Tidbits- July 10-Readers Comments: Big Death Bill; DOGE Cuts Warnings, Texas Approves Camp Mystic Disaster Plan Two Days Before Flood, DHS Now Cancels Extreme Warning Grants – More Disasters To Come; Zohran Mamdani; New Gaza Flotilla Handala Launches

https://portside.org/2025-07-10/tidbits-july-10-readers-comments-big-death-bill-doge-cuts-warnings-texas-approves-camp

Portside Date: July 10, 2025

Author:

Date of source: July 10, 2025

Portside

Big Bad Terrifying Debt Bill -- Cartoon by Christopher Weyant
They’re feeding us to the rich. -- Cartoon by Benjamin Slyngstad
Re: The Republicans’ Draconian Budget Bill Is Now a Reality (Daniel Millstone)
Flooding Memorial -- Cartoon by Nick Anderson
Due To The Rising Costs of Medical Tests … -- Meme
Re: Donald Trump's UFC Stunt Is More Than a Circus. (Cap'n Steve)
Re: Zohran Mamdani’s Electrifying Upset in NYC:#RankTheSlate – “Don’t Rank Cuomo” (Lewis Grupper)
Re: If You Like Zohran Mamdani, You’re Going To Love His Dad (Mark C. Rosenzweig)
Political Prisoner -- Cartoon and Commentary by Rob Rogers
Epstein Client List -- Cartoon and Commentary by Clay Jones
Re: Sunday Science: Did Baby Talk Give Rise to Language? (Karen Lee Wald)
Re: America Goes Full-Tilt Satire As Trump Announces He's Holding UFC Fights at the White House Now (Koohan)
Re: James Gunn Says ‘Superman’ Is About an ‘Immigrant That Came From Other Places’ and How We’ve ‘Lost’ the Value of ‘Basic Human Kindness’: ‘Yes, It’s About Politics’ (Mimi)
Re: 'The House I Live In' | Paul Robeson (Leonard J. Lehrman)
‘That’s Outrageous!’ Week 5: Union Organizing -- Mock Debate proposed by Tim Sheard, illustrations by Ryn Gargulinski

Christopher Weyant
June 29, 2025

They’re feeding us to the rich. -- Cartoon by Benjamin Slyngstad

Benjamin Slyngstad
July 3, 2025
slyngstad_cartoons

Re: The Republicans’ Draconian Budget Bill Is Now a Reality

How can we pin the Trump-GOP steal on every single GOP office holder in the land? How can we defeat every GOP dog catcher and tax assessor? The budget adopted is appalling as Heidi Shierholtz of the Economic Policy Institute explains here. Thanks to Portside for the link.

Daniel Millstone
Post on Facebook

Flooding Memorial -- Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Nick Anderson
July 8, 2025
Pen Strokes

Due To The Rising Costs of Medical Tests … -- Meme

Re: Donald Trump's UFC Stunt Is More Than a Circus.

The left has done somewhat similar physical activities in the past and present. In 1853 Milwaukee started the Turners, which still combines social activism with fitness.

In the 70s we had baseball at the Kern Park "un-American league", so called because all the teams, from the co-ops to the gay team (called The switch Hitters), to the socialist team (the Suds city socialists, with the fist logo holding a mug of beer instead of a rose), were definitely working to change the status quo. While not blood sports, it still was good to get together...

Cap'n Steve

Re: Zohran Mamdani’s Electrifying Upset in NYC:#RankTheSlate – “Don’t Rank Cuomo”

Thank you NY WFP for the work you did in helping Zohran Mamdani win the Democratic Party primary for NYC Mayor.

But I want to put what you did in context.

Zohran Mamdani's Campaign had 60,000 volunteers and knocked 1.4 million doors

Lewis Grupper

Re: If You Like Zohran Mamdani, You’re Going To Love His Dad

"Mamdani Sr brought to the analysis, not just of post-apartheid South Africa but of the postcolonial state in general: that justice cannot end with liberal representation or recognition of harms. It must continue into the realm of redistribution. It must look at how society divides those who belong from those who don’t – not just through overt political violence, but through economic structures that appear neutral, legal, even benevolent."

Mark C. Rosenzweig
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Political Prisoner -- Cartoon and Commentary by Rob Rogers

Many Republicans morally opposed the cruel and oppressive "Big Beautiful Bill" ... but when push came to shove, they all toed the line.

Rob Rogers
July 4, 2025
https://tinyview.com/rob-rogers/2025/07/04/political-prisoner

Epstein Client List -- Cartoon and Commentary by Clay Jones

Don't write checks you can't cash

Today, the Justice Department posted a memo saying there is no evidence that the late pedophile and Trump party buddy Jeffrey Epstein was murdered or that he kept anything amounting to a much-anticipated “client list.” A DOJ spokesgoon told CNN that the department does not plan to release any new documents on the matter.

If you’re not surprised that there’s not a list of Epstein’s clients, that’s probably because you know New York City’s medical examiner had ruled Epstein’s death (hanging himself in jail) a suicide. The attorney general in Trump’s first term, Bill Barr, said the same thing, despite his suspicions of something more sinister. A Justice Department Inspector General report also pushed back on the idea that the death was anything but a suicide, while criticizing staff failures for allowing it to happen.

The Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown, one of the best-sourced reporters on the Epstein case, reported earlier this year, “Those who have worked with the FBI on the case for decades say there is no evidence Epstein kept a ledger or a list of clients who were involved with his sex trafficking operation.”

But the problem for Trump 2.0 is that the regime promised to expose everything upon taking power, even promising to produce Epstein’s “client list.” Even an insider in Trump’s DOJ said there was a “client list.” Now, who in the Justice Department would jump the gun so badly when there’s not a client list? Who, who I ask? Who? Who? Who? Oh, it was the Attorney General, Pam Barbie Bondi. That’s who.

Remember, Bondi was Florida’s Attorney General who was going to investigate Trump University’s fraud in that state, but pulled the investigation after being paid off by Trump, who funneled it through his fake charity, the Trump Foundation. Later, she defended Trump in his impeachment trials, and was his second choice to be his AG after Matt Gaetz.

Imagine being the second choice after Matt Gaetz. If I were the second choice to Matt Giggity Gaetz, I’d probably hang myself.

But anywhosies, Bondi never promised to release a list, but she claimed it existed. And the stuff she did release months ago, was shit we already knew. It was like when Elon released the Twitter Files that had nothing on them.

Back in February, a month into this horrifying racist fascist regime, Bondi was asked by John Roberts on Fox News if the DOJ would release a “list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients.” He asked, “Will that really happen?”

Bondi said, “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive by President Trump. I’m reviewing that.”

Uh, so how was this imaginary list sitting on Bondi’s desk at that exact moment when it never existed?

Today, White House SpokesBarbie Karoline Leavitt claimed that Bondi wasn’t referring to an Epstein Client list, saying, “She was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork – all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. That’s what the attorney general was referring to, and I’ll let her speak for that.”

That’s a good call, SpokesBarbie, because it’s never a good idea to speak for liars, you know…such as yourself. Bondi explicitly referred to having Epstein’s client list on her desk. It was NOT an insinuation. Some Americans know how to comprehend.

Last March, again on Fox News because it’s the only place they feel safe to go because there are never follow-up questions, host Mark Levin suggested that Democratic-leaning officials in New York City might be withholding information because they “don’t like the names on the list” and that they were “trying to protect a lot of names and individuals.”

Did Bondi reply with, “They’re not withholding information about the list because there isn’t a list.”? No. She replied, “I think it’s very interesting that they withheld that from us.”

Republicans and MAGAts are seriously upset about this, because they still believe, without evidence, there’s an Epstein client list just like they still believe the 2020 election was stolen, there’s a deep state, There are Jewish space lasers, Hillary Clinton sex-trafficked babies out of the basement of a Washington DC pizza joint that doesn’t have a basement, that vaccines contain tracking chips, that the government is controlling the weather with chemtrails while also putting toxins in the water that make frogs gay, and that there’s incriminating evidence on Hunter’s laptop.

MAGAts HATE having their conspiracy theories debunked, especially by another MAGAt. That never happens, right?

Right-wing filmmaker and Heritage Foundation Visiting Fellow Robby Starbuck tweeted, “If Jeffrey Epstein had no clients list, didn’t have elites raping girls on his island and hadn’t taken part in any blackmail schemes… Then… Why’d he kill himself? It doesn’t pass the smell test.” Dude, Trump’s cologne doesn’t pass the smell test.

I don’t think Epstein killed himself because of a client list, but because he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Elon Musk, who claimed that not only is there an Epstein client list, but that Trump’s name is on it, posted a meme of the DOJ as clowns. Other far-right MAGA goons were screaming for Bondi to be fired, one said she’s “keeping the tens of thousands of child porn videos for herself,” and Laura Loomer has tweeted about 80 times on this, with one saying, “If she doesn’t get fired over this Epstein memo, people are going to be so black pilled.”

Wow! Being blackpilled sounds horrible, whatever that is.

Last May, Bondi also said publicly, “There are tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn, and there are hundreds of victims.” But even Kash Patel, the bug-eyed psychotic MAGAt running the FBI, walked that one back during an interview with Joe Rogan, which must have really disappointed that conspiracy theorist.

If Bondi can finally admit that there’s not an Epstein client list, maybe she can finally confess that the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, and Joe Biden won.

That one would guarantee her firing.

Clay Jones
July 7, 2025
Claytoonz

Re: Sunday Science: Did Baby Talk Give Rise to Language?

Isn't that kind of like the chicken and the egg? Do we know whether adults who talk to babies had parents or other adults talk to them when THEY were babies? How far back do we go???

Karen Lee Wald

Re: America Goes Full-Tilt Satire As Trump Announces He's Holding UFC Fights at the White House Now

(posting on Portside Culture)

Teddy Roosevelt, another racist bastard, did it too.

Presidential Shenanigans: Theodore Roosevelt's White House Wrestling Match

Koohan

Re: James Gunn Says ‘Superman’ Is About an ‘Immigrant That Came From Other Places’ and How We’ve ‘Lost’ the Value of ‘Basic Human Kindness’: ‘Yes, It’s About Politics’

(posting on Portside Culture)

The story of Superman is more than just an immigration story. It's a refugee story. Superman was the late 1930s creation of two Jewish American teenagers. His origin story is that his desperate parents, hoping he might survive, rocketed him off their exploding planet into the unknown — very much like the desperate Jewish parents in Germany and Austria who sent their children away on Kinsdertransports to escape the Nazis. Like so many other immigrants, Superman brought vitally needed skills to his new home.

Mimi

Re: 'The House I Live In' | Paul Robeson

(posted in Friday Nite Videos)

Here is a video of "The House I Live In," sung as part of an Earl Robinson Medley by The Metropolitan Philharmonic Chorus, commemorating his centennial at Local 802 in NY City, hosted by The National Committee to Re-Open the Rosenberg Case, June 17, 2010: The arrangement is mine, and is available to choruses that can read music:

Leonard J. Lehrman
LeonardJLehrman@gmail.com

‘That’s Outrageous!’ Week 5: Union Organizing -- Mock Debate proposed by Tim Sheard, illustrations by Ryn Gargulinski

In case you missed ‘em here’re weeks 1, 2, 3, and 4 of ‘That’s Outrageous!”

PODCAST: James Mumm, Stephanie Luce, And Bill Fletcher On Knowing Your Target, Learning From Successful Failures, And Building A United Front (Training Change)

This episode is part one of a two-part special episode from the Craft of Campaigns Podcast. You can listen to them here in any order. Unlike their standard episodes that zoom in on one particular campaign, in this two-part series they are zooming out around broader strategy themes. To help us zoom out, they invited five insightful thought leaders, who each recently wrote vital resources for campaign organizers, to talk with the podcast host Andrew.

In part one, Andrew Willis Garcés talks with three guests. First James Mumm grounds us in ‘what is organizing’ anyway, the importance of thinking like a target in power analysis, and why campaigns must contest for mainstream values, pulling from his co-written report The Antidote To Authoritarianism. Then we hear from Stephanie Luce about her co-written book, Practical Radicals, how campaigns relate to her Seven Strategies framework, and learning from “successful failures.” Finally, Bill Fletcher differentiates between ‘campaigns’ and ‘movements’ and makes the case for broad united fronts, from his article in Convergence Magazine, “Campaigns and Movements: How Are They Connected, How Do They Differ?”

In part two of two (coming soon), Andrew talks with two guests. First Lauren Jacobs of Power Switch Action highlights the role of corporate targeting campaigns in resisting authoritarianism, pulling from her co-written article Reining in Amazon to Build Up People-Powered Democracy in The Forge. Then, we hear from Harmony Goldberg of Grassroots Power Project, about interventions from her co-authored guide Governing Power. Beyond cutting issues for easy wins given a terrain of power, she invites campaigners to orient toward the long term project of winning durable governing power, to transform the terrain of power itself. The episode touches themes of effective allies, building enforcement into demands, narrative struggle, and the importance of base building fundamentals.

If you like what you hear, I encourage you to join me in following the Craft of Campaigns Podcast on whatever platform you prefer.

SUMMER SALE! 40% Off ALL Haymarket Books!

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Here are some recent and recommended reads to get you started. Get a free Ebook (where available) and free shipping on orders over $25 / £20 inside the US and UK.

And, don’t forget, you can still download four Free Ebooks for a Free Palestine!

Haymarket Books

On July 13, 2025 our boat 'Handala' will depart from Siracusa, Italy to break Israel’s illegal blockade (Freedom Flotilla Coalition)

This mission is for the children of Gaza.

Just weeks ago, Israeli forces illegally seized our boat 'Madleen' and abducted 12 unarmed civilians aboard her in international waters.

Since March, more than 6,572 Palestinians have been killed, over 23,000 injured, and hundreds shot while waiting for food. The children of Gaza now face famine, disease, and trauma few of us can imagine.

We are not governments. We are people taking action where institutions have failed. We are not backing down.

#FreedomFlotilla #WeWillSail #AllEyesonDeck #BreakTheSiege #Handala

Freedom Flotilla Coalition

Texas Inspectors Approved Camp Mystic’s Disaster Plan 2 days Before Deadly Flood, Records Show

By Jim Mustian, Christopher L. Keller And Ryan J. Foley
July 8, 2025
Associated Press

Texas inspectors signed off on Camp Mystic’s emergency planning just two days before catastrophic flooding killed more than two dozen people at the all-girls Christian summer camp, most of them children.

The Department of State Health Services released records Tuesday showing the camp complied with a host of state regulations regarding “procedures to be implemented in case of a disaster.” Among them: instructing campers what to do if they need to evacuate and assigning specific duties to each staff member and counselor.

Five years of inspection reports released to The Associated Press do not offer any details of those plans at Mystic, raising new questions about the camp’s preparedness ahead of the torrential July 4 rainfall in flood-prone Texas Hill Country.

The National Weather Service had issued a flood watch for the area July 3 at 1:18 p.m. That danger prompted at least one of the roughly 18 camps along the Guadalupe River to move dozens of campers to higher ground.

The uncertainty about what happened at Mystic comes as local officials have repeatedly dodged questions about who was monitoring the weather and what measures were taken ahead of the flooding.

Tragedy falls on the historic camp

Camp Mystic, established in 1926, did not evacuate and was especially hit hard when the river rose from 14 feet (4.2 meters) to 29.5 feet (9 meters) within 60 minutes in the early morning hours. Flooding on that stretch of the Guadalupe starts at about 10 feet (3 meters).

A wall of water overwhelmed people in cabins, tents and trailers along the river’s edge. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.

At least 27 campers and counselors died during the floods, and officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counselor have still not been found. Among the dead was Richard “Dick” Eastland, the camp’s beloved director described by campers as a father figure.

Charlotte Lauten, 19, spent nine summers at Camp Mystic, mostly recently in 2023. She said she didn’t recall ever receiving instructions as a camper on what do in the case of a weather emergency.

“I do know that the counselors go through orientation training for a week before camp starts,” she said. “They do brief them on all those types of things.”

One thing that likely hindered the girls’ ability to escape was how dark it would have been, Lauten said. Campers don’t have access to their phones while at camp, she said, adding they wouldn’t have cell service anyway because of the remote location.

“This is the middle of nowhere and they didn’t have power,” she said. “It would have been pitch black, like could not see 5 feet in front of you type of darkness. I’ve never seen stars like there because there’s just no light.”

Inspections found no issues

The state inspected Camp Mystic on July 2, the same day the Texas Division of Emergency Management activated emergency response resources ahead of the anticipated flooding.

The inspection found no deficiencies or violations at the camp in a long list of health and safety criteria. The camp had 557 campers and more than 100 staffers at the time between its Guadalupe and Cypress Lake locations.

The disaster plans are required to be posted in all camp buildings but aren’t filed with the state, said Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

“We do not have them,” Anton said in an email. “You’d have to get it from the camp.”

Camp Mystic did not respond to requests for comment on its emergency plan. In a statement on its website, the camp said it has been “in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls.”

Camps are responsible for developing their own emergency plan. Inspectors evaluate the plans to ensure they meet several state requirements, including procedures for evacuation.

“The inspector checked that they had plans posted for those elements in every building,” Anton said, “and that they had trained staff and volunteers on what to do.”

Camp Mystic is licensed by the state and a member of the Camping Association for Mutual Progress, which says its goal is to “raise health and safety standards” for summer camps. Leaders of that association didn’t return messages.

The American Camp Association said Tuesday that Camp Mystic is not accredited with that organization, whose standards focus on safety and risk management. Spokesperson Lauren McMillin declined to say whether the camp previously had been accredited with the association, which describes itself as “the only nationwide accrediting organization for all year-round and summer camps.”

Re: The Republicans’ Draconian Budget Bill Is Now a Reality (Daniel Millstone)

Re: Donald Trump's UFC Stunt Is More Than a Circus. (Cap'n Steve)

Re: Zohran Mamdani’s Electrifying Upset in NYC:#RankTheSlate – “Don’t Rank Cuomo” (Lewis Grupper)

Re: If You Like Zohran Mamdani, You’re Going To Love His Dad (Mark C. Rosenzweig)

Re: Sunday Science: Did Baby Talk Give Rise to Language? (Karen Lee Wald)

Re: America Goes Full-Tilt Satire As Trump Announces He's Holding UFC Fights at the White House Now (Koohan)

Re: James Gunn Says ‘Superman’ Is About an ‘Immigrant That Came From Other Places’ and How We’ve ‘Lost’ the Value of ‘Basic Human Kindness’: ‘Yes, It’s About Politics’ (Mimi)

Re: 'The House I Live In' | Paul Robeson (Leonard J. Lehrman)

Resources:

PODCAST: James Mumm, Stephanie Luce, And Bill Fletcher On Knowing Your Target, Learning From Successful Failures, And Building A United Front (Training Change)

.Announcements:

On July 13, 2025 our boat 'Handala' will depart from Siracusa, Italy to break Israel’s illegal blockade (Freedom Flotilla Coalition)

Shorts:

Texas inspectors approved Camp Mystic’s disaster plan 2 days before deadly flood, records show (Associated Press)

DHS Cancels Extreme Weather Comms Grant While Bodies Still Being Recovered in Texas (Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo)

Tragedy falls on the historic camp

Inspections found no issues