Newspaper & online reporters and analysts explore the cultural and news stories of the week, with photos frequently added by Esco20, and reveal their significance (with a slant towards Esco 20's opinions)
November 26, 2016
November 25, 2016
November 24, 2016
November 23, 2016
ELIZABETH DREW
Feminists for Trump
Many were surprised to learn that the majority of white women voted for Trump and helped him to victory. Trump won 53% of white women, despite many onlookers predicting women would be repulsed by a recording of Trump bragging about making unwanted sexual advances on women, and enthused by the prospect of electing the first female president. The Guardian spoke with women who voted for Trump, who explained that economics and dislike for Clinton meant they were willing to overlook Trump’s rhetoric.
ELIZABETH DREW, NY REVIEW OF BOOKS
Academics concerned about foreign intervention in election
A number of academics and activists are calling on Hillary Clinton to call for a recount of the electoral votes in key battleground states following her failed bid for the presidency, citing the possibility of foreign intervention. One group will deliver an 18-page report to congressional committee chairs and federal authorities early next week on the results in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. There has been speculation around Wisconsin where counties with electronic voting delivered Trump much higher margins. However, pollsters such as Nate Silver have dismissed doubt about the integrity of the result. Nonetheless, dozens of academics specializing in cybersecurity, defense and elections signed a letter stating they were concerned about foreign intervention.
November 22, 2016
November 21, 2016
November 18, 2016
Flynn appears set for nat'l security adviser.
Michael Flynn has been offered the position of national security adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, a senior Trump official has said. ... As national security adviser, the former military intelligence chief Flynn would have the direct ear of a president with no national security experience. Flynn’s views on Islam and relationships with Russia make him a controversial figure. He tweeted in February that fear of Muslims is “rational” and frequently appears on the Russian state-funded news network RT. Flynn was a vocal critic of the Obama administration and broke with most national security officials by supporting Trump during the campaign. The announcement was met with concern from Human Rights Watch, who raised Flynn’s refusal to rule out the use of torture. It remains unclear if he has accepted the position but he was photographed sitting in on a meeting between Trump and Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, on Thursday.
Trump attorney general pick accused of racial slur against black official in 1981
As Donald Trump faces criticism of his business interests and transition team, his nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for US attorney general has reopened a decades-long dispute over Sessions’ views on race. Sessions, who has been a senator since 1997, was once accused of calling a black official in Alabama a “nigger”, and then gave a false explanation to the US Senate when testifying about the allegation. In 1981, Sessions was said to have used the racist term to refer to Douglas Wicks, the first black man to be elected as a county commissioner in Mobile, where Sessions was a Republican party official and a federal prosecutor. When asked about the remark five years later during Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination for a federal judgeship, Sessions denied saying the remark and said there was not a black county commissioner at that time. However, records show Wicks was elected in September 1980 – more than a year before Sessions allegedly referred to him using the racist term. Sessions’ nomination to the southern Alabama judgeship was ultimately rejected by a Republican-controlled US Senate judiciary committee.
November 17, 2016
November 16, 2016
AL HUNT, BLOOMBERG
The Pennsylvania exit polls are revealing. They show Clinton underperforming Obama among voters younger than 30. Worse from her perspective, those voters comprised only 16 percent of the overall tally, compared to 19 percent in 2012. More telling, blacks, who voted overwhelmingly for Clinton, were only 10 percent of the electorate, down from 13 percent last time. If black voters had made up 12 percent of the Pennsylvania electorate, she probably would have won the state.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)