Portside

Dependence on profit-dominated private corporations comes with hard-hearted limits and permanent insecurity.

By party, race and ethnicity, age, education and religion

Cutbacks in housing, healthcare, public transportation and economic opportunities and the criminalization of underground economy jobs, like sex work and the sale of illicit drugs, lead to increased incarceration and declining public safety.

The New York Times ran an important story this week on President Trump’s pursuit of ways to attack Iran. But the report also paints a distorted picture of Iran’s nuclear program and downplays the consequences of a US (and/or Israeli) military strike.

As Pfizer and Moderna prepare to roll out their COVID 19 vaccines, the problems associated with publicly funded vaccines in the hands of private companies are already on the horizon, as the drug industry seeks to control global efforts for a cure.

Not much is changing. We all still getting prejudged. We’re still getting pulled over. Not much has changed at all. We’re still getting violated. It ain’t got no rights. It’s definitely ain’t equal. If you want change, you have to involve yourself

Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is gone but Libya is now more dangerous than ever. Where are the NATO Alliance "liberators" that facilitated the demise of the Libyan dictator's regime and left the country to the fate of warring militias and tribal warlords? Libya desperately needs viable political institutions and a credible security apparatus but "none of the 'liberators' seem interested any more."

Hundreds of veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are worried about what’s being called the new Agent Orange: open air burn pits. Burn pits are open-air areas where the US military burned water bottles and plastic-foam cups, as well as human and medical waste. In a survey of some 2,000 veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, three-quarters reported being exposed to burn pits and half said they have "symptoms associated with that exposure."

The Environmental Protection Agency, the government agency charged with safeguarding the country's health from environmental pollutants, pursues criminal charges in “fewer than one-half of one percent” of total legal violations. And the U.S. Justice Department has an even worse record. Consequently, all corporate violators, even repeat offenders and those involved in the illegal release of large amounts of dangerous toxic chemicals, escape criminal prosecution.

Transnational cereal maker Kellogg's has locked out 220 members of the IUF-affiliated BCTGM since October 22 at its factory in Memphis, Tennessee in an effort to force union acceptance of a plan to radically increase the use of casual workers. Yesterday a Judge ordered Kelloggs to return the workers to work.