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Tidbits - June 26, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments- Undocumented Student Leaders and Mississippi Freedom Summer; Scott Walker's Scandals; Protect Voting Rights; U S Created Child Migrant Crisis; Egypt Jails Al Jazeera Staff; Precariat and Global Erosion of Job Security; Freedom Summer Legacies; Gabriel Kolko; Doonesbury on Climate Change; Correction to earlier posting Cecily McMillan to be Released next week; Memorial Concert for Pete and Toshi Seeger-July 20; MEDICC's Educational Exchange to Havana

Today's Supreme Courts Rulings Against Women, Labor, Democracy and the President

Thao Nguyen; Brennan Center for Justice
Today, the Supreme Court handed down a decision striking a Massachusetts law that protects patient access to abortion clinics. The Court, upheld the historically broad interpretation of the president's recess appointments power, and opened the door to new forms of Senate obstruction by ruling that the president's recess appointments were invalid because the Senate had used "pro forma sessions" - sessions in name only - to avoid going into recess.

Music Changes the Way You Think

Daniel A. Yudkin and Yaacov Trope Scientific American
Different music encourages different frames of mind. That music can move us is no surprise; it's the point of the art form, after all. What's new here is the manner in which the researchers have quantified in fine-grained detail the cognitive ramifications of unpacked melodic compounds. This investigation of music's building blocks may be more relevant than you suppose.

Artisanal Union-Busting

Chris Lehmann In These Times
Whole Foods has attempted to crush anything resembling a union drive among its employees. In two Chicago stores, workers have staged wildcat strikes and walkouts to protest what they say are draconian attendance policies and unfair dismissals of workers.

Whither the Socialist Left? Round 2

Mark Solomon Portside
Last year Portside published Whither the Socialist Left? Thinking the "Unthinkable", which created a lot of controversy, discussion and debate. Now, the author has written an update "Whither the Socialist Left? Round 2." Today he finds the broad progressive community remains largely fragmented, lacking a coherent overarching vision that would not only react to recurring crises, but offer ideas and values to guide and illuminate the road to more transforming change.

The Precariat and the Global Erosion of Job Security

Wade Rathke Talking Union, a DSA labor blog
This article revolves a new book called The Precariat: the New Dangerous Class by Gary Standing, a British economist.Lack of job security and low wages is how he characterizes these workers. He cites McDonalds and Walmart as the model worldwide for creating precarious employment.

South Vietnam All Over Again?

Tom Hayden Peace & Justice Resource Center
With the winds of war now at gale levels, it seems impossible politically for a US president to survive accusations of "isolationism" and "losing" Iraq. There is only one accusation that is worse, however, which is to "lose" Iraq again, to become Gulliver in the land of Lilliputians. That's what happened in South Vietnam when one US administration after another lied or dissembled to put American soldiers in harm's way to prevent the defeat of our client.

Send Undocumented Student Leaders to Mississippi Freedom Summer 50th Conference!

Laura Soltis Freedom University Georgia
Freedom University students desperately want to attend this conference so that they can continue their movement education and come back to Georgia with new skills and renewed energy to continue their fight for immigrant rights in the South. Let's work together to get them there.

How Do Los Angeles Uber Drivers Protest? They Take a Beach Day

By Josh Eidelson
“If it comes to it, says DeWolf, drivers should call the industry’s “independent contractor” bluff and stage a walkout some Monday morning, rather than logging in to their apps. “Perhaps, you know, have our meeting at Santa Monica Beach, and a picnic as well,” he says.