That World's News

Perhaps in the least shocking news since Weiner's sexting scandal we now are presented with a whole new buffet of already predicted information.

Trump, the man who spent his campaign demeaning, belittling, insulting and objectifying women has come to appoint one of the most misogynist cabinets in the modern history of the USA.

Tax credits for child care and the prospect of paid maternity leave, new restrictions on abortion and less access to contraception, limits on health care that disproportionately affect women and minorities and curbs on funding for domestic violence, as well as slowing the momentum toward raising the minimum wage are just some of the news issues women will now have to deal under a Trump administration.

Let's take a look at Trump's selections for attorney general, Health and Human Services Secretary and CIA director: Jeff Sessions, Tom Price and Mike Pompeo respectively.

All three voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act in 2013, which funds shelters and services for victims of domestic violence, due to amendments that extended protections to L.G.B.T. victims. 

The act is up for reauthorization next year.

Elaine Chao, Mr. Trump’s choice for transportation secretary, opposed raising the minimum wage during her tenure as secretary of labor in the George W. Bush administration.

Donald Trump opposed raising the federal minimum wage during the campaign, although at times he contradicted himself. 

President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, Eleanor Smeal, points out that two-thirds of minimum-wage earners are women, who dominate fields with low-paying service jobs.

The President-elect, who supported abortion as recently as 1999, opposed it during his campaign. 

So it comes as no surprise that so do almost all of his cabinet picks.

Senator Sessions and Representatives Price and Pompeo have repeatedly voted for abortion restrictions in Congress, including a ban on abortions after 20 weeks and opposed funding for Planned Parenthood and Title X, because abortion is included in these family planning services.

Nikki Haley, his nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, Betsy DeVos, education secretary and Ms. Chao also have a record of opposing the right to terminate one's pregnancy, with Mrs. Haley, while Governor of South Carolina signing into law a bill banning abortions from 20 weeks, despite a medically established viability standard of 24 to 26 weeks.

Ben Carson, his nominee for Housing and Urban Development, has opposed abortion (among other important issues) for a long time now.

When it comes to contraception things don't get better, with Mr. Sessions, Mr. Price and Mr. Pompeo all voting against requiring employers to provide health care plans that included contraception, citing religious liberty.

In an exchange that went viral in 2012, Mr. Price ridiculed the notion that there are women who can not afford contraception as part of his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, which requires contraceptive coverage without co-payments as well as a range of other preventive services for women. “Bring me one woman who has been left behind,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “Bring me one. There’s not one.”

This despite the fact that numerous women’s advocacy groups have demonstrated, high co-payments for birth control have been a significant deterrent for countless women.

In the end there is a small ray of bright hope in this dark future, proposals championed by Ivanka Trump (who the president listens to carefully) that would require paid maternity leave and offer expanded tax credits for child care. 

The law as it is now provides only for unpaid leave. 

However many people working on this issue would prefer paid family leave, so that men could play a larger role in the child's development. 

The child care credits have also been criticized as too small and geared towards higher-income families. 

As Ms. Smeal said however “Getting something is better than nothing right now.”

With this new administration American women can expect one step forward, and at least a thousand steps back from what we can gather.

All they have left now is to advocate as much as they can for a concentrated effort to block any of Trump's new initiatives.

No matter what you might think of Donald Trump's incitement to misogyny, homophobia, racism, xenophobia and outright disregard for basic decency on one policy of his we can all agree... Keeping jobs in America.

Nine months ago an Indiana plant belonging to the Carrier Corporation had planned to move 2,000 jobs to Mexico, now after negotiations with President elect Trump they have announced that 1,000 jobs will be kept in Indiana.

However did Trump make a good move?

He used this company's moving plans as a rallying cry during much of his campaign, a way of showing how America had bad trade deals that were hurting hard working Americans.

None of us however know what deal has been reached to keep the company in Indiana, and Trump himself is not yet president so there's not much he can do in terms of legislation for the time being.

This move will for the most part however be a symbolic PR stunt.

Indiana has lost over 235,000 jobs since 1969, 1,000 jobs is nothing compared to what keeps flowing out of Indiana and the rest of the Midwest.

Also one has to wonder just what the deal consisted of. 

If promising funding or special tax cuts to companies that stay was Trump's answer than I am afraid America will be doomed as any CEO can now threaten to exit the country as a way to get economic privileges.

One doesn't need a degree in finance to know that doesn't bode well for any nation's economy.

For now this populist move will keep many people happy, it will embolden Trump's supporters to seeing their elected leader as a saviour of the American working class and it certainly will make the families of 1,000 workers feel much safer financially, but one needs to think long term, and until the details of this deal are revealed one cannot truly know if this deal was a success or the first step to economic ruin.

As the election results are being contested (for one thing Clinton won the popular vote and is only poised to lose due to the electoral college) and many people raise concerns about anomalies in the counting of the votes in certain key states it was only a matter of time until someone decided to begin an effort to investigate.