Tag: Matteo Salvini

The Big Vote

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

Today is the day. The calm before the storm. It may feel a million miles away from our lives, and in many ways it is, but for the sake of politics as a sport you’ve got to root for something. It always feels a little strange, or like it’s none of my business who votes in another country. I’m not American and doubt I’ll ever live there but with it’s tentacles in a lot of pies worldwide it is something that will have a lasting affect on us all. That isn’t to say one is a good guy who warrants support and the other the bad, this isn’t Hollywood or the Bible, but it’s clear there’s an issue of morality involved. The deeply immoral one versus the one with a politicians sense of morality. It is also unclear whether voting one way will have a beneficial influence upon the politics or economy of my own country. Our government are on their knees begging not to be screwed over too much in a trade deal with the Americans but there’s little reason to suspect the outcome will vary greatly depending on this election. What it will affect though, is who has been emboldened these last four years.

It is clear that around the world we have seen dramatic shifts to the political, cultural and economic right. In some countries they have succeeded, think Trump, Brexit, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Bolsonaro in Brazil. In others they didn’t quite manage it, think Marie Le Pen, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Matteo Salvini in Italy and following recent elections, Bolivia too. What Trump does is embolden not just the right, American politics in general is right wing already, he gives belief to the previously dismissed fringe elements outside his own borders too. The idea of Brexit had always drifted around the edges of British politics but more like a threat, even those campaigning for it seemed surprised by the outcome. You can’t blame Trump on something that occurred before his election, but it is important not to dismiss the influence his election has had since and on the belief of those who previously believed such things as impossible. There may be differences between Biden and Trump regarding healthcare, renewable energy and foreign policy, or at least on the surface, but Trump must not be elected because his mere existence in politics empowers those who should never even believe themselves capable of power let alone holding it. It may be easy to belittle and ridicule the crazies of the world but their current existence in world politics is having a lasting effect on us all.

This will not be resolved today by voting him out. Likely the election itself will not even be called by this time tomorrow. With Trump spending the last few months convincing his supporters postal voting lacks legitimacy, his approach to the post-election is already clear. The possibility that he has a lead denied him as these votes trickle in is very real and it’s a very believable line for him to take with a support already firmly entrenched in the world of deep state conspiracies. This is set up perfectly and he is not a man to go out with a whimper. Even if he accepts initial defeat, imagine for a second his Twitter feed is currently in someway shackled by those around him, can you imagine how a free unhinged sore loser Trump is likely to start behaving. With the passing of this election he is not going to simply disappear and could in theory become even more dangerous as he desperately tries to court an ever diminishing but increasingly devoted core support. He may be a ridiculous man but he’s dangerous too and stepping further into the unknown with such a person is a worrying prospect for us all.

Left, Right Or Corkscrew

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

In sperm related news it turns out that the seventeenth century microscopes that first determined the movement of our little fellas were not entirely accurate. It was believed they wriggle their tales back and forth twenty times a second giving off the impression of a very fast and very small eel. Interestingly enough sperm are also lopsided and wriggle predominantly on their stronger side. Thankfully they don’t move in a circle as would be expected with lop sided force, think of a canoe if you paddle on only one side. Instead modern microscopes have managed to capture their movement in 3D and it turns out they seem to use a strangely corkscrew like movement instead. From above this looks like a wiggle hence the original confusion. There is a video below to clear up this confusion. Thank god for that.

I got that story from the news channel Russia Today (RT). I had hoped to fine some other stories worth going into but that was about as good as it got. RT is an insight into the world as seen through Russian eyes but more often as you delve deeper through the articles, it is clear that many of these stories are following the same line as those parroted by the right-wing media and the alt-right. They are generally pro-Trump which is clear without even having to read between the lines, they attack ‘left-wing Marxist cancel culture’ as well as Black Lives Matter, LGTBQ and Antifa. While I am not saying these different groups, movements or approaches are always in agreement they do arguably represent one particular side of the fight.

On a geopolitical scale these groupings as such can be seen coming together in the form of Trump, Brexit, Marie Le Pen of France, Viktor Orban of Hungary and Matteo Salvini of Italy. When you take a step back and observe everything from a distance it becomes very clear that what we believe to be a localised issue such as Brexit, is in fact a smaller part of a larger battle being played out on the international stage. Taken by it’s individual parts these are merely a series of unfortunate political incidents, mistakes or leaders but observed together we can really see the threats the world currently faces. The Covid-19 Front is the current battle ground as both sides put forward arguments of varying levels of credibility and persuasion. Although tempting, this may be a moment not to jump into one corner or another and observe this for what it is. It is hard to accept being played as all affects us but perhaps we need to see we are just being used as pawns, play our own game and do as the sperm and corkscrew.