Portside

Trump doesn't lie to convince us of a falsehood, but to assert his power over reality.

“In an ideal world, governments, corporations, and other large institutions would be transparent by default. Unfortunately, the world is not ideal. Many institutions begin a slow creep toward being opaque and we need people who recognize that.” — Chelsea Manning

Fox News Doesn't Get the Comey Memo. Comedians Have Figured Out the Trick to Covering Trump. Watergate Prosecutor: Well on Our Way to Impeachment of President Trump. The Activists: Documentary. How to Close Guantanamo Under Trump.

Reader Comments: Comey, Trumpism, Family Trump, Afghan Escalation, Sessions' Dept. of Injustice; Poor Prisons; People's History - Henry Wallace; The Man Who Never Returned; The Investigator; Solidarity Statement for Yale Graduate Union - Add Your Name; Announcements: Resistance Summer; Chelsea is Free; Seattle Labor History Mural; 80th Commemoration of Republic Steel Massacre; Book Tours: In the Fields of the North; The Syriza Wave; Left Forum Opening Plenary additions

Millions are threatened by famine, as Riyadh prepares an assault on the country’s key port.

Reading her life story will change the way you view the world. This is not simply a story about a formerly incarcerated woman dedicated to working for justice and freedom in the era of mass incarceration. It is a story of a black woman who, as she often tells me, is “nothing special” and yet has somehow managed to transform her own life as well as hundreds of lives around her. She has emerged as a leading figure in the movement to end mass incarceration.

Quebec's broad party of the left, Québec solidaire (QS), congress opens May 19 in Montréal – the 12th congress in its 11-year history. The delegates face a challenging agenda: the final stage of adoption of the party's detailed program, a process begun eight years ago; discussion of possible alliances with other parties and some social movements including a proposed fusion with another pro-independence party, Option nationale; and renewal of the party's top leadership.

Larry Krasner's victory for Philadelphia District Attorney is huge! Krasner has been the main defense attorney for #BlackLivesMatter and Occupy and has freed 80 prisoners on wrongful conviction charges. He ran to end stop-and-frisk, end cash bail, and treat drug law violators via the public health rather than criminal justice system. A huge victory for the movements against police brutality and mass incarceration - for progressive and racial justice movements nationwide.

The establishment complains I don’t play the rules: by which they mean their rules. We can’t win, they say, because we don’t play their game. We don’t accept that it is natural for Britain to be governed by a ruling elite, that the people just have to take what they’re given. And in a sense, the establishment is right. I don’t play by their rules. And if a Labour Government is elected on 8 June, we still then we won’t play by their rules either.

Constitutional scholar Lawrence Tribe and Robert Reich weigh in. A majority of the public agrees. To rescue democracy, we need to make it happen.