World AM News Briefs For Thursday, 10 November 2016
Good Morning Australia!! - WTF America? Just WTF? - Trump actually got fewer votes than Hillary Clinton - The world reacts to what could be impending global realignment - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
Mexico's president called Donald Trump to request a meeting in the period before the orange clown becomes President Of The United States of America. His country insists it will not pay for a wall along its northern border with the ironically-named "United States", after fascist demagogue Donald Trump won the 2016 US Presidential Election. The border wall and putting the bill for it to Mexico was a key campaign promise of Trump's. Mexican stocks and the Peso have taken a nasty hit in trading over fears of the incoming president's protectionist and bigoted policies. Mexico has more than US$175 billion in foreign reserves, and he governor of the country's Central Bank already said he would consider using a $90 billion International Monetary Fund flexible credit line "in the event of an external shock".
Hillary Clinton won 59,739,529 votes in the election, and Trump won only 59,520,289 votes, about 220,000 fewer. Yet Trump - who famously whined and moaned about a "rigged system" in his campaign appearances - becomes president on 20 January because of an archaic system called the "electoral college" which gives a slight disproportional advantage to rural areas (where cousinf**kers, wife-beaters, and racists thrive). Contrary to widespread belief, the United States is not actually a one person-one vote Democracy. Trump becomes the fourth US president in history to "win" while losing the popular vote. And because he is a fascist, he will claim a non-existent mandate to institute widespread changes that will weigh the system even further in the favor of racists and scumwads.
Hillary Clinton showed her iron in delivering a painful concession speech that never should have happened, likely the last event of her political career. "This is not the outcome that we wanted and we worked so hard for, and I am sorry that we did not win this election," Clinton told supporters. "I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday, someone will, and hopefully sooner than we might think right now," adding, "And to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and to achieve your own dreams."
Around the world, leaders are gently urging calm and reminding Trump of the United States' standing in the international community. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, "We have to remember that the only time that we have invoked Article 5, our collective defense clause, is after an attack on the United States, after 9/11" - because candidate Trump threatened to ignore the alliance. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said it was "worth recalling and reaffirming that the unity in diversity of the United States is one of the country's greatest strengths," and noted the US is "an essential actor across the international agenda".
The mood is darker in official Europe. "The events of the last months and days should be treated as a warning sign for all who believe in liberal democracy," said European Council President Donald Tusk. The leader of a pro-European group in the continental Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, said: "We cannot be dependent anymore on the US, we have to take charge of our own destiny." These guys will be swimming against a torrent of nationalism emboldened by the election of one of their own to the most powerful office in the world. Dutch racist Geert Wilders, French nationalist Marine LePen, Hungarian President Viktor Orban, and KGB boy-made-good Vladimir Putin all praised Trump.
Saudi Arabia was terse in its congratulations, given that Trump once demanding it give the US a decade's worth of free oil. Iran says it will continue to abide by the nuclear agreement with the West in which it gave up much of its nuclear program in favor of relief from economic sanctions. Trump called it "the worst deal ever", and vowed to scrap it during the campaign.
Israeli hardliners appeared happy with Trump's election, with one claiming Israel would be less "politically correct". So, apparently killing 2,251 Palestinian civilians in the Gaza war was being "politically correct", and now Israel's Likud government is going to FINALLY express itself. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said, "We will deal with any president elected by the American people on the principle of achieving permanent peace in the Middle East based on the two state solution on June 4 1967 lines with east Jerusalem as its capital." Yeah, good luck with that.
America's allies in northeast Asia are nervous. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for calm and declared, "Hand in hand with Trump, we will try to work together," to a public concerned over Trump's demands that Japan pay for protection and threats to back away from defense treaties. South Korea warned North Korea not to read too much into the election, that current defense treaties still stand. Both are also concerned about increasingly assertive China. It does, however, boost ultra-nationalists in both countries to build up their own nuclear defenses.
Two of Southeast Asia's biggest problem children - kill-happy Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and corruption-tinged Malaysian PM Najib Razak - praised Trump. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull reassured his people that "Americans understand that they have no stronger ally, no better friend, than Australia".