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. Check out the preamble to the Republican 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 is posted…
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…
By Peter Funt – With Donald Trump basking in the Republican convention glow, tortured analysis persists among those seeking to explain how he ever got this far. A recurring view has it that Americans are fed up with politicians and now want an “outsider” to run things. Also, there’s the notion that it will take…
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…
Media Incest On Display: Will Anyone Notice? The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – On the eve of the Republican convention in Cleveland Ohio, a remarkable thing happened. No, not another police shooting. Not just a tell all article about Donald Trump. It is an event that should send shock waves through the capitalist…
By Hank Sanders – SELMA, Ala. – Every time I am stopped by law enforcement, I’m afraid. I recently shared this fear with a friend who is White. He said he understood, but it is very hard for most Whites to understand what it is like to be stopped by law enforcement when you are…
By John L. Micek – A couple of years back, when I was driving down to Florida, I got pulled over on U.S. Route 301 in a little town called Waldo near Gainesville. It was late – past 2 a.m. — and I was pretty sure I wasn’t speeding. So when the dome lights of…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. – More than 100 protesters marched for justice and spoke against police brutality here Tuesday due to recent cases of African Americans being shot and killed across the country from Baton Rouge to St. Paul, seeking information on the death of Mike Moore, an African American teen killed by…
Why the social-media honeymoon may be over for some activists. By Sarah Jaffe – Around the country, thousands have returned to the streets again to protest the deaths of black people at the hands of the police. One of those deaths, the shooting of 32-year-old Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, was broadcast on Facebook…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – In a Facebook discussion about the recent violent tragedies from Baltimore to Dallas, the question was raised: What can we do to counter racism and change people’s hearts and minds? That was not the exact phrasing. The woman who was searching for the answer is among a…
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.…
President Obama spoke on the fatal shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile on a stop in Poland. “All Americans should be deeply troubled by the fatal shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota,” the president said. “We’ve seen such tragedies far too many times, and our…
Reconstruction of climate events long before the Ice Ages shows that failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could eventually lead to temperatures rising by up to 10 degrees. – By Tim Radford – LONDON, Eng. – If the distant past is anything to go by, then climate scientists may have under-estimated the hazards of greenhouse…
By Glynn Wilson – An airborne experiment to improve scientists’ understanding of the sources of two powerful greenhouse gases and how they cycle into and out of the atmosphere is being launched this month by NASA. Atmospheric Carbon and Transport–America, or ACT-America, will measure concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane alongside related weather systems. The…
