Portside

Ian Angus, editor of Climate and Capitalism, responds to critics of Anthropocene scholars who assert the Earth has entered a new geological epoch due to human activity. Angus argues the criticism that Earth System scientists in the forefront of the Anthropocene project blame all of humanity for the actions of a small minority simply doesn’t hold water. And he urges ecological Marxists to be positive contributors to the Anthropocene discussions.

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has tapped yet another foreigner to help rule his people. But this one may be the most bizarre yet. On May 31, Poroshenko awarded Ukrainian citizenship to fugitive ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and appointed him governor of Odessa, the complex, primarily Russian-speaking region that is also geographically close to the western Ukraine. Saakashvili is wanted in his homeland for embezzlement and human rights abuses.

The wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan have left nearly 150,000 soldiers and civilians dead since 2001, a new US study estimates. Another 162,000 have been wounded since the US-led offensive that toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, says the study by the Costs of War Project, at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. And, according to the study, “the war in Afghanistan is not ending. It is getting worse."

Highlighting the failure of the U.S. government to keep adequate records on the number of civilians killed by police, news outlets are now tallying the lives lost to police violence. According to a new database launched by the Guardian on Monday, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are killing people at twice the rate calculated by the U.S. government. The data further illustrates “how disproportionately” black Americans are killed by police.

The Obama Administration continues to champion Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández as a key regional partner and wants to send even more money to his corrupt regime. Hernández’s government, on a six-year-long march against human rights, the rule of law and civilian policing, is now embroiled in an exploding corruption scandal. Just how heinous does the Honduran regime have to be before the U.S. stops supporting it?

Los Angeles poet Bonnie S Kaplan works with former prisoners and parolees, easing the transition back to the community. Her poem Our Aquarium hints at the difficulties of adjustment.

Representatives of 11 different unions have begun negotiations with General Electric Co. This will be the first round of negotiations since GE announced their return to being a manufacturing company and the selling off of GE's financial companies.

"Close to half of all county expenditures were spent on just five percent of the homeless population, who came into frequent contact with police, hospitals, and other service agencies, racking up an average of $100,000 in costs per person annually." That's a ton of money. And it's why the simplest solution to ending homelessness — giving them homes — makes so much sense.

If a study doesn’t even list how many people took part in it, or makes a bold diet claim that’s “statistically significant” but doesn’t say how big the effect size is, you should wonder why. But for the most part, we don’t. Which is a pity, because journalists are becoming the de facto peer review system. And when we fail, the world is awash in junk science.

A growing number of cities -- including Seattle, New York, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Newark and others -- are now led by progressive mayors. What they can learn from Sanders is that good ideas are not sufficient. Creating more livable cities requires nurturing a core of activist organizations that can build long-term support for progressive municipal policies.