The People's Ceasefire
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist 27 Mar 2024
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)
The United States relented and abstained from voting on a UN Security Council resolution requiring Israel to abide by a two-week ceasefire. Popular pressure forced this small step. Organized campaigns against Biden’s re-election created a political crisis which threatened to delegitimize Zionism and the U.S. state itself.
The Biden administration deserves no praise for abstaining from a United Nations Security Council resolution which demands that Israel observe a two week long ceasefire in Gaza. The U.S. vetoed numerous resolutions already, and was forced into doing the barest of minimums because of domestic and international political pressure.
In recent weeks, Joe Biden made an odd and obviously staged public statement on the floor of congress, claiming to have been angry with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Leaked stories to the media made the same assertion, that Biden referred to Netanyahu as an “asshole” even as he continued to pour military aid into Israel. Political leaders like Senator Charles Schumer made a great show of criticizing Netanyahu in a stage managed good cop and bad cop routine.
The thanks for this brief respite from the killing spree goes to ordinary people who took to the streets in mass protests, demanding that the carnage come to an end. Here in the United States the #AbandonBiden campaign made clear that voters would express their displeasure by defeating Biden’s re-election effort.
And yet, the determination to continue supporting Israel is clear. No sooner had the resolution passed, than the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, called the vote “non-binding” when there is no such thing as a non-binding UN resolution. Even after being forced into accepting a two-week cease fire, the Biden Administration makes clear that it will support Israel's war crimes, regardless of UN votes, or the wishes of other nations.
There was already a ceasefire in December 2023. The hostages who Israel claims to care so much about began to be returned and the people of Gaza were safer for a short time. But Israel was determined to continue its campaign of ethnic cleansing. Even the International Court of Justice ruling calling South Africa's charge of genocide “plausible" and which required Israel to stop killing Palestinians, didn’t stop the bloodshed.
As the ceasefire resolution passed, Israel was killing patients and medical professionals at the Al-Shifa hospital. Israeli settlers and officials have engaged in a sustained campaign to stop aid trucks from entering Gaza. Universities have been destroyed. There are in fact no universities left in Gaza. A recently released video shows a drone strike killing four Gaza men. The atrocities never ended and they could not have been carried out absent United States political and Financial support.
This ceasefire, such as it is, would not have happened if the people had not remained in motion, opposing U.S. and Israeli genocide as much as they could. But caution is called for. Turn coats and false friends like Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, now use the words genocide and ceasefire when they had previously refused to do so. They are still false friends. Both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are committed Biden supporters but they know which way the political winds are blowing. They can no longer manage what they consider to be an inconvenient public relations problem. The activism on behalf of the people of Gaza created a political crisis, which is as it should be. There is never positive change unless the powers that be can see that they and the system they protect face some degree of risk.
This ceasefire resolution came about only because the people demanded it. any credit given must go to unnamed people who have made their outrage clear and who have acted upon it. The pressure must be sustained. If it is not, Biden and his partners in crime in the Congress and in the corporate media will behave as though all is well. They want to believe they have a marketing problem that can be resolved with enough focus group wordsmithing instead of a political movement that cannot be stopped.
Fortunately the protest continues. The New York presidential primary will be held on April 2 but New York does not does not have provisions for uncommitted choices as other states do. Instead the demand must be made with a blank ballot. The Leave It Blank campaign asks New Yorkers to return blank ballots which nonetheless will be counted.
The worst outcome would be if Biden and his cohorts concluded that they could return to the status quo and continue to support Israel without fear of opposition. Actually that has already happened, as the Biden administration bypassed congress to send $250 million in military aid to Israel.
It is painful to watch as money and brute force are used to cover up Israel’s and America's crimes and silence those who point them out. Every success, no matter how small, must be acknowledged. That is why this ceasefire should be called the people's ceasefire. The people of the Republic of South Africa charged Israel with genocide when no other country would. People across this country refused to vote for Joe Biden and openly called for his defeat. The solidarity from people in the streets, and from Black religious leaders who conveyed the outrage and the concern of their congregants, and even the few politicians willing to speak up, are all the successes in this story.
And yet the devils are busy. The 75 year history of U.S. support for Israel will not disappear. There can be no confusion that criticism of Netanyahu is at all meaningful while support for the Zionist project continues. The fight must go on. Only the people, acting in concert, and with determination, can bring these crimes to an end.
https://blackagendareport.com/peoples-ceasefire
It’s Not Voter Apathy; You’re Not Listening
Dr.Wilmer J. Leon, III 27 Mar 2024
If it were possible to tally non-voters, "Nobody" would have won the 2016 presidential election. Philip Kearney
Politicians and the liberal media cite "voter apathy" as the cause of reduced voter turnout, but the reality is that their devotion to corporate interests over those of the people creates a seeming lack of interest.
“Public Politics is the negotiating process between interested constituencies regarding the access to and distribution of limited resources and the resulting outcome or policy pertaining thereto.” Wilmer J. Leon, III, Ph.D.
One of the popular narratives that was disseminated in mainstream American media to explain Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign loss to Donald Trump was post-Obama voter apathy in the African American community. According to the Washington Post , “In 2016, a seven-point drop in black voter turnout was perceived to have cost Clinton the election.
Political commentators often cite black voters’ “enthusiasm gap” as the primary reason for low turnout. This short-sighted perspective fails to consider that Mrs. Clinton ran a terrible campaign. She took the African American vote for granted and failed to craft a message that spoke to the needs and interests of the Ccommunity. Blaming the Ccommunity played into a stereotype that labeled African Americans as uninformed and monolithic in thought, instead of being introspective and recognizing her own short-comings. Her campaign ignored a simple reality…African Americans are as “political” as the rest of the country and there are real and substantive political interests that motivate the Community.
Two substantive pieces of legislation that impacted Hilary Clinton’s campaign came out of her husband’s administration. The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act . The crime act, also known as “3 Strikes and are Out,” contributed greatly to the mass incarceration of African Americans. So-called welfare reform, that Hilary Clinton encouraged her husband to sign, removed hundreds of thousands of poor people of color from the welfare safety-net and plunged them into the ranks of the desperately working poor. Many African Americans never forgot nor forgave her for supporting these pieces of legislation, as well as her referring to members of the Community as “superpredators ” who needed to be brought “to heel .” It was not voter apathy or an “enthusiasm gap” that turned the African American community against the Hilary Clinton campaign, it was the realpolitik of Hilary Clinton.
As America moves closer to the 2024 presidential election, the narrative of “voter apathy” and problems with the African American voter are being promoted once again. The Guardian reports - Black and Hispanic voters deserting Democratic party in large numbers . The problem with this story is its failure to focus on Democratic party policy outcomes that have left many African American voters feeling ignored and disrespected. Fox reports - Biden support from Black voters plummeting as Democrats blame ‘disinformation’ . The Democratic party elite need to realize that African American voters are not uninformed, simple-minded, easily swayed nor can be taken for granted. President Biden has not developed, acted upon, nor articulated a message that resonates with the Community and reflects its reality.
There is another reality that is developing that could turn the “blame African Americans for Democratic party disappointments” narrative on its head. It is an oppositional form of politics called “uncommitted” that is gaining traction in Michigan, Minnesota, and other states. In the most recent Michigan presidential primary, the Listen to Michigan campaign which is a coalition of African American, Arab American, Muslim American, and other voters is expected to receive approximately 10,000 votes. The country was shocked to have more than 100,000 Michiganders take the time to vote for nobody instead of the incumbent president. Michigan is a battleground state that President Biden won by fewer than 150,000 votes in 2020. The strength of that 2024 “uncommitted” protest vote sent an unambiguous message to the Democrats.
On Super Tuesday Minnesota saw nearly 19 percent of its primary voters check the “uncommitted” box — an even higher ratio of voters than in Michigan. The focus of the voter’s ire in both Michigan and Minnesota is the Biden administrations unyielding support for genocide in Gaza. The #AbandonBiden campaign has said that under no circumstances will it support Biden in November. “Our triumph in Michigan is more than a victory; it’s a declaration of our fury and our refusal to be silenced…”
According to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 4 in 10 U.S. adults want America to broadly take a “less active” role in solving global conflicts. In a recent poll from Data for Progress roughly three in four Democrats support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. In the Data for Progress poll a total of 61% of Americans polled said they were in favor of a ceasefire. The Democratic Party and its presumptive nominee, President Biden are ignoring their base. This is a very dangerous tactic when a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Americans are not excited about a Trump vs. Biden rematch.
In fact, there is a growing cohort called “double-haters,” those who are dissatisfied with Biden and Trump and do not want either candidate to win in November. Recent polls from the Marquette Law School, NYT-Siena College, and Morning Consult all reported 19 percent of those polled expressed dissatisfaction with both options. That is a large percentage of voters in a race that right now is within 1.5% to 2.0%, well within the margin of error.
Labor unions should be another area of concern for the Biden/Harris ticket. This past January, UAW President Shawn Fein announced the UAW’s endorsement of President Biden. Fain praised Biden for standing with the union during its strike against the Detroit Three automakers. The problem is the approximately 1 million rank and file membership may not follow the endorsement of UAW union leadership. Following the union endorsement Fein explained that he expected most of the UAW membership would not vote for President Biden in November. During an interview on Fox Business Network’s Your World with Neil Cavuto, Fain stated, “Let me be clear about this. A great majority of our members will not vote for President Biden…The majority of our members are gonna’ vote for their paychecks, they’re gonna’ vote for an economy that works for them.”
The Washington Post recently reported that The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents about 2 million health-care, property service and government workers, plans to spend $200 million to boost President Biden and Democrats in electoral battlegrounds across the country this year. If the Democratic Party historically is the bastion of union politics and support, why is the UAW’s rank-and-file “gonna vote for their paychecks” (not for Biden) and why is the SEIU planning to spend $200M to get their vote out amongst a constituency that historically votes for Democrats?
According to The National Alliance to End Homeless , homelessness is on the rise in America. In 2022, counts of individuals (421,392 people) and chronically homeless individuals (127,768) reached record highs in the history of data collection. Unsheltered rates are also trending upward, impacting most racial, ethnic, and gender subgroups. As more than half of working Americans (53 percent), according to a recent Workforce Monitor study feel their paychecks are not keeping up with the pace of inflation, and Democrats; the Biden administration continues to find ways to send the much needed American tax dollar to war efforts in Ukraine and Gaza. According to Stephen Semler in Jacobin , “The Biden administration has been able to maintain a low profile by spreading arms provision to Israel across more than 100 smaller munitions sales”— allowing the president to posture as a peacekeeper while US weapons wipe Gaza off the map.
Voter disinterest is not at issue; voter apathy is not the new black. The two major American political parties are listening to their corporate benefactors, talking amongst themselves in their echo chambers and are not listening to their constituents. Maintain the current course and speed at your own peril.
https://blackagendareport.com/index.php ... -listening
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Democrats Furiously Finger-Wagging Over Billionaire Nicole Shanahan as RFK, Jr.’s Vice Presidential Pick
Posted on March 28, 2024 by Yves Smith
If the level of upset is an indication, Team Dem is seriously worried about Nichole Shanahan joining RFK, Jr.’s ticket as his vice president. For sake of convenience, we’ll mine a new comment, which is Financial Times’ speak for op-ed, by Edward Luce. Luce was Larry Summer’s speechwriter and a regular Democratic party water-carrier. He does write the occasional insightful and even independent-minded piece to make up for his scrivener’s work.
In “the dog that did not bark” manner, what Luce does not say is more telling than what he says. He does whinge, as many do, that Shanahan’s enormous personal balance sheet can and likely will go a long way in funding the RFK, Jr. campaign but focuses on ballot access and his legal expenses, meaning cleverly depicting RFK, Jr. as wounded and viable only with a very large cash injection.
Oddly I have yet to see any pundit consider that Shanahan joining RFK, Jr.’s ticket will serve to elicit more money from other Silicon Valley heavy-hitters. So far, they are depicting her involvement as a form of vanity project.
Luce offers only a passing treatment of the the trope than many Shanahan critics are serving up, that she’s not qualified to be Vice President. With Kamala Harris arguably having credentials and having demonstrated that incapable of even reading a Teleprompter well, the Vice Presidential bar has been so lowered that Shanahan can more than fill the role. We will learn more about Shanahan’s professional life in due course. She was a lawyer and started up and sold a company, so she is not devoid of accomplishment of her own, even if her big bucks come from marriage.
Luce refuses to consider that RFK, Jr. and Shanahan might be running out of principle (even if many would consider those principles to be misguided and naive) and think they have a shot, albeit a long one of winning. As we will discuss later, the views that Luce pooh-poohs, particularly aversion to vaccines and concerns about health risks from food and environmental toxins, is extremely popular among the super and somewhat wealthy in California. It’s mainstream in that cohort, and not fringe, as Luce tries to depict it.
If Joe Biden were to die before the election, which is well above a 0% probability, the RFK, Jr.-Shanahan ticker goes from “quixotic” to a contender. Instead, Luce acts as if his arguments could persuade Shanahan to drop her candidacy, which is a peculiar narrative position to take: that she risks going down in history and is enabling a Trump victory, and that she’s a newbie to politics and is not prepared for the roughing up she is about to get.
Instead, Luce hammers on the idea that the only thing the RFK, Jr. can do is damage the worthy Biden team. He invokes “aiding evil Trump” in the opening paragrapH:
RFK’s third-party candidacy could split the vote in key swing states. That makes him 2024’s potential Ralph Nader, the Green party candidate who in 2000 siphoned support from Al Gore. The winner was George W Bush. This time it would be Donald Trump.
The “oh no Nader” contention ignores that Florida, where Nader received over 90,000 voters, versus Gore’s margin of loss of 537, did not allow felons to vote. As Greg Palast recounted, Florida hired the highest bidder on its “scrub the voter rolls program, and the contractor proceeded to nix obviously black names that dimly resembled those of felons. Due to the state of search, I can’t readily find Palast’s work, but my recollection is that he found that a bare minimum of 90,000 valid black voters were removed. Take 30% propensity to vote and 90% propensity of black to vote Democrat, and you get 24.300 more votes for Gore.
And let us not forget that Bill Clinton did not strongly support Gore’s candidacy, and his lukewarm backing not doubt had a cost too.
Luce again insists the ticket has no hope but concedes it could prove to be harmless…in terms of Biden:
There can only be two end points to the path they are on. Either the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket will be another quixotic entry in America’s colourful history of third-party bids; or they will go down as the pair that helped return the White House to Trump.
The “you may push Trump over the top” is interwoven with what amounts to personal threats: You will be subjected to lots of oppo (presumably Shanahan is enough of a grown-up to have worked that out) and insinuations that she might suffer for the rest of her life:
Brace yourself, Nicole Shanahan. Most Americans have not heard of the ex-wife of Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin…. Shanahan’s life will now be turned inside out….
The latter [helping Trump win] might complicate the remainder of Shanahan’s life. Nothing could prepare her for what she is about to go through….
The Democrats have every incentive to make life as hard as possible for Kennedy and Shanahan.
But all Luce can serve up is the rumor that Shanahan had an affair with Elon Musk when she was still married to Sergey Brin. Both Musk and Shanahan have denied that.
Ahd Shanahan is extremely attractive. If she is well-spoken too and either natively or with professional coaching is good under fire, attempts to attack her could backfire. Beating up on pretty young-looking women is frowned on in many circles.
Luce also depicts Kennedy’s long-standing big issues, the environment and vaccines, as populist without using that word:
But he appeals to swaths of America that are hostile to the pharmaceutical industry. Most Americans have a close family member who suffers from a chronic disease, such as diabetes, cancer, hypertension or addiction. Millions feel ripped off by the big drugs companies. On Tuesday, Shanahan vowed to fix chronic disease within “weeks, not years” of being elected. Many Americans are also affected by pollution — another of RFK’s themes and one of Shanahan’s philanthropic causes. If their names appear on the ballot, they will get some votes. The question is whether the trade off will be worth it.
Your humble blogger has commented on the the extent of concern about food quality and orthodox medical treatment among those who have the time and money to address it, and there are plenty of vendors who will stoke and serve that hobby. It goes way beyond organic foods to super-foods, de-toxing, specialized supplementation and injections, often accompanied by at least fitness enthusiast-level exercising. Many are vaccine averse. And that’s before you get to treatments that only the super-rich can afford, like buying blood from the young to use to regenerate theirs.
In other words, Luce might want to get out more before dismissing RFK, Jr. as the candidate for niche issues voters. Consider this sighting in February from a contact who managed to be invited to a big Hollywood pre-Oscars screening in a super wealthy resort area:
There was a large after party. The donors are getting ready to write checks.
They use straw polls as horse race indices. How much they need to donate? Who is the cool kid?
The results – among the ultra rich ultra Hollywood Liberal blue billionaire hive?
RFK JR – 58%
Trump – 27% – (I was about spit out my gin and tonic when that was read off)
Biden 4%
Newsom 2%
Various others less than 2% each.
There were multiple people there talking about Biden’s dementia. And the startling lack of enthusiasm among the Calif elite for Newsom also blew me away.
Mind you, I am not saying this to endorse RFK, Jr. He seems only to be running on Camelot hopium with no concrete ideas how to get there. I am simply saying that dismissing him before Shanahan joined his ticket, was premature and looks even more so now.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/03 ... -pick.html
