Portside

Iowa was the last state in the country that permanently took voting rights away from citizens with past convictions unless the government approved individual rights restoration – which now applies only to people with felony homicide convictions.

The US and China’s dance in the South China Sea bears a troubling resemblance to 1914 Sarajevo—and the eve of World War I.

As the two parties clash over how to conduct an election in a pandemic, President Trump’s litigiousness and unfounded claims of fraud have increased the likelihood of epic postelection court fights.

The recording of a legal training session for federal law enforcement officers alarmed some civil liberties advocates.

Which is too bad because we really need to understand how the immune system reacts to the coronavirus.

Always recall that we win nothing because we are right, or just, are smarter, or have a better analysis of the crisis. We win with solid and powerful organizing led by a guiding and time-tested set of Socialist principles.

The artists in this show, were truly avant-garde in their social values, championing the underdogs of history when it was unfashionable to do so. Their politics and style became, in the late 1940s, the subject that dared not speak its name.

India and China’s confrontation over a border in Himalaya is actually about energy and water. Britain’s colonial legacy is part of the problem; but military posturing and arms races won’t solve the extremely delicate diplomatic issues in the region.

COVID 19 is but a harbinger of worse plagues to come. The US cannot plan for these inevitable crises if it returns to normal. Normal led to this. To avert another catastrophe, the US needs to grapple with all the ways normal has failed us.

Gangs of sheriff’s deputies, violent cliques who glorify “aggressive” policing, have operated out of Los Angeles County stations and jails for decades. Their criminal behavior has been so egregious it has resulted in $55 million in legal payouts.