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Dear Progressive Reader,

It is now two weeks since the election was called for Joe Biden, but Donald Trump still refuses to accept the result. Yes, I know, I began last week’s newsletter with almost exactly the same sentence. I am reminded a little of the television show, now called Nightline, that originally began ([link removed][UNIQID]) in 1979 as THE IRAN CRISIS: America Held Hostage, and featured a daily count of how many days had passed since the hostage-taking.

America is, in many ways, currently being held hostage by Donald Trump. As Mark Fiore illustrates ([link removed][UNIQID]) this week, “we know he will push this to the absolute limit.” And Ruth Conniff points out ([link removed][UNIQID]) , “The odds of changing the outcome are looking pretty bad for Trump, to put it mildly.” As one attorney tells her, “They are just trying to delay the inevitable.” But, the hostage drama goes on, with a recount beginning in two Wisconsin counties, and numerous lawsuits still underway around the country. Thankfully, however, primatologist Ellisa Jacobs writes ([link removed][UNIQID]) in an op-ed, “On January 20, 2021, the country will officially have a new leader from whom we can expect more grooming and less poop flinging — a leadership style that is evolutionarily successful.”

Meanwhile, the Biden transition team, without support from the current administration, is working on plans and gathering information. At the same time, progressive groups around the country are marshaling forces to pressure the incoming Biden-Harris Administration on key issues. Jeff Abbott reports ([link removed][UNIQID]) this week on what people are saying in Central America about the possibilities for a change in foreign policy. Taylor Griggs looks at ([link removed][UNIQID]) the ways climate activists regard the President-elect. And David Rosen lays out ([link removed][UNIQID]) the hurdles Biden will face in trying to effectively bridge the digital divide.

The U.S. company Pfizer (with its German partner BioNTech) has applied to the FDA for authorization for its new COVID-19 vaccine. But, as Reese Erlich notes ([link removed][UNIQID]) , “less noticed by the U.S. government and major media, twelve other countries are also conducting large-scale tests, and six are already widely distributing their own vaccines.” The go-it-alone attitude of Trump’s America has actually hampered the global development and distribution of affordable vaccines. As Erlich explains, many questions remain: “Who will get the vaccines first and in what countries? Will countries use vaccine distribution as a political weapon to advance their geopolitical interests?” But one thing is sure, he continues, “The world doesn’t need the United States, or anyone else, acting like a medical bully.”

Truth has often been called ([link removed][UNIQID]) the “first casualty,” but the assault on truth during the past four years seems almost unprecedented, and certainly has been detrimental to our democratic system and our ability to cope with a global health crisis. As editor Bill Lueders writes ([link removed][UNIQID]) this week, “Our obligation as journalists . . . is to insist that truth is knowable, and deserves more fidelity than falsehoods.” Lueders, speaking to a group of international journalists, explained: “The ability of U.S. journalists to tell the truth has been substantially diminished by the widespread erosion of regard for truth itself.” He went on, “we face a common enemy: the preponderance of lies. We also share a common goal: to make truth matter.” This has certainly been the spirit of The Progressive magazine since its founding in 1909
([link removed][UNIQID]) as La Follette’s Weekly, where each issue bore on the cover the phrase, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S – Our new 2021 Hidden History of the United States calendar is now available for purchase through our website ([link removed][UNIQID]) . They make great gifts and hang well on walls and refrigerators.

P.P.S. – If you don’t already subscribe to The Progressive in print or digital form, please consider doing so today ([link removed][UNIQID]) . Also, if you have a friend or relative that you feel should hear from the many voices for progressive change with our pages, please consider giving a gift subscription ([link removed][UNIQID]) . And, if you know someone who you think would enjoy receiving this free weekly email newsletter, please share this link ([link removed][UNIQID]) with them to subscribe — [link removed][UNIQID] — it is free, and I enjoy writing it every Saturday morning.

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