27 October 2016
By Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
Americans will vote on 8 November to decide who will be the country's next
president to lead the nation to a peaceful path without wars and bloodbaths.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have presented a crude irony to the poll that
American people have been provided with a choice between not only the two most
unpopular candidates, but also the two most reactionary candidates in modern
history.
The usual battle for
the White House by two-party system is nearing the end point. World is damn
sure that irrespective of who win the battle would continue the Bushdom agenda
of permanent war on Islam by using many Muslim rulers like Syrian leader Assad.
With capitalism facing serious crakes
globally, (notwithstanding the strenuous efforts by World bank and IMF to
promote capitalism), imperialism could face obstructions and so US president
would strive hard to promote both capitalism and imperialism to phase out the
''enemies'' and stabilize the ''world order'' to benefit these anti-humanity
features on a permanent basis.
Ritualistic performance?
''They came, performed and disappeared''- this description fits well for the
US presidential candidates -Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald
Trump – who joined the three ''joint'' debates on the worthiness of their
candidature.
Neither the Republican nor the Democratic person has any real vision about USA
but in public mudslinging they have outsmarted the third world leaders. When
the elected presidents are not duty bound to fulfill all their promises,
pledges and programs, now the empty debates make the life easy for the next
President too as he or she can be assured of space in NATO permanent war
project on Islam for securing energy resources and for reducing Islamic
populations. Pentagon led Nato terror wars can be a perfect tool for the
president to justify all their illegal actions at home.
Clearly, Donald Trump and Hillary
Clinton, the only two presidential candidates of the permitted parties, viz
Republican and Democratic, debated only those useless issues without any
substance, without any values for the society and governance, leaving out
important issues.
They're the
only candidates that stand a real chance of winning the race, but there are
other third-party and independent candidates in the running. The rules around
getting on the ballot differ state to state, but most voters will have two
main alternatives to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Clearly, there is no clarity in their
debates as to how and where exactly these two candidates would differ as the
one to replace the incumbent president Obama who is heavily burned with
several wars abroad.
The third
and final of the Trump- Clinton presidential debates was just as false and
intellectually degraded as the first two, characterized by lies by both
candidates and mutual mudslinging. Trump and Clinton replied with mutual
hatred, first about the allegations of sexual harassment by Trump which have
been the focus of a week-long media barrage, then the charges of ''pay to
play'' at the Clinton State Department, with donors to the Clinton Foundation
receiving special access.
Both
candidates gave themselves the widest possible latitude for escalating the US
military aggression throughout the Middle East in the name of fighting
''terrorism.'' Clinton went on to advocate a wider war in the Middle East
while concealing her plans after taking office, claiming she would ''not
support putting American troops back into Iraq as an occupying force.''
Trump: ''Our inner cities are a disaster… I will do more for the African
Americans than she will do in 10 lifetimes.'' Perhaps most remarkable,
however, was when moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump to support the election
results. He refused to do so. Trump accused the media of poisoning people's
minds. He said Clinton shouldn't have been allowed to run for president. It
was Trump in a bunker, settling scores and lashing out at enemies real and
perceived.
During the debate,
Trump called Clinton a liar and hit back that she was a Russian puppet, not
him. By the time the topic turned to ''fitness to be president'', the stage
was set for a total meltdown. He said the woman who has accused him of sexual
harassment were in it for the fame and were Clinton campaign stooges.
Consensual candidate?
The final 2016 presidential debate took place on October 19 night, and
expectations were not high either. Apparently, both leaders debated only those
issues that seemed agreed upon in advance. That has been the practice of US
politics cutting across the two-party system. The presidential candidates,
therefore, have not been asked questions on some of the critical issues facing
the nation that is fighting illegal wars abroad in Middle East on fake
pretexts.
US establishment which generally decides who should be the next president and
also work for that, is still seen busy with a Hillary win and Trump defeat.
Clinton has become the consensus candidate of Wall Street and the
military-intelligence apparatus, and, increasingly, of the Republican as well
as the Democratic wing of the political establishment. It is significant that
Trump never identified himself as a Republican or made any reference to the
Republican Party during the debate, while Clinton repeatedly invoked the names
of Republican presidents, including Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and
contrasted them to Trump. Hillary is ready to claim to be the next president
in January 2017.
Far more
rapidly than most people are aware, the quarter-century of war waged by the US
since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the fifteen years of the ''war
on terror,'' are metastasizing into a direct confrontation with the larger
geopolitical rivals of the United States.
This immense war danger has been
virtually excluded from the presidential election campaign and all but ignored
by what presents itself as the political ''left'' in the United States. After
a quarter-century of unending war, including eight years under Obama–the first
president to serve two full terms with the country continuously at war–there
is no functioning antiwar movement.
Donald Trump disgorged more of his
predictable and already tiresome tirades. Words poured out in randomly
shuffled stacks, like cards dealt by a drunken croupier. One imagines him
under the hot lights, reeking of narcissism, Trump ''Success'' aftershave, and
flop sweat. If Trump manages to bring up jobs and trade, he may reprise his
only strong moment from the first two debates.
Once again, Hillary Clinton spends far
too much time belaboring the rather obvious fact that Donald Trump is a
''horrible'' human being. Recent Clinton ads attacking Trump have featured
everyone from military veterans to obnoxious movie characters.
The Clinton campaign calculates that its
candidate is likelier to prevail by 'disqualifying' Trump — using ads to make
the idea of voting for him socially unacceptable in professional suburbs —
among additional well-educated voters … than by holding on to working-class
voters tempted by Trump's populism …'' In one sense, it's hard to blame them
for devoting so much effort to dissing the Donald. An old political cliché
says, ''Don't interrupt your enemy when he's in the process of destroying
himself.'' It must be tempting to take that one step further and offer a
helping hand.
Many voters can
be persuaded to despise a privileged, bigoted, misogynistic, bullying, lying,
pompous, self-regarding jackass. But Trump has undoubtedly convinced most of
those voters already.
Clinton
could choose to ''go high'' instead, using the debate platform to offer
uplifting proposals around the issues that matter most to voters – issues like
jobs, wages, growth, student debt, and criminal justice. When it comes to
uplift, moderator Chris Wallace won't be much help. Wallace made it clear that
he plans to abdicate his journalistic responsibility on Wednesday night. He
likened the moderator's job to ''being a referee in a heavyweight championship
fight,'' a statement that trivializes the democratic process.
The phrase ''debt and entitlements''
reflects a misguided, inside-the-Beltway financial mindset. This is not the
first time Social Security has been badly served in this year's debates. The
third most popular question submitted for October 9's so-called ''town hall''
debate was, ''Do you support expanding, and not cutting, Social Security's
modest benefits?'' It became even timelier after this week's announcement that
Social Security's next cost of living adjustment will be a ''measly'' 0.3
percent, an average monthly increase of only $5 per month, despite the fact
that drug prices and other medical costs have soared.
Issues
Both have very cleverly avoided foreign policy even in the final debate. They
have no explanation for the continuation of terror wars even after their
''objectives' have been sufficiently achieved. Nor did they touch upon serious
problems affecting domestic policy, they ignored the basic human rights in the
most advanced nation on earth.
On every issue of domestic policy raised in the course of the 90-minute
debate—democratic rights, immigration, economic policy, social
spending—Clinton employed liberal rhetoric, claiming to defend abortion
rights, the legalization of most undocumented workers, government-funded
job-creation, a rise in the minimum wage, equal pay for women workers, and an
increase in Social Security benefits. Clinton aides openly discuss the need to
make such bogus promises in order to fool the American people, and Clinton
herself reassures her Wall Street paymasters that they should take her
campaign promises with a very large grain of salt.
On national security issues she gave a
glimpse of the ''genuine'' hawkish Clinton, the arch militarist who sought to
close the deal with the US ruling elite by demonstrating her hard-line defense
of imperialist interests around the world.
Speaking for the first time in his entire campaign with some seriousness,
Trump touched a number of ultra-right talking points calling for the
appointment of Supreme Court justices, for a wall along the US-Mexico border
and to deport millions of undocumented workers, and pointing out, correctly,
that President Obama has deported many millions already. Trump appealed to the
economic grievances of working people, declaring that expelling immigrant
workers, renegotiating trade agreements to bar foreign imports and slashing
taxes on the wealthy and the corporations would generate an unprecedented
economic boom, with annual GDP growth of six or seven percent. He declared
that ''millions of people are registered to vote that should not be allowed to
vote,'' then added that Clinton herself ''should never have been allowed to
run for president because of what she did with emails and so many other
things.''
For the first time in any of the debates, the question of a US-Russian
conflict in Syria was broached when Wallace asked Clinton directly about her
support for a no-fly zone over Aleppo and other contested Syrian cities. A
no-fly zone meant war with Syria and Russia, and if a Russian plane violates
the no-fly zone, does President Clinton shoot it down? Clinton simply ducked
the question, claiming that the no-fly zone, an act of war against Syria and
its allies, Russia and Iran, would be the subject of ''negotiation.''
Capitalist funds and spending
Immoral act of fund raising from the rich and corporate lords by the party
candidates makes the presidential poll a total farce. Those who ''offer huge
sums'' to the candidates obviously expect ''return favors'' from the next
president. The candidates thus spend huge resources on the campaign.
New poll finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission outlined
their dramatically different approaches to the quest for the White House.
Trump, while putting more money than ever into advertising, spent a fraction
of the roughly USD 66 million Clinton poured into media buys.
Defying his notorious stinginess, Donald Trump more than doubled his campaign
spending last month compared to August. He burned through roughly USD 70
million as his standing in polls and among fellow Republicans dropped. His
Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, spent even more, almost USD 83 million.
Clinton's payroll topped 800 people, coming in as her second-highest expense
of the month, about USD 5.5 million.
Trump paid roughly 350 employees and consultants. He has outsourced most of
his on-the-ground voter contact to the Republican Party. The New York real
estate mogul has bragged until recently about his low-cost campaign and
dismissed the need for television ads and polling services. But in September,
he paid USD 23 million for commercials. In August he paid Conway's The Polling
Company 130,000. Last month, he almost tripled his payment to her company,
part of USD 1.7 million in September expenditures to five different polling
firms.
Another big expense: Long-ago ousted Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski
received a total of USD 100,000. Lewandowski was fired in June and quickly
became a paid contributor to CNN. That hasn't stopped him from collecting
Trump campaign checks thanks to a contract. In September, his Green Monster
Consulting firm collected what the campaign said was its final payout to him.
His firm took in about USD 540,000 over the course of the campaign. As a
comparison, Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, has been paid about USD
153,000 so far. One of Clinton's expenditures causes a double-take. Her
campaign reimbursed employees who purchased USD 260 worth of products from
Trump International Hotel in New York.
Poll rigged and hijacked?
Commentators point out the US election administration is highly
de-centralized, with each state setting its own rules and local officials
administering them. In most states, observers keep tabs on poll workers too.
Voter ID requirements and voting machines also have huge variations, so
widespread rigging would be hard to co-ordinate. ''It's bipartisan, it's
transparent, and there's just no justification for concern about widespread
voter fraud.'' Former House Speaker and Republican Newt Gingrich harked all
the way back to the Richard Nixon versus JFK 1960 election this weekend,
saying no ''serious historian doubts that Illinois and Texas were stolen''.
His comments refer to allegations that JFK's operatives – allegedly with the
collusion of public officials – fixed tallies in Texas and Illinois, giving
him 51 electoral votes, and ultimately winning him the closely contested
election.
In 2014, when Obama
was reelected to White House, 31 known cases of impersonation fraud were found
in one billion votes cast in all US elections between 2000 and 2014. And in
2012, News21 analysis of 2,068 alleged election-fraud cases since 2000 turned
up some 10 cases of voter impersonation. The idea that the US election will be
rigged is ''ludicrous'', and ''certainly not stolen in the way that Trump has
alleged,'' according to Professor Richard Hasen, an expert in election law.
The Trump campaign has made claims of ''election rigging'' for months, blaming
the ''dishonest and distorted media'' and the ''Clinton machine'' for the
Republican's slide in battleground states in the polls. But now the rhetoric
has reached new heights, with Trump launching a twitterstorm to hammer home
his allegations. A third of Republicans say they have a great deal or quite a
bit of confidence that votes will be counted fairly, according to the
Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Donald Trump has alleged that ''large scale voter fraud'' is occurring in the
US, but is it possible to rig the US election? However, studies suggest voter
fraud isn't really a widespread problem in the USA.
In the third debate, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tried to
be restrained, cool and matured- rather ready to assume presidency. He really
did calling his previous version as mere gimmicks. During the first section of
the third presidential debate, when the topic was the Supreme Court, if you
squinted you could almost imagine that this was just another presidential
race, with two candidates squaring off and vigorously discussing their public
policy positions on abortion and gun control. Even the immigration discussion
started reasonably civilly, until Clinton pivoted to turn a question about
Wikileaks into an attack on Trump's relationship with Russia and Vladimir
Putin.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton sparred at debate over gun rights, with the
Republican nominee charging that the Second Amendment is ''under absolute
siege'' and would be eroded if his opponent wins. Trump, in the final three
weeks, is thought to be zeroing in on several key battlegrounds including
Florida, Ohio and North Carolina – but the polls suggest his path to the
presidency remains narrow, as even once-reliably red states like Texas are
being contested by the Clinton campaign.
Trump, slipping in the polls amid various campaign controversies, said at the
last debate that Clinton should be in jail – while moderating a press
conference for women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault. Clinton
has blasted Trump all along as temperamentally unfit for office.
Trump accused the media of poisoning people's minds. He said Mrs Clinton
shouldn't have been allowed to run for president. It was Trump in a bunker,
settling scores and lashing out at enemies real and perceived.
For a commentator, the irony with the Trump campaign's remarks about election
rigging is most of them suggest there will be in-person voter impersonation on
election day, which studies show is the rarest form of voter fraud. He says
the most common forms of voter fraud are election official fraud – either in
the form of stuffing ballot boxes, or ''losing'' ballots – and absentee ballot
fraud.
Observations
The American political system, in which two right-wing corporate-controlled
parties have long enjoyed a monopoly, is staggering toward the finish line
under conditions of a global crisis so deep that no one can be certain what
the world will look like when the votes are counted on November 8.
With just 20 days to the election, millennials suggest they'd rather die than
vote for the two main parties while Canadians try to keep their neighbors'
spirits up.
The candidates' third and final debate sets the tone for the homestretch of
the 2016 presidential campaign – a race that already stands out as arguably
the most personal, caustic and unpredictable White House battle in modern
politics.
WikiLeaks has embarrassed the Clinton campaign by releasing thousands of
hacked emails purportedly from her campaign chairman's account. FBI files
alleging a State Department official sought a ''quid pro quo'' to alter the
classification on a Clinton server email added to the campaign's – and Obama
government's – woes.
Media promote imperialism being represented by Hillary. Since the
establishment hawks in USA have already decided to make Hillary the successor
of Obama, it would be extremely difficult for Trump to win presidency, but
nothing is impossible.
The routine US presidential poll campaign formality is over. The third and
final debate is finished! The candidates go their separate ways without a
handshake. Clinton walks off stage first. Of course, no love lost there,
that's for sure. What would be the fate of Americans?
To date, the controversies have appeared to hurt Trump more than Clinton, who
has gradually expanded her lead over the GOP nominee in recent polls.
Media lords want the terror wars to continue and so the Bushdom agenda being
pursued vigorously by Obama. Trump's vulgarity and demagoguery, together with
the media's insatiable appetite for ratings, have made this campaign a race to
the bottom. The night's biggest question won't be asked by the moderator. The
question is: How low can this race go before it's over?
With media projecting Hillary as the best choice to promote terror wars and
Islamophobia, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have clashed in Las Vegas in
final debate. Mrs Hillary Clinton vows to uphold women's and LGBT rights,
while Trump pledges to protect gun rights; Trump said he expects a key ruling
that made abortion legal in the US to be overturned if president; She says
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Trump elected because he is his puppet;
Polls suggest Clinton is ahead nationally and in key battleground states.
However, Donald Trump gained on Hillary
Clinton among American voters off late, cutting her lead nearly in half
despite a string of women accusing him of unwanted sexual advances and the
furor over his disputed claims that the election process is rigged, according
to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. Clinton, the Democratic former
secretary of state, led Trump 44 percent to 40 percent, according to the Oct.
14-20 poll, a 4-point lead, with the Nov. 8 election fast approaching. That
compared with 44 percent for Clinton and 37 percent for Trump in the Oct. 7-13
poll released last week.
If the
upward swings and shifts continue Trump would land in White House to control
the world. USA would wait for some more years to have their first ever woman
president who is honest and sincere, unlike hawkish warmongering Hillary who
over exposed as a terror inspired US leader.
The poll was a conspiracy and hence
questions on Trump's unwanted sexual advances scandal were asked of 1,915
American adults, including 546 likely Republican voters. It had a credibility
interval of 3 percentage points for all adults and 5 points for Republican
voters. Trump's deficit narrowed to what it was before a video surfaced on
Oct. 7 featuring him bragging about groping and kissing women. Several women,
supporting Hillary, have since accused him of making unwanted sexual advances
in separate incidents from the early 1980s to 2007. Trump has denied the
allegations, calling them ''totally and absolutely false.''
Hillary Clinton has long been the
frontrunner in this contest but there have been times where she has looked far
from comfortable. The most recent examples came back-to-back in early
September. First, she made headlines by labeling half of Donald Trump's
supporters a ''basket of deplorable'', allowing her rival to conclude it was
evidence of her disdain for ''hardworking people''.
Mrs. Clinton had been suffering from
pneumonia fuelling further rumours about her health – rumours that some of her
critics have been pushing for months. The news about her ''sudden illness''
helps Hillary in poll rating. Her poll numbers took a noticeable hit in the
days that followed, but they appeared to recover towards the end of September.
While both candidates are unfit to be
the US president, now Americans have no choice but to vote for one of them. If
by mistake they prefer Hillary that would be their hilarious fate. One still
hopes something good emerging out of Trump's mind that would benefit USA and
world at large. Polls suggest Clinton is ahead nationally and in key
battleground states.
In order to overcome the high level expectations and manipulations, Trump and
his advisers should be prudent enough to understand the under current in the
campaigns trying to wean away the votes from Trump camp.
The high light of the final debate is
that it has witnessed a reformed Trump performing.
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