OPINION

Nature Abhors a Vacuum: From Aristotle to Thoreau

1afce0ce9284f0ab5c05f716249e4bbd

The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Here’s what you get when you combine the wisdom of Aristotle and Henry David Thoreau. You’ve heard the idiom, “nature abhors a vacuum,” right? So what does that mean, how does it apply to the current state of our democracy, and why am I…

We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us

c531ffef3d680283264f7365703a7a8a

The Big Picture –  By Glynn Wilson –  WASHINGTON, D.C. – Everyone should be familiar with the apocryphal phrase, often turned into a cliché by winners on television reality shows or sporting events and sometimes attributed to being popularized by American transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson: On life, he allegedly said, “It’s not the destination, it’s…

Standing Up to Trump’s Tyranny on Independence Day

IMG_6045.jpg

“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us,…

Dancing Around the Mulberry Tree

OriginalPhoto-581285442.284115-1.jpg

Friend, friend Here you come again Empty handed like A pauper in the cold You found, my friend That lonely road again Where the world has left Your wounded soul I have said I will be with you till the end But sometimes the weight Is more than I can hold Forgiveness comes But not…

IMPERIAL JOE: Biden Trades Bread and Circuses for War

us military reach 160x120 - IMPERIAL JOE: Biden Trades Bread and Circuses for War

By David Underhill – Bread and circuses pacified the Roman masses while the emperors with their legions patrolled far borders to pacify barbarians who resisted joining the empire. Joe Biden updated this governing method at his presidential campaign launch rally in Philadelphia. He offered a buffet of appetizing items to improve America’s education, infrastructure, health…

It’s Time to Move the Alabama State Capital to Birmingham

alabama-capitol-building_1

The Big Picture –  By Glynn Wilson – The ghosts of Jefferson Davis and George Wallace must live in the old capitol building in Montgomery. How else to explain why the fundamentalist Christian Republicans who somehow control all three branches of the state government still in the most retrograde state in the Union managed to…

Oh, Alabama: Testing the Courts on Abortion Again

alabama-abortion-02-usat-jc-190509_hpMain_4x3_992.jpg

Guest Column – By Deanna Kell – In case you’ve been living in a news bubble and didn’t hear about it already, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law the most restrictive abortion bill in the country on Wednesday, a near-total ban on all abortions, after the so-called the State of the Human Life Protection…

The Rising Tide of the Populist Right

Steve_Bannon-Fairhope3c_edited-1

The Threat of Political Climate Change – Countering the Bannon Archipelago – By John Feffer – In the Americas, the Trump tsunami has swept across both continents and the “pink tide” of progressivism has all but disappeared from the southern half of the hemisphere. In Europe, with the recent exception of Spain, the left has…

Why We Can’t Stop Staring at the Dancing Monkey

tenor

The Big Picture –  By Glynn Wilson –  Editor’s Note: Sometimes you just have to stop staring at the dancing monkey. That’s what Trump is – a dancing monkey. It’s not because he’s dumb or stupid. He’s not nearly as dumb or stupid as Democrats seem to think. According to some academic research, Trump is…

Mobile River Bridge May Be Dead in the Water

1400213_520622468023029_1202045676_o

EDITOR’S NOTE – MOBILE, Ala. – It’s simple. Opposition to the toll for a new bridge crossing Mobile Bay is overwhelming, and since the proposal claims the project cannot be completed without the toll money, it is dead in the water. You can read all about it here, and see the mainstream press coverage here…

Mad As Hell, Going Crazy? Don’t Take It Anymore

beale_trump-720

America Leads the World in An Ongoing Anxiety Epidemic – The Big Picture –  By Glynn Wilson – It’s a perfectly lovely, sunny day along the Gulf Coast, hovering around 70 degrees as I write this, and the thing to do is to sit outside on the back deck and enjoy a Sunday breakfast, and…

The Power of Myth to Obscure the Truth

500_F_168172925_Y1Ja0w3STBUDrqHTzDMcX3OR1btcBEVa

The Big Picture -  By Glynn Wilson – Here we are on Easter weekend, a time of year when the power of myth at its height in our society. Many good Christian capitalists will attend church services this Sunday even though they rarely darken the door of a so-called house of god at any other…

Socialism for the Rich, Capitalism for the Rest

socialism-rich

By Robert Reich – “We renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country,” Donald Trump said recently. Someone should alert him that America is now a hotbed of socialism. But it’s socialism for the rich. Everyone else is treated to harsh capitalism. In the conservative mind, socialism means getting something for doing…

Robert Reich: The Myth of Meritocracy

13-jared-kushner.w710.h473

By Robert Reich – Most Americans still cling to the meritocratic notion that people are rewarded according to their efforts and abilities. But meritocracy is becoming a cruel joke. The Justice Department recently announced indictments of dozens of wealthy parents for using bribery and fraud to get their children into prestigious colleges. But the real…

Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump

Image

The Big Picture –  By Glynn Wilson – Everybody who is anybody knows by now that Donald Trump is a liar, a cheat and a bad president. Even the Republicans who are afraid of Trump and his friends in the Russian Mob know this, even if they won’t admit it in public. The 200 million…

When the Going Gets Weird, the Weird Turn Pro

Fear-Loathing19999-CROPPED-SMALL

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” – Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1971 Fear and Loathing – By Glynn Wilson – Sorry straight news fans. I woke up in the middle of an acid flashback this morning and there’s nothing I can do but tell the story. The…

Let’s Be Clear: Mueller Punted, Mueller Failed

190222150831-20190222-mueller-trump-barr-2-exlarge-169

The Big Picture –  By Glynn Wilson –  Let’s be clear. Mueller punted. Mueller failed. Scream all you want to the high heavens for the release of the full Mueller report. It won’t matter. We know the key findings. I’ve been biting my lip, so to speak, for days, weeks and months, refusing to engage…