November 29, 2024 ❧ Ceasefire in Lebanon, Sheinbaum tangles with Trump, and a new Secretary of Labor

Plus: Another ICC prosecution, Irish nationalist rappers, stats on the failed Harris campaign, and symbolic turkeys

Let us all give thanks for news

CROOKS vs. SICKOS (Or, “What's going on with our politicians and oligarchs?”)

❧ Donald Trump has announced his pick for Secretary of Labor: Representative Lori Chavez-Deremer (R-OR). Unlike most of the incoming Trump cabinet, who are simply terrible for their roles, Chavez-Deremer is more complicated. She’s one of only three Republicans who co-sponsored the PRO Act, which would make it easier for workers to unionize and hold big corporations like McDonald’s accountable for labor conditions at their franchise locations, among other reforms. She also has the endorsement of President Sean O’Brien of the Teamsters, who published an op-ed calling her “the pro-worker choice” shortly before the pick was announced, and has been cautiously welcomed by Liz Shuler of the AFL-CIO and Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers, along with left-wing commentators like Cenk Uygur. 

However, Deremer-Chavez also has a personal net worth in the millions, and she describes herself as a “small business owner,” which is often a bad sign. She has also run campaign ads complaining about the “radical left” forcing its “woke agenda” into schools, which is more traditionally MAGA—and doesn’t bode well for teachers’ unions, one of the primary targets of the “wokeness in schools” narrative. It’s possible that, like Josh Hawley or Marco Rubio, she strategically supports certain worker-friendly policies in order to win working-class support, but doesn’t actually have working people’s best interest in mind at the end of the day. (It’s easy to support the PRO Act when you know it has little chance of actually passing, for instance.) Only time, and her actions, will tell how far Chavez-Deremer’s “pro-worker” stance really goes. 

Chavez-Deremer in Congress this October.

(Image: Rep. Chavez-Deremer via Twitter)

• Trump has also appointed Alex Wong, another extreme China hawk, to his National Security Council. In a 2023 op-ed for the Hudson Institute, an interventionist think tank, Wong wrote that the U.S. needed to further escalate its military posture towards China and prepare for “a level of tension, regional destabilization, and—yes—possible conflict that we have not seen since the end of World War II.” (Newsweek)
  
  
• In a rare glimpse of sanity from the Republican bench, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) says he’ll oppose any attempt Trump makes to deploy the U.S. military as immigration enforcement for his proposed mass deportations, calling it “illegal.” Since the GOP will only have a slim 53-47 majority in the Senate next year, Paul and two other senators who have similar concerns could potentially scuttle the whole plan, similar to how John McCain thwarted Trump’s attempt to repeal Obamacare back in 2017. (Reuters)
  
  
• Democratic consultants made bank from the failed Harris campaign’s lavish spending on paid media. Former Bernie Sanders strategist Faiz Shakir told Salon that Democratic strategists often see cutting 30-second ads as a cure-all to every problem—and it happens to be a very lucrative solution: “The opportunity to make money off of the firm that has created 30-second ads and the person who has placed the ads is ripe for abuse because there are hundreds of millions of dollars going into it and everyone is taking their skim.” Post-election estimates have found that the Harris campaign spent anywhere from $690 million to $2.5 billion on paid media.
  
  
• A new investigation by Jacobin examined hundreds of speeches by Kamala Harris and found that she ran a less economically progressive campaign than Joe Biden did in 2020, and spoke about the cost of living much less than Trump:  

Our analysis reveals that the Harris campaign pivoted away from the economy starting around mid-September, de-emphasizing policies that she had previously advocated and moving away from an adversarial stance toward elites. This parallels investigative reporting, which finds that the last weeks of the campaign were increasingly directed by the very same corporate interests that she abstained from criticizing.

Over the course of the whole campaign, Harris spoke less about economic issues and progressive economic policy priorities than Joe Biden had in 2020, and far less than Sanders had in the Democratic primaries that year. In this cycle, Trump addressed perhaps the most important issue for voters — prices and the cost of living — more than twice as often as Harris…’

Graphic: Jacobin. (Click image for bigger version)

The analysis continues: 

Typical left-wing economic agenda items like “living wage,” “affordable housing,” “paid family leave,” or “union jobs” dropped out of Harris’s vocabulary in the weeks after Labor Day. Tracking the use of more neutral terms relating to the economy — like “wages,” “jobs,” and “workers” — we see a trend line that slopes upward into early September before declining over the following weeks. By October, Harris was spending less of her time campaigning with Shawn Fain and Bernie Sanders than she was with Republican Liz Cheney and billionaire Mark Cuban, unlikely candidates to push any kind of progressive economic message, let alone a populist one. Cuban was gleeful enough to declare that the “progressive principles . . . of the Democratic Party . . . are gone. It’s Kamala Harris’s party now.

Graphic: Jacobin. (Click image for bigger version)

• How did the Cheney bear-hug strategy work out? Well… some polling by Data for Progress from last week gives us a hint: 

Our polling finds that Pennsylvania Independents were 18 points more enthusiastic to vote for Harris when campaigning on economic issues, and 7 points less enthusiastic to vote for Harris when campaigning with Cheney – a swing of 25 points. In Michigan, Independents were 11 points more enthusiastic to vote for Harris when campaigning on economic issues and 7 points less enthusiastic when campaigning with Cheney — a swing of 18 points. In both states, 70% of voters said Harris campaigning with Cheney either had no impact on their enthusiasm or made them less enthusiastic.

Graphics: Data for Progress

CURRENT-EST AFFAIRS

Joe Biden isn’t doing a whole lot in the waning days of his administration. But this Thanksgiving week, he pardoned some turkeys. “Keep calm and gobble on,” he told Peach and Blossom, crediting their “temperament” and “commitment to being productive members of society.” Last year, animal rights activist Kecia Doolittle, who rescued two turkeys from captivity in a factory farm, noted in Current Affairs that the president’s annual turkey pardon is a bit of a macabre spectacle considering the millions of birds who aren’t so lucky. This year, we have a new piece by Wayne Hsiung, who was recently acquitted by a jury after his arrest for rescuing two sick piglets from the largest pig factory farm in the nation. He writes that “The animal rights movement is moving rapidly towards its most fundamental goal: recognition that animals are ‘legal persons’ and not things.” 

Art by C.M. Duffy, from Issue 39 of Current Affairs Magazine, Nov./Dec. 2022

AROUND THE WORLD

❧ Israel and Hezbollah are three days into a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement that will be overseen by America and France. If you are subscribed to Derek Davison’s Foreign Exchanges newsletter, he has quite a useful summary of the deal there. But the key points are as follows:

The deal in its most basic form opens a 60 day window, during which Hezbollah and Israel will attempt to implement the terms of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Lebanon War. That means Hezbollah will withdraw its military forces, or at least its large weapons that are capable of striking Israel, north of the Litani River or about 30-ish (give or take) kilometers from the Israeli border. The Israelis in turn will withdraw from southern Lebanon. If those two conditions are met then the 60 day window will turn into a full-fledged ceasefire—at least until the next time Israel and Hezbollah go to war.

Apparently in exchange for the deal, France also publicly stated that it believed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had immunity to arrest by the International Criminal Court, which issued a warrant against him earlier this month for war crimes. Many of France’s European peers and human rights groups have condemned France’s capitulation. 

Unfortunately, the fragile peace already appears to be fraying. On Thursday, Israel launched airstrikes against what it says was a Hezbollah rocket facility in southern Lebanon (Notably, it was north of the Litani.) Israel said it ‘opened fire toward” two “suspects” returning to Southern Lebanon, saying it would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.” However, they did not explain how exactly they supposed the deal had been violated. A lawmaker for Hezbollah accused Israel of “attacking those returning to the border villages.” The Lebanese government accused Israel of violating the agreement “multiple times.” In addition to this strike, Israel has also published a map of 60 villages in Southern Lebanon, warning that civilians would be in danger if they returned. This seems to bode ill for any long-term peace, especially as Netanyahu says to Israel’s Channel 14 that the ceasefire “can be short.”

Graphic: Al Jazeera

❧ President-elect Donald Trump threatened to place a blanket 25-percent tariff on products from Mexico and Canada this week, a move that will almost certainly result in considerable inflation, as these countries are America’s two largest trading partners. Both countries have threatened the U.S. with retaliatory tariffs of their own. 

In a rather bizarre saga, Trump and Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum both provided different accounts of a negotiation they had. Trump said publicly that he will impose tariffs unless Sheinbaum keeps migrants and fentanyl out of the United States. Trump claimed that Sheinbaum agreed, in a private conversation, “to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.” 

But Sheinbaum says the conversation went very differently. For one thing, she pointed out that under an agreement with President Biden, Mexico was already repelling migrants attempting to reach the border with the U.S. (Under this policy, the number of asylum seekers reaching the border declined to a quarter of what it was a year earlier.) But she also said she made no such agreement to “close” the border, as Trump claims. Sheinbaum said she explained to Trump that “migrants and caravans are assisted before they reach the border” and that “Mexico's position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples.” Sheinbaum is definitely painting a rosier picture of the situation than what exists in reality (Mexico’s enforcement of U.S. border policy has been quite brutal), but her account is still much closer to the truth than the one provided by Trump who is claiming that his tariff threats resulted in a policy change that never actually happened.

President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico warning about the dangers tariffs pose to both her country and the U.S. (Photo: Free Malaysia Today)

• The world reached an agreement at the COP 29 summit in Baku early this week. Rich countries agreed to pool at least $300 billion per year by 2035 to help poorer countries transition away from fossil fuels and prepare for the effects of climate change. While it’s better than nothing, it’s a far cry from the $1.3 trillion that these countries were hoping for, and which scientists and activists agree is sorely needed to effectively combat the crisis. (PBS)
  
  
• On Wednesday, prosecutor Karim Khan of the International Criminal Court requested an arrest warrant for Myanmar’s acting president, General Min Aung Hlaing, saying there are “reasonable grounds” to believe he “bears criminal responsibility” for the mass killings and deportations of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority. (The Diplomat)
  
  
• In Uruguay, left-wing candidate Yamandú Orsi—a former schoolteacher, and a protege of former president José Mujica—has won the presidency after a tense runoff election in which he got 49 percent of the vote. (El Pais)

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• Thousands of supporters of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan gathered in the center of Islamabad earlier this week to demand his release from jail. Khan was Pakistan’s most popular politician, but he was removed from power and arrested on corruption charges in 2022 following heavy pressure from the United States, who wanted to remove him due to his neutral stance on the conflict in Ukraine. The protest in favor of his freedom was dispersed after the government response resulted in hundreds of protesters and paramilitary members being arrested and at least six being killed. (NBC)
  
  
• Nicaragua’s legislature passed a law requiring banks to ignore U.S. sanctions against leftist President Daniel Ortega, Vice President Rosario Murillo (who is also his wife), and dozens of other high-ranking officials. The U.S. has described the sanctions as a response to human rights abuses against protesters by the Ortega government. But the U.S. has been waging war, against the Sandinista movement since the 1980s, seeking to cripple its economy with the explicit goal of regime change. Whatever the Ortega government’s faults, his deputy Walmaro Gutierrez certainly has a point when he says that the people of Nicaragua are “tired of having the sword of Damocles always hanging over us or a boot always pressing against our neck.” (Reuters)
  
  
• In the U.K., a court has ruled that Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch unlawfully discriminated against the Northern Irish rap group Kneecap when she denied them a £14,250 arts grant on the basis of their support for Irish nationalism. The group says the case was never about the money, which they’ve donated to two youth charities in Belfast, but about preventing an “attack on artistic culture.” (Belfast Telegraph)

It seems the rappers’ 2019 “Farewell to the Union” tour was what really annoyed the Tories, but their vocal support for Palestine might well have done it too. (Image: Kneecap)

• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed adding several species of African giraffe to its list of endangered species. Giraffe populations have been declining rapidly due to habitat loss, poaching, and climate change. Listing them as endangered will reduce illegal hunting and require permits for giraffes to be imported into the country and will also increase funding for conservation. (NBC)

A Kordofan giraffe, one of the species that have experienced rapid population decline.

 (Photo: Joachim S. Muller on Flickr)

AT LONG LAST, THE MANATEE FACTS PODCAST RETURNS

It took ten years, but it’s finally here! Our latest attempt to answer the questions that have cast a bulbous mammalian shadow over humanity for its entire existence: What is a manatee? Who are we? And how did we get to this place? 

Join us on our odyssey into the watery depths of history:

AROUND THE STATES

• Protesters against the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza crashed the Macy’s parade this Thanksgiving, blocking the path of the Ronald McDonald balloon and displaying an “Arms Embargo Now!” banner until they were dragged off by the NYPD. Now there’s some folks to be thankful for. (Reuters)

Come to think of it, the image of a giant burger-selling clown looming over a protest against ethnic cleansing is a perfect metaphor for the U.S. as a whole. 

• Louisiana’s Republican-controlled legislature has passed a stunningly regressive tax package, which both slashes the income tax for individuals and corporations and raises the state’s already-high sales tax. They’ve also eliminated the franchise tax on corporations entirely—which is great news for rich Republican donors, but doesn’t really help anyone else. (Baton Rouge Proud)
  
  
• Maine has become the latest state to sue big oil companies—including ExxonMobil, Shell, and Chevron—for misleading the public about the effects of fossil fuels on the climate as far back as the 1960s. (New York Times) 

MEANWHILE, IN SLOWER NEWS MARKETS...

When war and poverty are abolished under socialism, newspapers will contain ONLY stuff like this. Until then, our best wishes to Mr. Hank! (Headline: ABC 7 Denver)

• As the incoming Trump administration pledges to cut electric vehicle subsidies, California Governor Gavin Newsom has said he may re-launch a $7,500 tax credit for residents who buy electric vehicles. But in a shot at Elon Musk—who has been a proponent of getting rid of federal subsidies—Teslas may be exempt from Newsom’s proposal. (The Independent)
  
  
• In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton—who barely avoided prison time for corruption earlier this year—has filed a pair of nasty lawsuits. He’s suing the city of Dallas for passing an amendment to its charter decriminalizing marijuana, and he’s also suing a church in Austin over its homeless ministry, calling it a “magnet” for “unlawful nuisance behavior.” Weed is one thing, but what kind of creep tries to shut down homeless services in the middle of winter? (Austin American-Statesman)

Compared to the Trumps of the world, this guy doesn't get enough credit

for his sheer odiousness. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

TURKEY FACT OF THE WEEK

There is a common myth that often spreads around Thanksgiving, that Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the turkey America’s national symbol rather than the bald eagle. Funny as it may be to imagine an alternate reality in which a turkey graces the presidential seal while Americans annually carve into the Thanksgiving eagle, Franklin never actually advocated for this, at least not explicitly.

However, there is some truth to the legend. According to the National Constitution Center, the founding father once wrote a letter to his daughter in which he said that the eagle that adorned the great seal looked more like a turkey. Franklin then embarked on a Bird Rant for the ages. 

The eagle, Franklin said, “is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly…[he] is too lazy to fish for himself. He is a rank coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district.” By contrast, he said, the turkey is “a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America...He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.” 

Upon his death, this unpublished cartoon was found in Franklin’s study. 

Over time, this story has been transmogrified into a myth that Franklin wanted a turkey on the seal. But in actuality, while he did weigh in on the heated debate over America’s national symbol, he preferred the image of a snake or Moses. 

We cannot give our assessment on whether we agree or disagree with Franklin’s Hot Bird Takes, as it is against magazine policy to rank animals, all of whom are good and deserve to live forever. However, we can provide you with this concept art for a presidential seal venerating the turkey. Our thoughtful and informed readers may decide for themselves which they prefer:

Writing and research by Stephen Prager and Alex Skopic. Editing and additional material by Nathan J. Robinson and Lily Sánchez. Header graphic by Cali Traina Blume. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here.

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