Donald Trump loses

Former US President - Donald Trump

What on Earth was America thinking? Four years of a Trump administration has brought the country to its knees. Civil unrest, particularly during the bungled COVID-19 response that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, looked set to escalate into full-blown anarchy.

A legacy of increased environmental degradation and economic conflicts are also major ticking time bombs. But perhaps the most damaging aspect of Trump’s failed presidency is the United States’ international credibility, which is now in tatters.

Not only did the 2016 Trump presidential campaign collude with Russian Intelligence Officers in order to damage their political opponents, over the last four long years they've also undermined their own democratic system from within, which in my opinion is tantamount to treason!

Of course the Don hasn’t admitted to playing any part in the underhanded affair. That’s because Trump cannot admit to ever doing anything wrong!

Trump mocks disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski

Even now, with Pennsylvania flipping and nearly every news agency calling it, Trump is on Twitter claiming that he’s won the 2020 election. There is of course no doubt that he’s lost. Over 4 million voters are now in favour of Biden with Georgia and Arizona on the cusp of adding to the incoming Presidents considerable electoral vote tally.

Today, New York Daily News reported:

Adios, Donald: Trump loses, Biden wins, and America has a precious opportunity to rebuild

Finally, our long, national nightmare appears to be ending.

Though tight margins in some swing states may trigger some automatic recounts, and we all know that the president may try to cry foul, for now it seems as though Joe Biden has done it. He’s ousted Donald Trump from the White House to become the next president of the United States — and he’s brought with him the first Black woman vice president.

Man, it feels good to write that. After the four years of corruption, incompetence, division, racism, sexism, nepotism, cronyism, nihilism and nationalism that Trump foisted on the American people, often against even the will of his own supporters, we can hopefully go about the business of restoring some semblance of normalcy, decency and calm to American life.

 

The final result will likely be Biden on 305 to Trump on 229, which should be considered a decisive victory for Joe and the Democrats. In fact we should consider it a victory for the entire World as well.

However the fact that millions of Americans did vote for an evil lunatic is terribly concerning. I mean if a President can openly encourage people to inject chlorine as some sort of treatment for COVID-19 and there still be no widespread questioning of his legitimacy, you know that things aren’t at all well in the US of A. 

Utter devastation for National

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer - Maori Party co-leader

If the preliminary 2020 election results were bad for the blue team, the final results are entirely devastating! The National Party, with the unlikable Judith Collins in charge, has lost another three electorates after special votes were counted.

Labour has picked up Northland with Willow-Jean Prime winning a slim majority, which is significant because Labour hasn’t won there since 1938, and list MP Debbie Ngarewa-Packer joins Rawiri Waititi in Parliament to issue in a resurgent Maori Party.

The news gets even worse for National in another two blue seats that used to be considered safe. Maungakiekie and Whangarei have also flipped, meaning National has had a comprehensive defeat in terms of overall electorate losses.

Today, RNZ reported:

Special votes: National loses two MPs, one each to Labour, Māori Party 

The National Party has lost another two MPs on the final election result - with Labour and the Māori Party picking up an extra seat each.

Results on election night had Labour at 64 seats, National at 35, ACT at 10, the Greens 10 and the Māori Party with a sole electorate seat, but the counting of what was estimated to be nearly 500,000 special votes has delayed final results until today.

Labour's Priyanca Radhakrishnan has won Maungakiekie off National's Denise Lee by 635 votes.

Northland Labour candidate Willow-Jean Prime has beaten National's incumbent Matt King with a majority of 163 votes.

In Whangārei, Labour candidate Emily Henderson has beaten National's Shane Reti by 431 votes, but Reti stays on in Parliament making it in on the list.

All other electorate candidates leading on election night have been confirmed as winning their seats.

Overall seats in Parliament have changed with Labour picking up one - the seat filled by Henderson. National loses two with both Lee and King being tipped out of Parliament.

The Māori Party picks up one more seat, which goes to co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer who comes in on the list.

There really is no question that Judith Collins must now step aside. Even her deputy leader Gerry Brownlee is calling it a day which is a clear sign that he, like many other National Party MPs, have no confidence in their current leader.

The problem for National however is that there’s nobody likeable or competent enough to take Crusher’s place. How exactly are they meant to rebuild when the few MPs who remain are largely unknown or entirely incompetent?

It’s not as if the significant divisions within the party have miraculously been fixed either. Clearly things have now become even harder for the National Party to rebuild. In fact it's patently obvious that they're incapable of mounting any semblance of an opposition to a formidable Labour led Government who look set to win in 2023 as well.