Saturday, April 19, 2025
The Nordic Times

Polaris of Enlightenment

Saturday, April 19, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Breaking News
Ad:

https://nordictimes.com/world/trump-vows-to-end-wars-in-ukraine-and-gaza/

World

Trump vows to end wars in Ukraine and Gaza

US presidential election

Published 11 September 2024
– By Editorial Staff
Trump and Harris disagreed on many things - but not on whether US aid to Israel should continue.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

The tone of the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was heated and hostile to say the least.

Trump accused Kamala Harris of “hating” both Israel and the Arab population – claiming that all of Israel and its neighborhoods would “get blown up” if she becomes president – and she in turn claimed that if Trump were president, Putin would have conquered Kiev by now.

The presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump covered a range of topics – not least the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and on the former, Trump expressed a firm belief that “the war must end” and declared that he “wants to save lives”.

– People are being killed by the millions, exclaimed the presidential candidate, who also stressed that the US will have to pay $250 billion or more for the war – and that European countries should pay instead, as they are the ones who benefit the most from supporting Ukraine.

According to Trump, President Biden has shown that he “lacks the courage” to demand funding from the EU for US military support – unlike himself, who has previously declared that he will no longer “protect” European countries unless they increase their contributions to NATO.

“Will bring them together”

Trump also declared that he is the right person to end the war – and that he knows both Zelensky and Putin from before.

– I know Zelensky very well and I know Putin very well. I have a good relationship and they respect your president, okay? They respect me. They don’t respect Biden. How would you respect him? Why? For what reason? He hasn’t even made a phone call in two years to Putin. Hasn’t spoken to anybody. They don’t even try and get it.

– If I win, when I’m president-elected, what I’ll do? I’ll speak to one, I’ll speak to the other. I’ll get them together. That war would never happen. Biden had no idea how to talk to him. He had no idea how to stop it. And now you have millions of people dead, and it’s only getting worse. And it could lead to the World War III, Trump continued.

According to him, it is in the US interest for the war to end and for negotiations to take place. He also accused Harris of being a poor negotiator, claiming that Putin decided to launch a large-scale invasion of Ukraine shortly after she visited Zelensky and that the Biden administration is responsible for the war.

Kamala Harris, in turn, criticized Trump for not giving Ukraine his full support, arguing that if Trump were president today, Putin would have won the war and conquered Kiev by now.

Harris wants a two-state solution

Israel’s invasion of Gaza was also debated, and here the tone was, if possible, even more heated. Harris argued that the war “must end immediately” – citing the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza, although she assured that she continues to support Israel’s fight against Hamas.

– Israel has a right to defend itself. We would. How it does so matters, because it is also true far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed — children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end. It must end immediately, she said.

However, she did not present a plan to end the war, referring instead to Biden’s earlier announcement that the remaining hostages must be released and a “ceasefire agreement” – something she said they will “will continue to work around the clock” to achieve.

– We must chart a course for a two-state solution, and in that solution, there must be security for the Israeli people and Israel, and an equal measure for the Palestinians. But the one thing I will assure you always: I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran, and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel.

“Israel will disappear”

Trump reiterated his previous position that the October 7 Hamas attacks would never have happened under his leadership because of the sanctions he imposed on Iran, which is said to be funding Hamas. He further promised to “resolve” the war – “and quickly” – a line of reasoning that was not developed further.

Instead, he attacked Harris, claiming that “she hates Israel” and repeating the assertion that Israel will be destroyed if she becomes president. He also criticized his opponent for not attending Netanyahu’s speech to Congress last summer – insinuating that it showed she was not interested in what he had to say.

– If she’s president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now, and I’ve been pretty good at predictions, and I hope I’m wrong about that one.

– At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up, Arabs, Jewish people, Israel will be gone, he continued.

However, Kamala Harris consistently denied that she hates Israel, stating that “I have, my entire career and life, supported Israel and the Israeli people”.

Competing conflicts

The two wars are costing the United States a lot of money and there is also discontent in various quarters. Many young or more left-leaning Democrats are fed up with unconditional US support for Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and want funding and aid cut off and the Netanyahu government’s actions condemned.

Meanwhile, several Republicans have expressed reluctance to continue funding Zelensky’s Ukraine, arguing that the US has already spent far too many billions on that conflict with little to show for it.

Analysts have pointed out that the two conflicts are in a way “competing” with each other as there is a perception that you cannot fund several wars at the same time – and also pointed out that the escalating situation around Taiwan is draining the US of military resources.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

TNT is truly independent!

We don’t have a billionaire owner, and our unique reader-funded model keeps us free from political or corporate influence. This means we can fearlessly report the facts and shine a light on the misdeeds of those in power.

Consider a donation to keep our independent journalism running…

https://nordictimes.com/world/trump-avoids-punishment-in-hush-money-case/

World

Trump avoids punishment in hush money case

US presidential election

Published 14 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

President-elect Donald Trump has been convicted of accounting violations in the high-profile “hush money” case – but still escapes punishment.

During a court hearing via video link in New York on January 10, 2025, the judge announced that Trump will receive an unconditional release, meaning he will avoid both a prison sentence and a fine.

The case involves payments to buy the silence of several people, including porn actress Stormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump has consistently denied the allegations, describing the process as a politically motivated attempt to undermine his chances in the 2024 election.

– It’s been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I would lose the election, and, obviously, that didn’t work, Trump said during the hearing.

The unconditional release decision means that the conviction remains on Trump’s record, making him the first presidential candidate in US history with such a charge. However, Trump plans to appeal the conviction.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/world/keir-starmer-accused-of-meddling-in-us-elections/

World

Keir Starmer accused of meddling in US elections

US presidential election

Published 14 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Keir Starmer and Joe Biden during a meeting last summer.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces allegations that the Labour Party influenced the 2024 US presidential election by sending volunteers to assist Kamala Harris’ campaign.

At the same time, criticism of the Prime Minister is growing at home, where he is accused of failing to act against Pakistani grooming gangs and a former Labour politician was arrested in a pedophile scandal days after he took an official stance on Starmer.

A political storm with international ramifications began in October 2024 when Donald Trump’s campaign accused UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Labour Party of trying to influence the US presidential election.

According to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Labor Party sent volunteers to the United States to assist Kamala Harris’ campaign, which the Trump campaign described as “blatant foreign interference”.

– To protect our democracy from illegal foreign influence, it is imperative that the Federal Election Commission investigate this matter immediately, said Gary Lawkowski, campaign lawyer for Trump.

The complaint specifically pointed to a now-deleted LinkedIn post by Labor Party Chief Operating Officer Sofia Patel, in which she urged volunteers to travel to North Carolina and promised: “We will sort your housing”.

The Labor Party has not denied that volunteers traveled to the US but insists that no law was broken.

– The Labour party has volunteers, who have gone over pretty much every election, said Keir Starmer. They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers.

Criticism of Starmer’s domestic policy

Meanwhile, criticism of Starmer is growing at home. Violence against girls has reached record levels and the controversy surrounding grooming gangs continues to dominate the debate. During his time as head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Starmer has been accused of failing to act forcefully against these groups, leading to widespread abuse scandals in towns such as Rotherham and Rochdale.

Last August, there was a knife attack in Southport in which three girls were killed. The incident has become a symbol of rising crime in the UK and led to riots in several cities. Four months later, in January this year, Elon Musk tweeted “Prison for Starmer ” in reference to the attack, further increasing pressure on the Prime Minister.

Starmer defender arrested in pedophile scandal

The crisis for the Labor Party deepened recently when former Labor MP Ivor Caplin was arrested after a sting operation carried out by citizen activists. Caplin is accused of trying to arrange a meeting with a 15-year-old boy.

Caplin, who had previously called Musk’s criticism of Starmer “unacceptable” and “unfounded”, was arrested just days after he publicly defended the prime minister. He has been released on bail pending the investigation.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/analysis/how-polls-can-be-used-to-influence-public-opinion/

Analysis

How polls can be used to influence public opinion

US presidential election

Many pollsters predicted a very close presidential election in the United States - or even a clear victory for the Democrats. The question is whether the explanatory models for the major "miscalculations" hold up, or whether the institutes are really being used to influence opinion rather than to research it.

Published 19 November 2024
Opinion poll presented on American ABC just before the presidential election.

In the run-up to the US presidential election, both domestic voters and international audiences were told that the election would be an uncertain affair. It was claimed that Harris had “momentum” and a good chance of defeating Donald Trump – with several polls even showing her as the clear favorite to win by several percentage points.

As we know, that didn’t happen – at all. Trump won all seven battleground states and won 312 electoral votes – compared to a measly 226 for Harris. Despite losing big states like California, Trump also won the most popular votes in the US election. The result can probably be described without exaggeration as a landslide victory for Trump.

In the aftermath of the election, there have been many attempts to explain it away. Some claim that the pollsters and those behind the polls “underestimated” Trump’s voters. Others claim that they failed to “reach out” to Trump’s voter base, and that is why they were so wrong.

Some also argue, somewhat sweepingly, that the purpose of the polls was never to give an accurate picture of the situation or predict the outcome of the election, but only to show “patterns”, “attitudes” and “more or less qualified assessments” – and that therefore one should not react to the fact that in many cases they gave a seriously misleading picture of Harris’ and Trump’s real support among the American people.

People prefer a winner

Overall, there is much to suggest a very different and more sinister explanation for why the polls “happened” to be wrong about the outcome of the election. Rather, it may be that they have been systematically used as an active tool to influence elections.

Officially, of course, they say that they are only “investigating” what voters intend to vote for. In practice, there is evidence that these results have been both exaggerated and skewed in various ways in favor of the Democrats, making it appear that Kamala Harris was on her way to victory, when in fact she had almost no chance.

The reason would be very simple and logical – to try to shape public opinion to get the more politically insecure masses to go out and vote for Harris – and at the same time to make the more moderate Trump supporters feel resigned and stay home – because their candidate could not win this time either.

Psychologically, the strategy is not difficult to understand. A candidate who is portrayed as a winner or with a strong tailwind will attract more supporters than a candidate who is portrayed as a perceived loser. If voters perceive that their candidate has no real chance of defeating the opponent, many will abstain from voting – while many of those who are politically uncertain will tend to join the “winning team”.

Peer pressure is real

Despite the fact that there is often a lack of transparency in the activities and practices of pollsters and analysts, they enjoy an almost sacrosanct position in media coverage – or at least are widely interpreted as neutral, as actors without ulterior motives.

This view may be considered naive. These are not actors driven by a sense of justice, but by political ambitions and financial interests, and of course this does not only apply to the US presidential election. Opinion polls can strongly shape people’s views on many controversial issues – whether it’s NATO membership, migration policy, government support for the LGBT lobby, or whether Swedish arms should be sent to Ukraine and Israel.

The impact of peer pressure on human behavior is very real. Standing out and going against the grain is perceived by many as something unpleasant – with the risk of attracting social stigma in various ways. This is a basic psychology that politically conscious actors are of course aware of, and therefore inclined to use to their advantage. If a reluctant citizen who is leaning towards voting for the Sweden Democrats reads at the same time that 9 out of 10 Swedes would never consider voting for the party, the decision to actually do so becomes psychologically more difficult.

In the case of the US presidential election, there is much to suggest that support for Trump’s campaign – and perhaps above all dissatisfaction with the ruling Democrats for a variety of reasons – was so strong among broad segments of the population that it was simply not possible to manipulate public opinion to his detriment to the extent necessary to determine the outcome of the election.

Nor did it seem to matter that the entire left-liberal media establishment did everything it could, year after year, to paint Trump as a criminal, rapist, racist, fascist, extremist, or generally irrational lunatic. The explanation seems to be that a growing number of Trump supporters simply don’t care – largely because their trust in those pushing such messages has already been so badly eroded that the attempts to character assassinate Trump have not been effective enough.

So the subtle influence of the pollsters is by no means omnipotent, but for the discerning observer it is definitely a factor to consider in how opinion is actually shaped in practice.

 

TNT Editorial Team

https://nordictimes.com/world/fema-supervisor-ordered-aid-workers-to-skip-trump-supporters-homes-after-hurricane-milton/

World

FEMA supervisor ordered aid workers to skip Trump supporters’ homes after hurricane Milton

US presidential election

Published 18 November 2024
– By Editorial Staff
Public confidence in FEMA is at an all-time low after it was revealed that the agency failed to help Republican hurricane victims.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

FEMA relief workers were told by their supervisor to avoid helping Donald Trump supporters after Hurricane Milton, which claimed around 30 lives.

The supervisor has now been fired for her actions, which her boss calls “reprehensible”.

According to a report by The Daily Wire, a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official has instructed disaster relief workers to avoid homes with signs supporting Donald Trump while working in Florida after the hurricane.

Internal correspondence shows that Marn’i Washington, a FEMA supervisor, ordered his team to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they surveyed the damage in Lake Placid, Florida, to determine which residents might qualify for federal aid.

Multiple federal employees confirmed to The Daily Wire that at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags were skipped over between late October and early November because of this specific instruction.

Images from the system used by federal aid workers to track homes visited also showed notes such as: “Trump sign no entry per leadership” and “According to management, no stop at Trump flag”.

– I volunteered to help disaster victims, not discriminate against them. It felt wrong to discriminate against Trump supporters when they were most vulnerable, said one relief worker.

“Clear violation of FEMA’s core values”

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell responded to the revelation by firing Washington, stating:

“More than 22,000 FEMA employees every day adhere to FEMA’s core values and are dedicated to helping people before, during and after disasters, often sacrificing time with their own families to help disaster survivors. Recently, a FEMA employee departed from these values to advise her survivor assistance team to not go to homes with yard signs supporting President-elect Trump”.
“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values & principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation”, she continued.

Damaging the agency’s credibility

The incident has prompted the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability to schedule a hearing to investigate the conduct. Committee Chairman James Comer has asked Criswell to testify before lawmakers on November 19. In addition, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has launched a statewide investigation into the incident.

The exposed scandal has led to massive outrage in the United States, with many questioning whether the agency can be considered a serious player at all – or whether it should be seen as a haven for hostile left-wing activists who let their political beliefs determine who gets help and who doesn’t.

Deanne Criswel, however, insists that the behavior is “reprehensible” and that, like Marn’i Washington, any other staff member who behaves in a similar way will be fired.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

N

Polaris of Enlightenment

News

Other

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Follow TNT socials!

X-twitter Facebook Telegram Instagram

© 2022-2025 The Nordic Times TNT.
All rights reserved.

Our independent journalism needs your support!
We appreciate all of your donations to keep us alive and running.

Donate

Our independent journalism needs your support!
Consider a donation.

You can donate any amount of your choosing, one-time payment or even monthly.
We appreciate all of your donations to keep us alive and running.

Donate
Dont miss another article!

Sign up for our newsletter today!

Take part of uncensored news – free from industry interests and political correctness from the Polaris of Enlightenment – every week.