Tidbits – Aug. 8 – Reader Comments: 2024 Elections: Democratic Convention, Harris, Walz, Uncommitted Movement; Israel Killing Hamas Leaders Who Want Ceasefire; Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Biden Issues a Stinging Dissent to SCOTUS; Cartoons;

Reader Comments: 2024 Elections: Democratic Convention, Harris, Walz, Uncommitted Movement; Israel Killing Hamas Leaders Who Want Ceasefire; Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Biden Issues a Stinging Dissent to SCOTUS; Lots of Cartoons; more....

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Tidbits - Reader Comments AND cartoons - August 8, 2024,Portside

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Re: The Energy Has Changed. The Underlying Politics Have Not.
 

It means that continued behavior by progressives favors the election of Donald Trump. The Middle East quagmire is not one sided. What do we say of the 7000 rockets fired into Israel each year. The attack on a soccer field filled with children. Where is the outrage? There are few more progressive than me. I acknowledge the complex issues of the Middle East. In their quest to win this battle, those people who fail to grasp this moral dilemma will lose the war. We must unite behind Harris and defeat Donald Trump in November.

David Boim
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Uncommitted Movement Demands Speaker at Democratic Convention
 

we support Kamala, but we deserve to be heard.

Paul Buhle
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Krazy Kat Lady corners the rats  --  Cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz

 

Lalo Alcaraz
August 1, 2024
pocho.com

 

The Elephant in the Womb

 

 

Re: Israel Has a History of Killing Hamas Leaders Who Are Trying To Secure Ceasefires
 

The right-wing Israeli government has become the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East. They seem to want to kill as many Palestinians as possible and don't appear to care if their own citizens get killed as hostages in the process.

Judyth Hollub
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Orange Crush Coming Soon  --  Meme

 

Americans For Progressive Change

 

Re: ‘GOP Has No Answer for This’: Pollster Says Harris Campaign Close to Becoming a ‘Movement’
 

I don't think the new Movement is about Harris. If I'm an example, it's one of cautious optimism, as opposed to the forced "Uncommitted" we had when there was no chance of having a real choice. It could still change if whoever she chooses as VP is so awful in one or more respects that we have to return to "non-committed" This could happen with issues dealing with Israel-Palestine, Immigration, Economic, climate, or something else.

Whether he wants it or not, the only VP choice that remains safe is Bernie. He can resign once they are elected and he becomes certain he's too old to do the job or just doesn't want it.

Arlene Halfon

 

Today We Are Going to Learn About...Wage Theft

 

Daniela Battistella

 

Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki  --  "Nagasaki Journey"

 

Here, you will find a short (2 min. 3 sec.) excerpt made from an HD version of:

"Nagasaki Journey" (1995).

You may find this documentary bundled with:
"Dark Circle"
By Judy Irving (Director) & Chris Beaver (Director).
Rated: NR 
Format: DVD

Sumiteru Taniguchi (Taniguchi Sumiteru, 26 January 1929 – 30 August 2017).

The following text is from a 2015 web page (now deleted, it seems):

This is what a man who survived an atomic bomb explosion looks like.
The old man showed his wounds to the public as part of the action of the group of Nagasaki survivors, which he leads and which fights against the spread of nuclear weapons in the world
08.08.2015

Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The frail body of 86-year-old Sumiteri Taniguchi is full of scars, which have been on his skin for 70 years. This old man was among the tens of thousands of victims of the atomic bomb that destroyed the Japanese port city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

He is still unable to fully straighten his left arm, while his wife puts cream on his wounds every morning to make them less bothersome.

After the attack, three of his ribs rotted away and their remains are still pressing on his lungs, leaving unnatural swellings on his scarred chest.

The old man showed his wounds to the public as part of the action of a group of Nagasaki survivors that he leads and which fights against the spread of nuclear weapons in the world.

"Daily Mail" writes that he and his group hope that no one will experience the suffering of a nuclear attack again.

Taniguchi was just 16 when the five-ton plutonium bomb, known as "The Fat Man," exploded 50 meters above his hometown of Nagasaki, on the western Japanese island of Kyushu.

That city was one of Japan's most important ports, providing key access to Shanghai.

It was two minutes past noon when the bomb was detonated, the second such atomic explosion in Japan in just three days.

Just 72 hours earlier the first nuclear weapon ever used had been used on Hiroshima. Up to 226.000 people were killed in the two attacks.

Taniguchi was then working as a letter carrier as a teenager and a powerful explosion knocked him off his bicycle.

It was located a little more than 1,6 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion that killed 70.000 people there.

Stunned after the impact, he wandered aimlessly for three days, completely unaware of the severity of his injuries.

He felt something like torn clothes hanging from his back, shoulders and arms, only to realize later that it was his skin.

After being rescued, he spent 21 months lying on his stomach receiving treatment for his burned back, decaying flesh and protruding bones.

Constantly passing out and coming back to consciousness, he could hear the sisters walking down the hall outside his room asking each other if the boy in the room was still breathing.

He lay so motionless that the still young bones of his left arm fused together and blocked the joint, disabling it for life.

A few hours after the second attack, more than three million leaflets were dropped on Japan from American planes.

They warned the Japanese people that more atomic bombs would be dropped "again and again" to destroy that country, if the war did not stop.

Japan surrendered six days later.

Feel free to share the excerpt.

Seyn Laproyen

 

Re: Protest and Serve
 

Maybe some groups could get together as there are too many groups advocating for systemic change but operating independently. Yes, I know that you already know this.

Brad Smith

 

Olympics ... Diversity

 

 

History Doesn't Repeat Itself - But Sometimes It Echoes

 

i

Solidarity INFO Service

 

Re: Revealed: US Officials Are Investing Public Funds in Israeli Bonds in Deals That Raise Ethics Concerns
 

Very informative article. The amounts invested in Israel Bonds by US states are enormous and seem to provide an incentive to continue the assaults on Gaza and weapons sales. Only moves toward peace are in the interests of Israeli, Gazan, US people and all people in the world. Hope the conflict of interest type complaints are successful.

Sonia Cobbins
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: New ‘Battery Belt’ Opens Organizing Front in the South

(posting on Portside Labor)
 

Good luck.

I wouldn't be too fast believing all these plans will take off any time soon. The market has gone soft, no infrastructure, recession is looming. Will you be buying a $10k car for over $55k on your salary? What about emissions at these plants and energy costs?

The White House is no Henry Ford to make these vehicles affordable. 

Natalya Panteleyeva

 

Double Weird  --  Cartoon by Mike Luckovich
 

Mike Luckovich
August 1, 2024
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Re: Joe Biden Issues a Stinging Dissent to SCOTUS
 

See, I do read this stuff.  The Portside article below about the Supreme Court carries mostly talking points but has one super alarming concept challenging our republican (small r) form of government.  I think it is the third or fourth paragraph from the end.  Specifically this sentence.

He is, of course, far from the first president to do this — Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt come to mind — but he is the first modern Democratic president to recognize that the court as constituted is a major obstacle to the party's ability to govern in accordance with its popular mandate.

A republic was selected as our form of government by the framers over a true democracy to curb the power of the "popular mandate."  In a true democracy a group of three could vote to execute one of the group.  In that true democracy that popular mandate would send him to meet his maker.  

At this time the current administration is thwarted by an independent court adhering to the concept of originalism which the writer deems invalid.  He is entitled to his opinion.  I'm not sure what the writer actually wants the Supreme Court to be as long as it gets out of this (emphasis added) administration's way.  

While he firmly believes the court has been wrong in recent decisions the idea that the court should be subject to the temporary whims of a true democracy stands in direct contrast to the original intentions of the founders.  Hence the idea of checks and balances found throughout the constitution.

As a side comment, my belief is that the founders were much better educated and more qualified to form a government than anyone (again, emphasis) now living.  There is no way the current crop could match the US constitution.  Their goal was not the one perfect form of government, they were wise enough to set "more perfect" as the goal.

You may share this as you wish.

Gary Lemke

 

New Supreme Court Robes  --  Cartoon by Benjamin Slyngstad

 

Benjamin Slyngstad
July 1, 2024
@SlyngCartoons

 

Not see it coming  --  Cartoon by Clay Jones

 

Clay Jones
July 22, 2024
@claytoonz

 

Re: Schools for Struggle: For a Workers’ Education Movement

(posting on Portside Labor)
 

If you are going to make any effort to set up worker's study groups i would suggest that you first educate yourself about labor history. You give credit to the Ruther Bros. for what happened in the Flint Sit Down Strike though the actual leader of the strike, the main organizer, was Bob Travis.

    The Flint Sit-Down Strike 1936-1937
    These Green Times
    Sept 29, 2023
    

J.P. Bone

 

Re: Have We Outgrown the CSA Model?

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

Good for the white middle class with cars and stuff. For others? Where do poor people get the money to pay up front? Or have we given up on the poor?

Charles Patrick Lynch
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Behind The Headlines - Dissecting ABC News  -- Assal Rad

 

Assal Rad
August 6, 2024