A different world?
Only one US newspaper endorsed Trump.
And it certainly wasn’t the Washington Post or the New York Times (and in this case it was the NYT which copied the WaPo headline).
The polls and the models — not much good that can be said about them.
They read fast over at the FBI.
650,000 emails read and analysed in a week is pretty impressive. That the FBI ( and the Department of Justice) are part of the political establishment that Hillary belongs to is fairly obvious. In any event the FBI interventions have put some life into the final stages but now, as the establishment wagons circle around Hillary, her victory tomorrow seems a foregone conclusion.
So the US will have another Clinton as another dodgy President. The new First Lady will probably be Huma Abedin. Bill Clinton can be President Emeritus.
The odds of another Clinton being impeached are fairly high. The odds of another President being forced to leave prematurely like Nixon are also fairly high.
The markets should gain today.
I wonder how November the 8th, 2016 will be recorded in history.
It seems – in our time – to be an epic – and fateful – battle with consequences beyond just the US. Populism versus establishment. The “people” versus the party system. The “people” versus the media. The “people” versus the “elite”. Institutions versus individuals. Liberalism or conservatism. Decadence opposed by decency. Depravity set against prudishness. Open borders versus protectionism. Big government against small. Profligacy opposed by austerity. White trash versus black trash. Muslims versus Christians. Mordor versus Gondor.
It is “the poor” against “the rich” but both Clinton and Trump are extraordinarily rich. It is “good” versus “evil” with both claiming to be the “good”. It is integrity against corruption where it is difficult to see who is less corrupt. It is a choice between evils but the lesser evil may not win. It is a race to see who is perceived worse.
But whether Donald Trump is a white rider from Rohan or the Black Lord of Mordor is uncertain. Or is he just Coco the clown brought on for light relief? Hillary Clinton is certainly no Galadriel but whether she is an Evil Witch or just a Red Queen is open to question.
If Hillary Clinton wins it will either be remembered as the day the Red Queen triumphed or the day when Witch Hillary of Little Rock prevailed. If Donald Trump wins it will either be the day a Great Buffoon came to power or the dawn of a Return to Greatness.
Either way the world is amazed it has come to this. That 325 million people gave themselves no option but the choice of a Witch or a Buffoon.
Lewis Carroll is needed to bring some sense into this.
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
That it has come to this is also part of Barack Obama’s legacy.
The sum of all wisdom is the summation across the population, of the integrals over time of the second values derivative of knowledge.
Not the philosophy of mathematics but the mathematics of philosophy!
It was already clear in July that constitutionally, a non-binding referendum result needed an explicit parliamentary vote to trigger the formal Brexit process. The High Court in the UK agrees with that view – though the Supreme Court will still have to have its say.
Back in July, I posted:
Brexit is not going to happen any time soon.
If it happens at all.
It seems according to constitutional law experts that any government with any Prime Minister will need a vote in parliament to give authority to an Article 50 notification of intention to withdraw from the EU. Once triggered, withdrawal is inevitable and time-bound. But there is no majority in the current parliament for leaving. And it could be the best part of a year before such a vote in parliament can even be held. For any chance of such a vote being passed it will need a General Election fought on precisely such a question and that the party or parties in favour of an exit win such an election. But it is also possible that such a vote can not, in the reasonable future, be passed. ….
….. (It occurs to me that if Nicola Sturgeon wants to postpone, if not block, Brexit she should get the European Court of Justice to rule on whether or not a parliamentary vote is needed to give authority to a government to invoke Article 50. Even EU bureaucrats can not quibble with that).
Now the High Court confirms that opinion.
BBC:
Parliament must vote on whether the UK can start the process of leaving the European Union, the High Court has ruled. This means the government cannot trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty – beginning formal discussions with the EU – on their own. Theresa May says the referendum – and existing ministerial powers – mean MPs do not need to vote, but campaigners called this unconstitutional.
The government is expected to appeal.
Ministers were given the go-ahead for a further hearing to take place at the Supreme Court, which is expected to take place before the end of the year.
The prime minister has said she will activate Article 50, formally notifying the EU of the UK’s intention to leave, by the end of next March. This follows the UK’s decision to back Brexit in June’s referendum by a margin of 51.9% to 48.1%. The EU’s other 27 members have said negotiations about the terms of the UK’s exit – due to last two years – cannot begin until Article 50 has been invoked.
Gina Miller, who brought the case, said outside the High Court that the government should make the “wise decision of not appealing”.
To what extent the referendum would compel UK MP’s to follow the referendum results remains to be seen. Probably the government will not be quite brave enough to hold a free vote among MP’s. Whether the EU will shoot itself in the foot (again) or actually take on much overdue and much needed reform is perhaps even more interesting.
I have a theory that while representative democracies used to, from time to time, throw up genuine leaders, the current trend of giving in to mass demonstrations and calling a referendum for any and all questions only allows space for sheep-like followers. The point in this case is whether a government is to be one of sheep or one of leaders?
Stop Brexit – image Market Watch
FIFA now goes from the heights of corruption to the depths of idiocy. Why is a Senegalese with little common sense now the Secretary General of FIFA? Of course she is a woman and a Muslim and supremely correct politically. But not very sensible. Clearly – with her UN experience – she is very well trained in “world government” idiocy.
She wants to ban the poppy. If she thinks the poppy is a religious or political statement then she is an idiot.
BBC: The Football Associations of England and Scotland say they will defy a ban on players wearing poppies when the teams meet on Armistice Day. The FAs will let players wear black armbands with poppy emblems and are willing to accept any punishment.
Fifa general secretary Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura told BBC Sport “any kind of sanction” could follow. World football’s governing body prohibits political, religious or commercial messages on shirts.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has called the rule “outrageous”.
What the new FIFA Secretary General has not the intelligence to understand is that she is herself a political statement of the worst kind.
Samoura – the politically correct face of FIFA
FIFA:The FIFA Council today appointed Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura of Senegal as FIFA Secretary General (SG). Ms Samoura is a 21-year veteran of United Nations programmes who is currently the UN’s Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Nigeria. The announcement was made by FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the 66th FIFA Congress in Mexico City.
“Fatma is a woman with international experience and vision who has worked on some of the most challenging issues of our time,” President Infantino said. “She has a proven ability to build and lead teams, and improve the way organisations perform. Importantly for FIFA, she also understands that transparency and accountability are at the heart of any well-run and responsible organisation.”
As required under FIFA statutes, Ms Samoura will undergo an eligibility check administered by the independent Review Committee, per Article 37 of the FIFA Statutes. Ms Samoura will assume the role of FIFA Secretary General before mid-June.
The FIFA eligibility check does not check for stupidity.
A fable for our times
In this time, in a land across the sea, the people of a Once Great Country are to decide on a new ruler. The incumbent king has no choice but to step down because rulers are not allowed to reign forever. They have to relinquish their power after 8 years of wearing the crown and King Bho’s eight years are up. The ruler does not have to be a King. The people can choose a Queen if they wish though they had never done so before. The ruler has to be either a King or a Queen. The rules of Monarchy did not allow for a half-King/ half-Queen to be enthroned. However the consort of the King or Queen, though expected to be of the opposite sex, may, in fact be either.
At this particular time, about 2 months before King Bho has to step aside, a Great Convention of all the people is to be held on one particular day (November 8th). All the people will have their say to choose between the two main claimants to the throne. Nobody is still quite sure how the two claimants have taken their places on the Final List. (During King Bho’s reign the Once Great Country has degraded slowly to become a somewhat indulgent, degenerate and depraved place. But that is another story.)
The first contender, a woman, (Witch Hills of Little Rock) is known to be a powerful witch who desperately wishes to be Queen and to rule with her own Court. Even her own supporters acknowledge she is a witch but claim she is a “white witch”. Of course her detractors claim she is all evil and a “black witch”. There is little doubt that if she becomes Queen she will reign as a Red Queen and many “heads will off”. She has claimed that she is well-trained to be a Queen since she had been the consort of a previous King (the infamous King Bill of Lewinsky). Many suspect that King Bill had only become King, and remained King, because she had used her witchcraft and her weirding powers not only to eliminate all whistlers but also to procure buxom paramours to satisfy the depravities of the King. Nevertheless, Lady Hills has developed and enlarged her own band of bewitched sycophants and acolytes who are now leading the charge to have her enthroned as Queen. During the campaign to get her included on the final list, she has used her witchcraft to very good effect and has ensured that her sycophants and fellow witches have eliminated all opposition. The Witch Abedin and the Witch Brazile have been particularly adept at ensnaring gullible and perverted men to their cause and made sure that the aged but Honourable Bensanders, who tried to challenge for her place on the Final List, was discredited and humiliated. Many men were also bewitched and ensnared to the cause of Witch Hills. In any event Witch Hills of Little Rock won her place on the Final List to be considered by the people for monarch. King Bho – who was himself the first ever monarch of mixed blood – now supports, though somewhat reluctantly, the elevation of Witch Hills to become the first ever Queen of the Once Great Country.
The second contender on the Final List is a professional buffoon but an, apparently, very rich buffoon. Clown de Trump has had a raucous and an eventful journey on his way onto the Final List. He was opposed by many dull and sober men (and even a dull and sober woman), of little talent, along the way. But they were all – unexpectedly – laughed away by a disillusioned audience. All the spectators who were expecting a sober play were blown away by the farce which developed. The slapstick nature of the competition meant that Clown de Trump dominated the proceedings and his sober opponents could not keep up. They all fell, one after another, by the wayside, extinguished by the roustabout and their own lack of talent. Finally, only Clown de Trump was left standing to take his place in the Final List. He promised the people that he would Make the Country Great Again, which was very uplifting but nobody – not even Clown de Trump – had any idea of how he would achieve that. He promised to bring Law and Order back to the Once Great Country and that struck a nerve.
With just a week to go before the Great Convention of November 8th, the war of words between Witch Hills of Little Rock and Clown de Trump is now reaching a crescendo. Most people are expecting Witch Hills to win and be crowned Queen. But the buffoon is still in the lists and is refusing to go quietly. A witch or a buffoon? The people shall decide what they themselves deserve.
The world watches, bemused and bewildered. Is this truly what this Once Great Country been reduced to? A witch or a buffoon?
Getting some perspective.
The Hillary Clinton/Huma Abedin relationship may have hidden depths beyond just the great tolerance shown to perverted and erring partners. However the combination was a very badly leaking sieve. I don’t doubt that the Germans, the Russians, the Chinese, the Israelis and the Japanese and maybe even the Saudis (but probably not the British) have copies of everything Hillary and Huma sent to each other and themselves. It seems the main reason that Huma Abedin sent encrypted, unprintable messages to herself on 3rd party email addresses was essentially for “confidentiality laundering” so that they could be printed (and passed on in unencrypted form).
On page 3 of their 11-page report, the agents detail how they showed Abedin a classified paper on Pakistan sent from a State Department source which she, in turn, inexplicably forwarded to her personal Yahoo email account — an obviously unclassified, unencrypted, unsecured and unauthorized system. The breach of security was not an isolated event but a common practice with Abedin.
“She (Abedin) routinely forwarded emails from her state.gov account to either her clintonemail.com or her yahoo.com account,” the agents wrote. Why? “So she could print them” at home and not at her State Department office.
Even if without any malign purposes (which itself is not very credible) it is remarkably irresponsible for a Secretary of State and almost certainly a felony. The convolutions involved in laundering away the confidentiality suggest that the intentions were not entirely benign.
Hillary leaking
The k2p blog 