IMPORTANT READS

COLLEGE SPORTS-In a 9-0 vote this week, the Supreme Court delivered a major victory to college athletes over a compensation battle that has been dragging on for years.

WORLD WATCH-Every Israeli will sooner than later realize that the creation of a Palestinian state is the only way by which Israel can protect its democracy, independence, national security, and national Jewish identity.

OTHER WORDS-The American political system is complicated but fixing it doesn’t have to be.  

COMMON DREAMS-As the mom of two children with Type 1 diabetes, I constantly worry:

COMMON DREAMS-The ACLU reacted with outrage -- and warned of potentially major implications for the right to protest -- after a Trump-appointed federal judge on Monday largely dismissed lawsuits accusing the former president and his attorney general of illegally authorizing a violent assault on peaceful demonstrators in the nation's capital last year."  

COUNTER PUNCH-United States political culture is an Orwellian nightmare. Two plus two equals five in the propaganda spectacle that passes for “democratic” news and debate here.  

PEACE VOICE-Did you really think that electing Joe Biden would mean major reductions in military spending and the shift of Pentagon resources to spending on social well-being, as progressives have long advocated? 

GUEST COMMENTARY-China’s increasingly aggressive geopolitical and economic stance in the world is unleashing a fierce bipartisan backlash in America.

COUNTERPUNCH - Years pass, and journalist Julian Assange languishes in a British jail. His crime? Truthful reporting of U.S. military atrocities in Iraq, reporting that sparked a lust for vengeance among U.S. politicos and military men.

How strong and powerful is a country if it cannot handle the slightest bit of self-reflection or self-criticism?

CAPITAL & MAIN-A powerful tidal wave is building, feeding off the primal desire to reclaim a lost sense of normalcy.

BIG TECH TALK - “Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) during her failed presidential run in 2019.

CAL MATTERS-If Billy McCasland had gotten his $1,200 stimulus check, he would have moved his family out of the Modesto house the pediatrician says is responsible for his 7-year-old’s lead poisoning.

NEW GEOGRAPHY-The coronavirus pandemic has altered the future of American business.

COMMON DREAMS-The atmospheric scientist that led a major year-long Arctic research expedition said Tuesday that the world may have already hit one of the so-called climate “tipping points." 

OTHER WORDS-McDonald’s workers in 15 U.S. cities recently staged a weeklong strike demanding a $15 hourly wage for every McDonald’s worker. McDonald’s resisted, pledging only to raise average wages to $13 an hour. 

BIG TECH TALK-Many have understandably applauded Facebook’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump from the site for the next two years, but the ability of a company to decide who should be in the public square, which the social network has effectively become, raises troubling questions about the future of our tattered democracy.

CLIMATE POLITICS-Worldwide chemical emissions are six times global warming emissions.

ALPERN AT LARGE-Some of you reading this now will think that former President Donald John Trump got a raw deal with the claims of Russian interference in American politics.

First it was the minimum wage. Then student loans. Then the $300 weekly unemployment benefit. Then ditching the God-awful Trump tax cuts for billionaires.

‘Why would I put my kids in a place where there is no future?’