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Luke Cage Is Truly a Hero for His Time

Charles Moss The Atlantic
The star of the new Netflix series was reimagined as a modern black champion. The show's creative team looked to current events to ground Cage in reality from a specifically African American perspective. They wanted the show to fulfill “comic-book geek sensibilities” while also digging into subjects such as police brutality, the gentrification of Harlem (where the show takes place), and even the privatization of prisons.

Philadelphia Orchestra Walks Out on Opening Night

Michael Cooper The New York Times
The strike — called on the same day that musicians on the other side of Pennsylvania at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra walked out on strike — came as the Philadelphia’s players sought to recover some of the pay they lost to concessions during the recent bankruptcy.

A Union Is Brewing at Virginia Lipton Factory

Chris Brooks Labor Notes
Lipton brings tea from around the world through the Port of Virginia. At its single 20-acre plant in nearby Suffolk, 200 workers roast, blend, package, and warehouse it, producing over 6 billion bags a year. For years on end, these workers have been “drafted”—the company’s term for forced overtime—into working 13 straight days out of every 14.

People with Mental Illness are 16 Times More Likely to Be Killed During a Police Encounter

Amy Goodman, John Snook
Before this year, we basically weren’t even able to really provide a very effective number of how many people with mental illness were killed by law enforcement officers. We know, across the country, that people with a mental illness are languishing in jails and emergency rooms, because we simply don’t have enough hospital beds for them.

Trump's Tax Plan: Who Benefits?

Citizens for Tax Justice
The analysis shows the wealthiest top 1 percent of taxpayers’ share of the tax cut would be 44 percent. Apparently Donald Trump just can't get enough tax breaks.

A Victory and A More Substantial Defeat for the Cruel Sham Known as "Right to Try"

Orac Respectful Insolence
These laws explicitly remove patient protections. Doctors recommending right-to-try can’t be sued for malpractice or disciplined by their state medical boards, seemingly no matter how inappropriate or incompetently executed such a request might be. Nor can drug manufacturers be sued. Basically, these laws tell terminally ill patients: Good luck. You’re on your own.

As In Flint: Government Fails to Protect East Chicago Residents

Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell Reuters
All 1,100 low-income residents in the West Calumet Housing Complex in the East Chicago, Indiana are being forced to move due to the high levels of lead. And many are outraged about why the dangerous soils weren't identified and removed earlier and why a branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had assured them they and their children were safe. Test results released in August show alarmingly high concentrations of lead on every street in the complex.

The Darker Legacy of Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres

Haggai Matar +972 Magazine
Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres was feted as a visionary man of peace, but his legacy is more complex and nefarious. He bears prime responsibility for the Oslo Accords, which created a Palestinian Authority without authority and enshrined Israeli control over all aspects of life in occupied Palestine. He launched the military operation that resulted in the Qana massacre of civilians in Lebanon, and sold nuclear weapons to the South African apartheid regime.

Being a Revolutionary in Cuba Today

Enrique Ubieta G¢mez GRANMA
Socialist democracy, essentially superior, still has a long way to go. Being revolutionary is participating with a perspective of committed criticism. Criticizing is not reporting a known fact; it is acting on it, pushing toward its solution... Radicalism in understanding and in action; the revolutionary seeks the root of a problem, even when it cannot be extirpated immediately, even when one errs in pointing it out and moves rapidly into action....