Published on Portside (https://portside.org/)

Tidbits-Nov.12: Reader Comments: Mississippi Goddam – the Struggle for the Right To Vote; Women Governors; Is It Angie Nixon’s Florida Democratic Party; El-Sayed Shows Opposition to Israel Is No Barrier; Whisky Moron Hegseth; Lots of Announcements…

https://portside.org/2026-11-12/tidbits-nov12-reader-comments-mississippi-goddam-struggle-right-vote-women-governors-it
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Announcements:

NAACP releases statement after Scott Colom’s Senate win  (WLBT - Jackson, Mississippi)



By WLBT Staff
Published: Nov. 11, 2026 at 11:20 PM EST
 

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The NAACP sent resources to watch the votes come in from counties across Mississippi.

National NAACP President Derrick Johnson released a statement about the vote.

“Mississippi voters showed up. They showed up for their communities, for their families, and for the future of their state. They reminded the nation that we the people have the power,” Johnson said in the statement.



 

Mississippi Goddam - Freedom Summer: The Struggle for the Right to Vote

 





 

Malignant Monster  --  Cartoon by Steve Sack
 

 


Steve Sack
November 7, 2026
The Art of Sack
 




 

Women Governors  --  Cartoon by Wolf Grulkey
 



Wolf Grulkey
November 7, 2026
Wolf Skyranch Grulkey
 



 

Re: Is It Angie Nixon’s Florida Democratic Party Now?
 

For more than ten years now, people have written Florida off as a "Red State." However, prior to that, Florida was a "Swing State" and Barack Obama carried it twice. Although Angie Nixon did not win the "Special Election," she came VERY close. Furthermore, she did not run as a moderate but as a Progressive. I think she did give Democrats hope in Florida again. Perhaps, she will do in Florida what Stacey Abrams did in Georgia.

William Landolfi
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Ms. Heddles and I'm sure many others saw Angie Nixon's failure to overcome the overwhelming Republican odds in Florida because she was too progressive and a Democrat.

But in other states (like Texas) progressives overcame similar odds.  One striking difference is that Ms.Nixon didn't believe in or was afraid to take a progressive position on Cuba and Palestine.  I wonder how many non-voters in Florida who oppose the genocidal blockade of Cuba and the genocidal US-funded Israeli bombardment of Palestine might have gone to the polls for her if she had dared to take a truly progressive stance on those issues?

Karen Lee Wald



 

Re: Abdul El-Sayed Shows Opposition to Israel Is No Barrier to Winning Battleground States
 

I would not use the sweeping language, "the organized Jewish community". Lots of Jews are in organizations that are not bigoted or crabby. 57% of Jews in Michigan voted for him. Big money like AIPAC and billionaires are what you are talking about..

Sonia Cobbins
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

You’re right. It’s a touch antisemitic.

Nora Lapin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Agree. Better said "traditional, Israel supporting, mainstream, generally longstanding". It also erroneously infers that anti-Zionist group are unorganized...

David West
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

I object to the inherent assumption here that all Jewish Americans were organized to support the actions of the Israeli government and to oppose El-Sayed. AIPAC does not represent all or even most of us and El-Sayed DID and DOES have significant support among the Jewish Democrats of his state and community and across the nation. While AIPAC may have gone full MAGA, the majority of Jewish Americans by large margins have always supported Democrats over Republicans in every election at every level including the presidency. This has not changed in the Trump era, no matter how much money AIPAC spends or how much noise they make.

Felice Sage
Posted on Portside's Facebook page



 

Whisky Moron Hegseth  --  Cartoon by Marian Kamensky
 

 


Marian Kamensky
November 10, 2026
Cartoon Movement
 


[Marian Kamensky was born on 1st April 1957 in Levoca, Slovakia. When he was 12, they moved to the village of Hrachovo, where he began drawing. When he finished school, he worked as a glass blower in Poltar. Two years later he moved to Prague in the Czech Republic, where he worked setting up props at the famous Vinohrady Theater.

In 1981 Marian Kamensky moved to Hamburg, Germany where studied Lithography at the Hamburg Arts College. In 1982, he began illustrating the satirical books of Gabriel Laub. He also created illustrations for adventure books by Rudiger Nehberg, and the Biology/Zoology literature of Christian Kuehl. For a number of years, his artworks have been published in numerous newspapers and magazines in many countries of Europe (Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, Focus, Nebelspalter, Eulenspiegel, Psychologie heute, etc) and in the United States and Canada (Playboy, The New York Sun, The Humanist, etc).

In 2001, he returned to Slovakia, where he lived and worked in Rimavska Sobota. His artworks were presented at many exhibitions (we can mention at least Gallery Schnecke Hamburg, Gallery Futurum Hamburg, Galerie Dobach Wurselem, Gallery Artica Cuxhaven, Gallery Stein Gelsenkirchen, Gallery Das Auge Lauda, Gallery VITA Swiss, etc).

In 2010 Marian Kamensky moved to Austria, where he lives in Vienna and continues in his creative work on the field of illustrations and cartooning.]




 

You Can't Impeach Me  --  Cartoon by Monte Wolverton
 

 


Monte Wolverton
November 11, 2026
Monte Wolverton Facebook page
 



 

Re: The New South Finally Arrives
 

Kuttner seems unaware or unwilling to acknowledge that many of us responded to the 1966 SNCC challenge by going to the South and working among white people to win support for and solidarity with the Freedom Movement. I spent 22 years in Mississippi doing that. We never expected to win a majority, but we won enough eventually to make the difference. For me the biggest challenge was never to find support among white Mississippians. The problem was to persuade them to stay in Mississippi (or to return to Mississippi).

Those lessons are important now because we need younger comrades to repeat those lessons today by working among MAGA supporters to convert them, instead of disparaging them as "deplorables" and trying to gerrymander away their voting rights.

Ken Lawrence
Spring Mills, Pennsylvania



 

Hell to the Chief  --  Cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz
 

 


Lalo Alcaraz
November 6, 2026
https://www.pocho.com/
 



 

Re: The Democratic Coalition Still Has a Class Problem
 

The most classist people I've ever personally known have been Nice Respectable Democrats, and their classism is all the more virulent for being taken completely for granted. It's time to shut off the flow of chardonnay.

Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on Portside's Facebook page




 

Re: A Logger Goes to the Senate
 

This so reminds me of being in Vietnam in 1970, seeing the deforestation from the U.S bombing of North Vietnam, and then returning in 2018 and seeing what reunification, peace and deforestation has brought to the Vietnamese country and people. ❤️

Jay Schaffner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page



 

The New White House Chief of Staff  --  Cartoon by Daniel Boris


 


Daniel Boris
November 7, 2026
Daniel Boris Facebook page
 



 

Re: The Cyberpunking of America (and NOT calling the USA "America" or its citizens "Americans")
 

I wonder if you'd please consider NOT calling the USA "America" or its citizens "Americans".  That is all colloquial, slang, language...not the best for these troubled times.

Every citizen from Canada's arctic down to southern tip of South America is an American/citizen.  USA citizens are not the only ones.

Perhaps add that, of course, Hawaii, in Polynesia, is NOT in the Americas.  It's citizens are US citizens, but not Americans.

Best,

John Jonik



 

Marching Through Georgia
 

The composer also of “Kingdom Coming” (1862) and “Grandfather’s Clock” (1876), abolitionist Henry Clay Work (1832-1884) wrote “Marching Through Georgia” in 1865 in tribute to Sherman’s March to the Sea. A tremendous post-Civil War hit in the North, the song was almost universally detested in the South. Ironically, General Sherman also came to dislike the song, because it was always featured by bands at the many Federal veteran reunions he attended.

Ring the good ol' Bugle boys! We'll sing another song,
Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along,
Sing it as we used to sing it fifty thousand strong,
While we were marching through Georgia.

Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the Jubilee.
Hurrah! Hurrah! The flag that makes you free,
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea,
While we were marching through Georgia.

How the "darkeys" shouted when they heard the joyful sound,
How the turkeys gobbled which our commissary found,
How the sweet potatoes even started from the ground,
While we were marching through Georgia.

Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the Jubilee.
Hurrah! Hurrah! The flag that makes you free,
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea,
While we were marching through Georgia.

Yes and there were Union men who wept with joyful tears,
When they saw the honored flag they had not seen for years;
Hardly could they be restrained from breaking forth in cheers,
While we were marching through Georgia.

Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the Jubilee.
Hurrah! Hurrah! The flag that makes you free,
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea,
While we were marching through Georgia.

"Sherman's dashing Yankee boys will never reach the coast!"
So the saucy rebels said and 'twas a handsome boast
Had they not forgot, alas! to reckon with the Host
While we were marching through Georgia.

Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the Jubilee.
Hurrah! Hurrah! The flag that makes you free,
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea,
While we were marching through Georgia.

So we made a thoroughfare for freedom and her train,
Sixty miles in latitude, three hundred to the main;
Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain
While we were marching through Georgia.

Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the Jubilee.
Hurrah! Hurrah! The flag that makes you free,
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea,
While we were marching through Georgia.

Jack Radey
Post on Facebook



 

From Start to Finish  --  Cartoon by Mr. Fish
 

 


Mr. Fish
November 5, 2026
Clowncrack
 



 

Re: Veterans in Crisis Need More Than a ‘Thank You’
 

We need fewer wars and more help for veterans who return with serious physical and mental illnesses from PTSD and Moral Injury. This essay cites the excellent new book by Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon, "Courage Or Complicity: How Veterans are Responding to the Assault on Democracy."

Ron Carver
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 


 

Re: US Supreme Court Clears Way for Trump’s Border Wall in Texas’s Big Bend
 

The Emperor may have no clothes but he obviously  still has the SCOTUS in his pocket.

George Auerbach



 

Earthquake  --  Cartoon by Nick Anderson


 

For more than three decades, Texas Republicans treated statewide elections as little more than a formality. Democrats were allowed to run, of course, but mostly to provide the appearance of competition. The real political battles took place in Republican primaries, where candidates competed to see who could move furthest to the right without falling off the edge of the Earth.

Then came November 3.

The Democratic sweep represented a stunning reversal in a state that had become a laboratory for MAGA politics. Greg Abbott, who spent years positioning himself as the nation’s foremost practitioner of performative outrage, was turned out of office. Ken Paxton, whose political career seemed impervious to scandal, finally discovered that voters possess a power even he couldn’t litigate away.

For years, Texas Republicans focused on culture-war controversies, from transgender athletes to library books, while voters wrestled with rising costs, property taxes and increasingly expensive insurance. The election suggested that the political formula that had served Republicans so well for so long was no longer sufficient.

But the significance extends well beyond Texas. The state’s enormous population, economic influence and electoral weight make any fundamental political realignment a national event. Democrats had spent decades dreaming of turning Texas blue. Suddenly, that dream had become an electoral reality.

One election doesn’t guarantee a permanent transformation. Texas remains a complicated state, with deep ideological and geographic divisions. But the old assumption that Republicans could take statewide victory for granted has been shattered.

Nick Anderson
November 8, 2026
Pen Strokes
 



 

Film Showing - ALL ABOUT THE MONEY - New York - November 14 & 16 - Online Dates - November 15 -29  (DOC NYC)
 

 


 

NYC PREMIERE Irish filmmaker Sinead O’Shea returns to DOC NYC with a provocative portrait of American millionaire heir James “Fergie” Cox Chambers, who renounced his family’s fortune for communist ideals—while remaining a multimillionaire who uses money to control and “help” others. From funding an intentional community to orchestrating vandalism of weapons manufacturers and fleeing the U.S., his actions continually expose the contradictions of wealth, power and ideology. – Jaie Laplante

 

The first and second screenings will be followed by a Q&A with director Sinead O’Shea.

All in-person screening venues provide sound amplification headphones upon request with venue management. IFC Center can also provide a T-Coil loop for compatible devices.

 
Director: Sinead O'Shea
 
Producer: Sinead O'Shea, Katie Holly, Claire McCabe, Sigrid Dyekjaer, Harry Vaughn
 
Cinematographer: Enda O'Dowd
 
Editor: Enda O'Dowd
 
Composer: George Brennan
 
Archival Producer(s): Paul Bell
 
Language: English
 
Year: 2026


In-Person Date
Saturday, November 14, 2026 9:00 PM

Venue
Village East by Angelika

BUY TICKETS  


In-Person Date
Monday, November 16, 2026 4:00 PM

Venue
Village East by Angelika

BUY TICKETS
 

Online Dates
Sunday, November 15 - Sunday, November 29, 2026

Venue
Online Screening

BUY TICKETS
 


For 10 of the past 11 years, DOC NYC has screened the documentary feature that went on to win the Academy Award and 49 of the last 55 Oscar-nominated documentary features.

DOC NYC is also an Academy-qualifying festival for short films.  DOC NYC’s winning short will qualify for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Annual Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules.

In 2025, DOC NYC celebrated it’s 16th edition and took place in a hybrid format (online and in-person). In past years, DOC NYC took place at the IFC Center, SVA Theater and Village East by Angelika, with hundreds of special guests in person. Past guests include Daniel Radcliffe, Hillary Clinton, Eric Clapton, Emma Watson, Jim Carrey, Rev. Al Sharpton, Thandie Newton, Susan Sarandon, Martin Scorsese, Itzhak Perlman, Frank Oz, Big Bird, Sarah Polley, Jared Leto, Olympia Dukakis, Chris Rock, Seth Myers, Alia Shawkat, Lucas Hedges, Kevin Kline, Heather Graham, Jean Claude Christo, Wim Wenders, Rashida Jones, Darrel Hammond, Ricki Lake, Michael Moore, Michel Gondry, Omar Epps, Errol Morris, Oliver Stone, Jonathan Franzen, Kathleen Hanna, Spandau Ballet, Greil Marcus, Grace Lee Boggs, Bela Fleck, Nat Hentoff, Chuck Workman, Guy Fieri and The Mekons. Audience attendees have included Harry Belafonte, Rosario Dawson, Fred Armisen, Jim Jarmusch, J.K. Simons, Michael Stipe, Martha Stewart, Katie Couric, Russell Simmons, Darren Aronofsky, Cornel West, Naomi Watts, among others.



 

Book Talk - We Must Never Forget: Book Talk for Art Against Brutality - Washington, DC - November 17  (Busboys and Poets, Center for Latina American and Latino Studies AU, Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), CISPES, Department of Spanish and Portuguese UMD, Immigration Lab AU, Institute for Policy Studies, Teaching for Change, Washington Ethical Society GC, and Washington Office on Latin America)



A book talk about the 1981 massacre of one thousand innocent civilians, many of them small children, in El Mozote, El Salvador.


November 17  --  6:00 pm - 8:00 pm EST

Busboys and Poets – Takoma
234 Carroll Street NW
Washington, DC 20012

Join us to learn about the 1981 massacre of one thousand innocent civilians, many of them small children, in El Mozote, El Salvador, and the1989 murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her fifteen-year-old daughter at the University of Central America in San Salvador.

To help us understand, remember, and teach our children and grandchildren, come to hear Claudia Bernardi's story of sifting through the earth in El Mozote and finding small, fractured, frail bones, "which resembled those of a small bird...the only evidence of a child robbed of his or her life and future."

"Claudia Bernardi, the world-renowned painter, has spent much of her life guiding people and communities in their search to recover from horrific violence. In El Salvador, Argentina, Guatemala, Colombia, and other damaged places, Bernardi has made her home among communities of the traumatized... Art Against Brutality is an essential book."

—Mark Danner, author of The Massacre at El Mozote

Speakers Will Include

Sponsored by: Busboys and Poets, Center for Latina American and Latino Studies AU, Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), CISPES, Department of Spanish and Portuguese UMD, Immigration Lab AU, Institute for Policy Studies, Teaching for Change, Washington Ethical Society GC, and Washington Office on Latin America

RSVP here 



 

Culture and Marxist Commitment: Bohemian Bolsheviks - an Intergenerational Dialogue between Benjamin Balthaser & Alan Wald on Bohemian Bolsheviks: Dispatches from the History and Culture of the Left - Zoom event - December 3  (Solidarity)
 



Thursday, December 3, 2026

8:00PM ET/5:00PM PT


Alan Wald, a veteran of the New Left and revolutionary socialist groups of the 1960s and after, in dialogue with Benjamin Balthaser, a Generation X activist in DSA, on lessons to be learned from the political and personal lives of Marxist cultural workers in the 20th century.

ZOOM REGISTRATION 

Suggested Readings

Alan Wald, “Introduction: Marxism and Literary Radicalism: Methodology, Memory, and the Lure of Easy History;” “Part 1, Chapter 4: Reconstructing the Humanscape of Left Culture and Commitment: An Interview with Alan M. Wald by Joseph Ramsay;” and “Part III, Chapter 12: Bohemian Bolsheviks After World War II: A Minority within A Minority,” in Bohemian Bolsheviks: Dispatches from the Culture and History of the Left (Haymarket, 2026)
 


 

The Jewish Labor Bund & Its Legacy: A Conversation with author Molly Crabapple - Montclair, NJ - December 13
 

 


The Jewish Labor Bund & Its Legacy: A Conversation with author Molly Crabapple -- Montclair State University, University Hall Room 1070, Sunday, Dec. 13, 2:30-4:30.   Registration required. To register go to https://forms.gle/SdLspYTu2TRbEDJy8  Free event; paid parking.  Sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace of Northern NJ. Co-sponsored by MSU Department of Political Science, Law, History & Anthropology and MSU Department of Public Health
 

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