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