https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDVZHASEwn4&ab_channel=SurvivingNarcissism
Monday, November 9, 2020
Our fight just got a little easier
Amjad Iraqi | Editor
When news broke on Saturday that Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election, the +972 team — like millions of others worldwide — were swept by relief. Though Biden is hardly a candidate for progressives to be ecstatic about, his ousting of a man who has brazenly enabled the legitimization of white supremacy, mainstreaming of all forms of racism, and upending of fact-based discourse to unprecedented levels is a victory worth celebrating.
The approaching end of Trump’s presidency is more than just a political change. For four years, the narcissist who is currently refusing to concede the Oval Office has invaded and warped our global culture. Hardly a day went by in which our news cycles, our social media feeds, even our entertainment programs did not feature Trump’s words or image. Hopefully, the election can begin the process of extricating Trump from our personal and political lives — even though the devastating legacies of his tenure will be felt for years to come.
For those fighting for justice in Israel-Palestine, Biden’s victory is bittersweet. While his administration may offer some respite to the Israeli right’s worst impulses — which the Trump administration was only too happy to indulge — Biden is no ally to the Palestinian rights movement. If anything, he threatens a reversion to the old ways of Middle East policy, in which rhetoric favoring Palestinian rights is often little more than quotes in the newspapers, with no meaningful action.
This does not mean our struggle is trapped by the past. Unlike Trump’s authoritarianism, a Biden administration is susceptible to the pressure rising from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and grassroots movements like Black Lives Matter, which have placed Palestinian rights at the forefront of their agendas. The taboos that have long silenced Palestine activists in the United States are slowly cracking, while Israel’s footing in Washington slips under the weight of its own rightward trajectory.
In the end, however, the fight to rebuild U.S. politics cannot be centered around Palestinians or Israelis. It is, first and foremost, about the millions of Americans who are confronting the pandemics of COVID-19, racism, capitalism, and oppression of all kinds. It is about centering the voices of Native and Black Americans, poor and working class families, the ill and uninsured, and many more who deserve equality and social justice — just as Palestinians do.
In the same way that we call for support in ending apartheid here, so too must we offer the same in ending oppression in the United States and elsewhere. As of Saturday, that arduous fight became just a little bit easier.
Anti-Netanyahu protesters celebrate Biden victory in Jerusalem
An unholy alliance — from AIPAC to American evangelicals
Palestinian Americans vote in droves. But why not from the West Bank?
Dozens displaced in Israel's largest W. Bank demolition in a decade
Remembering Reuven Kaminer, the godfather of Israel’s radical left
In US and Israel, the left’s next battle is with the moderate right
American discontent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=731PpBoFAM0&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=RTAmerica
Biden Needs to Deliver to the Working People Who Delivered for Him
Biden and Democrats in Congress now have an opportunity to win a generation’s long-term loyalty, but only if they deliver the big changes young Americans demand.
by
Nina Turner
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/11/08/biden-needs-deliver-working-people-who-delivered-him
As the dust settles, pundits, political operatives and party insiders are already swarming to tell the story of what really happened in 2020. They’ll zero in on the smallest margins, the most unlikely Trump-to-Biden swing voters, the affluent white suburbanites. But that’s not the story of this election.
The exit polls are still being finalized, but as of now they show that working people — Black, brown and White families making under $100,000, along with the vast majority of young people — delivered Biden his victory. Not only did they vote for him in overwhelming numbers, they also knocked on doors, made calls and carried out the hard work of democracy during a pandemic. These voters are the heart and the future of a massive progressive movement inside and outside of the Democratic Party, and it is to them that Joe Biden and Kamala D. Harris must answer.
After all, it was working people’s organizations that had millions of conversations with voters this year. It was not the political operatives at the Lincoln Project or the Third Way who knocked the doors, who spoke to the voters, who heard their concerns. It was laid-off union members in South Phoenix; African American community organizers in Kenosha, Wis.; Latinx zoomers in Reading, Pa. None of us intend to let the far-right of the Democratic coalition claim a mandate for status-quo politics.Trump has been a disaster for poor and working people, so they used voting as a tool to fight back. Hammered by a government by, of and for the one percent, brutalized by covid-19 inaction and economic disaster, pummeled with racist rhetoric and white supremacist violence, the people have delivered a rebuke to President Trump. But the result was also a warning for Biden: In the midst of overlapping national crises, his administration has a critical window to deliver for the working people and young people who got him elected. If he fails to meet the moment — if he seeks instead to return us to a “normalcy” marked by corporate handouts and extreme inequality — then the next Trump might be far more dangerous than the one we just defeated. We can see hints of this already in the way voters of color — perennially taken for granted by the Democratic Party — shifted marginally toward Trump in 2020. Though they still carried Biden to victory by a 46-point margin, the lesson is clear: The Democratic Party ignores its base at its own peril.
This goes for Wall St. Democrats as well as Never-Trump Republicans. The latter in particular spent decades using dog-whistle racist appeals and inflaming culture-war fights to throw red meat to their base. We’re glad they finally had their “come-to-Jesus” moment, but that doesn’t mean we are going to invite them to take the pulpit. The people who should lead our country forward are the people who have been building the country all along: the multiracial working class who have helped carry this country through a pandemic and now demand real reform.
Young people in particular showed up this year in historic numbers, increasing their turnout by eight percentage points. This generation is the most racially diverse generation in the history of our country and the most progressive. That’s no surprise: Their future hangs in the balance — economically, politically and environmentally. They turned out this year in force more to defeat the unique threat of Trump than out of love for Biden or the Democratic Party. Biden and Democrats in Congress now have an opportunity to win a generation’s long-term loyalty, but only if they deliver the big changes young Americans demand.
That means passing a Green New Deal to lift our economy out of recession, create millions of jobs and address the climate crisis head-on. It means passing Medicare-for-all to prevent thousands of Americans from dying (or going bankrupt) due to covid-19 and other illnesses. It means making the wealthy pay their share of taxes and reversing the massive tax giveaway that was Trump’s crowning legislative achievement. And it means electoral reform to ensure our government actually reflects the will of the majority.
These and other policies represent not only what Biden should do, but also what he must do. Politically, a return to “normalcy” is simply a circuitous route back to Trumpism. So-called normalcy has never worked if you are poor or among the barely middle class and it will not work now. Being better than Trump is a low bar. This moment demands — and the citizens of this nation deserve — leadership with a vision to provide for the people. Anything less is unacceptable. The Democratic Party’s future and the future of America depend on it.
'Concede and Get the Hell Out': Anger Grows as Trump Refuses to Admit Defeat
"You lost, you miserable self-entitled infantile f**ker," said famed American novelist Stephen King.
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/08/concede-and-get-hell-out-anger-grows-trump-refuses-admit-defeat
Mixing with the jubilation shared by tens of millions across the U.S. and the world generated by President-elect Joe Biden's declared victory this weekend, increasing levels of anger and frustration were voiced Sunday as President Donald Trump continued his refusal to accept the election results that show he was soundly defeated.
Even as Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris delivered acceptance speeches Saturday night, Trump bucked the tradition of congratulating the winners and instead spent the evening tweeting out false claims that he "won the election" and making evidence-free allegations of fraud.
As CNN reports:
Trump so far has refused to accept the election results, waging a legal strategy to contest them in courts and issuing false allegations of fraud. There are currently no plans to invite Biden to the Oval Office for the traditional meeting between the incoming and outgoing presidents, a historic sign of the peaceful transfer of power. Aides instead are working to craft ways for the President to feel validated even in loss, including through more rallies.
But after claiming publicly and falsely that he won the election, sources say Trump is not denying the outcome privately. And two people said Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law and senior adviser who oversaw his campaign from the White House, has approached Trump about conceding the election.
On Sunday, as the lies and deceit by the president continued, many Trump critics began to lose their patience.
"It is obscene for a president of the United States to talk of a stolen election when he has not put up any meaningful evidence of anyone stealing the election," said Steven Greenhouse, former labor reporter for the New York Times in a Sunday morning tweet. "The President needs to stop putting his narcissistic selfishness over what is good for our nation and our democracy."
Stephen King, the famed novelist and an avowed Democrat, was even more blunt in his proclamation. "You lost, you miserable self-entitled infantile fucker," King declared. "Concede and get the hell out."
In a letter to editor at the Guardian on Sunday, reader Pete Dorey in the U.K. said he fears that Trump's "disputing of the validity of the election result is much more insidious than him simply being a bad loser." Dorey wrote:
By repeatedly denouncing the accuracy of the outcome, even before it has been confirmed, [Trump] is giving his supporters a green light to spend the next four years blatantly defying a Biden government, and generally causing public mayhem, on the grounds that the Democrats "stole" the election from Trump, and that the new government thus has no democratic authority of mandate.
As such, I fear that mass protests, the occupation of public buildings, and intimidation (especially of black communities) by gun-toting Trump supporters, will become a routine occurrence, justified on the grounds that ignoring the "undemocratic" Biden government is the duty of true "American patriots."
If tough punitive action is taken against them, they will claim that democracy and liberty are being suppressed by "radical leftists" in Washington. But if their mayhem is ignored, they will claim that law and order is being undermined due a weak government in thrall to "political correctness" and "snowflake liberals."
Or am I just paranoid?
Ahead of Biden being declared the projected winner by nearly every major news outlet in the country on Saturday, his campaign spokeperson Andrew Bates on Friday said their team was not ultimately worried if Trump—when defeated—refused to leave the White House voluntarily.
"The United States government," said Bates, "is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House."
Jubilant Reaction To Trump Defeat Quickly Soured By News Of Biden Win
https://politics.theonion.com/jubilant-reaction-to-trump-defeat-quickly-soured-by-new-1845551327
CHICAGO—Seconds after the room had erupted into cheers, applause, and a few big sighs of relief, sources confirmed Tuesday that a local group of friend’s jubilant reaction to Donald Trump’s defeat had soured quickly upon the announcement of Joe Biden’s victory.
“One moment we’re celebrating our nation’s repudiation of Trump, and the next Biden is declared the winner—what a buzzkill,” said 29-year-old Ryan Lopez, whose smile had visibly faded to weariness as the former vice president and retired six-term senator appeared on television to celebrate with his family.
“The American people just ousted a transparently racist, misogynistic, and authoritarian president, but before we even have a chance to savor that triumph, we’re forced to deal with the fact that his replacement will be Joe Biden. Ugh, why does the single best piece of news this country has had in years have to be tainted immediately? For fuck’s sake.”
At press time, Lopez had reportedly demanded the television be shut off after a news anchor observed that Trump would remain in power until January.
They Are Trying To Silence AOC, Because Money Never Sleeps
We’re all exhausted, and understandably so. It’s been an unspeakably horrific year. The election psychologically drained everyone, and we all just want a break. But here’s the thing: Money never sleeps, and money is already hard at work trying to make sure nothing fundamentally changes in politics — and if nothing fundamentally changes in Washington, then everything is going to change for the worse in the real world.
Since the election was called for Joe Biden, there has been a multitiered effort to blame disappointing election results on progressives, even as exit polls and voting results show that progressive organizing that rescued Democrats from the jaws of a presidential defeat. While the country was celebrating the defeat of Trump, here’s what the voices of Big Money have been doing since the election:
Democratic leaders are insisting that the party must abandon modestly progressive health care positions in order to boost the party’s chances in Georgia, even though polling says exactly the opposite.
Republican John Kasich — who was given a DNC speaking slot by Team Biden and who nonetheless failed to help Democrats win his home state of Ohio — went on CNN to bash progressives, insisting that Biden’s top priority should be appeasing Trump voters.
Ian Bremmer — a Morning Joe character who is a reliable barometer of elite thought — echoed Kasich, suggesting that the first thing Democrats should do is reach out and appease Trump supporters.
Joe Scarborough himself asserted that the election proves Democrats must run away from the left, even though their entire strategy was running away from the left, and that strategy resulted in disappointing down-ballot losses.
Politico published a list of alleged frontrunners for Biden cabinet slots, filled mostly with corporate-friendly Democrats and Republicans.
The American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are publicly offering to work with the Biden administration, pledging a desire to "support bipartisan policies” and "break through the gridlock."
As GOP operatives at the Lincoln Project explore turning their operation into a media empire, they are turning their attacks on U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the party’s few stars with a large national following.
Democratic leaders and the House Blue Dog Caucus — the corporate wing of the party — have spent the week attacking progressives, blaming them for a handful of moderate freshman lawmakers’ losses -- even as data show that Democrats in swing districts lost vote share as they moved further and further to the right.
They Are Blaming And Shaming The Left, As Predicted
Before the election, I told you that no matter the election outcome, the left would be blamed or shamed. That doesn’t make me Nostradamus — it was an obvious truth, even if it was [too] taboo to dare speak.
Just as Republicans always spin every economic policy as a reason to cut rich people’s taxes, corporate Democrats and their allies have a left-bashing propaganda machine powered by a finely tuned algorithm designed to silence progressive leaders — whether it’s AOC, Bernie Sanders or anyone else — and to turn every election result into a rationale to protect billionaires, corporate power and the status quo.
The election, though, was the opposite of a demand for stasis — indeed, Democrats almost lost because they once again let Trump portray himself as the candidate of economic change, and they only got away with that because COVID and organizing defeated Trump’s reelection bid. If they run back the same campaign in a COVID-free environment, there’s a good chance they would lose in a landslide. Here’s what I told NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday:
The focus on trying to moderate a message in order to attract so-called Biden Republicans. That was a failure. The data shows that the better strategy is to try to pull out your own voters and voters who haven't been voting. And I do think the Democrats did a decent job of that. But the amount of money — and we're talking about tens of millions of dollars that went into focusing on trying to appeal to a mythical Republican swing voter — the data shows that that was not a good strategy.
An inanimate object should have been able to win a landslide against Donald Trump in the middle of a pandemic and economic crisis...The other thing that comes out in the polling data is that the Democrats paid a price for not having a very strong economic message. I mean, I do think the Biden campaign was shrewd in some of what it did, focusing on the pandemic and the like. But without having a strong economic message repeated over and over and over again, you saw an exit poll that showed Donald Trump won 82 percent of voters who said that the economy was their top issue.
That is a huge problem. It was a huge problem in the election. I'm certainly glad that Joe Biden won. But moving forward, if the Democrats do not have a strong populist, progressive economic message heading into 2022 and 2024, we could get something worse than Donald Trump.
What Comes Next?
I’m sorry to be the one to deliver the news, but here’s the truth: As exhausted as you feel, as tired of this shit as we all are, there’s just no rest for the weary. Assuming you don’t want nothing [sic] to fundamentally change, then we’re going to have to fight — and the first way to fight is to know some basic truths.
Disengaging and going back to brunch is a formula for a repeat of 2010 and 2016 — commit yourself to being involved in causes and groups that will demand local, state and federal lawmakers enact policies that materially improve people’s lives.
Participate in demonstrations and protests in your own community focused on concrete policy outcomes.
Sending money to sham groups like the Lincoln Project for them to light it on fire or use it to set up a conservative media outlet is destructive — if you want to pitch in resources, give it to a news organization doing journalism that holds politicians accountable (may I kindly suggest The Daily Poster?).
Run for an office in the 2022 election — and don’t be afraid to run in a primary against a Democrat who is part of the problem.
These are not perfect solutions, and everyone is going to have to try to decide which specific organizations, causes and campaigns they are going to participate in. But the point is, that the next few weeks and months are going to determine the next four years.
If you hear people tell you to just shut up and celebrate and take some time off, they are ignoring the insomnia of money. Corporate interests don’t rest — they are like a T1000 Terminator interminably pursuing their prime directives, which is to continue enriching the billionaire class.
The election has not deterred them, which means we sleep at our own peril.
David Sirota
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