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Tidbits - July 7, 2016 - Reader Comments: Bernie and What Next; Indigenous Peoples; Hawaii; Dominican Republic; Tair Kaminer; Israel; Elie Wiesel; Socialism; Resources; Announcement; and more...

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Reader Comments: Bernie, Endorse?, What Next?; Dominican Republic; Indigenous Peoples in US; Hawaii; Tair Kaminer - Israeli Political Prisoner - Inspiring People Worldwide; Elie Wiesel - Responses to Max Blumenthal; Austrian Election Update; On Socialism; on the IWW; Angry response to post about Viet Thanh Nguyen; Resources: The Invention of the White Race; Mining and Resistance in Dinétah; Announcement: From Sanders to the Grassroots: National Student Conference

From Brexit to the Future

Joseph E. Stiglitz Project Syndicate
On both sides of the Atlantic, citizens are seizing upon trade agreements as a source of their woes. While this is an over-simplification, it is understandable. Today's trade agreements are negotiated in secret, with corporate interests well represented, but ordinary citizens or workers completely shut out. Not surprisingly, the results have been one-sided: workers' bargaining position has been weakened further, compounding the effects of legislation undermining unions.

Did Identity Politics Destroy Sanders' Chance of Winning?

Linda Martín Alcoff The Indypendent
A thoughtful and nuanced look at the role identity played in this year's primary contest between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton by a Sanders supporter. Hillary's passionate female (and male feminist) supporters are speaking with sincerity about their hopes for a gender revolution. The reality is that women work for less pay; do more childcare; are often single parents; must weather sexual harassment, abuse, and assault throughout their lives...

U.S. Democracy Stuck in an "Inequality Trap"

Kavya Vaghul Washington Center for Equitable Growth
The disgraceful history of voter disenfranchisement is no secret. For more than a century, African Americans (and other marginalized groups) were restricted or evendisqualified from voting. Today these practices are formally outlawed, yet we still see patterns in voter turnout that indicate that voting discrimination is alive and well. Non-voters also tend to be younger, less educated, and less affluent than their voting counterparts.

New Wave of Police Brutality and Racial Terror - Alton Sterling Murdered in Deep South; Philando Castile Slain in North

Shaun King; Terrance Heath; Color of Change
It happened again this week, as it has happened more than 100 times so far this year. Police in Louisiana and Minnesota shot and killed two more black men. Stop asking us to be calm. Stop asking us to wear the mask. Stop asking us to take whips, nooses and now police bullets without emotion. In the words of Fannie Lou Hamer, "We are sick and tired of being sick and tired." Two years after Ferguson, police induced murders are continuing...#BlackLivesMatter

It Is Important to Have Perspective on Elie Wiesel's Legacy

Max Blumenthal AlterNet
By popularizing an understanding of the Holocaust as a unique event that existed outside of history, Wiesel helped cast Jews as history's ultimate victims. In turn, he fueled support for the walled-in Spartan state that was supposed to represent their deliverance. In the face on increasingly unspeakable crimes against Palestinians, Wiesel counseled silence: "I must identify with whatever Israel does -- even with her errors."

Private Prisons Are Shrouded In Secrecy

Shane Bauer Mother Jones
Mother Jones Senior Reporter Shane Bauer has previously reported on solitary confinement, police militarization, and the Middle East. Here he writes about his four months as a private prison guard.