Portside

Politicians are eager to distance themselves after correction officers' union leader Norman Seabrook became the best-connected figure to fall in a corruption investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Seabrook was arrested on fraud charges, accused of accepting a $60,000 bribe—reportedly delivered by Jona Rechnitz, a donor of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio at the center of a gift-for-favors scandal —in exchange for investing union money into a risky hedge fund.

 Beating Donald Trump at the polls will be a necessary, but wholly insufficient step.

Peabody, the world’s biggest private sector publicly traded coal company, was long known as an outlier even among fossil fuel companies for its public rejection of climate science and action. But its funding of climate denial groups was only exposed in disclosures after the coal titan was forced to seek bankruptcy protection in April, under competition from cheap natural gas.

Let us call the tragic event for what it was: an attack on Orlando’s queer Latinx club night, Pulse. Regardless of the allegiances the shooter might have pledged, this was, without a shadow of a doubt, a queerphobic attack.

As it turns out, language matters a lot. Calling these views as a whole “socialism” makes explicit a critique of capitalism and its shortcomings that cannot be grasped when the word itself is absent. It suggests that the reforms for which we fight are more than just an attempt to ameliorate the ills of a market-driven society; it says that it is the very system which is the problem, and which must be changed.

Orlando solidarity, I and II; MacArthur Foundation flubs; Judge judged; Populism for sale; Trump rides the subway

British Film Institute-Flare: London LGBT Film Festival is 30. Over 100 programmers, critics and filmmakers voted for the 30 greatest LGBT films of all time.

Looking at data from national surveys, we find that union members are on average more likely than the general population to display pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors.

Recent research draws on data from nearly two thousand policy initiatives to show that “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy… while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence."

The American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other major medical associations — joined by local doctors and addiction specialists — have warned that measures criminalizing pregnant women will only discourage them from seeking prenatal care and drug treatment.