Tidbits- May 29-Readers Comments: Readers Comments: Big, Not-So-Beautiful Bill; Imagine Being Scared of Diversity but Not Dictatorship. Now That’s Scary; Accusing Jews of Antisemitism; Jews for Food Aid; Harvard Free Online Courses; March to Gaza;

Readers Comments: Big, Not-so-beautiful bill; Imagine Being Scared of Diversity But Not Dictatorship. Now That's Scary; Accusing Jews of Antisemitism; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn; Jews for Food Aid; Harvard Free Online Courses; March to Gaza; and more....

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Tidbits - Reader Comments, Take Action, Resources, Announcements AND cartoons - May 29, 2025,Portside

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Big Beautiful Invoice to Lower Wage Earners  --  Cartoon by Jonathan Brown

Jonathan Brown
May 20, 2025
Daily Freeman

 

Re: Ten Sneaky Sleeper Provisions
 

The new House budget would kick millions off Medicare, and reduce child care and food stamps for the poorest of us in order to decrease taxes on the rich. But wait ---it's much worse than that...

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.)

Morris Older
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: House Republicans Just Touched the Third Rail
 

What do we conclude from this? Apparently Trump plans to cancel the next election, and the Republicans in Congress are going along with him. They can't be thinking politically.

John Emerson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Medicare Cuts Hurt the Poor and Sick  --  Cartoon by John Cole

 

John Cole
May 25, 2025
The Scranton Times-Tribune

 

Big, not-so-beautiful bill  --  Cartoon by Sage Stossel

 


 

Sage Stossel
May 23, 2025
Drawing Board

 

Re: The Trump-Supporting Christians Accusing Jews of Antisemitism
 

US Ziofascists, in effect, and at the same time virulently antisemitic like Ziofascism itself and MAGA.

Bill Rogers
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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They're pretending to protect the safety of Jews while turning a blind eye towards the people who marched through Charlotte with tiki torches carrying Nazi and Confederate flags chanting "The Jews will not replace us!"

Will U. Buzzoff
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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“Ultra-Zionist gentiles are transforming America into something out of Jewish nightmares, pretending they're trying to ensure Jewish safety. The campaign called Project Esther, and it aims to destroy the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States.” (Portside introduction)

Kipp Dawson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Yes, I am so glad you are posting on this. I am no anti-Semite, but I have been so, so troubled by the attack on institutions and the attempt to twist their ideologies under this pretense of anti-Semitism, something most of these "champions" have never seemed to care about much in the past. Everything is so twisted, this and, well, just everything
🙁

Christine Biancheria
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Trump Casts Himself as a Protector of Persecuted White People
 

Bull shit as always with president Krasnov.

Nancy Cuffman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Imagine Being Scared of Diversity But Not Dictatorship. Now That's Scary  --  Meme

 

i

Meme based on Diversity Illustration by Hope McConnell. Creative Commons NC-CD.

 

Re: Voters Demand a Bolder and More Progressive Democratic Party
 

I agree, Democrats need new leadership starting with Removing Chuck “Capitulation” Schumer.  We need more than strong letters.

Bill Audette
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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You are still hoping the Democratic Party could somehow become progressive. It is a totally controlled, very slightly liberal, organization of the capitalist state. Get Real! An alternative is necessary.

Dan Morgan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Big - Yes; Beautiful - No  --  Cartoon by Rob Rogers

 


 

Needless to say, the only people who think Trump's bill is "beautiful" are his rich buddies.

Rob Rogers
May 29, 2025
TinyView

 

Re: Could a Bold Anti-Poverty Experiment From the 1960s Inspire a New Era in Housing Justice? 
 

Why would anyone think that in 2025 this administration or any other administration, Democrat or Republican, will launch such a program, forgetting the fact that it was a bureaucratic flop in the first place.

David Berger

 

Re: Can Donald Trump Build the ‘Golden Dome’ Over the US?
 

At best, US Citizens will get a very very expensive "Golden Shower" from the Grifter-in-Chief that they will have to pay for.
 
Sam Anderson

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From the man who thought that you could nuke a hurricane...why worry about the "enemy" knocking out your electronic infrastructure with EMPs when your own defense system will do it for them?

Pete Chapman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Everything is fucking "Golden" with this asshole. We don't need it. Trump and Musk have fucked America up so much no one would invade us now.

Aaron Stephens
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: A House Divided: Washington, Langley, Saigon, and the Plot Against Diem
 

For those of us who remember the 1963 coup in Vietnam, in which President Diem and his brother were assassinated, the report from the National Security Archive, via Portside, makes clearer how deeply involved the CIA and the US Government as a whole were in the coup. For a fictional account that attributes the coup to the Kennedy’s killing two weeks later? Try “The Tears of Autumn” by Charles McCarry.

Daniel Millstone
Post on Facebook

 

Re: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Reminds Us How Civil Liberties and Collective Action Go Hand in Hand
 

So when will you come out with a Manga movie based on your book? There's lots of young'ns need to be organized.  Maybe the Green Party would help.  This is sure counter to Maga, either blue or red.

Ed Averill 

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As a red diaper baby whose relatively prominent parents left the C in 1956, I think it's important to acknowledge that Stalin's crimes and the Hungarian Revolution revealed the bloody side of the CP and caused thousands of its most intelligent and committed members to leave and to devote themselves to progressive causes in other ways.

Nora Lapin

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We lost a great IWW activist to authoritarian communism. We will never forget the original "rebel girl"

Lawrence Rockwood
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Corliss Lamont (1902-95) led the opposition to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn's expulsion from the ACLU Board, during the Hitler-Stalin Pact, and afterwards published  a transcript of the minutes of that fatal meeting: "The Trial of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn." (She was rehabilitated, posthumously.) Corliss also commissioned my op. 112, "Love Song Cycle on Seven Poems by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1939)" for Soprano & Piano (July 1993).

The cycle was premiered by Helene Williams, with me at the piano, at Bethpage Library, March 4, 1994, and then again with Composers Concordance at the Kosciuszko Foundation, March 11, 1994, at North Merrick Library Feb. 5, 1995 Hicksville Library, Mar. 2, 1997, and WESPAC June 3, 1995 (in memory of Corliss).

The songs are titled:
1) If I can step within
2) To My Jewish Friend in Pittsburgh
3) The beauty of love
4) I lock my heart against you (partially reprised as 5A & 6A)
5) Won't you unlock
6) To Carlo , South Beach (After 14 Years)
7) On "Equality"

Recorded on Capstone Records #CPS-8647 Helene Williams sings Songs of Love, it was reissued on the Ravello CD RR7951 titled "Harmonize Your Spirit With My Calm" - which comes from the first song, posted on You Tube, Jan. 13, 2017, here

Thank you for all your good work, and for your attention.

Sincerely,
Leonard J. Lehrman

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"Flynn’s understanding of civil liberties was inseparable from her politics. She believed that freedom of speech, press, assembly, and the right to a fair trial by jury are necessary for democracy. However, she did not advocate for civil liberties as a matter of individual rights. On the contrary, she recognized that in a capitalist state such as the United States, where material resources are unevenly distributed, some individuals, typically members of the capitalist class, wield greater power than others, typically members of the working class. The only way to remedy the imbalance of power between these “haves” and “have nots” is collective action by the latter. Collective action is impossible without civil liberties. In other words, without guarantees of free speech, press, assembly, and a fair trial, workers could not possibly hold union drives, conduct strikes, organize against exploitation, resist oppression, advocate for worker-friendly policies, or do any of the things required to secure basic needs and a share of the good life, what labor activists poetically refer to as “bread and roses.”"

Bill Rogers
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: My Vote

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

LOVE this! Shared it with a bunch of people who also loved it.

Lita Kurth

 

What Lives Matter?  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Jen Sorensen

 

Perhaps slightly by coincidence, this cartoon is timely in that May 25 was the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s death. On one level, the strip is just documenting what has happened, but it also works as a moral fable: embracing bigotry ultimately hurts everyone, even the bigots.

Jen Sorensen
May 28, 2025
https://jensorensen.com/

To support this work and receive my weekly newsletter with background on each cartoon, please consider joining the Sorensen Subscription Service! Also on Patreon.

 

Jews for Food Aid  --  Add Your Support Today

 

Add Your Support Today

By adding your name you are affirming your support for food aid for people in Gaza and an immediate end to the Israeli government’s food aid blockade.

To add your name - click here

Please note that this petition is specifically for people who are Jewish. Your data will only be used for communications about this campaign.

 

Harvard University Free Online Courses - Including Highlighting Basic U.S. Government and the Constitution


 

     ==========

Here is the official Harvard University website!

Here is their # if you'd like to in addition call and speak to someone there!!
+1 617-495-1000 

The current catalog of FREE COURSES at Harvard is being EXTENSIVELY EXPANDED, so you'll want to check their website from time to time to see which new courses are being added if you find that the current free Harvard courses being offered don't meet your current academic needs!!! ❤️❤️❤️

 

(Not Quite) Tinder for New Activists: “Why don’t we already have this?”  (All of US Directory)
 

By All of US Directory Conveners

May 20, 2025
Z Network

Students at Trafford Middle School took advantage of a beautiful day in early November to write positive messages on the sidewalk outside of the school.  (CC image via Penn-Trafford School District  //  Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely. https://znetwork.org/z_original/)

People Are Looking for Organizations

People are outraged by the Trump/Musk agenda. They are speaking up at town hall meetings and getting dragged out by private security. They are attending protests to protect national parks, defend federal employees, support immigrants and trans people, takedown Tesla, and hold the U.S. accountable for genocide in Palestine. Even in deep red counties, people are turning out in droves to hear Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez deliver an anti-oligarchy, pro-populist message. Many people are looking for a way to do something. They have heard that we the people — all of us — may be the last functioning guardrail against fascism.

But how do they take the next step? How do they go beyond showing up for a protest? What can they do to join with others and engage in the organizing and mutual aid that is necessary right now? How do they find a group, organization, or project to assist? 

Let’s say you are one of these people. In the past, you may have volunteered at your place of worship or pitched in at a neighborhood clean-up. But you have never really engaged with social change work, and you are ready to do that now. Maybe you Google it. The search engine takes a millisecond to ponder your request and then, using who-knows-what algorithms, throws up a list of internet rabbit holes.  

Maybe you keep digging and you find an organization near you that looks effective, but when you click on “Get Involved,” the options are limited. They include sending a letter to your congressperson, donating, and getting on the email list. These are not bad options, but you want to actually sit down with other people, engage with the work, maybe stick around long enough to build relationships, help develop strategy, and go through iterations of struggles — building on the lessons you learn. What do you do? Where do you turn that doesn’t involve AI-generated advice, auto-reply emails, no real systems for onboarding new people, and other dead ends?

We have an answer to this question: It’s called the All of US Directory. 

The purpose of the site is to provide an easy-to-use and effective means for you to find organizations or projects that you want to contribute to. With this new online resource you can now specify your location, the issue you are interested in working on, and/or the way you want to engage, and the site will give you a list of relevant organizations.

Organizations Are Looking for People — Find Your Match

Not only that – and this is key! – these organizations have identified themselves as ready and willing to accept and welcome new volunteers. They’re not just looking for your email address or donation. They want you. 

It’s not quite Tinder for new activists, but it’s close. You have to do more than “swipe right” if you see an organization that appeals to you. But after filtering for location, issue, and type of engagement, you should be pretty close to a good match for your activist energies! 

All of US is poised to play matchmaker for these two groups – newly mobilized and seasoned activists on the one side and, on the other side, the organizations that could provide a constructive outlet for their energies. Many hundreds and thousands of matches will contribute to a critical guardrail against Trumpism. 

Everyone we talk to about this project exclaims, “Why don’t we already have something like this?” Well, now we do. 

Listing Your Group

Are you part of an organization/group that is not yet listed? Please go here – https://allofusdirectory.org/join-directory – and fill out a simple form that will trigger us to approve your entry. You’ll then have your own unique page in the Directory, plus a password so you can log back in at any time and make edits to your page.

Moving Forward

The database will continue to grow with more and more diverse organizations that will provide the match to those seeking an outlet for their skills and passions. So please… Share this article! Post it to your social media and other outlets where people looking for ways to get more involved will find out about this directory. Spread the word to all the groups in the U.S. that make up big-tent, non-sectarian efforts to stop Trumpism and build something better. We need all of them, and they need all of us.

By the All of US Conveners:
Arash Kolahi, Alexandria Shaner, Bill Fletcher Jr., Cynthia Peters, Evan Henshaw-Plath, Frances Kunreuther, Jeremy Brecher, Leslie Cagan, & Michael Albert

Originally co-published by ZNetwork.org and Progressive Hub.

All of US Directory Conveners

All of US is a searchable directory designed to help you get involved in progressive, people-powered efforts throughout the U.S. confronting the current attacks on our democracy, people's rights, and needed services. https://allofusdirectory.org/

 

Labor Power & Strategy Mini-Fellowship  --  October 20 -24  --  Register Now - Deadline July 13  (Labor for Democracy and Social Justice)

 


 

The Labor Power & Strategy mini-fellowship is designed for labor leaders and organizers, including worker centers, looking to build power and capacity now in service of long-term strategy. Using the call for a May 1, 2028 national strike, and the examples of aligning contracts for power in Minneapolis and Connecticut, we will examine what it takes to build alignment between unions and social movement organizations around shared demands, fighting common targets, and building collective power. The course will use the textbook Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World to study six sources of power that employers and ruling elites use to maintain the status quo, and that workers and unions can use to fight for justice. We will study seven lineages of social change strategies to see what other traditions might contribute to labor movement strategy. We will introduce a wide variety of tools to develop strategy from many disciplines, traditions and sectors inside and outside social change. 

Program Details

  • Academic coursework: All participants will  take the course “Power and Strategy,” taught by faculty at the School of Labor and Urban Studies (SLU) at CUNY. The course is focused on strategy fundamentals and is based on the book Practical Radicals by Deepak Bhargava and Stephanie Luce.   

  • Immersive Strategy retreat: Participants are expected to attend one week-long residential strategy retreat for in-person learning. The retreat will be held (location TBA) on the following dates:

    • October 20, 2025 - October 24, 2025

  • Strategy coaching and mentorship: Each participant or team will be provided with an experienced Labor and campaign strategy coach with whom they will meet for five to seven hour long coaching sessions after the completing of the course.  

Full details and information here - https://www.socialjusticeleadership.org/labor-power-strategy

Apply Now  - Click here

Contact Us

Labor for Democracy and Social Justice
Address: 160 Convent Ave, NAC 6/141 
New York, NY 10031
Email: info@socialjusticeleadership.org

 

Breaking News  --  We March to Gaza – June 15 >>> Appointment in Cairo on June 12 !   (Global March to Gaza)

 

Walking together, opening roads to life for Gaza.

Global March To Gaza

Global March To Gaza is a civic, apolitical, and independent movement.
We do not represent any political party, ideology, or religion.
We represent the people, in all their diversity and humanism.
Our only guiding principles are justice, human dignity, and peace.

Global March To Gaza
Supported by NGOs Around the World

In the United States, supported so far by:

  • Doctors Against Genocide
  • Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees
  • Help Fund Gaza
  • LEGACY-The Landscape Connection
  • Neturei Karta International
  • Palestinian Youth movement
  • Teachers against genocide
  • Codepink Women for Peace

We would be honoured to display your organisation’s name on marchtogaza.net, alongside hundreds of others who stand with us.

Please fill in the form here:: NGO Contact Form

GLOBAL MARCH TO GAZA