IMPORTANT READS

SOCIALISM OK FOR OUR ELECTEDS--For $3.5 trillion a year, shouldn’t we Americans have a world-class health care system? Yet while we spend the most of any advanced nation in the world to get care — more than $10,000 a year per person — we get the worst results.

OTHER WORDS-One day in late June 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas. They carried some historic news:

WHEN THEY SEE US: Not long ago, a few southern newspapers offered apologies for having vociferously opposed the civil rights movement.

WORLD WATCH-Two weeks ago, a 29-year-old Roma woman was physically attacked in the middle of the day in Kosovo, after a false accusation spread that the victim had been kidnaping children.

ECONOMY--Congratulations on that nice pay raise you got last year. A 7 percent hike — wow!

OTHERWORDS--Happy Pride month! It’s June so it’s time to bust out the rainbows and… actually, I have a lot of conflicted feelings about it.

VIEW FROM HERE--Have you ever stopped in the middle of the cereal aisle and stared blankly at the hundreds of brands to choose from?

WORLD WATCH-The phenomenon of genocide has baffled historians for many generations.

POLITICS--The youth-led Sunrise Movement staged a series of protests on Capitol Hill and across the country to demand lawmakers take urgent action on the climate crisis and back the Green New Deal. (Photo: Sunrise Movement/Twitter)

VIEW FROM HERE-According to a recent study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans spend an average of 16.8 minutes a day (or 0.28 of an hour) reading on their own volition for purposes other than work or school.

IMMIGRATION 2019 STYLE-Let us now contemplate the morality tale of the Good Samaritan. Not the one in the New Testament, but the one out in the high desert region around Marfa, Texas, just 60 miles from the Mexican border. 

MUELLER REPORT FALLOUT--Robert Mueller may not want to testify to Congress about the findings of his two-year long probe into the President Donald Trump administration's relationship with Russia and the president's subsequent treatment of that investigation, but, as progressive commentators and advocacy groups pointed out Wednesday, that's not really for him to decide.

RAW STORY REPORT--President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist believes a thorough investigation will reveal his family business is a “semi-criminal enterprise” — and ultimately end his presidency. (Photo above: Steve Bannon and Donald Trump (Composite / RawStory)

VIEW FROM HERE-In 2016 a poll was conducted to find out which American the country wanted to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. When it was all said and done, the person who had the most votes was the great abolitionist Harriet Tubman. 

VIEW FROM HERE-I.M. Pei, one of the world's most iconic and prolific architects, has died at the age of 102. Best known for his remarkable transformation of the Louvre in Paris and the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, Pei also left his fingerprint of genius on the Flower City.

GUEST COMMENTARY--A springtime wedding in Northern Yemen’s Al-Raqah village took place in April 2018, a moment of reprieve from the turmoil and devastation of that war-torn country, a moment to celebrate life, love, and the birth of a new family.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE IN YOUR HANDS--We’re living in the most perilous time for abortion rights and reproductive freedom since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.

PERSPECTIVE--“Over these last few years, given the wars it has waged and the international treaties it has arbitrarily reneged on, the U.S. government perfectly fits its own definition of a rogue state.” — Arundhati Roy

WORLD WATCH--On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the end of Kosovo war, the country is facing a dramatic large-scale brain drain.

VIEW FROM HERE--Obviously, President Trump perceives himself as a leader who can thrive on chaos. But what has been overlooked is why he chooses to "lead" this way. There are plenty of other ways to get things done as a manager of a company and/or nation. Why does Trump prefer chaos over order? 

MY TURN--I don’t know what happened to this country. We all knew that there was racism and bigotry in almost every area, but on the day of the announcement of the 2016 election, it seems that all hell broke loose.