By Glynn Wilson – The deadly, novel coronavirus is still spreading across the land. The number of reported deaths from COVID-19 are still going up. The economy is stalling again, and millions of Americans just exhausted their federally subsidized unemployment benefits. The House is still in session in Washington, D.C. working on a new economic…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – What America needs is another Seabiscuit. What lifted the United States out of the Great Depression in the late 1930s? Was it government spending on the Civilian Conservation Corps that hired out of work laborers to build the national parks and other government programs? Was it a…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – It’s not clear whether the predominant view of the universe is that life imitates art, or if more people think art imitates life. There’s not been a Gallup poll on that, far as I know. Chances are it’s both anyway. But for the sake of argument on…
By Robert Reich – Some societies center on social control, others on social investment. Social-control societies put substantial resources into police, prisons, surveillance, immigration enforcement, and the military. Their purpose is to utilize fear, punishment, and violence to divide people and keep the status quo in place — perpetuating the systemic oppression of Black and…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – In discussing death, people often talk about someone’s “untimely death” when a person dies relatively young and suddenly. Civil Rights hero and Atlanta Congressman John Lewis was not young and his death was not sudden. He was 80 when he died on Friday from pancreatic cancer, which…
U.S. Party Preferences Swing Sharply To Democrats – By Glynn Wilson – Gallup’s latest polling reveals the damage President Donald J. Trump has done to the Republican Party and indicates the presidential and U.S. Senate elections in 2020 are the Democrats to lose with less than four months to go. While Trump seemed to be…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The race for the United States Senate is on now that U.S. Senator Doug Jones of Alabama has an opponent, a former Auburn football coach endorsed by President Donald J. Trump with no experience in politics and government. Related: Alabama Senator Doug Jones Holds the Key to Victory…
Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – LOFT MOUNTAIN, SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. (Sunday, July 12, 2020) — In this summer of our discontent, with the coronavirus still spreading into every corner of the world and the economy teetering on the brink of collapse, it is hard to totally escape the anxiety and stress of…
The Big Picture -Â By Glynn Wilson -Â WASHINGTON, D.C. – Not since Richard Nixon sat forlorn with a bottle of whiskey in the West Wing trying to stave off impeachment during the Watergate scandal has a president found himself so isolated, alone, hated and embattled in the White House. Will Donald Trump resort to…
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,…
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – How is it possible in the United States of America that a corrupt New York real estate developer who conned his way into the White House keeps us living in…
By Robert Reich – Donald Trump said last Thursday’s jobs report, which showed an uptick in June, proves the economy is “roaring backâ€. Rubbish. The Labor Department gathered the data during the week of June 12, when America was reporting 25,000 new cases of Covid-19 per day. By the time the report was issued last…
Fourth of July 2020 – “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…
By Steny H. Hoyer – U.S. House Majority Leader – Problems encountered by voters in recent primary elections continue to present a warning to all Americans ahead of our general election in November. Many voters — particularly minority voters — have waited hours at their polling locations or were turned away outright. Thousands who requested…
The Big Picture -Â By Glynn Wilson -Â In these times of heightened existential anxiety, when disasters and crises seem to be assaulting the planet, the country and the human psyche in end-times proportions, where are we to turn for solace? Many human beings will turn to their version of a god, prayer and worship.…
By Glynn Wilson – As the countdown begins in earnest to see what party runs the country for the next four years, setting the agenda for public policy in Washington and leading America beyond the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession, the hidebound red state of Alabama has a chance to play a surprising role in…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS, N.C. — We don’t have much time. It’s addicting in our newly evolved human condition to stay focused on the fast breaking news of the moment, the sensational clickbait. From day to day, we bounce back and forth from one crisis story to another.…
By Glynn Wilson – America will be celebrating independence in a few weeks on July 4 and holding an election in a few months on Nov. 3, so this seems like a good time to assess where we are psychologically after three and a half months of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession,…
By Glynn Wilson – For one of the fews times in Donald Trump’s presidency, his job approval rating has fallen below 40 percent, a harbinger of problems ahead in his drive for reelection in November that could make a second term “unlikely,” according to Gallup. Satisfaction with how things are going in the United States…
In Union there is Strength – “A house divided against itself, cannot stand.” — Abraham Lincoln The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS, N.C. — Why can’t I just wake up on one beautiful spring Sunday morning in America and see beyond the view of the mountains a scene of peace,…
