Portside

REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons

SUNDAY

Quote of the Day
January 26, 2014

'Bill Gates is worried - too many people are talking
about raising the minimum wage. Appropriately, the
world's richest man spoke on the eve of the World
Economic Summit in Davos. Gates is a great symbol
of the Davos summit, an annual away day for global
capitalism, at which the world's 1% mouth concerns
about poverty and climate change, while working on
policies which fuel inequality.

'Despite a fair bit of evidence that a reasonable
minimum wage doesn't cost jobs, Gates is picking
up on a regular Davos theme. In 2012, Tidjane
Thiam, chief executive of Prudential, called the
minimum wage a "machine to destroy jobs".

'Last year Gates increased his wealth by $15.8bn
and has now once again become the world's richest
man, worth about $78.5bn. He's not alone - as a
whole the world's millionaires got 11% richer last
year. For the rest of us, the decades-long trend of
stagnating income continues. In some countries -
Greece, Spain and Britain - median household
income fell sharply.'

Nick Dearden
Red Pepper (UK)
January 2014
 

Toon of the Day

Needle
John Darkow
 

MONDAY

Quote of the Day

'But the sabotage of the Iran nuclear talks by
Netanyahu and the Israel lobby has lasted longer
and come closer to achieving its aim of destroying
the talks, than other Israeli efforts in other arenas.
The wacked-out notion advanced by sanctions
proponents in Congress and among the pro-war
hawks is that such threats have worked so well
before, that more sanctions will produce even better
results, making Iran even more pliant to western
will.  This notion is beholden to the strange idea
that Iran only understands the language of threat
and force; and that it can only be brought to heel by
punishment (like a stubborn donkey in the bazaar).

'Of course, the very philosophy of diplomacy is
precisely the opposite: that nations have common
interests and the goal of negotiations is to find out
what they are and arrive at common ground or
consensus.  The Geneva talks succeeded in drawing
up a 6-month agreement calling for suspension of
parts of Iran's uranium enrichment program in
return for easing sanctions.   Negotiations worked.
Just when something seems to be working,
Mephistopheles arrives snickering: that worked so
well, let's try more of the same.'

Richard Silverstein
Tikun Olam
January 25, 2014

Toon of the Day

State of the Union
Mike Luckovich
 

Tuesday

Quote of the Day

'So it went. Decade after decade. Singing and
agitating and inspiring the children and the
grandchildren and the great-grandchildren of those
who had heard him singing the songs of the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade in 1938, or serenading
Eleanor Roosevelt in 1944, or accompanying Henry
Wallace’s presidential campaign in 1948. The
hundreds of Occupy Wall Street activists who joined
Seeger on a thirty five-block march through
Manhattan in October 2011 knew that he was
seventy years older than they were, but he was one
of them; indeed, said his friend Gary Davis, Pete
was "seeing his life come to fruition." It was that
understanding of music as art and mission that
drew Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen and Ani
DiFranco and Tom Morello and Billy Bragg to the
man whose energy and warmth, intellect and
integrity they aspired to emulate. Seeger
believed—still believes—that songs can lift people
up and inspire them to take the actions necessary to
change the world," Bragg wrote  when Pete turned 91,
delighting in the fact that Woody Guthrie's comrade
"continues to urge us all to overcome".'

John Nichols
The Nation
January 28, 2014
 

Toon of the Day

Pete Seeger
Terry Mosher - Montreal Gazette
 

WEDNESDAY

Quote of the Day

'But the memo warned that Obama's selling of the
economic recovery under his watch "does not ring
true to them." Most working-class voters do not see
an economic recovery that benefits them.

'But what is also true is that, despite the
mainstream media's broad-brush characterization of
a generalized "dysfunction in Washington" as the
cause of the nation's stalled economy, as the
Democracy Corps memo states in its conclusion,
"Republicans should not believe that these voters
blame both parties equally. They do not."

'They do hold conservatives in Congress responsible
for putting a thumb on the policy scales to favor the
wealthy and to block the initiatives that would help
working-class people recover from the economic
crash. What they want now is President Obama to
fight for them.'

Isaiah J. Poole, editor of OurFuture.org,
on focus group response to State of the
Union address by President Barack Obama

Campaign for America's Future
January 29, 2014
 

Toon of the Day

Hustle
David Fitzsimmons
 

THURSDAY

Quote of the Day

'Bill de Blasio, an "unapologetically progressive"
mayor, as he put it in his primary victory speech, is
at the height of his popularity. He thus has a unique
opportunity to help end the stranglehold of AIPAC
by meeting with J Street. He could also meet with
New York's sizable Palestinian and Muslim
communities. By publicly welcoming groups that
promote genuine peace in the Middle East, his
foreign policy would be far more consistent with the
progressive policies he promotes at home. And he
might find, just as he did in his mayoral race, that
such actions have far more support among New
York's-and the country's-citizens than many
imagined.'

Editorial
The Nation
January 30, 2014
 

Toon of the Day

A Warning
Signe Wilkinson
 

FRIDAY

Quote of the Day

'That so many Danes have been aghast at the idea of
giving Goldman Sachs a prominent role in the
country's energy future reflects how far the damage
to the investment bank's reputation has spread
since the financial crisis.

'However much the financial world might envy
Goldman's trading prowess, many Danes see
Goldman as an emblem of an industry that helped
cause the crisis and then profited handsomely even
as much of the Continent still struggles to recover.

'Thousands of people have taken to the streets in
recent weeks to protest the deal; a prominent
banner featured the vampire squid that critics have
come to embrace as a symbol of Goldman Sachs.
Nearly 200,000 Danes signed an online petition
against the deal, a record.'

Report on how Denmark gave the
global financial giant Goldman Sachs
the go-ahead Thursday to buy a stake
in its state utility, causing the
Socialist People's Party to withdrew
its ministers from the country's
governing coalition

New York Times
January 31, 2014
 

Toon of the Day

Benefits
Clay Bennett
Chattanooga Times Free Press
 

SATURDAY

Quote of the Day

'It is possible that he knew nothing, nothing,
nothing. But it does seem a little bit like a coach
claiming he never could keep all those players'
numbers straight.'

Columnist Gail Collins on New Jersey Governor
Chris Christie and the Superbowl

New York Times
February 1, 2014
 

Toon of the Day

Oh Oh
Joel Pett - Lexington Herald Leader