Portside

Another recent horrific injustice in the US is the jailing of African-American school teachers in Atlanta. There is widespread consternation on the Left, but little systemic analysis of this event. Every analyst finds it necessary to include the disclaimer "Of course they were wrong. They should have been fired."

Ukrainian anti-fascists are calling on people around the world to mark May 2 as a day of commemoration of those who were killed in the trade union building in Odessa.

April 20 was Hitler's birthday, a day when in the past few years neo-Nazis around the world have engaged in terror attacks; and on April 20, 2015 the U.S. Army is officially beginning the training and integration of the Ukraine's neo-Nazi stormtroopers.

. . . the U.S. is helping the Mexican government cover up information about grave human rights violations. Indeed, a thorough analysis of internal government files, released through Freedom of Information requests or through leaks, reveals a pattern of abuses and cover-ups . . .

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.