Your omission of the violence enacted by the Biden administration is telling. A reckoning of racism in America may never come as we inch towards WWIII. The focus should not be on trump and the right, but on all the people and systems that enforce violence, destruction and oppression. Biden is currently at the top of that list.
I’m not going to deny that Biden has been enabling Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians as the death toll rises because it is horrific and inexcuseable in my eyes, but he has been pushing for a ceasefire during his recent conversations with Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Trump has gone on record using “Palestinian” as a slur and asserted that there would be no Palestine left if he returns to office. Even Netanyahu wants Trump as president so he can wipe out Palestine with impunity.
The violence that is occurring under the Biden administration would increase tenfold under another Trump presidency. The violence that is occurring under the Biden administration is unfortunately a continuation of the aggressive foreign policy decisions many administrations took going back devades, yet Trump would accelerate that violence and lead to more deaths not only overseas but domestically. Hate crimes, state-sanctioned violence, federal executions, and police brutality all increased during Trump’s term in office. Many did not survive the Trump presidency.
If you really cared about Palestinians, if you really wanted to dismantle the systems of oppression that enact and enable violence upon marginalized people, you wouldn’t want a WWIII, you wouldn’t want a race war, and you wouldn’t want Trump in office. The powers that flock to Trump’s side are openly promising to capitalize upon and empower the systematic oppression and violence that flows through this nation’s blood if he regains the presidency. Biden, as much as there is to criticise him for, is a stopgap, preventing things from getting worse and, in fact, improving many things throughout the country.
So the focus should be on Trump and the right. We need to watch and combat the regressive, violent world they want to inflict on American society.
You are talking about what Trump would hypothetically do in office vs what Biden is actually doing. Trump is a narcissist and a clown. He has no filter and will say whatever in the moment he thinks his audience wants to hear. That's not to say things would not be bad under Trump, but as a Palestinian, there is no lower bar than genocide.
The fear mongering coming from the left coupled with "vote blue no matter who" has been sickening to see as I witness my people enduring daily massacres, starvation, torture, etc. People seem to only care about maintaining their safety and privilege no matter the expense on others. It's selfish and ignorant given where the world is headed under this administration.
Don't you dare call me privileged and selfish and ignorant as a Black disabled trans person remembering the racism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism emboldened under Trump during 2016-2020; the harassment, threats, and violence I, my people, and other marginalized people unlike me endured while many others did not survive; and not wanting that to happen again and worse with a presidential seal of approval. This isn't hollow fearmongering over hypotheticals – it is recalling the hell that the last Trump presidency afflicted, the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 plan to subjugate people domestically and overseas, and overhearing to my white neighbors. Even if Trump is full of hot air, his voters are not and the white supremacist Christian nationalists on his side are not. It is not ignorant nor selfish to take this threat seriously.
That doesn't mean we don't care about Palestinians. I want the slaughter in Gaza to stop. Your people deserve a sovereign nation where you can live free from apartheid and state-sanctioned suffering. Considering what Americans can do in the short term for Palestinians, it's between electing a fascist administration willing to wipe out as many Arabic people are possible to invoke a Christian prophecy of the rapture and an administration that is enabling Israel based on a longstanding alliance yet using that alliance to push the Israeli government to stop its genocidal actions and broker a ceasefire agreement.
It is not optimal, it is not ideal, and it is infuriating that these are our options, but one is worse than the other. In the long term, under the Biden administration and after him, it is possible to work toward a future with a liberated Palestine. Under a Trump administration, a free Palestine would be unlikely within our lifetimes. Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 heralds recognition of Israeli hegemony. That's what the Israeli right, empowered by a Trump presidency, want. We must refuse to let them actualize that reality rather than going scorched earth and letting them grab power.
I am also queer and disabled as well as unwillingly immigrating to this country as a child war refugee. The intersectionalities of our marginalization does not preclude us from criticism. Your assessment of the Biden administration as using the longstanding "alliance to push the Israeli government to stop its genocidal actions and broker a ceasefire agreement" is completely off. Biden has been bypassing Congress to send billions of dollars of aid and weapons transfers to Israel despite clear violations of international humanitarian law and despite Israel being on trial for acts of genocide in the ICJ. The Biden administration has been giving them diplomatic cover and manufacturing consent through propaganda during press briefings and interviews, including debunked claims of sexual violence on Oct. 7th and Israeli beheaded babies (which Biden claimed he saw footage of). These lies have been debunked over and over again yet he still claims them. He also claims Hamas is rejecting ceasefire agreements, when it is Israel that has been unwilling to negotiate in good faith. The US has vetoed ceasefire agreements at the UN security council multiple times. I could go on and on. Biden and his cronies also dehumanize Palestinians and our allies, by conflating anti Zionism with antisemitism and emboldening police to violently attack and arrest peaceful protesters all over the US while providing cover to racist, violent Zionists. Meanwhile, my people are being slaughtered and injured en masse, the latest estimates showing 95,000-250,000 Palestinian CHILDREN murdered since October.
You are being fed propaganda by this administration and our complicit media systems. I recommend you follow Palestinians on the ground and in the diaspora to get an accurate assessment of what is happening and the complicity of the Democratic and Republican parties.
Thank you for this pushback against an argument that relies heavily on this notion that Biden has ever pushed for a ceasefire. No politician should ever be believed when they speak about things that went on behind closed doors, which is where these supposed admonitions and urgings must have taken place, if they did. We must rely always on knowable acts - the money and bombs and verbal support given by this administration; the vetoes; the knee-jerk willingness to pull funds from UNWRA—likely a death sentence for thousands if not tens of thousands—on the flimsiest, most unsubstantiated claims by an entity with a global reputation for serial lying; the complicity with the deadly farce of the “surge in antisemitism.” You’re exactly right that this delusion cannot be dissolved without more attention to what Palestinians IN Gaza and the West Bank are saying/reporting and experiencing.
Thank you for your awareness! I mostly feel as though I'm screaming into a void and it's infuriating. It's reassuring to know someone is paying attention.
You haven't been paying attention to what Biden is doing, had done since he was put in the Awful Office. He has not only continued Trump's cruel border policies, but made them worse. He initially closed a couple of refugee prisons when he got in office (the sterilization prisons), then when he thought no one was watching, he opened up the same prisons and even more.
His DOJ has done nothing to hold the Oligarchy back.
His DOJ had done nothing about the States that are violating the Constitution with their Fascists laws.
His military WATCHED a mother and her two children drown and did nothing, but sustain Moral damage. How cruel is that? That military and the Guardsmen of Texas are damaged humans just like the Israelis and when he forces more of our military and cops to that inhuman cruelty, he will be responsible for even more damage this country's security service people. These people being damaged will, without comprehensive Therapy, go on to rationalize that horrible scene they were forced to witness. Some will kill themselves, others will kill citizens. Do you think these people are going to step up when the same happens to legal us, the citizens, albiet the discardible ones, the ones without the Constitutional Rights that are being dispensed with around the country? Truly all these wars are coming home to give the Oligarchies the troops to our down resisters.
His DOJ has done nothing about protecting our labor force from cruel laws Texas enacted and other states are quickly passing. Workers being denied breaks and water from the horrible heat are dying!
His DOJ did nothing and won't do anything about restricting free speech, association, etc. What has his DOJ done to stop the Christian nationalists defying the Constitution on Academia and the public schools?
He did nothing, NOTHING to correct a corrupted SCOTUS and he has had dozens of Constitutional Scholars point out that he CAN correct it.
When he first got in office he did the Shadow Theater with the shutting down of an inconsequential pipeline only to hand off hundreds of drilling leases to Oil Oligarchs. {The latest outreach to the oil industry is an awkward shift for the Biden administration, which has pledged to move the country away from fossil fuels} from 10/13/2021 Politico.
He and his regime are masters of the time tested 'fool the people' Shell Game. Around and around the shells go, which hand should you watch? ALL of them!
There is SO MUCH more chicanery going on.
Oh yes, there is the 2,000 pound bombs to a people that have the Moral and personality disorder to put to shame some of the worst mass murders in history. Remember he pretended to curb the Blood Cult he's part of? Pausing an every 36 hour shipment of arms and Nutanyahoo posts a video slapping Biden's hand and demanding this country give the spoiled brat HIS drones and cluster bombs, illegal phophurous bombs, as well as everything we want to test on a civilian population.
If you genuinely believe there is no difference between the Trump and Biden administrations, you have either an accelerationist, been misled by propaganda, or are a psyop yourself falsely equating the two to encourage left-leaning Americans to not vote for Biden while the right flood the polls for Trump. The sensationalized and antisemitic rhetoric ("Blood Cult?" seriously?) you're using certainly implies such.
Have horrible things across the nation occurred under Biden's term? Absolutely, but they have been out of Biden's roles. He's the president, but with the checks and balances of our government, he doesn't control the country, he doesn't control Texas and other red states that are hellbent on fighting him even when he tried to address immigration at the southern border, he doesn't control the Supreme Court that's limiting federal powers, and he doesn't control Congress. With Republicans controlling both the House and Senate, bills he's vowed to sign that would protect marginalized folk and constitutional rights seldom reach his desk.
What progress he has managed despite the right-wing powers working against him is rather impressive. Have you heard of the 30x30 plan, wherein the White House vowed to protect 30% of US land by 2030? The Biden administration has increased protected lands to 13% in three years, of which many are indigenous lands, with larger allotments in the works. He's implemented a $35 pay gay on insulin, a $30 per month Internet plan for low-income households, passed the Inflation Reduction Act, worked to expand Social Security benefits for disabled people, and his administration has been pursuing predatory practices by large corporations. OSHA released a federal rule just a week ago establishing federal protections for workers facing excessive heat while other states have taken away heat and water breaks. Biden's FTC appointees restored net neutrality. He's expanded renewable energy programs. After Republicans and SCOTUS killed his initial student debt forgiveness plan, Biden has worked through various programs to cancel $144 billion in federal student debt so far, the majority for disabled and low-income borrowers. When SCOTUS implied the rulings that legalized gay and interracial marriage could be overturn, Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act to enshrine them into federal law. Recently, he pardoned thousands of gay service members convicted under Don't Ask, Don't Tell policies. He expanded DACA protections for undocumented children. He pressured Netanyahu to allow aid into Gaza. He signed an executive order sanctioning Israeli settlers and politicians and the Secretary of State barred any Israeli citizens who attack Palestinians from entering the US. Gosh, that's just off the top of my head!
Then there's so much more potential the Biden administration has if given another term. There are potentially three supreme court seats he has vowed to replace with progressive justices in the next four years. The State Department has made internal progress towards possibly recognizing Palestinian statehood. Biden's proposed 2025 tax budget would revive the Child Care Tax Credit to combat child poverty, expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to benefit low-income workers, provide benefits for first-time home buyers, empower Medicaid recipients even for states that haven't accepted Medicaid expansions, raise taxes on the super wealthy, and so much more I can't summarize in a comment.
Meanwhile, Trump wants to slash Social Security and Medicare, promised big oil CEOs he would eliminate environmental protections entirely, threaten legal recognition of gay marriage and transgender people, give the rich more tax cuts, gut several federal departments including the Department of Education to expand private Christian charter schools, empower ICE to deport immigrants even if they entered the country via legal means, and stated that there would be no Palestine under his power. Does this sound like the same guy as Biden? No, not at all.
Then consider that the presidency is not the only important position this election. 33 Senate seats and 435 House seats are up for grabs in November. That can change the majority in Congress and potentially allow progressive or conservative legislation to become law easier or harder depending on which party had control regardless of who's the president next year. There are also state and local elections — municipal governments, school boards, mayors, sheriffs, county executives — who have far more control over your daily life than the federal government. They are the ones implementing book bans, inflating police budgets, restricting LGBTQ+ rights, and imposing Christian nationalism in public schools.
I'm not saying the Biden administration is perfect — it is certainly not ideal and there is much more to be done — but to consider him equivalent to Trump is so blatantly untrue, hearing this falsehood repeated in the face of contrary evidence is infuriating.
Denial. It’s the word that comes to my mind, as I spoke to a relative bemoaning the fact that so many people (mostly white people), don’t want inclusion, or the true/correct history to be taught in our predominantly white schools here in my small, rural town in Central Pennsylvania. People around here don’t want the truth. I brought up to him in conversation, the lies taught in our history books growing up. I never learned about the Tulsa massacre, or Black Wall Street, or how black towns were flooded so the people had to leave. Or how blacks were forced out of swimming pools for whites only. And on and on. Or how indigenous people were taken away as children and forced to give up their traditions, clothing, language. How they were abused by Catholic clergy who tried to assimilate them into white people, and many were recently found buried in unmarked graves. No… decent, Christian white people don’t want to hear about these inconvenient truths. Another example is the genocide in Gaza. I appreciate and applaud you for your continuing work to address these disparities. Thank you. Don’t ever stop doing what you’re doing, Mr Joseph.
I was a teacher for 20 years. I resigned October 2023 and, for the same reasons as the 2025 scenario in the article, I doubt I will ever again teach in the US. Teachers are unappreciated at the best of times, much less these days.
The USA's biggest accomplishment has been the false image of freedom and democracy and human rights that they have tried to portray. These days the facade is slipping away and we are seeing the reality clearly once again.
Please stop all this nonsense. The best place on the planet to be white, black or brown is America. No country is perfect but if I had to choose to live anywhere right now it’s the US of A.
We have a First Amendment and a Second Amendment which no other country has. Just from those two points I’ll take America every time.
If we keep clinging to every wrong done from our past we can never get past it. Let’s look forward, to the future because that’s where we all plan on spending the rest of our lives.
Thank you for your honesty . The list of past polices and activities this year is a statement about an America that I had not hoped for. The approval of automatic weapons and bump stop that makes a semi automatic gun into a machine gun is CRAZY SCARY. MAGA’s are coming for Black and Brown people and anyone who is for an inclusive nation. My friends call me the Optimist, but that title is a bit wobbly today. We need to prepare for the truth around the corner. Think shelter, non perishable food and water filtration/purification systems. Arming yourselves with weapons won’t be enough. I hate this. Hate to think about this. But this is where we are. May God and the Universe keep us safe!
Never flew the flag, never thought about flying the flag and never will fly the flag. I never could relate to these artificial distinctions. People are the same everywhere, until they’re divided by governments for the sole purpose of conquest – conquest of minds, souls, bodies, land. To what end should we separate ourselves from one another and compete? Doesn’t one group of 10 million with a common purpose achieve more than two groups of 5 million pitted against one another? A group of 3 people achieves more than two groups of 5 million at cross-purposes, because the latter achieves exactly nothing. How do pride of separateness (flag flying) and competion benefit us as humans? If I win, someone else loses: then how can my win be pleasurable or profitable? What am I failing to comprehend here? To say and believe one person, one group, one nation is “better” than another - what does this achieve in terms of increasing good that is done in the world?
The only calls for violence I see come from Democrats wanting to assassinate Trump. I have to lmao that the ones who tried to force these poisonous mRNA vaccines on us and mandated that children wear masks, are the one's who are going to warn us about Trump and populism.
No doubt, violence is coming, but it will be from the cultural left, who have been lied to by the elites and have fallen for propaganda time and time again.
God forbid DJT should win in November, you can bet the period from November til the inauguration in January will be fraught with violence, but not from the right. Expect the rapid re-emergence of the purple-haired, multiply-pierced Antifa shock troops out in the streets, wreaking havoc and burning anything they can get their unproductive hands on. And people like the ones on this site, bemoaning “the state of America today” will say: “See? Just look at the violence caused by Trump’s election! It was inevitable.”
You didn't hear President Trump call for violence over the last nine years? Oh, you can't hear it unless he says the exact words. You think he needs to? LOL
Fred, Great writing. Wonderful parody of the movie Civil War. You had me going for a while, but it became clear in about the fourth paragraph you were pulling my leg, cause only a left leaning dweeb would go to such extreme extremes in describing potential outcomes of what happens in a democratic election.
See that is how elections work. One group leaves power, and another takes up residence. But never before in American politics has happened what you describe is happening with MAGA folks.
You and others use these fear mongering tactics like this piece to marshal all the support you can for your side. Because just saying vote for our side doesn't guarantee the average person will. So, you bring out the fear of death squads and retribution to try to glue your coalition together.
Now, Fred, you wouldn't have to use these scare tactics, if your candidate was still alive and had a functional brain.
Trump received 46% of the vote total in 2020. Nearly 75M.
Do you truly believe that roughly half of your fellow citizens want to lynch anyone who is an "other"?
If you believe that most of those 75M people were duped by a tyrant in the making, do you really have so little faith in the other institutions of this Republic (institutions civil and civic) to withstand an attempt at dictatorial power?
God help us if we believe that half our citizenry has evil intent or that our institutions couldn't survive a conspiratorial minority.
75 million ppl voted for Trump in 2020. Voted, not picked up arms and tried to take the country by force.
J6 was not an insurrection. People entered the Capital, but no one was armed and most of those people would not have walked if they were not waved in by those who removed the barricades. There is video of all of it. Even of Ray Epps saving we have to go into the Capital.
It’s time to stop the nonsense. Trump and his voters are not trying to bring down the Republic. They are voting and hope to get Trump elected. Trump already served as president and people think he will do a better job this time around.
That’s it! Stop the fear mongering and if Trump wins the Left must accept their lose. If by chance Biden wins I won’t like it, but I’m not going to storm any gates. We want to peacefully vote and as long as it’s free and fair that’s all we want.
Although, perhaps I am the one with too much faith in the civic and civil institutions. Our churches meekly shuttered their doors when the government told them to. Our schools, both public and many private, locked children out of classrooms for more than a year creating learning loss, socialization deficits and mental health issues. Employers willingly fired employees for questioning and abstaining invasive treatments without any accompanying long term information about potential harms. Our parks closed outdoor play areas and beaches were patrolled for rogue bathers.
Maybe we are lost after all. Or at the very least, we need reformed institutions to counter the heavy weight of governmental overreach.
Knowing, remembering and envisioning. This is Our Country and most of us have no other. It is a wealthy country with space and resources abundant. We have an amazing mix of people from all over the world that have merged and melded over decades and centuries, yes with too much violence exclusion and corruption to argue that it is perfect. That, sadly, may be the human way. There has been an entrenched supremacy of the white and wealthy and influential here and elsewhere through history. I am horrified to understand that these supremicists did not just die out by about now as I had assumed might happen. That was naive and simplistic of me to believe and think. So we try to know and learn and read many viewpoints. We remember and grieve with those who have had so much taken from them, so many lovely souls mistreated maligned brutalized and killed. Truly this grief is so immense as to feel that we can never really go beyond it. But we must live in this world and if we keep letting the supremacists use their entrenched hold on the system expand and elaborate until all of our freedoms are gone.... the grief is still there and we add new ones. Together those who wish for better, who know the freedoms of our minds and bodies are all we truly have, who want to progress the human story to include all people having enough. I don't think the celebration is in these holidays per se tho we do need some things that we share if it is only days off of work! Some could be repurposed to include the fuller story rather than the fairy tale told by one sector of the population. But more importantly, what is our vision about moving forward. So Envision with each criticism try to put forth some possible step forward. The Trumpublicans have a vision that is regressive, angry, fearful and brutal and we are very close to having to live or die within that daemonic culture for some period of time unless.....
Devastating and true. Interested in the choice to reference further distant history when there is so much more recent thought - perhaps to resonate further with people who can’t yet recognise how close and ongoing? A young activist shot trying to stop cop city? Black people killed by police every year? A genocide in Gaza … thank you though. Appreciate it
Your omission of the violence enacted by the Biden administration is telling. A reckoning of racism in America may never come as we inch towards WWIII. The focus should not be on trump and the right, but on all the people and systems that enforce violence, destruction and oppression. Biden is currently at the top of that list.
Correct!
I’m not going to deny that Biden has been enabling Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians as the death toll rises because it is horrific and inexcuseable in my eyes, but he has been pushing for a ceasefire during his recent conversations with Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Trump has gone on record using “Palestinian” as a slur and asserted that there would be no Palestine left if he returns to office. Even Netanyahu wants Trump as president so he can wipe out Palestine with impunity.
The violence that is occurring under the Biden administration would increase tenfold under another Trump presidency. The violence that is occurring under the Biden administration is unfortunately a continuation of the aggressive foreign policy decisions many administrations took going back devades, yet Trump would accelerate that violence and lead to more deaths not only overseas but domestically. Hate crimes, state-sanctioned violence, federal executions, and police brutality all increased during Trump’s term in office. Many did not survive the Trump presidency.
If you really cared about Palestinians, if you really wanted to dismantle the systems of oppression that enact and enable violence upon marginalized people, you wouldn’t want a WWIII, you wouldn’t want a race war, and you wouldn’t want Trump in office. The powers that flock to Trump’s side are openly promising to capitalize upon and empower the systematic oppression and violence that flows through this nation’s blood if he regains the presidency. Biden, as much as there is to criticise him for, is a stopgap, preventing things from getting worse and, in fact, improving many things throughout the country.
So the focus should be on Trump and the right. We need to watch and combat the regressive, violent world they want to inflict on American society.
You are talking about what Trump would hypothetically do in office vs what Biden is actually doing. Trump is a narcissist and a clown. He has no filter and will say whatever in the moment he thinks his audience wants to hear. That's not to say things would not be bad under Trump, but as a Palestinian, there is no lower bar than genocide.
The fear mongering coming from the left coupled with "vote blue no matter who" has been sickening to see as I witness my people enduring daily massacres, starvation, torture, etc. People seem to only care about maintaining their safety and privilege no matter the expense on others. It's selfish and ignorant given where the world is headed under this administration.
Don't you dare call me privileged and selfish and ignorant as a Black disabled trans person remembering the racism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism emboldened under Trump during 2016-2020; the harassment, threats, and violence I, my people, and other marginalized people unlike me endured while many others did not survive; and not wanting that to happen again and worse with a presidential seal of approval. This isn't hollow fearmongering over hypotheticals – it is recalling the hell that the last Trump presidency afflicted, the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 plan to subjugate people domestically and overseas, and overhearing to my white neighbors. Even if Trump is full of hot air, his voters are not and the white supremacist Christian nationalists on his side are not. It is not ignorant nor selfish to take this threat seriously.
That doesn't mean we don't care about Palestinians. I want the slaughter in Gaza to stop. Your people deserve a sovereign nation where you can live free from apartheid and state-sanctioned suffering. Considering what Americans can do in the short term for Palestinians, it's between electing a fascist administration willing to wipe out as many Arabic people are possible to invoke a Christian prophecy of the rapture and an administration that is enabling Israel based on a longstanding alliance yet using that alliance to push the Israeli government to stop its genocidal actions and broker a ceasefire agreement.
It is not optimal, it is not ideal, and it is infuriating that these are our options, but one is worse than the other. In the long term, under the Biden administration and after him, it is possible to work toward a future with a liberated Palestine. Under a Trump administration, a free Palestine would be unlikely within our lifetimes. Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 heralds recognition of Israeli hegemony. That's what the Israeli right, empowered by a Trump presidency, want. We must refuse to let them actualize that reality rather than going scorched earth and letting them grab power.
I am also queer and disabled as well as unwillingly immigrating to this country as a child war refugee. The intersectionalities of our marginalization does not preclude us from criticism. Your assessment of the Biden administration as using the longstanding "alliance to push the Israeli government to stop its genocidal actions and broker a ceasefire agreement" is completely off. Biden has been bypassing Congress to send billions of dollars of aid and weapons transfers to Israel despite clear violations of international humanitarian law and despite Israel being on trial for acts of genocide in the ICJ. The Biden administration has been giving them diplomatic cover and manufacturing consent through propaganda during press briefings and interviews, including debunked claims of sexual violence on Oct. 7th and Israeli beheaded babies (which Biden claimed he saw footage of). These lies have been debunked over and over again yet he still claims them. He also claims Hamas is rejecting ceasefire agreements, when it is Israel that has been unwilling to negotiate in good faith. The US has vetoed ceasefire agreements at the UN security council multiple times. I could go on and on. Biden and his cronies also dehumanize Palestinians and our allies, by conflating anti Zionism with antisemitism and emboldening police to violently attack and arrest peaceful protesters all over the US while providing cover to racist, violent Zionists. Meanwhile, my people are being slaughtered and injured en masse, the latest estimates showing 95,000-250,000 Palestinian CHILDREN murdered since October.
You are being fed propaganda by this administration and our complicit media systems. I recommend you follow Palestinians on the ground and in the diaspora to get an accurate assessment of what is happening and the complicity of the Democratic and Republican parties.
Thank you for this pushback against an argument that relies heavily on this notion that Biden has ever pushed for a ceasefire. No politician should ever be believed when they speak about things that went on behind closed doors, which is where these supposed admonitions and urgings must have taken place, if they did. We must rely always on knowable acts - the money and bombs and verbal support given by this administration; the vetoes; the knee-jerk willingness to pull funds from UNWRA—likely a death sentence for thousands if not tens of thousands—on the flimsiest, most unsubstantiated claims by an entity with a global reputation for serial lying; the complicity with the deadly farce of the “surge in antisemitism.” You’re exactly right that this delusion cannot be dissolved without more attention to what Palestinians IN Gaza and the West Bank are saying/reporting and experiencing.
Thank you for your awareness! I mostly feel as though I'm screaming into a void and it's infuriating. It's reassuring to know someone is paying attention.
There is literally no difference between the two.
You haven't been paying attention to what Biden is doing, had done since he was put in the Awful Office. He has not only continued Trump's cruel border policies, but made them worse. He initially closed a couple of refugee prisons when he got in office (the sterilization prisons), then when he thought no one was watching, he opened up the same prisons and even more.
His DOJ has done nothing to hold the Oligarchy back.
His DOJ had done nothing about the States that are violating the Constitution with their Fascists laws.
His military WATCHED a mother and her two children drown and did nothing, but sustain Moral damage. How cruel is that? That military and the Guardsmen of Texas are damaged humans just like the Israelis and when he forces more of our military and cops to that inhuman cruelty, he will be responsible for even more damage this country's security service people. These people being damaged will, without comprehensive Therapy, go on to rationalize that horrible scene they were forced to witness. Some will kill themselves, others will kill citizens. Do you think these people are going to step up when the same happens to legal us, the citizens, albiet the discardible ones, the ones without the Constitutional Rights that are being dispensed with around the country? Truly all these wars are coming home to give the Oligarchies the troops to our down resisters.
His DOJ has done nothing about protecting our labor force from cruel laws Texas enacted and other states are quickly passing. Workers being denied breaks and water from the horrible heat are dying!
His DOJ did nothing and won't do anything about restricting free speech, association, etc. What has his DOJ done to stop the Christian nationalists defying the Constitution on Academia and the public schools?
He did nothing, NOTHING to correct a corrupted SCOTUS and he has had dozens of Constitutional Scholars point out that he CAN correct it.
When he first got in office he did the Shadow Theater with the shutting down of an inconsequential pipeline only to hand off hundreds of drilling leases to Oil Oligarchs. {The latest outreach to the oil industry is an awkward shift for the Biden administration, which has pledged to move the country away from fossil fuels} from 10/13/2021 Politico.
He and his regime are masters of the time tested 'fool the people' Shell Game. Around and around the shells go, which hand should you watch? ALL of them!
There is SO MUCH more chicanery going on.
Oh yes, there is the 2,000 pound bombs to a people that have the Moral and personality disorder to put to shame some of the worst mass murders in history. Remember he pretended to curb the Blood Cult he's part of? Pausing an every 36 hour shipment of arms and Nutanyahoo posts a video slapping Biden's hand and demanding this country give the spoiled brat HIS drones and cluster bombs, illegal phophurous bombs, as well as everything we want to test on a civilian population.
If you genuinely believe there is no difference between the Trump and Biden administrations, you have either an accelerationist, been misled by propaganda, or are a psyop yourself falsely equating the two to encourage left-leaning Americans to not vote for Biden while the right flood the polls for Trump. The sensationalized and antisemitic rhetoric ("Blood Cult?" seriously?) you're using certainly implies such.
Have horrible things across the nation occurred under Biden's term? Absolutely, but they have been out of Biden's roles. He's the president, but with the checks and balances of our government, he doesn't control the country, he doesn't control Texas and other red states that are hellbent on fighting him even when he tried to address immigration at the southern border, he doesn't control the Supreme Court that's limiting federal powers, and he doesn't control Congress. With Republicans controlling both the House and Senate, bills he's vowed to sign that would protect marginalized folk and constitutional rights seldom reach his desk.
What progress he has managed despite the right-wing powers working against him is rather impressive. Have you heard of the 30x30 plan, wherein the White House vowed to protect 30% of US land by 2030? The Biden administration has increased protected lands to 13% in three years, of which many are indigenous lands, with larger allotments in the works. He's implemented a $35 pay gay on insulin, a $30 per month Internet plan for low-income households, passed the Inflation Reduction Act, worked to expand Social Security benefits for disabled people, and his administration has been pursuing predatory practices by large corporations. OSHA released a federal rule just a week ago establishing federal protections for workers facing excessive heat while other states have taken away heat and water breaks. Biden's FTC appointees restored net neutrality. He's expanded renewable energy programs. After Republicans and SCOTUS killed his initial student debt forgiveness plan, Biden has worked through various programs to cancel $144 billion in federal student debt so far, the majority for disabled and low-income borrowers. When SCOTUS implied the rulings that legalized gay and interracial marriage could be overturn, Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act to enshrine them into federal law. Recently, he pardoned thousands of gay service members convicted under Don't Ask, Don't Tell policies. He expanded DACA protections for undocumented children. He pressured Netanyahu to allow aid into Gaza. He signed an executive order sanctioning Israeli settlers and politicians and the Secretary of State barred any Israeli citizens who attack Palestinians from entering the US. Gosh, that's just off the top of my head!
Then there's so much more potential the Biden administration has if given another term. There are potentially three supreme court seats he has vowed to replace with progressive justices in the next four years. The State Department has made internal progress towards possibly recognizing Palestinian statehood. Biden's proposed 2025 tax budget would revive the Child Care Tax Credit to combat child poverty, expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to benefit low-income workers, provide benefits for first-time home buyers, empower Medicaid recipients even for states that haven't accepted Medicaid expansions, raise taxes on the super wealthy, and so much more I can't summarize in a comment.
Meanwhile, Trump wants to slash Social Security and Medicare, promised big oil CEOs he would eliminate environmental protections entirely, threaten legal recognition of gay marriage and transgender people, give the rich more tax cuts, gut several federal departments including the Department of Education to expand private Christian charter schools, empower ICE to deport immigrants even if they entered the country via legal means, and stated that there would be no Palestine under his power. Does this sound like the same guy as Biden? No, not at all.
Then consider that the presidency is not the only important position this election. 33 Senate seats and 435 House seats are up for grabs in November. That can change the majority in Congress and potentially allow progressive or conservative legislation to become law easier or harder depending on which party had control regardless of who's the president next year. There are also state and local elections — municipal governments, school boards, mayors, sheriffs, county executives — who have far more control over your daily life than the federal government. They are the ones implementing book bans, inflating police budgets, restricting LGBTQ+ rights, and imposing Christian nationalism in public schools.
I'm not saying the Biden administration is perfect — it is certainly not ideal and there is much more to be done — but to consider him equivalent to Trump is so blatantly untrue, hearing this falsehood repeated in the face of contrary evidence is infuriating.
Denial. It’s the word that comes to my mind, as I spoke to a relative bemoaning the fact that so many people (mostly white people), don’t want inclusion, or the true/correct history to be taught in our predominantly white schools here in my small, rural town in Central Pennsylvania. People around here don’t want the truth. I brought up to him in conversation, the lies taught in our history books growing up. I never learned about the Tulsa massacre, or Black Wall Street, or how black towns were flooded so the people had to leave. Or how blacks were forced out of swimming pools for whites only. And on and on. Or how indigenous people were taken away as children and forced to give up their traditions, clothing, language. How they were abused by Catholic clergy who tried to assimilate them into white people, and many were recently found buried in unmarked graves. No… decent, Christian white people don’t want to hear about these inconvenient truths. Another example is the genocide in Gaza. I appreciate and applaud you for your continuing work to address these disparities. Thank you. Don’t ever stop doing what you’re doing, Mr Joseph.
I was a teacher for 20 years. I resigned October 2023 and, for the same reasons as the 2025 scenario in the article, I doubt I will ever again teach in the US. Teachers are unappreciated at the best of times, much less these days.
The USA's biggest accomplishment has been the false image of freedom and democracy and human rights that they have tried to portray. These days the facade is slipping away and we are seeing the reality clearly once again.
And it has international collaborators that speak the same language. Witness Gaza.
Please stop all this nonsense. The best place on the planet to be white, black or brown is America. No country is perfect but if I had to choose to live anywhere right now it’s the US of A.
We have a First Amendment and a Second Amendment which no other country has. Just from those two points I’ll take America every time.
If we keep clinging to every wrong done from our past we can never get past it. Let’s look forward, to the future because that’s where we all plan on spending the rest of our lives.
Amen
Thank you for your honesty . The list of past polices and activities this year is a statement about an America that I had not hoped for. The approval of automatic weapons and bump stop that makes a semi automatic gun into a machine gun is CRAZY SCARY. MAGA’s are coming for Black and Brown people and anyone who is for an inclusive nation. My friends call me the Optimist, but that title is a bit wobbly today. We need to prepare for the truth around the corner. Think shelter, non perishable food and water filtration/purification systems. Arming yourselves with weapons won’t be enough. I hate this. Hate to think about this. But this is where we are. May God and the Universe keep us safe!
I doubt I shall ever fly the flag again.
Never flew the flag, never thought about flying the flag and never will fly the flag. I never could relate to these artificial distinctions. People are the same everywhere, until they’re divided by governments for the sole purpose of conquest – conquest of minds, souls, bodies, land. To what end should we separate ourselves from one another and compete? Doesn’t one group of 10 million with a common purpose achieve more than two groups of 5 million pitted against one another? A group of 3 people achieves more than two groups of 5 million at cross-purposes, because the latter achieves exactly nothing. How do pride of separateness (flag flying) and competion benefit us as humans? If I win, someone else loses: then how can my win be pleasurable or profitable? What am I failing to comprehend here? To say and believe one person, one group, one nation is “better” than another - what does this achieve in terms of increasing good that is done in the world?
The only calls for violence I see come from Democrats wanting to assassinate Trump. I have to lmao that the ones who tried to force these poisonous mRNA vaccines on us and mandated that children wear masks, are the one's who are going to warn us about Trump and populism.
No doubt, violence is coming, but it will be from the cultural left, who have been lied to by the elites and have fallen for propaganda time and time again.
God forbid DJT should win in November, you can bet the period from November til the inauguration in January will be fraught with violence, but not from the right. Expect the rapid re-emergence of the purple-haired, multiply-pierced Antifa shock troops out in the streets, wreaking havoc and burning anything they can get their unproductive hands on. And people like the ones on this site, bemoaning “the state of America today” will say: “See? Just look at the violence caused by Trump’s election! It was inevitable.”
Puh-leez!
You didn't hear President Trump call for violence over the last nine years? Oh, you can't hear it unless he says the exact words. You think he needs to? LOL
Fred, Great writing. Wonderful parody of the movie Civil War. You had me going for a while, but it became clear in about the fourth paragraph you were pulling my leg, cause only a left leaning dweeb would go to such extreme extremes in describing potential outcomes of what happens in a democratic election.
See that is how elections work. One group leaves power, and another takes up residence. But never before in American politics has happened what you describe is happening with MAGA folks.
You and others use these fear mongering tactics like this piece to marshal all the support you can for your side. Because just saying vote for our side doesn't guarantee the average person will. So, you bring out the fear of death squads and retribution to try to glue your coalition together.
Now, Fred, you wouldn't have to use these scare tactics, if your candidate was still alive and had a functional brain.
Just saying.
But, and this is a big BUT,
An Empire of forever war
Trump received 46% of the vote total in 2020. Nearly 75M.
Do you truly believe that roughly half of your fellow citizens want to lynch anyone who is an "other"?
If you believe that most of those 75M people were duped by a tyrant in the making, do you really have so little faith in the other institutions of this Republic (institutions civil and civic) to withstand an attempt at dictatorial power?
God help us if we believe that half our citizenry has evil intent or that our institutions couldn't survive a conspiratorial minority.
75 million ppl voted for Trump in 2020. Voted, not picked up arms and tried to take the country by force.
J6 was not an insurrection. People entered the Capital, but no one was armed and most of those people would not have walked if they were not waved in by those who removed the barricades. There is video of all of it. Even of Ray Epps saving we have to go into the Capital.
It’s time to stop the nonsense. Trump and his voters are not trying to bring down the Republic. They are voting and hope to get Trump elected. Trump already served as president and people think he will do a better job this time around.
That’s it! Stop the fear mongering and if Trump wins the Left must accept their lose. If by chance Biden wins I won’t like it, but I’m not going to storm any gates. We want to peacefully vote and as long as it’s free and fair that’s all we want.
Although, perhaps I am the one with too much faith in the civic and civil institutions. Our churches meekly shuttered their doors when the government told them to. Our schools, both public and many private, locked children out of classrooms for more than a year creating learning loss, socialization deficits and mental health issues. Employers willingly fired employees for questioning and abstaining invasive treatments without any accompanying long term information about potential harms. Our parks closed outdoor play areas and beaches were patrolled for rogue bathers.
Maybe we are lost after all. Or at the very least, we need reformed institutions to counter the heavy weight of governmental overreach.
Knowing, remembering and envisioning. This is Our Country and most of us have no other. It is a wealthy country with space and resources abundant. We have an amazing mix of people from all over the world that have merged and melded over decades and centuries, yes with too much violence exclusion and corruption to argue that it is perfect. That, sadly, may be the human way. There has been an entrenched supremacy of the white and wealthy and influential here and elsewhere through history. I am horrified to understand that these supremicists did not just die out by about now as I had assumed might happen. That was naive and simplistic of me to believe and think. So we try to know and learn and read many viewpoints. We remember and grieve with those who have had so much taken from them, so many lovely souls mistreated maligned brutalized and killed. Truly this grief is so immense as to feel that we can never really go beyond it. But we must live in this world and if we keep letting the supremacists use their entrenched hold on the system expand and elaborate until all of our freedoms are gone.... the grief is still there and we add new ones. Together those who wish for better, who know the freedoms of our minds and bodies are all we truly have, who want to progress the human story to include all people having enough. I don't think the celebration is in these holidays per se tho we do need some things that we share if it is only days off of work! Some could be repurposed to include the fuller story rather than the fairy tale told by one sector of the population. But more importantly, what is our vision about moving forward. So Envision with each criticism try to put forth some possible step forward. The Trumpublicans have a vision that is regressive, angry, fearful and brutal and we are very close to having to live or die within that daemonic culture for some period of time unless.....
All “great” civilizations fall. I wonder how much longer we can contain this country’s seething hatred. Seems ready to blow. God help us. 🙏🏻😳
Devastating and true. Interested in the choice to reference further distant history when there is so much more recent thought - perhaps to resonate further with people who can’t yet recognise how close and ongoing? A young activist shot trying to stop cop city? Black people killed by police every year? A genocide in Gaza … thank you though. Appreciate it
It’s a day of mourning for what could have been