Joe Biden has seven months to beat Donald Trump, the known adulterer and compulsive liar who has been found liable for sexual assault and fraud and is accused of at least 88 felonies, including the misuse of business assets to cover up adulterous affairs before the 2016 election.
Most of these character flaws — and more — were known before Trump’s election in 2016, but they were not enough to stop the grifter and “reality” TV celebrity from winning the election through the Electoral College, as enough disgruntled progressives in swing states either sat out the election or voted for Green candidate Jill Stein to deny Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton the election, with a vacant Supreme Court seat to be filled.
Trump filled that vacant Supreme Court seat with right-winger Neil Gorsuch in 2017. Then he named Brett Kavanaugh to replace moderate conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2018. And conservative Amy Coney Barrett replaced liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Sept. 18, 2020. The Republican-led Senate rushed Barrett’s confirmation, giving the Big Lie Party a 6-3 majority to overturn progressive achievements from the 20th century.
John Nichols, associate editor of the Madison, Wis., Capital Times, noted in The Nation April 4 that Trump has very real problems in the battleground state of Wisconsin, which he won in 2016 by roughly 22,000 votes, in what may have been a high-water mark for MAGA Republicans. Democrats won the governorship and every other statewide office in 2018, then Biden beat Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes, which Trump never conceded, fighting the results in court and demanding a recount, and losing both ways, but he continues to insist he was robbed.
In the April 2 Wisconsin primary, Biden faced an organized challenge from activists who object to his policies regarding support of Israel in Gaza. The effort to get voters to cast ballots for an “uninstructed delegation” option, in order to send a message to Biden, was backed by a number of Democratic state legislators and local officials, as well as groups such as Our Revolution, Progressive Democrats of America, Democratic Socialists of America, Voces de la Frontera Action, and Jewish Voice for Peace Action.
On the Republican side, all of Trump’s challengers had suspended their campaigns. Hence the victory lap, with a Trump rally in Green Bay April 2 before the polls were closed.
Turnout for the primary was roughly equivalent, with both sides drawing close to 600,000 voters. By any reasonable measure, Trump should have gotten the higher popular vote and the higher percentage of the total, Nichols noted. But that didn’t happen.
Biden won 511,845 votes, with almost all the ballots counted, to 476,355 votes for Trump. Though their names appeared on different ballot lines for their respective primaries, that’s still a margin of more than 35,000-votes—far better than Trump’s in 2016, or Biden’s in 2020, Nichols noted.
Biden also is doing better in polls of seven key battleground states, Nichols noted. A Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll March 26 showed Biden leading by 1 point in Wisconsin and tied in Michigan and Pennsylvania in head-to-head matches, but Trump leads by 2 in Nevada, 5 in Arizona, 6 in North Carolina and 7 in Georgia.
When Robert Kennedy Jr., Cornell West and Jill Stein are included in the poll, the results are complicated, showing Trump leading by 2 points in Wisconsin, and 4 points in Pennsylvania but still tied in Michigan. Trump leads by 6 in Arizona, 7 in Georgia, 6 in Nevada and 5 in North Carolina. But the Big Liar still faces at least 88 felony charges in four jurisdictions, including New York on April 15.
To overtake Trump, Biden should distance himself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, who has abused Biden’s trust in pursuing revenge against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, regardless of the casualties among civilian residents of Gaza.
Biden was right to pledge support for Israel after Hamas and other Palestinian militant commandos broke the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza Oct. 7, 2023, by crossing a largely unguarded border to kill more than 1,000 people in Israel, most of them civilians, including participants in a music festival. The Gazans took approximately 250 hostages, including women, children and elderly people, with the stated goal to force Israel to exchange them for imprisoned Palestinians.
Biden assured Israelis that the US would continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself against a movement that aspires to wipe the Jewish state off the map “from the river to the sea,” but Biden warned Netanyahu not to give in to the demand for revenge.
Biden cautioned Israel against getting bogged down in Gaza, as the US did in Iraq and Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
“Justice must be done,” Biden said Oct. 18 in Tel Aviv. “But I caution this: While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it … After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”
Biden’s pleas fell on deaf ears. Netanyahu ordered bombing of population centers, with the stated intention of hitting Hamas personnel who were embedded with the civilian population. He also shut off electricity, water, fuel and food distribution in Gaza.
Over the past six months, the war has cost the lives of more than 33,000 Palestinians, including more than 13,000 children and 8,400 women, Al Jazeera reported. More than 75,000 have been injured, and more than 8,000 are reported missing. The casualties include more than 300 aid workers, including seven World Central Kitchen workers killed by Israeli missile strikes April 1.
In the US, Muslim and Arab populations have turned sharply against Biden. Despite being a part of Biden’s 2020 winning coalition, particularly in Michigan, they have been vial to the success of the ‘uncommitted campaign’ during the 2024 presidential primaries, which has sent strong signals that Biden has a realistic chance of losing the election in several battleground states in November 2024 if his administration does not shift its unwavering support for Israel.
Ironically, if Arabs sit out the election, it could put Trump back in the White House, who has been an ally of Netanyahu and has urged Israel to finish off the war to avoid bad “optics.” Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, praised the potential value of waterfront property in Gaza if Israel could move the Gazans into the Negev desert.
Biden already has gotten Israeli officials to approve the reopening of the Erez crossing between Israel and northern Gaza to allow more aid to reach starving Palestinians. He reportedly threatened to condition the transfer of weapons to Israel on limiting civilian casualties. He should demand that Israel restore water, electricity, food and fuel supplies in Gaza. Israel must negotiate a ceasefire that returns hostages. And Israel must replace Netanyahu, who has shown he can’t be trusted as an ally. — JMC
From The Progressive Populist, May 1, 2024
Blog | Current Issue | Back Issues | Essays | Links
About the Progressive Populist | How to Subscribe | How to Contact Us
Tar Heel trauma: Strange times, stranger candidates
EDITORIAL
Throttle Bibi to beat Trump
FRANK LINGO
State of the planet 2024
DON ROLLINS
Oxymorons and why the Dems need ‘em after all
RURAL ROUTES/Margot McMillen
CAFOs slim down, but that’s not good news is rural areas
DISPATCHES
US is still at ‘full employment,’ ‘crisis at border’ appears to have little impact on natives.
Immigrants are pretty law-abiding people.
Supermajority of Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama file for UAW vote.
Economy has done better under Democrats for 75 years, report finds.
RFK Jr. official admits goal is to elect Trump.
Campaigners cheer FCC plan to restore net neutrality rules.
New Biden plan for student debt relief ...
ART CULLEN
Back from the spiritual desert
ALAN GUEBERT
Another $1 billion to refinance status quo won’t stop ag pandemics
ASHLEY DINES
Rents are unaffordable nationwide. A renter’s tax credit would help.
JOHN YOUNG
If Donald Trump is a Christian
JAMES EGGERT
We are all socialists (and capitalists too)
DICK POLMAN
If you or I depicted the president kidnapped and hog-tied...
LES LEOPOLD
Can you slam Wall Street and still win an election? Ask Sherrod Brown
DAVID McCALL
A new shipbuilding era
SAM PIZZIGATI
Meet the secretive rich funding efforts to keep others poor
ROBERT KUTTNER
How Republicans screw workers
BRIAN CARSS
Making ends meet is hard enought without a penalty for coming up short
SONALI KOLHATKAR
Corporate profiteering destroyed the Baltimore bridge
THOM HARTMANN
The early days of Fox: Losing money to gain political power
HANK KALET
Ill-defining antisemitism: IHRA definition will chill speech and academic freedom
MARIAH MONTGOMERY
‘Gaslighting and greed’: How Uber overcharges riders and underpays drivers
HEALTH CARE/Joan Retsinas
Opill: A victory for women (and their male partners)
SAM URETSKY
Be very afraid of Republican ‘reforms’
PAUL ARMENTANO
State-level marijuana legalization has been a stunning success
WAYNE O’LEARY
Democrats bite the bullet
JOEL D. JOSEPH
The end of recessions in the United States?
GENE NICHOL
The arrogance of unaccountable power
JAMIE STIEHM
A key to Baltimore’s broken heart
SETH SANDRONSKY
Walk this way: Reviewing Anne Braden’s letters, speeches and writings
RALPH NADER
Is the same old Democratic Party ready to correct course? In time?
STEPHEN TRIMBLE
Culture wars and an embattled Utah monument
ROB PATTERSON
Bradley Cooper’s Bernstein
SATIRE/Rosie Sorenson
Golden boy
FILM REVIEW/Ed Rampell
New left ex-fugitive lived underground after prison shootout
From The Progressive Populist, May 1, 2024
Blog | Current Issue | Back Issues | Essays | Links
About the Progressive Populist | How to Subscribe | How to Contact Us
Donald Trump’s promoters are now asking “Are you better off today than you were four years ago,” when Trump was in office. Seriously?
By almost any objective standard, the US is in much better shape today than it was when Joe Biden took office in January 2021.
Trump inherited a healthy economy from Barack Obama, who led the recovery from the recession George W. Bush left him in 2009. Trump took a 4.5% unemployment rate and rode it for three years until the COVID-19 pandemic hit the US in early 2020. Nonfarm employment fell by 1.4 million jobs in March 2020 and a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April, a loss of 22 million jobs that largely erased the gains from a decade of job growth, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted in March. Unemployment was 6.3% in January 2021, the gross domestic product had dropped 3.5% during 2020, grocery shelves were empty as supply chain problems made everything from toilet paper to computer chips hard to find.
The British medical journal The Lancet in February 2021 blamed Trump for an error-filled response to the coronavirus pandemic that analysts said contributed to 40% more deaths compared to other wealthy countries.
Trump undermined science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he pulled the US out of the World Health Organization, and cast doubt on the public use of masks, among other things..
“Instead of galvanising the US populace to fight the pandemic, President Trump publicly dismissed its threat (despite privately acknowledging it), discouraged action as infection spread, and eschewed international cooperation.”
“His refusal to develop a national strategy worsened shortages of personal protective equipment and diagnostic tests,” it added. “President Trump politicised mask-wearing and school reopenings and convened indoor events attended by thousands, where masks were discouraged and physical distancing was impossible.”
During his first year, Biden got COVID vaccinations distributed throughout the country, which slowed the spread of the virus and helped people get back to work and school. He also helped clear up the supply chain problems and got Americans back to work.
All those jobs lost during Trump’s last year have been recovered under Biden, plus 423,00 manufacturing jobs that have been created since passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021.
Inflation spiked from a 1.4% annualized rate when Biden took office to more than 6%, but it has settled back to 3.2%, much of which is caused by corporate profiteering, which Republicans have shown little interest in checking. And real wages (adjusted for inflation) are up, with particular gains at the low end of the income scale.
Despite Republican claims that crime has run out of control under Biden, a recent FBI report noted that crime actually declined significantly in 2023, continuing a post-pandemic trend.
The fourth-quarter 2023 numbers showed a 13% decline in murder in 2023 from 2022, a 6% decline in reported violent crime and a 4% decline in reported property crime, based on data from around 13,000 law enforcement agencies, policing about 82% of the US population.
NBC News noted that the drop in crime does not appear to be understood by most Americans. A Gallup poll in December found that 77% of Americans believe crime rates are worsening.
And this all happened after Trump failed in his attempt to reject the election results and resisted the transferof power. Trump and his allies tried to persuade Republican state officials in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to reject Biden’s victories in those states, he was recorded on a phone call trying to bully Georgia state officials into finding 11,780 more ballots to put him ahead of Biden in that key state, and Trump incited an insurrection at the Capital in an apparent attempt to interrupt the certification of the election on Jan. 6. More than 2,000 “tourists,” pushed past police lines to enter the Capitol, in what the Republican National Commisttee later called “legitimate political discourse.” Much vandalism and looting followed, 174 police officers were injured and damages exceeded $2.7 million. In the past three years, 1,200 of the “tourists” have been charged with federal crimes relating to the attack. As of December 2023, 745 defendants have been found guilty and sentenced. Trump has said they are hostages, whom he would pardon if he makes it back into the White House, after a year in which he has been found liable in New York State courts for sexual assault and civil fraud.
A New York appeals court on March 25 reduced the amount of bail Trump must post to proceed with his appeal of the $454 million civil fraud judgment imposed on Trump and his business associates, including his sons, for lying about the Trump Organization’s assets to qualify for lower interest rates on loans. The court gave Trump 10 days to put up $175 million, to prevent New York Attorney General Leticia James from seizing his assets during his appeal. Trump also posted $91.6 million bond in the defamation case he lost to E. Jean Carroll.
Some of our progressive friends were dismayed that James wasn’t allowed to seize Trump Tower as her first prize, but she can wait. Unlike the thousands of contractors who were forced to take Trump to court to pay them for their work, only to be forced to settle for cents on the dollar as the unscrupulous developer starved them out, James and the state of New York can carry the case until Trump’s appeals are judged groundless.
Trump, who displayed contempt for New York state Judge Arthur Engoron throughout the trial, has claimed he has almost $500 million in cash, but he accused James and Engoron of seeking “to take the cash away so I can’t use it on the campaign.” Apparently, he has not heard the old adage, “If you can’t pay the fine, don’t do the crime.” And, with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg prepared to start prosecuting Trump in his hush money criminal trial on April 15, Trump may be testing the corrolary, “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”
Trump faces trial in April on 34 felony charges that he falsified his company’s business records to cover up payments his lawyer made before the 2016 election to porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, to keep them quiet about extramarital encounters with Trump years earlier, as well as a Trump Tower doorman who claimed Trump fathered a child out of wedlock. Trump is known to have cheated on all three of his wives, which is not illegal, but falsifying business records to cover it up is illegal in New York, and covering it up for election purposes is a federal crime, for which Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, went to prison in 2018. Trump let Cohen take the fall, but Trump’s Department of Justice chose not to prosecute the new president. Federal prosecutors said in court filings Trump directed Cohen to make the payments, though they referred to him in court filings as “Individual 1,” not by name.
The New York grand jury indicted Trump April 4, 2023, 15 months after Trump returned to Mar-A-Lago, in Florida.
If convicted on the New York charges, Trump could be sentenced to four years in prison, but that would keep him until the federal insurrection and espionage cases and the Georgia election racketeering cases are decided, which could put Trump in prison for the rest of his life, if justice is served well done. — JMC
From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2024
Blog | Current Issue | Back Issues | Essays | Links
About the Progressive Populist | How to Subscribe | How to Contact Us
COVER/Topher Sanders, Dan Schwartz and Gabriel Sandoval
What’s missing from railroad safety data? Dead workers and severed limbs.
EDITORIAL
Are you better off than Trump?
FRANK LINGO
Plastic proliferating on the planet
DON ROLLINS
A study in tax dodging
RURAL ROUTES/Margot McMillen
Who passes the dishwasher test?
DISPATCHES
Donation to Trump’s RNC is a donation to his lawyers before it’s a donation to is party.
Trump lawsuit against ABC, Stephanopoulos is risky.
Senate map is tough for Dems, but they can beat Ted Cruz and Rick Scott.
Budget proposal shows GOP is ‘party of cutting Social Security and Medicare.’
Trump-in-law calls for ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
ART CULLEN
What’s the matter with me?
ALAN GUEBERT
Meet the ‘barons’ who corrupt your dinner table
JOE CONASON
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s farce — and our tragedy
SARAH ANDERSON,WILLIAM RICE and ZACHARY TASHMAN
More for them, less for us
JOHN YOUNG
Hoax that launched a thousand lies
DICK POLMAN
The aspiring fascist’s ‘bloodbath’ comment, in the context of the last nine years
GENE NICHOL
Robert Francis Kennedy Sr. — glimpses of the anti-Trump
DAVID McCALL
Building America, fighting greed
LES LEOPOLD
A working class susceptible to Trump needs much more from Biden
ROBERT KUTTNER
Man of steel
THOM HARTMANN
What Americans and the media are missing about the TikTok crisis
SONALI KOLHATKAR
Trump plans to make his massive tax cuts for the rich and corporations permanent
KEN WINKES
Physician, heal our health care
HEALTH CARE/Joan Retsinas
Our bodies, our minds: The big bubble
SAM URETSKY
Memory can be a fleeting thing for the elderly
WAYNE O’LEARY
Reflections on the new American pastime
JOEL D. JOSEPH
Solomonic justice in Georgia
MATTHEW ROSING
We can break the cycle of poverty, mental illness and prison
KENT PATERSON
Mexico poised to elect first woman president
JAMIE STIEHM
A tale of two contagions
BARRY FRIEDMAN
Outrage and lip service
SETH SANDRONSKY
Facts against industrial farming
RALPH NADER
Israel’s right-wing wants all the Palestinian land — and this explaims its state terrorism
CLINT McKNIGHT
Freed wolves move into their old niche
ROB PATTERSON
My TV I Love Lucy is worsley
FILM REVIEW/Ed Rampell
On the Christian trail: Dramatizing the story of the first Black woman presidential candidate
SATIRE/Rosie Sorenson
The great embryo imbroglio
From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2024
Blog | Current Issue | Back Issues | Essays | Links
About the Progressive Populist | How to Subscribe | How to Contact Us