Portside

I’m nervously awaiting the Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, which would weaken public sector unions by letting workers receive the benefits of representation without contributing toward the cost. But I’ve got a unique vantage point: I work in the same building as the plaintiff.

“A land without a people for a people without a land.” As seductive as that slogan was, it was willfully false, as amply documented in personal testimonies of Palestinians and Israelis, historical records, and scholarly research.

White people keep calling the cops on black people for no reason. That’s dangerous. Calling 911 means different things to white and black people.

In September 2017, artist and scholar Yevgeniy Fiks visited the Jewish Autonomous Region to see what it is, instead of what it was expected to have been. He shared two essays with us, “Before Birobidzhan” and “Diocese of Birobidzhan”, originally published on his website http://yevgeniyfiks.com.

The Israeli government and its lobby, and its neoconservative US allies, convinced Donald Trump to sabotage the Iran deal. The forces that pushed for the Iraq war 16 years ago are sowing destruction again. The broken Iran treaty leaves no doubt; you cannot resist Trump without resisting Israel.

We should instead explore and promote options that would subordinate the Supreme Court to political control. Now is the right moment to dream of a chastened Court and to envision how that dream may become a reality.

Union President Laura Glading stepped down in October—under pressure from angry members, who were pushing for a special recall election. American Airlines announced in January that it had hired her as a consultant.

Security specialists say the case carries enormous consequences, for privacy and the competitiveness of U.S. businesses, and that the National Security Council directive, which has not been previously reported, shows that technology companies underestimated the resolve of the U.S. government to access encrypted data.

Many US producers borrowed heavily and cheaply to cash in on the shale boom, but prices of around $30 a barrel are now causing severe difficulties.