IMPORTANT READS

SAVING OUR DEMOCRATIC VALUES-Like millions of my fellow countrymen and women, I have a deep concern about the long-term sustainability of our union and the basic constitutional structures that have preserved it in other times of social upheaval.

‘WE PRETEND’, FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT--After Parkland, I remember moving a pair of large scissors from my desk to the podium in the front of my classroom.

PERSPECTIVE--Virtually everyone in the US faults North Korea for threatening to cancel the Trump-Kim summit scheduled for June 12 in Singapore. No one, including the liberal media, bothers to address North Korea’s conditions for a successful summit or the reasons for its warning about a cancellation. Let’s review the matter with some objectivity.

WORLD POLITICS--The powerful juxtaposition of the U.S. delegation in Jerusalem on Monday, May 14, opening up the new U.S. Embassy while Israeli military snipers picked off and killed 61 Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza again brings the Israel-Palestinian crisis to every newshound’s attention.

MORALITY POLITICS-According to the New York Times, in late 2002, Gina Haspel was dispatched to oversee a secret CIA prison in Thailand code-named Cat's Eye. While she was there, CIA contractors waterboarded al-Qaeda suspects including Abd al-Rahim al-Nashir, the man accused of orchestrating the bombing of the American destroyer U.S.S. Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000

GUEST COMMENTARY--“Greed is good,” proclaimed Gordon Gekko (photo above), lead character in a 1987 film lampooning the low ethics of the high finance barons of Wall Street.

NUCLEAR BRINKSMANSHIP-The decertification of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by Trump is most unfortunate.

PERSPECTIVE--As of 2017, the U.S. has an inventory of 6,800 nuclear warheads. The largest bomb currently in service is the B83, with a maximum yield of 1.2 megatons.

CORRUPTION WATCH-Death is often seen as having a particular date, and in TV crime stories, the coroner often fixes the time of day as well as the cause of death. The death of American honor was so slow that we did not see it occurring. 

GUEST WORDS--In recent weeks, talk of a federal job guarantee has swept into the national political debate. Possible 2020 presidential hopefuls Sens. Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have both expressed their support for the idea, and Booker recently introduced legislation to create a job guarantee pilot program.

FIRST PERSON-One of the fundamental constitutional rights that at least in theory distinguishes us from a totalitarian society is having a free press, something which is rightfully protected under the U.S. Constitution.

DANGERS OF ONLINE DRUG ADS-Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of the social networking giant, Facebook, appeared in front of Congress on April 11, 2018.

VOICES-Bill Maher is calling time on liars. On Friday’s broadcast of “Real Time,”the comedian said people including President Donald Trump should be held more accountable for their lies. 

DUPED BY A DOUBLE-Denied a trial, Lee Harvey Oswald was instantly found guilty. But did the government ever prove their case? 

EXPOSING THE WHYS-The JFK assassination is America's last unspeakable secret. To confess what really happened in Dallas that day is to admit that the whole goddamn thing is made up out of thin air.

GELFAND’S WORLD--A couple of decades ago, some of my environmentalist friends started talking about something they called the precautionary principle.

MY TURN-We are now being told (and I assure you I am not making this up) that if the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons doesn’t find evidence that the Syrian government conducted a chemical weapons attack in Douma last week, it’s because Russia hid the evidence. 

WITNESSING WAR CRIMES-Write down: I, Uri Avnery, soldier number 44410 of the Israel army, hereby dissociate myself from the army sharpshooters who murder unarmed demonstrators along the Gaza Strip, and from their commanders, who give them the orders, up to the commander-in-chief. 

MY TURN--One year ago, the Trump administration transgressed establishment Washington orthodoxy by asserting that it was no longer pursuing regime change in Syria as a priority.

WHEN TRUTH IS OBSCURED-It can be argued that the multilateral coordinated military action against Bashar al-Assad was carried out for the right reasons; after-all, the use of chemical weapons is intolerable and must be met with disciplinary force. In the staunch words of President Trump: “No nation can succeed in the long run by promoting rouge states, brutal tyrants and murderers dictators.” 

STAND FOR SOMETHING--Last night Fox’s Tucker Carlson did what may have been the most amazing thing that has ever happened on American television. As the drums of war beat louder than they have in years, Carlson stared right into the camera and did the exact opposite of what every mainstream US pundit is doing right now: he told the truth.