In Britain, The Guardian newspaper is reporting: “The morning after both Donald Trump’s victory and the Brexit referendum, when a mood of paralyzing shock and grief overcame progressives and liberals on both sides of the Atlantic, the two most common refrains I heard were: ‘I don’t recognize my country anymore,’ and ‘I feel like I’ve woken up in a different country.’
“Theresa May’s imminent downfall could hand the premiership to Boris Johnson; Trump’s re-election in 2020 is a distinct possibility …
Johnson “has made discriminatory comments against Muslims,” “he has historically used racist language,” and “he implied Barack Obama had an “ancestral dislike of the British Empire,” as the Independent sums up. Argh!
Meanwhile, Ireland — long dominated by the Catholic Church — is undergoing its own social shifts …
“Ireland has voted overwhelmingly to ease restrictions on divorce, taking another step toward liberalizing a Constitution that was once dominated by the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church,” as the New York Times is reporting.
“Official figures released this weekend showed that 82 percent of voters in referendum on Friday approved the change, with all areas of the country voting strongly in favor.
“The results of come on the heels of other major social shifts in the country: a 2015 vote to legalize same-sex marriage — the word’s first popular vote on marriage equality — and a referendum last year that repealed Ireland’s ban on abortion in almost all circumstances, including rape and incest. In October, the nation voted overwhelmingly to remove a ban on blasphemy from the Constitution.” Ha!
Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report 