Portside

REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons

SUNDAY

Quote of the Day

December 22, 2013

'Families and houses go together. It is very difficult

for a family to make it without living in a house.

'In these days of Christmas, I invite all - every

person, every social organization, the authorities - to

do everything possible to ensure that every family

can have a home.'

Pope Francis

Reuters

December 22, 2013

 

Toon of the Day

Wish List

Milt Priggee

 

MONDAY

Quote of the Day

'In his speech on inequality earlier this month

President Obama proclaimed that the government

could not be a bystander in the effort to reduce

inequality, which he described as the defining moral

issue of our time. This left millions convinced that

Obama would do nothing to lessen inequality.

'The problem is that President Obama wants the

public to believe that inequality is something that

just happened. It turns out that the forces of

technology, globalization, and whatever else simply

made some people very rich and left others working

for low wages or out of work altogether. The

president and other like-minded people feel a moral

compulsion to reverse the resulting inequality. This

story is 180 degrees at odds with the reality.

Inequality did not just happen, it was deliberately

engineered through a whole range of policies

intended to redistribute income upward.'

Economist Dean Baker

Truthout

December 23, 2013

 

Toon of the Day

Theoretically

Ted Rall

 

TUESDAY

Quote of the Day

'Over and over again, America's seniors are being

told they must foot the bill for fiscal failures which

have already left them facing a weakened and

tenuous retirement. In Detroit, a bankruptcy judge

has ruled the city can cut pension payments to

thousands of retirees, despite a state law stating

otherwise. In Washington, the latest Congressional

budget deal targets retirees with $12 billion in

pension changes, including cutting pensions for

military personnel who retire in 2015 and requiring

new federal workers to contribute more to their

retirement. All of this couldn't come at a worse time.

Three decades of stagnant middle-class incomes,

disappearing pensions, limited ability to start and

maintain personal savings, and the failure of the

401K experiment lay the foundation for a retirement

crisis that could further threaten millions of older

Americans and their families.'

Max Richtman, President and CEO,

National Committee to Preserve Social

Security and Medicare

Huffington Post

December 20, 2013

 

Toon of the Day

Stealing Christmas

Bruce Palente

 

WEDNESDAY

Quote of the Day

'Some Democratic lawmakers and antihunger

advocates say the $8 billion cut being contemplated

in the compromise deal is necessary to get the food

stamps program reauthorized by both the Senate

and House and that keeping the cuts to that level

would be a political defeat for right-wing

Republicans, who sought to do much more damage.

That may be true, but it's not much consolation for

people lining up at food pantries because their

inadequate monthly food stamps allotment has run

out.'

Editorial

New York Times

December 25, 2013

 

Toon of the Day

Wise Guys

David Horsey- Los Angeles Times

 

THURSDAY

Quote of the Day

'The scenes of senseless violence in the US form a

list of sorrow and loss: Columbine, Tucson, Aurora,

Newtown, Littleton. With the ongoing work of

committed activists, courageous journalists and

responsible officials, perhaps Americans will recite

as well the names Gardez, Radda, al-Majalah,

Mogadishu and the many more sites of drone strikes

still cloaked in secrecy.'

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

The Guardian (UK)

December 26, 2013

 

Toon of the Day

Of Good Cheer

Jim Morin - Miami Herald

 

FRIDAY

Quote of the Day

'Well, then. There’s little schadenfreude to be had in

people being left empty-handed of presents to give

their family and friends, or in

underpaid, overworked warehouse employees and

drivers rushing unsuccessfully to get the goods to their

destinations on time. And as my colleague Jonathan

Cohn noted recently, the comparison between

healthcare.gov and Amazon was deeply flawed from

the outset. But still, the Great Christmas Delivery

Screwup of 2013 should inject a bit of perspective

and humility into the ranks of the loudest private-

sector champions. The fact is, the cliches are true:

life is complicated, stuff happens and sometimes

things don't work out as planned. As amazing and

wonderful as technology is, there are still limits to

what is possible in narrow windows of time –

sometimes you just need a few more weeks to get

the complex new health insurance Web site for 36

states working properly, or you just run out of hours

to beat Santa to the house – to millions and millions

of houses. (And sometimes it’s not just the

government web site that struggles with keeping

personal information secure, but also one of the

largest retailers in the country, in a breach far wider

and more potentially damaging than anything that

has happened with health.gov).

'So, how about it: if not an outright truce, maybe

some de-escalation of the anti-government

triumphalism. And a little forgiveness all around.

Happy Boxing Day.'

Alec Macgillis

The New Republic

December 27, 2013

 

Toon of the Day

Playing Field

Mike Luckovich

 

SATURDAY

Quote of the Day

'I don't know what we're going to do. We could end

up homeless because of this.'

'Richard Mattos, 59, of Salem, Ore.,

who has been out of work since

March, when he was laid off as a

case manager at a social services

organization. Without the

unemployment income, Mattos

said he and his wife will have

enough money for one month's

worth of bills. Almost every day,

he visits employment centers run

by the state of Oregon or Goodwill

Industries.

AP

December 28, 2013

 

Toon of the Day

Not Working

Ben Sargent