Independent: Hillary Clinton could have legal right to challenge electoral college system and be next US president, says law professor

Ms Clinton currently has 2.6 million more votes than Donald Trump in the popular count, but lost the election in November because of the idiosyncratic workings of the United States' Electoral College system — a result which academic Lawrence Lessig has said could be ruled unconstitutional.  [...]

Almost all states operate a "winner-takes-all" system, which ignores voter margins. So for instance, Ms Clinton got 44 per cent of the vote in Georgia, but because Mr Trump got a larger percentage, none of the state's six representatives in the Electoral College are set to vote for her.

In an article published by Medium, Mr Lessig said he and a number of other legal experts believed this could be illegal because it defies the constitutionally enshrined principles of "equal protections" and "one man, one vote". It means not all votes are treated in the same way and some people do not get a say at all.  [...]

"What about the unfairness being felt by the millions of voters whose votes were effectively diluted, or essentially disenfranchised?" he said, suggesting the Attorney Generals of large states such as New York or California could easily walk into the Supreme Court and ask them to hear a case.

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Jacobin Magazine: After Choi-gate

On Saturday, November 5, approximately 200,000 people surrounded Cheonggyecheon, the reclaimed urban river in downtown Seoul, to denounce South Korean president Park Geun-hye. Phalanxes of neon-yellow-jacketed police, marching in groups of five hundred, surrounded the protesters at a respectful distance. It felt like a test; the narrow roads couldn’t hold all the attendees, making it seem like the organizers hadn’t expected so many. [...]

The next week, one million people crowded into central Seoul for the country’s biggest demonstration since 1987. Streets were closed off, and a last-minute court order rescinded the police’s non-assembly order near Park’s residence, the Blue House. The atmosphere buzzed: Myeongdong, Jongno, and other densely packed central neighborhoods — normally given over to heavy traffic and shopping — felt like a giant street party. Trains and buses into Seoul were completely booked as groups of students, seniors, and union members converged on Gwanghwamun Square.

But this was no celebration. The protesters expressed their anger at President Park, accused of being the avatar of Choi Soon-Sil, a shadowy billionaire and daughter of a cult leader, Choi Tae-min. Choi senior became the president’s confidante soon after her mother was assassinated in 1974 and remained close until his death in 2004. The younger Choi appears to have been running the country through Park, not just to get favorable land deals and donations to her charities but as a private fiefdom. Choi is accused of writing Park’s speeches and dictating government policy. [...]

The rallies themselves have been carefully stage-managed to keep the crowds excited. Officials and teenage activists scream themselves hoarse in front of giant crowds as their images appear on giant screens set up every few hundred meters. Trade unions have dance groups who perform choreographed numbers in between speakers. [...]

As Doucette and Koo argue, South Korea has a “post-democratic” system consisting of formally democratic institutions governed by elite, top-down rule. Its stability depends on its unique anticommunist context; in South Korea, the Cold War never ended. “The fear it produces helps facilitate the leveraging of power, protection of oligarchic interests, and even aggressive pursuit of further neoliberalization.” The Park Love Group reveals how much right-wing vitriol still exists: they’ve tried — and mostly failed — to muster anticommunist sentiment against the protests.

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Motherboard: US Power Will Decline Under Trump, Says Futurist Who Predicted Soviet Collapse

The Norwegian professor at the University of Hawaii and Transcend Peace University is recognized as the ‘founding father’ of peace and conflict studies as a scientific discipline. He has made numerous accurate predictions of major world events, most notably the collapse of the Soviet Empire.

Galtung has also accurately predicted the 1978 Iranian revolution; the Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989 in China; the economic crises of 1987, 2008 and 2011; and even the 9/11 attacks—among other events, according to the late Dietrich Fischer, academic director of the European University Center for Peace Studies. [...]

In the case of the USSR, the main structural contradictions were as follows: the working class was increasingly repressed and unable to self-organise through trade unions (ironic given the country’s Communist pretensions); the wealthier ‘bourgeoisie’ or elite had money to spend, but nothing to buy from domestic production, leading to economic stagnation; Russian intellectuals wanted more freedom of expression; minorities wanted more autonomy; and peasants wanted more freedom of movement.

The model works like this: the more those contradictions deepen, the greater the likelihood they will result in a social crisis that could upend the existing order. [...]

But this global collapse, also has potential domestic implications. Galtung warned that the decline of American power on the world stage would probably have a domestic impact that would undermine the internal cohesion of the United States. [...]

Galtung’s answer is, perhaps, revealing: “If he manages to apologize deeply to all the groups he has insulted. And turn foreign policy from US interventions—soon 250 after Jefferson in Libya 1801—and not use wars (killing more than 20 million in 37 countries after 1945): A major revitalization! Certainly making ‘America Great Again’. We’ll see.”

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Politico: Europe’s blurred lines between populism, mainstream

In fact, the Austrian vote no more represents an endorsement of traditional establishment ideals than the Italian referendum signals their rejection.

If anything, the two votes illustrate how the increasingly blurred lines between populism and mainstream across much of Europe are shaking the political landscape.

The Italian decision, for example, has been seen as the mirror image of the Austrian result: the rejection of an establishment prime minister in favor of populists. [...]

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s proposed constitutional reform would have meant a radical departure from Italy’s post-war democratic norms. Seen in that light, the No vote suggests above all that Italians are resistant to radical change, even at the cost of political instability. [...]

Consider Alexander Van der Bellen, Austria’s president-elect. A former Green leader whose party never garnered more than 11 percent of the vote under his stewardship, Van der Bellen tried to soften his image during the campaign to attract more mainstream voters. He declared himself an independent and even donned Tracht, or traditional Alpine garb, a favorite tactic of establishment conservatives, but anathema to those on the Left. [...]

The FPÖ has governed at the national level as the junior coalition party twice over the past 30 years and has led regional and municipal governments. It currently has representatives in all nine of Austria’s provincial assemblies as well as in the European Parliament.

In contrast, Austria’s Greens have never been part of a federal government. The party rarely polls at over 12 percent, about one-third of the FPÖ’s support.

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CityLab: A Bike Path for the Entire East Coast

From northern Maine to the tip of Florida, the East Coast of the United States stretches 3,000 miles. It’s a diverse, expansive route, cutting through wooded hills and rocky coastlines before hitting the sun-drenched beaches of the South. And all of it can be traveled by bicycle.

The East Coast Greenway Alliance has been working since 1991 to connect the whole geography of the Atlantic seaboard with protected bike paths. So far, 850 miles of trail have been designated as Greenway. The project is about 31 percent complete, says Dennis Markatos-Soriano, the executive director of ECGA. By 2020, the ECGA hopes to add another 200 miles. [...]

The East Coast Greenway, is, in a sense, riding a demographic wave that Markatos-Soriano hopes will speed the completion of the entire route. Fewer Americans are relying on cars, and more are looking at safe and accessible bike and footpaths as a top priority when selecting where to live. And there’s the health impact: The presence of a usable trail makes an active lifestyle more of a possibility. Well over 10 million people use the Greenway annually, Weis says, and as the national and global mentality shifts toward one of greater connectivity, the appeal of traversing the East Coast by one simple mode of transit will only grow.

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