Portside

Re: Ron Dellums, Former Congressman and Oakland Mayor, Dies at Age 82 (Carole Travis; Alan Hart; Kurt Stand)
Re: Flynn, Comey, and Mueller: What Trump Knew and When He Knew It (Alfonso Munoz; Mike Junge; Leland Darrow)
I Am Not A Crook  --  cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz
Re: Capitalism Killed Our Climate Momentum, Not “Human Nature” (Bob Alft)
Re: Spike Lee: ‘This Guy in the White House Has Given the Green Light for the Klan' (Maria Angeles Zavala)
Re: “In the World of Film, We’ve Edited out All Rebellion” (Victor M.carreras Roena; Sophia Mantou)
Re: Advancing the Trump Administration’s Warped View of Religious Freedom Abroad (Leslie Lance; Amparo Ocasio; Philip Specht; Jorge Sanchez; Ismael East Carlo; Jenny Hampton)
Re: White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People to Talk About Racism (Beacon Press)
Re: Israel is Arming Neo-Nazis in Ukraine (Wendi Galczik; Joe Stundal)
Re: It’s Time for NATO to Go the Way of the Warsaw Pact - Tidbits reader comments (Michael Munk)
Re: Trump’s Plan to Scare Americans Into Supporting Car Pollution (Om Williamson)
Jewish Voice for Peace Board of Trustees Responds to Attacks on Jeremy Corbyn and Labour Party
Re: Global Left Midweek (Leanna Noble)

Resources:

HARD BALL PRESS - Stories That Change the World

Announcements:

Nuclear Free Future Month: Protest and Survive (United for Peace and Justice - UFPJ)
Arab Member of Israeli Knesset Speaking Tour - August 18 - 26 (Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases)

Re: Ron Dellums, Former Congressman and Oakland Mayor, Dies at Age 82

Ron Dellums had the smartest of all healthcare plans. No payer, no bills.  Just set up healthcare facilities and take care of the people who walk in.  The only paper work is tracking charts, tests, medicine.  I never understood why that didn’t take hold.  A wonderful man.  Rest In Peace Comrade Brother.

Carole Travis

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My favorite remembrance of Ron Dellums comes from my friend Mike Ferner of Toledo, Vietnam vet, longtime activist in Veterans for Peace and in labor, environmental, and anti-corporate struggles. 

Mike writes, 

"A lion for peace and justice in the U.S. House and a genuinely decent human being. Ron kept a person on staff specifically to assist G.I.s opposing the war in Vietnam. They cabled the Sec. of the Navy down to the Captain of my ship, warning they were violating the law by disciplining me for circulating a petition against the war."

Alan Hart
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Ron Dellums was also a longtime and proud member of DSA while serving in office and thereafter, never shying away from the label socialist.

Kurt Stand
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Flynn, Comey, and Mueller: What Trump Knew and When He Knew It
 

The most compelling evidence against Trump.

Alfonso Munoz
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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In an effort to convince Mueller that President Trump did not obstruct justice, the president’s attorneys have argued that the president could not have broken the law because the president did not know that Flynn was under criminal investigation when he pressured Comey to go easy on Flynn.

How much more evidence does one need ??

Anyone attempting to have an investigation of themselves shut down is obviously obstructing justice.

Mike Junge
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I wish people would drop Hillary as a distraction for what the president and his team have done as alleged. The Republican Congress had eight years and numerous investigations into Benghazi, her e-mails, and the uranium deal. Nothing came of these investigations despite many tens of millions spent. So drop Hillary and focus on our president who has been under Russian control since 1990. That is when the first of many Russian loans were given to our president since no U.S. bank would bail him out. Be patient. The third in a series of indictments will be made public soon. Let us also not forget Stormy Daniels. Michael Avanatti will get his day in court against our president.

Leland Darrow
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

I Am Not A Crook  --  cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz
 

Lalo Alcaraz
August 8, 2018

Re: Capitalism Killed Our Climate Momentum, Not “Human Nature”
 

And yet we blew it — “we” being humans, who apparently are just too shortsighted to safeguard our future. Just in case we missed the point of who and what is to blame for the fact that we are now “losing earth,” Rich’s answer is presented in a full-page callout: “All the facts were known, and nothing stood in our way. Nothing, that is, except ourselves.”

Yep, you and me. Not, according to Rich, the fossil fuel companies who sat in on every major policy meeting described in the piece. “

Bob Alft
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Spike Lee: ‘This Guy in the White House Has Given the Green Light for the Klan'
 

WOW. Spike Lee has a correct name Agent Orange and he’s given access to racism and other corrupted behavior in the USA.

Maria Angeles Zavala
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: “In the World of Film, We’ve Edited out All Rebellion”
 

Brilliant conversation with Boots Riley, very clear explanation of all topics covered. Hope this interview gets the most readers possible.

Victor M.carreras Roena
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Interesting review article!
Would definitely like to see it.

Sophia Mantou
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Advancing the Trump Administration’s Warped View of Religious Freedom Abroad
 

I do not think this is the job of the secretary of state nor within Mike Pompeo's religious understanding or theological knowledge. It plays well to a base of supporters that is Trump's base, but is without Christ's true teachings.

Leslie Lance
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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This is religious repression unless you're WASP

Amparo Ocasio
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Apparently “religious freedom” means freedom to impose your religion on other people.

Philip Specht
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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And then pursue and prosecute those that don't believe to that religion. The Muslims do that.

Jorge Sanchez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Hola...this is the mentality of very sick people who see war as a means of salvation...paz en vida amigos

this is not the governments job, nor those who represent government job. Paz en Vida Amigos

Ismael East Carlo
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Religious freedom must include the freedom to NOT follow a religion.

Christianity is not the only religion, and this bunch do not reflect the teachings of the bible.

Jenny Hampton
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People to Talk About Racism

(posting on Portside Culture)

"For a country that many people claim to be a 'Christian nation,' this book proves timely and worthwhile for anyone—particularly white people—seriously considering a path to greater unity."

This is such a great review of Robin DiAngelo's WHITE FRAGILITY in Portside.

Beacon Press
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Israel is Arming Neo-Nazis in Ukraine
 

Wow...shocking..are you serious? Who do you think kept the apartheid South Afrikaners armed? Yep, Israel..supporting fascism for decades..and those who do not learn from history (especially their own..) are condemned to repeat it...

Wendi Galczik
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Is it any wonder how Russia reacted to these folks coming to power in the Ukraine ? Of course, loosing 20 million of your fellow countrymen in a previous war against that ideology tends to have long lasting effects .

Joe Stundal
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: It’s Time for NATO to Go the Way of the Warsaw Pact - Tidbits reader comments
 

In 1999 Bill Clinton reneged on Bush1's deal with Gorbachev by recruiting Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia, and Bush2 added Bulgaria and Romania four years later.  These were recognized countries and  former member of the Warsaw Pact.

But since 2004, NATO's expansion has been fed by splinters of  nations which restored capitalism (+ Albania, which also restored..).

Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and (invited?) Georgia and Ukraine are splinters from the former Soviet Union.

Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, and (invited?) Macedonia and Bosnia & Herzegovina are splinters from the former Yugoslavia.

Slovakia is a splinter of the former Czechoslovakia

Michael Munk

Re: Trump’s Plan to Scare Americans Into Supporting Car Pollution
 

This is nothing new. Large gas-guzzler cars have a surprisingly large fan base of drivers who believe a little car will be crunched like a tin can in a collision and that bigger is always safer. These people constitute the target audience for this policy.

Om Williamson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Jewish Voice for Peace Board of Trustees Responds to Attacks on Jeremy Corbyn and Labour Party
 

July 31, 2018 Press Release

For further information:
Phyllis Bennis | pbennis@ips-dc.org
Grace Lile | grace@jewishvoiceforpeace.org

We are very concerned about the joint statement of the three Jewish newspapers in the UK that asserts false definitions of antisemitism for political ends, and falsely claims that a British government led by Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party would somehow represent an “existential threat to Jewish life.”

Labour recognizes that criticism of Israel is not the same as antisemitism — and the claim that therefore the party would “be seen by all decent people as an institutionally racist, antisemitic party” is simply wrong. We are “decent people” and we are American Jews. And as Jews, and as the board of one of the leading Jewish organizations in the US, we stand with those many Jews across Britain, the US and the rest of the world, and with our Palestinian allies, who all know that criticism of Israel is not the same as antisemitism.

As Jews, we are all too aware that real antisemitism is on the rise. In our country it shows up in the neo-Nazis marching through Charlottesville, in white supremacist hate groups rising across the country, in former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke who offered full-throated support to the president following Trump’s inauguration.

We believe political leaders have a responsibility to condemn and to fight against the linked dangers of white supremacy, xenophobia, anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism — and they should be able to do so without fearing intimidation or personal attack. Criticism of Israel does not equal antisemitism. The key component of the Jewish newspapers’ critique is the Labour Party’s decision not to include the phrase “Israel is a racist endeavor” as an example of a supposedly “antisemitic” statement. It is particularly disturbing that this attempt to censor this particular subject coincides with the passage of Israel’s new “Nationality law,” which legalizes the apartheid position that in Israel only Jews have the right of self-determination and that Jewish-only settlements are “a national value.” We believe the three Jewish papers’ claim, that not including that phrase is antisemitic, is simply wrong.

We in the United States are all too familiar with the consequences of these kinds of false claims of antisemitism. There are legislative efforts now underway in our Congress to conflate antisemitism with anti-Zionism, and to use that conflated language to undermine free speech. We join with the American Civil Liberties Union and many others across our country in recognizing that the definition of antisemitism in the proposed Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2018 is “likely to chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism.”

And as supporters of Palestinian rights and equality for all, we are similarly concerned with these attacks in the UK. The real threat of antisemitism does not come from criticism of Israel. Rather, as noted by Rabbi Joseph Berman of Jewish Voice for Peace in the United States, “antisemitism is being cynically exploited to target advocates of Palestinian human rights.” Attacks like this, whether in the United States or the United Kingdom and regardless of who raises these attacks, “dangerously divert attention from real antisemitism.”

Calling criticism of Israel antisemitic does not make it so. Criticism of Israel does not pose an existential threat to Jewish communities or anyone else.

Grace Lile, Chair of Board of Trustees, Jewish Voice for Peace
Phyllis Bennis, Member of Board of Trustees, Jewish Voice for Peace
Karen Ackerman, Member of Board of Trustees, Jewish Voice for Peace
Scout Bratt, Member of Board of Trustees, Jewish Voice for Peace
Eran Efrati, Member of Board of Trustees, Jewish Voice for Peace
Beth Harris, Member of Board of Trustees, Jewish Voice for Peace
Glen Hauer, Secretary, Board of Trustees, Jewish Voice for Peace
Rabbi Linda Holtzman, Vice-Chair, Board of Trustees, Jewish Voice for Peace
Annie Kaufman, Member of Board of Trustees, Jewish Voice for Peace
Seth Morrison, Treasurer, Board of Trustees, Jewish Voice for Peace
Jessie Spector, Member of Board of Trustees, Jewish Voice for Peace

Jewish Voice for Peace
P.O. Box 589
Berkeley, CA 94701
(510) 465–1777    |    info@jewishvoiceforpeace.org

Re: Global Left Midweek
 

Really liking this weekly intl wrap-up and introduction to some new sources of news and analysis!

Leanna Noble
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

HARD BALL PRESS - Stories That Change the World

When you are trying to change the world, it's not enough to quote facts and statistics. Minds are changed and supporters are mobilized when their emotions are engaged. Stories of working people struggling for their fair share of society's bounty invite readers to walk in the characters’ shoes and to share their hopes and dreams, their joys and their sorrows. Hard Ball Press is dedicated to mentoring working class writers and putting their stories into print, so that the world can see their faces, hear their voices, and join them in their struggles.

Excited to be in the final editing stages for Bill Fletcher Jr.'s first work of fiction, a crackling crime story that's also a reflection on racial identity and prejudice: The Man Who Fell From the Sky, coming later this year from Hard Ball Press.

Contact Hard Ball Press at:  info@hardballpress.com or call: 917-428-1352

HARDBALL PRESS
415 Argyle Rd., Suite 6A
BROOKLYN, NY  11218
email to info@hardballpress.com
917-428-1352
and on Facebook

Nuclear Free Future Month: Protest and Survive

From the Korean Peninsula, to the South China Sea, to the Middle East and South Asia, all the nuclear-armed states are engaged in unpredictable conflicts that could catastrophically escalate out of control. Tensions between the United States and Russia have risen to levels not seen since the Cold War, with the two nuclear giants confronting each other in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Syria and an accelerated tempo of military exercises and war games, both conventional and nuclear, on both sides. Risky close encounters between Russian and U.S./NATO forces have increased dramatically in the Baltic region and Syria.

Ominously, all the nuclear-armed nations are engaged in a new nuclear arms race. Despite their animosities toward each other, they are united in opposition to the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW or Ban Treaty), and the original nuclear-armed states are continuing to ignore their obligations under the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to end the arms race at an early date and to negotiate “in good faith” the elimination of nuclear weapons.  

Following the sudden end of the Cold War, after decades of difficulty in focusing attention on the crucial need for nuclear abolition, there are signs of a developing global nuclear abolition movement to respond to these dangers.

These include the July 2017 vote in the United Nations by 122 countries to adopt the Ban Treatyand the Nobel Peace Prize award to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons; the Don’t Bank on the Bomb Campaign; nonviolent direct acts of resistance such as the Memorial Day protest at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts and the April Kings Bay Plowshares Action; and unanimous adoption by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, in June,of a sweeping Mayors for Peace resolution "Calling on the Administration and Congress to Step Back From the Brink and Exercise Global Leadership in Preventing Nuclear War."

Since 2006 UFPJ has declared August Nuclear Free Future Month. Let’s keep the momentum going!

Take action! August 6^thand 9^thwill mark the 73^rdanniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rallies, marches, vigils and nonviolent direct actions are planned across the country and around the world. Click here to find an action near you. Click here to find more actions, listed by date. Join any and all of these actions that you can!  

Enroll your Mayor in Mayors for Peace! Mayors for Peace, founded in 1982 by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is working for a world without nuclear weapons and safe and resilient cities as essential measures for the realization of lasting world peace. Mayors for Peace has grown to 7,632 cities in 163 countries, with 213 U.S. members, representing in total over one billion people. Mayors for Peace aims to reach 10,000 members by 2020, the 75^thanniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Click here to find out if your Mayor is a member of Mayors for Peace. Click here to find out how to enroll your Mayor.

United for Peace & Justice  
244 Fifth Ave,  Suite D55
New York, NY 10001 
Call or leave a message at: (917) 410-0119

Arab Member of Israeli Knesset Speaking in New York on Aug. 18 and in Montclair, New Jersey on Aug. 20 on Israel's new Apartheid Law
 

Aida Touma-Sliman, Arab Member of Israeli Knesset, will be on a multi-city speaking tour in the United States from August 18 to 26. She will be speaking on the new Apartheid Law recently passed by the Israeli Knesset. 

She is the Chair of the Knesset's Permanent Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality. She is the former Chief Editor of Al-Ittihad, the largest Arabic newspaper in Israel; and is member of the Political Bureau and Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel.

Saturday, August 18, 2018, 7:00 – 9:30 PM 
Manhattan
Goddard Riverside Community Center
593 Columbus Ave. (between West 88th and West 89th Streets)

Sunday, August 19, 2018 , 2:00 – 4:00 PM
Woodbridge, Connecticut
Palestine Museum US
1764 Litchfield Turnpike (Route 69)

Monday, August 20, 2018, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Montclair, New Jersey
Montclair Firehouse
1 Pine Street

Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Louisville, Kentucky
American Turkish Friendship Association, Turkish Center
4711 Progress Boulevard

August 22 – 26, 2018 — Veterans For Peace Convention
St. Paul, Minnesota
Intercontinental Hotel
11 East Kellogg Boulevard

Sunday, August 26, 2018, 7:00 to 9:00 PM
Minneapolis, Minnesota
4200 Cedar Avenue

sponsor:  Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases