Why are We Hooked on Films About Mass Destruction?

Nicholas Barber The Guardian
As Independence Day: Resurgence explodes into cinemas - and obliterates most of London's landmarks - it's clear that the first installment of the series 20 years ago changed the nature of summer blockbusters for ever.

The Family

Maxine Scates The American Poetry Review
In Maxine Scates's touching poem, casualties of war are not just soldiers or even surviving soldiers, but the family and its survivors.

Was Orlando Killer Omar Mateen Poisoned by the Closet?

Tim Teeman Daily Beast
The latest theory posits Orlando mass murderer Omar Mateen as a murderous closet case. If it’s true—and who knows?—then it starkly shows how much still needs to be done to help LGBT people live openly and equally.

It’s Time to Glitter Bomb the NRA. Who’s In?

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum The Nation
Let’s get 1,000 LGBTQ folks to the NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, and wrap it in a huge Gilbert Baker rainbow flag and with glitter and feathers shut that building down. And do it again and again.

Bernie Sanders National Live Stream Address

Bernie lays out the next steps for the political revolution: fight for a real progressive program, defeat Trump and enlist a new generation of political activists from the local level up.