Maybe it’s wishful thinking to declare the pandemic over in the US, and presumptuous to conclude what lessons we’ve learned. So consider this a first draft.
Tag: Robert Reich
Most Republican voters believe him. It is natural to want to put all this unpleasantness behind us. We are finally turning the corner on the pandemic and the economy. Why look back to the trauma of the 2020 election? Because we cannot put it behind us. Trump’s big lie and all that it has provoked are still with us. If we forget what has occurred the trauma will return, perhaps in even more terrifying form.
Source: Republicans Tried to Overturn the Election. We Must Not Forget. | The Smirking Chimp
America prefers to look forward rather than back. We’re a land of second acts. We move on. This can be a strength. We don’t get bogged down in outmoded traditions, old grudges, obsolete ways of thinking. We constantly reinvent. The downside is a tendency toward collective amnesia about what we’ve been through, and a corresponding reluctance to do anything about it or hold anyone accountable.
Source: Republicans tried to overturn the election. We can’t just forget that | Robert Reich | The Guardian
By almost any measure, Joe Biden’s first 100 days have been hugely successful. Getting millions of Americans inoculated against COVID-19 and beginning to revive the economy are central to that success.
Source: Biden’s First 100 Days and the GOP’s First 100 Days Without Trump | The Smirking Chimp
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos want to colonize outer space to save humanity, but they couldn’t care less about protecting the rights of workers here on earth. Musk’s SpaceX just won a $2.9 billion NASA contract to land astronauts on the moon, beating out Bezos. The money isn’t a big deal for either of them. Musk is worth $179.7 billion. Bezos, $197.8 billion. Together, that’s almost as much as the bottom 40 percent of Americans combined. And the moon is only their stepping-stone. Musk says SpaceX will land humans on Mars by 2026 and wants to establish a colony by 2050. Its purpose, he says, will be to ensure the continued survival of our species. “If we make life multiplanetary, there may come a day when some plants and animals die out on Earth but are still alive on Mars,” he tweeted.
Source: Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk: Uncaring Billionaires Lost in Space | The Smirking Chimp
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People around the world witnessing the fragility of American democracy “want to see whether our democracy is resilient, whether we can rise to the challenge here at home. That will be the foundation for our legitimacy in defending democracy around the world for years to come.” That resilience and legitimacy will depend in large part on whether Republicans or Democrats prevail on voting rights. Not since the years leading up to the Civil War has the clash between the nation’s two major parties so clearly defined the core challenge facing American democracy.
The Bigot Party | The Smirking Chimp
The most dramatic change in American capitalism over the last half century has been the emergence of corporate behemoths like Amazon and the simultaneous shrinkage of organized labor. The resulting imbalance has spawned near-record inequalities of income and wealth, corruption of democracy by big money, and the abandonment of the working class.
Bessemer and the Power Shift | The Smirking Chimp
A quarter century ago, I and other members of Bill Clinton’s cabinet urged him to reject the Republican’s proposal to end welfare. It was too punitive, we said, subjecting poor Americans to deep and abiding poverty. But Clinton’s political advisers warned that unless he went along, he jeopardized his reelection.
How Bidenomics Unites America | The Smirking Chimp
In 1963, when the newly sworn in Lyndon Baines Johnson was advised against using his limited political capital on the controversial issue of civil and voting rights for Black Americans, he responded: “Well, what the hell’s the presidency for?”
Biden’s no LBJ but he must protect voting rights. What else is the presidency for? | US voting rights | The Guardian
As the Trump Party takes over the GOP, anti-Trump Republicans are abandoning the party in droves – thereby weakening it for general elections while simultaneously strengthening Trump’s hand inside it. It’s great news for Democrats and Joe Biden.
Why Trump’s Takeover of the GOP is Great for Biden and the Democrats (but a Potential Disaster for America) | The Smirking Chimp
Texas’s prevailing social Darwinism was expressed most succinctly last week by the mayor of Colorado City, who accused his constituents – trapped in near sub-zero temperatures and complaining about lack of heat, electricity, and drinkable water – of being the “lazy” products of a “socialist government,” adding “I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!” and predicting “only the strong will survive and the weak will perish.”
The Freedom to Freeze | The Smirking Chimp
This week’s Senate trial is unlikely to convict Donald Trump of inciting sedition against the United States. At least 17 Republican senators are needed for conviction, but only five have signaled they’ll go along.
The Monstrous Predicament Trump Left Behind | The Smirking Chimp
If there were ever a time for bold government, it is now. Covid, joblessness, poverty, raging inequality and our last chance to preserve the planet are together creating an existential inflection point.
Why Republicans Won’t Agree to Biden’s Big Plans and Why He Should Ignore Them | The Smirking Chimp
The sudden lurch from Trump to Biden is generating vertigo all over Washington, including the so-called fourth branch of government – CEOs and their army of lobbyists.
CEOs’ Newfound Concern for Democracy is Bunk | The Smirking Chimp
This Republican party traffics in conspiracy and thuggery – the new president must be bold on healthcare, equality and more
Biden cannot govern from the center – ending Trumpism means radical action | Joe Biden | The Guardian
Call me old-fashioned, but when the president of the United States encourages armed insurgents to breach the Capitol and threaten the physical safety of Congress, in order to remain in power, I call it an attempted coup.
Accountability for the Attempted Coup | The Smirking Chimp
I’ve been in or around politics for over a half century now, and I never imagined how low and looney the Republican Party would become. Eleven Republican senators and senators-elect said today they will vote to reject President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory next Wednesday when Congress meets to formally certify it.
Sedition! | The Smirking Chimp
Sun 3 Jan 2021 17.00 AEDT Last modified on Mon 4 Jan 2021 06.29 AEDT 3,054 361 If America learns nothing else from these dark times, here are seven lessons it should take from 2020:
Healthcare to the electoral college: seven ways 2020 left America exposed | Coronavirus | The Guardian
About the only good thing that can be said about 2020 is that it’s over. It was an annus horribilis. COVID took the lives of more than 340,000 Americans, about 1 out of every 1,000 of us. Over 22 million of us lost our jobs in March and April, and unemployment is again surging. The trend of fatal police shootings increased this year, with a total 864 civilians having been shot, 192 of whom were Black (as of December 1, 2020, the latest data available). Climate change has worsened. The U.S. suffered an extraordinary 12 hurricane landfalls in 2020, smashing previous records. California had the worst wildfire season ever, burning a staggering 4.1 million acres. The President of the United States made all these crises worse. He played down and lied about COVID. He condemned Black Lives Matter protesters and encouraged right-wing violence. He made the climate crisis worse than it might have been by rejecting climate science and rolling back environmental protections.
Good Riddance to a Terrible Year | The Smirking Chimp
Most of the 74,222,957 Americans who voted to reelect Donald Trump – 46.8 percent of the votes cast in the 2020 presidential election – don’t hold Trump accountable for what he’s done to America. Their acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy.
Trump’s Vilest Legacy | The Smirking Chimp
Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding a wrecking ball to American democracy
Americans’ acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy | Donald Trump | The Guardian
Hidden in the bill combining Covid relief and government spending is a cool $200 billion in tax breaks. An estimated $120 billion of those tax breaks will go to the richest 1 percent of Americans. Those giveaways include:
How the Richest 1 Percent Came Out Big Winners in the Covid Relief Bill | The Smirking Chimp
A new study confirms tax cuts for the rich do not benefit the rest. Recovery from the pandemic is a chance to change course
Trickle-down economics doesn’t work but build-up does – is Biden listening? | US economy | The Guardian
We need an informed public that sees through the poisonous myth billionaires want us to believe: that income is a measure of your market worth
To reverse inequality, we need to expose the myth of the ‘free market’ | Opinion | The Guardian
Now America is being subject to a stress test to see if it has enough strength to withstand Trump’s treacherous campaign to discredit the 2020 presidential election. Trump will lose because there’s no evidence of fraud. But the integrity of thousands of people responsible for maintaining American democracy is being tested as never before.
Profiles in Cowardice | The Smirking Chimp
A low-income American earning $35,000 this year would be earning $61,000. A college-educated worker now earning $72,000 would be earning $120,000. Overall, the grotesque surge in inequality that began 40 years ago is costing the median American worker $42,000 per year. The upward redistribution of $47 trillion wasn’t due to natural forces. It was contrived. As wealth accumulated at the top, so did political power to siphon off even more wealth and shaft everyone else.
Who Wins from Trump’s Final Travesty? | The Smirking Chimp
In other words, despite zero evidence of voter fraud, the GOP should attack the outcome of the election because a Democrat was elected president
Can Biden Heal America when Trump and his Allies Don’t Want it Healed? | The Smirking Chimp
You’ve been in or around politics for more than 50 years. How are you feeling about Tuesday’s election? I’m more frightened for my country than I’ve ever been. Another four years of Donald Trump would be devastating. Nonetheless, I suspect Biden will win.
FAQs About What’s Ahead | The Smirking Chimp
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