Interesting Reactions to Trump's Victory: Captain America and Jennifer Lawrence, Young Americans, Iran, Stock Market
Fact 1: The harshest reaction to Trump's victory came from Hollywood. Hollywood and music stars from Chris Evans (Captain America) to Robert De Niro and Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games) shared their poignant concerns online over the future of America:
Chris Evans (Captain America): This is an embarrassing night for America. We've let a hatemonger lead our great nation. We've let a bully set our course. I'm devastated.
Katy Perry: We will never be silenced. The revolution is coming, Rise Up!"=
Michael Moore, the famed documentary filmmaker, who showed up at Trump Tower on weekend and demanded a meeting with Trump, also published on Alternet "7 Things We Must Do as Trump Prepares for the White House." For example he wants the DNC apologize to for fixing the primaries against Bernie Sanders. He also wants progressives to form a strong opposition movement against racism and misogyny.
Jessica Chastain: The positive element from all this is that we can no longer pretend that we are free of racism & sexism. The question is, what do we do now?
John Legend (Musician): I feel like America just sent in our tuition check for Trump University.
J.K. Rowling (The Creator of Harry Potter): We stand together. We stick up for the vulnerable. We challenge bigots. We don't let hate speech become normalised. We hold the line... I've been called bitch, 'libtard' and plenty more tonight. Quite proud really; who'd want these people's approval? .. The right thing to do is to challenge racism, mysogyny and hatred.
Cher: World Will never be the same. I feel sad for the young. [Toilet] will never be more than the toilet. I have used as a symbol for him. You can't polish [crap]!
Jennifer Lawrence in an open letter on Vice about the underpinnings of sexism tied to Trump’s win: Do not let this defeat you—let this enrage you! Let it motivate you! Let this be the fire you didn't have before. If you’re worried about the health of our planet, find out everything you can about how to protect it. If you’re worried about racial violence love your neighbor more than you’ve ever tried to before — no matter what they believe or who they voted for.
But Hollywood had seen Trump's Presidency long ago. The Simpsons, the longest running animation series in TV history, predicted a Donald Trump Presidency back in 2000! And of course they predicted then a woman President (Lisa Simpson) will be brought (voted) into the White House to clean up the mess! (Source: Kodoom.com)
Fact 2: Trump won fewer popular votes than both Clinton (2016) and Romney (2012). The major breakthrough for Trump came from the large number of Obama voters who stayed home or migrated to candidates other than Trump and Clinton. This year Libertarian and Green Party candidates received a combined (historic) record number of 5.3 million votes compared to less than 1 million in 2012.
Although Clinton failed to fully energize African-Americans, white Women, Latinos and even the young (Source: The Atlantic), an interactive poll survey map published by Survey Monkey demonstrates that the 18-34 year olds are predominantly Liberal/Democrat in their views, giving hope in future elections to progressives and liberals.
Many Democrats believe Hillary and DNC's arrogance cost them the election. First, they used party henchmen like Debbie Wasserman Schultz to defeat Bernie Sanders. Emails leaked by WikiLeaks showed the Democratic National Committee (DNC) conspired against Bernie Sanders ([source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wikileaks-dnc-bernie-sanders_us_579381fbe4b02d5d5ed1d157 Huffington Post]) who was ahead of Trump in all polls by at least 20 percentage points. Second, Democrats ignored the plight of voters in poor urban areas where Democrats derive most of their votes. While most rural areas (Republican strongholds) had plenty of polling stations, in 2016 there were 868 fewer polling locations than 2012 in major urban centers, i.e., Democrat strongholds. As a result many pro-Hillary voters waited for three hours or longer, and others just gave up voting after a long workday (Tuesday). This perhaps cost Democrats an estimated 1-3 million votes.
Fact 3: Stocks in private prison contractors qnd military weapons contractors surged sharply after Trump's victory, a market harbinger and omen for what to look for during Trump's Presidency (Source: Democracy Now). The surge in the stock prices of private prison contractors marked a sharp reversal for an industry that had seen its value plummet after the Obama administration announced in August that it would phase out the use of private contractors in response to a scathing report by the Justice Department, which found that overall, privatized prison facilities led to more security problems without necessarily saving money.
Fact 4: Despite Trump's threat of voiding the nuclear peace deal with Iran, Iranian officials seem unmoved. Hossein Shariatmadari who is appointed by Iran's Leader to run the conservative publication Keyhan, urges Trump to tear up the Nuclear Deal because of what he believes was a bad deal "imposed on Iran by Iranian reformists and the Obama administration" hampering Iran's nuclear progress.
Other Iranian officials had mixed reactions. A distinguished and outspoken Member of Iranian Parliament, Ali Motaharri, (lower right in the picture among Iranian official thumbnails) says Iran will benefit from Trump's victory: "Democrats under Obama undermined Iran's power through complex sanctions and clandestine operations but Republicans are more straightforward. Trump specifically plans to target ISIL in Syria, improve ties with our ally Russia, and hold religious extremists and Saudi Arabia accountable. And if he voids the nuclear deal, Iran will be on its path back to develop its nuclear technology." Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's Foreign Minister, says US will be legally obliged to honor the nuclear deal with Iran. President Rohani has called Trump's victory and his pledge to void the nuclear deal "a sign US domestic and international policies are unstable and unreliable." Yet Rohani believes Iran's policies will not be affected by Trump's victory. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, a reformist (Center left in the picture among Iranian official thumbnails), believes Trump is unstable, unpredictable, supported by extremists and radicals inside the US, and a danger to the world peace.
Related to Trump
- The Simpsons creators predicted a Trump presidency back in 2000 (Video)
- MP Motahari: Iran Will Benefit from Trump's Victory
- Iranian Americans Play a Critical Role in the US Election: List of Iranian Americans on the Ballot in California, Washington and Tennessee
- Ailes Accused of Sexually Harassing Iranian American Journalist Rudi Bakhtiar
