My President Was Black

Coates talks about his new cover story for The Atlantic, based on interviews with President Obama, which reconsiders Obama's legacy after the election of Donald Trump.

¡Cuba! Exhibition Now Open

Its complex politics and vibrant music have attracted the attention of the world. But Cuba, the largest island nation in the Caribbean, is also home to the unexpected. It’s a place of stunning contrasts: mysterious caves and bright boulevards, sweltering fields and cool forests, hard challenges and high energy.

Everybody knows | Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen's lyrics are both prophetic and startlingly contemporary: Everybody knows that the war is over / Everybody knows the good guys lost / Everybody knows the fight was fixed / The poor stay poor, the rich get rich / That's how it goes / Everybody knows

Friday Nite Videos -- December 16, 2016

Portside
Daryl Davis, Race & America | Movie Trailer. Everybody Knows | Leonard Cohen. ¡Cuba! Exhibition Now Open. The Brilliant Life of Ada Lovelace #OrdinaryWomen. My President Was Black.

The War He Survived Was Vietnam

Michael Yates CounterPunch
Liberal opinion holds that the Vietnam War was a mistake. The right continues to see it as a noble cause. Author Michael Uhl calls the slaughter in Vietnam planned and deliberate, saying that the United States would not tolerate then or now efforts by people in the Global South to escape the imperialist trap. Uhl writes as a participant, first as an intelligence officer and then as an historian, to paint a merciless and highly detailed picture of US policy at its rawest.

Choices: Perspectives on Labor Resistance and Growth

Carl Goldman and Kurt Stand Talking Union
Socialists must work with all levels of the labor movement. Calling for an “insurgency” within the labor movement doesn’t further that goal. The Trump onslaught against unions will come immediately after he assumes office. While supporting strong rank-and-file we must work with anyone we can, including International leaders who supported Hillary. To do otherwise weakens us in this fight for union survival. And the work of Labor for Bernie proves it can be done.

Tidbits - December 15, 2016 - Reader Comments: Global Nuclear War Danger; Clinton and Working Class Voters; Star Wars; The Left - What Now; Russian-Election Frenzy; Butter; #NoDAPL Actions; Cuba Travel; Holiday Book Offers; and more ...

Portside
Reader Comments: Global Nuclear War Danger - Avoiding the Unthinkable; Hillary Clinton and Working Class Voters; Art as Politics: Star Wars New Movie; What Now for the Left; Viewers debate the Russian-Election Frenzy; Brazil; W.E.B. DuBois and the Working Class; Student Digital Literacy and Technology; Butter - Good for You?; #NoDAPL December Month of Actions; Responsible and Ethical Cuba Travel; Special - Holiday Book Offers; and more ...

Why Time's Trump Cover Is a Subversive Work of Political Art

Jake Romm Jewish Daily Forward
Time Magazine is clear on its sole criterion - 'the person who had the greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year.' For clues as to how Time feels about that question - is it 'better or worse?' - we can look to the image chosen for the cover of the issue. Time's decisions regarding how to photograph Trump reveal a layered, nuanced field of references that place the image among the magazine's greatest covers.