Portside

Every year Dispatches From The edge gives awards to news stories and newsmakers that fall under the category of “Are you serious?” Here are the awards for 2013.

Reuters' report suggests that RSA wasn't merely following the trends when it picked the algorithm and that contrary to its previous claims, the company has inserted presumed backdoors at the behest of the spy agency.

New Dixie has replaced the aristocracy's black slaves of Old Dixie, by the local (white) aristocracy's institutionalized bigotry against poor people, now of all ethnic groups. What used to be their purely racist bigotry has, it seems, devolved into a crushing, pervasive, classist, bigotry in the South.

You have to make a choice, as a listener, if music matters to you as more than mere entertainment. And you and I have spent our entire lives with that conviction. This is not just entertainment, this is our lifeblood. This matters.

“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long shot.” -- Charlie Chaplin:

The arrival of national landlords has raised questions about the long-term effects on mom-and-pop landlords, neighborhoods and affordability.

[Moderator's Note: The translation below was sent from Cuba's Permanent Mission to the United Nations. The translation previously posted by Portside had many problems which is why we are re-posting. Below the English translation is the original in Spanish.]

Charts illustrating that while corporate profits have rebounded, more than four million Americans have been without work for six months or longer, and the price of continuing long-term unemployment isn't just borne by the jobless and their families. It's dragging down the entire economy—to the tune of $1 trillion a year.

Since the 2008 recession, companies have increasingly turned to temporary employees to work in factories and warehouses and on construction sites. The temp industry now employs a record 2.8 million workers.The trend carries a human cost. A ProPublica analysis of millions of workers’ compensation claims shows that in five states, representing more than a fifth of the U.S. population, temps face a significantly greater risk of getting injured on the job.

Dean Baker refutes Bill Keller's New York Times article, "Inequality for Dummies," published on December 22, (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/23/opinion/inequality-for-dummies.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0) in which he contrasts the "left-left against the "center-left.