IMPORTANT READS

RELIGION POLITICS--For Americans growing up between the 1950s and the 1980s, religion was not a regular presence on television. Aside from Sunday morning shows or occasional commercials, religious programming issued end-time warnings, sought monetary contributions, or staged faith healings. But it did not cover news.

OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR KAMALA HARRIS-As a strong defender of human rights, with one of the best human rights records in the U.S. Senate, and in the context of your support for a democratic Israel, we urge you to join your colleague, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, in condemning the Israel military for shooting and killing 110 unarmed, non-violent Palestinian protesters at the Israel-Gaza fences over the past two months. 

MILLENNIAL POLITICS-Fifty years ago, in the dust and fire of global youth activism, everything seemed possible. The political world was a cloud filled with chaos and opportunity, pain and promise. The young were a powerful force, even a world-changing one. 

PERSPECTIVE--MSNBC host Joy Reid still has a job. Despite blatantly lying about time-traveling hackers bearing responsibility for bigoted posts a decade ago in her then-barely-known blog, despite her reportedly sparking an FBI investigationon false pretenses, despite her colleagues at MSNBC being completely fed up with how the network is handling the controversy surrounding her, her career just keeps trundling forward like a bullet-riddled zombie.

GUEST WORDS--Modesty and unselfishness-these are virtues which men praise-and pass by. — André Maurois, Ariel

PACIFIC STANDARD-Two television stars take to Twitter to spread hateful and often racist conspiracy theories. One has her show suddenly yanked off the air. The other becomes president of the United States. 

SHAME ON US ALL--In appalling but unsurprising news at the edgy start of another hurricane season, a crippled Puerto Rico and a criminally incognizant dotard-in-chief are still with us.

IMMIGRATION POLITICS-The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was authorized by the U.S. Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the compromise between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers.

HULLABALOO--Last Wednesday I wrote a pieceheadlined "Trump’s contempt for the rule of law:

NEW GEOGRAPHY-Let’s stipulate that Donald Trump is a vulgar, ignorant and often reckless narcissist. Yet he also may well prove a historical necessity, someone who, intentionally or not, has rendered apart a bi-partisan consensus well past its usefulness. 

MY TURN--Today’s media love their “darlings” in the same way that they love those that are evil. Since it’s all about the ratings, if they can’t find people to match these identifiers, they will create them. And so they did when it comes to Bernie Sanders and Trump. 

GUEST WORDS--The latest demonstrations in Gaza took place as the U.S. embassy was formally relocated to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, on the 70th anniversary of the formation of Israel.

BITCOIN INSIDER--We all remember the Crypto Singularity of December, 2017. Altcoins and the cryptocurrency market grew enormously with Bitcoin’s price even reaching above the $ 19k mark.

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.