Portside

DIY Economics; Museums & Money; Atticus Before and After; Defending Planned Parenthood; Ingrid Sischy

“The data clearly shows that the evictions crisis and resulting loss of rental units” is a big blow to the city meeting its affordable housing goals, said Board of Supervisor Jane Kim. Speaking on the steps of city hall, Kim announced her new pro-tenant “Eviction Protection Act/Just Cause 2.0” ordinance, a reference to the latest dot.com boom that set off soaring housing competition. The ordinance idea came from the community she said.

The letter written by the UAW’s Black Interests Coordinating Committee (BICC) charges that police associations operate in ways that are antithetical to the mission statement of the AFL-CIO, particularly its stated goal "to fulfill the yearning of the human spirit for liberty, justice and community; to advance individual and associational freedom; [and] to vanquish oppression, privation and cruelty in all their forms."

An interesting article on the Iran Agreement written by a former CIA Analyst. "Everything that has been gained under this agreement in the way of restrictions on, and monitoring of, the Iranian nuclear program is a net, as well as a gross, gain over the situation that prevailed before the negotiations began and over the situation that would prevail if the agreement is killed."

The landmark U.S. disability rights legislation became the basis for an international treaty embraced by much of the world — but not, ironically, by the U.S. itself.

UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education has just published the third book in a series Dreams Deported edited by Kent Wong and Nancy Guarneros. Utilizing the Center's politically powerful approach that ensures that people speak and act collectively for themselves seeking justice, Dreams Deported is a significant contribution to the movement for immigrant and worker rights here in USA and internationally. Buy this book -- and use it!

The community surrounding the University of Chicago's Hyde Park campus has one of the highest shooting rates in Chicago and consequences of the lack of a Level 1 adult trauma center are acutely felt. In Oakland, California, activists and trained first responders were frustrated by the lack of urgency they observed among police and EMTs after shootings. Keeping trauma care inequality campaigns grassroots gives lasting power and impact. Elsewhere, activists agree.

There are as many reasons to desert military service as there are deserters. All countries’ militaries like to snatch young men when they are uneducated, inexperienced, and unemployed. It takes a soldier far greater courage to throw down his weapon than to kill a stranger. There are deserters in every country that has an armed forces. Armies demand blind obedience and human beings crave liberty. Why do men desert? Certainly not from cowardice.

The 42nd Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) got underway July 22 in San Diego. The mood was convivial, attire corporate casual: Brooks Brothers suits without ties, Dockers and sports shirts. ALEC, (secretive rightwing bill mill funded by Koch Brothers and global multibillion dollar corporations), has been described as a legislative dating service that arranges hookups between mostly Republican state lawmakers and corporate lobbyists.

Israel’s Civil Administration is advancing plans for the development of 1,065 housing units in eight different settlements throughout occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a settlement watchdog announced on Thursday.