Portside

The U.S. is now involved in more than 130 wars or none, depending on your definition of 'war.' Or it is involved in one worldwide "War Against Terror," that successive U.S. Administrations, with Congressional support, have used to justify U.S. military operations in at least 134 countries, where they are engaged in direct combat operations, conduct special covert missions, act as military advisers, or train foreign troops or militias.

The new PBS documentary series: The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, reinforces "the American desire to believe in cherished myths," while "covering up the information we ought to know." President Theodore Roosevelt was a war monger and an inveterate racist, and, "it should be shocking that in the 21st century there is still such an inclination to sweep this easily accessible information under the rug."

Only 15 years ago, progressive massive fibrosis - an advanced form of black lung disease for which there is no cure - was virtually eradicated. Now, health researchers say, coal miners in Kentucky and other parts of Appalachia are contracting serious cases of black lung at rates not seen since the early 1970s. According to government estimates, black lung disease has caused or contributed to the deaths of more than 75,000 miners since 1968.

Chelsea Manning, the intelligence analyst arrested for passing cache of documents to WikiLeaks, breaks her silence, warns the US-led mission to destroy the extremist group is destined to fail - it will merely feed a "cycle of outrage, recruitment, organizing and even more fighting that goes back decades". Veteran Mideast and world reporter Seumas Milne declares, 'bombing and more intervention can't destroy Isis. The US is at the heart of the crisis in the Middle East.'

Massachusetts Peace Action sent the following letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren on September 12, 2014. We also raised questions about her justification of Israel's war crimes in Gaza at her Tufts lecture on September 15 and distributed flyers to the attendees.

Fifty years ago, Ella Baker said, "Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest." Michael Brown's murder by a Ferguson, Missouri, cop has, once again, provoked a national conversation about how far the United States has come in its quest for racial equality.

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Syria, Iraq, ISIS and the increased role of the U.S. (once again) has prompted wide-spread opposition, discussion and disagreements by those on the left. Yesterday's Congressional vote on war appropriations, with many who have opposed the Afghanistan and Iraq war, now voting for a new war, shows this lack of clarity and unity. Two long-time activists for peace and social justice, Seymour Joseph and James E. Vann sent Portisde opposing perspectives.

This is a test - please ignore

"… the question of unity brings up a hard subject, a subject all of us know about but few want to- acknowledge -- race. Because the reality is that while a young man named Michael Brown died just a short distance from us in Ferguson, from gunshot wounds from a police officer, other young men of color have died and will die in similar circumstances, in communities all across this country. … Because the reality is we still have racism in America."