IMPORTANT READS

GUEST WORDS--Newly elected U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez celebrates her victory at La Boom night club in Queens, New York, on November 6th, 2018.

POLITICS--We're in the final hours of the 2018 mid-term elections, and there's more than enough information out there to keep you busy until the polls actually close Tuesday night.

GUEST WORDS--Robert Bowers, the alleged Pittsburgh synagogue killer, had an online life like many thousands of anti-Semitic Americans.

CORRUPTION WATCH-Allowing people to vote for candidates and for California propositions may violate our inalienable rights including Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. When voting trashes inalienable rights, doesn’t voting become illegitimate? 

VIEW FROM HERE-James Lawson, a leading theoretician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement, was instrumental in helping to develop the strategy for Freedom Riders in 1961.

CORRUPTION WATCH-The Supreme Court opinion forbidding shouting “fire” in a crowded theater should morally apply to the hatred and violence Donald Trump is fomenting in America. The pertinent passage from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ opinion reads: 

VIEW FROM HERE--During a recent event in Houston, President Trump said: "You know, they have a word-it's sort of became old-fashioned-it's called a nationalist.

MY TURN-I particularly like this image as it accommodates both the blind following that the conservatives/Republicans are known for – and -- it is a picture of what the conservatives want as the “perfect” American: white and light hair color. If this sounds familiar, reference pre-World War Germany and the actions that they took with ethnic cleansing.

PERSPECTIVE--Three years ago, Dylann Roof murdered nine people in the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina and renewed a long-running debate about the meaning of the Confederate battle flag.

LEANING RIGHT-The sharp uptick in public shaming over the past several years, and specifically since the 2016 election, has sparked a heated discussion about whether the perceived righteousness of the practice overshadows possible damage and likely fallout.

WHAT TO EXPECT--To get a better idea of how and when consumers plan to shop this holiday season and on Cyber Week, BlackFriday.com surveyed over 1,500 Americans to find out the biggest trends.

VIEW FROM HERE-Let's begin with the obvious. The president only truly values American citizenship.

MIDDLE EAST POLITICS- I maintain that regardless of the political, strategic, demographic, and regional vicissitudes, the two-state option remains the only viably sustainable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the one-state solution is simply a non-starter.

PERSPECTIVE--In March I wrote about the visit to Washington of Saudi Arabia’s new leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

POLITICS-On Oct. 6, 2018, Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court by the narrowest of margins, with 50 votes in favor and 48 votes against.

GUEST WORDS--Whenever new protest movements emerge, people look to history for lessons from activists and thinkers who came before.

MY TURN-There has always been an element of the extreme in every society, and it is usually a smaller group that is often given little attention.

SUPREME POLITICS--While the Republican leadership celebrates the seating of Brett Kavanaugh as a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roberts yesterday requested the Tenth Circuit to review more than twelve ethics complaints that have been made against Kavanaugh.

TRADE DEAL FOR THE RICH-The Trump administration’s overhaul of the North American Free Trade Agreement  is both the best trade pact signed by an American president in 30 years and a corrupt mess that offers working people almost nothing. 

SEEKING FREEDOM FROM IMMISERATION-My kid sister arrived to visit me this morning, on a 7 a.m. flight, and as she took a nap, unable to sleep, I headed off bleary-eyed to the little street where I sip my coffee and think my thoughts.

CORRUPTION WATCH-The Democrats’ Identity Politics makes a person’s race, religion, ethnicity, and gender of paramount importance. For decades the Dems promoted quotas in schools and in employment, while casting aside the individual’s needs or abilities.