IMPORTANT READS

OTHER WORDS-Conspiracy theories like QAnon are outlandish, dangerous, and often absurd. So why do people believe them? 

PANDEMIC POLITICS-In June 1990, future South African President Nelson Mandela addressed a joint session of Congress only months after being released from 27 years in a South African apartheid prison.

SPECIAL REPORT-In the wake of Saturday's failure of the U.S. Senate to convict Donald Trump for his alleged incitement of the violent insurrectionist attack at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, legal experts, political observers, and government watchdogs are calling for criminal prosecution as the only remaining path for accountability and to prevent the disgraced former president from ever seeking elected office again.

PERSPECTIVE--Imagine a “USA!” that has truly outgrown – transcended – racism. Would it still have a Republican Party?

GUEST WORDS--As a coalition of rights groups urges Joe Biden to expand his commitment to ending billions in Trump-era U.S. arms sales enabling a bloody Saudi-led war on Yemen -

MY TURN--The GOP and the Democratic parties are in a competition to see which can be the most treacherously venal and both are winning. 

COMMON DREAMS-Participants in the photo above are holding letters spelling TAX WALL STREET.

WORLD WATCH-The bombing continues unabated. The explosions are heard in the distance. A family with seven children is cowering in fear in a corner of their shack, not daring to step out, dreading instant death from shrapnel or a sniper’s bullet.

OTHER WORDS-Unity and bipartisanship sound wonderful. But can anyone explain how “building bridges” to today’s GOP will get anything done? 

COMMENTARY-In an age of misinformation, we have to be careful of anything that plays into a specific bubble of belief and yet has little or no basis of truth.

UNTANGLING LIES-Much has been made recently of the concept of the “big lie”: 

FOREIGN POLICY RESET-The predominant direction of a progressive U.S. president should be toward “Making America Safe for the World.” 

THE F-WORD-“Leftists” I know have had their undies tied up in a nasty knot bunch over other leftists’ use of the F-word – fascism – to describe Trump and his backers. 

POLITICS-You can’t poke into any issue in Congress without stumbling over sacks full of corporate campaign donations.

PERSPECTIVE--On November 23^rd. NPR Reporter Brian Naylor wrote and reported that President -elect Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban American to head and become the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

LABOR POLITICS--Late last year, Congress allowed federal mandatory emergency paid leave benefits to expire.

PERSPECTIVE--President-elect Biden frequently calls for “healing the soul of our country.” Lincoln wrote of “binding up the nation’s wounds.”

A NEW WORLD-We did it. We took control of the Senate from Mitch McConnell.

COUP POLITICS--The year 2020 will be remembered in history for a deadly pandemic and a deep economic crisis that touched almost every country on earth. Hopes for a brighter 2021 were one of the few things most people could agree on. 

GUEST WORDS--Americans often ask what a President’s “legacy” will be. Donald Trump revealed a great and terrible truth: who America “really” is.

IN DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACY-On January 5, 2021, one day before Trump sparked his fascist Attack on the Capitol, the liberal New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg called for Americans “to defend democracy” by “investigating” Trump and wrote these words: