Tidbits – Feb.20-Reader Comments: A Coup; Trump Vowed To Champion US Workers – the Reality a Relentless Assault; Make America Corrupt Again; Vance, Racism, German Fascism; for Israelis, ‘From the River to the Sea’ a Reality. For Palestinians, a Crime

Reader Comments: It Is a Coup; Trump Vowed To Champion US Workers – the Reality a Relentless Assault; Make America Corrupt Again; Vance, Racism, German Fascism; For Israelis, ‘From the River to the Sea’ Is a Reality. For Palestinians, It’s a Crime...

Portside
Printer friendly  
Tidbits - Reader Comments, Announcements AND cartoons - Feb. 20, 2025,Portside

.
Announcements:

 

.

.
 

Re: It Is a Coup
 

This is what should be on every front page in 150 point banner headlines. All I have is this Substack but I lay it beneath your feet and pray to a higher power that I'm wrong. From the author that first exposed the Cambridge Analytical scandal.

Michael Henry Starks
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

      =====

Problem is the corporate media is complicit in the coup.

Ben Cupp
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)

Napoleon BonaTrump  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Rob Rogers

 

Donald Trump is channeling Napoleon Bonaparte. It's clear he wants to be "Emperor Trump", not President Trump, but first he has to tear down a 250-year-old democracy. He's off to a good start.

Rob Rogers
February 18, 2025
TinyView

 

The Fall of the Showman Empire  --  Cartoon by Mr. Fish

 

Mr. Fish
February 14, 2025
Mr. Fish

 

Re: What Republicans Really Mean When They Blame ‘DEI’
 

Anything they don't like is DEI. Anything not WASP is DEI. It is the new "Boogeyman".

Aaron Stephens
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

      =====

It's just their modern way of saying the N word in public.

Robert Laite
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

The Electoral College is D.E.I. for Red States  --  Cartoon by Detroitish24

 

Detroitish24
February 16, 2025
Political Humor

 

Re: 60 Years of Progress in Expanding Rights Is Being Rolled Back by Trump - a Pattern That’s All Too Familiar in US History
 

American history is not a steady march toward greater equality, democracy and individual rights,  these liberal values compete with an alternative set of illiberal values that hold that full American citizenship should be

George Lessard
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Trump’s Tariffs Are a Gift to Capital, Not Workers

(posting on Portside Labor)
 

Donald Trump has championed tariffs as a way to revive American manufacturing. But without a real industrial strategy, Catalyst editor Vivek Chibber argues, they’re little more than a handout to capital.

Aaron

 

Re: Trump Vowed To Champion US Workers – the Reality Has Been a Relentless Assault
 

President has begun slashing federal workforce while hobbling labor watchdogs NLRB and EEOC

Tom Edminster
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

The Trump Jobs Plan  --  Cartoon by Pat Bagley

 

Pat Bagley
December 14, 2016
The Salt Lake Tribune

 

Re: Trump and Musk Hunt for Corruption, Very Selectively
 

Spending that the White House does not like is being labeled fraudulent. At the same time, President Trump is rolling back anticorruption efforts and ethical standards for himself and allies like Elon Musk.

David Benton
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Musk Be a Hypocrite  --  Cartoon by Mike Luckovich; Commentary by Robert Reich

 

Mike Luckovich
February 15, 2024
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

      =====

The irony of the richest man in the world almost single-handedly destroying an agency designed to help the world’s poor, so that the U.S. federal budget has more room for another giant tax cut for the richest man in the world and his pals, should not be lost on anyone. 

Robert Reich
February 15, 2025
Facebook

 

Re: Trump’s Plan: Make America Corrupt Again
 

While Adams may have been the most immediate beneficiary, he’s not the only one. If you’re a foreign government or a corrupt company trying to turn a public official into your toady, this sends a powerful signal—everything and everyone is up for sale

Michael O'Rourke
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Private Data  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Nick Anderson

 

Elon Musk’s U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is seeking access to a highly secure IRS system containing financial data on all taxpayers, businesses, and nonprofits, raising concerns within the tax agency. Under pressure from the White House, the IRS is considering granting DOGE officials access to the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), which allows IRS employees to view and modify tax records.

A draft memorandum shows that DOGE software engineer Gavin Kliger is set to work at the IRS for 120 days, with the option to extend. His role focuses on IT modernization, but his potential access to IDRS has alarmed IRS officials. IDRS access is typically restricted, and unauthorized use can result in legal penalties.

The acting IRS commissioner has not yet approved Kliger’s access, and concerns persist about political influence over tax data. The IRS is undergoing IT modernization, but experts warn that granting political appointees access to taxpayer records is highly unusual. The move comes amid broader concerns about the IRS’s independence, especially as the agency prepares for mass layoffs ordered by former President Trump.

Nick Anderson
February 17, 2025
Pen Strokes

 

Re: JD Vance, American Racism, and German Fascism
 

A sordid history to remember and the horrific prospects of a vice president's embrace of Germany's neo-Nazi party.

Jerry C. Moody
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: For Israelis, ‘From the River to the Sea’ Is a Reality. For Palestinians, It’s a Crime
 

It is nonsensical, and hypocritical, to arrest or accuse Palestinians of promoting the ideology of 'From the river to the sea,' while in Israel, school maps don't show the Green Line and the government is advancing full annexation

Michael Joseph Francisconi
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

      =====

Remember when Hitler invaded the Sudetenland? And then Poland, etc.? This is that.

William Cutlip
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

      =====

There has been no occupation and displacement of Jewish Israelis by Palestinians. There has been no ethnic cleansing of Jewish Israelis by Palestinians. Thousands of Israelis have not been held without charge, indefinitely by Palestinians. Hundreds of Israelis have never been killed by Palestinians for every Palestinian killed by Israelis. West Bank Palestinians have been terrorized by the illegal settler occupation in violation of international law for decades, olive groves and homes destroyed, driven off land appropriated by illegal settlers, people beaten, murdered and imprisoned for fighting back, but the narrative has always been about acts of terrorism against Israelis with settler terrorism being tacitly supported by every Israeli government with the occasional slap on the wrist and tolerated by the US and western allies. The modern state of Israel has ALWAYS posed the greater existential threat to Palestinians than the other way around. Like it or not It was born in ethnic cleansing, in the last gasp of western colonization, carved out by European powers to be settled and governed by almost exclusively European Jews. No surprise that it has been constantly embroiled in violence and conflict and always will be.

Felice Sage
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

      =====

The Landless & Lawless Israelis, Holocaust Survivors have blood on their hands for replicating Nazi Germans' Genocide on Jews.

Joe Biden's Wishes was supporting a Genocide and Donald Trump's Wishes is to have Israel hand over Gaza to relocate Native Palestinians from their Ancestral Homeland.

Juliana Smith
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Nationwide Economic Blackout on February 28
 

BUYERS’ BOYCOTT...

Jay Diamond
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

      =====

It’s easy…Get ready to do your part

Christine La Chance
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

      =====

Boycott big banks, all bank transactions. Buy local and pay with cash. Move your money ( now, don't wait). To credit unions. And think about your habits-- this needs really to be the start of personal transformation. ( Or are you too set in your privileged comfort and convenience?). We who are able to make choices need to step up for those who are less fortunate. Please don't berate those who don't follow this out of necessity! Have compassion, you don't know others stories. You DO know your own, it's a choice be on the right side of our story!

Carol L. Buffum
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Voters Were Right About the Economy. The Data Was Wrong
 

Take all of these statistical discrepancies together. What we have here is a collection of economic indicators that all point in the same misleading direction. They all shroud the reality faced by middle- and lower-income households. The problem isn’t that some Americans didn’t come out ahead after four years of Bidenomics. Some did. It’s that, for the most part, those living in more modest circumstances have endured at least 20 years of setbacks, and the last four years did not turn things around enough for the lower 60 percent of American income earners.

No kidding.

Amy Villarreal
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Garment Workers Are Taking On Nike, Americans Should Join Them
 

Take the “One Thousand Photos — One Thousand Shares” pledge at ActionNetwork.org, share it widely, and support the union activists leading the fight to transform garment supply chains.

John Biddle
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: After Resounding ‘No’ Vote, Letter Carriers Should Go on Offense

(posting on Portside Labor)
 

Our national union leadership should link our contract struggle to the struggle against DOGE’s reckless campaign to smash parts of the federal government that working people rely on. As a first step, the NALC should reach out to other federal employee unions to organize joint action. We have to stand together to confront this threat effectively.

Our union constitution provides that, if a new tentative agreement is voted down, our national leadership can call for an immediate work stoppage or a “designated job action,” rather than simply proceeding to binding arbitration. To defend against the threat posed by DOGE, the national leadership should instruct all NALC locals to prepare for job action, up to and including a strike.

Democratic Socialists of America - Knoxville
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: The Final Days and the Struggle Continues: A Tribute to Diana Caballero and Reminder for Unity Today
 

I was very happy to see the tribute to Diana Caballero, my dear friend and comrade, included in Portside. Diana and I were activists together in the struggle for Puerto Rican rights and the national liberation of Puerto Rico. However, I was surprised there was no mention that the article was actually an interview Diana gave in 1995 for the documentary ¡Palante, Siempre, Palante: The Young Lords! I subsequently published the full interview in 2016, with her permission, in my book, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969 to 1976. I hope you can add this context to the Portside article.

It was an honor to have Diana trust me with her story, especially after the harrowing ending and trauma of the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers' Organization. At her tribute in February, I spoke about those events and how, despite the deep betrayal, she did not waver from her revolutionary commitment. This interview is the only one she ever gave about these events.

I have spent my life organizing and raising awareness about the radical struggles of the Puerto Rican people and the leading role of Puerto Rican women in the fight for gender and racial justice. Your inclusion of the sources of Diana's article would be an act of solidarity, bringing attention to revolutionary struggles of the Puerto Rican people and Puerto Rican women, especially in this urgent moment.

In solidarity,

Iris Morales

 

Re: How the West Destroyed Congo’s Hopes for Independence
 

In 1960, Patrice Lumumba became the prime minister of newly independent Congo. His close ally Andrée Blouin describes how Belgium and the US conspired to oust Lumumba and impose Mobutu’s kleptocratic dictatorship on the Congolese people. 

Mike Glick
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: The Left Needs Its “Schools of Enlightenment and Revolution”
 

(posting on Portside Labor)
 

Throughout the entire history of left-wing and working-class organizing in the United States, the participation in and building of institutions of political education has been key.

Michael

 

Re: How Black Marxists Have Understood Racial Oppression
 

The rich tradition of Black Marxist thought — one that includes W. E. B. Du Bois, C. L. R. James, and Frantz Fanon, among many others — emphasizes the centrality of capitalism to racial oppression and its destructiveness for all workers.

Fred Whitehead
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Upwardly Minded: The Reconstruction Rise of a Black Elite

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

This book is the story of Daniel Murray, the assistant librarian of the Library of Congress, of the Reconstruction-era African American elected and appointed government officials, and their Washington, DC milieu.

Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: As Off Broadway Crews Unionize, Workers See Hope, Producers Peril

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

A unionization wave sweeping across Off Broadway is poised to reshape the economics of theater-making in New York — for workers as well as producers. Workers say the move is overdue....

A unionization wave sweeping across Off Broadway is poised to reshape the economics of theater-making in New York — for workers as well as producers.

Workers say the move is overdue, but theater companies fear it will drive up costs in a wounded sector that has yet to recover from the pandemic.

Michael Henry Starks
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Jan. 6 Rioters Want Trump Pardons to Cover Other Crimes, Including Murder Plot and Child Porn

By Staff Writer
February 17, 2025
Daily Boulder (CO)

 

January 6, 2021 Capitol Coup riot, photo credit: Daily Boulder

Less than a month after receiving pardons for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack, some rioters find themselves back in court facing new criminal charges—and are now arguing that the pardons granted by President Donald Trump should absolve them of these additional crimes.

Several individuals involved in the insurrection are seeking to extend the scope of their pardons to cover offenses uncovered during investigations that followed the Capitol riot. These include serious charges, such as plotting to murder FBI agents and charges of child pornography.

One high-profile case involves Edward Kelley, who was pardoned for assaulting police officers at the Capitol. In November, Kelley was convicted for conspiring to murder the FBI agents who had investigated his actions in the insurrection. Evidence revealed that he had compiled a “kill list” of targets. Kelley is now seeking to have his pardon extended to cover this new conviction.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, other rioters are making similar arguments, asking that their pardons protect them from additional charges, including illegal possession of firearms and child pornography, which were uncovered during post-riot investigations. These new revelations are raising alarm about the broader criminal activities connected to those involved in the insurrection.

In Texas, prosecutors have issued a manhunt for Andrew Taake, a rioter accused of soliciting a minor online in 2016, further complicating the legal fallout from the Capitol attack.

Additionally, some rioters have published an online list of 124 officials involved in their legal cases, a move that has unsettled federal agents. As the legal battles continue, the key question remains whether the pardons granted by Trump should extend to cover the additional crimes now emerging.

 

RALLY TO TELL REP. JEFFRIES TO FIGHT WITH US  --  Oakland, CA  --  February 21  (Wellstone Democratic Club and Indivisible East Bay)

 

Friday, February 21
6 – 7pm PST

Kaiser Center for the Arts
10 10th Street
Oakland, CA 94607

Register here

Hakeem Jeffries is giving a speech in Oakland! He’s the Minority Leader for the House of Representatives, but he’s not leading.

RALLY TO TELL REP. JEFFRIES TO FIGHT WITH US Join us on Friday, Feb 21, 6 pm Kaiser Center for the Arts - 10 10th St, Oakland

Jeffries has been to Silicon Valley to reassure tech millionaires that the Democratic Party will not offend them. Jeffries has been telling the rest of us “The Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House. What leverage do we have? It’s their government.”

Tell Rep Jeffries: We need everyone fighting to defend Americans who are getting hurt by the layoffs and illegal funding cuts, protect vital federal departments, stand up to unconstitutional presidential actions, demand mandated transparency, protect immigrants, and confront misinformation and narratives that normalize illegal, anti-democratic attacks.

If Hakeem Jeffries doesn’t know what to do, let's tell him… Be Ruthless Be Strategic Grow a spine … or step aside.

Bring a sign, Bring your neighbors, Join the rally! More info: ajanks@yahoo.com

 

Songs of Slavery and Emancipation  --  New Orleans  --  February 21  (Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung-NYC)

 

Screening and Live Performance

RLS-NYC will commemorate Black History Month with a free screening of the documentary along with a Q&A and live performances in New Orleans. 

Mat Callahan presents Songs of Slavery and Emancipation, a documentary and music album featuring recently discovered songs composed by enslaved people explicitly calling for resistance to slavery. 

Friday, February 21, 1 to 4pm CST

1719 Toledano Street, New Orleans, LA 70115
 

This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments served. Copies of the documentary and CD will also be available.

RSVP

Throughout the history of slavery, enslaved people organized resistance, escape, and rebellion. Sustaining them in this struggle was their music, some examples of which are sung to this day. While the existence of slave songs, especially spirituals, is well known, their character is often misunderstood. Slave songs were not only lamentations of suffering or distractions from a life of misery. Some songs openly called for liberty and revolution, celebrating such heroes as Gabriel Prosser and Nat Turner, and, especially, celebrating the Haitian Revolution.

The fight for freedom also included fugitive slaves, free Black people, and their white allies who brought forth a set of songs that were once widely disseminated but are now largely forgotten, the songs of the abolitionists. Often composed by fugitive slaves and free Black people, and first appearing in the eighteenth century, these songs continued to be written and sung until the Civil War. As the movement expanded, abolitionists even published song books used at public meetings.

Mat Callahan presents recently discovered songs composed by enslaved people explicitly calling for resistance to slavery, some originating as early as 1784 and others as late as the Civil War. He also presents long-lost songs of the abolitionist movement, some written by fugitive slaves and free Black people, challenging common misconceptions of abolitionism. Songs of Slavery and Emancipation features the lyrics of fifteen slave songs and fifteen abolitionist songs, placing them in proper historical context and making them available again to the general public. These songs not only express outrage at slavery but call for militant resistance and destruction of the slave system. There can be no doubt as to their purpose: the abolition of slavery, the emancipation of African American people, and a clear and undeniable demand for equality and justice for all humanity.

RLS-NYC will commemorate Black History Month with a free screening of the documentary along with a Q&A and live performances with light refreshments served. Copies of the documentary and CD will also be available.

 

Will the Far Right Win in Germany? - A Discussion on This Month’s Election  --  New York City  --  February 26  (Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung-NYC and Jacobin Magazine)

 

With the German elections on February 23, the rise of the far right has become a pressing concern. As extremist parties gain traction in the polls, what does this mean for the future of Germany and Europe as a whole? How is the left responding?

Join us for an urgent discussion on Germany’s political landscape, the threats posed by the far right, and the prospects for progressive alternatives.

Speakers:

  • Sofia Leonidakis – Leader of Die Linke in Bremen
  • Bhaskar Sunkara – Founding editor of Jacobin and president of The Nation
  • Stefan Liebich – RLS and former German politician

Wednesday, February 26, 6:00 pm

Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave, New York City

This event is co-hosted by RLS-NYC and Jacobin Magazine. It is free and open to the public. Light refreshment will be served.

RSVP

Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Inc.  
275 Madison Avenue, Suite 2114
New York, NY 10016

 

If Not Now, When? An International Forum to Prevent Nuclear War & Secure our Future  --  New York and Online  --  March 4  (International Peace Bureau, the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, and Peace Action New York State)

 

March 4, 7-9:30 PM

Scandinavia House
58 Park Avenue
New York City

The 3rd Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will be taking place at a time when the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has advanced the hands of its Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds to midnight, we face nuclear threats over Ukraine and Taiwan, and the nuclear weapons states are all upgrading the nuclear arsenals. This also comes amidst tectonic geopolitical transformations and shortly after the Nobel Committee sent an urgent message to the world by awarding its Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A- & H- Bomb Sufferers Organizations.

To build our movements and to advance their coordination, the International Peace Bureau, the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, and Peace Action New York State have organized an international forum with an extraordinary array of speakers.

Register to Attend in-person event

Online Registration

Confirmed speakers include:

  • Reiner Braun – International Peace Bureau
  • Jackie Cabasso – Western States Legal Foundation/Abolition 2000
  • Sharon Dolev – Middle East Treaty Organization
  • Marylene Huges – Physicians for Social Responsibility
  • Rami Khoury – Renowned Journalist
  • Aigerim Seitenova -  Third-generation survivor of Soviet nuclear testing & Qazaq Nuclear Frontline Coalition in Kazakhstan
  • Masako Wada – Nagasaki hibakusha and Assistant Secretary General of Nihon Hidankyo, 2024 Nobel Peace Prize recipient organization
  • Tong Zhao – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • Others invited.

This event is free and open to the public! Light refreshments will be served.

For more information contact:

Emily Rubino: emily.rubino@panys.org
Joseph Gerson: josephcgerson@gmail.com