Tidbits – Aug. 1 – Reader Comments: Netanyahu’s Bellicose Congressional Address; VP Pick Who Could Ruin Unity; Sonya Massey Should Still Be Alive; Unarmed Response; Top 1% Have More Wealth Than Entire Middle Class; Week of Action for Utility Justice

Reader Comments: Netanyahu’s Bellicose Congressional Address; VP Pick Who Could Ruin Unity; Sonya Massey Should Still Be Alive; Argument for Unarmed Response; Top 1% Have More Wealth Than Entire Middle Class; Week of Action for Utility Justice; more

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Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, AND cartoons - Aug. 1, 2024,Portside

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Re: Netanyahu’s Bellicose Congressional Address Draws Scorn

Yup. Someone said he was giving a stump speech for the Israeli voters (it was aired in Israel) , not really for us.

He's NOT on the verge of signing a cease fire deal if he can get away with it.

Carolyn Toll Oppenheim
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

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Israel's Gaza Peace Plan (2014)  --  Cartoon by Mike Luckovich

 

Mike Luckovich
July 22, 2014
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Re: The One Vice Presidential Pick Who Could Ruin Democratic Unity
 

For me, the one choice for VP is someone who doesn't want the job, knows he's too old, and would help any of the good possibilities get elected. He would get behind good policy as he had started to do with Biden and good economic policy. It would be someone who would unite old and young and bring back the "Uncommitted (like me)." It would be someone committed to the good of the country and the world and not himself and would get out of the way when no longer needed to make the needed changes.

It would be Bernie Sanders who could resign, whenever he chose, after he moved us to, and may have accomplished, his goals.

I talk to a lot of people, including Trumpites. Mostly the latter are wealthy and don't want equitable taxes, fair wages or positive immigration policies. But there are others: People on the opposite end of the economic scale: My Uber drivers, people sleeping on the street and those hanging out on park benches. They say "The Democrats" or "Biden" don't care about poor people; he/they doesn't/don't bother to talk to us, the poor people and immigrants; they talk to the people who aren't rich but have enough money (I.e. the middle class).

Trump talks to them even if he's lying. When they ask me who I like and I say "Bernie", the reaction is almost universally is "yes, he's the best but 'THEY' are never going to give us a chance to vote for him. 'They' won't give us that choice so we have to vote for Trump." When I first started hearing this, I was shocked. How can the same people like them both (both ends of the political spectrum) but over the past two years, it's happened so many times, I'm no longer surprised. Yesterday, a woman yelled "Yes" and started to applaud. She yelled, "we'd get everyone."

A Harris-Sanders Ticket, with Harris' positions on Israel-Palestine, Economic Reform, anti-slavery (e.g., reproductive rights and no return to a military draft) is a winning formula. Then Bernie can choose his successor and become Secretary of Whatever is his major interest, which could get all his attention.

"BERNIE FOR VEEP."

Arlene Halfon

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On June 4 Shapiro was about to send the state cops onto the University of Pittsburgh campus to crack heads, arrest protesters, and violently destroy the Gaza solidarity encampment. The only reason it didn't happen is because Mayor Ed Gainey -- a real progressive -- intervened and negotiated a peaceful end to the encampment. Shapiro had similarly threatened the Gaza encampment at the Univ. of Pennsylvania earlier. He is currently pushing for legislation that would deny state funds to any college or university that divests from Israel, and has adopted an executive order threatening any state employee who manifests any sympathy with the Palestinians, Shapiro is a friend of Israel and an enemy of free speech, and this Pennsylvanian strongly opposes him.

Alan Hart
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I have heard Shapiros name and also Pritzker

Patricia Dowling
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota. From Midwest, From rural state, with full backing from labor and many progressives.

"Democrats can have Tim Walz on the ticket, who called the anti-war, pro-Palestinian ‘uncommitted’ movement “civically engaged” and praised them for “asking for a change in course” and “for more pressure to be put on” the White House, or they can have Josh Shapiro, who called for a crackdown on anti-war, pro-Palestinian college protesters and even compared them to the KKK.

...They can have Walz, who guaranteed students in Minnesota not just free breakfasts but free lunches, or Shapiro, who has courted controversy in Pennsylvania with his support for school vouchers.

...They can have Walz, who calls his Republican opponents “weird” and extreme, or Kelly, who calls his Republican opponents “good people” who are “working really hard”.

Why Kamala Harris should pick Tim Walz as her running mate
    

Jay Schaffner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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There. are a lot of reasons that it should be Mark Kelly

Gary Bono
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Two points, critical for all Progressives & members of the Gaza Solidarity movement to face. 1. What you care most about will be disastrously worse under Trump. 2. If you don’t show up and vote for Harris (even if you have to “ hold your nose”), you help Trump win. I’m sorry, but every one I’ve heard say “I just can’t vote for the Democrats if they don’t do EVERYTHING I want”, needs to get over themselves. The future of this Country, this planet, is bigger than your “principles”. If you sit this one out, the lives of Palestinian civilians gets way worse, and even more innocent children will die.

Steve Nathan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Steve Nathan:  Progressives I know are not sitting this one out. We are organizing to get a massive vote to defeat the MAGA fascists. That means electing Kamala Harris President. Don't know what "progressives" you are referring to.

Jay Schaffner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Mark Kelly for the WIN !!!

Mora Newman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Glad this piece it out there. I think that Shapiro’s position on Gaza War will scratch him off the list

Billy Easton
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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He’s one of a small group of contenders. I think her position on Israel will make her turn away from him. She has other choices and she may surprise us with someone not in the lineup.

Marguerite Cyr
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Call me cynical but as a Jewish American, opposition to Israel's atrocious treatment of the Palestinian people aside, I think a ticket that would include a Jewish first gentleman, Jewish VP and second lady would be way too Jewy for the American electorate. Polls show Harris with a good lead in PA already. Obama had to protest that he was real and pick a white Christian VP to become our first Black President. I'd advise Harris to do the same to become first woman

Felice Sage
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Super Prosecutor  --  Cartoon by Rob Rogers

 

Rob Rogers
July 30, 2024
TinyView.com

 

Re: JD Vance’s “Childless Cat Ladies” Comment Points to the GOP’s Right-Wing Media Problem
 

In the hopes that the Republicans self destruct before they attempt to seize power. During the 50's the Right was marginalized and the Civil Rights Movement was extremely effective.

Roy Schulman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Palestinian-American Congresswoman Is the Lone Protester at Netanyahu’s Speech
 

By all indications, the courageous congresswoman from Detroit is now the UAW's favorite member of Congress. Good for the UAW and good for Rashida!

Alan Hart
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Sonya Massey Should Still Be Alive

 

 

Re: Sonya Massey’s Killing Argues for Unarmed Response
 

Having police respond to every type of crisis is like trying to use a hammer to do every repair in your home.

Robert Laite
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I live in Eugene, OR , the birthplace of unarmed response.  Its called CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets.)  It came out of our hippy-culture free clinic, White Bird.  Before getting city funding, it operated a van or two, with an emt and a psych tech or social worker, helping people having mental health, drug, or other crises on the streets.  After a while it got adopted by the city, funded through the police budget, dispatched through the 911 system.  It expanded from 1 van to 3 or more, spread to neighboring Springfield.

The police department fought the program tooth and nail... for a year.  After the first year, they have pushed for more funds for CAHOOTS, more vans, saying, "We couldn't do our job without CAHOOTS."  One officer told me, "Look, I'm a hammer.  If you want a screw put into a plank, I can do it, but you're not going to like the result, and it won't do the screw or the plank any favors." 

But it is not all easy.  In order to access better Federal and State funding, the program is now funded through the joint Eugene/Springfield Fire Department.  It is still dispatched through 911.  But the job is highly stressful, as you can imagine.  And the pay ain't all that great, consequently, recently CAHOOTS had to turn some funds back over to the city, because it could not find people who would take the job and had to leave some positions open.  It needs more funding, like everything else (except billionaire's bank accounts).

There is also a fly in the ointment.  If there is a report of a weapon, or some really unsafe situation, CAHOOTS will decline to take the call.  In terms of families with members having mental crises, there is a dirty secret, pretty well known.  Your kid is freaking out, breaking things, screaming insanities.  You call 911.  They say someone will come.  You ask for CAHOOTS.  Nothing happens for an hour.  Two hours.  Why?  Its evening, there is one CAHOOTS van rolling, and 4 police cruisers.  There are 130,000 people in the city, and your kid isn't the only one coming unglued.  But if you know the secret words, you can bump this call up to the top of the priority response list.  The magic words are, "threat to self or others."  That will bring a response right smartly.  But it is likely to be a pair of guys in uniform, carrying Glocks.  Which will often set off a reaction in the unwell individual.  The outcome can be ugly.  But if the person is a reported threat, CAHOOTS doesn't want to put its people in danger.

What this latest horror illustrates is not the need for disarming or defunding cops.  It IS a very good argument for being damned careful who you hire at police officers, and making sure you keep tabs on THEIR mental state.  The cop who murdered her had a record of misconduct and had frequently switched jobs.  In Eugene, out of 100 applicants, sometimes 50% never show for the physical test, some wash out of the psych exam.  Others fail in training.  Unlike almost all other departments, the Eugene PD not only calls when doing background checks.  They will fly out an investigator to interview the prospective hire's family, friends, employers, fellow workers, and if it is an officer transferring, his employment records and talk with his supervisors and others.  Like all departments our EPD is understaffed, but in all cases before hiring the chief sits and talks with them for a while.  And if he feels there is a problem, even after they've passed all the tests and taken all the training, they are not hired.  Recently he questioned 6 who had all passed up to that point.  And flushed all 6.

We have  plenty of work still to do here, but while we must create and properly fund many programs for unarmed response, we can also greatly reduce police murders by being more careful who we hire, and taking  better care of them.  And we need to remember, in this gun-saturated society, every police killing is not a murder.  We've had 3 here in recent years.  One of a guy who fired two shots point blank at two officers, one of a guy who had taken an officer's taser and was hammering the cop's head against the curb, and a third who was running at an officer with a knife, as the officer frantically backed up and yelled at the guy to stop.  Not one was a murder.  There are police murders, and this one was yet another in a terrible long string.  But we must be careful, if we call every police killing a murder we misunderstand the situation badly and cannot make useful suggestions as to how to change it.

Jack Radey

 

Supreme Court Reforms  --  Cartoon by Nick Anderson

 

Nick Anderson
July 30, 2024
Pen Strokes

 

Re: Climate Activists Score Major Win in Campaign To Electrify DC
 

Sometimes some of us win some — and we share and grow our work together. 

Portside comments, “An inside look at the vision and strategy behind Extinction Rebellion D.C.’s campaign that is blocking $12 billion in new fossil fuel infrastructure.”
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/07/climate-activists-score-major-win-electrify-dc-campaign/

Kipp Dawson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Joseph E. Stiglitz: The Road to Freedom
 

Via Portside comes this very good interview with Joseph Stiglitz. The inflationary dangers posed by Trump are clearly explained. Stiglitz favors trust busting to address some inflation issues.. But how about something that would directly help us in the supermarket and finding homes: price controls?

Daniel Millstone
Posted on Facebook

 

Re: The IDF Just Destroyed a Key Rafah Water Facility Rachel Corrie Spent Her Last Month of Life Defending
 

These people think like the Nazis did.

Buzz Davis, Vets for Peace in Tucson

      =====

Further proof that Israel is committing genocide.

John Thompson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

New Subway Signs

 

 

Re: Venezuelan Opposition Cries Fraud; People Reelect President Maduro
 

The world has seen this MOVIE produced by Washington DC/Capitol, CIA, and mainstream media. The title is numerous: Intervention, destabilization, coup de tat, assassination.

Allan Baluyot

 

Top 1% of U.S. Now Have More Wealth Than Entire Middle Class  --  Federal Reserve
 

The upper class was always waging class warfare. But now that the working class is aware and attempting to fight back, its "sowing division". Wealth is a zero-sum game because there are finite resources. That's why us working class folks get poorer every year as the upper class gets wealthier.

And no, there isn't enough to go around.

    Homes "unaffordable" in 99% of nation for average American
    CBS News Money Watch
    Sept. 28, 2023
    

Dystopian Daily
Post on Facebook

 

Re:  The Patriarchs: How Men Came To Rule 

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

The Author and the moderators at Portside might want to read Frederick Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.

Phil G.

 

Tribute to Jane McAlevey  --  Watch on Demand (for a limited time)

 

If you missed this Saturday's tribute to Jane McAlevey, for a limited time you can watch it on demand, in the language of your choice, using the following link and passcode: https://eu01web.zoom.us/webinar/register/rec/WN_dr_jNu5tQPq-yyO6WIapnw#/registration
Passcode: c=01cXzS

 

Week of Action for Utility Justice: August 12-18  --  Nationwide Actions  (People's Action Institute and 350.org)

 

We are taking action against the monopoly utility industry to demand affordable, clean, and safe energy. Join an action near you to take our power back from the for profit utility industry.

Click here

As summer heat waves are devastating communities across the country, People’s Action Institute and 350.org are joining together for a week of action to demand utility companies stop profiting from the climate crisis while we struggle to pay our energy bills.

Energy is a human right. We need to stay warm when it’s cold, and to stay cool when it’s hot. We need hot water to bathe and cook, and some of us even rely on electricity for oxygen.

We pay energy bills to meet our families’ basic needs—and yet the people who get that money spend it on energy sources that are unreliable, expensive, and burning up the planet. They raise our rates for their own profit, and then they turn off our power in seconds if we don’t pay them enough money. Monopoly utilities spend ratepayer money—our money—on political lobbying, joining Big Oil billionaires to oppose clean energy and instead pad their wallets by keeping us dependent on dirty energy sources, even when we have safe and affordable alternatives.  

That doesn’t add up. And it doesn’t have to be this way.

This August 12–18, People’s Action member organizations and 350.org Network Council are taking action across the country to send a clear message to our elected officials, regulators, and utility companies.

Here are our demands:

  1.  Ensure reliable and affordable energy for all.
  2.  Transition to 100% clean renewable energy.
  3.  Energy systems run by and for the people — democratic ownership and decision-making for energy generation & distribution.
FIND AN ACTION NEAR YOU

We can’t wait to see you in August!

People's Action  
P.O. Box 221000
Chicago IL 60622

info@peoplesaction.org
(312) 243-3035