Portside

"Apparently, neither Saudi Arabia's brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi nor its mid-summer bombing of a school bus packed full of children were enough to break the ice surrounding House Majority Leader Paul Ryan's heart."

Democrats have to keep reminding themselves, and America, that they beat Trump and the Republicans in the competition that mattered most - the only truly national competition this fall. The Democratic mandate is not overwhelming. But it is real.

Only 25 countries have ratified ILO convention 189 that declares domestic workers should enjoy the same rights as other workers. Nonetheless, important advances in their struggle have been made world-wide.

Since the 2016 elections, corporate media narratives about US politics have fixated on the “white working class” as a pivotal demographic, presented as a hardscrabble assortment of disaffected outsiders.

While Americans teetered, arguing as to which side gained more in the elections, Germans have been balancing on a seesaw of their own – which can also have decisive consequences.

Reader Comments: 2018 elections - What Next; Proportional Representation; Police Links to White Supremacists; Anti-Gravity; Labor International Solidarity; Private Equity and Workers; Refugee Caravan; New War in Gaza; FREE Film Showings; and more....

Ben Fountain's "Beautiful Country Burn Again" revisits (and tries to make historical sense of) the convulsions of the 2016 election as prelude to--and forewarning of--the perfervid run-up in Trump country to the 2018 midterm contests.

This was written by educator Dave Stovall shortly after Trump was run out of Chicago earlier this year in March and serves as an important reminder: White supremacy predates and will last well beyond Trump. This is not a strange blip in the annals of U.S. history. It is in its foundation. This piece appeared originally on Beacon Broadside.

John Oliver: Puerto Rico. Bernie Challenges Dems. Pres. Obama's Language Games. How Did Life Begin on Earth? Samantha Bee | Twenty-Dollar Tubman.

Campaign finance reform, long a lonely political backwater frequented only by good government groups, is suddenly becoming a hot new address for some of this year’s candidates. Whether that will lead to a vibrant new political community remains the open question.