Portside

The attempted military coup in Turkey and the possibility of a President Trump may have more Americans considering the military option. It's tempting to conclude that the same folks who approve of a military intervention into politics support Donald Trump's intervention into politics. Trump is, in a way, a one-man coup. He is an outsider. He has contempt for the normal workings of democracy.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will announce her vice presidential choice tomorrow, and rumors that she's going with a "safe" pick should worry Democrats. In this political climate, a search for "safety" could put her candidacy in serious danger. The selection of Tim Kaine as vice president would be the first signal that Hillary Clinton intends to seek progressive votes but ignore progressive values and goals, likely at her peril, and ours.

An armed representative of the state who kills a civilian commits not just a crime like any other person. No, that official commits an abuse of power, a violation of human rights. The states who fail to stop violence against civilians on the part of their armed bodies are, therefore, labeled as violators of human rights.

“The Art of the Deal” made America see Trump as a charmer with an unfailing knack for business. Tony Schwartz helped create that myth—and is tormented by the role he played in doing so.

"Can there be Black liberation in the United States as the country is currently constituted?" asks Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor in her new book. "No. Capitalism is contingent on the absence of freedom and liberation for Black people and anyone else who does not directly benefit from its economic disorder." Justin Campbell, in this review, surveys Taylor's analysis of the roots, present status, and future prospects of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Who Do You Serve,Who Do You Protect questions the necessity of the police from several different angles. While some might talk about possibly reforming the police, many of the contributors to this anthology question the police down to their very existence. Contributors from different perspectives center the importance of a movement against state violence that appropriately challenges white supremacy.

We wrote the Counter-CAPS report to challenge the emerging common sense on police reform. In the past two years, the Obama administration has advocated community policing as a key part of the solution to the “Post-Ferguson” crisis of police legitimacy. The Counter-CAPS Report is an expression of the movement’s rejection of false solutions like community policing.

Named after the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, “The 13th” threads together archival footage with modern-day commentary, and focuses on the ramifications of the amendment and its clause: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”

Secretar Clinton in addressing the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Las Vegas called the first day of the Republican Convention "Surreal". AFSCME represents 1.6 million public sector workers. She attacked the anti-worker policies of the Republican Governors of Wisconsin and Illinois, Scott Walker and Bruce Rauner. She said Trump had no solutions to help working families. Later in the day she picked up the support of UNITE HERE.

The question is whether good film presents us a prettified view of the past or challenges us to realize that we are yet living with that past—and that, however comforting the desire to ignore it, we continue to pay a price for failing to own it. We owe the makers Free State of Jones a serious debt for giving us the opportunity to do that.