Week 53: Arms Race (December 25, 2016)

Dear Readers,

Merry Christmas! A reminder that all newsletters (and more) are available at http://electreport.blogspot.com.

The Electoral College Results

Remember how I said there would be no faithless electors? Well, that didn’t work out too well for me. Of Clinton’s 232 electors, five went faithless. One elector in Hawai’i voted for Bernie Sanders, and three in Washington went for Colin Powell, with another in Washington voting for Faith Spotted Eagle (as a protest regarding Standing Rock and the oil pipeline). In addition, two of Trump’s 304 electors went faithless, both from Texas. One voted for Ron Paul, the other for John Kasich.

Now, the one thing that stands out (besides the ridiculous number of faithless electors), is Washington. The reason there were four faithless electors here was because the electors were chosen through the caucus system, during which some 70% of people voted for Bernie Sanders. So now that we know these are Bernie supporters, can somebody give a reason they’d vote for Colin Powell?

The standard complaints from disgruntled Bernie supporters are that Clinton isn’t left-wing enough, has too many connections to big business, and gets involved in too many wars. Colin Powell, meanwhile, is a Republican, has about as many Wall Street connections as Clinton does, and was a general for decades. Add his own questionable use of an email server to this, and it’s damn ironic. Look, I’m all for making a mockery of this outdated system, and I certainly have no strong feelings against Colin Powell, but I find the Powell gimmick absurd.

“Let it Be An Arms Race”

In the past week, President-elect Trump has made worrying comments about nuclear weapons, including a call to expand our nuclear arsenal. He’s doing this all while touting that he may finally reach understandings with Russia. It’s unclear who he would want to use nukes against, and it’s, of course, scary, and more evidence that he’s not going to act presidential and will instead be as “tough” as he has said, in a way that is potentially damning for the geopolitical situation in the world.

Bizarre RNC Statement Compares Trump to Jesus?

"Over two millennia ago, a new hope was born into the world, a Savior who would offer the promise of salvation to all mankind. Just as the three wise men did on that night, this Christmas heralds a time to celebrate the good news of a new King,"

   Now, the RNC have denied that the intention of the statement was to compare Trump with Jesus. But it remains a bizarre statement that can certainly be interpreted that way...

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment.