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Police Use of Deadly Force : Something Must Be Done
Brief #14—Social Justice
By Erika Shannon
The police use of deadly force in America is a plague; the Washington Post reports that cops kill around 1,000 people per year, a number that has remained steady since 2015. There is an even bigger problem with the police use of deadly force – they disproportionally target black Americans in deadly force incidents, and this issue is unfortunately nothing new.
The numbers are alarming in cities across America. If we take a look at Minneapolis, where ex-police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, Minneapolis Police use force against black people seven times more than against white people. Since 2015, there were 11,5000 instances of force documented in Minneapolis; at least 6,650 of those instances involved black people. While white people make up 60% of the population in Minneapolis, force was only used against them 2,750 times. These numbers are similar to the rest of the country, where black Americans are twice as likely to be killed by police as white Americans. The Washington Post reports that police will kill 36 out of a million black Americans, while police will only kill 15 out of a million white Americans. The statistics are troubling, considering that black Americans only make up 13% of the population, yet account for so many instances of police-involved deadly force.
Will Biden’s Bold Climate Plan See Its Way Through the Political Storms?
Brief #113—Environment
By Todd J Broadman
The world is in need of a climate action plan; the U.S. under President Biden is proposing one. At its core, the proposed plan is a set of policies that shift or transition energy from fossil fuels to renewable sources. The glaring challenge to this shift though, is current and future projections for energy demand. Americans are accustomed to the luxury of 24-7 access to energy at the touch of a button. As the Biden plan points to, solar and wind power are the go-to sustainable energy sources. Electricity though, accounts for only a quarter of CO2 emissions – carbon-intensive manufacturing, agriculture, and transportation demands comprise the vast majority. Biden’s plan subscribes to Bill Gates’s “Show me a problem, and I’ll look for technology to fix it,” approach. Others, particularly in Europe, place more emphasis on ‘degrowth’ as the direction the developed world ought to be heading.
States Launch Assaults on the Rights of the Transgender Community: Part I
Brief #104—Health & Gender
By Taylor J Smith
More than 100 bills that threaten the rights of transgender people have been introduced across thirty-three states as we approach only the fifth month of the year. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, tracks such dangerous bills and has on record 117 bills that take aim at the transgender community, the majority targeting trans youth. This is the number of anti-trans bills since HRC began tracking anti-LGBTQ+ legislation back in the early 2000s.
States Launch Assaults on the Rights of the Transgender Community: Part I
Brief #104 – Health & Gender Author Taylor J Smith Brief Title: States Launch Assaults on the Rights of the Transgender Community: Part I May 1, 2021 More than 100 bills that threaten the rights of transgender people have been introduced across thirty-three states...
Show some courage! Defy your tribe!
Show Some Courage
By Robert Wright
Last week LeBron James, who has 50 million Twitter followers, tweeted a picture of a policeman in Columbus, Ohio who had shot a 16-year-old Black girl to death. The tweet said, “You’re next. #Accountability.”Coming right after the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, the tweet seemed to mean that this cop, like Chauvin, would be convicted of murder and imprisoned—though some took James’s message as more menacing: a threat of vigilante justice.On either interpretation, the tweet didn’t make sense. The cop’s body cam had captured the killing, and the video told this story:
A cop responding to a 911 call arrives on the scene and sees the 16-year-old, Ma’Khia Bryant, with a knife in her hand, approaching another girl. The other girl is backed up against a parked car, with no means of escape, as Bryant draws the knife back and seems poised to stab her.
A New Wave of “Anti – Protest” and “Anti – Riot” Bills Threaten First Amendment Rights In The United States
Brief #159—Civil Rights
By Rod Maggay
During the 2021 legislative session “anti – protest” and “anti – riot” bills have been introduced in a number of states across the United States. The bills vary in a number of key features but it is clear that these bills are being put forward in response to the protests last year against police misconduct and institutional racism. There have been more than 80 anti – protest bills introduced this year alone. Here is a list of the most noteworthy of those state bills.
On April 19, 2021 in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed the Combatting Public Disorder Act. That act creates a new charge of “aggravated rioting” which is focused on acts committed during a declared riot such as blocking a highway or the threat of force against a bystander. The bill also enhances the penalties for battery and burglary charges during a riot. Additionally, a mandatory sentence can be imposed on a person convicted of battery against a police officer during a riot.
Student Loan Forgiveness: Who Should Benefit and By How Much?
Brief #114—Economics
By Rosalind Gottfried
Americans owe 1.7 trillion dollars in student debt. This figure represents an increase of 102% from 2010. The issue is seen by many as one of racial and economic equity. This is because the greatest portion of student debt accrues to lower and middle income students and to students who are Latinx , African American and/or women. Twenty five percent of African Americans and twenty percent of Hispanic Americans are behind in their debt payments. Students of color are also more likely than other bearers of student loans to have left school without a degree or to have jobs where their pay is not commensurate with the average college graduate’s pay scale.
President Biden’s recent corona virus relief bill provided for a moratorium on loan payments until September 30, 2021 and exempted them from accruing interest during that time period. He has also exempted debt forgiveness or cancellation from being taxed. At the same time, a recent US Court of Appeals ruling has made it more difficult to excuse student loans if a person declares bankruptcy. This would not impact a one-time loan cancellation but applies to people making payments on existing loans which would not be canceled under a new guideline.
# 5 Fishing Boat Dispatch
Brief #5—Fishing Boat Dispatch
By Katherine Cart
Prince William Sound is a quiet place. Storms in the Gulf of Alaska die on the western edges of islands; Montague, Hitchinbrook and Hawkins Islands rise like barbicans about the calm inlets. When one flies low over the Sound, little islands appear as shadows stretched westward: storm waves crush beaches from craggy outcrop. On the leeward side rise unblunted cliffs. At the scooped back of the Sound, one can, in most seasons, drive aluminum skiffs for miles on flat water, jigging for halibut and pulling from 30 fathoms by hand shrimp pots in which an octopus is more likely to be found than shrimp. Treed mountains rise up from the water, are striated by waterfall from glacial seeps, summits. In winter, the bays beneath slush are aquamarine, incredibly clear – the season of rot not yet begun – and the hills are stilled beneath a fathom of snow. The winter nights are long: sun up and down occur near the middle of the working day. In clear dawns and twilights, if one stands in view of the sweep of the Sound, all the snowed islands blaze in alpenglow. On Esther Island, where storms rarely come, the winter sun flits around the periphery of the bay, slinking behind mountain ridge. There is a small cluster of buildings on Esther Island, in which a dozen or so people live and work, hatching and releasing Chum salmon[1] by the millions each year. In the darkest months, daylight is the blued shadow of the mountain across the bay, and night is, with clear skies and luck, the greenish aurora borealis beyond the humped blocks of snowed peaks. Strong moons reflect silver on frozen waterfalls.
Defendant Trump: A Review of Outstanding Charges
Brief #2—U.S. Resist News Blog
By Sean Gray
Post-presidential life promises little relief from the civil, and potentially criminal litigation. Whilst occupying the White House, Trump was able to weaponize the Justice Department to insulate him from trouble. Those protections are gone, and many chickens may be coming home to roost.The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel holds that indicting a sitting president would unconstitutionally undermine his ability to execute his duties. That is no longer at issue, and private citizen Trump has no further pretense for refusing to comply with the subpoenas.
TRUMP SUPPORTERS BECOME INSURRECTIONISTS: SOMETHING MUST BE DONE
U.S. RESIST EDITORIAL
January 8, 2021
TRUMP SUPPORTERS BECOME INSURRECTIONISTS: SOMETHING MUST BE DONE
On Wednesday of this week a mob of Trump supporters invaded the US Capitol wearing MAGA hats and waving Confederate flags. They desecrated the Senate chambers, took over offices of members of Congress, including Speaker Pelosi, broke windows, smashed furnishings, and overran the Capitol police. Their actions were inspired by conspiracy-driven words of President Trump, on Twitter for the past several months and at a kickoff rally on the Washington Mall. Trump has been falsely insisting that the 2020 Presidential election had been stolen from him and urging his supporters to “stop the steal.”
Commentators have called this an “attempted coup, “an “insurrection “and a “dark day in American history”, all of which are true; but the question before us now is what are we going to do about it? We cannot let this attack on our democracy continue. We do not want to go through 4 years of Trump rallying his followers to take similar seditious actions and delegitimize our electoral process. We cannot let the country fall apart because of the ego and misguided psychological makeup of a man who cannot admit that he lost an election.
U.S. RESIST NEWS recommends that the following actions be taken:
- A High-Level Bi-Partisan Commission should be established to make recommendations for ensuring the integrity of our electoral system going forward, and considering the possibility of getting rid of the electoral college..
- The FBI should undertake an investigation into the January 7th protests with the ability to prosecute wrong doers.
- The effort to track and prosecute home-grown white nationalist terrorism should be given highest priority.
- Any effort by President Trump to pardon himself should be legally challenged by the new Attorney General.
- State level efforts to prosecute President Trump for his attempt to change the vote-tally in Georgia should be implemented.
- Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites should take down any tweets or posts from President Trump, Rudy Giuliani and others that claim the election was stolen. (Notably Facebook has recently banned Trump from posting on their platform.)
- Efforts by New York State and other local authorities to prosecute crimes committed by President Trump should be accelerated.
- Congress should consider impeaching President Trump and barring him from future office-holding because of his role in instigating the January 6th break in.
- Republican lawmakers should review the leadership of the Republican National Committee (RNC) to ensure that Mr. Trump has no role with the RNC once he leaves office. This will help to ensure that his rhetoric and ideals become separate from future Republican policies. The RNC can still be the RNC but with less “Trumpism” in the policies they stand for.
We realize there are risks involved in taking these actions; that they may further polarize our political environment and make Trump appear as a martyr to his followers.. But to do nothing at this point would be a greater risk. We would be turning our back on injustice, and the criminal and seditious acts committed by President Trump and his followers over the past 4 years and allowing them to continue.
Biden Expected to Reverse Trump Rollbacks and Strengthen Policies Affecting Americans with Disabilities
Brief # 89 Health and Gender
Biden Expected to Reverse Trump Rollbacks and Strengthen Policies Affecting Americans with Disabilities
By Linda F. Hersey
January 8, 2021
For people with disabilities and their advocates, the victory of Joe Biden over Donald Trump offers hope the incoming president will renew support of, and emphasis on, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which offers protections to people with disabilities in the workplace and in the community.
It is with some irony that Trump, who has openly mocked people with disabilities, lost the presidency to an accomplished U.S. senator who himself has a disability. Biden has a neurological disorder that causes stuttering, which he has experienced since childhood.
Trump has a well-documented history of deriding people with disabilities and of allegedly violating the ADA at his properties and businesses. In one high-profile lawsuit, a Purple Heart veteran sued Trump International Hotel and Tower for lacking handicapped-accessible emergency exits, guest rooms and restrooms.
In 2015, when Trump sought a first term in office, he mimicked a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter afflicted with spasms. According to the New York Times, Trump said at a South Carolina rally: “Now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy,” Mr. Trump said, before jerking his arms around and holding his right hand at an angle. “ ‘Ah, I don’t know what I said! I don’t remember!’ ”
Environment of Increased Intolerance
Providing legal protections for and upholding the civil rights of workers with disabilities, under ADA, impacts millions of Americans.
- At least one in four people has a disability.
- More than half of American voters have a disability or a loved one with a disability.
“By ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to work, free from discrimination based on disability, the ADA is an affirmation of our nation’s founding ideals and a cornerstone of our efforts to ensure a fully inclusive American workforce and economy,” according to the EEOC and Labor and Justice Departments, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the landmark civil rights act in 2020.
While the Trump Administration points to the number of people with disabilities hired by the federal government each year, advocates in the disabled community have described an environment of increasing intolerance to people with disabilities, encouraged by the Trump administration.
Trump, after taking office, was criticized for proposing to end funding under the Autism CARES Act. He also proposed to defund the Special Olympics, which led to such an outpouring of complaints and negative publicity that he reversed his position and denied ever suggesting it.
When Special Olympics athletes visited the White House, Trump told reporters: “And I watched [them on TV] — it’s a little tough to watch too much, but I watched as much as I could.”
People with Disabilities Losing Work at Higher Rate Than Non-Disabled
Statistics underscore discrimination that people with disabilities have experienced in the workplace during the four years Trump has been in the Oval Office.
- Since Trump has been in office, adults with disabilities have lost federal jobs at a much faster pace than working people without disabilities.
- The EEOC reported that people with disabilities in federal jobs were fired at twice the rate of people without disabilities.
- Under Trump, there has been a significant increase in the number of people with disabilities in federal jobs who report discrimination in the workplace.
- There was a 20 percent increase from 2016 to 2017, in the number of disability discrimination complaints filed by federal employees of cabinet-level agencies, according to an NBC News report based on EEOC data.
Subminimum Wage Criticized as Exploitative
Led by Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a disabled Iraq War veteran, Democratic senators have complained about the treatment of disabled federal workers by the Trump administration.
Duckworth has made it a priority that people who need workplace accommodations for disabilities are able to receive them, under ADA. She also has worked to make sure that the federal government remains a “model employer” that does not harass or fire people because of their disabilities.
While the ADA is designed to protect workers, it also allows employers to get a special certificate to pay disabled workers less than the minimum wage. Advocates are hoping the Biden administration ends the practice of sub-minimum wage.
The Transformation to Competitive Employment Act would provide grants to states to help employers pay disabled workers minimum wage and better integrate them in the workplace. Attorneys argue that the provision is discriminatory.
“The subminimum wage sends a message to the disability community that their work isn’t as valuable as the work done by able-bodied people,” Duckworth, the first woman with a disability elected to the Senate. She described the provision as exploiting people with disabilities.
Biden is expected to take additional steps as well to protect the rights of people with disabilities in the workplace and support diversity. The new administration is expected to:
- Overturn Trump’s order that banned diversity training and implicit bias training by government agencies and contractors
- Advance employment opportunity equality regardless of sexual orientation
- Emphasize and prioritize OSHA protection laws in the workplace.
- Prioritize employee rights.
In his campaign for office, Biden offered a detailed plan for supporting the rights of people in the disabled community. It is a distinct departure from the tone and practices of the past four years under Trump.
“Biden will work with the disability community to build a stronger, more expansive middle class so that everyone—regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or disability—can find a place,” according to his policy statement. “That means amending our laws, policies, and culture to ensure full inclusion of the 61 million individuals with disabilities in the United States in all parts of our society.”
Engagement RESOURCES
- “The Biden Plan for Full Participation and Equality for People with Disabilities”: The plan outlines Biden’s pledge to support civil rights, equal opportunity and protections against discrimination for people with disabilities.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. It protects people in the areas of employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications and access to state and local government’ programs and services.
- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces the policies and laws in the ADA.
- Policy, Data and Oversight in Disability Employment is a federal government website that provides statistics on employment of people with disabilities in federal government.
Breonna Taylor Case Update
Brief # 2 Social Justice
Breonna Taylor Case Update
By Erika Shannon
January 7, 2021
On March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor was sleeping in her home when Louisville, Kentucky police executed a no-knock search warrant. The warrant was for another person, not Breonna Taylor or her boyfriend, the only people in the apartment at the time. While police claim that they announced themselves prior to entering, there are statements from neighbors to the contrary. When police entered without announcing who they were, Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, feared for their lives and her boyfriend brandished a gun. Walker was a licensed firearm holder and fired a shot in self-defense when the officers continually would not announce that they were members of law enforcement. Officers then negligently shot over twenty rounds into the apartment and ended up hitting Taylor eight times, killing her. While the case did not gain national attention at first, it did not take long for protests to pop up across the country in support of justice for Breonna Taylor.
There was no action being taken against the officers by the city of Louisville, and so the Taylor family filed a lawsuit against Louisville Police. The allegations were wrongful death, excessive force, and gross negligence. The family wished to be awarded compensatory and punitive damages, along with legal fees. On September 15, 2020, the mayor of Louisville announced that the city reached a $12 million dollar settlement with Breonna Taylor’s family. Besides compensation, the settlement also included policy changes that could help to reform police conduct in the city of Louisville and help stop situations like this from happening again in the future. There is no amount of money that could bring her daughter back or make this killing just; because of that, her mother decided that they will move forward and attempt to have the cops involved criminally charged in Taylor’s death.
Months and months went by before any type of justice was served for the killing of Breonna Taylor. This past September the attorney general of Kentucky, Daniel Cameron, convened a grand jury to review Taylor’s case. On September 23, 2020, it was announced that only one police officer would be indicted on three criminal charges of wanton endangerment. Officer Brett Hankison was indicted of the Class D felony, which is the least serious type of felony in Kentucky; his punishment would be possibly one to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000. The most heinous part of it all is that these charges are reportedly not related to Breonna Taylor’s death in any way, but have to do with Officer Hankison shooting his firearm ten times into neighboring apartments. There were two other officers in question, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove. They were not indicted, for the grand jury found they were justified in their use of force due to “self-defense.” It was revealed that Officer Cosgrove shot his weapon sixteen times total and he was the one who actually fired the shots that killed Taylor that night. At the time of Officer Hankison’s indictment, Cosgrove was still employed by the Louisville Metro Police Department.
In the latest news related to the Breonna Taylor case, two officers related to the fatal incident have received notice from the Louisville Police Interim Chief that they will be fired. The two detectives who received the notices were Joshua Jaynes and Myles Cosgrove; Cosgrove is the one thought to have fired the bullet that killed Taylor, while Jaynes allegedly lied about information obtained in the search warrant. Had Jaynes not violated procedures in preparing and obtaining that no-knock search warrant, Taylor may still be alive today. Firing these police officers is the first step to getting justice for Taylor’s family, but there is still a lot that can and should be done. Many people are still holding out hope that proper charges will be fired against the police officers who acted recklessly that night.
It is clear that justice has not yet been served in the excessive police killing of Breonna Taylor. The fact of the matter is that it took too long for something to be done in the first place. No-knock warrants should be a thing of the past, and police should be required to announce their presence in all situations. In today’s society, you never know who may want to harm you; it is like that if Kenneth Walker had shot an intruder that night, he would have been a hero to those around him. Instead, trained police officers barged into a home unannounced where a couple was sleeping and murdered one of them in cold blood. They proceeded to taunt Walker and tell him it was “unfortunate” that none of the gunfire had hit him. While all of this was happening, the actual target of the search warrant, Jamarcus Glover, was already allegedly in police custody. Let’s not forget, Taylor was designated as a “soft target,” which means she posed no threat to the officers serving the warrant. While the cops maintain that they did knock and identify themselves, there is a lot of evidence to the contrary. In the grand jury proceedings a neighbor testifies that the police did not identify themselves. Walker says there was pounding at the door but no one identified who they were. Had they announced who they were, Kenneth Walker would have never feared for his and Taylor’s life, and acted accordingly. Had they announced who they were instead of barging in with a battering ram, Breonna Taylor would still be alive. In a world where police officers cannot follow the rules any better than the criminals they are supposed to apprehend, there will never be any justice.
Resistance Resources
- To find out how you can help in the fight for justice, visit org
- The Center for Policing Equity seeks to reform police bias across the nation and is a great resource for those interested in joining the cause.
Remote Learning Projected to Increase Inequality in Education Achievement
Brief #104
Remote Learning Projected to Increase Inequality in Education Achievement
Rosalind Gottfried
Education, Inequality, Stimulus Relief
January 2, 2021
Policy
Demographic inequities characteristic of American society continue to grow in different sectors. In education the widespread shift to remote learning will have a dramatic impact on students, long after the virus has been controlled and students returned to the classroom. Young students are more likely to suffer setbacks from remote learning, especially in reading, which is a challenging subject to learn even in the classroom. It becomes even more difficult after third grade when education shifts from learning to read to reading to learn.
The first comprehensive study on the impact of remote learning was released in December and showed that disadvantaged students are significantly more at risk from remote learning as well as more likely to be learning exclusively, or primarily, remotely. Remote learning only schools affected 36% of white students; 51% for Black students; 60% for Latino students; and 64% for Asian students. Overall, two thirds of the students of color live in districts where remote only education is occurring. Large cities, generally clustered in more Democratic voting states, tended to have more schools closed (opting for remote learning only) and to educate a greater proportion of at-risk students. Rural schools, especially in less densely populated states serving a greater proportion of white students were more likely to have “mostly open” campuses.
Lower income students suffer on multiple fronts. They are more likely to have parents facing unemployment; increased poverty rates; increased food insecurity; lack of internet access; lack of space for study; and less access to parental or tutor support. The long term harm is difficult to assess but predicted to be extensive. Some dire predictions of achievement drops from last spring were assessed as better than anticipated. In one early study, reading scores did not drop and math scores dropped less than predicted, about 14%. However, the fear is that many students at risk did not take the tests resulting in skewed outcomes.
Parental surveys indicate that low income children are ten times more likely to be lacking in attendance at remote learning than children of parents making over 100,000 dollars. Fifteen million children have unreliable internet access. Only two thirds of students have access to broadband internet. Two thirds to three quarters of teachers report their students are less engaged in their remote learning than when in the classroom and that levels fell further as the semester progressed. Low income and non-white students are reportedly less likely to engage in remote learning regularly. On the plus side, some small number of students report benefits from online learning. These re most likely “atypical learners” and “self-starters” who enjoy the lack of peer distraction and gain focus when they can manage their own time.
Research indicates that low income teens spend more time in on screen activities, an average of 8 hours and 7 minutes compared to 5 hours and 42 minutes among higher income teens. Screen time is associated with negative outcomes in education and mental health and may indicate a significant detriment to students who depend on it for too much of the day. In some affluent areas, such as Silicon Valley, there is a growing trend to remove screens from children and teens during school day and return to more exclusively human interactive classrooms and play based preschools. At the same time, some publically funded initiatives are promoting online preschool in more rural states such as Utah, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Idaho, and Montana. Some technology companies, such as Apple and Google, actively solicit business from school districts in the hope that gaining a foothold with young children will garner lifelong brand loyalty.
Analysis
There are myriad fixes to stem the repercussions of remote learning. These would include supporting low income parents by providing paid parental leave; increase internet access; increase distribution of computers; pair students with college students and graduates for tutoring; establish learning pods and publically funded learning hubs; assure adequate food access; increase SNAP access; and develop a more defined federal program for stemming the pandemic. The December stimulus bill makes some strides in this direction but not nearly enough. It does include 54 billion dollars for school aid, four times more than in the March 2019 CARES program. However, the cost of funding the system has increased because of reduced tax revenues from business losses and decreases in student enrollment. The stimulus included seven billion for broadband internet access and school meal programs but provided no money for state and local governments to help with corona virus costs. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell justified this lack by stating that to aid localities would be to bailout “fiscally irresponsible states.”
Estimates suggest a 200 billion dollar loss of education funding.An estimated 6% of public school students are not attending school and private and charter schools are further siphoning money from mainstream public schools as their enrollments increase. So far the direst consequences of these losses have been avoided due to consistent property tax revenues and reserves that states utilized. Some states are moving to increase capital gains taxes and taxes on insurers to promote greater revenue. Additionally, to preserve school funding some jurisdictions are using pre-pandemic student numbers to inform their budgets for the 2021-22 school year. The next year’s financial viability promises to be more in jeopardy as local and state budgets suffer from the lack of federal aid. President elect Biden has set a goal of opening schools in his first 100 days in office but such a move would require federal relief and his ability to gain that from Congress is tenuous, at best. Something should be done, policy wise, or the country will suffer the future costs related to under education, such as reduced income tax; unemployment; poor health outcomes; and decreased life expectancy.
LEARN MORE
The New COVID-19 Variant: What We Know, and What Should be Done
Brief # 88
Health and Gender Policy
The New COVID-19 Variant: What We Know, and What Should be Done
By Justin Lee
January 5, 2021
Policy
In early December 2020, President-elect Joe Biden announced the new members of his public health team and objectives he plans to implement within in his first 100 days in office. These objectives include a federal requirement for Americans to wear masks where Biden is legally able to enforce compliance and seeking strategies to open the majority of schools across the country.
Since then, a new COVID-19 virus variant has been detected in over 30 countries. First publicly recognized in the UK, the variant has forced British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to issue a nationwide lockdown for England on January 4th, 2021. The variant has also since been detected in California, Colorado, Florida, and New York. California alone continues to report over 35,000 new COVID-19 cases daily, with public health experts cautious the current surge across the nation will only get worse as millions of Americans defied pleas not to travel during the holiday season.
More than 350,000 Americans are dead from COVID-19. Healthcare infrastructures in major US cities are collapsing. Vaccine distribution and administration has been at a snail pace. Are masks and social distancing enough? Should Biden also consider a federally mandated lockdown?
Analysis
When looking at this situation, it is important to analyze what we currently know.
What We Know: It is important to first state that viruses undergo mutations constantly, and there are currently multiple COVID-19 strains globally. The variant detected in the UK is more distinct because the variant has more mutations than other variants. Scientists and clinicians have reported the new variant is more easily contagious and transmissible by 50-70%. The new variant also seems to affect younger people more than previous strains.
There is no evidence, however, that the new variant is deadlier or more dangerous. There is also no evidence that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are ineffective on this new variant.
We also know that lockdown measures have profound effects on people. As the socio-economic factors are rather clear and obvious, studies have shown lockdown measures also affect mental health. These studies have shown that participants, particularly young adults and women, had increases in rates of suicide, anxiety, depression, and risks for self-harm.
What Should be Done: As dire as the current pandemic is for the US, a nationwide lockdown should be one of Biden’s last options. Instead, the next administration should focus on:
- Establishing federal leadership and presence: Since the election, the current administration has shown a lack of interest and concern regarding the pandemic. With President Trump more concerned about his re-election and staying in office, states are forced to scramble in maintaining their healthcare infrastructures and navigate through vaccine distribution delays. Biden has the opportunity to step in at one of the worst moments of the health crisis and show true leadership through establishing concrete, viable plans for states to follow and allowing public health experts to do their jobs in advocating vaccines, wearing masks, and social distancing.
- Expediting COVID-19 variant research and testing: The more we know about the COVID-19 variants, the faster the CDC, FDA, and life science industry can work together to develop or adjust treatments and vaccine candidates. The FDA should also keep a close eye on upcoming AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson vaccine candidates, as more late-stage data will be available for their review in the coming weeks.
- Addressing and creating a vaccine distribution network: It comes as no surprise the current vaccine distribution system is failing, with the US far behind in inoculating Americans and millions of doses sitting in storage. Biden’s COVID-19 team will have to rethink the current distribution network. Some solutions could be involving major pharmacy retailers in administering vaccines or temporarily allowing other licensed health professionals (such as dentists) to administer vaccines. Other reports suggest having more Americans have access to receiving their first dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, and focus less on ensuring inoculated recipients receive their second dose.
Learn More
Helpful links
- Mayo Clinic: COVID-19 Map
- NPR: COVID-19 Variant
- Washington Post: British Lockdown
- CDC: COVID-19 Variant
- BBC: Lockdowns and Mental Health
Engagement Resources
The American Red Cross heavily relies on volunteers to assist during a health crisis; including the COVID-19 pandemic. Volunteers play active roles in clinical and non-clinical settings. The American Red Cross also operates one of the largest blood donation networks in the US. To volunteer in a clinical setting and/or to give blood, use the links below:
Trust for America’s Health is a public health policy and research organization that advocates for a nation that values the health and well-being of Americans. Their organization has valuable information regarding health policies and issues on a federal and state level, and also actively publishes reports regarding public health on their website. To find more information or to get involved, use the link below:
The American Public Health Association is an organization aimed to Improve the health of the public and achieve equity in health status. As the main publishers for the American Journal of Public Health and The Nation’s Health newspapers, APHA educates the public on public health, policy statements, and advocacy for public health. To volunteer or become a member, use the link below:
The Trump Administration’s Last Push to Open Land to Energy and Mining Companies
Brief # 104 Environment
The Trump Administration’s Last Push to Open Land to Energy and Mining Companies
By Jacob Morton
January 4, 2021
Policy
As the Trump administration’s single term nears its end, top agency officials are attempting a last-minute push to approve a flush of large-scale energy and mining projects for companies hoping to secure contracts to extract various natural resources.
In Arizona, the U.S. Forest Service announced a new release date for the final Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Resolution Copper Mine project in the Tonto National Forest, east of Superior, Arizona. The original release date was set for some time in 2021 or 2022. The Forest Service has moved that date to the end of this year, December 31, 2020. Conservationists and tribal communities have opposed the 2,422-acre mining project for years, citing the destruction of the Oak Flat Campground above the ore deposit and harm to its Emory Oak trees, sacred to the neighboring San Carlos Apache Tribe. Apache communities still harvest acorns from the Emory Oaks.
In Utah, the Bureau of Land Management has attempted to approve a helium mining project in the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness of southwest Utah. In 2018, Congress passed the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (the Dingell Act), “an enormous package of conservation-focused bills,” to protect the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness from any new energy developments. Despite the move by Congress to protect Labyrinth Canyon, the Bureau of Land Management moved quickly to issue a lease of a 1,410-acre parcel within the soon to be wilderness area to the Twin Bridges mining company. Because the lease was issued in December 2018, before the President officially signed the Dingell Act into law on March 12, 2019, Twin Bridges has maintained the right to develop the lease if the proposed project is approved by the BLM.
The 55,000-acre Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness area “borders the Green River and includes the iconic Bowknot Bend—a deep, red rock river canyon where the river turns 180 degrees and forms a deep, colorful U in the landscape.” Final approval for the helium fracking project was expected to be approved just before Christmas on December 23. However, federal district court Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia pushed back the approval date until at least January 6, 2021. Local communities and tribes in the Labyrinth Canyon region have fought for permanent protection of the wilderness area for at least 20 years.
In Nevada, the Interior Department has fast-tracked the permitting process for a new 5,500 acre open-pit lithium mine on federal lands. If approved, the mine planned by Canada-based mining company Lithium Americas, would be one of the world’s largest lithium mines. The project was first listed in July 2020 and final approval for the project is expected in early January 2021, meaning construction could start very soon.
In Virginia and West Virginia, the Forest Service and BLM are reviewing the environmental impact statement with expectations to approve construction and operation of “a buried 42-inch natural gas pipeline across approximately 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest.” Drawing from the same Marcellus and Utica oil shale as the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), proposed by Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC., would extend in total 303.5 miles from West Virginia to North Carolina. A 3.5-mile section of the pipeline would cut across the Jefferson National Forest and burrow beneath the Appalachian Trail. If completed, the pipeline could deliver up to two million dekatherms of natural gas energy per day to the South.
In South Dakota, the Environmental Protection Agency has given its final approval for the construction of a new uranium mine called the Dewey-Burdock project. The mine would extend over 12,613 acres near the Black Hills National Forest region in western South Dakota. Azarga Uranium Corporation, The Canada-based organization backing the project, plans to inject the chemical Lixiviant “into more than 1,461 wells, sending the chemical into the underground water supply. The chemical would cause uranium trapped in sandstone below the surface to leach into the aquifer, contaminating the water but allowing the uranium to be captured, extracted and transformed into so-called yellow cake that can be used to fuel nuclear power plants.” The mine could produce up to one million pounds of uranium a year, much more than all current uranium mines in the country combined, however, the country’s uranium mines are already sitting at excess capacity.
The list of proposed projects goes on. With less than a month until the end of President Trump’s single term, the push by his administration to approve energy and mining projects has only accelerated.
Analysis
Donald Trump and top appointed officials such as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross have long sought to increase domestic production of fossil energy and key minerals such as copper, uranium, and lithium. Commerce Secretary Ross was a steel industry investor before serving under the Trump administration. Ross has pushed for approval of the Resolution Copper Mine in Arizona, meeting with Rio Tinto Mineral Corporation, the mine’s parent company, at least three times this past year. Andrew Wheeler, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency was an energy lobbyist before joining the Trump administration, lobbying for an electricity utility, a uranium producer, and a coal magnate. David Bernhardt, Secretary of the Department of Interior (DOI), was a former oil and mining lobbyist.
These latest projects all reflect a larger push by the Trump administration’s Interior Department and the Forest Service to increase the country’s domestic mineral and energy production. Supporters of the projects and agency officials, such as Richard Packer, a spokesperson for the DOI, says, “Our science-based decisions are legally compliant and based on an extensive process involving input from career subject matter experts and the public.” Packer adds that the DOI “continues to balance safe and responsible natural resource development with conservation of important surface resources.”
Statements from private industry involved in the latest projects largely mirror that of David Wallace, an executive at Twin Bridges, the mining company hoping to frack for helium in Utah. Wallace says, “We also love these lands and are committed to our project enhancing, and not detracting from them.” He also points out, “the project could ultimately generate hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of royalty and tax payments to federal, state and local governments.”
Environmentalists, conservation organizations, and tribal communities are skeptical. In South Dakota, the site of the proposed Dewey-Burdock uranium mine is located adjacent to the Oglala Lakota Nation’s 2.8-million-acre reservation. The Sioux tribe claims the land the mine would be built on was illegally taken by the United States and has sued to block the project. Kyle White, a Lakota Tribe member, and the former director of its natural resources regulatory agency, says, “The voice of Indigenous people needs to be heard — and federal Indian policy has made us invisible and dehumanized us.”
Meanwhile, in Arizona, camped out in protest at the site for the proposed Resolution Copper Mine, San Carlos Apache Tribal Leader, Wendsler Nosie Sr. says, “This is a disaster. As far as I am concerned, this is an invasion by a foreign power. We cannot afford to lose our identity and our history. Imagine if the biblical Mount Sinai became a location for mining and it caved in and disappeared. You would not stand by and watch.”
Resolution Copper Company’s own website admits the surface of the mine site will sink 700 – 1,000 feet over 40 years of mining. According to Federal reports, “The project would create 3,700 jobs and supply as much as one billion pounds of copper per year, a quarter of the current annual demand in the United States.” The San Carlos Apache Tribe commissioned its own impact study for the proposed mine and submitted it to the Forest Service when the agency’s original draft environmental impact statement for the mine was released. According to the tribe’s study, the total number of local jobs created by the mine would be only 10% of the total mining jobs in the four counties the Forest Service surveyed, and only 0.5% of the total number of jobs in those counties. The study also showed a substantial loss in revenues to Pinal County’s tourism industry.
In Virginia, Laura Belleville, Vice President of Conservation & Trail Programs for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, says of the proposed natural gas pipeline, “The Mountain Valley Pipeline [would] carry fracked natural gas for over 300 miles through the Virginia and West Virginia countryside, crossing over dozens of water sources, through protected areas and breaching the [Appalachian Trail] corridor. The pipeline would run parallel to the Trail for over 90 miles and carve ugly gashes in the landscape that could be seen from 20 miles away.”
In Nevada, The BLM’s environmental assessment for Lithium America’s proposed lithium mine admits, “the project will cause harm, including to the habitat of a threatened bird species known as sage grouse.” The birds’ sagebrush habitat could take several decades to recover and for “pre-disturbance sagebrush vegetation community characteristics to return.” Local ranchers and residents also fear surface disturbances from the mine upland of them will cause local springs to dry up both within and outside of the Project area, as well as result in “increased surface flows” in other areas “contributing sediment and debris into riparian areas and wetlands.”
In most cases, when private industry and agency officials have been pressed whether these projects are being rushed for approval before President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s inauguration date, request for comment is denied. However, project manager for Resolution Copper Company, Andrew Lye says of the proposed Arizona mine, “It is not being fast-tracked and Resolution Copper has not sought to apply for programs that are available to expedite projects.”
Randy Serraglio, conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, thinks otherwise. Serraglio points out that shortening the timeline for the Final environmental impact statement for the proposed copper mine seems premature because the Draft environmental impact statement was not even complete, omitting key details such as, “the site where the tailings will be stored and where the company would locate the pipeline and the power lines to make that work.” Serraglio notes that “the same type of pressure and influence have been applied at the highest levels of the Trump administration for other such projects.” He says, “It seems clear they want to get it out while Trump is still president. It’s not clear whether they’ll be able to do that or not or whether they can do it legally.”
Resistance Resources
Natural Resources Defense Council
- NRDC works to safeguard the earth, its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. nrdc.org
Appalachian Mountain Advocates
- A non-profit public interest law and policy organization dedicated to fighting for clean water and a clean energy future. They work to advocate for a sustainable energy economy, fighting further investment in fossil fuels and forcing polluters to pay the costs of cleaning up the messes they have already made. appalmad.org
Environmental Defense Fund
- For more than 50 years we have been pioneers, using science and different perspectives to make the environment safer and healthier for us all. Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org)
Sources Cited (Learn More)
Axelrod, J. (2020, December 23). Judge Halts Action on Utah Helium Drilling. Retrieved January 01, 2021, from https://www.nrdc.org/experts/josh-axelrod/judge-halts-permitting-utah-helium-mining
Krol, D. (2020, December 11). Did feds fast-track Resolution Copper mine project in Trump’s last days? Foes say ‘yes’. Retrieved January 01, 2021, from https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2020/12/11/resolution-copper-may-fast-track-trumps-final-days/5981085002/
Lipton, E. (2020, December 19). In Last Rush, Trump Grants Mining and Energy Firms Access to Public Lands. Retrieved January 01, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/politics/in-last-rush-trump-grants-mining-and-energy-firms-access-to-public-lands.html
Mountain Valley Pipeline Project. (2020). Overview. Retrieved January 01, 2021, from https://www.mountainvalleypipeline.info/
Resolution Copper. (2020). Subsidence. Retrieved January 01, 2021, from https://www.resolutioncopper.com/subsidence.html
United States, US Department of Interior, US Bureau of Land Management. (2020, December 4). Retrieved January 1, 2021, from https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/thacker-pass-feis-chapters1-6-508/f5d9956ac05f6601/full.pdf#page=78
USDA Forest Service. (2019, August). Draft Environmental Impact Statement: Resolution Copper Project and Land Exchange. Retrieved January 01, 2021, from https://www.resolutionmineeis.us/sites/default/files/deis/resolution-deis-vol-1.pdf
USDI Bureau of Land Management, & US Forest Service. (2020, December). Mountain Valley Pipeline and Equitrans Expansion Project: Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. Retrieved January 01, 2021, from https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd863227.pdf
The American-Chinese Relationship & the Incoming Biden Administration
Brief # 103
Foreign Policy
The American-Chinese Relationship & the Incoming Biden Administration
By Will Solomon
January 4, 2021
Policy Summary:
Over its nearly four years in office, the Trump administration’s relationship with China has been nothing if not visibly inconsistent. Trump has, on the one hand, appeared to cultivate a dynamic personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping—he has publicly praised Xi on multiple occasions and, broadly speaking, clearly appears to revere the “strongman” image. His offhand comments about a desire to be “president-for-life,” akin to Xi, should probably not be dismissed so easily. On the other hand, Trump has taken a number of aggressive and inflammatory steps towards China—including imposing numerous tariffs, working to prohibit access to the US for certain Chinese companies and apps, cultivating a closer relationship with Taiwan—and perhaps most recently, consistently maligning China for being the source of the novel coronavirus, routinely in plainly racist ways.
The often incoherent approach, while characteristic of Trump’s general style, does reflect longstanding trends in US policy. Chief among these, in recent years, might be the Obama Administration’s so-called “pivot-to Asia.” The central component of this strategy involved a redeployment of American military and economic force towards Asia and the Pacific, in order to counter emergent Chinese power. In other words, the bilateral relationship has involved a high degree of recent competition and antagonism that predates Trump—including actions like reaffirming military relationships with countries like South Korea and Japan (and Taiwan, which China does not recognize as independent), calling out China for development in areas like the South China Sea, and bolstering American regional alliances and trade agreements. Broadly, these actions have wide bipartisan support.
However—this is only part of the story. The more complex component is obviously the interconnection of global capitalism, which inextricably enmeshes China with Western multinational corporations. Indeed, China’s entry into the global capitalist system was often supported by elite sectors within the USA and the West, for various reasons. We are seeing a particularly horrific example of the negative consequences of this recently, as a number of multinational companies have come under scrutiny for apparently profiting off slave labor in China’s Xianjiang region, where a mass internment program has been underway for several years.
Analysis:
When one considers the complexity of the American-Chinese relationship, it becomes increasingly clear that a change in administration in the United States may not dramatically alter the dynamics underlying the bilateral relationship. A cooling of rhetoric is certainly good, but represents only one aspect of a complex, competitive, (and at times, ideally cooperative) relationship.
It is noteworthy that one of Biden’s first ads once he clinched the Democratic nomination was a highly aggressive indictment of China. While not as vulgar or racist as Trump’s references to the “China Virus,” the ad was nationalistic and certainly did not signal a significant drawdown of tensions with China.
Indeed, Biden’s approach towards China has tended to ebb and flow over time, conforming to the orthodoxy of the moment. Thus, for much of his career Biden enthusiastically supported integrating China into the global economic order, under the then-widespread notion that such integration would help to spur reform and liberalization within China. That approach has now largely been abandoned as China has hewn to an anti-liberal approach, and the dominant political mood of the moment is, at the very least, mildly hostile to China.
Thus, it seems likely that Biden will continue to pursue a confrontational approach towards China, if a less erratic one than Trump. Recognizing this reality, it remains imperative that a Biden administration work with China on crucial international challenges: climate change, the global response to the pandemic, and denuclearization, among others. Biden may be limited in his ability to maneuver, and on some level, the ideal engagement that many progressives desire is unlikely to be pursued. Yet the seriousness of these issues demands collaboration, and a Biden administration would do best to pursue an approach that takes this seriously.
Engagement Resources:
https://quincyinst.org — “The Quincy Institute is an action-oriented think tank that will lay the foundation for a new foreign policy centered on diplomatic engagement and military restraint. The current moment presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring together like-minded progressives and conservatives and set U.S. foreign policy on a sensible and humane footing. Our country’s current circumstances demand it.”
https://www.democracynow.org — “Democracy Now! produces a daily, global, independent news hour hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González. Our reporting includes breaking daily news headlines and in-depth interviews with people on the front lines of the world’s most pressing issues. On Democracy Now!, you’ll hear a diversity of voices speaking for themselves, providing a unique and sometimes provocative perspective on global events.”
https://chinadialogue.net/en/ — “China Dialogue is an independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting a common understanding of China’s environmental challenges.”
The Georgia Runoff Election: Who Will Win?
Brief # 14 Election News
The Georgia Runoff Election: Who Will Win?
By William Borque
January 4, 2021
Reporter William Bourque is U.S. Resist News’s elections correspondent and has had continued coverage of US Elections through election day. We will continue to have coverage of the Senate races in Georgia as control of the Senate remains in the balance.
Early voting for the Senate runoffs has finished in Georgia, and the races are closer than ever. As candidates and their colleagues in the senate clash over stimulus checks and Covid restrictions, democrats, republicans, and independents alike have begun to cast their ballots. As we saw in the initial senate elections in Georgia, there isn’t much that separates the candidates, especially with the incredibly high turnout in urban areas like Atlanta. According to the Secretary of State of Georgia, over 1.1 million Georgians have cast ballots that will determine the balance of the Senate.
In the race between David Perdue and Jon Ossoff, it seems that Ossoff may be gaining an edge. According to polling data collected by FiveThirtyEight, Ossoff holds a narrow, 1 percentage point lead. As early voting closes and the polls open on January 5th, many think that Perdue’s loyalty to the President may end up being his downfall, as those who still seek to overturn the election of Joe Biden are being seen as increasingly delusional by their compatriots. Perdue has also been one of several key votes against a new bill which would put stimulus checks up to $2000 into the pockets of many struggling Americans. Ossoff has been campaigning hard on the fact that he would be highly in favor of a new, larger economic stimulus bill. With Ossoff’s poll numbers trending upwards, we expect that he will score a tight victory to become the youngest sitting U.S Senator.
In the race that features Kelly Loeffler and Reverend Raphael Warnock it appears that Loeffler has too much firepower to lose. Loeffler, a multi-millionaire, has largely been funding her own campaign, and it seems as though she has a key advantage, given the vote totals in the initial November election. Loeffler and Warnock were the top two finishers in a crowded race that included almost 20 candidates. Because of this, neither Warnock or Loeffler garnered anywhere close to the 50% of the votes needed to win in Georgia. The reported early voting numbers should be in favor of Warnock, who needs a large portion of the early votes to go his way to win this race. Loeffler will be hoping that election day numbers are just as high as they were on November 3rd, which would likely propel her to be re-elected to the seat she was appointed to in 2019. Recent aggregate polling from FiveThirtyEight suggests that Warnock has aslim lead, just under 2 percentage points. Despite this polling trend, we predict that Loeffler will squeak this one out to keep the Senate in the control of Republicans by just 1 seat.
As this tumultuous election cycle wraps up, U.S. Resist News will have continued coverage, as we expect the counting of these votes to take several days. Additionally, come January 20th, 2021, there will be a new leader in the White House, and U.S Resist News will have all the coverage.
Martial Law Is Not in the Cards
Elections
Brief # 13
Martial Law Is Not in the Cards
December 32, 2020
By Zack Huffman
Policy
After weeks of refusing to accept the results of last November’s election, President Donald Trump has reportedly discussed the possibility of declaring martial law as the latest in a series of attempts to retain power despite losing the election to President-elect Joe Biden.
Trump has repeatedly spoken out – and tweeted – about the election, which featured an unusually high amount of mail-in voting as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19. Due to the increase in mail voting, the results to the election in several swing states were unknown by the end of the night on November 3. Trump’s claims that votes that were officially counted after November 3 were illegitimate were predicted prior to the election, as the president spent the summer and fall attacking the validity of mail-in balloting.
The Trump campaign attempted to overturn election results in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin through lawsuits and recount demands, though none of those efforts were successful. The campaign then pivoted to appealing to state and federal legislators to override the electoral college, or at least legitimize Trump’s electoral voters. Those efforts were also unsuccessful.
This leaves the lame duck president with more radical options for retaining his power, including using the military to oversee a do-over election.
Analysis
The idea of using martial law for a new election was most prominently raised by retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn when he retweeted calls from an Ohio-based Tea Party group calling itself “We The People Convention.”
Flynn served as Trump’s first National Security Advisor. He lasted about a month before having to resign after failing to disclose his contacts with a Russian ambassador in the months between Trump’s 2016 electoral win and his inauguration in 2017. Flynn later retroactively registered as a foreign lobbyist after admitting to working as a paid lobbyist for the government of Turkey. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communications with the Russian ambassador, but he was pardoned by Trump on November 25, 2020. Since being pardoned, Flynn reportedly met with Trump in the Oval Office to discuss the possibility of declaring martial law.
University of Texas Law School professor Steve Vladeck explained that the president could legally use martial law to subdue Black Lives Matter protesters In an analytical piece for the Washington Post last June, following the killing of George Floyd.
The power to declare Martial Law goes back to the beginning of the United States when Congress passed a law on May 2, 1792 that authorized the president to call upon a state’s militia, at the request of that state’s governor, to mobilize against a foreign invader or to quell domestic uprisings. President George Washington used those powers to stop the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.
In the early half of the 20th century, martial law was used to oppose coal worker strikes in Colorado and West Virginia, and against other labor strike in Minnesota and California. The legal tactic was used in Alabama in the early 1960s against civil rights protesters. Martial law was also declared in 2005 in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In those cases when the president called for martial law, as opposed to the respective governor, it was done so at the request of the state. The Supreme Court of the United States has yet to weigh on the legitimacy of the president using martial law without the request of a state government authority, according to Vladeck.
Aside from legal precedent, Trump may not have the support from those he would need to enact and enforce martial law.
Newsweek reported that military leadership has had several internal planning discussions to prepare for the possibility of Trump calling upon them to enforce martial law. According to numerous unnamed sources there is “zero chance” that the military leadership would get involved in any effort to reverse an election.
An unidentified defense official told the Military Times that the concept of using the military to oversee a new election under martial law was, “insane in a year that we didn’t think could get anymore insane.”
Meanwhile, CNN reported that numerous White House staffers were quick to go to the press after the meeting with Flynn because they were alarmed about the talk of using martial law. This is perhaps why news of the meeting spread so quickly.
Learn More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/24/could-trump-declare-martial-law-try-steal-election/
https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-donald-trumps-martial-law-talk-has-military-red-alert-1557056
William Arkin, 12-24-20
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/9/30/21454325/trump-2020-peaceful-transition-election-stealing
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/19/under-insurrection-act-1807-heres-what-us-president-can-cannot-do/
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/12/02/calls-for-martial-law-and-us-military-oversight-of-new-presidential-elections-draws-criticism/ accessed on Dec. 27 2020.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/20/media/stelter-trump-martial-law/index.html
accessed on Dec. 27. 2020.
Biden Brings a Fresh Perspective to US China Policy
Brief # 102 Foreign Policy
Biden Brings a Fresh Perspective to US China Policy
By Brandon Mooney
As President-Elect Biden and President Trump squared off during the past campaign, we got a front-row seat to the past and current versus the future U.S. foreign policy strategy regarding China.
Policy Summary:
As President-Elect Biden and President Trump squared off during the past campaign, we got a front-row seat to the past and current versus the future U.S. foreign policy strategy regarding China. Both candidates were hawkish, with Trump maintaining his customary “tough on China” narrative and Biden breaking from his Obama-era neighborly tone to one of heavy condemnation. It would appear that Biden will steer the U.S. in a more joint, multilateral direction, juxtaposed by Trump’s largely go-it-alone strategy. This Brief will examine and then discuss the contrasting foreign policy styles of the present Trump and incoming Biden administration, and muddle over what Biden’s strategy could mean for the rapidly deteriorating U.S.-China relationship.
Of late, Biden has spoken repeatedly about the importance of strengthening international ties and allying with democracies across the world to stymy China’s rising power. He has also threatened economic sanctions and taken a tough line against the CCP, arguing that Trump’s measures have been largely ineffective and that the withdrawal of American power from the world stage has given China free reign. Biden has specifically called for the strengthening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), with the U.S. taking a stronger role and providing greater military and economic support to the alliance. Biden has denounced the CCP’s mass incarceration of Uyghur Muslims and various human rights abuses, pushing for a foreign policy strategy founded around coalition-building. The apparent hope is that with more reinforcement, the U.S. can force China to the bargaining table through collective power and more effectively punish behavior that is deemed to be against its interests.
This multilateral approach is juxtaposed by that of the Trump administration, which has adopted a largely go-it-alone approach centered around tariffs and other financial penalties. Trump and his administration have enjoyed an essentially favorable view of being tough on China through the implementation of a widely publicized tariff campaign against Chinese goods. The trade deficit between China and the U.S. has been a significant talking point, with the leveling of tariffs being the supposed solution to balancing the books. Trump also famously went to bat against Chinese-owned social media giant TikTok. Less famously, the Trump administration also sanctioned Chinese officials in retaliation for CCP oppression in Hong Kong, has supported Taiwan’s independence and sovereignty claims, and banned Huawei from operating within the U.S. All of these moves were taken unilaterally, as Trump has been dismissive of and even combative towards international partnerships.
Analysis:
Biden and Trump engaged in a brutal tit-for-tat campaign battle over who was to be crowned the “toughest on China.” Trump relied heavily upon his track record in office and conspiracy theories surrounding the supposed China-Biden cabal, while Biden attempted to distance himself from the rather chummy talk espoused during the Obama administration and laid out a more put-together strategy than his opponent.
However, when you take a step back and look at what Trump’s strategy achieved, one finds that it had little intended effect. Following Trump’s withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WTO), citing the organization’s kid-glove handling of China’s role in the pandemic, China promised to give $2 billion to the WTO for covid-19 relief. It would appear that by retreating, Trump has only strengthened China’s position. Turning to the sanctions, they have had little to no impact. China still put their national security law into practice in Hong Kong, has not let up on its sovereignty claims in South China Sea (despite its lack of blue power and obvious sword rattling), and has not reduced their theft of intellectual property. The Trump administration has said that China will buy more than $200 billion in U.S. goods and services by 2022, and yet China has only bought $56 billion so far. China has also refused to pay any tariffs and imposed tariffs on U.S. farm goods in response, forcing Trump to bail out American farmers with $28 billion in consumer tariffs. The trade war has cost 300,000 American jobs so far as well.
Looking at Biden, he was once a reasonably pro-China pundit, pushing the vision of a mutually beneficial relationship with U.S. hegemony securing economic growth and international recognition for China. For example, he was an outspoken supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) under the Obama administration. Although it is widely condemned by both progressives and blue-collar Americans as a boon to corporations rather than ordinary workers, the TTP was meant to counter China’s regional power and industrial complex by placing the U.S. at the helm of Asia-Pacific economic relations. It would appear that this vision of American supremacy united with Chinese economic power has been extinguished by a more hawkish view of U.S.-China relations, however.
Biden’s push for multilateralism is certainly a welcome change from Trump’s individualistic approach. It would be a boon to other democracies to have the U.S. firmly back in their corner, and with China’s increasing power on the international stage, the U.S. can’t stand to be alone. Collective power and alliance-building made the U.S. what it is today, despite the chest-beating around WWII, the Cold War, and other nationalist lightning rods. Yet I do have some reservations if the Biden administration relies overly upon teamwork. They would likely make headway on containing Chinese ambitions to some degree through global cooperation, but as the Obama administration learned later on, any hope for consequential collaboration with the CCP is a pipedream. The CCP is not interested in democratic change or sharing power with others. It would mean an end to the party’s unchallenged position, and every country ultimately wants to achieve the greatest ends possible. My other qualm is that almost everything Biden has spoken on when it comes to China is environmental and emission treaties. These are important issues, as climate change threatens us all, but there are far more issues facing the highly contentious U.S.-China relationship that require attention. It’s not that I doubt Biden’s willingness to address them, but that he hasn’t explained how he will do so. The publicized appointments of largely Obama-era supporters would suggest that he will tackle them much as Obama did, which does not inspire confidence.
Engagement Resources:
The Diplomat – a solid overview of the challenges facing the Biden administration when it comes to China.
Politifact – a look at the Hunter Biden scandal with China.
Foreign Policy – a pro-Biden but nonetheless interesting read about why Trump’s accusations of Biden being “soft on China” are baseless.