Bernie's Burlington: What Kind of Mayor Was Bernie Sanders?

Peter Dreier, Pierre Clavel The Nation
A growing number of cities -- including Seattle, New York, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Newark and others -- are now led by progressive mayors. What they can learn from Sanders is that good ideas are not sufficient. Creating more livable cities requires nurturing a core of activist organizations that can build long-term support for progressive municipal policies.

New Snowden Documents Reveal Secret Memos Expanding Spying

Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Charlie Savage, Henrik Moltke ProPublica
Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic. The NSA’s activities run “smack into law enforcement land,” said Jonathan Mayer, a cybersecurity scholar. “That’s a major policy decision about how to structure cybersecurity in the U.S. and not a conversation that has been had in public.”

Jefferson Davis Day in Alabama

Jefferson Davis was the president of the Confederate States of America. How do you proclaim your love for America and then yearn for the days when you weren't part of it?

Flashmob Nuremburg - Beethoven's Ode to Joy

A girl with a wooden recorder and a man playing a bass frame the call and response themes of Beethoven's choral symphony, eliciting the joy from bystanders for which the piece is named.

Friday Nite Videos -- June 5, 2015

Portside
Flashmob Nuremburg - Beethoven's Ode to Joy. Clinton Slams GOP for War on Voting, Calls for Universal Registration. Key & Peele - Basketball Commentary. Jefferson Davis Day in Alabama. Gay High School Student Delivers Valedictorian Speech He Was Barred from Giving.

The ILO’s Quest for Reaffirmation vis-a-vis International Financial Institutions

Chloé Maurel Equal Times
International Labor Organization (ILO) Conventions that protect worker rights should be binding. Just as international financial institutions have the power to enforce their regulations, so too the ILO should have the power to sanction states or multinational corporations that breach its principles.

Harvey on Harvey: The Most Dangerous Book I Ever Wrote

David Harvey Reading Marx's Capital With David Harvey
In defining a clear and comprehensive anti-capitalist politics and offering rational and compelling reasons for operating as anti-capitalists, highly readable Marxian scholar David Harvey goes beyond listing contradictions of capital to engage in a systematic account of the web of 17 relationships for what are usually treated as isolated aspects of crisis. Many of the contradictions are manageable, but some in combination also contain the seeds of systemic catastrophe.