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Tidbits-Jun 4-Reader Comments: Close Delaney Hall, Release Detainees; Pope’s Encyclical; Future of Democratic Party; 60 Minutes Blowup; Data Centers Suck Water, Electricity; Submit Public Comment To Save Science; Israeli War Criminals at Israel Day Parade

https://portside.org/2026-06-04/tidbits-jun-4-reader-comments-close-delaney-hall-release-detainees-popes-encyclical
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Re: Delaney Hall ICE Detainees Take Aim at GEO Group’s Bottom Line

Find Your Representative | house.gov
 

They are requesting phone calls to all NJ representatives, senators, governor.

For find your U.S. House of reps - https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

For find your NJ State reps - https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/#findLegislator

Senator Kim - https://www.kim.senate.gov
Jersey city office - (201) 377-0900
Barrington office - (856) 757-5353
DC office - (202) 224-4744

Senator Booker - https://www.booker.senate.gov/contact
Newark office - Phone: (973) 639-8700
Camden office - Phone: (856) 338-8922
DC office - Phone: (202) 224-3224

Governor Sherrill - phone - 609-292-6000

Mayor Baraka (Newark Mayor)
Phone: 973-733-4311
Direct: 973-733-6400

Katie Krasinski
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
 




 

Let Them Eat  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Rob Rogers

 


“Trump does not care about average Americans struggling to put food on their tables. He's too busy dumping our tax money into his vanity projects.”

Rob Rogers
June 2, 2026
TinyView
 




 

Re: Pope Leo’s Vital Message About Work in the Age of AI
 

Where can I get a copy  of the Pope's Encyclical to read??????  Thank U.

Michaela

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Moderator's response:


Click here for full Encyclical Letter
 




 

Ceasefire  --  Cartoon by Anne Derenne
 



Anne_Derenne
May 15, 2026
Cartoon Movement
 

[Anne Derenne (Alias ADENE) is a French cartoonist and illustrator based in Madrid, Spain. She studied international economics, getting a Master degree in development economics in 2006. In 2012 she began her career as a freelance cartoonist.

Her work has been published in a lot of different magazines and newspapers (Le Monde, Le Temps and more) and she collaborates on a regular basis with international organizations, NGOs and associations (UNESCO, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, One.org ...)]

She has won a lot of international prizes for her artwork.

Her website : https://annederenneillustration.com/

You can follow her work on:

Bluesky: @adene-dessins.bsky.social
Instagram: @adene_dessins
Facebook: @Adenecartoon
Mastodon: @adenedessins



 

Re: The DNC Autopsy Is a Confession
 

The Dems' post-mortem "is surrender dressed as analysis."

Gramsci's ghost
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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There are progressive Democrats and mainstream Democrats. Obviously our job is to build the progressive wing.

Nora Lapin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Nora Lapin: yeah but there's always that post primary showdown with the gop

Ethan Young
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Ethan Young: Maybe i am more of an optimist than you are. I think Jayapal who is the leader of the Progressive Caucus in the House is absolutely wonderful and is endorsed by Bernie. I think Chris Murphy, a third term senator, who has moved leftward and now aligns with Bernie is very good. I like Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, and even Chris Van Hollen who is very good on Israel and has battled Trump on his treadmill of immigrants. I think Graham Platner is surprisingly knowledgeable and articulate despite all his warts. I think Tom Steyer would be an excellent governor of California despite his despicable past. Someone recently pointed out that prisons were never more than 2 percent of his portfolio, not that they should ever have been in it. But he’s a hell of a lot better than his opponent Becerra and the only candidate who supports the billionaire tax and single payer healthcare. I know that you are thinking about Fetterman who is a horror but I think his betrayal stems from his stroke and is more the exception than the rule. I just listened to a New Yorker interview of a Nebraska mechanic who is running for the senate as an independent. He sounds great like another blue collar Platner and the Democratic candidate dropped out to support him. I don’t think there is any alternative to supporting progressive candidates even though they may be Democrats. Remember that Mamdani ran as a Democrat and it looks like Lander will take Goldman’s place. My biggest worry is that we may not have free elections as you pointed out but hopefully the army will protect our right to law and order.

Nora Lapin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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voter registration is how trump won the first term, bringing in all those reality tv fans what took over the republican party, it's how Biden won reacting against the GOP and it's how trump returned. democrats are afraid of voter registration because we don't know what is in there and we don't want what happened to GOP happening to us.

Daniel Meyer
Posted on Portside's Facebook page



 

Re: Labor Can’t Remain Shackled to the Democrats
 

I think it's a mistake to break with the Democratic Party.  Third parties only work in a parliamentary system.  Our goal should be to make the Democratic Party a progressive party and oust the corporate Democrats.

Nora Lapin

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This is a rehash of an ancient discussion. The reviewer overlooks the crucial element of the DSA approach to electoral politics -- it's not commitment to the Democrats, it's "inside/outside". We use both Democratic campaigns and independent lines when it's more effective. It's not based on fealty to party leadership, but taking any means available to gain some power, without strengthening the ruling right/far right bloc. What also gets overlooked is the historical importance of the New Deal, which cemented a relationship of labor with the Democrats which does not just go away when latter day socialists point out that Democrats have failed workers in x number of ways through the decades, even though that's the case.

Ethan Young
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Ethan Young: have you had a chance to read the report referred to by Les? It was released last year. Thoughts?

Democrats’ Rust Belt Struggles and the Promise of Independent Politics
https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/LEARN/CWCP_Repor…

Djar Horn
Posted on Portside's Facebook page



 

60 Minutes Blowup  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Steve Sack
 


For decades, 60 Minutes built its reputation by making powerful people uncomfortable. Now, under pressure from the Trump administration and corporate executives eager to avoid conflict, one of television’s most respected news organizations appears to be pulling its punches. The tragedy isn’t just what viewers lose—it’s what journalism loses when fear starts editing the stories. If Mike Wallace were still around, he’d probably be investigating the people trying to tame 60 Minutes—and then demanding answers from the executives who let them.

Steve Sack
June 4, 2026
The Art of Sack
 



 

Walter Cronkite Reporting  --  Meme
 


 


 

Re: The Return of the Dixiecrat South
 

"As Memphis Goes, So Goes the South

Memphis bears witness to both the achievement and the reversal. For 19 years, one man has represented the majority-Black district encompassing Memphis. A progressive stalwart ranked the fifth most effective Democratic lawmaker in the House by the Center for Effective Lawmaking, he secured passage of the first formal congressional apology for slavery and brought home $69 million in community projects, including $3.15 million to restore the Historic Clayborn Temple—the organizing headquarters of the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike that brought Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis for the last time.

The name of this revered member of Congress? Steve Cohen, a white Jewish civil rights lawyer. Tennessee Republicans did not gerrymander Memphis to remove a Black legislator. They did it to disempower Black voters.

Callais will have similarly devastating consequences for the substantive representation of voters of color throughout the South. It will not only reduce the chance that they have champions like Steve Cohen in Congress; it will also increase the chance that policies they oppose become law and policies they support don’t."

John G Mason
Posted on Portside's Facebook page




 

Pandumbic  --  Cartoon by Pat Bagley - The Salt Lake City Tribune
 



Pat Bagley
May 28, 2026
The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
 




 

Re: What Can Texans Learn From Their Own Left Populist Roots?
 

Jim Hightower is good, see his Lowdown. 

James Snell
Posted on Portside's Facebook page



 

Like Giant Mosquitoes, Data Centers Suck the Water, Electricity and Life Out of Alabama  --  Cartoon and Commentary by JD Crowe


Data centers are the giant heavy metal mosquitoes of the modern landscape: always humming, always multiplying, and always hungry.

They squat on the outskirts of towns - quietly at first - promising jobs, growth and innovation. But behind the whining gray walls and blinking lights is a monster with a big ol’ appetite for land, electricity and water.

Like Alabama skeeters, they thrive in swarms. Once one arrives, others follow it to the party. Instead of a porch light on a summer night, these data skeeters cluster wherever regulations are the weakest. A regular skeeter bite leaves an annoying itchy welt. Data skeeters leave environmental scars. Forests are cleared to build more centers and rivers are drained to cool the hot, thirsty machines.

JD Crowe
May 29, 2026
AL.com
 

 

 

The Kennedy Center  --  Cartoon and Commentary by Nick Anderson
 


The Kennedy Center briefly escaped being turned into a vanity project last Friday, which is great news, except for the part where Donald Trump is still involved. A judge stepped in, said “no, you can’t just slap your name on a national monument,” and ordered it removed. Cue widespread celebration, relief, and a rare moment where the rule of law entered the chat.

But don’t celebrate too hard. Because even without renaming it, Trump can still accomplish the same goal the old-fashioned way: by neglecting it into oblivion. No budgets, no programming, no leadership: just let it sit there slowly decaying like an abandoned casino with excellent acoustics.

Nick Anderson
June 1, 2026
Pen Strokes
 




 

SUBMIT YOUR PUBLIC COMMENT TO STOP VOUGHT AND SAVE SCIENCE  (Stand Up For Science)
 



here are the links at the Stand Up for Science action center to make it easy to email and call your representatives in Congress about opposing the OMB proposal:

 


It is critical to send comments directly to OMB (deadline: July 13, 2026)  – and if all goes well there should be some suggested templates available soon that people can use to craft their individual comments – and a reminder that one suggestion, prepared by a former editor of Science, is already available at:

https://jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.github.io/OMB%20comment%20template-5-30-26.docx




 

Center for Constitutional Rights Condemns New York Officials’ Support of Israeli War Criminals at Israel Day Parade
 



Contact: press@ccrjustice.org

June 1, 2026, New York – Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights made the following statement in response to New York officials marching with Israeli war criminals in New York’s Israel Day Parade yesterday.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is alarmed by the prominent show of support that other New York officials provided to war criminals, including Bezalel Smotrich and Ariel Kallner, at yesterday’s Israel Day Parade. In November 2023, our organization brought a lawsuit against U.S. officials for aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide that was then already unfolding in Gaza. Today, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed as genocide continues and apartheid is further entrenched against Palestinians. Yet yesterday, New York officials marched without shame in New York City streets alongside extreme right religious nationalist Israeli elected officials who incite violence against Palestinians and support conduct the International Court of Justice found to establish a plausible genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza. The International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor is reportedly seeking an arrest warrant against Smotrich, who called for the “total annihilation” of Gaza, and has been banned from visiting numerous countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, Norway, The Netherlands, Australia, Slovenia, and New Zealand.

We commend Mayor Mamdani for choosing not to participate in the parade and refusing to give his office’s stamp of approval to dehumanizing rhetoric and war crimes. The participation of other New York officials, including Governor Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and Senator Charles Schumer, served to stigmatize, isolate, and exclude the many New Yorkers who have been harmed and whose family members have been killed as a result of these Israeli officials' actions.

War criminals should be held accountable by local, state, and federal law enforcement to the fullest extent possible, and they should be shunned — not publicly supported — by public officials. We urge New York officials to take all appropriate measures to ensure that public resources do not bolster war crimes, and to support the Not on Our Dime! Act.

The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org.

 

Source URL: https://portside.org/2026-06-04/tidbits-jun-4-reader-comments-close-delaney-hall-release-detainees-popes-encyclical