Re: Fund Black Futures, Not More Cops: Protest Shuts Down Streets at Policing Convention

 

For some reason, a column written 40 years ago by Washington Post conservative columnist George Will has always stayed in my mind.  Speaking of the Black ghettos of that day, and what needed to be done, he commented (this from my memory) that, "we don't really NEED to do anything about them -- but, of course, we will."

 

Of course, "we" didn't.  Policy remains: our (now global) economy does not need these young people.  Let them kill each other, or do whatever they want, as long as they don't bother us too much.  We don't NEED to do anything, from the point of view of those of us in protected communities - AND, OF COURSE, WE WILL NOT.

 

Much of what was done to expand civil rights in this country was done to minimize our overseas embarrassment over domestic conditions, as U.S. corporations expanded their global economic operations, further reducing their need for U.S. workers, black or white.

 

Do "they" (corporate America) need any of us?

 

Less and less, unless we organize in a way that threatens their interests.

 

Carl Proper

 

 

 

 

 

Re: Harry Belafonte on Activism, Unrest and the Importance of Making People Squirm

 

I LOVE Harry Belafonte. Via Portside "But more than his music, Belafonte is known for his activism. A confidant to Martin Luther King Jr., he financed the 1961 Freedom Rides and helped orchestrate the March on Washington. Today, Belafonte focuses on activism around youth incarceration and race in America."

 

Sheila Parks

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

 

 

 

 

Re: Socialism: No Longer a Dirty Word; Making a Comeback Around the World

 

Great piece by MSSmith in Portside on resurgence of socialism as a viable economic model.

Congratulations to all

 

Abdeen Jabara

 

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Are socialist leaders less likely to start wars of aggression?  Bernie Sanders says he is a democratic socialist, and his oratory about the unequal distribution of wealth is promising and is gaining him support.  But he is not challenging - except in small and infrequent ways -the U.S. military-industrial complex or our leader's proclivity toward genocidal imperialism. So if he becomes president he may be able to shepherd through Congress some limited changes to help the poor and the middle class which would certainly be a big step in the right direction. However, some of our major allies in Europe who are former colonial powers and members of NATO are almost as hawkish as is the U.S.in the international arena. Will the U.S. be able to become less belligerent?

 

Jim Lucas

 

 

 

 

 

Re: Can Sanderistas Create a True Leftist Movement?

 

Good article. Mostly noncontroversial to a Portside audience. However, its big omission is likely to, in reality, be the key reason that the agenda described in the article fails to be achieved, if that happens. Namely, of the list of "causes" Myerson gives so easily, none speaks directly to racism (the immigration one does partially) nor to the justice system, incarceration, police killings nor the other manifestations of racism/white supremacy, especially toward Black people. If Black (working class) people are not a key part of this effort it will fail and so far they are not. Some people are trying to do it, but pieces like Myerson's do not move us closer. He needs to demonstrate the capacity to learn that Sanders has demonstrated so far. If that happens and Black people coin this effort in numbers, then we might actually get someplace, finally, in getting millions of "whites", most of whom are working class of course, to begin to confront and reject the heritage that has divided and weakened the people's struggle for 350 years (since 1670 or so) since Bacon's Rebellion and its aftermath.

 

Joe Berry

 

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Meyerson scores another point for the post-McCarthy paranoid left of not for today.  For tomorrow.  What a great organizing tool.  Work for Bernie because he's not going to win but we'll get there someday. It reminds of the old Woody Guthrie song about Pie in the Sky.  It doesn't work.

 

The movement is already being built. People are in motion everywhere on many different issues.  Bernie Sanders is the best possible person to be in the White House (and we do need a good Congress) and support all of those movements. Noone has a crystal ball but it's enough of self-anointed progressives saying Bernie's not going to win.  That becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.  It doesn't work on the streets.  It never has and it never will.

 

Claire Carsman

 

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Meyerson says absolutely nothing about our war economy and seeking to dominate all countries in terms of what is needed post election! And bernie just may win. 

 

Lee Loe, 

86-year-old TX grandmother

 

 

 

 

 

Re: 'Gasoline on the Fire': Obama Orders Ground Troops To Syria 

 

This escalation is insane. The U.S. needs to escalate peace negotiations and stay out of Syria.

 

Cathy Deppe

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

 

 

 

Re: New 2015 Wealth Data: US Inequality at Its Ugliest

 

I tried to go directly to the report but was unable, so just one word of caution on the world wealth report, on this section:

 

"In the Middle: The US is the Only Region Where the Middle-Class Does Not Own Its Equivalent Share of Wealth" -the report actually refers to North America not the US. This probably includes Mexico (as in the North American Free Trade Agreement). So please check your data and be careful not to report what is already bad enough, incorrectly.  

 

Jerry Harris

 

 

 

 

Re: The U.S. Ought to Un-Swivel Its China Pivot

 

This continues to be an important issue in Vietnam as the government, Party and people work for continued peace and economic development that is sustainable and equitable.  USA unions and progressive organizations have an important role to play in building STRONGER, more active solidarity between our two countries.

 

Leanna Noble

(from Vietnam)

 

 

 

Re: The Okinawa Missiles of October

 

 

 

 

 

A compelling story of madness and reason.

 

Carl Finamore

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

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The story is seriously deficient in one aspect, though its a very good bit of research. This took place during the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with the US at DEFCON 2, JFK essentially dangling his toes over the nuclear abyss. While the world trembled on the brink of destruction, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Curtis LeMay of the USAF, was doing all he could to shove the President over the edge, including sending out provocative and unauthorized flights over the USSR and Cuba. LeMay believed that the US had a diminishing window of opportunity to conduct a first strike and destroy the USSR, without suffering "unacceptable" consequences. Which is to say he was a raving lunatic. 

 

The timing of the lowly major's mistake (a major, had the "go-codes" to launch nuclear weapons? A MAJOR??) And was this something the American people should have known long ago? By keeping this secret, what was being protected? And from whom?

 

Jack Radey

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

 

 

 

Re: Israeli Rightists Push for Takeover of Al-Aqsa Compound

 

So Portside is now promoting one side in a dispute between 2 sets of religious fanatics and we are supposed to take this as a leftist position?

 

Here's a leftist position:

 

Lenin said:

It is particularly important to bear in mind: The need for a struggle against the clergy and other influential reactionary and medieval elements in backward countries; . the need to combat Pan-Islamism and similar trends, which strive to combine the liberation movement against European and American imperialism with an attempt to strengthen the positions of the khans, landowners, mullahs, etc.

Stan Nadel

 

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And the wonder why there's so much unrest.

 

Mike Gardner

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Re: The Primary Route: How the 99% Take on the Military Industrial Complex by Tom Gallagher

 

 

 

So how does one acquire a copy of Gallagher's pamphlet?

 

Thanks

 

Chia

 

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You publish this great review with absolutely no information on how to get the book -- that is pamphlet.

 

Please advise where one can get this

 

Richard Dawson

 

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[Moderator's Note: The Primary Route: How the 99% Take on the Military Industrial Complex can be ordered directly from the author-publisher:

 

 

Price: $15.00 (ships within 3-5 business days)

Like that proverbial donkey stranded between those two bales of hay, the American left has looked longingly in the direction both of third parties and the Democratic Party -- and gone nowhere. Considering all of this history, along with the experience of the American labor movement and the European Left, the Primary Route argues that the route to relevance for an American electoral has long been hiding in plain sight. It runs through the presidential primaries. And until the left figures out how to put its ideas out there in the main event every four years, mainstream relevance will continue to elude it. (from the book jacket cover)

 

 

 

Re: New G.O.P. Debate Format Forbids Questions About Things Candidates Said, Did

 

Very funny.

 

Erlinda Castro

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

 

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I kept checking to see if this was an Onion parody...

 

Capn' Steve Krug 

 

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[Moderator's Response: This was a Portside parody. It seems that sometimes what an individual Portside moderator feels is obvious, or should be obvious, obviously is not.

 

Andy Borowitz is a New York Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes the Borowitz Report for newyorker.com ]

 

 

 

 

Re: George Houser (Tidbits - October 29)

 

George Houser, Presente!    - with gratitude, 

 

Mike Liston