Obviously it's impossible to be completely unbiased, but are there any ones that aren't so politically biased it's annoying?

Who will perform next year's Super Bowl 55 Halftime Show?

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It's sad to hear he dies, but it's happy to hear he's responsible for the death of Kim Jong Un. :)

2020 US Election

In the Republican Primary, Bill Weld was largely unsuccessful due to Trump’s overwhelming popularity among Republicans. He did end up sending some delegates to the national convention who were from Massachusetts, his home state, along with Rhode Island, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Utah, Vermont, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Washington, and Maine. Trump still won all states in the Republican Primary election, and was the Republican nominee for a second time, with Pence as the Vice Presidential nominee.

The Democratic Primary was tough. Mike Gravel was unable to make the debates, and decided to start a leftist think tank. His two campaign managers, David Oks and Henry Williams, eventually became staff writers, and later fellows, at this think tank, The Gravel Institute. Marianne Williamson also dropped out before there were any primaries or caucuses, along with John Delaney, John Hickenlooper, Michael Bennet, Tim Ryan, Steve Bullock, and Bill De Blasio.

Joe Biden kept dropping in the polls during the debates, and didn’t win the nomination. Bernie Sanders was the nominee, and Kamala Harris came in third, while Biden came in second, Elizabeth Warren came in fourth, Pete Buttigieg came in sixth, Julian Castro and Tulsi Gabbard were tied for seventh, and Cory Booker came in last place with only 4 delegates to the national convention. Joe Biden’s political career was officially over. Bernie Sanders had to make an important decision about his Vice Presidential nominee. There was immense pressure from the public and the party for him to nominate a woman, so he finally decided to nominate Barbara Lee as his running mate. Barbara Lee was the most progressive member of Congress, and due to her background as a Black woman, the Democratic Party and the Sanders campaign committee decided that she would be a good running mate in order for Sanders to win the support of progressives and Black voters, along with women. There was also another good reason for Barbara Lee to be the Vice Presidential nominee. She coined the term “woke”. This was helpful for winning young voters, with whom Sanders also had a lot of clout.

The General Election was between Trump and Sanders, with Pence as Trump’s running mate, and Lee as Sanders’ running mate. In the debates, there was this idea that the United States was having a populist takeover, but populism was different on both sides. Trump’s populism was focused on nationalism and targeting immigrants as the enemies. Sanders decided to not focus on racial division and chauvinism, but to unite the working class against the ruling class. Many billionaires were afraid that they would lose their place in society, so they started to support Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, for President. Howard Schultz’s campaign was very unsuccessful, though. He was viewed as a joke by the majority of people, and he only received 1.5% of the vote.

In the end, Sanders defeated Trump in a landslide with over 300 electoral votes. He was the nation’s first Jewish president, although he did not actively practice Judaism in an organized manner. He still had to face anti-semitism from both Democrats and Republicans. In his first run for President in 2016, Clinton fans at the convention sold shirts depicting Bernie Sanders as having a “big nose”, which is a typical anti-Semitic stereotype. Similar shirts with anti-Semitic depictions of Sanders were sold online in 2020 by Democrats who opposed him, prior to being removed by E-Bay, Amazon, Etsy, and other online retailers. He was accused of being grumpy and angry, which many people described as anti-Semitic and classist, due to his linguistic style being typical of working-class Jews in Brooklyn, which was his demographic when he was growing up. Trump, who had come under fire for repeated counts of bigotry and referring to Nazis as “very fine people”, made some anti-Semitic remarks at a rally about Sanders supposedly not letting people eat bacon, which stems from a kosher diet prohibiting bacon. Trump proceeded to say “I was saying that Sanders is a socialist. Socialists want to control what you do, what you eat.” Regardless, his statement was not taken lightly. One unlikely supporter of Trump was the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. Jewish-American comedian Matt Leib had earlier criticized Netanyahu for wanting the world to stand against anti-semitism while remaining silent when Netanyahu’s friend Trump praised Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. In a Newsbroke video, he said “Oh, so you’re going to tell people to not criticize Israel, because that’s supposedly ‘anti-Semitic’, but when American Jews are being thereatened by violent extremists and your buddy is praising them, you turn your back on us? Netanyahu is a classic f—-boy!” Lieb recalled his earlier statement in the wake of Trump’s anti-Semitic comment, and he said “This is still relevant today. Netanyahu doesn’t care about us Jews. He only cares about his own interests, and if Trump will support his occupation of Palestine, he doesn’t care about anything anti-Semitic coming from Trump.”

Sanders was known to attract the support of many celebrities, including Lauren Jauregui of the defunct girl group Fifth Harmony, Cardi B, Killer Mike, Swae Lee, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Khalid, Trevor Noah, Jennifer Lawrence, and many others. At his inauguration, Lauren Jauregui and Khalid sang The Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful, respectively. Kendrick Lamar sang How Much a Dollar Cost at the pre-inaugural concert, and Khalid sang American Teen.

The Congressional Races of 2020

Many progressives across the country were elected to Congress, and the majority of them were running on the basis of supporting Medicare-for-All and rejecting corporate and PAC money. Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, lost her seat in Congress to a primary challenger, Shahid Buttar. Steny Hoyer, House Democratic Leader, also lost his seat to a primary challenger, McKayla Wilkes. Jessica Cisneros unseated Henry Cuellar in a Democratic primary, along with Joshua Collins unseating Dennis Heck, and many others. They were all members of the Justice Democrats, which was a left-wing caucus within the Democratic Party that was populist and sought to unseat the corporate-backed members of Congress. The days following the election, the stocks of private prison companies, oil companies, defense contractors, health insurance companies, student loan providers, and pharmaceutical companies suffered some of their worst days.

The First 100 Days of Sanders as President

Sanders’ chief of staff was Nina Turner, his former campaign co-chair. She was known to be very organized and ambitious.

In the first week, Sanders re-instated Deffered Actions for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and extended the protections to people who arrived in the United States after they were 16, but before they were 18, along with those who arrived after the original DACA executive order was signed by Obama. Within the next week, he signed an order that protected parents of DACA-protected immigrants. Another executive order was signed to decriminalize unauthorized border crossings, and another one to release people being held in immigrant detention who had not committed any violent crimes. With both the Senate and the House being controlled by Democrats, it was easy for The new DREAM Act to pass, and subsequently legislation that declared official amnesty and a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants who had not committed any felonies or violent crimes. Both of the bills were signed into law by Sanders, with many members of the immigrant and undocumented community attending the official signing. His approval rating among young people skyrocketed, along with his approval rating among people of color, while he lost approval from older white people.

He also signed an executive order that released all non-violent drug offenders from federal prison and allowed cannabis dispensaries in states where cannabis was legal to use banks and credit unions, while the Attorney General Zephyr Teachout also made a decision that the Justice Department would not prosecute non-violent drug offenders. Legislation was soon passed that legalized, taxed, and regulated cannabis, along with legislation that decriminalized use, possession, and small-scale sale of other drugs. These bills were signed into law by Sanders. Using interstate commerce, including interstate trucks, trains, postal services, rivers, and airplanes to transport drugs not yet fully legalized remained illegal, but it was prosecuted as a misdemeanor, rather than a felony. People who transported small amounts of illegal drugs were prosecuted in civil courts, though. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Matt Gaetz authored a bipartisan bill that funded medical research for psychedelics, which was signed into law. This marked an end to the long drug war, and the legislation legalizing cannabis required that revenue earned from cannabis taxes be directed to communities hurt by the drug war, particularly communities of color and low-income communities, as a form of reparations.

The FOSTA-SESTA bill that criminalized using the internet to advertise and solicit sex work was repealed within the first 100 days of Sanders’ presidency.

Sanders also talked to Mexican President Lopez Obrador on the phone about removing US Department of Homeland Security agents from Mexico and allowing the refugee caravans from Central America to resume, as the Mexican President originally wanted, but was forced to not do, due to Trump’s policy of “zero-tolerance” regarding unauthorized border crossings. Sanders was able to remove all DHS officials from Southern Mexico, and he signed legislation that restored aid to Central America and Southern Mexico.

Sanders also stopped the the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia and other authoritarian regimes. He removed most troops from the Middle East, and he prioritized using diplomats and development workers to revitalize the war-torn areas of the region and bring lasting peace.

He was a fierce advocate for workers all over the world, and he started the renegotiation process for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the USMCA, and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China. His main focus was that trade deals should not be for the benefit of multinational corporations, but for the benefit of workers, human rights, and the environment.

He also started the process of re-implementing the Iran Nuclear Non-Proliferation Deal. He met with the Iranian leader at the United Nations to agree to re-implementing the old deal. They agreed, and the rest of the world did, too. Tension with Iran was finally over, and the Iranian people were moving toward democracy on their own, without the US sponsoring another dictatorship.

Sanders stressed that warantless surveillance was illegal and unconstitutional, which led him to order all warantless surveillance by the FBI, the CIA, DHS, and the NSA to come to an end. He also pardoned Edward Snowden and allowed him to return to the US without punishment, even calling him a hero in the fight for the 4th amendment. He also pardoned Chelsea Manning, before pardoning Julian Assange, but Assange was still extradited to Sweden to face trial for his original rape charge in Sweden.

Another foreign policy triumph was Sanders lifting the sanctions against Venezuela.

Relations with Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela

Sanders was able to work with Iran in order to allow Iran to have an embassy in Washington, D.C., and for the US to have an embassy in Tehran. He signed a treaty with North Korea that required for North Korea to stop acquiring any nuclear missiles or nuclear missile technology, and in exchange, the US would lift sanctions against North Korea. This led to North Korea opening themselves to the rest of the world and being more open to human rights. Diplomatic relations with Venezuela were also restored within the first year of Sanders’ presidency. US and South Korean diplomats frequently met with North Korean diplomats at the DMZ to have meetings about formally ending the war between the two Korean nations, setting up border entry points on the border, and establishing diplomatic relations. They agreed to establish such relations, and set up at least one border entry point by 2026. They also signed a treaty that formally ended the war.

Relations with Israel and Palestine

Sanders was America’s first Jewish President, but he also believed that Israel was abusing its power. He initially cut aid to Israel, and he was able to bring the two sides together to bring peace to the region. His interesting perspective as both an advocate for Palestinians and a Jew allowed him to easily mediate the conflict, since he had equal support from both sides of the conflict. Israel pulled its troops out of the West Bank, ended its siege of Gaza, and removed its presence from the Golan Heights. A Palestinian state that included the territory of Gaza and the former West Bank was established, and Israel was able to soon restore relations with its Arab neighbors.

Environment

Sanders signed the “Green New Deal” into law in his first year, which was written by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey. It laid a foundation for bringing the US to zero net carbon emissions by 2030, getting the US to stop using coal by 2029, and bringing the use of all other fossil fuels down to zero by 2034. It brought millions of jobs to distressed communities, including jobs in geothermal power plants where coal mines were ending operations, jobs in the wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal energy industries to the former offshore and on-land oil fields of Texas, geothermal power plants, wind power plants, and hydroelectric dams in Alaska, and many corresponding examples of renewable energy production.

The crude oil export ban that was lifted in 2015 was also re-instated in 2023. When more progressives were elected to Congress in 2022, Congressman Joshua Collins of Washington introduces a bill that nationalized all energy production, and allowed the US to export more green energy, from which the profits were used to fund social security, healthcare, education, and other public services, similar to the oil pension fund in Norway. Norwegian politicians praised Sanders and Collins for such legislation, and said that they should expect great profits and benefits for the people of their country. All commercial energy production was nationalized by 2025.

Education

Sanders was a champion of affordable education, and he was able to work with Congress to pass a bill that cancelled all student debt, made all public colleges and universities tuition-free for bachelor’s degrees, associate’s degrees, and undergraduate and technical certificates. He also worked with Joshua Collins to fully fund education so that teachers were paid decent salaries, medical school tuition decreased and more medical colleges opened, students could begin taking college or trade school classes at 16 within their high school and graduate with a professional or technical certification that could allow them to start at an entry-level job or apprenticeship after graduating high school. Many students were able to become certified plumbers, electricians, carpenters, welders, computer technicians and programmers, nursing assistants, phlebotomists, medical assistants, emergency medics, and other occupations when they graduated high school.

Healthcare

Sanders worked with Pramila Jayapal in passing a bill in his first year that transitioned the US to single-payer healthcare under the name of “Medicare-for-All”. For the first time in US history, everyone had affordable healthcare that was universally in-network. It had a 4-year phase-in period that first covered all veterans and children within the first 2 years, before proceeding to cover all people for medical care within the third year, and covering all dental and vision care on top medical care within the fourth year. It was very popular, and despite Republicans trying to repeal it, it succeeded. Republicans eventually had to accept that single-payer was there to stay. Sanders was applauded by Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the UK Labour Party, for his courage to bring universal healthcare to all Americans, just like the British did in the previous century with the National Health Service.

International Trade

Sanders re-negotiated trade deals, such as Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China, US Mexico Canada Agreement, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership to consider workers, human rights, and the environment. Some noticed that he had a skeptical view of free trade deals like Trump, but he differentiated himself from Trump by considering workers all over the world, along with the global environment and human rights. He traveled to meet with workers and activists in China, Mexico, Canada, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, The Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Workers all over the world were finally being paid a living wage, receiving benefits, and having a sense of security. He also met with banana farmers in Central America to support them in their efforts to control their own production and reap the profits, rather than Chiquita and Dole reaping the profits from exploitation. He told Chiquita and Dole in a press conference to “stop exploiting the people who produce your products, and to quit your neocolonialism!” The stocks of Dole and Chiquita dropped significantly after he said that, and with help from Sanders, the local banana farmers were able to unionize and control their production without Chiquita and Dole exploiting them. Chiquita and Dole were losing revenue, and the local farmer-owned banana companies were now the main producers of bananas. Sanders was considered a “people’s leader” who stood against injustice all over the world.

Military

Sanders was able to bring the troops home from the Middle East and put them in new civilian jobs re-building communities across the country, from transportation infrastructure to energy infrastructure, to medical and scientific research, to delivering healthcare.

He championed decolonization, and he also decided to put money into local communities abroad that were hurt by US imperialism. He adopted the Gravel Doctrine, which was the philosophy of Mike Gravel, that the US should not be invading other countries and colonizing the world. He also closed many military bases around the world and decreased military spending. Some thought that this would lead to China “filling the vacuum” by taking the new place as the superpower, but China actually felt less of a need to invade other countries when the US wasn’t there to compete. Instead, China began to focus more on its own borders and develop their country into a more modern and wealthy country that could provide for all its citizens, which led to China becoming more democratic.

The US remained away from war during Sanders’ presidency.

Equal Rights Amendment

The equal rights amendment was finally ratified in 2023, which was a victory for equal rights in the US. Anti-discrimination laws were extended to protections for gender identity, sex, and sexual orientation.

Schumer Defeated

Chuck Schumer was defeated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the New York United States Senate Democratic primary in 2022. This marked the end of the elitist old guard of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party was finally a party that wasn’t bought by corporations.

Sanders’ last year

Sanders did not seek re-election, due to his age. He was 83. Instead, he decided to support a progressive successor who would continue his progress. He ultimately endorsed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for President in 2024, even before she was nominated.

AOC vs. The Old Guard

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, affectionately known as her intials, AOC, sought election in 2024, meaning that she would be the first female President, first female president of color, and the youngest President, if elected. The election took place in November of 2024, less than a month after she turned 35, the minimum age to be eligible for the Presidency. Bernie Sanders decided not to seek re-election. This time, like she always did, she was running against another old dog of the old guard, Sherrod Brown. However, she worked hard, as she always did, and she became the nominee. She was noted for her fashion sense. Many fashion enthusiasts praised her for wearing bright colored pantsuits and dresses, bright-red lipstick, and hoop earrings, along with her iconic Apple Watch. At political rallies, she spoke with passion and energy. She was loved for her youthfulness and her positive view of how the country could move forward. She chose Ro Khanna as her running mate, the first member of Congress to join Justice Democrats, the grassroots political orgsnization that recruited her to run for Congress. Ro Khanna was the first Asian-American to run for Vice President.

Trump 2.0 vs. Old Guard

Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr. decided to run for President in order to revive the “Trump affect” among conservative, white, Middle and Suburban America. He was up against Charlie Baker this time, a former governor of Massachusetts who was noted for being a moderate Republican. However, the Republican Party was becoming more conservative, and nobody liked moderates anymore. Donald Trump, Jr. ultimately ended up getting the nomination. Charlie Baker decided to run as an independent after losing the nomination, and he left the Republican Party. Trump Jr. chose Matt Gaetz to be his running mate, whom AOC had worked with on three different pieces of legislation that legalized cannabis, funded medical research for psyschedelics, and legalized psychedelics, respectively. Matt Gaetz once said “I actually think AOC is really cool. She’s young and full of energy. She has a base, even though she doesn’t have a lot of power within her party. I want to be the conservative AOC.”

AOC vs. Trump Jr.

AOC was running against Donald Trump Jr., which reminded many people of the time that Donald Trump Sr. defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Democrats were worried that a woman running against a man with an ego and a large base would lose, but AOC had weapons up her sleave that Hillary Clinton didn’t have- charisma, energy, a populist appeal, and a very strong grassroots base. She had a national fan base since she was elected to Congress in 2018, so she was definitely in the fast-lane to run for President. She ended up defeating Trump Jr. in a landslide victory of 310 electoral votes.