Monthly Archives: August 2016

What Happens After Trump Loses?

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By Robert Reich – I recently got a call from a political analyst in Washington. “Trump is dropping like a stone,” he said, convincingly. “After Election Day, he’s history.” I think Trump will lose the election, but I doubt he’ll be “history.” Defeated presidential candidates typically disappear from public view. Think Mitt Romney or Michael…

Tropical Depression Nine Forms Near Florida Keys, Heading for the Gulf

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By Glynn Wilson – Tropical Depression Nine has formed near the Florida Keys with its center about 60 miles south of Key West with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as of late Sunday afternoon and could pick up strength as it moves west into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the latest forecast from…

Fox News Talking Head Sean Hannity Is Donald Trump’s Puppeteer

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By Peter Funt – November’s biggest loser might not be Donald Trump — even if he gets clobbered at the polls. The person with the most to lose is Sean Hannity, the Fox News Channel host from Alabama, who isn’t just hitching his wagon to Trump’s campaign, he’s almost single-handily building the wagon on his…

Alabama Lottery Stopgap Medicaid Plan Dies in Failure for Governor Bentley

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By Glynn Wilson – The fools y’all elected to represent us in Montgomery have gone back home now on a paid vacation for a holiday they don’t even believe in, Labor Day. The fool of a governor y’all elected to represent us in the state capital is making excuses like the bad kid on the…

Alabama House Passes Lottery Bill at Midnight, Senate Must Approve in Conference

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By Glynn Wilson – In a state where gambling is so loved yet feared, it must be torture for lawmakers stuck in Montgomery in the August heat to spend hours late into the night debating what Governor Robert Bentley says he wants, a state lottery to save Medicaid. With all of the big talk about…

What the National Press and the Park Service Won’t Tell You on the 100th Anniversary of NPS

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By Glynn Wilson – Reading the national press coverage on the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, even listening to the reporting on National Public Radio, you would think the biggest problem the parks face is a lack of visitors. The entire story is framed as if the parks were just another capitalist tourist…

Montgomery Ranks Number One City in America for Sexually Transmitted Disease

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Alabama House Committee Approves Lottery Bill – By Glynn Wilson – Sorry y’all. I can’t resist the irony, especially in the wake of the governor’s sex scandal. Just as stories were making the rounds that the Alabama House Economic Development and Tourism committee voted to approve a lottery bill, a day late to be in…

Gulf Coast Assesses Damage After Louisiana Flood, Prepares for Hurricane Hermine

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By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — It’s August on the Gulf Coast. Watch out for hurricanes. Just as the residents of Louisiana are beginning to clean up and recover from record floods, a weather event the American Red Cross is calling the worst disaster in the United States since Super Storm Sandy hit the…

President Obama Bypasses Republican Congress, Creates National Monument in Maine’s North Woods

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By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, President Obama bypassed the inaction of the Republican Congress and used the power of the presidential pen to create the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, the first national monument to preserve the landscape and honor…

A Single-Payer Healthcare System is Inevitable

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By Robert Reich – The best argument for a single-payer health plan is the recent decision by giant health insurer Aetna to bail out next year from 11 of the 15 states where it sells Obamacare plans. Aetna’s decision follows similar moves by UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, and by Humana, another one…

Alabama Lottery and Medicaid Funding Hopes Dashed Again

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Governor Robert Bentley’s Lottery Bill Dies in the House – By Glynn Wilson – Never mind lottery fans and sick children who need Medicaid funding now. According to a plethora of reporting on Twitter late Tuesday afternoon, any hope of a lottery vote making it onto the November 8 ballot just went down in flames,…

Why Mosquitoes Love You and Me and Not Momma

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By Glynn Wilson – Do mosquitoes seem to bug the crap out of you, but even more annoyingly, seem not to bother some of your friends and family? I’ve long wondered why the pesky critters love me so much. If women loved me as much as mosquitoes, I would have a harram. Since it is…

Watch the Change You Wish to See Happen in the World

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“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The world is changing fast, again. Try to keep up — if you can. Let us help. Let me help. Listen up. About the time NBC was wrapping up it’s…

Roger Ailes and Donald Trump Deserve Each Other

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By Dick Polman – If you read Superman comics as a kid, you’re probably familiar with Bizarro World —- the planet where everything is the opposite of life on Earth. I bring this up because it’s clear Donald Trump is running for president of Bizarro World. Trump is on track to lose female voters like…

Alabama Lottery Plan Surprisingly Survives ‘Train Wreck,’ But No Guarantee of Passage

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By Glynn Wilson – It just goes to show that just about anything can happen in a place where nobody really knows what they’re doing. After just about every news corporation in Alabama had reported in print and on television that Governor Robert Bentley’s plan to bring the legislature back to Montgomery to pass a…

Alabama Governor Bentley’s Lottery Plan to Fund Medicaid Dies in Special Session ‘Train Wreck’

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Glynn Wilson – I hate to say I told you so, especially on such an important matter of life and death for thousands each year. But as I already indicated, embattled Governor Robert Bentley’s proposal to get the Alabama Legislature to pass a bill allowing a vote on a lottery to shore up the general…

Demonstrations Planned Against Offshore Oil Leases in New Orleans

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EDITOR’S NOTE – For info about a free roundtrip bus on Saturday from Mobile to this demonstration go to the Facebook event page for Gulf Coast Interdependence Day. You can sign up as a volunteer and RSVP to attend and find out details about the bus and other matters. The free bus will leave from…

Sugarcane Jane Plays Windmill Market in Fairhope Alabama

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By Glynn Wilson – FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Upon recently discovering the Windmill Market restaurant and bar in this artsy community on Mobile Bay’s Eastern Shore, I was urged to show up Tuesday night to get a glimpse of and hear the sound of something quite unique: A new dynamic duo out of Alabama by way…

Lottery, BP Settlement Bills Clear Alabama Legislative Committees in Special Session

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By Glynn Wilson – Two very different lottery bills won approval in the Alabama Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee on Tuesday, the second day of a special session prompted by a Medicaid funding shortfall, according to Arise policy analyst Carol Gundlach. Both are sponsored by Senator Jim McClendon, a Republican from Springville, and the Senate…