Glenn Greenwald & Richard Medhurst LIVE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S2CWhQJIgg&ab_channel=RichardMedhurst

Biden announces the creation of a transition team to implement anti Covid-19 plan

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDrsGSiK1YY&ab_channel=TeleSUREnglish

Why Democrats Are Losing Senate & House Seats

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlLMi7Rm9is&ab_channel=TheJimmyDoreShow

How the election impacts balance of power in the Senate

Which party will control the chamber in 2021?

By Kendall Karson,Benjamin Siegel, and Meredith Deliso
November 7, 2020, 3:56 PM
• 8 min read


https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/election-impacts-balance-power-senate/story?id=73856525




The control of the U.S. Senate hangs in the balance, with four races in three states still undecided days after the general election. With Joe Biden now the apparent winner of the presidency, the Democrats have some help in their hopes for a majority.

The chamber appears to be deadlocked 48-48 as of Saturday afternoon, based on ABC News projections, with Democrats appearing to flip two seats and Republicans one so far.


Four races are still undecided, including two in Georgia that are projected to go to a runoff. That leaves the question of majority control -- and if Biden will be buoyed by a Democratically-controlled Senate and House -- likely unclear for several more months.

Up 1, down 1

With Republicans holding a 53-47 majority going into election night, Democrats needed to win back at least four seats -- three, if they also won the White House, since the vice president breaks 50-50 ties -- for control of the Senate.

The last time Republicans and Democrats wrestled over control for the chamber two years ago, the GOP expanded its majority, reinforcing its influence over the president’s agenda, Cabinet and judicial nominees.

This year, the contours of both party’s front lines ran through roughly a dozen competitive states. Republicans were defending over 20 seats, a less advantageous map compared with Democrats, who only had 12 incumbents seeking another term.



Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, two of the most endangered Republicans, were seeking reelection in states won by Hillary Clinton in 2016.


For Democrats, only Michigan Sen. Gary Peters and Alabama Sen. Doug Jones are competing in states President Donald Trump won in 2016.

In those races, each party likely flipped one seat, with ABC News projecting that both Gardner and Jones have lost to their challengers. Meanwhile, Collins and Peters appear to have held on to theirs.

Democrats do appear to have gained another seat in Arizona, where ABC News has projected that Mark Kelly won over Sen. Martha McSally, the incumbent who was appointed to fill the seat of the late Sen. John McCain, in a special election.

All told so far, as of Saturday afternoon, Democrats are projected to have gained one seat and Republicans to have lost one. Add in the two senators who caucus with the Democrats, and the chamber is deadlocked 48-48. With Biden the apparent president-elect, that now means Democrats need to win two more seats to get a majority in the Senate, with the vice president breaking the tie.
The 4 undecided races

All eyes are on four Senate races that have not yet been projected.

Two in Georgia may determine the Senate majority control, and ABC News has projected that both will go to a runoff on Jan. 5.

Georgia election law requires a candidate to secure over 50% of the vote. In the highly competitive campaign between Republican Sen. David Perdue and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, the incumbent is currently leading, but is just under the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff.



In the crowded special election, the top two finishers are Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock, with 33% of the vote, and Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler, with 26%, advancing the two to the runoff.

MORE: Election 2020 undecided races: When we'll know more about the presidency, key states and Senate contests

In the other uncalled races, Alaska Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan leads by a 31-point margin as of midday Saturday, with a little more than half of the votes reported.

Over in North Carolina, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has a slight lead on Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham, with over 95,000 votes as of Saturday afternoon and 95% of expected votes reported.
Impact of COVID-19

Complicating the race for the GOP, it seemed, was the coronavirus pandemic, which has upended nearly every aspect of the election. The party that once saw its most vulnerable contained to a handful of seats was fighting to hold on over an expanded battlefront throughout the year.

With the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic sinking his popularity, the number of competitive races across the map expanded beyond battleground states like Arizona, Maine and North Carolina into traditionally red territory like Texas, Georgia and even South Carolina, where Democrats became more bullish about their prospects.

Some of the most vulnerable Republicans, including Sens. McSally of Arizona, Gardner of Colorado, Collins of Maine, Tillis of North Carolina, and Joni Ernst of Iowa, sought to put distance between themselves and the president by cultivating their own local brands and running their own campaigns.

In the final days leading up to the election, the outlook appeared increasingly bleak for Republicans -- so much so that even Trump admitted it will be "very tough" to keep the Senate, according to a Washington Post report about his remarks at a private fundraiser in October.

In the days since the election, the Senate races weren't the decisive blowout the Democrats were hoping for, but the majority is still up for grabs. With the Georgia runoffs not until early next year, it may be unclear if the Republicans still hold control until two weeks before the inauguration.

Will Mitch McConnell Destroy Biden’s Presidency?

https://dianeravitch.net/2020/11/05/how-mitch-mcconnell-could-destroy-bidens-presidency/





Paul Waldman, a regular columnist for the Washington Post, lays out a nightmare scenario in which Senate Majority Leader McConnell stifles Biden’s presidency.


It now looks likely that on Jan. 20 of next year, Joe Biden will become president of the United States. And after the inaugural balls are over that evening, he will take off his tuxedo, put on a scratchy jumpsuit and check into a prison cell whose keys are held by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

For months, we’ve been contemplating a world in which Biden wins the White House and Democrats narrowly take control of the Senate. We asked ourselves if they should get rid of the filibuster (yes, they should) or grant statehood to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico (also yes).

But we didn’t spend nearly enough time contemplating what it now looks like will be the reality: a Democratic president and a Republican Senate.

We’ve seen this before, most recently in the last two years of Barack Obama’s second term. But this will be far, far worse than it was then. We’re about to witness something unprecedented in American history.

In 2014, McConnell became majority leader after Obama had already achieved most of his major legislative goals, including passing the Affordable Care Act. But now he has a chance to sabotage a Democratic president right from the start. Just as important, he knows that no matter how far he goes, the Republican Party is likely to pay only a small political price. What they get in return will be worth every penny and more.

As of now, Democrats lost one Senate seat and gained two, giving them 48. While it’s theoretically possible for them to get to 50 given the races where votes are still being counted, it looks extremely unlikely. Which means McConnell will remain as majority leader.

What does that mean? For starters, you can take all those meticulously prepared policy plans Biden and his team devised during the campaign and toss them in the trash. There will be no expansion of health coverage, no aggressive legislation to address climate change, no move toward universal child care, no increase in the minimum wage, no new Voting Rights Act and no infrastructure spending. None of it.

Nor will there be a new stimulus bill to help the economy recover from the pandemic, since McConnell knows that Biden will be blamed if the economy continues to struggle. At most — and even this is no guarantee — McConnell may allow continuing resolutions that keep the government open at its current funding levels. There will be no other significant legislation as long as Republicans retain control.

That’s just the beginning. McConnell now clearly believes that conservative domination of the courts is his most lasting legacy. Between now and January, during Trump’s lame duck period, McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) will run a conveyor belt to confirm judges to every last open seat at every level.

And then the confirmation process will simply shut down. Forget about filling a Supreme Court vacancy if one occurs; McConnell won’t permit Biden to fill any judicial vacancy. Not one.

“Oh, come on,” you might be saying. “He’d never go that far.” You don’t think so? Just wait.

We’re not done. The president gets to fill about 4,000 positions throughout the executive branch, and a remarkable 1,200 of those require confirmation by the Senate. What if McConnell and the Republicans just decided to confirm none of Biden’s appointments? No secretary of the Treasury, no EPA administrator, no assistant secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management — none of them. We’ve already got all those bureaucrats, Republicans will say, why do we need to keep adding more?

Or at the very least, they’ll tell Biden: You can have a secretary of State if you really want one. But we get to tell you who it can and can’t be. First rule: It has to be a Republican. Take it or leave it.

Such a comprehensive stonewall would be unprecedented in American history. But McConnell has shown not just a willingness but an eagerness to violate any norm or rule if it serves his party’s purposes and he thinks he can get away with it. He’ll come up with some ludicrous justification (“No president whose election was decided when it was 52 degrees in Washington in a year ending in zero has ever had his Cabinet confirmed!”), then every Republican will dutifully repeat it, and eventually Democrats will stop complaining, because what are you gonna do?

Biden’s presidency would then limp along pathetically until the midterm elections in 2022, when there would be at least a glimmer of hope. More Republican Senate seats will be up that year; I count six that could be vulnerable, especially in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

But midterm elections usually favor the opposition party. Are Democratic voters going to turn out in droves to help a president who has been unable to deliver on any of his promises?

Of course, this all depends on every Republican senator going along with McConnell’s plan for the Mother of All Stonewalls. Which they will. They’ve shown again and again that they don’t care what norms are violated — if they can do it, they will do it. Just ask Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Then in four years, Republicans will say, “Look what a failure President Biden has been! Democrats can’t get anything done!”

I wish I could say that the voters will rise up in outrage and cast them out. But right now it’s hard to feel optimistic.

U.S. Voters Approve Police Reform and Civilian Oversight

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fiPtLhdcLc&ab_channel=HardLensMedia

Israel destroys entire Palestinian village in a massive demolition operation

The demolition has left close to 80 Palestinians from the Bedouin herding-farming community displaced and homeless. 41 among them are children, according to the United Nations

November 06, 2020 by Peoples Dispatch




https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/11/06/israel-destroys-entire-palestinian-village-in-a-massive-demolition-operation/




The Israeli military demolished the entire Palestinian village of Khirbet Humsa in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank late night on Tuesday, November 3. It was reportedly one of the largest illegal demolitions carried out by the state of Israel in the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT) in the last decade. The demolition has left close to 80 Palestinians from the Bedouin herding-farming community displaced and homeless. 41 among them are children, according to the United Nations (UN).

Human rights organizations and Palestinian leaders, including Palestinian Authority prime minister Dr. Mohammed Shtayeeh, have accused Israel of deliberately carrying out the massive demolition operation at a time while the entire international community is preoccupied with the US presidential elections.

As per news sources, Israeli military vehicles, accompanied by six bulldozers and excavators, invaded the Khirbet Humsa village in a sudden night raid on Tuesday. The village residents had received no advance notice by the Israeli military authorities. More than 100 Israeli soldiers were part of the operation which destroyed a total of 76 Palestinian structures, including many which had received financing from the European Union (EU) and other EU governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem reported that the demolished structures included 18 makeshift tents and shacks used as living shelters. More than 30 tons of livestock fodder was also destroyed by the Israelis. The Israeli forces took away two tractors and another vehicle belonging to three village residents during the operation. Villagers were seen going through the damaged and mangled wreckage of their property and belongings in the aftermath of the demolitions.

B’Tselem’s international advocacy officer, Sarit Michaeli, tweeted that “The last time Israel demolished an entire herder community was 7 years ago. Clearly, the intention is to force residents off the land by creating a man-made humanitarian disaster. But residents have told us they have nowhere to go.” She also noted in another tweet that more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been displaced and rendered homeless by the state of Israel in the first 10 months of 2020 than the annual figure in any year since 2016. 690 Palestinian structures have been demolished by Israel in the first 10 months of 2020, displacing close to 900 Palestinians, including 404 children. This figure stood at 677 in 2019, 387 in 2018, and 521 in 2017.

The UN expressed concern for the displaced Palestinian families, with the UN humanitarian coordinator for the oPTs, Yvonne Helle, calling the nomadic Bedouin Palestinian communities “some of the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank.” She added that this was the largest forced displacement incident in the last four years in terms of the number of Palestinians displaced in just one demolition. It was also the largest in terms of the number of structures destroyed.

The demolished structures were situated in a part of the occupied West Bank demarcated by Israel as Area C, which is under full Israeli military and administrative control. Area C comprises approximately 60% of the occupied West Bank territory, with Area A (18%) and Area B (21%) making up the rest. Palestinians exercise civilian and internal security control only in Area A, while the Israeli military has total external security control over all the three areas.

The Israeli civil administration in Area C, which falls under the Israeli military, has justified the demolitions by claiming that the Bedouin structures were built illegally without obtaining Israeli building permits, and were situated in the Israeli army’s firing zone, purportedly reserved as an army training area.

Israeli authorities have been criticized for making it extremely difficult for Palestinians to obtain Israeli building permits. According to Peace Now, an Israeli human rights group monitoring illegal Israel settlements, less than 2% of over 3,300 building permits applications by the Palestinians in Area C have been approved.

Human rights organizations accuse Israel of using the lack of permits as an excuse to demolish Palestinian structures and confiscate Palestinian land, which is often used towards construction of new illegal settlements or expansion of existing ones. In this manner, Israel has displaced hundreds of Palestinians over the years. The recent normalization deals between Israel and some Arab countries have also not affected Israel’s demolition activity. Repeated appeals by the UN, EU, and others to Israel to cease such activities which are detrimental to the prospects of long term peace and a two-state solution have also been ignored.