America

Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

2016 brought a lot of changes, or rather, brought them to light. In reality, the world has been changing for many years, but many prominent actors benefitted from the changes remaining hidden. Simply because their wealth and power and worldviews are better served that way.

Human Rights Watch is placing President-elect Donald Trump on a list of people who they deem a “threat to human rights”. The organization say that Trump’s political philosophy promotes intolerance and spreads hatred throughout America. “Donald Trump’s election as US president after a campaign fomenting hatred and intolerance, and the rising influence of political parties in Europe that reject universal rights, have put the postwar human rights system at risk,” the group announced.

Submitted by Chris Martenson via PeakProsperity.com,

Fair warning, my family just received a 61.5% increase in our healthcare insurance premium of 2017, on top of last year’s 24.8% increase, so I am quite annoyed at the moment.  For my non-US readers, perhaps what follows will interest you as a means of understanding how and why Donald Trump came to be elected President.  I am going to be channeling some of my inner crank today.

One of the reasons behind the first ever visit by a Chinese president to next week's Davos boondoggle is that, as reported last week, president Xi was open to a meeting with US president-elect Donald Trump’s team, if clearly not the president-elect himself, who will be far busier on January 20 - the day the World Economic Forum in Davos ends - getting inaugurated.