Portside

Re: Progressives’ Biggest Fear About the Build Back Better Act Has Come To Pass (Ron Carver; Jose Luis Medina)
Let's not get demoralized or discouraged (Len Polletta)
Re: Yes, Joe Manchin Will Face Blowback in West Virginia (John York; Jay Schaffner; Lorraine Chavez; Gabriel Berrios; Wade Casaldi)
The Real Joe Manchin  --  cartoon by Darrin Bell
Re: Kellogg's Workers End Their Nearly 3 Month Strike and Agree to a New Contract: 'We stood up for what we believed was right' (Lee Zaslofsky)
Re: What Amy Coney Barrett's Anti-Abortion Code Finally Means (Robert Supansic)
Our Mission  --  cartoon by Rob Rogers
Re: America Is Not Ready for Omicron (Linda Belgrave; David Raun)
Re: It's Past Time For Democrats To Defy the Supreme Court (Stan Nadel)
Re: Gabriel Boric Vows to ‘Fight Privileges of the Few’ as Chile’s Premier (Mike Liston)
Santiago, Chile  Celebrates - Nearly Fifty Years After Fascist Coup
Re: Left Wave Continues in Latin America With Historic Victory in Chile (Mark Clay Boyd; Luis A. Paez-Cano; Judith Halprin)
Re: bell hooks - Rest in Power - Get to Know bell hooks (Yi-Chun Tricia Lin)
Re: The Radical Printmaking of Käthe Kollwitz (Carl Anderson; The Female Gaze; Lincoln Bergman; Paul Buhle; Jack Radey)
Re: The Children Will Rise Up! | Nandi & Roman, With Tom Morello, Jack Black and Greta Thunberg - Friday Nite Video (Kipp Dawson)
Re: A Massive Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years (Gina Klein)
Re: How the Hart–Celler Act Changed America (Cher Lunn; Hector Lopez)
Re: Sandinistas Won a Landslide Victory Not Through Fraud but Because They Uplifted Nicaragua’s Poor (Antioni Ramirez)
Re: Your most beloved “family” recipe just might have been dreamed up by a corporation in order to sell products. (Eleanor Roosevelt)
Thanks (Noel)

In Memoriam:  Michael Hirsch, Portside Cultural Moderator

Re: Progressives’ Biggest Fear About the Build Back Better Act Has Come To Pass

(posting on Portside Labor)

And there is a reason that the Democratic Party needs large majorities in both houses. How could this have turned out any other way with Manchin holding out?

Don't be dispirited and give up. It ain't over till its over. We gotta stop moaning and keep on organizing.

Ron Carver
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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There’s a reason Progressives wanted the social spending bill tied to infrastructure.

Jose Luis Medina
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Let's not get demoralized or discouraged

We must not become demoralized by the duplicity, narcissism, greed and callousness of Joe Manchin who is now after months of stalling betraying his constituents and us by opposing the Build Back Better bill. 

Manchin is bought and paid for by big Pharma and the fossil fuel industry and has now made it clear that he represents their interests, not those of ordinary Americans who support the BBB bill.  

The mainstream media and pundits will work overtime to divert us from the battle to strengthen our democracy by telling us the benefits in the BBB bill are unachievable. They will line up to cry defeat, to prevent us from continuing to work together, collectively, to curb the influence of right-wing corporate domination of our politics and economy.  

Let's not be whipsawed to give up the fight for a more decent, more just, more equal society where we can all thrive. Speak out and condemn Manchin's betrayal wherever and however you can. Call his decision out for what it is. 

Peace and solidarity

Len Polletta

Re: Yes, Joe Manchin Will Face Blowback in West Virginia

I certainly hope so. It better be swift and vehement!

John York
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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    Coal Miners Union Rebukes Manchin for Effort to Kill Build Back Better
   

    "Manchin has lost the coal miners with this latest betrayal," said one labor reporter.

    Julia Conley
    December 21, 2021
    Common Dreams
    

Jay Schaffner

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We can only hope! He is on the radio today in West Virginia talking about the benefits of BBB to his constituents! He is a damned liar!

Lorraine Chavez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Money in politics,  who would have thought

Gabriel Berrios
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Well I hate to think of this but Joe Biden needs to be like Trump a little more here and publicly hang Joe Manchin out to dry.

That is why the Republicans fear Trump so much if any stepped out of line they were nailed to the wall publicly.

It is sad politics have become so divided it has to be every single Democrat standing against every single Republican, but that is the way it is.

So Biden needs to say in a televised speech, listen America we are trying to pass the Build Back Better Plan but this DINO Joe Manchin is standing in the way, if it doesn't pass this rest on his shoulders, he is not a real Democrat and is doing everything to see you the people do not get the help you deserve. This is all on Joe Manchin's shoulders, not mine, I'm trying, I know you are in pain, I'm trying to help. But Apparently Joe Manchin doesn't care about you, he certainly doesn't represent you, even though he is supposed to.

Wade Casaldi
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

The Real Joe Manchin  --  cartoon by Darrin Bell

Darrin Bell
June 11, 2021
Darrin Bell

Re: Kellogg's Workers End Their Nearly 3 Month Strike and Agree to a New Contract: 'We stood up for what we believed was right'

Thanks to all the members of the union: you fought for all of us!

Lee Zaslofsky
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: What Amy Coney Barrett's Anti-Abortion Code Finally Means

When the Democrats passed Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s, Nixon gleefully rubbed his hands: the Republicans would take over the South. That failed completely. The Republican Party did not take control of the South. Instead the Old South took control of the Republican Party. Within a generation Nixon’s wing of his Party disappeared, replaced by neo-confederate fraudsters such as Gingrich (GA), Graham (SC), Kennedy (LA), and McConnell (KY), as well as Northern Copperheads such as Collins (ME) and Toomey (PA). Country music swept the country after Reagan’s election leading, a generation later, to the Stars and Bars waving in the U.S. Capitol. And now we have a terrorist campaign aimed at public health workers, schools boards, and election officials, all under the Republican umbrella, all protected by their cronies in law enforcement and the courts, all following the template originally set by the Ku Klux Klan.

The smell of secession is in the air and its noxious vapors have now been sucked into the Chambers of the Supreme Court. The planter class of the South willingly risked wrecking the nation to preserve their right to make a buck off the backs of enslaved black labor. Now five right wing Catholic Justices pursue with reckless determination the strictures of their particular faith by upholding an anti-abortion law (TX) that will visit misery on untold thousands of women and their families.

It may also wreck the fundamental law of the United States. John C. Calhoun (SC) never won a victory for his invention of “state’s rights” that could match this. The Court revived his doctrine of “interposition and nullification;” effectively, any state can now secede in place, selectively abandoning those parts of the Constitution with which they might disagree. But more: by allowing anyone anywhere to sue an abortion provider, the Court has upheld the old Southern tradition of vigilante justice. (Minus the hoods and with the innovative addition of monetary incentives.) These legal geniuses, appointed by a moron, and confirmed by neo-confederates and their Copperhead allies, have made Dred Scott and “Plessy v. Ferguson” look brilliant.

I do not wish to be an alarmist, but we are getting close to the place where people will begin shooting back. Consider the title of a new book on climate change: “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.”

Robert Supansic

Our Mission  --  cartoon by Rob Rogers

Rob Rogers
August 26, 2021
robrogers.com

Re: America Is Not Ready for Omicron

The news isn't good, but the article is.

Linda Belgrave
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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With Omicron The rest of the COVID pandemic playbook remains unchanged and necessary: paid sick leave and other policies that protect essential workers, better masks, improved ventilation, rapid tests, places where sick people can easily isolate, social distancing, a stronger public-health system, and ways of retaining the frayed health-care workforce.

The U.S. has consistently dropped the ball on many of these, betting that vaccines alone could get us out of the pandemic. Rather than trying to beat the coronavirus one booster at a time, the country needs to do what it has always needed to do—build systems and enact policies that protect the health of entire communities, especially the most vulnerable ones.

American Individualism couldn’t beat Delta, it won’t beat Omicron, and it won’t beat the rest of the Greek alphabet to come. Libertarian Self-interest is self-defeating, and as long as its hosts ignore that lesson, the COVID virus will keep teaching it.

David Raun
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: It's Past Time For Democrats To Defy the Supreme Court

Legally correct--and politically delusional.

Stan Nadel

Re: Gabriel Boric Vows to ‘Fight Privileges of the Few’ as Chile’s Premier

This is a profoundly happy day for those who are well aquatinted with the crimes of Pinochet and the 'Chicago Boys'. Our best wishes to that nation, the common folk of Chile; those who have suffered so much, 

Mike Liston

Santiago, Chile  Celebrates - Nearly Fifty Years After Fascist Coup

Re: Left Wave Continues in Latin America With Historic Victory in Chile

Viva Chile! No longer under the influence of right-wing dictators like Pinochet!

Mark Clay Boyd
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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"Ola Roja Latinoamericana '21"!...

Luis A. Paez-Cano
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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the CIA must be digging up its old coup plans.

Judith Halprin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: bell hooks - Rest in Power - Get to Know bell hooks

An awesome collection that Portside put together, which starts with Robin D. G. Kelley’s beautiful tribute ???

Yi-Chun Tricia Lin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: The Radical Printmaking of Käthe Kollwitz

One  of my favorite 20th century artists ~

Carl Anderson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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A wonderful artist who experienced tough times.

The Female Gaze
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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and her sculpture

Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln - The Sculptural Work

Lincoln Bergman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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a great radical and artist.

Paul Buhle
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Friend of my grandmother's. There were a number of her pieces on Granma's walls, I always thought of her as a German Depressionist...

Jack Radey
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: The Children Will Rise Up! | Nandi & Roman, With Tom Morello, Jack Black and Greta Thunberg - Friday Nite Video

(posted on Friday Nite Video)

A video for us.

The Children Will Rise Up! | Nandi & Roman, With Tom Morello, Jack Black and Greta Thunberg

A song written and performed by Nandi Bushell and Roman Morello aims to raise awareness of climate change and to galvanize action to save the planet.

(thank you, Portside)

Kipp Dawson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: A Massive Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years

And this preceded the reign of DLT and his tax giveaways to the richest! What did the Taylors do that made it appropriate for them to live like aristocrats? They extracted and sold an underground resource that has polluted the planet to the detriment of humanity. All of their personal wealth would not be enough to reverse that pollution, but such a fine/penalty would be a beginning. That does not even begin to address the historical special tax treatment/benefits the oil industry has received or the issue of the tax inequity of stepped up basis of inherited property.

Gina Klein
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: How the Hart–Celler Act Changed America 

It didn't change America, it changed the US. The US is not all of America. You would think a investigator, or journalist would know the difference. SMH

Cher Lunn
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Not all America was segregated. only the U.S.
What makes you think that the U.S. is America?
This continent was not "discovered " in Chicago.

Hector Lopez

Re: Sandinistas Won a Landslide Victory Not Through Fraud but Because They Uplifted Nicaragua’s Poor

I'm glad at least two readers responded to the Nicaragua article. Portside normally has great stuff, but that article's inclusion was embarrassing. I worry it reflects the fact that Portside moderators are deeply under-informed about Latin America.

Antioni Ramirez

Re: Your most beloved “family” recipe just might have been dreamed up by a corporation in order to sell products. 

(posting on Portside Culture)

Most housewives of the mid-twentieth century considered these "instant recipes" a boon rather than a bane. Cooking for a family, day in and day out, was a chore, not a twee hobby for dilettantes, and if you could save time by pouring something out of a can or mixing it out of a box, you'd do it gladly and without the slightest twinge of guilt.

Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Thanks
 

Dear Portside people: Your articles are indispensable to me and I often
send them to others involved in our struggles in Hawai'i and beyond.  I
have not found any other source like yours.
You are invaluable!

Noel, Honolulu

In Memoriam:  Michael Hirsch, Portside Cultural Moderator

We mourn the passing of our colleague, comrade and friend Michael Hirsch who fought the illnesses that plagued him in recent years with the same fierce devotion he brought to the struggle for peace, justice, workers rights and socialism.  Mike brought his passion into everything he did, including to our collective discussion in which he would never shy away from strenuously arguing his point of view.  Yet at the same time, Mike would always listen to others, respect their opinions, and look for ways to move himself, move us, move the movement forward.  In this, Mike reflected in his personality and his practice a commitment to democracy which was at the core of his commitment to socialism.

On Portside, Mike’s particular “beat” was as a cultural moderator, enabling him to make use of his erudition and wide reading.  Just as he never wavered in his belief that the working-class was central to the struggle for socialism, he also firmly believed that the arts were essential to that struggle.  These lines from Shelley’s The Masque of Anarchy, that he often ran at the bottom of his emails, are a fitting epitaph: 

    And these words shall then become
    Like oppression's thundered doom
    Ringing through each heart and brain,
    Heard again -- again -- again--
    `Rise like Lions after slumber
    In unvanquishable number--
    Shake your chains to earth like dew
    Which in sleep had fallen on you--
    Ye are many -- they are few

We will miss his contribution to Portside, his voice in our discussions, and, simply put, his presence.

Mike:  Rest in Power 

Portside Moderators

Below is a link to a fuller summary of Mike’s background and contributions, we have no doubt that others will follow.  https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/new-york-ny/michael-hirsch-10491411