Portside

Two potentially sweeping Supreme Court cases set the stage for a seismic shift in the battle over abortion and contraception.

Hollywood stars play all the major roles in the film, but it is no puff piece for the 1 percent. After watching “The Big Short” and talking to viewers, it’s hard to argue against Sanders’ demands to increase taxes on the billionaires and break up the banks, and use the revenue to fund better health care and education.

Nature offers a panoply of ways to determine an organism’s sex. How can such a fundamental property be so variable?

New York poet Howie Good, winner of the Prize Americana for poetry in 2015, opens a window to a natural world--"Some Sort of Shining"-- that's always there, but seldom seen.

The combination of fed-up workers, motivated organizers, and political opportunity created a perfect storm for New York City's carwasheros and fast-food workers in the fight for $15.

Never before the period 1918-60 had so many young people, from so many sections of society, danced so much. In Britain, as in the United States, dancing morphed from a craze to part of daily life. Before that, dancing as frequent social activity was reserved for the privileged. This changed followed the opening of specially built dance halls after World War I, influenced by US styles and catering to a lower-middle and working-class public with rising wages.

Reader Comments: New Threat to Voting Rights before Supreme Court; The Portrayal of African Americans on Stage and Screen - Tonya Pinkins the Real Mother Courage; Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and Oregon Thugs; Left Gains Ground, Can It Hold; Trump and Fascism; Readers Respond to poem about Berlin Wall - The GDR, A Different Perspective; The Real Northern Student Movement; Shostakovich; Vivian Stromberg Presente.(Sorry for length, three weeks since Tidbits last appeared)

From an interview with Mphatheleini Makaulele, an award-winning indigenous leader, farmer, and activist, and Director of Dzomo la Mupo, a community organization in rural South Africa. She is also part of the African Biodiversity Network.