Portside

Although it was not programmable in the modern sense, some have called it the first analog computer.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), emboldened by the mid-term success of conservative Republicans at the state and federal levels, will be meeting December 3-5 in Washington, D.C. to develop its policy agenda for 2015 and beyond. ALEC will be seeking, among other things, to "preempt" state and local level minimum wage increases, promote local "right to work" legislation, forestall shareholder activism, and increase school privatization.

African-Americans are disproportionately likely to be poor, they are only a quarter of Americans living in poverty; whites make up about 41% of the poor. Those white Americans who don't want to help the poor because they'd be helping people of another race are actually screwing over white people big time. The wealth gap between /white and African-American families tripled between 1980 and 2009.

The U.S. War on Terror campaign has done nothing to reduce world terrorism, but it has expended more than four trillion dollars in its global efforts, creating the "oligarchs of 9/11," war profiteers who are now wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. According to a new book by journalist James Risen, the U.S. War on Terror is responsible for “one of the largest transfers of wealth from public to private hands in American history.”

Since the signing of the Single European Act in 1986, the European Union has been unable to agree on legislation which would provide working people with minimum social guarantees and common rights as workers in the face of the onslaught of the unified market forces. The result has been the continued erosion in the social well being of European workers.

Last Sunday, Israel passed the Jewish State Bill, which according to human rights activists “upgrades discrimination.” Arabic, spoken by Palestinians, a fifth of the population, will no longer be an official language, and “Jewish tradition” and “the prophets of Israel,” will be the primary source of legal and judicial authority. It defines Israel as belonging to Jews around the world rather than to its citizens, which includes 1.5 million Palestinians.

On November 25th more than 35 human rights and technology organizations from 19 countries announced the formation of the 'This Is Net Neutrality' Coalition, to define and protect 'net neutrality' and lead what they say is a global battle to protect online freedom. The new coalition has created a website to provide resources for activists, academics, policy makers and technologists committed to an open internet.

Twenty years after the first living-wage law was passed in Baltimore, the campaign’s lead organizer warns that the model has been watered down.

Back in 2012, more North Carolinians voted for Democrats than Republicans in North Carolina’s Congressional elections. But Republicans ended up winning nine out of the state’s 13 seats that year. Those numbers piqued the interest of researchers at Duke, who decided to seek a mathematical explanation for the discrepancy. They recently published a study with their results.