IMPORTANT READS

WORLD WATCH--Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to call for an early election, scheduled to take place on April 9, was really nothing short of another political stunt that Netanyahu has masterfully learned to employ when the time is right and he is reasonably assured of another victory.

VIEW FROM HERE-Let's get real. Trump does not care about the federal government.

WORLD WATCH--The six Western Balkan countries —Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albania, are “state captured” by corrupt politicians, linked with organized crime.

DOES TRUTH MATTER?--"Almost everything we believe comes from other people," Cailin O'Connor says. As America struggles against the phenomenon of fake news  -- with its frightening ability to fracture our society and degrade our democracy—our first impulse is often to decry the reasoning skills of our fellow citizens.

MY TURN-Hmm. Praise of dictators, campaign sexual harassment, sexist comments, socialist or nothing, adoration of Russia, Sandanista support, belief that cancer is psychosomatic? 

WHERE’S THE BACK UP PLAN?-The Donald Trump legal team has been notably unable to escape from the shadow of its client. At every step of the way, otherwise professional lawyers start to act like the bombastic, reckless President that they are trying to keep out of prison or historical infamy.

GUEST WORDS--“History,” as Mark Twain reputedly remarked, “doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” As we flip the calendar to a new year, Donald Trump would be well-advised to take careful heed of Twain’s maxim.

CHANNELING THE NEW YEAR--2019 will be one of the most volatile years in recent history, in more ways than one. So, what will happen? (Photos at top: From top left: Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Robert Mueller, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin (AP) 

OTHER WORDS--Americans of all political stripes distrust the federal government.

WORLD WATCH--Trump’s decision to withdraw US forces from Syria is extremely reckless and is bound to backfire in more than one way.

SPOILS OF EXPLOITATION-There are three great lessons from the 20th century which we are only just beginning to learn, in the difficult and tumultuous adolescence of the 21st.

TECH TALK--It’s easy, at this point, to see any Facebook scandal as more white noise; a few million people betrayed by the social network, an egregious overreach into a user’s personal data — another day online.

GUEST WORDS--During lo these long 300 years of his reign, Trump has committed crimes against many things: Empathy, decency, integrity, the rule of law, the environment and economy, the concept of orderly reasoned governance and - cue incoherence and racist, shameless, ceaseless lies - language itself. 

CORRUPTION WATCH -Even a stopped watch is correct twice a day. Could not Grumpy-Trumpy be inadvertently right when he calls the media the “enemy of the people?” 

AT LENGTH-It’s winter in Washington, D.C., snow has dusted the White House lawn, the West Wing staff has gone home for the evening and Donald is in the residence watching Fox News.

VEW FROM HERE-Soon after President Trump positioned, encouraged, and sanctioned border patrol agents to deploy tear gas against migrants on the border, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a forceful statement: “Children are uniquely vulnerable to physiological effects of chemical agents.

MY TURN-Dealing with Berniebots, crats, and bros is identical to dealing with trumptrolls.

ESSAY-On a muggy summer day, I happened upon two twentysomething Chinese men bickering over the best angle for a selfie in front of the memorial wall at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum.

VIEW FROM HERE-Whether his opponents are willing to recognize it or not, President George Herbert Walker Bush lived an extraordinary life.

FUTURE SHOCKER-I attended Donald Trump’s funeral today in a half-empty Washington Cathedral, curious to learn how the 45th president, who of course resigned in disgrace in 2019, would be remembered by those who came to mourn him.

MILLENNIAL VOICE--The other morning, I woke to a bombardment of millennial tropes. They came from my timelines and news feeds, my inbox and the small square TV that I was watching on the treadmill at the gym. Like little catapulted rocks: