LIES - LET'S RECOUNT*

 * Which, of course is an anagram of ELECTION RESULTS.

Like them or hate them the Americans are influencing our lives in so many ways at present. Donald Trump's disastrous presidency and the corrupt and incompetent political party that supports him have dominated world news for the last four years by:

• Supporting right wing white supremacist movements
• Dismantling decades old Western alliances
• Cancelling the Iran nuclear deal
• Pulling the USA out of the Paris Agreement on climate change
• Allowing fossil fuel activity on Native american land and in national parks and reserves
• Ignoring and declaiming global warming
• Fuelling anti-Muslim sentiment
• Using the presidency to further his own and his family's wealth
• Creating tax breaks and jobs for his rich friends and cronies
• Being deferential to Russia, Israel and North Korea
• Igniting racial disharmony in USA
• Starting fights with Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, China and many other countries
• Stopping USA funding for the UN Population Fund
• Cutting the USA Pandemic Early Warning Programme thereby allowing COVID-19 to gain a foothold
• Refusing to acknowledge Russian interference in the 2016 and 2020 elections
• Separating migrant parents from their children
• Withdrawing American military support and presence from Afghanistan, South Korea, Germany, Middle East, Pacific and other hot spots and strategically important places around the world
• Providing Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and other 'dangerous' states with the opportunity to take stronger and aggressive positions in the Pacific, Asia and Eastern Europe

And these are just a few of the things that will ultimately affect us all.

I watched some of the final presidential debate yesterday and, while Biden doesn't come across as a strong contender, Trump, even though he moderated his performance, still came second. This of course will make no difference to Robert and the brain-dead MAGA supporters of Trump in the USA who, making up at least 40% of the voting population will give their vote to Trump. Add to this the uncertainty about the reliability of the voting mechanisms they have and the possibility of millions of votes being declared null and void, and the certainty that Trump and the Republican machine will claim that the election was rigged if they don't win and we will have chaos. 

A chaotic USA, at a time when there are many volatile situations around the world (China-Japan; China- Taiwan; South Korea-North-Korea; Greece-Cyprus; Saudi Arabia-Yemen; Turkey-Syria; Russia-Ukraine; The Bledisloe Cup etc) on top of the Codid-19 pandemic will make 2021 and onwards a very uncomfortable time to live in.