Portside

Daniel DiSalvo's self proclaimed 'non-partisan' attack on public unions as greedy, inefficient and undemocratic, 'Government Against Itself,' has been welcomed by the right and granted recognition for its 'scholarship' even by some on the left. Not so fast, argues William P. Jone, in a deeper look into the economic realities and history of public unions, and the place of public unions in our democracy, DiSalvo has confused the symptom with the disease.

Robert N. Rhodes, Professor Emeritus of African American Studies, passed away December 2015. He began his career as an activist and concluded it at Ohio University, where he inspired generations of students.

Jim Crow laws across the South mandated that restaurants, hotels, pool halls and parks strictly separate whites and blacks. Lynchings kept blacks in fear of mob violence. There were thousands of so-called “sundown towns,” which barred Blacks after dark with threats of violence. So in 1936, a postal worker named Victor Green began publishing a guide to help African American travelers find friendly restaurants, auto shops and accommodations in far-off places.

A new report goes beyond the sanitized inspection regimes to hear from the workers themselves.

One of the seldom-discussed obstacles to the implementation of a two-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the demographic change taking place within Israel’s Jewish population. Much has been made of the growth of the Palestinian population within Israel/Palestine, but the birthrate of conservative ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are exercising ever-greater influence in Israeli politics, culture, and the armed forces, also exceeds that of Orthodox and secular Jews.

You want war crimes? Post-9/11, Washington could have sported the logo: War Crimes "R" Us. If you want to understand what this sort of impunity means in terms of the politics of 2016, then read on.

"Your staff and others knew that the water in the Flint River was poison -- but you decided that taking over the city and "cutting costs" to "balance the budget" was more important than the people's health." Michael Moore

Breaking up the biggest financial institutions would reduce the level of financial monopolization in America and the corresponding political influence of the largest banks. Too few banks control too much of our money. Not only is it risky for the reasons stated above, but it gives them even more influence in Congress. At the end of 2014, the largest four banks held 35% of all bank deposits. These same four banks spent at least $21 million lobbying the federal government.