I was introduced to Michael Parenti many moons ago in college with two ground-shifting books, namely, “Democracy for the Few” & “Inventing Reality: The Politics of the News Media”  

I have to admit, Parenti writes way better than he speaks! He is not the most dynamic of speakers, but the essence of what he speaks about is of critical importance which everyone should take the time to listen to & ponder.

Tim Wise delivers the keynote address at the 74th annual California Federation of Teachers 2016 . In the speech, he examines the history of using race to divide and conquer, and how it plays out in education, from past to present . It’s an articulate and informative presentation as he shows how this concept has evolved over time.

Kurt Andersen’s cover story in The Atlantic,  “How America Lost Its Mind”, argues that “being American means we can believe anything we want.” This is due to a combination of the new-age mentality born out of the 1960s that encouraged Americans to find their own truth and the internet age, which has allowed us to create communities that reinforce our beliefs. According to Andersen, the perfect manifestation of America’s journey away from reality is the election of Donald Trump.

Rising stock prices is not an indicator of financial health like Trump would have you believe, specially when you examine who is buying that stock, says economist Michael Hudson, the author of Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy

One of my favorite public intellectuals,Chris Hedges, discusses restoring America’s justice system with legal scholar Edgar Cahn. Cahn is a law professor, former counsel and speechwriter to Robert F. Kennedy, and co-founder of the Antioch School of Law which placed emphasis on serving the poor and trained prospective lawyers in social activism. Quite an eye-opener….

The US submarine captain says,

“We’ve all got to die one day, some sooner and some later. The trouble always has been that you’re never ready, because you don’t know when it’s coming. Well, now we do know and there’s nothing to be done about it.”

He says he will be dead by September. It will take about a week to die, though no one can be sure. Animals live the longest.

The war was over in a month. The United States, Russia and China were the protagonists. It is not clear if it was started by accident or mistake. There was no victor. The northern hemisphere is contaminated and lifeless now.

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