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Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it.

The “Mechanical Miracle” That Ruined Mark Twain’s Life

Benjamin Breen Res Obscura
Twain called the Paige machine “a cunning devil, knowing more than any man that ever lived” and claimed it would make “telephones, locomotives,” even “Babbage calculators” seem like “mere toys, simplicities!”

Paul Krugman and Gabriel Zucman: A Conversation About Inequality

Paul Krugman and Gabriel Zucman Paul Krugman Substack
Inequality is making a dramatic comeback. How do we organize the economy and our society to prevent the forms of capture of the political process, in particular, that are associated with extreme wealth?

Who Owns American History?

Beth English and Christopher Sellers Dissent Magazine
Among the priorities ahead, we need to prepare for a future presidential administration that is genuinely interested in historical integrity, democratic modes of history, and our nation’s historical record.

Friday Nite Videos | August 7, 2026

Portside Portside
Here's Who's Profiting from the 'Board of Peace.' Big Tech Is Finally Paying for the AI Disaster It Created. Out of Work Musician Sings About his Struggles. Bombshell Update on Epstein Files. Why Humanity Will Never Leave the Solar System.

El-Sayed’s Challenge: Overcoming ‘Otherness’

Harold Meyerson The American Prospect
If the economy is the issue, he can win Michigan in November. El-Sayed's overriding message has to be that his election will help end Trump’s disastrous control of the economy. Halley Stevens concession and endorsement; Mallory McMorrow endorsement.

New York’s Socialist Victories Can’t Be So Easily Dismissed

Michael Kinnucan Convergence
Centrist Democrats are writing off New York City socialist wins as a fluke reducible to gentrification and low turnout. But it was the Democratic Party machine itself that spent decades cultivating a depoliticized electorate.

The Cost of Deportations Calculator: Technical Documentation

Monique Morrissey Economic Policy Institute
The National Priorities Project (NPP) at the Institute for Policy Studies has estimated the federal government plans to spend $268.9 billion to undertake mass deportations throughout the second Trump administration.

Fire Sale

Chelsea Kirk and Moira Birss Dissent Magazine
In the aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades fires, housing could have been stabilized and tenants could have been protected. But the private market won. It doesn’t have to be this way.
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