Republican Ship Deserting Sinking Rat
David Finkel
January 13, 2021
January 13, 2021 — With the House of Representatives today debating an unprecedented second impeachment of a sitting President, this time with bipartisan support, fast-breaking events in the past week call for an update of our previous discussion of Grand Theft Election? It Could Happen Here.
Contrary to the typical pattern of a Trumpian outrage or incident of white-supremacist violence fading into the background noise, the aftermath of the January 6 mob assault on the Capitol has seen fast-breaking developments that focused popular as well elite attention on the extent of preparation and the enormity of what took place. The following points are only a brief interim followup.
1. The full reality of horrific violence and murderous intent of parts of the crowd have been exposed on video and in eyewitness accounts. Our previous article argued that this wasn’t properly an “insurrection” or “coup” — given the absence of either a mass popular movement or any support from the military or the state machinery. Yet many QAnon-intoxicated participants evidently thought they were involved in an “insurrection” with some mythical “plan” behind it. Others were mainly innocent folks out for a rebellious, masculinist good time wandering the Capitol halls — hence those self-incriminating selfies, live-streamed videos and social media posts which are now a treasure trove for investigators.
2. More important, by some combination of organized intent and spontaneous mass hysteria, the assault morphed into a serious lynch mob that murdered one Capitol police officer, injured many others and went hunting for leading politicians of both parties, including Trump’s loyal enabler Mike Pence and his family. At the core of the action, with threats of more to come, are the network of neo-Nazi, white-nationalist and militia groups joined together under the banner of the Trump cult.
This is what finally became a bridge-too-far for the U.S. ruling class…
Greens knew from the start that 2020 would be a tough year for their presidential ticket. The election would be a referendum on Trump. For most progressives, Anybody But Trump would do.
Our campaign believed that an ecosocialist program is needed for real solutions to the life-or-death issues of climate, inequality, racism, and war. We believed that the way to defeat the Trump Republicans was for the left to put forward its own program and not rely on the Democrats’ pallid centrism, which would...
In California the Richmond Progressive Alliance won another stunning victory in this month’s local elections.
Richmond is a working class city of 110,000, 80 percent people of color, north of Oakland on the San Francisco Bay. It is home to a major Chevron refinery that has been the focus of political battles about Chevron’s pollution, Chevron’s special tax considerations, and Chevron’s political involvement. The RPA’s 2014 election victory over Chevron’s $3 million campaign for city council...
On Wednesday January 6 a gaggle of armed fascists and white supremacists managed to break through four fences and a line of armed police to swarm into the Capitol Building . There was little likelihood of them achieving their goal, of changing the results of the election and preventing Joe Biden being confirmed as the next president. And if this episode does lead to key parts of the American political establishment throwing Donald Trump under the bus, then that will be a positive. But neither...
It Could Happen Here
JANUARY 7, 2021 — Much will be heard in coming weeks about the “strength and resilience of America’s democratic Constitutional institutions” in the face of the defeated president’s insistence on overturning the November election, and an attempted “insurrection” incited by Donald Trump. It’s reasonably safe to predict that the chaos surrounding the formal Congressional ratification of the Biden/Harris Electoral College victory won’t be repeated at the January...
As Joe Biden prepares to take the oath of office on January 20, how does this shape prospects for the U.S. Left in the years ahead?
Today’s Left is in an interesting place: strong enough for other forces to care about what it thinks and does, but too weak to shape political outcomes. Biden’s steady stream of conservative cabinet picks are but the latest reminder of this.
To be sure, there have been impressive campaigns and mobilizations in recent years, most notably the 2018-19 teachers’...
Failed beer hall putsch re-enactments aside, Donald Trump will be leaving the White House on January 20 if not sooner—at least for the next four years. The focus now shifts to the post-Trump world: what can we expect from the incoming Biden administration?
The short answer is “not much.” While lacking Trump’s predilection for outright nepotism and sycophancy, Biden clearly values personal loyalty, and has made his staffing choices accordingly. His transition team and cabinet picks are chock-full...
Call it a voter-suppression effort, ex post facto.
The attempt to remove Kshama Sawant from her seat on Seattle’s City Council through a recall petition is a blatant attack on the democratic rights of constituents — and on the emergence of a new socialist left as a current in American politics. Sawant is the public face of Socialist Alternative, one of numerous small Marxist organizations in the United States. But defending her from corporate and right-wing attack is an issue that everyone...
If there was ever policy debate in the 2020 United States presidential election it was about the response to the Covid-19 crisis. The difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden seemed stark. On one side was Trump, fully committed to the lie that the US was “rounding the corner” and the pandemic would soon be resolved without further restrictions. On the other side was Biden fully committed to “listening to scientists” without any clear indication of what that meant practically. There was...
The Trump regime exits amidst a flood of garbage lawsuits and a frenzy of last-minute sadistic federal executions, ecocidal border wall construction and oil-drilling auctions for priceless wildlife reserves, sporadic but menacing mob threats on election officials — and deliberate sabotage of the economy as tens of millions of people in the United States face prospects of hunger, eviction and pauperization.
“Help is on the way,” promise Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the incoming administration...
This we know for sure about Chicago ’68:
Mayor Richard J. “Boss/Big Dick” Daley was 100% responsible for the “police riots” at the pivotal Democratic Convention that helped elect Richard Nixon and prolong the war in Vietnam for an inexcusable 7 more years.
Daley did this by denying our Constitutional rights — some 15,000 of us, who came to “peaceably assemble” demanding a “redress of grievances” from the war’s prime perpetrators.
Had Daley acted with any sense or grace, he’d...
Twitter
YouTube
Facebook
RSS Feed