Tidbits-Jan. 15- Reader Comments: Shoot First, Lie Later; U.S. Attack on Venezuela; Resources – Posters You Can Reprint; Minneapolis Mass Strike January 23; Building Towards May Day 2026 – From No Kings to Mass Action; Conference on the Jewish Left;

https://portside.org/2026-01-15/tidbits-jan-15-reader-comments-shoot-first-lie-later-us-attack-venezuela-resources

Portside Date: January 15, 2026

Author:

Date of source: January 15, 2026

Portside

Shoot First, Lie Later -- Cartoon by Jack Ohman
Re: DOJ Resignations Over the Renee Good Shooting Confirm Our Worst Fears (Robert Laite)
Domestic Terrorist -- Cartoon and Commentary by Rob Rogers
Orphaned -- Cartoon by Nick Anderson
How to Handle Dangerous Ice -- Cartoon by Joe Heller
U.S. Attack on Venezuela (Military Families Speak Out)
Re: Israel, From Genocide to Self-Destruction (Felice Sage)
Re: A Movement-Building Strategy for All Workers (Joe Berry)
Washington National Opera leaves Kennedy Center -- Cartoon by Ann Telnaes
Re: Sabrina Carpenter and the Cruel Authoritarianism of Trump (Cathy Deppe; Portside moderator responds)
Murdered by ICE -- Cartoon by Jesse Duquette
Re: With Venezuela, Trump Has Achieved His Dream of Making His Own 80s Action Movie (Robert)

Resources:

GOOD/EVIL: Contrast and Compare -- Cartoon - Poster by Lalo Alcaraz
No Blood for Oil! - Poster of the Week (Center for the Study of Political Graphics)

Announcements:

Minneapolis Mass Strike January 23
Webinars: Building towards May Day 2026 - From No Kings to Mass Action: Why May Day Matters - New York - February 5 and 12
Conference on the Jewish Left - Boston - February 12

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Shoot First, Lie Later -- Cartoon by Jack Ohman

Jack Ohman
January 14, 2026
Jack Ohman’s You Betcha!

Re: DOJ Resignations Over the Renee Good Shooting Confirm Our Worst Fears

The corruption goes all the way to the top. I hope America can do something before Trump dissolves their democracy and assumes total control.

Robert Laite
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Domestic Terrorist -- Cartoon and Commentary by Rob Rogers

AG Pam Bondi called the victim shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis a domestic terrorist. despite having no information about the woman. Trump agreed, of course.

Rob Rogers
January 8, 2026
TinyView

Orphaned -- Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Nick Anderson
January 9, 2026
Pen Strokes

How to Handle Dangerous Ice -- Cartoon by Joe Heller

Joe Heller
January 9, 2026
Chicago Tribune

U.S. Attack on Venezuela

Military Families Speak Out Opposes U.S. Attack on Venezuela

Military families across the country are once again devastated by our loved ones being used as pawns in a military operation that has nothing to do with their oath to protect country and Constitution and everything to do with oil markets and asserting dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) condemns the latest actions involving Venezuela by President Trump. To violate a country's airspace, bomb their airports, kill over 80 civilian and military personnel and kidnap their head of state is a declaration of war, a criminal kidnapping, and a blatant violation of international law These actions occurred without Congressional authorization. The Constitution clearly assigns these powers to Congress. No debate took place. No vote occurred. The American people were denied a voice. Untold harm has and will come to the people of Venezuela, and to our loved ones in uniform.

Two decades ago, the US invaded Iraq, lying about weapons of mass destruction, and putting our loved ones and the people of Iraq in harm's way. Today the lies are different but the horrific results will be the same.

"We military families know firsthand the true cost of war," said MFSO member Alissa M. "My husband lost a lot of his battle buddies in Afghanistan and afterward. Some lost limbs, many suffer from PTSD, and far too many have been lost to suicide. Back then we were told the mission was to capture terrorists. I can't even imagine the carnage and moral injury our troops will suffer as a result of being given orders to invade another country, which is no threat to us, and control another country's oil."

Military Families Speak Out demands an end to this attempt to overturn the government of a sovereign nation, using our loved ones as cannon fodder and threatening the lives of the people of Venezuela. We demand, and our troops and the American people deserve, lawful orders grounded in the Constitution and respect for international law.

Congress must immediately reassert its authority over unlawful military acts and halt military action against Venezuela or any other sovereign nation. Our troops are not expendable. Their lives and their sacrifice demand lawful leadership rather than the misuse and abuse they will suffer being deployed to an unlawful military misadventure. We've seen this playbook before. We know how this will end. We simply cannot allow a new generation of service members and the people of Venezuela to be sacrificed for another illegal, immoral war for oil.

###

Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) is a national organization of post-9/11 military families founded in 2002, speaking out to prevent and end the forever wars in the Middle East. MFSO welcomes the voices of military families speaking out against the misuse and abuse of service members in today's military misadventures including deploying the military to U.S. cities and towns, and currently to Venezuela.

Long Beach, CA. January 9, 2026
Contact: Pat Alviso, 562-833-8035, mfsooc@earthlink.net

Re: Israel, From Genocide to Self-Destruction

Zionism has clearly reached its foreseeable dead end.

Felice Sage
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: A Movement-Building Strategy for All Workers

David and Peter,

Wonderful article. Thanks so much for doing it.

I wish you had included at least a sentence about the US government's , usually with AFL and AFL-CIO support, actions in most of the countries migrants have come from that have made their migration necessary for them and their families. As socialist unionists, we need to link the immigration issue with US foreign actions (imperialist intervention usually) as much as we can, especially at this moment.

Thanks again for writing this.

In solidarity,

Joe Berry

Washington National Opera leaves Kennedy Center -- Cartoon by Ann Telnaes

Another exit from the iconic national arts & culture institution

Ann Telnaes
January 12, 2026
Open Windows- Ann Telnaes

Re: Sabrina Carpenter and the Cruel Authoritarianism of Trump

Please share the information about the song and singer on today's Hartman Report.
It was "A Shot They Didn't Have to Take" and so excellent, but I don't know how to
find it again.

Cathy Deppe

=====

Portside moderator responds:

Sabrina Carpenter condemns Trump administration's use of lyrics after Franklin the turtle backlash

Singer responds to ICE post: 'Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda'

Fatima Hussein
December 2, 2025
The Associated Press

Musician Sabrina Carpenter took issue Tuesday with a video montage depicting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that used her music. (Photo credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/The Associated Press // CBC)

Pop singer Sabrina Carpenter and the publisher of the beloved Canadian children's character Franklin the turtle are disavowing the Trump administration's use of their music and imagery to support its agenda.

Responding to the use of her song Juno in a video montage depicting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, Carpenter tweeted Tuesday: "This video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda."

In the caption for the clip, the White House quoted Carpenter's lyrics "Have you ever tried this one? Bye-bye."

Murdered by ICE -- Cartoon by Jesse Duquette

It should be obvious by now that they won’t rest until we’re all imprisoned or interred.

Jesse Duquette
January 9, 2026
misterjesseduquette

Re: With Venezuela, Trump Has Achieved His Dream of Making His Own 80s Action Movie

(posting on Portside Culture)

I'm more worried he's trying to make his own 1984. If he's got Venezuela to the south, might as well take Mexico to join everything up. If he takes Greenland, might as well take Canada. If he takes Greenland, that's the end of NATO and there will be no way to stop Putin who won't stop at Ukraine. China will see this and take Taiwan and both Koreas and probably Australia. If you aren't scared, you aren't paying attention.

Robert

GOOD/EVIL: Contrast and Compare -- Cartoon - Poster by Lalo Alcaraz

Click here for high-resolution big printable versions of these images available for download.

No Blood for Oil! - Poster of the Week (Center for the Study of Political Graphics)

Blood for Oil
Offset, Circa 2000
United States
80233

Over the weekend, The Trump administration invaded Caracas, seized President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, and killed at least 80 people in the process. Maduro and Flores are currently imprisoned in New York charged with “narco-terrorism.” Since the abduction of Maduro, Trump has announced the U.S. will run Venezuela and take over its nationalized oil industry.

The hypocrisies and lies are endless:

In the past, Trump promised an end to an “era of endless wars,” yet he has launched military strikes on Iran, Nigeria, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Somalia, provided aide to Israel’s carpet bombing of Gaza, and has now performed a regime change in Venezuela, with additional hints that countries like Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, and Greenland are next.
Since last September, the U.S. government has been bombing boats in the Caribbean, claiming they were fentanyl-carrying drug boats from Venezuela. The Trump administration never provided proof to the public of these claims. Further, though genuine efforts of restorative justice should be praised, his administration has contradicted its tough-on-drug-traffickers stance by freeing multiple drug traffickers, including:

○ Ross Ulbricht, creator of a “dark web” site used by drug traffickers called Silk Road;

○ Garnett Gilbert Smith, a Baltimore drug kingpin responsible for distributing more than 1,000 kg of cocaine in less than two years;

○ Cesar Humberto Lopez-Lario, a high-ranking leader of MS-13;

○ Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, convicted in New York of narcotrafficking, and sentenced to 45 years in prison before being pardoned by Trump last month.

The Trump administration has tried to justify its permission to “run” Venezuela by arguing that Maduro, as a dictator, doesn’t align with American values. American values are supposed to include self-sovereignty and democracy, but this weekend’s acts included neither. Instead, the Trump administration told oil company executives about the plan to depose Maduro before it happened, while Congress knew nothing about it. Moreover, Trump actively supports and befriends other dictators, like Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, Javier Milei, and Mohammed bin Salman. Like the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, this is not about democracy or justice, it’s about controlling foreign oil for profit.

The administration’s focus on narco-terrorism, deflects from a bigger issue. China is currently doing more trade with Latin American than the U.S. Trump’s attack on Venezuela sends a warning message to China to stay out of “our” backyard. There is a also a domestic intent: deflect attention from released Epstein files which tie the president to Jeffrey Epstein, a human trafficker, child sex offender, and serial rapist.PG's Poster of the Week, made during the invasion of Iraq, reminds us of what happens when the U.S. government pretends to “fix” other countries while profiting off their oil reserves. The peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya continue to suffer from American warfare in the name of oil.

No more blood for oil!

No more U.S. imperialism!

References

Click Here To Support CSPG with a Financial Donation

Center for the Study of Political Graphics
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Suite 103/104
Culver City, CA 90230

Minneapolis Mass Strike January 23

Webinars: Building towards May Day 2026 - From No Kings to Mass Action: Why May Day Matters - New York - February 5 and 12

Feb 5 webinar: "From No Kings to Mass Action: Why May Day Matters"

Feb 12 webinar: "Tax the Rich! Fund the Affordability Agenda!"

Billionaires are stealing from working families, destroying our democracy, and building private armies to attack our towns and cities.

Just like any bad boss, the way we stop the takeover is with continued, escalating collective action. May Day Strong is a national network of labor, community and tenant organizations working together to rise up and stop the billionaire takeover–not just through the ballot box or the courts, but through building a bigger and stronger movement.

May Day Strong is holding schools in 30+ cities around the country over the next few months to plan for May Day 2026 actions and beyond.

Conference on the Jewish Left - Boston - February 12

Founded in 2024, Boston University’s annual “Conference on the Jewish Left” gathers together scholars, students, and global partners of the Jewish left. At a time when foundational principles of justice and democracy are under attack, the conference provides an educational space to bridge the academic-community divide, and to explore the Jewish left’s values, institutions, and impact. The conference aims to tackle pressing public questions and to empower the next generation of leaders to make a real-world difference in the critical challenges facing humanity and the earth today.

Date: Thursday, February 12, 2026

Location (unless otherwise noted): George Sherman Union • Boston University • 775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston.

Attendees can register to attend the conference in-person or via livestream.

Schedule

9 – 9:10 • Welcoming Remarks by Jeremy Menchik

9:10 – 10:00 • Keynote Address
Speaker: Peter Beinart
Discussant: Marjorie Feld

10:20 – 11:10 • Morning Workshops (online or in-person)

11:30 – 12:20
Speaker: Dove Kent
Discussant: Ian Lustick

12:20 – 1:30 • Lunch
A prayer by Rabbi Greg Hersh will be followed by lunch and an organizational showcase.

1:30 – 2:20
Speaker: Arielle Angel
Discussant: Liana Krupp

2:40 – 3:30 • Afternoon Workshops (online or on-person)

3:50 – 4:40
Speaker: Fadi Quran
Discussant: Michael Zank

4:40 – 5:00 • Closing Plenary led by Shaul Magid

5:15 – 7:00 PM • Closing Reception
Join us at the Howard Thurman Center, 808 Commonwealth Ave, Brookline, for live music and light appetizers. A cash bar will be available.

Register Speaker and Workshop Leader Bios Workshops

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Conference Newsletter