'MAGA' locks up Republican nomination, almost! Wins New Hampshire, after Iowa
Undoubtedly, the irrepressible Trump has hit the ground running, ready to take on President Joe Biden in the forthcoming second face-off. And Biden is waiting to meet the man who attempted insurgency and led the rampage of Capitol (Parliament) as he lost the ballot last time.
But, “This race is far from over”, Haley said late on Tuesday night when most results were out and Trump asked her to drop out. She is not the one to give up so easily.
CONCORD (New Hampshire), Jan 24: Former President Donald Trump, 77, seeking
Republican nomination for President in the 2024 election, won the primary in
New Hampshire securing a majority of votes, defeating his sole challenger left
in the field, Ms Nikkie Haley, 52, a former UN Ambassador and ex-South Carolina
Governor who was once Trump's ambassador.
Undoubtedly, the irrepressible 'MAGA' has hit the ground running, ready to
take on President Joe Biden in the forthcoming second face-off. And Biden is
waiting to meet the man who attempted insurgency and led the rampage of Capitol
(Parliament) as he lost the ballot last time.
But, “This race is far from over”, Haley said late on Tuesday night when most
results were out and Trump asked her to drop out. She is ready for a long shot.
On her side is adequate political and administrative experience and she is not
the one to give up so easily.
The Indian origin presidential aspirant said, “New Hampshire is not the last
in the nation. There are dozens of States left to go and the next one is my
sweet State of South Carolina.” In New Hampshire, much enlightened and prosperous,
about 40% are independent voters who could tilt the balance in her favour, and
she had hoped so, but that did not happen (Trump 54%, 12 delegates; and, Haley
43%, 9 delegates). Next, South Carolina's GOP primary is on February 24. Opinion
polls show Haley is trailing in her home State!
Earlier, Trump had a record-breaking double-digit victory in Iowa, which was
the first State to hold the caucus/primary. Haley came a distant third almost
in a neck and neck with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who like Vivek Ramaswamy
has opted out in favour of the ex-Prez. Winning both these States is a first
in many respects in the US electoral history.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who pulled out soon after the results were out, being the
early bird has apparently taken the VP slot as the Trump favourite.
Haley had a remote chance to be Trump's VP nominee but that has been spoilt
as she days ago called the ex-President a mental case. And on Trump's part,
he asked the voters at a rally in Laconia, New Hampshire, on Monday night, "If
you want a losing candidate who puts America last, vote for Nikki Haley." "The
radical left communists want to run against her because she's so easy to beat,"
he remarked. He had won in the State in 2016 and 2020.
Trump had won the Iowa caucus on Monday last week by a significant margin,
snapping up over 50%, making a good start in his drive to seize the Republican
Party's presidential nomination for a third consecutive time. The Republican
nomination process had started with Iowa, one of the few States that still follow
the caucus style instead of primary. In the US, each State can have its own
electoral rules and procedures.
The breakup of the first Republican caucus that was held in Iowa State is:
Donald Trump: 51% 56,260 votes Gained 20 delegates; Ron DeSantis: 21.2% 23,420
votes Gained 9 delegates; Nikki Haley: 19.1% 21,085 votes Gained 8 delegates;
Vivek Ramaswamy: 7.7% 8,449 votes Gained 3 delegates.
A total of 40 Iowa delegates was won by the candidates.
Vivek Ramaswamy soon after pulled out of the contests and declared his back
for Trump. Subsequently at public rallies Trump lauded Vivek's abilities with
his innovative ideas, for which the American press called him neurotic although
his pronouncements were only bordering eccentricity.
Meanwhile, Trump is dividing his time between campaign and the courts where
he is facing a series of criminal cases pertaining to his presidency like a
resurrection bid and rampage of the Capitol when he lost the polls last time.
The caucuses/primaries will more or less culminate in a Super Tuesday in early
March when on the day most remaining States will vote; a few others will however
do so in the next few months before the Republican National Convention (RNC)
in July 2024 which takes the final call.
Biden wins: Simultaneously, Democrats also had the primary in New Hampshire
after an intra-party dispute over date. So Biden won as a write-in candidate.
He did not appear on the primary ballot. No delegates will be awarded.
Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 Noida on Thursday
where they were called to hold a rave party in a trap laid by the animal
rights group, PFA. They named Yadav but he was not present.
Betting through Dubai-based Mahadev Book in India is conducted through a countrywide network. Probes reveal that the online gambling is worth several millions and top politicians, officials and celebs have been beneficiaries.
TAILPIECE: Polling dates for some States are round the corner. Top
politicians have begun their acrimonious debate who looted more, even as
Mahadev is washing their dirty laundry in the open ghat. Come what may,
one needs to seize power to amass "thy wretched pelf!" One simple
question is, why else one should spend lakhs or crores to get elected! A
question every Indian should ask to oneself at least once a day!
His inaction amounts to defeating the rights of the people of the State to
welfare measures sought to be implemented through the Bills, the Kerala
Government's petition submitted, while the State of Tamil Nadu remarked
that its "Governor is acting as a political rival."
Tailpiece: Coming up back to back, the petitions in their totality seem to question the provision of Raj Bhavan, and not motives of a Governor as a
person.
Hundreds of cars piled up behind the wreckage of crashes occurring one
after other in backing up - continuous crashes to the rhythm of metallic
clanks and bangs back to back. According to reports, some ops required
'Jaws of Life' to pull apart the mangled cars to save lives inside.
The pilots struggled with Emerson to thwart a shut-off as he reached for
the T-handles (see pix). Later he admitted to police he had taken
psychedelic mushrooms and had a "nervous breakdown."
Doctors reasoned how the incidence of heart attacks is spiking over time and
advise the simple way to play safely is to take a break and rehydrate
yourself.
But how come ten people, including children, die of cardiac arrest at
Garba in 24 hours, and that at different places of Gujarat? Garba had been going on
for six days, and every year it is celebrated.
Shocking news from the UK: Leading grocers have started bribing policemen with free food and drinks to persuade them to take action against shoplifters.
Shoplifting has risen by about 27 per cent in 10 major cities across the UK
this year. The cost of retail crime last year was $2.15 billion. Besides, “We
are seeing organised gangs threatening staff with weapons and emptying
stores," Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium,
said. Data shows that the police failed to respond to 73 per cent of serious
retail crimes that included assault and abuse of workers, apart from
shoplifting.
Harris said hip-hop is “the ultimate American art form” that “shapes every
aspect of American popular culture.” “Hip-hop culture is American
culture,” she said in a talk at her official residence at the US Naval
Observatory in Washington, D.C.
The social media had mixed reaction. There was much appreciation that
she dances better than any VP in American history. But some called her
"moves" as “cringe” while others did not like her pink pants - "pink pants
don’t look good.” In fact, her ensembles have always been incongruous.
"Let’s see how the (Governor's) Vice-Chancellors are given salary."
Mamata's extreme statements will put the Marxist Government in Kerala,
which is also facing similar issues, to shame. Has she begun the
countdown for a war on the streets?
It's true Mamata has come to see a conspiracy to demolish the established systems across the country, but lacks the ability to foresee what exactly is being pushed.
Brandishing a sword, Mahant Paramhans told reporters on Tuesday he
himself will behead MK Stalin's son for his remarks against Sanatan
Dharma in case nobody came forward to accept his offer he made in his
video. Udhayanidhi reacted to the saint's Monday video, "I will speak
more. I am the grandson of the artist who put his head on the rail track for
Tamil Nadu."
Somanath elaborated, "I am an explorer. I explore the Moon. I explore the inner
space. So it's a part of the journey of my life to explore both science and
spirituality. So I visit many temples and I read many scriptures. So try to find the
meaning of our existence and our journey in this cosmos. So it's a part of the
culture that we are all built to explore, find out the inner self as well as outer
self. So for the outer, I do science, for the inner I come to temples." (See videos)
Rao the mathematical legend had fathered the path-breaking Rao-Blackwell
theorem, one of the most important theorems in mathematical statistics, at the
age of 25. That brought him global fame. He is also famous for his Cramér-Rao
Bound inequality theorem relating to quality of estimators in statistics which has
had a profound bearing on applications of modern economics and several other
diverse fields. Simply put, with the pioneering statistician computation became a
tool to analyse even socio-economic challenges of modern times.
The alleged incident has received such a flash publicity that a standardised
city's hugely middle class population will have second thoughts about eating
outside for some time. Now everything on the table looks suspicious!
“All subjects directly connected to the people should be shifted to the State List. Particularly the subject of education. Only if this is done can cruel exams like NEET be abolished,” Stalin said. Education was moved from the State List to the Concurrent List with the 42nd Constitution Amendment made by the Central Government in 1976.
Decentralisation has been at the core of Tamil politics since the times of CN Annadurai. Stalin indicated there will be political changes in the offing.
TAILPIECE: While the Centre and the States are at loggerheads, it takes a
different cognitive acumen to know that entrance tests are not the way for
students' admission to courses.
As recently as Tuesday Craig Robertson had posted on Facebook: "Perhaps
Utah will become famous this week as the place a sniper took out Biden the
Marxist." Biden was scheduled to make his first visit to Utah as President
Wednesday afternoon.
Maruti is recalling 87,599 S-Presso and Eeco vehicles to inspect and possibly
replace parts in the steering system. All reputed companies around the
world do recall their products when a defect comes to light.
Meanwhile, a question arises why just in about a year so many accidents have
taken place involving Mercedes sent to India while the car has won safety awards
abroad? In most cases, the vehicle collided with divider, while manoeuvring a
turn. Was there a split second delay in the steering system coming to a grip
when at high speed? Did anybody in India bother to study a pattern in several
of these accidents that took place one after other?
Former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died when his Mercedes-Benz-SUV hit
a divider in Gujarat. Cricketer Rishabh Pant's Mercedes-Benz-SUV rammed a divider
in Uttarakhand and smashed. It went up in flames but he escaped with injuries.
Brother of PM Narendra Modi, Prahlad Modi's Mercedes-Benz-SUV met with a similar
accident in Mysuru. And many more.
Experts blame violation of the Visual Flying Rules (VFR) for most of the
chopper crashes in the mountains as the leading cause. VFR means fly only
visually - because of the lack of navigation aids in remote areas or unreliability
of GPS-like aids in hilly terrains or a remote manipulation of instruments
in cases of sabotage - as the topography plays havoc especially in the monsoon
(mid-June to September).
Even when VFR is followed, most crashes occur due to CFIT (Controlled Flight
into Terrain) - that is, everything else is OK but the aircraft collides with
hills or trees hidden by the clouds. This also occurs mostly in the monsoon.
On Tueday with Manang, the chopper was brand new, pilot was highly experienced.
But it hit an 'invisible' tree and then crashed against a hillside. This
CFIT occurred when the pilot tried to dodge patches of clouds even as he was
following the VFR.
Simply put, everyone knows flying in the hills during the monsoon is risky,
but the companies want to make more money in any which case. This type of
tragedy is very frequently invited in the Indian hill State of Uttarakhand
as well, where pilots are even made to fly without the mandatory rest.