – be true of learning a musical instrument. I suspect it takes longer for most. I still marvel at those guitarists for whom an instrument seems to be a natural extension of their body. Those who know what to play and when, and those who (crucially) know when NOT to play.

Music is supposed to be an art form. A thing of true beauty. Its magic lies in a unique skill; an artist’s ability to draw on their emotions, paint pictures with sound and/or words and to generate energy from it. A true artist can capture both pleasure and pain and balance them on the head of a pin. They can fire you up for a fight or inspire you to fall in love. The soundtracks of our lives are based in sensory expression, which is why music is one of the emotional triggers that sticks so well in our memory.

Doof doof might do it for you but it doesn’t do anything for me. And I’m King here, remember.

OK, so there is artistry in true showmanship, in engaging a crowd and bringing them along with you. There are enough people going to big dance venues and having a good time listening to the stuff to suggest that some of the best doof doof DJ’s obviously have something. But it’s not for me. And let’s face it, there’s a reason all these festival goers are popping pills, right?

Doof Doof adherents will be beaten lightly with a Gibson Les Paul, then forced to listen to actual rock-n-roll for 2 years. Call it gentle re-education.

The guy in the photo is actually a work colleague who I love dearly and is an in-demand DJ here in Sweden. I love this picture. I wish I could tamper with his playlist, though 🙂

Tony Abbott’s Political Career

If you’re reading this and thinking “Who is Tony Abbott?”, count yourself as one of the lucky ones and move on.

Our former Prime Minister is a fool and Australia is better off without him. He should now be confined to a post-political career of letter writing and ribbon cutting but sadly, it looks as if he’s going to stand for parliament again in 2016. Some say he still has designs on the leadership.

One of the defining characteristics of a cult is the steadfast belief that their way is the only way. Tony Abbott is his own cult. He truly believes that he is the saviour of conservatism, that it doesn’t stand a chance without him. Sadly, there are enough blue-rinsers out there willing to write him emails and egg him on.

Perhaps Australia should be thankful that Abbott had his chance at the top job. It was embarrassing, soul-destroying and the source of multiple double facepalms, but it only lasted a short time and we can, and will, recover. The people got to see what a prejudiced, bigoted, selfish, fear-mongering, privileged, entitled, misogynistic, backwards government looked like without getting too messed up. Now we know. Now we can move on.

This boil needs to be lanced, however, and King Swade is up for the job. Tony Abbott will be sentenced to five years of ironing Anthony Albanese’s shirts in the basement of old parliament house, while listening to the ABC 24/7.

Donald Trump’s Presidential Bid

Do I even need to explain this one? No, I don’t.

Donald Trump says what he thinks and a lot of people are buying into that. Some are buying into it because they want to give the Republican establishment a bit of a shake. Some are buying into it because they’re genuinely dull xenophobes and habitual cheerleaders.

The problem, of course, is that this is a Presidential bid with real consequences. The winner will be in charge of one of the most important countries in the world, with nuclear codes and stuff. It’s not reality TV. There has to be a point where it turns from entertainment to serious business. A nominee actually has to have well thought-out policies and a strategy for communication that brings out the verbal sledge hammer only when absolutely necessary.

There are 194 countries in the world that are not the United States. If you really want to be seen as a world-leading country, elect a man who is worthy of the title to run the place. Donald Trump is a performer. A clown. A blustering windbag who is preying on fear. What’s worse is that his inflammatory statements steal all the oxygen from people who could actually be responsible and presentable Presidential candidates. The people of the United States need to hear from these candidates.

Sentence: Donald J Trump will do 10 years hard labour giving piggyback rides over the border to Mexican immigrants.

Continued Stupidity in Classic Car Prices

The Porsche 911, just a few years ago, was the car that most keen drivers could aspire to with some realistic hope of actually buying one. Yes, the old ones were about the price of a new family sedan but that was reasonable. It meant that the serious helmsmith had a choice to make and in making that choice, they would forego the sensible nature of the modern sedan. Their reward – a wonderful driving experience to offset the shouty stuff coming from the other side of the bed.

Thanks to a recovering world economy (what GFC?!), there’s a bunch of cashed-up tossers in the classic car market and they’re being egged on by the belief that their cars will continue to rise at 50% a year like 911 prices have for the last two or three years. It has to stop.

Classic cars are for the people have paid their dues, done their time and had these cars in their hearts since they were a little kid. They’re for the people who LOVE TO DRIVE, not for some Johnny-come-lately who scored some stock options or a profit share and is looking to, quite literally, park their money in a good investment.

Anyone buying a classic car without having owned a series of worthy, aspirational sub-classics (including at least one Alfa Romeo) will be made to drive a 1993 Toyota Camry. Forever.

Stu, you get a pass as you’ve already done your penance 🙂

Debate over Gun Control

Jim Jeffries can take this issue, in two parts.

Warning – there is a LOT of foul language in these two videos. A lot of good argument, too, and it’s all very, very funny. But again, a LOT of foul language.

Persistent gun control advocates will also be sentenced to a year’s tickling. If you’re a religious fundamentalist who also loves guns and you’re unwilling to tighten up gun control laws, you get double the tickles.

Laughter is the best medicine.

Hawthorn Football Club

Hawthorn has won 12 of their 13 AFL premierships in my lifetime. That’s nearly one every four years, on average.

I’m pleased to have been such a good luck charm for somebody, but……. give it a rest, Hawks. Seriously.

The penalty: every Hawthorn premiership since the 1980’s is erased and links to all Hawthorn highlights online divert to this:

Debate over Climate Change

One of the interesting sideshows during Australia’s recent political history was the fiscal argument about ‘inter-generational theft’. Those on the right were arguing that because those on the left are soooooooo financially irresponsible, the country would be leaving more and more debt that our kids and grandkids would have to pay. That might be a fair call, too, if those on the right hadn’t made the national debt so much worse since taking office, but I digress…..

There was no call from the right for any sort of real, actual solution to this most egregious problem. No-one asked for people to put their hands in their pockets and make a one-off contribution at X-dollars per head in order to save our kids from this burden. Why? Because it’s the accusation that wins votes, not the solution. All people have to do is agree with you and you’re golden.

Climate change is somewhat different but just as polarising for some. This, despite the evidence being so clear and the scientific community being as close to agreement as it can responsibly be.

And yet you still get people making arguments against taking action. Most of the arguments are economic: We can’t afford to change. It’ll put us at a competitive disadvantage. Blah Blah Blah. We can’t afford to NOT change direction on this and thankfully, it looks like the world is coming together.

Why not look at it as a long-term economic opportunity? That’s exactly what it is, after all. The only difference is that it involves investments that may not see a pay-off in time for you to go to Tahiti any time soon. Clean energy and increased efficiency are keys to the future. It’s just that they’re most likely keys to someone else’s future, not yours.

If we want to talk about inter-generational theft, by the way, climate change is about as bad as it gets. Debts can be repaid in relatively short time if we all put our mind to it. A wrecked environment could take generations to recover, if it ever does. Extinction is permanent.

Climate deniers will spend an hour each day in a small pool with the water just 1mm below their nostrils (with head extended up/back). They then have to hope it doesn’t rain. Rescuers will be on standby and will assist if they deem it to be fiscally responsible to do so.