Skip to main content

The Prisoners’ Revolt: The Real Reasons behind the Palestinian Hunger Strike

Ramzy Baroud Common Dreams
The protests igniting across the Occupied Territories to support 1,500 hunger strikers are not merely an act of 'solidarity' with the incarcerated and abused men and women who are demanding improvements to their conditions. Sadly, prison is the most obvious fact of Palestinian life; it is the status quo; the everyday reality.

Funding Agreement Protects Orphan Miner Health Care, But Doesn't Resolve Pension Issues

Tracie Mauriello Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Democrats and coal-country Republicans say miners are uniquely deserving because of an agreement in 1946, when the government seized mines and ended a strike by agreeing to provide health and pension benefits. Legislative leaders have agreed to the provisions as part of a $1 trillion government funding bill, and rank-and-file members are expected to approve it later this week.

How Trump Is Riding on the Shoulders of Obama's Interventions in Central America

Brigitte Gynther, Azadeh Shahshahani Alternet
Trump’s policies against immigrants are an intensification of the Obama administration’s targeting of Central American refugees through raids going after women and children in January 2016 as well as using large scale family detention as a deterrence mechanism aimed at stopping others fearing for their lives from fleeing to the US. The Trump administration is flagrantly exacerbating harmful U.S. immigration and foreign policies implemented for over a century.

Climate Equity from the Grassroots

Jessica Medina SCOPE
We envision a South L.A. that is a healthy and economically stable region with opportunities and resources for residents to thrive and sustain themselves, their families, and their communities. This vision is guided by residents with support from a robust public sector that provides equitable investment and full integration of low-income communities of color in the decision-making processes about where, how to invest public funds, especially those coming from the GGRF.

The High Costs of US Warmongering Against North Korea

Christine Ahn Truthout
In its first 100 days, the Trump administration has deployed Secretary of Defense General Mattis, Secretary of State Tillerson, and now Vice President Pence to South Korea and Japan. Speaking at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Pence stated that "the era of strategic patience is over" and threatened that "if China is unable to deal with North Korea, the United States and our allies will."

Reclaiming May Day, Workers' Day Born in U.S.

Al Hart UE
The tradition of May 1 as the international holiday of the working class began in the United States, but for many decades was lost to the U.S. working class. Beginning in 2006, with mass marches and work stoppages by immigrant workers, working people in this country have begun to reclaim their day.

Château Neuro: how the brain creates flavor

Steven Shapin Los Angeles Review of Books
Gordon Shepherd’s compact Neuroenology is a straightforwardly didactic exercise, tightly focused on wine. It's a companion to his previous work, Neurogastronomy (2012), a well-received study of “how the brain creates flavor,” mostly about food. Lots of wine drinkers, and even wine writers, don’t know some of the facts about wine sensation that Shepherd wants us to learn.