This week's list of articles, news items and opinion pieces that I see as must reads if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.
This list covers the week of February 19-26. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.
1) The Disturbing Alliance Between Zionists And Anti-Semites
Suzanne Schneider, Forward
Between the congressional hearing for David Friedman, the visit of Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump’s refusal to address the rising tide of anti-Semitism, it’s been a tense time within the American Jewish community.
Read the full article.
2) After seven years of bailouts, Greeks sink yet deeper in poverty
Karolina Tagaris, Reuters
Greek pensioner Dimitra says she never imagined a life reduced to food handouts: some rice, two bags of pasta, a packet of chickpeas, some dates and a tin of milk for the month.
Read the full article.
3) Tony Clement hangs up on CBC Daybreak after exchange over asylum seekers
Benjamin Shingler, CBC News
Tony Clement, the Conservative Party's public safety critic, hung up on CBC Montreal Daybreak host Mike Finnerty this morning after he grew frustrated with Finnerty's line of questioning on asylum seekers crossing the U.S. border into Canada.
Read the full article.
4) Everyone was dead: When Europeans first came to B.C., they stepped into the aftermath of a holocaust
Tristan Hopper, The National Post
Everywhere they looked, there were corpses. Abandoned, overgrown villages were littered with skulls; whole sections of coastline strewn with bleached, decayed bodies.
Read the full article.
5) Remembering Bob White
Herman Rosenfeld, Rank and File
With great sadness, I learned of the death of Bob White. In 1978, he became the leader of the Canadian section of the UAW about a year and half after I started working on the line at GM. Little did I know what an amazing leader and pioneer in working class history he would turn out to be.
Read the full article.
6) Soccer Fans’ Racist ‘Monkey Chants’ Cause Brazilian Star To Leave Game In Tears
Rebecca Shapiro, Huffington Post
Partizan Belgrade’s Everton Luiz played an entire soccer game against Rad Belgrade on Sunday as rival fans hurled racist chants and remarks at him.
Read the full article.
7) 5 Iconic Images of Black Women Saying ‘Naw’ In the Face of Racial Violence
Black Girl With Long Hair
Black women have always been on the front lines of the fight for civil rights, exhibiting strength and grace under pressure. Here are 5 iconic images of black women staring down violence when confronted with it.
Read the full article.
8) The rise and fall of Milo Yiannopoulos – how a shallow actor played the bad guy for money
Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian
So there is, after all, a line that you cannot cross and still be hailed by conservatives as a champion of free speech. That line isn’t Islamophobia, misogyny, transphobia or harassment. Milo Yiannopoulos, the journalist that Out magazine dubbed an “internet supervillain”, built his brand on those activities. Until Monday, he was flying high: a hefty book deal with Simon & Schuster, an invitation to speak at the American Conservative Union’s CPac conference and a recent appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher. But then a recording emerged of Yiannopoulos cheerfully defending relationships between older men and younger boys, and finally it turned out that free speech had limits. The book deal and CPac offer swiftly evaporated. The next day, he resigned his post as an editor at Breitbart, the far-right website where he was recruited by Donald Trump’s consigliere Steve Bannon, and where several staffers reportedly threatened to quit unless he was fired.
Read the full article.
9) This is not the way Milo Yiannopoulos should have gone down
Natasha Chart, Feminist Current
I doubt very much that a gay man in pearls and lipstick was unanimously seen as an ideal CPAC speaker, yet they were going to allow it. The only redeeming thing about the alt-right’s collection of white supremacists, anti-Semites, and misogynists, is that they hadn’t turned on homosexuals yet.
Read the full article.
10) The Lib Dem way of solving our prostitution problem is nothing more than an Orange Book for penis rights
Sarah Ditum, The Independent
The idea that full decriminalising of kerb-crawling and brothel-keeping would make prostitution safe is based on the bizarre misapprehension that the only thing making prostitution unsafe is the law. Actually the thing that makes prostitution unsafe is men.
Read the full article.
11) Similarities between Joseph Boyden story and Ojibway healer’s published work trigger questions
Jorge Barrera, APTN
Three Day Road author Joseph Boyden is facing questions over ‘intimate’ similarities found in a passage from one of his short stories and a piece published years earlier by an Ojibway healer and storyteller named Ron Geyshick.
Read the full article.
12) WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO ALL THE OLD RACIST WHITES FROM THOSE CIVIL RIGHTS PHOTOS?
Johnny Silvercloud, Afrosapiophile
A few months ago from this day of publishing, I had an interesting discussion with a white guy at work. The subject of riots came up. Pretty much, he attempted to place a mass association of “riots” to Black Lives Matter protesters. Fascinated with his thoughts (which severely lacked critical thinking), I threw him a critical thinking question:
Read the full article.
13) Women Of Standing Rock Make A Powerful Plea Before Evacuation
Elyse Wanshel, The Huffington Post
With a Feb. 22 evacuation deadline quickly approaching, the women of the Standing Rock Sioux have a simple request. They need help, and they need it now.
Read the full article.
14) Five children who got longer sentences for throwing stones than Israeli soldier who shot incapacitated Palestinian dead
Bethan McKernan, The Independent
An 18-month jail sentence handed down to an Israel Defence Force (IDF) recruit for the killing of a wounded Palestinian has prompted widespread criticism for its apparent leniency in light of the severity of his crime.
Read the full article.
15) Kshama Sawant calls for wave of anti-Trump protests and strikes on May Day
Q13 News Staff
Socialist Seattle city council member Kshama Sawant is calling for a wave of protests and strikes on May Day this year against President Donald Trump and his policies.
Read the full article.
16) Socialism’s Return
Patrick Iber, The Nation
For the American left, 2016 proved to be a year with a cruel twist ending. In the first few months, a self-described democratic socialist by the name of Bernie Sanders mounted a surprisingly successful primary challenge to the Democratic Party’s presumed and eventual presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. By the end of 2016, however, not only had Sanders lost the primary race, but Clinton had been defeated in the general election by a billionaire who dressed his xenophobic and plutocratic ambitions in the garb of class resentment.
Read the full article.
17) WHITE MEN BEHAVING SADLY
Jack Halberstam, Bully Bloggers
At the end of a year in which men behaved badly, madly, and even gladly, how appropriate that an Oscar contending film appears in which men behave, yup, sadly. Indeed all the ladly behaviors that make up the repertoire of white masculinity have culminated in this – a film where we finally understand why the white man is sad, why everyone else is bad and why despite being sad because everyone else is bad, he learns to be a dad.
Read the full article.
18) Bob White, Union Organizer, Union Leader: April 28, 1935 – February 19, 2017
Sam Gindin, The Bullet
When I last visited Bob at his nursing home in Kincardine, a nurse politely pulled me aside to tell me that he no longer talked much but remained quite sociable. The deterioration in his condition was sad to hear, but I remarked that his retention of social skills was no surprise. ‘As a union organizer he had a natural sociability’. She lit up and excitedly whispered to a nearby nurse: ‘That explains it!’. ‘Explains what?’ I asked. ‘Well, the one thing he keeps telling us is: “You know, all of you work really hard but don't get paid enough; you should get a union”.’
Read the full article.
19) Buyers’ Remorse: Americans think Trump is bad at almost Everything
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
The vast majority of Americans in a new Quinnipiac opinion poll do not believe that Donald J. Trump is level-headed or shares their values. Of course, this is only one poll, and likely the plus or minus swing is 3 or 4 percent. But actually the findings are so decisive in most cases that that wouldn’t matter. Qunnipiac showed Trump beating Clinton last summer, so you can’t accuse them of being biased against him.
Read the full article.
20) Petition: Revoke the Charitable Status of Canada Christian College
On February 15, 2017 Rebel Media founder Ezra Levant hosted Conservative Party of Canada leadership contenders as part of a protest against Muslims in Canada. The event was held at the Canada Christian College (CCC) in Toronto, and was welcomed by President Charles McVety.
Events of this nature encourage hate toward other Canadians based on their religion, and therefore can be classified as hate speech. CCC should lose its charitable status and receive other legal penalties as appropriate.
Sign the petition.
21) Canada has ‘no idea’ when it will properly fund programs for First Nations children: Blackstock
APTN National News
Exactly 10 years after filing a human rights complaint against Canada and a little more than a year after winning it Cindy Blackstock’s fight for First Nations children appears to be far from over.
Read the full article.
22) I'm an Arab actor who's been asked to audition for the role of terrorist more than 30 times. If La La Land cleans up at the Oscars, I'm done
Amrou Al-Kadhi, The Independent
My first film job at the age of 14 – Steven Spielberg’s Munich – featured me as an Islamic terrorist’s son. When I complained about racial profiling to a director, I was told that I was lucky I could 'use my ethnicity as a playing card' in an industry where 'white actors are overlooked'
Read the full article.
23) The Travel Press is Reporting the 'Trump Slump,' a Devastating Drop in Tourism to the United States
Arthur Frommer, Frommers
Experts across the travel industry are warning that masses of tourists are being scared away from visiting the United States, and the loss of tourism jobs could be devastating.
Read the full article.
24) Burning down the globe: Climate change denial in Canada's house
Christopher Majka, Rabble
You might think that even after virtually every scientist with expertise in the discipline agrees that human-induced climate change is not only real but a dire threat to the stability of our civilization and our environment; that after virtually every scientific academy on the planet concurs with this view; that after the phenomenal work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, arguably the most thorough and extensive international scientific enterprise of all time) has definitively established the causes and consequences of this danger; that after 174 countries on the planet put their signatures to the Paris Agreement at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference to undertake immediate action to try and halt this phenomenon; that after over a century of increasing global temperatures, and in recent years, record monthly and annual temperatures records; that after an increase in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide by 42 per cent (from 280 parts per million (ppm) in pre-industrial times to over 400 ppm currently); that after a multitude of environmental impacts consistent with climate change; that there would exist no sane human being on the planet who would not only understand the reality of climate change, but also be highly concerned about it. You might think that.
And you would be wrong.
Read the full article.
25) Questions remain after Taser complaint ruled unfounded
Morgan Modjeski, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
The lawyer representing a man who was Tasered in his own apartment after police were sent to the wrong address says questions remain after the province’s police watchdog determined a complaint about the incident was unfounded.
Read the full article.
26) White People See A Lesson In Manners. I See A Racist Assault
Tasheka Lavann, The Huffington Post
So, we're taking matters into our own hands now as TTC users? Are we not to use the relevant authorities to report misconduct anymore? I'm referring to the now-viral video of a white woman sitting on a young black man's feet on the TTC train.
Read the full article.
27) NFL Star Michael Bennett on Refusing to Go to Israel, Black Lives Matter & His Love for Angela Davis
Democracy Now
In a Democracy Now! exclusive, we speak with Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, who made headlines when he pulled out of an Israeli government-sponsored trip to Israel for NFL players. We are also joined by Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation magazine. The two discuss the role of sports in politics, including Olympian John Carlos, as well as Colin Kaepernick’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement that inspired players throughout the country at all levels to take similar actions.
Read the full article.
28) Canada's 150-year celebration doesn't fly here
Steve Bonspiel, CBC News
With all of the mainstream hype about Canada's 150th anniversary of confederation, it's no surprise that the many Native people are using a vastly different word to describe it — colonialism — and people are also raising much awareness on social media in the form of #Resistance150.
Read the full article.
29) Progressives Need A New Party, Not A New DNC Chair
Jonathan H. Martin, The Huffington Post
The next few days could be an important turning point for U.S. progressives. During its winter meeting being held in Atlanta, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is scheduled to elect a new chair. The results could help many left-leaning activists decide whether it really is possible to reform the Democratic Party, or whether it is time to pursue alternatives.
Read the full article.
See also: Climate Change, Bill Maher, NSTU & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List February 12-19
See also: The Immigration Ban, Israel, Patriot White House Boycott, Kaepernick & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List February 5 - 12
