IMPORTANT READS

2020 -- When Bernie Sanders launched his 2020 presidential bid this week, a Vermont Public Radio interviewer asked him how his candidacy fit into a moment when the Democratic Party is looking more diverse than ever?

MY TURN-Being a liberal activist is not only a personal choice, it is a passion. I always embraced the many people who would join the cause for equality and protecting the planet, and never really thought about those who chose to sit it out.

RACIST POLITICS--It's inspired terrorist attacks — and entire governing structures — on multiple continents.

PERSPECTIVE--Artificial Intelligence is one thing. Artificial morality is another. It may sound something like this:

EXPOSED--Sixteen years after the United States invaded Iraq and left a trail of destruction and chaos in the country and the region, one aspect of the war remains criminally underexamined: why was it fought in the first place? What did the Bush administration hope to get out of the war? (Photo above from left: Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush, and Vice President Dick Cheney.

VIEW FROM HERE--Later this month The George Eastman Museum in Rochester is set to screen the 1960 courtroom drama Inherit the Wind.

BUSTING THE BEHEMOTHS-Presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren announced Friday she wants to bust up giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. 

FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN?--Fox far right wing propagandist Jeanine Pirro came after Ilhan Omar for veiling, saying it is unconstitutional for her to follow the sharia and accusing her, horror of horrors, of dual loyalty. (Photo above: Rep. Ilhan Omar is the first person to wear a hijab in Congress.)

WAR OF WORDS--What happened to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was troubling. On the one hand, because she dared to challenge the way supporters of Israel have worked to silence debate on U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she became a victim of incitement, and the target of legislation meant to shame her.

LATINO PERSPECTIVE-Politics sometimes makes drunkards of us all with its intoxicating whiffs of power and possibility -- and it often clouds our thinking until the sobering reality of an election itself. 

MY TURN-As a journalist, I have been monitoring, following, and communicating with factions of extremists on both sides of the political realm for over 2 ½ years. This endeavor is not one for the fainthearted, because it enters into the heads of people that live in bubbles of existence that are completely unreal.

TOMGRAM--Call me crazy, if you want, but I think I see how to do it! 

MY TURN--Politics has always been a dirty game, and it seems that it happens in a lot of countries. Our founding fathers knew this and had first-hand experience of it.

IN THE SHADOWS OF LOSERDOM-It’s a topic you can’t mention in polite company. People will look at you like you’re a little strange, and probably call you depressing (it’s a compliment, by the way.) One of the great elephants in the room of now is that we live in an age of collapse. 

OTHER WORDS-Jussie Smollett, a popular actor and singer-songwriter, was recently arrested and charged with filing a false police report. Smollett alleged that he was attacked in late January by two white men who spewed racist and homophobic slurs as they assaulted him. 

GUEST WORDS--Our National Embarrassment.

Our National Emergency.

VIEW FROM HERE-The pain across the country is real. What Jussie Smollett supposedly did is unspeakable. He staged his own assault and blamed it on white people.

THE REAL COST OF CAPITALISM-Here’s a tiny observation, which you’re welcome to disagree with. I wouldn’t blame you.

URBAN PERSPECTIVE--It was repeatedly said as fact in 2016 and it’s being said again. Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders has a big problem with black voters; namely that he can’t get many of them.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-Forget what they told you in kindergarten and over the next 12 years of public school and through college and grad school, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are not the foundation of America. We are based on Pogoism. 

PROMOTING THE ISLAMIC AGENDA-Over the past year, I had the opportunity to speak to many Turkish scholars and former government officials, the majority of whom left your country because they feared for their lives and their loved ones.