Portside

Western activists and diplomats are focusing on Israel's settlements in the Palestinian territories, and if peace talks fail, the rain of boycotts and sanctions could turn into a flood. This past week a second American academic organization overwhelmingly endorsed the economic and academic boycott of Israel.

Military chaplains seem to be another cog in the apparatus of making war maximally effective. Christian chaplains seem to not pay much attention to the Ten Commandments either, especially the ones that say "thou shalt not kill" or "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's oil". 99 years ago one of the most unusual aberrations in the bloody history of warfare - never allowed to be repeated again - occurred.

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Mayor Bloomberg pushed through re-zoning of nearly 40 percent of New York City. Bill de Blasio campaigned against urban gentrification. Can the new mayor reverse the trend? Can big-city electoral coalitions buck the trend of the real estate and financial speculators? Author Michael Hirsch reviews the new book about Chicago's mayor Rahm Emanuel - the mayor of the 1% in the second largest city of the country.

A behind the scenes look in North Korea to explain the dramatic recent events in Pyongyang. Events there show a Shakespearean tragedy that has ended with the execution of the person widely seen as the power behind the throne. No one performs Shakespeare in the theaters of Pyongyang. Instead, he is enacted in the corridors of power.

The state of education is in disarray just like the state of capitalism.

The Left wants to give people the chance to do something with their lives, by giving them time and space away from the market.