Portside

According to a new report, roughly 1 million of the nation’s poorest people will be cut off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the course of 2016, as states move to limit food stamp benefits for unemployed adults who aren’t disabled or raising minor children. These individuals, most of whom don’t qualify for other help, will lose their food assistance benefits after three months regardless of how hard they are looking for work.

On January 2, Palestine became the 123rd state to sign the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In response, after first orchestrating the rejection of a UN Security Council resolution to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land by 2017, the U.S. and Israel announced their intent to punish the Palestinians. Signing the Rome treaty to abide by international law and seeking recourse to international law “is entirely counterproductive,” the U.S. says.

Even with the world's attention focused on the tragic events in Paris, the failure of the mainstream media to cover the bombing of the NAACP office in Colorado Springs is nonetheless a glaring example of the U.S. media's treatment of social movements. Colorado Springs residents had to learn of the NAACP bombing through social media. The complete lack of coverage of the NAACP attack shows the mainstream media is ready to move past the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

Wondering about why dogs do what they do seems to be an international pastime. But assuming that a dog rolling onto his back during play is akin to saying, you “came on too strong” or, ”OK, you won this round!” seems like a mistranslation.

In New York, some of the very former governors and mayors who gave the police hell to get raises, insisted on underpaying them, leaving them without contracts for years on end are today, once again, claiming to be their best defenders and crusaders. Why is that?

The attacks on the film Selma not only distort the actual relationship between King and Johnson, they distort the film's portrayal of the relationship. LBJ is not the villain of the movie; the movie presents him as a complicated figure who under prodding accomplishes something great.

Over the last few decades, productivity has grown substantially, but the hourly compensation of the typical worker has grown much less. Any effort to reestablish a link between pay and productivity growth will need to promote policies that enable workers to once again join unions and bargain collectively.

Koch Industries' Mysterious Swiss Bank. Black and White in the War on Drugs. The Courage of Stuart Scott. Why Are There No Women in The Hobbit? Jerusalem's Most Contested Neighborhood.

Reader Comments - Selma; Civil Rights Tour led by Julian Bond; Ferguson Grand Jury; Police, NYPD, PBA, de Blasio; Women telling their Story; Wealth and Inequality; Sports - A Radical Proposal; BDS, Israel, Palestine, Solidarity; Sony; The Interview; Privatization and Hucksterism; Climate Change, Marx and Nature; Healthcare; Superbugs; the Ukraine; Announcements - The American Labor Movement At A Crossroads; Elections in Greece: Can Syriza Break with Austerity?

[This is the first of a three-part series, Rage Against the Narrative, by Praxis Senior Editor Dr. Lisa Brock. The series is written in response to the uprising sparked by the killings of unarmed black people throughout the US. The three epigraphs below are gestures to each part.]