Tidbits - Oct. 4, 2018 - Reader Comments: Rage, Resistance to Kavanaugh, Rape, War on Women; Reconstruction White Terror; Iran; Laundry Workers; Broadway Stands Up; Socialism vs. Capitalism; more...
Why You Didn't Come Forward Sooner -- cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz
When is a Boy Not a Boy
Re: Keg-Parties and Assaults: Women From Catholic High Schools in Washington Area Break 'Culture Of Silence' (Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons; Joe Maizlish; David Frazer; Fred C Schaffner)
I am a WHITE MAN, GODDAMMIT! - Brett Kavanaugh
Re: We Didn't Call It Rape (Dan Jordan; Juan Figueroa; Nehemías Maldonado; Maria Lourdes Rodriguez)
Re: On the Supreme Court, Difficult Nominations Have Led to Historical Injustices (Cilita Garcia)
Re: How the F.B.I. Will Investigate the Kavanaugh Accusations (Brent Bartz; Aida Rivera)
Give em hell, Christine -- cartoon by Benjamin Slyngstad
Re: We Are Not the Resistance (Andy Schwartz)
Re: Migrant Children Moved Under Cover of Darkness to a Texas Tent City (Beba Cardona Gaines)
Re: The Deadliest Massacre in Reconstruction-Era Louisiana Happened 150 Years Ago (Kari Fisher; Keith Phillipson; Stephen Pageau; Dorothy Weller)
Re: US Isolated: Europe’s Big 3, plus China & Russia Outmaneuver Trump to keep Iran Deal at UN (Victor M.carreras Roena; Janice Pye)
Re: What Tesla’s Union-busting Trial Means For The Rest Of Silicon Valley (Harry Brill)
Re: Before His Early Death, Riemann Freed Geometry from Euclidean Prejudices (Richard Rosenthal)
Workers Struggles in Iran (Syndicate of Tehran Bus Drivers)
Resources:
KavaNOPE - Poster of the Week (Unite for Justice)
Announcements:
500 Years of Resistance: Laundry Workers Center Community Gala 2018 - New York City - October 5
Labor Book Symposium with Samuel Moyn - Washington, DC - October 12 (Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor)
16th Annual Broadway Stands Up for Freedom: We the People - New York - October 15 (NYCLU)
Debate: Socialism vs. Capitalism, Jacobin vs. Barron’s - New York City - October 15 (Jacobin)
Black New England Conference to Look at Power of Style - Portsmouth, NH - October 19 & 20 (Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire)
Sixth Annual Woody Guthrie Brooklyn Hoot - Brooklyn - November 18 (Good Coffee House and the Folk Music Society)
Remembering David - A Memorial and Celebration of David McReynolds - New York City - December 1
Why You Didn't Come Forward Sooner -- cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz
Lalo Alcaraz
September 28, 2018
“...he was just a boy. Must we ruin his whole life?”
WOW! The lid is off now on what happened to these privileged white women who attended elite mostly Catholic High Schools at the hands of their white male cohorts! It is shocking! Thank goodness that Dr. Blasey Ford exposed this hideous misogynist culture that Brett Kavanaugh was a part of! NO! To Kavanaugh! He is not fit to be a judge of anything! Not only because of his behavior all those years ago but because he is lying about it now and posing as a squeaky clean guy! He is a liar, a hypocrite & anti-woman!
Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
On Tuesday and Wednesday President Trump displayed entitlement in its nationalist dress to the UN in his defiant assertion of unconditional U.S. sovereignty (and his disregard for everyone else's).
Thursday we saw the entitlement costumed in gender, class, party, and claims of personal merit.
The outrage aroused by any challenge tells us of both the fragility and the resilience of the structure of which the entitlement is a part, and suggests that beneath the "We're #1" is insecurity and even panic.
Most of the Dems. at the moment seem to have a weaker case of the disease, but are as afflicted in its nationalist expression and at times in its partisan one, and do not present a consistent principled alternative to it.
That job is up to us.
Joe Maizlish,
Los Angeles
=====
By 1990, off-campus parties had become such a problem that headmasters from seven of the Washington area’s elite private schools, including Georgetown Prep and Holton-Arms, joined to warn parents about the gatherings. According to a joint letter sent out by the schools, hundreds of unsupervised teenagers were regularly attending the parties.
“It would be hard to devise a better recipe for disaster than a social scene that includes the anonymity provided by an 'open party,' no adult supervision, considerable amounts of alcohol, and teenage hormones which encourage sexual or violent behavior," the letter said, according to The Washington Post.
David Frazer
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
It is important that all these victims go to their local FBI office immediately, and then to local and state police in MD and file complaints. My own experience with the FBI is that they will listen and take your statement, but you must tell the truth, even if you think it can’t be corroborated. Tell what you honestly believe to be true; keep it simple, and never lie.
Fred C Schaffner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
I am a WHITE MAN, GODDAMMIT! - Brett Kavanaugh
What is most sickening is, one generation of inbred set of parents to the next, they know. They damn well know.
Dan Jordan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
When you came from rich parent.Everything is okay.They got out of murder with not cause.Because money paid the different.
Juan Figueroa
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Do these Senators have daughters, sisters, wives....? It seems like they do not care a bit. They just want to put that individual in the Supreme Court, before November
Nehemías Maldonado
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Where were the parents of these teen agers during these parties? Who rented the beach houses and let them there without adult supervision and liquor? Where were the adults responsible for the well being an real education of these kids????
Maria Lourdes Rodriguez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: On the Supreme Court, Difficult Nominations Have Led to Historical Injustices
Last night saw Trump on TV MOCKING the testimony of Dr. Ford. How disappointing to see who is supposed to be the "leader" (?) of the free world making fun of a woman who is possibly a victim of sexual assault. What an embarrassment of a president! Both Kavanaugh & Trump shame this country!! Another perfect example of the poor judgement of this president. Too bad for the rest of the world to have to see this poor example of a President of the United States!!
Cilita Garcia
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: How the F.B.I. Will Investigate the Kavanaugh Accusations
It won’t make any difference because the left will then claim the time wasn’t long enough or the investigation wasn’t thorough enough or they want another hearing, etc., etc., etc. just gives them more time to intimidate, lie, and make more accusations with no evidence.
Brent Bartz
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
A believable testimony is as good as any other evidence, takes place in our courts everyday. Besides, put that testimony aside, do you think Kavanaugh conveyed judicial temperament in his address to the committee? I don’t think so...I would disqualify him for judge only based on that.
Aida Rivera
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Give em hell, Christine -- cartoon by Benjamin Slyngstad
Benjamin Slyngstad
September 28, 2018
Slyngstad Cartoons
New NYT op-ed columnist Michelle Alexander is the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
Andy Schwartz
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Migrant Children Moved Under Cover of Darkness to a Texas Tent City
Poor children. They have been taken from their parents because Cucaracha Trump doesn't give a damm about Latinos or any other race and culture. Those children will be scarred forever. Thank you, Cucaracha Trump for your indecency.
Beba Cardona Gaines
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: The Deadliest Massacre in Reconstruction-Era Louisiana Happened 150 Years Ago
I didn’t know about this horrible massacre until just a few months ago.
Kari Fisher
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Yes and they’re still doing this today only legally
Keith Phillipson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Isn't it ironic that during the Civil War and Reconstruction era,Republicans were the party of inclusion, espousing voting rights and abolition.And now,150+years later, the republicans are the party of voter suppression, divisive politics and pandering to the rich and privileged.
Stephen Pageau
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Not all that long ago AND still practiced in less drastic, but equally Machiavellian ways through shifty voter suppression laws and general intimidation practices, which are by no means limited to the South... Oh, and the scope has widened to ALL minorities and the sponsoring political party has clearly changed too...
Dorothy Weller
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: US Isolated: Europe’s Big 3, plus China & Russia Outmaneuver Trump to keep Iran Deal at UN
This isolationism is what Bolton and trump have always preached and now you see it's fruits. The trump doesn't see the collateral damage this policy could cause and how nations that do not have the best interests of the nation have joined and formed a powerful group.
Victor M.carreras Roena
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
=====
Janice Pye
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: What Tesla’s Union-busting Trial Means For The Rest Of Silicon Valley
(posting on Portside Labor)
I recall Tesla importing foreign labor illegally to build a plant and paying these workers about $5 an hour.
Harry Brill
Re: Before His Early Death, Riemann Freed Geometry from Euclidean Prejudices
Congratulations on reprinting this beautiful article on the 19th century German mathematician who died so young. When you give us this sort of piece you earn respect as a worthy publication, as you do in your reprint of McKibben's article on Trump's people and climate change. Lets have more relevant, incisive excellence like this and less leftwing cant. I am an old lefty myself, from the 30s, who tunes out most of your reprints as trite and boringly limited.
Richard Rosenthal
Workers Struggles in Iran - Syndicate of Tehran Bus Drivers
Worker’s wages must increase, at least around the same rate as the value loss of national currency
Decrease in wages to many times under the poverty line, due to sharp decrease in Iranian currency (Rial) and unending inflation in recent months have resulted in many fold price increase which make lives very difficult for working people. For this reason, the Syndicate of Tehran Bus Drivers has started to gather signature to demand increase in wages and classifications of our jobs and invite workers to protest their conditions.
We are deprived of minimum living condition. An immediate wage increase is our undeniable right.
We, workers and drivers in Vahed Bus Company of Tehran, already, are poor and with the recent high prices, we have even lost, further our ability to provide for our basic food and housing requirements. Therefore we demand immediate increase in our wages and classification of jobs. Wages are not raised since 2006 and we demand that it happens. Article 6 of 2018, official wage guideline reads: “In Institutions that are covered by labor law, in order to balance level of wages with productive efficiency and provide incentives among workers, wages and benefits must be raised along their agreement guidelines, after they are confirmed by labor industry.
Let’s stand united and in solidarity together to demand wage increase
Syndicate of Vahed Company Bus drivers of Tehran
KAVANOPE
Tracie Ching
Washington, DC
Digital Print
August 2018
Poster designed for the Unite for Justice rallies protesting the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to Supreme Court of the United States.
Center for the Study of Political Graphics
3916 Sepulveda Blvd, Suite 103 & 104
Culver City, CA 90230
500 Years of Resistance: Laundry Workers Center Community Gala 2018 - New York City - October 5
Friday, October 5 -- 6 PM – 9 PM
St. Peter's Church
619 Lexington Ave (btwn 53rd + 54th Streets)
Manhattan
Trains: N/R/W to Lexington-59th St; E/M to Lexington-53rd; 6 to 51st St)
Join Laundry Workers Center to celebrate and raise critical funds for the only organization in New York City organizing laundromat workers, and winning worker-led campaigns! We will celebrate these recent victories and share information about an ongoing laundry workers campaign that we launched in June 2018.
The event theme is 500 Years of Resistance, which honors our member-workers, many of whom are part of indigenous communities, and pays respect to the long legacy of resistance to colonialism and genocide in the Americas. There will be food from La Essencia Restaurant NYC, drinks, and music.
Buy Tickets here.
*We gladly accept checks! Please make checks out to our fiscal sponsor, Brandworkers International, and note it is for the Laundry Workers Center. Mail checks to: Laundry Workers Center, 80 Broad Street, Suite 613A, New York, NY 10004
Catering by LWC member and community leader Pablo Rutillio and his restaurant, La Essencia. 5085 Broadway Ave, Inwood, Manhattan 10034. This event is presented by Laundry Workers Center and Sion-Saint Peter's Church
Laundry Workers Center
80 Broad Street, Suite 613A
New York, NY
(646) 801-8592
Labor Book Symposium with Samuel Moyn - Washington, DC - October 12
Labor Book Symposium - A discussion with author Samuel Moyn, Professor of Law and History, Yale University and a Distinguished Panel
1:00 PM to 4:30 PM | Friday, Oct. 12, 2018 | RSVP
McDonough Hall 200 | Georgetown University Law Center
600 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001
Snacks and refreshments will be served
The age of human rights has been kindest to the rich. Even as state violations of political rights garnered unprecedented attention due to human rights campaigns, a commitment to material equality disappeared. In its place, market fundamentalism has emerged as the dominant force in national and global economies. In this provocative book, Samuel Moyn analyzes how and why we chose to make human rights our highest ideals while simultaneously neglecting the demands of a broader social and economic justice.
Moyn places the career of the human rights movement in relation to this disturbing shift from the egalitarian politics of yesterday to the neoliberal globalization of today. Exploring why the rise of human rights has occurred alongside enduring and exploding inequality, and why activists came to seek remedies for indigence without challenging wealth, Not Enough calls for more ambitious ideals and movements to achieve a humane and equitable world.
- Susan Deller Ross - Professor of Law, Georgetown University
- Cathy Feingold - Director of International Development, AFL-CIO
- Alice Kessler-Harris - Professor of History, Columbia University
- Harold Meyerson - Executive Editor, The American Prospect
Please RSVP via Eventbrite.
Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor
Georgetown University
Maguire Hall 209
37 and O Streets, NW
Washington, D.C., 20057
kilwp@georgetown.edu
16th Annual Broadway Stands Up for Freedom: We the People - New York - October 15
October 15, 2018 @ 7:30 PM
The Town Hall
123 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
The NYCLU is proud to present its 16th annual Broadway Stands Up For Freedom concert We the People this fall. Join the NYCLU and the ACLU for an unforgettable evening with fellow art and music lovers and civil libertarians to celebrate the power and beauty of free expression.
Join us as we honor Alan Cumming with the 2018 Freedom Award for his contributions as an artist and activist for human rights.
This year’s show will feature both existing Broadway tunes and brand-new songs written exclusively for this concert. Our talented group of performers and songwriters includes Shaina Taub, who will be hot off a run of the Public Theater’s Twelfth Night and Erich Bergen (“Madam Secretary,” “Jersey Boys,” “Waitress”).
HOST
Aasif Mandvi
PERFORMERS
Ada Westfall (A Play on War, Joan of Arc: Into the Fire, Songbird)
Ari Afsar (Hamilton (Chicago original cast), American Idol)
Ariana DeBose (Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, A Bronx Tale)
Caesar Samayoa (Come From Away, Sister Act)
Eisa Davis (Passing Strange, Bulrusher)
Eli Bolin (Found, Volleygirls)
Erich Bergen (Jersey Boys, Waitress, Madame Secretary)
George Salazar (Be More Chill, Godspell, The Lightning Thief)
Kristolyn Lloyd (Dear Evan Hansen)
Mike Pettry (The Light Princess, The Pirate Princess)
Nick Blaemire (Godspell, Tick Tick Boom )
Shaina Taub (The Devil Wears Prada, Twelfth Night (Public Works), Old Hats)
Stephanie J. Block (The Cher Show, Falsettos)
We McDonald (The Voice- Season 11)
L Morgan Lee (Stu for Silverton; Defiant, Majestic, and Beautiful)
Liana Stampur, Founder, Broadway Stands Up for Freedom
Brooklyn Youth Chorus
Tickets available now via The Town Hall and Ticketmaster.
Video from 2017 Benefit
Huddled Masses at NYCLU's Broadway Stands Up for Freedom 2017
Watch here.
The New York Civil Liberties Union and American Civil Liberties Union hosted the annual benefit concert, “Broadway Stands Up for Freedom” for a sold-out crowd at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. In a first for the show, Broadway stars and performers honored the NYCLU and ACLU’s work by performing thirteen new songs about civil rights and liberties in the Trump era written expressly for the concert.
"Huddled Masses"
Performed by Shaina Taub and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus
Written by Shaina Taub
Debate: Socialism vs. Capitalism, Jacobin vs. Barron’s - New York City - October 15
On Oct. 15, Jacobin publisher Bhaskar Sunkara will defend the resolution, "Socialism is more effective than capitalism in bringing freedom to the masses." Bhaskar will be debating Gene Epstein, former economics editor at the financial weekly, Barron's--a property of Dow Jones, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
This will be an Oxford-style debate, in which the audience votes "Yes,""No," or "Undecided" on the resolution both before the debate begins and after the debate ends. According to Oxford-style rules, whoever moves the vote in his or her favor technically wins the debate.
Jacobin members get a special discount off the student price ($6 instead of $12) and the general admission price ($16 instead of $24). To access the discounts, click on "BUY TICKETS NOW", then on "TICKETS" then on "Enter Promotional Code". Then enter "jacobin" for the student discount or "jacobin8off" for the general admission discount, then click on "APPLY CODE"
Monday, October 15, 2018
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
524 West 59th St., NY, 10019
Doors open: 6:00pm
Meeting convenes: 6:30pm
Reception: 8:15pm
Tickets must be reserved in advance.
Black New England Conference to Look at Power of Style - Portsmouth, NH - October 19 & 20
2018 Black New England Conference & Awards Dinner
EXPRESS YOURSELF: Identity, Style & Adornment
October 19 – 20,
Huddleston Hall, University of New Hampshire
“The will to adorn is the second most notable characteristic in Negro expression. Perhaps his idea of ornament does not attempt to meet conventional standards, but it satisfies the soul of its creator.”
— Zora Neale Hurston
Style—whether expressed through art, music, literature, performance, speech, or bodily adornment—operates as a visible and tangible marker of identity and group affiliation.
African American style has functioned as an effective means of communication in the U.S. and abroad. It has influenced how African Americans create identities for themselves and how they express these identities to others.
Although there is no one way to be “authentically” African American, there are numerous aesthetic choices that have overlapped and intertwine. They often form a framework for understanding linkages between the individual self and the individual’s position within social structures. These can be organized around notions of kinship, economic empowerment, religion, and politics.
In exploring the traditions, artistry, and social histories that have shaped different forms of African American style, this conference will investigate the historical and present impact of artistic expression on the development of African American identities and cultural production.
Panelists will also unpack ways in which the embodiment of aesthetic expressions serves as a point of reflection for social issues today. In addition, they will explore how creative cultural Black movements have influenced the mainstream and provided platforms for developing societal beliefs and values.
This conference is for anyone who wants to dialogue around the significance of individual and collective style as more than just a social and climatological necessity. It will be an animated and vibrant celebration of an individual’s drive to define and redefine what it means to be human.
Special Featured Keynote Addresses by Dr. Lucius Turner Outlaw Jr., & Karen Chambers
The Black New England Conference, now in its 12th year, is an annual 2-day gathering where academics, artists, activists, and community members share insights and research on Black experiences, past and present, in New England and beyond. It is both an academic conference and a celebration of Black life and history.
Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire
PO Box 6772
Portsmouth NH 03801
Phone: 603-570-8469 | 617-539-6886
Email: info@blackheritagetrailnh.org
Sixth Annual Woody Guthrie Brooklyn Hoot - Brooklyn - November 18
Sunday, November 18, 2018 at 4 PM – 6 PM
Old Stone House of Brooklyn
336 3rd St, Brooklyn, New York 11215
Round robin songfest featuring Vincent Cross, Emma Graves, Beth Kotkin, Joel Landy, Nancy Moccaldi, and Steve Suffet, all performing songs that former Brooklyn resident Woody Guthrie sang. The six performers will take turns leading songs, while providing instrumental and vocal accompaniment for each other. Please come prepared to sing along on choruses and refrains.
Sponsored by the Good Coffee House at the Old Stone House, 336 Third Street in J.J. Byrne Park, between 4th & 5th Avenues in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. Cosponsored by the Folk Music Society of New York. $10 contribution.
Remembering David - A Memorial and Celebration of David McReynolds - New York City - December 1
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Judson Memorial Church Main Hall
55 Washington Square South, New York City
12:00 pm – 3:00 pm
RSVP and contact: mcreynoldsmemorial@gmail.com