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Sometimes, days like today… November 9, 2016

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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…I’m very glad I live on one of these little islands in the North Atlantic.

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1. sonofstan - November 9, 2016

Not including the bigger one next door right?

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WorldbyStorm - November 9, 2016

It depends. Scotland is mighty fine, parts of Wales likewise. And England on good day isn’t bad (the cities in particular). Though the Tories are always a deal breaker with me. So until they depart…

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Gewerkschaftler - November 10, 2016

Or Scotland departs…

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2. yourcousin - November 9, 2016

At times like this I like to remember Vonnegut,

“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is'”.

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3. CL - November 9, 2016

I’m glad i live on a little island, Manhattan, where Trump received only 10 per cent of the vote.

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4. Liberius - November 9, 2016

You know, what I’m glad of is that I live in a polity that has an electoral system that doesn’t advantage charismatic demagogues. Put it this way, we have President Trump, and might gain President Le Pen in the near future, but we won’t be seeing PM Wilders, Chancellor Petry, or, dare I say it Taoiseach O’Loughlin…

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5. Starkadder - November 9, 2016

My sister texted us to say she was glad she lives in New Zealand, “Off Trump and Putin’s radars”.

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Ed - November 10, 2016

This is from Alexander Cockburn’s great article on How To Be a [US] Foreign Correspondent:

“There are certain blank areas one should simply keep clear of. Australia and New Zealand for example: vast territories covered with sheep. Nothing of any interest has ever been written about New Zealand, and indeed very little is known about it. In Australia, if it becomes absolutely necessary to go there, one can touch on (a) convict heritage of the inhabitants, (b) tendency of prime ministers to drown themselves, (c) philistine nature of Australians—see (a) above—and (d) discuss erosion of the Great Barrier Reef. Do not get into discussions of the Japanese invasion and Australian race laws, or even the future of the Australian Labor Party.”

https://newleftreview.org/II/76/alexander-cockburn-dispatches

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6. oliverbohs - November 9, 2016

I would not like to be one of the so-called Irish “illegals” in the US now, that’s for sure. Matt Taibbi’s book The Divide described the elaborate ways Mexican “illegals” were deported under the first four years of Obama and it was the stuff of paranoid nightmares. Trump would not hesitate to do similar things or worse and the only question would be how many other nationalities would feel threatened.
I can’t recall well enough that book’s description of deportations and the stress the threat of it did to people, but would recommend it to be read. Obama’s legacy is a debate for another time but I have seen it said that he’s deported more than Bush jr did.
I hated Clinton and revel in her demise but at least she was the devil you knew. All bets are off with Trump. No one predicted yesterday occurring back when he was fronting the Obama “birther” nonsense. That’s why he’s making people feel nervous. The joke officially stopped being funny yesterday

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CL - November 9, 2016

“Donald Trump could unleash a huge budget crisis in his hometown if he makes good on his threat to cut off aid to cities that help shelter large numbers of undocumented immigrants.”
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20160901/POLITICS/160909988/donald-trumps-attack-on-sanctuary-cities-could-cost-new-york-dearly

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7. benmadigan - November 10, 2016

here you go – just to raise a smile!

Trump Triumphs

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8. Pól - November 10, 2016

Aye, you’ll be grand, just like me. If you’re so inclined, count your lucky stars you’re not in the Middle East and waking up to a Clinton presidency.

I’d say people there have some perspective, though I can’t speak for anyone else; let’s try tp maintain the same, in much more comfortable conditions.

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dublinstreams - November 10, 2016

Trump may be somewhat more isolationist in statements but that doens’t mean he won’t attack places.

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WorldbyStorm - November 10, 2016

+1 DS. I think the idea the US is suddenly about to pull back from its international scope is hugely unlikely. Ed wrote too persuasively about that yesterday. There may be some cosmetic shifting of the pieces but That will largely be that. And Trumps temperament alone would make me very cautious about betting the house on the next eight years being a calm and pacific time. And while I take the point re perspective I’m not saying the above in a smug way, anything but. And perspectives can’t be limited. What about the millions of working class people in the US or MExico or Iran and Cuba where a range of issues pushed by Trump will impact. How is it for them waking up yesterday, I know of us muslims and Irish in the us who woke up very scared, very worried. What about the economic hinterland of the us to the south in Central America. And so on.

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CMK - November 10, 2016

‘The next eight years’, jaysus, wbs! If we make it through the next four without, as Frankie Boyle put it yesterday, being incinerated in a blinding flas of light, we’ll be doing well. Trump may be restrained by some ‘moderate’ elements in the US defence establishment but there are also plenty in that establishment who are gung-ho and you can be sure that they have war-gamed to see if there is such a thing as a ‘winnable’ nuclear war. Trump’s thuggish is well documented, he makes George W. Bush look good. There were protests against Trump in numerous US cities last night – some organised by the CWI section Socialist Alternative – so hopefully ‘on the streets’ serves to limit Trump’s aggressiveness. Hopefully.

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WorldbyStorm - November 10, 2016

You may well have something there – it is reported that at a meeting with DoD experts and military he asked why they didn’t use nuclear weapons.

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CMK - November 10, 2016

He says he wants ISIS defeated quickly. Their stronghold is Raqqa in Syria. They can be ‘defeated’ pretty quickly by nuking that place. His imperviousness would surely make him consider it….

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yourcousin - November 10, 2016

Quick question. What do people think is happening right now in the Middle East? Pretty sure Aleppo isn’t being showered with sunshines and rainbows. Barrel bombs targeting civilians, gas attacks, again targeting civilians. Hospitals and medical staff purposefully targeted in rebel areas. Starvation used as a weapon, as well as migration. But it’s okay because the bombs are Russian, so you know, it’s cool.

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dublinstreams - November 10, 2016

so you want even more bombs?

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yourcousin - November 10, 2016

What I want is an honest appraisal of the situation, not a farcical view as if everything is hunky dory as long as the US is not the involved. Pretty sure Syrians would like it if the bombs stopped falling and if humanitarian aid could get through. You know without being bombed by the Russians, AFTER they agreed to a ceasefire. Again the whole weaponizing of food thing.

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dublinstreams - November 10, 2016

the US are involved, the US are bombing Syria, btw why has Syria turned into Aleppo?

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yourcousin - November 10, 2016

That’s true the US is involved fighting ISIS. Syria turned into Aleppo because I’m multitasking from phone dealing with two different jobs while trying to get ready for pheasant hunting.

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9. FergusD - November 10, 2016

Newsnight on the BBC last night….

Senior Republican, former Jeb Bush supporter, who when asked pretty much repudiated all the Trump sound bites, sexism, misogyny – but still says he now supports him (the pull of power!). But also strongly suggested that the Republicans would control Trump.

I wonder if that will happen.

Then Alan Greenspam, who described himself as a “conservative Republican” (who’d a thunk it) and not a Trump supporter. He claimed Trump is an “actor”, who acted the gobby outsider to win votes and now will “act the President”, presumably being more conventionally Republican.

I wonder if that will happen.

Trump does appear to be a big unknown. Not having being a politician – until now, nobody knows how to handle him/how he will behave. Which is interesting.

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Gewerkschaftler - November 10, 2016

It’ll certainly be interesting and instructive about how power really works in the US.

My guess is it’ll be initially a mix of Berlusconi-style crony capitalism – a politics transparently guided by yer man’s commercial interests and connections – and the constraints imposed by existing (now fully Republican controlled) political and military/security/policing and surveillance structures.

If he’s challenged from below by significant new left formations I fear he could slip into full neo-fascist mode with a surveillance and repression apparatus that Pinochet could only dream of.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Which is to say that we’ll have to work much more closely with left forces in the US, because they’ll need all the solidarity they can get.

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10. CL - November 10, 2016

“Wall Street opened higher on Thursday, with the Dow setting a record intraday high, as investors bet that President-elect Donald Trump would lead a shift away from austerity policies.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-idUSKBN1351FV

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