i’m going to be posting a lot less on NM in the future simply because the rhetoric around Trump and now Biden doesn’t sit well with me. Biden has been duly elected as POTUS and all the caterwauling by some Trumpists doesn’t/won’t change that.
Andrei et all will have it that I have a visceral hatred of Trump … wrong, I don’t do hatred. Do hatred and you inhabit another (dark) dimension. For myself and I can happily acknowledge that Trump tapped a deep well of dissatisfaction by middle America with establishment Washington and, the election notwithstanding, that dissatisfaction remains in place today with a sizeable minority of Americans (75 million) who see their government as failing to represent their concerns and aspirations. Actually, I would argue that Trump was the ultimate RHINO (look that up if you have to). His agenda was an inward looking America riding a populist agenda more in tune with the America First Party founded by Gerald LK Smith after he split with the Republican Party in 1944. Bottom line … Trump was always more Trump than Republican. He did it his way.
And to be fair he had a raft of foreign policy successes that he could boast of as well as presiding over a generally booming economy although his abject failure to rein in the federal deficit which ballooned over the four years he held office office was a huge black mark against him. Balanced budgets and Trump are mutually exclusive. His approach reflected the way he did business.
But the fact remains that had he shown a modicum of leadership over the COVID he would have won the election hands down. He didn’t and paid the price and post the election he lost it pure and simple culminating in his encouragement of his more rabid followers to seize the moment and storm the Capital in order to prevent the Senate from certifying the result … five fatalities ensued including a police officer bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher. Trump has blood on his hands.
And that’s his legacy and that’s what the Senate will be looking at when Trump goes to trial the week after next.
No Minister 
Veteran, you will be a loss. We rarely agree, but you are far more measured than Adolf and Tom.
I notice Milt seems to have closed his part of the blog, nothing new in about 3 months. Just another victim of the Long March Through No Minister by Hunter and his acolytes, I guess.
Lord Egbut, PM, and now you – Tom has almost achieved his aim of making this a poorman’s WO.
Vet, with friends like Anne Tiffa you’ll be pretty lonely.
I am frequently bewildered by both the intensity of emotion and the apparent abandonment of logical thought that comes into play when Ex-President Trump is being discussed online. In one year he has gone from a largely successful (but very polarising) President who was almost certainly assured of a second term to being blamed for everything that went wrong in 2020 some of which was, and continues to be, fuelled by media propaganda campaigns and Deep State initiatives to ramp up public hysteria and disorder and hound him out of office no matter the negative effect on the body politic or the immense cost to the US general public and to people in other countries around the world.
My opinion is that the Jan 6th protest in Washington DC was hijacked and stage managed to benefit the left, inflame public sentiment against Trump and provide ammunition to justify another sham impeachment.
I’m not more than mildly irked by this and can discuss it in an unsentimental and objective fashion. I will be very interested to see how this plays out and where the political pendulum swings next.
A shrewder politician might have seen where a March up the Mall would end. It certainly gave an opportunity to hotheads, provocateurs and idiots. A shrewder politician would have won a second term. Why antagonize friends? And attacking McCan, Mattis etc just offended all their fronds and admirers. So unnecessary. A very strange man indeed. There is some sort of personality disorder there. Such a pity. It’s RINO by the way. An H changes its meaning quite a lot!
All succesful politicians are strange Max – most of them are sociopaths who have found a legitimate outlet for their sociopathy
Adolf … AT ain’t my friend and I’ve never subscribed to the the view that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Max, as ever you’re right re RINO although you might argue Mr T has the hide of a rhinoceros.
For the record I’m pulling back, not going. I won’t be commenting on US politics too much more. Can I thank those who have taken the trouble to contact me since then. Your comments appreciated.
Vet: can I add a tribute and my regrets? Your comments on US political matters would be appreciated and do not have to include any part of the Trump debate, except where it is relevant eg a future Patriot Party. From now on you can concentrate on Biden/Harris. Lots of substance there eg to frack or not? During the 2nd debate he promised an end to fracking. That lasted less than 24 hours! Lots more – 9,000 Hondurans heading for Texas might be worth a comment. 11 million new citizens, most of them Spanish mono lingual might raise an eyebrow. Although lots of maids and gardeners @ $10 an hour. I think Mr Biden has some challenges which have nothing to do with Trump.
Joe Biden President: elected to the Senate 1972 – time in Senate 48 years
Chuck Schumer: Senate Majority Leader: elected to the Senate 1998 – time in Senate 22 years, Elected Congress 1980, Time in Congrees 18 years, Time in Washington 41 years
Nancy Pelosi House Majority Leader: – Elected to Congress 1987, time in Congress 34 years
Senate Minority Leader: McConnell Elected to Senate 1984 time in Senate 36 years
House Minority Leader: Kevin McCarthy: Elected 2006, time in the House a mere 14 years, He did however inherit the seat from his predecessor Bill Thomas whose staff he joined in 1987. He is also the only one not joining the great Trump Pile on – there is a reason why and he is getting stick for it from the usual suspects
In the late Democracy era what we are witnessing is the rise of the professional politician and the technocratic ruling class for whom they serve as spokespeople
A classic example of such a one is of course our very own Jacinda Ardern.
Tony Blair and David Cameron are both British exemplars. In background and belief systems virtually indistinguishable despite representing different parties.
The 2020 American Elections were weird and to say otherwise is denying reality – why hearing a different perspective on this makes you so uncomfortable you wish to withdraw saddens me, worries me to some extent because challenging the prevailing wisdom is the way foreward
2020 was an inflection point in human affairs – I recognzed this back in March and certainly expressed this view multiple times in comments on this and other blogs – the world we lived in is dying and for better or worse a new one is emerging
Hi Vet, good to see you won’t be wasting your valuable time on US politics. That leaves more time to post on local issues and golf.
You need to stop repeating that BS about Officer Sicknick being beaten to death with a fire extinguisher. It’s fiction. He actually returned to his office and died of a heart attack. In fact, four of the supposed five deaths at this event were from people with medical conditions. Only Ashli Babbit, who was unarmed, was shot in cold blood. That’s not on Trump.
See, you keep trying to be “even-handed” about this, but you’re not are you? Much of your post is partisan propaganda, which if you bothered to fact check on non-Left media sources, you wouldn’t publish.
If this is your last post on US politics, then thank God.
BMH … wrong. Officer Sicknick returned to his office where he collapsed and was taken to hospital where he died from the injuries received. At the very least when you bash someone over the head with a fire extinguisher its culpable homicide. Do what you will in promoting the ‘Trump not my fault narrative’ and if inhabiting the dark side of politics pulls your chain then be my guest but, quite frankly I have better things to do with my life than to argue the toss with people who refuse to accept that Trump crossed the line.
I see a number of those charged in connection with the riot have claimed the Nuremberg Defense … Befehl ist Befehl (“an order is an order”) … we were acting on the orders of the Commander in Chief. Well, good luck with that. They’ll need it.
There was no fire extinguisher.
MOD: First sentence fine although a simple assertion rather than an argument.
That second sentence is simple abuse of an author and has been cut
Godwinning your own post Veteran –
As a matter of indisputable fact the disorder at the Capitol building began before Donald Trump had finished addressing his crowd
As a matter of indisputable fact one of those arrested and physically present when Ashli Babbit was shot was one John Sullivan of Utah a well known and prominant Antifa Activist.
Another well known arrestee is one Aaron Mostofsky of Brooklyn who prior to the riot and before Donald Trump had even arrived at the National Mall was interviewed on TV wearing fur pelts, a bulletproof vest and holding a protective sheild, purporting to be a Trump supporter. His Father is a New York Supreme Court Judge, who as you may know are elected in a partisan process. Unsurprisingly Aaron Mostofsky is a Registererd Democrat. Brooklyn has never had a strong Republican prescence
Another Arrestee was one Kevin Seefried, another Registered Democrat this time from Delaware who was the Confederate Flag man. Delaware of course remained firmly in the Union during the civil war and the Confederate Flag is an incongruity for a native of that State and is in fact an incongruity for a supporter of the Republican Party but then history and its symbols is not the strong suit of those invested in sowing discord and disharmony or reporters who alas in this day and age have been reduced mere propagandists
Donald Trump’s rally took place at the Lincoln Memorial of course about 2 miles fom the Capitol Building and was still underway when the freakshow people at the Capitol building started acting up and who also conveniently timed their invasion to disrupt Josh Hawley’s Senate address.
So while those facing charges might, in the hope of garnering some leniency invoke “Befehl ist Befehl” inorder to mitigate their own reprehensible behaviour, they cannot in reality have actually been at the Trump address at the National Mall – you cannot be in two places at once you see.
Now here’s a funny thing Veteran, you often criticize Russian Democracy, where voting is carried out in person, voter rolls are up to date and a passport, serving as official ID must be produced in order to cast ballot – these elections being monitored not only by party officials but international observers, who do find faults in the process as is their brief, but compared to the last elections as conducted in Wayne County Michigan, Fulton County, Georgia etc they are models of Electoral integrity.
Thanks for doing the hard yards and explaining it all in detail Andrei. I’ve never considered the story about Trump purposly starting a riot to have any credibility. This is simply because I consider any headline these days to be rubbish until proven otherwise.
Now that Trump is gone, I guess a lot of people need to find something else to be angry about.
Thinking on this Veteran your desire to move on from this might, and I only say might, reflect that you are actually undergoing a paradigm shift
I have been there, done that myself more than once , famously over the Iraq War – I was all for it back in the day, bought into the Neo Cons vision hook line and sinker
I flipped when Libya was bombed back into the middle ages and concluded I’d been fooled. I could write an essay on that
… Tom Hunter used to stalk me from blog to blog finding stuff I had written long ago to throw in my face
There you go you live, learn and hopefully grow in the process
I’ve been on holiday and not allowed to comment but I have been allowed to read.!
A big shout out to Tom Hunter and Andrei. I think you two have done superb work on Trump, and while in the past Andrei some of your posts have been a bit out there, your recent stuff on Trump and the corruption in America has been great reading.
The Vet of course damns Trump with faint praise.
His achievements have been outstanding. The best summary is of course his own final address. However you can find summaries elsewhere if your displacement syndrome doesn’t allow you to listen to President Trump.
The achievement not mentioned by Vet is of course the Oil and Gas policy. America is now the leading supplier of energy to the world, surpassing Saudi Arabia. Not worth a mention in Vets eyes
Tax cuts and regulation abolition…nah
Of course his biggest achievement…. getting elected! What a standout.? How many Americans out of 350 million could do that, 1 man Donald Trump.
I dont care a flying fuck about his personality. Look at Churchill… an asshole. JFK needed a root every day otherwise he got a migraine (the poor little rooter) In the finish they had to assassinate him..way to way out there for the Demorats.
Clinton loved to have his cock sucked. What does that say about his personal ethics.
So Vet has damned him with faint praise.
Any mention about what he had to overcome, being investigated by Barry Obama FBI, 4 years of the Russians put him in power, and on and on…
That approach by the Left has carried on and on and as Andrei says it is changing the face of society… for the worse.
The National Guard turning their backs says the deplorables aren’t finished yet
The pressure on him must have been enormous. I doubt many men could get all the calls right, having 500,000 people attend a rally probably played into his enemies hands and they took advantage of a free pass.
Still as The Spectator Australia said in an article, rather than 3 paragraphs, history will judge Trump kindly….. I agree totally
It aint over yet and America and the world are going to be poorer for it in so many ways…ways we dont even know about yet
And those coupla comments serve only to convince me I wuz right. Good bye DT. And yet clearly you have your acolytes continuing to run interference for you. Stalin and Hitler along with Kim Jong Un too have their sycophants singing their praises. Bed-fellas all.
Stalin and Hitler now Veteran and for good measure Kim Jong Un
Donald Trump is not going away Veteran – you might truely believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election with the most votes ever but millions of Americans don’t and that according to some opinion surveys includes 30% of Democrats and their opinions not yours or mine will drive future events,
And like it or not the man has his base, which is a very significant proportion of the American public,
Don’t forget the AGs of 17 States filed a case with the USSC over the way the election was conducted in 6 States, this case was dismissed on lack of Standing of the Plasintiffs 7-2. – The same case is on the docket filed by Donald Trumps campaign but it will be dismissed as moot when it comes up which is correct since the Biden Presidency is now a fait accompli . The Court kicked the can down the road, avoided the issue and will be judged harshly by history for so doing
There is the Senate impeachment is yet to come, while the National Guard remains in Washington DC and will do so until after the impeachment procedings. All of this providing the ambience of the aftermath of a coup d’etat rather than a new administration ruling by popular consent after a free, fair and transparent election.
This of course is a sure sign of how insecure they are and about the dumbest thing they could do if they want to promote unity and legitimacy for their new (ancien) regime
One of the mistakes you are making as major historical events unfold before our eyes is to focus on Donald Trump and ignore the deep structural failings within the USA that led to his election in the first place
There is a deeply intrenched political class within Washington DC who have cemented their hold on power while completly loosing completely lost touch with the American People, their aspirations and values – I put in a post above the major players and how long they have been there, geriatrics to a man and woman who have been in politics longer than the majority of Americans have been alive
And that my friend is a sure sign of a moribund polity in the days leading to its collaspse.
You have said you are not going to blog on this again – that might be hard because this and its consequences are going to provide the story of the decade
So where did Trump go wrong ?
One: He should have persecuted Hilary and her underlings mercilessly, she had a huge cash hoard used to undermine him.
Two: he should have tried Barry Obama as well>
Three: He should have purged his administration of Democrats, he left too many of the Obama administration in too many high offices.
Four: The FBI should have been purged too, aggressively. Layers and layers should have been dismissed.
Five: When Covid hit he should have found someone other than Fauci
Six, At least 6 state governors and other Democrat city Mayors should have been arrested and put on trial for manslaughter, and murder in the case of Cumo.
Vet says Covid was his downfall. Really. I doubt there was much he could have done any differently. He tried to put the emphasis on job creation and maintenance, over hysteria.
Will the annualise death rate be much different from the 10 year average… I doubt it.
Without doubt he was the victim of a corruption campaign in six swing states. You would have to be naive to claim otherwise. Voting in person with Id should be the only legitimate way to vote in a democracy.
Like any leader he was a victim of his own success and his own personality. Perhaps there are things he should have done differently but the forces arrayed against him were immense.
But he was also the victim of a campaign that no other leader has had to endure in modern history. It was unrelenting.
It was corrupt and untruthful. It joined elements of both parties and the national media in spinning lies and deceit without even a thought to balance.
It did not care what damage it did to the fabric of American society. That damage continues now with the change in Government..
His objective was to make America Great Again and to re-enfranchise his voting base.
In the finish he cracked but went with dignity. He also went with his voter base intact.
He is a great man, an the last few days has only reinforced that..
I look forward to his return but the cost to America of the the new regime, and those who replace the current incumbents in the next 6-12 months, will be extraordinary in monetary and societal terms that will make the fall of Rome look a bargain.
I see already China is flying planes over Taiwan….think on that..
Rossco,
Your points, One, Two, Three and Four? I thought the US was a country of law, with power being limited by rules and norms, it is not a dictatorship. How could have Trump launched any of these prosecutions and purges? He did not have the legal power to do so.
Anyway more to the point, it seems No Minister is to become the domain of Tom, Adolf and Gravedodger as primary authors. I guess there will be some readership for that, though I notice the number of comments is reducing.
I have taken No Minister off my Safari Reading List, given the preoccupation with US politics from a Trumpist perspective and the Covid skepticism. Though I will drop in occasionally to see how it is going.
Wayne what is it with you and the Veteran when it comes to hearing different perspectives from your own?
Are you familiar with the parable of “The Three Blind Men and the Elephant”
Every single one of us have a very incomplete picture of the world and on the limited data we have have to make sense of it
We each have our own cultural and educational backgroiunds with unique life experience
To me hearing what other people think most especially if they see things differently is how I develop a clearer picture of reality
Diversity of opinion is the very lifeblood of democracy – allowing and cherishing people challenging the accepted wisdom is how both science and society advance.
William Wilberforce challenged the acceptance of Slavery, for example, and took on powerful vested interests to get the slave trade outlawed. He was not popular in his time but he persisted and today is lauded for it
What do you want to do – only debate with people who agree with you?
Andrei,
Fair question. I guess it is the relentless covid skepticism, climate skepticism, and the level of focus and commitment to “stolen elections”, and Tom’s passion for a very conservative take on US politics that just became too much for me. Also Gravedodger’s Sunday photos. Altogether too partisan and too mocking.
For instance I don’t usually take much notice of climate denialists even though I read their material from time to time.
There was a time when No Minister was a place where there was reasonably thoughtful debate and the site was not so obviously at the hard end of the right. That no longer is the case.
In fact the title No Minister was supposed to evoke the TV series, Yes Minister. That implied the primary purpose was debate about the governmental issues in NZ taken from an informed skeptics perspective. There were contributions from left and right, and the debate was reasonably civil. Different views were as a rule not ridiculed. That ended two or so years ago.
As another example it is the difference between the British pages of the Spectator and the Australian pages. The Aussie pages are way too partisan and way too right way for me. Absolutely run over with Trumpism, stolen elections and climate change denialism.
This barely deserves a reply.
First, Grave Dodger is not the author of ‘Ho Ho Ho.’
Second, only leftist wankers use the non-word denialist. It makes them think they are educated. The word you needed was ‘denier.’ Like many hundred thousands of students of science, I don’t believe one word of the arrant bullshit spouted by Gore, Thunberg and that idiot Flannery.
Perhaps you could name just five of their dire predictions which have come to pass?
But I should know by now, you don’t do specifics.
Points well argued. I dance between the raindrops on climate change and say that I’d love it if we could move away from 19th century fossil fuels but there (currently) is nothing that can supply the required megawatts year ’round unless we embrace thorium nuclear breeder reactors or more hydropower at which point the hippie bearded unicyclists lose interest 🙂