Tidbits - May 11, 2017 - Reader Comments: GOP Health Plan = Death Squads; Trump Tax Plan; Locked Up for Being Poor; Politics of Questioning Civil War and Slavery; Time to Save Net Neutrality; Building Bridges Across the Generation Gap: more...
https://portside.org/2017-05-11/tidbits-may-11-2017-reader-comments-gop-health-plan-death-squads-trump-tax-plan-locked
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Portside
- Re: 'God Have Mercy on Your Souls': GOP Passes Cruel, Destructive Trumpcare Bill (Marcie Bletz Avery; Ira Dahm; Alexandra Rieloff; Dan Cindy Rusk; Leanna Noble)
- Re: All The Horrific Details Of The Gop's New Obamacare Repeal Bill: A Handy Guide (Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons)
- Repeal, Replace, Repeat - Cartoon by Mike Stanfill (Raging Pencils)
- Re: Trump Tax Plan: 'Goldman Sachs Populism' (Neil Alan Bufler; Matthew Reed; Iris Parker; Shawn DuFresne; Yvette Eva Hirsch)
- Re: What the Big May Day Strike in a Small Pennsylvania City Teaches Us About Organizing (Shaun Richman)
- Re: New South Korea leader Moon Jae-in willing to meet Kim in North (Jos Reyn; Jenny Kastner)
- Re: This Website IDs Corporations Profiting From the Abuse of Communities of Color (Jim Price)
- Re: And It Could Have Been Me (Manus O'Riordan; Andrew Smith; James Young; Steve Krug)
- Re: The Uses and Abuses of Anti-Semitism (Paul Quintanilla)
- Vive La France - Cartoon by Rob Rogers
- Re: Cities Can Sue Big Banks Over Effects Of Discriminatory Practices, Supreme Court Says (Herbert Daley)
- Re: Locked Up for Being Poor (Daniel Millstone)
- Re: Tesla Workers File Charges With National Labor Board as Battle With Elon Musk Intensifies (Ramon Perez Gatell; Phyllis Mandel)
- Re: The Politics of Questioning the Civil War (William L. Meggers; Garold Haynes; Michael Gillespie; John Clark; William Winstead)
- Re: Just 'An Island in the Pacific': An Enduring Colonial View (Teresa Rivera Trinidad; George Lessard; Marty Comroe)
- Re: Why It's So Hard to Understand That the Violence Your Country Exports Is Terrorism (Nina Udovički)
- Re: Iranian workers continue to struggle for independent trade unions (Jeff Friedman)
- Re: What Risk Says About Julian Assange (Mike Glick)
- It's time. Let's save the Internet. (Elliot Harmon - Electronic Frontier Foundation)
Resources:
Announcements:
- Building Bridges Across the Generation Gap: The Shared Struggles of Millennials and Aging Boomers - New York - May 19
- Michelle Alexander in conversation with Susan Burton - New York - May 19
- Reclaim! Remain! Rebuild: Posters on Affordable Housing, Gentrification & Resistance -- People's Posters - Opening Exhibit - Los Angeles - May 20
No mercy for these thugs.
Marcie Bletz Avery
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Vote them Out!
Ira Dahm
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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... the rude awakening of our nation and the deep state that runs it.
Alexandra Rieloff
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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hope we haven't awoke to late
Dan Cindy Rusk
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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This is NOT health care policy. It is a CRIMINAL attack on the health and well being of workers, women, youth, older USA residents, anyone living with any type of illness -- all of us regardless of age, gender, ethnicity. STAND UP! FIGHT BACK!
Leanna Noble
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
It is important for progressive organizers to understand the details of Trump/Ryan care so we can explain it to people, especially to Trump voters in our efforts to convince them to vote for left leaning progressives for Congress in 2018. This is ammunition for our voter education/voter registration efforts across the country in preparation for 2018 elections.
Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
They didn't repeal Obamacare but they certainly signed a death sentence for a lot of sick kids, poor people, and seniors.
Raging Pencils is a thrice-weekly progressive comic developed and created by Dallas-area illustrator Mike Stanfill, sometimes known as "Lefty", sometimes not.
May 5, 2017
Trumps Tax Heist--Rob the poor, give it to rich
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For households with ‘adjusted gross income’ between $60,000 and $100,000, tax cuts will help pay for a brake job on your three year old car.
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For households with the ‘agi’ between $250,000 and $400,000, tax cuts will pay for a brand new luxury ‘lexus’ every year.
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For households with the agi over $1 million, tax cuts will pay for a new upscale condominium, each and every year.
Neil Alan Bufler
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Just the alternative minimum tax saves Trump 31 million
Matthew Reed
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Drain the swamp. Looks like he is filling it up to the brim.
Iris Parker
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Yard sale at Fort Knox.
Shawn DuFresne
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Yvette Eva Hirsch
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
(posting on Portside Labor)
Using the excuse that Portside https://www.facebook.com/Portside.PortsideLabor picked up my piece on the May Day general strike in Reading, PA to share it again.
Shaun Richman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
OMG! See what happens when a grown up steps in!
Jos Reyn
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Well at least that election was good news. Whew!
Jenny Kastner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
short. good resource.
Jim Price
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
As a Grad student at the University of New Hampshire, USA, 1969-71, I have vivid memories of the impact made by the Kent State massacre. Night after night, we held candlelight memorial processions through the streets of Durham, NH, and shut down classes at UNH itself for a week, while Palestinian Grad student Salim Tamari and myself conducted an anti-War teach-in for some very hostile students' parents who were visiting the campus. Arguing against the Vietnam War, I made the point that "It's not as if the USA has been invaded". One parent put his hand up to make an intervention. Looking directly at the Irishman and Palestinian in front of him, he remarked: "We're invaded already!"
Manus O'Riordan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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To this day no one has been held accountable.
Andrew Smith
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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alla victoria siempre
James Young
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Couple of wrong dates in the article, no big deal. Mostly wanted to write about how that song recalls for me the period of the late sixties, early seventies. A minority of that generation challenged militarism, sexism, racism... Kent and Jackson where reminders that while we though we had the bastards on the run, they were perfectly willing to shoot us down, Thank you, Holly Near, for a powerful song.
Steve Krug
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Incidents of anti Semitic thuggery have been on the rise since T came onto the scene. He opened the gate........
Paul Quintanilla
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
The French presidential election, also hacked by the Russians, had a very different outcome from the election here. I guess witnessing the first 100 days of Trump was sobering enough to scare the French away from Le Pen.
Rob Rogers
May 09, 2017
Anyone surprised by this from Wells Fargo? This is the same bank that created false accounts in the name of its customers so that they could charge them monthly fee. The CEO was forced to resign and walked away with many millions of dollars.
Herbert Daley
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Cash bail and bail bonds have always kept the poor in the can and let the rich walk around, pre-trial. Jailed defendants are less able to meet with their attorneys or help prepare their defenses. Here, the Grey Lady notices and joins the growing call for change. Emptying Rikers becomes easier because of a de Blasio originated NYC revolving Bail Fund (see below for links.) Thanks to Portside for the link ...
Daniel Millstone
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
(posting on Portside Labor)
Next: Uber.
Ramon Perez Gatell
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Roll the Union On!!
Phyllis Mandel
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Trump said he doesn't like to read so, what would you expect?
William L. Meggers
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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If ignorance is Bliss, then Mr Trumplethinskin is grinning ear to ear...
Garold Haynes
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Arrogance, thy name is Trump.
Michael Gillespie
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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There seems to be a good deal of ignorance of history, basic grade school science, and other areas including basic ethics going around. Then, there is the glorification of ignorance and stupidity running rampant.
John Clark
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Can not wait for Clown Prince Donnie to start blaming Obama for the Civil War.
William Winstead
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Hawái!
Teresa Rivera Trinidad
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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…And while Jeff Sessions surely knows that #Hawaii has been a U.S. state since 1959, he and others would do well to remember that the formerly #independent #Kingdom of Hawaii was, in fact, #illegally #overthrown by the #UnitedStates in 1893 — and that Hawaiian legal scholars and others still dispute the validity of the U.S. annexation of Hawaii. The subsequent road to statehood and attendant impacts to Hawaiian culture and society, land rights, and the environment stand out as a glaring example of what can happen to an island in the Pacific when it catches the eye of a great power.
On the other side of the date line, the U.S. territory of #Guam is highly valued by the U.S. military as its “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in the Western Pacific, anchored strategically near East Asia. But most Americans would struggle to find it on a map. Guam has one of the highest military enlistment rates in the U.S. but remains divided over its political status.
There’s an effort underway to hold a plebiscite that would address the island’s political status as an “unincorporated territory.” A vote on whether Guam should pursue statehood (like Hawaii), forge a free association with the U.S. (like #Micronesia’s three Compact of Free Association nations), or seek full independence would be a significant step toward ending its colonial status and move toward self-governance.
Like Guam and Hawaii, the Republic of the #MarshallIslands knows all too well what it means to be an island in the Pacific. The impact of the 67 nuclear weapons tests conducted by the U.S. in the northern atolls (most famously on #Bikini) is measured not just in contaminated islands and devastating cancer rates, but in the profound changes to Marshallese culture and society. Entire communities were moved around like furniture to accommodate U.S. weapons tests.
Often overlooked is the Marshall Islands’ #Kwajalein atoll, home to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, which is so valued by the U.S. that it has negotiated a lease that runs through 2066 (with an option to extend to 2086). Much of the base’s unskilled labor force is made up of Marshallese who live in impoverished, crowded conditions, often lacking the most basic services and utilities, on a tiny sliver of sand called #Ebeye island a short boat ride away from America’s sophisticated Death Star in the Pacific…..”
George Lessard
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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image -
Marty Comroe
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
An excellent article. Thank you for sharing it.
Nina Udovički
(posting on Portside Labor)
Like Americans will be doing next year under Trump.
Jeff Friedman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
(posting on Portside Culture)
The films director says, as follows, "I thought I could ignore the contradictions,” she intones. “I thought they were not part of the story. I was wrong. They’re becoming the story."
Mike Glick
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has made a dangerous proposal to destroy the FCC’s net neutrality rules—the very same rules that keep Internet providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T from choosing which websites you can and can’t access and how fast those websites will load. But before he can enact this terrible plan, he has to make the proposal publicly available and accept comments from regular people about how it would affect them. That’s where you come in.
We’ve launched a new tool to send your unique comment to the commission: DearFCC.org. Simply answer a few questions about why the Internet is important to you, and we’ll help you send your message to the FCC.
Net neutrality is fundamental to our democracy. We can’t let Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon monopolize the Internet and decide which websites we’re allowed to access. At a time when many people across the country have only one choice for high-speed broadband Internet access, customers have no way of holding ISPs accountable. The clear, light-touch rules enacted by the FCC in 2015 are our best hope for protecting a free and open Internet.
Let’s send Chairman Pai a message: this is our Internet and we’ll fight to protect it.
Thank you,
Elliot Harmon
Activism Team
The AFL-CIO developed a comprehensive resource book to aid organizers and advocates should workplace raids or audits occur at worksites or in our communities. Too often, workplace raids and audits are used as cover to suppress the rights of working people who speak up for safe, just and dignified working conditions. Below are many of the materials and tools we developed to prepare for, and resist, the unjust workplace raids and audits that undermine the rights of all workers.
You can download pieces of this toolkit here. In order to obtain the complete toolkit (it's about 100 pages), please complete and submit this request form.
Please help us make this toolkit widely accessible by sharing a link to it on your social media platforms and adding the hashtags #1uWeRise and #1uAdelante.
This toolkit could not have been possible without guidance and technical support from:
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
UNITE HERE
California Labor Federation
Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
Orange County Labor Federation
Mijente
National Day Laborer Organizing Network
National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild
Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld
Ana Avendaño
Monica Guizar
Special thanks to the AFL-CIO team that led this effort:
Neidi Dominguez, Rosa Lozano, Gloria Alvarado, Tamara Brummer, Chloe Osmer, Kelly Rodriguez, Matthew Ginsburg, Shannon Lederer and Robin Foster.
Believe it or not, Millennials and Baby Boomers have much in common, especially when it comes to the changing U.S. political economy. Join us for an intergenerational happy hour discussion unpacking the impact of America’s fractured social safety net across generations.
It’s no secret that today’s young adult generation faces unprecedented financial insecurity. Compared to when Baby Boomers were young, Millennials (born 1980 and after) have lower incomes, less savings, and lower net worth. They are also disproportionately likely to be uninsured, underemployed, or unemployed, and many are saddled with unprecedented levels of student debt.
Boomers are also facing serious challenges. Pensions have been dramatically eroded in recent decades, and many boomers will be forced to work beyond the normal retirement age and/or to reduce their standard of living. Social security is under political attack and proposed cuts to Medicaid may also reduce the resources available for long-term care.
A common thread across the generations is the increasingly weakened U.S. social safety net—Social security, unemployment insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, and “welfare.” Not only have these programs deteriorated in recent years, but they are newly threatened by the Trump administration and the current U.S. Congress.
The program will begin with brief presentations from new research on the challenges that Millennials and Boomers face, followed an intersectional discussion of the common ground (as well as differences) between the two generations.
Speakers:
- Millennials Keynote: Kevin Stump, Young Invincibles
- Boomers Keynote: Ruth Milkman, CUNY Graduate Center & Murphy Institute
- Remarks: Ed Ott, Murphy Institute
- Panel Discussion: Kate Aronoff, Dissent Magazine ** Doris Welch, NYC Chapter, NYS Alliance for Retired Americans ** Luba Cortes, Make the Road New York ** Lorraine Barcant, AFSCME 375 ** Eric Kingson, Syracuse University
- Musical Performance by the Raging Grannies
Co-Sponsored by Young Invincibles, PSC-CUNY, NYC Chapter, Alliance for Retired Americans, NYC League of Woman Voters, and the Murphy Institute, CUNY.
The Joseph S. Murphy Institute
25 W 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
Author Michelle Alexander (The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness) will join a conversation with Susan Burton, founder of A New Way of Life and author of Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women.
Hosted by Reverend Dr. Calvin O. Butts III
Conversation moderated by journalist Asha Bandele
Friday, May 19, 7:00–9:00 pm
The Abyssinian Baptist Church
132 Odell Clark Place
New York City
Free and open to the public
*** Celebrate the publication of BECOMING MS. BURTON: FROM PRISON TO RECOVERY TO LEADING THE FIGHT FOR INCARCERATED WOMEN
Copies of Becoming Ms. Burton will be available for sale
at the book signing immediately following the talk.
Co-sponsors:
The Abyssinian Exodus, Christian Social Concern, The Brotherhood
Sisterhood Bible Study Ministries
Susan Burton is the founder and executive director of A New Way of Life, a nonprofit that provides sober housing and other support to formerly incarcerated women. She is nationally known as an advocate for restoring basic civil and human rights to those who have served time. She has been a Starbucks® “Upstander,” a CNN Top 10 Hero, a Soros Justice Fellow, and a Women’s Policy Institute Fellow at the California Wellness Foundation. Burton is the co-author, with Cari Lynn, of Becoming Ms. Burton (The New Press). She lives in Los Angeles.
Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, legal scholar, and the best-selling author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (The New Press). Formerly the director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Project in Northern California, Alexander served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. She currently serves as visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary and a senior fellow at the Ford Foundation.
Reclaim! Remain! Rebuild: Posters on Affordable Housing, Gentrification & Resistance
Opening Reception for Exhibition
May 20, 2017, 2 - 4:00 pm
Mercado la Paloma
3655 South Grand Street
Los Angeles, CA 90007
May 20 - June 29, 2017
Opening Reception Panelists:
- Nancy Halpern-Ibrahim, Esperanza Housing Corporation
- Cynthia Strathman, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE)
- Channa Grace, Women Organizing Resources, Knowledge and Services (WORKS)
- Isela Gracian, East LA Community Corporation
- Pete White, Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN)
- Carol Wells, Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG)
3916 Sepulveda Blvd, Suite 103 & 104, Culver City, CA 90230
310-397-3100