Portside

Homeopathy is, as Steve Novella characterized it, an “excellent example of the purest form of pseudoscience,” and as I, more blunt that Steve, like to call it, “The One Quackery To Rule Them All.” Failing to make that clear in media coverage of homeopathy lets advocates of homeopathic quackery to label skeptics as “homeopathic naysayers” and claim that the current FDA regulatory framework for homeopathic products is working just fine.

The finance committees of the House and Senate have approved amendments to a trade bill (TTP) that equate boycotts of West Bank settlement products with boycotts of Israel, strengthening efforts by the Israeli right to silence opponents of West Bank settlements. A separate measure approved by the House panel as an amendment to the customs bill goes a step further and takes action against some foreign companies if they shun the settlements.

“Victims can be perpetrators, too.” It’s important for people to understand that.

Claims Iran is supplying the Houthis with weapons ignore the fact the group was already flush with American arms from ex-president Saleh.

Since last weekend more than 1,000 people have drowned off the coast of Libya. Another 600 died during journeys to Europe earlier this year. According to Nils Muižnieks, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Europe must change its course and assume responsibility for preventing similar tragedies. He calls for changes in the legislation governing asylum and migration, which has only increased migrants’ vulnerability—and made smugglers richer.

El Salvador joined the near unanimous appeal by Latin American and Caribbean governments for the Obama Administration to repeal its executive order declaring Venezuela a “threat” to national security. The U.S. is now issuing veiled threats that it might deny El Salvador’s participation in its proposed $1 billion Alliance for Prosperity program for Central America, which ostensibly is designed to reduce the influx of migrants to the United States.

In the midst of a historic drought, Californians have no way of knowing who is guzzling the most water. That’s not an accident. It’s by design, thanks to an obscure 1997 measure that weakened one of the state’s chief open government laws, the California Public Records Act. For the source of this legislation, look no further than Silicon Valley, where the city of Palo Alto decided it needed to do more to protect the privacy of the tech elite.

It must have seemed a very good idea at the time. The young, ambitious son of an aged king launching a war against a rebellion in a troubled country to the south. However, the Saudi-led bombing campaign, which was supposed to break the Houthis resistance and drive them from the cities, has failed miserably. The Houthis remain in control of the capital Sanaa and much of the key southern city of Aden. And the only beneficiary of the Saudi air war may be al-Qaeda.

The recent anti-immigrant violence that erupted this month in parts of Johannesburg and the coastal city of Durban has left at least seven people dead. It is the greatest explosion of xenophobic violence against foreign nationals in South Africa since 62 immigrants were killed in 2008. This article, written in January of 2015, provides some background and insight into the recent violence against migrants in South Africa that has shaken the continent.

Social Security surfaced in the very first days of the campaign, thanks to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie going after the program with the zeal of a born huckster, demanding to raise the retirement age. In 2010 equivocation and deficit-reduction obsession from President Obama squandered Democrats' good will on the subject. But this year anything less than an embrace of expansion this time is likely to leave the base unsatisfied.