Portside

Impeachment Hearings  --  cartoons by Bill Bramhall and Mike Luckovich
Re: This is a Coup (Suzanne Prescott; Domingo Soto; Joe Grogan; Rick Patrick; Dan Morgan)
Re: The Bolivian Coup: What the Mainstream Media Don’t Tell You (Gustavo Casalduc Recuerdo)
Re: Stone Trial: Trump May Have Lied to Robert Mueller (Gigi Morales)
Re: We Must Dismantle the War Machine to Avoid the Climate Catastrophe (Gloria Brandman)
Classes You Are Struggling With  --  meme
Re: Flint's Children Suffer in Class after Years of Drinking the Lead-Poisoned Water (Mary Bang)
Re: Jack O’Dell – An Appreciation (Paul Murray; Paul Leavin; Robert Z. Alpern)
Re: "The Massacre that Spawned the Alt-Right" (Jean Cushman)
Re: Hitler: Still Messing With Our Heads (Barry Cuthbert)
Re: 30 Years Later: Another View of the Fall of the Berlin Wall (Aaron Libson; Elliott Barowitz)
Re: How Cuban Art Fed Africa's Liberation Struggles (Disraelly Gutierrez Jaime)
Re: Pride in an Irish Border Town (Sarah Grey)
Thank you Portside (Katherine Dillon)

Take Action:  Stop Rodney Reed Execution  -The State of Texas is Scheduled to Execute an Innocent Man on November 20, 2019 (The Action PAC and Shaun King)

Announcements:

Puerto Rico Summer: What Comes Next? - New York - November 18 (NACLA)
LABOR vs. MANAGEMENT IN NEWSROOMS: What's the impact on journalism? - New York - November 18 (Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY)
CLIMATE STRIKE WITH US. - Nationwide Actions - December 6 (Sunrise Movement)

 

Impeachment Hearings  --  cartoons by Bill Bramhall and Mike Luckovich

Bill Bramhall
November 14, 2019
New York Daily News

Mike Luckovich
November 14, 2019

Re: This is a Coup
 

Don't miss the importance of those behind the military coup like Marco Rubio. The press are portraying it unfairly because they [claim] fraud in the latest election although the claims are not supported by evidence and instead the product of an intense disinformation campaign.

Evo Morales since his first election has raised 20% of the Bolivia's poor, and largely indigenous people, out of poverty.

Suzanne Prescott
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

The United States complaints of Russia meddling in their elections to place Trumpenstein in power. He betrayed the Kurds and turned the Middle East to Russia, Turkey and Assad. And now they're, USA, is meddling in Latin American affairs. Out of Bolivia!

Domingo Soto
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

The record is clear-Chile in 1973, Paraguay, this century, problems in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Honduras and El Salvador recently all a part of the plan for the "NEW WORLED ORDER" orchestrated by Washington.  I do not know about you but it seems to me that the first people to use that term were the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.

Joe Grogan/Bolton

     =====

Evo is not the victim in this scenario. Evo built a complete system of control for him to stay in power indefinitely and the Bolivian people said they had had enough. Evo was running for his fourth term as president, in violation of the country’s constitution, that sets a 2 term limit. Carlos Mesas’ is not an oligarch. We watched the fraud before our very eyes as the election unfolded, when the electoral court stopped counting the vote less than 4 hours after the poles had closed. Only to reopen 24 hours later with Evo with the exact vote needed to win. The fraud was flagrant. The fraud was denounced by the OAS in their report of the election. In Bolivia each voting table counts the votes in front of anyone who wants to watch at the place of voting.

It was not a coup, not a military coup, it was a popular uprising to bring down a man who refused to step down. When it became obvious Evo’s situation was untenable, and impossible for Evo to manage the country the military said they would no longer be a tool of repression for Evo and stopped standing behind him, so he escaped to Mexico. The MAS sent hoards to terrorize the cities. People were attacked some killed. My own street was the scene of much of this. The MAS have been terrorizing the country on a grand scale since the election on the 20 Oct. The MASistas are most certainly not the victims, they are the perpetrators of a massive electoral fraud and they tried to start a civil war to stay in power. At the very end it became an arm wrestle over who would have access to Bolivia, Mexico or Venezuela and Evo Morales escaped to Mexico. I was there... I lived it. What you posted is lies.

From a friend who lives in Bolivia

Rick Patrick

     =====

Rick Patrick is lying, if he was in Bolivia. The violence unleashed after the election (and before, in places like Potosí) was by the opposition, the right. Electoral tribunal offices, houses of MAS ministers and mayors burned. MAS people humiliated, intimidated, made to resign to save their lives or those of their families. All this is documented, i know from seeing La Razón, the best newspaper site, Tele Sur and from communication with friends in Bolivia.

Racist mobs attack MAS people and offices, Evo resigned almost literally with a gun pointed at his head. The police mutinied in Santa Cruz and then La Paz, the armed forces 'asked' him to resign. This was a military coup. Yes, there was a lot of resentment of Evo standing for a 4th time - the right, racist and pro-imperialist forces took advantage of this. I watched the election and fraud was far from obvious. After 89% counted Evo's lead (not really disputed that he a big lead) meant that he needed 68% of the rest of the votes to get a 10% lead and win in the first round. The votes that remained were from outlying rural areas, where Evo always had a huge majority.

Carlos Mesa, former Vice-president and then President of neoliberal governments - that protected the interests of the oligarchs - is a weak character, put up as a soft, plausible candidate to attract most votes. After the election the rabidly fascistic strong leader, Luis Camacho has emerged as the real force. His racism is clear - "we have returned the bible to the (government palace) ... the pachamama will never return". The indigenous peoples' flag, the Whipala, has been burned. Another 'self-proclaimed' president emerges, the second vice-president of the senate.

The OAS 'preliminary report', released at a crucial time, claimed electronic irregularities. Evo had offered a full audit by the OAS. He also offered a second, run-off election. He offered a totally new election, with a new electoral tribunal. None of this mattered, the coup plotters, backed by millions of dollars from the USA, wanted him out. The OAS fulfilling its usual role of supporting US imperial interests.

According to the democratic constitution instituted with MAS (Evo's Party) leadership, if the President resigns, the resignation first has to be accepted by the Congress. Not done. Then the presidency passes to the President of the Senate. Not done – she was forced to resign under extreme duress. If not, it passes to the President of the Chamber of Deputies. Not done – he was forced to resign also after intimidation. If not, it then should pass to the President of the Supreme Court. Not done. This so-called President was named by a small minority of the senators, totally inquorate. She has no legitimacy whatsoever, only that given her by Trump and his followers and assorted reactionaries like Bolsonaro, Piñera (who has little support in Chile) and clown Johnson in Great Britain.

Dan Morgan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: The Bolivian Coup: What the Mainstream Media Don’t Tell You
 

At the time, US ambassador Phillip Goldberg played a central role in the operation. The US, as with the oil in Venezuela, has not abandoned laying its hands on such riches, with the additional incentive that Bolivia has the largest deposits of lithium in the world.

Gustavo Casalduc Recuerdo
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Stone Trial: Trump May Have Lied to Robert Mueller
 

"may have lied"???? He IS a lie!

Gigi Morales
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: We Must Dismantle the War Machine to Avoid the Climate Catastrophe
 

Jodi Evans explains quite well why we must Move the Money- Cut the pentagon and the US War Machine and use the money to fund our communities!

Gloria Brandman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Classes You Are Struggling With  --  meme
 

Re: Flint's Children Suffer in Class after Years of Drinking the Lead-Poisoned Water
 

They're being poisoned with permanent damage.

Mary Bang
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Jack O’Dell – An Appreciation
 

Thanks for posting this article.  I've seen Jack's name many times and know he was targeted by the FBI for his communist past, but not much more.  Now I'm better informed.

Paul Murray

     =====

A very small example of Mr. Odell’s commitment to justice:

In about 1966, I was working in NYC for the Neighborhood Youth Corps in the East New York Section of Brooklyn, at the Brueklin Housing Project, “supervising” a diverse group of about 20 teenagers (mostly African-American) for the summer.  There was NO program.  The director of the program had one directive to me:  “Don’t let the kids riot.”   She was a big help, and hid behind her desk all summer.

I was desperate to create activities for these kids.  I called up Freedomways and asked to speak to Mr. Odell.  I had never met him or spoken to him.  I asked him to come and speak to these kids about  life, about the world, about anything he thought might help them navigate a very tough neighborhood and an unforgiving world.  To my amazement and delight,  Mr. Odell came out to the ends of Brooklyn, two days later,  and met with them for an hour.  I couldn’t believe how generous he was with his time and energy and intelligence.  He engaged these teenagers fully, and they asked him many questions.  There were tears in my eyes when he left.

I never met or spoke with Jack Odell again, but 50 years later, I will never forget his humanity.

Paul Leavin

     =====

During my time on Capitol Hill working at SANE and the Unitarian Universalist Assn. I met Jack on several occasions. I remember his crisp incisiveness and warm engaging persona. His grasp of contemporary burning issues- the nuclear arms race, military spending, U.S. interventionism, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, womens' rights, and growing poverty and institutional racism filled our all too infrequent sharings. My memories of him remain vivid. He was a gentle man.

With spirit,

Robert Z. Alpern

Re: "The Massacre that Spawned the Alt-Right"
 

I generally like the work of Portside.org that I read every day, but this week I was very unhappy about your article "The Massacre that Spawned the Alt-Right". 

As a former Communist Workers Party member and a friend of Martha Nathan, wife of Mike Nathan who was shot dead in Greensboro, I am discouraged by the flawed nature of Shaun Assael's and Peter Keating's writing. 

They not only demean the victims, but also do not understand the involvement of the Greensboro police is allowing the massacre to happen. Every time the authors mention the protesters, it is with disdain for their education and choice of "full-on Maoist Communism". Like many well-educated and caring people of that time, they were rejecting capitalism. And see where capitalism has gotten us? 

White supremacism has been endemic in the U.S. since slavery. Our nation was founded on it. No number of communists, socialists or people of good conscience can be the cause of the rise of alt-right.

Jean Cushman

Re: Hitler: Still Messing With Our Heads

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

    ...after the appointment of Hitler to the chancellorship. Here, too, the conservatives provided the Nazis with key tools for the consolidation of their own power. Even the Reichstag Fire Decrees, which suspended civil and political rights, and the Enabling Act, which made it possible for the Hitler cabinet to override parliament, were devices concocted by the conservatives. Electoral success and control over a large political movement with a formidable militia were important assets, but it was the combination of these advantages with the collaboration of the old elites that gave Hitler and his party the edge they needed in 1933.

Conservative history and they’re at it again...

Barry Cuthbert
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: 30 Years Later: Another View of the Fall of the Berlin Wall
 

In 1972 I took a bus excursion through east Berlin. As the tour leader explained in the DDR the defeat of Nazism is celebrated as the liberation of Germans. Now, I see that  Angela Merkel still espouses that concept.

Aaron Libson

     =====

Right O, but the Stasi were as repressive as  repressive Stalin and Hitler were. A German friend who grew up in East Germany told me her mother aid told don't talk about anything but the weather when her mother's sister came to visit, because the sister held her pocket book on her lap indicating a tape recorder. And even if my friends mother was paranoid--it still says allot about Stasi. Read:

1997: The File: by Timothy Garton Ash

The writer’s memoirs and experiences with the dreaded Stasi—their corruptions and sometime foolish inaccurate assertions. Survival Jews oddly played the Stasi game.

Elliott Barowitz

Re: How Cuban Art Fed Africa's Liberation Struggles
 

An exhibition of Cuban propaganda posters and magazines in London shows the support Fidel Castro gave to African liberation movements during the Cold War. The works showcased in Designed in Cuba: Cold War Graphics exhibition were produced by 33 designers, many of them women - who made some of those most enduring images. The art works were produced for Castro's Organisation of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (Ospaaal), which was born out of the Tricontinental Conference, hosted in Havana in 1966, to combat US imperialism.

Disraelly Gutierrez Jaime
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Pride in an Irish Border Town
 

From smuggling biscuits, to watchtowers and The Troubles to an open border and farmers supporting Pride. Now Brexit ....

Sarah Grey
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Thank you Portside
 

I just started subscribing to Portside thanks to a friend who sent me an article about Palestine from Portside.

What outstanding articles!  Thank you for being there. I support and embrace the motto, “Interpret the world and change it.”

I taught grad courses at university (postcolonial cultural/intellectual history including contemporary history interpreted using class/gender/race) in Paris for many years based on that principle.

Thank you, again.

Katherine Dillon

Take Action - The State of Texas is Scheduled to Execute an Innocent Man on November 20, 2019
 

Sign the petition

Gov. Abbott: Stop the execution of Rodney Reed

This is urgent. On November 20th, Texas is scheduled to execute an innocent man for a rape and murder he did not commit.

Mountains of evidence exonerates Rodney Reed. All of that evidence was kept from the all white jury that convicted him. Instead, the evidence implicates the victim’s fiancé – local police officer Jimmy Fennell – who has a history of violence against women, including being convicted for kidnapping and sexual assault soon after Rodney was wrongly sent to prison.

Governor Greg Abbott has stopped an execution before. He can again. A huge public uproar right now could force Abbott to free Rodney Reed and stop this execution.

Make Calls for Rodney Reed

We need to persuade Governor Greg Abbott, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, the Bastrop County District Attorney Brian Goertz, and other conservative elected officials to stay this execution, review all of the evidence that exonerates Rodney, and eventually grant him a new trial.

It's in their hands, but they have to know how much we care.

I need you to call ALL of the people. If you've never done this work with me before, we're kind and respectful when we call. Be firm and thorough. Be persistent, but be kind. People are more apt to respond to kindness than they will anger. Leave a message if you have to. Ask to be transferred to someone else if nobody is available.

And when you call, let them know that you are calling to advocate on behalf of Rodney Reed, an innocent man who has been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death on November 20th.

We have set up a tool that will connect you these influential people back-to-back. Each group of people has a slightly different role to play in the process. Here are the dial-in numbers for each group, and below are some pointers on what to say.

1. Call the governor, TBPP, and DA Brian Goertz: (512) 967-0567

2. Call Governor Abbott’s Staff: (512) 488-0698

3. Call Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s Staff: (770) 800-0689

4. Call The Board Of Pardons and Paroles Staff & Members: (737) 214-3944

5. Call Texas Legislators: (512) 641-4290

CALL THE GOVERNOR, TBPP, AND DA BRIAN GOERTZ

Dial in to be connected: (512) 967-0567

You will be connected to each office back-to-back. For everyone you call, let them know that you are calling to advocate on behalf of Rodney Reed, an innocent man who has been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death on November 20th. Here are some specific things you should ask of this group:

First, ask Governor Gregg Abbott to grant Rodney clemency, to stop or delay Rodney’s execution. He has the sole discretion to do this as Governor.

Next, ask the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend to the Governor that he do the right thing by stopping Rodney’s execution, delaying it, or granting him clemency.

Next, ask Bastrop County District Attorney Brian Goertz to withdraw his petition to execute Rodney on Nov. 20. As the DA in the jurisdiction of the original arrest, he has the responsibility to delay this execution so that new evidence can be heard.

The Case

Stacey Stites died in April 1996. Nearly one year later, Bastrop Sheriffs arrested a 29-year-old black man named Rodney Reed. He was charged with capital murder, citing DNA evidence matching Reed’s DNA to a small amount of sperm found inside the body. Prosecutors successfully argued that this was enough evidence to prove that Reed was responsible for her brutal sexual assault and murder.

Rodney has steadfastly maintained his innocence from Day 1. Absolutely zero evidence exists that Rodney had anything at all to do with this crime. He was in a consensual relationship with Stacey Stites and the only DNA of Rodney’s that was found was from this consensual relationship. The prosecution, citing that DNA persuaded an all-white jury of his guilt; he was convicted and sentenced to die by lethal injection. Currently, he is scheduled to die in just a few days on November 20, 2019. 

The original suspect in the case was Stites’ fiancé, Jimmy Fennell, a brutal police officer with a history of violence against women. After the murder of Stacey Stites, Fennell kidnapped a woman and sexually assaulted her while on duty as a police officer. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for this. Despite sworn affidavits from witnesses establishing that Jimmy Fennell threatened to kill Stites before, and that he has subsequently confessed to the crime, and compelling expert testimony establishing Reed’s innocence, all requests to evaluate new evidence have been unsuccessful.

REASONABLE DOUBT

• The DNA evidence cited by the prosecution resulted from a consensual sexual relationship with Stites. Multiple witnesses confirm this, including members of Stites’ family.

• The case is on-face implausible. The prosecution claims that Reed was able to break into Stites’ car on foot while she was inside it, and committed a brutal murder and sexual assault without leaving any physical evidence behind.

• No DNA evidence links Reed to the scene of the crime or any other element of the murder. Requests to test the murder weapon for DNA have been repeatedly denied.

STITES WAS MOST LIKELY MURDERED BY HER FIANCE, JIMMY FENNELL, JR.

• Fennell was the original prime suspect in the case. His friend fellow police officer now admits that Fennell gave him completely inconsistent accounts of his whereabouts at the time of the murder. His most recent claim is impossible based on the most recent evidence.

• Even though he was the “prime suspect” at the time, police never searched the apartment that Stites and Fennell shared.

• Multiple witnesses swear under oath that Fennell knew about Stites’ affair with Reed, threatened to kill her because of it and made it clear at her funeral that he believed “She got what he deserved.”

• Fennell was subsequently incarcerated for another violent sexual assault. In his efforts to join the Aryan Brotherhood, he bragged to other prisoners that he murdered his wife for sleeping with a black man, stating “I had to kill my n*****-loving fiancée.”

• Fennel has a long history of violence against women, including multiple complaints about his behavior towards women as a police officer.

The Action PAC  

Puerto Rico Summer: What Comes Next? - New York - November 18
 

Join us for Puerto Rico Summer: What Comes Next?, a timely discussion of the mass protests which ousted Governor Ricardo Rosselló. 

WHAT: This event aims to understand the mobilizing efforts before and after the #PuertoRicanSummer through the perspectives of labor activists, artists, and civil rights monitors, and to share lessons of participatory democracy and resistance in the 21st century. Most of all we want to explore what comes next: what are families, communities, and organizations envisioning for their present and their future emancipation? What is our role as US citizens in this pivotal moment in the history of the relationship between empure and colony?

WHO: 

• Tomás Urayoán Noel (Moderator)
• Lale Namerrow Pastor
• Mariana Nogales-Molinelli
• Ricardo Olivero Lora

Monday, November 18, 2019 --  6PM - 9PM

King Juan Carlos I Center at NYU
53 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012

Trains: A, B, C, D, E, F, or M to West 4th Street

For more information on the invited speakers and to RSVP, click here. 

This event is free and open to the public. ID is required to enter building. Co-sponsored by NACLA, the Hemispheric Institute, the Latinx Project, NYC CLACS, and the Puerto Rican Student Association at NYU.

LABOR vs. MANAGEMENT IN NEWSROOMS: What's the impact on journalism? - New York - November 18
 

Monday, November 18, 2019  --  6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST

Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY
219 West 40th Street
Room 308
New York, NY 10018

FREE

Unionization of Newsrooms

The disruption in the news industry has prompted journalists, in both legacy and digital-native newsrooms, to organize for better conditions, job security and wages. While a few companies have taken extreme measures to avoid unionization others are at the bargaining table with a message that they're fighting for their very survival. How is the new push affecting journalism?

Moderator: Sarah Bartlett, dean of the Newmark J-School

Panelists:

Michael J. Lebowich, a partner and co-head of Labor-Management relations at Proskauer

Nastaran Mohit, director of organizing, NewsGuild of New York

Eric Morrow, news curation editor, BuzzFeed

Jennifer Perry, senior producer, Jezebel

Before the panel, Steven Greenhouse, former NYTimes labor reporter and author of Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor, will talk briefly about larger forces in the economy and the workplace that are fueling a wave of unionization.

Reception to follow the panel.

CLIMATE STRIKE WITH US. - Nationwide Actions - December 6
 

CLIMATE STRIKE WITH US.

OUR SURVIVAL CAN’T WAIT.

The September 20th Climate Strike was the largest day of action for climate justice ever. On December 6th, as world leaders gather at the UN’s annual climate conference, young people across America will join a national #ClimateStrike to take the momentum from September to our elected officials’ doorsteps.

In September, many politicians shared nice words of encouragement. But, we didn’t walk out of school and work to earn their praise. We joined the #ClimateStrike because our lives depend on elected leaders treating this crisis like the emergency it is.

On December 6th, we’ll show up at the offices of our political leaders and ask them, are you ready to stand with our generation and fight for a Green New Deal?

Pledge to Strike on December 6th

FIND A STRIKE NEAR YOU

Click here