Portside

Let’s offer thanks for small favors when someone -- in this case, ex-Army Ranger and TomDispatch regular Rory Fanning (author of Worth Fighting For: An Army Ranger’s Journey Out of the Military and Across America) -- feels the urge to do something about the massive, militarized propaganda effort in our schools. In my book, Fanning is the equivalent of any 12 of our generals and we need more like him both in those schools and in our country. Tom Engelhardt

For Palestinians, Honduras and Guatemala might seem too distant, too irrelevant for our struggle. And while there are some apparent stark differences in our lived realities and in the faces of our oppressors, there are commonalities as well. In Palestine as well as in many parts of Central and Latin America, the oppression is directly sponsored by US military and financial aid. And in all these places our collective survival rests upon defending and preserving our land.

CSPG's Poster of the Week calls attention to the same issues that energized the ongoing Democracy Spring protests in Washington, DC--the loss of democracy in an age of big money corporate politics.

Financial meltdown, environmental disaster and even the rise of Donald Trump - neoliberalism has played its part in them all. Why has the left failed to come up with an alternative?

Out-of-control U.S. nuclear weapons programs accelerate spending, proliferation, health and safety risks. Despite a clear obligation under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty the US continues to pursue exotic elective changes to the nuclear stockpile. Many LEPs will result in nuclear weapons with new military capabilities—contrary to promises and assertions made by President Obama.

Support for coup regimes, militarization and privatization, trade deals that wreak economic havoc—they reveal the failure of Clintonism.

In 1838, the Jesuit priests who ran the country’s top Catholic university needed money to keep it alive. Now comes the task of making amends.

If you are not severely and wholeheartedly dealing with racism, you are not going to get to the bottom of this issue . . . CPD's own data gives validity to the widely held belief the police have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color . . . at every step of the way, the police oversight system is riddled with legal and practical barriers to accountability.

Beyond 10 days, most meteorologists will say, there is little predictive skill. This is largely due to the "butterfly effect," in which only a very small change in initial conditions will have huge changes after about 10 days.

South African President Jacob Zuma’s apology April 4th has done little to resolve the political crisis wracking South Africa. The March 31st Constitutional Court ruling he used his position for personal gain and “failed to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution,” came on the heels of allegations by respected members of the African National Congress that an influential business family allied with Zuma had offered them cabinet posts in return for political favors.