Our Margin of Effort: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

A broad swath of the progressive movement “left it all on the field” in 2024. Some sobering lessons about progressive strength, Establishment myopia and the challenges of democratic organizing in increasingly oligarchical society.

Trump Does Not Have Mandate

Newspaper headlines have called Donald Trump’s victory “decisive,” “massive,” “resounding,” “historic,” and “sweeping.” None of those things are true. Recent public opinion polls reveal that Trump’s professed policy agenda is very unpopular.

A Portside Message: The Challenge of Wannabe Fascism

How can we prevent a wannabe dictator from consolidating absolute power? Please help us to inform, analyze and mobilize in the year ahead. Here's how. You can help Portside...

Nikki Giovanni, Poet Who Wrote of Black Joy, Dies at 81

Nikki Giovanni, as a writer, she tackled race, gender, sex, politics and love. She was also a public intellectual who appeared on television and toured the country.

Legalized Murder

I do not want to live in a world where the rich are dragged from their limos and beaten. But I do think that world is a lot more likely to be realized because of the modus operandi of UHC and its cohort.

Hostage Family Leader Became Loud Anti-War Voice

After Ayala Metzger's relatives were kidnapped from Nir Oz and abandoned by the government, she had no choice but to become an ‘anti-regime dissident’ — and insist on a shared Israeli-Palestinian future.

Reader Comments & Tidbits, December 12, 2024

Reader Comments: Trump Plan - End Citizenship, Mass Deportations; It Was Close Election; Health and Death as Profit Industry - $1.39 Trillion in Profits; Syria - A Caution; New Resource - Elections and Health Policy; Take Action

Hospitals' Pin New Mothers with False Drug Tests

Mothers were reported after they were given medications used routinely for pain or in epidurals, to reduce anxiety or to manage blood pressure during cesarean sections.

Manchin, Sinema Block Biden NLRB Nominee

"These two senators effectively handed Trump control of the board when his term begins," noted one observer.

How AARP Shills for UnitedHealthcare

Today on TAP: Why does the supposed advocate for the elderly steer them to the industry’s worst insurer?
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Culture

poetry

What Dreams May Come

Charlotte Muse At the Corner of Hope and Despair: an Anthology for the Trump Era
California poet Charlotte Muse digs into the open grave which is Gaza.

books

Grave New World

David Klion Bookforum
This book starts by saying that the 9/11 attacks "occurred at a moment when “the United States found itself at the head of a global economic order that had been founded on a growth surge that was slowly but surely running out of steam."

film

Toronto Film Festival Goes Around the World

Bill Meyer Hollywood Progressive
A favorite film at the Toronto International Film Festival this year was by far M - Son of the Century directed by the talented UK filmmaker Joe Wright. It’s actually an Italian TV mini-series about the founder of fascism himself, Benito Mussolini.

food

Will Congress Force This Controversial Alcohol Study To Stop?

Esther Mobley San Francisco Chronicle
Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, co-wrote a letter to two federal agencies calling for the suspension of an alcohol review. The upcoming revision of U. S. Dietary Guidelines is unfolding amid a shifting global sentiment toward drinking. Members of Congress are calling for a suspension of a controversial committee that could recommend Americans reduce alcohol consumption.

tv

Say Nothing Turns the IRA’s Secret History Into TV Drama

An interview with Josh Zetumer Jacobin
The new FX TV show Say Nothing dramatizes one of the most controversial stories in modern Irish history, with characters that include former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams. Showrunner Josh Zetumer spoke to us about the challenges of producing the serie

Labor

Friday nite video

video

How Amazon Is Ruining Christmas

SCOOP: Amazon workers in NYC are going on strike to attempt to win their first union contract right before Christmas — the company's busiest time.

video

What Is Russia's Plan for Victory?

Unfortunately, many Western politicians and commentators misunderstand Russia's ambitions because they primarily see it as a war about territory.