Your Presidential Daily Brief: America Hates Itself | Electors Gonna Elect

[The Presidential Daily Brief] [The Presidential Daily Brief] IMPORTANT November 12, 2016 [Protesters march to Trump Tower yesterday to protest Nov. 8 election results. Source: Getty] [America Loses Its Innocence] What now? After Tuesday's election shocker, the States are far from united. President-elect Donald Trump ran on a platform of [division] - a border wall, faith-based immigration and the language of gender inequality. Now, anti-Trump demonstrators across the nation are engaging in what the mogul called "very unfair" protests, even setting fires and battling police in Portland. While leading Democrats, including President Obama, have offered conciliatory statements, outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid refused, attacking the incoming chief executive and saying minorities and women have an "entirely rational" fear of how they'll be treated under his administration. Sources: [ABC], [CNN], [Washington Post], [Politico] Share: [Facebook] [Twitter] [Facebook] [Twitter] [The Election's Not Over Till the Electors Elect] The shock's still wearing off. Now that Donald Trump's pulled off his [surprise] victory, despite lagging a few hundred thousand votes behind his opponent in the national popular vote, inevitably the talk turns to abolishing the Electoral College. On Dec. 19, the mogul's 290 or more designated electors will cast their votes, prompting many Trump haters to urge them to break the faith and elect Clinton. Such a reversal has never happened, and while not as improbable, a movement to bind a majority of electors to the popular vote appears similarly doomed.   Sources: [Slate], [NYT], [The Atlantic], [USA Today], [Vox] Share: [Facebook] [Twitter] [Facebook] [Twitter] [In Kashmir Conflict, a Mass Blinding of Protesters] Is the whole world blind? Ignored amid U.S. election mania, India and Pakistan-backed rebels have renewed hostilities along a disputed frontier in mountainous Kashmir, with artillery and raids killing dozens. But the injuries are more controversial: Hundreds of [protesters] and bystanders as young as 4 have been blinded by Indian security forces' metal pellets, made for hunting birds. Kashmiri author Mirza Waheed suggests that the blindings are Indian government policy, encouraged by recent popular nationalist fervor, bringing nuclear-armed neighbors' relations to an ominous - if unseen - low point. Sources: [The Guardian], [Indian Express] Share: [Facebook] [Twitter] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Poland's Nationalists Augur a European Right-Wing Future] Their line forms on the right. From [France] to Austria, the European right is on the rise - with Poland's Law and Justice Party the biggest success to date. Anti-EU, anti-immigration, and espousing "traditional" Catholic values, the party has drawn ridicule - and strong support. One fact that's raising eyebrows is that Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the party's founder, isn't an elected official - but it's generally accepted that he's running the country. The party's eroding checks and balances, leading more moderate Poles to fear their nation is reverting to its authoritarian past. Sources: [NYT] Share: [Facebook] [Twitter] [Facebook] [Twitter] Briefly Know This: The second Taliban-claimed blast in Afghanistan in two days [has killed at least four people] inside the U.S.-run Bagram Airbase. Trump has signaled that he may [keep popular aspects of Obamacare,] like covering pre-existing conditions. And employment, housing and credit ads [won't be able to use "ethnic affinity" for targeting Facebook users.] Listen to This: Kremlin watchers Mark Galeotti and Natalia Churikova examine [U.S. election's impact on the former Soviet bloc] for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in a new podcast,  Brave New World. Let this Grab You: One takeaway from the campaign has been a reckoning on how powerful men like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are [allowed to treat women:] "Even after this election-year parade of horribles, even after all our sober public pronouncements about sexual assault, it isn't clear that anyone knows how to talk about it." INTRIGUING [Federal Employees Can Start Fearing for Their Jobs] They're fired - maybe. The president-elect has made no bones about his disdain for big government, promising to eliminate the EPA, among other things, while his surrogates have suggested mass government job cuts, along with gutting civil service job protection. But will he actually do it? With a Republican-led Congress, anything's possible, like his other promise to triple the size of at least one government agency - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement - whose employees might not appreciate having their job security stripped down to something resembling gig work.  Sources: [OZY] Share: [Facebook] [Twitter] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Facebook's Safety Check Is Transforming Disaster Response] It's during a crisis when you find out who your "friends" are. First deployed in 2014, Safety Check has become a critical tool for friends and family when the unthinkable strikes - as it did in Orlando's mass shooting this year. Now [Facebook] says it's turning the feature into a hub, not just to make sure friends are OK, but to follow breaking news and video from the scene. Combined with the social network's efforts to deliver internet by drone to places crippled by natural disasters, the portal's becoming a vital resource for emergency responders. Sources: [Wired] Share: [Facebook] [Twitter] [Facebook] [Twitter] [The New Administration's Climate Hostility] The winds of change are blowing hot. Donald Trump's no tree hugger, having called climate change a "hoax" and threatened to derail recent U.S. environmental commitments, including the Paris climate accord. As with all of his policies, many are asking how serious Trump is - and the outlook [isn't encouraging] for environmentalists, from Trump's vow to put a climate-change denier in charge of the EPA to making coal the cornerstone of U.S. energy policy. But there's always been a gap between Trump the brand and actual performance, so such plans could end up on ice. Sources: [New Yorker] Share: [Facebook] [Twitter] [Facebook] [Twitter] [The Conservative Revolution May Not Spare Megyn Kelly] Will she have bad times amid his good times? The Fox News host has been a conservative rock star with crossover appeal, as she increasingly held the GOP luminaries she interviewed to account. But a feud with Donald [Trump] after he attacked her via social media, and other high profile moments like fighting with Newt Gingrich over her right to cover sexual assault allegations made against the president-elect, may have alienated the conservatives who voted for Trump - and they'll be expecting a contrite Megyn Kelly to stand by their man. Sources: [TIME] Share: [Facebook] [Twitter] [Facebook] [Twitter] [German-Kurdish Soccer Star Plays New Game in Turkey] He's aiming for a different goal. Deniz Naki, a [soccer] player who left Germany three years ago for his parents' native Turkey, was accused of spreading "terrorist propaganda" for the country's banned Kurdistan Workers' Party - and found not guilty at trial. The 27-year-old has been publicly critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, and his activism has made him the country's most recognized and controversial footballer. He grew up in Germany, but Naki's staying in Turkey, where he's an enemy of the state - and a hero to his fellow Kurds. Sources: [Der Spiegel] Share: [Facebook] [Twitter] [Facebook] [Twitter] Your 8 must reads to get you ahead of the curve 2016 [Has Trump Ushered in a New Era of Billionaire Politicians?] [Read In Full] 2016 [A Church Divided Under Trump's White House] [Read In Full] 2016 [The Trump Card] [Read In Full] 20M people love reading OZY every month. Be part of the revolution. [Facebook] [Twitter] [Instagram] [Vimeo] [Youtube] Add us to your Address Book | Having trouble viewing this email? [Read Online] This email was sent to {EMAIL} This email was sent by: OZY Media 800 West El Camino Mountain View, CA 94040 [Manage Subscriptions] | [Unsubscribe from this email] | [Privacy Policy]