Tidbits – Oct. 24 – Reader Comments: Elections – Ten Days To Go; Hard Lessons From 1968; Gaza War: Jews for Ceasefire; Learning From the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Calling for a Peace Movement; Project 2025- Why It’s Bad-Comic Resource; Announcements

Reader Comments: Elections - Ten Days to Go; Hard Lessons from 1968; Gaza War: Jews for Ceasefire; Learning from the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Calling for a Peace Movement; Project 2025- Why It’s Bad-Comic Resource; Announcements; Cartoons; more....

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Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements AND cartoons - Oct.24, 2024,Portside

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The Enemy Within  --  Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Donald Trump is right about one thing; there is a profound danger within our borders. But it's not the left, and it doesn't require a military solution. It requires an electoral solution. Retired Gen. Mark A. Milley warned that former president Donald Trump is a “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” I agree 100 percent. I hope America rises to meet the threat and kicks this wannabe dictator to the curb on Nov. 5.

Nick Anderson
October 18, 2024
Pen Strokes

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Re: Exonerated Five Sues Donald Trump for Jogger Case Remarks Made at Presidential Debate
 

"Defendant Trump falsely stated that plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime. These statements are demonstrably false,” the group wrote in federal complaint.

Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise were teenagers when they were accused of the 1989 rape and beating of a white woman jogger in New York City’s Central Park. The five, who are Black and Latino, said they confessed to the crimes under duress. They later recanted, pleading not guilty in court and were later convicted after jury trials. Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime.

After the crime, Trump purchased a full-page ad in the New York Times, calling for the teens to be executed. The jogger case was Trump’s first foray into tough-on-crime politics that preluded his full-throated populist political persona. Since then, dog whistles and overtly racist rhetoric have been

Jeff James
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

      =====

Trump's grandfather was kicked out of Germany, came here and joined the KKK. Don's father was a racist landlord who taught the young Donald all about the myths of "white superiority" amid the "lack" of discriminated people of color.

Javier B. Pacheco
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: The Incomprehensible Scale of Trump’s Deportation Plans
 

Tr#mp's sociopathy looks like a sadistic form of fascism.

Jim Stone
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Voter Fraud? He who smelt it, dealt it!  --  Cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz

 


 

Lalo Alcaraz
October 18, 2024
https://www.pocho.com/

 

Re: Federal Judge to Ron DeSantis: “It’s the First Amendment, Stupid”
 

Federal judge shoots down Ron DeSantis’ war against free speech

Robert Laite
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Over The Line  --  Cartoon by Mike Luckovich

 

Mike Luckovich
October 20, 2023
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Re: No Matter What, Palestinians Will Never Give Up
 

The last year has shown that our love of life, and our fight for our freedom, will never be extinguished. 

Francisco Gómez Olivares
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Israel’s War Against the World
 

"In July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel's occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967 is illegal, and that it must withdraw its military forces and settlers from all those territories. In September, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution giving Israel one year to complete that withdrawal. If, as expected, Israel fails to comply, the UN Security Council or the General Assembly may take stronger measures, such as an international arms embargo, economic sanctions or even the use of force."

I am beyond angry, ashamed, disgusted, and disappointed with the lack of concrete measures to stop and punish for its crimes by all parts of the United Nations.  What can we do as individuals to truly make a difference, rather than continue to be a silent conspirators?

Alfredo Roldan-Flores

 

Re: Rabbi Is Calling for Ceasefire in Gaza – How I’m Honoring My Dad, a Holocaust Survivor
 

A member of Rabbis for Ceasefire explains why they interrupted the UN General Assembly earlier this year. A January poll from the Institute for Policy and Understanding found 50% of U.S Jews supported a ceasefire, only 34% opposed it, and 63% of the general population then in favor of a ceasefire; a scant 16% of Americans wanted this war to continue.

Right now anti-Zionism is a minority view among American Jews, but younger Jews are increasingly critical of Israel and the war on Gaza. The same poll to reveal that only 34% of Jews overall oppose a ceasefire also showed that 41% of Jews over age 50 oppose an immediate ceasefire, while only 22% of Jews age 18-29 do. Like so many times in the past, the US Jewish community is in the middle of a radical ideological shift.

"Judaism has preserved and honored minority opinions with dignity for thousands of years."

Jay Schaffner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

      =====

Rabbi Kukla's minority view of  March 6, 2024 should now be the majority view:

Hamas's leadership has been decimated.  

A ceasefire must now be called, and the hostages returned - simultaneously. 

Leonard J. Lehrman
LeonardJLehrman.com

 

Re: What the Movement for Palestine Can Learn From the Fight Against Apartheid
 

This is important, but it fails to go the next logical step and critique more fully the moral faillings of activists who are pro-Palestine or pro-Israel, and fails to point out the secret of the South African liberation movement was its strict policy of non-racialism. 

Ironically, the most principled groups are in Israel itself, among Arabs and Jews and joint groups. 

Bottom line, we need a peace movement not just a solidarity movement.

Mike Dover

      =====

About the Middle East: there are two problems, and one is a matter of time. I keep hearing how Hamas and Hezbollah's charter is the destruction of Israel... as though no time had passed, and they gave up on that decades ago. The same people refuse to recognize that the phrase "from the river to the sea", and "Eretz Israel" is *exactly* the same.

Further, Netanyahu is carrying out that plan: genocide. It's revenge for his late brother, it's a lifetime of hate... and he doesn't dare lose power, or he's going to jail (assuming the International Criminal Court doesn't get their hands on him.

The issue that everyone is yelling about, but is time sensitive - is the US' actions. Reality check: whatever Biden wants to do, say, obey the law and stop shipping arms to Israel, he doesn't dare... until the day after the election. We - that's "we" as the entire world" - cannot take any chances of Trump getting back into power. This means we need every vote, including those who would vote against the future were he to stop now.

I'm expecting changes after the election.

mark roth

 

Manly Man  --  Cartoon by Rob Rogers

 

It is hard to be shocked by anything Trump does after so many years of lies and chaos, but the candidate's disgusting remarks about beloved golfer Arnold Palmer's manhood were shocking. But that lewd talk is not as dangerous as the wannabe dictator's threats to use the military to go after his fellow Americans.

Rob Rogers
October 22, 2024
Tiny View

 

Re: Seriously? Stein? Sawant? Suicide?
 

There are enough people who hate Trump but may vote for Stein or West or some other third candidate or not vote at all to perhaps move some swing states into Trump’s column. That could matter greatly. 

Lynn Hamilton
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Lilly Ledbetter, the Activist Who Inspired Fair Pay Act, Dies at 86

(posting on Portside Labor)
 

RIP Ms Ledbetter!!! Thank you for paving the way for us all! I pray that we can carry this tradition by electing the first female President for this country! 
Its time!

Karen Bright-Harrison
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Meet Lucie Castets, the French Left’s Nominee for Prime Minister
 

After the New Popular Front won July’s French elections, it nominated Lucie Castets for prime minister. Emmanuel Macron ignored the result. Castets told Jacobin how the left-wing coalition can build on its progress and stop the lurch to the right.

Mark C. Rosenzweig
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: At the Grocery Store, Blinded by the Light of the ‘Health Halo’

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

Health halo refers to the perception that a food product is generally good for us based on a single claim, casting subliminal power over our diets and dollars.

Mary Beth Sodus
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Arnold Palmer's Penis  --  Cartoon by Mike Stanfill

 

Mike Stanfill
October 21, 2024
Raging Pencils

 

Hard Lessons
Bruce Hartford

October 2024
Civil Rights Movement Archive

Vietnam was the war that profoundly shaped my generation. We're all octogenarians now, our numbers are dwindling and our living memories are dying with us. But to this day they still sear our souls. More than 60,000 American dead. More than 2,000,000 Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians dead. Uncounted numbers maimed for life, poisoned by chemical warfare, or dead with heroin needles in their arms.

I am proud to say that for more than a decade I was a dedicated anti-war activist. And I confess with deep regret, that born of anguish and rage, for a few of those years some of my extreme, self-righteous, political positions and provocative statements and actions, were ineffective and counter-productive.

When anti-war activists met Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi and Paris, the Vietnamese urged pro-peace Americans to unite everyone who could be united around the most important issue — which at that time was ending the bombing and beginning peace negotiations. Uniting all who could be united meant building broad coalitions and alliances among people whose analyses and interpretation of the war diverged widely. A minority of us in the student left, however, copped an egotistical, "If you're not with us you're against us" attitude. We were too pure to make common cause with those we saw as foes, too militant to temper our extreme rhetoric, and too 'revolutionary' to curb our provocative actions that alienated potential allies.

So for a few years I was a part of the problem rather than part of the solution. And I was not alone in that. So much so, that SDS leader Todd Gitlin would later note that by the late sixties, "The only thing the American people hated more than the Vietnam War was the anti-war movement." Which did neither the Vietnamese people nor American draftees any good whatsoever. We were wrong, but it was not we who paid the price.

In the 1968 election, it was self-evident that Nixon would be far worse on Vietnam and racial justice than Humphrey. But we cared not, for we were righteous in our legitimate revulsion against Johnson, his war, his administration, his convention, and his vice-president. We condemned and excoriated both major candidates equally and campaigned for Eldridge Cleaver on the Peace & Freedom Party ticket. Cleaver got less than 1% of the vote and the world got Nixon.

With Nixon we got five more years of war. With Nixon we got an expanded war with the invasion of Cambodia and a massive bombing campaign that dropped twice the explosive tonnage on Indochina than was used in all of World War II. With Nixon we got the Kent State and Jackson State massacres that cast a chilling, crippling pall over anti-war and racial-justice protests across the nation. With Nixon we got an Attorney General and an administration committed to white-backlash politics, courting segregationists, and rolling back civil rights. Which is why I now view my 1968, "plague on all their houses" stand as part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

There is no way to know what Humphrey would have done had he won. But we do know that to some extent presidents and their administrations take actions and enact policies favored by their political base. A significant portion of the Democratic base opposed the Vietnam War and supported justice initiatives. The Republican base that Nixon served was quite the opposite, they wanted war, cops, bigotry and Jim Crow.

[from Bruce Hartford's bio: I was one of the Jews active in the Civil Rights movement. I began with CORE and the Non-Violent Action Committee (N-VAC) in Los Angeles (1963-1964) with direct action campaigns for housing integration and school desegregation; and against employment discrimination by Bank of America, Van deKamps Bakeries, and others. We marched, we picketed, we sat-in, and we went to jail often. Some said that California was "different" from the South, but after experiencing the tender mercies of the LAPD and a restaurant owner who hired a mob of white teenagers to attack our picket line in the heart of the South Central Black community, I'm not so sure that the difference is as great as folks imagine.

In August of 1963 I participated in the March on Washington where Dr. King gave his "I have a dream speech," and John Lewis challenged the federal government to enforce the constitution it was sworn to uphold.

From 1965-1967 I was on the field staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In those bygone days I was known as that "skinny kid" (alas, no longer), and was commonly acknowledged to be the worst singer in SCLC.]

 

Project 2025, and Why It’s Bad  (Economixcomix)
 

Yow it’s been a while since I’ve posted here, but I just finished a new piece about Project 2025! It wound up being about Project 2025, our wider political climate, our actual climate, dam failures in China in the 1960s. . . .

It’s below. Page references to Mandate to Leadership (https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf) are given in the text itself; sources for other statements are given after the comic.

About the Author & Artist

About the Author

Michael Goodwin is a freelance writer who has always loved comics and history. His interest in history led him to an interest in the economic forces that underlie much of history, and he eventually started reading up on economics. In his initial reading, Mike thought he caught glimpses of a story, a story nobody seemed to be telling.

That idea was little more than a hunch at first, but as he immersed himself in the subject, Mike realized that there was in fact a story there, and that someone needed to tell the story in an accessible manner. He brought a stack of books to a small town in India, settled in, and started reading, researching, and writing. The result is this book.

Mike has spent several years in China as well as India; his previous efforts include interpreting Chinese, writing comedy, photography, disaster relief, dealing art (ineptly), and writing about medicine. Like many freelance writers, he lives in New York City with cats.

About the Illustrator

It would seem that Dan E. Burr was born to this work, as examples of early attempts at comic strip-like continuity exist from his infancy. (Drawing pictures was “in the family” so the influence to do so was ever present. )

After time spent mainly working in commercial art, Dan began to wade into the comic book field. The breakthrough project was his collaboration with author James Vance on the graphic novel Kings in Disguise and its sequel On the Ropes. Set during the Great Depression, Kings won several Eisner and Harvey awards and garnered praise from American Heritage, Time, Entertainment Weekly, the New York Times Book Review and the Comics Journal, among others.Dan also worked with the author on the sequel, On the Ropes.

Dan has illustrated historical pieces for DC Comics, Kitchen Sink Press and Eureka Productions’ Graphic Classics series. He has worked in a variety of fields including newspaper and magazine illustration, editorial cartooning, children’s publishing, advertising and product design.

His work in Economix was influenced by the team of artists who worked on Harvey Kurtzman’s MAD; by David Levine; and by the work of the late 50’s and early 60’s Hanna-Barbera staff, as well as other children’s book and commercial artists from that period. Listening to music, primarily from the 1920’s through the 1970’s is also a major inspirational influence. Dan has occasionally written liner notes for CD music reissue and is passionate about compiling, studying, and appreciating the works of other illustrators, cartoonists and painters.

He lives in Milwaukee with his wife and art partner, Debra Freiberg.

 

This Is How Bad Trump Was  --  50 ways the Trump administration has eroded workers’ rights while bolstering corporate power

2020 Report from the Economic Policy Institute
September 16, 2020

A new EPI report provides a comprehensive review of the Trump administration’s 50 most egregious attacks on working people as part of a pro-corporate, anti-worker agenda since President Trump took office.

The authors begin with recent actions and extend back to the beginning of Trump’s presidency, first showing how Trump has failed to adequately address the coronavirus pandemic and its economic shock. The Trump administration has vehemently opposed the extension of the $600 increase of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits—which will cost 5.1 million jobs—and additional aid to state and local governments—which will cost 5.3 million jobs.

The report also shows how the Trump administration has failed to protect the health of workers during the pandemic. Trump’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has failed to enforce the Occupational Safety and Health Act or issue any required measures to protect workers from the virus.

“The Trump administration’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic marks the administration’s most glaring failure of leadership, but it is in no way distinct from its approach to governing since President Trump’s first day on the job. The administration has systematically promoted the interests of corporate executives and shareholders over those of working people and failed to protect workers’ safety, wages, and rights,” said Celine McNicholas, EPI’s director of government affairs and labor counsel and co-author of the report.

Other notable Trump administration anti-worker actions include:

  • Attacking workers’ wages: Preventing millions of workers from receiving overtime by lowering the overtime threshold, proposing a rule to allow employers to capture workers’ tips which would cost workers more than $700 million annually, and denying workers a minimum wage increase.
  • Undermining workers’ collective bargaining rights: Obstructing workers’ right to fair union elections, seeking to take away graduate student workers’ right to organize and bargain, and narrowing the joint-employer standard under the National Labor Relations Act.
  • Putting forward anti-worker nominees and appointees in the U.S. Supreme Court, Department of Labor, and National Labor Relations Board.

“President Trump claimed he would fight for workers, but his actions and policies have cost workers wages, undermined their right to organize unions, and failed to protect their health and safety on the job,” said Lynn Rhinehart, EPI’s senior fellow and co-author of the report. “This report shows the real record and exposes Trump’s repeated attacks on workers.”

“The pandemic has merely provided the administration another opportunity to continue its attacks on workers’ rights. Instead of instituting policies to protect the nation’s essential workers, the administration has undermined workplace safety standards,” said Margaret Poydock, EPI’s policy associate and co-author of the report. “It is critical that a new administration work with the same diligence to reverse Trump’s anti-worker policies and also advance a workers’ agenda that provides working people with the rights and protections they need and deserve.”

Read the full report here

 

Labor, Big Tech, and A.I.  --  New York  --  October 30  (CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies)

 

 

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

1:00pm - 2:30pm

Lunch will be served.  Free and open to all.

CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies
25 West 43rd Street
18th floor
New York, NY 10036

REGISTER  

Join us for a conversation with Alex N. Press, staff writer at Jacobin magazine and Edward Ongweso Jr., senior researcher at Security in Context and a co-host of the podcast This Machine Kills; moderated by New Labor Forum Editor-at-Large Micah Uetricht.

The discussion will address major issues confronting the labor movement with the development and use of artificial intelligence, surveillance, automation of work generally, and the rise of Big Tech’s control over large segments of the U.S. workforce.  This conversation is the first in what will be an ongoing series focusing on the impact of Big Tech and AI on the labor movement and strategies for organizing to build worker power.

Presented in collaboration with New Labor Forum (NLF), this program connects to the fall 2024 issue of NLF, which features the special section, “Labor and the Uncertain Future of Artificial Intelligence,” and includes the article, “How the U.S. Labor Movement Is Confronting A.I.,” by Alex N. Press.
 

CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies  
25 West 43rd Street - 18th Floor
New York, NY 10036

 

Lessons In Solidarity: Personal Histories of Front Range Jews Against The Occupation  --  Denver  November  4  (Jewish Voice for Peace)

 


 

Join Denver/Boulder JVP for a panel discussion and Q&A with local Jewish movement elders from the Palestine Liberation Movement. Stories will call attention to lessons learned through Jewish anti-occupation organizing in Colorado starting in the 1980s (i.e. New Jewish Agenda).

As our movements continue to push for a Free Palestine, it is critical that we learn from those who organized (and continue to organize) for the same purpose. May these stories guide us in sustaining our movements and equip our work with wisdom from past struggles.

Panelists: Susan Kaplan, Alice Turak, Rob Prince

Moderator: Rae Jones – Denver/Boulder JVP

Monday, November 4th
6pm-8pm

Washington Street Community Center
809 S. Washington Street
Denver, CO 80209

RSVP Required for admission

 

What Role Did Class Play In This Election?  --  Online  -- November 14  (Third Act Union)

 

Join a conversation about the ELECTION FACTS

November 14

WHAT ROLE DID CLASS PLAY IN THIS ELECTION?

With former AFL-CIO Political Director STEVE ROSENTHALL

RSVP Here  

 

Understanding Monsters: Fascization, Green Capitalism, and Socialism  --  November 15  -- Berlin  (Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung)

 

What times are we living in? We are experiencing a new social situation, in which many alternate developmental paths appear to be closed off, and the Left in many countries finds itself on the defensive. At the same time, the situation is contested — debate is increasingly polarized, sometimes even violent.

Social contradictions remain unresolved: a green variety of capitalism struggles to emerge, albeit one that could hardly deal with the coming crises and catastrophes adequately anyway. A new bloc confrontation between East and West, war, and rearmament are gobbling up the resources we need to deal with the escalating social, ecological, and economic crises. Authoritarian projects and growing fascization spread resentment, fear, and everyday violence, while many left-wing projects find themselves squeezed between outdated late neoliberalism, blocked ecological modernization, and the radical right.

What are the decisive dynamics in times of crises, war, and catastrophes? How is the balance of forces developing? What future societies remain possible? What is hindering progressive development? And most importantly: what strategies and alternatives does a socialist Left need to regain action and effectiveness in these times of transformation?

At this conference, we will seek to develop a concrete analysis of the concrete situation, linked to the search for left-wing strategies and (eco-)socialist perspectives. To this end, we have invited a range of international speakers to create a space together for a diagnosis of the times.

Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
Saal
Straße der Pariser Kommune 8A
10243 Berlin

November 15, 2024

Register Now https://info.rosalux.de/#Buchung/76b4x

Contact
Lia Becker
Senior Fellow for Social Analysis and Socialism, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

Email: lia.becker@rosalux.org