[ Reader Comments: Sheroes! Ruby Freeman and Shaye Freeman Ross;
Medical Debt; Rent (and Profits) Driving Inflation; AFL-CIO
Convention; HBO Documentary - The Janes; New U.S. Postage Stamp Honors
Pete Seeger; more ...]
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TIDBITS – JUNE 23, 2022 – READER COMMENTS: SHEROES! RUBY FREEMAN
AND SHAYE FREEMAN ROSS; MEDICAL DEBT; RENT (AND PROFITS) DRIVING
INFLATION; AFL-CIO CONVENTION; HBO DOCUMENTARY – THE JANES; NEW U.S.
POSTAGE STAMP HONORS PETE SEEGER; MORE  
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June 23, 2022
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_ Reader Comments: Sheroes! Ruby Freeman and Shaye Freeman Ross;
Medical Debt; Rent (and Profits) Driving Inflation; AFL-CIO
Convention; HBO Documentary - The Janes; New U.S. Postage Stamp Honors
Pete Seeger; more ... _

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources and Announcements - June 23,
2022, xxxxxx

 

Sheroes of Democracy - Miss Ruby and Shaye Moss
Re: Uvalde Reveals Hollywood’s Deeply Flawed Take On the Police
(Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression)
Demographics  --  cartoon by Rob Rogers
Re: How the US Could Lose the New Cold War (David Raun)
Re: John Eastman Spills the Deets on His Pal Ginni (Dean Bergman)
Re: Sick and Struggling To Pay, 100 Million People in the U.S. Live
With Medical Debt (Eleanor Roosevelt; Rachelle Kivanoski)
How to Arm Teachers   --  cartoon by Walt Handelsman
Re: Skyrocketing Rent Is Driving Inflation (Daniel Millstone)
Teaching About Juneteenth  --  Trevor Noah on The Daily Show
Re: Joe Biden Has Picked a Longtime Social Security Privatizer To
Oversee Social Security (Stan Nadel)
Re: AFL-CIO Unveils Plan To Grow but Some Union Leaders Underwhelmed
(Jay Mazur; Jacq Bailey; Marilyn Albert; Marshall Blake; Len Shindel;
Michael Dawson)
Re: Man Bites Dog: Mega-Corporation Says It’s OK With Its Workers
Unionizing (Jeff Engels)
Re: An American History of the Socialist Idea (Aaron Libson)
Re: Why Russian Intellectuals Are Hardening Support for War in Ukraine
(Charles)
Re: DSA Debates Show Growing Pains (Tom McCarthy)
Re: HBO’s New Documentary Is About the Early 1970s, but It
Couldn’t Be More Timely (Jo Oppenheimer; Walli Ann Wisniewski)
Re: I Tell My Son To Cover Himself in Someone Else’s Blood (Buzz
Davis)

RESOURCES:

NEW U.S. POSTAGE STAMP HONORS PETE SEEGER - TO BE RELEASED JULY 21 AT
NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL

 

SHEROES OF DEMOCRACY - MISS RUBY AND SHAYE MOSS

 

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Freeman Ross, former Fulton County, Georgia
election workers targeted by Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani.

 

RE: UVALDE REVEALS HOLLYWOOD’S DEEPLY FLAWED TAKE ON THE POLICE
 

The murder of George Floyd fueled the largest demonstrations for
justice, liberation, and transformative policy change in American
history. We are now living through a period of backlash to that
moment. Juneteenth calls us to the work that remains.

Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
[[link removed]]
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

DEMOGRAPHICS  --  CARTOON BY ROB ROGERS

 

Rob Rogers
June 22, 2022
robrogers.com [[link removed]]

 

RE: HOW THE US COULD LOSE THE NEW COLD WAR

For two decades after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the U.S. was
clearly number one. But then came disastrously misguided wars in the
Middle East, the 2008 financial crash, rising inequality, the opioid
epidemic, and other crises that seemed to cast doubt on the
superiority of America's economic model. 

Moreover, between Donald Trump's election, the attempted coup at the
U.S. Capitol, numerous mass shootings, a Republican Party bent on
voter suppression, and the rise of conspiracy cults like QAnon, there
is more than enough evidence to suggest that some aspects of American
political and social life have become deeply pathological.

Of course, America does not want to be dethroned. But it is simply
inevitable that China will outstrip the U.S. economically, regardless
of what official indicator one uses. Not only is its population four
times larger than America's; its economy also has been growing three
times faster for many years (indeed, it already surpassed the U.S. in
purchasing-power-parity terms back in 2015).

While China has not done anything to declare itself as a strategic
threat to America, the writing is on the wall. In Washington, there is
a bipartisan consensus that China could pose a strategic threat, and
that the least the U.S. should do to mitigate the risk is to stop
helping the Chinese economy grow. According to this view, preemptive
action is warranted, even if it means violating the World Trade
Organization rules that the U.S. itself did so much to write and
promote.

This front in the new cold war opened well before Russia invaded
Ukraine. And senior U.S. officials have since warned that the war must
not divert attention from the real long-term threat: China. Given that
Russia's economy is around the same size as Spain's, its "no limits"
partnership with China hardly seems to matter economically (though its
willingness to engage in disruptive activities around the world could
prove useful to its larger southern neighbor).

But a country at "war" needs a strategy, and the U.S. cannot win a new
great-power contest by itself; it needs friends. Its natural allies
are Europe and the other developed democracies around the world. But
Trump did everything he could to alienate those countries, and the
Republicans—still wholly beholden to him—have provided ample
reason to question whether the U.S. is a reliable partner. Moreover,
the U.S. also must win the hearts and minds of billions of people in
the world's developing countries and emerging markets—not just to
have numbers on its side, but also to secure access to critical
resources.

In seeking the world's favor, the U.S. will have to make up a lot of
lost ground. Its long history of exploiting other countries does not
help, and nor does its deeply embedded racism—a force that Trump
expertly and cynically channels. Most recently, U.S. policymakers
contributed to global "vaccine apartheid," whereby rich countries got
all the shots they needed while people in poorer countries were left
to their fates. Meanwhile, America's new cold war opponents have made
their vaccines readily available to others at or below cost, while
also helping countries develop their own vaccine-production
facilities.

The credibility gap is even wider when it comes to climate change,
which disproportionately affects those in the Global South who have
the least ability to cope. While major emerging markets have become
the leading sources of greenhouse-gas emissions today, U.S. cumulative
emissions are still the largest by far. Developed countries continue
to add to them, and, worse, have not even delivered on their meager
promises to help poor countries manage the effects of the climate
crisis that the rich world caused. Instead, U.S. banks contribute to
looming debt crises in many countries, often revealing a depraved
indifference to the suffering that results.

David Raun
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: JOHN EASTMAN SPILLS THE DEETS ON HIS PAL GINNI
 

The sooner we are rid of him the better.

Dean Bergman
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: SICK AND STRUGGLING TO PAY, 100 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE U.S. LIVE
WITH MEDICAL DEBT
 

Liquidate the health-care industrial complex.

Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

This is an excellent analysis of the devastating impact of the
relentless greed of the health care industry. A compelling argument
for Medicare for All.

Rachelle Kivanoski
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

HOW TO ARM TEACHERS   --  CARTOON BY WALT HANDELSMAN

 

Walt Handelsman
March 3, 2018
The Advocate
[[link removed]]
(Baton Rouge)

 

RE: SKYROCKETING RENT IS DRIVING INFLATION
 

The rent is too damn high. Most of us are not earning enough to pay
it. Eric Adams' Rent Guidelines Board endorsed increases not related
at all to cost increases. Adams supports rent increases because (says
he) he is concerned about "mom & pop" landlords but the big winners
are his real estate contributors. Brad Lander [New York City
Comptroller] explains. Try his statement: 

[[link removed]]

Read full background statement here
[[link removed]]

Daniel Millstone
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

Teaching About Juneteenth  --  Trevor Noah on The Daily Show

 

Trevor Noah
June 19, 2021
The Daily Show
[[link removed]]

 

RE: JOE BIDEN HAS PICKED A LONGTIME SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATIZER TO
OVERSEE SOCIAL SECURITY
 

well it is a seat reserved for a Republican, so how much wiggle room
did Biden have?

Stan Nadel

 

RE: AFL-CIO UNVEILS PLAN TO GROW BUT SOME UNION LEADERS UNDERWHELMED
 

So the leadership of the AFofL-CIO is hoping to reverse their decline
and grow one percent annually for the next ten years. It's a very
modest goal, which we have no reason, at present, to believe will be
realized.

Jay Mazur
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

Look around you Liz!!! a million in TEN years? Incremental change
again! The nation might not even exist in ten years.

Jacq Bailey
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

I feel an urge to check what John Sweeney said about organizing goals
in 1995....leaving Amazon and Starbucks workers out of the convention
because they are not in an Affiliate reflects AFLCIO longstanding
narrowness.

Marilyn Albert
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

View this plan as the glass half full or half empty. I prefer to see
it as half full.

Marshall Blake
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

Who will lead the "Center for Transformational Organizing?" Will they
be agents of transformation or conciliators with bureaucracy? Will the
bureaucracy listen to them if they are truly transformational,
including taking down jurisdictional barriers?

Len Shindel
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

As if the style of organizing were the problem. Labor law is the
obvious problem. In this society, you have to organize Starbucks one
store at a time! Mr. Moneybags is giggling his backside off at that
one.

Michael Dawson
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: MAN BITES DOG: MEGA-CORPORATION SAYS IT’S OK WITH ITS WORKERS
UNIONIZING
 

Hard to believe but if it’s true that would be great for one of our
Washington State Powerhouses to do the right thing and not undermine
their Workers Right to Organize free of intimidation!

Jeff Engels
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: AN AMERICAN HISTORY OF THE SOCIALIST IDEA
 

In the 1870's at a joint session of Congress they debated whether the
U.S. should go capitalist or socialist.

Aaron Libson

 

RE: WHY RUSSIAN INTELLECTUALS ARE HARDENING SUPPORT FOR WAR IN UKRAINE
 

This is such contorted logic, but indicative of how effective the
pro-Putin policy propaganda actually is.  For those who now fear that
the US is using Ukraine as a vehicle for destroying the Russian state,
it was Russia that attacked Ukraine in the first place, and yet vast
millions in Russia seem completely devoid of any of this.

They really believe the narrative that this is a "rescue" humanitarian
mission to liberate Ukraine from a Nazi regime, and that the Nazi
regime is now being fueled by the US and NATO to destroy Russia.  Not
even George Orwell could dream up something this bizarre.

Charles
Sebastopol, CA

 

RE: DSA DEBATES SHOW GROWING PAINS
 

I have often found liberal cancel culture to be hostile to actual left
progressive principles. So their candidate supported privatizing
charter schools, but because they were of color, anyone who criticized
was attacked and insinuated as a racist. Interesting article raises
the question of what are DSA core principles or is it simply a big
tent organization of people who call themselves socialist?

Tom McCarthy
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: HBO’S NEW DOCUMENTARY IS ABOUT THE EARLY 1970S, BUT IT
COULDN’T BE MORE TIMELY

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

I have seen The Janes, an excellent documentary.

In the 60s, I lived in NYC and was part of a small group that ferried
women to Pennsylvania for illegal abortions. The abortionist was a
medical doctor who believed in the right of women to choose and have a
safe, medical abortion. Unlike the Janes, we were not well organized
but just a few people, including men, who sporadically provided
transportation and occasionally funds.

Jo Oppenheimer
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

I just learned about this group through NPR. Fascinating.

Walli Ann Wisniewski
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: I TELL MY SON TO COVER HIMSELF IN SOMEONE ELSE’S BLOOD

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

It is a sad world we live in when people for forces by their being to
write these things.

The men who play with people lives should be the first ones to lose
theirs.  But they never are.

Peace and NEGOTIATIONS AND DIPLOMACY!

Buzz Davis,
Vets for Peace in Tucson

 

NEW U.S. POSTAGE STAMP HONORS PETE SEEGER - TO BE RELEASED JULY 21 AT
NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL

 

The new Pete Seeger Stamp will be officially unveiled on Thursday,
July 21 with a special USPS stamp ceremony hosted by Newport Folk
Festival at the Jane Pickens Film and Event Center in Newport, Rhode
Island.

The 10th stamp in the Music Icons series honors Pete Seeger
(1919-2014), a champion of traditional music and its power to inspire
activism. Pete Seeger’s clear tenor voice, iconic banjo and enormous
charisma transformed concerts into sing-alongs.

The stamp art features a color-tinted black-and-white photograph of
Pete singing and playing his banjo in the early 1960s, by Dan Seeger,
Pete’s son. 

Pete joins Lydia Mendoza, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix,
Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Sarah Vaughan, John Lennon, and Marvin
Gaye in the Music Icons Series.

In celebration of this well-deserved honor, the following video
features Pete, at age 87, sharing some of his most beloved folk
classics and his views on hope, passionate activism, the importance of
thinking for oneself, and how music can unite us all.

Click the link below [[link removed]] to experience Pete
Seeger and the power of song.

Pete Seeger - A Performance of His Most Beloved Folk Classics

[[link removed]]

Watch here [[link removed]]

Here, at age 87, Pete Seeger shows us he's still, as Moses puts it,
"agitating, and active as all get out." Between performances of his
work, including passionate renditions of "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "We
Shall Overcome" (both of which have impressive and uplifting audience
accompaniment), Seeger comments on his ideas for the future, his views
on hope, passionate activism, the importance of thinking for oneself,
and how music can unite us all. when he shared his views on hope, and
some of his most beloved folk classics.
 

* Reader Comments
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* Jan. 06
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* Capitol Siege
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* Donald Trump
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* House Committee
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* Ruby Freeman
[[link removed]]
* Shaye Freeman Ross
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* Uvalde
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* school shootings
[[link removed]]
* guns
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* medical debt
[[link removed]]
* Medicare for All
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* rent
[[link removed]]
* inflation
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* AFL-CIO
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* Labor Organizing
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* The Janes
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* abortion
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* women's movements
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* Pete Seeger
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* folk music
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* U.S. history
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INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

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