Portside

Boehner announced his resignation from Congress. He’d give himself another month, postpone a government shutdown until he was long gone and couldn’t be blamed for it. He had a ready successor lined-up in the form of Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Then it all fell apart.

To a degree unseen since the Gilded Age over a century ago, money will pour into the 2016 elections from a handful of donors giving once unimaginable sums. Many want something from government. And many of these donors will operate undisturbed -- their identities secret from the public, if not from the grateful politicians. It's called "dark money."

It’s time that our politicians acknowledge that it’s way too easy to get guns – legal and illegal – in this country. No one should be able to get an AK-47 through a few phone calls – including me.

For the first time, a complete DNA sequence from Africa dating back thousands of years has been recovered. The DNA of this Ethiopian man sheds new light on the movement out of Africa, and also movement of Eurasians back into Africa.

The Persian poet Majid Naficy fled Iran in 1983 to live in exile in various places, currently in Los Angeles. His poetry here addresses the sense of loss, the urge to create roots.

Today we are fighting back for the respect of the Geneva Conventions. As a medical humanitarian organization, we are fighting back for the sake of our patients. We need you, as members of the public, to stand with us to insist that even wars have rules. This was not just an attack on our hospital-it was an attack on the Geneva Conventions. This cannot be tolerated. These Conventions govern the rules of war and were established to protect civilians in conflicts...

Scores of Palestinians were injured in clashes across the West Bank and more than 200 were arrested in Jerusalem, after Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday he is running an all-out war against Palestinian terrorism. Palestinians protested Tuesday in a day of rage, Reports from Palestine, statement by Palestinian Red Crescent Society and Jewish Voice for Peace. Protest vigil in Tel Aviv against the occupation and escalation Oct. 9.

We need a political revolution of millions of people in this country who are prepared to stand up and say, enough is enough, Sanders argued. I want to help lead that effort. If you're interested in advancing the revolutionary potential of the Bernie Sanders campaign - please sign up with People for Bernie. Political revolution, here we come.