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Trump's blank check

POSTED FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Only one Republican Senator, Mitt Romney of Utah, voted to remove Trump from office in the impeachment trial.  Although it was a foregone conclusion (no way a 2/3 majority to convict would ever be reached), one hoped for a stronger showing from moderate GOP Senators.  With a democracy-challenged conservative majority on the Supreme Court, an unrepentant Trump has been given permission to do pretty much anything he likes for the next 9 months or 4 years.  

And why would any Republican actually want Trump out of office?  He is delivering on their most cherished programs - deregulation, tax breaks for the wealthy, an outrageous military budget (although House Democrats share the blame here), cuts to social programs and assistance to the poor, the diminishment of civil rights and threats to voting rights, and the appointment of right-wing ideologues to the Federal courts.  Trump has taken the United States out of the Paris Agreement and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (aka the Iran Nuclear Deal) and has an aggressive foreign policy not seen since the end of the Cold War.  He has accomplished this while adding massively to the national debt - but as long as it's for programs and tax cuts they care about, Republicans really don't seem to care. 

A look at Trump's proposed 2021 budget tells you much of what you need to know about this president: there are "$2 trillion in cuts to eliminate entitlements and social safety net programs over the next 10 years. That includes food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security disability benefit programs."  The Environmental Protection Agency's budget would be cut by one-quarter.  And he's proposing these massive cuts while increasing the already obscenely bloated military budget - which includes $50 billion for nuclear weapons and $18 billion to militarize space.   Thankfully, presidential budgets are never passed without changes and many of these proposals will be soundly defeated in the House.  Barbara Lee of California tweeted: "Trump’s immoral budget is full of reckless and cruel cuts to health care, education, housing, basic food assistance and more. All while funneling billions to a xenophobic border wall. Congress must and will reject it."  

Perhaps the best quote on the Trump budget is that of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston in a Democracy Now! interview: "If you want endless wars, dirty air, and you think that the poor and hungry in America are getting too good of a deal, this is a budget for you."  (Link below left)

In one area though, he has gone beyond the pale of the usual Republican position.  No president (or even presidential candidate) of either major party has done so much in recent memory to promote xenophobia, bigotry, and anti-immigrant sentiment.  The conservative majority Supreme Court continues to enable him in these efforts - most recently on the Administration's authorization for immigration officials to refuse to admit immigrants who might ever use public benefits (even temporarily). The Supreme Court approved this last effort just two weeks ago, again through a 5–4 decision split along ideological lines. Leah Litman, writing at Slate, traces the Supreme Court's blank check for xenophobia back to its approval of the Trump Muslim travel ban 3.0.  

"Again, it does not take a genius to see how that decision signals that the court is unwilling to stop the president from making policy based on bigoted, thinly veiled Islamophobia or racism. The president received the message and has run with it. His expanded travel ban clearly targets countries based on race and religion. The odds of this Supreme Court reversing course and stopping him this time is virtually nil. 

"Indeed, the administration apparently felt so emboldened by the court’s earlier ruling that its expanded entry ban largely abandoned the original pretense of the rationale for the earlier entry ban. Previously, the administration stated it was responding to information sharing deficiencies in some countries. The administration now suggests it is trying to restrict immigration: Officials stated they are suspending entry from Nigeria because some Nigerians overstay their visas." 

Litman concludes her piece (link below right) with the warning that "neither the Senate nor the Supreme Court has been willing to stand up to the president for abusing the powers of his office for personal benefit or to stoke bigotry for partisan ends. By failing to do so, they have encouraged Trump to abuse his powers even more. It is unclear what, if anything, can stop him now."

Perhaps not.  But that doesn't mean that progressives and other people of good will can do nothing.  Activism at the local level is always an option as is support of organizations that combat hate and bigotry.  Links to a few of these groups are below right.

Profiles in Courage*: the 2020 edition

POSTED FEBRUARY 17, 2020

Every once in a while, Congress attempts to assert itself to prevent wars and human rights abuses or to restrain an out-of-control president.  The Senate's recent bipartisan vote to limit Trump's war powers is one example.  In other foreign policy areas, members of the House of Representatives have introduced legislation that would make for a more just and peaceful world.  

Here are a couple from two courageous Congresswomen.

- The Intercept reports on new legislation proposed by Rep. Betty McCollum, a Minnesota Democrat, that would "ban Israel from using any of the billions of dollars in military assistance it receives from the United States every year to pay for the detention, interrogation, or torture of Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.  Israel’s military typically arrests and prosecutes 500 to 700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 each year, subjecting them to coercive interrogation, physical violence, and trials in military courts that lack basic guarantees of due process."  

For her courage in opposing Israeli assaults on the human rights of Palestinians, McCollum has earned the wrath of the Israel lobby group AIPAC which posted a hateful ad on Facebook equating criticism of Israeli human rights violations with ISIS. McCollum fired back:

Rep. Betty McCollum is calling the pro-Israel lobby a “hate group” after it reportedly paid for a Facebook ad linked to a petition that said she and other Democrats in Congress were somehow a “more sinister” a threat to Israel than the Islamic State.  McCollum, who represents Minnesota’s Fourth District, released a statement Wednesday saying that the ad and petition from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was a form of hate speech, thereby making AIPAC a hate group.  “This not empty political rhetoric,” she said, adding that “attacks like this may be commonplace in the Trump era, but they should never be normalized.” (CBS Minnesota, Feb 14)

- Perhaps the most far-reaching proposal to stop endless wars and rein in American militarism is a package of bills proposed by Rep. Ilan Omar that “centers on human rights, justice and peace as the pillars of America’s engagement in the world, one that brings our troops home and truly makes military action a last resort.”    Code Pink praises Rep Omar and her peace initiative on their website:

"Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is one of the few people in Congress who consistently advocates for diplomacy and for a fundamental shift in our militaristic foreign policy. We are excited to announce that she just unveiled a bold set of legislation titled a Path to Peace—which represents a radical new approach to global affairs that moves from militarism to policies based on peacebuilding, human rights and international law." 

Her package of legislation includes:

a bill that would give Congress more power to limit sanctions by limiting the ability of the executive branch to wage economic war without congressional oversight;

legislation to reduce support to countries that commit abuses;

a $5 billion transfer of military funding to create a Global Peacebuilding Fund;

proposals to require the U.S. to join UN agreements on children’s rights and migration and International Criminal Court;

a direction to U.S. officials to craft a robust international deal to address the massive displacement of people around the world.

Should it pass the House, the Path to Peace legislation package faces almost sure defeat in the Senate and a presidential veto if it makes it that far.  Still as Code Pink notes, "It’s what we want to see in our future, and the more noise we make about it, the more we help move our country in the right direction."  One might think that much of this is a "no-brainer" and inherent to being part of world community that values human rights.  But the concept of American exceptionalism has become so distorted and the passage of massive defense budgets so automatic that this vision may have to wait for a new generation with a new mindset to come to power.

*Profiles in Courage is a 1956 volume of short biographies describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators, written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy, extensively helped by Ted Sorensen.  

The billion dollar misinformation campaign to re-elect Trump

POSTED FEBRUARY 23, 2020

Misinformation and outright lies have been a part of politics for a long time.  The social media phenomenon and a president who made more than 15,000 false or misleading claims before year-end 2019 have exacerbated the problem immensely.  We now live in a post-truth age where reality can become hard-to-discern.  None of us are immune.

A post on predictwise.com ("Misinformation has a Republican bias. The question is: why?") relates the degree that Republican misinformation has registered with Democrats as well - on issues like on immigration, health care, entitlement spending and gun violence .  Why?

"Without a doubt, the Republican propaganda machine spread misinformation to the Republican base quickly and effectively. The big question to us: Why does Republican misinformation register among likely Democratic voters as well? Our working hypothesis: mainstream media does not do enough to combat the onslaught of strategic Republican misinformation campaigns."

The Republican gas lighting campaign reached a peak during the impeachment hearings and is an indicator of things to come in the 2020 elections.  Writing in The Atlantic , McKay Coppins  (link below left) tells of what happened after he set up a new Facebook account and "liked" Donald Trump.

"The story that unfurled in my Facebook feed over the next several weeks was, at times, disorienting. There were days when I would watch, live on TV, an impeachment hearing filled with damning testimony about the president’s conduct, only to look at my phone later and find a slickly edited video—served up by the Trump campaign—that used out-of-context clips to recast the same testimony as an exoneration. Wait, I caught myself wondering more than once, is that what happened today?

"As I swiped at my phone, a stream of pro-Trump propaganda filled the screen: “That’s right, the whistleblower’s own lawyer said, ‘The coup has started …’ ” Swipe. “Democrats are doing Putin’s bidding …” Swipe. “The only message these radical socialists and extremists will understand is a crushing …” Swipe. “Only one man can stop this chaos …” Swipe, swipe, swipe.

"I was surprised by the effect it had on me. I’d assumed that my skepticism and media literacy would inoculate me against such distortions. But I soon found myself reflexively questioning every headline. It wasn’t that I believed Trump and his boosters were telling the truth. It was that, in this state of heightened suspicion, truth itself—about Ukraine, impeachment, or anything else—felt more and more difficult to locate. With each swipe, the notion of observable reality drifted further out of reach."

If a veteran journalist can begin to question the "notion of observable reality", imagine what the rest of us face.  It will get worse as we approach the elections.  The Coppins article describes how far advanced the Trump and other Republican operatives are in co-opting social media for their ends.  Authoritarians and liars no longer need to silence their critics with censorship.  They just need to send a constant stream of lies, exaggeration and innuendo to social media and denounce press criticism of them as "fake news."   The "mixture of gullibility and cynicism" that the successful twenty-century authoritarian leaders instilled in their followers has been writ large in the twenty-first.

(1) New York Times, March 27   (2) Slate, March 21  

(3) The response to the coronavirus in Italy varied by region with Veneto being an example of the right way to respond to the epidemic.  Veneto's outbreak is a fraction the size of neighboring Lombardy.   In a March 29 article, Vox summarizes a recent Harvard Business Review article which describes four successful strategies used in Veneto: extensive testing, proactive tracing, emphasis on home diagnosis and care, and monitoring of medical personnel and other vulnerable workers.

Suspend and cancel debts: All principal, interest and charges on sovereign external debt due in 2020 should be cancelled permanently, and should not accrue into the future. "In 2018, the total debts of developing countries – private, public, domestic and external – had reached 191% of their combined GDP. Faced with these debts,many countries were embarking on austerity measures when the virus hit. Forty-six countries were spending on average four times more money on paying debts than they were on public health services at the beginning of 2020, when coronavirus was spreading.  As the pandemic will require a massive injection of resources to support economies, it makes no sense for poorer countries to be transferring vital resources to the rich world."

I'll close with comments from Paul O’Brien, vice president of Oxfam America. In a Democracy Now! interview (link in sidebar), he notes how important this week is: "You’ve got ministers of finance — the G20 is meeting, and ministers of finance from the 189 countries are meeting, to ask and answer the question: What can they do collectively to address the economic fallout of this crisis? You reported what’s going to happen to the global economy. We think there are three ways forward, and we’re calling on these governments to work together to show the kind of multilateral leadership that President Trump failed to show."

*The unemployment figure from the Department of Labor will understate the situation since it only measures the percentage of the population looking for jobs that can't find them.

"We have little reason to be concerned, for example, about the one in three Americans who thinks aliens have secretly made contact with humans. And at no point was our society in danger because nearly 80 percent of Americans once thought the Warren Commission got the details of John F. Kennedy’s assassination wrong. But the consequences of blaming the coronavirus’s emergence on the wrong source, or of doubting its seriousness, could be life-threatening on a massive scale."

To those concerns, consider this.  Confronting a global pandemic is best done with international scientific cooperation and by taking the lessons learned in all countries.  Defunding the World Health Organization and engaging in blame-shifting to a country that has stopped the spread of the virus are not going to help.

Dear Joe Biden...

POSTED MAY 20, 2020

Dear Joe Biden,

Good luck to you and all Democratic candidates gearing up for the 2020 campaign to unseat the Mad King and his allies.  It will not be easy.  From rampant voter suppression to the gratuitous slander of Democrats to the largest disinformation campaign ever to be mounted and an electorate that proved incapable of resisting an appeal to its worst instincts, you have a lot to contend with.  

And then there's the pandemic.

Besides graphically demonstrating the incompetence of the incumbent, the pandemic laid bare the inequalities in the American version of capitalism.  The tragic loss of life showed the inadequacies of the health care system.  The economic disaster now unfolding will require a New Deal size effort to mitigate.  I was happy to read that you are rethinking some of your domestic policies and moving closer to the views of my preferred candidate, Bernie Sanders.  But that's not what I'm writing to you about. 

As devastating to a progressive and civil society as Trump's domestic policies and rhetoric are, his foreign policy and disdain for international law pose an even greater threat to a humanitarian, just and peaceful world.  Problems in America's relationship with the world community go back further than Trump and it's time for a new approach. 

I realize that  you voted for the AUMF for the Iraq War.  Twenty-three other Senators did not.  Perhaps you believed the neocon lies.  Perhaps you thought support of another militaristic adventure was a sign of patriotism.  Whatever.  Hopefully by now, you have realized your mistake.  There are deeper issues here that go beyond that vote.  America's militaristic approach to world affairs has been a constant through both Democratic and Republican administrations.  Militarism, you may recall, is one of the "triple evils" described by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King - the two others being racism and poverty.  

A framework for what a just and humane foreign policy might look like is Rep. Ilhan Omar's "Pathway to PEACE (Progressive, Equitable, and Constructive Engagement)", a package of seven bills aimed at reorienting U.S. foreign policy.  The bills call for a Global Peacebuilding Fund; an act that would establish "red lines" based on internationally recognized gross violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law and deny security aid of any kind to the abusers; a binding international agreement on migration; Congressional oversight of sanctions with their approval needed for extensions; a "Youth Build" act; and resolutions on US participation and support for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Criminal Court.  Enacting Rep. Omar's framework would be a significant first step in reaffirming our commitment to human rights and our rejection of the distorted exceptionalism that puts us above international law.

A broad coalition of 51 progressive, religious and peace organizations recently sent you (cc to Trump) a letter detailing some specific policy changes  that could move us toward "a principled foreign policy, one that prioritizes diplomacy and multilateralism over militarism."  I hope you have had time to read it.  Here's a listing of the main actions requested by the groups - you can get more detail in the letter itself.

• Repealing the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force and respecting congressional war powers

• Reducing the Pentagon budget

• Engaging with Iran and North Korea

• Supporting a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

• Opposing regime-change interventions and broad-based sanctions

• Rejecting discriminatory immigration policies and supporting refugees

• Ending security aid and arms for governments that violate human rights

• Prioritizing diplomacy and avoid militarizing our relations with other powers such as Russia and China

To this list I would add a renewed effort to reduce the world's cache of nuclear weapons - rejecting Trump's dangerous policies and withdrawal from international agreements.  And of course, we should re-commit to the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Our efforts in the latter area really do affect the whole world.

Former President Eisenhower, the leader of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, once said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." If it was true in mid-twentieth century America, it is even more true now in the midst of the biggest global crisis since the Second World War.  

I have a few more ideas that may help - you can find them here ("But how shall we pay for it?")

Best wishes for a successful campaign.

Month-end Rundown

POSTED MAY 31, 2020

A summary of a few stories from the past several weeks.

Dark and Delusional: the new right-wing echo chamber 

POSTED JUNE 9, 2020

Beware: you too may be "antifa"

POSTED JUNE 19, 2020

Acts of Unfathomable Cruelty

POSTED JUNE 26, 2020

Republican governors, currently proving themselves as inept as the president at addressing the COVID pandemic (Informed Comment, sidebar below), have a suit before the Supreme Court that would invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act.  Late on Thursday, in what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called an "act of unfathomable cruelty," the Trump Administration joined the Republican suit asking the Court to invalidate the entire ACA.  The Administration's request comes in the midst of a pandemic which has killed 125,000 Americans and during which nearly a half million Americans turned to the Affordable Care Act for assistance.  

The Most Corrupt President in History

POSTED JULY 6, 2020

Trump's disastrous foreign policy lauded at the RNC

POSTED AUGUST 28, 2020

A recent line of attack on Joe Biden is the Trumpublicans' crowing about how strong our foreign policy under Trump has been and how a Biden presidency will put us in danger.  It's nothing new.  Republicans have won votes for decades by claiming the 'might makes right' mantle and daring Democrats to even make a peep about, for example, the obscenely bloated defense budget.  The Trump-Pompeo team has taken this approach to new heights - flaunting international law and agreements, supporting authoritarian regimes, antagonizing allies, and reviving enmities.  

It's impossible to list all the disastrous consequences of the Trump years in a single post so I'll deal with just some of them - starting with Secretary of State Pompeo's comments at the Republican National Convention.  The unthinkingly bellicose Pompeo is, according to where you get your news and opinion, the "worst secretary of state in modern times" (CNN) or the "worst secretary of state in history" (New York Times).

Kenosha: a symbol of a divided America and a warning

POSTED AUGUST 30, 2020

Coming as it did during the Republican National Convention, the Jacob Blake shooting and its aftermath provided us with a good look at how divided our nation is today as well as a glimpse at a possibly even more divided future.  On August 23, Jacob Blake, a 29 year old African-American was shot multiple times in the back by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin as he was getting into his SUV, where his three children were sitting in the back seat.  Blake is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the shooting.  

The Capitalist Threat

POSTED SEP 4, 2020

We've been hearing much from the Right on the alleged threats of socialism. Even Joe Biden found it necessary to respond to Trump's taunts with “Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters?” Although Biden said it in the context of the looting and rioting that has accompanied the Kenosha protests, that he had to mention socialism at all is telling. Nearly 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Americans associate “socialism” with Stalinism. Of course, socialism as it has developed in the West, i.e., democratic socialism, is nothing of the sort.

Similar to the racist dog-whistle of “law and order”, decrying “socialism” as a threat to freedom is a ploy to cover the inequalities and injustices of laissez-faire capitalism. The true threat to an open and just society is from advancing the interests of the wealthy and from the overwhelming influence of money in the political system. The opposite to democracy is not socialism but authoritarianism - such as that exhibited by Trump over the last four years as he attacks free speech, the press, and freedom of assembly. 

The most fundamental right in a democracy is the right to vote, the notion that one person's vote counts as much as that of another. Anyone following the decade-long effort on the part of the Right to disenfranchise citizens (I'm talking about you, Republicans) can only conclude that the Right, not the Left, is the greatest threat to American democracy.

Three prominent critics of laissez-faire capitalism are the financier George Soros, the economist Thomas Pinketty, and Pope Francis. This post will explore some of what they have to say about capitalism and the dangers it poses to a free and just society.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg dies at 87

POSTED SEPTEMEBR 19, 2020

America has lost one of the strongest defenders of its democracy and gender equality.  

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg's death at age 87 is a devastating blow for the country.  Justice Ginsberg "got it"  - she understood what America was all about.  Speaking at George Washington University in 2017, RBG said that “We are not as mindful of what makes America great,”  citing “the right to speak one’s mind out” and “our nation being receptive to all people” as sacrosanct American tenets.  And though we appeared to have entered a dark time, she was optimistic: “Our history has been so long I think we will preserve both of those: the right to think, speak and write as we believe—and not as Big Brother government tells us is the right way to think—and welcoming our neighbors.” She herself was a beneficiary of America’s welcome for immigrants, she said. “My father was able to leave the Old World when conditions were not good to come here and make a living and raise a family," the justice said. "That is America to me.” [2]

Her consistently liberal votes and dissenting opinions were a beacon of democratic principle against the ever-increasing tide of anti-democratic rulings by a conservative majority on the high court.  Among these opinions were her blistering dissent in Shelby v. Holder, which gutted the Voting Rights Act by eliminating the need for pre-clearance ("Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet”) and her famous dissent in Bush v. Gore in which she deliberately and subtly concluded her decision with the words, "I dissent" — a significant departure from the tradition of including the adverb "respectfully." [2]  

Ruth Bader Ginsberg was a tireless fighter for gender equality.  Another of her famous dissents came in the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, decided in 2007. Lilly Ledbetter sued her employer of 19 years, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, for gender discrimination, after she discovered the company had been paying her less than her male counterparts.   The majority sided with Goodyear based on a technicality in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which limited Ledbetter to legally questioning only the 180 days of unequal pay leading up to her official complaint, rather than the entirety of her nearly two-decade tenure with the company. “The Court’s insistence on immediate contest overlooks common characteristics of pay discrimination,” Ginsberg wrote. “Pay disparities often occur, as they did in Ledbetter’s case, in small increments; cause to suspect that discrimination is at work develops over time. Comparative pay information, moreover, is often hidden from the employee’s view.” Ginsberg pressed Congress to amend the clause, which they eventually did. When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first bill he signed. [3]

Democracy has become a bit more endangered with RBG's passing.  Her death sent political shock waves across the country and a fierce partisan battle looms as Senate Republicans prepare to rush through another conservative justice to the Supreme Court.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,  who refused to consider President Obama’s choice months before the 2016 election, says Trump’s court nominee will get Senate vote despite Ginsburg’s dying wish that next president choose replacement.  [4]

[1] GW Today

[2] Biography.com 

[3] Teen Vogue

[4] Washington Post

Health care at risk: ACA faces death at the Supreme Court

POSTED SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

The Trump Administration and a cadre of Republican governors are challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. In 2017, several state attorneys general filed the current case, saying that without the insurance mandate, the rest of the law should fall. A federal appeals court upheld the suit in late 2019, setting the stage for a showdown at the Supreme Court one week after the election. The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and her imminent replacement by a Trump-appointed conservative have given this once-long-shot case the potential of bringing down the entire Affordable Care Act in the midst of a global pandemic.

The Debate Debacle

POSTED OCTOBER 1, 2020

Tuesday night's spectacle did not tell us much more than what we already knew.  Trump's blatant disregard for the agreed rules of the debate had him interrupting, goading and talking over Joe Biden at every opportunity and ignoring Chris Wallace's attempts to maintain some control.   The non-partisan commission that organizes the presidential debates announced that it is considering "additional structure to the format" for the remaining debates.  Perhaps they should install an audio kill switch on Trump's mike for the next debate.

Even more odious than Trump's overall behavior were his refusal to denounce white supremacists (see Democracy Now! link below right) and his refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power should he lose the election.  My main takeaway was that Trump intends to steal the election by getting legitimate ballots discarded and he welcomes the help of white supremacists in enforcing his would be coup.  

Trump being Trump, the debate was replete with a "torrent of fabrications and fear-mongering" from the president. His most egregious lie - that the death toll from the virus would have been 10 times greater had Biden been president.  (See AP Fact Check below left.)  Whether anyone other than his supporters swallow this nonsense is debatable (sorry, unintended pun).

Joe Biden's best moments came in his direct appeal to Americans to vote and in his assurances that government agencies would uphold the law should Trump try to remain in the White House.  I don't think many decided voters who watched the debate will change their vote and I'm not sure how many undecided voters will move into the Biden column by Election Day.  

After witnessing Trump's epic failure in confronting the pandemic, the cruelty of his immigration policies, his racist fear- and hate-mongering, his reckless nuclear weapons policy, the lawsuit to end the ACA in the midst of a pandemic, his rollback of environmental regulations, what is it that anyone can see in this man or his policies that would allow them to vote for him? 

For more on the debate, see Slate's "Ninety Minutes of Bullying and Bombast", Vox's "3 Winners and 4 Losers from the First 2020 Debate", and Mother Jones's "Biden and Trump Showed America Who They Really Are".    

Fixing a Broken America: what a Biden presidency might accomplish

POSTED OCTOBER 9, 2020

Here at home, the United States is more divided than it has been since the days of the Civil War.  On the international stage, the United States has never been more isolated. While Donald Trump's fear-mongering divisiveness and cruel policies have brought us to this point, our broken country will not suddenly be healed if he loses the election. Nor will our country immediately regain the respect of the world.

What will it take to make our way back to a "more perfect union", a country admired for its generosity rather than despised for its bullying and contempt for international law?

The Most Immediate Threat Posed by Amy Coney Barrett

POSTED OCTOBER 17, 2020

A 6-3 majority of conservative ideologues with an antipathy for civil and voting rights on the Supreme Court does not bode well for the long-term future of American democracy.  The nomination hearings for one of those ideologues, Amy Coney Barrett, is sailing through the Republican-controlled Senate, as it holds controversial hearings on the nomination while holding up action on a coronavirus relief bill.  For all the discussion of what this conservative super-majority on the court will do over the next several decades, there is one threat that stands out as immediate and dangerous: SCOTUS will throw the election to Trump if they have the chance.  Barrett's non-answers to softball questions regarding the election and the rule of law give us even more reason to work for a Biden landslide and prepare for resistance to a Trump coup.  

A very narrow window of opportunity

POSTED OCTOBER 29, 2020

Over the past forty years, Democrats have held control of the House, Senate, and Presidency for a total of just four years - the first two years of the first terms of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  If Democrats regain control of Congress and if Joe Biden wins, they may have just two years to pass legislation.  It's a very short time frame and requires ending the filibuster in the Senate.  It will also require an effort reminiscent of FDR's "first 100 days".  

In the area of environmental regulations, immigration policy, and foreign policy, Biden, wielding his executive power, would be able to undo much of Trump's damage.  In most other areas, he would need the support of Congress.  Fighting the pandemic and reviving the economy for all [sidebar below right], rather than just the more well-off, should have the highest priority.  In addition, other issues will need to be addressed.  These "other issues" include: voting rights, criminal justice system reform, gun control, health care, and repeal of the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force and of Trump tax cuts for the wealthy. 

The good news: much of the preparation work for this legislation has already been done.

The bad news: unless Biden stacks the Supreme Court, that body remains a wild card that could undo everything.

A very narrow window of opportunity

POSTED OCTOBER 29, 2020

Over the past forty years, Democrats have held control of the House, Senate, and Presidency for a total of just four years - the first two years of the first terms of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.  If Democrats regain control of Congress and if Joe Biden wins, they may have just two years to pass legislation.  It's a very short time frame and requires ending the filibuster in the Senate.  It will also require an effort reminiscent of FDR's "first 100 days".  

In the area of environmental regulations, immigration policy, and foreign policy, Biden, wielding his executive power, would be able to undo much of Trump's damage.  In most other areas, he would need the support of Congress.  Fighting the pandemic and reviving the economy for all [sidebar below right], rather than just the more well-off, should have the highest priority.  In addition, other issues will need to be addressed.  These "other issues" include: voting rights, criminal justice system reform, gun control, health care, and repeal of the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force and of Trump tax cuts for the wealthy. 

The good news: much of the preparation work for this legislation has already been done.

The bad news: unless Biden stacks the Supreme Court, that body remains a wild card that could undo everything.

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”

POSTED NOVEMBER 2, 2020

Election Day approaches and the pandemic continues. 

The machinations of Trump and his allies in the Republican Party, on the far-right, and on the courts are more and more coming to resemble a fascistic power grab.  

-Within hours of the polls opening for early voting in North Carolina,  voters faced harassment and intimidation in Carver County and Greensboro.  

-Over the weekend, a Biden campaign bus in Texas was surrounded by trucks, mostly pickups flying Trump flags.  At least one truck moved in front of the bus, appearing to slow its speed.  A Trump supporter claimed on Facebook to have "slammed" a white SUV that appeared to accompany the campaign bus.  Some of the Trump supporters may have been armed.  Trump tweeted "I LOVE TEXAS' after the incident and then slammed the FBI for beginning an investigation.

-With just hours until Election Day, Republicans in Texas are asking a federal court to throw out 127,000 votes in Harris County, the populous Texas county that includes Houston and has been "trending blue."

-Police in Alamance County in North Carolina pepper-sprayed a peaceful get-out-the-vote march Saturday, descending on the crowd after they stopped near a Confederate monument to kneel in honor of George Floyd.  The marchers never made it to the polls.

-In Pennsylvania, where the ultimate outcome of the election may be decided, Republicans announced that they were introducing a measure to establish a special panel called the Select Committee on Election Integrity. The panel would have sweeping powers to oversee the election. including the authority to subpoena election officials, making it impossible for them to count ballots, and impound ballot boxes in Democratic districts, making them unavailable to tally. If the committee delayed long enough, the Republican legislature could take matters into its own hands and award the state's votes to Trump.

Following these events and recent Supreme Court rulings, I am having a hard time answering Marcus Aurelius's centering question, "Is this present thing any good reason for my soul to be sick and out of sorts?"

True, my life won't be changed in any significant way no matter who wins the election. I am not an immigrant worried about ICE raiding my home. I am not a father who has to give “The Talk” to his son or daughter. I do not worship in a synagogue or a mosque and subject to hatred from the far-right.

Still, as MLK said, ““Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

This is not (yet) Mussolini's March on Rome or Hitler's 1922 Munich or Franco's 1936 Madrid, but make no mistake: American democracy is on the chopping block.  

The best advice for the coming weeks or months or years may be that of President Teddy Roosevelt: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."  

If Trump and the Republicans steal the election - with or without the collusion of the courts and state legislatures, resistance to their power grab must begin immediately.  The difference between winning and losing our democracy will come down to two things - urgent mobilizing actions and building alliances. Power grabs, whether or not they succeed, are often decided in a matter of weeks or months.

Then, for as long as Trump continues in office, 

- Repudiate the power grab and denounce its leaders and enablers as illegitimate. A democratic free press and honest media are essential to this effort.

- Regard as illegal all decrees and orders contradicting established law and resist in all ways the actions of the "coup" leaders and enablers.  Here, mass protests and, where warranted, acts of peaceful civil disobedience are essential.

- Most importantly, keep resistance strictly nonviolent - refuse to be provoked into violence

Even if Democrats manage to overcome rampant voter suppression, the efforts of Republican legislators, and the decisions of partisan courts, Trumpism and the divisions created during Trump's years in office will still be with us.  Overcoming these divisions will take time but can be aided immensely by a unifying Biden presidency.  

Joe Biden alone will not be able to stop all the hatred and fear stoked by this president.  Individual and collective efforts are needed on the part of all of us.  Parents, teachers and religious leaders especially will play roles in "teaching tolerance", stressing the importance of "love your neighbor - no exceptions", and "fighting hate for good."  You may recognize these slogans as those of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League.  Each is an exemplary organization that has been fighting hatred, inhumane policies and prejudice for decades - and in the case of AFSC and ADL for more than a century.  The work of these organizations (and others like them) along with our support and use of the resources they provide will eventually turn the tide.

In the meantime, no matter who wins the election, we would be wise take the advice of philosophers like Marcus Aurelius and Albert Camus and face the future with hope and courage - a future that will, for some time, be disrupted because of the pandemic and the lingering effects of Trump's presidency.  

I'm not going to repeat earlier posts in the Mind & Spirit section, but below are links to several.

70 million Americans voted for Donald Trump. Why?

POSTED NOVEMBER 9, 2020

While we and the rest of the world will be glad to be rid of Donald Trump in 72 days, more than 70 million Americans are lamenting his departure.  After witnessing his epic failure in confronting the pandemic, the cruelty of his immigration policies, his racist fear- and hate-mongering, his reckless nuclear weapons policy, the lawsuit to end the ACA in the midst of a pandemic, his rollback of environmental regulations, what is it that anyone could have seen in this man or his policies that would allow them to vote for him? 

While there is a fraction of Trump supporters who are racists or white nationalists, Trump voters are not a monolithic block.  To the surprise of many, Trump increased his vote percentage in almost all demographic groups vs. 2016.   

A more telling statistic, though, is the breakdown of his approval ratings by party affiliation.  Among Republicans, he received a 95% job approval rating in the second half of October - the highest of his presidency.  Independents gave him a 41% approval rating; Democrats, 3%.  

The issues that appeal to Trump voters overrode any concern they had about his authoritarianism, corruption and incompetence, his character and mendaciousness, and the effect of his policies on the more vulnerable and marginalized.  Oversimplifying somewhat, there are three categories of Trump voters not driven by racist tendencies:

-Single issue voters like the Evangelicals, the "anti-Castro" Cubans of south Florida, and gun rights advocates applauding his court appointees or "Monroe Doctrine 2.0"

-Traditional Republicans voting their pocketbook, unwilling to pay for social safety net programs while being supportive of tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, deregulation, massive defense expenditures and hawkish foreign policies

-The "deceived" - those who bought Trump's fear-mongering about people of color invading the suburbs, about anarchy and "law and order," and those who bought his faux populism that put the blame for the issues affecting the white working class on immigrants and other victims of the inequalities inherent in American capitalism

Many in this last group, those deceived by Trump's faux populism, are also victims of the system.  If we are to have any hope of healing America, their concerns must be addressed, and the fiction that Trump or the Republican Party represent their interests must be put to rest once and for all.  

At the end of Reconstruction, the Southern ruling class found it convenient and effective to drive a divide between white and black poor.  That deception has lasted to the current days.  Similarly, in twentieth century Europe, the rise of fascism followed a playbook that included these two principles:

1. It is important to identify enemies - particularly minorities, immigrants and those whose sexual identities we find offensive.

2. Members of the dominant cultural group are the true victims.  We’ve lost something and that "something" has been taken from us by a specific enemy - some minority out-group or some opposing nation.

How do we overcome these right-wing fictions?  How do we heal America?

Presenting facts might help - for example, that Republicans have consistently opposed increases in the minimum wage and the rights of workers, that an improvement in the health care of all is not a bad thing, that immigrants have a positive economic impact and are less likely to commit crimes than non-immigrants, and that the root causes of criminal behavior - such as poverty, mental illness, addiction, and the lack of educational and employment opportunities - are best addressed not by chanting a racist "law and order" mantra but by heavy social investments.

Even more important would be instituting programs that address the issues.  Once they propose programs, Democrats - led by Biden - must clearly and loudly denounce any attempt at obstruction by Republicans.  Another round of coronavirus stimulus legislation, New Deal-size infrastructure projects including Biden's "green projects", government-paid addiction treatment programs, suicide prevention programs, and ending felony disenfranchisement are some examples.

Joe Biden's task will not be easy.  He will need the help of all of us to dampen the fear and hatred stoked by Donald Trump over the past four years.  Parents, teachers and religious leaders will play special roles in "teaching tolerance", stressing the importance of "love your neighbor, no exceptions", and "fighting hate for good"  - the mottoes of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League.  Each is an exemplary organization that has been fighting hatred, inhumane policies and prejudice for decades - and, in the case of AFSC and ADL, for more than a century.  The work of these organizations (and others like them) along with our support and use of the resources they provide will help turn the tide and is essential in ending our divisions.

The perilous last weeks of the Trump Presidency

POSTED NOVEMBER 18, 2020

There are still two months left in Trump's presidency. I don't expect that Trump will act decently in his remaining days in office.  It's more a question of how much damage he and his Administration will do on the way out.  

Here are three areas to watch in the coming weeks. 

Final acts of cruelty: the Trump administration's execution spree

POSTED NOVEMBER 25, 2020

In July, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the federal government intended to restart executions.  No federal prisoners had been executed in 17 years.  The announcement was criticized by corrections officials, religious leaders, conservative commentators, former state and federal judges, prosecutors, law enforcement and corrections officials, and family members of homicide victims.  To no avail.

In July, 2020, after appeals had failed, the Federal Government executed three men in the span of four days.  The federal killing spree had begun.  Over the following months, the Federal Government put to death five more.  The most recent execution on November 19, that of Orlando Cordia Hall, was the first execution by a lame-duck administration in 131 years.  

Related posts:

Criminal Justice System Reform - Part I The Death Penalty

Pope Francis, 21st century Christianity, and changing the world 

Notes:

*According to the 2019 Gallup death-penalty poll, 60% percent of Americans asked to choose whether the death penalty or life without possibility of parole “is the better penalty for murder” chose the life-sentencing option. 36% favored the death penalty. 

**28 states still have the death penalty although 3 of these states have a governor-imposed moratorium on executions.  See sidebar for DPIC map.  The correspondence with the results of the 2020 presidential election is stunning.

Trump's efforts to overturn election results have officially failed...but he has succeeded in damaging our democracy

"Donald Trump is ending his presidential term as he began it: with disdain for the institutions of American democracy. He started with an inaugural address that did not mention the Constitution. He is finishing by refusing to abide by the core democratic principle of a peaceful transfer of power and respect for the will of the voters." - Brennan Center for Justice (sidebar)

POSTED DECEMBER 6, 2020/updated DEC 8

These attempts to subvert the will of the people, Trump supporters' threats against election officials and "testimony" before Republican legislatures holding election fraud hearings are both brazen and dangerous.  Incendiary rhetoric by President Trump and his followers is fueling a wave of threats against election workers. Some have received death threats and images of nooses and been told “You’re a traitor.” (sidebar)  

Too few Republicans are standing up to Trump's rabble-rousing and election-bashing.  One who is calling out the President's rhetoric is Gabriel Sterling, a top-ranking Georgia election official:

“It has to stop,” Gabriel Sterling, a Republican and Georgia’s voting system implementation manager, said at an afternoon news conference at the state Capitol, his voice shaking with emotion. “Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language...This is elections. This is the backbone of democracy, and all of you who have not said a damn word are complicit in this. It’s too much.” (NYTimes, Dec 1)

Not only election officials are being threatened by the Trumpist mobs inflamed by the president's false narrative.  Dozens of protesters showed up late Saturday at the home of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in Detroit, promoting more false accusations that fraud had tainted Biden’s victory in the state.  Michigan's attorney general spent much of her Saturday evening trying to make sure Benson was safe, noting that "the protesters, some armed with bullhorns and some armed with guns, arrived shortly after the end of Trump’s rally in Georgia. She said neighbors came out to plead with the protesters to go home because they were scaring children — including Benson’s 4-year-old son."   (Washington Post, Nov 7)

Sadly for the future of the country and the incoming Biden administration,  the Trumpists' refusal to accept the results is consistent with the growing belief in far-fetched conspiracy theories by conservative voters.  QAnon scored its first national political victory this year "when Marjorie Taylor Greene, a supporter of the convoluted pro-Trump conspiracy theory, won a House seat in Georgia, bringing into the halls of Congress an online movement that has inspired real-world violence and been branded a potential domestic terrorism threat by the F.B.I." (NYTimes, Nov 3)

Some election bashers are even becoming celebrities.  It is hard to gauge how widespread this phenomenon is.  But consider how the SNL-worthy "testimony" of Melissa Carone, Rudy Giuliani’s star witness at a Michigan election fraud hearing, went viral.  "A Twitter account live-tweeting that hearing documented a parade of cranks with drily descriptive captions that read like Mark Twain." (Slate, Dec 4)

The Electoral College voted: Round One of the Trump coup is over

POSTED DECEMBER 14, 2020

On Monday December 14, the Electoral College voted and confirmed Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. as the next President of the United States. The vote was 306-232.  Round one of the Trump coup is over.

Trump's coup enters round three: is Trump inciting violence or stoking terrorism?

POSTED DECEMBER 18, 2020

Earlier this week, the Electoral College confirmed Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.  After the vote, five weeks after the election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated Biden on his victory.  A number of Congressional Republicans are also saying it's time to move on.  Some of the more radical-right GOP Congressmen in the House may still pull off a few stunts when the Joint Session of Congress meets January 6 to confirm the vote of the Electoral College.  After all, 126 of them joined a blatantly undemocratic lawsuit to overturn the votes of four swing states.  They may delay it for a few hours but there is no way they will get even the majority of Congressional Republicans to support a reversal, let alone a majority of either legislative chamber.  What I referred to as Round Two of the Trump coup in an earlier post - Congress caving in to the demands of Trumpists and disrupting the certification of the Electoral College vote - appears to be whimpering to its pathetic conclusion.

The same cannot be said for Round Three - the Trump coup moves to the streets.  Trump continues to incite his followers with bogus tales of a stolen election marred by rampant voting fraud.  He reportedly told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day, "only to be walked down from that ledge. The possibility has alarmed some aides, but few believe Trump will actually follow through." (CNN, Dec 17)  The spectacle of Donald Trump being forcibly removed from the White House while some of his more deranged followers confront the Secret Service and threaten Joe Biden is almost too absurd to even imagine.

What is less difficult to imagine is violence in the streets as Trump rages and rants for the next month.  

Is the cult of Trumpism here to stay?

POSTED DECEMBER 21, 2020/update Dec 30

Last week, the Electoral College confirmed Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.  After the vote, after five weeks had passed since the election had been called for Biden, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated Biden on his victory.  A number of Congressional Republicans are also saying it's time to move on, and it is unlikely that the GOP will pull any stunts when the Joint Session of Congress meets January 6 to confirm the vote of the Electoral College.  Update Dec 30: Missouri Republican Senator Sen. Josh Hawley  has announced that he will object to certifying the vote of the electoral college ensuring a delay in the proceedings.  His grandstanding has no chance of success but should win him some votes for his next primary from members of The Cult of Trump. 

After engaging in an unprecedented effort to overturn the popular vote on baseless accusations of voting fraud, Donald Trump has not conceded and may never do so.  His attempted coup - his assault on the basic institutions of democracy - has failed, but the divisions and wreckage Trump leaves behind as the legacy of his presidency will be with us for years to come.  He continues to lie about the election, and the lies live on in the minds of his followers.  Joe Biden will come into office facing a devastating pandemic and a bifurcated recession with, according to recent polls,  about three-quarters of Trump voters still believing the election was stolen.  

The threat this poses to American Democracy is real.  As the Lincoln Project video [Sidebar] puts it: "The dividing line in American politics is not between conservative and liberal.  It's between those who believe in democracy and those who are killing it by their actions, by their silence."

After 60 or so losses in the courts, after Trump's appointed attorney general and appointed election security chief* declared the election secure and free of any significant fraud, why do Trump's followers still believe his lies?  Why do they threaten basic democratic principles because of tweets from the most mendacious president in history?

The most likely answer: Trumpism has become a cult.  If we are to reverse his malign influence and prevent it from taking permanent hold of our nation, we need to understand this and use it as our starting point.  

Otherwise, we will be faced with his malicious legacy - "a nihilistic political culture, one that is tribalistic, distrustful, and sometimes delusional, swimming in conspiracy theories, with Americans disoriented and frustrated, fearful of and often enraged at one another."   [Sidebar]

US Covid deaths surpass 350,000 as vaccination program chaos continues

POSTED JANUARY 4, 2021

WEAR YOUR MASKS.

W.H.O. "When and how to use masks"

The Trump Administration is proving itself as inadequate in the Covid vaccination phase as it was in the early days of the pandemic.  As Trump inspires his followers to demand Congress overturn the election results, he continues his lack of leadership and criminally bad example in confronting the virus.   When the sad story of Trump's presidency is recalled sometime in the distant future, it will be with disbelief at his epic failure to protect Americans from the pandemic.  His attempted coup will also be mentioned but it is doomed to failure.  

There are a couple of connections between these two failures that will not be lost on future generations.  The first and most obvious similarity is Trump's misinformation  both on the election and on the virus.  The second is that had Trump spent more time addressing the reality of the virus rather than the fantasy of voting fraud, fewer deaths may have resulted during these closing days of his administration.  Then again, Trump's innate incompetence, his politicization of the face mask issue, and the ignorance of his mask-denying followers may have achieved the same awful result.

As for the vaccine program, the Administration fell far short of the 20 million vaccinations by year end touted by Trump.  Only 3 million had received the vaccine by year end.  The Guardian reporting on the vaccine chaos notes that the problem is not the fault of Trump alone.  The dean of Brown University's school of public health commented that there is no well-delineated plan and that what "America is suffering through is the consequence of incompetence in federal leadership – the entire pandemic has been marred by a group of people...who don’t understand how things work and can’t get something to work effectively.”  In addition the current state of the vaccine in much of the US stems from a combination of scant funding and "scattered" logistics.  Public health in the US is chronically underfunded and the Administration and Congress were slow to come up with the necessary funding - only reaching the requested $8 billion when the delayed new coronavirus bill was recently signed by Trump.  But more money to states won’t fully solve the problem. "Experts said that a unified, national plan is necessary to address logistical snags."

Congress certifies Electoral College vote.  Democracy survives.

POSTED JANUARY 7, 2021

After a day of violence by Trump supporters, Congress certified the Electoral College votes early this morning.  Rounds two and three of the Trump coup are over.   The coup failed, but not before some Republican Congressmen, repeating many of Trump's lies about election fraud, disgraced themselves by objecting to the certification.  Even the violence stirred up by Trump did not deter them from continuing the Republican Party's decade-long phony narrative of massive election fraud, which has served as the excuse for GOP efforts to disenfranchise Democratic Party constituents.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Representative Paul Gosar, (R-Az) stopped the certification process by objecting to the certification of Arizona's vote.  The objection failed by a vote of 93-6 in the Senate with Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (Miss.), John Neely Kennedy (La.), Roger Marshall (Kan.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) casting the aye votes.  Many House Republicans also voted in favor of the objection, but it was defeated 303-121.  

The certification process was again delayed with an objection to certification of the electoral votes of Pennsylvania.  Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) joined by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) objected.  The challenge fell on a 92-to-7 vote in the Senate with Republican Cynthia M. Lummis (Wyo.) joining the "Dirty Half-Dozen" and voting to object. The House also rejected the objection 282-138.

Before the Pennsylvania vote, Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.)  said that the GOP objectors to Biden’s win didn’t need to “strip this Congress of its dignity” any more after pro-Trump rioters attacked the Capitol on Wednesday. “We know that that attack today, it didn’t materialize out of nowhere, it was inspired by lies — the same lies that you’re hearing in this room tonight,” Lamb said. “The members who are repeating those lies should be ashamed of themselves, their constituents should be ashamed of them.” (Washington Post, Jan 7)

Trump was unique among presidents in his ability to bring out the worst in white America.  He will be gone in 13 days, but elements in the Republican Party that made Trump and his coup possible still remain, particularly the dog whistle appeals to racism that started with Nixon's Southern Strategy and the "massive election fraud" lies of more recent years.  Biden and a (hopefully*) Democratic Congress must address systemic racism, voter suppression and other domestic issues in the next two years, while they still hold a majority.  Doing so in the midst of a surging pandemic, an ongoing bifurcated recession and the Republican commitment to disenfranchisement will not be easy.   

*As I write this, Democrats Warnock and Ossoff are leading in the Georgia Senate runoffs.  The vote count continues there but has been delayed in Fulton County due to threats received yesterday while the Capitol was under siege.   

I resolve not to rage...

POSTED JANUARY 13, 2021

I am not a Stoic though sometimes I wish I were.   It is difficult not to rage over the events of Trump's final days and his egregious final executive orders and rule changes.   Raging does no good but taking action based on hope does.  Here are some belated New Year's resolutions and some hopes for better days.

Democracy endangered: talking up the Big Lie, playing down the insurrection

POSTED FEBRUARY 25, 2021

It's been an eventful week.  Congress held the confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland for Attorney General and its first hearing on the Capitol Insurrection.  

The confirmation hearing of Biden's nominee for Attorney General, Merrick Garland, was encouraging.  Merrick said that investigating the Capitol insurrection was his “first priority” and promised to “do everything in the power of the Justice Department” to stop domestic terrorism   He also noted that it was plain to him that systemic racism exists in our country's institutions and must be addressed.  It was a breath of fresh air and promised a marked contrast to the Trump DOJ.

Ending murder-by-the-state: Virginia abolishes the death penalty

POSTED MARCH 30, 2021

More than two-thirds of the world's nations have abolished the death penalty.  The United States is not among them.  In 2019, we ranked sixth in the number of executions behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt.  Among our allies, we are alone in these pre-meditated killings by the state.  Add to this, the unequal application of the death penalty to poor and African-American defendants, the execution of wrongfully convicted defendants, its failure as a deterrent, and the human rights [link below left] and moral [link below right] arguments against the death penalty, any progress towards abolishing it is to be celebrated.  

Last week, our nation came a step closer to ending this barbaric practice.  On March 24, Virginia became the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty.  Democratic Governor Ralph Northam signed the bills passed by the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates.  It marked a turnaround for Virginia, which executed nearly 1,400 people since its days as a colony.  In more recent times, the state is second only to Texas in the number of executions it has carried out (113) since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.  

The bills were the culmination of a years-long battle by Virginia Democrats who argued the death penalty has been applied disproportionately to people of color, the mentally ill and the poor. “There is no place today for the death penalty in this commonwealth, in the South or in this nation,” Northam said shortly before signing the legislation, adding that the death penalty has been disproportionately applied to Black people and is the product of a flawed judicial system that doesn’t always get it right. Since 1973, more than 170 people around the country have been released from death row after evidence of their innocence was uncovered. (Associated Press, Mar 24)

Besides the 23 states that have abolished the death penalty, three states (California, Oregon and Pennsylvania) have a governor-imposed  moratorium on executions. (Map above is from the Death Penalty Information Center.)  For the first time since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States, there are more states that have stopped executions than states that still execute.

In other death penalty news, on the positive side: 

• The movement to repeal capital punishment in Ohio has gained additional steam.  Ohio's former Republican Governor Robert Taft and former state attorneys general Jim Petro and Lee Fisher called on the Ohio state legislature to end the state’s death penalty.  In a March 9, 2021 guest column in The Columbus Dispatch, they called Ohio’s death-penalty system “broken, costly and unjust.” The capital punishment law they helped to adopt and enforce “fails to protect or aid us in any way. It is time to retire Ohio’s death penalty.” 

• The Georgia Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the uniquely high burden of proof the state imposes on capital defendants and death-row prisoners to determine whether they are ineligible for the death penalty because of intellectual disability. 

On the negative side:

• The Wyoming Senate voted down a bill that would have abolished the death penalty in that state.

• The United States Supreme Court has granted a Department of Justice request filed during the administration of President Donald Trump to review a federal appeals court decision that overturned the death sentences imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for his role in the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured more than 250 others. 

Joe Biden was the first candidate to campaign on a promise to abolish the death penalty and then go on to win the presidency.  Biden the candidate promised an end to the Federal death penalty and that he would offer incentives to the states to do likewise.  Biden still hasn’t spoken publicly about capital punishment since taking office four days after the Trump administration executed the last of 13 inmates at the penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, where federal death row inmates are held.  Halfway into his first hundred days, Biden still hasn't announced a federal death penalty moratorium.  Beyond that he also needs to commute the death sentences of remaining prisoners on death row to life without parole - otherwise in four years we will be right back where Trump left us.  He could start by having his Justice Department drop the Trump filing on the Boston Marathon attack.

An Earth Day pledge, an "American Jobs Plan," and a climate refugee bill

POSTED APRIL 23, 2021

On Earth Day, President Biden opened his virtual Climate Summit of world leaders by pledging to cut US CO2 emissions 50% from their 2005 peak by 2030.   It was the latest step in his effort to reverse Trump environmental policies and return the US to a global leadership role in the effort against global warming.  

Undoing Trump

From his first days in office, President Biden set out to correct the damage done by Trump in the environmental and energy areas - most notably signing an executive order to return the United States to the Paris Climate Accords within hours of his inauguration.  Other early executive orders put a freeze on new oil and gas leases on federal lands and offshore waters; directed agencies to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies; set a national goal of protecting 30% of America’s lands and oceans by 2030;  restored climate action as a matter of urgent national security and further commits the U.S. to help lead the global fight to combat the worsening threat; established a White House council on environmental justice; and created a Civilian Climate Corps; and directed federal agencies to decarbonize by buying carbon-free electricity and zero-emissions vehicles. (Huffington Post, Jan 27)

Much progress has been made but there is much left to do.   The Washington Post has been tracking President Biden's environmental actions, calling these moves "the start of what promises to be a much longer — and more arduous — effort to unwind the Trump administration’s sweeping environmental and energy policies, which were marked by aggressive deregulation, prioritizing the fossil-fuel industry and sidelining efforts to combat climate change or protect imperiled animals."

The American Jobs Plan

President Biden has proposed an eight-year, $2 trillion proposal for improving the nation's infrastructure and shifting to green energy.   One priority of the bill, called “The American Jobs Plan,” is to “tackle climate change with American jobs and American ingenuity.”  Strengthening our nation's infrastructure would, in Biden's words, “protect our community from billions of dollars of damage from historic super storms, floods, wildfires, droughts, year after year, by making our infrastructure more secure and resilient."  Experts estimate that as many as 1 million "green jobs" per year could be created.  Among the proposed green expenditures [link below left] :

- $174 billion to “win” the electric vehicle market globally. 

- $100 billion to “reenergize America’s power infrastructure,” which includes money to plug old oil and gas wells, to clean up abandoned mines and to build 10 facilities to demonstrate “carbon capture retrofits for large steel, cement, and chemical production facilities.”

Selling the American Jobs Plan to Congress will not be easy.   Much of the environmental improvement would come from the spending on infrastructure.  Senate Minority Leader McConnell called the plan costly and ineffective, and Senate Republicans led by McConnell have objected strongly to the idea of paying for much of it with tax increases on corporations.   The GOP counterproposal ($568 billion) is a fraction of the spending proposed by Biden.  

Selling the rest of the world that America is ready to lead in the fight against global warming may be even more difficult.  Immense damage was done to US credibility over the past four years due to Trump's abandonment of international agreements, including the Paris Climate Accords.  It will be difficult to recover.

Despite "aggressive pre-summit diplomacy" by US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, just two allies - Canada and Japan - raised their reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions.  Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, whose capital city is facing devastating flooding, said that developing nations could consider tightening their emissions targets if wealthier countries committed to more financial aid.  China's President Xi Jinping voiced a similar sentiment, noting the “common but differentiated responsibilities” included in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which put a greater financial burden on the countries historically most responsible for global warming. (Bloomberg Quint, April 23)

Climate Refugees 

A 2019 Brookings Institute policy brief examined the growing number of persons forced to move by “sudden onset” weather events—flooding, forest fires after droughts, and intensified storms.  As the effects of global warming intensify, these climate refugees will increase - the World Bank estimates that three regions (Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia) will generate 143 million more climate migrants by 2050.   The Brookings Institute warns that this global challenge "will continue to create a multitude of critical issues that the international community must confront."  Among the issues:

• Large-scale human migration due to resource scarcity, increased frequency of extreme weather events, and other factors, particularly in the developing countries in the earth’s low latitudinal band

• Intensifying intra- and inter-state competition for food, water, and other resources, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa

• Increased frequency and severity of disease outbreaks

• Increased U.S. border stress due to the severe effects of climate change in parts of Central America."

As the Climate Summit opened, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) and Representative Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-07) reintroduced legislation that would establish a national strategy to address global climate-driven displacement and provide the support needed to implement durable solutions for climate-displaced persons.  

A World Meteorological Organization report released Monday, April 19, estimated an average of 23 million climate refugees a year since 2010 and nearly 10 million recorded in the first six months of last year, especially in Asia and East Africa. Most moved within their own country.  No nation offers asylum or other legal protections to people displaced specifically because of climate change. Biden has ordered national security adviser Jake Sullivan to see how to identify and resettle people displaced directly or indirectly by climate change with a report due in August.  The idea still faces monumental challenges, including how to define a climate refugee when natural disasters, drought and violence are often intertwined in regions people are fleeing, such as Central America.  If the U.S. defined a climate refugee, it could mark a major shift in global refugee policy. (Associated Press, Apr 23 link below right)

Biden's Transformative Plans

POSTED MAY 10, 2021

As Republicans decry the extension of Trump's Facebook ban, hunt for ballots from China in a vote "audit" in Arizona, and prepare to strip power from Liz Cheney for telling the truth about the election and the insurrection, Joe Biden's presidency has passed its 100th day, and the term of the 117th Congress, in which the Democrats currently hold both houses, is one-sixth complete.   

Biden's campaign slogan was "Build Back Better."  The components of his "Build Back Better" program - the American Rescue Plan, the American Jobs Plan, and the American Families Plan - would be transformative.  They would reverse decades of Reaganomics "trickle down theory", which has left behind many Americans while increasing our nation's economic inequality.  

Some commentators have been comparing Biden to FDR and LBJ.  It's a bit premature.  Both Roosevelt and Johnson got legislation through Congress - that was what made their presidencies transformative.  Biden will need to do the same.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021

So far, the one legislative accomplishment of the 117th Congress has been the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.  Passed without a single Republican vote, it is a massive $1.9 trillion piece of legislation designed to facilitate the United States’ recovery from the devastating economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Democrats are hailing it as the largest anti-poverty in a generation with one study projecting the law will lift almost 14 million Americans out of poverty, including 5.7 million children.    [sidebar below - "The End of Trickle-Down Economics?"]

It is, in the words of former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, "the biggest expansion of government assistance since the 1960s − a guaranteed income for most families with children, raising the maximum benefit by up to 80% per child," adding that "more than 93% of the nation's children (69 million) receive benefits. Americans in the lowest quintile increase their incomes by 20%; those in the second-lowest, 9%; those in the middle, 6%...For years*, Republicans used welfare to drive a wedge between the white working middle class and the poor...Rather than pit the working middle class against the poor, [the American Rescue Plan] unites them."   

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 includes:

• Direct financial payments of $1400 for qualified individuals

• Extended unemployment benefits (Republicans jumped on the extension - $300 per week for an additional 29 weeks - as the reason April job creation fell below expectations)

• Additional funding for expiring moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures

• Increased food aid, an expanded child tax credit

• Tax relief on student loan forgiveness and block grants for child care, schools and colleges 

• Help for business including a new program, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund ($28.6 billion) and additional monies for the Paycheck Protection Program ($7.25 billion)

• Pandemic response funding including ~$50 billion for additional COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, $7.66 billion  to increase the size of the public health workforce and ~$16 billion for vaccine distribution and supply chains. 

• $350 billion in direct aid to states, cities, tribal governments, and U.S. territories

Every Republican in Congress voted against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.  It was only able to pass the Senate because of the reconciliation process. Their unanimous non-support for the bill has not prevented Congressional Republicans from promoting it as if they had something to do with it [sidebar below - "Republicans promote pandemic relief they voted against"]  

The remaining pieces of Build Back Better - the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan - have not been passed by Congress and may never be without an end to the filibuster.  Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has already said that the American Jobs Plan will not get a single Republican vote.  

Policing Reform: one year after the death of George Floyd

POSTED MAY 27, 2021

Last spring the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police set off waves of protest across the country and around the world.  All across the United States, there were calls for criminal justice system reform, particularly in police training, practices, and accountability.   It was one of the largest social movements in US history.  "Black Lives Matter" and "systemic racism" once again entered the national conversation.  As did "Defund the Police", a rather unfortunately chosen slogan to denote an excellent intention - moving moneys from, for example, military grade weaponry and over-policing into social programs aimed at mitigating the root causes of crime - such as poverty, mental illness, addiction, and the lack of educational and employment opportunities.

One year after the murder of George Floyd, some reforms have been enacted at the state and local level, but no national legislation has made it through the filibustering US Senate.

Among the state reforms [1], [link below]:

• Many states changed their use of force standards, often clarifying that deadly force is justified only as a last resort after exhausting all nonviolent options.  Some examples

  • Colorado banned the use of deadly force to apprehend or arrest a person suspected only of minor or nonviolent offenses.

  • Five states enacted restrictions or prohibitions on shooting at fleeing vehicles or suspects, a policy aimed at preventing deaths like that of Adam Toledo, a 13-year old shot by Chicago police during a foot chase

  • Nine states and DC enacted complete bans on chokeholds and other neck restraints while 8 states enacted legislation restricting their use to instances in which officers are legally justified to use deadly force

  • States also passed laws to restrict law enforcement’s use of less-lethal weapons such as rubber bullets, pepper spray, and tear gas during demonstrations.

• 12 states and DC have created a duty for law enforcement officers to intervene in cases of excessive or illegal force or misconduct, with penalties for officers who fail to do so ranging from discretionary decertification to criminal liability

• To remove officers who are deemed unfit to serve and more closely monitor the prevalence and types of police misconduct, at least 14 states enacted laws that established or strengthened law enforcement decertification processes, and 13 states added laws requiring law enforcement agencies to report misconduct data to the state.

Municipalities have also enacted police reform statutes in response to both George Floyd's and Breonna Taylor's deaths and police behavior during the protests that followed [2]:

• Louisville, Kentucky's Metro Council unanimously voted to ban "no-knock" search warrants.

• New York City announced it would disband NYPD's plainclothes anti-crime unit and now requires the NYPD to disclose what forms of surveillance technology officers use, and to report what rules are in place to protect personal data collected by officers.

• Houston directed its officers to wear body cameras while serving no-knock warrants and banned police use of neck restraints and chokeholds "unless objectively necessary to prevent imminent serious bodily injury or death to the officer or others."

• Seattle ordered officers to turn on body cameras during protests and banned tear gas and chokeholds by police. 

• Denver's police announced on June 7 that officers and SWAT units would turn on body cameras during "tactical operations," and officers need to report "if they intentionally point any firearm at a person." 

• Philadelphia's police commissioner placed a moratorium on tear gas and "other non-lethal methods," in response to videos of corralled protesters being tear gassed. 

• Dallas police officers were ordered by the city's police chief to intervene if another officer uses excessive force. 

• The Berkeley City Council voted to prohibit the use of tear gas. 

• San Francisco directed the city's police department to ban the use of tear gas, tanks and bayonets on unarmed civilians.

On the downside, "at least seven states passed laws in 2020 and early 2021 restricting the rights of protesters, joining 23 states that made similar moves between 2015 and 2019.  In Florida and Oklahoma the backlash to protests went so far that legislators passed bills protecting drivers who deliberately hit protesters with their vehicles from liability. From late May to early July 2020, at least 72 such incidents occurred, some involving police in law enforcement vehicles." [1]

On the national level, no legislation has yet been passed.  Tweaks to policing practices at state and local levels are not enough to address the most intractable problems in policing: racial profiling, use of excessive force, militarization of police culture and practice, and lack of accountability in cases of police misconduct. [1]

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, currently stalled in the Senate [link below], will address these issues.

On April 28, in his first address to a joint session of Congress, Biden asked the members to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act by the anniversary of Floyd's killing, May 25.  The bill proposes a host of reforms to community policing, including bans on discriminatory profiling based on race or religion, mandated use of dashboard cameras and bans on chokeholds, like the one used on Floyd. 

May 25 has come and gone.  Passed by the House in March with just a single Republican vote, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is now hung up in the Senate.  It will need 60 votes to pass, and Republicans have slowed its passage.  

Bipartisan negotiators have worked for weeks to tweak the House-passed George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, trying to win enough Republican support to get it through the Senate.  A provision to curb qualified immunity — which shields police officers from most civil lawsuits — poses the biggest remaining obstacle toward reaching a deal. (CNBC, May 24)

Related posts: Criminal Justice System Reform  (Oct 19, 2019, Nov 4, 2019, Nov 24, 2019)

References: [1] Brennan Center for Justice [2] Axios

Speaking truth: in praise of whistleblowers and journalists