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(26 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 23, 2017 The Trump-Russia Story Is Coming Together. Here's How to Make Sense of It
The news is coming so fast and furious, from so many sources and in so many fragments, that it takes more than a scorecard to keep up with the Trump-Russia connection. It takes a timeline -- a "map," if you will, of where events and names and dates and deeds converge into a story that makes sense of the incredible scandal of the 2016 election and now of the Trump Administration.
(7 comments) SHARE Friday, February 17, 2012 Moyers: Why Religion Should Not Dictate Our Politics
The battle over contraception no longer seems apocalyptic. No heavenly hosts pitted against the forces of Satan. It's a political brawl, not a crusade of believers or infidels. The president skillfully negotiated the line between respect for the religious sphere and protection of the spiritual dignity and freedom of individuals.
SHARE Saturday, September 16, 2017 The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: Robert Jay Lifton and Bill Moyers on "A Duty to Warn"
Donald Trump lies repeatedly. We may come to see a president as liar as normal. He also makes bombastic statements about nuclear weapons, for instance, which can then be seen as somehow normal. In other words, his behavior as president, with all those who defend his behavior in the administration, becomes a norm. We have to contest it, because it is malignant normality.
(9 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 21, 2012 Living Under the Gun
At least 12 are dead in Aurora, Colorado, gunned down by a mad man at a showing of the new Batman movie filled with make-believe violence. One of the guns the shooter used was an AK-47 type, assault weapon that was banned in 1994. The National Rifle Association saw to it that the ban expired in 2004. The NRA is the best friend a killer's instinct ever had.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, September 1, 2012 Ralph Reed: From Purgatory to Power
When Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition, was discovered to have raked in millions from the super lobbyist--and eventually convicted felon--Jack Abramoff, Reed wound up in political purgatory. But outraged by the election of Barack Obama, and responding to what he describes as God's call, Reed returned to start the Faith and Freedom Coalition with the aim of toppling Barack Obama from the White House.
SHARE Sunday, April 23, 2006 A Time for Heresy
Baptists in colonial America flocked to Washington's army to fight in the Revolutionary War because they wanted to be free from sanctioned religion. When the war was won they refused to support a new Constitution unless it contained a Bill of Rights that guaranteed freedom of religion and freedom from religion.
(7 comments) SHARE Saturday, May 15, 2010 Chevron's "Crude" Attempt to Suppress Free Speech
Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered documentary producer and director Joe Berlinger to turn over to Chevron more than 600 hours of raw footage used to create a film titled Crude: The Real Price of Oil. Chevron is trying to avoid responsibility and hopes to find in the unused footage evidence helpful to the company in fending off potential damages of $27.3 billion.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, November 27, 2017 The Right Returns to the Religion Well
Over the centuries, religion has cloaked hypocrisy -- and it's getting a test again as President Trump and Senate candidate Roy Moore hide behind the Religious Right's self-interested sanctimony, write Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.
(15 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 3, 2015 Swimming Left, into the Mainstream
Despite pundits dismissing Sen. Bernie Sanders's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, he is drawing big and enthusiastic crowds who seem eager for ideas about rebuilding the middle class and ending plutocracy, as Bill Moyers and Michael Winship note.
(15 comments) SHARE Friday, December 4, 2015 The GOP on the Eve of Destruction
The Republicans seem to have made up their minds: they will divide, degrade and secede from the Union. They will do so by gerrymandering and denying the vote to as many of the poor, the elderly, struggling low-paid workers, and people of color as they can. And by appealing to the basest impulses of human nature: anger, fear and bigotry.
SHARE Monday, July 31, 2017 LBJ Launches Medicare: "You Can't Treat Grandma This Way"
Whether health care is a right may be debatable, but it assuredly fulfills a basic human need -- and without it, human beings without means will live and die suffering unduly. The only way for democracy to succeed is for enough people to take up the cause where and when they can, as so many did for Medicare and are doing now for our eroding social covenant.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 5, 2015 The Big Money Behind Netanyahu
Sheldon Adelson, the casino tycoon who has proposed nuking Iran, was in the gallery as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered his "State of the Union" speech to a rapt and rapturous U.S. Congress. After all, Adelson funds both Netanyahu and the Republican Right, as Bill Moyers and Michael Winship note.
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, September 20, 2014 Climate Change You Can Believe In
World leaders have refused to give global warming the crisis treatment that's needed, even as the evidence mounts day by day. A draft report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that the vast amounts of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere will have "severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts," and that we're already seeing the effect in heat waves, floods and rising sea levels.
(28 comments) SHARE Wednesday, January 18, 2017 We Cannot Wait for History to Judge. We Need the Truth About Trump and Russia Now.
Why did the FBI seem to favor pursuing Hillary Clinton's emails over tracking down whatever could be learned about Russia's involvement in our election? why did FBI Director Comey fail to take action when he had in his hands the dossier ex-MI6 intelligence operative Christopher Steele had assembled on rumors that Russia possessed incriminating evidence on Trump's business dealings and private life?
(5 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 27, 2017 Can a War of Words Become a World of War?
The foreign policy discussion these days is just so impoverished, so repetitive, so trapped in a vocabulary -- "the indispensable nation, global leadership" -- that is at odds with our reality. And sadly, we've got a president who I think is completely out of touch. Sadly, this guy Trump just doesn't seem to have the right temperament or inclination to be educated.
(16 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 19, 2011 In Defense of NPR
For all its flaws, consider an America without public media. Consider a society where the distortions and dissembling would go unchallenged, where fact-based reporting is eliminated, and where the field is abandoned to the likes of James O'Keefe, whose "journalism" relies on lying and deceit.
SHARE Thursday, July 28, 2016 Democrats Adopt a More Progressive Tone
At the Democratic National Convention, some tough-guy/gal militaristic talk has prompted floor shouts of "no more war," while most domestic policy rhetoric has been markedly progressive, say Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, September 20, 2016 There's No Debate
The giant media conglomerates have turned the campaign and the upcoming debates into profit centers that reap a huge return from political trivia and titillation. A game show, if you will -- a farcical theater of make-believe rigged by the two parties and the networks to maintain their cartel of money and power.
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 1, 2017 NRA issues call for white supremacy and armed insurrection
This is the vitriol that has been spewed like garbage since the days of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, blasted from lynch mobs and demagogues and fascistic factions of political parties that turn racial and religious minorities into grotesque caricatures, the better to demean and diminish and dominate.
(4 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 23, 2016 Money Men Say, Voters Move Over, It's Not Your Election!
Let's get this straight: One of the most prominent of Republican elites in the country, who has even been touted as President Obama's "favorite pundit" (we're not making this up!), is calling on the donor class to rescue the party from the rabble. Game's over, voters: The oligarchs will decide this election.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 7, 2020 We Hold This Truth to Be Self-Evident: It's Happening Before Our Very Eyes
This president is no friend of democracy. He has declared himself above the law, preached insurrection by encouraging armed supporters to "liberate" states from the governance of duly elected officials, and told police not to be "too nice" while doing their job.
SHARE Saturday, May 21, 2016 Tipping the Scales for Clinton?
The Sanders movement has shown that lots of cash can be raised from everyday people making small donations. His supporters and all of us should be outraged that Debbie Wasserman Schultz and convention officials have kowtowed not only to the corporate wing of their own party but also to those high rollers who back the opposition and ideas antithetical to a democracy.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, September 18, 2012 The Continuing Power of Karl Rove
You could see Rove at the Republican National Convention, backslapping and glad-handing plutocrats and politicos. He told a private breakfast meeting during the convention that the super PAC he helped create, American Crossroads, plans to spend $200 million dollars on the presidential race and another $100 million dollars on this year's Senate and House campaigns.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, August 25, 2012 Neglecting the Poor: Invisible Americans Get the Silent Treatment
It's not surprising that there's a crisis in America's civil courts because people slammed by the financial meltdown -- overwhelmed by foreclosure, debt collection and bankruptcy cases -- can't afford legal representation and have to represent themselves, creating gridlock in our justice system -- and one more hammer blow for the poor.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 13, 2017 Trump's FCC Wants to Kill a Free and Open Internet
Ending net neutrality will squelch competition, innovation and small internet startups, and limit freedom of expression, independent voices and diverse viewpoints. More than ever, Big Business, like Big Brother, will control what you read, see and hear and limit your own ability to speak up and share your opinions, your creativity, your life.
(17 comments) SHARE Friday, June 17, 2016 The Roots of Trump's Cruel Populism
Donald Trump's angry and ugly populism has roots going back to Jim Crow-era race-baiters and Cold War-era red-baiters, including Joe McCarthy's adviser Roy Cohn and his disciples, write Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, February 3, 2017 Trump's Troubling First Days
Donald Trump's presidency is off to a chaotic and troubling start with provocateur Steve Bannon pushing controversial policies and Trump closing ranks with the Right, say Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.
SHARE Saturday, January 12, 2013 The "Crony Capitalist Blowout"
Since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, the top one percent of Americans have seen their incomes increase by 275 percent. But after accounting for inflation, the typical hourly wage for a worker has increased just $1.23 cents.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, February 6, 2015 The Fiery Cage and the Lynching Tree, Brutality's Never Far Away
Yes, it was hard to get back to sleep the night we heard the news of the Jordanian pilot's horrendous end. ISIS be damned! I thought. But with the next breath I could only think that our own barbarians did not have to wait at any gate. They were insiders. Home grown. Godly. Our neighbors, friends, and kin. People like us.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 17, 2017 Farewell
BillMoyers.com will continue to serve as the archive of the television journalism my colleagues and I have produced over the past 44 years. I hope you find it useful. The site will go into archive mode on Wednesday, Dec. 20.
(19 comments) SHARE Saturday, May 4, 2013 Gun Madness v. Gun Sanity
As the gun carnage continues across the United States, the Right won't stop peddling its bogus historical claimsabout the Second Amendment and rallying its gullible supporters to fight even modest safety laws. But victims of gun violence are finally fighting back.
SHARE Saturday, November 1, 2014 Bernie Sanders on Breaking Big Money's Grip on Elections
The American dream has become impossible for most of us to achieve. And more and more Americans believe, quote, "there's not much opportunity to get ahead. ... A living wage, retirement security, the opportunity for your children to get ahead are increasingly out of reach. Why aren't people furious about this?
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 9, 2016 Wasserman Schultz Has a Change of Heart, But Too Little, Too Late
Across the country tens of thousands of consumer advocates -- and tens of thousands of other progressives angry at her perceived favoritism toward Hillary Clinton -- have been demanding that Wasserman Schultz resign as the party's chair or be dumped before the convention opens Philadelphia.
SHARE Saturday, February 18, 2017 Republicans, Where's the Backbone?
When survivors look back on a time of acute crisis, those who are remembered are not the spineless and opportunistic who hoped to snag a piece of the action. It is the men and women who rose in defiance and said this betrayal of what my country is supposed to be will not stand. Republicans, there is a name for those who take the moral high ground and fight back: heroes. When all is said and done, how will you be remembered?
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, July 22, 2016 Trump's Midnight in America
The legacy of Hillary Clinton, Trump said, is "death, destruction and weakness." She proposes "mass amnesty, mass immigration, and mass lawlessness." As for Barack Obama, "The irresponsible rhetoric of our president, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment for everyone."
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, June 24, 2016 A House Sit-in Against the Gun Lobby
Elevating the gun crisis to the moral level of the 1960s civil rights struggle, Rep. John Lewis led a House floor sit-in to demand a vote on a bill to restrict access to deadly weapons, write Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 22, 2015 The Plutocrats Are Winning. Don't Let Them!
The selling off of the Republic, piece by piece. What was it Mark Twain said? "There is no distinctive native American criminal class except Congress." Can we at least face the truth? The plutocrats and oligarchs are winning. The vast inequality they are creating is a death sentence for government by consent of the people at large.
SHARE Wednesday, October 28, 2015 The Paradox of Paul Ryan: Why the Tea Party's Right to be Wary
You get the picture. Paul Ryan, waiting to be crowned speaker of what was once called "The People's House," prepares for business-as-usual. Committed to the sad and sordid Washington game that has so angered Americans on every point of the political spectrum, he is about to be named one of its Most Valuable Players.
SHARE Wednesday, March 29, 2017 Trump and the GOP in Sickness and Ill Health
Who knows that Friday's debacle wasn't what Trump wanted all along? The man thrives on chaos, cruelty and circus, and the hated Obamacare lives on, namesake of his predecessor, the Kenyan interloper who rose to the presidency without even a passport. How better to satisfy Trump's insatiable need for spectacle than for him to fiddle as Obamacare crashes and burns, bringing pain and suffering to millions?
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, March 11, 2011 In Defense of NPR
Consider a society where the distortions and dissembling would go unchallenged, where fact-based reporting is eliminated, and where the field is abandoned to the likes of James O'Keefe, whose "journalism" relies on lying and deceit. Come on, people: Speak up!
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 16, 2016 The Clintons' Cheap Shot at Sanders
Seeing the polls tighten, Hillary Clinton's campaign has gone on the attack against Sen. Bernie Sanders over his support for Medicare for all, accusing him of seeking to destroy Obamacare (though he voted for it). It's a deceptive assault, say Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.
SHARE Friday, January 6, 2017 Resisting the Congressional Watchdog
Not that political corruption doesn't happen with divided government, but with Republicans controlling all three branches, the prospects for more Abramoff-type scandals rise, warn Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 23, 2016 Time for These Two Democrats to Go
Hillary Clinton should come right out and ask for the resignations of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Democratic National Committee Chair -- and Florida congresswoman -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz. In one masterstroke, she could separate herself from two of the most prominent of all corporate Democratic elitists.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, April 11, 2013 Dr. King's Warning of "Two Americas"
Besides battering down the walls of racial segregation, Martin Luther King Jr. demanded that America address its economic barriers to fairness and justice, a challenge that may have earned him even more contempt from the power structure.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 27, 2013 Do-Nothing Congress Gives Inertia a Bad Name
A January report from Public Campaign Action Fund, found that, "Companies that lobbied against bringing jobs back to America and ending tax breaks for offshoring have given McConnell one million dollars to win his elections and look out for their interests." In other words: don't hold your breath.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, December 21, 2012 Remember the Victims, Reject the Violence
After the Newtown killings, a 6th grader at an elementary school near Salt Lake City brought a gun to school, saying he wanted to protect himself and his friends. Instead, he used it to threaten classmates. This can't go on. This spilling of innocent blood, this bleeding of democracy's soul. We're losing faith in ourselves, acting as subjects, not citizens, no longer believing it is in our power to do the right thing.
SHARE Wednesday, March 16, 2016 The Crazy GOP Establishment
The Republican establishment likes to pretend that it is the responsible alternative to Donald Trump, but that self-image doesn't match reality, as Bill Moyers and Michael Winship describe.
SHARE Saturday, December 19, 2015 Bad News for Democracy Is Great News for TV Profits
The problem is money. Tons of it. Trump brings ratings and ratings raise advertising revenue. What's more, in an insane election cycle like this one, cash already is pouring in from the production, sale and placement of political TV advertising, cash that also makes television executives and political strategists wealthy.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 21, 2016 A Drone Protestor Heads to Jail
What exactly did Grady Flores do to warrant spending the next six months in jail? She photographed a peaceful protest outside Hancock Field Air National Guard Base near Syracuse, New York. The base is where the US trains pilots to launch drone strikes in the Middle East, particularly in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.
SHARE Friday, January 29, 2016 A Step Toward Campaign Transparency
President Obama has called government "transparency" vital for a democracy. But, in practice, he has favored secrecy, keeping key foreign-policy facts away from Americans (all the better to manipulate them) and even balking at a rule requiring government contractors to disclose campaign spending, the latter only requiring a stroke of his pen, says Bill Moyers.