Published on Portside (https://portside.org/)

Tidbits – Dec.26 – Reader Comments: Trump’s Pick for Attorney General: Rapist Gaetz; Democrats’ Path Back To Power; Economic Populism Did Not Lose This Election; Second Ku Klux Klan; Stop Blaming People for Wanting To Afford the Basics of Living;

https://portside.org/2024-12-26/tidbits-dec26-reader-comments-trumps-pick-attorney-general-rapist-gaetz-democrats-path
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The Gaetz Report  --  Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Nick Anderson
December 23, 2024
Pen Strokes

 

Re: Pelosi Won. The Democratic Party Lost.
 

In sabotaging Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s bid for leadership of the Oversight Committee, party elders have doubled down on a failed strategy. The elderly are not too old to govern. But they may, in this case, be too attached to a failed way of doing things.

If the Democrats have a future, its inspiration will come from outside the bounds of its own fiefdoms and sclerotic internal processes. It will come, for example, from unions that cultivate leaders who can genuinely speak to working-class voters. It will come from social movements that build momentum for populist ideas that haven’t been poll tested into bland, business-friendly mush. At the very least, those things can outlive Pelosi and the old guard. Ideally, it can build an electoral force that aspires to more than meaningless loyalties and bigger checks from donors.

Jose Luis Medina
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: The Democrats’ Path Back To Power
 

Democrats do have a clear path forward: to be united and passionate about fighting for bold, direct economic policies that unrig the system and deliver change so families across America can stop just trying to survive and start to thrive.

Alyssa Bonilla
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: No, Economic Populism Did Not Lose This Election
 

Thank you to the invaluable www.portside.org for this valuable election analysis from Jacobin which I have included in my free substack's election analysis bibliography and commentary found here: https://michaelalandover.substack.com/p/2024-election-analysis. Our period of intense initial analysis will soon come to and end, as four years of determined opposition must begin.

Michael A. Dover, Cleveland

 

Re: Sherrod Brown Should Absolutely Run Again To Represent the Working Class in the Senate
 

A good man, whose insights must be heeded by the DNC if the party is to survive.

Paul F. McCarthy

 

Re: Once Upon a Time, a Nation of Laws – From the Global War on Terror to Donald Trump’s Second Term
 

In fact, much (though admittedly, not all) of what we’re witnessing today might simply be considered an escalation of the dire turn that this country took after the attacks of September 11, 2001, nearly a quarter of a century ago.

Those involved in the fear and blame game might do well to take a step back and reflect for a moment on how we got here. Today’s crisis has been evolving for so many years now.

If only, as a nation, we could look beyond the tumultuous context of the current moment and imagine how to make our way to a safer, more sustainable future. Sadly, despite the dangers that may lie ahead, it’s not just partisan politics, or economic disarray, or the fragile state of the world that has brought us to this point. It’s our own negligence in accepting the dismantling of the laws and norms that had guided us prior to 9/11 and refusing ever since to restore our once-upon-a-time respect for the rule of law and for one another.

Michael Henry Starks
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

The Driver  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Rob Rogers

 

It's clear that billionaire Elon Musk is driving the new MAGA stroller. Some on Capitol Hill have even started calling him "President" Musk. How long before Trump's ego kicks in and he decides to unfriend his new BFF?

Rob Rogers
December 21, 2024
TinyView

 

Re: Donald Trump and His Allies Don’t Really Care What Kind of Leftist You Are
 

Two psychopaths..... what good could come from those two

Bruce Powers
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Getting Away With It  --  Cartoon by Mike Luckovich

 

Mike Luckovich
December 22, 2024
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Re: Knowing Fascism Requires Understanding Economic Forces
 

It is important to remember that fascism is inseparable from capitalism under crisis. There was no fascism before the 20th century.

Socialist Planning Beyond Capitalism
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Trump Wants To Bring Back the American Imperium
 

Don’t worry, the president-elect's plans to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal aren't serious. But they sure are weird.

George Lessard
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I was unaware that the American imperium had ever ended.

William Hansen

 

The CRIME Magazine Cover Boy Is Felon of the Year Donald Trump  --  Cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz

 

Lalo Alcaraz
December 20, 2024
https://www.pocho.com/

 

Re: Making Sense of the Second Ku Klux Klan
 

Understanding the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the early twentieth century gives insight into the roots of today’s reactionary activists and policymakers.

Dave Lott
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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In writing and/or reading this book one must assume they never went away, which they did not. The KKK was and is made up of rich people, politicians, poor and hard working middle class individuals. Throughout the centuries they have to dawn their uniform of choice publicly, but the majority of times they work through our local, state and federal government, businesses and other venues. Just because you don’t SEE them doesn’t mean they haven’t been and continue to be there.

Yeshua Aaron Holiday
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Yeshua Aaron Holiday AND NO PEOPLE OF COLOR!

Jean Calery
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: One of the Supreme Court’s Most Infamous Cases Is As Relevant as Ever
 

Eighty years ago, Korematsu v. United States upheld the incarceration of Japanese Americans. The racism and hysteria that fueled that decision are still with us today.

Lynn Hamilton
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Fifty Years of Silence: Mexico Faces the Legacy of Its Dirty War
 

Mexico's first National Truth Commission has released monumental reports on state violence during the 'dirty wars' 50 years ago. Declassified documents reveal that the U.S. prioritized the stability of the Mexican regime over human rights concerns.

Tom Edminster
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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This is an amazing effort for which Mexico and López Obrador should be commended.  Interesting though suspected by many of us how Israel had a hand in many of these abuses… Ultimately the “threat of Communism” informs many of these events.  I remember Ayostinapa…

Silvia Brandon
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Person of the Year - Gisèle Pelicot  --  Meme by Dr. James MacLeod

 

Dr. James MacLeod
December 22, 2024
MacLeodCartoons

 

Re: Pete Hegseth Is a Terrible Choice To Head the Pentagon
 

White supremacist tatoos in full view

William Cutlip
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Frances Perkins Memorial
 

Love the article and the message, but the title/header uses the male form of the name: as you have correctly spelled in the text, her name is FRANCES Perkins. FRANCES is the female version.

Thank you for a great article, look forward to seeing the header corrected and made prominent.

Carolyn Birden

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Moderator's Note:

We immediately corrected the title spelling.

 

Re: Creating Traditions of Care for the Holidays
 

Kelly Hayes: This is obviously a tough time of year for families who have been separated by the prison system. Can you tell us how MUAVI supports parents and children affected by incarceration during the holiday season?

Holly Krig: Thankfully, Moms United is part of a Chicago-based community that supports families suffering forcible separation by carceral systems, including Love & Protect, Liberation Library, and MAMAS-Mamas Activating for Movements and Solidarity. There are a number of groups like us who use mutual support drives to meet needs and also to invite important conversations, engaging a diversity of voices, including those who may not yet realize how we are all harmed by carceral systems. As we move toward our goals we also move more pointedly toward the question of how we, as Mariame Kaba put it, make prisons, and prosecution and policing obsolete. We talk about what the world might be like if we met needs within our communities, without systems adjudicating worthiness, predetermining who has the right to survive and thrive.

Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Capitalism Is Draining the Life From Our Culture Industries

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

Culture industries are dominated by a few big corporations that prefer to keep flogging old stories instead of taking a risk on something new. Creative workers can still produce fresh ideas, but they’re snuffed out before they get a chance to breathe

Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Stop Blaming People for Wanting to Afford the Basics of Living  --  Meme by Working Families Party (WFP)

 

Working Families Party

Source URL: https://portside.org/2024-12-26/tidbits-dec26-reader-comments-trumps-pick-attorney-general-rapist-gaetz-democrats-path