Many Workers at Largest Corporations in US Depend on Federal Benefits to Survive
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-12-12
Millions of Americans employed at some of the country's largest companies have had to rely on food stamps and Medicaid, with giants like Walmart and McDonald's employing the most workers whose income is subsidized by taxpayers, according to a new study. | The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, released a study commissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., last month based on data provided by 11 states.
truthout.org/articles/many-workers-at-largest-corporations-in-us-depend-on-federal-benefits-to-survive/

Biden solidifying a more aggressive neoliberal and militarist administration
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-12-12
From former war commanders and representatives of the military-industrial complex to Clinton loyalists to oil lobby-funded, the appointments made so far gives us very little change to be expected from the upcoming Biden administration.
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/12/12/biden-solidifying-a-more-aggressive-neoliberal-and-militarist-administration/

Qiao Collective on challenging U.S. aggression on China, the role of the Western left
Qiao Collective | mronline.org | 2020-12-12
On the domestic front, the U.S. propaganda machine mostly works instead to position China as this great, menacing oriental Other. We've seen this during the COVID-19 pandemic in Trump's rhetoric about the "China virus" and in Biden's attempts at one-upmanship.
mronline.org/2020/12/12/qiao-collective-on-challenging-u-s-aggression-on-china-the-role-of-the-western-left/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=qiao-collective-on-challenging-u-s-aggression-on-china-the-role-of-the-western-left

[Comment] Offline: The coming technocracy
Richard Horton | thelancet.com | 2020-12-12
As 2020 draws to a close, one trend among nations most severely hit by COVID-19 bears some discussion. It is that democracies are evolving into technocracies, by which I mean a form of governance where those with political power are appointed on the basis of their scientific expertise. It would be hard to deny that scientists have assumed a role in political decision making unparalleled in recent memory. The French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy was the first to raise the issue of medical power.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32668-4/fulltext?rss=yes

Go Vote Yourself a Raise, Georgia — You've Long Earned It
Ralph Nader | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-11
All political eyes are on Georgia's runoff election on January 5th, 2021. Two Senate seats are up for grabs and will decide whether the evil Trumpster and corporatist Senator Mitch McConnell stays in total control of the U.S. Senate or not. If the Democrats win both seats, the Senate would be split, 50-50. Vice President…
counterpunch.org/2020/12/11/go-vote-yourself-a-raise-georgia-youve-long-earned-it/

Biden Must Restore Citizenship for Black and Brown People
Manar Waheed | aclu.org | 2020-12-11
President Trump's relentless destruction of our immigration system is well documented. However, the myriad ways in which he attacked and targeted Black and Brown people seeking immigration benefits or citizenship, and even U.S. citizens is less discussed. , , There have been three substantial attacks on citizenship for Black and Brown immigrants: | Indefinite delays of immigration benefits, including citizenship, through the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program (CARRP), which has targeted Muslims and people from Muslim-majority countries since 2008;Blocking the expedited path to citizenship fo…
aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/biden-must-restore-citizenship-for-black-and-brown-people

Biden to Mandate Mask Wearing, Mandatory Mass Vaxxing to Follow?
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-11
Porous face masks offer no protection from minuscule covid spores. | Extended wearing is potentially hazardous to human health. | Mass vaxxing could be catastrophic if ordered. | Covid is a form of seasonal flu/influenza. | Protection comes from good health habits, including proper …
globalresearch.ca/biden-mandate-mask-wearing-mandatory-mass-vaxxing-follow/5731964

Silencing Black radicalism since the Cold War
Eds. | mronline.org | 2020-12-11
Describing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as socialist and accusing them of fomenting disorder in America's urban areas invoked racial disorder for the majority white voters who cast their ballots for an avowed white supremacist.
mronline.org/2020/12/11/silencing-black-radicalism-since-the-cold-war/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=silencing-black-radicalism-since-the-cold-war

Andrew Bacevich on Why Retired General and Raytheon Official Lloyd Austin Should Not Head Pentagon
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-12-11
Joe Biden's nominee for defense secretary, retired four-star Army General Lloyd Austin, would make history as the first African American to lead the Pentagon if confirmed by the Senate. But Austin can only be confirmed if he secures a waiver from Congress due to laws designed to preserve the civilian control of the military, and several leading Democratic senators have indicated they would oppose granting a waiver. Andrew Bacevich, president and co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, says he shares those concerns. "The general is not a civilian, and it seems to me if we're serious about ci…
www.democracynow.org/2020/12/11/joe_biden_lloyd_austin_pentagon

U.S. Recognizes Morocco's Occupation of Western Sahara in Latest Betrayal of Sahrawi People
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-12-11
We continue to examine the U.S.-brokered deal between Morocco and Israel to normalize relations. As part of the deal, the U.S. will become the first country in the world to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, which Morocco has occupied since 1975 in defiance of the international community. We convene a roundtable to discuss developments: Mouloud Said, a representative of the Polisario Front in Washington; Stephen Zunes, professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco; and Sahrawi journalist and activist Nazha El-Khalidi.
www.democracynow.org/2020/12/11/morocco_israel_western_sahara_sahrawi

Critics Pan Time's Choice of Biden-Harris for 2020 Person of the Year Award
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-12-11
"This is Joe Biden's year. He not only managed to stay alive until the election, he also did other things, presumably." — YouTube creator Shaun…
mintpressnews.com/critics-time-choice-of-joe-biden-kamala-harris-2020-person-of-the-year/273557/

Screen Shot 2020-12-10 at 9.16.39 AM.png
Mark Fiore | progressive.org | 2020-12-11
President Trump is trashing democracy on his way out the door and congressional Republicans are complicit.
progressive.org/dispatches/america-second-fiore-201211/

Roaming Charges: Negative Creep
Jeffrey St. Clair | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-11
Under Biden we're going to experience four years (if he lasts that long) of negative creep, a steady recrudescence of the same policies–economic, social, environmental and military–which led us to into the very quagmire where nearly all of us are now inexorably sinking.
counterpunch.org/2020/12/11/roaming-charges-9/

Thursday 12/10: 2020 Sacramento Kwanzaa Wakanda Project
Khubaka Michael Harris | indybay.org | 2020-12-11
Florin Square | Florin Road Partnership | Sacramento, California…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/12/09/18838873.php

'Harebrained' Texas Election Lawsuit a Serious GOP Attack on Democracy, Warn Experts
Julia Conley, staff writer | commondreams.org | 2020-12-11
{olitical observers on Friday warned that Texas's legal challenge of the election results, which has garnered the support of more than 100 Republican officials, is nonetheless a sign that democracy is under significant attack in the United States. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-1219321528_1.jpg …
commondreams.org/news/2020/12/11/harebrained-texas-election-lawsuit-serious-gop-attack-democracy-warn-experts?cd-origin=rss

Republicans want more than a coup: Trump's loyalty test exposes their hatred for democracy
Amanda Marcotte | salon.com | 2020-12-11
More than half of House Republicans and 17 GOP attorneys general have outed themselves as traitors…
salon.com/2020/12/11/republicans-want-more-than-a-coup-trumps-loyalty-test-exposes-their-hatred-for-democracy/

Want to Defund the Police? Then Vote for Loeffler and Perdue in Georgia Senate Run-Off Race
Miles Mogulescu | commondreams.org | 2020-12-11
When police (and teachers and firefighters and other essential state and local government workers) are defunded and fired in the next few months, blame it on Republicans like Purdue and Loeffler. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/georgia_0.jpg …
commondreams.org/views/2020/12/11/want-defund-police-then-vote-loeffler-and-perdue-georgia-senate-run-race?cd-origin=rss

The Approaching Crunch in US Policy Towards China
Dennis Argall | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-11
The Republican and Democrat leaders of the US Senate Intelligence Committee have issued a joint statement of intense hostility towards China. This posture is a threat to Australia's national security… and the world. An attempt to tear China down will …
globalresearch.ca/approaching-crunch-us-policy-china/5731921

What is the United States of America? A Military Democracy
John Stanton | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-11
counterpunch.org/2020/12/11/what-is-the-united-states-of-america-a-military-democracy/

Thoughts on the Silence of Republican Lawmakers
Heather Cox Richardson | indybay.org | 2020-12-11
Coronavirus continues to devastate the country, with official deaths topping 281,000 today, but it turns out that the Trump administration did not actually have a plan for distribution of vaccines. Federal officials have drastically slashed the amount of vaccine they promised to states before the election. Instead of the 300 million doses, the plan is currently to distribute 35 to 40 million doses.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/12/10/18838892.php

'Build an Inclusive Government': Asian Americans Urge for More Representation in Biden's Cabinet
sputniknews.com | 2020-12-11
Projected US President-elect Joe Biden is currently in the process of assembling his Cabinet. Over the past week, Biden announced Denis McDonough as his pick for secretary of veterans affairs, Tom Vilsack for agriculture secretary and Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) as secretary of housing and urban development.
sputniknews.com/us/202012111081433463-build-an-inclusive-government-asian-americans-urge-for-more-representation-in-bidens-cabinet/

Bolivia feeds its hungry while Republicans let Americans starve
Albert Bender | peoplesworld.org | 2020-12-11
It is a tale of two countries regarding how Bolivia and the United States treat their people. On the one hand, there is Bolivia, a country that has embraced socialism, has overwhelmingly elected a progressive, anti-imperialist president, Luis Arce, and a country that has just initiated a program of "Bonuses Against Hunger" to provide relief …
peoplesworld.org/article/bolivia-feeds-its-hungry-while-republicans-let-americans-starve/

Joe Biden Might Have Good Instincts, but His Foreign Policy Team Doesn't
_____ | strategic-culture.org | 2020-12-11
Ted Galen CARPENTER | Considerable controversy has emerged in both the foreign policy community and the news media over whether Joe Biden's administration will reflexively restore America's pre-Trump approach to international affairs. On no issue is that question more crucial than with respect to Syria, and on no issue is it more imperative that Biden repudiate the legacy of the Obama administration. A failure to take that step will cause the United States to become even more deeply mired in the Syrian quagmire. Not only would such an unwise course create another endless U.S. war similar to the interventions in A…
strategic-culture.org/news/2020/12/11/joe-biden-might-have-good-instincts-but-his-foreign-policy-team-doesnt/

Thai democracy activists defy escalating repression
Peter Boyle | greenleft.org.au | 2020-12-11
Despite growing number of democracy activists facing charges under Thailand's notorious lèse majesté law, the youth-led movement keeps up its mass mobilisations, reports Peter Boyle.
greenleft.org.au/content/thai-democracy-activists-defy-escalating-repression

Social Security Beneficiaries and SSA Employees Agree: Joe Biden Needs to Clean House on Day One
commondreams.org | 2020-12-11
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commondreams.org/newswire/2020/12/11/social-security-beneficiaries-and-ssa-employees-agree-joe-biden-needs-clean?cd-origin=rss

Rust Belt warning for the GOP: These 3 counties spell trouble for future Republican wins