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Tidbits - November 3, 2016 - Reader Comments: How American Politics Has Changed; Labor and Standing Rock; Remembering Tom Hayden; The Cubs; Syria; Resources; Announcements; and more...

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Reader Comments: How American Politics Has Changed - Rigging the Election and Defeating Trumpism; Labor and Standing Rock - #NoDAPL; Vietnam Remembers Tom Hayden; Cubs Tribute; Push Obama to Pardon Oscar L¢pez Rivera; Resources: Gender pay gap calculator; How do we move people?; Children's books with social justice themes; African American Pamphlets and Magazines archive; Announcements: New York, Seattle, Washington, DC, Chicago; and more....

A Solid Trump Exposé That Gives Hillary a Pass

Michael Hirsch New Politics
A new book on Donald Trump is as revealing of the foibles and dangers of this reactionary, mysogynistic megalomanic as any honest and brutal piece of opposition research can be. It's also a latent warning of how a future hard right candidate might succeed absent Trump's egregious vulnerabilities. The reviewer faults the book for what it doesn't offer and some readers might expect; any indication that centrist Hillary Clinton is no sure friend of working people.

It Is Rigged…and We Must Revolt

Guy Standing Working-Class Perspectives
The system is rigged — by an evolving form of capitalism that undermines genuine ‘free trade’. Rising inequality is fomenting anger and desperation. A revolt is coming, but its direction is uncertain. Some fall prey to neo-fascist appeals of Donald Trump or Marine Le Pen. They will not be stopped by scorn alone. We need a progressive alternative focused on building a new income distribution system for the citizenry, not for the oligarchy.

#FreeBresha: We See You

Deana G. Lewis Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership
Fourteen-year-old Bresha Meadows was jailed this past summer for defending herself, her mother, and her siblings, a number of organizers and activists inserted ourselves into Bresha's story and timeline to fight for and with Bresha. She is still locked up at Trumbull County Juvenile Detention Center in Warrren, Ohio.

El Salvador Lessons for the TPP Fight

Robin Broad and John Cavanagh Inequality.org
Although the people of El Salvador won a victory when a ruling denied a company compensation for a mine that popular opposition preventing a mine from operating on their land, they should never had to go through this seven-year legal battle in the first place. Such “investor rights” are the most extreme example of excessive power granted to corporations through trade agreements and are the reason the TPP must be defeated.

Edward Albee’s Beautiful Venom

Shehryar Fazli Los Angeles Review of Books
Edward Albee, who died September 16 at age 88, was a major force in U.S. literature and one of the American theater's most significant playwrights. In this essay, Shehryar Fazli offers some insight into Albee's art by focusing our attention on his landmark 1963 play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Everybody Loves Bernie. Here's Why.

Matt Karp Jacobin
Bernie Sanders is the most-liked politician in the United States. What does that mean for the future of left politics here?

Union Rejects SEPTA's First Post-Strike Offer

Jason Laughlin philly.com
The major issues are health coverage, pensions and work rules. Pensions rankle TWU members because theirs don't increase if a worker makes more than $50,000 a year, meaning a union member will receive no more than $30,000 a year in pension payments after retirement even if they earned more than $50,000 when they retired. By contrast, managers with Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority] have no pension caps.