Portside

As Donald Trump might put it, major weapons contractors like Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin cashed in “bigly” in his first year in office. They raked in tens of billions of dollars in Pentagon contracts, while posting sharp stock price increases and healthy profits driven by the continuation and expansion of Washington’s post-9/11 wars. But last year’s bonanza is likely to be no more than a down payment on even better days to come for the military-industrial complex.

Although he has not yet imposed any explicit cuts, on January 11, the Trump administration took another step toward undercutting these essential social programs: It issued guidance allowing states to impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries. This staggering and unprecedented change in health-care policy is expected to adversely affect millions of people in the United States, particularly those with disabilities.

Despite the time elapsed, almost three-quarters of a century ago, a similar text, with the same title, could be written today: “Adrift by the seas of history, without direction, without destination, goes Puerto Rico: for four and a half centuries “ Now it should be added that the situation is worse and the island, hit by fierce hurricanes, especially the most recent and brutal named Donald Trump, faces a decisive moment in its history.

In 50 years, only one officer has been fired for abuse involving racial or ethnically biased language.

An agricultural economist writes that treating Twinkies and carrots as the beginning and end of the farm subsidies discussion distracts from useful public discourse.

Dutch spies hacked the Russian hackers, even capturing them on film, the new report says.

Research has found that swearing has a power that other words lacks.

White Americans are susceptible to xenophobic and nativist anti-immigrant rhetoric because of the national mythology that their privilege is due to hard work and perseverance. Some immigrants from privileged backgrounds also succumb to this fiction.

More Than 750 American Communities Have Built Their Own Internet Networks. A new map shows that more communities than ever are building their own broadband networks to end big telecom's monopoly.

A Discussion of "Hegemony How-To" by Jonathan Smucker