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Eye 1

America's 'liberal commentariat' is caught up in a rabid, anti-Trump frenzy

Dmitry Babich
The Duran
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 13:34 UTC
media fail
© Desconocido
The 'liberal commentariat' whether in the US or Russia responds in the same intolerant and undemocratic way to the electoral defeats of its chosen candidates - by ridiculing and disparaging the mass of electors who don't agree with them, and by implying that there is something illegitimate about the way they vote.

I wonder, what name should we give to all the anti-Trump commentators who had vowed to leave the US if Trump won the election, and who now paint the dystopian pictures of "life after Trump": Trumpfugees? Hillarefusenicks?

Whatever the name, the things that these people are writing and saying BY INERTIA (the battle has been lost) are astounding.

Comment: Meanwhile, for the rest of the world: The world heaves a sigh of relief as Trump is elected

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Dominoes

Assad extends an olive branch to President Trump

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 13:25 UTC
Syria’s President Bashar Assad
© AP Photo/ SANA
The Syrian government is willing to discuss options for cooperation with a Trump-led United States, says prominent politician and adviser to President Assad.

The reverberations of Donald Trump's seismic victory were not just limited to Russia, China and Europe. They were felt in Damascus where as it is for many others, a cautious optimism surrounding the foreign policy potential of a Trump led America, has replaced years of utter pessimism and consternation with the neo-imperial policies of Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama.

Syrian politician and an adviser to the president Bouthaina Shaaban was interviewed on American radio where she said that Damascus would be willing to work with a Trump administration, should he deliver on his statements that he doesn't seek to remove the legitimate President of Syria in a misguided and illegal regime change war. In his debates with Hillary Clinton, Trump stated multiple times that he would prefer to work with Russia and by extrapolation with Syria in going after Islamic terrorism, rather than hysterically agitate for regime change.

Comment: Further reading: Trump vs. the National Security State: The Chances of a Revolution in US Foreign Policy

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Light Sabers

China restricts coverage of US election, responds to Trump win with schadenfreude

Patrick Brzeski
The Hollywood Reporter
Wed, 09 Nov 2016 13:46 UTC
trump
© Getty
As news of Donald Trump's shocking presidential win was reverberating around the world Wednesday, media coverage in China was oddly scant — and not by accident.

China's censors had issued advance orders to media outlets to restrict coverage of the U.S. democratic contest. All websites, news outlets and TV networks were told not to provide any live coverage or broadcasts of the election and to avoid "excessive" reporting of the story, a source who was briefed on the official instructions told the South China Morning Post.

In response, coverage of Trump's upset was carried only as a secondary story across the Chinese media landscape, with most outlets highlighting a meeting between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Vladimir Putin instead.

China's foreign ministry also stopped short of issuing congratulations to Trump in the immediate aftermath of the decision, instead stating: "China is closely following the U.S. presidential election, and expects to maintain healthy Sino-U.S. relations with the new government." (Chinese President Xi Jinping was also making calls elsewhere: he rang outer space to congratulate the astronauts aboard China's recently launched Shenzhou 11 spacecraft, wishing them "a victorious return.")
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Arrow Down

Will Donald Trump's win erase hopes to block Dakota access pipeline?

Justin Worland
Time
Wed, 09 Nov 2016 13:21 UTC
Trump pipeline
Just a week ago environmental activists protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline hoped that a rejection of the project by the federal government would signal a deepened U.S. commitment to slowing the pace of oil and gas drilling. The election of Donald Trump likely erased those hopes while also reviving the fight over the Keystone XL pipeline rejected by President Obama last year.

Trump has not announced a public position on the pipeline, but everything else we know about Trump suggests that he would support continuing the project. Trump has made scrapping environmental regulations a top priority and North Dakota GOP Congressman Kevin Cramer, a key Trump energy advisor, has said Trump will take particular aim at the Clean Water Act. That is one of the key rules that gives the federal government jurisdiction over the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Beyond policy, Trump owns stock in the company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, as well as another company that will own a share of the pipeline once it is completed. He also received more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from the company's CEO.

Comment: See also:
  • Turning Tide? Sheriffs LEAVE Standing Rock, Saying 'It's Completely Unethical'
  • Standing Rock and the Human Right to water
  • SOTT Exclusive: Police State Falters as Standing Rock Protests Cause 2 Officers to Resign, Funding Dries Up


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Radar

America's rocky road to Raqqa

Daniel Lazare
Consortium News
Thu, 03 Nov 2016 13:03 UTC
President Barack Obama delivers a statement
© David LienemannPresident Barack Obama delivers a statement on confronting the terrorist group, Islamic State, in Syria, on the South Lawn of the White House on Sept. 23, 2014.
Though the U.S. has no legal right to operate inside Syria, Official Washington is boasting about its plans to liberate Raqqa from ISIS. But another problem: the battle plan makes no sense, says Daniel Lazare.

In her final debate with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton promised that the United States and its allies would follow up the offensive against ISIS-occupied Mosul with an assault on ISIS headquarters in Raqqa in neighboring Syria. Last week, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter assured the press that an offensive was on the way.

"It starts in the next few weeks," Carter said. "That has long been our plan and we will be capable of resourcing both," i.e. dual assaults on Mosul and Raqqa.

"We think this is the right moment to begin pushing in Raqqa," a Pentagon spokesman added on Monday. "There is a plan in place to begin this."
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Snakes in Suits

'Simply doesn't have right to rule': French MPs bid to impeach Hollande


RT
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 12:56 UTC
French President Francois Hollande
© Christian Hartmann / Reuters
Dozens of French politicians have sent a draft resolution calling for the impeachment of President Francois Hollande to the High Court, national media report. The MPs accuse the leader of disclosing confidential information to the press.

"A copy of the draft resolution to the High Court was filed [by the members of the National Assembly]," the lower house of the French parliament, according to documents seen by AFP.

The High Court is a special jurisdiction responsible for ruling on the impeachment of the president.

The politicians referred to a 2014 legislation which states that a president can be removed from office if there is a "breach of their duties that is clearly incompatible with the exercise of their mandate."

The letter was also reportedly sent to the National Assembly, which will deliver it to President Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
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Info

Trump arrives in Washington, meets with Obama and GOP leaders


RT
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 12:43 UTC
U.S. President Barack Obama meets with President-elect Donald Trump
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump met with outgoing President Barack Obama and the Republican congressional leadership in Washington, while speculation ran rampant about his team's plans for transition, from press relations to cabinet appointments.

After landing his private plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Trump proceeded to the White House, where he met with Obama in a meeting described as "a little less awkward than some might have expected" by White House press secretary Josh Earnest.

A planned 15-minute meeting ended up lasting over 90 minutes, with Obama calling it an "excellent conversation" and adding that he was "very encouraged" by Trump's willingness to work with the outgoing administration.
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Light Saber

Duterte's new Philippines marks tectonic shift for Asian autonomy

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 09 Nov 2016 02:29 UTC
Duterte
What a difference an election can make. Since his swearing in as Philippine President this past June, succeeding Washington puppet Benigno Aquino III, the outspoken, plain-talking Rodrigo Duterte has moved his strategically pivotal Asian country away from the US geopolitical orbit. Now President Duterte is on an Asian tour that has taken him to China and then Japan. Soon he has indicated plans to meet Russia's Putin too. He appears set to blow a huge hole in the Pentagon Asia Pivot aimed at encircling China militarily. And the Philippines shift is setting off tectonic shifts across the Asia space from Vietnam to Myanmar and beyond.

Hints of the shift appeared to begin just after his inauguration on his very popular promise to clean up the nation's large and growing narcotics problem. When reports of bounty hunters shooting drug dealers on sight without trial appeared, the US Ambassador, Philip Goldberg and Obama Administration criticized Duterte, who clearly rejected the criticism, chilling relations. Duterte retorted that Goldberg was "a gay son-of-a-bitch," and that Obama was "son of a whore." Leaving aside the question of the veracity of Duterte's remarks, he definitely introduced a new tone into international diplomacy and signaled he was not intending, like his oligarchic predecessor Aquino, to be Washington's lap dog. You can be sure his open defiance did not go unnoticed across the developing world.

However the clear signal of the tectonic shift in alliance policy for the former US occupied republic came during President Duterte's recent visit to Beijing. There he was received by China President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square on October 20.
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Network

UK looks East to foster greater economic ties with China


RT
Thu, 10 Nov 2016 01:33 UTC
President Xi Prime Minister Theresa May
© Damir Sagolj / ReutersChinese President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May
UK Prime Minister Theresa May is launching a fresh charm offensive on Beijing as Chinese officials visit to discuss future investment in the UK. The PM has restated her commitment to a "golden era" of Sino-UK relations, months after causing upset in Beijing by commissioning a security review into the construction of a Chinese-backed nuclear power plant.

Chancellor Philip Hammond will meet with a Chinese delegation on Thursday for the eighth UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue in a bid to foster greater ties with the Asian superpower.

"I'm determined that as we leave the European Union, we build a truly global Britain that is open for business," May said in a statement ahead of talks. "As we take the next step in this golden era of relations between the UK and China, I am excited about the opportunities for expanding trade and investment between our two countries."

Comment: The elite in the UK may very well recognize which way the wind in blowing in terms of the global economy. China will only be the 'world's second greatest economy' for a short while longer. It has been carefully building momentum for decades, and in preparation of the United States global collapse, it has taken on the responsibility of providing what safety-net it can. And of course the financial powers in the UK want in.

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USA

Flashback Who Shafted The Working Class?

Robert Reich
robertreich.org
Tue, 19 Jan 2016 01:03 UTC
Working class
© Spencer Jones/AP
Why did the white working class abandon the Democrats?

The conventional answer is Republicans skillfully played the race card.

In the wake of the Civil Rights Act, segregationists like Alabama Governor George C. Wallace led southern whites out of the Democratic Party.

Later, Republicans charged Democrats with coddling black "welfare queens," being soft on black crime ("Willie Horton"), and trying to give jobs to less-qualified blacks over more-qualified whites (the battle over affirmative action).

The bigotry now spewing forth from Donald Trump and several of his Republican rivals is an extension of this old race card, now applied to Mexicans and Muslims - with much the same effect on the white working class voters, who don't trust Democrats to be as "tough."

All true, but this isn't the whole story. Democrats also abandoned the white working class.

Comment: Uniting the working class is something that Trump seems to have done, at least ideologically, through his campaign rhetoric. What he does once in office remains to be seen.

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