Portside

In moves likened to the privatization of East Germany’s state-owned enterprises following unification, international finance has placed the privatization of Greece's public sector, one of the most developed in Europe, in the hands of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED). This "extra-legal organization" has close ties to the banks and no accountability for the impact of so-called austerity measures on Greece's increasingly impoverished population.

A new report by Standard & Poor's, one of the country's Big Three credit-rating agencies, points to increasing income inequality and the danger it poses to continued U.S. economic growth. In its report,. "How Increasing Income Inequality is Dampening U.S. Economic Growth, And Possible Ways to Change the Tide," S&P cites "all sorts of nasty" economic and political problems that flow from this growing inequality, but few solutions.

While the United States is "still in the coup-support game" in Latin America, nowadays the U.S. relies more on the mobilization of so-called "civil society" to destabilize democratically-elected progressive governments and make the country ungovernable. Like before, U.S.-backed military coups take place under the guise of establishing stability. But unlike before, today the military returns to its barracks, leaving a civilian dictatorship in power.

On August 1st Pope Francis reinstated Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, the former Nicaraguan Foreign Minister and President of the United Nations General Assembly, as a practicing priest. Pope John Paul II had suspended Father d'Escoto from his ministry in 1985 for serving in the Revolutionary Sandinista Government of Nicaragua, and as part of his concerted campaign against the influence of Liberation Theology within the Catholic Church.

The Border: Songs and Stories. Freddy Fender - Across the Borderline. Arlo Guthrie and Emmylou Harris - Deportees. Ice El Hielo - La Santa Cecilia. Illegal Immigrants, Dangerous Border — One Story. Deported: Kelly's Story.

How Nina Simone turned the movement into music.

American sports—structured and codified over a century ago as a leisure pastime created by men for male consumption—just got marginally better, and that is cause for celebration.

There is no reason for the Fed should be acting to slow the economy at the slightest hint of more rapid wage growth.

Coprocessors and a neural network supercomputer may follow.

Reader Comments - Gaza War - Israel, Palestine, the Jewish community and Zionism; Why Is Washington Risking War With Russia?; Labor - Kellogg Lockout and Coal Miners Anger; The Whitewashing of James Brown; Criminal Prosecution for Environmental Crimes; Bill Gates and the testing industry; Teacher Tenure (video); Celebrate the Life of Vito Marcantonio - Aug 9; 9th annual Dissident Arts Festival - Aug 16 - both in New York Today in History