Portside

REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons

SUNDAY

Quote of the Day
January 5, 2014

'We're not just experiencing a new Gilded Age, but a
Bitcoin Age. Artificial money, corporate K Street, and
Wall Street interests are producing one world for the
rich and an entirely different world for the working
class.

'It can't go on like this, either from the standpoint of
the health of the capitalist system itself or the
health of individuals and the family.'

Bill Gross, co-head of a $2 trillion
investment management firm and
co-chief information officer of
PIMCO

Christian Science Monitor
January 5, 2014

Toon of the Day

Headlines
Brian McFadden
New York Times
 

MONDAY

Quote of the Day

'Now the moment of truth has arrived - if Netanyahu
is unable to make the historic decision he is
requested to give up his place to someone who
knows and understands the objective. If Netanyahu
can't do it, let him vacate his place for someone who
can.

'I'm telling you unequivocally: We have a partner for
peace and we have an opportunity for peace. The
time has come to stop the weak and passive
discourse that blames all our problems on the
Palestinians.

'As someone who was cabinet secretary in the past, I
know how much the Palestinian side was part of the
failure, but let's not discuss the past. We were
elected in order to discuss the future and the
present.'

Isaac Herzog, new chair of the
Labor Party of Israel at a
conference in Tel Aviv

Haaretz (Israel)
January 5, 2014
 

Toon of the Day

Highrisers
Signe Wilkinson
 

TUESDAY

Quote of the Day

' It's tough to imagine Mexico doing worse without
NAFTA. Perhaps this is part of the reason why
Washington's proposed "Free Trade Area of the
Americas" was roundly rejected by the region in
2005 and the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership is
running into trouble. Interestingly, when
economists who have promoted NAFTA from the
beginning are called upon to defend the agreement,
the best that they can offer is that it increased trade.
But trade is not, to most humans, an end in itself.
And neither are the blatantly mis-named "free trade
agreements". '

Economist Mark Weisbrot
The Guardian (UK)
January 4, 2014
 

Toon of the Day

Stuck
Paresh Nath
 

WEDNESDAY

Quote of the Day

'We believe in upward mobility. Yet some of the new
American moguls are taking on the worst traits of
the old British class system: Silicon Valley's up-and-
coming tech titans who complain about having to
look at the tatty homeless spoiling their San
Francisco "utopia." The Dickensian conservatives
who don't give a fig about a social safety net
ensuring that poor people have food on the table.'

Columnist Maureen Dowd
New York Times
January 8, 2014
 

Toon of the Day

Hidden Donors
Tom Toles - Washington Post
 

THURSDAY

Quote of the Day

'Even the sometimes salacious excerpts from the
former defense secretary Robert Gates's soon-to-be-
released book, in which he criticizes the president,
the vice president and Hillary Clinton, are not
wholly negative for the White House. On one level
it's a glimpse of what happens when a "Team of
Rivals" becomes of nest of vipers. On the other
hand, painting the president as a man who is
constantly questioning military commitment, always
looking for a way out, and distrustful of the military
brass doesn't sound so negative to many of the
president's supporters. It sounds like the kind of
leader they wanted.'

Columnist Charles M. Blow
New York Times
January 8, 2014
 

Toon of the Day

Jersey Polls
Jeff Danziger
 

FRIDAY

Quote of the Day

'Congress not only seems more responsive to policy
desires of the very rich, but increasingly they are the
very rich. They probably know far fewer people cut
off by the failure to extend unemployment benefits,
and that makes them less sensitive to just how
much damage that cutoff is going to cause.'

Josh Bivens, director of research at the
Economic Policy Institute, commenting
on the report that for the first time in
history, more than half the members
of the House and Senate are millionaires

New York Times
January 10, 2014
 

Toon of the Day

In the Window
Lalo Alcaraz
 

SATURDAY

Quote of the Day

'I can't believe how naive, or disingenuous and
complicit, the Americans are.'

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the
Palestine Liberation Organization's
executive committee, concerning
the announcement of Israeli
government's plan to build 1,400
housing units in Jewish settlements
in East Jerusalem and the occupied
West Bank, a move the chief Palestinian
negotiator condemned as a "slap" to
Secretary of State John Kerry's intense
push for a Middle East peace deal

New York Times
January 11, 2014
 

Toon of the Day

Climate Ed
Jim Morin - Miami Herald