IMPORTANT READS

ROYAL SEPARATION-In a move that reflects the time-worn pathologies of powerful aristocratic families, the House of Windsor has agreed to allow the Queen’s grandson, Harry, currently sixth in line to the throne, and his California-born wife, Meghan, to leave the family business (The Firm) and attempt to establish independent lives in Canada, a former colony which remains a member of the British Commonwealth. This represents their exile from the territorial, ceremonial, financial, and emotional heart of the royal family. 

WORLD WATCH-Those who applaud the assassination of General Soleimani seem to simply equate him to a terrorist who certainly deserved to meet his fate.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFRONT-In violation of the separation of church and state, American tax dollars are funneled to fundamentalist private schools teaching crackpot absurdities – such as a claim that Noah probably took two baby dinosaurs onto his ark. 

REICH DIARY--If climate change, nuclear standoffs, assault weapons, hate crimes, mass killings, Russian trolls, near-record inequality, kids locked in cages at our border, and Donald Trump in the White House don’t occasionally cause you feelings of impending doom, you’re not human.

WORLD WATCH-Trump’s order to kill General Soleimani is one of the most reckless acts taken by a president, who once again has put his personal political interest above the nation’s security.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-Generally people blame the liar for his falsehoods, but matters can be more complicated as we are advised by the adage, “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.”

GLORIFYING WAR-Yes, our infrastructure stinks, our schools are failing, this country’s a nightmare of inequality, and there’s a self-promoting madman in the White House, so isn’t it time to take pride in the rare institutional victories America has had in this century?

OTHER WORDS-The awful truth about the corporate and governmental power elites in our democratic society is that they really don’t like democracy at all.

A WAR EVERY 20 YEARS--These were the words that did it, that knocked the composure out of me. I was standing at what felt like the heart of Chicago on a January afternoon, corner of Wabash and Wacker, next to the river and beneath the tower known as Trump. The crowd had swelled by this time to nearly a thousand.

CLIMATE POLITICS-Like so many these past few days, I have been stunned by the devastation across Australia.

OTHER WORDS--In a full-blown U.S. war with Iran, up to a million people could die initially.

ELECTION POLITICS--Derek Thompson of The Atlantic recently wrote a piece in which he theorized about why young, progressive voters appear to loathe Pete Buttigieg. The 33-year-old journalist was puzzled as to how we haven’t gravitated to Mayor Pete on the basis of age alone:

SPECIAL REPORT--A new Bloomberg analysis found that the planet’s 500 richest people saw their collective net worth soar by 25 percent over the last year The 500 richest people in the world, all of whom are billionaires, gained a combined $1.2 trillion in wealth in 2019, further exacerbating inequities that have not been seen since the late 1920s.

PAST TIME--Impeachment, Trump, impeachment, Trump. It’s hard to think of this year without obsessing about the occupant of the White House.

IMPEACHMENT POLITICS-A new poll released on Christmas Day shows record-level support among U.S. voters for the ouster of President Donald Trump—a finding that indicates the Republican Party's effort to obstruct accountability for the president is not having the desired result.

WORLD WATCH-Finally, Trump was impeached on December 18. It is a sad day for America because for the House of Representative to resort to such a historically rare punitive act suggests that Trump’s transgressions have been so severe that the House was compelled to take such a drastic measure.

2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION-Do people who cast their ballots in 2016 for Donald Trump wish today they’d voted for Hillary Clinton? 

CLIMATE CHANGE POLITICS-After the COP 25 climate talks on the Paris climate agreement went into overtime Friday night amid a stalled agreement on wealthy countries' contributions to greatly reducing their climate-warming carbon emissions, civil society groups and climate scientists were shocked by the weak language that emerged from the late-night talks on Saturday. 

WORLD WATCH-Even a cursory review of the turmoil sweeping the Middle East points to Iran as one of the main culprits behind most of the conflicts that have and continue to destabilize the region.

VIEW FROM HERE-After nearly 20 years as a social worker trained in conflict resolution, I have learned some valuable lessons about the ways people communicate with one another.

MAKING AMERICA HATE AGAIN-Liz Sawyer at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that the Twitter account of Danielle Stella, the Republican challenger to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), has been shut down after she called for her opponent to be lynched.