[[link removed]]
TIDBITS – OCT. 17 – READER COMMENTS: SWING STATE CONFIDENTIAL;
TA-NEHISI COATES-LETTER FROM ISRAEL; PALESTINE–THE LAST YEAR; WHILE
YOU WERE SO WORRIED SOCIALISM WOULD TAKE YOUR FREEDOMS; CIA SAYS NO
EVIDENCE IRAN HAS DECIDED TO BUILD A NUCLEAR WEAPON
[[link removed]]
October 17, 2024
xxxxxx
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
_ Reader Comments: Swing State Confidential; Ta-Nehisi Coates - A
Letter from Israel; Palestine-The Last Year; While You Were So Worried
Socialism Would Take Your Freedoms...; CIA Says No Evidence Iran Has
Decided To Build a Nuclear Weapon; more... _
Tidbits - Reader Comments, Announcements AND cartoons - Oct.17, 2024,
xxxxxx
* SWING STATE CONFIDENTIAL -- CARTOON BY JEN SORENSEN
* MISINFORMATION -- CARTOON BY NICK ANDERSON
* RE: TA-NEHISI COATES IS BUCKING THE MEDIA’S PALESTINE CONSENSUS
(JOSEPH ZEIRA)
* SLAUGHTERED -- CARTOON BY ROB ROGERS
* RE: THE MOST PROMINENT HISTORIAN OF PALESTINE ON WHAT THE LAST
YEAR HAS MEANT (JUDYTH HOLLUB; ARLENE HALFON)
* RE: WHERE ARE THE VOICES FOR PEACE? (DAVE LINDORFF)
* RE: UNION ELECTIONS SURGE IN A HOPEFUL SIGN FOR LABOR (PANCHO
VALDEZ; EUGENE BAILEY)
* RE: HOW CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS WORKERS (ADAM SHAFFER)
* HURRICANE HELENE WEATHER CONTROL MACHINE -- CARTOON BY LALO
ALCARAZ
* SACRIFICIAL STATES -- CARTOON BY CLAY JONES
* WHILE YOU WERE SO WORRIED SOCIALISM WOULD TAKE YOUR FREEDOMS...
.
* CIA SAYS NO EVIDENCE IRAN HAS DECIDED TO BUILD A NUCLEAR WEAPON
(The Delphi Initiative)
.
* STATEMENT- AMERICANS FOR PEACE NOW TO BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: TIME
TO FOLLOW THROUGH
.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
* TEACH-IN ON DANIEL JADUE -- ONLINE -- OCTOBER 19
(SOLIDARITY RESEARCH CENTER, NACLA, TNI)
* ONLINE TEACH-IN ON NATIVE AMERICAN CLASSROOM RESOURCES --
NOVEMBER 2 (SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
(NMAI) AND TEACHING FOR CHANGE)
* THE LEFT AFTER THE ELECTION -- NEW YORK CITY -- NOVEMBER 4
(JACOBIN MAGAZINE)
...
...
SWING STATE CONFIDENTIAL -- CARTOON BY JEN SORENSEN
With Pennsylvania being the must-win battleground state in this
year’s election, I’ve found myself thinking about my formative
years there (shout out to the Lancastrians on this list!). Trump has
won Lancaster County handily in the past, which I find a little
difficult to square with my memories of the place. Yes it’s a
Republican area, but also a place of humility and decency.
Hog Maw
[[link removed]] is
a Pennsylvania Dutch delicacy (and a dish also eaten in the South)
consisting of pig stomach stuffed with sausage and boiled potatoes. I
served this at a family restaurant that still exists. Fasnachts are
like hole-less donuts, often made from potato flour. They are
primarily eaten on Fasnacht Day, which marks the day before Ash
Wednesday.
_For my weekly newsletter with background on each cartoon, please
consider joining the Sorensen Subscription Service!
[[link removed]] Also on Patreon
[[link removed]]._
Jen Sorensen
October 15, 2024
[link removed]
[[link removed]]
MISINFORMATION -- CARTOON BY NICK ANDERSON
Nick Anderson
October 10, 2024
CounterPoint
[[link removed]]
RE: TA-NEHISI COATES IS BUCKING THE MEDIA’S PALESTINE CONSENSUS
On October 10 2024, xxxxxx-Snapshot published an article by Branko
Marcetic, which was published originally in Jacobin on October 9. In
that article he described the debate, which followed the interview of
Ta-Nehisi Coates on CBS Mornings on his new book The Message.
According to Branko Marcetic most people in the debate, especially in
CBS, were split between those who “think Dokoupil’s sin lies in
his tone of voice and body language, and those who think he was boldly
speaking truth to power.” In contrast, Branko Marcetic blames
Dokoupil at a much worse sin, namely that he hinted that the
Palestinians deserve their sufferings, due to their acts of terror and
violence.
In this short note I would like to focus on another issue that
bothered me in the questioning of Coates by Dokoupil, and that is the
simple fact that all his claims about the Palestinians were not true.
I am an Israeli professor of Economics, I study the economy of Israel
for many years, and specialize on the economic aspects of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I will analyze each of Dokoupil’s main
claims and show that he is simply wrong.
The first claim by Dokoupil was that Israel “is surrounded by
countries that want to eliminate it.” I guess he meant by that the
Arab countries. First, two Arab countries, which have direct borders
with Israel, Egypt and Jordan, have peace agreements with Israel,
Egypt since 1979 and Jordan since 1994. These two agreements enabled
Israel to reduce significantly the risk of a conventional war since
the 1980s and as a result to reduce its defense expenditures from more
than 20 percent of GDP to around 5 percent of GDP. Even in the current
ward the expenditures are below 10 percent of GDP. The Palestinian
national leadership, the PLO, accepted the two-state solution already
in 1988 and remained loyal to it since then. It signed the Oslo
agreements with Israel in 1993-1995 and keeps them to this day.
Furthermore, on 2002, a meeting of the Arab League, which includes all
Arab countries, adopted the Arab Peace Initiative (API), that says
that once Israel settles with the Palestinians in a peace agreement
based on the two states solution, all Arab countries will sign peace
agreements with full normalization with Israel. The API has been
ratified in every meeting of the Arab League since 2002. The Arab
Peace Initiative was adopted also by the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC), which has 57 member countries, including Iran.
Israel has never responded formally to this peace initiative.
The second sin Dokoupil pins on the Palestinians are the First and
Second Intifadas, with café bombings and bus bombings of Israelis.
While indeed such bombings occurred (mainly in the Second Intifada),
this is just one side of a much greater picture. The two intifadas
began with Palestinian demonstrations, where the most violent act was
stone throwing. The IDF reacted with live ammunition and that
deteriorated the situation significantly. In a now famous episode, the
IDF Chief of Intelligence at the time of the Second Intifada, Amos
Malka, visited the Central Command, which handles the West Bank at the
beginning of the Intifada. He found that in its first month the IDF
used 1 million bullets of live ammunition. His reaction was that in
this case it is Israel which sets the level of the flames. To further
demonstrate how biased is the focus on bombing cafes and buses only,
it is important to look at the following statistics. In the first
Intifada the numbers of casualties were 160 Israelis and 1,160
Palestinians. In the Second Intifada the casualties were thousand
Israelis and four thousand Palestinians.
The third claim of Dokoupil is that the Palestinians were offered
peace “in every junction” and refused it. This is also a gross
historical violation. The first offer in this direction was in Oslo,
which the PLO accepted and signed in 1993, despite the fact that this
agreement was open ended, as it did not mention a Palestinian State,
only a vague final status. This open-endedness later led to derail the
process. Since 1993 there were two attempts to reach a final status
agreement, the first in 2000, when Ehud Barak was prime minister of
Israel, and the second in 2009, when Ehud Olmert was prime minister of
Israel. In both negotiations the two sides made significant progress
toward an agreement, and in both cases the Palestinian side, the PLO,
was devoted to continue the negotiations to completion. However, both
negotiations needed more time to close the gaps between the two sides.
In both cases the negotiations ended due to changes of government in
Israel. Ehud Barak lost his coalition and government in the beginning
of 2001, and the new prime minister, Ariel Sharon, refused to continue
the negotiations. In 2009, Olmert had to quit his position as he had
to face trial on personal charges of corruption. Actually, his
coalition did not endorse his offers to Mahmood Abbas, head of PLO.
His two main ministers, Ehud Barak and Tsipi Livni, delivered such a
message to the PLO. Furthermore, the new elections that year ended
with a new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who refused since then
to negotiate with the Palestinians on the two-state solution. I assume
that this refusal and his policy of keeping and expanding the
occupation, led to the current disaster of October 7, 2023.
The main comment of Branco Marcetic on the interview of Ta-Nehisi
Coates by Tony Dokoupil is that you cannot blame occupation on the
occupied, due to its resistance, even if this resistance involves
terrible atrocities. That is clearly a valid point, but I wanted to
point to an additional fallacy in the interview. Namely, the main
claims raised by Dokoupil were not “speaking truth to power.” They
were simply not true. They repeated much of the superficial propaganda
surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We deserve better than
that and from the media we deserve to know the truth. By we I mean
Israelis, Palestinians and International. Otherwise, our sinking in
the quagmire might continue.
Joseph Zeira
_[Joseph Zeira is Professor (Emeritus) of Economics in the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. Joseph Zeira published in 2021 a book “The
Israeli Economy: A Story of Success and Costs,” at the Princeton
University Press. Joseph Zeira is a member of the AIX Group, a think
tank of Israelis, Palestinians and International, which studies the
economics of the conflict and of a potential Israeli-Palestinian peace
agreement.]_
SLAUGHTERED -- CARTOON BY ROB ROGERS
As we passed the one-year anniversary of the horrific attack on Israel
by Hamas, I couldn't help but think of all of the human carnage that
has followed in Gaza. I find it incredibly sad that those who choose
to protest this apparent genocide of Palestinians are so quickly
labeled anti-Semitic.
Rob Rogers
October 10, 2024
TinyView [[link removed]]
RE: THE MOST PROMINENT HISTORIAN OF PALESTINE ON WHAT THE LAST YEAR
HAS MEANT
From this article:
"I find it mind-boggling the degree to which the elite is blind to the
damage that this is clearly doing to the United States in the world
and in the Middle East—and the dangers that entails. I hear not a
peep out of that elite about the potential danger of Israel leading
them by the nose into an American, Israeli, Iranian, Yemeni,
Palestinian, Lebanese war, which has no visible end. I mean, where
does this stop?"
...................
" What do the Americans think they are doing, pushing, allowing,
arming Israel to do this vis-à-vis Iran, vis-à-vis Yemen, vis-à-vis
Lebanon, vis-à-vis the Palestinians? Where does this end for Israel?
They are getting themselves into a minefield out of which they will
not be able to extract themselves without enormous, terrible results
for them—and obviously infinitely more devastating results for
Lebanon and the Palestinians."
Judyth Hollub
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
=====
One factor that is rarely mentioned: Israel claims they are acting for
all Jewish people although it is possible that, at least in the US,
more Jews oppose Israel's slaughter of Palestinians than support it.
Many Jewish-Israelis oppose Israel's anti-Palestinian genocide, also,
although we don't know the statistics on that.
As a result of this genocide by Israel, however, people who believe
Israel's propaganda that it is acting for "all Jews" around the world,
anti-Semitism is being fostered and believed. If it wasn't for
primarily Jewish organizations like "Jewish Voice for Peace" and "If
Not Now", that are actively working to oppose the slaughter, there
would be no factual information to oppose the Israeli propaganda. Who
knows how much Israel may succeed, nevertheless, in creating a long
lasting anti-Semitism that Israel will point to as PROOF of the
anti-Semitism. Another self-fulfilling prophecy,
Arlene Halfon
Colony of Colombia
RE: WHERE ARE THE VOICES FOR PEACE?
Read this by Jeremy Corbyn, the left Labour leader and member of
Parliament here in the uk, who nearly became prime minister before he
was viciously attacked by an Israeli-coordinated attack that had all
the british political parties including his own Labour Party and the
entire British media smearing him as an anti-semite because of his
support for Palestine and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Corbyn, as a Labour backbencher, had through his long career been a
consistent opponent of Britain having nuclear weapons.
Dave Lindorff
RE: UNION ELECTIONS SURGE IN A HOPEFUL SIGN FOR LABOR
(posting on xxxxxx Labor
[[link removed]])
A major weakness in the NRLA is the exclusion of agricultural and
public sector workers!
These workers are under paid, have no on the job justice and are
crucial to the American economy!
Is it any wonder that organized labor represents less than 10% of the
nation's workforce?
In Solidarity,
Pancho Valdez, Retired
TSEU/CWA
=====
This is a call to all Democrats and Republicans that are disgusted
with the genocide in Gaza. You have to vote Kamala in as President. We
all know that trump will make matters worse for Palestinians and world
peace. We can always convince Kamala to take a different course on
Israel.
Eugene Bailey
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: HOW CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS WORKERS
(posting on xxxxxx Labor
[[link removed]])
I would like to make a correction to the article. In the conclusion of
the article, it states that the TN OSHA, which is
pro-company/anti-worker, and the TBI (Texas Bureau of Investigation)
are investigating the plastic plant in Erwin. It should be the
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Adam Shaffer
HURRICANE HELENE WEATHER CONTROL MACHINE -- CARTOON BY LALO
ALCARAZ
Someone tell Marjorie Tylor Greene that THIS is the real Weather
Control Machine.
Lalo Alcaraz
October 9, 2024
X [[link removed]]
SACRIFICIAL STATES -- CARTOON BY CLAY JONES
Clay Jones
October 11, 2024
Daily Kos
[[link removed]]
WHILE YOU WERE SO WORRIED SOCIALISM WOULD TAKE YOUR FREEDOMS...
CIA SAYS NO EVIDENCE IRAN HAS DECIDED TO BUILD A NUCLEAR WEAPON
The comments from CIA Director William Burns come amid calls for
Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities
October 8, 2024
Defend Democracy Press
[[link removed]]
(The website of The Delphi Initiative)
CIA Director William Burns said Monday
[[link removed]] that
there’s no evidence Iran has decided to build nuclear weapons,
comments that come amid calls in the US and Israel for strikes on
Iranian nuclear sites.
“No, we do not see evidence today that the supreme leader has
reversed the decision that he took at the end of 2003 to suspend the
weaponization program,” Burns told the Cipher Brief security
conference, according to _NBC News_
[[link removed]].
In 2003, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa
prohibiting the development of nuclear weapons or other weapons of
mass destruction. His predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
also rejected the idea of starting a WMD program
[[link removed]]while facing chemical attacks from a
US-backed Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.
Burns said that if Iran did move to make a nuclear weapon, US
intelligence would likely be aware of the decision. “I think we are
reasonably confident that — working with our friends and allies —
we will be able to see it relatively early on,” he said.
The CIA chief noted that Iran has increased uranium enrichment levels
since the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA,
in 2018. Iran is enriching some uranium at 60%, which is still below
the 90% needed for weapons-grade.
Iran increased uranium enrichment to 60% in 2021 following an Israeli
sabotage attack
[[link removed]]on
Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, which was timed to sabotage indirect
negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
_[The idea of a “Delphi Initiative” was born out of the
discussions during an international conference, held near Delphi,
Greece, in June 2015, just weeks before the culmination of the Greek
crisis. The conference was devoted to the need for an elaborate
strategy to develop national and European strategies and alternatives
against “euro liberalism” and, also, to coordinate actions against
wars against Russia or in the Middle East (
[link removed]).]_
STATEMENT- AMERICANS FOR PEACE NOW TO BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: TIME TO
FOLLOW THROUGH
by APN [[link removed]]
October 16, 2024
Americans for Peace Now welcomes the recent letter from the Biden
administration to the Israeli government, emphasizing the urgent need
to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza within the next 30 days.
But it is not enough.
The government of Israel has been arbitrarily impeding humanitarian
access to the Gaza Strip for over a year, in violation of both Section
620I of the US Foreign Assistance Act and the Biden administration’s
own National Security Memorandum 20. These actions not only exacerbate
the suffering of civilians but also undermine US commitments to human
rights and international law.
It is time for the Biden administration to translate its strong
language into meaningful action. We urge the administration to impose
real consequences for these violations, rather than allowing a cycle
of statements to be followed by inaction.
Americans for Peace Now President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: "The
Biden administration is well aware of the pervasive violations of US
and international humanitarian law from Israel’s conduct in the Gaza
Strip. They have issued numerous warnings, detailed violations in
previous reports, and have gone so far as to build a temporary port to
circumvent the arbitrary restrictions on humanitarian aid imposed by
the Israeli military. It’s no surprise that without real
consequences, the warnings from our government have not been heeded.
Now is the time for the Biden Administration to follow through and
finally ensure US military assistance is only used in accordance with
US laws.”
TEACH-IN ON DANIEL JADUE -- ONLINE -- OCTOBER 19 (SOLIDARITY
RESEARCH CENTER, NACLA, TNI)
[[link removed]]
Daniel Jadue is a former activist mayor of Recoleta, the immigrant
district of Santiago, Chile. During his term, he implemented many
radical municipalist reforms including setting up a people’s
university, libraries, and pharmacies that sold medication at cost.
Sadly, he’s the victim of a rightwing attack on his people’s
pharmacies and has been incarcerated since June 2024. He is currently
under house arrest.
You can read more about his case at the Corbyn project
[[link removed]] and
the international solidarity campaign at the Municipalism Learning
Series [[link removed]].
The goals of this teach-in are to bring attention to the radical
municipalist initiatives Jadue implemented in Recoleta during his
term, to spotlight his unjust detention and incarceration, and to
rally the global municipalist movement behind his case for freedom.
DATE: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19TH 2024
TIME: 4:00 to 6:00 PM PDT/6:00 to 8:00 PM CDT/7:00 to 9:00 PM EDT
LOCATIONS: The panel will be by Zoom with two viewing parties
[[link removed]] in
Los Angeles and New York City.
RSVP: Please RSVP
[[link removed]] for
the online panel or viewing party.
Speakers include:
* RODRIGO HURTADO
[[link removed]],
Universidad Abierto de Recoleta
* FARES JADUE
[[link removed]],
Former Director of Community Development (DIDECO) in Recoleta
* DAVID LEGGE
[[link removed]],
People’s Health Movement
* LUCIA MORALE
[[link removed]],
Barcelona en Comu and Fearless Cities Network
* TBA, Lawyer for Daniel Jadue
Musical performance by Carmen Lienqueo
[[link removed]],
an Andean singer from Santiago, Chile.
The facilitators are Gianpaolo Baiocchi
[[link removed]] of
Urban Democracy Lab at New York University and Romina Green Rioja
[[link removed]] of
Washington and Lee University. The hosts
[[link removed]] are
Solidarity Research Center (SRC), North American Congress on Latin
America (NACLA) [[link removed]], and Transnational Institute
(TNI) [[link removed]].
Interpretation provided by Patricio Gonzalez
[[link removed]] and Erin
Stumpf
[[link removed]].
RSVP
[[link removed]]
SPONSORED BY: SOLIDARITY RESEARCH CENTER
[[link removed]]
ONLINE TEACH-IN ON NATIVE AMERICAN CLASSROOM RESOURCES -- NOVEMBER
2 (SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN (NMAI) AND
TEACHING FOR CHANGE)
Native Knowledge 360° Teach-In
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2
12:00PM – 3:00PM ET / 9:00AM – 12:00PM PT
ONLINE VIA ZOOM
Join the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian
[[link removed]] (NMAI) and Teaching for Change
[[link removed]] for a day
of online conversation, curriculum highlights, workshops, and idea
exchange — preceded by a keynote by Dr. Elizabeth Rule
[[link removed]] (Chickasaw),
public scholar, policymaker, and author of Indigenous DC: Native
Peoples and the Nation’s Capital.
Teachers select two workshop breakout sessions that include relevant
and resource-rich experiences to support effective use of American
Indian-focused classroom lessons and resources from Teaching for
Change and NMAI. Teaching for Change and NMAI museum educators will
share key concepts from NMAI’s Essential Understandings Framework
[[link removed]],
children’s literature from Social Justice Books
[[link removed]], and
classroom materials from NMAI’s Native Knowledge 360°
[[link removed]] education initiative. See
highlights from the 2023 Teach-In
[[link removed]].
Professional development credit and ASL interpretation will be
available.
Learn More and Register
[[link removed]]
Workshops
* By the Book: How Popular Children’s Books Tell the Thanksgiving
Story
[[link removed]]. Recommended
for grades 3–8.
* The “First Thanksgiving”: How Can We Tell a Better Story?
[[link removed]] Recommended
for grades 3–5.
* Identifying Indigenous Narratives in Children’s Books
[[link removed]].
Recommended for grades K–12.
* Native Words, Native Warriors: Honoring the Legacy of Native
American Code Talkers
[[link removed]].
Recommended for grades 4–8.
* Pipeline Protests: Putting Climate Civil Disobedience Into the
Curriculum
[[link removed]].
Recommended for grades 6–12.
* Teaching Indigenous Central America
[[link removed]].
Recommended for grades 1–12.
* The Trouble with History
[[link removed]].
Recommended for grades 3–12.
* Zitkala-Ša: From Reservation to Boarding School to Washington, DC
[[link removed]].
Recommended for grades 3–12.
Teaching for Change [[link removed]]
PO Box 73038
Washington, DC 20056
THE LEFT AFTER THE ELECTION -- NEW YORK CITY -- NOVEMBER 4
(JACOBIN MAGAZINE)
[[link removed]]
At this event featuring Matt Karp, Corey Robin, and Liza Featherstone,
we’ll prepare for Tuesday’s results, unpack the key factors
determining the current balance of power in electoral politics, and
outline the major challenges that will face the Left in the wake of
the election.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2024, 7:00 P.M. EST
Mayday Space
176 St. Nicholas Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11237
REGISTER HERE
[[link removed]]
* Reader Comments
[[link removed]]
* 2024 Elections
[[link removed]]
* swing states
[[link removed]]
* Pennsylvania
[[link removed]]
* Kamala Harris
[[link removed]]
* Donald Trump
[[link removed]]
* Israel-Gaza War
[[link removed]]
* Palestine
[[link removed]]
* Israel
[[link removed]]
* Ceasefire
[[link removed]]
* Ta-Nehisi Coates
[[link removed]]
* Palestinians
[[link removed]]
* Humanitarian Aid
[[link removed]]
* U.S.-Israel military aid
[[link removed]]
* Hostages
[[link removed]]
* Climate Change
[[link removed]]
* FEMA
[[link removed]]
* socialism
[[link removed]]
* Iran
[[link removed]]
* nuclear weapons
[[link removed]]
* CIA
[[link removed]]
* Daniel Jadue
[[link removed]]
* Chile
[[link removed]]
* Native Americans
[[link removed]]
* Indigenous peoples
[[link removed]]
* Cartoons
[[link removed]]
* resources
[[link removed]]
* Announcements
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT
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