[[link removed]]

TIDBITS – FEB.6- READER COMMENTS: READER COMMENTS: DICTATORIAL
UNCONSTITUTIONAL POWER GRAB; ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTS BRAKE OUT; USDA IG
WAS INVESTIGATING ELON MUSK; NIGHTMARE OVER WASHINGTON; ICE RAIDS AND
RESISTANCE; PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO PROJECT 2025; MORE.  
[[link removed]]


 

February 6, 2025
xxxxxx
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed].]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Reader Comments: Dictatorial UnConstitutional Power Grab;
Anti-Trump Protests Brake Out; USDA IG Refused To Leave Was
Investigating Elon Musk; Nightmare Over Washington (and in the
Capitol); ICE Raids and Resistance; People's Guide to Project 2025 _

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, AND cartoons -
Feb. 6, 2025, xxxxxx

 

* WE CHOOSE TO FIGHT  -  STOP TRUMP & MUSK'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL
POWER GRAB  (WORKING FAMILIES PARTY, INDIVISIBLE, MOVEON)
* RE: ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTS BREAK OUT AT STATE CAPITOLS ACROSS THE
COUNTRY  (AFGE LOCAL 3343)
* GAZA TAKEOVER PLAN - HE’S DEFINITELY GIVEN THIS A LOT OF
THOUGHT…  --  CARTOON BY DCARTOONIST
* Gaza  --  FOR CONTEXT  --  CARTOON BY PAT BAGLEY
* RE: USDA INSPECTOR GENERAL WHO REFUSED TO LEAVE POST ESCORTED FROM
OFFICE BY SECURITY WAS INVESTIGATING ELON MUSK  (TRUMAN GRANDY;
GEORGE KRASLE; ROBERT LAITE; JESSE HOKE; KELLEY MITCHELL; RACHEL
JENKINS; CAMERON YOUNT; PHILIP BALLMANN)
* FOUNDING FATHERS WILL PAY  --  CARTOON BY MIKE LUCKOVICH
* RE: PUBLIC SERVICE UNIONS FILE LAWSUIT CHALLENGING TRUMP
ADMINISTRATION EFFORTS TO POLITICIZE THE CIVIL SERVICE  (MICHAEL
HENRY STARKS)
* NIGHTMARE OVER WASHINGTON? ORANGE GREMLIN SAYS ‘THE BUCK STOPS
THERE!’  --  CARTOON BY LALO ALCARAZ
* DEVASTING COLLISIONS ARE INEVITABLE  --  CARTOON BY DR. JAMES
MACLEOD
* RE: TRUMP’S NEW JIM CROW  (DAVID BENTON)
* RE: AS ICE CONDUCTS MADE-FOR-TV RAIDS, CITIES FROM CHICAGO TO
NEWARK RESIST TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN  (CHRISTOPHER GOULD;
BILL HANSEN)
* RE: AMERICA’S DANGEROUS MOVEMENT TOWARD OLIGARCHY,
AUTHORITARIANISM AND KLEPTOCRACY  (NANCY WALLEY; GRACE ROSS)
* UGLY TARIFFS  --  CARTOON BY ROB ROGERS
* RE: THE RECKLESS CREATION OF WHITENESS  (JOPPEL REIMER)
* RE: 16 MILLION WORKERS WERE UNIONIZED IN 2024  (MEMBERS FIRST)
* RE: THE 100 BEST PROTEST SONGS OF ALL TIME  (ETHAN YOUNG)
* RE: CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD: DEBUNKING BRAIN HEALTH
MISINFORMATION  (MARY-ALICE STROM)
* RE: TRUMP’S DEFINITIONS OF “MALE” AND “FEMALE” ARE
NONSENSE  (CAROL HANISCH)
* RE: PALESTINIAN AND ISRAELI FILMMAKERS TEAM UP TO CREATE ‘NO
OTHER LAND’  (JOSE LUIS MEDINA)

.
RESOURCES:

* LABOR HISTORY BIBLIOGRAPHY, 2024  (LABOR ONLINE)

 

* THE PEOPLE'S GUIDE TO PROJECT 2025  (DEMOCRACY FORWARD)

.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:

* ONLINE DISCUSSION “RESISTANCE – THE AXIS AND BEYOND”  --
 FEBRUARY 10  (MERIP - MIDDLE EAST RESEARCH AND INFORMATION PROJECT)


* ENOUGH! LESSONS FROM THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COALITION FOR
IMMIGRANT RIGHTS (1986-96)  --  WEBINAR  --  FEBRUARY 10  (CENTER
FOR POLITICAL EDUCATION, BAY RESISTANCE AND MUJERES UNIDAS Y ACTIVAS)

 

* A CONVERSATION WITH ANGELA DAVIS: COLLECTIVE STRUGGLE IN CRITICAL
TIMES  --  TACOMA - OLYMPIA, WA  --  FEBRUARY 21  (THE RACHEL
CORRIE FOUNDATION, EVERGREEN TACOMA, PALESTINE ACTION SOUTH SOUND, JVP
TACOMA AND OLYMPIA FILM SOCIETY)

.

.
 

WE CHOOSE TO FIGHT  -  STOP TRUMP & MUSK'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL POWER
GRAB  (WORKING FAMILIES PARTY, INDIVISIBLE, MOVEON)

 

 

RE: ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTS BREAK OUT AT STATE CAPITOLS ACROSS THE COUNTRY
 

Protesters gathered nationwide to protest Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

AFGE LOCAL 3343 [[link removed]]
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

GAZA TAKEOVER PLAN - HE’S DEFINITELY GIVEN THIS A LOT OF THOUGHT…
 --  CARTOON BY DCARTOONIST

 

DCartoonist
February 5, 2025
r/PoliticalHumor
[[link removed]]

 

GAZA  --  FOR CONTEXT  --  CARTOON BY PAT BAGLEY
 

Pat Bagley
February 5, 2025
The Salt Lake Tribune [[link removed]]

 

RE: USDA INSPECTOR GENERAL WHO REFUSED TO LEAVE POST ESCORTED FROM
OFFICE BY SECURITY WAS INVESTIGATING ELON MUSK
 

One of those IGs, Phyllis Fong at the US Department of Agriculture,
decided not to leave, believing the order to be illegal. According to
a report from Reuters, she was escorted from the building today by
security. She was heading an investigation into Elon Musk's Neuralink.

Even Republican Senator Chuck Grassley put out a statement urging the
Trump administration to explain the firings and why there was no
30-day notice as required under the law.

In 2008, she was named the first Chairperson of the Council of the
Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) and sat on the
Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board that oversaw federal
spending related to disaster relief.

Truman Grandy
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[link removed]

      =====

So the Boss can send goon squads into government offices to roust the
people who work there, who have a legal right to stay there?
How will that affect the price of eggs and the safety of pets in
Springfield?

George Krasle
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

I smell a class action lawsuit.

Robert Laite
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

Unbelievable.

It's horrifyingly frightening. I've been in a constant state of
anxiety for the last couple weeks.

Jesse Hoke
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

It's starting to look more and more like a coup.

Kelley Mitchell
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

It is entirely unbelievable that no one is stopping his nonsense. The
Handmaid's Tale is starting to look more and more like a work of
nonfiction.

Rachel Jenkins
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

We are living in frightening times.

Cameron Yount
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

Thank you Republicans for not having a backbone the first time this
loon was president.

Philip Ballmann
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

FOUNDING FATHERS WILL PAY  --  CARTOON BY MIKE LUCKOVICH

 

Mike Luckovich
January 30, 2025
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
[[link removed]]

 

RE: PUBLIC SERVICE UNIONS FILE LAWSUIT CHALLENGING TRUMP
ADMINISTRATION EFFORTS TO POLITICIZE THE CIVIL SERVICE

(posting on xxxxxx Labor
[[link removed]])
 

The American Federation of Government Employees and the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employee filed suit against
the Trump administration challenging efforts to politicize the civil
service.

Michael Henry Starks
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

NIGHTMARE OVER WASHINGTON? ORANGE GREMLIN SAYS ‘THE BUCK STOPS
THERE!’  --  CARTOON BY LALO ALCARAZ

 

Lalo Alcaraz
January 30, 2025
[link removed]
[[link removed]]

 

DEVASTING COLLISIONS ARE INEVITABLE  --  CARTOON BY DR. JAMES
MACLEOD

 

Dr. James MacLeod
January 30, 2025
MacLeodCartoons
[[link removed]]

 

RE: TRUMP’S NEW JIM CROW
 

DEI is not a conspiracy to make white people feel bad about
themselves; it’s a society-wide effort to combat past discrimination
against everyone who is not a white, straight, able-bodied male. For
Trump, that is the problem.

David Benton
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: AS ICE CONDUCTS MADE-FOR-TV RAIDS, CITIES FROM CHICAGO TO NEWARK
RESIST TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN
 

Dulce Guzmán, Chicago immigrant rights organizer, and Amy Torres,
executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice
are interviewed For Democracy Now!

Christopher Gould
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

Bernie Sanders, bless his heart, is historically mistaken. The United
States has always been an oligarchy. What were the so-called Founding
Fathers (slave owners and wealthy NE merchants) if not oligarchs?
There was, perhaps. a diminution of oligarchical rule from 1932-1952
but that was an anomaly.

Bill Hansen

 

RE: AMERICA’S DANGEROUS MOVEMENT TOWARD OLIGARCHY, AUTHORITARIANISM
AND KLEPTOCRACY
 

In my view, the Trump administration is moving this country very
aggressively into an oligarchic form of society where extraordinary
power rests in the hands of a small number of unelected
multi-billionaires.

Nancy Walley
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

We need suggestions not doomsday

Grace Ross

 

UGLY TARIFFS  --  CARTOON BY ROB ROGERS

 

 

Donald Trump says that "tariff" is the most beautiful word in the
dictionary. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but give me
a #&%@-ing break!

Rob Rogers
February 4, 2025
TinyView [[link removed]]

 

RE: THE RECKLESS CREATION OF WHITENESS
 

In The Unseen Truth, Sarah Lewis examines how an erroneous
18th-century story about the “Caucasian race” led to a centuries
of prejudice and misapprehension.

Joppel Reimer
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: 16 MILLION WORKERS WERE UNIONIZED IN 2024 

(posting on xxxxxx Labor
[[link removed]])
 

Millions more want to join unions but couldn’t.

Members First
[[link removed]]
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: THE 100 BEST PROTEST SONGS OF ALL TIME
 

This should be "in no particular order." How can anyone rate these?
Anyway, I could come up with 100 more, as could a bunch of my friends.
There's Ochs's 'Cops of the World', Brecht/Weill's 'Kannonen-Song',
the original is still the greatest 'Internationale, ' Leadbelly's
'Bourgeois Blues', and this overlooked gem:
[link removed]

Ethan Young
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD: DEBUNKING BRAIN HEALTH
MISINFORMATION
 

Common misconceptions and examine evidence-based approaches to
cognitive health, including the role of nutrition, supplements, and
music therapy.

Mary-Alice Strom
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: TRUMP’S DEFINITIONS OF “MALE” AND “FEMALE” ARE NONSENSE

The supposedly "new definition" of the sex of adult humans as "male"
and "female" put forth by Trump in his declarations on transgender is
probably one of the few statements he has made that is NOT nonsense.
Rather it's the xxxxxx headline
[[link removed]]
(shortened from the longer original version on the Mother Jones
article
[[link removed]])
and the transgender ideology it puts forth that are nonsense. 

The fallout from the confusingly false-but-often-accepted claim that
"sex is assigned at birth" mantra has ended up giving legs to the
nonsense that biological sex is changeable. The contention that an
individual can simply "identify" out of the reality of their
biological sex (even with the "help" of castration and dangerously
applied hormones) has brought mystification and bedlam into our
politics. It has garnered support for Republicans, which seem to be
the only political party that didn't go off the rails acquiescing to
the demand that one's sex can be declared via a personal demand and/or
some medical intervention. 

This confusion of sex with gender has been deliberate, at least on the
part of those who funded its rapid emergence into a power with enough
impact to question long-settled biological fact. Anyone looking into
who has been pushing transgender theory will find it did not come out
of a mass movement of the oppressed. Rather it leads back to some very
wealthy people and their donations and foundation grants to medical
facilities, big Pharma, and postmodernist theorists, especially in
elite universities. See:
[link removed]-…
[[link removed]]

It may well be that the reference to "a person at conception"
formulation in Trump's declaration is going to be used to further the
anti-abortion argument around "personhood", but that doesn't make
Trump's definition of sex false nor transgender claims true. This
rather desperate attempt to capture the popularity of abortion rights
for the transgender cause is made clear in the article, which states,
"It [Trump's declaration] seeks to define women according to the
functions of their bodies and regulate how all people, not just
transgender people, move through the world and their interactions with
federal government entities or federally supported entities."

Nothing new for women here. We females have always been overly
"defined" by the function of our bodies. Some of that definition is
factual (sex/reproduction) and some is actually "assigned" by society
imposing sexist gender roles, which most feminists seek to get rid of.
Whether a woman individually ever have a child or not, it is female
human "bodies" through which our species reproduces, a life-and-death
fact crucial to our economic, social, political and personal
existence. It has nothing to do with "identity"—a subjective
wishful-thinking notion similar to religious belief.

As for "personhood at conception," we need to base our liberation
fight, including for the right to abortion, on material reality.
 Everyone knows that a life in a pre-birth early stage is destroyed
when a woman has an abortion, but we women's liberationists fight to
put the living, already-born woman in control of her body and
labor—as we try to unite to improve our working conditions.

Carol Hanisch

 

RE: PALESTINIAN AND ISRAELI FILMMAKERS TEAM UP TO CREATE ‘NO OTHER
LAND’

(posting on xxxxxx Culture
[[link removed]])

"No Other Land", an award-winning documentary about the dispossession
of Palestinians in the West Bank, still hasn’t found a distributor
in the US.

Jose Luis Medina
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

LABOR HISTORY BIBLIOGRAPHY, 2024  (LABOR ONLINE)

 

Labor Online editor ROSEMARY FUERER
[[link removed]] has produced a compelling and
useful bibliography of book titles in labor history that came out over
2024 [[link removed]]. 

This is my 12th year of creating the annual bibliography
[[link removed]], and the first time
it’s on-line. If you think a book published in 2024 should have been
included, I can update this list. .

 

THE PEOPLE'S GUIDE TO PROJECT 2025  (DEMOCRACY FORWARD)

 

[[link removed]]
 

Download here
[[link removed]]
 

[[link removed]]

Democracy Forward [[link removed]]  
P.O. Box 34553
Washington, D.C. 20043

202-448-9090

 

ONLINE DISCUSSION “RESISTANCE – THE AXIS AND BEYOND”  --
 FEBRUARY 10  (MERIP - MIDDLE EAST RESEARCH AND INFORMATION PROJECT)

 

On Wednesday we launched our Winter Issue, “Resistance – The Axis
and Beyond” and today we’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be
hosting an online discussion with four contributors on FEBRUARY 10,
2025 AT 12PM EASTERN TIME (7PM IN PALESTINE, 9AM PACIFIC TIME). Please
join me, issue editor KEVIN SCHWARTZ, MERIP Managing Editor MARYA
HANNUN, and contributors ZACHARY CUYLER, MUNIRA KHAYYAT, and OLMO
GÖLZ for a discussion of energy politics and resistance in Palestine,
the aftermath of Israel’s invasion of South Lebanon, the narrative
of the oppressed in Iran’s sponsorship of the Axis of Resistance,
and the dramatic spirit of campus protests against genocide in Gaza. 

You can register for the zoom discussion through the link below, and
please share the event information listed here with your networks. We
look forward to seeing you there!

REGISTER HERE
[[link removed]]
 

Middle East Research and Information Project [[link removed]]  
30 Ardmore Ave.
PO Box 390
Ardmore, PA 19003

 

ENOUGH! LESSONS FROM THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COALITION FOR IMMIGRANT
RIGHTS (1986-96)  --  WEBINAR  --  FEBRUARY 10  (CENTER FOR
POLITICAL EDUCATION, BAY RESISTANCE AND MUJERES UNIDAS Y ACTIVAS)

 

[[link removed]]
 

FEB 10, 2025 09:00 PM EDT

ZOOM REGISTRATION
[[link removed]]

Join Center for Political Education, Bay Resistance and Mujeres Unidas
y Activas on MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10 FROM 6-7:30P to learn about the work
of the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights during
1986-1996.

What is the Coalition origin story? What were the political
conditions? How did the Coalition of over 70 diverse organizations
come together to protect, defend, resist, advocate?

Speakers will include:

* EMILY GOLDFARB, former ED of NCCIR 
* IGNATIUS BAU, former lawyer at Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
* CLARA LUZ NAVARRO, co-founder of Mujeres Unidas y Activas

They will share their successes, challenges, and lessons to help meet
today's hostilities, along with opportunities to get involved in
migrant justice defense now.

 

A CONVERSATION WITH ANGELA DAVIS: COLLECTIVE STRUGGLE IN CRITICAL
TIMES  --  TACOMA - OLYMPIA, WA  --  FEBRUARY 21  (THE RACHEL
CORRIE FOUNDATION, EVERGREEN TACOMA, PALESTINE ACTION SOUTH SOUND, JVP
TACOMA AND OLYMPIA FILM SOCIETY)

 

i [[link removed]]

Rachel Corrie Foundation, Olympia Film Society, and Evergreen Tacoma
present: 

A CONVERSATION WITH ANGELA DAVIS: COLLECTIVE STRUGGLE IN CRITICAL
TIMES

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

6 P.M. DOORS OPEN / 7 P.M. SHOW

Capitol Theater
206 5th Ave. Olympia, WA

GA $28.25 & OFS $23.25
(available online and at the door)
$13.25 Student
(available for purchase at the door only)
All Prices Include Service Fees

Tickets:
[link removed]

From prison abolition to Palestine liberation, ANGELA DAVIS has been
at the forefront of radical intellectual work and political activism
for decades. Her public rise in the Black Power and Women of Color
movements made her an outspoken advocate for racial, gender, and
economic justice. She is the author of many books, and a founding
member of Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to
the dismantling of the prison industrial complex.

This intergenerational conversation will draw inspiration from Dr.
Davis’s ideas for abolition, international solidarity for Palestine,
and collective movement building. As she has written, “We cannot go
on as usual. . .We cannot be moderate. We will have to be willing to
stand up and say no with our combined spirits, our collective
intellects, and our many bodies.” 

DR. DAVIS WILL BE IN CONVERSATION WITH GILDA SHEPPARD & RANNA.

GILDA SHEPPARD, Ph.D., is faculty emerita in sociology, cultural and
media studies at Evergreen Tacoma, and taught at Washington prisons
for over a decade. She is an international award-winning filmmaker,
most recently for her documentary Since I Been Down, featuring the
Black Prisoner Caucus and their liberation education program.  

RANNA is part of a Seattle-based grassroots collective of Palestinian
and SWANA feminists that organizes at the intersection of gender
justice and anti-imperialism. As a member of the diaspora, she
continues to fight for the liberation of Palestine through building
education and community in Seattle. 

Sponsors: The Rachel Corrie Foundation, Evergreen Tacoma, Palestine
Action South Sound, JVP Tacoma and Olympia Film Society.

* Reader Comments
[[link removed]]
* Trump 2.0
[[link removed]]
* Trump Administration
[[link removed]]
* Donald Trump
[[link removed]]
* Elon Musk
[[link removed]]
* dictatorship
[[link removed]]
* Fascism
[[link removed]]
* Constitution
[[link removed]]
* Unconstitutional
[[link removed]]
* power grab
[[link removed]]
* resistance
[[link removed]]
* Resistance 2.0
[[link removed]]
* Administrative Coup
[[link removed]]
* Project 2025
[[link removed]]
* Separation of Powers
[[link removed]]
* Congress
[[link removed]]
* deportations
[[link removed]]
* Immigrants
[[link removed]]
* ICE
[[link removed]]
* MAGA
[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
* Gender
[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
* Palestine
[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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[[link removed]]
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*
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