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      Biden: 'We do not want a guarded border' between UK and Ireland – video

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      US President-elect Joe Biden says he would like to avoid a guarded border between the UK and Ireland as Brexit negotiations continue. Speaking to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said “We do not want a guarded border. We want to make sure – we’ve worked too long to get Ireland worked out, and I talked with the British prime minister, I talked with the Taoiseach, I talked with others, I talked to the French. The idea of having a border north and south once again being closed is just not right, we’ve just got to keep the border open.”
      ‘America is back’: Biden and Harris announce first cabinet picks – live More

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      in World Politics

      Can America Confront Its Deadly Failure?

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      Just when you thought you might breathe a sigh of relief in America with the victorious Biden administration on its way, it turns out that over 73 million people voted for Trump, the loser. That is truly difficult to comprehend for most of us who did not.

      Worse yet, since the national response to the coronavirus pandemic was clearly on the ballot, you have to assume that most of those “enlightened” souls were impressed enough with Trump’s pandemic response that they continued to support him. And despite overwhelming evidence that COVID-19 was exponentially rampaging through the populace as the election approached and that well over 200,000 Americans were already dead on his watch, they voted for him anyway.

      Where Do We Stand With the Pfizer Vaccine?

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      Now, Trump is splitting time between a post-election bunker and the golf course, refusing to do anything to advance a national plan to confront the coronavirus, while continuing to support the coronavirus denial narrative. That leaves those 73 million souls in a quandary — wear a mask or give up all of your freedoms. What to do?

      Too Little, Too Late?

      An initial national plan to move forward has been repeatedly articulated — a mask mandate, enforced social distancing in public places, readily available testing and contact tracing, and consistent messaging from public officials and the scientific community about personal hygiene and the dangers of indoor gatherings of any kind. Starting there and starting now is critical, particularly with the news that there may be a vaccine on the horizon. While this is good news for sure, it cannot be allowed to provide yet another excuse for the nation to avoid the inconvenience of collectively trying very hard to save some lives and protect so many others from tragic outcomes.

      However, the potential for future vaccination of the populace is so fraught with serious logistical and public health challenges that not even the most optimistic vaccine purveyors believe that vaccination will happen in large numbers before the spring. That leaves almost 60 days until the Biden inauguration and four months before spring arrives. At the current rate of over 150,000 new coronavirus cases a day, that is over 9 million new cases by Inauguration Day and more than double that to the first day of spring. The COVID-19 death numbers are equally staggering at a present rate of over 1,500 humans a day.

      There has been and continues to be so much wrong with the US response to the pandemic and the resulting casualties that it is hard to know where to start. But to be clear, Trump and his acolytes are now standing in the way of the development and implementation of any cohesive national plan, only adding to the blood on their hands from the daily death count. As a nation, we were ready to go to war, raise the flag and trumpet our national might when 3,000 of our own were killed by terrorists on 9/11. Now, 73 million Americans seem content to sit on their “patriotic” hands while that number are dying preventable deaths every two days and counting.

      Embed from Getty Images

      To illustrate how we got here, it was not so long ago that the governor of South Dakota, a full-throated cheerleader for the coronavirus denier crowd, welcomed Trump and thousands of guests to a big old July 4th rally at Mount Rushmore. Freedom was everywhere, in every unmasked smile and virus spewing cheer. No need for social distancing, it was all one big Trump-crazed family taking one for the unmasked emperor.

      And then to follow up and reinforce the messaging, how about a huge motorcycle rally in the midst of a pandemic? Another good idea from the governor of South Dakota — bring tens of thousands of drunken and drugged Trump biker “patriots” from all over America in August to celebrate this great country of ours in a place called Sturgis, population 7,000. Well, as of today, the COVID-19 test positivity rate in the great state of South Dakota is just under 50%, and there is still no mask mandate from the governor.

      By looking back just a little and trying to comprehend the present, it should be clear that President-elect Joe Biden has quite a challenge ahead of him. Planning can begin now, but a national plan cannot begin to be implemented until Trump gets out of the way.

      Since Trump and his acolytes are unable to accept being losers, let’s tag them as killers and see if we can get their attention. Now, even more than before, that is surely what they are. They are killing people in America who don’t have to die. While this may not be the time for legal niceties, “negligent homicide” seems to fit the bill. And it is surely time to make it part of the conversation.

      COVID-19 and the Holiday Season

      I am certain as I write this that the number of coronavirus deaths will soar in the days and weeks ahead. This is not a medical conclusion. Rather it is the only conclusion that reason suggests as we watch millions of Americans gather together for the holidays believing that “they” are immune from tragedy, kind of like people who text and drive and keep loaded guns in easy reach of the children they say they love. But more than that, it will be the price that the nation pays for its flailing and failing collective morality.

      As freedom rings and holiday bells jingle, as choirs sing and families gather around a tree sharing good cheer, this will also be the season for many to visit hospitals and funeral homes trying to figure out how it is possible that daddy is dead. Well, let me tell you, daddy is dead because a nation with the resources to keep daddy alive and well collectively failed to do so.

      It is also because of a failure of national leadership that has no historic precedent. Let me repeat this: Trump and his acolytes have blood on their hands. Those who support his continued refusal to cede authority immediately to the incoming Biden administration for implementation of a national pandemic response should check their hands as well.

      Yes, I am a Trump hater, and I will cheer the day that he is held accountable for his crimes.

      *[This article was co-published on the author’s blog, Hard Left Turn.]

      The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. More

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      in US Politics

      Lame duck pardons turkey: Trump confronts reality at muted Thanksgiving event

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      It was a sad spectacle. Here was an ageing comic confronted by a shrinking audience, his jokes landing with a thud, his star beginning to fade.
      Donald Trump suddenly finds himself where he has never been: a secondary story, overshadowed by Joe Biden, dominating the news cycle no more.
      On Tuesday, Biden introduced the brainy grownups of his government-in-waiting at a weighty event with lofty talk of restoring America’s moral leadership and saving the planet from the climate crisis.
      An hour later, at the White House, a turkey was pardoned by a lame duck discovering how fickle the media circus can be.
      The gathering in the Rose Garden was naturally diminished by the coronavirus pandemic, but his last Thanksgiving ceremony was a muted affair that also struggled to break through on cable news.
      “Ladies and gentleman, the president of the United States and Mrs Trump,” said an announcer, the words suddenly elegiac as abnormal administration fades to black.
      Trump, true to himself to the end, began by lauding the Dow Jones industrial average breaking 30,000 for the first time. He praised his wife, Melania, for revamping the Rose Garden, and welcomed his daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared, who are perhaps contemplating their bumpy re-entry to New York society.

      Trump talked about the tradition of presidents sparing birds from the Thanksgiving table, dating back to Abraham Lincoln and receiving formal pardons every year since George HW Bush. This year’s pair, Corn and Cob, were selected from the official presidential flock of 30, he said. “Some real beauties.”
      The president talked about the nation’s love of farmers and the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the pilgrims on the Mayflower. He thanked doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, and scientists who have fought the coronavirus pandemic and raced towards a vaccine, but could not resist using the term “China virus” for old time’s sake or bring himself to offer condolences to families of the quarter-million Americans dead.
      “We send our love to every member of the armed forces and the law enforcement heroes risking their lives to keep America safe, to keep America great, and, as I say, ‘America first’,” Trump said. “Shouldn’t go away from that: America first.”
      It sounded like a feeble plea from a dying monarch, given that Biden had just vividly put the Barack Obama band back together with an explicit repudiation of “America first”.
      What was missing from Trump’s brief remarks were the puns of the Obama years that made his daughters cringe, or Trump’s own brazen jokes in 2018 regarding an online vote on which turkey should survive – “This was a fair election. Unfortunately, Carrots refused to concede and demanded a recount, and we’re still fighting with Carrots” – or his bleak humour about his own impeachment a year ago.
      The reality of losing, for a self-declared lifelong winner, is evidently not a laughing matter. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump retweeted a picture of himself brooding over the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office with the caption: “I concede NOTHING!!!!!”
      A man scooped Corn up on to a table festooned with autumnal flowers and mini-pumpkins. Trump and Melania walked over. With raised hand, Trump said: “Look at that beautiful, beautiful bird. Oh, so lucky. That is a lucky bird. Corn, I hereby grant you a full pardon. Thank you, Corn. What a bird. Thank you.”
      He added: “Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. Have a good one.”
      So it was that as Biden prepares to take the reins of power, Trump is left with the equivalent of ribbon-cutting. The one-time champion of attention has lost his crown to a challenger he deems unworthy. As he departed, reporters shouted, “Mr President, will you be issuing a pardon for yourself?” and “Will you invite president-elect Biden?”
      Answer there came none. The man who could never stop talking to reporters has now taken a vow of silence. Bringing up the election result is as awkward as making conversation at a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by a divorcing couple. More

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      Joe Biden announces John Kerry as pick to be first ever US climate envoy – video

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      President-elect Joe Biden seeks to blunt criticism from leftwingers as he formally introduces his first round of cabinet nominations, by emphasising the fight against the climate crisis.
      Biden says that in John Kerry, a former secretary of state and presidential nominee, America will have a full-time climate leader for the first time, someone with ‘a seat at every table around the world’
      Biden emphasises fight against climate crisis as he unveils cabinet picks More

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      in Elections

      'A cabinet that looks like America': Harris hails Biden's diverse picks

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      President-elect Joe Biden formally introduced his first round of cabinet nominations on Tuesday, a move broadly welcomed as a restoration of the old Washington and international order after the turmoil of the Trump administration.
      Biden has also blunted criticism from progressives on his left flank by emphasising diversity and the fight against the climate crisis, although the Democratic party’s internal fractures are far from healed.
      Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday, the president-elect said: “It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back. Ready to lead the world, not retreat from it. Once again sit at the head of the table, ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies. Ready to stand up for our values.”
      Vice president-elect Kamala Harris added: “When Joe asked me to be his running mate, he told me about his commitment to making sure we selected a cabinet that looks like America – that reflects the very best of our nation. That is what we have done.”
      Biden said that in John Kerry, a former secretary of state and presidential nominee, America would have a full-time climate leader for the first time, someone with “a seat at every table around the world”. Biden also said the 2004 nominee, “one of my closest friends”, would be “speaking for America on one of the most prescient threats of our time. No one I trust more.”
      The former vice-president spoke at a blue lectern labelled “Office of the president elect”, on a stage with a matching blue backdrop. He promised to restore America’s global and moral leadership, ensuring service personnel and diplomats are “free of politics”.
      He added: “They’ll not only repair but also reimagine American foreign policy and national security for the next generation.” More

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      How do we avoid future authoritarians? Winning back the working class is key | Bernie Sanders

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      As the count currently stands, nearly 80 million Americans voted for Joe Biden. With this vote against the authoritarian bigotry of Donald Trump, the world can breathe a collective sigh of relief.But the election results did also reveal something that should be a cause for concern. Trump received 11 million more votes than he did in 2016, increasing his support in many distressed communities – where unemployment and poverty are high, healthcare and childcare are inadequate, and people are hurting the most.For a president who lies all the time, perhaps Donald Trump’s most outlandish lie is that he and his administration are friends of the working class in our country.The truth is that Trump put more billionaires into his administration than any president in history; he appointed vehemently anti-labor members to the National Relations Labor Board (NLRB) and he gave huge tax breaks to the very rich and large corporations while proposing massive cuts to education, housing and nutrition programs. Trump has tried to throw up to 32 million people off the healthcare they have and has produced budgets that called for tens of billions in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and social security.Yet, a certain segment of the working class in our country still believe Donald Trump is on their side.Why is that?At a time when millions of Americans are living in fear and anxiety, have lost their jobs because of unfair trade agreements and are earning no more in real dollars than 47 years ago, he was perceived by his supporters to be a tough guy and a “fighter”. He seems to be fighting almost everyone, every day.He declared himself an enemy of “the swamp” not only attacking Democrats, but Republicans who were not 100% in lockstep with him and even members of his own administration, whom he declared part of the “deep state.” He attacks the leaders of countries who have been our long-standing allies, as well as governors and mayors and our independent judiciary. He blasts the media as an “enemy of the people” and is ruthless in his non-stop attacks against the immigrant community, outspoken women, the African American community, the gay community, Muslims and protesters.He uses racism, xenophobia and paranoia to convince a vast swath of the American people that he was concerned about their needs, when nothing could be further from the truth. His only interest, from day one, has been Donald Trump.Joe Biden will be sworn in as president on 20 January and Nancy Pelosi will be speaker of the House. Depending upon what happens in Georgia’s special elections, it is unclear which party will control the US Senate.Democrats’ job during the first 100 days of the Biden administration is to make it clear whose side they are onBut one thing is clear. If the Democratic party wants to avoid losing millions of votes in the future it must stand tall and deliver for the working families of our country who, today, are facing more economic desperation than at any time since the Great Depression. Democrats must show, in word and deed, how fraudulent the Republican party is when it claims to be the party of working families.And, in order to do that, Democrats must have the courage to take on the powerful special interests who have been at war with the working class of this country for decades. I’m talking about Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, the health insurance industry, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the private prison industrial complex and many profitable corporations who continue to exploit their employees.If the Democratic party cannot demonstrate that it will stand up to these powerful institutions and aggressively fight for the working families of this country – Black, White, Latino, Asian American and Native American – we will pave the way for another rightwing authoritarian to be elected in 2024. And that president could be even worse than Trump.Joe Biden ran for president on a strong pro working-class agenda. Now we must fight to put that agenda into action and vigorously oppose those who stands in its way.Which Side Are You On? was a folk song written by Florence Reece, the wife of an organizer with the United Mine Workers when the union went on strike in Kentucky in 1931. Democrats need to make it absolutely clear whose side they are on.One side is for ending starvation wages and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. One side is not.One side is for expanding unions. One side is not.One side is for creating millions of good paying jobs by combating climate change and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. One side is not.One side is for expanding healthcare. One side is not.One side is for lowering the cost of prescription drugs. One side is not.One side is for paid family and medical leave. One side is not.One side is for universal pre-K for every three- and four-year-old in America. One side is not.One side is for expanding social security. One side is not.One side is for making public colleges and universities tuition-free for working families, and eliminating student debt. One side is not.One side is for ending a broken and racist criminal justice system, and investing in our young people in jobs and education. One side is not.One side is for reforming and making our immigration system fair and humane. One side is not.Democrats’ job during the first 100 days of the Biden administration is to make it absolutely clear whose side they are on, and who is on the other side. That’s not only good public policy to strengthen our country. It’s how to win elections in the future. More

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      Joe Biden's cabinet picks: what we've learned from his choices so far

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      On Tuesday, Joe Biden formally introduced his first slate of picks for cabinet posts.
      One Senate Republican said Biden’s choices “went to Ivy League schools, have strong resumés, attend all the right conferences and will be polite and orderly caretakers of America’s decline”.
      Another scoffed that the list of names resembled a guest list for a “Georgetown dinner”.
      But most, less partial, observers agreed that after four years of chaos under Donald Trump, himself a self-proclaimed outsider, a dose of insider knowledge and institutional stability might be just what Washington needs.
      Here are five things we’ve learned so far about Biden’s choices.
      Experience counts…
      “If not household names,” the Washington Post opined, “Biden’s picks are steeped in the ways” of the capital, knowing the place as Donald Trump’s collection of political allies, businessmen, donors, grifters, gadflies and relatives did not.
      Secretary of state nominee Tony Blinken, for example, worked for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and for Biden when he was Obama’s vice-president. Janet Yellen, now heading for the treasury, was chair of the Federal Reserve. John Kerry, the climate envoy, was a Massachusetts senator for 28 years, ran for president in 2004 and was secretary of state in Obama’s second term.
      Nor are those named for less prominent positions callow or untried. National security adviser pick Jake Sullivan is “only” 43 years old but he worked for Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state and for Biden when he was VP. Avril Haines, named director of national intelligence, is a former deputy chief of the CIA, deputy national security adviser and deputy chief counsel to Senate Democrats.
      …but so does having worked for Obama
      Experience can also bring baggage. Biden worked for the 44th president and so did many of his hires, to the extent, Politico reported on Tuesday, that some who worked on the Biden campaign this time round are feeling a little cheesed off.
      “The Obama staffers are now cutting out the people who got Biden elected,” the website quoted a senior Biden official as saying. “None of these people found the courage to help the vice-president when he was running and now they are elevating their friends over the Biden people. It’s fucked up.”
      Another Biden adviser who worked on the campaign, Politico said, called that criticism “very valid”.
      Big positions, among them secretary of defense and attorney general, remain to be filled. Contrary to many progressive dreams, they will not be filled by Obama himself. Promoting his memoir, the former president has ruled out taking any role under Biden. If he did, he says, his wife Michelle would leave him.
      Internationalism is back
      One potentially positive side of a reliance on Obama alumni is to be found in the fact that Obama was a world president, intent on strong relationships with allies as well as engagement with traditional foes, an approach far removed from Trump’s attacks on America’s friends and alarming habit of cosying up to dictators. In short, the likes of Blinken, Yellen and Kerry already have strong relations with government leaders and officials in the international centre who are desperate for a reset.
      “Tony Blinken’s ties to Europe are lifelong, deep and personal,” Politico Europe wrote on Tuesday, discussing his near-flawless French, past life in Paris, skepticism about Brexit and status as “a fierce believer in the transatlantic alliance”.
      “On every major foreign policy issue – terrorism, climate, pandemics, trade, China, the Iran nuclear deal – he has a recurring mantra: the US should work with its allies and within international treaties and organisations.”
      Diversity matters …
      The Post called Biden’s win “something akin to the revenge of the Washington establishment”, but the Democrat has so far also lived up to his promise to name an administration which reflects American diversity far more strongly than Trump’s did. More

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      Biden will have the presidency. But Republicans still have the power | Adam Tooze

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      President Trump’s efforts to overturn the outcome of the 3 November election, which appear to be over, provided his opponents with a source of sadistic amusement. Trump’s self-humiliation in the eyes of the liberal world is complete. To his followers, of course, the fight goes on. And his Republican colleagues have reason to be cheerful. We should not allow the schadenfreude to distract us from this basic fact. Yes, Biden defeated Trump. But in that same election the Democrats failed to gain the majority of seats that the new president needs to actually put an end to the era of Republican dominance. Things might still go right in Georgia, but that would leave the Senate hanging by a thread.Four times, at moments of historic crisis, the US electorate has handed the White House to a Democrat – 1916, 1932, 2008 and 2020. But this year is the first time it has done so without also handing the Democrats a clear majority in Congress. The basic difference between Biden and his predecessors is that he lacks a solid political basis from which to wield power.The details of state-level politics across the US may seem pettifogging. What is a Senate runoff in Georgia compared to a global pandemic, or the challenge of the rise of China? This incommensurability is jarring, but it is what defines the US as a democratic superpower. The scale of the US economy, its fiscal capacity and military might make it the most powerful state on the planet. But who controls that power depends on fickle and often trivial whims of local political circumstance and on the infighting between the divided branches of US government.America’s rise to global power occurred in a crucial 20-year period between 1932 and 1952 in which, except for a brief two-year hiatus, the Democratic party controlled both the White House and Congress. That dominance defined a new image of the US as a driver of global progress, but that external face was founded at home on an incongruous coalition in which the “solid South” provided the necessary votes in Congress. Jim Crow segregation was the price. The Democrats remained the dominant power in Congress through the early 1990s, but there was never to be another period quite like the mid-century decades. More