Trump win signals greater hardship to come & the need for gr

[Oscar]

Trump win signals greater hardship to come & the need for grassroots organizing

[ http://canadians.org/blog/trump-win-sig ... organizing ]

November 9, 2016 - 7:40 am

In a stunning upset, Donald Trump has won the US presidency.

Despite racist and misogynist comments during the election campaign, Trump won with 289 electoral college votes (to Hillary Clinton's 218 votes), 47.6 per cent of the popular vote (tied with Clinton), and 58,795,710 votes (just 22,553 more than Clinton).

The Republicans also hold a majority in the Senate and House of Representatives, and are positioned to hold the majority on the US Supreme Court as well.

It has been suggested that Trump's surge in support came from the middle class and/or disaffected blue-collar American workers hurt by the global economy and opposed to immigration.

It appears race also played a huge role. 63 per cent of white men and 52 per cent of white women voted for Trump, while 80 per cent of black men and 93 per cent of black women voted for Clinton. Incarceration levels in the United States meant that 6.1 million people, mostly black Americans, were barred from voting. CNN's Van Jones says, "This was a white-lash against a changing country. It was a white-lash against a black president in part, and that’s the part where the pain comes."

Overall, Trump once called climate change a hoax, has promised to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement, supports coal-fired power plants, has said he would approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, has said he would "crush and destroy" the Islamic state, has promised to build a wall along the Mexican border, threatened to pull the United States out of NATO, has said he would ban Muslims from entering the country, stated that Mexican immigrants were rapists and criminals, is likely to introduce massive tax cuts, is expected to quickly repeal US President Barack Obama's health care law and revoke a nuclear agreement with Iran, and has expressed admiration for Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Trans-Pacific Partnership

Global News reports, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement is almost guaranteed to be consigned to the scrap heap." Colin Robertson of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute says, "It is highly improbable with Mr. Trump that the TPP would go anywhere, which means we would have to then think about negotiating separate deals with first Japan, and perhaps talking to Mexico."

NAFTA

The Canadian Press reports, "His North American neighbours [will be] watching nervously for moves on trade. He's demanded a renegotiation of NAFTA, without offering details, and promises to rip it up if unsuccessful. One Canadian official expressed doubt in a recent conversation that it would get that far. Even if a president did order NAFTA scrapped, the impact of the move would be softened by several firewalls -- the need for Congress to reinstate old tariffs, and potentially by the continued existence of the old 1987 Canada-U.S. agreement."

A Canadian official says, "I don't really think we're in danger there. There would be a revolt by the private sector... His own party would revolt." And former US ambassador to Canada David Wilkins says, “I think NAFTA will survive, I think NAFTA will be with us a long time. I don’t think we ought to jump to conclusions, all of a sudden the sky is falling and NAFTA’s gone. I think once he gets in there, he’ll realize there are benefits from NAFTA."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to call Trump today to congratulate him on his win.

The Globe and Mail's Robert Fife comments, "Officials say Mr. Trudeau plans to sell an agenda of economic and global co-operation in a congratulatory phone call to Mr. Trump, including an invitation for the Republican victor to visit Canada soon after his inauguration."

Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States on January 20, 2017.

The movement work with our American friends and allies to build the better, just and inclusive world we all know is possible begins today.

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]

[Oscar]

Barlow comments on Trump's US presidential election win

[ http://canadians.org/blog/barlow-commen ... ection-win ]

November 9, 2016 - 10:01 am

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow is commenting on Donald Trump winning the presidency of the United States.

Barlow has tweeted:

• Time for deep breaths and thoughtful reaction. Important to reach out to American friends and allies in our common struggle for justice.
• Obama must not ram TPP through! Democrats and Liberals now must rethink elite globalization policies!
• TTIP likely dead now. Makes CETA even more important for North American corporations wanting to challenge higher European standards.
• The coming assault on US environmental regulations is terrifying. We must not follow suit. Reinstate Canada's gutted water laws now!

At this hour, the election results note that Trump won the election with 289 electoral college votes (compared to 218 votes for Clinton), 47.5 per cent of the popular vote (compared to 47.6 per cent for Clinton), and 59,095,507 votes (152,738 fewer than the number of votes Clinton received).

This morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered his congratulations to Trump. Trudeau stated, "Canada has no closer friend, partner, and ally than the United States. We look forward to working very closely with President-elect Trump, his administration, and with the United States Congress in the years ahead, including on issues such as trade, investment, and international peace and security."

Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch comments, "Our American cousins threw out the elites and elected Donald Trump as their next president. It’s an exciting message and one that we need delivered in Canada as well. It’s the message I’m bringing with my campaign to be the next Prime Minister of Canada."

In comparison, Green Party leader Elizabeth May says, "It's clearly horrific. The possibility that the U.S. electorate has just condemned our grandchildren is a significant risk." And last March, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair stated, "Donald Trump is a fascist. Let's not kid ourselves, let's not beat around the bush."

The Council of Canadians is committed to working with our American friends and allies (and all peoples impacted by neo-liberalism and racism) to build the better, just and inclusive world we all know is possible.

Donald John Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States of America on January 20, 2017.

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]

[Oscar]

Trump suckers white working-class voters into putting him in the White House

[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/karl-ne ... -white-hou ]

By Karl Nerenberg | November 9, 2016 (Karl Nerenberg is your reporter on the Hill.)

EXCERPT:

Trump's truculent, hostile, nationalistic posture on economic relations with other countries, including Canada, will most likely breed chaos, which will only engender further economic disruption and dislocation.

We have already seen stock markets tank in anticipation of a Trump presidency.

The main victims of Trump’s economic bravado will not be well-cushioned, big investors or Wall Street bankers.

They will be precisely those forgotten people, the little guys, to whom Trump appealed so effectively, especially at the end of his campaign.

Help workers by cutting taxes for the rich ... ?

Aside from his nationalistic trade posture, Trump’s chief economic policy proposal is to radically slash taxes for corporations and for the wealthy.

Congressional Republicans will love that idea, and happily oblige.

The result will do no good for unemployed or under-employed workers in Wisconsin

What it will do is exacerbate the already wide gulf between the über-wealthy elite against whom Trump disingenuously inveighed and the working class Americans who voted for him.

Slashing taxes will also starve the U.S. government of funds, making it easier for Congressional Republicans to attack the U.S.'s already frayed social safety net, including what was once a political sacred cow, social security, the U.S.'s contributory pension plan.

Working class Americans can expect to see serious efforts to privatize social security, which will lead to reduced benefits.

Trump has also promised to do away with President Obama's Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

That landmark piece of legislation has made it possible for millions of previously uninsured, working Americans to buy insurance, while banning such odious practice as denying insurance to people because of pre-existing conditions.

Many of those who have benefitted from Obamacare, and who now stand to lose their coverage, voted for Trump.

And how will Trump's working class supporters feel when he starts rounding up immigrants, some of whom might turn out to be their neighbours or co-workers?

Rhetoric about putting a halt to illegal immigration might seem attractive, as long as it is just that, rhetoric. The fact, however, of mass round-ups and raids and deportations of families with children born in the U.S. might be much less appealing to working class Americans, who have a basic sense of decency.

As for his foreign policy, well, to mention only one example, Trump wants to tear up the laboriously negotiated nuclear deal with Iran.

If he does that it will mean Iran will simply fire up its nuclear program, once again, at which point a dangerous and unstable world will become even more so.

MORE:

[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/karl-ne ... -white-hou ]

[Oscar]

City on a hill, tarnished beyond recognition

[ http://www.hilltimes.com/2016/11/09/cit ... L_CAMPAIGN)&goal=0_207adb2c89-8b63fb99c8-90669285&mc_cid=8b63fb99c8&mc_eid=37c29b0f13 ]

Canada’s leaders must know that the resentments that led to the Trump victor y are also present here. How we deal with them will be a test for the Trudeau government, a test we can’t afford to fail.

By JIM CRESKEY PUBLISHED : Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016 4:04 AM

President-elect Donald Trump awaits the traditional high-noon inauguration date on January 20, a divisive master of scapegoating, while a Republican Congress, former fortress of obstruction, is about to lurch into dangerous uncertainty.

MORE . . . .

[Oscar]

President-elect Trump’s New World Disorder

[ https://www.socialeurope.eu/2016/11/pre ... -disorder/ ]

by Philippe Legrain on 10 November 2016 @plegrain

So much for the end of history. Twenty-seven years to the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall heralded the collapse of communism in Europe, Donald Trump’s election as US president endangers the liberal international order that his wiser, broader-minded predecessors crafted.

Trump’s “America First,” anti-“globalist” agenda threatens protectionist trade wars, a worldwide “clash of civilizations,” the peace in Europe and East Asia, and further violence in the Middle East. His nativist and authoritarian views also undermine the shared values, faith in liberal democracy, and assumption of benign American hegemony on which the rules-based international system depends. Already in relative decline, the United States is now poised for an angry retreat from the world.

Optimists hope that Trump didn’t mean what he said during the election campaign; that he will surround himself with seasoned internationalist advisers; and that his wilder instincts will be tempered by the checks and balances of the US political system. Let’s hope so. But nothing in his temperament suggests as much. And with Republicans retaining control over both the Senate and the House of Representatives, Trump will have a freer rein than most presidents. That is especially true in trade and foreign policy, where US presidents enjoy much greater discretion – and where the damage he could do is potentially huge and enduring.

Start with trade. Globalization had already stalled in recent years. Now Trump threatens to throw it into reverse. At the very least, his victory kills off the faint hopes of concluding the two jumbo trade deals that Barack Obama’s administration had been negotiating: the completed but unratified Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with 11 Pacific countries, and the stalled Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union.

Trump has also pledged to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico. Worse, he wants to slap tariffs on Chinese imports, which would doubtless provoke a trade war. He has even spoken of pulling out of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the multilateral rules-based trading system.

Such an agenda would not only threaten a global recession. It would also tempt regions to split into rival trading blocs – a worrying prospect for a post-Brexit Britain seemingly intent on tearing itself away from the European Union to go it alone. In Asia, the collapse of the TPP, from which the Obama administration unwisely excluded China, paves the way for the Chinese to build their own trading bloc.

Trump’s victory threatens East Asia’s security as well as its economy. By retreating from free trade and casting doubt on US security guarantees for its allies, he could prompt Japan, South Korea, and others to race to acquire nuclear weapons to protect themselves against a rising China. The Philippines is unlikely to be the last country in the region to conclude that cozying up to China is a better bet than relying on an increasingly isolationist America.

Trump’s victory also undermines Europe’s security. His admiration for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s authoritarian leader, is alarming. Putin laments the break-up of the Soviet Union, wants to recreate a Russian sphere of influence in the country’s neighborhood and has already invaded Georgia and Ukraine. Trump’s suggestion that his commitment to defending NATO allies is conditional invites Putin to go further.

MORE:

[ https://www.socialeurope.eu/2016/11/pre ... -disorder/ ]