This week readers continued to engage with the role of Kwanzaa, responded to arguments about race and class in the criminal justice system, and the possibilities of political party boycotts.

US troops have been dispatched to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the results of presidential balloting are still unknown.

At the midway point of the Trump presidency the Democrats have nothing to show in the way of meaningful resistance.

The US war machine can no longer provide its corporate masters the neo-colonial stability they need to reap long-term gain from the imperial order.

If measured by 1960s yardsticks, today’s US poverty rates are three times higher than officially recognized.