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Election 2020: Winners and Losers

Car horns started blaring at 9AM on November 4, prompting me to wonder "Could it be…?"

And then I saw people dancing in the street.

Yep, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were on their way to claiming the largest number of votes in the history of US presidential politics.

The good news is that Joe and Kamala won by a 5 million-vote margin. The prospect of a Trumpless White House seemed assured. (Barring GOP lawsuits, trickery, manipulations of the Electoral College, and flirtations with "faithless electors.")

But now we're left with the question: How much damage can a vindictive, lame-duck Trump do in his remaining days in office? More billion-dollar arms deals with the Saudis? A war with China? An attack on Iran? Firing Dr. Fauci? The possibilities are endless.

The next question is: What will Joe do? Look for his cabinet choices. Will there be a spot for Elizabeth Warren (Secretary of Treasury) or Bernie Sanders (Secretary of Labor)? 

Will Biden be open to more progressive (even Green New Deal) policies or will he continue to lead the Dems (as Hillary Clinton promised) as a war party self-sworn to act as "the world's policeperson" and inclined to protect the Pentagon's unaudited, wasteful spending while marching to the tunes of the Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex? 

Place Names: Echoes of America's Origins 

Listening to the recitation of state ballot tallies during the long post-election vote count, I suddenly realized how many US states—around 60 percent—carry Indigenous names, bequeathed by the people that Turtle Island's European conquers pushed aside in their bloody quest to seize and dominate the landscape of the "New World." 

Thanks to the foreigners' custom of naming conquered lands after their conquered inhabitants, the history of America's Indigenous Genocide remains hidden in plain sight—as clear at that map on the wall. 

Here is a list of the 30 states bearing native names: Alabama ("clear thicket"), Alaska ("peninsula"), Arizona ("small springs"), Arkansas, Connecticut ("long tidal river"), Hawaii, Idaho ("land of salmon eaters"), Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky ("turkey lands"), Massachusetts ("big hill"), Michigan, Minnesota ("white water"), Mississippi ("great water"), Missouri ("town of large canoes"), Montana, Nebraska ("flat water"), New Mexico ("place of the Mexica"), North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee ("river bend"), Texas, Utah, Wisconsin ("place of beavers"), and Wyoming ("on the Great Plain"). 

The linguistic legacy continues—and expands—to include scores of US cities that expropriated native names. Some of the better-known include: Chicago, Milwaukee, Manhattan, Seattle, Tallahassee, Chattanooga, Cheyenne, Hackensack, Pontiac, Oklahoma, Tucson, Tulsa, Omaha, Oshkosh, Roaknoke, Saratoga, Schenectady, Malibu, Miami, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Tampa, and Wichita. 

Political Money: What Is It Good For? 

A new study by the Center for Responsive Politics reveals that the money our political parties spent on the recent election topped $14 billion — more than doubling the loot expended during the 2016 contest and making the 2020 election the most expensive in US history. 

CRP executive director Sheila Krumholz mused: “Ten years ago, a billion-dollar presidential candidate would have been difficult to imagine. This cycle, we’re likely to see two.” 

According to the CRP report, more than 1.5 million women wrote checks to federal committees, making up 44 percent of all donors (a significant boost from the 37 percent showing in 2016). In recent election, women contributed $2.5 billion through mid-October, nearly double the $1.3 billion donated during the 2016 election.  

The CRP also established that women are more likely to be Democratic donors. In 2020, women donated around $1.3 billion to Democrats but only $570 million to Republicans.  

$14 billion is a lot of money to spend on political rallies, bus caravans, and TV commercials. If it weren't for the big-money-feeding-frenzy triggered by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, that windfall could have been used to feed and house the poor, to provide protective gear for front-line nurses in Covid-19 wards, to provide a new round of "furlough checks" for millions of unemployed workers and struggling small business owners. 

Making this "misspenditure" even more agonizing is CRP's discovery that four of the candidates who spent the largest amount of money... all lost. 

Get the Money—and the Lobbyists—Out of Politics 

When it comes to "draining the swamp," its not enough to control the flood of campaign donations, you also need to grab the nets and round up the swamp creatures that frolic in all those liquid assets. That means it's time to lob the lobbyists out of the people's politics. 

Progressive Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and the Action Network are circulating an online petition to do just that. In October, Grijalva and a team of Congressional progressive leaders, demanded the Democratic House leadership should oppose Senate confirmations of any "corporate lobbyists and C-suite-level corporate executives." 

The problem has only grown worse under Swamp-Lord Trump. Trump has facilitated the appointment of 281 lobbyists during his first (and, hopefully, last) term in office. That's four-times more than the number of lobbyists Barack Obama appointed during his first six years in office. 

The ban would apply to the incoming Biden Administration and would block any executive-branch nominee "who is currently or has been a lobbyist for any corporate client or officer for a private corporation." According to The Intercept, 76 percent of Americans believe that lobbyists exists to expedite "giveaways and rollbacks for big business" and should not be entrusted with doing the "peoples' business." 

If you're among that 76 percent, here's a link to Grijalva's petition. 

Moore Power to You, Joe 

On November 10, filmmaker and rabble-rouser Michael Moore turned to Facebook and posted an Open Letter to Joe Biden. Here's an excerpt. 

"Friends of mine on the Left who are more cynical than I am are probably wondering why I’m sending you this letter. Haha! Well, because I saw you kiss the head of that young grieving man at the Parkland, Florida memorial for the shooting victims of Stoneman Douglas High School.  

"And because I saw you in New Hampshire this year while we were there working for Bernie, and you were doing a campaign stop and there was a restless five-year boy in the front row. His parents were trying to get him to settle down. You stopped and spoke to the boy. “Hey buddy,” you said in a kind but parental way, “if you can hang on and be a good boy for just a little bit, I’ll buy ya an ice cream!”  

"The boy quieted down, you wrapped up and afterward you went over to the boy and his parents and you gave the kid five bucks so his mom and dad could go get him an ice cream cone. And I thought to myself, this is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen — and then I started to cry because I wanted so much for that piece of America to come back — goofy, kind, and focusing on what’s truly important: a goddamned ice cream cone!" 

Trump and DeJoy Conspired to Rig the Election 

A group called Bold Democrats has posted a petition complaining that Lame Duck Trump intentionally hired US Postmaster-General Louis DeJoy "to help him steal the election." DeJoy (someone with no experience in postal matters and who, during Senate hearings, was unable to say how much it cost to mail a postcard) immediately went to work to slow Postal Service operations—by cutting work hours, laying off personnel, removing mail-sorting equipment, and culling public mail boxes. Loyal henchman DeJoy even refused to deliver 300,000 election ballots that a federal judge specifically ordered him to process. 

"The facts are clear," Bold Democrats writes. "Louis DeJoy clearly refused a federal judge's order. But we need massive pressure to hold him accountable." Here's an actual case of election rigging—one that Trump would prefer to stay in the shadows. We can changed this by joining 99,000 Americans who are already calling for DeJoy to be prosecuted for Contempt of Court. Here's a link to the online petition: DeJoy sabotaged the election to help Trump win. He must be prosecuted. SIGN NOW  

Stand Your Ground — And Fire at Will? 

Under Florida's "stand your ground" laws, gun-owners are allowed to open fire if they feel their lives are at risk. As if that weren't bad enough, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is now pushing a new law that would give pistol-packing private citizens the right to shoot-to-kill whenever they believe they have spotted "rioters and looters." As the Miami Herald explained, DeSantis' “anti-mob” legislation would allow armed citizens "to fatally shoot suspected looters, or anyone damaging a business." 

DeSantis' legislation would give the state's gun-owners lethal powers far beyond those enjoyed by deputized police officers (who are not entitled to kill unarmed civilians suspected of looting or rioting). The law is so loony even a majority of the state's business owners oppose it. 

The DeSantis insanity would also extend "immunity" to any drivers who run-down and kill demonstrators engaged in street protests and would withhold state funds from any Florida city that tries to cut a police department's budget. 

No wonder they call Florida "Trump Country." 

Bearish on Barrish 

From the Sixties on, if you were a Bay Area troublemaker, you knew who to contact when the cops hauled you off to jail for demanding free speech on campus, for protesting the war, or demonstrating for racial, labor, or animal rights. You called Jerry Barrish. 

The Bay Area's most colorful bail bondsman coined a memorable slogan that read: "Why Perish in Jail? Call Barrish for Bail!" In later life, Barrish also became known as an idiosyncratic artist who created cheeky sculptures our of discarded plastic rubbish. A filmmaker actually enshrined this part of the Barrish saga in a documentary called Plastic Man: The Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish—Art, Politics & Dyslexia. 

Thanks to SFSU's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, the public will have an opportunity to see the film about this quirky bail-bondsman-turned-sculptor as part of a mini-course that includes an afternoon of film and a live zoom conversation with Barrish and the filmmakers, hosted by film critic Michael Fox. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, December 8 from 1:30-4 PM. 

Here is link to a description of the class and a button to register. There is a $29 fee that goes to support the work of the Learning Center. 

Climate Activists Fail to Nail the Pentagon 

The climate activist group 350.org has stepped forth with a 10-point To-do List for ClimatePresident Joe Biden. The key actions include: "Declare a climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act," "Keep fossil fuels in the ground," "Shift to 100% clean and renewable energy by 2030," "Prosecute fossil-fuel polluters," and "Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement." 

Unfortunately, the list lacks any mention of military pollution and the Pentagon's role in the combustion of oil that fuels the raging calamities of extreme weather—which has inflicted more damage and deaths on America's homes and lives than any foreign invader in the history of our country. 

What if the Pentagon were ordered to put 100,000 stateside troops to work fighting wildfires in the West and rescuing flood and hurricane victims in the South and East? The Army is supposed to be "defending America." This would be a good time to prove it. 

The US has more than 165,000 military troops in more than 800 foreign bases in more than 150 countries. Bring the troops home to defend the real "homeland," right here in the US. Shovels for Soldiers! Hoses not Howitzers! Hammers not Hummers! 

The Soul of America