Portside

• Trump Puts Everything On Hold For Two Weeks  (Carl Davidson)

• Re: Bombshell Report Reveals Trump Was Begging for Iran To Join Ceasefire  (Karen Lee Wald)

• Re: BILLIONS OVER THE MOON: IS ARTEMIS II WORTH THE PRICE TAG?  (mark)

• SAVE Act  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Garth German

• Every Accusation is a Confession  --  Cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz

• Re: The Next Coup Attempt  (Eleanor Roosevelt; Jim Price)

• Re: How To View Protests Like an Organizer  (David Berger)

• After 8 million in the Streets — What Comes Next?  (Douglas Taylor)

• Piggish Bank  --  Cartoon by Steve Sack

• We Have Constitutional Power to Remove Him...  --  Cartoon by Jonathan Brown

• Grab Them By Their Hormuz-y  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Benjamin Slyngstad

• Trump Wins  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Clay Jones

Announcements:

• NOMA Wasn't the Exception: Abuse and Exploitation in the Restaurant Industry - New York - April 13  (CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies and One Fair Wage)

• Sanctions Against Cuba and the Current Crisis: An On-the-Ground Report - Berkeley and Zoom - April 24  (The Contemporary Cuban Studies Working Group at UC Berkeley)

• May Day - Rally and March - New York City  (New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO)

   

   

TRUMP PUTS EVERYTHING ON HOLD FOR TWO WEEKS

TRUMP PUTS EVERYTHING ON HOLD FOR TWO WEEKS. If you read Trump's tweets with any regularity, my guess is others wrote this for him. He may have added a word or comma here and there, but it lacks his 'voice.' No matter, fine by me. Next, Pakistan is playing a decent role here, as a Muslim country with nukes. But it has a silent partner, China, which wants a steady flow of oil and a global order that uses the UN Charter, the five principles, and so on. All that is still very tenuous, so don't let your guard down and keep organizing. But we get a short sigh of relief.

Carl Davidson
April 7, 2026
Post on Facebook
 

Re: Bombshell Report Reveals Trump Was Begging for Iran To Join Ceasefire
 

I wish Portside weren't so wishy-washy about saying up front what is going on. This article starts out ok but at the end instead of coming right out and saying that Israel/US have failed to uphold the agreement (because Israel is still violently attacking Lebanon), it uses the age-old method of putting it in the mouth of the speaker of Iran's parliament who it says " claimed the U.S. and Israel have already broken the parameters of the already fragile ceasefire".

Claimed?!?! The whole world has been watching the attacks on Lebanon!!!

Karen Lee Wald

Re: BILLIONS OVER THE MOON: IS ARTEMIS II WORTH THE PRICE TAG?
 

Yes. And why are you attacking the space program? NASA's budget isn't $30B, and he wants to cut part. The DoD is ONE TRILLION DOLLARS, and he's asking for ONE AND A HALF TRILLION.

By the way, if you don't like the space program, you don't like your phone, or your computer. Where do you *think* the tech came from?

mark

SAVE Act  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Garth German

 

The SAVE Act is a gross overreach that will harm many people in an attempt to solve a problem that does not exist.

Garth German
March 26, 2026
In Reality Of My Surrounding
Garth Toons
 

Every Accusation is a Confession  --  Cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz

 

Lalo Alcaraz
April 8, 2026
https://www.pocho.com/
 

Re: The Next Coup Attempt
 

If we remember what history taught us, it's that street theatre never stopped a Nazi.

Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
 

     =====

I'm sure others have pointed this out but Hegseth is not the Sec. of State (2nd paragraph).  Aside from that, excellent piece.  Snyder is fab!.

Best,

Jim Price

Re: How To View Protests Like an Organizer
 

There's one major thing missing from this rather mechanical guide to organizing: politics. Every move described above is a political move. The implication is that the organizer has a "higher level" of consciousness than the average participant in the demo. This means that their politics are, to put it gently, more inclusive and more left.

And given the diversity of American left, politics would be crucial.

David Berger

After 8 million in the Streets — What Comes Next?
 

The scale and energy of the recent “No Kings” mobilization—8 million people across the country—is a remarkable achievement and a testament to the depth of organizing across the coalition.

As we all know, however, this is just the beginning of the struggle to defend democracy. In that spirit, I want to raise a difficult but necessary question: after three growing demonstrations (5 million, 7 million, now 8 million), why hasn’t the overall political trajectory not shifted—and why do authoritarian forces still appear to be gaining ground?

By way of introduction, I am Executive Director of the Southeast Community Research Center (SCRC), which I founded nearly 30 years ago. We were among the first organizations in the South to conduct community-based participatory research, working alongside marginalized communities to address environmental and public health challenges while building local leadership and democratic capacity—what we have long described in our motto as “building democracy through research.”

In my political work over the past four decades, I have seen firsthand both the power of organized communities and the limits of fragmented efforts. What we are witnessing now is not a failure of participation, but a problem of underdefined structure and strategy. Millions are mobilizing, but largely as individuals rather than as a coordinated force of aligned organizations. History suggests that this distinction matters: a well-organized authoritarian movement is unlikely to be blunted by even the largest demonstrations alone.

If this assessment is correct, then the question becomes practical: what would it look like to move from mass mobilization to coordinated power?

With that in mind, we’ve outlined a short (initial?) set of immediate steps that should be undertaken—not as a final answer, but as a contribution to the conversation we believe is increasingly urgent.

A Democratic Emergency: Five Immediate Tasks--

The danger is immediate and escalating. This is not simply an assault on democracy, but an organized, increasingly fascistic project to end the possibility of a democratic future. Our response must be coordinated, national in scope, and equal to the threat.

1. Convene a National Democratic Front

Within 90 days, bring together labor, civil rights, women’s, environmental, and pro-democracy organizations to establish a unified national strategy.

2. Build Permanent Coordination

Form an ongoing national coordinating body to align strategy, share resources, and sustain collaboration across movements and regions.

3. Prepare for Electoral Defense and Crisis Response

Organize now for 2026: voter/polling places protection, legal defense, volunteer infrastructure—and a clear escalation plan if democratic processes are increasingly threatened.

4. Mobilize at Scale—and Use Economic Power

Move from episodic turnout to sustained, nonviolent mass participation—while aligning labor and economic leverage, including coordinated workplace and consumer walkout/strike actions.

5. Defend Communities and Control the Narrative

Treat attacks on targeted communities as central to authoritarian strategy—and build independent communication networks to counter disinformation and create coordinate rapid response teams in as many locations as feasible (the Minneapolis lesson is instructive).

----

Previous fights against authoritarianism and fascism took the form of popular fronts. We see this as a useful model, but with more urgency in our efforts and response.

We may be approaching a moment when the lessons of the civil rights movement become unavoidable: that defending democracy may require sustained, nonviolent resistance at scale—including a willingness to accept arrest and, if necessary, “fill the jails” to force change.

The moment is moving rapidly. Our response will need to move faster still.

Douglas Taylor, PhD
Founder & Director
Southeast Community Research Center (SCRC)
 

Piggish Bank  --  Cartoon by Steve Sack
 

Steve Sack
April 7, 2026
The Art of Sack
 

We Have Constitutional Power to Remove Him...  --  Cartoon by Jonathan Brown
 

Jonathan Brown
March 28, 2026
Instagram
 

Grab Them By Their Hormuz-y  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Benjamin Slyngstad
 

Not surprisingly, he failed to foresee the one response to an attack that every war scenario told you would happen.  Then he tries to bluster his way out of it.

Benjamin Slyngstad
April 8, 2026
slyngstad cartoons
 

Trump Wins  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Clay Jones
 

Trump TACO'ed out again

As predicted, Donald Trump taco’ed out again after threatening to commit genocide against the Iranian people.

Make no mistake about it, threatening to destroy an entire civilization is threatening genocide. Donald Trump was threatening to commit war crimes.

Trump set a deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz. This was the same Strait that was open before he chose to start a war with Iran. This is the same Strait that he demanded Iran open. This is the same Strait that NATO, Japan, and South Korea refused to help him open after he cried for their assistance. This is the same Strait that Trump said he didn't need anyone's help to reopen after our allies refused to help him reopen it. This is the same Strait he said he wasn't that concerned with anymore, and it would open up “naturally.” And this is the same Strait that he demanded Iran open by 8 PM Tuesday, or he would commit genocide against them.

So what happened?

By 7 PM last night, Donald Trump and Iran agreed to a two-week truce after Donald Trump said he had received a 10-point proposal from Iran, which was a “workable basis on which to negotiate.” Basically, Iran is setting the terms.

According to Iranian state media, Iran will only accept the war’s conclusion once details are finalised in line with the 10-point peace plan reportedly submitted to the Trump regime through Pakistan, which is mediating the negotiations.

The list of 10 points, published by Iranian state media, includes a number of conditions the US has rejected in the past. The plan requires:

• The lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions on Iran.
• Continued Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz.
• US military withdrawal from the Middle East.
• An end to attacks on Iran and its allies.
• The release of frozen Iranian assets.
• A UN Security Council resolution making any deal binding.

In the version released in Farsi, Iran also included the phrase “acceptance of enrichment” for its nuclear program. But for reasons that remain unclear, that phrase was missing in English versions shared by Iranian diplomats to journalists.

Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have sworn that US forces will remain in the Persian Gulf region, where they have been since at least 1990. Releasing frozen Iranian assets is something the Obama administration did, which the Trump regime has criticized. An end to attacks on Iran and its allies may be another nonworking condition because Israel refuses to stop its attacks on Lebanon.

Finally, the Strait of Hormuz was not controlled by Iran before this war. If Iran's conditions are met, they will truly be the victor in this war despite having their military obliterated. Remember, Donald Trump has already lifted sanctions against Iranian oil, thus making that nation richer.

Iran announced that ships may pass through the Strait of Hormuz, but only with military coordination, subject to undefined “technical limitations,” and possibly for a toll. Trump said this was a “workable basis on which to negotiate.”

By Wednesday, Trump had apparently forgotten 10-points of the “workable” terms and introduced his own 15-point proposal, which Iran had previously rejected, and which contains nearly opposite terms on uranium enrichment. The two sides are not negotiating from the same document.

Trump says the US will be able to go into Iran and dig up the uranium that they are hiding, and that the Strait of Hormuz will be controlled in a partnership between America and the Iranians. I am not sure the Iranians are aware of these details.

The Trump regime keeps referring to the “new” Iranian regime, which I guess is them trying to save face, as regime change was one of the supposed reasons that they started the war. It's something Donald Trump has demanded and has claimed that it happened. But it hasn't happened. The same Iranian regime that was there before the war is there now. The same regime that was oppressing its people, the ones Donald Trump said he was freeing and called upon to revolt against the government, is still in charge, oppressing its people.

JD Vance will be in Pakistan on Friday to negotiate with the Iranians and said today that some Iranian officials “are lying” about the terms that have been agreed to so far. If Donald Trump is the greatest negotiator in the world, then why is he sending JD Vance to negotiate in Pakistan instead of going there himself? Why doesn't Trump go to Pakistan and let JD stay in Washington and poop-tweet F-bombs?

I don't see how we are going to make it through two weeks without these two sides resuming the war. Hegseth said the military is ready to restart “in a moment’s notice.” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it has its “hand on the trigger.” This is like that scene in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards where the undercover Englishman posing as a Nazi and the actual Nazi both have their pistols pointed at each other's dicks underneath the table. If you saw that film, you know how that standoff turned out.

But I have decided that if Donald Trump or Pete Hegseth gets their dicks shot off over this, it’s something I can live with.

I have not had dinner yet, but I could really go for some tacos.

Update: As of this time, 8:09 PM, it appears the Strait has been closed again.

Clay Jones
April 8, 2026
Claytoonz
 

NOMA Wasn't the Exception: Abuse and Exploitation in the Restaurant Industry - New York - April 13  (CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies and One Fair Wage)
 

Join us for an in-person panel on exploitation in the restaurant industry.

Monday, April 13, 6 - 7:30 PM.
CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, 9th Floor

Sanctions Against Cuba and the Current Crisis: An On-the-Ground Report - Berkeley and Zoom - April 24  (The Contemporary Cuban Studies Working Group at UC Berkeley)
 

Apr 24, 2026 04:00 PM  in  
Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register here - Click here 

May Day - Rally and March - New York City  (New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO)
 

Friday, May 1, 4PM: Join working people and community members as we commemorate International Workers Day! We’ll gather in Washington Square Park to rally and then march down Broadway to Foley Square.

We will not be silent while working people are under attack. 
#MayDay2026