Portside

"The chaos created by extreme weather has been compounded by the chaos of deregulated energy markets and profit-driven corporations who care little about workers and the interests of the public." - D. Michael Langford, president of the Utility Workers Union of America

For all the gay players that have played in the NFL, Michael Sam is the first to "live his truth" openly.

The hypocrisy is spread evenly among corporations, Congress, and free-market apologists, all of whom insult and imperil average Americans with their double standards.

The growth of temp work following the Great Recession is harming workers and burdening the economy as a whole. ‘Permatemping’ cases highlight lack of U.S. protections for temp workers. Other countries limit the length of temp jobs, guarantee equal pay and restrict dangerous work.

American neocons helped destabilize Ukraine and engineer the overthrow of its elected government, a “regime change” on Russia’s western border. But the coup – and the neo-Nazi militias at the forefront – also reveal divisions within the Obama administration, reports Robert Parry.

Under Secretary of State Sherman also suggested at one point that there would be no real need to prohibit any Iranian missile if the negotiations on the nuclear programme were successful. “Not having a nuclear weapon,” she said, “makes delivery systems almost — not wholly, but almost — irrelevant.” That admission underlined the wholly political purpose of the administration’s apparent embrace of the Israeli demand that Iran negotiate limits on its ballistic missiles.

If the point of cutting unemployment insurance compensation was to get people back to work and spark job growth, North Carolina’s policy choice appears, at first glance, to be a failure. If the point was to push people out of the labor force, it appears to be working.

On paper, the influence-peddling business is drying up. But lobbying money is flooding Washington, DC like never before. What’s going on?