Archive | Portside

July 9, 2021

After Months of Controversy, FDA Chief Requests Probe of Alzheimer's Drug Approval

Jessica Corbett Common Dreams

Public Citizen, which called for the FDA acting commissioner "to immediately resign or be removed" over the "reckless and inexcusable" drug approval, welcomed her "belated" request.

July 9, 2021

Eight Takeaways From ProPublica’s Investigation of How Sports Owners Use Their Teams to Avoid Taxes

ProPublica ProPublica

How do billionaire team owners end up paying lower tax rates not only than their millionaire players, but even the person serving beer in the stadium? Let’s go to the highlights.

The “Dark Money” Playbook for Rigging US Elections

July 9, 2021

An in-depth video exposing Heritage Action’s $24 million campaign over the next two years to roll back access to the ballot and block congressional Democrats’ sweeping democracy reform bill, the For the People Act. #Politics #DarkMoney #HeritageAction #HeritageFoundation #VotingRights

Nina Simone | Backlash Blues (Live at Montreux, 1976)

July 9, 2021

One of Nina Simone's searing civil rights songs. The lyrics by poet Langston Hughes weave a kaleidoscope of issues and images.

How a Billionaire Team Owner Pays a Lower Tax Rate Than LeBron James — and the Stadium Workers, Too

July 9, 2021

Tax laws allow owners to claim that their teams lose value, lowering their tax bills. The government misses out on billions in revenue.

What’s in the 4% of Our DNA That Makes Us Different From Chimps?

July 9, 2021

On the genetic level, we're not all that different from chimps. But those small differences in DNA can have huge effects.

Debunking the Myth of the Lost Cause

July 9, 2021

The Lost Cause was a campaign created by pro-Confederates after the Civil War to promote the lie that they seceded for state's rights.

July 9, 2021

Trauma Walks into a Bar

Melissa Spohr Weiss Tar River Poetry

In this ode to the walking wounded, poet Melissa Spohr Weiss reminds us that trauma has consequences, that “trauma births trauma births trauma.”

July 8, 2021

Armed Afghan Women Take to Streets in Show of Defiance Against Taliban

Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul The Guardian

Women have taken up guns in northern and central Afghanistan, marching in the streets in their hundreds and sharing pictures of themselves with assault rifles on social media, in a show of defiance as the Taliban make sweeping gains nationwide.

July 8, 2021

The Problem With Talking About Israeli Apartheid

Amira Hass Haaretz

We should be grateful that the title “apartheid,” to denote the Israeli regime between the river and the sea, is becoming more and more common and legitimate...A dynamic, active and dangerous dimension of it is Jewish settler colonialism.