876: Election Special

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 17:50

Link to Article

Archived Version

Source: The Intercept

Tue, 08 Nov 2016 22:19

As Donald Trump finishes his campaign with a promise to break the control of Washington by political insiders, his transition team is preparing to hand his administration over to a cozy clique of corporate lobbyists and Republican power brokers.

''Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you the American people,'' Trump says in his closing campaign advertisement, followed by flashing images of K Street, Wall Street, and Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein.

But the Trump transition team is a who's who of influence peddlers, including: energy adviser Michael Catanzaro, a lobbyist for Koch Industries and the Walt Disney Company; adviser Eric Ueland, a Senate Republican staffer who previously lobbied for Goldman Sachs; and Transition General Counsel William Palatucci, an attorney in New Jersey whose lobbying firm represents Aetna and Verizon. Rick Holt, Christine Ciccone, Rich Bagger, and Mike Ferguson are among the other corporate lobbyists helping to manage the transition effort.

Presidential transition teams develop policy plans and come up with a list of more than 4,000 people an incoming president appoints, including White House jobs, cabinet secretaries, and lower level positions that oversee the military, agriculture, trade, and beyond.

Trump for America Inc., a nonprofit group chaired by Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., to oversee the Trump transition, has quietly moved ahead, meeting with interest groups and reaching out to lobbyists to plan a future Trump administration.

The group has held regular meetings at the Washington, D.C., offices of Baker Hostetler, a law and lobbying firm.

On Thursday, the group hosted a breakfast at Baker Hostetler attended by Microsoft's Ed Ingle and Steve Hart, two lobbyists who, according to filings, have worked to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Other transition meetings have included briefings with the Financial Services Roundtable and the Investment Company Institute, two lobby groups that represent Wall Street interests, as well as with the BGR Group, a lobby firm that represents Saudi Arabia and the South Korean government.

Trump, of course, isn't alone is relying on entrenched political insiders to shape his future administration. The Hillary Clinton transition team is led by Ken Salazar and Tom Donilon, two former Obama administration officials who now serve on the lobbying teams of major law firms. Though the Clinton campaign gained headlines for banning registered lobbyists from managing her transition, the distinction between registered and unregistered lobbying is largely a question of semantics.

Trump's decision to embrace lobbyists while denouncing them on the campaign trail should come as no surprise to any seasoned observer.

The reality television mogul seized on distaste for big money politics as a potent campaign issue, denouncing the role of Super PACs during the Republican primaries. ''I have disavowed all Super PACs,'' Trump said, adding that he would oppose any support from lobbyists and other special interest groups. After shoring up the nomination, the candidate quickly reversed himself, not only raising cash from lobbyists but switching gears to aggressively embrace the the same Super PAC strategies used by more traditional candidates. Several Trump staffers moved from his campaign to Super PACs supporting the Trump-Pence ticket.

Top photo: Donald Trump and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is leading the Trump-Pence transition effort.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 00:46

The Cuban government announced five days of pre-existing military exercises across the country to prepare the troops to deal with ''a range of enemy actions.'' The news comes right after Donald Trump secured a win in US presidential elections.

The drills were announced in red letters on the front page of the country's main newspaper, the Communist Party's Granma, Reuters reported.

Read more

The drills will see the army, interior ministry and other forces engage in various types of tactical exercises are to take place from November16 to 20.

The maneuvers would include ''movements of troops and war materiel, overflights and explosions in the cases where they're required,'' the newspaper warned Cuban citizens, as cited by AP.

The military drills, known as the Bastion Strategic Exercise, have been held in Cuba since the 1980s. They have taken place seven times in total, usually in times of tense relations with the US.

This kind of exercises were first launched in 1980 after Ronald Reagan's victory in the US presidential elections.

The government hasn't directly linked its decision to Donald Trump's victory although the president-elect has promised to walk away from Obama's policy of restoring relations with the island more than once.

Read more

Trump said he would stick to Obama's line only if President Raul Castro allows for more political freedom in the country.

At the end of October, the US abstained from voting at the UN on a resolution calling for an end to the US economic embargo against Cuba, which was the first case in 24 years. The resolution was adopted by 193 votes. Israel was the only country that abstained, apart from the US. The document is non-binding, but it carries political weight.

The thaw in US-Cuba relations triggered an spike in tourism. Vast number of executives from the US and other countries visited the island interested in doing business there since then.

The Obama administration began the process of normalization of relations with the Communist-run country at the end of 2014, relaxing trade and travel restrictions. In July 2015, diplomatic relations were restored, and embassies in the two countries reopened. In March President Obama made the first visit to Havana by a US president in 88 years.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 21:15

Liberal students across the nation watched in shock as Donald Trump clinched victory from Hillary Clinton to become the 45th president of the United States.

But some wiped their tears, and pulled themselves together enough to ask their professors to cancel their exams because they were so upset by the results.

And one Yale economics professor heard the cry, and decided to protect his snowflake charges by making the test optional.

He wrote to them saying: ''I am getting many heartfelt notes from students who are in shock over the election returns'' and ''fear, rightly or wrongly for their families'' and are ''requesting that the exam be postponed.''

It isn't clear who the professor was, but Yale publishes a list of its economics faculty members here.

John Victor, editor of the Yale News, published the extraordinary message, and noted that many more snowflake students were demanding similar treatment:

The professor, in charge of the Econ 115 ''introductory microeconomics'' unit, acknowledges that many students sacrificed their time preparing for it, and were welcome to take it anyway.

But he said that said anybody who could not face going it that day could skip it with no consequences.

Apparently not everybody was so lucky, though:

Show Conversation (0)

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 16:38

Screenshot via CNN

As Donald Trump raked in enough electoral votes to win the White House on Tuesday night, and millions of his supporters celebrated nationwide, a large contingent of Americans was left stunned at the result.

The GOP nominee's raucous campaign has been considered by many as a vehicle to subjugate people of color, women, and immigrants as outsiders, and the notion that Trump's movement could ultimately be validated with a presidential victory prompted a sobering testimony from CNN commentator and former Obama Administration official, Van Jones.

"There's another side to this. People have talked about a miracle. I'm hearing about a nightmare," he said.

Jones expressed concern about the example Trump's campaign, and the voters who cosigned it, would set for America:

"It's hard to be a parent tonight for a lot of us," Jones said shortly after midnight Wednesday. "You tell your kids, don't be a bully. You tell your kids don't be a bigot. You tell your kids do your homework and be prepared. And then you have this outcome, and you have people putting children to bed tonight, and they're afraid of breakfast."

Speaking about Muslim friends and immigrant families who are worried over whether they should leave the country, Jones said they are "terrified" about what's next.

He acknowledged that the election was about more than just race '-- even though Trump spent years casting doubt on whether President Barack Obama is an American citizen, a crusade viewed as an attack on the first African-American president's legitimacy.

But, according to Jones, the magnitude of Trump's victory is indicative of a hard truth:

"This was a whitelash against a changing country. It was a whitelash against a black president in part. And that's the part where the pain comes," Jones said.

Jones added that an important next step for President-elect Trump will be to "reassure people that he's going to be the president of all of those people he offended, and brushed aside. ... I know it's not just about race, there's more going on than that '-- but race is here, too, and we've got to talk about it."

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 15:04

Rodrigo Duterte, who himself was nicknamed the 'Trump of the East' during the Philippine presidential campaign, acknowledges similarities between him and the incoming US president

Pia RanadaPublished 9:33 PM, November 09, 2016

Updated 9:52 PM, November 09, 2016

MANILA, Philippines '' The usually combative Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he doesn't want to pick a fight with the next United States President, Donald Trump.

"Ayaw ko nga, sabi ko, makipag-away kasi nandiyan na si Trump," said Duterte on Wednesday night, November 9, at a gathering of Filipinos in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (I said I don't want to fight because Trump is there.)

"I would like to congratulate President Trump. Mabuhay ka (May you live)!" he added, to cheers from his audience.

Duterte, who himself was nicknamed the "Trump of the East" during the Philippine presidential campaign last May, acknowledged similarities between him and the incoming US president.

"Pareho tayo nagmumura. Kaonting rason lang, mura kaagad. Medyo pareho kami," said Duterte. (We both curse. For any small reason, we curse. We are kind of similar.)

It seems the Philippine President has been advised to "shut up" about Trump.

"Ayaw ko po ng kalaban, but I cannot also '' sabi kasi nila, tapos na ang election, nanalo na si Trump, why don't we just shut up," said Duterte.(I don't want an enemy, but I cannot also '' because, they said, the election is over and Trump has won, why don't we just shut up?)

The Palace earlier released a statement in which Duterte congratulated Trump and expressed his hopes for "enhanced Philippines-US relations anchored on mutual respect, mutual benefit, and shared commitment to democratic ideals and the rule of law."

Trump's victory casts even more uncertainty over US-Philippines relations, which have become tense because of Duterte's open hostility to the US, and specifically to incumbent US President Barack Obama.

The firebrand Philippine President has launched curse-laden tirades against Obama and threatened to scrap key military deals between the US and the Philippines.

He bristled at Obama's criticism of his anti-illegal drugs campaign. He called the US hypocritical for demanding respect for human rights when it led a violent pacification campaign against Moros in Mindanao in the 1900s. '' Rappler.com

Photo of Donald Trump by Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 13:40

Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) have released the new Skilled Occupations List (SOL) for 2016-17.

ByMosiqi Acharya

Source:www.legislation.gov.au

17 May 2016 - 1:53 PM UPDATED 18 May 2016 - 4:06 PM

Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) have released the new Skilled Occupations List (SOL) for 2016-17.

This list will come into effect from 1st July, 2016.

The Skilled Occupations List is used for 189 (Skilled Independent Visa), 489 (Skilled Regional Provisional Visa) and 485 (Graduate Temporary Visa) visa applications.

The DIBP have also released the Consolidated Sponsored Occupations List (CSOL) which is used for 190 (Skilled Nominated Visa), 457 (Temporary Work Skilled Visa) and 186 (Employer Nominated Scheme) visa applications.

Here's the SOL 2016-17

(Source: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2016L00800)

For CSOL 2016-17, click here.

Follow us on Facebook for the latest news and updates

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE TO READ:

Migration agent Prasad admits to fraud in court

Abel Kalpinand Prasad has admitted to defrauding the Australian Taxation Office of almost $100,000.

Most commonly asked questions about 457 visa, answered!

The 457 visa is a temporary visa for skilled workers.

Attention 457 visa holders. Do you have school going children?

This affects families on 457 visas whose children attend public schools

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 08:52

Bryan Cranston on September 13, 2016 in Toronto, Canada. Credit: George Pimentel/WireImageBryan Cranston, like several other stars, might be packing his bags if Donald Trump becomes the next president. The Breaking Bad actor, 60, revealed his possible relocation plans during a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

"Absolutely. I would definitely move [to Canada]. It's not real to me that that would happen. I hope to God it won't," Cranston said. "It wouldn't be a vacation. I'd be an expatriate."

PHOTOS: Celebrities' Political AffiliationsThe Power Rangers star added that the GOP presidential candidate's behavior during the campaign will be remembered long after the election. "There will be books written, movies made," he said. "I'm telling you, there will be theatrical productions about Donald Trump because of the anomaly that he presented."

Last November, Cranston revealed during an interview with Politico that he's in Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's corner. In July, he further opened up about the former secretary of state, 69, at an event in Philadelphia.

PHOTOS: Hillary Clinton's A-List Supporters"You know, I'm a Democrat, and I'm supporting Hillary and if that means there are people who will not go see my movies because of it, well, so be it '-- that's OK," Cranston, who has portrayed Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson on film, said via The Daily Mail. "I am willing to take those risks, I don't want to sit on the sidelines."

Cranston isn't alone with his vote '-- or his his plan to leave the country. Here, Us Weekly has rounded up 10 more celebs who have considered leaving the States if the mogul, 70, becomes commander in chief.

1. Lena Dunham: "I know a lot of people have been threatening to do this, but I really will. '... I know a lovely place in Vancouver and I can get my work done from there." (Matrix Awards in May 2016, via THR)

2. Miley Cyrus: "Honestly f--k this s--t I am moving if this is my president! I don't say things I don't mean!" (March 2016, Instagram)

Whoopi Goldberg on October 5, 2016 in New York City.Neilson Barnard/Getty Image3.Whoopi Goldberg: "When they just use a blanket statement to talk about black people or when they use a blanket statement to talk about white people or women or any other group '-- I don't think that's America. I don't want it to be America. Maybe it's time for me to move." (She later said that she's staying put.) (January 2016,The View)

4. George Lopez: "If he wins, he won't have to worry about immigration, we'll all go back!" (July 2015, via The Chicago Tribune)

5. Cher: "IF HE WERE TO BE ELECTED,IM MOVING TO JUPITER." (June 2015, Twitter)

PHOTOS: Donald Trump's Most Offensive and Outrageous Quotes RankedKeegan-Michael Key on October 9, 2016 in New York City.Michael Stewart/WireImage6.Keegan-Michael Key: "Jeez, I might leave. It's like, 10 minutes from Detroit. That's where I'm from; my mom lives there. It'd make her happy too." (January 2016,TMZ)

7. Raven-Symon(C): "My confession for this election is, if any Republican gets nominated, I'm gonna move to Canada with my entire family. Is that bad? I already have my ticket. I literally bought my ticket, I swear." (February 2016, The View)

8. Samuel L. Jackson: "If that motherf--ker becomes president I'll move my black ass to South Africa." (May 2016, Jimmy Kimmel Live!)

Chelsea Handler on October 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California.Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images9.Chelsea Handler: "I have a house in Spain that is going to be ready right after the election." (January 2016,Vanity Fair)

10. Sienna Miller: "I don't know if I can stay if it goes the wrong way, so I'm really hoping that Hillary comes through." (October 2016, Fox News)

Want stories like these delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter!

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 08:35

The electorate has, in its plurality, decided to live in Trump's world.Credit ILLUSTRATION BY OLIVER MUNDAYThe election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump's shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President'--a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit'--and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy. It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety.

There are, inevitably, miseries to come: an increasingly reactionary Supreme Court; an emboldened right-wing Congress; a President whose disdain for women and minorities, civil liberties and scientific fact, to say nothing of simple decency, has been repeatedly demonstrated. Trump is vulgarity unbounded, a knowledge-free national leader who will not only set markets tumbling but will strike fear into the hearts of the vulnerable, the weak, and, above all, the many varieties of Other whom he has so deeply insulted. The African-American Other. The Hispanic Other. The female Other. The Jewish and Muslim Other. The most hopeful way to look at this grievous event'--and it's a stretch'--is that this election and the years to follow will be a test of the strength, or the fragility, of American institutions. It will be a test of our seriousness and resolve.

Early on Election Day, the polls held out cause for concern, but they provided sufficiently promising news for Democrats in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and even Florida that there was every reason to think about celebrating the fulfillment of Seneca Falls, the election of the first woman to the White House. Potential victories in states like Georgia disappeared, little more than a week ago, with the F.B.I. director's heedless and damaging letter to Congress about reopening his investigation and the reappearance of damaging buzzwords like ''e-mails,'' ''Anthony Weiner,'' and ''fifteen-year-old girl.'' But the odds were still with Hillary Clinton.

All along, Trump seemed like a twisted caricature of every rotten reflex of the radical right. That he has prevailed, that he has won this election, is a crushing blow to the spirit; it is an event that will likely cast the country into a period of economic, political, and social uncertainty that we cannot yet imagine. That the electorate has, in its plurality, decided to live in Trump's world of vanity, hate, arrogance, untruth, and recklessness, his disdain for democratic norms, is a fact that will lead, inevitably, to all manner of national decline and suffering.

In the coming days, commentators will attempt to normalize this event. They will try to soothe their readers and viewers with thoughts about the ''innate wisdom'' and ''essential decency'' of the American people. They will downplay the virulence of the nationalism displayed, the cruel decision to elevate a man who rides in a gold-plated airliner but who has staked his claim with the populist rhetoric of blood and soil. George Orwell, the most fearless of commentators, was right to point out that public opinion is no more innately wise than humans are innately kind. People can behave foolishly, recklessly, self-destructively in the aggregate just as they can individually. Sometimes all they require is a leader of cunning, a demagogue who reads the waves of resentment and rides them to a popular victory. ''The point is that the relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion,'' Orwell wrote in his essay ''Freedom of the Park.'' ''The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.''

Trump ran his campaign sensing the feeling of dispossession and anxiety among millions of voters'--white voters, in the main. And many of those voters'--not all, but many'--followed Trump because they saw that this slick performer, once a relative cipher when it came to politics, a marginal self-promoting buffoon in the jokescape of eighties and nineties New York, was more than willing to assume their resentments, their fury, their sense of a new world that conspired against their interests. That he was a billionaire of low repute did not dissuade them any more than pro-Brexit voters in Britain were dissuaded by the cynicism of Boris Johnson and so many others. The Democratic electorate might have taken comfort in the fact that the nation had recovered substantially, if unevenly, from the Great Recession in many ways'--unemployment is down to 4.9 per cent'--but it led them, it led us, to grossly underestimate reality. The Democratic electorate also believed that, with the election of an African-American President and the rise of marriage equality and other such markers, the culture wars were coming to a close. Trump began his campaign declaring Mexican immigrants to be ''rapists''; he closed it with an anti-Semitic ad evoking ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion''; his own behavior made a mockery of the dignity of women and women's bodies. And, when criticized for any of it, he batted it all away as ''political correctness.'' Surely such a cruel and retrograde figure could succeed among some voters, but how could he win? Surely, Breitbart News, a site of vile conspiracies, could not become for millions a source of news and mainstream opinion. And yet Trump, who may have set out on his campaign merely as a branding exercise, sooner or later recognized that he could embody and manipulate these dark forces. The fact that ''traditional'' Republicans, from George H. W. Bush to Mitt Romney, announced their distaste for Trump only seemed to deepen his emotional support.

The commentators, in their attempt to normalize this tragedy, will also find ways to discount the bumbling and destructive behavior of the F.B.I., the malign interference of Russian intelligence, the free pass'--the hours of uninterrupted, unmediated coverage of his rallies'--provided to Trump by cable television, particularly in the early months of his campaign. We will be asked to count on the stability of American institutions, the tendency of even the most radical politicians to rein themselves in when admitted to office. Liberals will be admonished as smug, disconnected from suffering, as if so many Democratic voters were unacquainted with poverty, struggle, and misfortune. There is no reason to believe this palaver. There is no reason to believe that Trump and his band of associates'--Chris Christie, Rudolph Giuliani, Mike Pence, and, yes, Paul Ryan'--are in any mood to govern as Republicans within the traditional boundaries of decency. Trump was not elected on a platform of decency, fairness, moderation, compromise, and the rule of law; he was elected, in the main, on a platform of resentment. Fascism is not our future'--it cannot be; we cannot allow it to be so'--but this is surely the way fascism can begin.

Hillary Clinton was a flawed candidate but a resilient, intelligent, and competent leader, who never overcame her image among millions of voters as untrustworthy and entitled. Some of this was the result of her ingrown instinct for suspicion, developed over the years after one bogus ''scandal'' after another. And yet, somehow, no matter how long and committed her earnest public service, she was less trusted than Trump, a flim-flam man who cheated his customers, investors, and contractors; a hollow man whose countless statements and behavior reflect a human being of dismal qualities'--greedy, mendacious, and bigoted. His level of egotism is rarely exhibited outside of a clinical environment.

For eight years, the country has lived with Barack Obama as its President. Too often, we tried to diminish the racism and resentment that bubbled under the cyber-surface. But the information loop had been shattered. On Facebook, articles in the traditional, fact-based press look the same as articles from the conspiratorial alt-right media. Spokesmen for the unspeakable now have access to huge audiences. This was the cauldron, with so much misogynistic language, that helped to demean and destroy Clinton. The alt-right press was the purveyor of constant lies, propaganda, and conspiracy theories that Trump used as the oxygen of his campaign. Steve Bannon, a pivotal figure at Breitbart, was his propagandist and campaign manager.

It is all a dismal picture. Late last night, as the results were coming in from the last states, a friend called me full of sadness, full of anxiety about conflict, about war. Why not leave the country? But despair is no answer. To combat authoritarianism, to call out lies, to struggle honorably and fiercely in the name of American ideals'--that is what is left to do. That is all there is to do.

More on Donald Trump's victory: Amy Davison on Trump's stunning win, Evan Osnos on Trump's supporters, and Benjamin Wallace-Wells on who is to blame.

Sign up for the daily newsletter.Sign up for the daily newsletter: the best of The New Yorker every day.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 06:58

By Charles Stewart III and Edward B. FoleyNovember 8 at 7:00 AM

Most Americans assume that by the wee hours of tomorrow, the national media will declare (unofficially, but still decisively) either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump our next president.

Of course, the 2000 election showed that the result might not be settled so quickly. Considering how tight the polls have been, one or two battleground states may be too close to call Wednesday morning.

[Cyberattacks could disrupt the U.S. election '-- but wouldn't change the results]

That would be good news for Hillary Clinton's chances. She'll probably take more of the mail-in and provisional ballots that can't be counted until the days and weeks after the election. Whatever her vote share tonight, it will probably increase in the weeks to come. Let us explain.

Good news and bad news about the chance the election will be decided tonight

For election administrators, 2000 was a wake-up call. Prompted by the controversial Bush v. Gore decision, states created uniform counting standards, which had been contested during the Florida recount. Reforms include safeguards that protect voters whose names were improperly removed (or never added) to registration lists, and procedures to ensure overseas citizens' and service members' votes will be handled equitably.

[The forecasters who predicted Brexit think Trump is likely to lose]

But some of those election administration changes make it much more likely that millions of votes won't be counted until the days and weeks following Election Day.

Why? For two main reasons. First, more votes are now cast by mail. In 2000, approximately 10 percent of ballots were sent by mail. That had nearly doubled, growing to 19 percent, by 2012. In 2016, we expect that to be well over 20 percent. Some of these are tallied on election night, but not all. Many states allow absentee ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day.

Voting began at 6 a.m. in several East Coast states, and now it's time to play the waiting game. When will we know whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will be the next president? The Fix's Chris Cillizza explains. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Second, the Help America Vote Act passed in 2002 mandated provisional voting, which allows voters whose registration is questioned to still cast a ballot. That ballot is not counted immediately. It's put in an envelope, much like an absentee ballot, and counted only if that voter's registration is verified later. Resolving provisional ballots can take days or, as happened in this year's California primary, weeks.

[Everyone is sure that their side is going to win '-- even when they're about to be lose big. Here's what we know.]

According to statistics from the federal Election Assistance Commission, in 2012, voters cast at least 2.7 million provisional ballots. The two states with the most provisional ballots, California and New York, aren't battleground states. But the third and fourth-ranked states '-- Ohio and Arizona '-- are.

These ''overtime'' ballots tilt toward the Democrats

So more ballots will still need to be counted after Election Day. Our most recent research shows that these ''overtime'' ballots tilt in favor of Democratic candidates for president.

Consider that in the election returns reported by the New York Times on Nov. 8, 2012, (which we use for the initial election night counts), nearly 118 million ballots had been counted. In those, Obama led by nearly 2.8 million votes.

But by the time all the states had finished their official canvasses several weeks later, the total ballot count included more than 126 million votes '-- an increase in 8 million votes since election night. And Obama's lead had grown to well over 4.8 million votes.

In other words, 51.1 percent of the two-party votes counted on election night 2012 were for Obama. Of ballots counted after election night, 62.7 percent were for Obama. By the time all the votes had been counted, Obama's share of the vote had grown to 51.9 percent.

We've examined such late-counted ballots going back to 1948. For most of the postwar era, the ''overtime vote'' changed little in either direction. One exception came during the 1960 election, when Richard Nixon won a 0.20 percentage point shift in his favor during post-Election-Day counting. The other exceptions reveal a notable trend: During 2004, 2008 and 2012, the Democratic candidates enjoyed gains of 0.12, 0.35, and 0.39 percentage points, respectively.

In other words, since 2000, votes counted after election night have increasingly favored the Democratic candidate. We call this the ''blue shift.''

Here's why the late count now favors the Democratic candidate. People who cast provisional ballots are usually those whose registration appears irregular on Election Day. Most registration questions come because voters have moved without updating their registrations. In recent years Democrats have won more of the votes from social groups that tend to move often: racial minorities and young adults.

Here's what to expect from election night 2016

Tonight's totals will almost certainly underestimate Clinton's vote share, both nationwide and in most states.

If Clinton is ahead by early Wednesday morning, expect her margin of victory to widen as more votes are counted in the weeks to come.

If Clinton is behind early Wednesday morning, she might still catch up '-- especially if she is behind in battleground states likely to have large numbers of provisional ballots.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton voted in Chappaqua, N.Y., Nov. 8, accompanied by her husband. (The Washington Post)

Which battleground states might hinge on late-counted ballots?

To help estimate which states these might be, we have compared the closeness of the current presidential race with the percentage of 2012 ballots that were provisional. Any state where the 2012 provisional ballot rate is close to the current polling margin may turn on late-counted ballots '-- that is, if Clinton is just barely behind late tonight.

Six states meet those criteria: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio.

Watch these states as returns come in tonight. Make sure that the media does not call them prematurely without adequately considering the possibility that provisional ballots might affect the outcome. Remember that in 2000, most networks ''called'' Florida for Gore, which they then had to retract.

Of course, even if the election is close in one of these states, Clinton is by no means guaranteed victory from the provisional ballots. In 2004, George W. Bush led by 121,012 votes in Ohio, with 158,642 provisional ballots left to count. Only about three-quarters of these proved to be from eligible voters '-- and Bush took in a significant share of those, although a smaller share than did Kerry. Bush's lead was too great to be surmounted by the provisional ballots.

Whatever the vote count tonight, Clinton's share will probably grow in the next few weeks as states release their official tallies. That's not because the system is ''rigged.'' It's just the nation's dedication to making sure that every vote is counted.

Edward B. Foley is the Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold chair in constitutional law and director of election law at Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University.

Charles Stewart III is the Kenan Sahin distinguished professor of political science at MIT and co-director of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 06:43

By Vera Anderson/WireImage.

Sorkin Girls,

Well the world changed late last night in a way I couldn't protect us from. That's a terrible feeling for a father. I won't sugarcoat it'--this is truly horrible. It's hardly the first time my candidate didn't win (in fact it's the sixth time) but it is the first time that a thoroughly incompetent pig with dangerous ideas, a serious psychiatric disorder, no knowledge of the world and no curiosity to learn has.

And it wasn't just Donald Trump who won last night'--it was his supporters too. The Klan won last night. White nationalists. Sexists, racists and buffoons. Angry young white men who think rap music and Cinco de Mayo are a threat to their way of life (or are the reason for their way of life) have been given cause to celebrate. Men who have no right to call themselves that and who think that women who aspire to more than looking hot are shrill, ugly, and otherwise worthy of our scorn rather than our admiration struck a blow for misogynistic shitheads everywhere. Hate was given hope. Abject dumbness was glamorized as being ''the fresh voice of an outsider'' who's going to ''shake things up.'' (Did anyone bother to ask how? Is he going to re-arrange the chairs in the Roosevelt Room?) For the next four years, the President of the United States, the same office held by Washington and Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, F.D.R., J.F.K. and Barack Obama, will be held by a man-boy who'll spend his hours exacting Twitter vengeance against all who criticize him (and those numbers will be legion). We've embarrassed ourselves in front of our children and the world.

And the world took no time to react. The Dow futures dropped 7,000 points overnight. Economists are predicting a deep and prolonged recession. Our NATO allies are in a state of legitimate fear. And speaking of fear, Muslim-Americans, Mexican-Americans and African-Americans are shaking in their shoes. And we'd be right to note that many of Donald Trump's fans are not fans of Jews. On the other hand, there is a party going on at ISIS headquarters. What wouldn't we give to trade this small fraction of a man for Richard Nixon right now?

So what do we do?

First of all, we remember that we're not alone. A hundred million people in America and a billion more around the world feel exactly the same way we do.

Second, we get out of bed. The Trumpsters want to see people like us (Jewish, ''coastal elites,'' educated, socially progressive, Hollywood'...) sobbing and wailing and talking about moving to Canada. I won't give them that and neither will you. Here's what we'll do'...

'...we'll fucking fight. (Roxy, there's a time for this kind of language and it's now.) We're not powerless and we're not voiceless. We don't have majorities in the House or Senate but we do have representatives there. It's also good to remember that most members of Trump's own party feel exactly the same way about him that we do. We make sure that the people we sent to Washington'--including Kamala Harris'--take our strength with them and never take a day off.

We get involved. We do what we can to fight injustice anywhere we see it'--whether it's writing a check or rolling up our sleeves. Our family is fairly insulated from the effects of a Trump presidency so we fight for the families that aren't. We fight for a woman to keep her right to choose. We fight for the First Amendment and we fight mostly for equality'--not for a guarantee of equal outcomes but for equal opportunities. We stand up.

America didn't stop being America last night and we didn't stop being Americans and here's the thing about Americans: Our darkest days have always'--always'--been followed by our finest hours.

Roxy, I know my predictions have let you down in the past, but personally, I don't think this guy can make it a year without committing an impeachable crime. If he does manage to be a douche nozzle without breaking the law for four years, we'll make it through those four years. And three years from now we'll fight like hell for our candidate and we'll win and they'll lose and this time they'll lose for good. Honey, it'll be your first vote.

The battle isn't over, it's just begun. Grandpa fought in World War II and when he came home this country handed him an opportunity to make a great life for his family. I will not hand his granddaughter a country shaped by hateful and stupid men. Your tears last night woke me up, and I'll never go to sleep on you again.

Love,

Dad

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 14:11

European stocks rose on Thursday following large gains in Asia and on Wall Street, as exuberance shot through the markets at the prospect of Donald Trump as the next president of the United states.

Anyone who bought German or French shares during Trump's victory speeh on Wednesday morning has seen a 4 per cent boost in their value.

The jump defies the doom-laden predictions of many City analysts who predicted a huge sell-off, if the Republican was victorious.

The consensus view that Trumps unpredictability and protectionist economic policies would spook world markets has prooved incorrect as shares have rebounded strongly.

The FTSE 100 jumped up 1 per cent within minutes, before falling back. It is now around 150 points above its level of the day before Tuesday's election.

Banks gained on the propect of relaxations on Wall Street regulation, with Barclays up 5 per cent and RBS rising 6 per cent. Trump's promises to boost defence spending saw BAE Systems add another 6 per cent to its strong gains from yesterday. Mining shares also rose. Futures contracts for US equities rose sharply on Thursday, suggesting Wall Street will rise sharply when the New York Stock Exchange opens.

Asian equities saw big gains on Thursday, joining a goldrush across world markets as the shock of a Trump' victory was replaced by hopes his plan to kickstart the US economy will succeed.

Trading floors were awash in red on Wednesday as investors reacted to news that the firebrand tycoon had defeated establishment candidate, Hillary Clinton, upending expectations.

However, a reassuring victory speech - followed by calls by Clinton and President Obama to get behind Trump - provided some encouragement to traders, sending risk assets rallying.

Most markets in Asia either wiped out or clawed back most of the previous day's losses, while the dollar pushed higher.

The currency had come under pressure as traders worried that Trump's negative impact on the economy would cause the Federal Reserve to hold off an interest rate rise, but analysts said those worries had abated for now.

Tokyo closed up 6.7 percent, with a plunging yen also providing support. The dollar dallied with 106 yen before easing slightly, well up from Wednesday's low of 101.20 yen.

In the afternoon Hong Kong gained 2.1 percent and Shanghai closed 1.4 percent up. Sydney closed 3.3 percent higher, Seoul jumped two percent and Taipei put on 2.4 percent.

There were also gains of more than one percent in Wellington, Singapore and Manila.

Click here to download your free guide on how to select shares, with Independent Partner, Hargreaves Lansdown

Reuse content

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 07:09

Donald Trump has selected one of the best-known climate skeptics to lead his U.S. EPA transition team, according to two sources close to the campaign.

Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, is spearheading Trump's transition plans for EPA, the sources said.

The Trump team has also lined up leaders for its Energy Department and Interior Department teams. Republican energy lobbyist Mike McKenna is heading the DOE team; former Interior Department solicitor David Bernhardt is leading the effort for that agency, according to sources close to the campaign.

Ebell is a well-known and polarizing figure in the energy and environment realm. His participation in the EPA transition signals that the Trump team is looking to drastically reshape the climate policies the agency has pursued under the Obama administration. Ebell's role is likely to infuriate environmentalists and Democrats but buoy critics of Obama's climate rules.

Ebell, who was dubbed an ''elegant nerd'' and a ''policy wonk'' by Vanity Fair, is known for his prolific writings that question what he calls climate change ''alarmism.'' He appears frequently in the media and before Congress. He's also chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group of nonprofits that ''question global warming alarmism and oppose energy-rationing policies.''

Ebell appears to relish criticism from the left.

In a biography submitted when he testified before Congress, he listed among his recognitions that he had been featured in a Greenpeace ''Field Guide to Climate Criminals,'' dubbed a ''misleader'' on global warming by Rolling Stone and was the subject of a motion to censure in the British House of Commons after Ebell criticized the United Kingdom's chief scientific adviser for his views on global warming.

More recently, Ebell has called the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan for greenhouse gases illegal and said that Obama joining the Paris climate treaty ''is clearly an unconstitutional usurpation of the Senate's authority.''

He told Vanity Fair in 2007, ''There has been a little bit of warming ... but it's been very modest and well within the range for natural variability, and whether it's caused by human beings or not, it's nothing to worry about.''

Ebell's views appear to square with Trump's when it comes to EPA's agenda. Trump has called global warming ''bullshit'' and he has said he would ''cancel'' the Paris global warming accord and roll back President Obama's executive actions on climate change (ClimateWire, May 27).

Leading the Trump DOE team: GOP hired gun McKenna.

The president of MWR Strategies is well known in Republican energy circles. He was director of policy and external affairs for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality under then-Gov. George Allen (R) and was an external relations specialist at the Energy Department during the George H.W. Bush administration.

His lobbying clients in 2016 include Koch Companies Public Sector LLC, Southern Company Services, Dow Chemical Co. and Competitive Power Ventures Inc., according to public disclosures.

And heading Interior's transition effort is Bernhardt, co-chairman of the Natural Resources Department at the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

He served as Interior's solicitor during the George W. Bush administration after holding several other high-ranking jobs at the department.

In addition to the EPA, Interior and DOE team leaders, GOP energy expert Mike Catanzaro is also working on energy policy for the Trump transition team (Greenwire, Sept. 14).

During the Obama transition in 2008, a relatively small team was assembled ahead of the election in order to map out broad policy goals.

Following the election, the operation expanded dramatically and teams were dispatched to work out of agencies to gather information from political staffers and career officials, write flurries of memos and compile thick binders of intelligence to hand over to the incoming leadership (Greenwire, Aug. 19, 2016).

Should Trump win in November, Ebell, McKenna and Bernhardt will likely be leading similar efforts to reform their respective agencies.

Ebell and McKenna directed questions about their roles to the Trump transition team. The Trump campaign and Bernhardt did not respond to requests for comment.

This story also appears in E&E Daily.

Reprinted from ClimateWire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environmental news at www.eenews.net. Click here for the original story.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 07 Nov 2016 15:26

President Park Geun-hye is in deep trouble. The stories have been out for a few days now, and even the English-language papers have caught on. Park's confidant has been running a massive slush fund, as she extorted more than $70 million from Korea's largest corporations. The confidant was receiving confidential policy briefings and draft presidential speeches--all on a totally unencrypted computer. The confidant rigged the college admission process so that her daughter, not known to be sharpest tool in the shed, would be admitted into the prestigious Ewha Womans University. That last bit turned out to be the first step toward the president's ruin, as Ewha students' protest over that preferential treatment developed into the larger investigation about the relationship between Park and her confidant, Choi Soon-sil.But the English language coverage of this scandal is missing something. The newspapers do have most of the facts, which they recount diligently. But they fail to fully account for the Korean public's stunned disbelief. Although the scale of the corruption here is significant, Koreans have seen much, much worse. Not long ago, Korean people have seen Chun Doo-hwan, the former president/dictator, made off with nearly $1 billion, and this was back in the mid-1980s when the money was worth more than $4 billion in today's dollars. Even the democratically elected presidents of Korea--every single one of them--suffered from corruption charges. Lee Myung-bak, the immediate predecessor to Park, saw his older brother (himself a National Assemblyman) go to prison over bribery. Lee's controversial Four Rivers Project, which cost nearly $20 billion, was widely seen as a massive graft project to push government funding to his cronies who were operating construction companies.For better or worse (mostly worse,) Korean people have come to expect corruption from their presidents. So why is this one by Park Geun-hye causing such a strong reaction? It is not because Korean people discovered that Park was corrupt; it is because they discovered Park was irrationally corrupt. Koreans are not being dismayed at the scale of the corruption; they are shocked to see what the scale of the corruption signifies.Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.Park Geun-hye's corruption scandal revolves around a central question: why would the president risk her administration for Choi Soon-sil? In fact, one of Park's selling points as the presidential candidate was that she was less likely to be corrupt because she had no family. Her parents--former dictator Park Chung-hee and his wife Yuk Yeong-su--were dead, and she was estranged from her sister and brother. This argument had a modicum of plausibility, since all the previous president's corruption involved their family in some way. (Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung had issues with their sons; Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak, their brothers.) But the lack of family did not stop Park Geun-hye from being corrupt, because she apparently had to give money to Choi Soon-sil. But why did Park Geun-hye, the president, even bother with Choi Soon-sil, a nobody? To answer this question, we must look back into modern Korean history to trace the relationship between Park and Choi. Park Geun-hye met Choi Soon-sil through Choi's father, Choi Tae-min. The elder Choi, born in 1912, was a pseudo-Christian cult leader. He started his adult life as a policeman and soldier, and at one point he worked at a small newspaper and a soap factory. By 1970s, Choi was fully engaged in the occupation for which he would be known: being a cult leader, claiming to heal people. Choi called himself a pastor, but he never attended a seminary.Choi Tae-min met Park Geun-hye for the first time in 1975, when Park was 23. Park Geun-hye had just lost her mother, who was assassinated by a North Korean spy. (The spy was aiming for Park's father, the dictator Park Chung-hee, but missed and killed the first lady instead.) Shortly after the assassination, the elder Choi sent several letters to Park Geun-hye, claiming that the soul of Park's mother visited him, and Park could hear from her mother through him. Park invited Choi Tae-min to the presidential residence, and the elder Choi told her there that Park's mother did not truly die, but merely moved out of the way to open the path for Park Geun-hye. This was the beginning of the unholy relationship between Park Geun-hye and Choi's family, which included Choi Tae-min's daughter Soon-sil.Once the elder Choi won Park Geun-hye's confidence, he leveraged the relationship to amass a fortune. Choi set up a number of foundations, with Park Geun-hye as the nominal head, and peddled influence. The influence-peddling and bribery became so severe that the dictator Park Chung-hee summoned Choi Tae-min to personally interrogate him. In the interrogation session and thereafter, Park Geun-hye would fiercely defend Choi, her spiritual guide and connection to her dead mother. In a Wikileaks cable from 2007 when Park Geun-hye first ran for president, the U.S. Ambassador for Korea noted: "Rumors are rife that the late pastor had complete control over Park's body and soul during her formative years and that his children accumulated enormous wealth as a result." Choi Tae-min's high times ended on October 26, 1979, when his patron lost her father in another assassination. (Fittingly, Park Geun-hye's own downfall began around October 26 of this year.) The assassin Kim Jae-gyu, then-head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, said one of the reasons why he decided to assassinate his boss was because of the toxic relationship between Choi Tae-min and Park Geun-hye. Although Park Chung-hee was fully aware of Choi Tae-min's grafting, the elder Park let it continue for the sake of his daughter. Kim believed that this was another indication that Park Chung-hee was losing his marbles. For the next decade, Park Geun-hye and Choi Tae-min were removed from politics. The assassination of Park Chung-hee led to another round of murderous dictatorship, this time by Chun Doo-hwan, then finally democratization in 1987. During that time, Park operated several charitable foundations, which were in reality no more than private slush funds made up of the money that Choi grifted during her father's reign. Park Geun-hye became so dependent on Choi Tae-min that she would be estranged from her remaining family, her sister Park Geun-ryeong and her brother Park Ji-man. In 1990, Park's siblings went so far as to petition then-president Roh Tae-woo that their sister be "rescued" from Choi Tae-min's control.Choi Tae-min died in 1994, at which point Park Geun-hye's confidence moved to Choi's daughter, Soon-sil. Park entered politics in 1997, winning her first election as an Assemblywoman in 1998. She would prove to be a competent politician, earning the nickname "Queen of Elections." She lost in the presidential primaries to Lee Myung-bak in 2007, but came back strong to win the nomination and eventually the presidency in 2012. Although Park's relationship with the Choi family briefly became an issue during her two presidential runs, she dismissed them as baseless rumors, claiming that neither Choi Tae-min nor Choi Soon-sil was involved in her works as a politician.As it turned out, Choi Soon-sil owned Park Geun-hye just as much as her father did. Peddling the presidential influence, Choi extorted tens of millions of dollars from Korea's largest corporations. When they found a small and profitable company, Choi's cronies would straight-up steal it, threatening the owner of the company with the company's destruction and personal harm. More importantly, Choi effectively controlled the presidential power. Every day, Choi would receive a huge stack of policy briefs from the presidential residence to discuss with her inner circle--an illustrious group that included Choi's gigolo (no, really) and a K-pop music video director (I'm serious.) Choi would receive ultra-confidential information detailing secret meetings between South and North Korean military authorities. Choi would receive in advance the budget proposal of more than $150 million for the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, and distributed them to her friends' projects. Choi went around saying North Korea would collapse by 2017 according to the spirits that spoke to her, and the Park Geun-hye administration may have set its North Korea policy based on this claim. It is entirely fitting that this sordid affair began unraveling because of a preferential treatment that Choi's daughter received in her college admission. If there is one thing that Koreans cared more than their lives, it is their (and their children's) college degree. As the heat rose against Choi and her daughter, they hightailed to Germany where they owned a horse farm.The major breakthrough occurred on October 24, when a cable TV network JTBC discovered a Galaxy Tab belonging to Choi Soon-sil in the office that she abandoned. The tablet was the Pandora's Box--it had the presidential speeches with Choi's markups, presidential briefs for cabinet meetings, appointment information for presidential aides, chat messages with presidential aides, the president's vacation schedule, draft designs for commemorative stamps featuring the president, and much, much more. The discovery of the tablet was worthy of "World's Dumbest Criminals"--the tablet was simply left behind in Choi's office with no encryption, and the files were available for anyone to open. And just in case Choi Soon-sil denied ownership of the tablet, its image gallery contained her selfie. Meanwhile, Korean people's collective heads exploded. As discussed earlier, it takes quite a bit for Korean politics to shock the Korean people. Having survived a particularly tumultuous modern democratic history, Korean people may be the world's most cynical consumers of politics. But this. Even the most cynical Koreans were not ready for this. At first, there was a tiny bit of perverse relief, as all the bizarre actions of Park Geun-hye administration suddenly began to make sense. Why did the president only hold just three press conferences in the first four years of her administration? Why does the president always speak in convoluted sentences that make no sense? Why did the president fly off the handle and sue the Japanese journalist who claimed that she was with Choi Soon-sil's husband while the ferry Sewol was sinking in 2014, drowning 300 school children? Why did the ruling party randomly host a shamanistic ritual in the halls of the National Assembly? Ohhhh, the relief went. Now it all makes sense.But this brief relief soon gave way to the terrifying realization: actually, it does not make sense. None of this makes any sense.In an ordinary case of political corruption, the politician is in it for himself. At most, the politician is doing it for his family, or other rich people who may end up helping him later. Obviously, corruption is bad. But this type of self-interested corruption at least gives some measure of predictability. We all know what self-interest looks like. Even though we would prefer that our politicians are not corrupt, at least we know how corrupt politicians behave.But not with Park Geun-hye. Her corruption was not self-interested at all. If anything, her corruption was self-sacrificing in favor of Choi Soon-sil. Among the numerous revelations, I personally found this the most pathetic: Park Geun-hye gave Choi a sizable budget to purchase the presidential wardrobe, and Choi embezzled most of it. Instead of purchasing the clothes that befitted a head of state, Choi outfitted Park Geun-hye with crappy clothes that she had her cronies made with subpar material. There is a video of Choi's staff smoking and drinking while eating fried chicken, right next to the suit meant for Park Geun-hye. At one point, one of the staff members handled the suit without even wiping chicken grease from his hands, while breathing smoke onto the clothes. Park Geun-hye would wear this suit on her presidential visit with Xi Jinping. For accessories, Choi gave Park the cheap leather purses and clutches that her gigolo designed. This could not have possibly escaped Park's notice. Even assuming the unlikely possibility Park Geun-hye might not have had the discernment to know firsthand (unlikely because she grew up in the lap of luxury,) the obvious cheapness of Park's clothes and bags even made the news. Yet nothing came of it. Choi Soon-sil dressed Park Geun-hye liked an unwanted doll, and Park, the president of the country, did not care.Even in her apology, Park Geun-hye showed that she still might be under Choi Soon-sil's hold. What would a self-interested politician would do, if the corruption of one of his cronies was revealed? The politician would sell the crony down the river, denying up and down that he ever knew or interacted with the crony. Such denial would be cowardly and dishonest, but at least it is predictable. But not with Park Geun-hye. She stood in front of the whole country and admitted that Choi Soon-sil fixed her speeches. Instead of cutting ties with her, Park reaffirmed that Choi was an old friend who helped her during difficult times.This is utterly irrational. Rational people can expect that a corrupt politician may steal money for himself. They can even expect that he may steal for his family. But no one can expect that a corrupt politician would steal money for a daughter of a fucking psychic who claimed to speak with her dead mother. No one, not even the most cynical Korean, expected that the president would refuse to cut ties with Choi Soon-sil, a woman with no discernible talent other than manipulating the president and humiliating her in the process. Koreans may expect that the president would be corrupt, but they never could have expected that the president might be feeble in her mind.Sports columnist Bill Simmons coined the term "Tyson Zone," in which nothing you hear about a particular celebrity can possibly surprise you. Did you hear that Mike Tyson urinated on a police officer? Of course he did! Did you hear that Mike Tyson is attempting to breed unicorns? Of course he is! Given what you already know about Mike Tyson, none you hear about Mike Tyson could possibly surprise you.With Choi Soon-sil-gate, Park Geun-hye put the entire country into the Tyson Zone. Every insane rumor about the president--the kind that you would see from some remote corner of the internet and laugh off--is now fair game. For years, there have been rumors that the name of Park's political party, the Saenuri Party, is a code name for a cult named shincheonji. Well, why not? We already know that Choi Soon-sil was the one who actually produced Park's inauguration, which featured numerous little multi-colored bags that are used for shamanistic rituals. Would it really surprise you Park Geun-hye named her party after a cult? Did you hear that Choi Soon-sil may have had a hidden son who worked at the presidential residence? Well, why not? We already know Choi made her personal trainer into a presidential aide--what's another hidden son?Even the way forward is not entirely clear. Politically, Park Geun-hye is finished, although it is unlikely that she would resign or be impeached. She would not resign because she fundamentally lacks the capacity to assess the reality around her. The opposition would not bother with the impeachment--they would prefer to let the administration bleed with non-stop investigation, until the presidential election comes next year. But remember that we are now in the Tyson Zone, where everything is fair game. Choi Soon-sil is still on the run, and she still may be able to get in touch with the president. Even a politically finished president has a few remaining options to short-circuit the political process, and this president does not seem to have the instinct for self-preservation when it comes to Choi. I don't want to actually write out what Park Geun-hye might do, because the mere thought of them sends chills down my spine. But I cannot get those thoughts out of my head, because they are no longer ridiculous. My worst nightmares for Korea's democracy are now a realistic possibility. This is the shock that the Korean people are experiencing now.Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 08 Nov 2016 13:23

Bruno Waterfield, Brussels

The European Union faces another referendum as Dutch campaigners close in on the number of petition signatures needed to force a popular vote on a trade deal with Canada.

Direct democracy activists have collected two thirds of the 300,000 names required to force a referendum on a EU-Canada trade pact that is regarded with widespread suspicion in Europe and the Netherlands. A vote against could scupper the trade deal.

The latest manifestation of public mistrust will almost certainly trigger a vote in early 2018, meaning that the EU faces 18 months of political tests, starting with Italy's constitutional referendum next month and followed by elections next year in the Netherlands, France and Germany. The EU's comprehensive economic and trade agreement (Ceta), was provisionally signed nine'...

Want to read more?

Register with a few details to continue reading this article.

Get access nowPrevious articleBrexit 'fast-track' plan and the rule of law

Previous articleNext articleSuicide bombers slow Iraqi advance

Next article

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 06:31

Europe should build its own army and not rely on security guarantees from Washington, the European Commission president said following the election of Donald Trump. At the same time, Jean-Claude Juncker called for the preservation of the transatlantic partnership.

Speaking in Berlin about the future of Europe sometime around 2050, Juncker had to ad lib, admitting that his speech had been written with the assumption that Hillary Clinton would be the victor of the US presidential race. But reflecting on the unexpected outcome of Trump's presidency, Juncker said that ''regardless'' of who is the US president, the EU and the US must work together.

Read more

''We have to work hard to keep this transatlantic relationship in order,'' Juncker said. ''We remain to be partners, the world needs a close relationship between the United States and the European continent.''

Yet at the same time, Juncker cautioned that in line with a growing threat to Europe's security, the EU must be able to offer its citizens the required protection.

''We need more security in Europe, and I do not mean just the anti-terror fight,'' Juncker said.

''Talking about security we need a different way of organizing a European defense '... the French National Assembly in 1954 prevented the European community of defense.''

''We need it now. The idea that the Americans will eternally see to ... European security is not true. Independent of the outcome of the US election, the Americans will not see to Europe's security forever. We have to do it ourselves. And this is why we need a new approach to the European community of defense, including a European army,'' Juncker said.

When speaking about the future state of Europe, Juncker made it clear that the EU should not have a ''masters of the world'' mentality, but instead should look to secure its interests in the global arena.

''The world does not need any masters. Whenever someone tries to become the master of the world ... This has not worked out.''

He added that Europe is a small continent and has no global ambitions.

By 2050 Europe will lose its position as one of the world's economic production hubs, Juncker stressed, so it will need to find its own way to secure its position in the world.

''If we want to have some influence in the world. if we want to continue to exists, to prevail, then the European countries have to work really closely.''

''We also have to come to a new description of the cooperation on this continent. When I was young I was also enthused about the United States of Europe. We should not do this. Our people do not want to experience the United States of Europe. We should not give the expression of the EU being on the way to becoming the United Union. I cannot imagine Europe becoming a melting pot where you do not recognize nations.''

Read more

The idea of creating European armed forces has been floating around for years. But on Monday, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen called on Brussels to beef up its military capabilities in the face of alleged Russian aggression.

''We have seen an enormous modernization drive by NATO over the past three years because of the Kremlin's behavior,'' the minister said. ''That was correct and important, but I believe that we must invest at least the same energy in ... [the] modernization of European security and [a] defense union.''

After Trump won the presidential race on Tuesday, von der Leyen urged the Republican to voice his assurances to NATO.

''Of course we Europeans, as a NATO ally, know that if Donald Trump becomes president, he'll ask: What are you contributing to this alliance?'' von der Leyen, told broadcaster ARD.

''But we're also wondering, what's your position on this alliance?'' she added. ''There are many questions yet to be answered.''

The EU ministers are expected to meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss plans to strengthen the EU military cooperation and capabilities. Proposals to be discussed at the meeting include increasing European spending on military missions, jointly developing military assets such and building stronger defenses against cyberattacks.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 08 Nov 2016 13:31

Mon Nov 7, 2016 | 1:12 PM EST

CAIRO/ABU DHABI Saudi Arabia has informed Egypt that shipments of oil products expected under a $23 billion aid deal have been halted indefinitely, suggesting a deepening rift between the Arab world's richest country and its most populous.

Saudi Arabia has been a major donor to Egypt since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi seized power in mid-2013 but Riyadh has become frustrated with Sisi's lack of economic reforms and his reluctance to be drawn into the conflict in Yemen.

During a visit by Saudi King Salman in April, Saudi Arabia agreed to provide Egypt with 700,000 tonnes of refined oil products per month for five years but the cargoes stopped arriving in early October as festering political tensions burst into the open.

Egyptian officials have said since that the contract with Saudi Arabia's state oil firm Aramco remains valid and had appeared to expect that oil would start flowing again soon.

On Monday, however, Egyptian Oil Minister Tarek El Molla confirmed it had stopped shipments indefinitely. Aramco has not commented on the halt and did not respond to calls on Monday.

"They did not give us a reason," an oil ministry official told Reuters. "They only informed the authority about halting shipments of petroleum products until further notice."

The move comes as a source in Molla's delegation said late on Sunday evening that he would visit Iran, Saudi Arabia's main political rival, to try to strike new oil deals.

Egypt and Iran's diplomatic relations have been strained since the 1970s. An Egyptian official visiting Iran would cement a break in its alliance with Saudi Arabia and mark a seismic shift in the regional political order.

Speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi, Molla said he was not going to Iran. An Iranian oil official later said that a report by the semi-official Mehr news agency suggesting Molla would meet his Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Monday was "incorrect".

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail also said Molla was not visiting Iran and Egypt was not negotiating with Tehran over importing oil products, state newspaper al-Ahram reported.

But two security sources and the source in Molla's delegation said the minister had been scheduled to go, and the low-key visit was now delayed after the news became public.

Gulf Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, have pumped billions of dollars into Egypt's flagging economy since former general Sisi took over after a year of divisive rule by the Muslim Brotherhood.

But with the Brotherhood threat diminished, Gulf rulers have grown disillusioned at what they consider Sisi's inability to reform an economy that has become a black hole for aid, and his reluctance to back them on the regional stage.

Egypt has been reluctant to provide military backing for Riyadh's war against the Iranian-backed Houthi group in Yemen.

In Syria, where Saudi Arabia is a leading backer of rebels fighting against Iranian-backed Bashar al-Assad, Sisi has supported Russia's decision to bomb in support of the president.

A deal to hand over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, made at the same time as the oil aid agreement, has faced legal challenges and is now bogged down in an Egyptian court.

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk in Cairo and Maha El Dahan and Rania El Gamal in Abu Dhabi; Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Andrew Torchia, Catherine Evans and Mark Potter)

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 03:44

Russia has accused a Dutch submarine of trying to monitor its aircraft carrier and follow its vessels in the Mediterranean, branding the manoeuvre 'clumsy' and 'dangerous', and warning of 'grave consequences'.

According to the Russian defence ministry, the Severomorsk and the Vice-Admiral Kulakov, two of its anti-submarine ships, 'spotted a submarine from the Dutch navy, which tried to approach the Northern Fleet's aircraft carrier group in the eastern Mediterranean.'

The Dutch submarine, which was detected by anti-submarine helicopters, was located about 12 miles from the Russian warships, it said.

The Severomorsk, one of the ships which detected the submarine

'The vessels followed its manoeuvres for more than an hour and forced it to leave the deployment area of the aircraft carrier's group,' a ministry statement said.

'These clumsy attempts to carry out dangerous manoeuvres in the immediate proximity of a group of Russian vessels could have had grave navigational consequences,' it continued.

Russian warships 'regularly' detect NATO submarines on their way to the Mediterranean, the ministry said.

The second anti-submarine warfare ship involved was the Vice-Admiral Kulakov, pictured here being inspected by Vladimir Putin in 2014

When contacted by AFP, the Dutch defence ministry had no immediate comment on its naval operations.

In recent months, Russia has reinforced its naval presence in the Mediterranean as part of its intervention in Syria where it has been conducting an aerial campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia also has an airbase in Hmeimim just south of the Syrian city of Latakia from which it has carried out air strikes since the start of its military intervention in September 2015, as well as a naval facility in the port city of Tartus.

Vladimir Putin's defence ministry criticised the 'clumsy attempts to carry out dangerous manoeuvres in the immediate proximity of a group of Russian vessels'

Nato has also said that Russian fighter jets are constantly testing defences over the Baltic states, with more than 600 'interceptions' so far this year.

Nato pilots, most often German, defending the skies over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have said the situation in the Baltic has become serious.

Lieutenant Colonel Swen Jacob, the commander of the German pilots, said they often flew as close as 10 yards from the Russian jets and one occasion a Russian pilot gave him a middle-fingered salute.

The Russian air force is said to be under orders from President Vladimir Putin to be more aggressive in the air.

Given Moscow's aggressive posturing, Nato chiefs are scrambling to put together a force of 300,000 troops which they can put on 'high alert.

At the weekend Russian soldiers, dressed in World War Two era uniforms, commemorate the 75th anniversary of a famous parade in 1941 when the Red Army headed out of Moscow to take on the Nazis

Russia has been bolstering its military capabilities, holding parades involving more than 100,000 troops each year

There are fears that President Putin may launch an attack on the West, after relations with Russia plummeted.

Most Nato members cut their defence spending dramatically since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 but Russia has been bolstering its military capabilities, holding parades involving more than 100,000 troops each year.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Source: Dave says...

Tue, 08 Nov 2016 22:18

President Barack Obama at a solar power plant in Nevada on March 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(CNSNews.com) - The United States lost 9,000 manufacturing jobs in October while gaining 19,000 jobs in government, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Government employment grew from 22,216,000 in September to 22,235,000 in October, according to BLS, while manufacturing jobs dropped from 12,267,000 to 12,258,000.

The 22,235,000 employed by government in the United States now outnumber the 12,258,000 employed in manufacturing by 9,977,000.

Over the past year'--from October 2015 to October 2016'--manufacturing employment fell by 53,000, declining from 12,311,000 to 12,258,000. During the same period, government employment climbed 208,000, rising from 22,027,000 to 22,235,000.

The BLS has published seasonally-adjusted month-by-month employment data for both government and manufacturing going back to January 1939. According to this data, manufacturing employees in the United States of America outnumbered government employees every month for more than half a century. Then, in August 1989, government employees slipped ahead of manufacturing employees for the first time'--taking a slim lead of 17,989,000 to 17,964,000.

Since then, government has pulled dramatically ahead of manufacturing as an employer in the United States.

In fact, the 22,235,000 who now work for government in this country, according to the BLS, is more than ever worked in manufacturing.

Manufacturing employment peaked in June 1979 at 19,553,000. Since then, manufacturing employment has declined by 7,295,000'--or 37.3 percent'--to its current level of 12,258,000.

In June 1979, when manufacturing employment hit its peak, government employment was 16,045,000. Since then, government employment has increased by 6,190,000'--or 38.6 percent'--to its current level of 22,235,000.

The 22,235,000 employed by government exceed the populations of 48 of the 50 states. Only California, which the Census Bureau estimated had a population of 39,144,818 in 2015; and Texas, which the Census Bureau estimated had a population of 27,469,114, had populations that exceeded the number of people in the country who work for government.

The 22,235,000 government employees as of October, for example, exceeded the population of Florida (20,271,272) and the population of New York (19,795,791).

The 22,235,000 employed by government also exceed the combined populations of Ohio (11,613,423) and Michigan (9,922,576)'--which equaled 21,535,999.

The 22,235,000 government employees in October, according to BLS, included 14,297,000 local government employees, 5,123,000 state government employees, and 2,815,000 federal government employees.

The business and economic reporting of CNSNews.com is funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 02:50

For the first time in nearly a year, the Islamic State has released an audio message from its leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. The audio file was released online late yesterday by Al Furqan Establishment for Media Production, one of the group's media arms. The speech is titled, ''This is What Allah and His Messenger Had Promised Us.'' Baghdadi last addressed the public in December 2015.

The so-called caliphate is under siege from all sides. But Baghdadi refuses to blow the horn of retreat, telling his followers that they are waging a ''grand jihad'' against all of their many enemies.

Speaking in Manichean terms, Baghdadi advises his men that they should not allow Satan to convince them to ''retreat.'' Instead, the jihadists should remain at their assigned ''outposts'' and hope to ''persevere'' in the fight ahead. It is ''one thousand times better'' to remain ''in your land'' than to retreat ''in humiliation,'' Baghdadi says. But the jihadists' reward may not come in this life. Baghdadi tells his people that they fight to avoid ''hellfire'' and can hope to achieve ''paradise.'' But the caliphate's foes cannot hope for the same, Baghdadi claims, as hell awaits them.

The Islamic State leader portrays the conflict in Iraq as a sectarian conspiracy against Sunnis. Baghdadi claims that various parties fight under the ''pretext of waging war'' against his group, but they are really only interested in killing Sunni men and then taking both their women and children prisoner. He alleges that the cities of Iraq are being emptied of Sunnis as part of a Shiite, or Iranian, plan. Still, Baghdadi's message hints at the frustration he must have for the Sunnis in Iraq who are not rallying the caliphate's cause. At one point, the Islamic State's top man even compares Sunni Iraqis to the people of Israel, implying that they have not stayed on the true path.

According to Baghdadi, the apostates, atheists, Christians, Jews, Shiites and other infidels have conspired to launch an offensive in Wilayah Nineveh (Province of Nineveh), which is the home of Mosul. But the jihadists should ''remain patient'' and guard against weakness, he says.

Baghdadi uses this same sectarian framing to discuss the battles being waged outside of Iraq. But he cannot endorse his Sunni jihadi rivals. He even takes a swipe at the groups fighting against Bashar al Assad's regime in Aleppo.

The anti-Assad forces in Aleppo include jihadist organizations that are part of al Qaeda's network, such as Jabhat Fath al Sham (JFS). Even though they are fighting Assad and his allies, Baghdadi refers to them as ''apostate factions'' and decries their supposed ''treachery.'' This is not surprising as JFS is led by Baghdadi's former lieutenant, Abu Muhammad al Julani, and the rivalry between the two men has helped fuel the animosity between the Islamic State and al Qaeda.

Despite Baghdadi's disdain for JFS and its allies, he warns of the ''vicious'' campaign being waged by the ''Nusayri'' regime (meaning Assad's government), as well as Assad's Iranian, Russian and ''infidel'' allies. Baghdadi says they hope to establish a new ''Nusayri'' presence in Aleppo that ends the ''rule of Allah'' in the land, meaning rule according to Sunni Islamic traditions.

The Islamic State has been deliberately ambiguous about its responsibility for some high-profile terrorist attacks in Turkey that it has been suspected of carrying out. But Baghdadi makes a clear call for operations against Turkey in his speech.

Earlier this year, Turkey launched operation Euphrates Shield, which has successfully claimed territory from the caliphate in northern Syria. Baghdadi claims that Turkey has revealed its true agenda by entering the war. He argues that the Turks have taken advantage of the fact that the Islamic State has been distracted by the ''war against the infidel nations'' and has been forced to defend its territory.

For these reasons, the so-called Caliph tells his followers to ''attack'' Turkey and bring the country into their ''conflict.'' Baghdadi also likens ''infidel'' Turkish soldiers to dogs and calls on the caliphate's ''soldiers'' to spill their blood.

Baghdadi addresses the caliphate's ''soldiers'' far outside of Iraq and Syria. He specifically names Algeria, the Arabian Peninsula (meaning Saudi Arabia), Bangladesh, the Caucasus, Egypt, Indonesia, the Khorasan region (which includes Afghanistan and Pakistan), Libya, the Philippines, the Sinai, Somalia, Tunisia, West Africa and Yemen. The Islamic State's loyalists operate in each of these areas, sometimes under the banner of official ''provinces'' for the group. Baghdadi says they have enraged the infidel nations, just as the formation of the caliphate did. And he praises their supposed ''unity.'' They should not worry about losing their leaders, Baghdadi advises, because Allah will provide them with new ones who are just as capable, if not more so.

The jihadists in Saudi Arabia should continue their attacks against the Saudi government and its allies inside the country, Baghdadi says, because the Saudis have participated in the war against Sunnis in Iraq and the Levant. He also blasts the Saudis for allegedly seeking to ''secularize'' their country.

Baghdadi singles out the jihadists fighting in Sirte, Libya for special praise, saying their fierce fight has foiled the designs of the European ''Crusaders.'' The Islamic State has lost much ground in Sirte since May, but Baghdadi urges his men to man their posts because their enemies could break. However, while Western-backed Libyan forces have suffered thousands of casualties during the offensive against the stronghold in Sirte, Baghdadi's loyalists are not close to achieving victory.

The Islamic State has repeatedly called on its followers to migrate to the lands of the caliphate. But if they cannot make it to Iraq and Syria, then they can join the jihad anywhere the group's wilayah, or provinces, operate. Baghdadi repeats this call, saying new recruits have a ''wide path'' for migration.

Toward the end of his speech, Baghdadi honors the top Islamic State officials who have been killed in recent months, including Abu Muhammad al Adnani and Abu Muhammad al Furqan, both of whom served multiple roles. Baghdadi says their deaths will not end the Islamic State's jihad, but were instead necessary ''sacrifices'' and the ''martyrdom'' of top commanders only serves Allah's will.

In that vein, Baghdadi calls on the Islamic State's many ''martyrs'' to advance on their enemies and ''make rivers of their blood.''

Abu Bakr al Baghdadi does not sound triumphant in his new message, but he insists that the Islamic State will not stop fighting any time soon.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for The Long War Journal.

Tags:Abu Bakr, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, Abu Muhammad al Adnani, caliphate, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 04:48

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 04:39

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 04:33

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 04:26

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 04:23

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 04:18

[See NewsBusters for more.] With Donald Trump doing significantly better than predicted in many states on election night, Daily Show host Trevor Noah opened his show by admitting he was ''shitting his "pants'' over the results and by America's ''hate.'' He also declared it the ''end of the world.'' Noah mourned, ''We are live across many channels. Thank you so much for tuning in. It is election night, 11PM on the east coast. 8 out west and 9am tomorrow in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which is where we may soon want to live. This is it, the end of the presidential race and it feels like the end of the world.'' Continuing the freak out, Noah berated, ''I'm not going to lie. I don't know if you've come to the right place for jokes tonight because this is the first time throughout this entire race where I'm officially shitting my pants. I genuinely do not understand how America can be this disorganized or this hateful.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 04:04

See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.

Minutes after President-Elect Donald Trump concluded his victory speech that ended on Wednesday around 3:00 a.m. Eastern, the cast of characters immediately demanded that Trump seek to ''rectify'' the tumbling stock market that could lead to an ''economic collapse'' similar to what Barack Obama inherited when he was inaugurated in 2009.

Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd initially seemed even-keeled earlier in the evening when he admitted the media ignored ''rural America,'' but he wasn't in this instance as he warned that Americans will be ''wak[ing] up...to a Brexit-like reaction in the stock market'' that'll ''rattle a lot'' of them.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 04:02

See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.

Before signing off early Wednesday morning after almost 12 hours on the air, MSNBC's so-called ''A-Team'' provided some predictably entertaining final thoughts as breaking news anchor Brian Williams reminded his liberal colleagues that their employer played a huge role in making Donald Trump the president-elect while Lawrence O'Donnell fretted that it's ''a mourning moment'' filled with fear for much of America.

While O'Donnell and fellow co-host Rachel Maddow were wallowing over a pessimistic outlook on what it'll be like to be a minority ethnic group in Trump's America, Williams awkwardly injected a reality check onto the set by alluding to what NBC has done in giving rise to Trump.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 03:58

More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.

On Wednesday's NBC Today, a distraught Andrea Mitchell was still struggling to come to terms with Hillary Clinton losing the presidential race and sorrowfully lamented: ''...late yesterday, her team was still optimistic that they would prevail. Instead they're now planning a concession speech shortly this morning as history put on hold yet again.''

Mitchell sympathized: ''At Clinton headquarters, heartbreak....Eight years after her concession speech invoking that famous glass ceiling.'' A soundbite ran of one Clinton supporter bemoaning: ''Oh my gosh. You know, I kept looking up at the glass ceiling and it's still just solid.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 03:04

See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.

By Wednesday morning, the on-air, online, and print meltdowns by liberal media types were exploding at an exponential rate with CNN's New Day facilitating a few as senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin shrieked at the idea of conservatives on the Supreme Court while chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour lost it over ''far-right'' European figures being ''eager and jubilant'' about President-Elect Donald Trump.

Toobin, who spent the previous week attacking FBI Director James Comey, took an exclusively liberal and negative spin on certain issues that could come before the Supreme Court with a Trump-appointed justice.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 02:55

[See NewsBusters for more.] A clearly rattled Joy Behar on Wednesday reacted to the election of Donald Trump as President by declaring, seriously, that The View will be the only remaining "check" on the businessman's total power. She began by inaccurately stating, ''What scares me the most... is that not since George W. Bush has there been a White House, a Senate and a House of Representatives all from the same party.'' (Not true. Barack Obama's Democratic Party controlled the White House, the Senate and the House in the President's first two years.) After complaining about the FBI sticking ''its nasty little nose in the middle of this election,'' Behar insisted, '' So the only checks and balances we have are us, The View. That's it!''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 00:02

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 21:48

Angela Merkel has issued a carefully-worded response to Donald Trump's election as US President, taking aim at the divisive rhetoric he used during the campaign.

While Theresa May simply congratulated Trump on his victory, Merkel said she would only offer ''close cooperation'' dependent on his commitment to equal rights.

The German Chancellor, who has been the driving force behind the EU's acceptance of hundreds of thousands of refugees, said her relationship with Trump would only succeed if he upheld ''the dignity of man, independent of origin''.

She said: ''Germany and America are connected by values of democracy, freedom, and respect for the law and the dignity of man, independent of origin, skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or political views.

Joe Raedle via Getty Images

Donald Trump''I offer the next President of the United States close cooperation on the basis of these values.

''The partnership with the United States is and remains a foundation of German foreign policy.''

The election campaign this year was a particular one with some confrontations that were difficult to stomachAngela Merkel

She added that she had - like many others - ''watched the election results with trepidation''.

The remarks are likely issued as a pointed warning to Trump, who has called for all 1.6 billion members of a religion to be banned from the US to prevent terror attacks.

Her response was far more hostile than that of Theresa May, who congratulated Trump and said she was sure Britain and the US would remain ''close partners''.

The PM said: ''Britain and the United States have an enduring and special relationship based on the values of freedom, democracy and enterprise.

''We are, and will remain, strong and close partners on trade, security and defence. I look forward to working with President-elect Donald Trump, building on these ties to ensure the security and prosperity of our nations in the years ahead.''

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS via Getty Images

Theresa MayJeremy Corbyn was less optimistic about Trump's election, saying it had left many Britons ''shocked''.

''Some of Trump's answers to the big questions facing America, and the divisive rhetoric around them, are clearly wrong,'' he said.

''I have no doubt, however, that the decency and common sense of the American people will prevail, and we send our solidarity to a nation of migrants, innovators and democrats...

''The urgent necessity is now for us all to work across continents to tackle our common global challenges: to secure peace, take action on climate change and deliver economic prosperity and justice.''

Many were quick to contrast the reactions of Britain and Germany's two premiers.

The Guardian's political editor Heather Stewart said Merkel had ''seized the opportunity May missed'' by not being ''overjoyed by a racist misogynist in the White House''.

Richard Lloyd Parry, The Times' Asia Editor, also praised Merkel for her ''exquisitely conditional words of acknowledgment'', but accused May of simply employing ''cliched verbiage''.

While the Mirror's Kevin Maguire said of the two statements:

NOW READ:

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 09:25

The Wildfire is an opinion platform and any opinions or information put forth by contributors are exclusive to them and do not represent the views of IJR.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was visibly upset on election night while talking to her viewers. She even interrupted 2016 coverage to drop a more personal statement to people who are not happy about Trump's success.

She said, ''You're awake by the way. You're not having a terrible, terrible dream. Also, you're not dead and you haven't gone to hell.''

Much-needed words for the MSNBC audience on election night. Rachel Maddow, everybody.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 08 Nov 2016 23:46

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 07 Nov 2016 16:30

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 07 Nov 2016 15:43

At a rally Sunday for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in Florida, Obama contended that Trump cannot be trusted with a nuclear arsenal if he cannot handle a Twitter account.

"In the last two days, they had so little confidence in his self-control they said we're just gonna take away your Twitter. Now, if somebody can't handle a Twitter account, they can't handle the nuclear codes," Obama said.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 07 Nov 2016 00:12