Portside

Re: Coronavirus is a Historic Trigger Event (Valerie Volk Sober)
Re: Covid-19's Economic Pain Is Universal. But Relief? Depends on Where You Live. (Stephanie Luce; Ron Logan; Mia Lipsit; Carrie Sloan Norry)
Trump's approach to coronavirus and the economy - cartoon by Steve Bell
Re: Back to Work? You First (Geoff Mirelowitz)
I Want You...To Die  --  meme
Re: An Emergency Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic (Karin Pattydukeellington Pritikin)
Re: `Bernie Has a Real Decision to Make': Labor Throws in With Biden (Ethan Young; Kathy Lipscomb)
Re: Don't Let Trump Off the Hook for the Coronavirus Crisis (Joseph Maizlish)
"I Take No Responsibility"
Socialism Wins the Republican Primary  --  cartoon by Tom Toles
Re: Fox Endangers Viewers. Pence Says, 'Thank You.' (Jack Parker; Cindy Bimby)
Thank You Essential Workers (CSEA Local 815)
Our Heroes
Masked Heroes  --  cartoon by Rob Rogers
Grocery Workers Now in the Club  --  cartoon by Theo Moudakis
To All Janitors and Custodial Workers
Re: Meet the Climate Science Deniers Who Downplayed COVID-19 Risks (Dale Jacobson; Un-Chain Democracy; Barbara Crammer; Frank Kashner)
Re: Coronavirus and the `Shock Doctrine' (Arlene Halfon)
Re: US Airlines Pushing for Massive Bailout Gave $45bn to Shareholders in Five Years (Ana Perez; Kenny Kimball; Naomi Lockwood; Alan Perry)
Bailout the Cruise Lines -- No Way (Sabrina McDaniel)
Trump Response  --  cartoon by Dave Granlund
Today's Grow It at Home Victory Garden
Re: What Coronavirus Revealed About National Mindsets Across the World - And How Cuba Came Out on Top (Dave Lott; Jose Felipe Gonzalez Pabon; Evelyn Nieves; Lori Kaplan; Jos, G. Carrasquillo Ramos; Danny Jimenez; Hanne Baier; Javier A Perez Acosta)
Re: Cuba's Coronavirus Response Is Putting Other Countries to Shame (Bernard Cleyet; Sidney Simmons; Bruce Bostick; Harry Targ; Willie Williamson)
Re: Why Nigeria Knows Better How to Fight Corona Than the US (Ed Keazor)
Re: Bringing Christ and Coronavirus: Evangelicals to Contact Amazon Indigenous (Alexandra Del Coro Amengual; Kevin Danenberg; Emory Thompson; Jerry Steele)
Re: The 2020 Election Won't Look Like Any We've Seen Before (Gordon Galland)
Re: The Coronavirus Might Kill Fracking (Henry DiSanti; Jean M. Brennan)
Re: After Bernie: How the Left Can Grow and Change the Democratic Party (Joaquin A. Rodriguez; Steve Milosic)
Re: Langston Hughes - Domestic Pariah, International Superstar (Jose Rinaldi Jovet; Susan Llequis; Clarence Lawrey; Katy Castro; Michael Hersh; Victor M.carreras Roena)

Resources:

CHART: The US Response to COVID-19: What's in Federal Legislation and What's Not, but Still Needed (Center for Economic and Policy Research - CEPR)
As Racist Coronavirus Rhetoric Fuels Bigotry, Advocates Launch Reporting Tool (Laura Wenus - San Francisco Public Press)

 

Re: Coronavirus is a Historic Trigger Event
 

If Human Rights were granted by simply asking politely for them, we wouldn't have to ask. Thank you ACT UP for being rude and obnoxious enough to improve healthcare for all of us.

"Looking back at another public health emergency, we can remember that, during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the LGBTQ community came together to respond to the sickness and death of thousands of individuals - even as society ostracized people who were HIV-positive, and the medical establishment often turned a blind eye to their suffering. Groups like Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York City organized the community to raise money for research, distribute information about prevention and care, and provide counseling and social workers for thousands who needed it. At a time when the doctors and hospitals were either overwhelmed, indifferent, or antagonistic, they stepped up to fill the gap and meet basic human needs.

"Meanwhile, the decentralized affinity groups of the more militant ACT UP worked tirelessly to raise public awareness about the crisis, rallying under the motto "Silence Equals Death." They quickly became on-the-ground experts in the community impact of the disease - publicly confronting leaders who spread misinformation or were hesitant to adequately fund public health efforts, calling out drug companies more fixated on profits than humane treatment and brashly insisting that health professionals be in dialogue with patients themselves. Ultimately, ACT UP fundamentally changed the country's response to AIDS.

"They helped revolutionize the American practice of medicine," The New Yorker's Michael Specter wrote in 2002. "The average approval time for some critical drugs fell from a decade to a year, and the character of placebo-controlled trials was altered for good . Soon changes in the way AIDS drugs were approved were adopted for other diseases, ranging from breast cancer to Alzheimer's." In 1990, the New York Times paid reluctant tribute to the group with a headline reading, "Rude, Rash, Effective, Act Up Shifts AIDS Policy."

Valerie Volk Sober
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Covid-19's Economic Pain Is Universal. But Relief? Depends on Where You Live.

(posting on Portside Labor)
 

The coming Depression will be rough.

Things in the US will be worse as the entire structure of support had already been gutted. Just a year ago, 40% of Americans said they didn't have $400 in savings for an emergency.

None of the stimulus packages on the table provide any real relief for those most in need, and certainly no strategy for revitalizing an immuno-compromised economy.

But there are alternatives. The UK will cover 80% of wages lost due to the virus; Denmark will cover 75-90%. China and Korea have increased unemployment insurance benefits and expanded social safety nets. Let's see what we can learn from others.

Stephanie Luce
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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a key to learning is to be willing to learn. i don't see the current administration doing anything that would suggest wanting to get better at running a country for anyone who isn't ultra-wealthy.

Ron Logan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Hey y'all. Your friendly neighborhood pessimistic realist here. Our country hasn't learned from others in over 200 years, and given the goings-on in the halls of power-and-idiocy right now, they-and, given the overwhelming preferences stated by the voters of the supposedly left-of-center party of our two-party system, we-never will. So basically those of us who have are screwed because we didn't move somewhere that has.

Mia Lipsit
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Certainly, I don't expect anyone in Congress or the White House to learn. Luckily, that isn't how change happens anyway. We must learn and teach each other what is possible; how to dream.

I am with Gramsci - pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. I am an optimist not because it is the rational response but because I have no choice. I am a fighter and will go down fighting; I won't let them win without fighting back.

Stephanie Luce
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Gridlock in Washington is not new. This moment seems like a tremendous opportunity to right many injustices in our current system. Unfortunately, I fear our rescue package will exasperate them.

"Weeks of layoffs and lockdowns have made clear that poor and working-class people will bear a disproportionate share of the pain from the coronavirus pandemic."

Carrie Sloan Norry
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Trump's approach to coronavirus and the economy - cartoon by Steve Bell
 

Steve Bell
March 24, 2020
The Guardian

 

Re: Back to Work? You First
 

Again...

The old union song, "Solidarity Forever" contains this verse:

    They have taken untold millions
    That they never toiled to earn
    But without our brain and muscle
    Not a single wheel can turn
    We can break their haughty power
    Gain our freedom when we learn
    That the union makes us strong
    Words to live by. Literally.

(Make that "Billions" today.)

Geoff Mirelowitz
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

I Want You...To Die  --  meme
 

 

Re: An Emergency Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic
 

It all makes sense in the face of this catastrophic event. But sberveltst_rmfuhrer wants to do the bare minimum for the people.

Karin Pattydukeellington Pritikin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: `Bernie Has a Real Decision to Make': Labor Throws in With Biden

(posting on Portside Labor)
 

Why should Bernie drop out? Would that enhance Biden's chances of beating Trump? Let's take a hard look at this year's political maneuvers. To beat back the challenge from the left, Dem leaders fell in behind Biden, then cut off any negotiations on the most urgent issue, health care. Now that a threatening crisis is fully blown, Sanders uses his candidacy to say out loud what people need to hear bur few dare to speak to. Biden... well, you know.

Ethan Young
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

the reason i can think of him staying in is because he and his delegates can press for a better platform at the Dem convention.

he apparently really made a difference in the Senate with regards to the unemployment compensation increase and also raised hell about the 1/2 trillion $ which will go to corporations with the stimulus package.

Kathy Lipscomb

 

Re: Don't Let Trump Off the Hook for the Coronavirus Crisis
 

Shephard's concluding paragraph:

"It was Trump's choices that put us in the situation we are in now: A collapsing economy, thousands sick across the country, and shelter-in-place orders in a growing number of major American cities. The media can't forget that." 

Just what is it that those in the media straining to be worshipful and to imagine there is a helpful, caring, and most of all, capable parent figure up there to protect us "can't forget?" 

They can't forget the dire situation, that's correct.  But that "It was Trump's choices that put us in the situation" they so far show no sign of remembering, or even of having permitted themselves to know. 

Joseph Maizlish, Los Angeles

 

"I Take No Responsibility"
 

 

Socialism Wins the Republican Primary  --  cartoon by Tom Toles
 

Tom Toles
March 19, 2020
The Washington Post

 

Re: Fox Endangers Viewers. Pence Says, 'Thank You.'
 

When this is over it will be time to make sure Trump is brought to account for his irresponsible words and actions. Faux News hosts should be held accountable as co-conspirators in the damage they allowed to be wreaked on Americans with their lies.

Jack Parker
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Give Trump the credit he deserves: Call the virus The Trump Virus

Cindy Bimby

 

Thank You Essential Workers
 

CSEA Local 815
Erie County, New York

 

Our Heroes
 

Today the first nurse died in Italy from COVID-19, she died fighting the battle to the end, as she once did under oath.

 

Masked Heroes  --  cartoon by Rob Rogers
 

Rob Rogers
March 20, 2020
robrogers.com

 

Grocery Workers Now in the Club  --  cartoon by Theo Moudakis
 

Theo Moudakis
March 24, 2020
Toronto Star

 

To All Janitors and Custodial Workers
 

Thank you to all JANITORS and custodial workers cleaning and sanitizing the facilities that we use.

AgapOMedia
March 20, 2020

 

Re: Meet the Climate Science Deniers Who Downplayed COVID-19 Risks
 

What else can they deny? How about gravity?

Dale Jacobson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Groups in the Koch Network deny science about climate and disease to further their own agenda.

Un-Chain Democracy 
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Heartbreaking that so many people believe every word that comes from these sources.

Barbara Crammer
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

They are all members of the Koch Network.

Frank Kashner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Coronavirus and the `Shock Doctrine'
 

We don't want to let the catastrophe to wire a new kind of corporate interest. And this time the rhetoric is with us. Just as we don't want medical care (insurance) to stay in control of private interests and depend on one's employer, we don't want a guaranteed income to remain there either. For now, there's no choice but to leave the sick leave and pay up to individual employers, following rules laid down by government; the structure is not set up for anything better. But businesses hate this. We can use that to our advantage--this should not be an employer decision and program; it should be a government one. Stop depending on employers for anything except wages, hours, safety conditions, sick and annual leave, coffee breaks, whatever--as it relates to employment. Everything else, whether health insurance, minimum income standards, other necessities (food, housing, etc.) should be government responsibilities. 

Right now is a good time to convince employers, corporations, etc. of this idea and start working to implement it. It's also a great time to let the public know that this is what we're after. We should not be suffering financially just because we are suffering physically. 

Arlene Halfon 

 

Re: US Airlines Pushing for Massive Bailout Gave $45bn to Shareholders in Five Years
 

This is how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Ana Perez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

But they aren't buying as much fuel, they're not paying employees as much when there are fewer flights so, how are they going belly up anyway?

Kenny Kimball
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

They can get a loan for 0 interest. The money needs to go to small businesses and individuals who are out of work.

Naomi Lockwood
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Nope! Get their money back from their stockholders; not everybody flies, and not everybody should pay.

Alan Perry
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Bailout the Cruise Lines -- No Way
 

All the major cruise lines are asking for bailouts from the U.S. Government.

Yet, Disney Cruises sails under the Bahamian flag ... Celebrity Cruises under Liberian/Maltese flags & Carnival Cruises  under the Panamanian flag - all to avoid U.S. taxes & employment law

Sabrina McDaniel
post on Facebook

 

Trump Response  --  cartoon by Dave Granlund
 

Dave Granlund
January 20, 2020

 

Today's Grow It at Home Victory Garden
 

 

Re: What Coronavirus Revealed About National Mindsets Across the World - And How Cuba Came Out on Top
 

"Cuban officials instead accepted the request, stating that there must be "a shared effort to confront and stop the spread of the pandemic". After all, these are still humans suffering, regardless of the passport they hold.

Cuba itself has only had five confirmed cases of Covid-19, and the ship docking could threaten to increase that number exponentially.

This is not the first time Cuban healthcare providers have stepped in to support global emergencies. Cuban doctors were praised after being deployed in West Africa to help during the Ebola crisis. They were said to have put other countries "to shame" following their response to the Haitian earthquake in 2010."

Dave Lott
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

It is disgraceful when hardened people are willing to continue with their stupid political tunnel visions even in a health crisis of world proportions. It says so much about lack of compassion and kindness!

Jose Felipe Gonzalez Pabon
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

And Cuba said, PRESENT.

Evelyn Nieves
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Of course the U.S. wouldn't let them dock. Trump "doesn't want the numbers to go up".

Lori Kaplan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

This is for the hypocrite fanaticism of so called sanctions .

Jos, G. Carrasquillo Ramos
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

God bless Cuba for that.

Danny Jimenez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Cuba is doing a lot for the world. They sent doctors to Italy to help during the emergency, they allow this cruise to anchor and are also active in the research for vaccine and treatment of the coronavirus. Thank you Cuba.

Hanne Baier
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

also they have provided China with their medicine which had a great success ratio on patient recovery.

Javier A Perez Acosta
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Cuba's Coronavirus Response Is Putting Other Countries to Shame
 

not completely true - which claims no one died as a result of Mathew.  According to Wikipedia four died as a result of a bridge collapse.  

"Four people were killed in Cuba due to a bridge collapse, and total losses in the country amounted to US$2.58 billion, most of which occurred in the Guantanamo Province."  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Matthew. 

lefties must be very careful in their reports, so right wingnuts won't be able to claim fake news.  

Bernard Cleyet

     =====

"Cuba's response to the coronavirus pandemic - from sending doctors to other countries to pioneering anti-viral treatments to converting factories into mask-making machines - is putting other countries, even rich countries, to shame."

Of course our jackass in chief wouldn't dream of reaching out for assistance from a "shit hole" country.

Sidney Simmons
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

this is proletarian internationalism at work!

Bruce Bostick
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

It is shocking even beyond expectation that the corporate media says nothing about Cuban medical solidarity and the uses of Interferon (even if commentary would be critical). The BBC News Hour this morning had an interview with a medical professional who reviewed drugs that are in use or in research concerning the virus. No mention was made of Interferon or the treatments used by the Chinese. Unfortunately the corporate media is not to be trusted: for what it prints or what it omits.

Harry Targ
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Speaking of crimes against humanity. What ever happened to our right to know?

Willie Williamson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Why Nigeria Knows Better How to Fight Corona Than the US

...its a mixed situation I must be honest. Nigeria was certainly more proactive in detection at the earlier stage than the US and UK for example. While this was commendable at the front-end phase, however, questions still arise as to steps to be taken when patient numbers increase. I have a great deal of confidence in the DG of the CDC, however, I worry about the general infrastructure, which is a matter beyond his abilities or control.

The one factor in Nigeria's 'favour' is that the projected age demographic that majority of cases shall arise are of younger age - and in most urban centres there is a fair bit of awareness and private initiatives at preventative effort. Even restaurants have hand sanitisers and temperature guns. There were long queues at airports and other public places with people queuing up just to wash their hands.

As for social distancing, that will be the biggest problem. In a society where most of the population subsist on daily income, how do you enforce a total lock-down, without causing civil unrest? Fact is millions of Nigerians, need to head out every day to sell, lift, carry, serve, ferry, and even beg just to earn enough to find one square meal that day. The next considerations, population density, and compulsive mobility based on the demands of survival. It's a tough one, I wish them well. They've got a tough job, but somehow (faith more than logic - I'm sorry), I think we'll pull through this one.

Ed Keazor
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Bringing Christ and Coronavirus: Evangelicals to Contact Amazon Indigenous

The coronavirus is spreading rapidly in Brazil, yet President Bolsonaro has approved a new project to contact and convert isolated Amazon indigenous groups by an evangelical organization with a history of doing deadly harm to indigenous.

Alexandra Del Coro Amengual
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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In the middle of a pandemic??!!! THESE F**KERS ARE ASSASSINS!!!

Kevin Danenberg
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

This made me so angry I could spit.

I loathe Bolsonaro.

 I don't think he is ignorant about what this will do to them.

Emory Thompson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Evangelicals = colonization, cultural appropriation and a cancer type of capitalism that will literally kill these people and their way of life.

LEAVE THEM ALONE.

Jerry Steele
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: The 2020 Election Won't Look Like Any We've Seen Before
 

Reichstag fire, anyone?

Gordon Galland
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: The Coronavirus Might Kill Fracking
 

Oil prices crashing are not because of the Coronavirus, it's falling because Russia and Saudi Arabia are having a gas war.

Russia is trying to stop the USA from fracking.

Henry DiSanti
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Russia & OPEC flooding the market Killed Fracking.
Many people don't like Fracking anyway.

Jean M. Brennan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: After Bernie: How the Left Can Grow and Change the Democratic Party
 

The defeat of Bernie means we can expect more of the same. No real change. All we can hope is to get rid of the worst president in the history of USA.

Joaquin A. Rodriguez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

The electorate is fine ,its the corporate stranglehold that Wall Street GOP/DNC have on all the levers of democracy

Steve Milosic
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Langston Hughes - Domestic Pariah, International Superstar
 

Any similarities to Paul Robeson is not coincidence.

Jose Rinaldi Jovet
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Anyone that wanted independence for Puerto Rico and anyone that wanted desegregation was called a communist.

Susan Llequis
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Black artists have always found more love and acceptance anywhere but America.

Clarence Lawrey
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Black Power!! All you need to have enemies is to tell the truth, like MLK said.

Katy Castro
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Oh, when poets were superstars!

Michael Hersh
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

How many brilliant men and women's careers were destroyed by the likes of McCarthy and JEdgar Hoover, lesser men with no human empathy ?

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

 

CHART: The US Response to COVID-19: What's in Federal Legislation and What's Not, but Still Needed
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 26, 2020
CONTACT: Karen Conner, 202-281-4159, conner@cepr.net

Washington D.C. - This morning, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) published a comparison chart of what is in the two COVID-19 response bills, the compromise bill passed by the Senate, and most importantly, what important protections continue to be missing.

The chart is broken into issue areas, like Paid Family and Medical Leave, Unemployment Insurance, Health Care Capacity, Worker Protections and Support, and more.

This table is based on the two COVID-19 bills enacted by Congress to date—the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act (C1) and Families First Coronavirus Response Act (C2)—and our best understanding of the compromise bill passed by the Senate (C3). We will continue to refine and update this document as more information becomes available.

Full article here.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives.

CEPR was co-founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot in 1999. CEPR's Advisory Board includes Nobel Laureate economists Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz; Janet Gornick, Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center and Director of the Luxembourg Income Study; and Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)
1611 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 293-5380
cepr@cepr.net

 

As Racist Coronavirus Rhetoric Fuels Bigotry, Advocates Launch Reporting Tool
 

By  Laura Wenus
March 20 2020
San Francisco Public Press

As the coronavirus has spread, racist harassment and attacks against Asian Americans have mounted – Chinese restaurants and markets have seen declining patronage, children have been bullied by their peers for perceived links to China and transit riders reported being targeted by insults and outright violence. Federal officials have repeatedly referred to the coronavirus as “Chinese,” with one CBS correspondent saying an official even called it “Kung Flu” in her presence. In response, a coalition of Asian American and Pacific Islander advocacy groups have launched a reporting tool to collect data about bigoted acts that could help develop policies to address them. Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco, says giving people a place to report acts of racist aggression can also help them feel less alone and demonstrate to governments how grave the problem really is.

“When we started hearing about these incidents, directly and in social media and through our scan of news reports, we quickly approached different state agencies to say, ‘hey, could you help us track this? This is happening at such an alarming rate.’ And we couldn't get a response. And so we decided to take this on ourselves.” — Cynthia Choi

Listen here