Biden's Brain is Fine; Israelis Complaining Biden is Blocking Genocide; Colorado Trump Ballot Case; Immigration is Growing the Economy- Duh!; Abortion under Trump; and the UAW Organizing Keeps Rolling
Roundup #6
Supreme Court Will Do Whatever They Feel Like on Whether to Remove Trump from the Ballot in Colorado
How a Trump Presidency Will Undermine Abortion Rights in Blue States- the Project 2025 Roadmap
Biden’s Brain is Fine - The Media is Not
Watch this extended 20-minute plus interview with Biden by ProPublica’s John Harwood - and the only takeaway is he's still incredibly sharp intellectually.
As someone whose mother-in-law died of dementia-related illness this Christmas break, there is nothing even slightly dementia-related indicated here.
Some suggest we can just parachute a 55-year old with the right politics to replace Biden. Aside from the magic of finding consensus on who that would be, within months of nominating such a magic candidate, their personal history of pedophilia and secret Communist-jihadist affiliations would be established to the satisfaction of Fox viewers.
The problem isn’t Biden, it’s the rightwing infrastructure of propaganda and disinformation that he discusses at length in the interview above.
Israeli Ministers are Publicly Complaining that Biden Stopped Genocide in Gaza
Israel’s mass murder in Gaza is horrific, but it is increasingly clear that it would have been orders of magnitudes worse without Biden forcing Israel to back away from their most extreme strategies- even clearer now than when I made The Case for Biden on Gaza in early January.
In this new Wall Street Journal piece, focused on rightwing Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the article makes clear that Joe Biden likely has saved more lives in Gaza than anyone else on earth. That argument comes directly in quotes from Ben-Gvir who states that the Israeli plan was to starve Gaza until they surrendered - and Biden blocked that plan:
"Ben-Gvir also said he thought the Biden administration was hampering Israel’s war effort and said he believed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would give Israel a freer hand to quash Hamas...
In an example of Ben-Gvir bucking conventional political norms, he expressed rare direct criticism of President Biden as a sitting cabinet member. Israel is heavily reliant on American defense aid.
“Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel [to Gaza], which goes to Hamas,” said Ben-Gvir, giving voice to popular sentiment among many right-wing Israelis. “If Trump was in power, the U.S. conduct would be completely different.”
Israeli officials initially signaled they would completely cut off food, water, electricity and fuel from the strip to force Hamas to surrender. But under pressure from the U.S. and with the humanitarian situation in the strip worsening, Israel has relented and now says it is trying to get as much aid into Gaza as it can, though, the United Nations says aid flowing into the enclave still isn’t sufficient.
Just last week, Biden put in place new sanctions against violent West Bank activists - an arm of the Israeli rightwing - and as advocate and scholar Udi Ofer argues, this highlights Biden’s commitment to moving to a two-state solution:
The entire framing of the EO is not only that settler violence is a serious threat to peace, but that it directly undermines the US's policy objective of a two-state solution, drawing a direct linkage between these actions on the ground and broader policy goals…
The United States government with new powerful tools to not only hold accountable settlers who engage directly in violent actions, but also people who have allowed for these conditions to take place, including past (and present) government officials. There is so much harmful rhetoric in Israel right now regarding the West Bank, including by party leaders and government officials, and now the United States government may take action against them with this EO.
But the EO goes even further. Buried at the end in Section 6, the EO also prohibits donations to people associated with these sanctions. Arguably this could also include their organizations. This is another great power created by this EO that can have wide impact on people who fund this violence.
It just frustrates me to no end that so much of the left's approach to the conflict, its political analysis, it's strategy and immediate tactics are so completely and utterly wrong and dangerous, picking tactics - protesting a funeral or a union convention - that alienate sympathetic allies while using rhetoric that assists Trump in taking office.
It makes clear that the "left" in the US attacking Biden are the Palestinians worst enemies. Rightwing Israelis know Trump would have given them a free hand for full genocide against the Palestinians.
It's just one of the worst self-destructive periods on the left in my lifetime that is endangering the lives and future of millions of Palestinians.
Supreme Court Will Do Whatever They Feel Like on Whether to Remove Trump from the Ballot in Colorado
My take (from early January) is that Trump should be able to run for President even if convicted. However, given that states under the Constitution can just skip Presidential elections altogether and have the state legislature choose Electors for a particular candidate, it seems weird that a state can't decide to take Trump off the ballot if they want.
In oral arguments, some of the judges worried about having inconsistency across states in who gets to appear on the ballot. But states are allowed to have vastly different rules for whether third party candidates are allowed on the ballot or not- and the courts do nothing about that. This is all handwaving by Justices (liberal & conservative) who will make up a legal justification to get whatever result they want.
Immigration is Growing the Economy- Duh!
In what should be obvious news, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the GDP of the United States is likely to grow more than previously expected because of new immigration.
It’s bizarre that in a country built on immigration, it is controversial to point out immigration helps the whole country by increasing growth and revenue for the govt. But CBO has the numbers on coming boost to GDP due to immigration.
The CBO makes clear that growh in the economy is under threat due to the aging population - and only immigration is offsetting that challenge and increasing the number of younger workers:
Higher population growth [in coming years], mainly from increased immigration, more than offsets a projected decline in the labor force participation rate because of slowing demand for workers and the aging of the population. A large pro- portion of recent and projected immigration is expected to include people in the prime working ages of 25 to 54… Despite relatively high participation rates among recent and projected immigrants, CBO expects the effects of the aging of the population to reduce the overall labor force participation rate from 62.7 percent in 2023 to 62.2 percent in 2027
You can see how small projected growth in the labor force is expected to be in the next ten years - and only immigration and increased labor productivity is counteracting that.
New immigrants paying taxes will also help pay for government services, contributing to a projected increase in revenues of about $1 trillion more than otherwise expected over the next ten-year period, according to CBO.
How a Trump Presidency Will Undermine Abortion Rights in Blue States- the Project 2025 Roadmap
Don’t forget how much rightwing policy Trump will be able to enact by executive order, including on banning abortion. Trump’s so-called Project 2025 calls for using the FDA to ban the abortion drug mifepristone,
Using the FDA to terminate access to abortion pills would be a major blow to abortion rights everywhere.
UAW Organizing Keeps Going- and the Videos Keep Coming
Majority of workers at VW's Chatanooga TN plant have signed union cards. Love the congrats in this video coming in from non-union auto plants all over the country, a great way to highlight the multi-company campaign under way.
You wrote: "It just frustrates me to no end that so much of the left's approach to the conflict, its political analysis, it's strategy and immediate tactics are so completely and utterly wrong and dangerous, picking tactics - protesting a funeral or a union convention - that alienate sympathetic allies while using rhetoric that assists Trump in taking office. It makes clear that the "left" in the US attacking Biden are the Palestinians worst enemies. Rightwing Israelis know Trump would have given them a free hand for full genocide against the Palestinians. It's just one of the worst self-destructive periods on the left in my lifetime that is endangering the lives and future of millions of Palestinians."
100% agree, Nathan.