Romney v Burns

The US Presidential election is throwing up some interesting attempts to influence the voter ..... who would have thought MAD Magazine was still going? I assumed it had died decades ago, but no, its still out there, and peddling its 60's brand of 'liberalism', and humour.

60's brand of liberalism?

I haven't actually seen a copy in decades, but I presume that it supports Pres. Obama's re-election campaign, else how can you explain the pull-out below?

Romney v Burns

Mind you, I think its fair to say that Mitt Romney probably wouldn't ever have been able to get far enough to be a candidate for the leadership in many democracies outside of the USA ..... even Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London looks more in touch with the common man than Mr Romney.

Race Politics - US Presidential Election 2012

In the USA the forthcoming US presidential election is causing some angst amongst the black supporters of President Obama.  One prominent black supporter the Rev Tim McDonald says that "It's not just an election about Mitt Romney and President Obama - this is an election about what direction our nation is going to head in, whether we're going to move forward or whether we're going to step back into the past. The past that was filled with racism and hate and denial".

Which is kinda odd, because he seems to be suggesting that going forward, the US must always have a minority (presumably black?) President, and that voting for a white President is no longer acceptable .... but what about an Hispanic or a Jewish President?

Also this kinda says my colour right or wrong, because under Obama, black unemployment in the US has rocketed to 15% since he came to power, and a record high of 36% of the African American community live in poverty. In fact, many prominent supporters delude themselves that his much heralded health reforms, were really secretly just for the black constituency, by bringing another 30 million Americans under the health umbrella, with the sub story being that most of these were black .. they even have apologists who espouse the theory that as black's have lagged behind every immigrant group to the US in the last 100 yrs (which is one admission of their social failure if ever there was one), then its only natural that in a recession they would suffer most again (literally rattling those chains again).

Many Obama Supporters Fear Defeat In The Second Campaign

Apparently many of the black community fundamentally believe that most of the opposition that President Obama is receiving is not because of the policies, it's not because of the issues, it's because of race, purely because he's black. ... but of course by that reckoning no one can complain about his presidency. This same PC nonsense pervades the US press, who either avoid the 'Race' question like the plague, or skirt round it such an extent that its becomes clichéd, or a taboo subject.

In some quarters, the question is whether the country is changing from a place where all immigrants are welcome, as long as they adopted the ethics of the founding Protestant fathers, to one where other ethnic identities and ethics are now equally valid models .... in other words, like the PC ridden UK where all cultural values no matter how regressive or backward, are treated as being of equal worth. A dangerous ideology, because the Chinese don't suffer from anything, except an excess of the protestant work ethic - certainly not the something for nothing ethics of some groups in the US.

However there is no denying one fact, and that that he's probably the first real black male role model for that community in generations (if ever - Dr Martin Luther King allegedly led a suspect love life), simply by being a great family man, articulate, hard working and being very intelligent.

That in fact may be his lasting legacy ... who knows?

Creationist In White House

How long have we been on the earth?

Well  the Christian scholars in bible studies (Bishop Usher et al).....have always said about 6,000 years old (as do many 'intelligent design' proponents as they are largely one and the same groups) ... Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC to be precise (although other Bible  scholars have come up with date ranges of 3761 BC (Jose ben Halafta), 3952 BC (the venerable Bede), and 3949 BC (Usher's near-contemporary Scaliger), even scientists such as Johannes Kepler or Sir Isaac Newton  had a go (c 3992 BC and c. 4000 BC respectively).

Modern science on the other hand, puts the age of the Earth as billions of years, and modern humanity alone in the hundreds of thousands of years (that's ignoring the Neanderthals and earlier direct lineage human species). The latest reports on rock art in Spain and Portugal dates some of it at about 40,000 years ago.

40,000 yr Old Hand Rock Art - Spain

Now either the science is just completely and utterly wrong, and the world was created around 6,000 years ago, or the creationists are complete nut cases (I know what I think). What makes this interesting is that all US Presidents have to profess a belief in a God (usually Christian .... although many still believe that Obama is a secret Muslim), but can't actually say out loud whether they believe the Bible is right or wrong on the matter.

Creationist Noah and His Ark Full Of Dinosaurs

This belief in the creationist theory rises significantly the more Protestant the Christians get. So for example in the US only 8% of Jehovahs Witnesses believe in the theory of Evolution, and only 22% of Mormons .....  which means that about 20% of Americans claim that the Bible is the only correct explanation for the origin of the Earth and humans. ... we have plenty of these creationists here in the UK, but they only ever turn up on blogs and discussion websites.

But what makes this really interesting is that Mitt Romney, Republican Presidential nominee, is from a very high profile and important Mormon family (his great, great grandfather Miles was one of the earliest converts to Mormonism in England in 1837) ... maybe he will be the first to go public and declare himself a creationist?

Bought In The USA

The US Presidential race is throwing up some interesting stories this time, and after my stories on allegations of  election rigging in Russia, the news that after recent Supreme Court decisions that overturned campaign financing restrictions, the US election is now apparently open to a select bunch of money-men to manipulate is possibly no great surprise.

Take Sheldon Adelson, a casino billionaire ($25bn est), and a man who has decided that the fight against "the continuation of the socialist-style economy" (a view incidentally, that he apparently shares with Newt Gingrich), is worth $110m of his money to back Mitt Romney.

Sheldon Adelson - Kingmaker?

Apparently these donations make him by far and away Mr Romney's biggest backer (over 90% of his campaign funds), but apparently the idea of this one man financing of the election of the next possible President of the USA is not considered an issue in the land of the free capitalist .... but then as he is fighting the idea that "the redistribution of wealth is the path to more socialism, and to more of the government controlling people's lives", maybe its considered OK?

But from this side of the pond it looks a strange kind of one man one vote democracy ... with the billionaire being that one man.

US Electoral Processes

Its beginning to increasingly look as thought Pres. Barack Obama will win November's US Presidential elections.

US Presidential Contestants 2012

The Republican opposition is seemingly hopelessly split between the barely electable but flawed Mitt Romney, and the equally flawed, but totally unelectable (and last champion of the far right), Newt Gingrich. Oh, and the outsider coming up on the rails, Rick Santorum, who believes in 'Intelligent design' (aka creationism) which he supports being taught in schools, but who surely has lost the 'Gay' vote .... as if he cares.