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Joe Biden

Biden’s Legacy: Genocide Abroad, Economic Despair At Home

46th US President Joe Biden officially leaves office Monday, January 20, to be succeeded by former President Donald Trump. Trump’s promises in the name of “saving American workers” have raised alarm for people across sectors of society, including migrant workers who are gearing up for mass deportations, and unionized workers who are preparing for Trump’s attacks on labor rights. Trump’s loyalty to multi-billionaires has also given the working class of the US great cause for concern. Meanwhile, in contrast, the Democrats have attempted to position themselves as the real defenders of working people.

Joe Biden Grants Clemency To Leonard Peltier

With literally minutes left in his presidency, Joe Biden on Monday granted clemency to Leonard Peltier, the ailing Native American rights activist whom the U.S. government put in prison nearly 50 years ago after a trial riddled with misconduct and lies. In a statement as President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration was underway, Biden announced he is “commuting the life sentence imposed on Leonard Peltier so that he serves the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.” Shortly afterward, Peltier said he’s ready to get back to his family. “It’s finally over – I’m going home.” he said in a statement. “I want to show the world I’m a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me.”

Joe Biden’s Terrible Legacy

On January 20, 2025, Joseph R. Biden will no longer be president of the United States. Unlike other one term presidents he was not defeated in a re-election effort. He was undone by the same wealthy donors who rigged the process to make him the Democratic Party’s nominee in 2020. Biden was already not up to the task of running in 2020 but his obvious state of debility had noticeably worsened by 2024. He could no longer rely on claims that he only had a stutter when there were so many strange outbursts, verbal miscues, handshakes with invisible people, and wandering off as a toddler would do.

The Ceasefire Charade

Israel, going back decades, has played a duplicitous game. It signs a deal with the Palestinians that is to be implemented in phases. The first phase gives Israel what it wants — in this case the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza — but Israel habitually fails to implement subsequent phases that would lead to a just and equitable peace. It eventually provokes the Palestinians with indiscriminate armed assaults to retaliate, defines a Palestinian response as a provocation and abrogates the ceasefire deal to reignite the slaughter. If this latest three-phase ceasefire deal is ratified — and there is no certainty that it will be by Israel — it will, I expect, be little more than a presidential inauguration bombing pause.

Biden’s Legacy: Fundamentally Changing Nothing For Whistleblowers

When Joe Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama, he was part of an administration that waged an unprecedented war on leaks. President Biden may not have been as zealous as Obama, however, he periodically harnessed the very machinery that Obama and President Donald Trump wielded to enforce secrecy and silence whistleblowers. With the Espionage Act, the Obama Justice Department prosecuted more United States government employees and contractors who disclosed information to the press than all previous presidents combined.

Biden Removes Cuba From List Of State Sponsors Of Terrorism

United States President Biden has announced that he will remove Cuba from the US’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in his final days as President, reversing Donald Trump’s addition of Cuba to the list in 2021. The Biden administration said on Tuesday, January 14, that this move is meant to facilitate the release of individuals detained in Cuba. “I transmit herewith a report to the Congress with respect to the proposed recission of Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism,” Biden announced. Countries are added to the US’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list by the State Department that have allegedly “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism”.

After 23 Years, Prisoners Remain In Guantanamo Without Charges

January 11 marked the twenty-third anniversary of the opening of the US military prison on occupied land in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Clearing the FOG speaks with Andy Worthington, an investigative journalist and author of The Guantanamo Files. Worthington explains that the United States opened the prison in Guantanamo to avoid legal restrictions. He describes the connections between Guantanamo and the CIA 'black sites' where prisoners were tortured and who the men are that were recently released as well as who remains. There are calls for Joe Biden to release all of the men and end the scandal of the prison at Guantanamo Bay before he leaves office.

Biden To Keep Terrorist Designation On ‘Rebels’ Controlling Syria

Outgoing US President Joe Biden will not lift the terrorist designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) US officials revealed on 8 January, leaving the decision to the government of President-elect Donald Trump. Senior officials who spoke with the Washington Post said HTS “must demonstrate they have made a clean break with extremist groups, in particular Al-Qaeda before the label can be lifted.” “Actions will speak louder than words,” an unnamed official told the US daily. According to the reports, Washington has “lingering concerns” after Syria's de facto new ruler Ahmad al-Sharaa – the former deputy commander of ISIS and founder of Al-Qaeda in Syria – green-lighted the promotion of foreign extremists to the ranks of officers in the newly formed armed forces.

Blinken’s Disturbing Exit Interview

Biden’s time in office is coming to an end, but not before a parting gift for Israel. The State Department recently announced that it would notify Congress about another massive arms deal, this one worth $8 billion. It includes medium-range air-to-air missiles, Hellfire missiles, 500-pound bombs, and more. The announcement comes amid a deluge of dire news out of Gaza. Flood. Famine. Extreme cold. Israel killed more than 234 Palestinians during the first 4 days of 2025. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International recently published reports saying Israel is committing genocide.

Biden’s Offshore Drilling ‘Ban’ Won’t Protect Gulf of Mexico

Democrats in Congress cheered as President Joe Biden moved on January 6 to withdraw 625 million acres federal ocean waters off United States coastlines from consideration for future offshore oil and gas drilling. Democratic lawmakers say the waters are “permanently” protected, although Republicans could use their majority in Congress to force the government to lease underwater drilling rights to the industry. However, Biden’s last-minute effort to secure his climate legacy before Donald Trump takes office does nothing to prevent offshore drilling in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, where intense fossil fuel exploitation already causes pollution and oil spills as climate change brings intensifying floods and storms to coastal communities.

Genocide: The New Normal

Joe Biden’s parting gift of $8 billion in weapons sales to the apartheid state of Israel acknowledges the gruesome reality of the genocide in Gaza. This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. This is a permanent, endless war designed not to destroy Hamas, or free Israeli hostages, but to eradicate, once and for all, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. It is the final push to create a Greater Israel, which will include not only Gaza and the West Bank, but chunks of Lebanon and Syria. It is the culmination of the Zionist dream. And it will be paid for with rivers of blood — Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian.

From Genocide Joe To Trump’s Israel First: What’s Next For Palestine?

As President Biden greenlights another $8 billion in weapons to Israel in his last days in office and Secretary Blinken gives a parting New York Times interview in which he denies that a genocide is taking place in Gaza, many pro-Palestine activists are anxiously counting down the days until “Genocide Joe” and his crew exit the White House. But what will activists have to contend with under the Trump presidency? Donald Trump proved his pro-Israel agenda in his first term by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, supporting West Bank settlements, recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel, pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and enacting the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between Israel and Arab states, while disregarding the plight of Palestinians.

Biden’s Record And What That Means For The Next Administration

As the Biden presidency comes to a close, Clearing the FOG speaks with author and journalist Kevin Gosztola about his current series on Biden's legacy. Gosztola reports in The Dissenter on Biden's failure to fulfill his campaign promises when it comes to government transparency, accountability and press freedom, as well as how these have eroded through successive presidencies this century. Gosztola describes how it has become more difficult to access information about what the government is doing and the abuse of the state secrets privilege to hide crimes being committed by entities such as the CIA. He also discusses what we can expect from the incoming Trump administration.

Seven Lessons From South Africa’s Genocide Convention Case

On December 29, 2023, South Africa invoked the Genocide Convention against Israel at the International Court of Justice. To some people, this came out of the blue. Some are aware there was a concerted effort to that end through the fall of 2023 which involved myself and others. Few are aware that the story goes back further. And tragically few are aware that there are clear steps that can be taken now to give it force which the US government has insidiously undermined. In 2000, Prof. Francis Boyle published the piece “Palestine Should Sue Israel for Genocide before the International Court of Justice.” Boyle reiterated such calls periodically, particularly when Israel would decimate Gaza.

Native Vote Calls On Biden To Remove Medals Given To Calvary Members Of Massacre At Wounded Knee

In a letter addressed to President Joe Biden, dated just two days before the 134th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre, Four Directions Native Vote called on the president to rescind the Medals of Honor awarded to members of the U.S. 7th Cavalry involved in the massacre. The letter, co-authored by Oliver and Barbra Semans, revisits the tragic events of December 29, 1890, when Chief Spotted Elk (also known as Chief Big Foot) and more than 300 unarmed Lakota men, women, and children were brutally killed at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.