[[link removed]]
TIDBITS – FEB.27 – READER COMMENTS: FIGHTING THE COUP; SUPPORT
FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RISING; TRUMP’S TAX PROPOSALS; TEXAS MEASLES
OUTBREAK WAS ‘INEVITABLE’; TRUMP/NETANYAHU CRIME OF THE CENTURY;
‘STAND UP FOR SCIENCE’ RALLIES MARCH 7; LOTS MORE;
[[link removed]]
February 27, 2025
xxxxxx
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
_ Reader Comments: Fighting the Coup; Support for Public Employees
Rising; Trump’s Tax Proposals; Texas Measles Outbreak Was
‘Inevitable’; Trump/Netanyahu Crime of the Century; ‘Stand Up
for Science’ Rallies March 7; lots more and Cartoons; _
Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, AND cartoons -
Feb. 27, 2025, xxxxxx
* MUSK'S EMAIL -- CARTOON BY NICK ANDERSON
* RE: HOW TO ORGANIZE OUR WAY OUT OF THE TRUMP-MUSK PUTSCH (AFGE
LOCAL 3343)
* RE: DEMOCRATS APPEAR PARALYZED. BERNIE SANDERS IS NOT. (VERONICA
KNIGHT)
* RE: TRUMP SENDS CONFLICTING MEDICAID CUT MESSAGES (DAN JORDAN)
* COST CUTTING -- CARTOON BY CLAY BENNETT
* GOVERNMENT PARTIALLY SHUTS DOWN -- CARTOON BY STUART CARLSON
* RE: TRUMP AND NETANYAHU HAVE DEVISED THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY
(LYNN HAMILTON; ROBERTO ROSARIO)
* RE: TRUMP’S DOUBLY FLAWED “INVASION” THEORY (DAVID BENTON)
* RE: TRUMP SAVED ERIC ADAMS’S BACON—AND PUT THE COUNTRY UP FOR
SALE (Z JOYCE MCCOLLUM)
* CHAINSAW -- CARTOON BY ROB ROGERS
* RE: THE MOVEMENT SUPPORTING PUBLIC EMPLOYEES IS RISING (TARA
HOUSTON CHAPTER)
* RE: THE DEMOCRATIC CAPITULATION POINT (WENDY ANES HIRSCHEGGER)
* RE: BLACK WASHINGTONIANS IN THE FIGHT FOR EQUALITY: AN INTERVIEW
WITH MAURICE JACKSON (MIKE BUDD)
* RE: THE GREAT RESEGREGATION (MIKE GLICK)
* ICE ROUNDS UP EXECS WHO EXPLOITED UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS --
CARTOON BY ED BAGLEY
* RE: UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS PREPARE TO CLEAN UP L.A.’S FIRES AMID
ICE RAIDS (TOM EDMINSTER)
* RE: DISPATCHES FROM THE CULTURE WARS – FEBRUARY 25, 2025
(ETHAN YOUNG)
* RE: WHY THE TEXAS MEASLES OUTBREAK WAS ‘INEVITABLE’ (DANIEL
MILLSTONE)
* MEASLES OUTBREAK -- CARTOON BY GARY CLEMENT
* RE: A PALESTINIAN FILM IS AN OSCARS FAVORITE - SO WHY IS IT SO
HARD TO SEE? (BRIAN A. HAYES; MARTHA)
* RE: WAR OF WORDS: FROM THE MEKONG DELTA TO GAZA (MARY-ALICE
STROM)
* PIECE PLAN -- CARTON BY JD CROWE
* RE: ‘VICIOUSNESS’ OF TRUMP’S CLIMATE ATTACKS STUNS EVEN HIS
CRITICS (PABLO MILLAN-SEPULVEDA)
* RE: AN ATTACK ON PREGNANT WORKERS AT THE 5TH CIRCUIT COULD UNLEASH
CHAOS ACROSS THE COUNTRY (DAVE LOTT)
* RE: THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, FEB 26-MAR 4, 2025
(VIRGINIA; KAREN LEE WALD)
* RE: ANVIL, THE FORGOTTEN MAGAZINE OF HEARTLAND MARXISM (JOSE
LUIS MEDINA)
* RE: INSIDE THE LABOR GRAMMYS: JOE HILL – STILL ALIVE AS YOU AND
ME (MICHAEL HENRY STARKS)
.
RESOURCES:
* IMPACT OF DONALD TRUMP’S TAX PROPOSALS BY INCOME GROUP
(INSTITUTE ON TAXATION AND ECONOMIC POLICY)
.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
* ‘STAND UP FOR SCIENCE’ RALLIES WILL PROTEST TRUMP ATTACKS ON
RESEARCH -- WASHINGTON, DC AND NATIONWIDE -- MARCH 7 (STAND
UP FOR SCIENCE VIA SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN)
* BOOK LAUNCH AND DISCUSSION - 70 YEARS OF LABOR HISTORY - LABOR'S
PARTISANS -- WASHINGTON, DC -- MARCH 12 (KALMANOVITZ
INITIATIVE FOR LABOR AND THE WORKING POOR)
.
.
MUSK'S EMAIL -- CARTOON BY NICK ANDERSON
Nick Anderson
February 24, 2025
Pen Strokes [[link removed]]
RE: HOW TO ORGANIZE OUR WAY OUT OF THE TRUMP-MUSK PUTSCH
A plan to harness grassroots energy—and to hold Democratic leaders
accountable. Our predecessors deposed a brain-addled king; they
crushed the violent insurrectionists of a slaveholding confederacy;
they forced the robber barons to contend with workers and unions; they
kicked the Nazis’ asses throughout Europe; they broke the back of
the southern segregationist political bloc; they fought back against
the terrorizing forces at Stonewall.
We have planted ourselves in stubborn opposition to monomaniacal
fascists of one form or another for a quarter of a millennium. No
entitled reality-TV has-been backed by an addle-brained billionaire
who cheats at video games is going to roll over us now.
AFGE LOCAL 3343 [[link removed]]
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: DEMOCRATS APPEAR PARALYZED. BERNIE SANDERS IS NOT.
Since Donald Trump’s election, his opposition party hasn’t acted
much like one. The same cannot be said of Bernie Sanders, who hit the
road this weekend in red states in an effort to stoke pushback to
Trump’s slash-and-burn plutocratic governance.
Veronica Knight
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: TRUMP SENDS CONFLICTING MEDICAID CUT MESSAGES
Republicans are getting worried about how much they’ll have to cut
from the popular health safety-net program, and whether the president
will protect them from political blowback.
Republicans of course would not want to cut Medicaid. Oh wait, unless
Trump can protect them from "political blowback" then hey, it's all
systems go. They only care if they themselves are not harmed.
Dan Jordan
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
COST CUTTING -- CARTOON BY CLAY BENNETT
Clay Bennett
February 22, 2025
Chattanooga Times Free Press
[[link removed]]
GOVERNMENT PARTIALLY SHUTS DOWN -- CARTOON BY STUART CARLSON
Stuart Carlson
Week ending October 2, 2013
The Comic News
[[link removed]]
_[Stuart Carlson, was the editorial cartoonist for the Milwaukee
Sentinel and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from 1983 to 2008. He died
June 10, 2022.]_
RE: TRUMP AND NETANYAHU HAVE DEVISED THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu presented an imperialist horror show. An American and an
Israeli, each with his own criminal indictments, decided to determine
the future of the Palestinian people.
Lynn Hamilton
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
=====
On the lives and money of the American people.
Roberto Rosario
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: TRUMP’S DOUBLY FLAWED “INVASION” THEORY
The President claims unprecedented authority to ignore and override
Congress and the Constitution whenever he proclaims an “invasion,”
real or metaphorical. He president is wrong about what an invasion
is—and what powers it triggers
David Benton
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: TRUMP SAVED ERIC ADAMS’S BACON—AND PUT THE COUNTRY UP FOR SALE
The quid pro quo deal between the president and the mayor of New York
City will throw open the foreign corruption floodgates. As the Trump
administration moves to drop the case and gut any remaining
independence out of the DOJ, damn the consequences
...we have perhaps arrived at the logical endpoint of these
arrangements. Trump is, as everyone is fully aware, the American
president with far and away the most foreign financial
entanglements....
Z Joyce McCollum
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
CHAINSAW -- CARTOON BY ROB ROGERS
Rob Rogers
February 25, 2025
Rob Rogers [[link removed]]
RE: THE MOVEMENT SUPPORTING PUBLIC EMPLOYEES IS RISING
(posting on xxxxxx Labor
[[link removed]])
Thousands of workers across the country hit the streets this week to
declare their opposition to Trump and Musk who, under the guise of
“efficiency,” are slashing and burning public services.
TARA Houston Chapter [[link removed]]
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: THE DEMOCRATIC CAPITULATION POINT
(posting on xxxxxx Labor
[[link removed]])
I was on board until I hit this shameful and demeaning sentence: "So
far, Democratic leadership has acted like a bunch of teachers reading
aloud the school handbook to an active school shooter."
Teachers and teachers' unions are essential to the fight back against
the vile #trumpregime and that writer's dismissive and unwarranted
insult to teachers is completely unacceptable. SHAME ON HAMILTON
NOLAN! AFT NEA TODAY
Wendy Anes Hirschegger
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: BLACK WASHINGTONIANS IN THE FIGHT FOR EQUALITY: AN INTERVIEW WITH
MAURICE JACKSON
Interview with Dr. Maurice Jackson about his new book on the use of
sport and music. Traditionally not fields touched on extensively in
intellectual history, the book builds on both of these to create a
rich tapestry of life in Washington, D.C.
How did sport and music alike provide new avenues for Black people to
be activists, community builders, and thinkers?
Mike Budd
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: THE GREAT RESEGREGATION
The Trump administration’s attacks on DEI are aimed at reversing the
civil-rights movement.
Mike Glick
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
ICE ROUNDS UP EXECS WHO EXPLOITED UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS -- CARTOON
BY ED BAGLEY
Ed Bagley
August 8, 2019
The Salt Lake Tribune
[[link removed]]
RE: UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS PREPARE TO CLEAN UP L.A.’S FIRES AMID ICE
RAIDS
As fear of ICE raids and deportation mounts, day laborers risk arrest
to help the Los Angeles rebuild and to support their families.
Tom Edminster
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: DISPATCHES FROM THE CULTURE WARS – FEBRUARY 25, 2025
friends whose work relies on grants should check here
[[link removed]]
Ethan Young
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: WHY THE TEXAS MEASLES OUTBREAK WAS ‘INEVITABLE’
As vaccination rates fall, outbreaks of disease follow. Trump's layoff
of disease detectives and his anti-Vax secretary of illness threaten
us all. Here, via xxxxxx
[[link removed]],
an account of the background to the Texas measles outbreak.
Daniel Millstone
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
MEASLES OUTBREAK -- CARTOON BY GARY CLEMENT
Gary Clement
Gary Clement
[[link removed]]
RE: A PALESTINIAN FILM IS AN OSCARS FAVORITE - SO WHY IS IT SO HARD TO
SEE?
It is unusual for a film like “No Other Land,” which has garnered
critical acclaim and has been recognized at various film festivals and
award shows to be unable to find a distributor. Would even a win at
the Oscars be enough to break through?
Brian A. Hayes
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
=====
Thanks for your coverage of "no other land"
[link removed]…
[[link removed]]
and its film distribution woes. One of the unique elements in this
film is that it depicts a years long history of textbook political
non-violence by a Palestinian community collective and filmed together
by a Palestinian and Israeli. Is the blackout so complete that there
is no way to publicize the powerful efforts at non-violent resistance
of Palestinians so that their cause is completely unknown or distorted
(BDS is such a movement but support is demonized and obfuscated).
Capital hill lawmakers "on the fence" say that they need evidence of
mass non-violent resistance, yet they cannot be influenced by this
resistance if they cannot see it.
Any thoughts on how xxxxxx might help?
Many thanks
Martha
RE: WAR OF WORDS: FROM THE MEKONG DELTA TO GAZA
It is the Palestinian’s people’s refusal to disappear, to hang on
to their land, that has led so many Israelis to deploy the racist
imagery of “human animals.”
Dehumanization of Palestinians and disregard of Israeli lawbreaking is
morally and intellectually reprehensible. In the 1930s and 1940s, the
U.S. stood up, finally, for the oppressed: the Chinese against
Japanese expansionism, the Ethiopians against Italian imperial
ambitions, Europeans against the terror of Nazi Germany. Today,
American policies shrink from defending the values upon which the U.S.
was founded. Instead, as concerns the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
the U.S. defends, assists, and upholds aggression against the weak and
vulnerable, denying what the United Nations declared and promised in
1947, a Palestinian state. President Trump’s recent plan to expel
the Palestinians of Gaza, then rebuild and repopulate it with others,
is just the latest example of mismanaging a tragedy of epic
proportions created by racism and ignorance.
Mary-Alice Strom
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
PIECE PLAN -- CARTON BY JD CROWE
JD Crowe
February 21, 2025
JD Crowe
[[link removed]]
RE: ‘VICIOUSNESS’ OF TRUMP’S CLIMATE ATTACKS STUNS EVEN HIS
CRITICS
¿Que esperaban? Van a levanter una serie de restricciones ambientales
para satisfacer a unos magnates del petróleo. Con la idea de drill ,
drill, drill no van a poder ni siquiera tomar agua pura. Va a
apuntarse más cadavers que los que se apuntó en la pandemia. A la
ciencia ni le importan los politicos ni las opinions, ni los
consentimientos.
What did they expect? They're going to lift a series of environmental
restrictions to satisfy oil tycoons. With the idea of drill, drill,
drill they won't be able to even drink pure water. More dead bodies
are going to be signed up than the ones that were signed up in the
pandemic. Science doesn't care about politicians, opinions, or
consents.
_[Translation by Google]_
Pablo Millan-Sepulveda
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: AN ATTACK ON PREGNANT WORKERS AT THE 5TH CIRCUIT COULD UNLEASH
CHAOS ACROSS THE COUNTRY
(posting on xxxxxx Labor
[[link removed]])
A bad ruling here would have an enormous impact on
Excerpt:
The law is a boon for maternal health, women’s labor-force
participation, and the fight against poverty. Without the PWFA, gaps
in the law meant that pregnant workers—especially Black and brown
laborers in low-wage, physically demanding professions like retail,
service, and warehouse work—were being systematically forced out of
their jobs after they requested basic accommodations to protect the
health of their pregnancy. The kinds of accommodations the PWFA
provides can range from a stool to sit on, breaks to drink water, a
change in schedule, or time off to attend a prenatal appointment or
recover from childbirth—modifications that are often easily provided
at little cost to business but that make a world of difference for
families’ ability to survive and thrive, as A Better Balance and
March of Dimes explained in an amicus brief submitted to the court.
Dave Lott
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, FEB 26-MAR 4, 2025
How delightful reading about the Montgomery bus boycott and the
birthday of Antonio Vivaldi in the same email, This Week in People’s
History!
[[link removed]]
Really need it in these times.
Love you, xxxxxx,
Virginia
(mother a Freedom Rider, father Ulysses Kay, composer)
=====
Thank you. Sharing with my grandchildren
Karen Lee Wald
RE: ANVIL, THE FORGOTTEN MAGAZINE OF HEARTLAND MARXISM
Printed out of a cattle barn in Missouri, Anvil published some of the
biggest leftist writers of the 1930s, including Richard Wright and
Langston Hughes. Its popular vision for multiracial socialism in the
heart of the US could hardly be more urgent.
Jose Luis Medina
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
RE: INSIDE THE LABOR GRAMMYS: JOE HILL – STILL ALIVE AS YOU AND ME
Let’s begin with what "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night" is not:
It is not a song that simply complains in vague terms about long
working hours; it does not simply moan about poor working conditions.
Rather, it names names—a specific worker, copper bosses, Salt Lake
City. It is a song about a real man and a real incident in American
labor history. It is a song that turns the tragic tale it begins with
into a veritable shout, for it concludes not as a somber dirge for one
fallen fellow worker but as a soaring call for collective action and
for all working people to stand up for their rights. As the man Joe
Hill cabled IWW co-founder Big Bill Haywood on the eve of his
execution, “Don’t waste any time in mourning—organize!”
IF YOU'VE NEVER HEARD "I DREAMED I SAW JOE HILL LAST NIGHT
[[link removed]]", GO HERE
[[link removed]]
Michael Henry Starks
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]
IMPACT OF DONALD TRUMP’S TAX PROPOSALS BY INCOME GROUP (INSTITUTE
ON TAXATION AND ECONOMIC POLICY)
The Republican House just passed their plan to give $4.5 TRILLION in
tax cuts to the wealthy, while stealing basic services (Medicaid and
food aid programs).
If these proposals were in effect in 2026, the richest 1 percent would
receive an average tax cut of about $36,300 and the next richest 4
percent would receive an average tax cut of about $7,200. All other
groups would see a tax increase with the hike on the middle 20 percent
at about $1,500 and the increase on the lowest-income 20 percent of
Americans at about $800.
Source: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, October 2024 /
ITEP.org [[link removed]]
President Trump has offered several tax proposals, which are all
included in these estimates:
President Trump has offered several tax proposals, which are all
included in these estimates:
* EXTENDING THE TEMPORARY PROVISIONS IN TRUMP’S 2017 TAX LAW that
will otherwise expire at the end of 2025, except for the $10,000 cap
on State and Local Tax (SALT) deductions, which Trump says he would
not extend
* EXEMPTING CERTAIN TYPES OF INCOME from taxes (overtime pay, tips,
and Social Security benefits)
* REDUCING THE CORPORATE TAX RATE from 21 percent to 20 percent and
then further reducing it to 15 percent for “companies that make
their product in America”
* REPEALING TAX CREDITS enacted as part of President Biden’s
Inflation Reduction Act that provide incentives for the production and
use of green energy
* IMPOSING A NEW 20 PERCENT TARIFF on imported goods, with a higher
rate of 60 percent for goods from China
READ MORE HERE
[[link removed]]
‘STAND UP FOR SCIENCE’ RALLIES WILL PROTEST TRUMP ATTACKS ON
RESEARCH -- WASHINGTON, DC AND NATIONWIDE -- MARCH 7 (STAND
UP FOR SCIENCE VIA SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN)
Amid President Donald Trump’s attacks on government scientists and
science funding, researchers are arranging rallies to “Stand Up for
Science” in Washington, D.C., and nationwide on March 7
March for Science rally in Lafayette, Ind., on April 22, 2017.
(Photo credit: Education Images/Universal Images Group //
Scientific American)
By Meghan Bartels
February 25, 2025
Scientific American
[[link removed]]
Among the slew of actions that President Donald Trump has taken during
his first weeks back in office has been a barrage of attacks on
federal scientists and scientific funding
[[link removed]].
The administration’s science agencies have fired thousands of
employees, attempted to freeze research disbursements and proposed new
policies that would reduce funding into the future.
Against this backdrop, a team of early-career researchers is
organizing nationwide rallies on March 7 to “Stand Up for Science
[[link removed]]”—a call for people across the
U.S. to demonstrate to show their appreciation of science and its
benefits to society. Rallies will take place in Washington, D.C.,
Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Nashville, Tenn., Austin,
Tex., and many other places across the country
[[link removed]]. The
network of stationary rallies is set to take place eight years after
the March for Science protests
[[link removed]] that
met Trump’s first administration—which Stand Up for Science’s
organizers hope helped prepare scientists to wade into politics.
To learn about Stand Up for Science’s plans and goals, _Scientific
American_ talked with three of its lead organizers: Colette
Delawalla, a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology at Emory
University, Emma Courtney, a Ph.D. candidate in biology at Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratory, and Sam Goldstein, a Ph.D. candidate in health
behavior at the University of Florida.
Read transcript here
[[link removed]]
BOOK LAUNCH AND DISCUSSION - 70 YEARS OF LABOR HISTORY - LABOR'S
PARTISANS -- WASHINGTON, DC -- MARCH 12 (KALMANOVITZ
INITIATIVE FOR LABOR AND THE WORKING POOR)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12 · 4:30 - 6:30PM EDT
3600 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007
REGISTER HERE
[[link removed]]
On MARCH 12, AT 4:30 PM we will be welcoming Jules Bernstein, Michael
Kazin, and Ruth Milkman to discuss Labor's Partisans, a new
publication on the many articles that have
made up _Dissent_ magazine over the past 70 years.
The tradition of activists and writers that
created _Dissent_ continues today during an era just as crucial as
the one that created it. We will discuss some key points from this
exciting new anthology, _Dissent _including the most pressing issues
in the world of workers' rights today.
Sign up on Eventbrite to get updates and reminders!
Zoom link available upon request. Please reach out to Alexis
Harper
[email protected]
_The Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor
[[link removed]] at Georgetown University engages
questions of workers’ rights and the future of the labor movement._
* Reader Comments
[[link removed]]
* coup
[[link removed]]
* Elon Musk
[[link removed]]
* Dictatorial Coup
[[link removed]]
* Administrative Coup
[[link removed]]
* Trump 2.0
[[link removed]]
* Donald Trump
[[link removed]]
* Trump Administration
[[link removed]]
* dictatorship
[[link removed]]
* Fascism
[[link removed]]
* Constitution
[[link removed]]
* power grab
[[link removed]]
* resistance
[[link removed]]
* Resistance 2.0
[[link removed]]
* Protest
[[link removed]]
* Project 2025
[[link removed]]
* Congress
[[link removed]]
* Separation of Powers
[[link removed]]
* Layoffs
[[link removed]]
* State and Local Government Layoffs
[[link removed]]
* Labor Unions
[[link removed]]
* Government Workers
[[link removed]]
* Democrats
[[link removed]]
* Democratic Party
[[link removed]]
* Israel
[[link removed]]
* Palestine
[[link removed]]
* Palestinians
[[link removed]]
* Israel-Gaza War
[[link removed]]
* Trump Gaza Plan
[[link removed]]
* Cartoons
[[link removed]]
* resources
[[link removed]]
* Announcements
[[link removed]]
* Joe Hill
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
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*
*
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INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT
Submit via web
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