IMPORTANT READS

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-With the mainstream news media attracting eyeballs through endless stories about Jeffrey Epstein, Roger Ailes, R. Kelley, and other lowlifes, it is getting harder to be outraged.

PERSPECTIVE--David Koch, one of the two infamous billionaire Koch brothers, died Friday at the age of 79.

LOVE, TRUMP STYLE--Donald Trump loves farmers. We know this because he says so. “Farmers, I LOVE YOU!” he declared in December.  

JUSTICE-Four hundred years ago this month, the first enslaved people from Africa arrived in Virginia. Slavery is often reduced to a crime of America’s long-ago past. But enslaved labor created the backbone for America’s capitalistic economy, allowing it to grow into — and remain — the world’s leading economy today.  

FIGHT FOR A LIVING WAGE-Last month, the House voted to incrementally raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. If the Senate passes the bill, it would be the first federal minimum wage increase in more than a decade — far too long for residents of the 21 states that don’t have their own higher minimum wage. 

WORLD WATCH-Climate change is real and is visible for all to see. The scientific evidence is overwhelming, and denying that climate change is already upon us, especially as the president and his party does, flies in the face of the indisputably dire consequences that will be inflicted on all humanity.

PROGRESS--Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) lights a candle during a vigil for the victims of the recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in Grand Army Plaza on August 5th, 2019, in Brooklyn.

INSIDER REPORT--On Saturday morning, a gunman opened fire on shoppers in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart. Twenty-two people were killed, including a mother who was gunned down while cradling her infant son, shielding him from harm. Dozens more were injured, with many still fighting for their lives.

GUEST WORDS--Last month, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared that American aid to Israel is “something that can be discussed” in Washington.

GUEST WORDS--It’s easy to understand why a majority of House Democrats have finally gone on record to call for an impeachment inquiry of President Donald J. Trump.

JUST SAYIN’--The president was quick to label the latest mass shooters cowards.

COMMENTARY--A prominent Republican said that the El Paso shooter should not be prosecuted under federal hate crimes laws because that could lead to pastors being put in prison.

GUEST COMMENTARY--Anyone feeling the need to defend Baltimore from Trump’s opinions ought to talk about what really ails that city.

POLITICS-Joe Scarborough, a former Republican Congressman cum pundit, labelled Mitch McConnell “Moscow Mitch” and it may have done more to expose McConnell as the dangerous autocratic hypocrite he is. But McConnell is just a symptom of a much larger malady, one that has been brewing for four decades – the increasing influence of money in politics and government. 

FIRST PERSON-I was born and raised in a three-and-a-half room apartment in Brooklyn. My father was a paint salesman who worked hard his entire life, but never made much money.

WORLD WATCH--As Israel prepares for the parliamentary election in September, its second in five months, most national security experts, politically savvy individuals, and academics suggest that this election may well be the most critical since the year 2000.

GUEST COMMENTARY--Trump says everyone is tired of the word racism.

ESSAY--Could Donald Trump end the Afghan war someday? I don’t know if such a possibility has been on your mind, but it’s certainly been on the mind of this retired U.S. Army major who fought in that land so long ago. And here’s the context in which I’ve been thinking about that very possibility.

POLITICS--“We are one of the wealthiest countries in the history of this world. And yet millions of adults in the United States still don’t have health insurance,” Rep. Ilhan Omar told her Minnesota constituents at a July 18 town hall.

TRUMP’S PATH TO VICTORY?-Trump's racist rant about four freshman congresswomen of color is getting a lot of play in the press and from Democrats.

RACE WAR--A racist chant against Rep. Ilhan Omar by backers of President Donald Trump during a rally in North Carolina Wednesday night was countered by an outpouring of solidarity with the Minnesota congresswoman as progressive activists, members of Congress, and ordinary Americans vowed to continue defending Omar against the right's bigoted and dangerous attacks.