BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Snowflakes are falling on the morning of Jan. 6 but it will not be enough to cover the ground over most of the South.
It might lift some spirits for a few minutes, but the way 2025 started with a bang in New Orleans and Las Vegas does not bode well for a happy new year for American democracy or the planet.
As flags fly at half-staff for former President Jimmy Carter, however, and we honor his amazing life with a national day of mourning, you have to wonder how his life's example might inspire at least some of us to strive to be better human beings in 2025.
As a country, we are in deep trouble. There is no getting around that as Liar-in-Chief Donald Trump is sworn in again and has vowed to set the violent mob free that attacked the Capitol four years ago and nearly brought down the United States government while Capitol police let them on the grounds and in the building and out again without a single arrest
Yes, the F.B.I. and Department of Justice did find many of them, arrested them after the fact, put them on trial and got more than 1,000 convictions, many for assaulting police officers. But Attorney General Merrick Garland's cowardly slow-rolling of the prosecution of Trump for his role in inciting that insurrection is as much to blame for his political comeback as anything done by the Republican Party, the Heritage Foundation or Fox News.
J.D. Vance is now a heartbeat away from the presidency, helped onto the national stage by the Catholic cult Opus Dei, which produced the radical Project 2025 to transform our democracy into a monarchy-like crypto- and Christo-fascist theocracy with an authoritarian dictator. If something happens to Trump, he will be the one to implement the plan to undo everything we've worked to build for the past 250 years.
If Trump keeps his promise to pardon the Jan. 6 insurrectionists they will all be back on the streets soon and ready to cause more havoc. If he keeps his promise to raise tariffs on imported goods again, it will send shockwaves through the global economy and likely bring inflation roaring back with prices spiking higher than ever.
So please forgive me for writing a pessimistic first column of 2025. It is a bit of relief that I finished my work in Washington, D.C., in the fall and headed for warmer and less stressful climes. Burned out on covering daily news and politics anyway, my plan is to spend the next few months working on a third edition of my memoir, “Jump on the Bus: Make Democracy Work Again,” and a new book about the life and times of an old friend of mine, Wayne Perkins of rock and roll fame.
Perkins played guitar on Rolling Stones records and nearly became one of them, helped Lynyrd Skynyrd write some of their first hit songs, and was arguably instrumental in Bob Marley's success on the international stage. He got to know Joni Mitchell in California in the early 1970s and played on her iconic "Court and Spark" album, and toured with Leon Russell and blues-rock guitar pioneer Lonnie Mack.
Yet he remains a virtual unknown to many since he never quite reached the zenith of fame and fortune like many of his peers in our generation. In more ways than one, I can relate. I shared the same rock and roll dream he had back then, but saw the writing on the wall and became a journalist instead. In spite of a lot of success, including writing for The New York Times for a few years, I've never gotten rich and famous as a news writer.
Oh, well. There's still time. If providence provides, I may visit some old stomping grounds in New Orleans myself this year, then head out West in the spring. That's if I am not arrested or murdered as one of Trump's "enemies within."
Wish us luck, dear readers, and if there's really any justice or mercy in the world, we will see you down the road.
Glynn Wilson is editor and publisher of New American Journal (NewAmericanJournal.net).
From The Progressive Populist, February 1, 2025
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