Portside

The European Union is disintegrating – but leaving is not the answer.

Clint Eastwood’s iconic character spawned generations of vigilante cop fantasies.

The Sun-Times previously has reported that, over the past seven years, the police have spied on anti-Olympics protesters, the Service Employees International Union, critics of the visiting Chinese premier, the Occupy movement and NATO Summit demonstrators. Following nationwide protests over the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, the police here monitored black demonstrators and kept logs of events led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other groups.

The Treasury Department is often a limp watchdog when it comes to policing arcane tax dodges, but this time, Treasury grew some fangs by tightening its regulations, which led Pfizer to call off the deal. Pfizer’s loss is a potent win for small-d democracy. It can provide a starting point for reinvigorating reform politics.

And you thought there were just solids, liquids, gases and plasma

So far super-rich US tax dodgers have escaped the scrutiny and outrage directed at the world’s greediest following the release of the documents known as the Panama Papers. This is in large part because US one-percenters long ago decided to shelter-in-place, hiding their money in tax havens at home. The US has overtaken Singapore, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands as a preferred haven for the super-rich to hide their assets, trailing only Switzerland and Hong Kong.

Data from the International Federation of Robotics – a non-profit that protects the interests of the robot industry – show that today, worldwide, for every 10,000 employees, on an average, there are 66 robots. In South Korea, that density is about 400; 300 in Japan; 290 in Germany; and 160 in the U.S. The apocalypse depicted in R.U.R. is far from reality, assures one of the I.F.R.’s brochures. The loss of employment from automation, though, will only fuel fear of robots.

Despite current progressive electoral energy and, in some places, major movement gains, we have a long way to go to win lasting fundamental change. Partly vile institutions at the core of our society manipulatively and coercively twist our motives and awareness. Partly a right wing surge is also occurring. And partly the public has still not thrown off cynicism and a trembling fear of enduring even worse outcomes if we try to seek better.

Amid this urban growth, state lawmakers have gotten increasingly involved in local affairs — not only invalidating local anti-discrimination ordinances but attempting to re-draw electoral districts in Wake County, home to Raleigh; take control of Charlotte's airport; and overturn a minimum wage increase in Greensboro, the state's third-largest city.

“Amoris Laetitia” sums up everything that’s awesome and frustrating about Pope Francis.