Tidbits - July 5, 2018 - Reader Comments: Supreme Court; #AbolishICE; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Muslim Community Offers to Host All Separated Migrant Children; Labor Notes Guide; more...
Celebrating My First July 4th - In a Cage -- cartoon by Ricardo Cate
Re: Let Us NOT Praise Anthony Kennedy (Jenny Kastner; Alan Hart; Howie Leveton; Edgardo Rivera Sr.; Sandra Powell Emond; David Woolsey; Deb Sizemore; Janie McNicholas)
Re: In Defense of Court-Packing (Jay Schaffner; Alan Hart; Eric Ebel; Sean Lynch)
I Am A Child - June 30 Families Belong Together March ( Kisha Bari Photography)
Re: Abolishing ICE Becomes Dem Litmus Test (Joseph Maizlish)
Re: Meet Progressive Champions Ben Jealous and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Dave Ecklein)
Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 'Unlikely Voters' Fuel Her Epic Victory (Marshall Mayer; Sherry Berg; Hugh Lacey)
Re: Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Story of Privatizing Public Education in the USA (Daniel Millstone)
Fascist Baby Steps - cartoon by Mike Stanfill
Re: Trump wants a Space Force. He won't get one. (Philip Specht; Galen Muhammad; Steven Herzberg)
Re: Trumpism, Realized (Wayne Gravelle; Maria Angeles Zavala; Elisabette Calero)
Re: This is Your Daughter’s Labor Movement (Laurel MacDowell)
Re: Ed Sadlowski: September 10, 1938- June 10, 2018 (Suzanne Prescott; Terry Reed)
Re: Legalized Xenophobia - Poster of the Week (Jim Elliott)
Re: A Potential Breakthrough in Mexico (Richard Roman)
Re: In Memory of Felicia Langer, the First Lawyer to Bring the Occupation to Court (Susan Llequis; Manuel Tamargo; Ana E. Morales Jiménez)
Re: Venezuela — After the elections: What is to be done? (John P Weber)
Re: Franco's Cruel Legacy: The Film That Wants to Stop Spain Forgetting (Jenny Kastner)
Re: Why the Middle Class Can’t Afford Life in America Anymore (Joyce Parkes)
Not Reported in the News: Tampa Bay Muslim Community Offers to Host Migrant Children Separated from Their Families (IlmFeed)
Resources:
Rebuilding Power in Open-Shop America: A Labor Notes Guide
Weapons Manufacturers - $40 Billion & Counting (Divest from the War Machine coalition)
Celebrating My First July 4th - In a Cage -- cartoon by Ricardo Cate
Ricardo Cate
June 29, 2018
Without Reservations
[Ricardo Caté of Santo Domingo Pueblo is the most prominent Native American cartoonist working today. His immensely popular cartoon “Without Reservations” is published daily in the Santa Fe New Mexican and Taos News, and explores the irony and poignant humor found in the Native American experience of living in dominant culture.
Caté is the only Native American cartoonist whose work is carried by a daily mainstream newspaper. Many of his comics are included in his extraordinary book, Without Reservations: The Cartoons of Ricardo Caté.
In addition to being a cartoonist, Caté is also an activist, stand-up comedian, writer, teacher, veteran, former college athlete, tribal official, four-time Dakota Access Pipeline protester at Standing Rock, and filmmaker.
He has three children and lives in Santo Domingo Pueblo, where he participates in feast day dances and traditional cultural events.]
Re: Let Us NOT Praise Anthony Kennedy
He’s a cowardly traitor to the laws and the people who need their protection!
Jenny Kastner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
He's a right-wing slimeball who leaves a wake of damage.
What decent person would even consider praising this reactionary?
Alan Hart
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Besides the revaluations about why he’s leaving, he’s the man who gave us Citizens United, put Bush in as president, and recently allowed legal discrimination!
I’ll skip the testimonials!
Howie Leveton
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Absolutely, beyond his son's business dealings with Trump. He is nothing more than a POLITICAL whore who sold himself out. This is not a country of law, but of MONEY!
Edgardo Rivera Sr.
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Anthony Kennedy deserves no praise. And now it seems obvious that he was partisan all along.
Sandra Powell Emond
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Loans of over $1 Billion to Trump by SCOTUS justice Kennedy's son, but nothing to see here...
June 29
Daily Kos
Donald Trump Made Justice Kennedy an Offer He Couldn’t Refuse
June 29
Vanity Fair
David Woolsey
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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This is spitting in the face of all Americans who value justice. No matter his legacy before, all he'll be remembered for now is how he deserted the American people he swore to stand for.
Deb Sizemore
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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You will be remembered... a disgrace!
Janie McNicholas
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: In Defense of Court-Packing
Trump, who lost the popular vote has appointed more judges to the Federal bench in the first year in office, than any other President. That's court packing if you ask me.
Jay Schaffner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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The Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress. Isn't it getting a little ahead of ourselves to talk about court packing now? Don't give Trump any ideas -- he may decide to add another 20 reactionaries to the Supreme Court.
Alan Hart
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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This is the ultimate "nuclear option," but it may be necessary. The point is that we are right at the tipping point, between the forces of "tradition" and those of "diversity." The latter will prevail, of course, and we have the right to steamroll any remaining centers of opposition.
Eric Ebel
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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The Republicans have controlled the Supreme Court since Nixon appointed 4 Justices and Gerald Ford 1 on the 8 years 1968-1976. So anyone who tells you that the Court has been left leaning since then is bat-crap crazy right wing lunatic. FDR tried to pack the Supreme Court going from 9 Justices to 15. The Republicans and many Democrats went crazy! It failed!
Sean Lynch
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
I Am A Child - June 30 Families Belong Together March
Photo credit: KishaBariPhotography
Families Belong Together Facebook page
Re: Abolishing ICE Becomes Dem Litmus Test
The atrocities now done by ICE can be picked up by organizations with other initials, sooner or later, and in one or another form -- unless the campaigns are about the atrocious behavior itself and about the "upstream" atrocity: the U.S. foreign/economic policies and their contributions to the destabilization, dislocation, and unlivability in the migration source countries.
Even if the immediate photogenic atrocities are stopped, the upstream ones will continue to produce desperation and shorten lives.
So let's do what we can to get both the immediate events and the systemic sources discussed and acted on.
The discourse in the U.S. on immigration suffers for the absence of a major cause:
Examples from NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday July 1:
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/01/625079039/republican-roundtable-on-immig… https://www.npr.org/2018/07/01/625079098/democratic-roundtable-on-immigration
Joseph Maizlish,
Los Angeles
Re: Meet Progressive Champions Ben Jealous and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Ocasio-Cortez has foreign policy differences from Crowley. He supported Trump's US embassy move to Jerusalem, while she broke silence on the massacre of Palestinians.
Dave Ecklein
Re: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 'Unlikely Voters' Fuel Her Epic Victory
Establishment Democrats will never learn this lesson. It's why they are called establishment. It's high time for a political revolution!
Marshall Mayer
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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formerly known as the democrat base. give something to vote for people show up!
Sherry Berg
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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This is how to run an energized and brilliant campaign.
Hugh Lacey
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Story of Privatizing Public Education in the USA
Trust me. Read this. The war by the rich against the rest of us includes the effort to privatize schools. The reach having reaped 100% of the income gains want more. Here, Joanne Barkan, in an essay dedicated to Paul Booth, of blessed memory, has the facts. Some of the defenders of public education, the teachers' unions are under ferocious assault. We need to stand with them. Thanks to Portside for the link.
Daniel Millstone
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Fascist Baby Steps - cartoon by Mike Stanfill
Mike Stanfill
June 26, 2018
Raging Pencils
[Raging Pencils is a thrice-weekly progressive comic developed and created by Dallas-area illustrator Mike Stanfill, sometimes known as "Lefty", sometimes not.]
Re: Trump wants a Space Force. He won't get one.
Interesting reason why nobody wants to smash an enemy’s satellite - that would create a huge shower of space junk, taking out everything in its path.
Philip Specht
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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#Presidunce Donald J. Trump ....and his foolish and distracting "space force"....
Galen Muhammad
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Trump is so smart he stumbles into creations most geniuses couldn't conceive in a lifetime. He just proved he has the best words. "Space Force"...Totally genius.
Steven Herzberg
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
He'll do this to other groups he doesn't like or who disagree with him
Wayne Gravelle
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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It’s similar to the beginning of Nazism
Maria Angeles Zavala
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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So what are América and waiting for? Get this demon out. !
Elisabette Calero
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: This is Your Daughter’s Labor Movement
(posting on Portside Labor)
There isn't going to be much of a labor movement without union security which the Supreme Court has just outlawed. The solution is political - get the millionaires and billionaires backed by corporate capital out of office.
Laurel MacDowell
Re: Ed Sadlowski: September 10, 1938- June 10, 2018
I met Ed. He demonstrated so many of the traits I expect to see in a real leader. His passing is such a loss.
Suzanne Prescott
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Another tribute to the life and spirit of Ed Sadlowski a leader of member driven unionism.
Terry Reed
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Legalized Xenophobia - Poster of the Week
Executive Order No. 9066, issued on February 19, 1942, deported more than 110,000 persons of Japanese ancestry into ten concentration camps (euphemistically referred to as "internment camps"), throughout the Western US. Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American living in California, refused to relocate and remained at home. When he was arrested and convicted of violating the Executive Order, he argued that it violated the Fifth Amendment. On December 18, 1944, the US Supreme Court upheld Korematsu v. United States, arguing that the Executive Order did not show racial prejudice and was necessary for national security.
Jim Elliott
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: A Potential Breakthrough in Mexico
This article situates Obrador's rise to almost certain victory in the evolution of the multiple crises of Mexico and the contradictions between the "democratic transition" in the electoral arena and the anti-democratic, anti-popular character of neoliberalism. But an Obrador government would face many inherited crises as it seeks to manage the contradictory interests of the base, promising no new taxes and no attacks on property rights on the one hand and putting the poor first on the other. The situation promises to be one of "uncertainty, contradiction, and struggle.
See: Obrador and Mexico’s Watershed Election
By Richard Roman and Edur Velasco Arregui
June 29, 2018 / The Bullet
Richard Roman
Re: In Memory of Felicia Langer, the First Lawyer to Bring the Occupation to Court
Felicia Langer, now .that I know about your life, we will not forget you with much gratitude.
Susan Llequis
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Did you note that she was able to represent Palestinians in Israeli courts. Doesn't fit with your usual narrative about Israel.
Manuel Tamargo
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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So sad that she even had to defend Palestinians in Israel ... considering that the Jews themselves were victims of many injustices committed against them just for being who they were..
Ana E. Morales Jiménez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Venezuela — After the elections: What is to be done?
Your assumption that everyone who did not vote in Venezuela is antiMaduro is absurd and reveals a pro CIA bias. I was astounded to see that kind of shoddy editorializing on Portside.
John P Weber
Re: Franco's Cruel Legacy: The Film That Wants to Stop Spain Forgetting
(posting on Portside Culture)
It’s so good to see this, finally. Historical memory matters.
Some people might remember Chevy Chase’s running joke on SNL years ago, “Francisco Franco is still dead.” It was a bitter dance on the grave of a hateful dictator and ally of Hitler, who lived and ruled for far too long.
Jenny Kastner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Why the Middle Class Can’t Afford Life in America Anymore
(Posting on Portside Culture)
The same is happening in Australia - these Conservative governments must be defeated. Remember Anatole France's writ: 'The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal bread.'
Joyce Parkes
June 26, 2018
IlmFeed
Listen here. https://youtu.be/H2iJmZWeotg
The Muslim Community of the Tampa Bay Area have offered to host children separated from their families at the US-Mexico border.
Children of migrants who were caught illegally crossing the border, many of whom were seeking asylum in the US are being held in temporary detention centres as they cannot be put in custody with their parents.
This policy has spared outrage in the country as well as around the world.
Now, the Muslim community in the Tampa Bay Area in Florida have offered to take care of all the children who are being detained until a solution has been reached.
Ahmed Bedier of the Islamic Society of Tampa Bay Area said it was part of the Muslim faith to “protect the young – the children” and that it emphasised “the importance of keeping families connected.”
He said that there were hundreds of Muslim families who are prepared to host the children.
Watch video: (click here)
Transcript:
“Our religious faith calls upon us to protect the young, to protect children and emphasises the importance of keeping families connected.
In fact, there is a strong tradition in our faith that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had once said: There’s a grave punishment for the person that separates a child from their mother.
And in that spirit, we’re coming forward to offer a solution to the crisis right here at the Islamic Society of Tampa Bay Area. We are stepping forward and offering to host all 2,300 migrant children that are currently in detention. All of them.
And this hosting also includes the cost of transportation. We’ve secured the pledges from local community members as well as business individuals that have pledged to cover the cost of the transportation and to bring them here to Tampa Bay
And we have hundreds of Muslim families that are prepared to host these children in their homes at their own cost with the goal that they will be continued to be taken care of and hosted until they can be reunified with their parents and next of kin.
Our ultimate goal is to protect the children. These children continue to be housed and locked up into these detention centres which we find to be unacceptable – some of them as young as 8 months old.
This will be completely self-funded by the community here in Tampa and will not cost the government anything.
What we wanna do is, you know, with this solution we’re calling on the Trump administration as well as the Department of Homeland Security to take immediate steps to release these children and to work out the logistics with us to be able to transport them here to the Tampa Bay Area.”
[IlmFeed is dedicated to publishing informative and inspirational articles about Islam and Muslims. IlmFeed features articles about Islamic History, Muslim personalities, Mosques around the world, inspirational stories and much more with a particular focus on featuring positive stories about Muslims.
Since launch in March 2014, IlmFeed has quickly become one of the most popular UK-based Islamic websites in the world and its popularity is continuing to rise.]
Rebuilding Power in Open-Shop America: A Labor Notes Guide
July 2, 2018
Labor Notes
Credit: Laborers Local 79 // Labor Notes
The moment you may have been dreading arrived June 27, when the Supreme Court imposed the open shop on the public sector nationwide with its decision in Janus v. AFSCME District 31.
Instead of the usual mix of articles, this month we’re sharing a special expanded issue of Labor Notesdevoted to one topic: our survival guide for rebuilding power in open-shop America. (Are you in the private sector and think this won’t affect you? Don’t get too cozy.)
Janus is a serious blow—but we have good news. As plenty of unions in open-shop states and sectors can testify, it’s still possible to win campaigns and maintain high membership rates despite the legal hurdles. We talked to workers in schools, factories, buses, hospitals, oil refineries, grocery stores, post offices, and shipyards. This guide reveals the principles and practical steps behind their successes.
Here’s the punchline: the unions that build power in open-shop America will be the ones that fight hard on workplace issues their members care about, and where large numbers of rank-and-file members take on their own fights.
Rebuilding Power in Open-Shop America
A Labor Notes Guide
Context
How We Got Here
Our Prescription
The Racist History of Right to Work
Who’s Next?
The Anti-Union Game Plan
Diagnostics
Exercise: The Open-Shop Stress Test
Quiz: Assess Your Danger Level
Jump-Starting a Weak Union from Below
Brass Tacks
1. Be Democratic
2. Fight the Boss
3. Turn Up the Heat
4. Ask People to Join
5. Count Noses
6. Don't Go It Alone
How We Got Here
Unions are vulnerable to opting out, as members wonder what’s in it for them. The good news is that members will stick with a union that’s visible and vocal in the workplace.
It’s official: the Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME means that all 7 million unionized city, county, school district, state, and federal public employees now work in a “right-to-work” environment.
They join 2 million private sector union members in right-to-work states. It’s fair to say we’re now living in Open-Shop America.
The consequences will hit us all—driving down standards, draining union coffers, diminishing labor’s political and community power, and painting a big red target on the remaining 5 million private sector union members in states that still allow an agency shop.
THE THREAT IS REAL
The Janus decision is the latest hit in a decades-long onslaught by employers and the 1%, bent on weakening workers’ power and drawing wealth upward. This isn’t the first blow, or the second.
Read more here.
Weapons Manufacturers - $40 Billion & Counting (Divest from the War Machine coalition)
Weapons manufacturers steal from all of us. They take billions of our tax dollars to make products of death and destruction, reaping huge profits while our communities at home suffer. We are faced with rampant funding shortages for housing, education, food assistance, and clean water. Meanwhile the CEOs of the top five weapons makers pulled in a combined salary of $96 million. We need to lead and pledge to divest from war ourselves and the next step is to join forces locally to call out those Making a Killing on Killing; our cities, state pension funds, Universities, churches, and the BlackRock offices near you. There are many ways to engage and we are here to help.
Today, we are excited to share with you a new tool to support you in divesting and to use while you engage with others to support them. We collaborated with As You Sow to create a searchable database to bring transparency to complicated mutual funds and ETFs. Search the Weapon Free Funds database to see if you or your community are invested in weapons and war! Join others who are working to divest their cities, towns, states, universities, colleges, faith communities, and even your local foundations and philanthropists. Funds with over $40 billion in assets have already divested in weapons and war, let’s keep that number growing!
This week Congress voted to allocate $716 billion for war, an increase of $82 billion. That is lining the pockets of the rich while creating paths of death and destruction. At our borders, refugees and asylum seekers are fleeing war and violence that is the result of our failed foreign policies. These same asylum seekers are placed in detention facilities that are built and run by military contractors. As if profiting from war around the world isn’t terrible enough, the military industrial complex has paved the way for these merchants of death and destruction to increase profits and destroy human lives at home.
Our personal investments, and the investments of our cities & towns and our colleges & universities are subsidizing war profiteering, making us all complicit in these atrocities. The good news is, we have the power to cut our ties to war.
The Weapon Free Funds database covers thousands of the most commonly-owned mutual funds from major asset managers like Vanguard, Fidelity, and BlackRock. The tool allows you to find out if your personal investments or your communities’ investments are being used to finance makers of military weapons and civilian firearms. It also enables you to find alternative, socially-responsible options that avoid the war economy. We can use this tool to hold our communities, fund managers, and investment firms like BlackRock accountable and to take personal action.
Let’s move our communities toward supporting education and infrastructure, not guns and bombs. Check out the Weapon Free Funds now and take on a weapons funder near you!
Toward a world without weapons,
Spread the word