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