Tidbits - December 7, 2017 - Reader Comments: Jerusalem Catastrophe - Jewish Opposition; GOP Tax Plan-Tread Softly Congress; Portside's Annual Fund Appeal; Vietnam War; ;Poor People's Campaign; Socialist Upsurge; and more....

Reader Comments: Jerusalem Catastrophe - Jewish Voice for Peace; IfNotNow; New Israel Fund; GOP Tax Plan Biggest Increase in American History; Portside's Annual Fund Appeal; Flynn's Guilty Plea...and Trump; Honduras; California Built on Genocide; Resources - 50 years since 1968 and Vietnam War; Announcements - Poor People's Campaign; The Socialist Upsurge in the US

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Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources and Announcements - December 7, 2017,Portside

Resources:

Announcements:

President Trump just declared that the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and will move forward with plans to move the U.S. embassy there.
I have faith that one day, we’ll be strong enough to bend U.S. foreign policy toward justice— but this is really going to test it.
Because this is a reckless, deeply irresponsible decision: for Palestinians, Israelis, and all of us. And it's on us to stand up.
In addition to the dangers this move poses for the region and geopolitical stability, it’s just flat out wrong. What we need is a U.S. policy that recognizes and addresses the root causes of the ongoing crisis in Israel/Palestine, not one that drastically inflames already existing inequities. Because what’s happening today is an expression of these larger truths:
  • That throughout the last 50 years of occupation, successive Israeli governments have stripped Palestinian Jerusalemites of residency rights, citizenship, and access to any type of democratic government. Just in 2016, Israeli authorities demolished or seized 1,093 Palestinian-owned structures1 in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and 2017 is on track to exceed that number.
  • That even for the state of Israel to be created in the first place, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were violently expelled from their homes.
  • And that for decades, the U.S. has been a one-sided champion for the Israeli government, never an impartial, honest, or productive peace broker.
Trump’s announcement today is especially an example of that final truth. It is a cynical— and ill-advised— chess move, one that overtly aligns the U.S. with an increasingly expansionist Israel, at the expense of Palestinian people’s lives and rights, and without any regard for diplomacy.
I don’t want to sound alarmist, but I’m alarmed.
No country in the world has an embassy in Jerusalem today, because the international community doesn’t recognize Israeli jurisdiction over the city. And there’s near-global consensus that moving the Embassy is a very bad idea — from Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and other countries in the region, and from Germany, France, and the European Union, not to mention many senior U.S. State Department officials.
There’s a reason the status of Jerusalem hasn’t been determined yet— it’s at the core of the struggle against permanent Israeli domination and Palestinian dispossession. 
But the truth is, most Americans don’t have the same sinking feeling in their stomach today that I do, because so many people either don’t know this is happening, or aren’t involved in the conversation about why it matters so much. And we have to take the initiative and start conversations not just about what happened today, but what’s been happening for the last 70 years, and more.
This isn’t really about moving a building. It’s about U.S. policy moving from bad to worse. But Palestinians have been fighting for equality and justice for 70 years and longer without giving up, and we’re not going to give up now either.
Onward,
Rabbi Alissa Wise
Deputy Director,
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IfNotNow is mobilizing across the country to respond to this dangerous announcement that immediately puts Israeli and Palestinian lives in danger, not to mention further entrenches Israel's 50 year-long military occupation.  
And more coming.
We are also circulating this call-to-action for the Jewish community (where the establishment is already coming out in favor of this action -- ADL and AIPAC) >> American Jews Say No to Trump’s Embassy Move: We need a #Jerusalem4All.  
Any help you could provide in circulating Facebook events and our call-to-action would be appreciated! 
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Today, in response to reports that President Donald Trump will begin the process to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem, Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund, released the following statement:
"Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem at this time is a symbolic move that helps no one except hardliners. It would be a dangerous, reckless, and irresponsible move by a dangerous, reckless, and irresponsible American president, and Palestinians and Israelis will be the ones to pay the price.
"We, along with Israeli custom and law relate to Jerusalem as Israel's capital – but international recognition of Jerusalem’s status has always hinged on a successful resolution to the conflict, as part of a negotiated, final status peace agreement. Doing so outside of that context severely damages prospects for a negotiated peace agreement. 
"President Trump may not understand what's at stake here, but we do. Moving the embassy risks igniting the tinderbox of anger, frustration, and hopelessness that already exists in Jerusalem. Fifty years of occupation, a string of failed peace negotiations since Oslo, and no resolution in sight has created a delicate balance for people on-the-ground and throwing that balance off with this unilateral gesture could have grave consequences.
"As NIF president Talia Sasson wrote earlier this year, "If the United States is not prepared to condemn the continued Israeli construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which with every passing day further repels peace from our region, the least it can do is prevent the tragic conflagration that would consume our region with the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem."
Trump wants to screw your grandmother.
If she spends most of her income on healthcare
your grandmother is going to be screwed
because her income will be cut by some thirty percent.
She is going to lose her house.
Trump is going to screw her.
Not alone.
It will be a gang rape.
Fifty Republican senators
         have lined up to screw your grandmother.
Carolyn Scarr
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Robbers!
Mary Cantoral
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Unbelievable...such a rush to get it passed with no regard to what it does to people they are supposed to represent.
Terry Stinson
The GOP-controlled Congress is so desperate for a "win" that they are willing to pass a horrible tax plan that balloons the deficit and hurts the middle class and the poor. I'm sorry, but that doesn't count as a win.

Rob Rogers
December 3, 2017
Like the Paris agreement, the rest of the intelligent people of world will have to carry on without the GOPs corporate whores in congress.
Jack Crabtree
Many thanks to Portside's dedicated readers who have contributed already about ten percent of the total that we raised last year - and this is based on a brief announcement, like this one, that appeared in Tidbits on Thanksgiving. A huge Portside thank you to those that have already responded.
Information is power. Our mission at Portside is to seek out and to provide information that empowers you -- that empowers the left. Every day we search hundreds of sources to connect you with the most interesting, striking and useful material. Just once a year we appeal to you to contribute to make it possible to continue this work. Please help.

The first charge was that Israel asked Trump for help in opposing Obama's plan to abstain on an anti-Israel vote in the UN.  And Russia turned him down.
The other charge was that Trump asked Russia to only reciprocate against Obama's shutting down of some Russian properties in the US. Russia didn't reciprocate at all until Trump imposed additional sanctions.
So the only "foreign power" asking Trump for help was Israel--not Russia.
Mike Munk
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Trump, we the people are going to FRY YOUR ASS a level of humiliacion HISTORICAL
A great moment for the people WE ARE GOING TO FRY YOUR ASS
Trump
And your stupid greedy point of view
Thomas Baker
This is example of "interference" by USA in life of another country! How much of our tax money is funding this atrocity and police violence/repression?
Leanna Noble
The Organization of American States refuses to recognize the wildly manipulated "results" of the election in Honduras. The rich and the right, coup-installed with the assistance of Mr. Obama and Ms. Clinton, claims to have re-elected itself. The people voted against the government's "austerity" program. Thanks to Sarah Kinosian for this report and to Portside for the link. 
Daniel Millstone
How do I purchase this book?
Thank you, 
Gil Sanchez
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Moderator's Note:
The book, An American Genocide, by Benjamin Madley, can be ordered from Truthout by clicking here. 
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This is a brilliant book that is well written and pulls a lot of material together, but isn't really news except for some of the details--I've been teaching about the California genocide in my American Indian History and US History survey classes since I started teaching them in the 1970s, and it was old news then.
Stan Nadel
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California? Try all of the Americas. Estimated 100 million killed. Makes HItler look like an amateur. 
Bruce Walker
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utopian thinking. If you could deal with racism first, then economics... racism would have been eliminated under capitalism. "You can't have capitalism without racism." -- Malcolm X.
Jeff Booth
I once heard someone quote a scientist declining to explain something to them with "You haven't the math."  I thought that was an admission that "I haven't the vocabulary and imagination."
Joe Maizlish, 
Los Angeles
Firstly, I want to thank you for compiling so much great information and links on your website portside.org. I found it very useful and helpful for my research purposes. However, I just stumbled across a broken link labeled Immigrant Legal Resource Center. If you are still updating the site I wanted to suggest an additional resource. The site is:
Hope your future visitors benefit out of it as much as I did. Thank you for your time and take care.
Thanks,
Jennifer G.
Library Services

Author Mark Torres and Editor Tim Sheard have partnered to send 200 bilingual children's books to the Puerto Rico Teachers Federation (FMPR). Because the schools there lost so many of their books, we have taken profits from sales of Mark's sweet Christmas story, Good Guy Jake and used it to print and ship a selection of 7 English-Spanish language children's books, all with social justice themes.
A little bit of the Christmas spirit for the children in Puerto Rico...

The union fights to reinstate a sanitation worker fired for taking toys from the trash he repaired and gave to children in a local shelter for Christmas.
 
415 Argyle Rd., 6A
Brooklyn, NY 11218

Below is a link to the Full Disclosure 2018 Full Disclosure 1968 Commemorative Calendar for your downloading edification and pleasure. It is a 2018 calendar with appropriate holidays listed (in italics), but the entries commemorate 50 years ago. 1968 was a decisive and brutal year in the American war in Vietnam and we thought it was both appropriate and important to remind people of the events of that year, especially in these dangerous times.   We focus on events related to the war—they are in bold—but also include other items, global and domestic, from that year.
If you value the calendar, please press the Donate button (here), contribute $5 or more to the work of the Full Disclosure Campaign for an Honest Commemoration of the American war in Vietnam. We have been campaigning for the last 5 years—since the Pentagon declared its own self-serving commemoration—not only for a real reckoning with that terrible war, but to elaborate the lessons that should have been learned and apply them to today. Thank you in advance for your consideration.
I am a documentary film maker, based in France. With agence Im media in Paris, I have directed several films about racial and social issues in Europe.
With Partho Bhattacharya, also Bengali by origin, we have completed a documentary called " Bengal Shadows".  This  48 mn film is about the 1943 Bengal famine in India where 3 to 5 millions people died by starvation in West Bengal and today's Bangladesh. The responsibility of the British government led by Churchill is clearly established in this film.
The film has already been presented in a number of places in France, including Inalco and SCAM (Société civile des auteurs multimedia). In London,  it has been shown at SOAS on 27 th November.
As Bengal Shadows concerns all the communities witch have suffered from British colonialism, and beyond all activist groups,  we thought that you might be interested in the film and may be by spreading the word.
We produced this film on our own funds, without any grant or  subsidy. So all kind of support would be appreciated. And further screenings would be welcome. Could you give assistance in this matter?
If your are interested in organizing screenings followed by a panel discussion or a Q&A session , in London, the UK or elsewhere, please get in touch for further details.
Best
Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Historic Announcement on Dec. 4th, 2017
On December 4, 2017—the fiftieth anniversary of the announcement of the 1967/68 Poor People’s Campaign—a growing and diverse leadership will come together in Washington, D.C. to officially announce the launch of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. 
Together, we are responding to these times of profound crisis by building a nationwide, multi-racial campaign to call the nation to take dramatic steps to address the evils of system racism, poverty, the war economy and ecological devastation. We are mobilizing toward 40 days of massive, coordinated, nonviolent direct action across the country this spring. (Pledge to join the Campaign here!)
We will hold a press conference at 10:00 AM ET in Washington, D.C. to officially announce the launch of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. At 7:00 PM ET we will hold a concert and celebration. You can watch both online at www.breachrepairers.org/livestream.
Listen here. Testifier Video - Poor People's Campaign Hearing for the Souls of Poor Folk Moral Audit
Clinton Wright 
pronouns: he/him/his
National Social Justice Organizer 
phone: (740) 412-6147 -- email: cwright@breachrepairers.org
CCDS Socialist Education Project national conference call and discussion
December 18, 9 pm ET, 8pm CT, 7pm. MT, 6pm PT
Socialism is more and more popular in recent years, especially among youth.  The Sanders 2016 campaign was the best showing ever in presidential primaries by a democratic socialist in a major US political party.  Membership has surged in socialist groups, especially Democratic Socialists of America whose 30,000 members is the most of a US socialist organization since World War II.  Have we reached a historic turning point in opposition to capitalism and moving to create a better world?
These topics will be addressed by two prominent speakers:
Retired Brown University professor Paul Buhle will place the recent upsurge in historical context.  Paul is the author of the highly regarded book Marxism in the United States: a History of the American Left.  
Joseph Schwartz, longtime member of the DSA national political committee, will address the prospects of DSA and its democratic socialist program in the coming period.  Joe is Professor of Political Science at Temple U and author of The Future of Democratic Equality and also The Permanence of the Political.
Discussion will follow
To join call:
Dial-in Number:(641) 715-0867
Participant Code:  710640

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