（2017年9月11日追加）
参考リンク[4]のClinton criticizes Trump for using race to win electionの先頭には以下の文章があります。
Declaring that she is done with being a candidate, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton looked back on the 2016 presidential campaign Sunday with a mix of regret and frustration over the way she thinks President Trump won election by stoking racial grievances.
TOM PEREZ, DNC CHAIR: What's clear from this administration, and what's clear throughout the entirety of his business practices, is that they will lie, cheat, and steal. They'll do anything to win. They have so eroded institutions of democracy, that is why there is health care on the ballot and we will continue to point out that the Democratic Party is the party fighting to save your health care. The Republicans are fighting to take it away. So many other things on the ballot. Our democracy is on the ballot. 」
(2020年1月15日追加）
日本経済新聞の「トランプ氏「緊急性どうでもよい」 司令官殺害めぐり」によると、「トランプ米大統領は13日、イランの司令官殺害の根拠をめぐり、司令官主導の米大使館攻撃計画などの「差し迫った脅威」があったかは「どうでもよい」とツイッターに書き込んだ。緊急性が低いにもかかわらず殺害を決めたとの疑念を生じさせかねない発言で、司令官殺害を自衛措置とする政権の主張をさらに揺るがしかねない。」
別の報道では、トランプ氏の決断は大統領選を有利に運ぶためのものだという分析もあります。
誰がどう言おうが、「Make America great again」というスローガンを軸とした姿勢は明確だろう。そのために、明確な理由がなくても人命を落とすまで行動するし、その弁明も民間人用のサービスで軽々と発表します。
これを単純に「有言実行」として評価されると、事件自身の合理性はともかく、ほかのことの重みも極端に減るかもしれません。それは本当の狙いではなかろうか。
(2020年3月3日）
[5]によると、
「トランプ大統領は政権1年目に早くも、現在のIT企業の収益や結果としての「テック相場」に大いに貢献する重要な政策を、抜群の実行力で成し遂げた。
それが、2017年12月に成立させた包括的税制改革法だ。最高法人税率を35%から21%へと大幅に引き下げる一方、米国の高い税率ゆえにアイルランドなど海外で税逃れ的に留保していた巨額の利益を米国に持ち帰る際の税率を、さらに低い15.5%にすることで、米テクノロジー企業の財政基盤を数兆億円規模で大いに強化した。
また、アマゾンが2017年と2018年に連邦法人所得税をまったく支払わず、内国歳入庁（IRS）から1億2900万ドル（約141億9千万円）の「過払い還付」さえ受けていた案件についても、同社やジェフ・ベゾスCEOを鋭く口撃するトランプ大統領でも、問題化させる気配すらない。」
確かに、GAFA等が業績アップし、株式相が高騰すれば、「Make America Great Again!」という「マニフェスト」を実現することになり、再選に絶大な有利条件となるに違いありません。
しかし、Greatになったのは、GAFAのようなビッグカンパニーだけで、ごく一部の関連会社の社員を除いて、アメリカ国民はそれで豊な生活ができるかどうかははっきりしないでしょう。
Now it is the season of presidential election (2012) in the United States again.
What we can tell is that thousands of, if not millions, bright people are working theirs brains out to get one more ballot than their component, which fortunately is not much, but a single one.
To people of the third party, this election is nothing but a festival, carnival, a commercial war.
A festival in the sense of periodical event, once in four years, like that of Olympic, FIFA world cup etc..
A carnival in the sense of entertainment event, something to talk about, to be exited about, to participate, and nothing too harmful at the same time.
A commercial war in the sense of fund raising and spending. OpenSecrets.org gives very precise reports on residential fundraising and spending from 1797 to 2008. People can see their price of "democracy". A total of $1.3 billion has been spent by the presidential candidates!
Even in the purse sense of commercial, the one (above) for 1960 presidential campaign shows an explicit example of how similar it is to an advertisement for a product. No one can keep track of how many times "Kennedy" has been shouted in this short film. In fact, it is way more pushy, primitive and childish than any one of the modern commercial of any products. 2008 Presidential Election - Presidential Expenditures shows that 39.5% have been spent on "Media", the largest among all others. Coming to the 2nd is the "Administrative" (30.7%), of which about 1/3 is for salaries & benefits and the other 1/3 is for "travel".
A festival in the sense of a fun game. There is seldom a one side election in the history. Especially with the progress of communication, transportation, studies of all related theories, ballotors are more easily influenced by each party's brain-washing messages and strategies, so much so that there are always marginal differences in the number votes. This makes it a fun game to watch, to participate, with the climax always dragged to the last count. And it is a game without much harmful result to anybody. In other words, its harm, if there are any, cannot be felt upon the final judgment of the game. Plus there is never a "perfect" result anyway. Nothing is perfect, nothing can be perfect, nothing will be perfect. That is also the sole reason why people need an election. That is also what can make a presidential candidate different from the other. People can always find a new material to start his or her campaign with, to appeal with, to attack the opponent with, to attract the interests of the people. The map on the left is the famous map of vote results, also reminds people about many kinds of RPG games. Territory WAR, Romance of the Three Kingdoms are good examples. In Japan, Kunitori is one of the most famous mobile game.
A carnival for people to make fun of each other. Look back at the 2008 election, there are more talks about Palin than other candidates. Sensational mentioning to be precise. 2008 Election Cartoons in About.com shows how easily a woman can become a target of mocking, and how entertaining the presidential election can be for cartoonist and readers.
Some more fun facts. For Barack Obama, there are much more female fund contributors than those for John McCain (42.2% vs 28.0%). For the same 2008 election, there had been more contributions to Democratic than Republic from the sectors of communication/electronics (78%), lawyers/lobbists (77%). The later is the 2nd largest portion among the sectors.
When searching on google.com, "barack obama" has 435 million hits, whereas "sarah palin" 82 million. As comparison, among all other candidates of Republic, "george pataki" (857 million) is the only one that get more hits than "sarah palin", in fact, even more than "barack obama". Um...does this make Pataki a sure president? Let's see.
(.....Updating on Jan 24, 2012.....)
The big moment is getting closer, so is the battles between the politicians. There are also more fun stuffs in 2012 Presidential Election Jokes. In fact, the election itself is becoming a joke now. The opponents are attacking/mocking/insulting each other more and more viciously, and sometime even personally. The goal, although seemingly like for democracy or the american citizens, is becoming solely how to beat each other, taking any possible (or even seemingly impossible) opportunities.
How The 2004 Presidential Election May Have Been Hacked
GIZMODO 7/26/11 8:53pm
Ohio's 2004 presidential election is one many won't forget. Democrat John Kerry was the leader and exit polls pegged him as the winner. Defying explanation, a last-minute shift in votes favored Republican George W. Bush and propelled him to victory.
New filings in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case sheds some light on how the 2004 election may have been hacked. The story starts with SmartTech, a Tennessee based hosting company with strong Republican ties.
SmarTech was hired by Ohio to provide a failsafe voting server for the rare occasion a network problem occurred. This isn't unusual. All properly managed networked systems have a backup in case of failure.
But in Ohio, there was no significant failure and voting data was unexpectedly switched over to SmarTech late in the voting process. This sudden shift coincides with an increase in votes favorable to Bush. Hmm, is there a mackerel in the room because something smells fishy.
IT security expert Stephen Spoonamore has studied newly released network maps and believes the SmarTech server was not a backup, but a man in the middle server that had the ability to input and alter voting data on the fly. Spoonamore is convinced the election was stolen,
"The computer system and SmarTech had the correct placement, connectivity, and computer experts necessary to change the election in any manner desired by the controllers of the SmarTech computers."
To make things even more intriguing, SmarTech was owned by Michael Connell who mysteriously died in a 2008 single-engine plane crash shortly after being served a subpoena in this case. His full testimony will never be heard. http://gizmodo.com/5825014/how-the-2004-presidential-election-may-have-been-hacked
参考リンク[1]はオーストラリアで行われている700による集団訴訟に関する記事です。同記事によると、「In 2014, Irish medical device maker Endo International said it would pay $830 million to settle more than 20,000 personal injury lawsuits related to its vaginal mesh implants.」
