By Walter Simon – I’m not much of a football fan. But due to circumstances beyond my control, I ended up in a house watching the Alabama-LSU game last night and something dawned on me. In American football, we have it all ass backwards. The defense should be called the offense, and the offense is…
Guest Columns
Was the Third Republican Debate Jeb Bush’s Last Stand?
By Eugene Robinson – Jeb Bush deserves headlines from Wednesday’s anarchic GOP debate, but not the good kind. Something like: “Is Bush Finished?” The evening in Boulder, Colorado, will be remembered for interruptions, non sequiturs, mangled facts and general chaos. But the most significant impact may have been to dramatically lengthen the odds that Bush,…
A Sincere Reason Joe Biden Decided Not to Run for President
By E.J. Dionne Jr. – WASHINGTON, D.C. – It was a withdrawal speech that sounded like an announcement speech, and it perfectly captured the aching ambivalence of Joe Biden. He wanted to run for president. He had his issues. He had President Obama’s record and was proud to defend it. And the man who noted…
Mainstream Media Misleads Again in Presidential Race
Totally Missing the New Media Conversation and the Peoples’ Political Pulse – By Edgar Wilson – Far from leading the conversation, the mainstream media is missing it entirely. Preconceived narratives surrounding political dynasties, some sort of manifest destiny, and the most predictable sort of ebbs and flows of primary polls have driven coverage away from…
Hillary, Bernie, and the Banks
By Robert Reich – Giant Wall Street banks continue to threaten the wellbeing of millions of Americans, but what to do? Bernie Sanders says break them up and resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act that once separated investment from commercial banking. Hillary Clinton says charge them a bit more and oversee them more carefully. Most Republicans say…
The Donald Woos the Heart of Dixie, But Jesus Remains Politically Polygamous
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala – The temptation was too great for New Yorker satirist Andy Borowitz. Photos of Donald Trump’s August 21 campaign rally at the football stadium here showed a throng so white it might have been a convention of albinos. Perhaps a spy agency’s scanning technology could pick out a few…
Happy Labor Day 2015: See What Keynes Said About Labor Day 2028
Voters Align With Candidates Who Revolt Against the Ruling Class
By Robert Reich – “He can’t possibly win the nomination,” is the phrase heard most often when Washington insiders mention either Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders. Yet as enthusiasm for the bombastic billionaire and the socialist senior continues to build within each party, the political establishment is mystified. Political insiders don’t see that the biggest…
How to Disrupt the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex
By Robert Reich – President Obama is said to be considering an executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their political spending. He should sign it immediately. But he should go further and ban all political spending by federal contractors that receive more than half their revenues from government. Ever since the Supreme Court’s shameful…
We Must Fight Economic Apartheid in America
By Robert Reich – Almost lost by the wave of responses to the Supreme Court’s decisions last week upholding the Affordable Care Act and allowing gays and lesbians to marry was the significance of the Court’s third decision – on housing discrimination. In a 5-4 ruling, the Court found that the Fair Housing Act of…
Hillary Clinton Could Be the Most Powerful Woman in History
By Nicholas Sheppard – If Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency is successful, would it make her the most powerful woman in history? The proposition is a tricky one, because of all the historical relativism. Making sense of it involves looking at power both in absolute, and global terms. Unlike other powerful women in history,…
Ten Ways to Make the Economy Work
By Robert Reich – One big reason America was far more equal in the 1950s and 1960s than now is unions were stronger then. That gave workers bargaining power to get a fair share of the economy’s gains – and unions helped improve wages and working conditions for everyone. But as union membership has weakened…
Post Post 9/11: Memorial Day Reflections on Maturing in These Times
By Carrie Louise Nutt – The America I grew up in is not the America of today. This is always true. Life is constantly changing. The world is constantly changing. Nothing stays the same. It’s one big ball of organic aliveness. But the difference is that the America of today is not an improvement over…
Elementary Finances at Berry Elementary
Education Matters — By Larry Lee — Debbie Deavours has spent 33 years in the Fayette County school system, the last eight as principal at Berry Elementary in the little town of Berry with its 1,250 people. Debbie has 300 students in pre-K-6. Some 65 percent of whom get free or reduced price lunches. And…
Trans Pacific Trickle-Down Economics
By Robert Reich – Have we learned nothing from thirty years of failed trickle-down economics? By now we should know that when big corporations, Wall Street, and the wealthy get special goodies, the rest of us get shafted. The Reagan and George W. Bush tax cuts of 1981, 2001, and 2003, respectively, were sold to…
The Alabama Legislature’s Strange Idea of a ‘Lean’ Budget
Alabama Legislators Want ‘Blood on the Floor’: Especially the Blood of Children and Grandparents
How the New Flexible Economy is Making Workers’ Lives Hell
Don’t Eat the Corrupt Sausage Served Up by the Alabama Legislature
Education Matters – By Larry Lee – We have all been told that one should never watch either legislation or sausage being made. Having grown up long ago on a south Alabama farm, I took part in more than a few “hog killins” and know all about making sausage. I’ve also witnessed legislation being birthed…
The Defining Economic Moment and Hillary Clinton
By Robert Reich – It’s a paradox. Almost all the economic gains are still going to the top, leaving America’s vast middle class with stagnant wages and little or no job security. Two-thirds of Americans are working paycheck to paycheck. Meanwhile, big money is taking over our democracy. If there were ever a time for…