Biden Prevails: What now?

Welcome to Bad Table Talk I’m your host Oliver Niehaus and this is where we breakdown all of the current news and talk about everything you aren’t supposed to talk about at the dinner table, that being politics, religion, money, and more. My goal with this series is to provide easy to listen, informative segments, addressing the most pressing issues we face, and to start much-needed conversations as a result. As always, thanks go out to my friend Oscar Gregg for providing the music you hear and you should all check out his single Acrobats which will be linked in the podcast notes below. If you enjoy what you hear, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review. And feel free to also share your thoughts with me via email which is linked below as well. So sit back and relax while I talk about how utterly f*cked we are as a country. I’m totally kidding (sort of) All joking aside, Regardless of where you stand politically, I hope everyone is motivated by what they hear to research more about these issues and feels ready to contribute to making our nation a better place for everyone. Thank you and please enjoy!

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Transcript

Hello everyone, We’ve done it. The first step on the road to recovery is complete.The nightmare of Donald Trump and the imminent threat of fascism is now halted and we get to return to the main nightmare which is late-stage capitalism eroding the very society and institutions in which we reside. That being said, it’s okay to celebrate, politics is a perpetual battle of lessers of evils, no perfect candidate exists, and Biden is miles and miles and leagues and light years away from that, but this is still a net win for all of us. Now there’s always people who will falsely equivocate celebration and expressions of relief that the fascist in chief has been ousted from office with an endorsement of Biden. This is just ridiculous. People are allowed to catch their breath. 4 years is a long time especially when it’s Donald Trump which unlike previous presidents, has done most of his harm out in the open so it really couldn’t be ignored. It’s not like Barack Obama dropping over 26,000 bombs on the middle east in 2016 alone or the equivalent of 3 bombs every hour, 24 hours a day. That’s easier to ignore because well frankly it’s not in your face 24/7. But most of Trump’s atrocities and I mean most were done in the public square, making it much harder to ignore. But to reiterate, a Biden victory is undoubtedly a good thing, but the biggest concern and downfall we face is if we stop caring. Just because the President isn’t calling Black Lives Matter a hate group or painting peaceful protestors as thugs doesn’t mean there isn’t systemic racism baked into our institutions from education to healthcare to criminal justice. Just because the president isn’t generalizing immigrants as rapists, criminals, and Animals doesn’t mean we don’t have a migrant crisis at our border in need of serious reform. Just because it’s not right in your face, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Donald Trump may be gone, but the problems we face still very much remain. 

Intro 

Hello Everyone, Welcome to Bad Table Talk I am your host Oliver Niehaus and I think I can safely speak for those who care about honesty, decency, democracy, common sense, the continued survival of the human race yada yada, when I say that these past few weeks have been some of the most stressful I’ve ever experienced. So much was on the ballot this election. Equal rights for LGBTQ citizens were on the ballot, reproductive rights were on the ballot, healthcare was on the ballot, and arguably the most important, hundreds of thousands of American lives that have already been lost, but hundreds of thousands more if we don’t actually address this pandemic. And that’s only a glimpse of the gravity of this election. Obviously, the fact that the president is continuing to delegitimize our Democratic institutions with not a single iota of evidence should be enough on its own to disqualify him from office and be unanimously rejected by the American People, but of course, if you ever try to rationalize the actions of Trump Supporters you’ll just give yourself a headache. The world of public discourse and debate has been absent for the past four years. Discussions are no longer based on communicating nuanced positions in good faith. It has turned into just debating the facts and well frankly if someone believes that scientists, doctors, historians, economists, 12 intelligence agencies, retired military generals, and revered journalists just to name a few, have devoted their entire lives to deceiving them and a reality TV Star with 26 allegations of sexual assault and harassment, decades of fraud and extensively documented lying is their only beacon of truth and honesty, well frankly you’re better off recommending them to a psychiatrist then trying to discuss with them. Now I’m in no way saying you shouldn’t discuss with Trump supporters, but the level of indoctrinated you have to be at this point to support him makes the task you’re engaging in quite futile. It doesn’t matter how many facts you provide or how logically sound your argument is. If they cared about those things well then they simply wouldn’t be Trump supporters. So I’m not discouraging dialogue, absolutely dialogue is great, but when facts are ignored or dismissed as being fake or from the so-called “liberal media” don’t be surprised. There is no path towards persuasion or productivity if their beliefs are based in a false reality. Part of being an effective changemaker is being able to maximize your time. Of course, it’s important to have discussions with those who have differing opinions, but is it really worth a hour of your day to debate with someone who believes that there is a deep state satanic cult that runs a child sex trafficking ring among Democrats and that the earth is flat? I would say in no circumstance is that worth your time. That time could be spent researching, learning, and crafting a position that is persuasive to others, those who adhere to the principles I stated. As I said your best tools are facts, logic, and common sense reasoning and if the person with whom you’re discussing refuses to use and/or accept those, then you’re talking to a wall. I know it can be easy to get into those discussions whether it be in person or online which seems to be more common, but the energy you spend will not result in persuading others. 

So moral of the story, choose your battles. Your time is valuable and learning who you should and should not debate with is a crucial step to becoming an effective persuader and change-maker. 

Alright so let’s get to some news about the Election. It’s disappointing that I actually have to say this but I guess I will, Joe Biden is indeed President-Elect, and at noon on January 20th, 2021, he will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. No amount of baseless claims of fraud or meaningless lawsuits or Trump supporters crying all over the internet will change that result. So for those of you for some reason holding out that somehow court cases or recounts will change the result, just stop. It couldn’t be more clear that these steps by the Trump administration have absolutely nothing to do with fraud. Why you may ask? Well because his lawyers have literally stated that on numerous occasions in numerous states. Let’s compare some of Trump’s claims with that of his own lawyers. Trump said on Twitter on November 18th, “I WON THE ELECTION. VOTER FRAUD ALL OVER THE COUNTRY!” Well what did his lawyers have to say? Well appearing in a Pennsylvania courtroom Tuesday in the state’s biggest case, Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani literally conceded by saying and I quote, “This is not a fraud case.” In the same case, a judge asked Trump lawyer Linda Kerns whether she would “agree with me that you are not proceeding based on allegations of fraud or misconduct; is that correct?” Kerns responded, “I am not proceeding on those allegations." In Montgomery County, Pa., Trump lawyer Jonathan S. Goldstein was asked by a judge, “Are you claiming that there is any fraud in connection with these 592 disputed ballots?” Goldstein responded: “To my knowledge at present, no.” Before we move on, I want to point out something from that last example. The number of disputed ballots in question was 592. Biden is leading in Pennsylvania by over 80,000 votes. Even if they were able to prove fraud which they haven’t even been able to prove a single instance of, it would have absolutely no effect on the result. And on top of that, Trump’s lawyers have requested that the entire state of Pennsylvania be invalidated.They are trying to invalidate nearly 7 million votes because of 592 potentially disputed ones? Give me a break. In Maricopa County, Ariz., home to the infamous Sharpiegate, Trump lawyer Kory Langhofer said, “We are not alleging fraud in this lawsuit. … This is not about fraud.” And in a joint stipulation signed by the Trump campaign’s lawyers this week in Bucks County, Pa., they acknowledged that they had no evidence of fraud: here are the 3 stipulations 

1. Petitioners do not allege, and there is no evidence of, any fraud in connection with the challenged ballots.
2. Petitioners do not allege, and there is no evidence of, any misconduct in connection with the challenged ballots.
3.  Petitioners do not allege, and there is no evidence of, any impropriety in connection with the challenged ballots.

Alright well what about Trump’s claims that the election is being Stolen from him?  In a tweet on November 5th, Trump stated, “This is a case where they’re trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election, and we can’t let that happen.” Well what do his lawyers say? Well Kory Langhofer said quote, “We are not alleging anyone is stealing the election.” He then added: “It is not a stealing-the-election case.” 

How about the claims of dead people voting? Well Trump in a tweet on November 17th stated that  “… There were massive improprieties and fraud — including dead people voting … ” 

Well what do his lawyers say? In the joint stipulation in Bucks County, the Trump legal team conceded, “Petitioners do not allege, and there is no evidence, that any of the challenged ballots were cast by, or on behalf of, a deceased person.”

Finally what about the software glitches that were clearly intentional and another attempt to steal the election? Well Trump tweeted “All of the mechanical ‘glitches’ that took place on Election Night were really THEM getting caught trying to steal votes.” He also tweeted, “This was a rigged election [including] voting machine ‘glitches’ all over the place (meaning they got caught cheating!)” In another tweet he stated, “Now it is learned that the horrendous Dominion Voting System was used in Arizona (and big in Nevada). No wonder the result was a very close loss!” Well let’s turn to the lawyers. Langhofer, while stressing that the Arizona case wasn’t about fraud, said, “The allegation here is that, in what appear to be a limited number of cases, there were good-faith errors in operating machines …”

Not even Trump’s legal team is arguing fraud, misconduct, or impropriety. Why you may ask? Well because it’s not illegal to lie on Twitter, in a Press conference, or on TV, but you can’t lie in Court. That’s perjury and despite Trump’s legal team being grossly incompetent, they aren’t dumb enough to perjure themselves. The only fraud and scam currently happening is by Donald Trump himself. How you ask? Well Trump has been flooding his supporters with emails asking for them to donate to his so called “Election Defense Fund” but when you read the fine print, none of it actually goes towards fighting the nonexistent voter fraud. 60% goes to his own personal PAC and 40% goes to the RNC. Trump is trying to milk every last cent that he can out of his supporters, so why would he concede? He makes money by doing this, regardless of the fact that leading scientists and doctors such as Dr. Fauci have come out saying that this refusal to begin the transition process and allow Biden to have access to CDC Data will severely hinder the Biden Administration’s ability to hit the ground running and address the pandemic as effectively as possible. I’ve heard this argument going around being that this doesn’t matter because the Courts are sorting it out and there’s no way Trump will actually be able to undermine Democracy even if he tries. That is entirely irrelevant. Just because someone points a gun at you, fires, and misses does not mean there was not intent to take your life. Just because Donald Trump and his enablers were too incompetent to successfully undermine our Democratic institutions doesn’t mean they didn’t intend to do so and that is what matters. We are lucky that Trump is as stupid as he is. Because what I fear most, is that someone, more charismatic than Trump, easier on the ears, actually goes to church, model family with kids from one wife, but still has all the same authoritarian fascistic beliefs, is put in a position of power. The same bigotry and hatred is packaged in a more seemingly normal and charismatic person. Someone like Mike Pence or Amy Coney Barrett. Just imagine the damage they could do. 

(Transition)

 Alright so let's talk about Biden’s cabinet selections. I want to preface this by saying that since Biden has now been elected, he is enemy number 1. You will absolutely see me and I hope to see you all as well, ruthlessly criticizing him and holding him accountable to the promises he made on the campaign trail. I know Biden is seen as the return to normal candidate but it’s absolutely crucial to remember that the “normal” we speak of is one where 44,000 Americans die due to lack of healthcare every year, nearly 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, 92% of the Stock Market is owned by the wealthiest 10%, the top 1% hold more wealth than the bottom 90%, since 1978, working-class wages have increased just 11.9% while Executive pay has grown by over 1000%, making nearly 280 times what the average worker makes, as well as the fact that three current supreme court justices have shown direct hostility to same-sex marriage. Yeah, the normal that is spoken of sucks, and status quo Joe isn’t going to solve it. So let’s discuss his cabinet picks with full knowledge that we aren’t looking to return to an America pre-pandemic or before Trump, but rather one that actually works for the average American. So I’m going to skip over Kamala Harris for now because well, I don’t want to spend hours talking about her and how she locked up thousands of African Americans on marijuana charges, blocked evidence that would have exonerated a man on death row, and forced transgender women into male prisons just to name a few. There is plenty to talk about there but I want to focus on a few of Biden’s more recent cabinet picks. So first, Biden has picked Louisiana representative Cedric Richmond as a senior advisor and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. He is meant to help advance the administration’s legislative agenda on climate change, as well as its response to the coronavirus pandemic and push for economic stimulus. But it just so happens that Richmond has received extensive donations from oil, gas and chemical industries. In total, Richmond has received $279,050 in oil and gas money, placing him fifth among current House Democrats in career donations, despite 81 members having served longer tenures than him. He has taken $128,750 from chemical manufacturers, placing him sixth in career donations among current House Democrats. In 2019, he voted to allow oil drillers to explore the Atlantic coast – including by using seismic airgun blasting. Richmond is just another shill for the fossil fuel industry and if history is any indication, he will continue to turn a blind eye to the corporations polluting our planet and it isn’t surprising that Biden picked him. Biden has also picked Ernest Moniz to be his Energy Secretary and if you don’t know who he is, well his name should be a household one. He served as Obama’s Secretary of Energy and championed an “All-of-the-Above” strategy which supports Fracking, Natural Gas, and the myth of clean coal. Since leaving the Obama/Biden Administration, Moniz has only deepened his relationships with fossil fuel companies. One of those companies is Southern Company, a private utility and an aggressive opponent of climate action that has spent more than $135 million on lobbying against The Clean Power Plan, Mercury and Air Toxic Standards, Cross state air pollution rules, Coal Combustion Residual Rules, and The Paris Climate Accord just to name a few. Ernest Moniz joined Southern’s Board in March of 2018 accepting nearly half a million dollars in fees and stock awards over two years. Biden likes to proclaim that he is the candidate of science and will listen to the scientists and to be fair when the overton window has been shifted so much that the president is literally denying science, declaring yourself the candidate of science when the other alternative is denying it is quite meaningless. Despite Biden saying he will follow science, he still refuses to commit to ban fracking which science has proven to be detrimental to the environment by poisoning groundwater, polluting surface water, impairing wild landscapes, and threatening wildlife just to name a few. Biden isn’t pro-science. He’s pro getting elected and fracking is one of the industries that donated to his campaign. Climate policy is a major place where we have to hold Biden accountable. Climate Change is absolutely an existential threat that affects everyone, but the effects we are seeing now disproportionately affect low income communities which are predominantly those of color. Over 50% of African Americans breathe unclean air due to many low income housing being packed close together and often near fossil fuel plants. Joe Biden claims he wants aggressive policies to tackle Climate Change, yet he continues to rely on the advice of fossil fuel executives like Richmond and Moniz. Instead of listening to outdated and thoroughly debunked ideas, we need a Green New Deal. I wish I could cover all the benefits of the Green New Deal in depth but that will have to wait for another segment but just to summarize, the Green New Deal will employ millions of people through a federal jobs guarantee to transform our energy system, grow and strengthen unions, and address climate change as the existential threat that it is. It will help the communities most harmed by fossil fuel use, bring our energy system under public control, and invest in public services like transit, affordable housing, infrastructure, internet access, and the arts. And in order to achieve those goals, we first need an Energy Secretary who supports bold transformative programs like the Green New Deal, and that most certainly isn’t Ernest Moniz. 

Alright so let’s move more into the realm of policing and immigration. Biden has run on the platform of reforming both the policing system as well as immigration. And as I’m sure you’re aware, Biden likes to tie himself to Obama and while you can argue the Obama nostalgia helped him get elected, it also comes with a lot of baggage. Regarding policing under the Obama Administration, despite issuing many indictments to police departments across the nation after the deaths of many unarmed African Americans like Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Michael Brown just to name a few, meaningful reform was few and far between. It’s almost as if you can’t reform a system that was designed to oppress people of color but I digress. But within the realm of immigration is probably where Biden carries the most baggage. During the Obama administration, over 3 million people were deported and detention centers were built to house migrants in conditions that the United Nations has declared inhumane and have been classified as concentration camps by many major Jewish organizations. So you’d think with the baggage of lack of meaningful police reform and a gross number of deportations and terrible conditions for migrants at the border coupled with Biden’s commitment to meaningfully reforming both, that those sentiments would be reflected in his cabinet picks. Well once again that seems to not be the case as two of his appointments are antithetical to both those goals. The first person being considered is Rahm Emmanuel, Obama’s former Chief of Staff. As the former Mayor of Chicago Emanuel stalled the release of a video showing the 2014 police killing of Laquan McDonald. It took a judge’s ruling to force Emanuel to release this crucial evidence to the public — more than a year after officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times, including when the 17-year-old was already on the ground. The video revealed the official story as a lie, and flipped what city authorities called a justified shooting into Van Dyke becoming the first Chicago cop in nearly 50 years convicted of murder. McDonald’s death occurred a few months after the much-publicized police killings of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Facing a tough reelection bid, Emanuel could not afford the negative attention these videos would have garnered. To save his political hide, he tried to bury them along with the truth. A man who tried to cover up the murder of a Black teenager by a white officer does not belong in an administration that has pledged to unravel systemic racism and repair a democracy never given a chance to be whole. If Biden hoped to gauge reactions to putting Emanuel in his cabinet as transportation secretary or a lower-profile position like trade representative, the backlash has been immediate. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York tweeted, “Covering up a murder is disqualifying for public leadership. This is not about the ‘visibility’ of a post. It is shameful and concerning that he is even being considered.” Even before McDonald’s murder, Emanuel turned his back on Black voters who helped him win what he’d often called his dream job. Faced with a $1 billion municipal deficit, he closed 50 schools, most in the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods, under the guise that it would help the displaced children’s academic prospects. It didn’t. It also didn’t do much to decrease the city’s deficit. Meanwhile, taxpayers during Emanuel’s two terms paid out more than $540 million to settle abuse and misconduct complaints against Chicago police. How Biden will govern and what he will prioritize can be read in those he chooses to serve with him. Assembling a cabinet is the prologue to a presidency, and while each selection won’t satisfy everyone, they should at the very least avoid alienating an administration’s most loyal constituency. Yet those who want to believe Biden when he preaches of an inclusive America rightfully question Emanuel’s ability to be part of progressive change. In one of his best campaign speeches, Biden spoke of the Civil War’s end and said, “By fits and starts, our better angels had prevailed again just enough — just enough against our worst impulses to make a new and better nation. And those better angels can prevail again now.” Emanuel is not one of those angels. In his memoir, “A Promised Land,” Obama recalls asking Emanuel to join his administration. Although he would eventually take the job, the notoriously profane political veteran first offered the emphatic answer: “No fucking way.” I’ll tell you that’s exactly how a lot of us feel about Emanuel having any role in the Biden Administration. 

Alright so lastly let’s discuss immigration. As I spoke of before Biden carries the baggage of over 3 million deportations and the construction of detention centers that have been classified as concentration camps. So in order to address that baggage you’d think he’d ditch the Obama administration's immigration staffers and prioritize those who would commit to ending the deportations and cruel treatment but that was most certainly not reflected when he added Cecilia Munoz to his transition team. Munoz served as Obama’s top immigration advisor and often justified many of the administrations’ harsh immigration policies including family separation. She was also one of the key architects of President Obama’s 3 million deportation strategy, justified deportations as “collateral arrests” and instead of being held accountable for her role in these deportations, she’s getting rewarded with a potential spot in the Biden administration. Biden has called the three million deportations a mistake yet actions like this make it seems as if he does not believe that’s the case. So to wrap up this segment, I cannot overstate how important it is to hold Biden accountable. I have seen over the past 4 years, lots of people ridiculing Trump for his utterly inhumane policies and rhetoric towards immigrants, as they should, but those people are often silent when it comes to Joe Biden indicating that he will do virtually the same. So I implore all of you. Just because it may be easier to ignore the problems we face under a Biden administration as opposed to Trump, don’t. The same people struggling to pay rent under Trump, will still be struggling under Biden. Those who are struggling to put food on the table, pay medical bills, car payments, and student loans, will still be struggling under Biden. And oddly enough, that’s why his presidency is so crucial. So that hopefully people will realize that the problems we face are not a result of Donald Trump, but rather the system of capitalism which is designed for the wealthy to profit and for the average citizen to struggle. And that realization will only be achieved when these problems exist absent of Donald Trump. That is our best chance at convincing people that maybe we shouldn’t bankrupt people because they have cancer or evict people from their homes in the middle of a pandemic or get this, your worth and value as a human being is not dependent on your productivity to your employer. Wouldn’t that be nice. A society where people are viewed as people, not tools to be used by an executive overlord to maximize their profit at the expense of the populous. And that is realistic and achievable. It just takes enough people to realize it. So thank you very much for listening to this segment. I sure look forward to what comes next as odd as that sounds. I hope you all take a step back every once and a while and appreciate the history you’re living through. I just recently spoke with a 91 year old member of my community and I asked him what he believed was the most impactful historical event or time period he had lived through over his 9 decades on this planet and he said the year of 2020. The most turbulent of times can often lead to the most meaningful change and despite often focusing on the plethora of problems we face, I hope you all know that I am confident that we are more than able to meet the challenges and leave this world much better than we found it. So other than that, thank you for listening, once again please leave a rating and review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you’re listening and please share this with someone else. All else aside, regardless of where you stand politically I thank you for keeping an open mind and I hope to see you back here for the next segment. Take care.