TheNextReport

Then there are those who simply can't recognize the era in which we live. For most of us it's 2016; for certain others it's 516; is it any wonder that they must be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st? The loss of innocent life in praise of primative ideas from an ancient book is truly tragic.

It seems that the GOP presidential front-runner, Dr. Benjamin Carson, has been caught in a lie or two... or three; okay, maybe four. Doctor Ben has claimed in his autobiography, "Gifted Hands," that he was offered a scholarship to West Point. He also stated that he met with U.S. Army’s chief of staff, General William Westmoreland, during Memorial Day 1969. In addition, Carson claims that he was declared to be the most trustworthy student by a Yale University psychology professor. All of this would be admirable, a laudatory set of accomplishments --- problem is, none of it is true.  Certainly more disturbing is Carson's account of himself as a misguided and angry youth who once  stabbed a classmate and who attacked his mother with a hammer. (These latter events have been corroborated by Carson's mother and by his own subsequent statements). Managing to stay out of trouble, Ben Carson turned his life around, found God and went on to become a respected neurosurgeon. T

The summer of Trump came and went, leaving legions of astute media pundits wondering how they were so wrong about The Donald’s longevity. No one predicted that the billion dollar insulter-in-chief would have lasted this long. Endlessly trumpeting his skills as a negotiator, never missing an opportunity to congratulate himself for his accomplishments, Trump’s most powerful weapon has certainly been his disagreeable mouth. Where did the man acquire his current tools of the trade? One need not look much further than ComedyCentral’s Celebrity Roast program. Trump appeared several times on this show as either roaster or roastee, where he got the chance to practice techniques of off-color, insult humor. The only remaining question: which cabinet post will Gilbert Gottfried occupy in the Trump administration?        

Benny Carson. Could he be the next new host of late nite TV? Is he the reincarnation of Karnack the Magnificent?  Maybe he's the act America's been truly waiting for --- a soft-spoken mister nice-guy; a non-threatening black man you could trust with your daughter; a talented neurosurgeon who's against universal healthcare, who says he can cure America's ills but who hasn't a clue about domestic or foreign policy. Just as Marco Rubio answers the Republicans' need to appear sympathetic to the concerns of hispanics, just as Carly Fiorina is the answer to the GOP's need to court women voters, so does Ben Carson answer their need to appeal to African Americans---a conservative Barack Obama who gets accolades for his calm personality, who can rail against the dangers of gun control, Muslims, climate change and higher education. One of the reasons George W. Bush was elected president was becuse he had an appealing, affable demeanor. Remember him? He was the gu

As John Boehner prepares to leave the Senate this fall, it is useful to recall the history of the deliberative body that he, as Speaker of the House, spoke for.  Under the direction of Boehner and Mitch McConell, his counterpart in the Senate, the GOP pursued a policy of deliberately blocking legislation, coercing fillibuster,  subverting the legislative process by shutting down the government and forcing the president into legislating by executive action. Immigration, transportation infrastructure, education, environmental regulation, gun control, voting rights, jobs, all fell victim to a gaggle of right wing ideologues who essentially failed in their Constitutional mandate to create laws. By hamstringing President Obama, by blocking the creation of the country's legislative infrastructure, the People's representatives subverted the plan for representative government so painstakingly arrived at by the deliberations of Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and the other founding fathers

Prospective presidential candidate Hillary Clinton testified before the House select committee on Benghazi today and was appropriately grilled by Republicans. Afrer nine hearings and $4.7 million of taxpayers' money, the nation watched the current incarnation of the Benghazi investigation come to an end with the pitiful spectacle of the likely first woman president being thrown to the lions. Hillary's rapid responses ruled the day. The attempt to derail Clinton's presidential bid got nowhere, leaving the country scratching its head. This is what happens when you hand your government over to deluded conservatives who are convinced that they are the only true patriots. Committee chairman -- Grorgia Republican Trey Gowdy --presided over the 11 hour festivities today, looking a bit too much like the Banjo Boy from "Deliverance." The Congressional committee's actors, several of whom got into shouting matches with one another, did their best to show the world the

Once again, the American people are forced to stand witness as a confused young person takes the lives of his fellow classmates. Now all the media pundits are once again citing the well known data that shows how the United States is the only advanced nation that allows such horrendous murders of its own citizens to carry on without passing meaningful gun control laws.  The folly of our national arrogance is tragic. Perhaps the massacre at the Umpqua Community College in Oregon will finally embolden enough people to enact sensible gun legislation. Putting firearms into the hands of psychopathic, angry young people is not only foolish -- it is insane. Maybe it's time we stopped referring to ourselves as an "advanced" nation?

The truth lies somewhere between Megyn Kelley's phony eye lashes and Donald Trump's ridiculous woven scalp. The Republican party has appeared on the public stage promising once again to "take our country back." Yes, our democracy is in trouble, but not for the reasons outlined by Fox News. In all the attention generated by Donald Trump and his presumptuous insults, in all the crude thugery of Chris Christy,  in all the counterfeit religiosity of Mike Huckabee and aristocratic dismisiveness of Jeb Bush, a few facts are in evidence: the Republican Party's manufactured debate played out on Fox News has painted an accurate image of the GOP as the party of greedy, uneducated businessmen, sanctamonious hypocrites, and corporate charlatans. The Republican institution of angry white people  has blossomed once again...and no one has mentioned the words "Tea Party." The current crop of outraged voters on the right, now proliferating like weeds from the last el

The American people seem to think its system of government is silly -- and perhaps for good reason. More and more our democracy has become the domain of deluded aristocrats and wise-cracking entertainers. The legislative blind alley that the GOP used over the years to block the program of the Obama presidency has proven to voters that in politics, if you try hard enough and long enough, nothing will get done. The rise to public awareness of billionaire buffoon Donald Trump is a joke to some and an outrage to many, but it has grabbed hold of media opinion shapers weary of terrorist stories, gristly mall shootings and hate crime statistics. Moreover, the acendancy of the silly sultan with the string of blond wives and the odd-duck weave, has demonstrated something even more important: it is reminding the country of the degree to which we cherish our fantasies. The appearance of "The Donald" as a well-heeled carnival barker is not unknown to the three-ring circus we call ou

David Letterman's decison to hang up his comedy shoes by retiring from The Late Show was a moving moment in the history of American television. Indeed, it reminds us how the tv talkshow format had become a piece of genuine Americana. The show's concept built around a wise-cracking comic performer/interviewer has its roots in the medium itself. As wild and original that Letterman was, one has to remember his lineage: Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Dave Garroway and the legendary Ernie Kovacs. Mr. Letterman's heart was broken when he was not awarded the coveted desk at the Tonight Show when Johnny Carson retired. It was not a question of money, nothing so mundane. It was a question of taking what he saw as his righttful place in the pantheon; it was a question of where he wanted to walk --In the footsteps of giants.

A federal appeals court has ruled that the government's program to keep track of the phone calls of millions of American citizens is illegal. The judgement targets the of mass collection of phone records that exiled NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed to the public two years ago. Now Congress will have to decide whether it wants to replace the practice or end it entirely.The 2nd court of appeals made their case clear. Writing for a panel of three judges, Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch stated that Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which addresses the FBI's ability to gather business records, could not be interpreted to have permitted the NSA to collect a "staggering" amount of phone records, contrary to claims by the Bush and Obama administrations. "Such expansive development of government repositories of formerly private records would be an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans," Lynch wrote in a 97-page decision. "We

Union busting Wisconsin governor Scott Walker paid a visit to London last week, meeting with the British Finance Minister and other key officials in an attempt to burnish the governor's foreign policy credentials in anticipation of a 2016 run for the White House. The governor demonstrated that he was not only a stranger to U.S. foreign policy, but a novice to science as well. When he was asked if he thinks the theory of evolution is a proven fact, he declined to state his opinion. The Finance Minister was clearly playing the ridicule card, knowing full well that Mr. Walker is emerging as a national leader of an American political party that has officially labled the phenomenon of climate change a "hoax." Keeping the Wisconsin electorate uninformed has been a hallmark of the governor's policy to cripple education and destroy teachers' unions in his state. During his visit to the UK, Governor Walker took time to endorse Wisconsin cheese, proclaiming it among the b

The GOP is in the starting blocks, heralding the arrival of its Congressional majority by proclaiming President Obama's budget/legislative proposals as "dead on arrival." They say that the president's program is simply incapable of making it through the Republican dominated legislature. The implication of their message to the American people seems clear: why bother discussing any legislation at all? The argument is similar to the injury suffered by our democracy every time polls are taken and results presented to the country in advance of an election. Why bother debating competitive ideas when the decision is already made? The dream of representative democracy is lost, dead on arrival, as Jefferson and Madison turn over in their graves.

Identity is the problem. Does the fight witnessed by the world commiunity this weekend with the murders in Paris represent a true clash of civilizations, or is this a muderous game played out on social media for the benefit of hidden financiers? It would appear that what we are seeing is a battle between one group that is civilized and another that is far from it. As the west attempts to drag radical Islam kicking and screaming into the 21st century, the world trembles. As we rightly condemn the barbarism of the extremists whose monsterous acts are poised to turn the world's democracies into a large police state, one is tempted to ask--what did you expect? Islam -- radical or otherwise -- is firmly rooted in its medieval traditions and beliefs. If the homicidal psychopaths who carried out the atrocities in France are truly acting with the blessings of faith, they simply have no context to accomodate the tenets of liberal democracy and other western ideals. To expect them to do ot