Portside

Is tech taking us over a cliff, or giving us wings?

Chie Hayakawa's raw and sobering debut imagines a near-future Japan in which the elderly are encouraged to volunteer for euthanization. The scariest thing about Hayakawa’s film isn’t its familiar depiction of a society that privileges human output over human dignity, but rather its soft dystopian sketch of a society that’s able to soft-shoe around dehumanization and/or sell it as an act of grace.

The Covenants Homeownership Account Act provides compensation in the form of substantial mortgage assistance to victims and their descendants. It was written with a view to overcoming legal challenges that might derail programs that are overtly race based. Instead, this law is “harm based.”

Half of Americans, namely homeowners, already have rent control. It’s time to expand it to everyone.

Last week brought the alarming news that three Kentucky-based McDonald’s franchises had kids as young as 10 working at 62 stores in four different states. Some of these under-working age children were working as late as 2 a.m.

Twenty-one members of Congress last week called for lifting US sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela, including most of the Squad. The pushback is needed: sanctions are a cruel economic weapon that hurts average people — and has spurred a surge of economic refugees.

A once-in-a-generation convergence of technology and pressure to operate more efficiently has corporations saying many lost jobs may never return.

President Wilson unleashes repression of peace advocates. Republican Party denounces slave trade as a ‘crime against humanity.’ First compulsory public education. Camden draft protestors acquitted. Wiretapping gets the nod. Amnesty for Confederates.

Remember: The US Treasury is obligated to make payments. The rest is optics.

Free Black Mamas DMV in 2017 is a self-described Black women and femme-run abolitionist campaign seeking to end the country’s current carceral system. The effort is part of the National Bail Out, a collective of local and national Black-led organizations that plan Mama’s Day Bail Out events around the country.