Sri Lanka has gone through a turbulent period for fifty years, with civil wars, racist pogroms, insurrections, vicious government crackdowns involving death squads, and the undermining of civil liberties and democratic institutions like the police and judiciary. Just two years ago, the government was on the verge of bankruptcy that led to massive protests that resulted in the then president and his brother the prime minister forced to abandon their posts and homes and flee the country.

There was hope that this would signal a new era in politics where the corrupt old guard would be swept away to be replaced by a new generation of leadership. But that did not happen. What did happen was that an old politician Ranil Wickremesinghe, a nepo baby himself from an old guard ruling family, who had led his party that once dominated Sri Lankan politics into deep decline so that they were completely eliminated from parliament except for one seat to which he appointed himself, managed to become president through a parliamentary maneuver believed to have been engineered by the ousted and disgraced leaders. He had himself run for the post of president before and been roundly defeated and he was seen as having no mandate. It was felt that he had been installed in the position by the former disgraced leaders in order to protect them from the consequences of the rampant corruption and violations of human right of which they had been accused. Since Wickremesinghe was seen as pro-western, he was viewed favorably by the US and the international lending agencies like the IMF and World Bank.
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If the presidential election were to be decided by endorsements, Kamala Harris would win in a landslide. It seems like not a day goes by without yet another person or group endorsing the Harris-Walz ticket. Some of these are from political people like Republicans Liz Cheney, her father Dick Cheney, and Alberto Gonzalez (the attorney general during the Bush-Cheney administration). More than 100 former Republican administration people have also signed a joint letter endorsing. her.

More than 100 Republican former national security and foreign policy officials on Wednesday endorsed Kamala Harris for president in a joint letter, calling Donald Trump “unfit to serve” another term in the White House.

Former officials from the presidential administrations of Republicans Ronald Reagan, George H W Bush, George W Bush and Donald Trump, as well as Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama voiced their support for Harris, the Democratic nominee for president in this November’s election. They were joined by some former GOP members of Congress.
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Today is the day that creepy Donald Trump can start selling his stock in his social media company Truth Social, in which he is the majority shareholder. Since this company is basically worthless since its operating costs vastly exceed its revenues, it is considered a meme stock, one whose value is sustained by people wanting to believe in it and thus buying and holding on to it even when it makes no investment sense.

But many people were not willing to be so loyal and ever since July 15, the share price has been steadily decreasing from about $40 on that day to $13.55 today, which is well below its peak value of around $80 on March 27.

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There is a huge vested interest in portraying elections in the US as very close, right up to election day. Each side likes to do so to prevent complacency among their supporter and to nudge people to vote, contribute money, and volunteer to do campaign work. The media loves it because it draws viewers and generates ad revenue. And there is a vast network of election pundits who are kept in business by blathering away about every little nugget of news to say how they think it will affect the election, even though they have no idea. Then there are the political consultants and media operatives who become more important in close elections, as campaign seek to squeeze out every advantage.
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Presidential campaigns have to make choices about where to pour most of their resources in the final stretch up to the election on November 5th. As many people know, the Electoral College system in the US is such that there are just seven states known as ‘swing’ or ‘battleground’ states (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina) that play an outsize role in that they are seen as the only ones in contention, while the results of the other 43 states and the District of Columbia are seen as foregone conclusions for one party or the other and not worth campaigning in.

Campaigns need to decide whether they want to go on the offense and ‘expand the map’ (as the cool kids say) by making an effort in non-swing states that are leaning towards the opponents but that they think they have a chance of flipping. For the Democrats, these would be states like Indiana, Iowa, and Florida. Florida has been a tease for them for a long time. The demographics of the state with its rising percentage of Hispanic voters has long seemed promising but each election has seen their hopes dashed, with Republicans winning it comfortably. Republicans have fewer options in prying states out of Democratic hands. New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Virginia used to be possibilities but recently they have gone Democratic and there are reports that the GOP has given up on them, although both New Hampshire and Virginia have Republican governors. Alternatively, campaigns can decide they want to play defense, focusing only on the swing states that they think they have a good chance of winning and have sufficient electoral college votes to put them over the top, and largely ignoring the others.
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