Archive | Portside

What Is Emergence?

January 11, 2019

How do extraordinarily complex emergent phenomena — like ants assembling themselves into living bridges, or tiny water and air molecules forming into swirling hurricanes — spontaneously arise from systems of much simpler elements?

Surviving R. Kelly: Bonus

January 11, 2019

Survivors Asante McGee, Kitti Jones, Lizzette Martinez, Lisa Van Allen, backup singer Jovante Cunningham, performing artist Sparkle, and ex-wife and survivor of R. Kelly, Andrea Kelly, address R. Kelly directly in this bonus clip from Episode 6 of Surviving R. Kelly, "Black Girls Matter." #SurvivingRKelly

January 11, 2019

Why Elizabeth Warren's 'Likability' Won't Matter

Steve Koczela CNN

Compared with Warren, incumbent Sen. Scott Brown was far more "likable." Then she beat him.

January 11, 2019

Florida Felons Once Denied Rights Begin Registering to Vote

Patricia Mazzei The New York Times

Voters in Florida approved an amendment to the state constitution that would restore voting rights to as many as 1.5 million former felons. Registration began on Tuesday.

January 11, 2019

Despite Everything, U.S. Troops Should Leave Syria

Stephen Zunes Foreign Policy in Focus

A small detachment of U.S. troops won’t protect the Kurds from Turkish aggression, but putting conditions on arms transfers might

January 11, 2019

The Man Who Came Back

J. L. L. Kroll Spillway

The casualties of a seemingly invisible war are brought home in J. L. L. Kroll’s poem about a single veteran.

January 10, 2019

Birmingham City Council Unanimously Approves Resolution of Support for Dr. Angela Davis; Group Sets Celebration of Angela Davis, Protests BRCI Revoking Its Award

Birmingham City Council; Solomon Crenshaw Jr. Birmingham City Council

After news that broke over the weekend that the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute rescinded an award that was to be presented to Dr. Angela Davis, the Birmingham City Council unanimously passed a resolution of support for the civil rights icon.

January 10, 2019

From Yellow Vests to the Green New Deal

Joseph E. Stiglitz Project Syndicate

The grassroots movement behind the Green New Deal offers a ray of hope to the badly battered establishment: they should embrace it - make it part of the progressive agenda. We need something positive to save us from ugly wave of populism, nativism...

January 10, 2019

Washington Trained Guatemala’s Mass Murderers — and the Border Patrol Played a Role

Greg Grandin and Elizabeth Oglesby The Nation

Now two Guatemalan children have died under Border Patrol custody. The agency’s role in Latin American oppression has a long history. It has has operated with near impunity, becoming arguably the most politicized branch of federal law enforcement...

January 10, 2019

What Does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Know About Tax Policy? A Lot.

Paul Krugman The New York Times

AOC’s advocacy of a tax rate of 70-80 percent on very high incomes, is obviously crazy, right? Who thinks that makes sense? Only ignorant people like - Peter Diamond, Nobel laureate in economics, arguably the world’s leading expert on public finance