Skip to main content

Dispatches From the Culture Wars — June 2, 2026

They say crackdown, we say throwdown

Niv Bavarsky for Vox
  1. The Park Slope Food Co-op Opts for Solidarity
  2. ICE Capades
  3. Disability Rights Under Attack
  4. Libraries at the Heart of Democracy
  5. Big Win in Arizona
  6. Boos Echo at Commencements
  7. Jan 6er’s Star Turn
  8. How Indivisible Organizes in the Sticks
  9. Amazon vs the Post Office
  10. The Diaspora as Center of Jewish Life

 

The Park Slope Food Co-op Opts for Solidarity

By Karen Malpede, The Indypendent

The Park Slope Food Coop’s 67% vote to join the international Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement is the result of years of thwarted efforts begun in 2009. If BDS can pass at what is now described as the “liberal”, “upper-class” Food Coop—why there is absolutely no end to who might embrace BDS.

ICE Capades

The Battle of Delaney Hall   By Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes

The Spokane 3   By Alexandra Duggan, The Spokesman-Review

Arrest in Minneapolis ICE Shooting   By Zoe Sottile, CNN

After Months-Long ICE Detention, Woman ‘Self-Deports’   By Alba Asenjo Domínguez, The Guardian

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.)


Arizona: “The Feds Have Gone Too Far”   By Tyler Hicks, Inkstick

Racially Profiled ICE Arrests in New York Area   By Gwynne Hogan, Rosalind Adams and Haidee Chu, The City Reporter
 

Disability Rights Under Attack

By Marianne Dhenin, Truthout

The right of disabled people to live in community rather than being warehoused in institutions is under attack in a lawsuit currently being pursued by Texas and six other states. But advocacy efforts are persuading states to pull out of the suit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Secretary of HHS Robert F. Kennedy Jr., called Texas v. Kennedy.

Libraries at the Heart of Democracy

By Scott Baldauf, Christian Science Monitor

While some communities are investing in modern new libraries, others are letting their branches crumble. Funding cutbacks for affordable housing or mental health services have led many low-income or unhoused people to use libraries as places of shelter. And widening polarization over social issues has sparked debates within some communities about banning some books as offensive.

Big Win in Arizona

By Marjorie Kelly and Thomas M. Hanna, In These Times

With household electricity prices climbing, and resistance to massive AI data centers growing, Arizona residents have taken matters into their own hands. This April, in a local election for the power utility board of the Salt River Project (SRP), green energy candidates won a majority of seats.

Boos Echo at Commencements

By Luis Prada, Vice

It’s commencement speech season, and as colleges across the country have trotted out one miserable, AI brain-rotted business loser after another so they can inevitably sing the praises of AI, their words are getting drowned out by a spontaneous chorus of boos belted out from the crowd of young graduates who viscerally despise the technology. 

Jan 6er’s Star Turn

By L. Cam Anderson, Unicorn Riot

Edward Jacob “Jake” Lang was arrested again on May 21. The latest arrest occurred in the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville, Tennessee, during a bond hearing for far-right streamer Dalton Eatherly, known online as “Chud the Builder,” who was arrested earlier this month on charges of attempted murder. “The fate of the future of white civilization is here,” Lang said.

How Indivisible Organizes in the Sticks

By Cara Letofsky, Barn Raiser

Even as small town and rural Indivisible chapters provide an outlet for neighbors who are politically aligned, they can also be a welcoming place for people who become disillusioned with Trump and MAGA, such as one neighbor in Marion, Ohio who pulled down their long-flying Trump flag when the war in Iran started.

Amazon vs the Post Office

By Rachel Herring, Jacobin

The US Postal Service promises to deliver mail to rural areas where private carriers won’t extend service because it isn’t profitable. Now Amazon is taking advantage of that publicly built infrastructure for its own gain — at rural mail carriers’ expense.

The Diaspora as Center of Jewish Life

By Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service

The Jewish Diaspora Movement, launched May 18, consists of 40 groups, mostly in North America, that are united in their rejection of Israel’s ethno-nationalist Judaism. Though not explicitly anti-Zionist, the association is committed to centering the diaspora, rather than Israel, and working toward the liberation of all people, it said in announcing the association.