A Sad Showing for the Left in Cleveland
[Originally published in NationofChange.org] The big attraction on the protest front, during the RNC this past week was a human wall around Trump’s RNC security wall. It was an idea that seemed fantastic once you first heard it, but it was something that needed good numbers and a willing group of protestors. It made for good images – but as was the theme for the week – the numbers were too small. While immigrant rights groups like United We Dream and some others took a strong stand in Ohio – few others showed. The numbers were too small to…
Are you suffering from political nostalgia?
Are you suffering from political nostalgia? Was your dipnetting or berry picking interrupted this week by the Republican Convention? Do you long for the days where the inexperienced candidate with narcissistic qualities and a private email problem was wrapped into one person — Sarah Palin? Does it seem strange to you that David Duke, a white nationalist, Holocaust-denying, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan thinks the time is perfect for him to run for U.S. Senate instead of secretly folding white hoods and watching episodes of Archie Bunker in an actual bunker? Are you still saying “All Lives…
The Hidden Billionaires behind Trump
by Greg Palast with Dennis J Bernstein for Nation of Change Trump desperately needs to get his tiny hands on some cash to fund his presidential campaign. On TV, Trump may play the role of a gazillionaire, but the reality of his reality TV persona is that it’s all paid for with other people’s money. His self-funding pledge is going the way of all Trump’s promises — down the gilded crapper. This week on The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: Election Crimes Bulletin, we focus on where and how Trump is going to get his campaign funds — and the…
Cheese Whiz And Donald Trump – Why He Can Win
It’s that time of the year again … family visits. Oh, Alaska, isn’t it funny who shows up? Remember me?? Um…well, this is awkward – not really, but sure, we’ve got a spare room. Nice to meet you. Here’s a specific hint to make these visits go smoothly. Don’t talk politics. I know, it’s a prime year for it, but try really hard. You might try something like, “Let’s make our family great again …, and not talk about crazy.” Friday morning the world woke up in shock that Britain had voted to break up its longtime relationship with the…
Enough with the ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ – We Need Real Support for First Responders
There has been an ongoing glitch in the system for the families of fallen first responders. The health benefits that cover families of our state employees are only covered until the end of the month that their loved one has died. If they are killed the last week of the month, the surviving spouse has yet another problem to figure out during their grief. Their health insurance can be null and void before the funeral occurs. OK, so glitches happen. I’m sure that’s how a few families have felt. Oh, look! A glitch! No. It’s devastating on top of devastation,…
Around The Lens Podcast – Photography, News and more
It’s not often that you hear from the people that make the photos and video that go along with the news stories that you read. Photojournalists are a relatively silent group, usually loners (like me) who drop in take their shots and get out to file with their news organization as soon as possible. The few times you even read what we’re thinking come in the form of one or two sentence captions at the bottom of photos. We never get invited on talk shows to get asked how we feel, or what we saw… even though we’re usually the…
The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska The Economist – Murre mystery – Thousands of seabirds are washing up dead on Alaska’s shores AT THE end of the highway, 200 miles from Anchorage, sits a small fishing and tourism town where, in early January, thousands of dead common murres, or guillemots, were washed ashore. These penguin-like seabirds littered the tidal wracks so densely that beach walkers had to be careful where they stepped. And beyond Homer, tens—probably hundreds—of thousands of these birds have drifted in dead along Alaska’s vast coastline or have been found far inland half-dead in the snow. Bloomberg – U.S. Bans Import of…
Half-Term Governor Palin Endorses Half-Wit Donald Trump
Palin endorsement looking to bring in voters with only half a brain. Palin, who MSNBC’s Chuck Todd referred to as, “the woman that used to be the biggest reality star in politics” is set later today to endorse the new biggest reality star in politics, The Donald. Palin, who has been relatively absent from the political scene so far this Presidential campaign season is en route to Iowa to join the Trump campaign around the state. Trump’s campaign released a press release ahead of the 6pm press conference in Iowa calling Palin an “influential conservative.” The Donald was quoted in…
‘Bernie’ by Ted Rall – Review and Excerpt
[Check out the exclusive excerpt at the bottom of the post] Love Bernie. Hate Bernie. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. I’m violently non-partisan by profession and nature. But, I demand you read Ted Rall’s comic book biography of Bernie Sanders. It’s not some propaganda crap-ola to promote Sanders’ Presidential campaign. You don’t get a lot of stuff that makes you feel warm and fuzzy about the candidate. Rather, what you get is, “The Making of a Guy Pissed-off with the Way the System is Stacked Against the Average Joe.” Rall’s Sanders was not the intellectual child of…
Remembering MLK Jr. with Steady Loving Confrontation
Meet Lynda Blackmon Lowery. Late last year we talked with Mrs. Lowery for our new film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy about her first time meeting Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and what his words meant to her. Her mother died when she was only 7 years old, from that point forward she became committed to making sure that not another child would lose her mother because the color of her skin. So when she heard Dr. King speak the words of “Steady loving confrontation” she became committed to the Civil Rights movement. At 14 years old she marched…