Portside

There is a wall in baseball between sports and politics. One player just put a crack in it. Fall - Baseball - League Championships - World Series - what makes baseball different from other sports, like football, basketball and soccer?

The largest association of U.S. organizers of travel to Cuba, unanimously rejected the Trump administration’s Cuba travel warning and its decision to withdraw diplomatic staff from its Havana embassy. Cuba has never perpetrated, nor will it ever perpetrate attacks of any sort against diplomatic officials or their relatives, without any exception - official Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement.

We can't be silent in the face of racism anymore. "It needs to be white Americans who stand up in solidarity and say this isn't right," country music singer Meghan Linsey took a knee with her guitarist Tyler Cain, Sept. 24 at the Titans-Seahawks NFL game.

Puerto Rico has been hit by a triple disaster - Hurricane Maria; outrageous debt owed to vulture hedge funds; racist, colonial indifference by the Trump Administration. Puerto Ricans - on the island, and in the U.S. have called for the lifting of the Jones Act, as it applies to Puerto Rico; canceling the debt; and abolishing PROMESA. Yesterday a solidarity flight of medical and emergency organized by AFL-CIO unions brought needed supplies and aid workers to the island.

Trump administration policies are systematically making natural disasters more harmful for the poor and people of color.

What message is Trump sending with his pardon of such a man? To this German historian, the implications are ominous.

Pai gets by; DHS is watching; So is DOJ; Corpo media betray journalists; Community radio to the rescue; Comics too - of course

"Our islands can not pay debt until we've rebuilt and we see positive economic recovery. We need a debt payment moratorium, debts must be cancelled and reduced to sustainable payable levels," wrote González, Bevard, and Martínez in their statement. "When economies are already dealing with austerity policies and financial crisis, they are ill prepared to deal with natural disasters like Hurricanes Irma and Maria."

As a country, we should be more concerned with why the police are getting away with targeting black men and killing them for no reason. That's a bigger issue than the flag. Years from now, people will look back on today and say, 'You mean we privatized the prisons so there's no profit unless the prison is full?' You'd think someone in kindergarten could figure out how stupid that is. We're creating so many of our own problems.”

Of all the ways in which American democracy is showing symptoms of turning into a dysfunctional state, the inability to face down the gun lobby is surely one of the most egregious.