Portside

We can only guess as to why a group of Neanderthals built a series of large stalagmite structures in a French cave 175,000 years ago – but the fact they did provides a rare glimpse into our extinct cousin’s potential for social organisation in a challenging environment.

"This is a huge reversal from the days when President Obama sought a so-called 'grand bargain' with Republicans that included cuts to Social Security benefits."

Frederick Douglass vs Thomas Jefferson. Trump University Was Textbook Fraud. Gente-fied | Series Trailer. Prophets of Rage. Neanderthals Built Underground Structures.

Reader Comments: Paul Krugman Was Wrong About the 1990s; Clinton Might Not Be the Nominee; Why It's Nearly Impossible for Prisoners to Sue Prisons - kudos from defense lawyers and prisoners; Why did Portside run the New Yorker piece on Donald Trump; If Shostakovich Were Alive - Why did Portside run the hatchet piece; Nestle Control Over Town's Water; Trump, Racism, Anti-Semitism and Catholic Universities; New York Studio Workers Need Your Support; and more...

Petro-states are different from other countries because the fates of their governing institutions are so deeply woven into the boom-and-bust cycles of the international petroleum economy. Now, one thing is finally clear: the business model for these corporatized states is busted. The most basic assumption behind their operation -- that global oil demand will continue to outpace world petroleum supplies and ensure high prices into the foreseeable future -- no longer holds

Platforms are,a statement of the accepted beliefs of the party assembled. For citizen movements, they are a measure of their progress in defining acceptable opinion. And ideas matter. A commitment to ending segregation or guaranteeing the right to vote. Equal rights for women. No first use of nuclear weapons. The DNC prevented Sanders from picking nurses leader RoseAnn DeMoro - the DNC had not wanted labor leaders on the platform drafting committee.

Verizon workers went on strike one week before a competitive New York state primary in which a socialist is running. You had a credible national candidate for president on a nationally-televised debate calling out the CEO of a big corporation. That just does not happen very often. Given the current climate, Hillary Clinton made a big point of coming to our picket line the first day of the strike, Bill went to a picket line in Buffalo.

We simply can't afford to throw away the energy, the idealism, the thirst for justice that the Sanders campaign has revealed and revived. In the long run, that probably matters even more than who sits in the Oval Office. For the Democrats, the road to reconciliation is not obscure. Sanders is right to rail at our rigged system - but if the Democrats win in November thanks in part to his ideas and his voters, he'll be positioned to do something about it.

In Burning Country, journalist Robin Yassin-Kassab and human rights activist Leila Al-Shami make plain that no matter how long the Syrian war rages or how distant a political settlement may appear, the world owes it to the Syrian people to hear their stories and support their cause. The book portrays the opposition as a movement of protest against Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime, something missed abroad amid the factionalism and power politics driving the conflict.

The Noise of Time, the new novel by Julian Barnes, is a fictionalized portrait of Dmitri Shostakovich, perhaps the most famous Russian composer of the Soviet era. Leslie Rieder, in this review, gives us a peek into the "utterly fascinating" tale Barnes has woven.