Guest Columns

Delta Covid is Resurging, and So Too Trumpian Politics

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Guest Column – By Robert Reich – Despair is worse after a brief period of hope. I don’t know about you, but I was elated earlier this spring when it seemed as if Trump and COVID were gone, and Biden seemed surprisingly able to get the nation rapidly back on track. Now much is sliding…

The Fake Heroism of Space Billionaires

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Guest Column – By Robert Reich – Within hours, Jeff Bezos will blast off into space, a week after Richard Branson went up. Another small step for billionaires. Once upon a time, long long ago, people with names like John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Buzz Aldrin, and Sally Ride blasted into space. None was selected on…

Republicans Tried to Overturn the Election: We Must Not Forget

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Guest Column – By Robert Reich – America prefers to look forward rather than back. We’re a land of second acts. We move on. This can be a strength. We don’t get bogged down in outmoded traditions, old grudges, obsolete ways of thinking. We constantly reinvent. We love innovation and disruption. The downside is a…

Robert Reich: What if We Actually Taxed the Rich?

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Guest Column – By Robert Reich – Income and wealth are now more concentrated at the top than at any time over the last 80 years, and our unjust tax system is a big reason why. The tax code is rigged for the rich, enabling a handful of wealthy individuals to exert undue influence over…

Two Independent Thinking News Writers Pass On in Knoxville

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Editor’s Note: This news comes with no personal regrets, since I didn’t know either of the deceased. But I knew Jack Neely some when writing for Metro Pulse myself, one of the most interesting alternative weeklies in the country in print and online in the late 20th century. It’s a sad day when anyone dies,…

God Save the United States of America from Racist Ignorance

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Guest Column – By James Rhodes – It is evident that some news readers are confused and baffled by the actions of many Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate, as their policy positions do not line-up with long standing Republican principles. I resided in Alabama when being a Republican was not only rare, but…

One Reason Trump Doesn’t Want to Concede: Profit

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By Robert Reich – Joe Biden has decisively won the presidency. There is no way for Trump to overturn the results of the election, and his campaign’s post-election lawsuits have gotten dismissed left and right. That hasn’t stopped him from launching an “Official Election Defense Fund” and bombarding his supporters with fundraising appeals to supposedly…

Order of the Day: November 3, 2020

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CAMP DAVID, Md. — Editor’s Note – A few inspirational thoughts on Election Day while we hold our breaths and wait for the results to start coming in Tuesday night. Today I will fly my American flag proudly in my campsite in the same mountain woods as Camp David, because I will not concede the…

Six Crucial Races That Could Flip the U.S. Senate

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By Robert Reich – This November, we have an opportunity to harness your energy and momentum into political power and not just defeat Trump, but also flip the Senate. Here are six key races you should be paying attention to. 1. The first is North Carolina Republican senator Thom Tillis, notable for his “olympic gold”…

As the West Goes Up in Flames, Trump Couldn’t Care Less

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By Robert Reich – The air outside my window is yellow today. It was orange yesterday. The Air Quality Index is over 200. The Environmental Protection Agency defines this as a “health alert” in which “everyone may experience more serious health effects if they are exposed for 24 hours.” Unfortunately, the index has been over…

Betsy DeVos Has No Plan for Safely Reopening Schools

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By Robert Reich – Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos is heading the administration’s effort to force schools to reopen in the fall for in-person instruction. What’s her plan to reopen safely? She doesn’t have one. Rather than seeking additional federal funds, she’s using this pandemic to further her ploy to privatize education — threatening to…

Mitch McConnell’s Republicans Are Destroying America

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By Robert Reich – Senate Republicans’ shameful priorities are on full display as the nation continues to grapple with an unprecedented health and economic crisis. Mitch McConnell and the GOP refuse to take up the HEROES Act, passed by the House in early May to help Americans survive the pandemic and fortify the upcoming election.…

The Real Choice: Social Control or Social Investment

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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…

While Trump Rushes to Reopen America, Covid-19 is Closing in on Him

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By Robert Reich – Donald Trump said last Thursday’s jobs report, which showed an uptick in June, proves the economy is “roaring back”. 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…