By Alan Minsky – This is madness. Fully predictable madness. One archetype of the American experience is now realized. We’ve always had our carnival hucksters and itinerant preachers and snake oil thieves. P.T. Barnum put on a good show. All sought wealth and power. But never before has one risen so high as Donald J.…
EDITORS NOTE – We thought it might be interesting and informative to compare and contrast the Democratic Party and Republican Party platforms for 2016. Here is our analysis of some key similarities and differences. We welcome your comments below. By Glynn Wilson – For starters, the Republican Party Platform Preamble begins with a categorical statement:…
EDITORS NOTE – We thought it might be interesting and informative to compare the Democratic Party and Republican Party platforms for 2016. For starters, check out the preamble to the Democratic Party platform. It reads like an editorial statement of the party’s positions on issues. The link to the full platform as a PDF file…
It was a doozy of a speech, full of iffy facts and false promises. But they loved it… By Glynn Wilson – While many of my liberal and progressive Democrat friends say on Facebook they could not watch Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican convention Thursday night, or if they did, they called it…
By John L. Micek – CLEVELAND, Oh. – U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican, wanted to talk about a bunch of stuff during his primetime address at the Republican National Convention. But Donald Trump wasn’t high on that list. He barely mentioned him at all. Instead, the ever-wonkish Ryan focused on the House…
By Tom Purcell – This presidential campaign is the nuttiest in my lifetime but at least America is maintaining its sense of humor. Late-night comics have found a treasure trove of material in Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He’s been mocked three times as often as any other candidate throughout the campaign. Many of the…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – The first night of the Republican convention in Cleveland was hard to watch. I flipped around some on broadcast TeeVee to see what was going on, and the poor news casters were having a hard time keeping a straight face and reporting the news with fairness and…
By Glynn Wilson – ORLANDO, Fla. – Democrats agreed to the most aggressive plan to combat climate change in the history of the party Saturday night by approving an accord that commits Democrats to fight for a price on carbon, methane and other greenhouse gases and for massive investment in renewable energy sources like wind…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — The Second Amendment debate about the right to bear arms seems to take on a whole new meaning when the one holding the gun has a black face and hands. Let’s analyze it. After the tragic and horrible events in Dallas, Baton Rouge, St.…
By Glynn Wilson – FBI Director James Comey issued a statement Tuesday morning saying the agency will not recommend criminal charges against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. But he called Clinton and her staff “extremely careless†in handling sensitive information. “Although…
By Glynn Wilson – By getting involved in the Democratic Party and joining the fight for the platform, Bernie Sanders supporters are having a profound influence on the party’s direction for the future at meetings this week in Orlando, Florida ahead of the party’s convention in Philadelphia next month, according to sources taking part in…
By Robert Reich – We hear a lot about patriotism, especially around the Fourth of July. But in 2016 we’re hearing about two very different types of patriotism. One is an inclusive patriotism that binds us together. The other is an exclusive patriotism that keeps others out. Through most of our history we’ve understood patriotism…
By Dick Polman – With apologies to the climactic song in “Les Miserables,” here are the self-destructive Brits who voted yesterday to exit the European Union. Cue the music! Do you hear the people sing Singing the song of angry men We will crash the British pound Against the dollar and the yen, When the…
My Supporters and I Want Real Change – By Bernie Sanders – As we head toward the Democratic National Convention, I often hear the question, “What does Bernie want?” Wrong question. The right question is what the 12 million Americans who voted for a political revolution want. And the answer is: They want real change…
By Todd Gitlin – To readers who follow taxes and finance — subjects often introduced with the adjective “arcane†— David Cay Johnston is one of America’s best-known reporters. Johnston has worked on the staffs of Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and from 1995 to 2008, The New York Times, where his…
In a speech webcast Thursday night from Burlington, Vt., Sen. Bernie Sanders, who won more than 10 million votes in the 2016 Democratic primary, urged supporters to begin the work of organizing politically “at the local and state level in an unprecedented way.†“Election days come and go, but political and social revolutions that attempt…
Nuclear weapons, climate change, and the prospects for survival. – By Noam Chomsky – In January 2015, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced its famous Doomsday Clock to three minutes before midnight, a threat level that had not been reached for 30 years. The Bulletin’s statement explaining this advance toward catastrophe invoked the two…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – I had to turn off NPR news again this morning. I can’t listen to the same old, same old pretense of two-sidedness that helped get us into this mess in the first place. I had to turn off the TV news on Sunday. Same thing. Less facts.…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — The national press is making fun of my native state of Alabama, again. How should I react? Jump on the funny bandwagon and agree? Or attack the national press and defend “my people?” Let’s look at the facts, first, before we take a stand…
Raging Moderate – By Will Durst – Every four years our nation’s electoral eccentricities escalate exponentially and people throw up their hands and shout, “you know, every election cycle is wacky, but especially this one.” But especially this one! With this one, the narrative changes faster than the score of a Wiffle Ball game played…
Camping, Hiking and Boating at Kymulga Grist Mill and Covered Bridge Park
