Portside

Medicare Advantage was supposed to be a money-saver. It’s now become a costly, unaccountable cash cow for private insurance companies that is swallowing traditional Medicare.

The escalation of the conflict in Ukraine between the United States and its allies, on the one hand, and the Russian Federation, on the other, must be stopped immediately. The consequences of a conflict in Ukraine would be disastrous.

Self-determination? Western encroachment? Understanding the Ukraine showdown, and other international reports

Underpinning Putin’s goal is Russia’s historical view of Ukraine as a part of its greater empire. Understanding this helps explain Putin’s actions, and how he leans into this to advance his agenda.

The “mainstream media” that is so often accused of being left-leaning is in fact painfully neutral and objective to a fault...that fault being an addiction to false equivalences and an inability and/or unwillingness to call a spade a spade.

To reduce stigma and improve the addiction crisis, drug policy must be liberated from the idea that without criminal penalties, no one would ever quit drugs. In fact, arrest, incarceration and having a criminal record can exacerbate drug problems.

Info tech leaving its mark everywhere

Mistrust of government and the tensions between segments of society have been intentionally constructed and aggravated. Once you recognize that, the solutions to the crises we truly face become more clear.

In a year of health care workers organizing amid Covid surges and staffing shortages, St. Vincent nurses stood out for their willingness to strike indefinitely and for the discipline the strikers showed.

Cryptocurrency is not merely a bad investment or speculative bubble. It’s worse than that: it’s a full-on fraud.