Music: Herbie Tsoaeli — ‘Abadala Baholo’
How Kamala Harris — and Joe Biden — lost to Donald Trump and left Democrats in shambles
The Washington Post reports: Following Harris’s loss Tuesday — in which Trump made gains with nearly every single demographic group, leaving him poised to potentially win all seven battleground states and the popular vote — the Democratic Party now finds itself grappling with how it lost so definitively, and how it so thoroughly misunderstood the American electorate. Democrats expect the party, donors and outside groups will eventually conduct autopsy reports to understand just how the race went awry. Donna Brazile,…
Thomas Homan will deport people for Trump — as he did for Obama
Politico reports: President-elect Donald Trump has picked former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan to serve as a “border czar” for the incoming administration. Trump’s selection of Homan, 62, for the post was widely expected. “I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders,” Trump wrote as he announced Homan’s new job on the Truth Social platform late Sunday night. Homan’s duties will include overseeing the borders with Mexico…
Democrats’ $1.9 trillion bet that blew up
Axios reports: Nearly four years ago, the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats made a $1.9 trillion bet in the form of the American Rescue Plan. They lost, as it contributed to a surge in inflation that fueled massive voter discontent and Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Why it matters: In the next recession, politicians and policymakers may be more hesitant to unleash the type of programs that drove America’s rapid recovery from the pandemic-induced crisis. Catch up fast: With the ARP, Democrats wagered…
‘Hail Hitler and Hail Trump,’ yell Nazis in Michigan
WLNS reports: A group of people were seen waving Nazi flags in two different Mid-Michigan cities, including outside of a Jewish play. Many people were waving flags with swastikas on them in front of the American Legion Post in Howell. At the same time, the Fowlerville Community Theater performed the “Diary of Anne Frank” on Saturday night. A member of the Howell American Legion Post says the legion heard about the rising antisemitism and thought people could learn from the…
Trump’s victory an opportunity to ‘apply sovereignty’ in the West Bank, says Israeli minister
The Times of Israel reports: Donald Trump’s election as the next president of the United States provides Israel with the opportunity to advance the annexation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared on Monday. Addressing the press ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Smotrich welcomed Trump’s victory over incumbent Joe Biden, whose administration he complained had “unfortunately chosen to intervene in Israeli democracy and personally not to cooperate with…
Gaza doesn’t care about Trump or Harris — only survival matters
Ahmed Najar writes: I spoke to my family in Gaza a day before the US election. Our conversation followed days of silence, of unbearable waiting, with every hour deepening my dread. When I finally heard my nephew’s voice, I felt relief, but it quickly gave way to heartbreak. At just 21, his voice now carries a sadness and exhaustion far beyond his years. “Does it even matter who wins?” he asked me, his tone hollow and resigned. “[Donald] Trump or…
How solar microgrids are bringing power (and quiet) to North Carolina
Energy News Network reports: Seventeen days after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, tearing down power lines, destroying water mains, and disabling cell phone towers, the signs of relief were hard to miss. Trucks formed a caravan along Interstate 40, filled with camouflaged soldiers, large square tanks of water, and essentials from pet food to diapers. In towns, roadside signs — official versions emblazoned with nonprofit relief logos and wooden makeshift ones scrawled with paint — advertised free food and…
Music: Arve Henriksen — ‘Secret Language’
Harris paid the price for ignoring the pleas of Arab Americans
Politico reports: Arab American leaders for months warned Vice President Kamala Harris that she needed to separate herself from President Joe Biden’s support of Israel in the war in Gaza — or face an electoral backlash from this influential community in a key battleground. But those pleas went largely ignored. Instead, Harris made strategic errors that deeply insulted Arab American voters reeling from intense grief as the death toll in the Middle East climbed. She refused to host a Palestinian…
Congress is about to give Trump sweeping powers to crush his political enemies
The Intercept reports: Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire for revenge. On the campaign trail, he joked about being a dictator on “day one” in office, pledged to jail journalists, and threatened to retaliate against political foes who he felt had wronged him. Now, just days after he secured a second term in the White House, Congress is already moving to hand a resurgent Trump administration a powerful cudgel that it could wield against ideological opponents in…
Many in government are worried about Trump’s return. At DOJ, they’re terrified
Politico reports: A collective sense of dread has taken hold at the Department of Justice, which drew Donald Trump’s rage like no other part of the federal government during his campaign. Some career attorneys at DOJ are already considering heading for the exits rather than sticking around to find out whether threats from Trump and his allies are real or campaign bluster. Those threats range from mass firings of “deep state” lawyers to expelling special counsel Jack Smith from the…
How blue states are plotting to thwart Trump
Politico reports: Donald Trump pledged in one of his final campaign speeches to work with Democratic mayors and governors if reelected. But just hours after the former president was projected to win back the White House, some blue-state leaders were actively plotting against him. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, one of Trump’s fiercest critics, on Thursday called a special legislative session to funnel more resources toward the state’s legal defenses to preemptively combat Republican policies around immigration, the environment, LGBTQ+ rights…
None of the conventional explanations for Trump’s victory stand up to scrutiny
Ben Davis writes: Why were Democrats unable to counter the idea that Trump was an economic savant? And why did most Americans vote for someone they believe will harm the country but help their own pocketbooks? The answer is the ongoing decimation of working-class institutions and civil society, started by neoliberalism, accelerated by the rise of the internet as a medium of interaction and put into overdrive during the isolation of Covid. The vehicles for building solidarity with others and…
Trump talked to Putin, told Russian leader not to escalate in Ukraine
The Washington Post reports: President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, the first phone conversation between the two men since Trump won the election, said several people familiar with the matter. During the call, which Trump took from his resort in Florida, he advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington’s sizable military presence in Europe, said a person familiar with the call, who, like others interviewed for…
Netanyahu appoints hardline backer of settlements as Israeli envoy to U.S.
The Guardian reports: Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a hardline supporter of the war in Gaza and longtime backer of settlements in the West Bank as his ambassador to the US as Israel prepares for the incoming administration of Donald Trump. Yechiel Leiter, an American-born rightwing publicist and former government aide who immigrated to Israel four decades ago, was announced as Israel’s next ambassador to Washington on Friday. His son, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, was killed in fighting…