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Friday Nite Videos -- April 19, 2013

Portside
Scientists create a see-through brain. Boston Marathon suspect interrogation may answer many questions. Lewis Black on the moocher class. Brubeck's 'Take Five' with sitar and tabla. Glenda Jackson's 'tribute' to Baroness Thatcher. Documentary film: Ain't I a Person?

UNICEF: U.S. kids worse off than many of their Western counterparts

By Caitlin Dewey and Max Fisher Washington Post
The report, which compares kids in 29 Western countries, measures well-being across five metrics: material well-being, health and safety, behaviors and risks, housing and environment, as well as education. It ranks the United States in the bottom third on all five measures of well-being and particularly low on education and poverty. The

The Winner of Venezuela’s Election to Succeed Hugo Chávez Is Hugo Chávez

By Greg Grandin The Nation
There are many interesting things to be said about this election, one being that it really wasn’t a fight over ideology. Maduro, who had been directly named by Chávez as his preferred replacement, ran as the Chavista candidate. But in a way so did Capriles, who pledged to be a better administrator of the society Chávez left behind.

U of Michigan students arrested in protest for undocumented students

By Michigan Radio Newsroom Michigan Radio
Eight University of Michigan students were arrested Wednesday night after they blocked a busy intersection near campus in protest over the university's policy not to offer undocumented students from Michigan in-state tuition.

Reality Check: Closing Schools, Saving Money?

By Curtis Black Newstips
For some reason, all the billionaire reformers and all their politician friends prefer ordering cuts to fixing the state’s revenue system. Some argue, not without plausibility, that they welcome fiscal crisis as an excuse to push privatization.

Socialist Discussion - Visions of a New World - Bill Fletcher reviews Gar Alperovitz

Bill Fletcher, Jr. Jacobin
The struggle for structural reforms is essential to changing the "common sense" of the US political arena. But it is not enough to wound the rabid beast; one must ultimately bring it down. Alperovitz's views are shaped by several assumptions. First, actually existing capitalism is not working. Second, socialism, as we have known it, did not work. Third, people need to actually see what an alternative world would look like in order to be encouraged to fight for one.

Venezuela Opposition Continues Protest - Is Coup in the Works

Virginia Lopez The Guardian (UK)
Coverage on unfolding events in Venezuela from the Guardian (UK). Nicolás Maduro accuses opposition of coup plot as poll protests turn deadly. Venezuela's president-elect likens demonstrations to 2002 attempt against Chávez as seven die in post-election violence. Venezuela's opposition make noise against Nicolás Maduro's victory. Election loser Henrique Capriles calls off march in favour of pots-and-pans protest as both sides trade accusations.

Tidbits - April 17, 2013

Portside
Reader Comments: NY Labor-Religion Coalition - support to people of Boston; Maduro victory - reader writes from Latin America; Capitalism; Grim jobs picture & horrible "grand bargain;" Stumble stones in Germany; Socialism; E. O. Wilson; more Announcements - 'The Bolivarian Revolution After Chávez' 4/17 & Poesîa en Abril 4/18 - Chicago; Wither the Socialist Left? - NYC - Apr 25; Today in History - Apr 15-17, 1960, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee founded