OPINION

A Prayer for Alabama Legislature: Bless Us With Disaster, Sweet Jesus

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By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – A prayer for the Alabama legislature as it reconvenes in a special session, following another special session that failed to find funding enough to allow the state’s Medicaid services to function at a level keeping the needy alive. Schemes to finance the services with a lottery, or with…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Donald Trump has Crossed the Line of Decency

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A Conservative View – By Christine Flowers – I’m morbidly fascinated by the rhetorical mud being slung between Democrats and Republicans these days. How exhilarating to hear Hillary Clinton labeled “unstable” by Donald Trump, who is himself called “bat(bleep)-crazy” by a fellow billionaire and Hillaryite, Mark Cuban. This week, though, I actually do need to…

The Case for a Tax on Wall Street Trades

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By Robert Reich – One of Bernie Sanders’s most important proposals didn’t receive enough attention and should become a law even without a president Sanders. Hillary Clinton should adopt it for her campaign. It’s a tax on financial transactions. Putting a small tax on financial transactions would: 1. Reduce incentives for high speed trading, insider…

There’s No Walking Back Trump’s Second Amendment Comments

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By John L. Micek – Donald Trump knew what he was doing Tuesday afternoon. Make no mistake. “Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment,” a smiling Trump said of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton during a rally in Wilmington, N.C. “By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can…

The Real Threat to American Sovereignty

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By Robert Reich – “Without a border, we just don’t have a country,“ Donald Trump says repeatedly. For him, the biggest threats to American sovereignty are three-dimensional items that cross our borders, such as unwanted imports and undocumented immigrants. He’s wrong. The biggest threats to American sovereignty are invisible digital dollars wired into U.S. election…

What’s at Stake in the August Special Session?

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By Hank Sanders – MONTGOMERY, Ala. — What will this looming special legislative session bring? Will it bring fiscal solutions for Medicaid? Will it bring solutions for the hemorrhaging General Fund? Will it bring expansion of Medicaid? Will it bring long lurking gambling efforts to a head? Will it bring better or worse public education?…

Trump’s Tanking Numbers Begin to Hurt Other Republican Candidates

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By John L. Micek – There are two sets of numbers, both related and intertwined, that should keep Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania awake at night. The first one: 49-38 percent. That’s Democrat Hillary Clinton’s current advantage over Donald Trump among likely voters in Pennsylvania in a new Franklin-Marshall College poll. The second one:…

A Thousand Words is Worth More Than a Meme

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – Isn’t it about time someone did a take down on the Internet meme? If we truly want to change people’s attitudes and create a more just world, what the world needs is scientifically objective journalism, not more partisan viruses of the mind being spread in all the…

Injustice Has Become An Epidemic: We Need A Change In Attitudes

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By Scott Lander – Grassroots organizations are rising up all over the nation to combat this plague, which comes in many different forms. The Black Lives Matter movement is concerned with ending police brutality. The Occupy movement is exposing economic injustices. End Citizens United is purposed with getting money out of politics. People like Elon…

After 9/11: Clinton Helped First Responders, Trump Grabbed Federal Money

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By Dick Polman – Unlike their Republican counterparts, Democrats tend not to wallow in the sewer with infantile chants like “Lock Her Up.” Instead, they simply whacked Donald Trump with substance throughout their four day convention in Philadelphia. Take for instance New York congressman Joe Crowley, who assailed Trump for grabbing federal money that was…

Bernie Sanders Nominates Hillary Clinton for President

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Will the American public buy Bill Clinton’s version of reality or Donald Trump’s Idiocracy? – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – It was a historic moment on Day Two of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia when Senator Bernie Sanders stood up with the Vermont delegation to place Hillary Clinton’s name into nomination…

Democrats Put on Real Political Show in Philly

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – Oh what a relief it is to see a real political show on television. Last week in Cleveland the Republicans tried to scare the crap out of everybody with their D-list stars trying to make combacks by kissing up to The Donald, and fear mongering by one…