By George Lakoff – America’s tweeter-in-chief plans to attack the free press next week. He desperately needs your help to succeed. You can help him by repeating his words and lies. You can help him by focusing outraged attention on his antics. Or we can work together to redirect the energy, counteract rather than react,…
By David Underhill – Associate Editor – MOBILE, Ala – It was a miracle that no lightning bolt struck Judge Roy Moore dead in the pulpit of the Baptist church where he spoke recently on the fringes of Mobile. He was already flagrantly apostate by using the sanctuary to magnify the message of his run…
By Roger Newman – Exclusive to the New American Journal – “Alabama has a history of great senators,†said the greatest of them all. Not even Lister Hill’s exceptional accomplishments in expanding hospital care, medical research, libraries and education, or John J. Sparkman’s in housing and establishing rocketry in the state, could compare to those…
By James Rhodes – BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Before President Trump departed to Mar-a-Largo for Thanksgiving recess, he took time to criticize Doug Jones as being “terrible” regarding national issues of defense, immigration, taxes and somehow his election would prevent “making America great again.” When specifically asked which was worse: Alabama voters electing an alleged child…
He’s no constitutional authority, no Baptist and no representative of evangelical values. By Randall Balmer – I first encountered Roy Moore in 2002 in a Montgomery, Ala., courtroom, where I was an expert witness on the separation of church and state in what came to be known as the Alabama Ten Commandments case. Moore, then…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – Advocates for a fee-based definition of all value are having spasms of ecstasy over the plans for giant increases in entrance fees at the nation’s most popular national parks. The America Feesters, as these patriots call themselves, praise interior secretary Ryan Zinke for his courageous politically incorrect decision,…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – I have stood as the Confederate flag rose in front of a burning cross. I didn’t do this out of respect. I did it because I wanted to get out alive from that Alabama farm field where I had gone one night long ago to see what a…
By Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian – David Barsamian: You have spoken about the difference between Trump’s buffoonery, which gets endlessly covered by the media, and the actual policies he is striving to enact, which receive less attention. Do you think he has any coherent economic, political, or international policy goals? What has Trump actually…
By George Lakoff – Freedom in a free society is supposed to be for all. Therefore, freedom rules out imposing on the freedom of others. You are free to walk down the street, but not to keep others from doing so. The imposition on the freedom of others can come in overt, immediate physical form…
By Ken Levy – Many commentators are suggesting that both right and left are equally to blame for all the polarization between them. They’re wrong. The reason for all the bitterness between left and right is entirely the right’s fault. Right-wingers who suggest otherwise are self-deluded – and usually projecting. Exhibit A: Newt Gingrich. On…
By James Rhodes – BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Victoria Siciliano, communications coordinator for the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, recently hosted a community informational forum at the Civil Rights Institute downtown. The primary purpose of the gathering was to raise awareness regarding the plight of the resident immigrants as well as to showcase their personal stories…
By Robert Reich – The question is no longer whether there are grounds to impeach Donald Trump. It is when enough Republicans will put their loyalty to America ahead of their loyalty to their party. Trump’s statements last week about his firing of former FBI director James Comey provide ample evidence that Trump engaged in…
By George Lakoff – The enormous role played by science — especially government-sponsored science — in our everyday lives is barely appreciated. Start with modern medicine. We, the public, paid for it through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and research universities where the medical researchers, surgeons, doctors and nurses were trained, and where tools…
By Norman Solomon – After Hillary Clinton’s devastating loss nearly six months ago, her most powerful Democratic allies feared losing control of the party. Efforts to lip-sync economic populism while remaining closely tied to Wall Street had led to a catastrophic defeat. In the aftermath, the party’s progressive base — personified by Bernie Sanders —…
By Joe Romm – Amidst backlash and subscription cancellations for hiring extreme climate science denier, colunnist Bret Stephens, the New York Times offered a stunning defense: There are “millions of people who agree with him.” With that ‘logic’, the Times could hire as a columnist former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke — or…
By Robert Reich – The starkest difference between dictatorships and democracies is that democracies are ruled by laws, and dictatorships are ruled by dictators. The “rule of law,” as it’s often referred to, stands for laws that emerge from a process responsive to the majority, that are consistently applied, and are applicable to everyone regardless…
By Robert Reich – By my count, there are now four grounds to impeach Donald Trump. The fifth appears to be on its way. First, in taking the oath of office, a president promises to “faithfully execute the laws and the constitution.” That’s Article II Section 2. But Trump is unfaithfully executing his duties as…
By Robert Reich – When Donald Trump was running for president, he talked a lot about putting people back to work. And one of the industries he focused on most was the coal industry. He even put on a hard hat and waved around a pick axe to show how much he loved coal. But…
By Robert Reich – House Speaker Paul Ryan, in his press conference following the demise of his bill to replace Obamacare, blamed Republicans who had failed to grasp that the GOP was now a “governing party.” “We were a 10-year opposition party, where being against things was easy to do,” said Ryan. “You just had…
Editor’s Note: In President Barack Obama’s final two press conferences and his farewell address from Chicago, he advised Democrats to learn how to talk to average, working people like the ones who voted for Donald Trump. Now there is an academic who has solid advice for how to do just that, George Lakoff. Watch this…
