WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Columnist Laura Washington

"My message to Chicago Ald. Jim Gardiner: You are mired in a bottomless pit of misogyny." -- Sun-Times

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez re. Manchin

“In Washington, I usually know my questions of power are getting somewhere when the powerful stop referring to me as ‘Congresswoman’ and start referring to me as ‘young lady’ instead." -- Guardian 

Rev. William Barber re. Manchin

“He is a part of the demolition crew of this democracy.” -- The Sunday Show

Justice Stephen Breyer

“I Don’t Intend to Die on the Court” -- Fox News Sunday 

Dr. Anthony Fauci

"If you want to get on a plane and travel with other people then you should be vaccinated." -- Podcast  

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus 

"Because manufacturers have prioritized or been legally obliged to fulfill bilateral deals with rich countries willing to pay top dollar, low-income countries have been deprived of the tools to protect their people.”

“There has been a lot of talk about vaccine equity,” Tedros added, “but too little action.” -- Truthout

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Oklahoma City Thunder players kneel during anthem despite a threat from GOP state lawmaker 

Nikole Hannah-Jones on Bill Clinton's hit on Kwame Ture

Literally cringed. Stokley was radicalized differently after getting arrested for the 27th time fighting for civil rights in Greenwood. He decided from then on if white people hit him, he was going to hit back... One can eulogize Congressman John Lewis without demonizing other freedom fighters you didn’t agree with. -- The Grio

Hasan Kwame Jeffries

This mischaracterization of Carmichael serves a purpose. It allows people to dismiss his critique of America. -- Washington Post Op-ed

IL Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton

 “What would any of us want for our own children if they had to go to a facility like this? Do we want them in large, cinder block warehouses? Or would we want our children to be in home-like or dorm-like facilities?” Stratton said in explaining the “my child standard.” -- Chicago Tribune

Rev. William Barber and Bernice King

Removing monuments is the easy part. We must make America a real democracy... In fact, many who support flags and statues coming down today also advocate voter suppression, attack healthcare and re-segregate our schools. -- Guardian

I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2020

Ben Zimmer, contributing writer

The political play here is not hard to decipher. Trump feels he needs to portray “the suburbs” as under an imminent threat to provoke racist fears among white voters. -- The Atlantic

Rep. Raúl Grijalva after testing positive for COVID-19 

“While I cannot blame anyone directly for this, this week has shown that there are some members of Congress who fail to take this crisis seriously,” he said. “Numerous Republican members routinely strut around the Capitol without a mask to selfishly make a political statement at the expense of their colleagues, staff, and their families.” -- 
Guardian

Celtics guard, Jaylen Brown

Jaylen Brown: "Angela Davis once said that racism is so dangerous, not because of individual actors, because it's deeply embedded in the apparatus."

— Bobby Krivitsky (@BobbyKrivitsky) August 2, 2020

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

"President Trump and several staff members stood backstage and gazed at the empty Bank of Oklahoma Center in horror." -- Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni, New York Times 

Poor Peoples Campaign

“The worst mistake we can make now, with all the marching, the protesting in the streets, would be to demand too little,” said the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, a co-chair of the campaign along with the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis. -- New York Times

David Massey, former SDNY prosecutor

“While there have always been turf battles between the Southern District and the Justice Department in Washington, and occasionally sharp elbows, to take someone out suddenly while they’re investigating the president’s lawyer, it is just unprecedented in modern times." -- New York Times

Laurentio Howard, father of Marshall High student

“Watching the Floyd video, I felt hurt, afraid, just thinking it could have been me because I was there at Marshall. To have to stand back, to not be able to help my daughter being brutalized by officers sworn to protect her, was one of the hardest things I’ve ever experienced,” said Howard, a sheet metal worker with the city of Chicago. -- Sun-Times

Trump's idea of a joke

 "When you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people. You're going to find more cases. So I said to my people, slow the testing down please." -- Tulsa speech

Anne Caprara, Gov. Pritzker's Chief of Staff not laughing

There were weeks that we were begging for testing supplies. Begging. We needed them for first responders, medical workers, doctors, nursing homes. We were desperate to up our testing numbers. So this makes me especially mad. https://t.co/ihegrpqYy1

— Anne Caprara (@anacaprana) June 21, 2020

But the "lowlifes" were all inside the arena. All 6,200.

Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Trump's gun thugs storm MI legislature. He calls them, "very good people."

Brittany Packnett, activist, educator

“The Michigan demonstrations "are what happens when people of racial privilege confuse oppression with inconvenience.” -- AP

David Axelrod & David Plouffe

“Biden in the Basement” is not a strong enough show to hold the audience. -- New York Times

Prof. Anita Hill

 “Joe Biden has denied Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations, but that should not be the end of the inquiry. Given the significance of this moment, the allegations against both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump should be investigated, with results that are “made available to the public.” -- New York Times

Tony Utano, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100

“The MTA has to recognize this with more than just thanks and praise. They need to put that thanks and praise into my members’ paychecks. You can’t keep asking people to come to work and carry such a heavy burden for the same rate of pay. It’s just not right.” -- 98 transit workers dead from coronavirus

Rev. William J. Barber

In a country as wealthy as the United States, poverty is a political choice, and it is time for real solutions that provide lasting freedom from fear and want. -- CNN

Peter Lynn, head of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority

“There is a staggering overrepresentation of black people in homelessness, and that is not based on poverty,” he said. “That is based on structural and institutional racism.” -- New York Times

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

James Baldwin

Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be. One hasn’t got to have an enormous military machine in order to be un-free when it’s simpler to be asleep, when it’s simpler to be apathetic, when it’s simpler, in fact, not to want to be free, to think that something else is more important. -- Nobody Knows My Name

Rev. William Barber & Rev. Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign

While our nation once fought a war against poverty, now we wage a war on the poor...People are poor not because they are lazy, not because they are unwilling to work hard, but because politicians have blocked living wages and healthcare and undermined union rights and wage increases.-- Guardian Op-ed

Les Wexner, Ohio billionaire and longtime Republican donor 

“If you don’t think things are right, open your mouth...I just decided I’m no longer a Republican." -- HuffPost

James Bloodworth, worked undercover in Amazon warehouse

 In Amazon’s case, convenience evidently has a cost, and this cost is born by those toiling away in Amazon’s warehouses, rarely heard from in the media and invisible to the millions of people who every day submit orders through Amazon’s website. -- Guardian

Paul Vallas, on why he didn't act on CPS sexual assaults

His campaign released a statement that said the Lovett case was “not one that Mr. Vallas or any one of a number of other former school officials to whom we reached out, recalls other than vaguely as something that was fleetingly reported on the news.” Vallas’ campaign defended the lack of an investigation by saying it was a matter for police and child welfare authorities. -- Chicago Tribune

I hope they cast a black Superman. It would nice for a brotha to finally be faster than a speeding bullet.

— Travon Free (@Travon) September 13, 2018

Struck up a conversation w/Glorimarie Peña in Old San Juan. Regarding Hurricane María response, she told me, “It’s not that we weren’t treated like US citizens, it’s that we weren’t even treated like humans.” pic.twitter.com/B8NebKyqSA

— Leyla Santiago (@leylasantiago) September 15, 2018

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Stevie Wonder closes out Aretha's funeral. 

Rev. William Barber

Aretha's singing challenged the dangling discords of hate and lies and racism and injustice. Her singing was liberation and revolution in the major key. -- Aretha Franklin's homegoing

CTU Acting President Jesse Sharkey

"Bruce Rauner's front group [IPI] is asking CTU members to walk away from our power, and our members have an answer: no way, not now, not ever." -- 1IL

D.T.

"They want to raid Medicare to pay for socialism," he says. The crowd cheers. -- Crooks & Liars

Jesse Jackson

Kaepernick’s grievance — if the courts are not as intimidated by Trump’s tantrums as the owners were — will expose the self-evident collusion that has locked him out of the league. -- Sun-Times

Gerde Schmidt, retired receptionist 

“I’m used to the neo-Nazis, but not seeing my neighbour or the plumber mixing with them in broad daylight. You can’t rule out anyone being here.” -- Fear in Chemnitz

Mayor Rahm Emanuel

Wall: "If that was an option you might consider CPS for your kids?Emanuel: Again I want to say my job as mayor is for taking care of Chicago's children, my children are Amy and my responsibility we'll make the decision. I don't really think that's the question." -- Interview with ABC News

You know you’re a #UnionGirl when “Solidarity Forever” is on your workout mix.

— Erika Wozniak (@ErikaWozniak) September 1, 2018

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Harold died 30 years ago. 

To sin by silence, when we should protest, makes cowards out of men. -- Ella Wheeler Wilcox ("Protest" 1914 poem)

 Forrest Claypool (Doing his best Jeff Sessions)

“However differently I recalled my past conversation, the documents you shared with me this week make it clear I did do that." -- Sun-Times

Diane McWhorter, author of Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution

...noted the city’s history as the industrial centre of the south and the related rise of trade unionism. “What made Alabama different from other deep south states is that it did have this pesky progressive tradition."

For the state to have gone through so much agony and now be in this position is “deeply heartbreaking”, McWhorter added, describing Alabama as something of a bellwether for the nation. “Looking back at George Wallace, we thought he was a fading and terrible relic, but he’s now in the White House, effectively. After Trump, we’re all Alabamans now.” -- The Guardian

Rev. Dr. William Barber

This is not Christianity. Rather, it is an extreme Republican religionism that stands by party and regressive policy no matter what. It's not the gospel of Christ, but a gospel of greed. It is the religion of racism and lies, not the religion of redemption and love. -- NBC News 

Fritz Kaegi

Fritz Kaegi

Within Chicago, we have a lot of cynicism ("Oh, this is just the way the system is and that's the way it's always been") but people in the rest of the country who see what we see, they see an anomaly. They see a problem. They can't quite believe it's like this. And it's become a national story. -- Hitting Left

Joshua Tepfer, attorney for victims of Chicago police corruption

“This group of police officers led by Sgt. Watts had been doing this for 10 years; corruption on this scale is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s truly astounding. This represents great hope for the future of our county.” -- Sneed

 David Figlio, economist at Northwestern University

"I think the best evidence from the best recent research ... if anything, it looks like that maybe kids going to private school on voucher programs might do worse in reading and math than they do in public [schools]," -- Edweek

Taking the deduction away from school teachers who pay out of pocket for supplies for their students, but including this. Vile. https://t.co/DZbSGIlmh1

— Adam Scott (@mradamscott) November 17, 2017

Trump afraid to face NAACP. Sends underling. Group stands firm on charters.

NAACP 2017

The racist character of the current White House (aptly named for its lack of black faces) became even more apparent when Trump turned down the NAACP's invitation to address its 2017 convention. Instead DT sent his beleaguered underling, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, to represent the face of this administration. The results weren't pretty.

As you might expect, Rosenstein got a "chilly reception" when he repeated Trump's racist garbage about black crime and urban "carnage" and tried to downplay the current mayhem in the Justice Dept. with his boss, AG Jeff Sessions at the center of it.

POLITICO reports:

Rosenstein used his six-minute address to pay homage to Trump by citing one of his most polarizing speeches: the inaugural address where he railed against "carnage" in the streets of America.

"In President Trump’s inaugural address, he said that Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families and good jobs for themselves. These are just and reasonable demands," Rosenstein said.

Rosenstein got a tepid reaction from the group, with organizers exhorting the crowd to give him more applause both as he took the stage and as he wrapped up.

 "Our goal is not to fill prisons. Our goal is to save lives," Rosenstein said, as his comments were interrupted by a smattering of applause.

Nothing of course, could be further from the truth. Trump's goal has been precisely to fill the prisons with black, Latino and immigrant bodies. Especially the now burgeoning industry of private prisons whose owners are among his biggest campaign contributors.

Responses...

   “Stop talking to us about the mythology of black crime," Rev. William Barber II said as many in the audience stood and cheered. "If you’re going to talk to us about black crime, talk to use about the Wall Street criminals that never get charged."

Many of those who addressed the convention Tuesday railed against the Trump administration and its efforts to repeal Obamacare.

"Stop texting lies. Stop telling lies. Stop turning people against each other with lies," said Barber, a leader of the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina. "Until you stop, we can’t move.”

"It gets dark sometime, but let nothing break our spirit," Rev. Jesse Jackson told the group. "Stand up. March up. We will outlast Trump and we will outlast this dark night."

Charter schools...

A NAACP task force that spent several months traveling the country learning about charter schools released a report Wednesday with the group’s conclusions. The report comes less than a year after the civil rights organization passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on the growth of charter schools last October. The new report calls on the NAACP to create a plan of action and a new coalition of groups to push back on charter schools’ lack of accountability and transparency.

The report notes that while charter schools were created to act as labs of innovation and share their best ideas with public schools, “this aspect of the promise never materialized.”

While making some concessions to some of its pro-charter affiliates, the organization, which has been under tremendous pressure from the administration and powerful corporate "reform" groups to retreat, appears to be standing firm on calling for more charter accountability and restraints on the expansion of privately-run charters.

According to the Baltimore Sun:

The NAACP is calling for tighter restrictions on charter schools and the elimination of for-profit charters as part of a broad array of actions leaders want to see taken on the local and national level to improve public education for children of color.

 In calling for more accountability, the NAACP wants local school districts to be the only body that can approve, or give a charter to, a new school. That restriction already exists in Maryland, which is one of the few states with charter laws that require all charter schools to be part of local school systems.Many states allow other entities, such as universities, to decide whether a school should be permitted to operate as a charter.

Huffington Post reports:

 During a time when the Trump administration is working to expand the number of charter schools in the name of civil rights, the symbolic importance of pushback from the nation’s oldest civil rights organization looms large. The report recommends the full elimination of for-profit charter schools. For-profit schools aren’t allowed in a number of states, but are prevalent in Michigan, the home state of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. 

“The widespread findings of misconduct and poor student performance in for-profit charter schools, demands the elimination of these schools,” says the report.

More to come on this.

Will Dems dare to take advantage of GOP health care debacle?

“President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts, Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer.” -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren

Yesterday was a smashing defeat for Trump and the Repugs in their attempt to loot Medicaid and gut healthcare for more than 22 million people. Their cynical revanchist move against Obamacare was seen by the great majority of angry and terrified citizens for what it was, another attempt at a major redistribution of wealth upward in the form of a trillion-dollar tax break for the 1% at the expense of the health and welfare of working and poor families. 

The factionalism and a shattering to smithereens of the GOP leadership cadre plus the mass revulsion for Trump and the GOP leadership felt by most voters forced Sen. McConnell to pull the bill (at least for now) or risk even more desertions. 

As a result, the climate is ripe for a Democratic take-back of Congress in 2018 and for the passage of a national, single-payer healthcare bill. But that would require a radical change at the top before Democrats would dare champion such a bill or back a slate of progressive candidates to run nationally with it. A progressive takeover or even a coalition with progressives are prospects that current party leadership appears to fear even more than a continuation of Trumpism. As a result, there may be little to excite the Democratic base beyond hatred for Trump, once again in 2018.

Dems seem locked into their defeatist strategy of running Republican-light candidates simply on the slogan of, I'm not Trump, in a transparent appeal to the moderate Republican base rather than to their own. Ossoff's defeat in Georgia in the most expensive rep race in history is a perfect example of the predictable failure of such a stand-for-nothing strategy and unfortunately an omen of things to come. 

Clem Balanoff (left) with Chuy Garcia and Bernie Sanders

In the absence of a nationwide powerful and independent, interracial mass movement of the poor -- the kind being organized by leaders like Rev. William Barber down in North Carolina -- it's once again left to Sens.Warren and Sanders to rally the troops and build on this Republican crash-and-burn.

LOCALLY, HERE IN ILLINOIS, it's the same story. Even after Sanders' near victory in his run against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary -- he pulled nearly a million (49%) of the votes -- we're once again forced to choose from a group of traditional Democrats in the gov's race against the universally-hated Bruce Rauner. 

That's one of the issues we will be discussing Friday on Hitting Left with our in-studio guest, Clem Balanoff who chairs Our Revolution Illinois/Chicago, the organization that grew out of the IL Sanders campaign for president. Tune in at 11 a.m. on Lumpen Radio. 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Organizers estimated between 50,000-80,000 participated in the Equality March on Sunday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Rev. William Barber

“Rosa Parks didn’t just decide to sit down one day. We can’t choose the moment that the flame bursts out, but we can be the kindling.”-- New York Times 

Sen. Bernie Sanders 

 “The current model and the current strategy of the Democratic Party is an absolute failure,” Mr. Sanders said to booming applause, arguing that Democrats need “fundamental change.” -- At People's Summit

 CTU vice president Jesse Sharkey

“The CTU supports union rights for all educators in Chicago, including charter school teachers. Local 4343’s vote for unity takes a stand for using our collective power to support quality public education for the students we all serve.” -- ChiACTS Local 4343

Chris Baehrend, president of ChiACTS Local 4343

“This vote for unification is a vote for educators with both ChiACTS and the CTU to speak with a stronger collaborative voice for real educational justice for all of our students." -- Ward Room 

Mary Bouwense, president of the Grand Rapids Education Association

“The Christian schools in Michigan were set up to be separate from the state, and now [DeVos'] intent is to use the state to finance them. I know she says it’s about choice, but it’s really about funneling money to what she knows... I think her agenda is shaped by her idea of what God wants for the world." -- New York Times 

Moral 'defibrillators' battle for the soul of the party.

"In this season, when some want to harden and stop the heart of our democracy, we are being called like our foremothers and fathers to be the moral defibrillators of our time." --Rev. William Barber

The two most important speeches at the DNC last night were barely covered in this morning's reportage. They came from Rev. William Barber and Gen. John Allen and represented for me, at least, the poles in the struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party and the nation.

Rev. Barber is the head of the N.A.A.C.P and leader of the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina. MMM is a multi-racial movement which has mobilized tens of thousands in this important swing state, to fight form civil rights, public education and social justice. It could hold the key to a Clinton victory in November.

Barber took to the moral high ground, bringing down the house with his call for shocking the system.

“When we fight to reinstate the power of the Voting Rights Act, and we break the interposition and nullification of the current Congress, we in the South especially know, that when we do that we are reviving the heart of our democracy. The heart of our democracy is on the line this November and beyond.” 

Gen. Allen

Gen. Allen, who battled Pres. Obama over the draw-down of American troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, was obviously brought out and scripted to help cut into Trump's base. His speech was also intended to shore up Clinton's hawkish image as someone who could be trusted (by the Pentagon) to lead the next 8 years of the global war on terror and keep tax dollars flowing into the war machine.

Marching out onto the stage with lots of military brass behind him, Allen worked the crowd into a patriotic frenzy. His speech stressed US military power around the world. It could have easily been cribbed from Trump's. The experts who exposed Melania's plagiarism should check this one out.

"To those acting against peace, acting against civilization and world order, we will oppose you. And to our enemies, to our enemies, we will pursue you as only America can. You will fear us. And to ISIS and others, we will defeat you!"

No details as to how.

Liberals loved it. At least, these did.

god damn gen allen makes me want to storm a beach

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) July 29, 2016

Wargasm...The image from last night that will stay with me always came from the thousands of delegates chanting, "USA, USA..." to drown out the handful of protesters who had the courage to shout "No more war." The scene had all the makings of a Trump rally and showed how quickly things can turn at the hand of a skillful, flag-waving, fist-shaking demagogue.

No there there on ed...I listened hard this week for any clues or indications of the rumored break by Dem leaders with the party's current corporate-style school reform policies; i.e. testing madness, privatization, mass school closings, and expansion of privately-run charters. I heard nothing. In fact, I barely heard any specifics at all about education and what we can expect from a Hillary-run D.O.E. Dems obviously don't see this as a big dividing issue with Trump/Pence.

The word education came up only twice in Clinton's speech last night. Both times in reference to her taking credit (deservedly or not) for children with disabilities having greater access to quality education. No speaker -- certainly no educator or union leader -- was given the podium in prime time to talk about the fight for public education or differences with Trump on this issue. (Yes, I know Randi and Lily and a few union guys were given barely-noticeable speaking slots.)

What a great alternative that would have offered us, in place of Gen. Allen's wargasm.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Pres. Barack Obama on Trump

“In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue,” Obama said. “It’s not cool to not know that you’re talking about. That’s not keeping it real or telling it like it is. That’s not challenging political correctness. Facts and evidence matter.”  -- Rutgers commencement speech

Columnist Mark Brown

There’s no doubt Blaine Elementary School Principal Troy LaRaviere has been an insubordinate Chicago Public Schools employee. Too bad there aren’t more like him. 

Sure, there has to be a chain of command, but that’s no reason to squelch dissent. CPS is not a paramilitary organization like the Chicago Police Department. -- Sun-Times

Rev. William Barber II

“This is not about bathrooms. It’s about whether or not you can codify hate and discrimination into the laws of the state.”

“This is about November. It’s about wedge issues, and it’s about sexual and racial fears,” Barber said. He said it is the latest manifestation of the “Southern strategy” employed by Republicans to gain political support based on fear of the other.

Jedidiah Brown, founder of the activist group Young Leaders Alliance

"He [Rahm Emanuel]has not changed, and it's only a matter of time before there's another situation with another name, another personality, and it will be the same thing. He has not shown with his leadership that his heart is for the constituents. It's all about self." -- Tribune

Mayor Rahm Emanuel

“If you’re going to make changes, you don’t want the Justice Department coming and saying, ‘You got that wrong. Now, do it again.'"-- Emanuel to scrap police review authority