IMPORTANT READS

WORLD WATCH - Vladimir Putin is trying to accomplish two very dangerous tasks at once: the destruction of civil society in Russia, and the withering away of international support for a democratic Ukraine.

WORLD WATCH - After a 5-month hiatus, indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran resumed last week in Vienna in an attempt to revise the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). The outlook isn’t good.

PRESS FREEDOM - “Let us look at ourselves, if we have the courage, to see what is happening to us”  – Jean-Paul Sartre

DEMOCRACY WATCH - Trump and his supporters do not mean by "democracy" a liberal democracy. They mean the popular sovereignty of "true Americans." 

UNION WATCH - The National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, just ruled that a historic union vote among Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama was not valid. 

LABOR VIEW - The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has just ruled that a historic union vote held earlier this year among Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) was not valid.

LAW & ORDER - “There are three objective constraints on policing… which had militated against its satisfactory fulfillment.

RACE POLITICS - The party favor on the Republican side has been the dog whistle. 

WORLD WATCH - The seeds for the crisis in Ukraine were planted 25 years ago when the Clinton Administration decided to expand the North Atlantic Treaty into East Europe, accepting membership from former members of the Warsaw Pact.

RICH GET RICHER - In the first week that the Omicron variant sparked global fears of a new wave of infections, a small handful of investors and executives with Pfizer and Moderna—currently the world's preeminent makers of Covid-19 vaccines—saw over $10 billion in new wealth, with the Moderna's CEO alone adding over $800 million to his personal fortune.

RANDOM LENGTH NEWS - One of the few pleasures I’ve found during the pandemic is the time to actually read books —not that I didn’t read them before — it’s just that with fewer distractions and social obligations, I actually had the luxury of time–uninterrupted! 

WORKFORCE REDUCTIONS - As a writer, I get stuck every so often straining for the right words to tell my story.

PROFITS ARE OUR LOSS - With vaccination rates on the rise, Americans are hoping for a return to some semblance of normalcy this holiday season.

SUPREME COURT - As journalists and other observers of the U.S. Supreme Court noted Wednesday that its right-wing majority appeared inclined to uphold Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban—and potentially overturn Roe v. Wade—while hearing oral arguments in a case challenging the state law, reproductive rights advocates rallied outside and demanded congressional action.

HIDDEN GEM--A lot of people who visit or even live in Los Angeles don’t realize that there’s an active casino just outside of downtown, in Inglewood.

MILITARY JUSTICE -So far, the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee has refused to open an investigation into the Baghuz attack or any other possible war crimes by U.S. forces in the war against ISIS.

WORLD WATCH - Amid all the flag-waving, chants of “USA, USA,” and other nationalist hoopla that characterize mainstream politics in the United States, it’s easy to miss the fact that most Americans favor global governance.

SOCIAL DEMOCRACY - Clobbered from all sides by the pandemic, climate change and disruptions in virtually every industry by the rise of artificial intelligence, the capitalist dream is dying — and a new, mutant form of socialism is growing in its place.

2^ND AMENDMENT POLITICS - Expect the gun control debate in America to really get hot over the next 12 months as Beto O'Rourke runs for governor of Texas.

THE VIEW FROM HERE - As written previously, America believes that it has two main political parties when in reality it has four; 

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT - On Wednesday, October 20, I joined “Vrede Scheppen,” “Create Peace,” about 25 peace activists from the Netherlands, Germany and Austria at the airbase at Volkel, Netherlands, making a plea for an end to nuclear weapons.