Portside

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose.” This is the season and time when we should be resolved to continue seeking justice together and not let those with blind biases distract, diminish, or divide us. The way to honor those who defend our liberties with their lives—as did my father and grandfather—is not to curtail liberty, but to exercise it fully in pursuit of a just and peaceful society.

There are myriad ways that a peaceful resolution of the Syrian civil war can be derailed, but the pieces for an agreement are on the table. Failure to put them together will accelerate the destabilizing effects of the war in neighboring countries and deepen the misery of the Syrian people.

It was George H.W. Bush’s invasion of that small, poor country 25 years ago that inaugurated the age of preemptive unilateralism, using “democracy” and “freedom” as both justifications for war and a branding opportunity.

Instead of progressives sounding the bugle of retreat, exactly the opposite is necessary. The elements of the progressive movement that already exist in the South must be supported.

The Second City is still grappling with a long history of police brutality.

Until recently, [some] specimens have been un-sequenceable due to DNA contamination from the modern people who have handled them. Today’s techniques make it possible to differentiate modern from ancient DNA sequences, which opens up the prospect of returning to the many museum specimens in collections worldwide to see what further answers they might hold.

When eastern Aleppo fell to rebel factions in 2012, well-organized radical Islamic preachers from abroad quickly moved in and began proselytizing extremist views to the local population. It is an example of methodically planned Islamist radicalization in the chaos and turmoil of war. And it raises fears that the effects of this extremist phase in Syria's civil war will linger for years to come.

The so-called Uber or “on-demand” economy is a rerun of the oldest sort of business: middlemen insinuating themselves between buyers and sellers. The vital ingredient, without which this new economy would fall apart, is inequality. All that modern technology has done is make it easier, through omnipresent smartphones, to amass a fleet of increasingly desperate jobseekers eager to take whatever work they can get.

Given the pressing worldwide realities of disinvestment, land grabbing, rent increases, evictions and displacement; a class analysis applied to housing and urban issues is more urgent than ever. Gentrification is the neighborhood expression of class inequality. Its positives are only felt by those who profit from the loss of housing opportunities of others. And there is nothing remotely natural about it.

Hundreds of Public Defenders from Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Solano counties held unprecedented Black Lives Matter protests at their county courthouses December 18th. They demanded body cameras for officers; the investigation of police-involved shootings by outside agencies, not District Attorneys; and no grand juries for police-involved shootings. “We need those three things,”Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods said.