Internet Archive Plans Canadian Copy To Protect Itself From Trump
AJ Dellinger
Updated
The Internet Archive, a digital library that preserves massive parts of the web, is asking for donations to create a backup of its work in Canada to avoid any challenges under the Trump administration.
The election of Donald Trump doesn’t just mean major changes for the government, but for organizations operating within the United States as well. In response to the incoming Trump administration, the Internet Archive—a digital library that documents the history of the web—is planning to create a copy of its database in Canada.
The decision to create an Canadian-based backup was announced via blog post on Tuesday by Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, and was presented as part safety precaution and part reaction to President-elect Trump.
“On November 9th in America, we woke up to a new administration promising radical change. It was a firm reminder that institutions like ours, built for the long-term, need to design for change,” Kahle wrote. “For us, it means keeping our cultural materials safe, private and perpetually accessible. It means preparing for a Web that may face greater restrictions.”
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Kahle estimates the project will cost millions of dollars, but may be a necessity to avoid potential challenges in the U.S. for the San Francisco-based project. Legal challenges, government surveillance, and censorship could all present issue for the Internet Archive’s operation.
In the post, which asks for user donations to supplement the expansion of the service into Canada, Kahle compares the Internet Archive to libraries, which he notes are susceptible to fault lines.
“Throughout history, libraries have fought against terrible violations of privacy—where people have been rounded up simply for what they read,” he wrote. “At the Internet Archive, we are fighting to protect our readers’ privacy in the digital world.”
Much of Kahle’s concern stems from the lack of clarity in the Trump administration’s positions toward the issues that could pose a threat to the Internet Archive. Trump has previously expressed his belief of “ closing up ” certain areas of the internet and suggested people who believe freedom of speech is protected on the internet are “ foolish.”
The proprietors of the Internet Archive have collected more than 15 petabytes of data (about 15 million gigabytes). It’s a fraction of what Facebook has managed to gather, but Internet Archive runs as a non-profit with a staff of just 150. The service is perhaps best known for the Wayback Machine, a running archive of the web that logs more than 300 million web pages each week.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during his election night party flanked by family and friends at the Palm Beach County Convention Center on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
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Ivanka Trump stepped back from politics years ago, but was front and (sort of) center Tuesday night.
The former first daughter joined president elect Donald Trump on stage at the Palm Beach County Convention Center for his victory speech, along with a few other family members.
Despite the fact that the 43 year old looked absolutely stunning in a blue velvet pant suit, a few folks were left wondering why she chose that color.
In an X user’s post showing various angles of the two piece outfit, commenters were scratching their online heads.
“An interesting choice.”
“We see you girl. Smile if you need help.”
“Of all the colors… why blue?”
If she wanted to celebrate the Republican’s second win, why not wear red to match her father’s tie — and party?
Granted, other women on the podium didn’t follow a standard dress code, either. First lady to be (again) Melania Trump donned gray, while vice president elect JD Vance’s wife Usha Vance, had on black, as did No. 47’s daughter in law Lara Trump. (Jr’s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, seemed to be the only one up there in team colors.)
Still, blue is kind of the Democrats’ thing as we all know from watching those maps showing who took each state on election night.
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The color scheme to denote candidates is somewhat new. Though combinations were toyed around with for years during multiple elections, the polarizing hues reportedly officially started during the 2000 presidential race.
During the match-up between George W. Bush (R) and Al Gore (D), both USA Today and the New York Times started publishing an election map in color.
Archie Tse, senior graphics editor at the Times told The Verge in 2012 that red was designated because the word started with the letter “R,” as in Republican.
“It was a more natural association,” Tse told the outlet.
As for Ivanka? Perhaps the Miami Beach resident innocently loved the cobalt get-up, and realized how smashing she looked.
Because if we are trying to figure out if messages are being subliminally sent via fashion, we’d have to look at what Jill Biden wore to the polls on Tuesday.
The first lady’s pantsuit was tomato red, top to bottom.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during his election night party flanked by family and friends at the Palm Beach County Convention Center on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Generate Key Takeaways
Ivanka Trump stepped back from politics years ago, but was front and (sort of) center Tuesday night.
The former first daughter joined president elect Donald Trump on stage at the Palm Beach County Convention Center for his victory speech, along with a few other family members.
Despite the fact that the 43 year old looked absolutely stunning in a blue velvet pant suit, a few folks were left wondering why she chose that color.
In an X user’s post showing various angles of the two piece outfit, commenters were scratching their online heads.
“An interesting choice.”
“We see you girl. Smile if you need help.”
“Of all the colors… why blue?”
If she wanted to celebrate the Republican’s second win, why not wear red to match her father’s tie — and party?
Granted, other women on the podium didn’t follow a standard dress code, either. First lady to be (again) Melania Trump donned gray, while vice president elect JD Vance’s wife Usha Vance, had on black, as did No. 47’s daughter in law Lara Trump. (Jr’s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, seemed to be the only one up there in team colors.)
Still, blue is kind of the Democrats’ thing as we all know from watching those maps showing who took each state on election night.
Advertisement
Advertisement
The color scheme to denote candidates is somewhat new. Though combinations were toyed around with for years during multiple elections, the polarizing hues reportedly officially started during the 2000 presidential race.
During the match-up between George W. Bush (R) and Al Gore (D), both USA Today and the New York Times started publishing an election map in color.
Archie Tse, senior graphics editor at the Times told The Verge in 2012 that red was designated because the word started with the letter “R,” as in Republican.
“It was a more natural association,” Tse told the outlet.
As for Ivanka? Perhaps the Miami Beach resident innocently loved the cobalt get-up, and realized how smashing she looked.
Because if we are trying to figure out if messages are being subliminally sent via fashion, we’d have to look at what Jill Biden wore to the polls on Tuesday.
The first lady’s pantsuit was tomato red, top to bottom.
Opinion - America will regret its decision to reelect Donald Trump
Max Burns, opinion contributor
3 min read
A presidential campaign defined by personal hatreds, threats of political violence and two foiled assassination attempts ended on Tuesday in a mostly orderly election. No matter what the results ultimately show, Americans’ commitment to a fair and peaceful vote is a thumb in the eye to authoritarians both at home and abroad.
That’s about all the joy Democrats (and lovers of democracy) will find in yesterday’s election results. The fleeting optimism that washed over the party after Ann Selzer’s storied Iowa poll showed Kamala Harris unexpectedly leading Donald Trump by 3 points has crashed back to reality. In its place is the realization that democracy’s worst-case scenario is unfolding in real time.
Our democratic institutions are not ready for what comes next. Neither are the American people.
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The Trump who will walk into the White House on Jan. 20 is a man steeped in unsettled vendettas, who came within a hair’s breadth of a string of federal felony convictions that he is now empowered to wipe away with a self-pardon — as if those offenses and so many others had never even happened. Trump will see his priorities as he has always seen them: party over country and self over all.
A man with 34 felony convictions can’t win the presidency in a nation where trust in institutions is high. It’s only in a culture where the justice system has long since lost its legitimacy that a man with such a thick criminal record as Trump glides by relatively unremarked. That one man can so effortlessly game American institutions to his own benefit says as much about the decrepit state of America’s institutions as it does about the moral decrepitude of the crook.
The nine years of the Trump era have taken a bat to our democracy, and Trump’s MAGA movement has exploited the nation’s systemic weakness at every turn. Political misinformation flooded social media networks owned by Trump’s key allies, or by Trump personally. Meanwhile, Trump and compliant Republican lawmakers torched public trust in the courts — first by appointing an ethically vacant Supreme Court, and later by urging his followers to hate and distrust not only the judges who tried him but the entire “rigged” justice system.
Trump is now set to return to the White House, and he’s made no secret of his lofty goals for a second term: gutting the civil service, destroying the independence of the Justice Department and seeking political and legal revenge on his lengthy list of personal enemies. Judging by yesterday’s election returns, a majority of Americans are eager to see Trump do exactly that.
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The former and future president now inherits a nation deeply weakened by his own toxic brand of politics. Our divided and exhausted nation will now need to fend off the constant extralegal whims of a president who is also, thanks to the Supreme Court, functionally immune from prosecution for any act he undertakes. If Trump’s first term was any indication, we won’t need to wait long for our next constitutional crisis.
Believers in the rule of law are in for a rough four years, because though Trump contradicted himself countless times during this marathon campaign, he never wavered in his distaste for the rule of law or his admiration for strongman autocrats. Members of the press can expect Trump to at least try making good on his oft-repeated pledge to rewrite the nation’s press freedom and libel laws. The rest of us will be along for the bumpy and chaotic ride.
It matters that Trump won his office in a free and fair election. It matters that free people voluntarily chose to cloak Trump in power he will almost certainly abuse in far-reaching and destructive ways. Our country made the choice to walk down the dark path of Trump’s resentments and conspiracies. We will come to regret it.
Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.
Adam McKay Says ‘It Is Time to Abandon’ the Democratic Party as Trump Declares Victory: ‘I Thought Liberals’ Whole Thing Is Being Smart? It’s Not’
Ellise Shafer
2 min read
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“The Big Short” and “Don’t Look Up” director Adam McKay took to social media as Donald Trump edged closer to victory in the U.S. presidential election, saying he plans to leave the Democratic Party.
In a post on X, he shared a link for updating voter registration and wrote: “It is time to abandon the Dem Party. I’m registering Green Party or Working Families. But am open to ideas.”
McKay has previously supported the Democratic Party, and endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in 2016 and 2020. However, in 2019 he said he had also joined the Democratic Socialists of America. He has been vocal about the need for climate action and signed an open letter to Joe Biden in October 2023 calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
He criticized the Democratic Party’s election strategy in a post on X earlier in the night, writing: “Who would have guessed lying about Biden’s cognitive health for 2 yrs, refusing to do an open convention for a new nominee, never mentioning public healthcare & embracing fracking, the Cheneys & a yr long slaughter of children in Gaza wouldn’t be a winning strategy?”
“Anyone with half a brain?” he continued. “But I thought liberals’ whole thing is being smart? It’s not? They actually just blindly cheer the parade of rickety optics wrapped up in New York Times fonts that is the modern Dem Party?”
McKay concluded that “at least it’s time for the dusty hacks & careerists to spread their feathers wide post election and blame Russia and third party candidates. That should fix things.”
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Though Trump has not yet won all 270 electoral votes, he was declared the winner of the presidential race early on Wednesday morning after winning Pennsylvania, which brought him to 267.
“This is a movement like no one has ever seen before,” Trump told cheering supporters. “We’re going to help our country heal — we have a country that needs help and it needs help very badly.”
JD Vance's wife, Usha Vance, set to become history-making second lady
MEREDITH DELISO
4 min read
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The White House is set to see another history-making vice presidential spouse.
With Ohio Sen. JD Vance set to become the next vice president, his wife, Usha Vance, who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, is set to be the first Indian American second lady in the White House. She will also be the first Hindu second lady.
PHOTO: Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, waves as his wife Usha Vance looks on at an election night watch party, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Alex Brandon/AP)
At 38, Usha Vance is set to be the youngest second lady since the Truman administration, when then-38-year-old Jane Hadley Barkley, wife of former Vice President Alben Barkley, assumed the role in 1949.
She was raised in a Hindu household in San Diego, where her parents are academics.
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The Vances met during their time at Yale Law School and got married in Kentucky in 2014. They have three children together.
An attorney who once clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, she left her law firm, Munger, Tolles & Olsen, after her husband was formally announced as former President Donald Trump's running mate on the Republican party ticket in July.
Usha Vance was in the spotlight at the Republican National Convention, where she introduced her husband.
"My background is very different from JD's. I grew up in San Diego, in a middle-class community with two loving parents, both immigrants from India, and a wonderful sister," she said at the convention. "That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry, is a testament to this great country."
PHOTO: Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and his wife Usha Vance, arrive for a campaign event, Oct. 16, 2024, in Williamsport, Pa. (Matt Rourke/AP)
She has since taken on a more behind-the-scenes role on the campaign trail, not delivering any remarks at a public campaign event since the RNC.
"Obviously, at the convention, I was asked to introduce JD, and so that was an active role," she told NBC News in October. "But the thing that JD asked, and the thing that I certainly agreed to do, is to keep him company."
She told NBC News at the time that she hadn't given much thought to what causes or initiatives she might focus on if she became the second lady.
"You know, this is such an intense and busy experience that I have not given a ton of thought to my own roles and responsibilities," she said.
"And so I thought, what would I do? See what happens on Nov. 5, and collect some information myself and take it from there," she said. "There are certainly things I'm interested in, but I don't really know how that all fits into this role."
PHOTO: Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, left, and his wife Usha Vance arrive to Minneapolis/St. Paul International airport in Minneapolis, Oct. 14, 2024. (Ellen Schmidt/AP)
In her first interview after JD Vance was named Trump's running mate, Usha Vance discussed with "Fox & Friends" how she and her husband share different political views and suggested that their opinions influence each other in a "nice give and take."
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"I mean, we're two different people. We have lots of different backgrounds and interests and things like that, so we come to different conclusions all the time," she said. "That's part of the fun of being married."
She was also asked to respond to her husband's widely criticized "childless cat ladies" comment, which was directed at Harris and others in a recently resurfaced 2021 Fox News interview.
"He made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive," she said. "And I just wish sometimes that people would talk about those things and that we would spend a lot less time just sort of going through this three-word phrase or that three-word phrase."
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She told "Fox & Friends" that she never thought she'd be in politics, that they planned to be lawyers with a family, and that they have agreed to keep their children out of the spotlight.
"Through his Senate candidacy, we had a lot of serious conversations, because, you know, we do have three children, and giving them a stable, normal, happy life and upbringing is something that is the most important thing to us," she said.
Donald Trump Is the President-Elect -- but There's an Even Bigger Winner Today
Sean Williams
5 min read
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For months, Election Day has loomed large for America, as well as Wall Street. Although not everything that happens in the White House or on Capitol Hill has a bearing on the stock market, the votes cast by Americans across our great country ultimately determines who'll be making our laws and shaping our fiscal policy in the years to come.
While the composition of Congress holds great importance, most people tend to focus on who wins the Oval Office. As of 5:42 a.m. ET, based on projections from the Associated Press (AP), former president and Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump has won the presidency.
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Former President Donald Trump signing a bill in the Oval Office. Image source: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead.
Trump has reclaimed the White House
According to calls made by the AP early Wednesday, Donald Trump holds a 277-to-224 Electoral College vote lead over Vice President and Democratic Party presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Only 270 votes are needed to secure the win.
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There are, admittedly, some campaign proposals from the former president that have economists and/or investors worried.
For example, Trump has proposed implementing tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. to promote domestic production and make American-made goods more price-competitive. More specifically, he's suggested that Chinese imports should face a 60% tariff, with a 20% tariff applied to other nations.
While this proposal may sound great on paper, there's the real risk that tariffs will drive up costs for American consumers and businesses, as well as worsen trade relations with the world's No. 2 economy, China, along with our allies.
On the other hand, investors had little to complain about during Trump's first term in the Oval Office. The iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), benchmark S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and innovation-driven Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) respectively gained 56%, 67%, and 138%.
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With Republicans retaking the Senate and Trump victorious, the prospect of higher taxes for corporate America has been taken off the table. This more than likely paves the way for Wall Street's most influential businesses to continue their aggressive share-repurchase programs.
However, there's an even bigger winner tonight than President-Elect Donald Trump.
Image source: Getty Images.
Election Night yields an even bigger winner than Donald Trump
Although there are still seven Senate seats and 59 House races left for AP to call at the time of this writing, the undeniable winner of Election Night is Wall Street's investors.
A little over three years ago, Integrity Wealth Management president and Forbes contributor Mike Patton released a data set that examined the average annual return of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1946 through 2020 across various political scenarios. For instance, when Republicans control a majority of seats in the Senate, the Dow generated an average annual return of 11.3%! This is notably higher than the 6.3% average annual return when Democrats held control of the upper house of Congress.
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Comparatively, Republican presidents have overseen an average annual return of 7.4% in the Dow over 75 years, which is modestly below the 9% annualized return Democratic presidents have delivered.
Here's the thing: No matter which party controlled the House, Senate, or White House, Patton's data set showed that average annual returns in the Dow ranged from 6.3% to as high as 12.9%.
The analysts at Retirement Researcher looked back even further with their analysis, which examined average annual returns for the S&P 500 from 1926 through 2023. In the 34 years where a Republican was president and Congress was divided between two parties, the S&P 500 averaged a 7.33% annual return. But in the 13 years where Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, the S&P 500 averaged an annual return of 14.52%.
While this data does show that, statistically, certain scenarios have historically been more beneficial to Wall Street than others, the most important takeaway is that stocks can perform well regardless of which party is in power or who wins the White House.
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Perhaps the most telling of all investment studies comes courtesy of Crestmont Research. Every year, Crestmont updates a data set that examines the rolling 20-year total returns, including dividends paid, of the S&P 500, dating back to 1900. Even though the S&P didn't come into existence until 1923, researchers were able to trace its components to other indexes, thusly leading to 105 separate rolling 20-year periods (1919-2023).
What Crestmont Research found was that all 105 of these rolling 20-year periods generated a positive annualized total return. In plainer English, if you had, hypothetically, purchased an S&P 500 tracking index at any point since 1900 and held this position for 20 years, you made money 100% of the time.
What's more, you often made a lot of money. In more than half of the 105 rolling 20-year periods examined, the annualized total return clocked in at or above 9%.
Though elections are headline news, they get in the way of the real hero for Wall Street investors: time.
Should you invest $1,000 in S&P 500 Index right now?
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