OPINION

Advice for RV Nomads on Choosing a State of Residence

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By Bob Wells – One of the more confusing parts of being a Nomad is, if you have no permanent home, what state should you live in, what do you use for an address and how do you get mail? That’s always been fairly difficult but after 911 the heightened security around identification has made…

Facebook Needs to Be an Open Book on News Feeds

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“By giving people the power to share, we are starting to see people make their voices heard on a different scale from what has historically been possible. These voices will increase in number and volume. They cannot be ignored. Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by…

Fish Markets Muddy the Water of Capitalism

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By James Rhodes – HANOI, Vietnam – When I taught economics at the college level, my students learned that our capitalistic system which included production, industry, distribution and delivery systems under private ownership operated for profit. All decisions regarding supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments were made by the market and never by the government.…

Abe Lincoln Must Be Rolling Over in His Grave

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By Dick Polman – Here’s the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds….” And here’s the presumptive 2016 Republican…

Turns Out There Is No Republican ‘Establishment’

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Can we please retire the notion that Donald Trump is hijacking someone else’s party? – By Frank Rich – In mid-July of 2015, a month after Donald Trump announced his presidential run, I joined a gaggle of political junkies in a clubby bar four blocks from the White House to hear a legendary campaign strategist…

Donald Trump is No Ronald Reagan

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Making Sense – By Michael Reagan – Now comes the hard part. Now comes the part where Donald Trump has to appeal to everyone in the U.S. Trump will rack up lots of easy votes in the fall with his rabid fan base — older grumpy white males and their spouses who want change but…

Trump Could Be the Next Herbert Hoover

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By John L. Micek – One of them is a free trade-wary millionaire and political neophyte who locked up the Republican presidential nomination with promises to make America great and get the economy firing on all cylinders. The other is Donald Trump. As he’s insulted, ranted and bullied his way through the 2016 primary season,…

How the JFK Assassination Mystery Still Influences U.S. Politics

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Texas Senator Ted Cruz Drops Out of Republican Primary Race for President – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – How is it possible that the mysterious assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 is still influencing presidential politics 53 years later? In an attempt to knock out his closest rival Ted Cruz…

Everything’s Connected: Alabama Medicaid and You

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Back bone connected to the shoulder bone, 
Shoulder bone connected to the neck bone, 
Neck bone connected to the head bone
, And that’s the way it goes — Dem Bones – By Pippa Abston, MD – You probably recognize that verse — you may have sung this more recent secular version or the original by…

How to Reverse the Widening Wealth Gap in America

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By Robert Reich – Wealth inequality is even more of a problem than income inequality. That’s because you have to have enough savings from income to begin to accumulate wealth – buying a house or investing in stocks and bonds, or saving up to send a child to college. But many Americans have almost no…

The Endgame of 2016′s Anti-Establishment Politics

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By Robert Reich – Will Bernie Sanders’s supporters rally behind Hillary Clinton if she gets the nomination? Likewise, if Donald Trump is denied the Republican nomination, will his supporters back whoever gets the Republican nod? If 2008 is any guide, the answer is unambiguously yes to both. About 90 percent of people who backed Hillary…

Right-to-Lifers Vote to Kill Children and Kidney Patients

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By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – The fetus is the new Jerusalem. Medieval crusaders fancied they were on a divine mission when they marched toward the Holy City to save it from the Muslim infestation. The sanctity of this quest gave them permission to do whatever advanced toward the goal. Rape and plunder propelled…

I Can See Clearly Now the Continuing Role of COINTELPRO

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“I can see clearly now … I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. I think I can make it now, the pain is gone. All of the bad feelings have disappeared. Here is the rainbow I’ve been prayin’ for. It’s gonna be a bright, bright…

Who Killed Kennedy? Why Should We Care Now?

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — Where to begin. It appears the alleged sex scandal of Alabama’s Governor Robert Bentley is waning, so maybe I can get your attention for something far more important. I may be the only journalist in Christendom who doesn’t believe the 74-year-old governor has been…

Voting is a Right: Stop Republican Voter Suppression

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By Robert Reich – A crowning achievement of the historic March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech, was pushing through the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Recognizing the history of racist attempts to prevent black people from voting, that federal law forced a number of southern…

Why The Major Mainstream Media Marginalize Bernie Sanders

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By Robert Reich – “Bernie is doing well but he can’t possibly win the nomination,” a friend told me for what seemed like the thousandth time, attaching an article from one of the nation’s leading newspapers showing how far behind Bernie remains in delegates. Wait a minute. Sanders won 78 percent of the vote in…

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley Should Definitely Resign

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But For Killing Thousands of People, Not the Alleged Sex Scandal – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — While the people and what passes for press now in my native state are all a Twitter over allegations that Governor Robert Bentley may have had sex with his chief adviser, Rebekah…