17 November 20
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RSN: William Boardman | Trump's Not Conceding! No One Should Care!!
William Boardman, Reader Supported News
Boardman writes: "The era of Trump irrelevancy has dawned, and too many people are slow to see the light."
No matter what Trump has the nerve to do now, none of it is likely to matter much, since the man has so little real nerve. The presidential election is effectively over, and now we’re going through the formalities. So get Trump out of your head! He had no business being there in the first place.
Two important provisos: (1) Keep an eye on what he and his family steal between now and January. The Biden administration should be prepared to try to recover the millions (or billions) of ill-gotten Trump gains from public pockets. (2) And keep an eye on his destructive appointments and policies. For now, he can do whatever any president could do, but all of it (or most) can be easily reversed soon after January 20. The Biden administration has to have the will and the courage to make the undoing quick and thorough.
And there’s the greater problem: What level of grit do the Biden people have? How clear is their vision? Actually, what IS their vision? Is there any vision? “The soul of America” is not a vision. It’s not even a real thing. It’s feel-good, pious language garbage that takes no one anywhere. The “soul of America” is not a governing principle, it’s a deceitful conceit designed to mislead any observer into imposing any random meaning on value-free rhetoric. But that’s where we are, waiting to see what the next president and his team will do to define their idea of America’s soul.
They’re off to a bad start.
More than a week after Biden’s winning vote-count reached an irreversible (almost surely) level, Biden still hasn’t assumed a presidential demeanor. He IS the President-elect in every known reality. But he’s still acting more like the presidential-wannabe. What are the Biden people thinking, spending time and energy trying to rebut Trump’s various election-fraud claims? Those claims are a house of cards that have begun collapsing from their own insubstantiality. A presidential team would simply ignore them. When reporters ask about them, just ask back: What gives them any credibility? Get Trump out of your head!
The vote fraud scam is just another Trump distraction that draws focus away from the continuing criminality of the Trump administration and its effort to destroy as much of effective government as it can in the time it has left (see provisos above).
The Biden people need a counter-narrative, but they don’t even seem to be thinking in those terms, even though they have an excellent, reality-based counter-narrative staring them in their faces.
That would be voting. That would be the absence of voter fraud.
Right now the Biden transition team is mostly a figment of media imagination rather than an actual, organized, public entity. Transition news is scattershot, usually of unevaluated importance, with no central focus. No incoming president should want two months of political blur, dominated by his opponent, to precede his taking office. No doubt the Biden people know that perfectly well, but they’re still in the fuzzy wuzzy stage of development, and the longer it lasts the harder it will be to cure.
Voting is obviously the thing of the moment, and the Biden people haven’t taken advantage of that. Right now (late, but still not too late), the Biden people should be pushing back with their own narrative centered on having won the national vote by any rational assessment. The Trump administration reports that this “election was the most secure in American history.” There should be a daily Biden election report that covers the latest positive developments, that discusses state issues, and that undermines Trump’s claims, albeit obliquely, by citing facts without reference to Trump himself.
The effect of this Biden effort (should they undertake it) would be like a long-running seminar on a core element of a healthy American democracy (an aspect of its soul, if you will). There seems to be widespread popular ignorance about how our election system works. The Biden Voting Seminar, sustained at least through Congressional certification in January, would be a civics lesson carried into public consciousness by the Trojan Horse of phony controversy. A daily affirmation of specific instances where the system worked might actually have some impact over a two-month span. The credibility of this seminar would rest on its willingness to examine any and every slightly credible claim of irregularity, and even discussing the ones that turned out to be real even though the number of votes at stake was immaterial to the election outcome. By January, this seminar might well persuade most Americans that the integrity of our voting system is real. It might even cut into the impact that twenty years of dishonest Republican claims of voter fraud have had despite their lack of evidence. (Real voter fraud has taken the form of such Republican scams as voter caging, extreme gerrymandering, and voter suppression over the past 20 years).
The moral basis of a serious voting seminar – reinforcing voting integrity – is essentially unassailable, as long as the approach is factual, low key, honest, comprehensive, reality-based, and sustained. And the beauty part of this approach is that it requires no mention of Trump or any of his distractions, except perhaps on occasion, obliquely, to underline their meaninglessness. Structurally, in terms of the election, everything Trump is up to is irrelevant and best expressed by ignoring it. This should be happening now, it should have been happening at least since November 7, and it should continue till the process is complete.
Voting issues reach deep into other areas of serious concern. Voting issues are, among other things, issues of race, issues of economic inequality, and especially issues of truth in media. Biden could, if he would, lay out a new paradigm for both government and media honesty/accuracy/clarity. These are Big Picture issues. There’s little sign of Big Picture thinking among Bidenites, despite their many decent qualities. The assumption seems to be that America’s soul only needs to be restored, which is a mirror image of Trump thinking. Insofar as there is an American soul, it’s steeped in white supremacy and begs for transformation, not restoration.
The reality that the Biden team is not making transformative efforts is a horrible harbinger of future shortcomings. A conscientious continuing voting seminar is relatively easy. How will the Biden folks manage with the hard stuff?
William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV, print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
President-elect Joe Biden speaks to the media Monday in Wilmington, Delaware. The General Services Administration hasn't given Biden's team the resources yet that a presidential transition team traditionally receives. (photo: Joe Raedle/Getty)
'More People May Die' Without Smooth Transfer of Power and Vaccination Plan, Biden Says
Bailey Aldridge, McClatchy DC
Aldridge writes: "The Biden-Harris transition team has moved forward with the transfer of power process."
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (photo: Paul Snacka/AP)
AOC Is Standing Up for the Left
Lichi D'Amelio, Jacobin
D'Amelio writes: "The party's leaders, rather than taking the opportunity to do some much-needed soul-searching, are focusing their crosshairs on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and the party's left wing."
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A small memorial decorates a lamppost near where a 17-year-old shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, two supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August. (photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Getty)
Facebook Has a Rule to Stop Calls to Arms. Moderators Didn't Enforce It Ahead of the Kenosha Shootings.
Ryan Mac and Craig Silverman, BuzzFeed
Excerpt: "In August, following a Facebook event at which two protesters were shot and killed in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Mark Zuckerberg called the company's failure to take down the event page asking militant attendees to bring weapons 'an operational mistake.'"
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One of the companies involved in selling location data says it tracks 25 million devices inside the U.S. every month and 40 million elsewhere. (photo: Getty)
Report: US Military Buys Location Data of Popular Muslim Apps
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "The US military is purchasing private information gathered from apps around the world, including several used by Muslims that have been downloaded nearly 100 million times, a news report says."
An investigation by the online magazine Motherboard found the US military was procuring location data from several popular apps, including Muslim Pro.
An investigation by the online magazine Motherboard published on Monday found the US Special Operations Command was procuring location data from several companies.
The most popular app among those targeted was a Muslim prayer and Quran app called Muslim Pro, with more than 98 million downloads worldwide. Others included a Muslim dating app.
Based on public records, interviews with developers, and technical analysis, the Motherboard investigation noted some companies obtain app location data when advertisers pay to insert their ads into peoples’ browsing sessions.
The US military confirmed the news report.
“Our access to the software is used to support Special Operations Forces mission requirements overseas,” Navy Commander Tim Hawkins was quoted as saying. “We strictly adhere to established procedures and policies for protecting the privacy, civil liberties, constitutional and legal rights of American citizens.”
‘US military customers’
One of the companies involved in selling the location data, X-Mode, has said it tracks 25 million devices inside the United States every month and 40 million elsewhere – including in the European Union, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Motherboard installed the Muslim Mingle dating app onto an Android phone and watched as it repeatedly sent exact geolocation coordinates along with the WiFi network name to X-Mode.
The investigation found other apps relaying location data include a step-counter app called Accupedo, the weather app Global Storms, and CPlus for Craigslist.
US Senator Ron Wyden told Motherboard that X-Mode also admitted selling data it collected to other “US military customers”.
The company defended the practice.
“X-Mode licenses its data panel to a small number of technology companies that may work with government military services, but our work with such contractors is international and primarily focused on three use cases: counter-terrorism, cyber-security and predicting future COVID-19 hotspots,” X-Mode told the online magazine.
A demonstrator tries to stop clashes during an anti-government protest as lawmakers debate on constitution change, outside the parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, November 17, 2020. (photo: Arhit Perawongmetha/Reuters)
More Than 40 Injured by Live Ammunition and Teargas in Thailand's Pro-Democracy Protests
Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat, Reuters
Excerpt: "At least 41 people were hurt, some with gunshot wounds, when demonstrators marching on the Thai parliament clashed with police and royalist counter-protesters, in the worst violence since a new youth-led protest movement emerged in July."
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Law enforcement and fire personnel wait on the Enterprise Bridge during the Bear fire in Oroville, California, on 9 September. (photo: Josh Edelson/Getty)
What a Republican Senate Really Means for the Climate
Emily Holden, Guardian UK
Holden writes: "Climate advocates rejoicing at Joe Biden's presidential victory are also quietly absorbing the blow of Republicans possibly keeping control of the US Senate - which would kneecap significant efforts to fight globe-heating pollution."
Spending on green infrastructure likely under Biden, but any hopes for climate requirements for businesses much farther off
If Joe Biden is president and Congress is still divided, there will probably still be large-scale spending on green infrastructure, like renewable power, electric vehicles and transit. But any hopes for climate requirements for businesses, like a clean energy standard, would feel much farther off.
Publicly, environmental groups have claimed success, saying this election was the most focused on climate of any in history and that Biden’s plan is solid. Privately, they know that much hinges on the two undecided Senate seats in Georgia, which will decide whether Republicans or Democrats have a majority.
“Even though there might be obstructionism coming from Republican leadership in the Senate, we think that there will be many opportunities for Democrats and Republicans to come together to pass strong legislation,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club.
“Everything doesn’t start and stop with the US Congress. In order to win on climate change we will need to continue to see leadership everywhere across society, in our schools, in our private sector, in our states across the country,” he added.
If Biden could convince Congress to spend $1.7tn on a green recovery, that would reduce US emissions in the next 30 years by about 75 gigatonnes, avoiding a temperature rise of 0.1C by 2100, according to the Climate Action Tracker. That may seem small, but it could significantly lessen the harms of the climate crisis and also encourage pollution reductions in other nations. Already the world is more than 1C hotter than before industrialization. International agreements aim to keep that to 1.5C to 2C.
Outside of Congress, Biden could pursue climate progress with agency regulations – stopping new oil and gas drilling on public lands, tightening air pollution rules that will also help with climate change and backing out of Donald Trump’s fight with California over standards for cars.
But those measures are likely to be challenged by industry and could ultimately make their way to a final decision by the conservative supreme court, which Trump and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, were able to lock in weeks before the election. Plus, the new president could for some time have his hands full just reversing Trump’s cuts to environmental protection.
Pushing for emissions reductions through executive authority could also make moderate Republicans less likely to support bipartisan efforts.
Even some Democrats could be hesitant to significantly increase the federal deficit for the purpose of climate stimulus spending, said Ben Pendergrass, senior director of government affairs for Citizens Climate Lobby.
While a progressive Green New Deal is not in the cards, inaction also won’t be tolerable for most lawmakers, Pendergrass said. He believes people who care about climate change “should view this as an opportunity”.
Under a moderate president who is concerned about climate change, Republicans could have more space to support the expansion of renewable energy and green infrastructure, even if they won’t vote to penalize fossil fuels.
“We really need bipartisan dialogue and cooperation on climate to create lasting solutions,” Pendergrass said.
Biden’s first climate work will be through stimulus funds aimed at lifting the economy out of the pandemic downturn. Climate change is one of four crises spotlighted on his government transition website, along with the pandemic, the economic recovery and racial equity. The focus of the Biden climate plan is to “create union jobs by tackling the climate crisis,” the website says.
Rhiana Gunn-Wright, climate policy director at the liberal thinktank the Roosevelt Institute, said every dollar of stimulus funding will either help or hurt climate action.
“Even things that are very good for people are not necessarily carbon neutral because they’re going to spend that money on gasoline, on power that’s coal-fired and natural-gas-fired. And that’s not their fault,” Gunn-Wright said.
Fossil fuel companies have sought and claimed about $5.8bn in pandemic assistance, according to her group. Easy-to-fund, shovel-ready projects like expanding highways threaten to lock in emissions.
Wright said although a stimulus package will not include big decarbonization measures, like additional legal authorities for agencies, it will be a significant start.
“There are a number of big new laws we’re going to need,” she said.
Kate Larsen, a director at the economic research firm Rhodium Group, said a Democratic majority in the Senate would be critical to getting a good portion of the way toward the goals the US agreed to in the international Paris climate agreement, but without that majority, stimulus spending is the “fastest way a Biden administration can jumpstart clean energy efforts”.
The firm found the US spent just 1.1% of its stimulus dollars on green measures. The EU and its member countries, by comparison, spent 18.8% on pro-environment efforts.
Many states and businesses too will be trying to reduce their climate footprints, although some are clinging to a fossil-fuel based economy. Democrats saw losses in state legislatures that will probably hamper climate efforts.
A Biden administration could aim to help states cut emissions, but the pandemic has critically injured already weak state budgets and resources.
A group representing state clean air officials in October stressed the importance of getting “significant increases in federal grant funding” to protect public health. The National Association of Clean Air Agencies represents the state departments that regulate the pollution that makes people sick and also causes climate change.
Paula DiPerna, a special adviser to CDP (the Carbon Disclosure Project), said businesses are more likely to be on board with climate action because they have suffered from the lack of regulatory continuity and certainty that comes from the pendulum swing of American elections.
“If you marry the climate change challenge with the infrastructure improvement, I think you have a trigger for economic recovery. That’s Biden’s strength,” DiPerna said.
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