Category Archives: 2020 Elections

10/7 VP Debate & OT; Happy Hour

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(image credit: Getty)

The vice-presidential debate actually matters this time

Not only are Vice President Pence and Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) as different as night and day politically, but also they present an inescapable demographic contrast between two Americas. Harris, of Jamaican and Indian descent, and Pence, quite possibly the Whitest man in the country, bring different life experiences and represent what many see as the future and the past.

Demographically, as well as politically, it seems the future is brown and female. America’s past, as pollsters and pundits never tire of reminding us, is White and male.

Should such things matter? Obviously, what matters most are character, intelligence, experience and beliefs, combined with temperament and those incalculable human qualities we’ve been missing these past four years — empathy, sincerity, warmth, wisdom, seriousness of purpose and, so important, humor. Self-deprecation, something we’ve seen in presidents going back generations, is a sign not only of confidence but also of humility. Donald Trump is the first president I can recall who clearly has no idea what I’m talking about.

While it is customary to evaluate whether a vice president is presidential material should circumstance warrant, such warranting is a serious matter this time around. Democratic nominee Joe Biden is 77 and, though it can be uncomfortable to discuss, is increasingly showing his age, even if he seems healthy and sharp most of the time. The number 80 looms large in any presidential calculus. Trump is 74 himself and, oh yes, currently is infected by a deadly virus.

Thus, the compelling questions: Does America consider Harris, who dropped out of the Democratic primary race early because of her weak standing, ready to be president of the United States at a moment of enormous uncertainty and upheaval? Her résumé, which includes serving as California’s attorney general and a U.S. senator, needs little buffing. Ironically, her prosecutorial record, in some ways, reads more conservative than the liberal, Black Lives Matter emissary she has become. Then again, voter volition is more complex than political biography.

For Pence, the test is different. What has he become after almost four years as one of Trump’s closest advisers and supporters — one who, protected by the Constitution, couldn’t be fired?

The vice president is no slouch either, as résumés go. Before joining the Trump team, he was governor of Indiana and a six-term member of the U.S. House. Most likely, however, the image most people likely conjure up of him now is silent sentinel over the president’s shoulder. He’s very much more than that, however. Newt Gingrich has said that Pence is, after Trump, one of the few people with the most policy influence in the administration.

When, just a few days ago, Pence seemed poised to take over the presidency (at least temporarily) when Trump fell ill with covid-19, the nation was suddenly forced to consider what that would be like. Given how things have gone these past days, perhaps they thought they could get used to it. On Monday, in one of his oddest performances to date (which is saying something), Trump stood at attention on the White House balcony and held a sustained military salute like something choreographed by Kim Jong Un’s propaganda machine. This signified — what? That the commander in chief, newly home from the hospital, was reporting for duty?

What to know about the 2020 presidential debates

In the same news cycle, a manic Trump irresponsibly and dangerously advised Americans not to fear covid-19.

So voters can be forgiven as they watch Wednesday’s debate and imagine a different future.

Is America ready, if not now, then perhaps in 2024, for a President Pence? A President Harris? At least there’s a solid chance people can form an opinion after tuning in. Unlike last week’s angry, incoherent presidential debate, which was anything but presidential, Pence and Harris can be expected to discuss the issues like normal politicians. There may be occasional barbs, but if you’re interested in how the two tickets’ policies differ, this is the one to watch.

For now, it seems that for a growing majority of voters, including in swing states the polls say are drifting toward the Democrats, a Harris administration would be better than a second Trump term. Yet, if Trump does make a comeback, it could be because of Harris. From my own reading of conservatives, many would happily vote for the familiar Biden but fear his potential succession by Harris, who they believe would turn the country hard to the left. A strong and credible performance by Harris on Wednesday could allay some of those fears.

In 2020, Joe Biden and Donald Trump may be the headliners, but, clearly, Kamala Harris and Mike Pence are far more than also-rans.

More news, tweets, videos, and jibber-jabber in the comments. Happy Hump day!

Update: a Tweet that is riffing off Goodfellas. Can you guess the song?

Benny’s Bar is Now Open for Happy Hour. Mocktails, Beer, Wine, Mad Men cocktails served upon request in the comments.

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10/06 Countdown: 28 Days Until Election; OT & News Roundup

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Supreme Court Reinstates South Carolina’s Ballot Witness Requirement

The Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a requirement that South Carolina residents voting by mail in November’s election get a witness to sign their ballots.

Democrats had sought to have the requirement put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, but Republicans had defended it as deterring fraud.

While the high court reinstated the requirement as a lawsuit over it proceeds, voters have already started returning ballots. More than 200,000 absentee ballots have been mailed and 18,000 returned, according to the state’s election commission.

The court said that any ballots cast before the court’s action Monday evening “and received within two days of this order may not be rejected for failing to comply with the witness requirement.”

State Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick cheered the decision. “Despite the Democrats’ efforts to hijack a pandemic and use it to meddle with our election laws, they’ve lost,” he said in a statement. “We’re pleased the Supreme Court reinstated the witness signature requirement and recognized its importance in helping to prevent election fraud.”

South Carolina has had a witness requirement for absentee voters since 1953. Under the current law, voters returning mail-in ballots swear an oath printed on the return envelope that confirms they are eligible to vote and that the ballot inside is theirs, among other things. The oath has to be witnessed by one other person who has to sign below the voter’s signature and write their address.

Pointing to the coronavirus pandemic, state and national Democratic Party organizations and several individual voters challenged the requirement and other parts of state election law. And a judge blocked the witness requirement before the state’s primary in June.

After the primary, state lawmakers made changes to the state’s election law, including allowing all residents to vote absentee in November. But they left the witness requirement in place.
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U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, an appointee of President Obama, late last month put the witness requirement on hold for the presidential election. She wrote that it could increase the risk of some voters of contracting the virus and require other voters already infected with the virus to risk exposing witnesses.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit reinstated the requirement before the full appeals court reversed course and put it on hold again.

Approximately a dozen states require mail-in ballot envelopes to be signed by one or more witnesses or a notary.

Meantime, Biden is up 14 pts in a CNN poll released this morning.

More voter suppression news, tweets, videos and jibber-jabber in the comments. See you there!

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Sure Happy It’s Tuesday. 4 weeks can’t get here fast enough.

10/5 Open Thread and an alternate reality

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Morning nesters; On stay-cation this week as i have to use it or loose it by 12/31 so decided to kick off an OT

The optimistic view: what could happen if Biden wins big

Dick Meyer, Opinion contributor
Mon, October 5, 2020, 6:01 AM CDT

Since Joe Biden captured the Democratic nomination, he has maintained a remarkably steady lead over Donald Trump. Biden has never trailed Trump and, since the middle of June, his lead has never been less than 6.6 points in the FiveThirtyEight average of polls, and he has rarely fallen below 50%. It is the most consistent lead in the history of presidential polling.

Yet Democrats and anti-Trumpers of all stripes are in a state of depressed panic, almost unable to entertain daydreams of victory in our political Land of Oz. That is totally understandable, and I feel the same way much of the time. The polls are no comfort. Concerns and predictions that Trump will not leave office peacefully or willingly are now rampant — and reasonable even as the president fights coronavirus.
Radical optimism in Biden’s ability to win

Entering the fourth quarter in a cloud of gloom, however, is a lousy way to win a game. So, to boost morale, let me spin out a radically optimistic scenario that is consistent with the polls, the handicappers’ picks, and history and actually more likely than the “Doomsday Scenarios.”

Biden’s national lead in the 538 average, as of Sep. 24, was 50.3% to 43%. More important, since the spring, he has never trailed in the average of polls in the swing states of Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas look like true toss-ups right now.

Now, suppose that sometime after all the polls have closed on Election Day, sometime after midnight, the returns from solid blue and red states came in as expected. Most of the votes have been counted in the eight “never trailed” states listed above (remember, most states count mail-in and absentee ballots before election day), the results are consistent with exit polls and other data, and the networks “call” them for Biden.

Around 2 a.m. on Nov. 4, Biden declares victory despite Trump’s steady stream of incendiary tweets claiming fraud, sedition and treason. Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, already in post-car crash triage mode, issue a joint statement urging Trump to concede given the results in hand. The GOP has effectively conceded for Trump. George W. Bush and other Republicans send congratulations to Biden along with heads of state around the world.

Trump’s bluff has been called. There is no appetite in the GOP to prolong the agony. The process of certifying the electoral votes proceeds in the normal manner, despite the lack of a concession from the lame duck president. Biden and Harris are inaugurated in an orderly manner.

What could happen under Biden’s presidency

With control of the White House, Senate and House, the Democrats enact major economic stimulus legislation and extraordinary COVID-19 spending in Biden’s first week.

By the Fourth of July recess, Biden has also shepherded through a historic government reform bill that enlarges the Supreme Court to 13, puts 15-year term limits on the Justices, adds 45 seats to the House of Representatives, gives statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico, and abolishes the Electoral College. The disproportionate power of rural (white) voters that has ruled American history will be diminished, the winner of the popular vote will always be elected president and the Supreme Court will be less susceptible to extended one-party dominance.

By the fall of 2021, COVID-19 vaccines have been deployed widely enough so that the school year begins in nearly routine fashion and the working world continues to normalize. With marginal help from some dissident Republicans, Democrats pass significant expansion and protection of Obamacare, criminal justice reform and start reversing Trump’s climate change setbacks.

At that point Biden would have 290 electoral votes, 20 more than needed to win. Now suppose that Biden also has clear leads in two of the toss-up states, say Iowa and North Carolina. Biden’s electoral vote would go up to 311 , a margin that could withstand hypothetical reversals in two or even three states.

Imagine that by this late hour, Republican Senate candidates have conceded in Maine, Colorado, North Carolina, Arizona and Iowa. Democrats will have secured the Senate despite losing Doug Jones’ Alabama seat. The Democrats also will have slightly expanded their House majority.

Presidential debate: Biden can beat (and infuriate) Trump by being the adult on the presidential debate stage

What could happen under Biden’s presidency

With control of the White House, Senate and House, the Democrats enact major economic stimulus legislation and extraordinary COVID-19 spending in Biden’s first week.

By the Fourth of July recess, Biden has also shepherded through a historic government reform bill that enlarges the Supreme Court to 13, puts 15-year term limits on the Justices, adds 45 seats to the House of Representatives, gives statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico, and abolishes the Electoral College. The disproportionate power of rural (white) voters that has ruled American history will be diminished, the winner of the popular vote will always be elected president and the Supreme Court will be less susceptible to extended one-party dominance.

By the fall of 2021, COVID-19 vaccines have been deployed widely enough so that the school year begins in nearly routine fashion and the working world continues to normalize. With marginal help from some dissident Republicans, Democrats pass significant expansion and protection of Obamacare, criminal justice reform and start reversing Trump’s climate change setbacks.

Discouraged by party infighting and the loss of power, GOP Senators from the blue or purple states of North Carolina, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania resign. With the new seats from D.C. and Puerto Rico, Democratic control of the Senate is all but guaranteed for the next two or three cycles. The added seats assure the Democrats will have a majority in the House for several more years at least.

More importantly, the demography of America will be more accurately represented than ever before.

All the election results in this daydream are what today’s polls would predict.

The legislation is all realistic, even probable, except, perhaps, for D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood. The whole picture is more likely than the “Doomsday Scenario” of Trump calling in the tanks to protect him in the White House.

So, as we enter the final phase, Democrats and Trump’s other opponents should be motivated by hope as much as fear ­— motivated to vote, volunteer, donate, argue and cajole.

In the words of Dorothy Gale, “The dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.” With effort.

Dick Meyer is the author of “Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/optimistic-view-could-happen-biden-110106427.html

WI 62 If the Dems would indeed control all i dont believe they have the guts to inact even half of this, as the author said one can dream.

Elections Have Consequences. YAY.

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Earlier today I chimed in with a dismissive comment about New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the mess he has wrought in NYC Elections.  Every bit of scorn directed at Cuomo the Lesser has been richly earned but the recent elections have changed the facts on the ground.

The NY State Senate has been in Progressive hands since 2018 when we ousted the make believe Democrats of the IDC.  The problem remained  in the NY State Assembly which   was majority Democrats but corporate Democrats.  In the last election, sometime during this pandemic, we changed the face of that body, too!  18 seats became Progressive Democrats. Awful Andrew has lost his clout.

In my mailbox today,  I got a glossy many page booklet informing all  New York voters of their options and their polling places for Election Day and Early Voting.  Plus, extensive info about how to vote absentee!

I couldn’t be happier!

Go, New York.  Go, New York, GO!   (as an old Knicks chant used to say.)

 

 

9/23 One Louisville Ex- Police Officer Indicted for Wanton Shooting at Breonna Taylor’s Apt; News Roundup & OT

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A grand jury indicted Brett Hankison on charges of wanton endangerment for his actions on the night of the shooting that killed Breonna Taylor. No other charges were announced.

A grand jury indicted a former Louisville police officer on Wednesday for wanton endangerment during a botched drug raid that led to the death of Breonna Taylor in March. No charges were announced against the other two officers who fired shots, and no one was charged for causing her death.

The three-count indictment concerns Brett Hankison, a detective at the time, who fired into the sliding glass patio door and window of Ms. Taylor’s apartment building, both of which were covered with blinds, in violation of a department policy that requires officers to have a line of sight.

He is the only one of the three officers who was dismissed from the force, with a termination letter stating that he showed “an extreme indifference to the value of human life.”

In a news conference following the announcement of the grand jury’s decision, Kentucky’s attorney general, Daniel Cameron, said, “The decision before my office is not to decide if the loss of Breonna Taylor’s life was a tragedy — the answer to that question is unequivocally yes,” he said.

USA Today points out some other key developments related to the case:

Attorney General Daniel Cameron said his investigation determined that Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove were justified in their actions and that they did announce themselves as police officers before the shooting.

The mayor of Louisville imposed a 72-hour curfew on Wednesday a day after declaring a state of emergency. Police have cut off access to downtown Louisville and set up barricades and fences around buildings.

Six Louisville police officers – including the three who fired their weapons into Breonna Taylor’s apartment – are under internal investigation into whether officers broke department policies. The review is separate from the one the department sent to the Kentucky attorney general to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.

Last week, the city of Louisville announced a $12 million settlement with Breonna Taylor’s family, which included a host of police reforms. The police union said it felt betrayed by the mayor, while activists said arresting the officers involved is the only way to get justice.
Also last week, the Louisville metro council declared a no confidence vote in the mayor over his handling of the Taylor case.

In other news, Planet Is Burning, But First Presidential Debate Set to Ignore Humanity’s Most Pressing Issue: Climate

Even as devastating wildfires across the U.S. West Coast and rapidly shrinking Arctic sea ice offer alarming evidence of the reality and immediacy of the climate crisis, the planetary emergency was apparently deemed not worthy of inclusion on the list of official topics for next Tuesday’s presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Unveiled Tuesday by the Commission on Presidential Debates, the featured topics of the 90-minute event—moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News—are expected to be the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, the Supreme Court, the two candidates’ records, election integrity, and “race and violence in our cities.”

While the topics are subject to change, the initial exclusion of the greatest crisis facing humanity sparked backlash from environmentalists, who characterized the ongoing neglect of the climate emergency as yet another dereliction of duty by the corporate media.

“At a time when wildfires are burning down an entire coast, it’s absolutely unconscionable for the media to dismiss climate change as a topic in the first presidential debate,” Varshini Prakash, executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said in a statement late Tuesday. “Poll after poll shows the climate crisis looms large on the minds of voters across the country; an NPR survey released yesterday showed it was the single most important issue among Democrats. Young Republican voters also list climate as their top concern.”

Prakash said her organization is “committed to mobilizing our movement to protest at the presidential debates until Chris Wallace and other mainstream reporters address climate head on.”

“The American people are crying out for a real solution to the crises we find ourselves,” said Prakash continued. “We need to open up conversations around how we can mobilize our government to fight the climate crisis while also creating millions of good jobs in the process of recovering from an economic collapse and global pandemic. It’s an abdication of the media’s role to keep people informed for climate to be completely erased from the docket.”

Throughout his first term, Trump repeatedly dismissed or downplayed the climate emergency and contributed to it by gutting basic environmental protections and rushing to expand domestic fossil fuel production at a time when rapid planetary warming demands an urgent transition away from polluting energy sources.

Biden, for his part, put forth a $2 trillion green energy plan in July that climate groups said is a good first step but ultimately insufficient to deliver the needed transformational change.

Earlier this month, as Common Dreams reported, Biden slammed the president’s ongoing climate denial in the face of the catastrophic wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington state and said that “in the years ahead, there will be no challenge more consequential to our future than meeting and defeating the onrushing climate crisis.”

“The science is clear, and deadly signs like these are unmistakable—climate change poses an imminent, existential threat to our way of life,” Biden said in a statement. “President Trump can try to deny that reality, but the facts are undeniable. We absolutely must act now to avoid a future defined by an unending barrage of tragedies like the one American families are enduring across the West today.”

Despite the marked contrasts between the two candidates on climate policy, it is unclear whether their differences will receive any attention or discussion at next Tuesday’s debate, which will come less than 40 days ahead of the November 3 election.

Evan Weber, co-founder and political director of the Sunrise Movement, tweeted Tuesday that if Wallace fails to mention the climate emergency in his questions, Biden must bring up the topic on his own.

“Polling shows it’s the biggest wedge he’s got” said Weber. “It’s just smart politics.”

More news, tweets, videos, and jibber-jabber in the comments. See you there!

9/22 News Roundup & Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Greetings Birdies,

More corruption in the DoD…surprise!

Pentagon used taxpayer money meant for masks and swabs to make jet engine parts and body armor
Shortly after Congress passed the Cares Act, the Pentagon began directing pandemic-related money to defense contractors

A $1 billion fund Congress gave the Pentagon in March to build up the country’s supplies of medical equipment has instead been mostly funneled to defense contractors and used for making things such as jet engine parts, body armor and dress uniforms.

The change illustrates how one taxpayer-backed effort to battle the novel coronavirus, which has killed roughly 200,000 Americans, was instead diverted toward patching up long-standing perceived gaps in military supplies.

The Cares Act, which Congress passed earlier this year, gave the Pentagon money to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.” But a few weeks later, the Defense Department began reshaping how it would award the money in a way that represented a major departure from Congress’s original intent.

The payments were made even though U.S. health officials believe there are still major funding gaps in responding to the pandemic. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Senate testimony last week that states desperately need $6 billion to distribute vaccines to Americans early next year. There remains a severe shortage of N95 masks at numerous U.S. hospitals. These are the types of problems that the money was originally intended to address.

Yesterday I noticed that Sharknado 1 and Sharknado 2 were broadcasted on SyFy channel. Seems like the whole 2020 GE has turned that way, with Justice Ginsburg’s passing:

Democrats largely powerless to stop GOP from confirming Trump’s court choice

Senate Democrats and their liberal allies confronted the grim reality Monday that they have no path to blocking President Trump’s pending Supreme Court nomination other than a political pressure campaign that peels away a minimum of four GOP votes.

Deep into their sixth year in the minority, Democrats can use some procedural tactics that might briefly slow the confirmation process, but if at least 50 Republicans approve of Trump’s pick to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that nominee is certain to be seated.

Publicly, Democrats vowed to fight with every fiber in the Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings and on the Senate floor, as the liberal alliance of outside interest groups began planning how to mount a campaign that would try to turn Republicans against the nominee. But the process ahead leaves no room for error, and even a perfectly executed pressure campaign coulH still fall short.

I hope John Hickenlooper is running on this issue alone.

More news, tweets, videos and jibber-jabber in the comments below. Have a good day and stay safe!

8/16 Sanders to be Guest On Sunday Bobblehead Shows; News & OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Can Biden win over the young Latinos who flocked to Bernie Sanders?

Energized by universal healthcare and free college tuition, enthusiastic young Latinos favored ‘Tio Bernie’ – and Biden has work to do to convince this crucial voting bloc

Thomas Kennedy remembers spending all day on the phone keeping up with excited new voters wanting to know how “el caucus” worked, ahead of the first Democratic primary contest in Iowa in February.

The most noticeable callers were highly motivated young mothers, part of a huge wave of Hispanic voters, activists and volunteers inspired to get involved in politics for the first time by passion for their candidate.

That candidate was Bernie Sanders. Kennedy, a progressive activist and former Sanders operative, has switched to support Joe Biden, who will next week become the Democratic nominee for president, but worries whether Biden can win over valuable young progressives underwhelmed by his moderate politics.

“Bernie talked directly to people’s material needs,” said Kennedy. The clear populist promises of universal healthcare and cancelling student debt in particular caught fire, Kennedy said.

And expansive outreach and slogans like ‘¡Nuestro Futuro, Nuestra Lucha!’ — Our Future, Our Struggle – clicked with the cohort who nicknamed Sanders “Tío Bernie” (Uncle Bernie).

For the first time, Latinos are poised to be the nation’s largest non-white ethnic voting bloc in the 2020 election, with a large young cohort among the estimated 32 million eligible to vote – a record.

Democrats know that their support is crucial to winning the White House – and potentially both chambers of Congress – but concerns remain over whether Biden can not only persuade young progressives who were energized by Sanders, but mobilize Latinos in decisive numbers at a moment when the coronavirus and economic crises are disproportionately hurting communities of color.

“The Biden campaign must reach young people,” María Teresa Kumar, the president of Voto Latino, a political organization focused on voter engagement. “Because if you’re not reaching young people, you are not reaching the Latino community.”

A survey published last month by Voto Latino and pollster Latino Decisions found that only 60% of Latino voters in six battleground states say they definitely plan to vote, and fewer than half say they are “extremely motivated and enthusiastic” about doing so.

Though the poll was conducted before many of Trump’s recent comments on immigration and the coronavirus, it found enthusiasm for Biden waning, particularly among young Latinos. His support among Latino voters slipped to 60% from 67% in February. By comparison, 73% of Latino voters supported Hillary Clinton at this point in 2016.

“When I worked for Bernie, it wasn’t about electing one person. It was about a movement,” Belén Sisa, a former Sanders press secretary, said. “I don’t feel that from Joe Biden.”

Since the primary, Biden has appeared to move to the left on key policies important to young Latinos. He has embraced a $2tn climate plan, though not the Green New Deal, and pledged an ambitious overhaul of Trump’s immigration orders, and an economic agenda centered on racial equality.

“We’ve moved the needle a bit,” Sisa said.

But, like many progressives, she is frustrated by Biden’s reluctance to embrace Medicare for All, the universal healthcare policy that she says would reduce health disparities for Latinos, who are among the country’s most uninsured. And he has refused to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the agency carrying out hardline Trump anti-immigration policies at the US-Mexico border and in raids in US cities.

Sisa also said Sanders’ campaign invested more, much earlier, to cultivate Latino voters.

Chuck Rocha, the architect of Sanders’ ambitious Latino outreach strategy, is now applying some of the tactics used to win Hispanics voters in primary contests from Iowa to California, to help Biden beat Trump in November.

After Biden won the primary, Rocha founded Nuestro Pac, a Democratic Super Pac that will target Latino voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

“Part of our work is spreading the message that Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden agree 75% to 80% of the time,” Rocha said.

The Biden campaign recently made other high-profile hires including Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the granddaughter of civil rights hero Cesar Chavez, and Matt Barreto, the founder of Latino Decisions, a top Democratic polling firm. The campaign has also hired Republican strategist Ana Navarro.

Biden’s platform aimed at Hispanic voters – “Todos con Biden” – focuses on healthcare, education and reversing Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. Biden has promised to reinstate the Daca program of rights and protections for undocumented young people, and send a bill to Congress “on day one” that would create a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US.

He has also pledged a 100-day moratorium on deportations.

During the primary campaign, Biden was repeatedly confronted by immigration activists who demanded contrition for the more than 3 million deportations carried out while he was vice-president.

“You should vote for Trump,” Biden told one critic. Weeks later, he was obliged to apologize for the “pain” caused by the policies.

Earlier this week, prominent Latino politicians, activists and organizations applauded the selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate. Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, represents California, which has the largest population of Hispanic voters in the nation.

Domingo Garcia, president of Lulac, the oldest Hispanic organization in the US, said: “She [Harris] knows what Dreamers are facing, the impact Covid-19 is having on black and brown communities, and the contributions immigrants are making to the economy of the United States.”

More news, tweets, videos, etc in the comments. This serves as an open thread.