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Charles Koch Gave $90 Million to Influence Higher Ed in the South

Alex Kotch Facing South
The proposed center at WCU is part of a long campaign by Koch to influence higher education. The Charles Koch Foundation along with three other groups led by Koch gave nearly $108 million to 366 colleges and universities from 2005 to 2014, finds an Institute for Southern Studies investigation, building on research by Greenpeace.

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Once a year, Portside asks our readers for support. Every year our readers come thru. We run these appeals for just two weeks. If you have already contributed, many thanks! If you have thought of going to our donate page, but haven't...please do. Here's why we are asking for your support.

Have We Hit Peak Inequality?

Chuck Collins OtherWords.org
These 400 billionaires have greater wealth than 190 million of their fellow Americans put together.

Scans Prove There’s No Such Thing As a ‘Male’ or ‘Female’ Brain

Jessica Hamzelou New Scientist
The idea that people have either a “female” or “male” brain is an old one. To test the theory, scientists looked for differences in brain scans of 1400 people. They found that very few people had all of the brain features they might be expected to have, based on their sex. Averaged across many people, sex differences in brain structure do exist, but an individual brain is likely to be just that: individual, with a mix of features.

The Reign of Absurdiocy

Uri Avnery Gush Shalom
There is no such thing as "international terrorism". To declare war on "international terrorism" is nonsense. Politicians who do so are either fools or cynics, and probably both.

The Necessity of Football

JAMIL SMITH The New Republic
Too few of us recognize ourselves in the beauty and the carnage the NFL presents each Sunday. The game won’t change because we’re not changing. I hope a new audience will be exposed to Dr. Bennet Omalu’s story and understand that the only way to get football to change is to present its faults in an uncompromising fashion, pressuring the NFL and those who love the sport to face themselves and do better.

Tidbits - December 3, 2015 - Hillary, Bernie and Labor; Chicago cops, Suffragette (readers respond to responses); Socialism; US and refugees - disgraceful history; and much more...

Portside
Reader Comments: Chicago Police Killings of African Americans; Hillary and Labor; Readers debate Democratic Socialism; U.S. history and refugees, then and now - doors closed to Jews, while Japanese Americans are interned; Young Workers; NUHW Wins Battle with Kaiser; Quebec Rolling Strikes; Close Guantanamo; Who Benefits From A Post-Paris "Clash of Civilizations"?; Suffragette - Portside readers weigh in; Announcements: Book Sales; Worker Coops; Puerto Rico Fightback

The Maquiladora Workers of Juárez Find Their Voice

David Bacon The Nation
Low pay, abusive conditions, no union representation - employees are fed up and fighting back. About 255,000 people work directly in Juárez's 330 maquiladoras, about 13 percent of the total nationally, making Juárez one of the largest concentrations of manufacturing on the US/Mexico border. Almost all the plants are foreign-owned. Eight of Juárez's 17 largest factories belong to US corporations,

Jets and Predators - Report from Germany

Victor Grossman Portside
Germany is constitutionally barred from foreign missions but that never bothered anyone in the government. Germany's rulers, in coalition armchairs or skulking in lobbies behind them, are very determined to expand political, economic and military power, not just in Europe but to far distant shores as well. Some dangerous bombs from the last century are still found in Germany; they must be defused. This applies equally to dangerous ideas.