By Glynn Wilson – ‘Twas the night before Christmas 2020, when all through the American house The only creatures stirring were nurses trying to save people from dying of COVID. The stockings were hung on the mantle with care, In hopes of a big shipment of vaccine and a relief check from Santa. The children…
MEDIA
FTC and Bipartisan Coalition of 48 Attorneys General Sue Facebook for Violating Consumer Privacy and Crushing Competition
By Glynn Wilson – The Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in 48 of 50 states launched a major legal broadside across the bow of social media giant Facebook on Wednesday, escalating the battles in Washington and across the country against the largest technology companies in a way that “could remake the social media industry,”…
President Barack Obama, Idiocracy and Our Epistemological Crisis
By Glynn Wilson – This is something I’ve been thinking about and writing about for a long time, but now former President Barack Obama and The Atlantic are talking about it. In an exclusive interview by Jeffrey Goldberg, the former president identifies the greatest threats to the American experiment in democracy, explains why he’s still…
Alabama Song Writer Grayson Capps on the State of the World and Religion
Sunday Reader – By Glynn Wilson – So I’m following the light, doing what I do, and somehow with assistance from Mother Nature, my Cherokee ancestors and smarter aliens on some exoplanet, I made it back to North Carolina this week from a month-long trip to the Nation’s Capital just long enough to see Donald…
Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If’ – Advice in a Time of Crisis
Editor’s Note: “If—” is a poem by English Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), written circa 1895 as a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson. It is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism. The poem, first published in Rewards and Fairies (1910), ch. ‘Brother Square-Toes,’ is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet’s son,…
Will The Arts and Music Survive the Coronavirus?
Part III: How to Create a Functioning Communications System to Save Democracy and the Planet
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a three part series on how to create a functioning communications system to save democracy and the planet. We face an existential crisis in this world and no one seems to know what to do about it. We are just beginning to explore solutions while others seem willing…
My Loyal Dog Jefferson Died on Christmas Night 2019
Margaret Wilson Dies at 93
By Glynn Wilson – Margaret Louise Walrond-Wilson, my mother and a long time resident of Jefferson County, Alabama, died in her sleep of natural causes in the early morning hours of Tuesday, Dec. 10. She was 93. Born on Sept. 12, 1926 in Birmingham, she was employed at Trussville Utilities for more than 30 years…
Mobile Writer and Activist David Underhill Dies at 78
By Glynn Wilson – Editor and Publisher – MOBILE, Ala. — Long-time activist and writer David R. Underhill, Associate Editor of the New American Journal, died in the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center of heart failure after a battle with a series of other health issues early Friday morning, November 8. He was 78. A native…
Alabama Scientist Mark Hainds Publishes Book as First to Hike Mexican Border
By Glynn Wilson – Like many a fellow traveler before him inspired by the American landscape, Missouri country boy turned middle-aged Alabama forester Mark J. Hainds grew impatient with his life of teaching, raising a family, and conducting research to conserve and propagate the return of the longleaf pine forest in the South, long ago…
The Arc of the Moral Universe Doesn’t Bend Toward Justice Without Pressure
Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights, by Doug Jones, All Points Books, a division of St. Martin’s Press and MacMillan Books. Book Review – By Glynn Wilson – The inspiration for the title of Doug Jones’ emotional, inspiring and detailed account of the legal cases that brought…
Every Day Is a New Low in Trump’s White House
The president steps over bright ethical and moral lines wherever he encounters them. Everyone in America saw it when he fired my boss. But I saw it firsthand time and time again. Editor’s Note: Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, was named acting director of the bureau after President Donald Trump fired…
Movie Review and More: Gary Webb, Dark Alliance and Kill the Messenger
By Glynn Wilson – Surfing around on Netflix for something to watch during the holidays, it came to my attention that the film Kill the Messenger was available. At the outset let me say that the Gary Webb story is one I’ve purposely avoided getting involved with for many years, even though I followed it…
Should the Media Walk Out on Trump?
The Machine is On Fire: Let’s Put Out the Fire
Will the F.B.I. and Congress Now Act to Remove Trump from Power?
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Try to imagine the reaction inside the Hoover building at 935 Pennsylvania Avenue as arguably the most corrupt and incompetent president in American history openly committed treason on foreign soil in Helsinki, Finland on Monday. If anyone other than Attorney General Jeff Sessions of Alabama was in charge…
Appomattox Court House: Robert E. Lee Surrenders to Grant, Ending Civil War
By Glynn Wilson – APPOMATTOX, Virg. — We didn’t make it here in time for Memorial Day, but National Park Service rangers and volunteers say nearly 500 people showed up for the playing of “Taps” and holiday weekend programs. I don’t know for sure, but considering that Confederate sympathizers seem to generate more engagement these…
Kodachrome on Netflix: Author Tom Wolfe Dies at 88
Understanding the Facebook Juggernaut and How Newspapers Killed Themselves
By Glynn Wilson – Let’s review. There is much hand-wringing in the news of late about how Facebook lost control of all the data it collects on users, how that data was used by Cambridge Analytica to potentially swing the 2016 presidential election away from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, and how Facebook and Google…