[ Reader Comments: Criminal Indictments; Eliminate Nuclear
Weapons; Voting Rights and DC Statehood; Campaign for Democracy;
Israel Reality; Message from a German Reader; John H. Bracey, Jr
Memorial; Cartoons; more...]
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TIDBITS – AUG. 3, 2023 – READER COMMENTS: CRIMINAL INDICTMENTS;
ELIMINATE NUCLEAR WEAPONS; VOTING RIGHTS AND DC STATEHOOD; CAMPAIGN
FOR DEMOCRACY; ISRAEL REALITY; MESSAGE FROM A GERMAN READER; JOHN H.
BRACEY, JR MEMORIAL; CARTOONS; MORE…  
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August 3, 2023
xxxxxx
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_ Reader Comments: Criminal Indictments; Eliminate Nuclear Weapons;
Voting Rights and DC Statehood; Campaign for Democracy; Israel
Reality; Message from a German Reader; John H. Bracey, Jr Memorial;
Cartoons; more... _

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Announcements AND cartoons - Aug. 3, 2023,
xxxxxx

 

* INDICTMENTS  --  CARTOON BY ROB ROGERS
* GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL  --  MEME
* WE LIED  --  CARTOON BY NICK ANDERSON
* RE: TOP MEDICAL JOURNALS PUBLISH UNPRECEDENTED JOINT CALL FOR THE
ELIMINATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS  (SHREERAM SK)
* RE: THE MYTH OF PROGRESS IN VOTING RIGHTS  (MAXWELL SHAW; ARLENE
HALFON)
* CAMPAIGN FOR DEMOCRACY  (C. T. WEBER)
* WHERE THE ALIENS AT? SPACE MIGRANTS FLEE, CITE HIGH HOUSING COSTS,
GLOBAL WARMING  --  CARTOON BY LALO ALCARAZ
* RE: 50 YEARS OLDER AND DEEPER IN DEBT  (JEAN SANDERS)
* RE: MLB PAYS $185M TO SETTLE MINOR LEAGUERS’ MINIMUM WAGE
LAWSUIT  (JUSTIN RICH)
* RE: ISRAEL’S ONE-STATE REALITY - IT’S TIME TO GIVE UP ON THE
TWO-STATE SOLUTION  (PAUL BUHLE)
* RE: A CENTURY AFTER ITS FOUNDING, THE ISRAELI COMMUNIST PARTY IS
AT A CROSSROADS  (JAY MAZUR; DAVID BACON)
* FRICKIN GREG ABBOTT  --  CARTOON BY CLAY JONES
* RE: THE JOURNEY TO MEDICARE’S 58TH ANNIVERSARY  (NORM
LITTLEJOHN)
* RE: GULF STREAM COULD COLLAPSE AS EARLY AS 2025, STUDY SUGGESTS
 (DAN MORGAN)
* BATS NOW USE THE TERM  --  MEME
* RE: THE LIFE OF A PROGRESSIVE ACTIVIST: EMSPAK BOOK DETAILS LABOR
STRUGGLES IN DIFFICULT TIMES  (NORM LITTLEJOHN)
* RE: BACK FOR SEASON 2, ‘DARK WINDS’ IS A COP DRAMA STEEPED IN
NAVAJO CULTURE  (AMY VILLARREAL)
* YIN AND YANG - POLARISATION IN POLITICS - A MESSAGE FROM A GERMAN
READER OF xxxxxx  (DIETER SAUERWALD)
* PRISON SURVIVAL TIPS  --  CARTOON BY MIKE STANFILL

.......

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

* SYMPOSIUM & MEMORIAL HONORING THE LIFE & WORK OF PROFESSOR JOHN H.
BRACEY, JR. - UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS/AMHERST - OCTOBER 20-22

........

 

INDICTMENTS  --  CARTOON BY ROB ROGERS

Rob Rogers
August 3, 2023
robrogers.com [[link removed]]

 

GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL  --  MEME

 

WE LIED  --  CARTOON BY NICK ANDERSON

 

 

Nick Anderson
July 27, 2023
Pen Strokes [[link removed]]

 

RE: TOP MEDICAL JOURNALS PUBLISH UNPRECEDENTED JOINT CALL FOR THE
ELIMINATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 

“Leading medical journals published a joint editorial late Tuesday
calling on world leaders to take urgent steps to reduce the risk of
nuclear war—and eliminate atomic weapons altogether—as the threat
of a potentially civilization-ending conflict continues to grow.

The call was first issued in The Lancet, The BMJ, JAMA, International
Nursing Review, and other top journals. Dozens of other journals are
expected to publish the editorial in the coming days ahead of the 78th
anniversary of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

Shreeram SK
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: THE MYTH OF PROGRESS IN VOTING RIGHTS

 

Not to mention the thousands of citizens of the District of Columbia,
from the beginning, not having a vote in Congress. Time to seriously
discuss statehood.

Maxwell Shaw

      =====

Nowhere, whether in this article or most articles on voting right and
voter suppression does anyone mention the tact that residents of
Washington, CC (Colony of Colombia) has any Representative that can
vote in the House nor any (even non-voting) Senator. In addition,
despite the fact that they claim we have "Home Rule", everything we do
is subject to Congressional approval or veto, including issues that
have nothing to do with their own jurisdictions. The only resident of
CC that has a "vote" here is one that has alternative housing
elsewhere and votes there.

Despite our lack of any power in CC, we get blamed for not adequately
protecting everyone else's representative. It reminds me of Israel
saying that Palestine shouldn't have self-rule because it doesn't
adequately protect the occupying country.

Arlene Halfon

 

CAMPAIGN FOR DEMOCRACY

 

California Governor, Gavin Newsom, has launched a campaign for
democracy but, he leaves out what democracy is all about. We can't
have democracy as long as poor people can't afford to get on the
ballot. We can't have democracy if working class candidates can't
afford to get their message out to the voters through government
produced voter information guides. And, we can't have democracy if
most candidates can't even get on the general election ballot because
only two of the big moneyed candidates will be allowed on it.

Further, we can't have democracy as long as big money can buy
elections by giving some candidates more speech than others. Money is
not and should not be speech. We can't have democracy as long as
people can't vote for their preferred candidate without the hope of
winning. And we can't have democracy when sizable groups of people are
not represented or not represented in proportion to the number of
votes received. Those are just some of the problems.

Now, we need solutions. Let's take big money out of politics. Abolish
the thousands of dollars poor people need just to file to run for
office. Abolish the $25 a word just to inform voters what candidates
stand for in the California Voters Information Guide and the thousands
of dollars it costs for just one word in the county voter information
guides. Let's encourage candidates to avoid asking big money for a
handout by introducing and passing a clean money type of equal public
funding for all ballot qualified candidates.

And let's put democracy in our voting system. Let's create
multi-winner districts where each voter has one vote in order to allow
constituency groups or parties to be represented in proportion to the
number of votes received in a general election. That way, people will
know that their votes count for winning candidates and constituencies
will be represented. And fewer votes will be wasted. For example, in a
ten-member district, if a party or independent candidate gets 10% of
the vote that party or independent gets 10% of the seats, one, not
none, from that district in the legislature, and if a party gets 50%
of the vote in the district that party gets 50% of the seats or five,
not all of them. . And fewer votes will be wasted. For example, in a
ten-member district, if a party or independent candidate gets 10% of
the vote that party or independent gets 10% of the seats, one, not
none, from that district in the legislature, and if a party gets 50%
of the vote in the district that party gets 50% of the seats or five,
not all of them. In addition, let's save the taxpayers millions of
dollars and just abolish the primary for all state races. Except for
president, unless the primaries are used to allow each ballot
qualified party to arrange a list of candidates for the general
election, they're not really needed.

Now, these are some of the issues that a real campaign for democracy
should be talking about. Let's organize and build real democracy.

C. T. Weber

 

WHERE THE ALIENS AT? SPACE MIGRANTS FLEE, CITE HIGH HOUSING COSTS,
GLOBAL WARMING  --  CARTOON BY LALO ALCARAZ

 

Lalo Alcaraz
July 29, 2023
pocho.com
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RE: 50 YEARS OLDER AND DEEPER IN DEBT
 

reminds me of 16 Tons -- this article explains a bit about Brown v
Board and the SCOTUS in the Nixon era .... a good historical
perspective of what happened and then where we need to go

Jean Sanders
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: MLB PAYS $185M TO SETTLE MINOR LEAGUERS’ MINIMUM WAGE LAWSUIT

(posting on xxxxxx Labor
[[link removed]])
 

That’s crazy cause many players alone make that

Justin Rich
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: ISRAEL’S ONE-STATE REALITY - IT’S TIME TO GIVE UP ON THE
TWO-STATE SOLUTION
 

from FOREIGN AFFAIRS!

Paul Buhle
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: A CENTURY AFTER ITS FOUNDING, THE ISRAELI COMMUNIST PARTY IS AT A
CROSSROADS
 

Professor Beinin's deep dive into the history of Israeli communism is
breathtakingly informative.  It is a window into the troubling
history of the country and a study of what could not happen that
explains what did happen

Jay Mazur

      =====

In the mid-1980s Tawfik Zayed and Felicia Langer were invited to come
to the Bay Area as joint speakers at the annual banquet for the
People's World.  I had the good fortune to be the driver for the two
of them while they were here, and it was an unforgettable experience.
 They laughed all the time and I was profoundly moved by their
courage in struggling under such harsh repression.  Beinin's article
gave me a better understanding of the history of the movement of which
they were a part.  Thanks for posting it on xxxxxx.

David Bacon

 

FRICKIN GREG ABBOTT  --  CARTOON BY CLAY JONES

 

Clay Jones
July 21, 2023
Daily Kos
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RE: THE JOURNEY TO MEDICARE’S 58TH ANNIVERSARY
 

The most successful U. S. health insurance program, Medicare, was
enacted in July,1965, to provide health insurance for people ages 65
and older and the disabled regardless of income or medical history.
Medicare is more efficient than private health insurance in every way.

Norm Littlejohn
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: GULF STREAM COULD COLLAPSE AS EARLY AS 2025, STUDY SUGGESTS
 

The work of Tony Seba (RethinkX) shows that a solution is very
possible, and will happen - but the political clout of the fossil fuel
lobby may well mean it will be too late for millions of people.

Dan Morgan
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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BATS NOW USE THE TERM  --  MEME

 

 

RE: THE LIFE OF A PROGRESSIVE ACTIVIST: EMSPAK BOOK DETAILS LABOR
STRUGGLES IN DIFFICULT TIMES

(posting on xxxxxx Labor
[[link removed]])
 

“There have been books by scholars and academics that have tried to
record what has happened [in the labor movement] over the years. But
very few from anyone who has actually lived through these times and
has told his story as a lifelong labor organizer and progressive
activist. That’s why a recent book by [Madisonian] Frank Emspak,
Troublemaker: Saying No to Power, is so valuable.”

Norm Littlejohn
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: BACK FOR SEASON 2, ‘DARK WINDS’ IS A COP DRAMA STEEPED IN
NAVAJO CULTURE

(posting on xxxxxx Culture
[[link removed]])
 

So where can we watch it? I love the Hillerman novels

Amy Villarreal
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

YIN AND YANG - POLARISATION IN POLITICS - A MESSAGE FROM A GERMAN
READER OF xxxxxx
 

Who should be convinced in the political area? Those whose opinions
are the same like those of the discourser don’t need to be
convinced. Those who firmly insist on the contrary you can’t
convince. Remains the third part: Those who are open in their
development and decision-making. In the western countries prevail the
white-knight vs. the black-knight attitude: “We are completely right
– the opponents are completely wrong.” But in complex political
and social matters the old Chinese wisdom of Yin and Yang would be the
better solution – the intertwining of polarizations. At least it is
the better solution if one is interested to convince the undecided
third part of any given audience. And in questions with small margins
of majority it could even be a question of political wisdom to
reflect: Have the other ones possibly important arguments too? Totally
black or white in judgements make it easy for one’s own attitude –
but rarely meets the reality. I’m trying to develop my positions
with some examples – and not everybody will be amused. But –
possibly – Yin and Yang will enjoy it a little bit…

Refugees

Whose heart is not bleeding when seeing refugees on the flight because
hunger, poorness or even war is driving them? How often are they
stopped with brutal force at the borders and how many of them are
killed on their journey, killed out of different ways. Are those who
want to stop or at least reduce those millions on flight only
heartless, egoist, right-wing-nationalists and so on? Sure: Many of
those contras are really driven by that. But that is not the whole
story. At least two groups have reasonable reasons too. 1) The big
majority of refugees - when successfully reaching the new country –
in what fields of economy and society do they settle then? They
don’t become moderators, journalists, jurists, teachers, engineers
and so on. Instead they settle in the big majority in those economic
sectors where ordinary people with lower school-leaving qualifications
have earned their money for daily life. And much more people in such
economic sectors means: pressure on the wages. By the way: That is one
reason why employers sometimes favour open borders. 2) In some Islamic
countries it is a harsh risk for women not to wear the Hijab. When
those endangered women fly from their country and find a new one –
and that is the case very often in Europe – very understandably they
don’t want to see totally open borders that are giving radical
Islamists the possibility to hunt them again.

The better ways of solving the refugee-problem could be: a) Less wars
– and stopping weapon-delivering by the western countries. b) Not
using developing countries as resource-mine to be exploited. Moreover
those countries don’t want charitable generosity – they want fair
terms of trade. They want value chains at home!

Corona

In times of corona-pandemic it was a general pattern: The right-wing
people and countries deny the fact of pandemic. And the liberal and
lefties thought and acted this way: “When the right ones have one
position in the pandemic times – then we have to say the
contrary.” That was the wrong strategy: When the rights say 2 + 2 =
4 then the left-liberals shouldn’t say 2 + 2 = 5. Rather they should
say: 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 8. Means: That part of the rights that is true
must be surmounted by other arguments that the rights have neglected
or denied. This strategy should be performed in all political issues.
Now some points the liberal-lefts should have considered before simply
taking the opposite side to all  what the righties said:

- “Habeas corpus” (You should decide what is done to your body.)
Is one of the oldest human rights. In Germany the left-liberals tried
to break this basic human law by trying to establish the compulsory
vaccination – and failed only by a whisker. This way the AfD
(right-wing party) won over from the ordinary people by fighting this
left-liberal law-idea.

- In Africa the average vaccination-percentage is around 20% (in the
western countries around 75%) But per 100.000 people in Africa died no
more because of the pandemic than in the western countries. That the
average age in Africa is lower than in the other ones explains only a
little fraction of this fact.

- Vaccination-production was big big-business – and other
medical-productions as well. Billionaires grew out of the soil of
pandemic…

- According to UN: Hundreds of millions young people did no longer
receive their – only – daily meal in schools because of the
radical measures against Covid. How many of those pupils subsequently
died because of hunger and weakness?

- People frightened by the governmental doomsday-speech regarding the
pandemic acted like wished: They accepted even silly radical measures.

Neither denial of Covid nor hysterical accepting all what the
left-liberal governments said and did was a good advice. Maybe the
production of medication to help those people who suffered seriously
by Covid would have been the better solution. But then we would have
some billionaires less…

Ukrainian-War

Traditionally the western politicians and media tend to demonize the
opponents. Some selection of “new Hitlers”: Saddam Hussein, Assad,
Gadhafi – now Putin. What is Russia doing really? It is acting like
USA and other NATO-countries have done in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria or
Libya: Performing its own interests with brachial means. Forgotten are
in the western NATO-countries:

- The breaking of the promise to Gorbachev not to go east when
Gorbachev would give the order to withdraw the Russian military out of
DDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Baltic countries.

- Cuba-Crisis 1962: Then USA didn’t accept soviet atomic-missiles
before their threshold. It was as clear that Russia wouldn’t accept
NATO-atomic-missiles in Ukraine that could reach Moscow within 7
minutes.

There should be no one dominating power in the world – neither USA,
nor China, nor Russia, nor… The world has to be multipolar. And
negotiations in that direction are the only reasonable way. The
alternative is atomic ash. Cease-fire at once in Ukraine! 80% of the
world demands it – inclusive Pope Franciscus.

Minorities

LGBTIQ and so on.

Minorities have to be protected, there is no doubt. And they have the
full right to live their way of life. On the other hand more than 90%
of common people don’t belong to these minorities. And there are
elite powers that give ordinary people the impression that the values
and the way of life of this majority counts less than that of those
minorities. Often ordinary people feel depreciated by so-called
elites. They are angry. And right-wing parties or populist politicians
know to give them the impression they would be on their side. Much of
the support for Trump – see the part below – has this source. And
there is another point: Radical identity-thinking easily leads to
forget that there are existing other structures and fights. For
example the class-struggle…

Feminism

In so many fields women have heavy disadvantages and sometimes even
catastrophic life-conditions. Especially in the so-called developing
countries. Some drastic points even in the western world: Very often
women earn less, have less pensions, the violence-field and so on. The
fight against such drastic points should be a common matter for men
and women. And what about drastic negative points for males in the
western countries? Are there some too? There are: The difference in
life expectancy between academic women and academic men is not big –
around 4 years. But the difference in life expectancy between academic
women and men working in professions with very high physical stress is
extreme – it is more than one decade. And to live a decade less is a
disadvantage… And the widows for those early dying workers very
often have to live alone and in loneliness.

Another point that is valid at least in Germany (presumably in other
countries too): The chances for boys to receive good final results in
schools are much lesser than those for girls.

Shouldn’t women and men work together to improve all heavy
disadvantages? For both genders? And this from a long-time unionist:
Whether workers get exploited by male CEOs or female CEOs – I give a
damn.

Trump

Especially mined terrain, I know. But nevertheless…

In the past year In all parliamentary elections in traditionally
democratic countries of Europe the same result: The right parties and
right-populistic movements won. (Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy,
Greece). The “Rassemblement National” is the strongest party in
France – especially among blue-collar workers. In Germany the AfD is
the second strongest party – and biggest again among blue-collar
workers. And in USA nearly half of the population supports
right-populistic Donald Trump…

It is easy to say: All people who support parties, movements or people
mentioned above are fascists or proto-fascists or at least reactionary
men and women. Surely there is a good portion of it that hits such a
statement. But there is a big number of people among those groups who
should be evaluated else. There are questions that have to be
reflected by the lefties and the liberals:

- Isn’t there very often an arrogance among us against the values of
the common people?

- isn’t it a fact too that people like Donald Trump speak the tongue
of simple people? Whereas East-cost-intellectuals speak an abstract
speech with incorporated contempt against simple people?

By the way: What big chances the USA missed by not electing Bernie
Sanders as president. And his success has not been destroyed by Trump
and the republicans. It has been destroyed by the corporate and
Wall-Street democrats…

Climate change

In short words: Either the struggle for saving Earth (climate-issue
and so on) and the struggle for social justice go hand in hand – or
both of them will shipwreck. To demand from the poorer 80% of
world-population: Climate has to be saved – costing whatever it is
costing – can be practiced only by elites that don’t belong to the
poorer 80%. To win over those big majority one has to ensure the daily
life of those 80% too….

Back to the beginning: Do the left-liberals want to convince other
left-liberals? Or do they want to win majorities by understanding that
the others do not have only stupid or even criminal arguments?

Dieter Sauerwald
(German unionist and anti-war-activist since more than 50 years)

 

PRISON SURVIVAL TIPS  --  CARTOON BY MIKE STANFILL

 

 

Mike Stanfill
August 2, 2023
Raging Pencils
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SYMPOSIUM & MEMORIAL HONORING THE LIFE & WORK OF PROFESSOR JOHN H.
BRACEY, JR. - UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS/AMHERST - OCTOBER 20-22

 

 

* Reader Comments
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