Portside

Since the massive anti-war protests against the war in Vietnam, the U.S. government's war machine has made “perception management” a high priority, feeding the U.S. people a steady diet of propaganda, even getting peace groups to buy into “pro-democracy” wars. The Minnesota experience with the Committee of Solidarity with the People of Syria is an example of these efforts made to enlist peace and social justice groups into supporting U.S. wars.

With the election of Takeshi Onaga as the new governor of Okinawa, the Okinawa people have once again expressed in clear terms their opposition to the attempts by the U.S. and Japan to turn their already militarized island into "the largest concentration of land, sea, and air military power in East Asia." Okinawa is key to the U.S. military's "Pivot to Asia", but 1.4 million Okinawans are continuing to demand the removal of all U.S. military bases there.

This week the President/CEO of the National Newspapers Publishers Association, the 73-year-old federation of more than 200 Black community newspapers in the United States, called upon the Black community to support full normalization of relations with Cuba. Benjamin Chavis, Jr. noted only Congress can lift the embargo of Cuba, and only the people can "force Congress to do the right thing." Now is not the time for Black America to be silent, he said.

In terms of losses in human lives, 2014 has been a horrific year for Palestinians, when an Israeli war against the Gaza Strip killed and wounded thousands. While some aspects of the conflict are stagnating between a corrupt, ineffectual Palestinian Authority (PA), and the criminality of Israeli wars and occupation, it would also be fair to argue that 2014 was also a game changer to some degree—and it is not all bad news. And here are five reasons why.

In Ireland, a woman who is clinically dead but 17 weeks pregnant is being kept alive against her family’s will. At this painful time, her relatives must go to court to stop the Irish state treating their loved one’s body as a cadaveric incubator. But leading male politicians, including Ireland's Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny, urge women to be calm and unemotional, even when confronted with the reality of implementing draconian laws directed at women.

We are skilled at assuming things cannot change and that we, the people, do not have the power to change them. Yet our country and our world have always been changing, are in the midst of great and terrible changes, and are occasionally changed through the power of the popular will and idealistic movements. The changing climate now demands that we summon up the energy to leave behind the Age of Fossil Fuel (and maybe some portion of the Age of Capitalism as well).

Talking about "police reform" obscures the task. Today's policies are, at the very least, the product of democratic will.

After some suave marketers used clips from Oz's TV show to sell bogus products, he faced a grilling from a panel of U.S. senators about his weight loss product claims. Oz then invited his Twitter audience, "What is your biggest question for me? Reply with #OzsInbox." Unfortunately for Oz, this strategy backfired. Horrendously. Immediately after Oz asked the question, Twitter gave Dr. Oz a hilarious slap across the face.

This is not your sanitized, Hollywood version of Dr. King.

Hong Kong Ode to Joy Flash Mob. Stevie Wonder: 'Hard Time Mississippi.' Handel's Messiah: A Random Act of Culture. Pete Seeger -- Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. Mary Poppins Really Needs a Raise.