Glenn Kirschner – AG Merrick Garland appoints a special counsel to investigate Trump’s crimes. Will justice EVER come?
The Lincoln Project – War Drums
MSNBC – The Stark Contrast Between Pelosi’s Accomplishments And The House GOP Agenda (another long one … but it covers 20 yearsa
Real Subtitles? – Bad day for the general.
Baby elephant tickles Kenyan journalist’s nose with trunk during news report VERY short -and very cute.
Beau – Let’s talk about Native artifacts being returned….
Glenn Kirschner – Mike Pence reveals Trump’s crimes in book but WON’T testify about Trump’s crimes to the J6 committee
The Lincoln Project – Trump’s Announcement (I doubt they would, but technically, the people atopped from leaving could sue him for the tort of false arrest.)
MSNBC – Secy. Austin: Poland Missile Incident ‘Most Likely’ Caused By Ukrainian Air Defense
Ring of Fire – DOJ Hits Back At Trump Claims In New Court Filing
Colbert – The Announcement The Former President Should Have Made
Kitten Left Without a Home is Adopted by One Special Momma
Beau – Let’s talk about Trump as Speaker of the House…. (It took me a bit to check the cap … but way under 2 minutes.)
Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s announcement of another presidential run will have ZERO impact on criminal investigations
The Lincoln Project – It begins again
MSNBC – Liz Cheney Gets The Last Word In Arizona After Lake’s Defeat
Farron Balanced – IRS Asks Supreme Court To PLEASE Let Them Release Trump’s Tax Returns (Weeks can go by without me finding even one from both of Farron’s channels combined. As of now, I have a backlong such that I may not get to all of them before they are obsolete. Go figure.)
Puppet Regime – Rishi Sunak Doesn’t Want To Hear It
Guy Saves Bald Eagle From Drowning In River
Beau – Let’s talk about the GOP distancing from Trump….
Glenn Kirschner – Trump sues J6 committee to keep from testifying. His lawsuit is bogus but his goal is delay. [Donald Trump** is a living, breathing, walking, talking “unwarranted intrusion upon the office of the Presidency.”]
MSNBC – Michael Cohen: “Donald Has A Fragile Ego So There’s Not A Diaper Big Enough For Him”
Robert Reich – What the Democrats Must Do If Republicans Take the House
John Fugelsang – Both Sides Do It! (/s)
Watch What Happens When A 14-Year-Old Dog Finally Leaves The Shelter
Beau – Let’s talk about CEOs “destroying the planet”….
Glenn Kirschner – AG Garland moving toward a prosecutorial decision on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago classified documents crimes
MSNBC – Chris Hayes: Three Reasons Democrats Avoided A Red Wave In The Midterms
Farron Balanced – Executive Throws Trump Under The Bus During Tax Fraud Trial
Real Subtitles? – A disastrous press conference.
Feral Cat Holds His Foster Mom’s Hand
Beau – Let’s talk about who outside the US won the midterms….
I’ve been posting disappointed, cynical and perhaps even angry comments on Politics Plus since the polling booths closed. That may seem a little unfair to many Democrats who are happy the Red Wave didn’t come to fruition and election day was spared expected violence from the right. However, as seen from afar through a democratic lens, both events are not enough. We had hoped for more. I leave it to Stan Grant, an Australian analyst, to explain what the American midterms mean to a long-term ally. His article is taken in full from the ABC News site.
You can hear the sighs of relief that the anticipated red wave in the American midterm elections did not happen.
The United States has been spared a resurgent Trumpism … at least for now. The question is: why did anyone think there would be a resounding Republican triumph?
Remember the presidential election? The same pundits were predicting a blue wave. An America exhausted by the turmoil of the Trump years, they said, would swing behind the Democrats and Joe Biden.
Well, just like now, there was no wave. Yes, Biden won the presidency. But nearly 70 million people voted for Donald Trump, the highest number of votes ever for a sitting president.
America is divided. That’s the point. These midterms have just underlined it.
The US is wracked with political tribalism, cutting across fault lines of class, race and geography. So weird is American politics that in a poll before the midterms most Americans believed the Democratic Party, not the Trump Republicans, is the more extreme.
America is so unruly. So apparently ungovernable that some have even wondered if the Union itself will hold. At their most breathless, prophets of doom have warned of civil war.
Of course, America has been here before. It has actually had a civil war. In the 1960s the United States was torn apart by political assassinations, riots, racism and economic strife. In the 1970s it weathered Watergate and the corruption of the Nixon presidency.
America can always rebound. It is still a beacon for so many. At its best it remains a dazzling place. But equally the past 50 years may just prove that America’s unravelling is long and deep.
Those breathing a little easier now need to ask themselves what they are celebrating. A Biden reprieve? The likelihood of another Biden term at the next presidential election? What is there to be relieved about in an ailing nation where far too many have abandoned hope?
Biden has not arrested American decline. Inflation is rampant. The economy is shrinking. The poor are getting poorer. Life expectancy is decreasing. Americans have less faith in democracy, not more.
When Biden took power he promised to re-energise the country. America would build things again. It would regain its moral core. It would lead the world, not shrink from leadership. America is back, said Biden.
But what has happened? Serious questions are being asked about Bidenomics: his stimulus cash splash only fuelled inflation. His America is more protectionist. He urges Americans to buy American; laws promote the use of American iron and steel and hands out subsidies to local manufacturers in industries like electric vehicles.
All of that might boost local jobs. But analysts warn there is a downside. Protectionism hurts other nations. It inspires tit for tat – beggar thy neighbour – economic retaliation.
The Economist newspaper recently warned of increasing red tape, of higher prices for goods, dulling Biden’s “go-green” environmental push. It warned that such measures tempts other countries into China’s orbit.
The Economist wrote: “Rather than putting up barriers, America should reap the benefits of openness.”
Abroad, Biden’s first two years in office were marked by the humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan. The most powerful military in the world humbled by the Taliban.
Yes, Biden has sought to rally democracies. He has thrown his support – but not troops on the ground – behind Ukraine in its defence against Russian invasion.
Biden says don’t bet against America. But the jury is out on that.
Putin’s Russia is not Xi Jinping’s China. There is a greater threat looming: war over Taiwan. Biden has been confused and confusing in his response. He pledges that the US will defend Taiwan only for the White House to have to walk back his words.
China, not Russia, looms over the 21st century. It is on track to usurp the US as the biggest economy in the world. Even as its economy slows it is still growing at around 4 per cent while America stands on the brink of recession with growth at 1 per cent.
Joe Biden will now sit down with Xi Jinping, a meeting of the world’s two most powerful leaders. Both leaders need the meeting. Both face headwinds. But Xi Jinping believes he needs America less than America needs China.
For certain, Biden cannot dismiss Xi. The unipolar world – the American century – looks to be over. The era of great power competition is upon us again as the Chinese ask: Can two tigers live on the same mountain?
Xi Jinping is a wild card. President for life. He dresses in military fatigues and warns of war. But Xi is not Vladimir Putin. He cannot easily be put in the deep freeze and Biden must talk with him.
A rapprochement is too much to expect but new Cold Warriors who think China can be isolated, who imagine a showdown with China, flirt with catastrophe.
This is the backdrop to the midterm elections: war, the threat of war, economic strife, an ailing America and a nation far from the so-called shining city on the hill.
What do the midterms tell us? Donald Trump is weakened but it is too soon to write him off. He still has a grip on the Republican Party.
Trump is a carnival act. An American Barnum and Bailey creation. He’s personally odious and politically dangerous. He has concocted conspiracies. Incited insurrection. Exploited racism. Bragged of his misogyny and sexual predatory.
Yet he speaks to the dying heart of the country. His vision is American carnage, not American dreams. And right now, for too many Americans, that sounds right.
After the elections American politics faces gridlock. Neither party commands the country. But the midterms were not just about Democrats and Republicans. They were about America.
And that means they were about all of us.
Stan Grant is the ABC’s international affairs analyst and presenter of Q+A on Thursday at 8.30pm. He also presents China Tonight on Monday at 9:35pm on ABC TV, and Tuesday at 8pm on the ABC News Channel.
Glenn Kirschner – Mike Pence reveals in his book that he refused to report/covered-up Donald Trump’s election crimes (While I agree that was wrong – who was he going to tell? Bill Barr? Jeffrey Clark? Anyone else in Donald Trump**’s Justice Department? Yes, he could have talked to Biden’t DOJ once it existed. Or, yeah, a Federal judge.)
MSNBC – Huma Abedin: Everything Has Now Changed For Biden
Thom Hartmann – You Won’t Believe What Far Right Did To Stop Midterm Votes For Democrats (sorry it’s so long.)
Ring of Fire – Trump Staffers Admit To Treating Him Like A Toddler To Appease Him
Liberal Redneck – 2022 Midterm Results
Beau – Let’s talk about the economic power of the parties…
Glenn Kirschner – Trump teases “big announcement” on 11/15. But a presidential bid will NOT shield him from indictment
The Lincoln Project – Donald Trump v. Marco Rubio
Meidas Touch on Twitter (I searched, but it’s not on YouTube)
📺 NEW VIDEO with @CAPAction
Here are the facts: Republican-led states have much HIGHER crime rates than Democratic-led states. This is not a game. #MAGALiesCostLives pic.twitter.com/N9o6ndjk2D
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) November 7, 2022
Farron Balanced – Investigators Think Trump Also Stole Valuable Gifts From White House
Armageddon Update – Poll Suckers (It was 1948 and it was Truman, and in those days people with phones tended to be richer than those who didn’t)
Beau – Let’s talk about Trump, NY, and the monitor….