Biden can transform the US from a humanitarian laggard into a global leader – here’s how

  Even after the Trump administration’s repeated efforts to slash foreign aid and global partnerships, the United States remains the world’s largest source of official development assistance for low-income countries.

  Still, based on what I’ve learned during a career straddling academia and government service in jobs that involved international development and climate change, I believe that the United States lost prestige, influence, and capacity during President Donald Trump’s time in office.

  Nearly all my close former colleagues at the United States Agency for International Development – the development agency known as USAID – have left the agency out of frustration, and those still working there are reportedly suffering from generally low morale.

White supremacists who stormed US Capitol are only the most visible product of racism

  Among the Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were members of right-wing groups, including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters.

  The increasing violence and visibility of these groups have turned them into symbols of white supremacy and racism. They were involved in the deadly Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 and street clashes with racial justice protesters in Portland, Oregon last year. At a Trump rally in Washington, D.C., in December, Black Lives Matter banners were torn from two historically Black churches and destroyed. The Proud Boys’ leader has been criminally charged in those acts.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Outstanding class of freshman state senators

  The 2021 Alabama Regular Legislative Session begins next week. Over the years, I have observed some outstanding classes of freshman legislators. Some stand out more than others, and occasionally you have a very stellar class. 

Biden is inheriting a wrecked economy, but Democrats have a record of avoiding recession and reducing unemployment

  The newly inaugurated President Joe Biden has to manage a devastated economy – much as he and former President Barack Obama did 12 years ago.

  What can the country expect?

  Forecasting how the economy will perform under a new president is generally a fool’s errand. How much or how little credit the person in the White House deserves for the health of the economy is a matter of debate, and no economist can confidently predict how the president’s policies will play out – if they even go into effect – or what challenges might emerge.

Steve Flowers - Inside the Statehouse: Prison issues continue

  As the 2021 Regular Legislative Session looms, the 800-pound gorilla in the room is the prison issue. The situation has grown more dire because the U.S. Justice Department has now filed suit against the State of Alabama. 

  When Gov. Kay Ivey took office in January of 2019, she and the new legislature knew that they were going to have to address the prison problem in the state. Fixing prisons is not a popular issue. It wins you no votes to fix a broken prison system. Prisoners do not vote. However, victims of crime generally are voters, and they are adamant and vociferous in their belief that those who committed crimes should be put behind bars, locked up, and the keys thrown away.  

Two-thirds of Earth’s land is on pace to lose water as the climate warms – that’s a problem for people, crops and forests

  The world watched with a sense of dread in 2018 as Cape Town, South Africa counted down the days until the city would run out of water. The region’s surface reservoirs were going dry amid its worst drought on record, and the public countdown was a plea for help.

  By drastically cutting their water use, Cape Town residents and farmers were able to push back “Day Zero” until the rain came, but the close call showed just how precarious water security can be. California also faced severe water restrictions during its recent multi-year drought. And Mexico City is now facing water restrictions after a year with little rain.

Alabama CARES Act funding feeds government, not its people

  In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the United States, impacting the lives of all Americans. In response, Congress passed a massive health and economic relief bill, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES).

  The CARES Act included $150 billion in direct aid to state and local governments. Money that was intended to help support state governments as they responded to the healthcare and financial hardships faced by citizens.

  Thus far, Alabama has missed the mark in using CARES funds to provide direct assistance to struggling Alabamians in an effective and timely manner, choosing instead to feed government and provide narrowly targeted aid to private organizations. With the CARES Act state spending deadline extended through 2021, the state should use the more than $270 million left to help its people, not further grow government.

The need for a White House Office of Democracy Reform

  The United States has just emerged from an election that former National Security Adviser and incoming Director of the Domestic Policy Council Susan Rice described as “our democracy’s near-death experience.” The outgoing president, with the complicity of many congressional Republicans, engaged in an effort to undermine the results of that election with bad-faith, unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. Their lies culminated in an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building—led by conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, and other right-wing extremists intent on preventing Congress from certifying the electoral votes. While that effort failed, it sent a stark message: American democracy can no longer be taken for granted.

Racial bias in U.S. policing is a national security threat

  The events of Jan. 6, 2021 made unmistakably clear that racial bias is a national security threat.

  The events of 2020 – George Floyd’s extrajudicial killing played out over eight minutes and 46 seconds on millions of screens, Breonna Taylor shot to death in her home by police, among far too many others – finally moved Americans to a reckoning with the racism that has always been a mortal threat to the lives of Black people in this country.

  Now the rest of the story has been unmasked. Racism threatens not just the lives of the Black, Indigenous, and people of color who are its obvious targets. Racism threatens the survival of our democracy and our security as a nation.

5 strategies for cultivating hope this year

  The raging coronavirus pandemic, along with political turbulence and uncertainty, have overwhelmed many of us.

  From almost the start of 2020, people have been faced with bleak prospects as illness, death, isolation, and job losses became unwelcome parts of our reality. Many of us watched in horror and despair as insurgents stormed the U.S. Capitol.

  Indeed, all through these times, both the dark and bright sides of human nature were evident as many people engaged in extraordinary compassion and courage when others were committing acts of violence, self-interest, or greed.