U.S. election 2016

A Hard Rain: The CIA proxy war with Russia

Patti Smith rocked the Nobel Prize gala in Sweden singing "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," a Bob Dylan classic from the 1960s era of the civil rights struggle and protest against the Vietnam war.

As noted by James Warren in Vanity Fair, Nobel Prize honouree Dylan revealed the meaning of that song 50 years ago in a recorded conversation with Studs Terkel, the oral historian of the American working class.

"A Hard Rain" is about the poison coming from the establishment and carried by the media, explained Dylan: how do we protect our brains from it?

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Electoral College may be last salvation to block Trump from taking office

Portrait by John Trumbull/Wikimedia Commons

Donald Trump continues to shock the world as he endlessly fires off derogatory, lie-laden tweets and nominates generals and fossil-fuel zealots to his cabinet posts. Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote has climbed to 2.8 million votes, yet Trump retains his lead in electoral votes with 306 to Clinton's 232. The disparity has many questioning the existence of the Electoral College, just as Trump did on election night in 2012, when he mistakenly thought Mitt Romney was winning the popular vote but losing to Barack Obama in the electoral vote count. Trump tweeted, "The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy." Oddly, now, many among those who reject Trump's victory see the Electoral College as the last salvation to block Donald Trump from taking office.

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U.S. Presidential Election Donald Trump Electoral College U.S. election 2016 Alexander Hamilton

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How corporate media failed democracy in the U.S. presidential election

We hadn't seen Bernie Sanders in Philadelphia since last July, when he watched his primary opponent, Hillary Clinton, win the Democratic Party's nomination. Sanders joined the Democracy Now! news hour this week at the historic Philadelphia Free Library for a wide-ranging discussion. "I am deeply concerned about the future of American democracy," Sanders told the enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd. Millions of Americans voted for Sanders in the primaries. He transformed the 2016 U.S.

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Fake news is foolish but the consequences are real

This week a photo of a racist letter made the rounds on social media.

It read:

"Dear Terrorist-Bitch,

We are writing to you as the newly organized Neighborhood Town Watch. We understand that you currently wear a scarf on your head and we would like to put you on notice that this will no longer be tolerated in our neighborhood.

Now that America is great again, we would like to offer you two opportunities to avoid any consequences on your poor previous decisions. First, you can take your radical attire of and live like all Americans. Or, your second option, you can go back to the God Forsaken land you came from.

America is Great Again,

Neighborhood Town Watch"

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social media Digital Media Donald Trump hate mongering Fake News U.S. election 2016

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To trump Trump, the Democrats need a new game plan

Donald Trump represents such a threat to what reasonable people hold dear, it's hard not to get unhinged just thinking about his presidency. For a start, his election sets back world efforts to address climate change for four years minimum.

Women who fought for reproductive rights fear his power to nominate anti-choice Supreme Court justices. The LGBTQ community feel the beginnings of renewed persecution. Undocumented workers and their families now live in terror of discovery and deportation.

Seldom if ever has an American presidential candidate been as ill prepared for office or carried on in such a personally offensive manner as Donald Trump. Calling him out for his xenophobia, sexism, bigotry and Mussolini potential is not good enough, however.

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hillary clinton Donald Trump Democratic Party U.S. Presidential Election 2016 U.S. election 2016

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U.S. presidential debacle rekindles electoral reform debate

Electoral reform never seems to quite fall off the agenda. The presidential debacle in the U.S. -- Clinton won the popular vote but Trump will be president, just like Gore and Bush in 2000 -- has rekindled the debate down there.

Since we're supposed to already have democracy, it always comes as a surprise to realize we aren't there yet.

You'd think we were stuck in the Britain of the mid-1800s, the heyday of Chartism. It was a mighty mass movement of working people whose lives and communities had been shattered by, among other things, free trade! Their solution wasn't a Marxist overthrow of "the ruling class" but extending the vote to all (meaning, at the time, all men) rather than only the rich.

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electoral reform first past the post Donald Trump Trudeau government U.S. Presidential Election 2016 U.S. election 2016

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The lessons the U.S. election can teach Canada's elites

While clearly not as grim as the U.S., features in Canadian politics and society mimic those that led to the election result in the U.S.

Related rabble.ca story:

There are lessons for Canada's elites in the U.S. election

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neoliberalism economic inequality elite populism Donald Trump Trudeau government U.S. Presidential Election 2016 U.S. election 2016

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Building a mass anti-Trump movement to bring democracy back into politics

How impressive were those protests across the U.S. on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after Trump won? And he hasn't even deported anyone yet. Imagine what will happen when he does.

I say this not just as someone moved by any political activity that looks beyond casting a vote. Impressive because they have already answered a question that hung in the air once the result was known: What kind of opposition or resistance makes sense for the Trump years ahead?

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U.S. politics social movement right-wing agenda U.S. Presidential Election 2016 U.S. election 2016 anti-Trump

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There are lessons for Canada's elites in the U.S. election

Hubris: extreme pride, especially pride and ambition so great that they offend the gods and lead to one's downfall.

In the aftermath of the stunning results of the U.S. election, the mix of emotions and hard-nosed analysis spans the spectrum from feeling sorry for the irrational and politically illiterate American voter to visceral fear about the consequences of their electing a thuggish buffoon as president. But common to all reactions, I suspect, is a smugness rooted in our sense of superiority -- as if our elites are somehow more attentive to the public interest and the lives of ordinary Canadians.

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neoliberalism economic inequality elite populism Donald Trump Trudeau government U.S. Presidential Election 2016 U.S. election 2016

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The fight against Trump's dangerous agenda has just begun

From Barack Obama, the first African-American president, the pendulum has ominously swung to the Ku Klux Klan's choice, Donald Trump. Just elected the 45th president of the United States, Trump opened his campaign calling Mexicans "rapists," and promised to build a wall along the border with Mexico (and to make Mexico pay for it). He vowed to ban Muslims from entering the country, insulted people with disabilities, bragged about committing sexual assault, denied climate change and said he would jail his opponent, Hillary Clinton. With the House of Representatives and the Senate remaining in Republican control, Trump's power could be almost entirely unchecked.

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U.S. progressive politics Donald Trump U.S. Presidential Election 2016 U.S. election 2016

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U.S. election 2016

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