Portside

The weakness of the petrostate economy could jolt Russia's political elites-or its ordinary citizens-to take action.

Statistics speak for themselves - revealing the New York Police Department has been needlessly arresting people who were not criminals at all. The NYPD has given Mayor Bill de Blasio proof that the department is indeed out of control, and not accountable to the people they are there to protect. The "broken windows" approach to law enforcement needs to be scrapped, and also the age-old trend of funding America's cities on the backs of the poor.

The tragic massacre in Paris will undoubtedly give fuel to the traditional xenophobic far-Right and the danger is an increase in racism, marginalization and exclusion of people of Muslim descent in Europe and further. We do not want to witness "anti-Muslim witch hunts". One way to commemorate this terrible event and memorialize its victims is to unequivocally defend universal human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, and they apply to all.

Republicans and right-wing supporters defeated in Kentucky "Right to Work" vote.

“Lets you and I be honest, we live in a country where there are still some that do not want to accept black and brown people into the circle of power,” said NAACP branch President Henry Allen. “Those people have been around forever and will continue to be around forever. But the majority of Americans want the same thing – a peaceful community that involves all of us."

“Our review of these proceedings has raised grave legal concerns, including knowing presentation of false witness testimony, erroneous instructions on the law, and preferential treatment of Mr. Wilson by the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office," wrote NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill.

A gas tax that fully corrected for the social impact of car reliance would upend life as we know it.

In the wake of the tragedy, many publications across the West have rushed to print reproductions of Charlie Hebdo covers as proof that terrorist violence cannot dampen free expression. Such homage to the magazine in its agony is in one sense fitting and proper, but in another sense it is the precise opposite of what the living Charlie was about.

Potemkin Review met with Thomas Piketty at his Paris office and talked to him about his book Capital in the 21st Century, asking detailed questions about his arguments therein as well as on broader issues, which anyone who has been following the debate should find useful.

With our banking system in private hands, the simple truth is that as the debt levels accelerate, so does runaway inequality. Therefore key to controlling runaway inequality is to dramatically curtail the power of high finance.