Portside

A once-in-a-generation convergence of technology and pressure to operate more efficiently has corporations saying many lost jobs may never return.

Twenty-one members of Congress last week called for lifting US sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela, including most of the Squad. The pushback is needed: sanctions are a cruel economic weapon that hurts average people — and has spurred a surge of economic refugees.

Last week brought the alarming news that three Kentucky-based McDonald’s franchises had kids as young as 10 working at 62 stores in four different states. Some of these under-working age children were working as late as 2 a.m.

Half of Americans, namely homeowners, already have rent control. It’s time to expand it to everyone.

The Covenants Homeownership Account Act provides compensation in the form of substantial mortgage assistance to victims and their descendants. It was written with a view to overcoming legal challenges that might derail programs that are overtly race based. Instead, this law is “harm based.”

Chie Hayakawa's raw and sobering debut imagines a near-future Japan in which the elderly are encouraged to volunteer for euthanization. The scariest thing about Hayakawa’s film isn’t its familiar depiction of a society that privileges human output over human dignity, but rather its soft dystopian sketch of a society that’s able to soft-shoe around dehumanization and/or sell it as an act of grace.

Is tech taking us over a cliff, or giving us wings?

"The avalanche of anti-voter surprise bills introduced yesterday by the extremist leadership of the North Carolina General Assembly in a constitutionally suspect 'extra session' is an insult to the democratic values held by all people of goodwill in this state."

Karina Petri, founder of Project Flint, said grassroots organizations like hers are struggling to find a voice for residents who have given up, some of whom have gone back to using the tainted water because they no longer care about the health consequences.

I argue that a defection of working class voters to Trump was key to the loss of historic battleground states, and thus the election. These are voters who have been voting for change at least since 2008 and they haven’t gotten it from a corporatist Democratic party. The problem in Fletcher and Wing's analysis of working class support for Trump is that they resort to income as a proxy for class.