truthout--2020-11-12--Climate Refugees Will Soon Surpass Those Displaced by War

I saw them for only a few seconds .
One glimpse and they were gone .
The young woman wore a brown headwrap , a yellow short-sleeved shirt , and a long pink , red , and blue floral-patterned skirt .
She held the reins of the donkey pulling her rust-pink cart .
Across her lap lay an infant .
Perched beside her at the edge of the metal wagon was a young girl who couldn ’ t have been more than eight .
Some firewood , rugs , woven mats , rolled-up clothing or sheets , a dark green @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jerry can were lashed to the bed of the cart .
Three goats tied to the rear of it ambled along behind .
They found themselves , as I did , on a hot , dusty road slowly being choked by families who had hastily hitched up their donkeys and piled whatever they could — kindling , sleeping mats , cooking pots — into sun-bleached carts or bush taxis .
And they were the lucky ones .
Many had simply set out on foot .
Young boys tended small herds of recalcitrant goats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rare shade of a roadside tree , a family had stopped and a middle-aged man hung his head , holding it in one hand .
Earlier this year , I traveled that ochre-dirt road in Burkina Faso , a tiny landlocked nation in the African Sahel once known for having the largest film festival on the continent .
Now , it ’ s the site of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe .
Those people were streaming down the main road from Barsalogho about 100 miles north of the capital , Ouagadougou , toward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has almost doubled this year , due to the displaced .
Across the country ’ s northern stretches , other Burkinabe ( as citizens are known ) were making similar journeys toward towns offering only the most uncertain kinds of refuge .
They were victims of a war without a name , a battle between Islamist militants who murder and massacre without compunction and armed forces that kill more civilians than militants .
I ’ ve witnessed variations of this wretched scene before — exhausted , upended families evicted by machete-wielding militiamen or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a warlord ; dust-caked traumatized people plodding down lonesome highways , fleeing artillery strikes , smoldering villages , or towns dotted with moldering corpses .
Sometimes motorbikes pull the carts .
Sometimes , young girls carry the jerry cans on their heads .
Sometimes , people flee with nothing more than what they ’ re wearing .
Sometimes , they cross national borders and become refugees or , as in Burkina Faso , become internally displaced persons , or IDPs , in their own homeland .
Whatever the particulars , such scenes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so , in the worst possible way , unremarkable .
And though you would hardly know it in the United States , that ’ s what also makes them , collectively , one of the signature stories of our time .
At least 100 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to violence , persecution , or other forms of public disorder over the last decade , according to UNHCR , the United Nations refugee agency .
That ’ s about one in every 97 people on the planet , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such war victims had been given their own state to homestead , it would be the 14th largest nation , population-wise , in the world .
By the end of June , according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center , an additional 4.8 million people had been uprooted by conflict , with the most devastating increases in Syria , the Democratic Republic of Congo , and Burkina Faso .
Yet , as dismal as these numbers may be , they ’ re set to be dwarfed by people displaced by another signature story @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Already , shocking numbers have been put to flight by fires , derechos , and super storms , and so much worse is yet to come , according to experts .
A recent forecast suggests that , by the year 2050 , the number of people driven from their homes by ecological catastrophes could be 900 % greater than the 100 million forced to flee conflicts over the last decade .
Women , children , and men driven from their homes by conflict have been a defining feature of modern warfare .
For @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have witnessed such scenes again and again .
“ Newly routed civilians , now homeless like the others with no idea of where they would next sleep or eat , with all their future lives an uncertainty , trudged back from the fighting zone , ” the legendary Eric Sevareid reported , while covering Italy for CBS News during World War II .
“ A dust-covered girl clung desperately to a heavy , squirming burlap sack .
The pig inside was squealing faintly .
Tears made streaks down the girl ’ s face @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” The Second World War was a cataclysmic conflagration involving 70 nations and 70 million combatants .
Fighting stretched across three continents in unparalleled destructive fury , including terror bombing , countless massacres , two atomic attacks , and the killing of 60 million people , most of them civilians , including six million Jews in a genocide known as the Holocaust .
Another 60 million were displaced , more than the population of Italy ( then the ninth-largest country in the world ) .
An unprecedented global war causing unimaginable suffering , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than the 79.5 million displaced by conflicts and crises as 2019 ended .
How can violence-displaced people already exceed World War II ’ s total by almost 20 million ( without even counting the nearly five million more added in the first half of 2020 ) ?
The answer : these days , you can ’ t go home again .
In May 1945 , the war in Europe came to an end .
By the beginning of September , the war in the Pacific was over , too .
A month later @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — including more than two million refugees from the Soviet Union , 1.5 million French , 586,000 Italians , 274,000 Dutch , and hundreds of thousands of Belgians , Yugoslavs , Czechs , Poles , and others — had already returned home .
A little more than a million people , mostly Eastern Europeans , still found themselves stranded in camps overseen by occupying forces and the United Nations .
Today , according to UNHCR , ever fewer war refugees and IDPs are able to rebuild their lives .
In the 1990s , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ able to return home annually .
For the last 10 years , that number has dropped to around 385,000 .
Today , about 77 % of the world ’ s refugees are trapped in long-term displacement situations thanks to forever wars like the conflict in Afghanistan that , in its multiple iterations , is now in its sixth decade .
War on ( of and for ) Terror One of the most dramatic drivers of displacement over the last 20 years , according to researchers from Brown University ’ s Costs of War @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Afghanistan and the seven other “ most violent wars the U.S. military has launched or participated in since 2001.
” In the wake of the killing of 2,974 people by al-Qaeda militants that September 11th and the decision of George W. Bush ’ s administration to launch a Global War on Terror , conflicts the United States initiated , escalated , or participated in — specifically , in Afghanistan , Iraq , Libya , Pakistan , the Philippines , Somalia , Syria , and Yemen — have displaced between 37 million and 59 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also seen combat in Burkina Faso and Washington has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars of “ security assistance ” into that country , its displaced aren ’ t even counted in the Costs of War tally .
And yet there ’ s a clear link between the U.S.-backed overthrow of Libya ’ s autocrat , Muammar Qaddafi , in 2011 and Burkina Faso ’ s desperate state today .
“ Ever since the West assassinated Qaddafi , and I ’ m conscious of using that particular word , Libya has been completely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Faso ’ s defense minister , explained in a 2019 interview .
“ While at the same time it was the country with the most guns .
It has become an arms cache for the region.
” Those arms helped destabilize neighboring Mali and led to a 2012 coup by a U.S.-trained officer .
Two years later , another U.S.-trained officer seized power in Burkina Faso during a popular uprising .
This year , yet another U.S.-trained officer overthrew yet another government in Mali .
All the while , terrorist attacks have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has seen the most dramatic escalation of violence since mid-2017 , ” according to a July report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies , a Defense Department research institution .
In 2005 , Burkina Faso didn ’ t even warrant mention in the “ Africa Overview ” section of the State Department ’ s annual report on terrorism .
Still , more than 15 separate American security assistance programs were brought to bear there — about $ 100 million in the last two years alone .
Meanwhile , militant Islamist violence in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attacks in 2015 to 516 in the 12 months from mid-2019 to mid-2020 , according to the Pentagon ’ s Africa Center .
The violence in Burkina Faso has led to a cascade of compounding crises .
Around one million Burkinabe are now displaced , a 1,500 % increase since last January , and the number only keeps rising .
So do the attacks and the fatalities .
And this is just the beginning , since Burkina Faso finds itself on the frontlines of yet another crisis , a global disaster that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that will dwarf today ’ s historic figures .
Burkina Faso has been battered by desertification and environmental degradation since at least the 1960s .
In 1973 , a drought led to the deaths of 100,000 people there and in five other nations of the Sahel .
Severe drought and hunger struck again in the mid-1980s and aid agencies began privately warning that those living in the north of the country would need to move southward as farming became ever less feasible .
By the early 2000s , despite persistent droughts , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , leading to increasing ethnic conflict between Mossi farmers and Fulani cattle herders .
The war now tearing the country apart largely divides along those same ethnic lines .
In 2010 , Bassiaka Dao , the president of the confederation of farmers in Burkina Faso , told the United Nations news agency , IRIN , that the impacts of climate change had been noticeable for years and were getting worse .
As the decade wore on , rising temperatures and new rainfall patterns — droughts followed by flash floods — increasingly drove farmers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the populations of urban centers .
In a report published earlier this year , William Chemaly of the Global Protection Cluster , a network of nongovernmental organizations , international aid groups , and United Nations agencies , noted that in Burkina Faso “ climate change is crippling livelihoods , exacerbating food insecurity , and intensifying armed conflict and violent extremism.
” Sitting at the edge of the Sahara Desert , the country has long faced ecological adversity that ’ s only worsening as the frontlines of climate change steadily spread across the planet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disasters and resource wars supercharging the already surging phenomenon of global displacement .
According to a recent report by the Institute for Economics and Peace , a think tank that produces annual global terrorism and peace indexes , two billion people already face uncertain access to sufficient food — a number set to jump to 3.5 billion by 2050 .
Another one billion “ live in countries that do not have the current resilience to deal with the ecological changes they are expected to face in the future.
” The report warns that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many as 1.2 billion people by 2050 .
On the Road to Kaya I don ’ t know what happened to the mother and two children I spotted on the road to Kaya .
If they ended up like the scores of people I spoke with in that market town , now bulging with displaced people , they ’ re facing a difficult time .
Rents are high , jobs scarce , government assistance all but nil .
People there are living on the edge of catastrophe , dependent on relatives and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spare themselves .
Some , driven by want , are even heading back into the conflict zone , risking death to gather firewood .
Kaya can ’ t deal with the massive influx of people forced from their homes by Islamist militants .
Burkina Faso can ’ t deal with the one million people already displaced by conflict .
And the world can ’ t deal with the almost 80 million people already driven from their homes by violence .
So how will we cope with 1.2 billion people — nearly the population @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be displaced by climate driven-conflicts , water wars , increasing ecological devastation , and other unnatural disasters in the next 30 years ?
In the decades ahead , ever more of us will find ourselves on roads like the one to Kaya , running from the devastation of raging wildfires or uncontrolled floodwaters , successive hurricanes or supercharged cyclones , withering droughts , spiraling conflicts , or the next life-altering pandemic .
As a reporter , I ’ ve already been on that road .
Pray you ’ re the one speeding by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one choking in the dust , driving the donkey cart .

I saw them for only a few seconds. One glimpse and they were gone. The young woman wore a brown headwrap, a yellow short-sleeved shirt, and a long pink, red, and blue floral-patterned skirt. She held the reins of the donkey pulling her rust-pink cart. Across her lap lay an infant. Perched beside her at the edge of the metal wagon was a young girl who couldn’t have been more than eight. Some firewood, rugs, woven mats, rolled-up clothing or sheets, a dark green plastic tub, and an oversized plastic jerry can were lashed to the bed of the cart. Three goats tied to the rear of it ambled along behind.
They found themselves, as I did, on a hot, dusty road slowly being choked by families who had hastily hitched up their donkeys and piled whatever they could — kindling, sleeping mats, cooking pots — into sun-bleached carts or bush taxis. And they were the lucky ones. Many had simply set out on foot. Young boys tended small herds of recalcitrant goats. Women toted dazed toddlers. In the rare shade of a roadside tree, a family had stopped and a middle-aged man hung his head, holding it in one hand.
Earlier this year, I traveled that ochre-dirt road in Burkina Faso, a tiny landlocked nation in the African Sahel once known for having the largest film festival on the continent. Now, it’s the site of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe. Those people were streaming down the main road from Barsalogho about 100 miles north of the capital, Ouagadougou, toward Kaya, a market town whose population has almost doubled this year, due to the displaced. Across the country’s northern stretches, other Burkinabe (as citizens are known) were making similar journeys toward towns offering only the most uncertain kinds of refuge. They were victims of a war without a name, a battle between Islamist militants who murder and massacre without compunction and armed forces that kill more civilians than militants.
I’ve witnessed variations of this wretched scene before — exhausted, upended families evicted by machete-wielding militiamen or Kalashnikov-carrying government troops, or the mercenaries of a warlord; dust-caked traumatized people plodding down lonesome highways, fleeing artillery strikes, smoldering villages, or towns dotted with moldering corpses. Sometimes motorbikes pull the carts. Sometimes, young girls carry the jerry cans on their heads. Sometimes, people flee with nothing more than what they’re wearing. Sometimes, they cross national borders and become refugees or, as in Burkina Faso, become internally displaced persons, or IDPs, in their own homeland. Whatever the particulars, such scenes are increasingly commonplace in our world and so, in the worst possible way, unremarkable. And though you would hardly know it in the United States, that’s what also makes them, collectively, one of the signature stories of our time.
At least 100 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to violence, persecution, or other forms of public disorder over the last decade, according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. That’s about one in every 97 people on the planet, roughly one percent of humanity. If such war victims had been given their own state to homestead, it would be the 14th largest nation, population-wise, in the world.
By the end of June, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, an additional 4.8 million people had been uprooted by conflict, with the most devastating increases in Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burkina Faso. Yet, as dismal as these numbers may be, they’re set to be dwarfed by people displaced by another signature story of our time: climate change.
Already, shocking numbers have been put to flight by fires, derechos, and super storms, and so much worse is yet to come, according to experts. A recent forecast suggests that, by the year 2050, the number of people driven from their homes by ecological catastrophes could be 900% greater than the 100 million forced to flee conflicts over the last decade.
Worse Than World War II
Women, children, and men driven from their homes by conflict have been a defining feature of modern warfare. For almost a century now, combat correspondents have witnessed such scenes again and again. “Newly routed civilians, now homeless like the others with no idea of where they would next sleep or eat, with all their future lives an uncertainty, trudged back from the fighting zone,” the legendary Eric Sevareid reported, while covering Italy for CBS News during World War II. “A dust-covered girl clung desperately to a heavy, squirming burlap sack. The pig inside was squealing faintly. Tears made streaks down the girl’s face. No one moved to help her…”
The Second World War was a cataclysmic conflagration involving 70 nations and 70 million combatants. Fighting stretched across three continents in unparalleled destructive fury, including terror bombing, countless massacres, two atomic attacks, and the killing of 60 million people, most of them civilians, including six million Jews in a genocide known as the Holocaust. Another 60 million were displaced, more than the population of Italy (then the ninth-largest country in the world). An unprecedented global war causing unimaginable suffering, it nonetheless left far fewer people homeless than the 79.5 million displaced by conflicts and crises as 2019 ended.
How can violence-displaced people already exceed World War II’s total by almost 20 million (without even counting the nearly five million more added in the first half of 2020)?
The answer: these days, you can’t go home again.
In May 1945, the war in Europe came to an end. By the beginning of September, the war in the Pacific was over, too. A month later, most of Europe’s displaced — including more than two million refugees from the Soviet Union, 1.5 million French, 586,000 Italians, 274,000 Dutch, and hundreds of thousands of Belgians, Yugoslavs, Czechs, Poles, and others — had already returned home. A little more than a million people, mostly Eastern Europeans, still found themselves stranded in camps overseen by occupying forces and the United Nations.
Today, according to UNHCR, ever fewer war refugees and IDPs are able to rebuild their lives. In the 1990s, an average of 1.5 million refugees were able to return home annually. For the last 10 years, that number has dropped to around 385,000. Today, about 77% of the world’s refugees are trapped in long-term displacement situations thanks to forever wars like the conflict in Afghanistan that, in its multiple iterations, is now in its sixth decade.
War on (of and for) Terror
One of the most dramatic drivers of displacement over the last 20 years, according to researchers from Brown University’s Costs of War project, has been that conflict in Afghanistan and the seven other “most violent wars the U.S. military has launched or participated in since 2001.” In the wake of the killing of 2,974 people by al-Qaeda militants that September 11th and the decision of George W. Bush’s administration to launch a Global War on Terror, conflicts the United States initiated, escalated, or participated in — specifically, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen — have displaced between 37 million and 59 million people.
While U.S. troops have also seen combat in Burkina Faso and Washington has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars of “security assistance” into that country, its displaced aren’t even counted in the Costs of War tally. And yet there’s a clear link between the U.S.-backed overthrow of Libya’s autocrat, Muammar Qaddafi, in 2011 and Burkina Faso’s desperate state today. “Ever since the West assassinated Qaddafi, and I’m conscious of using that particular word, Libya has been completely destabilized,” Chérif Sy, Burkina Faso’s defense minister, explained in a 2019 interview. “While at the same time it was the country with the most guns. It has become an arms cache for the region.”
Those arms helped destabilize neighboring Mali and led to a 2012 coup by a U.S.-trained officer. Two years later, another U.S.-trained officer seized power in Burkina Faso during a popular uprising. This year, yet another U.S.-trained officer overthrew yet another government in Mali. All the while, terrorist attacks have been ravaging the region. “The Sahel has seen the most dramatic escalation of violence since mid-2017,” according to a July report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Defense Department research institution.
In 2005, Burkina Faso didn’t even warrant mention in the “Africa Overview” section of the State Department’s annual report on terrorism. Still, more than 15 separate American security assistance programs were brought to bear there — about $100 million in the last two years alone. Meanwhile, militant Islamist violence in the country has skyrocketed from just three attacks in 2015 to 516 in the 12 months from mid-2019 to mid-2020, according to the Pentagon’s Africa Center.
Compounding Crises to Come
The violence in Burkina Faso has led to a cascade of compounding crises. Around one million Burkinabe are now displaced, a 1,500% increase since last January, and the number only keeps rising. So do the attacks and the fatalities. And this is just the beginning, since Burkina Faso finds itself on the frontlines of yet another crisis, a global disaster that’s expected to generate levels of displacement that will dwarf today’s historic figures.
Burkina Faso has been battered by desertification and environmental degradation since at least the 1960s. In 1973, a drought led to the deaths of 100,000 people there and in five other nations of the Sahel. Severe drought and hunger struck again in the mid-1980s and aid agencies began privately warning that those living in the north of the country would need to move southward as farming became ever less feasible. By the early 2000s, despite persistent droughts, the cattle population of the country had doubled, leading to increasing ethnic conflict between Mossi farmers and Fulani cattle herders. The war now tearing the country apart largely divides along those same ethnic lines.
In 2010, Bassiaka Dao, the president of the confederation of farmers in Burkina Faso, told the United Nations news agency, IRIN, that the impacts of climate change had been noticeable for years and were getting worse. As the decade wore on, rising temperatures and new rainfall patterns — droughts followed by flash floods — increasingly drove farmers from their villages, while desertification swelled the populations of urban centers.
In a report published earlier this year, William Chemaly of the Global Protection Cluster, a network of nongovernmental organizations, international aid groups, and United Nations agencies, noted that in Burkina Faso “climate change is crippling livelihoods, exacerbating food insecurity, and intensifying armed conflict and violent extremism.”
Sitting at the edge of the Sahara Desert, the country has long faced ecological adversity that’s only worsening as the frontlines of climate change steadily spread across the planet. Forecasts now warn of increasing ecological disasters and resource wars supercharging the already surging phenomenon of global displacement. According to a recent report by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a think tank that produces annual global terrorism and peace indexes, two billion people already face uncertain access to sufficient food — a number set to jump to 3.5 billion by 2050. Another one billion “live in countries that do not have the current resilience to deal with the ecological changes they are expected to face in the future.” The report warns that the global climate crisis may displace as many as 1.2 billion people by 2050.
On the Road to Kaya
I don’t know what happened to the mother and two children I spotted on the road to Kaya. If they ended up like the scores of people I spoke with in that market town, now bulging with displaced people, they’re facing a difficult time. Rents are high, jobs scarce, government assistance all but nil. People there are living on the edge of catastrophe, dependent on relatives and the kindness of new neighbors with little to spare themselves. Some, driven by want, are even heading back into the conflict zone, risking death to gather firewood.
Kaya can’t deal with the massive influx of people forced from their homes by Islamist militants. Burkina Faso can’t deal with the one million people already displaced by conflict. And the world can’t deal with the almost 80 million people already driven from their homes by violence. So how will we cope with 1.2 billion people — nearly the population of China or India — likely to be displaced by climate driven-conflicts, water wars, increasing ecological devastation, and other unnatural disasters in the next 30 years?
In the decades ahead, ever more of us will find ourselves on roads like the one to Kaya, running from the devastation of raging wildfires or uncontrolled floodwaters, successive hurricanes or supercharged cyclones, withering droughts, spiraling conflicts, or the next life-altering pandemic. As a reporter, I’ve already been on that road. Pray you’re the one speeding by in the four-wheel-drive vehicle and not the one choking in the dust, driving the donkey cart.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
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truthout--2020-11-12--Jair Bolsonaro Downplays COVID and Refuses to Acknowledge Biden Win

The White House has ordered agencies not to cooperate with Biden ’ s presidential transition team , and President Donald Trump continues to refuse to accept defeat in the 2020 election , which means Biden can not receive security briefings or access government funds for the transition .
But while the standoff continues in the U.S. , other countries are already preparing for a new administration .
For more on how the historic U.S. election is playing out internationally , we speak with analysts from around the world , including Maria Luísa Mendonça , director of the Network for Social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has not acknowledged Biden ’ s victory .
“ The progressive movements in Brazil can also be inspired by that election here , ” says Mendonça .
“ I think that the U.S. can play a much more positive role in Latin America.
” This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : As President Donald Trump continues to refuse to accept President-elect Joe Biden ’ s victory in the 2020 presidential election , the White House has ordered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s presidential transition team .
Joe Biden is not yet receiving daily intelligence briefings , five days after he was declared the winner .
At this point after Trump ’ s victory in 2016 , Trump was receiving those daily briefings .
The holdup hinges on the little-known-to-the-public General Services Administration , which officially begins the transition and has refused to sign the paperwork to do so .
Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma said Wednesday he will intervene if Biden is not receiving the briefings by Friday .
This comes as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ messages to Biden from world leaders , and Biden ’ s transition team is coordinating Biden ’ s calls without State Department support .
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has refused to acknowledge Biden ’ s win and said there would be a “ smooth transition to a second Trump administration.
” Today , we ’ ll get response to the historic U.S. election from around the world , from Brazil to South Africa , from Turkey to United Kingdom .
First , we go to Brazil , where staunch Trump ally President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s victory .
On Tuesday , as Brazil ’ s COVID death toll passed 162,000 , second only to the United States , Bolsonaro again downplayed the virus and attacked concerned Brazilians , using an offensive term for the LGBTQ community .
AMY GOODMAN : The word Bolsonaro actually used was far more derogatory than the one that we translated here .
Well , for more , we ’ re joined by Maria Luísa Mendonça .
She is director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil , a visiting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York Graduate Center .
Maria Luísa , welcome back to Democracy Now !
If you can talk about the significance of the Biden victory and the close relationship between Jair Bolsonaro and President Trump , what the ending of that alliance can mean , and what Jair Bolsonaro is doing right now in Brazil , especially when it comes to COVID ?
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA : Yes , that was a very important victory for Brazilians , because the progressive movements in Brazil can also be inspired by this election here .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ result of this election in the U.S. is because of the work of grassroots movements here that elected Biden .
And now Bolsonaro in Brazil is even more isolated .
And I think that he also plays this game of a fake nationalism when he defends that there should be no regulation , no environmental regulation , and the environmental destruction in the Amazon , in the Brazilian savanna , is increasing .
But that is a fake nationalism , because the fires and the destruction of the Amazon really benefits large multinational @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corporations .
So , I think that it ’ s important also for the social movements in the U.S. to make sure that Biden will have a different foreign policy in relation to Latin America , because we have to remember that Bolsonaro is actually a result of a parliamentary coup against President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 that opened the space for this far-right government .
So I think the U.S. can play a much more positive role in Latin America , and we need to hold the administration accountable now .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , there is a global far-right movement that Bolsonaro and Trump are part of .
And I think that the election here in the U.S. , the result of the election , will have a positive impact not just in the U.S. , but in other parts of the world .
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA : And then , in terms of the — yes .
NERMEEN SHAIKH : No , please , go ahead .
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA : Yeah , in terms of the coronavirus response , Trump and Bolsonaro have very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t believe in science .
They don ’ t promote any type of protection .
They put the population at risk .
They don ’ t express any solidarity for the suffering of the millions of people who have been infected and so many people who have died .
So , also , Bolsonaro even has played down the vaccine .
You knoww , he is doing everything he can to postpone a vaccine in Brazil .
And Brazil actually has a very good infrastructure for mass vaccination .
Historically , the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And Bolsonaro is even trying to avoid that , you know , the Brazilian science advance the implementation of the vaccine in Brazil .
NERMEEN SHAIKH : Maria Luísa , can you talk a little bit more about that , the fact that Bolsonaro has just rejected a vaccine that Brazilian scientists — it ’ s a vaccine from China , but Brazilian scientists have also been working on that vaccine .
Why did Bolsonaro do that ?
I mean , it doesn ’ t make any sense for Bolsonaro to be opposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death toll in Brazil , second only to the U.S. Over 160,000 people have died now of COVID .
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA : Yes , exactly .
Brazil has very good scientists that have a lot of experience with mass vaccination .
But that ’ s all ideological .
You know , the Bolsonaro position is based on xenophobia , racism and ignoring science .
And that , in a way , is similar to Trump , as well .
They both have promoted drugs that have no evidence of being effective for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you know , he ’ s putting the Brazilian society at risk , because even ignoring the effects of a vaccine is something very extreme .
And that ’ s the result , of course , of the influence of the evangelical movement in his government .
And so , this is not based on science .
It ’ s just based on far-right ideology .
NERMEEN SHAIKH : And , Maria Luísa , could you say a little more about the relationship between Trump and Bolsonaro ?
I mean , not only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but his son , Eduardo Bolsonaro , wore a hat with the logo “ Trump 2020 ” leading up to the election .
And in the days following the election , as the vote count was happening here in the U.S. , he questioned publicly on social media how Biden ’ s votes were going up so quickly .
That ’ s a highly extraordinary move for someone in a foreign — in another government to make about internal elections elsewhere .
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA : Yeah , this is also a very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of foreign policy in Brazil .
Brazil has had a tradition of being independent , of not interfering in foreign affairs .
So , you know , the Brazilian diplomacy has had this tradition historically , and now this position of Bolsonaro and his sons of basically allying with Trump and making Brazil be so dependent on whatever Trump talks about .
They have the same discourse .
And they also are part of this global organization that is — one of the leaders is Steve Bannon , for example .
So , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Trump .
The policies are very similar .
So , of course , there is a coordinating effort that is global to advance those views .
But that goes against the history of Brazilian foreign policy .
So , I think that now with a change in administration here in the U.S. , that can even influence perhaps the position of mainstream media in Brazil , that plays a key role also in manipulating information .
And so , you know , I think , hopefully , the decision here , whatever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Biden administration and if Biden really has a different type of policy for Latin America , that will have an impact and will advance progressive forces in Brazil , as well .
AMY GOODMAN : Very quickly , Maria Luísa , I wanted to play one more clip of the Brazilian president indirectly swiping at Joe Biden during an event on Tuesday .
Bolsonaro ’ s comments come after Biden criticized the far-right leader ’ s handling of deforestation in the Amazon .
AMY GOODMAN : So , that ’ s Bolsonaro @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You know , as we watched in the western United States as the fires enveloped parts of California , Oregon and Washington , they ’ re actually dwarfed by the fires in the Amazon , the lungs of the world .
If you , in 30 seconds , can talk about what he is getting at , and what you think is most critical for Biden to do ?
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA : Yeah , I think it ’ s very important for us to boycott four Brazilian commodities that are the main @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , sugar , soy and beef from Brazil — because these policies , the destruction of the Amazon , is really benefiting large agribusiness corporations , including U.S. agribusiness corporations .
So , it ’ s not about protecting the Brazilian society .
It ’ s protecting large agribusiness corporations , timber companies and mining companies .
So , we need to have solidarity , you know , the environmental movements in Brazil and here .
We need to build an international environmental movement and make sure that the world also can help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ AMY GOODMAN : Maria Luísa Mendonça , we want to thank you for being with us , director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil .
When we come back , we ’ re going to Durban , South Africa , to speak with the former head of Greenpeace and Amnesty International , Kumi Naidoo ; we ’ re going to Turkey ; and we ’ re going to Cambridge , England .
Stay with us .

The White House has ordered agencies not to cooperate with Biden’s presidential transition team, and President Donald Trump continues to refuse to accept defeat in the 2020 election, which means Biden cannot receive security briefings or access government funds for the transition. But while the standoff continues in the U.S., other countries are already preparing for a new administration. For more on how the historic U.S. election is playing out internationally, we speak with analysts from around the world, including Maria Luísa Mendonça, director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil, where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has not acknowledged Biden’s victory. “The progressive movements in Brazil can also be inspired by that election here,” says Mendonça. “I think that the U.S. can play a much more positive role in Latin America.”
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: As President Donald Trump continues to refuse to accept President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, the White House has ordered agencies not to cooperate with Biden’s presidential transition team. Joe Biden is not yet receiving daily intelligence briefings, five days after he was declared the winner. At this point after Trump’s victory in 2016, Trump was receiving those daily briefings. The holdup hinges on the little-known-to-the-public General Services Administration, which officially begins the transition and has refused to sign the paperwork to do so. Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma said Wednesday he will intervene if Biden is not receiving the briefings by Friday.
This comes as the State Department is refusing to pass on messages to Biden from world leaders, and Biden’s transition team is coordinating Biden’s calls without State Department support. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has refused to acknowledge Biden’s win and said there would be a “smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”
Today, we’ll get response to the historic U.S. election from around the world, from Brazil to South Africa, from Turkey to United Kingdom. First, we go to Brazil, where staunch Trump ally President Jair Bolsonaro has not acknowledged Biden’s victory. On Tuesday, as Brazil’s COVID death toll passed 162,000, second only to the United States, Bolsonaro again downplayed the virus and attacked concerned Brazilians, using an offensive term for the LGBTQ community.
PRESIDENT JAIR BOLSONARO: [translated] Everything now is the pandemic. We have to put a stop to that. I’m sorry for all those who have died. I’m sorry. All of us are going to die one day. Everyone is going to die. You are going to die one day. There is no point in escaping from that, escaping from reality. We have to stop being a country of sissies. I’m giving the press a full plate.
AMY GOODMAN: The word Bolsonaro actually used was far more derogatory than the one that we translated here.
Well, for more, we’re joined by Maria Luísa Mendonça. She is director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil, a visiting scholar at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Maria Luísa, welcome back to Democracy Now! If you can talk about the significance of the Biden victory and the close relationship between Jair Bolsonaro and President Trump, what the ending of that alliance can mean, and what Jair Bolsonaro is doing right now in Brazil, especially when it comes to COVID?
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: Yes, that was a very important victory for Brazilians, because the progressive movements in Brazil can also be inspired by this election here. It’s important to remember that the result of this election in the U.S. is because of the work of grassroots movements here that elected Biden.
And now Bolsonaro in Brazil is even more isolated. And I think that he also plays this game of a fake nationalism when he defends that there should be no regulation, no environmental regulation, and the environmental destruction in the Amazon, in the Brazilian savanna, is increasing. But that is a fake nationalism, because the fires and the destruction of the Amazon really benefits large multinational cooperations, mining, agribusiness, financial corporations.
So, I think that it’s important also for the social movements in the U.S. to make sure that Biden will have a different foreign policy in relation to Latin America, because we have to remember that Bolsonaro is actually a result of a parliamentary coup against President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 that opened the space for this far-right government. So I think the U.S. can play a much more positive role in Latin America, and we need to hold the administration accountable now.
And I think — but, in general, there is a global far-right movement that Bolsonaro and Trump are part of. And I think that the election here in the U.S., the result of the election, will have a positive impact not just in the U.S., but in other parts of the world.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Maria —
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: And then, in terms of the — yes.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: No, please, go ahead.
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: Yeah, in terms of the coronavirus response, Trump and Bolsonaro have very similar policies. They really don’t believe in science. They don’t promote any type of protection. They put the population at risk. They don’t express any solidarity for the suffering of the millions of people who have been infected and so many people who have died.
So, also, Bolsonaro even has played down the vaccine. You knoww, he is doing everything he can to postpone a vaccine in Brazil. And Brazil actually has a very good infrastructure for mass vaccination. Historically, the country always had very mass vaccination campaigns. And Bolsonaro is even trying to avoid that, you know, the Brazilian science advance the implementation of the vaccine in Brazil.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Maria Luísa, can you talk a little bit more about that, the fact that Bolsonaro has just rejected a vaccine that Brazilian scientists — it’s a vaccine from China, but Brazilian scientists have also been working on that vaccine. Why did Bolsonaro do that? I mean, it doesn’t make any sense for Bolsonaro to be opposed to these vaccines, given especially the death toll in Brazil, second only to the U.S. Over 160,000 people have died now of COVID.
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: Yes, exactly. Brazil has very good scientists that have a lot of experience with mass vaccination. But that’s all ideological. You know, the Bolsonaro position is based on xenophobia, racism and ignoring science. And that, in a way, is similar to Trump, as well. They both have promoted drugs that have no evidence of being effective for the treatment of coronavirus. And, you know, he’s putting the Brazilian society at risk, because even ignoring the effects of a vaccine is something very extreme. And that’s the result, of course, of the influence of the evangelical movement in his government. And so, this is not based on science. It’s just based on far-right ideology.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Maria Luísa, could you say a little more about the relationship between Trump and Bolsonaro? I mean, not only has Bolsonaro not yet congratulated Biden, but his son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, wore a hat with the logo “Trump 2020” leading up to the election. And in the days following the election, as the vote count was happening here in the U.S., he questioned publicly on social media how Biden’s votes were going up so quickly. That’s a highly extraordinary move for someone in a foreign — in another government to make about internal elections elsewhere.
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: Yeah, this is also a very big change in terms of the tradition of foreign policy in Brazil. Brazil has had a tradition of being independent, of not interfering in foreign affairs. So, you know, the Brazilian diplomacy has had this tradition historically, and now this position of Bolsonaro and his sons of basically allying with Trump and making Brazil be so dependent on whatever Trump talks about. They have the same discourse. And they also are part of this global organization that is — one of the leaders is Steve Bannon, for example. So, the discourse is very similar between Bolsonaro and Trump. The policies are very similar. So, of course, there is a coordinating effort that is global to advance those views. But that goes against the history of Brazilian foreign policy.
So, I think that now with a change in administration here in the U.S., that can even influence perhaps the position of mainstream media in Brazil, that plays a key role also in manipulating information. And so, you know, I think, hopefully, the decision here, whatever happens here, will have — with the Biden administration and if Biden really has a different type of policy for Latin America, that will have an impact and will advance progressive forces in Brazil, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, Maria Luísa, I wanted to play one more clip of the Brazilian president indirectly swiping at Joe Biden during an event on Tuesday. Bolsonaro’s comments come after Biden criticized the far-right leader’s handling of deforestation in the Amazon.
PRESIDENT JAIR BOLSONARO: [translated] I recently heard a presidential candidate from a country say that if I don’t put out the fire in the Amazon, he is going to raise trade barriers against Brazil. How do we deal with all of that? Diplomacy is not enough. When there is no more saliva, then there must be gunpowder. But they have to know that we own the Amazon. That’s what the world is like. Nobody has what we have.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Bolsonaro saying “there must be gunpowder.” You know, as we watched in the western United States as the fires enveloped parts of California, Oregon and Washington, they’re actually dwarfed by the fires in the Amazon, the lungs of the world. If you, in 30 seconds, can talk about what he is getting at, and what you think is most critical for Biden to do?
MARIA LUÍSA MENDONÇA: Yeah, I think it’s very important for us to boycott four Brazilian commodities that are the main cause of deforestation and destruction — timber, sugar, soy and beef from Brazil — because these policies, the destruction of the Amazon, is really benefiting large agribusiness corporations, including U.S. agribusiness corporations. So, it’s not about protecting the Brazilian society. It’s protecting large agribusiness corporations, timber companies and mining companies. So, we need to have solidarity, you know, the environmental movements in Brazil and here. We need to build an international environmental movement and make sure that the world also can help Brazil by boycotting these four commodities.
AMY GOODMAN: Maria Luísa Mendonça, we want to thank you for being with us, director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil.
When we come back, we’re going to Durban, South Africa, to speak with the former head of Greenpeace and Amnesty International, Kumi Naidoo; we’re going to Turkey; and we’re going to Cambridge, England. Stay with us.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-11-12--70 Percent of Latinx Voters Chose Biden With Record-Shattering Turnout

After a massive voter turnout in the Nov. 3 election , politicians and policy makers are just starting to pay attention to the power that Latinxs have in the country .
Our community has a history of being ignored , criminalized and denied basic human and civil rights , but we showed up collectively and played a definitive role in deciding the outcome of this election .
And yet , even though 70 percent of the Latinx population voted for Biden , media outlets continue to focus on the voters who cast their ballots for Trump .
Latinx voters made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pieces of the coalition that backed the Biden candidacy in order to end Trump ’ s presidency .
More than 2.5 as many Latinx voters cast their ballots early this year as did in the 2016 election .
For example , in key precincts in Arizona , Latinx voter turnout rose by 20 percent compared to the past election , with nearly 73 percent choosing Biden .
Similarly , in Georgia , at least 20,000 more Latinx voters cast their ballots early than the total numbers of Latinxs who voted in 2016 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ favorability toward Joe Biden .
Our choice is resounding .
Amid overall record-breaking turnout in this election , Latinxs in particular shattered previous records with an estimate of 20.6 million ( a 65 percent increase over the 2016 election ) .
This represents two-thirds of Latinxs who are eligible to vote .
Across the country , Latinx voters were an undeniably decisive bloc and overwhelmingly united against Trump supporting Joe Biden by a margin of more than 30 points .
It ’ s clear that Latinx voters will play an ever-greater role in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A few years from now , Latinxs will represent 20 percent of the population of the country .
So it is critical not to take for granted that the vast majority will continue voting for the Democratic Party , or that states like Arizona and Georgia will continue to be blue states .
Political campaigns still haven ’ t learned how to engage our communities .
The Biden campaign failed on multiple fronts , potentially costing him the state of Florida .
The campaign treated Latinx voters as a monolith , connected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simply gave up on low-propensity voters .
The issues that matter to a Cuban person in Florida aren ’ t the same as the ones under consideration by a Mexican immigrant in Arizona .
Candidates should stop creating stereotypical marketing campaigns for Latinxs and start trying to understand and appreciate our differences between regions , needs and expectations from the Democratic political agenda .
Every politician now knows Latinx voters can not be an afterthought , so they should be taking lessons from community organizations from Day 1 .
What grassroots movements have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for how to effectively mobilize Latinx voters for the long haul .
It took years of organizing , educating Latinxs on the electoral process , empowering them to make their voices heard , and showing them that our collective power can bring down walls .
In 2016 , Mijente and a coalition of local organizations mobilized the community to end Joe Arpaio ’ s political career , building on the 20 years of grassroots organizing that had already eroded his power .
Communities then continued their journey until in 2018 we flipped an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time in 30 years .
Today , while we celebrate how progressive organizing delivered a presidential win for Biden in Arizona , we are also getting ready for the next phase of organizing to ensure our best interests don ’ t fall through the cracks of the Democratic political agenda .
The Latinx progressive movement has just reached scale , so our time is now .
It ’ s essential that progressive political campaigns work hand-in-hand with groups that know their community , and they must do so early in the game .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks or months before an election .
Engagement has to be sustained and long-term , so we ’ re in our communities building power all year long .
Through our sustained and strategic organizing , we learned how much support existed for raising revenue to fund public education , an issue which made its way to the ballot in Arizona this year and won with overwhelming support .
Individuals who report an income higher than $ 250,000 will be subject to a 3.5 percent increase in taxes to fund public schools in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Georgia , GLAHR Action Network , has a history of organizing throughout the state , with its nonpartisan partners doing sustained canvassing in immigrant communities to advise people about their civil and human rights .
All too often , campaigns don ’ t think it ’ s worth investing in outreach to voters who haven ’ t voted before or who vote rarely , thinking it ’ s not worth the time or effort .
At Mijente , we couldn ’ t disagree more .
Many Latinx voters don ’ t participate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t care or don ’ t want to vote , but because they haven ’ t been engaged .
They don ’ t believe their vote will make a difference — mainly because candidates haven ’ t proved why it would .
Some of the answers we got when approaching Latinx voters this year ranged from “ voting is intimidating , ” to “ I don ’ t know where to start , ” to “ I can ’ t find material in Spanish.
” The latter point is crucial .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ report to speak English “ very well ” has increased in recent years , 24 percent of adults between 18 and 33 are not proficient in the language .
During Mijente ’ s recent Fuera Trump campaign , we spent a significant portion of our time supporting Spanish speakers and giving them a way to make their voice heard .
Another example of a group we organized with was older Latina voters , who generally turn out at much lower rates than other women — and yet , compared to their male counterparts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We built a Latina-led team in North Carolina that registered thousands of first-time Democratic Latina voters .
We also encouraged them to realize their potential as influential stakeholders within their Latinx families .
There ’ s evidence that higher Latina turnout this year made the difference in key states such as Wisconsin and Michigan .
Campaign leaders can ’ t continue to avoid the hard work of reaching out to low-propensity voters .
They have a responsibility to reach out to those who have been left out and show them why their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy makers have to stop treating Latinx voters as a monolith .
The issues that matter to many Cubans are not the same as those that matter to many Puerto Ricans , and young Latinx voters vote differently from their parents and grandparents .
There is a wide range of differences between specific Latinx populations , from their immigration experiences to political baggage , place of residency , class and religion .
Our community has 32 million Latinx eligible voters and growing , and while there was consensus by a majority of 70 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it might not always be so easy to find the same alignment .
2020 has taught us that the old , monolithic approach to engaging Latinx voters is in need of serious revision .
2020 has also demonstrated to Latinxs the true electoral power we hold , so we are now a force that is alive and will make demands whenever treated poorly or undermined .
Grassroots organizations have shown that they know what it takes to win .
It is time for policy makers to start listening .
And it is @ @ @ @

After a massive voter turnout in the Nov. 3 election, politicians and policy makers are just starting to pay attention to the power that Latinxs have in the country. Our community has a history of being ignored, criminalized and denied basic human and civil rights, but we showed up collectively and played a definitive role in deciding the outcome of this election. And yet, even though 70 percent of the Latinx population voted for Biden, media outlets continue to focus on the voters who cast their ballots for Trump.
Our Power in Numbers
Latinx voters made history and delivered one of the key pieces of the coalition that backed the Biden candidacy in order to end Trump’s presidency. More than 2.5 as many Latinx voters cast their ballots early this year as did in the 2016 election. For example, in key precincts in Arizona, Latinx voter turnout rose by 20 percent compared to the past election, with nearly 73 percent choosing Biden. Similarly, in Georgia, at least 20,000 more Latinx voters cast their ballots early than the total numbers of Latinxs who voted in 2016, with exit polls showing a 69 percent favorability toward Joe Biden.
Our choice is resounding. Amid overall record-breaking turnout in this election, Latinxs in particular shattered previous records with an estimate of 20.6 million (a 65 percent increase over the 2016 election). This represents two-thirds of Latinxs who are eligible to vote. Across the country, Latinx voters were an undeniably decisive bloc and overwhelmingly united against Trump supporting Joe Biden by a margin of more than 30 points.
The Importance of Sustained Organizing
It’s clear that Latinx voters will play an ever-greater role in any election or nationwide movement moving forward. A few years from now, Latinxs will represent 20 percent of the population of the country. So it is critical not to take for granted that the vast majority will continue voting for the Democratic Party, or that states like Arizona and Georgia will continue to be blue states.
Political campaigns still haven’t learned how to engage our communities. The Biden campaign failed on multiple fronts, potentially costing him the state of Florida. The campaign treated Latinx voters as a monolith, connected with grassroots groups too late, and simply gave up on low-propensity voters. The issues that matter to a Cuban person in Florida aren’t the same as the ones under consideration by a Mexican immigrant in Arizona. Candidates should stop creating stereotypical marketing campaigns for Latinxs and start trying to understand and appreciate our differences between regions, needs and expectations from the Democratic political agenda. Every politician now knows Latinx voters cannot be an afterthought, so they should be taking lessons from community organizations from Day 1.
Latinxs shattered previous records with an estimate of 20.6 million. This represents two-thirds of Latinxs who are eligible to vote.
What grassroots movements have built in Arizona can provide a model for how to effectively mobilize Latinx voters for the long haul. It took years of organizing, educating Latinxs on the electoral process, empowering them to make their voices heard, and showing them that our collective power can bring down walls.
In 2016, Mijente and a coalition of local organizations mobilized the community to end Joe Arpaio’s political career, building on the 20 years of grassroots organizing that had already eroded his power. Communities then continued their journey until in 2018 we flipped an Arizona U.S. Senate seat for the first time in 30 years. Today, while we celebrate how progressive organizing delivered a presidential win for Biden in Arizona, we are also getting ready for the next phase of organizing to ensure our best interests don’t fall through the cracks of the Democratic political agenda. The Latinx progressive movement has just reached scale, so our time is now.
It’s essential that progressive political campaigns work hand-in-hand with groups that know their community, and they must do so early in the game. Effective organizing does not only take place weeks or months before an election. Engagement has to be sustained and long-term, so we’re in our communities building power all year long. Through our sustained and strategic organizing, we learned how much support existed for raising revenue to fund public education, an issue which made its way to the ballot in Arizona this year and won with overwhelming support. Individuals who report an income higher than $250,000 will be subject to a 3.5 percent increase in taxes to fund public schools in the state. One of our partner groups in Georgia, GLAHR Action Network, has a history of organizing throughout the state, with its nonpartisan partners doing sustained canvassing in immigrant communities to advise people about their civil and human rights.
A Focus on First-Time Voters
All too often, campaigns don’t think it’s worth investing in outreach to voters who haven’t voted before or who vote rarely, thinking it’s not worth the time or effort. At Mijente, we couldn’t disagree more. Many Latinx voters don’t participate in the electoral process not because they don’t care or don’t want to vote, but because they haven’t been engaged. They don’t believe their vote will make a difference — mainly because candidates haven’t proved why it would. Some of the answers we got when approaching Latinx voters this year ranged from “voting is intimidating,” to “I don’t know where to start,” to “I can’t find material in Spanish.”
The latter point is crucial. While the overall percentage of Latinxs who report to speak English “very well” has increased in recent years, 24 percent of adults between 18 and 33 are not proficient in the language. During Mijente’s recent Fuera Trump campaign, we spent a significant portion of our time supporting Spanish speakers and giving them a way to make their voice heard.
The Biden campaign treated Latinx voters as a monolith, connected with grassroots groups too late, and simply gave up on low-propensity voters.
Another example of a group we organized with was older Latina voters, who generally turn out at much lower rates than other women — and yet, compared to their male counterparts, consistently expressed worse views of Trump. We built a Latina-led team in North Carolina that registered thousands of first-time Democratic Latina voters. We also encouraged them to realize their potential as influential stakeholders within their Latinx families. There’s evidence that higher Latina turnout this year made the difference in key states such as Wisconsin and Michigan.
Campaign leaders can’t continue to avoid the hard work of reaching out to low-propensity voters. They have a responsibility to reach out to those who have been left out and show them why their votes matter.
Latinx Voters Are Not a Monolith
Finally, politicians and policy makers have to stop treating Latinx voters as a monolith. The issues that matter to many Cubans are not the same as those that matter to many Puerto Ricans, and young Latinx voters vote differently from their parents and grandparents. There is a wide range of differences between specific Latinx populations, from their immigration experiences to political baggage, place of residency, class and religion. Our community has 32 million Latinx eligible voters and growing, and while there was consensus by a majority of 70 percent to end Trump’s presidency, it might not always be so easy to find the same alignment.
The old, monolithic approach to engaging Latinx voters is in need of serious revision.
2020 has taught us that the old, monolithic approach to engaging Latinx voters is in need of serious revision. 2020 has also demonstrated to Latinxs the true electoral power we hold, so we are now a force that is alive and will make demands whenever treated poorly or undermined.
Grassroots organizations have shown that they know what it takes to win. It is time for policy makers to start listening. And it is time to deliver.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-11-12--As COVID Spikes Higher Than Ever, Trump’s Leadership Hits Rock Bottom

On November 10 , The Atlantic published an article titled “ The Worst Day of the Pandemic Since May.
” The piece reported that 61,964 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 , 17 states were at peak hospitalizations , and the nation ’ s health care system was trembling on the verge of collapse , again .
Two days later , it is much worse .
More than 142,000 new COVID cases — another new daily record — were diagnosed today , bringing the overall count to 10 million total infections nationwide .
Nearly 242,000 people have died .
“ On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Times , “ 65,368 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 , a figure that has doubled in little over a month , breaking the record set a day earlier by more than 3,400.
” As ever , the impact of this illness and death will fall hardest on marginalized people , hitting Black , Native , disabled , immigrant and working-class communities where health care is often even more scarce .
The story is in the states .
In Wisconsin , every county is not just infected , but infected to such a terrifying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Health Services needed to create a whole new category — “ Critically High ” — to explain it .
“ Very High ” is no longer sufficient .
“ To be considered for the previous top category , ‘ Very High , ’ a region ’ s case rate would have to surpass 350 cases per 100,000 residents , ” reports Wisconsin news station WMTV .
“ Every single one of Wisconsin ’ s 72 counties has at least doubled that number , with Washburn Co. reporting the lowest rate in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” The COVID map of Illinois is blood red , virtually from top to bottom .
The state on Wednesday reported more than 12,000 same-day COVID infections and 145 new deaths .
Gov .
J.B. Pritzker has not issued a mandatory stay-at-home order , but the Illinois Department of Health recommended that people stay at home except for essential tasks over the next three weeks .
“ Well , we ’ re certainly looking at statewide mitigations , ” Pritzker told ABC 7 Chicago .
“ I do think local governments though right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new mitigations and enforcing the ones that are already in place , they ’ re doing it wrong.
” In New York City , where the pandemic wrought so much damage back in the spring , serious discussions are underway regarding the mass closure of schools again , to combat the implacable rise of these COVID numbers .
Some 300,000 students could be sent home , and many New York school officials expect the decision to be made by the Thanksgiving holiday .
For them , it appears to be a matter of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The grim story is repeating itself in more than a dozen states .
Idaho ’ s hospital system is threatening to be overwhelmed by the tide of new cases .
In Michigan , the surge of new cases is likewise overwhelming that state ’ s medical infrastructure .
“ Rapidly rising ” cases in Indiana has state and local authorities contemplating the mass cancellation of events , along with a possible mandatory lockdown .
Kickoff of the annual holiday season looms like a thundercloud on the horizon .
With Thanksgiving set to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country is entering a long run of days traditionally marked not only by social gatherings , but by huge crowds at the stores as people shop for presents .
This will take place in the teeth of a pandemic surge far beyond anything we have seen to date , and it is entirely possible that — lacking seriously taken precautions — the whole country could spend the next several weeks becoming its own mass superspreader event .
The Trump administration is doing nothing .
Less than nothing , actually ; Trump himself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pouting mushroom , alternately plotting for some long-shot victory and imagining himself as the mogul of a vast right-wing anti-Fox News media empire .
As far as this lame duck failure of an administration goes , the COVID crisis — never top of mind from the beginning — may as well be happening on Neptune .
By comparison , President-elect Joe Biden is putting together a profoundly qualified crew to combat the pandemic the moment they hit the door .
Ron Klain , a deeply experienced Democratic operative and decades-old friend of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as White House chief of staff .
Among his other qualifications , Klain served the Obama administration ’ s “ Ebola czar ” during the outbreak that challenged that administration in its second term .
Biden ’ s COVID advisory board/task force is to be co-chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy , former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Marcella Nunez-Smith of the Yale School of Medicine .
The newest appointee to the task force is Michael Osterholm , director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pulling no punches about the menace before us .
“ What America has to understand is that we are about to enter COVID hell , ” he told CNBC on Monday .
“ It is happening.
” Yesterday , Osterholm came out strongly for a weeks-long national lockdown , subsidized with aid money from the federal government , so the population can stay safe while we wait for what sounds like hopeful vaccine news to perhaps come to fruition .
“ We could pay for a package right now to cover all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers , for losses to small companies , to medium-sized companies or city , state , county governments , ” said Osterholm .
“ We could do all of that .
If we did that , then we could lock down for four to six weeks.
” Mass school closures and lockdowns seem to be more and more unavoidable by the day .
All of this is coming while the sitting president has all but quit ( not that he did much to address the pandemic when he was “ engaged ” ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power for another 70 long days , and the Senate majority leader sits atop a mountain of federal relief money but won ’ t allow any of it to be spent .
Ideologically unsound , you see .
In the aftermath of the election , it is all too easy to believe Donald Trump ’ s worst days are behind us .
I fear his final few weeks may set the benchmark high above any that have come before .

On November 10, The Atlantic published an article titled “The Worst Day of the Pandemic Since May.” The piece reported that 61,964 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, 17 states were at peak hospitalizations, and the nation’s health care system was trembling on the verge of collapse, again.
Two days later, it is much worse.
More than 142,000 new COVID cases — another new daily record — were diagnosed today, bringing the overall count to 10 million total infections nationwide. Nearly 242,000 people have died. “On Wednesday,” reports The New York Times, “65,368 people were hospitalized with Covid-19, a figure that has doubled in little over a month, breaking the record set a day earlier by more than 3,400.”
As ever, the impact of this illness and death will fall hardest on marginalized people, hitting Black, Native, disabled, immigrant and working-class communities where health care is often even more scarce.
The story is in the states. In Wisconsin, every county is not just infected, but infected to such a terrifying degree that the state’s Department of Health Services needed to create a whole new category — “Critically High” — to explain it. “Very High” is no longer sufficient.
“To be considered for the previous top category, ‘Very High,’ a region’s case rate would have to surpass 350 cases per 100,000 residents,” reports Wisconsin news station WMTV. “Every single one of Wisconsin’s 72 counties has at least doubled that number, with Washburn Co. reporting the lowest rate in the state at 769.6 cases per 100,000 people.”
The COVID map of Illinois is blood red, virtually from top to bottom. The state on Wednesday reported more than 12,000 same-day COVID infections and 145 new deaths. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has not issued a mandatory stay-at-home order, but the Illinois Department of Health recommended that people stay at home except for essential tasks over the next three weeks. “Well, we’re certainly looking at statewide mitigations,” Pritzker told ABC 7 Chicago. “I do think local governments though right now, if they are not imposing new mitigations and enforcing the ones that are already in place, they’re doing it wrong.”
In New York City, where the pandemic wrought so much damage back in the spring, serious discussions are underway regarding the mass closure of schools again, to combat the implacable rise of these COVID numbers. Some 300,000 students could be sent home, and many New York school officials expect the decision to be made by the Thanksgiving holiday. For them, it appears to be a matter of if, not when, this happens.
The grim story is repeating itself in more than a dozen states. Idaho’s hospital system is threatening to be overwhelmed by the tide of new cases. In Michigan, the surge of new cases is likewise overwhelming that state’s medical infrastructure. “Rapidly rising” cases in Indiana has state and local authorities contemplating the mass cancellation of events, along with a possible mandatory lockdown.
The whole country could spend the next several weeks becoming its own mass superspreader event.
Kickoff of the annual holiday season looms like a thundercloud on the horizon. With Thanksgiving set to take place two weeks from today, the country is entering a long run of days traditionally marked not only by social gatherings, but by huge crowds at the stores as people shop for presents.
This will take place in the teeth of a pandemic surge far beyond anything we have seen to date, and it is entirely possible that — lacking seriously taken precautions — the whole country could spend the next several weeks becoming its own mass superspreader event.
The Trump administration is doing nothing. Less than nothing, actually; Trump himself is squatting in the White House like a pouting mushroom, alternately plotting for some long-shot victory and imagining himself as the mogul of a vast right-wing anti-Fox News media empire. As far as this lame duck failure of an administration goes, the COVID crisis — never top of mind from the beginning — may as well be happening on Neptune.
By comparison, President-elect Joe Biden is putting together a profoundly qualified crew to combat the pandemic the moment they hit the door. Ron Klain, a deeply experienced Democratic operative and decades-old friend of Biden, has been tapped to serve as White House chief of staff. Among his other qualifications, Klain served the Obama administration’s “Ebola czar” during the outbreak that challenged that administration in its second term.
Biden’s COVID advisory board/task force is to be co-chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Marcella Nunez-Smith of the Yale School of Medicine. The newest appointee to the task force is Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Osterholm is pulling no punches about the menace before us. “What America has to understand is that we are about to enter COVID hell,” he told CNBC on Monday. “It is happening.”
Yesterday, Osterholm came out strongly for a weeks-long national lockdown, subsidized with aid money from the federal government, so the population can stay safe while we wait for what sounds like hopeful vaccine news to perhaps come to fruition.
“We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers, for losses to small companies, to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments,” said Osterholm. “We could do all of that. If we did that, then we could lock down for four to six weeks.”
Mass school closures and lockdowns seem to be more and more unavoidable by the day. All of this is coming while the sitting president has all but quit (not that he did much to address the pandemic when he was “engaged”), the incoming president has no actual power for another 70 long days, and the Senate majority leader sits atop a mountain of federal relief money but won’t allow any of it to be spent. Ideologically unsound, you see.
In the aftermath of the election, it is all too easy to believe Donald Trump’s worst days are behind us. I fear his final few weeks may set the benchmark high above any that have come before.
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