Evolution: The process by which we progress. Adapt. Survive. "The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth. The gradual development of something, especially from a simple to a more complex form."
We can choose to grow/get better, but that requires the belief in a value system that places some traits above others. There are genetic traits like skin color, earlobe attachment, curly/straight/wavy hair, height, being left or right (or ambi) handed, eye color/blindness/astigmatism, and weight distribution - just to name a few.
* of course these traits end up meaning different things to people, for better and worse.
Also known as: social constructs. Some traits have obviously been exploited and abused through history, leading to harsh realities and disparities today.
Pretty much everything you are organically, mechanically, physically speaking is the way you are because of genetics. Even then, augmentation is possible, even fun (yay piercings, tattoos, and blue hair!) But the traits I'm speaking about for removal are not genetic.
They're traits over which we have social control.
The worst traits in human history (in no particular order):
Cruelty: "Callous indifference to or pleasure in causing pain and suffering. Behavior that causes pain or suffering to a person or animal. Behavior that causes physical or mental harm to another, especially a spouse, whether intentionally or not."
Discrimination: "The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex."
Racism: "The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior."
Sexism: "Prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women [while also having a negative impact on the conditioning of men], on the basis of sex. Synonyms: sexual discrimination, chauvinism, gender prejudice, gender bias"
Homophobia: "Dislike of or prejudice against homosexual people."
Transphobia: "Dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people."
Non-Consensual Sex/Rape: "Unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent—compare sexual assault, statutory rape" (Consent: Permission / Agreement / Mutual / Free of Coercion)
Classism: "Prejudice against or in favor of people belonging to a particular social class."
Ableism: "Discrimination in favor of able-bodied people."
Murder: "The unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another." (See: War)
Genocide: "The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation."
Megalomania: "A pathological egotist, that is, someone with a psychological disorder with symptoms like delusions of grandeur and an obsession with power. We also use the word megalomaniac more informally for people who behave as if they're convinced of their absolute power and greatness." (Forgivable as a general mental illness, but alarming when found in those who hold powerful positions of authority and leadership.)
Authoritarianism: "Political scientists use the term authoritarianism to describe a way of governing that values order and control over personal freedom. A government run by authoritarianism is usually headed by a dictator."
Elitism: "The advocacy or existence of an elite as a dominating element in a system or society. The attitude or behavior of a person or group who regard themselves as belonging to an elite."
Greed: "An intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food." (Or non-renewable resources)
Anti-Intellectualism: "Hostility towards and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectual pursuits, usually expressed as the derision of education, philosophy, literature, art, and science, as impractical and contemptible." (Only through sharing information and knowledge can we know what needs improvement)
Bigotry: "Intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself." (Intolerant as in seeking violence, imprisonment, murder, torture, and displacement against those with different views - people are often more open to listen if they feel a basic shred of respect and an acknowledgement of their own personhood - however undeserved you might feel that respect might be)
Another perspective is that we always need a little "evil" to balance out the "good". Personally, I'd prefer to live in a world where no one is afraid of being murdered. Not by police officers. Not by war. Not by the death penalty. Not by hate crimes or extremism. Not by each other.
Human Rights Watch 2016 World Report:
Specifically, here are the major issues we have in the world-at-large today:
Basic Freedoms:
Freedom of Expression
Freedom of Assembly
Freedom of Association
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Media
Freedom of Information
Freedom of Belief
Freedom of Movement
Right to Privacy
Women, Children, and LGBTQ:
Women's Rights
Gender Based Violence and Reproductive Rights
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
LGBT Rights
Early and Forced Marriage
Children's Rights
Child Soldiers
Violence Against Children
Youth in the Criminal Justice System
Sex Trafficking
Sexual Violence
Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls
Racism, Minorities, and Displacement:
Indigenous Rights
Asylum Seekers and Refugees
Revocation of Nationality
Ethnic and Religious Discrimination
Rural Violence
Religious Minorities
Ethnic Conflict and Forced Displacement
Internal Displacement and Land Restitution
Travel Restrictions and Family Separation
Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality
Migration and Deportation
Discrimination and Intolerance
Treatment of Minorities
Migrant Workers
Denial of Citizenship Rights
Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice
Rights of Non-Citizens
Work:
Labor Rights
Overseas Workers
Mining Industry Abuses
Garment Industry Abuses
Public Sector Corruption
Forced Labor
Extractive Industries
Labor Rights
Child Labor / Domestic Labor
Sex Work
Law/Government:
Corruption
Civil Society
Judicial Independence
Foreign Policy
Free and Democratic Elections
National Security
Constitution
Accountability for Past Human Rights Violations
Legislative and Institutional Framework
Barriers to Education and Illiteracy
Access to Justice
Natural Disaster Recovery
Death Squads
Political Oppression
Political Pluralism
Rule of Law
Deepening Authoritarianism
Anti-Narcotics Policy/Drug Reform
Cult of Personality
War/Military/Police:
Armed Conflict
Accountability for Torture by Security Forces
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism
Conduct of Security Forces
Police Abuse
Mandatory Military Service
Security Forces Abuses and Impunity
War Crimes Trials
Military Abuses and Jurisdiction
Public Security and Police Conduct
Violence by Armed Opposition Groups
Extrajudicial Executions
Guerrilla Abuses
Paramilitaries and Successors
Peace Negotiations and Accountability
Airstrikes/Cluster Munitions/Landmines
Indiscriminate Attacks
Impunity for Abuses and Violent Crimes
Imprisonment:
Prison Conditions
Torture and Ill-Treatment in Custody
Fair Trial
Death Penalty
Due Process, Prison Conditions, Mass Death Sentences
Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Other Ill-Treatment
Political Prisoners / Camps
Harsh Sentencing
Poverty and Criminal Justice
Silencing:
Prosecuting Government Critics
Persecution of Lawyers
Arrests and Harassment of Critics, Human Rights Defenders, Journalists, and Trade-Unionists
Attacks on Health Workers
Detention of Activists Abroad
Right to Peaceful Assembly/Political Dissent
Abductions and Enforced Disappearances
Health:
Palliative Care
Disability Rights
Rights to Health
Anti-Narcotics Policy/Drug Reform
Reproductive Rights
Utopia: An ideal place "an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. The word was first used in the book Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More."
Definitions: Important because you never know exactly what a person thinks unless they tell you
And sometimes we mean different things at different times. "A statement of the exact meaning of a word, especially in a dictionary. An exact statement or description of the nature, scope, or meaning of something."
Imperfection: Something I am choosing to accept in order to write/post/share this. "A fault, blemish, or undesirable feature. The state of being faulty or incomplete."
As a whole, as one people, it seems to me that we cannot shake some arbitrary constructs.
They are holding us back from progress and creating a lot of unnecessary suffering in the world.
Arbitrary: "based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system."
Construct: "an idea or theory containing various conceptual elements, typically one considered to be subjective and not based on empirical evidence."
There is no definitive meaning in pigmentation, sexual orientation, gender, birthplace, IQ, mental illness, physical disability, or class level. You can find one of every kind of soul in every category through time. In other words, any one of these things does not necessarily dictate anything about you.
Yet, these things have been given connotations through history which haunt us to this day.
They have meaning within the system we've found ourselves born into.
This is a call to change that system - entirely.
Please don't think I'm denying culture, history, or identity; that is not my intention.
But on a long enough timeline, with a large enough sample size - looking at the big picture - if you are of a certain race, class, gender, or ability and you feel you cannot do or be something because of that status, with enough searching, you may find historic or current heroes who broke that mold. Who defy expectation, stereotype, stigma, and discrimination. You always have the option of being the one to set a new standard - to prove it is possible - or at least be one who tried, so that the next generation might be inspired and have an easier time.
When it comes down to it, there is no real difference between the sexes, between the races, between the hearts and minds of people from every walk of life. We were all children once. We all have needs. We all act based on a combination of what we have been taught, exposed to, limited by, and are compelled to do. Among the different people, you will find a strong man and a strong woman. A smart person of color, a smart white person, a smart person of mixed race. We are varied, but we've chosen to group ourselves by the most shallow categories. What was easiest for our ancestors no longer applies to our evolved world.
You are your mind. Your character.
Your desires. Your dreams. Your fears.
Your choices. Your mistakes. Your regrets.
Your output.
You are you. You are human.
We are only our history as far as we can remember it.
Remember it accurately.
And only as far as we choose to let it define us.
There are some histories we can be proud of.
Family we want to hold onto.
But even then, just because your ancestors were cool, or fascists, doesn't mean you are.
You still have to walk the walk.
You still have to be you, incorporating your history, for it to live on.
We can choose to evolve.
Choose to get better.
Keep what we want to pass onto the future. Leave the rest behind as a warning.
Diversity matters, and even with all the best intentions, it's unreasonable, impractical, for me to go through life as if no one else was raised to see and respond to these things - sometimes horrifically, in which case awareness is needed in order to help those who have been stigmatized.
I feel our goal should be in creating universal and nondiscriminatory human rights, but people need to be able to preserve their own identities as they see fit as well.
It might help to think of a short-term, and a long-term goal.
In the short-term:
Black Lives Matter. Indigenous Lives Matter. Minority Lives Matter. Disempowered Peoples' Lives Matter.
In America, and the world, we must combat the white privilege and elitist supremacy which is deeply rooted in our very foundation - to the point of invisibility. Re-write the history books to include heroes of color, women, and those who have had their lives re-purposed for another's profit and power.
But once, and if, we equalize the power, privilege, access, and agency of all our communities
in the long-term:
Individual Lives Matter. Human Lives Matter.
(If we ever meet the aliens) Earth Lives Matter. Universal Lives Matter.
That big list above, from Human Rights Watch, should help you understand where I'm coming from.
It can be overwhelming for anyone. It helps to know what to focus on. Where to start.
Focus on Black Lives Matter now. Focus on The Dakota Access Pipeline.
Focus on the biggest problems of our time:
Do yourself a favor and read all of this.
The report is on events of 2015...
Again, from Human Rights Watch:
United States
"The United States has a vibrant civil society and strong constitutional protections
for many civil and political rights. Yet many US laws and practices, particularly
in the areas of criminal and juvenile justice, immigration, and national
security, violate internationally recognized human rights. Often, those least able
to defend their rights in court or through the political process—members of racial
and ethnic minorities, immigrants, children, the poor, and prisoners—are the
people most likely to suffer abuses."
Harsh Sentencing
"The United States locks up 2.37 million people, the largest reported incarcerated
population in the world. About 12 million people annually cycle through county
jails.
Concerns about over-incarceration in prisons—caused in part by mandatory minimum
sentencing and excessively long sentences—have led some states and the
US Congress to introduce several reform bills. At time of writing, none of the federal
congressional measures had become law.
Thirty-one US states continue to impose the death penalty; seven of those carried
out executions in 2014. In recent decades, the vast majority of executions
have occurred in five states. In August, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled the
state’s death penalty unconstitutional, barring execution for the 11 men who remained
on death row after the Connecticut legislature did away with the death
penalty in 2007.
At time of writing, 27 people had been executed in the US in 2015, all by lethal
injection. The debate over lethal injection protocols continued, with several US
states continuing to use experimental drug combinations and refusing to disclose
their composition. In March, Utah passed a law allowing execution by firing
squad. In June, the US Supreme Court ruled that Oklahoma’s lethal injection
protocol was constitutional. Two prisoners executed in Oklahoma in 2014—
Clayton Lockett and Michael Wilson—showed visible signs of distress as they died."
Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice
"Racial disparities permeate every part of the US criminal justice system. Disparities in drug enforcement are particularly egregious. While whites and African Americans engage in drug offenses at comparable rates, African Americans are arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated for drug offenses at much higher rates. African Americans are only 13 percent of the US population, but make up 29 percent of all drug arrests. Black men are incarcerated at six times the rate of white men.
A US Department of Justice report on the police department of Ferguson, Missouri, commissioned after the 2014 police killings of unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown, found that African Americans were disproportionally impacted at all levels of Ferguson's justice system - a problem that persists in justice systems throughout the country."
Drug Reform
"The federal government has begun to address disproportionately long sentences for federal drug offenders. At time of writing, President Barack Obama had commuted the sentences of 86 prisoners in 2015, 76 of them drug offenders. Yet, more than 35,000 federal inmates remain in prison after petitioning for reconsideration of their drug sentences. In October, the Bureau of Prisons released more than 6,000 people who had been serving disproportionately long drug sentence, the releases resulted from a retroactive reduction of federal drug sentences approved by the US Sentencing Commission."
Police Reform
"Once again, high-profile police killings of unarmed African Americans gained media attention in 2015, including the deaths of Freddy Gray in Baltimore and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina. The federal government does not maintain a full count of the number of people killed by police each year. The Bureau of Justice Statistics revealed in 2015 that it tracks only 35 to 50 percent of arrest-related deaths on an annual basis. A new federal law incentivizes the collection of data regarding deaths in police custody, but does not require states to provide that data and so fails to ensure reliable data on people killed by police.
In May, Obama's Law Enforcement Equipment Working Group released recommendations to better regulate and restrict the transfer of Defense Department equipment to local law enforcement."
Prison and Jail Conditions
"Momentum against the use of solitary confinement continued in 2015, but according to a new report, an estimated 100,000 state and federal prison inmates are being held in isolation.
In July, President Obama ordered the Department of Justice to review the practice of solitary confinement. Several states are currently considering legislative or regulatory reforms to reduce the use of solitary confinement. In New York, a proposed bill would limit the time during which an inmate could be held in isolation, and would band solitary confinement for people with mental illness and other vulnerable groups. California settles a lawsuit brought by prisoners and agreed to eliminate the use of indefinite solitary confinement at the Pelican Bay State Prison - a supermax facility - as well as significantly reduce the length of time prisoners in California can be kept in solitary. However, California's legislature failed to pass a bill the would have eliminated solitary confinement for children.
Jail and prison staff throughout the US use unnecessary, excessive, and even malicious force against prisoners with mental disabilities. Although no national data exists, research - including a 2015 Human Rights Watch report - indicates that the problem is widespread and may be increasing in the country's more than 5,100 jails and prisons."
Poverty and Criminal Justice
"Poor defendant nationwide are subjected to prolonged and unnecessary pre-trial detention because they cannot afford to post bail. Kalief Browder committed suicide in June, two years after being released from the jail complex on New York City's Rikers Island, where from the age of 16 he had been held for three years in pre-trial detention, mostly in solitary confinement, because he could not afford to post $3,000 in bail. His case catalyzed renewed criticism of money bail, prompting the New York City Council to announce the creation of a bail fund and city officials to embrace new pretrial detention programs.
A new lawsuit challenging money bail was filed in October in San Francisco, and the governor of Connecticut has called for a review of money bail in the state.
State and municipal practices that prey on low-income defendants to generate income gained increased attention after the Justice Department's report on Ferguson, Missouri described that town's municipal court system as little more than a revenue-generating machine targeting African Americans, with the Ferguson police as its "collection agency".
The privatization of misdemeanor probation services by several US states has also led to abuses, including fees structured by private probation companies in ways that penalize poor offenders or lead to the arrest of people who genuinely cannot afford to pay. In March, Georgia passed a law that imposes important new limits on the practices of such companies. Other states where private probation is widespread have thus far not taken similar steps, though awareness of probation-related abuses seems to be rising."
Youth in the Criminal Justice System
"In every US jurisdiction, children are prosecuted in adult courts and sentenced
to adult prison terms. Fourteen states have no minimum age for adult prosecution,
while others set the age at 10, 12, or 13. Some states automatically prosecute
youth age 14 and above as adults. Fifteen states give discretion to the
prosecuting attorney, not a judge, to decide whether a youth is to be denied the
services of the juvenile system. Tens of thousands of youth under the age of 18
are being held in adult prisons and jails across the country. The US remains the
only country to sentence people under the age of 18 to life without the possibility
of parole.
In 2015, there was some movement toward reducing the number of children tried
as adults. In Illinois, a new law ended the automatic transfer of children under 15
to adult court. New Jersey increased the minimum age to be tried as an adult
from 14 to 15. California, for the first time in 40 years, improved the statutory criteria
judges use in transfer hearings, which could reduce the number of youth
tried as adults."
Rights of Non-Citizens
"The US government continued the dramatic expansion of detention of migrant
mothers and their children from Central America, many of them seeking asylum,
though it announced some reforms mid-year. Human Rights Watch has documented
the severe psychological toll of indefinite detention on asylum-seeking
mothers and children and the barriers it raises to due process.
In June, the Obama administration announced it would limit long-term detention
of mothers and children who pass the first step to seeking refugee protection,
and cease detaining individuals as a deterrent to others. A federal judge ruled in
July that the US government’s family detention policy violates a 1997 settlement
on the detention of migrant children. While detention of families continues,
most are released within weeks if they can make a seemingly legitimate asylum
claim.
A federal lawsuit halted implementation of the Obama administration’s November
2014 executive actions to provide a temporary reprieve from deportation to
certain unauthorized immigrants, which could have protected millions of families
from the threat of arbitrary separation. Legislative efforts toward legal status
for millions of unauthorized migrants in the US continued to founder.
Human Rights Watch documented in June how the US government targets for deportation
lawful permanent residents and other immigrants with longstanding
ties to the US who have drug convictions, including for old and minor offenses.
State and federal drug reform efforts have largely excluded non-citizens, who
face permanent deportation and family separation for drug offenses."
Labor Rights
"Hundreds of thousands of children work on US farms. US law exempts child
farmworkers from the minimum age and maximum hour requirements that protect
other working children. Child farmworkers often work long hours and risk
pesticide exposure, heat illness, and injuries. In 2015, the Environmental Protection
Agency banned children under 18 from handling pesticides. Children who
work on tobacco farms frequently suffer vomiting, headaches, and other symptoms
consistent with acute nicotine poisoning. After Human Rights Watch reported
on hazardous child labor in US tobacco farming, the two largest US-based tobacco companies - Altria Group and Reynolds American - independently announced that, beginning in 2015, they would prohibit their growers from employing children under 16."
Right to Health
"Stark racial disparities continue to characterize the HIV epidemic in the US, as the criminal justice system play a key role as a barrier to HIV prevention and care services for groups more vulnerable to HIV, including people who use drugs, sex workers, men who have sex with men, and transgender women.
A large outbreak of HIV and Hepatitis C infection occurred in rural southern Indiana in 2015, affecting more than 180 people who inject drugs. [GUESS WHO WAS IN CHARGE OF THAT? OUR NEW VICE-PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE) A state law allowing needle exchange programs in response to outbreaks was passed but maintains prohibitions on state funding for such programs as part of a broader prevention approach."
Rights of People with Disabilities
"Corporal punishment in state schools is still widely practiced in 19 US states. Children with disabilities receive corporal punishment at a disproportionate rate to their peers, despite evidence that it can adversely affect their physical and psychological conditions. In contrast, 124 countries have criminalized physical chastisement in public schools."
Women's and Girls' Rights
"Despite Defense Department reforms, US military service members who report sexual assault frequently experience retaliation, including threats, vandalism, harassment, poor work assignments, loss of promotion opportunities, disciplinary action including discharge, and even criminal charges. The military does little to hold retaliators to account or provide effective remedies for retaliation. In May, Human Rights Watch released a report that found both male and female military personnel who report sexual assault are 12 times as likely to experience some form of retaliation as to see their attacker convicted of a sex offense.
In June, the US Supreme Court ruled that housing policies and practices with a disproportionate and negative impact against classes protected from discrimination violate the Fair Housing Act, regardless of whether the policy was adopted with the intent to discriminate. The ruling is important for domestic and sexual violence victims who can face eviction due to zero-tolerance policies - where an entire household may be evicted if any member commits a crime - or municipal nuisance ordinances that subject tenants to eviction is they call the police frequently."
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
"The US Supreme Court issued a landmark decision on June 26, 2015, that grants same-sex couples throughout the country the right to marry.
At time of writing, 28 states do not have laws banning workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, while three states prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation but not on gender identity.
In July, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is prohibited under the existing definition of discrimination based on sex in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In June, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) introduced a policy providing certain protections for transgender women in immigration detention. Nevertheless, transgender women in ICE custody continue to receive inadequate medical care and report verbal and sexual harassment in detention."
National Security
"The practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial at Guantanamo Bay entered its 14th year, at time of writing, 107 detainees remained at the facility, 48 were cleared for release, and the Obama administration had in 2015 transferred 20 detainees to their homes or third countries.
The administration continued to pursue cases before the fundamentally flawed military commissions at Guantanamo. In June, a federal appeals court over-turned the 2008 conviction of Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman al-Bahlul, the alleged Al-Quaeda "public relations director" who was found guilty of conspiracy, soliciting murder, and providing material support for terrorism. As a result of the decision, at least five of the eight convictions imposed by the military commissions are now no longer valid.
Some detainees continued hunger strikes to protest their detention, including Tariq Ba Odah, who has been force-fed by nasal tube for several years and whose lawyers and doctors say is near death. The Obama administration opposed Odah's legal request for court-ordered release, even though the administration had cleared him for release five years ago.
Congress and President Obama signed into law the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which in recent years has included provisions on Guantanamo detentions. In 2015, the law tightened existing restrictions on the transfer of detainees out of Guantanamo. The provisions will make it more difficult, though not impossible, to transfer detainees home or to third countries, and maintains the complete ban on transfer of detainees to the US for detention or trial.
The release in December 2014 of a summary of a Senate Intelligence Committee report on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)'s detention and interrogation program uncovered new information on the methods and extent of torture and Bush administration efforts to avoid culpability. The summary sparked calls by Human Rights Watch and others for new Justice Department criminal investigations into CIA torture and other violations of federal law, and, should the US fail to act, for action by other governments, including renewed efforts in Europe where a number of cases related to CIA torture already have been filed.
In response to the Senate summary, Congress included provision in NDAA that requires all the US government agencies except law enforcement entities to abide by rules in the Army Field Manual on interrogation, and provide the International Committee of the Red Cross with notification of, and prompt access to, all prisoners held by the US in any armed conflict. The provision will bolster existing bans on torture, but without credible criminal investigations int CIA torture it is unclear how effectively the provision will guard against future abuse.
In June, Congress took a first small step towed curbing the government's mass surveillance practices by passing the USA Freedom Act. The law imposes limits on the scope of the collection of phone records permissible under section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. It also puts in place new measures to increase transparency and oversight of surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA).
The law does not constrain surveillance under section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act or Executive Order 12333, the primary legal authorities used by the US government to justify mass violations of privacy of people outside US borders. The law also does not address many modern surveillance capabilities, from use of malware to inception of all mobile calls in a country.
US law enforcement officials continued to urge major US Internet and mobile phone companies to weaken the security of their services to facilitate surveillance in the course of criminal investigations. In May, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression called on all countries, including the US, to refrain from weakening encryption and other security measures because such tools are critical for the security of human rights defenders and activists worldwide."
Foreign Policy
"In July, the US and other countries reached a comprehensive deal with Iran, restricting its nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Although a full drawdown of US troops from Afganistan from planned fro the end of 2014, Obama ordered 9,800 US troops to remain in Afganistan through the end of 2015 and 5,500 to remain into 2017.
Throughout the year, the US conducted airstrikes against the forces of the armed extremist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in Iraq and Syria and led a coalition of Western and regional allies in what Obama called a "long-term campaign" to defeat the group. A US program to train and equip "moderate" Syrian rebels - costing hundreds of millions of dollars - only produced approximately 60 fighters, a number of whom were promptly captured or killed. The US continued to call for a political solution to the conflict in Syria without a role for President Bashar al-Assad.
In March, a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states began a military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen. The US provided intelligence, logistical support, and personnel to the Saudi Arabian center planning airstrikes and coordinating activities, making US forces potentially jointly responsible for laws-of-war violations
by coalition forces.
US drone strikes continued in Yemen and Pakistan, though at reduced numbers,
while US strikes increased in Somalia.
The US restored full military assistance to Egypt in April, despite a worsening
human rights environment, lifting restrictions in place since the military takeover
by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2013. Egypt resumed its position as the second-largest
recipient of US military assistance, worth $1.3 billion annually, after
Israel. In June, the US lifted its hold on military assistance to the Bahraini military
despite an absence of meaningful reform, which was the original requirement
for resuming the aid.
In July, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria met with Obama in Washington;
the US then pledged broad support for counterterrorism efforts and the fight
against the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, as well as collaboration on economic
development and tackling corruption. Obama in July traveled to Kenya and
Ethiopia, where he urged respect for term limits across Africa.
More than 50 years since trade and diplomatic ties were severed during the Cold
War, the US officially reopened diplomatic relations with Cuba in August. Obama
also called for the lifting of the economic embargo, which would require an act
of Congress.
In September, Obama waived provisions of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act to
allow four countries—the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, and
South Sudan—to continue to receive US military assistance, despite their continued
use of child soldiers. Obama delegated authority to Secretary of State John
Kerry to make determinations under the act regarding Yemen, where child soldiers
are used by all sides to the conflict; at time of writing, all US military aid to
Yemen was suspended because of continuing instability there."
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There is much more work to be done.
And without accidentally repeating the past.
Ending bigotry and discrimination requires conversation, consciousness raising, emotional inquiry, and slow change. Imagine the movie where Trump is re-conditioned to be the greatest president that ever lived. We watch him transform from our worst nightmare to some unimaginable dream. What would be required - of him, and of those/that which changes him? What precise conditions would be needed for such a miracle?
Fantasies aside, what can we do to ensure a better future, for everyone, no matter what?
To Be Continued...
Friday, November 25, 2016
Thursday, November 17, 2016
5 Minute Poem IV
11:15pm
Is this poetry thing
not edgy enough?
we need magic
and vampires
and oddballs
and maniacs
and cults
and creatures
and psychics
and queens
we need monsters
who are beautiful
and villains
who are loveable
and devils
who are friends
proving
by their very existence
that nothing
and no one
no one
no
one
is all bad.
(pretty damn rad
in fact)
Is this poetry thing
not edgy enough?
we need magic
and vampires
and oddballs
and maniacs
and cults
and creatures
and psychics
and queens
we need monsters
who are beautiful
and villains
who are loveable
and devils
who are friends
proving
by their very existence
that nothing
and no one
no one
no
one
is all bad.
(pretty damn rad
in fact)
5 Minute Poem III
Well this is fun
and a good way
to keep the time
accordingly
but now let's be serious
for these are serious times
if you care about that sort of thing
anyway
I do
I don't see anything else worth fighting for
than a better life
for everyone
and a good way
to keep the time
accordingly
but now let's be serious
for these are serious times
if you care about that sort of thing
anyway
I do
I don't see anything else worth fighting for
than a better life
for everyone
5 Minute Poem II
11:01pm
I'm a fool, cooking burritos on the stove.
Turning them over every 5 minutes.
On the side, on the back, on the side, on the fold.
Practical magic.
Let's write a poem between each burn.
Wait, is this a poem at all, actually?
What makes a poem poetic poetry?
Maybe it always just depends on what you see.
And then you get your friends to see it too
Reality is a collective exercise in illusion
Reality by majority, my dear.
Privileged for the perceivers in power.
But there're so many people now, you don't have to worry about that.
You will inevitably fit in somewhere.
There's even a group for the ones who don't.
I'm a fool, cooking burritos on the stove.
Turning them over every 5 minutes.
On the side, on the back, on the side, on the fold.
Practical magic.
Let's write a poem between each burn.
Wait, is this a poem at all, actually?
What makes a poem poetic poetry?
Maybe it always just depends on what you see.
And then you get your friends to see it too
Reality is a collective exercise in illusion
Reality by majority, my dear.
Privileged for the perceivers in power.
But there're so many people now, you don't have to worry about that.
You will inevitably fit in somewhere.
There's even a group for the ones who don't.
5 Minute Poem
10:52pm
Miserable. Just miserable. That's the biggest difference from moments ago to now.
Speed up little bunny, you're quickly spinning out.
Harder to breathe.
Too loose. Too goose.
Just calm down it'll be fine.
Someone is screaming outside.
When that happens from time-to-time, even the innocent sounds become suspicious; violent bursts destroying the rare and fragile silences that escape from the forested hillside and haunt me.
Miserable. Just miserable. That's the biggest difference from moments ago to now.
Speed up little bunny, you're quickly spinning out.
Harder to breathe.
Too loose. Too goose.
Just calm down it'll be fine.
Someone is screaming outside.
When that happens from time-to-time, even the innocent sounds become suspicious; violent bursts destroying the rare and fragile silences that escape from the forested hillside and haunt me.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Not My President
"In modern times, the casting of electoral votes has been a purely ceremonial occasion where the results in the states have been rubber-stamped. But one idea spreading on left-leaning social media circles is that electors from states Trump won should be urged to support Clinton instead. A Change.org petition to this effect has more than 500,000 [3,353,672] signatures.
Weirdly enough, this actually seems to be technically possible — the US Constitution does seem to give the electors the final say in picking the president.
But realistically, considering how big a lead Trump has, who the electors are, how their votes are counted, and hundreds of years of American democratic norms, it’s a silly fantasy that is just in no way, shape, or form going to happen."
My question is: can we ask them to pick Bernie instead?
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Donald Trump Is Elected President in Stunning Repudiation of the Establishment
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER and MICHAEL BARBARO
NOVEMBER 9, 2016
Donald John Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States on Tuesday in a stunning culmination of an explosive, populist and polarizing campaign that took relentless aim at the institutions and long-held ideals of American democracy.
The surprise outcome, defying late polls that showed Hillary Clinton with a modest but persistent edge, threatened convulsions throughout the country and the world, where skeptics had watched with alarm as Mr. Trump’s unvarnished overtures to disillusioned voters took hold.
The triumph for Mr. Trump, 70, a real estate developer-turned-reality television star with no government experience, was a powerful rejection of the establishment forces that had assembled against him, from the world of business to government, and the consensus they had forged on everything from trade to immigration.
The results amounted to a repudiation, not only of Mrs. Clinton, but of President Obama, whose legacy is suddenly imperiled. And it was a decisive demonstration of power by a largely overlooked coalition of mostly blue-collar white and working-class voters who felt that the promise of the United States had slipped their grasp amid decades of globalization and multiculturalism.
In Mr. Trump, a thrice-married Manhattanite who lives in a marble-wrapped three-story penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue, they found an improbable champion.
“The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” Mr. Trump told supporters around 3 a.m. on Wednesday at a rally in New York City, just after Mrs. Clinton called to concede.
In a departure from a blistering campaign in which he repeatedly stoked division, Mr. Trump sought to do something he had conspicuously avoided as a candidate: Appeal for unity.
“Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division,” he said. “It is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time.”
That, he added, “is so important to me.”
He offered unusually warm words for Mrs. Clinton, who he has suggested should be in jail, saying she was owed “a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.”
Bolstered by Mr. Trump’s strong showing, Republicans retained control of the Senate. Only one Republican-controlled seat, in Illinois, fell to Democrats early in the evening. And Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, a Republican, easily won re-election in a race that had been among the country’s most competitive. A handful of other Republican incumbents facing difficult races were running better than expected.
Mr. Trump’s win — stretching across the battleground states of Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania — seemed likely to set off financial jitters and immediate unease among international allies, many of which were startled when Mr. Trump in his campaign cast doubt on the necessity of America’s military commitments abroad and its allegiance to international economic partnerships.
From the moment he entered the campaign, with a shocking set of claims that Mexican immigrants were rapists and criminals, Mr. Trump was widely underestimated as a candidate, first by his opponents for the Republican nomination and later by Mrs. Clinton, his Democratic rival. His rise was largely missed by polling organizations and data analysts. And an air of improbability trailed his campaign, to the detriment of those who dismissed his angry message, his improvisational style and his appeal to disillusioned voters.
He suggested remedies that raised questions of constitutionality, like a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
He threatened opponents, promising lawsuits against news organizations that covered him critically and women who accused him of sexual assault. At times, he simply lied.
But Mr. Trump’s unfiltered rallies and unshakable self-regard attracted a zealous following, fusing unsubtle identity politics with an economic populism that often defied party doctrine.
His rallies — furious, entertaining, heavy on name-calling and nationalist overtones — became the nexus of a political movement, with daily promises of sweeping victory, in the election and otherwise, and an insistence that the country’s political machinery was “rigged” against Mr. Trump and those who admired him.
He seemed to embody the success and grandeur that so many of his followers felt was missing from their own lives — and from the country itself. And he scoffed at the poll-driven word-parsing ways of modern politics, calling them a waste of time and money. Instead, he relied on his gut.
At his victory party at the New York Hilton Midtown, where a raucous crowd indulged in a cash bar and wore hats bearing his ubiquitous campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” voters expressed gratification that their voices had, at last, been heard.
“He was talking to people who weren’t being spoken to,” said Joseph Gravagna, 37, a marketing company owner from Rockland County, N.Y. “That’s how I knew he was going to win.”
For Mrs. Clinton, the defeat signaled an astonishing end to a political dynasty that has colored Democratic politics for a generation. Eight years after losing to President Obama in the Democratic primary — and 16 years after leaving the White House for the United States Senate, as President Bill Clinton exited office — she had seemed positioned to carry on two legacies: her husband’s and the president’s.
Her shocking loss was a devastating turn for the sprawling world of Clinton aides and strategists who believed they had built an electoral machine that would swamp Mr. Trump’s ragtag band of loyal operatives and family members, many of whom had no experience running a national campaign.
On Tuesday night, stricken Clinton aides who believed that Mr. Trump had no mathematical path to victory, anxiously paced the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center as states in which they were confident of victory, like Florida and North Carolina, either fell to Mr. Trump or seemed in danger of tipping his way.
Mrs. Clinton watched the grim results roll in from a suite at the nearby Peninsula Hotel, surrounded by her family, friends and advisers who had the day before celebrated her candidacy with a champagne toast on her campaign plane.
But over and over, Mrs. Clinton’s weaknesses as a candidate were exposed. She failed to excite voters hungry for change. She struggled to build trust with Americans who were baffled by her decision to use a private email server as secretary of state. And she strained to make a persuasive case for herself as a champion of the economically downtrodden after delivering perfunctory paid speeches that earned her millions of dollars.
The returns Tuesday also amounted to a historic rebuke of the Democratic Party from the white blue-collar voters who had formed the party base from the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt to Mr. Clinton’s. Yet Mrs. Clinton and her advisers had taken for granted that states like Michigan and Wisconsin would stick with a Democratic nominee, and that she could repeat Mr. Obama’s strategy of mobilizing the party’s ascendant liberal coalition rather than pursuing a more moderate course like her husband did 24 years ago.
But not until these voters were offered a Republican who ran as an unapologetic populist, railing against foreign trade deals and illegal immigration, did they move so drastically away from their ancestral political home.
To the surprise of many on the left, white voters who had helped elect the nation’s first black president, appeared more reluctant to line up behind a white woman.
From Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, industrial towns once full of union voters who for decades offered their votes to Democratic presidential candidates, even in the party’s lean years, shifted to Mr. Trump’s Republican Party. One county in the Mahoning Valley of Ohio, Trumbull, went to Mr. Trump by a six-point margin. Four years ago, Mr. Obama won there by 22 points.
Mrs. Clinton’s loss was especially crushing to millions who had cheered her march toward history as, they hoped, the nation’s first female president. For supporters, the election often felt like a referendum on gender progress: an opportunity toelevate a woman to the nation’s top job and to repudiate a man whose remarkably boorish behavior toward women had assumed center stage during much of the campaign.
Mr. Trump boasted, in a 2005 video released last month, about using his public profile to commit sexual assault. He suggested that female political rivals lacked a presidential “look.” He ranked women on a scale of one to 10, even holding forth on the desirability of his own daughter — the kind of throwback male behavior that many in the country assumed would disqualify a candidate for high office.
On Tuesday, the public’s verdict was rendered.
Uncertainty abounds as Mr. Trump prepares to take office. His campaign featured a shape-shifting list of policy proposals, often seeming to change hour to hour. His staff was in constant turmoil, with Mr. Trump’s children serving critical campaign roles and a rotating cast of advisers alternately seeking access to Mr. Trump’s ear, losing it and, often, regaining it, depending on the day.
Even Mr. Trump’s full embrace of the Republican Party came exceedingly late in life, leaving members of both parties unsure about what he truly believes. He has donated heavily to both parties and has long described his politics as the transactional reality of a businessman.
Mr. Trump’s dozens of business entanglements — many of them in foreign countries — will follow him into the Oval Office, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest. His refusal to release his tax returns, and his acknowledgmentthat he did not pay federal income taxes for years, has left the American people with considerable gaps in their understanding of the financial dealings.
But this they do know: Mr. Trump will thoroughly reimagine the tone, standards and expectations of the presidency, molding it in his own self-aggrandizing image.
He is set to take the oath of office on Jan. 20.
An article on Wednesday about the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States carried an erroneous byline in some editions. The article was by Matt Flegenheimer and Michael Barbaro — not by Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin.
An article on Wednesday about the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States carried an erroneous byline in some editions. The article was by Matt Flegenheimer and Michael Barbaro — not by Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin.
Amy Chozick, Ashley Parker, Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin contributed reporting.
*******
By Jill Filipovic
I’m a feminist writer. I am inundated with sexist harassment and political ugliness more or less constantly; I know that the history of women’s progress in the United States has been uneven, and often marked with big setbacks just as we were on the precipice of real change.
This, though, I did not predict.
I’m writing from my current, and I assumed temporary, home in Nairobi, but now I wonder whether the United States — this United States, the one that just elected Donald Trump — is one to which I want to return. That sounds melodramatic. But what a clear statement of what so many of my countrymen (and the people who put Trump in power are mostly men) value: white male supremacy above all, especially over female ambition, intelligence and basic competence.
Still, abandoning the playing field is not an option. It’s hard to think about tomorrow when today is so crushingly awful. Take a day: hug your kids, drink your wine, punch a pillow, go for a run. Then let’s get to work.
For feminists, getting to work means plowing forward, not second-guessing our mission. This is a big setback — a phenomenal, shocking setback. It is not the first, and it will not be the last. The only way to change is to change, and when our project is so immense — changing no less than the foundation of our society, our very ideas of what it means to be male and female — it will take a very long time to complete. We know, now, what so many Americans think of successful, ambitious, intelligent women: They think we are a threat. They will choose almost anything to avoid putting us in charge.
We fix this with more feminism, not less. And given who Americans just elected, we have to focus first on the women a Trump presidency will make most vulnerable: immigrant women, women of color, lesbian women, transgender women, women seeking abortions, women seeking asylum, women seeking protection from men. If there was ever a time to donate to your local domestic violence shelter, your local abortion fund, Black Lives Matter, your local group helping refugees apply for legal status, your local nonprofit group that shelters and assists undocumented immigrants, this is it. If there was ever a time to refuse to cower in the face of defeat — to speak louder, even in our female voices — this is it. Because what Trump wants us to do is sit down and shut up.
We should pay attention, too, to the many men whose lives are about to get significantly worse under Trump. Immigrant men. Gay men. Black men at risk of police violence. Men who rely on the Affordable Care Act for their health insurance. Men who reject traditional masculinity. And even the men and women who voted Trump to victory — white people who traded racial resentment for the kind of progressive change that would have improved their lives, too. They surely think feminism has nothing to offer them compared with a promise to restore them to their former position of unearned power; they are about to see how wrong they are.
For the many women who were surprised by this result, myself included, we need to take a good look around and quit excusing bad behavior where we see it. There’s a huge gender gap in this election, the widest since 1976: Early numbers point to women favoring Clinton by 12 points, and men favoring Trump by the same margin. Clinton’s strength with women was mostly due to women of color backing her; where Trump’s support was overwhelminglywhite, Clinton’s was incredibly diverse, and she won majorities of African Americans, Asians and Hispanics. Clinton’s base looks like America’s future, while Trump’s looks like the waning white face of American power.
It doesn’t matter: Old America won. And New America is scared: Nearly 70 percent of black voters say that they’re afraid of a Trump presidency,
But we don’t live in different worlds. Many of the same women who voted for Clinton live with, work with, date and befriend men who voted for Trump. Women have always paired off with misogynist men and have always excused bad male behavior, defending sexist men as simply “old-school,” shrugging off sexual assault as boys being boys, concluding that because a man loves them, he must not hate women.
Enough.
Misogyny isn’t the fault of women, and it’s not up to women to force men to treat us like human beings. But it is incumbent upon us to not buoy bigotry. Amajority of white women voted for Trump, disproportionately those who are older, religious and without college degrees — in other words, women who may be more steeped in, accustomed to and dependent on male authority. For these women, it seemed race trumped gender, and white supremacy was more important than broader freedoms for women. While this is disappointing, it’s also perhaps to be expected: White women in many of the states that supported Trump have historically been supporters of segregation and racism just as surely as their husbands, and have also typically opposed many of the laws that would improve conditions for all American women.
And make no mistake: A vote for Trump is a vote against women. He hasbragged on video about committing sexual assault, and nearly a dozen women have accused him of doing exactly what he claimed, though he has denied those allegations. He evaluates women not on their intelligence or good characters, but on a physical attribute scale of one to 10. Women he doesn’t like are “pigs” and “dogs.” He has said women who have abortions should face legal punishment, and he is sure to appoint Supreme Court justices who would dismantle abortion rights if given the opportunity. He has few women on his shortlists of appointments for Cabinet positions or the Supreme Court.
Women should refuse to tolerate men who would vote so clearly and aggressively against our interests — against the idea that we’re equal citizens, that we’re human beings.
Women and feminists cannot do this job alone. Many millions of American men cast their votes for Clinton in this election, and many millions of American men are just as heartbroken as I am. Women have been carrying the heavy weight of fighting sexism for a long time, but what this election makes clear is that little changes if men don’t change. This is where we need men to step in and work on one another. Even the brightest, best-qualified woman can’t win the white male vote; feminist-minded men need to convince other men that more women in power, and a more gender-egalitarian society, is in everyone’s interests.
With a Republican House, a Republican Senate and Trump in the White House, a lot could get ugly in the next four years. Supreme Court appointments will probably mean the end of safe and legal abortion access. The border with Mexico could become an even more dangerous and deadly place for people trying to cross it, and the rest of the country may grow even more hostile. Anecdotally, it seemed that sexist abuse was worse online and off during this election — I saw it for myself on social media and heard story after story of female friends being grabbed or called misogynist slurs for wearing pro-Clinton T-shirts or simply being at election-related events, often in tandem with a declaration from the grabber that Trump would win. These attacks large and small may very well ramp up now that Trump has normalized it and voters have supported him. This election is a huge blow, and it’s women and Trump’s favorite minority targets — Muslims, Latinos, African Americans — who are going to suffer first.
If you weren’t a feminist before, or if you were an ambivalent or quiet supporter of women’s rights and the rights of minorities, now’s the time to get loud. Because as much as we needed you before, we need you now more than ever.
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Donald Trump’s Victory Promises to Upend the International Order
By PETER BAKER
NOVEMBER 9, 2016
JERUSALEM — Donald J. Trump’s stunning election victory on Tuesday night rippled way beyond the nation’s boundaries, upending an international order that prevailed for decades and raising profound questions about America’s place in the world.
For the first time since before World War II, Americans chose a president who promised to reverse the internationalism practiced by predecessors of both parties and to build walls both physical and metaphorical. Mr. Trump’s win foreshadowed an America more focused on its own affairs while leaving the world to take care of itself.
The outsider revolution that propelled him to power over the Washington establishment of both political parties also reflected a fundamental shift in international politics evidenced already this year by events like Britain’s referendum vote to leave the European Union. Mr. Trump’s success could fuel the populist, nativist, nationalist, closed-border movements already so evident in Europe and spreading to other parts of the world.
Global markets fell after Tuesday’s election and many around the world scrambled to figure out what it might mean in parochial terms. For Mexico, it seemed to presage a new era of confrontation with its northern neighbor. For Europe and Asia, it could rewrite the rules of modern alliances, trade deals, and foreign aid. For the Middle East, it foreshadowed a possible alignment with Russia and fresh conflict with Iran.
“All bets are off,” said AgustÃn Barrios Gómez, a former congressman in Mexico and president of the Mexico Image Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting its reputation abroad.
Crispin Blunt, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Britain’s House of Commons, said, “We are plunged into uncertainty and the unknown.”
Many linked Mr. Trump’s victory to the British vote to exit the European Union and saw a broader unraveling of the modern international system. “After Brexit and this election, everything is now possible,” Gérard Araud, the French ambassador to the United States, wrote on Twitter. “A world is collapsing before our eyes.”
The election enthralled people around the world on Tuesday night: night owls watching television in a youth hostel in Tel Aviv; computer technicians monitoring results on their laptops in Hong Kong; and even onetime oil pipeline terrorists inNigeria’s remote Delta creeks, who expressed concern about how Mr. Trump’s election would affect their country.
It is hardly surprising that much of the world was rooting for Hillary Clinton over Mr. Trump, who characterized his foreign policy as “America First.”
He promised to build a wall along the Mexican border and temporarily bar Muslim immigrants from entering the United States. He questioned Washington’s longstanding commitment to NATO allies, called for cutting foreign aid, praisedPresident Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, vowed to rip up international trade deals,assailed China and suggested Asian allies develop nuclear weapons.
Polls indicated that Mrs. Clinton was favored in many countries, with the exception of Russia. Last summer, the Pew Research Center found that people in all 15 countries it surveyed trusted Mrs. Clinton to do the right thing in foreign affairs more than Mr. Trump by ratios as high as 10 to one.
Mr. Trump’s promise to pull back militarily and economically left many overseas contemplating a road ahead without an American ally.
“The question is whether you will continue to be involved in international affairs as a dependable ally to your friends and allies,” said Kunihiko Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat now teaching at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. “If you stop doing that, then all the European, Middle Eastern and Asian allies to the United States will reconsider how they secure themselves.”
In Germany, where American troops have been stationed for more than seven decades, the prospect of a pullback seemed bewildering. “It would be the end of an era,” Henrik Müller, a journalism professor at the Technical University of Dortmund, wrote in Der Spiegel. “The postwar era in which Americans’ atomic weapons and its military presence in Europe shielded first the west and later the central European states would be over. Europe would have to take care of its own security.”
Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the German parliamentary committee for foreign policy and a member of the ruling party, said Mr. Trump was “completely inadequate” to his office. “That Trump’s election could lead to the worst estrangement between America and Europe since the Vietnam War would be the least of the damage,” he said.
Perhaps nowhere was Mr. Trump’s win more alarming than in Mexico, which has objected to his promises to build a wall and bill America’s southern neighbor for it.
“I see a clear and present danger,” said Rossana Fuentes-Berain, director of the Mexico Media Lab, a think tank, and a founder of the Latin American edition of Foreign Affairs. “Every moment will be a challenge. Every move or declaration will be something that will not make us comfortable in the neighborhood — and that is to everyone’s detriment.”
With about $531 billion in trade in goods last year, Mexico is America’s third-largest partner after Canada and China. Supply chains in both countries are interdependent, with American goods and parts shipped to Mexican factories to build products that are shipped back into the United States for sale. Five million American jobs directly depend on trade with Mexico, according to the Mexico Institute.
The Mexican peso immediately fell 13 percent after the election, its biggest drop in decades. Mr. Barrios Gómez, the former congressman, predicted a short-term peso devaluation of 20 percent and a Mexican recession “as supply chains across the continent become sclerotic and investments dry up.” The business community, he said, was “freaking out.”
The economic fallout will probably reverberate farther. Izumi Kobayashi, vice chairwoman of Keizai Doyukai, a Japanese business group, predicted a drop in foreign investment in the United States as executives skeptical of Mr. Trump wait to see what he does.
“He has been focusing on the negative side of the global markets and globalization,” Ms. Kobayashi said. “But at the same time it is really difficult to go back to the old business world. So how will he explain to the people that benefit and also the fact that there is no option to go back to the old model of business?”
The uneasiness with Mr. Trump’s victory overseas ranged far beyond the country’s traditional partners. Abubakar Kari, a political-science professor at the University of Abuja, said most Nigerians believed a Trump administration would not bother with issues outside the United States.
“If Trump wins, God forbid,” Macharia Gaitho, one of Kenya’s most popular columnists, wrote on Tuesday before the votes came in, “then we will have to reassess our relations with the United States.”
One of the few places where Mr. Trump’s victory was greeted enthusiastically was Russia, where state-controlled television has been feasting on the circuslike elements of the American election. Not since the Cold War has Russia played such a big role in a presidential election, with Mr. Trump praising Mr. Putin and American investigators concluding that Russians had hacked Democratic email messages.
“Trump’s presidency will make the U.S. sink into a full-blown crisis, including an economic one,” said Vladimir Frolov, a Russian columnist and international affairs analyst. “The U.S. will be occupied with its own issues and will not bother Putin with questions.”
“As a consequence,” he added, “Moscow will have a window of opportunity in geopolitical terms. For instance, it can claim control over the former Soviet Union and a part of the Middle East. What is there not to like?”
Others tried to find the upside. Mr. Blunt, the British lawmaker, said he was heartened by Mr. Trump’s selection of Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana as his running mate and thought that Britain might be the exception to the new president’s hostility toward trade deals.
Israel was another place where Mr. Trump enjoyed some support, mainly because of the perception that he would give the country a freer hand in its handling of the longstanding conflict with the Palestinians. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders and commentators worried about a broader disengagement from a Middle East awash in war, terrorism and upheaval.
“Decisions cannot be postponed,” said Yohanan Plesner, a former member of the Israeli Parliament now serving as president of the Israel Democracy Institute. “The situation in Syria is very chaotic. The unrest in the region is continuing. America has to decide whether it wants to play an active role in shaping the developments of the region.”
And even some countries that might expect to see some benefits from an American retreat worried about the implications. Counterintuitive as it might seem, Chinawas concerned about Mr. Trump’s promise to pull American troops back from Asia.
“If he indeed withdraws the troops from Japan, the Japanese may develop their own nuclear weapons,” said Shen Dingli, professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai. “South Korea may also go nuclear if Trump cancels the missile deployment and leaves the country alone facing the North’s threats. How is that good for China?”
For American voters, that was not the point. After decades of worrying about what was good for other countries, they decided it was time to worry about what was good for America. And Mr. Trump promised to do just that, even if the rest of the world might not like it.
Reporting was contributed by Jaime Yaya Barry and Dionne Searcey from Dakar, Senegal; Stephen Castle from London; Melissa Eddy from Berlin; Jeffrey Gettleman from Nairobi; Yufan Huang from Beijing; Ivan Nechepurenko from Moscow; Motoko Rich from Tokyo; and Elisabeth Malkin, Kirk Semple and Paulina Villegas from Mexico City.
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What a Trump Presidency Means to Civil Rights
Last night, America’s “silent majority” defied political scientists, expert pollsters and what many would regard as common decency in electing Donald Trump president. When faced with a choice between arguably the most qualified presidential candidate we’ve seen in the modern era of electoral politics and … well, a bigot, America felt safer with the latter. Indeed, white male privilege remains alive and well.
But what does that mean for communities of color in the arena of civil rights? Under a Trump presidency, the Supreme Court will almost undoubtedly shift toward an über-conservative tilt; and with a Republican-led Congress, many institutions, like affirmative action and equal voting rights, are likely to move from their last legs to a death knell. If Trump’s stump speeches are even half of his real blueprint for his administration, here are a few predictions for what we are likely up against in key areas of importance:
Immigration
Perhaps the single largest concern for a Trump presidency rests in the area of immigration. Many of us are skeptical about Trump’s ability to “build that wall.” Alas, many of us were equally skeptical about his ability to win an election. Unsavory deportation policies and practices may very well be on the horizon. To combat this, we need to keep the path to citizenship as clear and accessible as possible. This may mean volunteering to help those seeking citizenship to prepare for the test, or considering sponsoring an undocumented person to assist in the already exorbitant costs associated with becoming a naturalized citizen.
Equally disconcerting is the metaphorical wall Trump has already built against immigrants using xenophobia and toxic rhetoric. This requires us to remain vocal and vigilant in speaking out in the presence of attitudes that reflect an unwelcomeness of others within a nation ironically “founded” and made great by immigrants themselves.
Criminal Justice
Trump prided himself on being the “law and order” candidate. His level of understanding regarding race relations during the election cycle led him to insult the black electorate by painting a more than dismal picture of American life for blacks that is wrought with violence, poverty and overall despair. His solution? Stop and frisk. Based on his statements about Muslims, we know that Trump has little to no aversion to profiling. We can expect the rhetoric regarding criminal justice to resemble the “tough on crime” code speak used to justify harsher policing in urban communities, with draconian sentences for minor offenses.
Our solution to this must be multifaceted and will require a combination of accountability from local law enforcement and elected district attorneys, and the increased use of citizen journalists to help tell accurate stories as they happen and to control narratives in a fair and honest way. Social media is a weapon that we have in our arsenal, and our proper wielding of that weapon will be a key element in ensuring that an inevitable wave of over-policing does not result in widespread unchecked abuses by law enforcement. Finally, in this vein, we must fulfill our civic responsibility to perform jury duty in record numbers to serve as a backstop to a system that has historically never been kind to our kind and only threatens to get worse.
Voting Rights
This was the first presidential election since the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and it showed. Since the Shelby v. Holder ruling in 2013, 868 polling places that served mostly communities of color were closed in that time. Early voting—a practice that is particularly popular among African Americans—was curtailed across the country. And although some of the stricter voter-ID laws in states like North Carolina and Wisconsin were defanged by the courts, signs of voter suppression were extremely high.
This situation is unlikely to improve under a Trump presidency and a Republican-controlled House and Senate. In fact, based on Trump’s speeches in which he called on his supporters to “watch” the polling sites in communities of color, don’t be surprised if policies are proposed calling for even more restrictions on voting rights. It’s going to be even more critical that organizations and activists that fought strict voter-ID laws become even more vigilant in combating these restrictions as they come up.
Women’s Rights
This is obviously an area for grave concern with a president-“Grab ’em by the you-know-what”-elect. But the concern may be more about principle than about practicality or policy. We must be on guard against Trump’s use of his bully pulpit to (not so subtly) promote or condone rape culture in ways that threaten to make America not so great again for women. The push for equal pay may very well be on hold, since it doesn’t seem to be anywhere on the radar.
The solution here is that we must publicly speak with our dollars by refusing to support businesses and other institutions that refuse to promote or support the protection, inclusion and fair treatment of all women. Realistically, we cannot depend on a GOP-led government to do it, so there must be a deliberate effort from all of us to wield our collective economic power to the furthest extent possible. This cannot be a discussion simply about equal pay but must extend to maintaining women’s reproductive rights and other areas where women, despite being a majority, remain a vulnerable demographic. Especially black women.
We must face the reality that the results of this election could have a peculiar effect on our rights and civil liberties while disparately affecting already marginalized groups to a frightening degree. We must also understand that, now more than ever, intersectionalism is a nonnegotiable imperative and that all of our allies need to be represented at the table.
There is still a light at the end of this tunnel. The network of organizations that has been established through the Movement for Black Lives and other groups has already built the infrastructure needed to weather any storm that might result from a Trump presidency. However, the effectiveness of these organizations will depend on our level of support and engagement. Trump’s presumptive victory is a deeply unfortunate affirmation of myriad oppressive systems: racism, white supremacy, patriarchy and xenophobia, to name just a few. Withstanding any attempts to “take America back” with respect to our civil rights will require a grassroots, strategic and continuous effort from all of us.
We may not have won this battle, but our struggle rages onward.
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