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Friday Nite Videos | Dec 29, 2017

Portside
What “Casablanca” Teaches About Refugees and Compassion. Tracy Chapman - Give Me One Reason (Lyrics). How Trump Makes Extreme Things Look Normal. How the Animal Kingdom Sleeps. The Post | Movie.

Tidbits - December 28, 2017 - Reader Comments: Poverty in the U.S.; Refugees; Coates and West; Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers; AI Jobs; Russia and Korea; Catalonia and Spain; Chicago and HUAC; and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: Poverty - Running thru the U.S.; Refugees; Ta-Nehisi Coates and Cornel West; Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers; AI Jobs Revolution and nature of work and workers; Russia and Korea; Catalonia and Spain; Portside's New Look; Subversive Involvement: Chicago and HUAC - Tribute to Dr. Quentin Young - Chicago - January 12

A Subversive Bull: Robert Lawson and The Story of Ferdinand

Philip Kennedy Illustration Chronicles
Published by Viking Press in 1936, the release of Ferdinand came during the era of the Great Depression. That year also saw the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. In light of these events, Ferdinand started to take on a much greater significance. Ferdinand, the bull presented a Spanish character who stood out from society and refused to fight. Those who supported the violent uprising that was led by Francisco Franco viewed it as pacifist propaganda and they banned its publication.

Let Yemenis Live

Kathy Kelly Common Dreams
Just over 1,000 days of Saudi-led coalition war against the Houthi rebels in Yemen has been deadly and devastating for Yemeni civilians. The UN says that 7 - 8 million Yemenis are one step away from starvation. The BBC reports that more than 80% of Yemenis lack food, fuel, water and access to health care. The number of suspected cholera cases in Yemen has reached one million, according to the International Commission of the Red Cross.

Extreme Poverty Returns to America

Premilla Nadasen Washington Post
U.N. study finds growing numbers of Americans are living in the most impoverished circumstances. The growth of extreme poverty in the land of plenty is an indicator that we shouldn't be talking about how to slash spending on social programs, but how to expand services and better meet the needs of the vulnerable among us. One and a half million American households live in extreme poverty today, nearly twice as many as 20 years ago.

US Nuclear Tests Killed Far More Civilians Than We Knew

Tim Fernholz Quartz
When the US entered the nuclear age, it did so recklessly. New research suggests that the hidden cost of developing nuclear weapons were far larger than previous estimates, with radioactive fallout responsible for 340,000 to 690,000 American deaths from 1951 to 1973. The nuclear bombs dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in 250,000 deaths. And now, Donald Trump is threatening to use nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.

A Path to Power for the American Left

Ethan Young The Indypendent
The left’s role is to move opposition in the direction of politics — enabling working people to apply pressure when it can change the situation in their favor, building their (small-d) democratic strength. This is our mission inside and outside the Democratic Party, in social movements, in unions and in intellectual settings.

Ta-Nehisi Coates & Cornel West: Black Academics and Activists Give Their Verdict

Ta-Nehisi Coates and Cornel Wes Ta-Nehisi Coates and Cornel West. ‘We cannot simply abandon debate when it has become intense.’ Composite: Andre Chung/WashintMelvin Rogers, Patrisse Cullors, Carol Anderson, Shailja Patel The Guardian
Commentators Melvin Rogers, Patrisse Cullors, Carol Anderson and Shailja Patel discuss the impact of the debate and struggle for racial equality.