Portside

There’s no question that it is easy to make fun of the two top presidential candidates for 2024. But as I explain in my new book, “Trump Was a Joke: How Satire Made Sense of a President Who Didn’t,” not all political comedy is equal.

Must our leaders take us to the brink of World War III, with all our lives on the line in an all-out nuclear war, before they will permit a ceasefire and a negotiated peace?

Protesters stormed a U.K. national park, demanding the freedom to camp anywhere on public land.

A precursor to Memorial Day occurred in 1865 when thousands of freed slaves marched in Charleston, South Carolina to declare their sense of the meaning of the Civil War, that it was about their emancipation over a slaveholders' republic.

Labor is busting out all over

The endless tentacles of ad tech

The slings and arrows in this agreement result from the failure to solve the debt ceiling in 2022 when Democrats controlled the government. It generally makes things a little bit worse. That this is seen as progress is a sad commentary on Washington.

Union organizer fired for insubordination. In 1779, no peace for Native Americans. Sojourner Truth takes her new name. Child labor on the rise. "No nukes" on Long Island. Boston says NO! to slave-catchers. Anti-slavery novel is a best-seller.

Troubling elements include the provision that will put at risk food assistance for very low-income older adults. This policy will increase hunger and poverty among that group, runs contrary to our nation’s values, and should be rejected.

Rachel Maddow’s podcast tells the story of American Nazis in the 1940s. But the era’s real and lasting authoritarian danger came from the spectacular growth of a national security state.