IMPORTANT READS

PRISONS FOR PROFIT-In 2016 two immigrant detainees died after receiving care at facilities run by Emerald Correctional Management, a small Louisiana-based for-profit prison firm that at the time managed detention centers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

JOURNALISM MATTERS-A fatal single-engine plane crash in a corn field was the first story I ever covered for a local newspaper, the Kalamazoo Gazette. 

CONSIDER THIS--What if Anthony Bourdain killed himself because he loved life too much? 

LABOR WATCH-In the fall of 2015, the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization with a libertarian bent, held its annual lawyers convention at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC.

GUEST COMMENTARY--This week, ina 5-4 ruling of the conservative majority, the Supreme Courtdealt a stinging, bigoted blow to justice and equality, ruling for President Donald Trump’s travel ban ― a ban that lower courts ruled unconstitutional by virtue of Trump’s repeated hateful and discriminatory statements against Muslims. 

MY TURN-I suppose the real question to ask is whether America was ever not broken?

DC DISPATCH--General Michael C. Hayden begins his book, The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies, surveying the flattened streets of Sarajevo. When Hayden was head of Intelligence for the American Forces in Europe, he was tasked with providing intelligence to the UN forces based in Bosnia.

HYPOCRITE IN CHIEF-Were it not for the source, it would hardly be news to learn that the United States can’t take care of its most needy -- that it may be the richest country, but it is also increasingly, appallingly, unequal in how its wealth and opportunities are shared.

OTHERWORDS--The U.S. postal system has 30,000 outlets serving every part of America. It employs 630,000 people in good middle-class jobs. And it proudly delivers letters and packages clear across the country for a pittance.

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.