Tidbits- Sept 25 -Readers Comments: Unhinged at UN; Jimmy Kimmel, Suing Media, Attack on Free Speech; Recognition of Palestine Is a Big Deal; Public Health Workers:End Genocide in Gaza; Pressure on Sinclair and Nextstar; Pass a Millionaires’ Surtax

Readers Comments: Unhinged at UN; Jimmy Kimmel, Suing the Media, Attack on Free Speech; Recognition of Palestine Is a Big Deal; Take Action: Public Health Workers End Genocide in Gaza; Pressure on Sinclair and Nextstar; Pass a Millionaires’ Surtax;

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Tidbits - Reader Comments, Take Action, Announcements AND cartoons - Sept 25, 2025,Portside

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Mr. U.N.-hinged...  --  Cartoon by Jack Ohman

 


 

Jack Ohman
September 24, 2025
Jack Ohman's You Betcha!

 

Re:  7 Key Moments From Trump’s U.N. Speech
 

There were key moments or just varying degrees of lunacy?

Janet Filosa
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.)

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Embarrassing

Deborah R Kingery
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

The Rapture  --  Cartoon by Nick Anderson

 

Nick Anderson
September 24, 2025
Pen Strokes

 

Re: ‘Censoring You in Real Time’: Suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Show Sparks Shock and Fears for Free Speech
 

USA no longer home of the free.

Eduardo R. Cabán
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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If networks keep this shit up, they won't need their licenses anymore as it is, fewer and fewer are making those dollars roll in, they're just leaving.

Bequi Marie
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Extortion  --  Cartoon by Rob Rogers

 

Rob Rogers
September 23, 2025
https://robrogers.com/

 

Re: Tom Homan Took $50K From Undercover FBI Agents. Trump’s DOJ Shut Down the Investigation.
 

How corrupt are Trump & his co-conspirators? Incredibly corrupt as shown by Tom Horman (our so-called border czar) taking an envelope of cash and Trump shutting down the investigation. Thanks to Portside for the link.

Daniel Millstone
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: The Paradox of Anticommunism
 

Denise Lynn has done us all a service with this retelling.

Ethan Young
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Tylenol  --  Cartoon by Clay Bennett

 


 

Clay Bennett
September 23, 2025
Chattanooga Times Free Press

 

Re: The Second Amendment Was Created To Put Down Slave Revolts

The fear of slave revolts shaped the Second Amendment in part, but all twelve of the first package of proposed amendments, only ten of which were ratified, were seen largely as correcting drafting errors in the Constitution ratified by twelve of the thirteen states (Rhode Island had been compelled to go along). The political controversies of the 1780s were mostly quite different from the interpretations of them even forty or fifty years later.

David Clement
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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You're off by about half a century and the width of an ocean. Right to bear arms first takes shape as a point of public discourse in the Anglo-American context in England during the reign of James II. Partly as a means of popular resistance to tyranny (overthrowing James) and partly to facilitate the oppression of minorities (burning Catholic churches and lynching Catholic priests).

Daniel Collins
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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"The Second Amendment is a part of the United States Constitution that states: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed". Ratified in 1791, the Supreme Court has interpreted this amendment to protect an individual right to possess firearms for lawful purposes, such as self-defense, and this right applies to both federal and state laws."

Mary-Alice Strom
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Free speech is just another word for a right we’re gonna lose  --  Cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz

 


 

Lalo Alcaraz
September 23, 2025
https://www.pocho.com

 

 

 

Re: The Consensus Is Clear: It’s Genocide.
 

No doubt about it, it’s genocide. Why are we still providing Israel with weapons of war.  Democrats to heed the messaging from the 36% of the people who didn’t vote in 11/2024.

Bill Audette
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Here Are the Reasons Why Recognition of Palestine Is Such a Big Deal
 

Daoud Kuttab's piece Here Are the Reasons Why Recognition of Palestine Is Such a Big Deal is important to read. It is also valuable to read it in light of the interview by Christiane Amanpour of former French Prime Minister Dominique De Villepin. Here is the transcript.

De Villepin said: "This decision to recognize the State of Palestine comes because of the failure of previous peace processes. We've seen the Oslo process, the Camp David process, the Taba process, the Annapolis process, they all failed. And the idea today is to reverse the former process, not to have the recognition at the end of the day after solving all the difficulties, but starting with the recognition, which is a very strong gesture toward Palestine and toward the Arab world. And of course, try now to tackle all the different problems that we are facing, but starting with the recognition…there are two principles that are concerned. The first one is respect of international law, self-determination for every people. And the second principle we want to recognize is a principle of justice.... We see the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. We see the policy of colonization and annexation of West Bank. This has to stop."

De Villepin had opposed the March 2003 US/British invasion of Iraq--allegedly to dislodge weapons of mass destruction. But the UN had already gone wrong, in agreeing to an UN-approved, US-led international force in January 1991 to repel Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, instead of the Soviet Proposal for a UN Section 7 force. 

That ill-fated decision allowed actors globally to engage in ethnic cleansing and genocide, knowing the UN was toothless.

Since 2003, much of the organized left in the US gradually moved away from explicit support for a two-state solution, thinking that a BDS boycott and global isolation of Israel would be the best form of solidarity with Palestine. 

In March 2016, Ambassador Dr. Riyad Mansour - son of a US steelworker who had won a lottery to leave Ramallah with his family—and who lived in Parma and was educated at Youngstown State and University of Akron--visited the Cleveland City Club. I learned from Dr. Mansour of his opposition to BDS and his support for an international peace conference, and since then I have regularly contended we need to "flip the script." 

By this I meant exactly what De Villepin has now suggested: that instead of recognition of Palestine and Israel after a negotiated formation of a State of Palestine, we should favor global and US support for recognition of Palestine and Israel by as many states as possible. In this way, nations can use their bi-lateral and multilateral pressure to demand a final status resolution leading to a two-state solution. That is, I believe, the progressive stance to take and the best way to build US and global demands for a ceasefire now. De Villepin also discussed a wide range of more effective ways to insist on Israeli and Palestinian action to bring about a two-state solution, perhaps as part of what J Street has called a 23-state solution. Sometimes, my mentor Saul Wellman once said, you have to demand compromise and recognize that what is most progressive is not necessarily what is most “left.”

Michael A. Dover

[Michael A. Dover is a social worker, sociologist and social activist residing in Cleveland]

 

Smash Mouth Government  --  Cartoon by Pat Bagley

 

Pat Bagley
September 22, 2025
The Salt Lake Tribune

 

Re: Portside Snapshot - September 21, 2025
 

Folks, I really appreciate the above articles. They encompass the three messages on my sign which I have been carrying to demos since June 14: "Abolish ICE", "Dump Trump", and "Stop Arming Israel". Keep up the good work. 

In Solidarity, 

Peter Arsenault

 

Civil Warp  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Jen Sorensen

 

 

So much mainstream “discussion” of the recent political assassination is hypocritical posturing with a dark agenda. We’re seeing a lot of fake moralizing designed to legitimize future violence instead of calls for calm and de-escalation. If we were actually having a serious discussion, we’d make a clear distinction between an act of political violence, which is an affront to freedom that we must always condemn, and a demand that we celebrate the victim’s legacy. Unfortunately, we now find ourselves living in a funhouse mirror world with its own dreamlike rules, with even some previously sensible mainstream pundits straining to sanitize reality.

Jen Sorensen
September 18, 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.

 

End the Genocide in Gaza: A Public Letter from Jewish Health Professionals - sign-on letter with link

As Jewish professionals in medicine, public health, and related fields, we cannot remain silent in the face of a genocide being carried out against the Palestinians in Gaza by the state of Israel. Our tradition and training bind us to the defense of life and dignity. Too many of our colleagues and institutions have yet to dissent while an entire population, half of them children, has been starved, bombed, denied care, and displaced. To be silent is to be complicit.

Since the horrific Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, the Israeli government has unleashed a deliberate campaign to destroy Gaza. The consequences are staggering:

These are not “war mishaps”. These are the foreseeable and intentional outcomes of a military strategy targeting civilians and life sustaining infrastructure, and the consequences of a brutal, long-lasting dispossession and occupation lasting decades.  Human rights organizations, genocide scholars, and Israeli intellectuals have stated what Palestinians have experienced and reported - but too many ignored -  that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. 

As health professionals we are bound by ethical principles that transcend politics and borders, including the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, the obligation to safeguard life and dignity without discrimination, and to resist and denounce genocide

The Jewish High Holidays call upon us to set out on the four Maimonidean levels of penance:  Desisting from destructive deeds - immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access; Regret - over the destruction we have been complicit with; Confession - listing the wanton destruction wrought in our name; and Resolution for the future - that we no longer will participate in the suffering we cause to another people. Therefore, we call on all our colleagues to join us and: 

  • Validate and uplift Palestinian narratives of their own destruction.
  • Denounce  the genocidal actions of the Israeli government
  • Reject the weaponization of accusations of  antisemitism to suppress criticism of Israel and expressions of solidarity with Palestinians. 
  • Call on medical associations, schools, and journals to break their silence: acknowledge the destruction of Gaza, publicly condemn the genocide, solicit and publish articles on Gaza, hold symposia, protect dissenting voices, and advocate for accountability of those complicit.
  • Urge medical centers and institutions to contribute to the restoration of Gaza by providing medical supplies, training, volunteer options, and access to remote or onsite high level care to Gazans in-need.  

Stand with us. Break the silence. Sign this letter. 

870 signed. To See Signatory list (updated 9.25.2025 8AM)   click here.

Click here to sign https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdlrCwBwaj_jcy3ehp-ppoai_x5uOLdb3kzbDdQa3mUc9-aNA/viewform

 

WE HAVE FRIENDS EVERYWHERE  --  The Economic Toolkit To Fight for Our Rights!  --  WE WON! DISNEY IS BRINGING BACK KIMMEL… - --AND--SINCLAIR AND NEXTSTAR ARE CONTINUING NOT TO AIR JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE. IT’S TIME FOR PHASE 2..(FRIENDSEVERYWHERE.NETWORK)
 

FRIENDSEVERYWHERE.NETWORK https://friendseverywhere.network/

On September 17th, Disney-ABC yanked Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air—just hours after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened the company over Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s murderer. Make no mistake: this is creeping fascism—media silenced for daring to dissent. Only months ago The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was cancelled at the president’s request, and now Trump is publicly calling for Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers to be “next.”

On Sept. 23, Disney reinstated the show. But that same day  Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast—together controlling 70+ ABC affiliates (about 25% of stations, ~23% of U.S. households)—said they will keep preempting Kimmel.  Both groups are also before the FCC on major deals, including Nexstar’s proposed $6.2B acquisition of Tegna.

Trump threatened ABC on Truth Social: “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back… I think we’re going to test ABC out on this … Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative.”

We must continue to voice our consumer concerns and exert pressure to ALL of their advertisers, and ALL of their local stations.

Nexstar and Sinclair – What’s Next?

USE THE TOOLKIT
Keep checking back at our community-sourced toolkit for more actions.

PROTEST
Attend or Create a Picket at your a Sinclair or at a Nexstar Corporate location.

CALL A SINCLAIR ADVERTISER
Hit the Money Pipeline – demand Advertisers pull their ads from Sinclair.

BLACKOUT THE MEDIA
Don’t watch a Sinclair Owned local TV Station.

COMMUNITY CROWD SOURCED ADVERTISER LIST FOR LOCAL NEXSTAR AND SINCLAIR AFFILIATES 
This list is in formation and was last updated 9:06 PM, September 23rd please continue to spread the word and post online advertisers you find so we can source them.
 

Comedy isn’t the only thing under attack.

You might think this is just another late-night headline. But it’s not. When voices in media, comedy, and culture are silenced for challenging the status quo, it’s a warning sign for all of us.

This isn’t about one celebrity. It’s about the growing effort to limit what we can say, what we can hear, and how we can challenge power. If comedians aren’t safe, neither are organizers, educators, or everyday people who dare to speak truth.

 

Tell Your Governor to Pass a Millionaires’ Surtax  (Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund)

 


 

Across the country, families are being told that brutal cuts to healthcare, nutrition programs, and education are inevitable. But that is a false choice created by decades of billionaire influence over our tax system.

Massachusetts proved what happens when leaders make the wealthy pay their fair share. By passing a 4% surtax on annual income over $1 million, Massachusetts raised nearly $3 billion in its first year, more than double what experts projected. That revenue is constitutionally dedicated to education and transportation, ensuring that billionaires cannot use loopholes or lobbying to claw it back. Instead of cutting services, Massachusetts is now investing in schools, repairing roads, and expanding public transit.

The results are undeniable: taxing the rich works. Billionaires know this. That is why they are fighting to stop surtaxes from spreading. They bankroll think tanks that churn out false studies warning of “job losses.” They flood campaigns with dark money to scare governors away from bold action. But the facts are clear that the rich have not fled Massachusetts, the economy has not collapsed, and the state budget is stronger than it has been in years.

We cannot let billionaires dictate state budgets while children go hungry, seniors lose care, and classrooms fall apart. Governors must act now. The path is proven, the public is with us, and the time for excuses is over.

Demand that your governor follow Massachusetts’ lead, reject billionaire obstruction, and pass a Millionaires’ Surtax to fund education, healthcare, and infrastructure for the people they were elected to serve.

Take Action

Massachusetts’ success is the model. Their surtax revenue is constitutionally mandated to go directly to education and transportation, making sure billionaires cannot claw it back through loopholes or corporate lobbying. That is why Wall Street elites fought so hard to stop it. They knew once it passed, the results would speak for themselves. And now they are terrified that other states will see the truth.

The billionaire class is already mobilizing its disinformation machine. They spread myths about wealthy people fleeing states with surtaxes. They bankroll think tanks to churn out studies claiming surtaxes harm economies. They flood campaign coffers with dark money to ensure governors fall in line. But every piece of real-world evidence shows surtaxes raise revenue, strengthen state services, and build fairer economies―and rich people stay put.

The choice before governors is not complicated. They can impose deeper cuts on struggling families, or they can require those at the very top to pay more. They can let billionaires dictate budget priorities, or they can deliver for their constituents. They can cling to failed policies, or they can join Massachusetts in proving that fair taxation works.

Now is the time for governors to break the wealthy’s grip on our tax system and put their people first. Demand that your state pass a Millionaires’ Surtax now.

Together, we can make the wealthy contribute what they should and ensure every state has the resources needed to educate children, care for families, and strengthen communities.

Tell your governor to pass a Millionaires’ Surtax and put people over billionaires.

Press contact
Pablo Willis
Email: pwillis@americansfortaxfairness.org

Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) is a diverse campaign of more than 420 national, state and local endorsing organizations united in support of a fair tax system that works for all Americans. It has come together based on the belief that the country needs comprehensive, progressive tax reform that results in greater revenue to meet our growing needs. This requires big corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share in taxes, not to live by their own set of rules. ATF is a project of the New Venture Fund – a section 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund (ATFAF) is related to but should not be confused with Americans for Tax Fairness. ATFAF is a fiscally sponsored project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a section 501(c)(4) non-profit organization.

Americans for Tax Fairness is directed by a Steering Committee made up of roughly a dozen representatives from the most active members of the coalition. The committee sets the agenda and budget for the coalition, selects the coalition’s three co-chairs and hires its executive director. The current Steering Committee members and co-chairs are as follows, in alphabetical order:

L. Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute
Ed Jayne, AFSCME (Co-chair)
Greg Jefferson, AFL-CIO
Margarida Jorge, Health Care for America Now! (Co-chair)
Chuck Marr, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Amy Matsui, National Women’s Law Center
Laura Peralta-Schulte, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Kim Trinca, National Education Association
Debbie Weinstein, Coalition on Human Needs (Co-chair)
Jon Whiten, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ATF’s funding comes from foundations, major donors, grassroots members and labor organizations.

 

Zoom Event: Building Women's Leadership for a Public Pathway to a Just Energy Transition  --  September 30  (CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies)

 

Tuesday, September 30

1:00pm - 2:00pm (ET / New York)

Virtual-only Zoom event

Featuring:

  • Irene Calvé - Energy access consultant

Moderated by:

Click to register here.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Join us for an event on the heels of Climate Week NYC 2025 as we meet with a African labor leader and a European energy access expert to discuss a feminist approach to a just energy transition.  

While dominant narratives during Climate Week focused on the need for creating an enabling environment for the private energy sector, these women will explore the public pathway, an alternative approach to the energy transition that is anchored in a working class analysis and has the potential to reach climate goals while advancing a just social platform. This framework, coined by Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED), an independent project in partnership with CUNY SLU, is promoted around the world by trade unions who recognize that the market is unable to lead us to an energy transition, and a public option is essential to address the crisis of climate change. This conversation is among the many that have emerged since the launch of the Women’s Leadership Project for a Public Pathway by TUED in 2024 and will continue setting the groundwork for a feminist approach to the energy transition.

Join us on Zoom as we learn from these practitioners about energy and climate policy and the global trade union movement.

SPEAKER BIOS

  • Irene Calvé Saborit is an expert in power systems, distributed generation, and energy access. She has extensive experience in the electricity sector across Europe, Latin America, and Africa, working both with development finance institutions and in the private sector.
  • Suraya Jawoodeen is a union activist from South Africa. She is the former Deputy General Secretary of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) and the former Head of Secretariat of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA). She currently serves as Africa Coordinator for Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED).
  • Irene HongPing Shen is the lead organizer with Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED). Prior to joining TUED, she was a public school science teacher, a program manager with environmental justice organizations, a farmer and food just educator, and a NYC worker center organizer on anti-displacement and homecare workers campaigns.

RSVP for September 30 Zoom event

CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies
25 West 43rd Street
18th Floor
New York, NY 10036