IMPORTANT READS

PERSPECTIVE--“Over these last few years, given the wars it has waged and the international treaties it has arbitrarily reneged on, the U.S. government perfectly fits its own definition of a rogue state.” — Arundhati Roy

WORLD WATCH--On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the end of Kosovo war, the country is facing a dramatic large-scale brain drain.

VIEW FROM HERE--Obviously, President Trump perceives himself as a leader who can thrive on chaos. But what has been overlooked is why he chooses to "lead" this way. There are plenty of other ways to get things done as a manager of a company and/or nation. Why does Trump prefer chaos over order? 

MY TURN--I don’t know what happened to this country. We all knew that there was racism and bigotry in almost every area, but on the day of the announcement of the 2016 election, it seems that all hell broke loose.

POLITICS--The formula for creating an American hero goes like this. Take a dude, preferably white. Make him an underdog. Position him as a champion of the upwardly aspiring. Hey presto! There’s a knight in shining armor, coming to save the promised land. 

HEALTH-CARE POLITICS--On Thursday, the Trump administration published a new set of rules, laying out its plan to interpret broadly laws that protect health-care workers' and organizations' right to opt out on moral grounds of "assisting" in certain procedures, such as abortion, sterilization, and assisted suicide.

VIEW FROM HERE--Speaking at an event sponsored by CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), Congresswoman Ilhan Absullahi Omar, a Somali-American member of the U.S. House of Representatives serving for Minnesota's 5th congressional district, said, “Muslims for a really long time in this country have been told that there is a privilege, that there is a privilege that we are given and it might be taken away...

WORLD WATCH--Accusing Iran of being a rogue country bent on acquiring nuclear weapons, supporting extremist groups and terrorism, persistently threatening Israel, and destabilizing the region in its relentless effort to become the dominant power may well all be justified.

MY TURN-We have to ask ourselves, exactly “when” did supporting a political candidate transition into the kind of cult behavior that we have seen with those that support Sanders and Trump? What was the formula that catapulted an individual to a pedestal that was so unrealistic, it borders on worship?

MORE TO WAR THAN GUNS AND BOMBS— I went to the market …Where all the families shop …
I pulled out my Ka-bar … And started to chop … Your left right left right left right kill …Your left right left right you know I will--Military cadence 

WORLD WATCH--The result of the recent municipal elections in Turkey represents a major shift in public sentiment toward President Erdogan, which will have major political ramifications that will bring him down in disgrace.

HUMAN RIGHTS--Merely banning abortion isn't enough for some on the rabid right — a few are even threatening women with the death penalty.

HUFF POST REPORT-Ending months of speculation, former Vice President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he’s running for president in 2020, joining a crowded field of Democrats eager to take on President Donald Trump.

MY TURN-For all who campaigned, called, volunteered and encouraged to elect Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, we knew that there was an extreme left faction that was buying into the conspiracy theories that were being dissipated.

VIEW FROM HERE-Imagine that Donald Trump was in the drug trade instead of running for president.

POLITICS--Bill Kristol declared the Democratic race for President as between Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. At a Des Moines town hall, his campaign planned for 50 people to show up; 1600 did. According to a CNBC analysis, Buttigieg has become a top recipient of bundled contributions from Democratic campaign donors. It looks like this guy is for real.

EDUCATION POLITICS--Amid a rapidly worsening shortage of teachers in California, progressive lawmakers in the state are exploring an unorthodox option for strengthening public education: barring even more teachers from classrooms.

EDUCATION POLITICS--The actress Felicity Huffman—along with 13 other parents charged in the college admissions scandal—entered plea deals last week, putting pressure on actress Lori Laughlin and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, to do the same.

ELECTION 2020-It’d be difficult to advise a former vice-president to not run for the presidency, to tell them how they’d likely lose, that they should just sit this one out, particularly when so many others in their position did succeed at eventually occupying the Oval Office.

PERSPECTIVE--We on the Portland Peace Team were invited out the other day to provide some nonviolent public safety for the local demonstration of perhaps 250 people calling for the unredacted release of the Mueller Report to Congress and to the American people.

FINALLY … THE MUELLER REPORT-- “Oh my God,” President Donald Trump said. “This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.”