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While the numbers have been improving, CMOs still have the shortest tenure in the c-suite globally. Spencer Stuart data shows CMOs in Fortune 500 companies now have average tenure of 4.3 years against a c-suite average of 4.9 years. But variance is huge: Tellingly, Forrester data shows a 75% variance in average CMO tenure across the industries it tracks, with B2B CMOs recording the lowest average tenure, while B2C record the longest. Across the inaugural Australian CMOs of the Year finalists and winners, a list including both c-suite level marketers as well as heads of marketing reporting into divisional or other c-suite leaders, average role tenure came in at a much lower 3 years 3 months.Yet across submissions, several marketing chiefs cited much longer role and company tenure – and delivered stronger marketing effectiveness case studies for it. Three joined us for the latest CMO Awards podcast, powered by Mi3, to reveal how longer tenure has helped them build trust and pursue bolder, more expansive decisions and work: Intrepid’s former chief customer officer and now president of the Americas, Leigh Barnes, Kennard’s Hire GM of marketing and customer, Manelle Merhi, and Patties Foods’ chief marketing and growth officer, Anand Surujpal. The trio agreed: Tenure has seen them flip the switch on marketing as an ego-centric profession focused on delivering individual results – often, as quickly as you can – to putting the brands and business first. All of them are investing in longer-term opportunities and have the confidence to experiment, fail fast, pick up the learnings and progress. As well as sharpening their commercial aptitude, tenure has also opened doors they never would have found the handle on without embedding themselves truly as leaders within their respective organisations. Barnes, who has been with Intrepid for nearly 15 years and took 14th spot in our CMOs of the Year, has spent the last three years orchestrating a transformation of marketing from 90:10 performance-to-brand mix, to 60:40 in favour of brand. It’s been a huge adjustment but results speak volumes: From a $60.7 million loss in 2021 to a $21.8 million net profit, and a $29 million revenue bump from first-time customers in early 2025 alone. “For me, tenure has enabled me to be real, and that gives me the opportunity to say what I think, say when I'm struggling, say when I don't understand something, be vulnerable. But also, when I'm really confident about something, I can say that with gusto, and the business backs and supports that,” Barnes comments. Merhi, who joined Kennards as head of marketing 12 years ago, was 25th in our CMOs of the Year list for her bold work revitalising the sales team, as well as embedding four key customer personas that are driving growth, including its latest commercial segment successes. Today, every Kennard’s branch and employee speaks the language of customer, she says proudly. “I genuinely believe tenure allowed for the trust, for proven capability, for notches on the belt that make people want to sit, listen and be curious in return,” Merhi says.It’s that willingness to back you that’s also helping Surujpal, an eight-year veteran at Patties Foods, to take recently acquired brand, Lean Cuisine, in a completely different direction. He’s also tasked with taking Four ‘N’ Twenty into international markets.“It's the trust of the organisation that you've got this, you’ve done this before. You know you're going to get a few things wrong, but you're going to get more things right than wrong,” he says. “The relationship between myself, my sales counterparts, my CEO, my CFO, is really strong. We've got an incredibly strong business partner relationship.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tech Bro NonsenseFormer Google CEO Tells Congress That 99 Percent of All Electricity Will Be Used to Power Superintelligent AIbillionaire tech tycoon and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt comments to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce: "What we need from you is we need the energy in all forms, renewable, non-renewable, whatever. It needs to be there, and it needs to be there quickly.""Many people project demand for our industry will go from 3 percent to 99 percent of total generation... an additional 29 gigawatts by 2027 and 67 more gigawatts by 2030. If [China] comes to superintelligence first, it changes the dynamic of power globally, in ways that we have no way of understanding or predicting.”Meta Says It's Okay to Feed Copyrighted Books Into Its AI Model Because They Have No "Economic Value"In the ongoing suit Richard Kadrey et al v. Meta Platforms, led by a group of authors including Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer and National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company has argued that its alleged scraping of over seven million books from the pirated library LibGen constituted "fair use" of the material, and was therefore not illegal.Meta's attorneys are also arguing that the countless books that the company used to train its multibillion-dollar language models and springboard itself into the headspinningly buzzy AI race are actually worthless. Meta cited an expert witness who downplayed the books' individual importance, averring that a single book adjusted its LLM's performance "by less than 0.06 percent on industry standard benchmarks, a meaningless change no different from noise." Thus there's no market in paying authors to use their copyrighted works, Meta says, because "for there to be a market, there must be something of value to exchange," as quoted by Vanity Fair — "but none of [the authors'] works has economic value, individually, as training data." Other communications showed that Meta employees stripped the copyright pages from the downloaded books.Tellingly, the unofficial policy seems to be to not speak about it at all: "In no case would we disclose publicly that we had trained on LibGen, however there is practical risk external parties could deduce our use of this dataset," an internal Meta slide deck read. The deck noted that "if there is media coverage suggesting we have used a dataset we know to be pirated, such as LibGen, this may undermine our negotiating position with regulators on these issues."Lauren Sánchez in Space Was Marie Antoinette in a Penis-Shaped RocketKaty Perry Boasts About Ridiculous Rocket Launch While NASA Is Scrubbing History of Women in Space“It's about a collective energy and making space for future women. It's about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it. This is all for the benefit of Earth.”Last month, the Orlando Sentinel first reported, NASA scrubbed language from a webpage about the agency's Artemis missions declaring that a goal of the mission was to put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon; just a few days later, NASA Watch reported that comic books imagining the first woman on the Moon had been deleted from NASA's website.A webpage for "Women at NASA" is still standing, but pictures of women and people of color — astronauts, engineers, scientists — have reportedly been removed from NASA's real-world hallways amid the so-called "DEI" purge. Per Scientific American, the word "inclusion" has been removed as one of NASA's core pillars. And as 404 Media reported in February, NASA personnel were directed to remove mentions of women in leadership positions from its website.OpenAI NonsenseOpenAI Is Secretly Building a Social NetworkOpenAI has been secretly building its own social media platform, which The Verge reports is intended to resemble X-formerly-Twitter — the social media middleweight owned by CEO Sam Altman's arch-nemesis, Elon MuskOpenAI updated its safety framework—but no longer sees mass manipulation and disinformation as a critical riskOpenAI said it will stop assessing its AI models prior to releasing them for the risk that they could persuade or manipulate people, possibly helping to swing elections or create highly effective propaganda campaigns.The company said it would now address those risks through its terms of service, restricting the use of its AI models in political campaigns and lobbying, and monitoring how people are using the models once they are released for signs of violations.OpenAI also said it would consider releasing AI models that it judged to be “high risk” as long as it has taken appropriate steps to reduce those dangers—and would even consider releasing a model that presented what it called “critical risk” if a rival AI lab had already released a similar model. Previously, OpenAI had said it would not release any AI model that presented more than a “medium risk.”Saying 'please' and 'thank you' to ChatGPT costs OpenAI millions, Sam Altman saysBeing nice to your AI chatbot requires computational power that raises electricity and water costsAltman responded to a user on X (formerly Twitter) who asked how much the company has lost in electricity costs from people being polite to their models: “Tens of millions of dollars well spent — you never know,” the CEO wrote.AI models rely heavily on energy stored in global data centers — which already accounts for about 2% of the global electricity consumption. Polite responses also add to OpenAI's water bill. AI uses water to cool the servers that generate the data. A study from the University of California, Riverside, said that using GPT-4 to generate 100 words consumes up to three bottles of water — and even a three-word response such as “You are welcome” uses about 1.5 ounces of water.Antitrust NonsenseTrump DOJ's plan to restructure Google hurts consumers, national security, says exec: 'Wildly overbroad'Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs: "We're very concerned about DOJ's proposal. We think it would hurt American consumers, our economy, our tech leadership, even national security. The proposed reform from DOJ "would result in unprecedented government overreach that would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses — and jeopardize America's global economic and technological leadership at precisely the moment it's needed most."8 revelations from Mark Zuckerberg's 3 days on the witness stand in Meta's antitrust trialThe FTC alleges Meta "helped cement" its illegal monopoly in the social media market with its acquisition of Instagram and the messaging app WhatsApp more than a decade ago.8 revelations:Antitrust worries surfaced years agoTwo years before the FTC initially sued Meta over allegations that it violated US competition laws, Zuckerberg considered breaking Instagram out into its own company to avoid potential antitrust scrutiny, according to a 2018 internal email revealed by the government at trial."I wonder if we should consider the extreme step of spinning Instagram out as a separate company," Zuckerberg wrote in the email to company executives. "As calls to break up the big tech companies grow, there is a non-trivial chance that we will be forced to spin out Instagram and perhaps WhatsApp in the next 5-10 years anyway." If a break up were to happen, Zuckerberg wrote, history showed that companies could end up better off.Asked about this view at trial, Zuckerberg said, "I'm not sure exactly what I had in mind then."A 'crazy idea' to boost Facebook's relevanceZuckerberg's "crazy idea" for Facebook in 2022 involved purging all users' friends. The CEO — fearful that Facebook was losing cultural relevance — made the proposal in a 2022 email to the social network's top brass."Option 1. Double down on Friending," Zuckerberg wrote in the message. "One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone's graphs and having them start again."Sheryl Sandberg wanted to play Settlers of CatanZuckerberg once offered to give Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Meta, a tutorial in the board game Settlers of Catan.The lesson offer came up in 2012 messages in which the two discussed the fresh $1 billion purchase of Instagram, partially redacted missives presented by the FTC during Zuckerberg's testimony showed."We would love it. I want to learn Settlers of Catan too so we can play," Sandberg told Zuckerberg in the message. He responded: "I can definitely teach you Settlers of Catan. It's very easy to learn."Meta's rivalry with TikTok has only just begunDuring his testimony, Zuckerberg hammered home Meta's argument that the tech giant faces massive competition from other apps, especially TikTok."TikTok is still bigger than either Facebook or Instagram," Zuckerberg testified. "I don't like it when our competitors do better than us. You can sort of bet that I'm not going to rest until we are doing quite a bit better than we are doing now.”Facebook Camera app struggles were a source of worryInstagram's early rise shook Zuckerberg. As his company struggled to mount its response with the Facebook Camera app, the CEO began to lose his patience."What is going on with our photos team?" Zuckerberg wrote in a 2011 message to top executives, as revealed by the FTC in court. Zuckerberg then described a number of individuals, whose names were redacted, as being "checked out." He added another person didn't want "to work with this team because he thinks this team sucks."In May 2012, Facebook launched a photo-sharing app called Facebook Camera, which aims to make it simpler for the social network's users to upload and browse photos on smartphones. Only weeks after Facebook spent $1 billion on a similar photo-sharing app called Instagram. Zuckerberg tried to buy Snapchat for $6 billionZuckerberg's failed bid to buy Snapchat was highlighted by the government to bolster its argument that Meta sought to maintain its dominance in the social media market through acquisitions rather than competition.Facebook isn't really for friends anymoreWhile under questioning by the FTC, Zuckerberg said that Facebook had greatly evolved since he launched the platform more than 20 years ago and that its main purpose wasn't really to connect with friends anymore.The FTC argues that Meta monopolizes the market for "personal social networking services.""The friend part has gone down quite a bit," Zuckerberg testified. He said the Facebook feed has "turned into more of a broad discovery and entertainment space."Not impressed by WhatsApp cofounderZuckerberg wasn't too impressed with one of WhatsApp's cofounders after a 2012 meeting he had with company leadership."I found him fairly impressive although disappointingly (or maybe positive for us) unambitious," Zuckerberg wrote in an email to colleagues after the meeting, it was revealed at trial.Jan Koum and Brian Acton cofounded WhatsApp in 2009. Zuckerberg said in his testimony that he thinks he was referring to Koum. Asked about his email, Zuckerberg seemed uneasy. He said that Koum was clearly smart but that he and Acton were staunchly opposed to growing their messaging app enough to be a real threat to Facebook. Zuckerberg would go on to buy WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion.Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms adds former Trump advisor to the board days before an antitrust showdown with the FTCMeta Platforms is further boosting its lineup of heavy hitters with the additions of Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and Dina Powell McCormick to the mix. Powell McCormick was the former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump during his first term. Married to Republican Senator Dave McCormick, former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge fundsStakeholder/shareholder activism NonsenseBP suffers investor rebellion at first AGM since climate strategy U-turnBP suffered an investor rebellion on Thursday after facing shareholders for the first time since abandoning its climate strategy at a meeting marred by protest.About a quarter of shareholders (24.3%) voted against the chair, Helge Lund, which marked the first time in at least a decade that more than 10% of BP's shareholders voted against the re-election of the chair.The outgoing chair told shareholders that the company had “pursued too much while looking to build new low-carbon businesses” but that “lessons have been learned”.BP's CEO Murray Auchincloss (2.7% against), repeated his previous claim that BP's optimism in the global green energy transition was “misplaced”, and that the board's “one simple goal” was to “grow the long-term value of your investment”.Mark Van Baal, the founder of the green activist investor group Follow This, said shareholders had “made it clear that weakening climate commitments is unacceptable”. He added: “This historical result serves as a wake-up call to BP's board and emphasises investor expectation for robust governance mechanisms and genuine leadership on ESG issues.”Starbucks CEO faces major backlash after details of his work routine are revealed: 'Ill-conceived decision'A press release from the National Center for Public Policy Research reported on the hypocrisy of Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol's transportation practices when considering the company's public commitment to eco-friendly practices.Niccol travels regularly from his home in Newport Beach, California, to Starbucks' headquarters in Seattle, Washington, via private jet. Each 2,000-mile round-trip commute releases nearly nine tons of carbon dioxide.The National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project's director Stefan Padfield pointed out the discrepancy of policy and practice during his presentation of Proposal 8 requesting an annual report on emissions congruency. He noted that each round trip made by Niccol "is roughly the annual energy-consumption footprint of the typical American household."This analogy paints a vivid picture of the hypocrisy between Starbucks' public environmental commitments and the practices of the CEO. Gaps are apparent. Target CEO Cornell meets with Sharpton to discuss DEI rollback as civil rights leader considers boycottCEO Brian Cornell met with the Rev. Al Sharpton in New York on Thursday as the retailer faces calls for a boycott and a slowdown in foot traffic that began after it walked back key diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the civil rights leader told CNBC Wednesday.The meeting, which Target asked for, comes after some civil rights groups urged consumers not to shop at Target in response to the retailer's decision to cut back on DEI. While Sharpton has not yet called for a boycott of Target, he has supported efforts from others to stop shopping at the retailer's stores.“You can't have an election come and all of a sudden, change your old positions,” Sharpton told CNBC in a Wednesday interview ahead of the meeting. “If an election determines your commitment to fairness then fine, you have a right to withdraw from us, but then we have a right to withdraw from you.”IBM Informs Staff of DEI Retreat as Trump-Era Scrutiny GrowsEmployees were told of the changes earlier this week, in a memo that cited “inherent tensions in practicing inclusion.” Legal considerations and shifting attitudes to DEI were among the factors for the company. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna discussed the changes in his monthly video update to employees Thursday.Anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck said he first contacted the company in February to question its policies. IBM confirmed it discussed its changes with Starbuck.The company (-10% gender influence gap) also disbanded a diversity council that represents the views of employee groups as part of its reevaluation.Exxon Faces No Shareholder Proposals for First Time in 25 YearsThe absence of requests in Exxon's proxy statement comes a year after the company sued two climate-focused investors to remove what it described as their “extreme agenda.” It also tracks with the US Securities and Exchange Commission's decision to back guidelines that make it easier for corporations to block votes on shareholder resolutions at their annual meetings.Exxon said in a statement late Monday that it received only one proposal this year and the SEC agreed it should be discarded because “it tried to micromanage the company.”Occidental Petroleum Corp., Valero Energy Corp. and Dow Inc. are other companies with no shareholder proposals up for vote at this year's annual meetings.Exxon said this year marks “the first time in recent history that our proxy includes zero proposals from activists.” It was just four years ago that a small fund scored a victory over Exxon, placing three directors on the company's board.Climate activist shareholder group Follow This pauses big oil campaignClimate activist shareholder group Follow This said on Thursday a lack of investor appetite has forced it to suspend its nearly decade-long campaign seeking stronger commitments from major oil and gas producers to emission cutsHarley-Davidson slams activist investor, saying its campaign is messing up its CEO searchIn early April, H Partners' Jared Dourdeville, who had been a Harley director since 2022, abruptly resigned from the board, saying among other things that Harley had “cultural depletion” because of its work-from-home policies and the exit of several senior leaders. And that was not his only point of contention with the rest of the board.Investment firm H Partners, a major investor with 9.1% of Harley's shares, in an open letter filed on Wednesday, urged fellow shareholders to remove three longtime directors from Harley's eight-member board at its annual meeting in mid-May by withholding votes for them. H Partners said the board had not held Harley CEO Jochen Zeitz accountable for what it called his repeated “strategic execution failures” and “severe underperformance.”CEO/Chair Zeitz (2007, 30%)Lead DIrector Norman Thomas Linebarger (2008, 13%)Sara Levinson (1996, 20%)"We believe Mr. Zeitz, Mr. Linebarger, and Ms. Levinson should be held accountable for the destruction of shareholder value,"Harley's bylaws stipulate that directors who win less than 50% of votes in an election must tender their resignations.Harley announced last week that Zeitz, CEO since 2020 and board member for 18 years, would resign but stay in his role until a successor is found. H Partners wants him out now.That followed a letter issued a day earlier by Harley-Davidson, which accused H Partners of “publicly campaigning” against it and saying that those efforts are also “adversely impacting the CEO search process and ongoing execution of the Hardwire strategic plan,” referring to a turnaround plan it launched in 2021.Harley said that it began a CEO search late last year after Zeitz expressed interest in retiring and has interviewed three potential CEOs, including one supported by Dourdeville, but declined to offer any the job. The company has also said that Dourdeville had cast only one vote against the majority during his time as a director and that as recently as November 2024 he had expressed support for Zeitz.Harley-Davidson faces board fight from H Partners amid calls for CEO to exit soon

The rift between Elon Musk and Republicans is about to get worse. The New York Times reports that in an extraordinary Oval Office meeting, President Trump's senior agency heads fought bitterly with Musk. They are angry with him because they themselves know the cuts by his so-called Department of Government Efficiency will produce all kinds of fiascoes at their agencies. Tellingly, they expressly don't want to take the blame for what Musk is unleashing! We talked to New Republic staff writer Kate Aronoff, who has a good new piece about some of DOGE's hidden impacts. She explains why all this reveals deep schisms inside the administration that will only get worse for Trump.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rift between Elon Musk and Republicans is about to get worse. The New York Times reports that in an extraordinary Oval Office meeting, President Trump's senior agency heads fought bitterly with Musk. They are angry with him because they themselves know the cuts by his so-called Department of Government Efficiency will produce all kinds of fiascoes at their agencies. Tellingly, they expressly don't want to take the blame for what Musk is unleashing! We talked to New Republic staff writer Kate Aronoff, who has a good new piece about some of DOGE's hidden impacts. She explains why all this reveals deep schisms inside the administration that will only get worse for Trump.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rift between Elon Musk and Republicans is about to get worse. The New York Times reports that in an extraordinary Oval Office meeting, President Trump's senior agency heads fought bitterly with Musk. They are angry with him because they themselves know the cuts by his so-called Department of Government Efficiency will produce all kinds of fiascoes at their agencies. Tellingly, they expressly don't want to take the blame for what Musk is unleashing! We talked to New Republic staff writer Kate Aronoff, who has a good new piece about some of DOGE's hidden impacts. She explains why all this reveals deep schisms inside the administration that will only get worse for Trump.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ralph welcomes Middle East expert and executive VP of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Trita Parsi, to fill us in on the consequences of Israel boobytrapping pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon and how those tactics have the potential to blow back on us in the United States. Then we welcome back surgeon and humanitarian, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who has worked in Gaza during the Israeli assault, to update us on his efforts to get the Biden Administration to convince Israel to stop the killing. Trita Parsi is the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and the co-founder and former President of the National Iranian American Council. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East, and has worked for the Swedish Permanent Mission to the UN, where he served in the Security Council, handling the affairs of Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan, and Western Sahara, and in the General Assembly's Third Committee, addressing human rights in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Iraq. He has authored three books on US foreign policy in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran and Israel— Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States, A Single Roll of the Dice – Obama's Diplomacy with Iran, and Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy.We're in a very sad situation in which we have a president who has been sitting on the front lines of American foreign policy for one-fifth of America's history, who thinks that he knows everything best, and clearly doesn't seem to be listening to anyone. And there's plenty of discontent inside the Biden administration itself—and people appear to have just given up and are waiting for the elections—but there's no clear signs yet that there won't necessarily be much of a change even after that.Trita ParsiLet's first remember that if any other entity had done this to Israel—or to us—we would not have hesitated for a second. We would have called it an act of terrorism, and we would have called it an act of war.Trita ParsiDr. Feroze Sidhwa is a trauma and critical care surgeon as well as a Northern California Veterans Affairs general surgeon, and he is Associate Professor of Surgery at the California Northstate University College of Medicine. Dr. Sidhwa served at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in March and April of this year, and he has done prior humanitarian work in Haiti, the West Bank, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe. Dr. Sidhwa and 45 other American doctors and nurses who have served in Gaza recently sent a letter exhorting President Biden, VP Harris, and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden to effect an immediate ceasefire.It's hard to appreciate, but really literally everything in Gaza that makes a place a society has been destroyed. I think of it in three levels— at the very base is agriculture, food production, and housing, at the level above that is healthcare, and at the level above that is things that are for a higher level of society, education, arts, industry, whatever. That top level is gone. Literally every university in Gaza has been obliterated, physically destroyed…The hospital system is almost completely useless right now…the functionality of the hospitals is very little more than a four walled space in which people can walk into and ask for a doctor to put bandages on them. And then even the lowest level…something like 85 or 90 % of the water sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed.Dr. Feroze SidhwaThis is just outrageous. I mean, why are we doing this even to ourselves? Is it worth corrupting the entire executive department of the United States so that we can murder more children? Is that what Americans want? I don't think so.Dr. Feroze SidhwaLet's talk about Lebanon itself, not just Hezbollah. This is war on Lebanon—that has a dysfunctional government, to be sure— but it is a state that the U.S. is allied with in a way, supplying modest weapons to the Lebanese army, and France has had long relations with Lebanon going back to the mandate period. In the U.S., this is a whole new constituency where they're losing relatives and friends.Ralph NaderMore links to the letter sent by Dr. Sidhwa and his colleagues:To Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in CanadaTo Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the UKHow to email the PresidentHow to call the PresidentWrite or Call the White HouseIn Case You Didn't Hear with Francesco DeSantisNews 9/25/241. On September 11th, Senator Patty Murray and Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal sent a letter to the Biden administration demanding “an immediate, transparent, credible, and thorough independent U.S. investigation…into the killing of [Ayşenur] Eygi,” the American citizen murdered by Israeli forces during a protest in the West Bank. Senator Murray and Representative Jayapal both represent Washington state, where Ms. Eygi attended university. In this letter, Murray and Jayapal also list the numerous American citizens killed by Israeli soldiers even before the current explosion of tensions in the region, ranging from Rachel Corrie in 2003 to Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022. Senator Bernie Sanders echoed this call in his own statement on September 13th. Despite this pressure, the administration has not launched an investigation. The government of Turkey however – where Ms. Eygi was born, though she moved the United States when she was less than a year old – will pursue charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice, Reuters reports.2. The Intercept reports that the Uncommitted Movement will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign. In their official statement, the Movement leaders write “Vice President Harris's unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her.” Harris proved unwilling to even meet with the Uncommitted leaders. This cold shoulder could have disastrous consequences, particularly in Michigan where Uncommitted garnered over 100,000 votes in the Democratic primaries.3. Boeing is again in crisis. On September 20th, the New York Post reported that the chief of the company's space unit, Ted Colbert, had been ousted after Boeing's Starliner capsule left astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore stranded on the International Space Station. This comes amid a massive strike by Boeing machinists, 96% of whom voted in favor of the strike per Ryan Simms of KOMO News. The New York Post adds that Boeing's shares have lost over 40% of their value so far this year.4. In more union related news, on September 18th, the Congressional Workers Union announced that “staff in the Office of Congressman Mark Pocan and Congresswoman Val Hoyle secured the first-ever Memorandums of Understanding…between congressional staff and their members.” These MOUs include salary increases, back pay, and immediate cost-of-living adjustments. The union will continue to press for the first ever Congressional office collective bargaining agreement.5. On September 12th, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “filed a proposed order against student loan servicer Navient for its years of failures and lawbreaking.” If approved by the court, this order would permanently “remove Navient from a market where it, among other illegal actions, steered numerous student loan borrowers into costly repayment options…illegally deprived student borrowers of opportunities to enroll in more affordable income-driven repayment plans and forced them to pay much more than they should have.” Additionally, Navient would be forced to pay out $100 million to harmed borrowers, on top of a $20 million penalty. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra is quoted saying “For years, Navient's top executives profited handsomely by exploiting students and taxpayers…By banning the notorious student loan giant from federal student loan servicing and ensuring the winddown of these operations, the CFPB will finally put an end to the years of abuse.” Navient, formerly Sallie Mae, is described as “a repeat offender with a long history of regulatory violations,” and when the CFPB first took legal action against the company in 2017, it was the largest student loan servicer in the country.6. More Perfect Union's Jordan Zakarin reports the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Starbucks illegally closed all three of its Ithaca, New York locations and that the NLRB “ordered that those stores be re-opened, with the unionized staff re-hired and given 16 months of backpay.” Yet, Zakarin notes that because this was decided by an administrative law judge, Starbucks can and more than likely will appeal this decision. This case starkly exemplifies why the capitalist class feels so threatened by the newly reinvigorated NLRB.7. A deeply disturbing story sheds light on sexual assault by CIA officers in postings around the world. The AP reports Brian Jeffrey Raymond, a longtime CIA agent, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for drugging, photographing, and sexually assaulting more than two dozen women in postings around the globe. Yet Raymond's case is just the tip of the iceberg. “[A]nother veteran CIA officer faces…charges in Virginia for allegedly reaching up a co-worker's skirt and forcibly kissing her during a drunken party in the office…Still another former CIA employee…is scheduled to face a jury trial next month on charges he assaulted a woman…at the agency's Langley, Virginia, headquarters. That case emboldened some two dozen women to come forward to authorities and Congress with accounts of their own of sexual assaults, unwanted touching and what they contend are the CIA's efforts to silence them.” Tellingly, even Raymond's own attorneys contended that his “quasi-military” work at the CIA in the years following 9/11 contributed to his “emotional callousness [and] objectification of other people,” that led to his preying upon women. It is well worth remembering that, once set in motion, dehumanization is not easily stopped.8. Amid an expansive corruption probe in New York City, Gothamist reports just how much the NYPD is receiving in overtime pay in the subway; whereas last year, this slice of overtime pay totaled $4 million in taxpayer money, this year it has ballooned to $155 million, a nearly 4,000% increase. Meanwhile the Mayor continues to slash budgets for essential city services, such as libraries.9. Rolling Stone reports the Crypto lobby is spending gargantuan sums of money to take out Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown – reportedly $32 million by the end of September, or $800,000 per day. Aware that their cause is unpopular, they are not running pro-Crypto ads, but instead spots that say his opponent will stop “illegal immigrants from taking Ohio's tax dollars.” As Luke Goldstein of the American Prospect puts it “Dems are getting played like a fiddle by crypto; Schumer caved to their demands to stop the bleeding and then crypto PACs said thanks we're still dropping $32 mil in OH to knock out your senate majority.”10. Finally, in a story featuring a dizzying array of the worst things imaginable, Bloomberg reports “The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania will invest $1.6 billion to revive it, agreeing to sell all the output to Microsoft…as the tech titan seeks…electricity for data centers to power [AI].” This story notes that “one of the site's two units permanently closed almost a half-century ago after the worst…nuclear accident” in American history, but Constellation Energy is “planning to reopen the other reactor, which shut in 2019 because it couldn't compete economically.” In other words, Microsoft is dumping money into a defunct nuclear power plant that has proven to be unsafe for the sole purpose of powering AI that has no proven benefits. Corporate greed caused a catastrophe at Three Mile Island before. Corporate hubris could easily cause another.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Kia ora,Welcome to Tuesday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.Today we lead with news the steam seems to be going out of the Chinese economy as their property sector woes just drag on and on.But first, although it is still retreating, the June New York factory survey improved sharply from May, with firms there increasingly positive about the next six months.And Canada reported a much bigger jump in housing starts in May, far above what was expected.However, previously fast-rising Japanese machinery orders fell in April in March, but were up slightly year-on-year.China's new home prices fell -3.9% year-on-year in May, falling further from a -3.1% drop in the previous month. It marked the 11th consecutive period of declining home prices and the steepest since mid-2015. This is all despite more property market stimulus from the government, which clearly hasn't turned the market yet. There are no major cities reporting any gains in resold houses, with some declines now well exceeding -10% from a year ago. In the new home market only 3 of 70 major cities are reporting year-on-year gains (all tiny) and the rest are all declines.Chinese retail sales eased higher in May, up +3.7% when a +3.0% rise was expected. April rose +2.3% year-on-year, so this May result is an improvement. But you have to say, in the context of recent Chinese history, this is a modest gain. And remember, Chinese official CPI is rising less than +1% year-on-year.Meanwhile, Chinese industrial production fell in May from April to be +5.6% higher than a year ago. Markets were expecting that change to be +6%. April had expanded +6.7% on that basis. Tellingly however, electricity production rose just +2.3% in May from a year ago, up only +0.7% from April, staying at the lowish levels it has for the past year. The Chinese central bank kept its one-year Medium-Term Lending Facility rate unchanged in June at 2.5%.The changed and less outlook for China can also be seen in the benchmark copper price. The February to May enthusiasm has given way to a sharpish retreat.And here's something you may not have expected; wages are rising quite fast in the EU, up +5.5% in Q1-2024 from a year ago, a spurt higher than the already quite good +4.1% rises in Q4-2023. And it may go higher. The huge IG Metal German union is seeking 7% pay rises now.In Australia, stories are swirling that NSW is about to raise its land tax rate. (Land tax is separate from property taxes, and does not apply to the family home, or farm. But it does apply to most other land.) NSW isn't the first to do this.And staying in Australia, data released by their tax authorities shows that more than 40% of their income tax paid by individuals is paid by the 5% who had taxable incomes of AU$180,000 and greater. At the other end of the scale, the 42% of taxpayers earning AU$45,000 or less paid 2.3% of their income tax.The UST 10yr yield is now at 4.28% and up +6 bps from this time yesterday. The price of gold will start today down -US$17 at US$2317/oz.Oil prices are up +US$1.50 at US$79.50/bbl in the US while the international Brent price is now just over US$83.50/bbl.The Kiwi dollar starts today little-changed at just under 61.3 USc. Against the Aussie we are softer at 92.7 AUc. Against the euro we are -¼c lower at 57.1 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today down -20 bps at just on 70.9.The bitcoin price starts today at US$66,351 and down a very minor -0.2% from this time yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has again been modest at just under +/- 1.4%.You can find links to the articles mentioned today in our show notes.You can get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.Kia ora. I'm David Chaston. And we will do this again tomorrow.

Ohio's mental healthcare needs are as acute as they've ever been, but Ohioans' struggle with mental health has also achieved a new and higher level of visibility, thanks to the persistent dedication of mental health advocates. Mental health struggles are touching every part of Ohio's population: children, adults, employers, and employees, and those of any age wrestling with addiction or thoughts of suicide. Ohio's leaders in the field have also made clear that mental health issues aren't merely healthcare issues, they're workforce development issues: the state's economy can't thrive if the mental health needs of its workers and their families aren't addressed and supported. Tellingly, a state official reported hearing most often from Ohio's mothers and sheriffs: two groups both dealing daily with the effects of fellow Ohioans struggling with mental health needs. There is clearly hope: national studies show that 3 of 4 people who experience addiction eventually recover, and up to 33% of people living with serious mental illness and 67% of adults with mild to moderate mental illness experience partial to full recovery over time. And Ohio is talking more about mental health than ever before, with the stigma of mental illness slowly evaporating, thanks to a changing public willingness to talk openly about mental illness. Some 70% of companies have also introduced or enhanced their well-being benefits for their employees. Since 1949, May has been observed as Mental Health Awareness Month, so with an expert panel of passionate leaders, we unpack the state of mental health in Ohio with leaders working to create healthier adults, employees, and families. Featuring: Erika Clark Jones, CEO, Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County (ADAMH) LeeAnne Cornyn, Director, Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services And Andriel Ugbomeh, CEO, Healing Without Limits Counseling & Consulting The host is Charleta B. Tavares, Chief Executive Officer, PrimaryOne Health The presenting sponsors of CMC's Optimal Health Series are OhioHealth, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and Nationwide Children's Hospital. This forum was sponsored by Cardinal Health. The livestream presenting sponsor was The Center for Human Kindness at The Columbus Foundation. The livestream partner was The Columbus Dispatch. It was supported by The Ellis. This forum was recorded before a live audience at The Ellis in Columbus, Ohio's historic Italian Village on May 15, 2024. Please note this CMC forum contains a conversation about suicide. If you or someone you love is struggling with mental health or addiction, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling 988.  

Every day, we experience thoughts and impulses that bring about a sense of joy, creativity, and inspiration. We want to move in the direction of these desires, be guided by them, because these are the soul's expression. This is the emergence of your higher vision. But then you're stopped short by fear. Yes, there is healthy, protective fear: the kind that makes you pull off the road when you sense dangerous driving conditions ahead. But the kind of fear that stops you from coming into alignment with your higher self, stops you from saying "yes" to your Yes ...this fear prevents you from moving the edge of your own self-concept. Fear and its cousins: struggle, anxiety - even frustration and anger - come upon you like an electric fence. The more energy you put into moving in the direction of your desires in the "greener pastures" beyond the fenceline of your current state, the more energy you'll have to put into protecting yourself from this terrifying, painful threshold. Until you break down. Tellingly, this is just when most of our breakthroughs occur, and the reason is that those limits must be broken through in order to grow into our fuller selves. So, how do we live in a world in which fear is a regular occurrence that's never going away? The end of fear comes at beginning of our understanding what fear is. Every poker player has something called a "tell." This is the twitch or quirk, change in body language or tone of voice or focus of the eyes, some signal that lets other players have an idea what you've got in your hand. Fear is your ego's "tell." It's your personal twitch or quirk that signals you are coming up against your ego's limited self-concept. Your old, limited way of being is cracking open, breaking down, and giving way to something much bigger, bolder, and better. Listen to "The End of Fear" now to recognize what your fear is really signalling, to end your fear of fear, and to transmute your fear into excitement about what is about to emerge in your new life of unstoppable courage and confidence! Want more free trainings? Check out my free training page: https://derekrydall.com/free-trainings Get a copy of my best-selling book, EMERGENCE, and $1791 in huge bonuses! https://myemergencebook.com Get a copy of my best-selling book, THE ABUNDANCE PROJECT and $891 in amazing bonuses! https://theabundanceprojectbook.com Subscribe to Podcast here, or subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher, via email or Android: https://derekrydall.com/subscribe-to-podcast

Hiro Ozaki, aka Sputniko! (her high-school nickname) is a designer / multimedia artist / musician / educator / entrepreneur whose unique and multi-pronged career exemplifies a new, promising course for design and its transformative role for society. Hiro has gone from imagining future scenarios––richly described with stills and movies starring gifted young heroines and their fantastical objects, set to catchy J-pop music with explanatory lyrics––to launching a highly successful company that might soon go through an IPO in Japan. Tellingly, the company, called Care, still upholds the topics that Hiro highlighted with her early speculations, especially issues related to gender and reproduction.Japanese and British, Hiro grew up between the two countries, studying math and computer sciences in London at Imperial College and then moving up a few blocks to the Royal College of Art. There, she enrolled in the Design Interactions program, where celebrated designers and theoreticians Tony Dunne and Fiona Raby taught Design for Debate, a discipline whose output were not immediately “useful” objects, but rather meditative, harrowing, always incisive object-based scenarios that reflected on the role of technology and science in our lives to come.In this episode of the Design Emergency podcast, Hiro talks to Paola Antonelli about her trajectory from speculative designer and pop star to entrepreneur. You can find images of Sputniko! and her work on our Instagram grid @design.emergency. Please join us for future episodes of Design Emergency when we will hear from other global design leaders who, like Hiro, are at the forefront of positive change.Design Emergency is supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 13 looks at antisemitism in Winnipeg media, concealed under the guise of far-left "intersectionality" and claims that it's only anti-Zionism, not antisemitism. Even with Justin Trudeau shoveling millions of dollars annually into the newspaper, the Winnipeg Free Press needs every reader and advertiser they can get. But when the pages are filled with slanted reporting and mean-spirited opinions that insult the public, it's a losing battle. 3.00 - To stem the tide, WFP editor Paul Samyn emailed a mea culpa to readers on Jan. 24. This was after blatant failures to flag a sexist column by Tom Brodbeck about former Premier Heather Stefanson ("for that we apologize"); an unhinged attack on unvaccinated Manitobans that "provided us with no immunity against the criticism that came our way"; and ongoing complaints about coverage of the Gaza War. You'll hear how his "adjusting the mix on our letters page" instead opened the door last Saturday to Hamas-supporting leftists- who laugh about the paper being their useful idiots. Samyn assured readers their feedback was "helping the Free Press be stronger, a trusted place you can turn to for defining the news of the day and debating the issues of our time." In less than 48 hours, he was forced to eat his words. 11:00 Part 2- Three columns in the Winnipeg Jewish Review provided a scathing rebuke to a review by Jen Zoratti of an event hosted by Gail Asper exposing the sexual violence of Hamas on Oct. 7. First, Marty Gold reads some of the unbelievably rancid comments from Zoratti. Then, he recaps the op-ed of Jessica Cogan, herself a feminist, who was at the program on January 24 at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. "I am left wondering how Ms. Zoratti could have left that program with the viewpoint that she did, without even a shred of compassion for the victims discussed that evening... she goes on to scold us for the way we are being forced to "bear witness". Does Ms. Zoratti live under a rock?"  "Ms. Zoratti then accuses the Jewish Community, including Jewish women, of exploiting "women's bodies to drive a political agenda and justify violence." This is victim-blaming of the highest order. In what gender studies classes did Ms. Zoratti learn this approach?" Cogan asked, "Would Ms. Zoratti go to an event hosted by the Muslim, Black, or Indigenous communities and have the audacity to "what about" them? Tellingly, Ms. Zoratti had no hesitation in doing so to the Jewish Community. Again, it speaks for itself." Samyn may have to issue another mea culpa, since "The one glaring omission from Ms. Zoratti's opinion was any hint of compassion or empathy towards the Israeli victims or the members of Winnipeg's Jewish community who assembled that evening." 22:54 Part 3- We tell you how Larry Pinsky, a Winnipeg lawyer, went even further in his op-ed, Holocause Remembrance And October 7: How Do You Fix A Problem Like Zoratti? "Ms. Zoratti, who usually is held out in the paper as an entertainment columnist... denigrated the survivors and victims of the mass sexual assaults and other crimes committed by Hamas and their co-conspirators." "Ms. Zoratti paid lip service to believing that these vile crimes were committed, using the word "ostensibly" (and) takes aim at the solemn presentation of the proof of Hamas's crimes... She said that the solemn evening veered into "agitprop". " "While Ms. Zoratti might have a political agenda, and while she might want to gas light in the tradition of her Marxist forbearers, the facts are the facts... To top off this tripe, Ms. Zoratti abused her presence at this earnest evening to accuse Israel of apartheid." 31:32 Part 4- WJR editor Rhonda Spivak piled on another problem for Samyn, after Faith reporter John Longhurst tweeted "great column" to Zoratti. "(He) has set back interfaith relations... How does Longhurst  propose to repair that which he has damaged?" And, we wonder, how will his boss? Comments/Support via Interac: martygoldlive@gmail.com

With more than 12 years' experience working in the events industry, primarily in tech, Rachel Heller is senior content program manager, events, at Github, the AI-powered developer platform.   Tellingly, Rachel wrote a blog for the Github site, ‘9 tips to go from attendee to speaker at a tech conference' and that's what this episode is all about.   Rachel talks about the journey; the call for sessions, inspiring people to apply, networking, crafting talks, writing a good bio and, ultimately, becoming a familiar name to organisers.   Rachel goes on to highlight a couple of tips from her blog – not least helping the review committee to understand how long your content can live beyond the event. She discusses the thin line between a conference keynote and a podcast, taking advantage of the real-time experience, practising content ideas in front of people with no knowledge of your industry, passion projects, preparation, and vocal techniques.   It's a really to-the-point, insightful 30 minutes that brings the stage much closer to the audience.   To keep up to date with all the news, subscribe for free here.   If you would like to take part in a podcast, then please complete our submission form. This episode of the Event Industry News Podcast is sponsored by Evolution dome, award-winning temporary event structures. Take a look at their structures at evolutiondome.com

Got a question for the trio? https://forms.zohopublic.com/propertyplanningaustralia/form/GotaquestionforthePropertyTrio/formperma/zYCQAxzE_24CVlDafP1ozyzwtmB-8m1iCNtCTgDvHXMCate enjoys playing host again, this time as the trio unpack the API survey, (Australian Property Investor magazine). They reminisce about the good old days, when the mag used to hit the shelves each month and they'd earmark articles, celebrate their own appearances in the magazine, and collect the publications, filled with post-it notes.The gap in performance between houses and units has closed a little recently and Dave notes that the data doesn't really capture this in the survey. "In fact, houses are the preferred intended purchase over the next 12 months among 37 per cent of respondents, a seismic shift from the mere 21 per cent with that intention just three months ago." From land to asset ratio to cultural housing preferences, there are a few reasons why houses are still preferred dwellings.Mike addresses the issue that developers are currently facing as they are deterred by building sector cost woes. Numbers have declined from 16.5 per cent to just 9 per cent of those planning to procure a property. Mike shares how he expects this indicator to play out in the market now that new dwellings have become a headline topic for every second political story. Another interesting question that the survey polled related to the transacting activity in the last year. The proportion of people saying they'd made no property moves in the past year soared from 13 per cent to a remarkable 30 per cent in just three months.... not surprising given the interest rate moves, but Dave tackles this question and talks about some of the challenges buyers face beyond funding costs. The survey also found that of the 70 per cent of respondents who transacted on property in the past 12 months, 63 per cent of those did so on more than one property. Mike discusses the obvious opportunity that many investors took advantage of during this time. Interest rates remain, together with the associated difficulties caused by a lack of finance availability, the biggest concerns confronting survey respondents.Dave addresses this issue head on and he and Cate discuss how they have seen purchasing decisions, buyer motivation (and timing) impacted by RBA rate decisions. Their insights may surprise our listeners... Cate shares the survey findings around decisions to buy and decisions to sell. Surprisingly, it's the buyer camp who are most impacted by rate increases. This is despite record low listing activity during this period. Mike considers the RBA and the respondents' feelings about the performance of our Reserve bank. A troubling 47 per cent of respondents gave the RBA a fail mark for having performed to a poor or very poor level. The amount that gave the RBA a mark of average or above was 54 per cent, well down from the 61 per cent of last quarter. Tellingly, the big shift was in the proportion that rated the RBA's efforts as very poor, which took off from 15 to 25 per cent in the past three months. The trio pick apart some of the key mistakes that our former RBA Governor made.Rents continue to be a heady topic. Cate and Dave break down some of the findings and they ponder the negative views of investors within the community, and how investor disincentives are playing out now. The Trio often talk about the Westpac consumer sentiment figures on property recently, but this survey highlights some different views; Respondents believed that there is plenty more upside in the property market, with 72 per cent expecting property prices to increase nationally, while 55 per cent believe regional property prices will increase. Time will tell!From investor concerns, dwelling types that investors wish to invest in, states they'd like to invest in, and investor intentions over the following year, the survey findings show some intriguing predictions.We hope you have enjoyed this episode... and especially with some of Mike's 'easter eggs'. And our gold nuggets…… Dave Johnston's gold nugget: If we look at the things that are putting people off buying, it's the external factors. "The most important economy is your own economy."Mike Mortlock's gold nugget: Mike talks about the disparity out there right now in relation to buyer sentiment. "If you're in a position to purchase a property, now is the time to do it." Shownotes: https://www.propertytrio.com.au/2023/09/04/analysing-market-mindset-the-api-survey/

This podcast includes covering these articles: “These 50 Canadian corporate citizens are a cut above,” by Rick Spence; “3 ESG Stocks to Buy With Focus Growing on Net-Zero,” by Abhinab Dasgupta; “2 Renewable Energy Stocks (With Dividends) That Could Put You in the Green,” by Jitendra Parashar; and “3 ESG Stocks in Focus for the Socially Responsible Investor,” by Tirthankar Chakraborty. And more... Transcript & Links, Episode 110, July 14, 2023 Hello, Ron Robins here. So, welcome to my podcast episode 110 titled “These ESG Stocks Are A Cut Above.” It's presented by Investing for the Soul. Investingforthesoul.com is your site for vital global ethical and sustainable investing mentoring, news, commentary, information, and resources. And look at my newly totally revised website at investingforthesoul.com! So, remember that you can find a full transcript, and links to content – including stock symbols and bonus material – on this episode's podcast page located at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts. Also, a reminder. I do not evaluate any of the stocks or funds mentioned in these podcasts, nor do I receive any compensation from anyone covered in these podcasts. Furthermore, I will reveal to you any personal investments I have in the investments mentioned herein. Additionally, quotes about individual companies are brief. Please go to this podcast's webpage for links to the actual articles for more company and stock information. Also, some companies might be covered more than once and there are also 5 article links below that time didn't allow me to review them here.. ------------------------------------------------------------- 1. These ESG Stocks Are A Cut Above I'm going to start with an article as it provides insight into what ethical and sustainable investors might look for when investing in individual companies that reflect their personal values. Though renewable energy companies rank high on the list there are others from diverse industries that are also found here. Do read the article which is titled These 50 Canadian corporate citizens are a cut above. It's by Rick Spence and found on the corporateknights.com site. Here are some quotes by Mr. Spence. “Since 2002, Corporate Knights' ranking of Canada's Best 50 Corporate Citizens has been tracing public and private companies as well as Crown corporations with more than $1 billion in revenues. Our researchers probe 25 key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess how firms manage their resources, employees and finances in comparison to their peer group, with 50% of each company's score tied to the percentage of their revenue and investments that qualify as sustainable. For the Best 50, that percentage keeps climbing. Tellingly, the 2023 list is dominated by renewable-energy players high in sustainable revenue. Topping the Best 50 this year (up from second place in 2022 and 20th in 2021) is a pure-play clean energy company: Innergex Renewable Energy (INE.TO) The Longueuil, Quebec–based renewable-power producer operates 40 hydroelectric facilities, 35 wind farms, 11 solar farms and one energy-storage facility in Canada, the U.S., France and now Chile… In second place this year (up from third in 2022 and 14th in 2021) is: Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP) the renewable-energy platform of Brookfield Corporation, the former Brascan empire (which got its start providing electricity in Brazil). With a market cap of $20.2 billion, more than seven times Innergex's $2.7 billion, Brookfield Renewable produces 25,400 megawatts of electricity through hydro, wind and solar facilities in Canada, the U.S., Colombia, Brazil, Europe and Asia. The company's latest annual report says it's also focusing on investing in ‘emerging transition asset classes' such as carbon capture and storage, recycling and biogas, ‘where our initial investment positions us for potential future large-scale decarbonization investment.' In third place is: Hydro-Québec (state-owned corporation) which was the top company in 2022, 2021 and 2018. While the company largely maintained its sustainable revenue from last year, competition is growing fiercer as more renewable-energy companies jump ahead. The ‘most improved' company on the list is: Canadian National Railway (CNI) It climbed from 35th place to seventh this year thanks to a notable increase in investments mainly aimed at rail network safety and integrity, as well as track infrastructure network resiliency and information technology initiatives. These investments totaled $2.5 billion, or 85% of Canadian National Railway's total investments, in 2021. (Now) Edmonton engineering firm Stantec (STN) scored highest on the Best 50 when it came to the percentage of its executives' variable pay linked to sustainability targets. With 26,000 employees and 350 offices on six continents, CEO Gord Johnston says the fast-growing company has been focused on building better communities for more than a decade. Best 50 bring home higher returns Corporate Knights researchers compared the stock performance of the public companies on the 2023 Best 50 versus that of the S&P/TSX Composite Index. Since 2002 (the year we published our first Best 50 list), Best 50 companies have rewarded their shareholders with 128% higher returns than the overall composite index. It's evidence that the ‘triple bottom line' (profit, people and planet) doesn't compromise the single bottom line – but expands it.” End quotes. ------------------------------------------------------------- 2. These ESG Stocks Are A Cut Above My second article picks three big-cap names and is titled 3 ESG Stocks to Buy With Focus Growing on Net-Zero. By Abhinab Dasgupta and seen on finance.yahoo.com. Here are some quotes by Mr. Dasgupta on each of his picks. “These companies broadly pass the ESG standard required to dub them as leaders in the sector, i.e., they regularly set, revisit and report on their ESG targets. [And they] flaunt a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy), have lucrative earnings potential, and should be looked into. 1) Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) This company provides customer relationship management technology, has already achieved net-zero residual emissions across its value chain and met its goal of 100% renewable energy in operations. It has targeted the removal of all carbon emissions by 2040 and has innovated a custom-built platform to track its own carbon footprint… The company currently sports a Zacks Rank #1. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current-year earnings has moved 4.6% north over the past 60 days. The company's expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 42%. 2) NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) This mega-cap semiconductor company, which provides graphics and networking solutions, has reduced emissions by 15% per employee as of 2022 and has set a target to have 65% of its electricity usage come from renewable sources by the end of 2025. It has also made significant strides in the study of climate change by embarking on a project to help predict and mitigate environmental disasters. The company currently sports a Zacks Rank #1. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current-year earnings has moved 71% north over the past 60 days. The company's expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 129.3%. 3) PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) This global beverage giant has a set target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, and is working to promote regenerative agricultural practices. It has a target of making all its packaging materials recyclable, compostable, and biodegradable. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.” End quotes. ------------------------------------------------------------- 3. These ESG Stocks Are A Cut Above Now another Canadian article with relevance to our global audience. It's titled 2 Renewable Energy Stocks (With Dividends) That Could Put You in the Green. It's by Jitendra Parashar at fool.ca. Here are some brief quotes by Mr. Parashar. “1) Brookfield Renewable Partners (TSX:BEP.UN) Could arguably be the most attractive renewable energy stocks listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange today. This Hamilton, Bermuda-headquartered renewable power-focused company has a market cap of $11.2 billion. Its stock currently trades at $30.82 with about 13.2% year-to-date gains, outperforming the TSX Composite, which has advanced by 1.8% in 2023 so far. Interestingly, Brookfield Renewable has been posting attractive double-digit positive YoY (year-over-year) growth in its total revenue for the last 11 quarters in a row… As the renewable energy company continues to focus on new acquisitions and growth initiatives to expand its business presence worldwide, you can expect its share prices to soar further in the coming years. In addition, Brookfield Renewable stock offers an attractive 4.7% annual dividend yield. 2) Northland Power (TSX:NPI) is another fundamentally strong Canadian renewable energy stock you may want to consider in 2023. It currently has a market cap of $6.9 billion, as its stock trades at $27.24 per share after losing nearly 26.6% of its value so far in 2023. This Toronto-headquartered firm has a large, well-diversified portfolio of clean power infrastructure assets, primarily in North America, Europe, and Latin America, and has more than three decades of experience working on power projects. Last year, the offshore wind segment accounted for over half of Northland Power's total revenue, while the remaining came from other segments like onshore renewables, efficient natural gas, and utility. The recent correction in Northland Power stock could be attributed to its earnings miss in the first quarter of 2023. Northland Power's sales from the offshore wind segment fell 13% YoY to $346 million last quarter. This YoY decline was mainly because the unusually high market prices it benefited from in the first quarter of 2022, particularly from its Gemini and Spanish projects, didn't happen again in the first quarter of 2023. That said, you can expect its YoY financial growth trend to improve in the coming years as the market prices gradually stabilize, which should help its share prices recover sharply. Besides the expected recovery, a decent annual dividend yield of 4.4% makes this renewable energy stock really attractive to buy on the dip.” End quotes. ------------------------------------------------------------- 4. These ESG Stocks Are A Cut Above And I'll end with this article titled 3 ESG Stocks in Focus for the Socially Responsible Investor. It's by Tirthankar Chakraborty and published on zacks.com. Now here's some of what Mr. Chakraborty says about his recommendations. “1) Pool Corporation (POOL Quick Quote POOL - Free Report) This company is one of the biggest distributors of swimming pool equipment. Pool Corporation aims at waste reduction and provides effective energy solutions to lessen its environmental footprint. Pool Corporation not only donates through the National Forest Foundation but also participates in the Environmental Protection Agency's Water Sense program. POOL provides customers ample guidance to handle wastewater sensibly… The company's expected earnings growth rate for the next year is 5.9%. Its shares have already gained 32.7% over the past five-year period. Pool Corporation has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). 2) Salesforce, Inc. (CRM Quick Quote CRM - Free Report) The company is one of the primary providers of customer relationship management software that helps manage cumbersome operations. Salesforce achieved 100% renewable energy from its operations. The company aims at purchasing renewable energy to increase access to clean power, especially in emerging economies. It also aims at net-zero carbon emissions and has established equal pay initiatives… The company's expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 42%. Its shares have already gained 28.1% over the past five-year period. Salesforce sports a Zacks Rank #1. 3) Microsoft Corp (MSFT Quick Quote MSFT - Free Report) … has become a solid ESG stock. This tech behemoth and one of the leaders in cloud computing is also known as a leader in energy conservation. Microsoft, along with Volt Energy, is aiming at achieving 100% renewable energy by 2025. And by 2050, the company aims at getting rid of all carbon emissions… The company's expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 4.7%. Microsoft shares have already gained 22.3% over the past five-year period. Microsoft currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of Pool Corporation, Salesforce and Microsoft, by the way, have gained 22.8%, 61.3%, and 41%, respectively, so far this year.” End quotes. ------------------------------------------------------------- Other Honorable Mentions 1) Title: 3 Stocks to Buy for The Continued Growth of Solar Energy on zacks.com. By Shaun Pruitt. 2) Title: VZ Named A Top Socially Responsible Dividend Stock etfchannel.com. By ETF Channel Staff. Articles from Canada, UK, and Europe 1) Title: Three investment trusts to take advantage of climate change - on investorschronicle.co.uk. By John Baron. 2) Title: 3 Canadian ESG Stocks for Ethical Investors on yahoo.com. By Adam Othman. 3) Title: Iberdrola, the Spanish company with the best corporate governance according to World Finance on atalayar.com. By Atalayar. ------------------------------------------------------------- Ending Comment Well, these are my top news stories with their stock and fund tips -- for this podcast titled: “These ESG Stocks Are A Cut Above.” Now, please be sure to click the like and subscribe buttons on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you download or listen to this podcast. That helps bring these podcasts to others like you. And please click the share buttons to share this podcast with your friends and family. Let's promote ethical and sustainable investing as a force for hope and prosperity in these very troubled times! Contact me if you have any questions. Thank you for listening. Talk to you next on July 28th. And, again, please look at my new totally revised website at investingforthesoul.com! Tell me what you think! Bye for now.   © 2023 Ron Robins, Investing for the Soul

Many nations condemn the use of cluster munitions.  Tellingly, not the U.S., Ukraine, or Russia.  We get the latest on the conflict from Fox News' Jonathan Savage.

The C.O.W.S. hosts the 6th study session on Dave Cullen's COLUMBINE. On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and injured 24 more at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. This week, we continue our exploration of Cullen's narrative of the events leading up to the massacre, the motivations of the White killers, and the aftermath of the tragedy. The teen duo apparently had contact with enforcement officers well in advance of the shooting. Last week, we learned more details about the unjust networking of the Jefferson County sheriff's department. High ranking White officials conferenced to discuss how they would deceive the public (and the shooting victims) about records of a neglected search warrant against Eric Harris for the alleged construction of pipe bombs and threatening to kill Brooks Brown. The search was never executed. Brooks' mother, Judy, told the New York Times she'd reported Eric to the police 15 times. Cullen also details how Eric's father, Wayne, felt he and his wife were victims of Judy Brown's grousing about their mischievous child. Tellingly, Mr. Harris wrote down that Eric had learned his lesson about haranguing the Browns. However, he crossed this out, and replaced it with: "Eric not at fault." #Cronyism #Nepotism #TheCOWS14Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#

The Context of White Supremacy (C.O.W.S.) Radio Program welcomes Dr. Jennifer L. Pierce. A faculty member in the University of Minnesota's Department of American Studies, Dr. Pierce's “research follows two related trajectories: one in the area of racial and gender inequality in American workplaces and several collaborative projects developing different aspects of my methodological expertise.” Months before the current court case adjudicating "affirmative action," Gus T. found Dr. Pierce's 2012 book, Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, Gender, and the Backlash Against Affirmative Action. Although there is a substantial amount of conflation in the book - suggesting White Women are also victims of “discrimination,” there are a number of important sections. Dr. Pierce details how discussions of "affirmative action" have been "deliberately" misrepresented. Tellingly, she highlights that most of the complaints about "affirmative action" exclude White and non-white females. In fact, some times she writes explicitly that unqualified black males are the specific target of White fury. The book also details how White male lawyers grouse about not being able to swap Racist Jokes in the law office. Gus kicks off this interview with Dr. Pierce's egregious (and, perhaps, Racist) omission of former LAPD officer Mark Fuhrman. This White high school dropout railed against non-white officers and White Woman, was the alleged ringleader of the police gang "Men Against Women," and was repeatedly reprimanded for his virulent opposition to "affirmative action." Fuhrman and the OJ Simpson trial are at the center of the time period Dr. Pierce examines, and the former White officer is the essence of deliberate White opposition to Replacing White Supremacy With Justice. #Cronyism #Nepotism #TheCOWS14Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#

How Contemporary Ethnic Stand-Up has Dragged Jewish Humor into the Gutter We are witness to the recent appearance of Jewish stand-up comedians who – though allegedly grounded in PC/Woke equality and diversity principles – serve up anti-Jewish humor to appreciative wide audiences. The discussion begins with a focus on Ari Shaffir's latest performance labeled “Jew” as a springboard for an overall analysis and debate of Jewish humor, branching out to Ethnic Humor and Self-Deprecating Humor, to the very essence of Humor Theory per se. Insofar as self-directed humor often serves as a disguised mode of criticism in context where explicit criticism is taboo, the discussants explore alternate recourses to questioning which might be available to youngsters and adults who are on the verge of breaking out of the constraints of stifling religious cultures. Prof. Juni notes Shaffir's methodology of Ecumenical Religio-Washing where repetitions of one anti-Catholic byte are interspersed throughout the diatribe in an attempt to temper the pointed anti-Jewish message of the presentation. Tellingly, Ari is “wise” enough not to incorporate any anti-Black (or much of anti-any-other-group) tidbits in his titillating racist, misogynist, antisemitic potpourri. Rabbi Kivelevitz cites a number of classic comedians of the last two decades, as he argues that the Woke-sanctioned license to criticize Jews exists because they have been designated by the new demi-god of Intersectionality as part of the White Power-Structure, and thus excluded from the privileged PC diversity category which exempts some – and only some -- “minority” groups from criticism or critique. Juni outlines the academic understanding of self-directed humor, highlighting several key elements: a. The anti-Jew joke delivered by the Jew is intended to give the messages: Those people are not me at all, as evidenced by the fact that I am putting” them” down. b. Here I am making fun of myself, so there is nothing more you can possibly say to denigrate me. c. Since I am now in charge of hitting myself on the head, I can moderate just I hard I do it – and I'll make sure it hurts me less than if you would hit me. d. This is my “joking” way of criticizing the Jewish (or Orthodox, traditional, etc.) establishment with minimal retribution – being that it's supposedly just being said in jest. Zeroing in on the last element, Juni deplores the code of silence which characterizes much of traditional religious culture which forces many young people to abandon the system altogether – if they don't have alternate venting options (such as humor). Prof. Juni elaborates that while behavioral codes are necessarily and even desirable in society, thought policing is the bane of healthy development. R. Kivelevitz emphatically disagrees with Juni's stance, as he references a number of commentators who openly question some of the very same “absurdities” that Shaffir lambasts in his diatribes, which clearly indicates that challenging and questioning are parts of the standard discourse in traditional Jewish thought. Prof. Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published ground-breaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchak Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchik. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed the NYU Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online): Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma; International Review of Victimology; The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease; International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture. As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

So today Cabinet meets looking to “discuss what more can be done to combat crime,” according to the Prime Minister. Sadly she's a bit late with that statement. The irony being that her government has been inundated with people asking them to toughen up on crime for ages... they did nothing. Poto Williams, in her capacity as Police Minster dropped the ball so badly she was moved on and replaced with Chris Hipkins. There were hopes he would toughen up on crime, but sadly under his watch it's only gotten worse. The governments' cheerleaders asking for this tragic death not to be politicised are missing the point. It was already politicised. The government had already dropped the ball, they'd already ignored all the pleas for help, they'd already been too slow to roll out support for business owners, they already had communities living in fear of this very thing. And then once it happened, what did the PM do? She went to the Chatham Islands. She didn't even go back to her own electorate, her own neighbourhood, her own community, she carried on – business as usual. It was an alarmingly callous lack of judgement on her part. Speaking to the family days later, doesn't cut it. She knows how to act quickly when she wants to – but she didn't. So now they're trotting out the tough on crime lines. She said yesterday they're focussed now on “prosecuting and holding to account those who are responsible”. But the other thing we know about this too little, too late, soft on crime government is that the justice system cannot be trusted to actually deliver justice. A cultural report, a check in of the offender's background, a korero about his upbringing, a few discounts for mitigating circumstances, coupled with a Corrections Minister who doesn't want people in prison and we know how these stories all too often end. Sunny Kaushal, who to his credit has been banging on about this for months on end, says the government needs to admit there's a crime emergency in this country. He says it's not just a crime emergency but a social emergency now too. The Migrant Workers Association said that many of our most vulnerable workers just don't feel safe anymore. Many elderly people don't feel safe in their communities anymore either. Parents are worried. But what I can't get past is that this has all been coming, in plain sight, for months, and it's been absolutely ignored by those who have the power to do something about it. It's almost like it took a death, for the government to wake up and go, oh wait, what more can we do here? The problem with crime in this country and the surge in ram raids, and youth crime and gang memberships and brazen robberies is not as ‘complex' as the government would have you believe. Offenders commit crimes, because they can. It's that simple. They commit the crimes, because they can. They know they can, they know they'll get away with it. Tellingly, early on in the ram raid epidemic, a teenager caught and interviewed as to why they did it, said, 'because we know we will get away with it. We do it because we can'. And that was all you need to know about how low the bar is these days when it comes to law and order. So what will change after Cabinet meets today? My guess is nothing. And whatever it is, is certainly too late for this Dairy worker.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever since the recent unprecedented sabotage attacks on the Russia to Europe Nord Stream pipelines, the central question has continued to remain who did it and correspondingly cui bono? Just when speculation and an avalanche of theories have inundated the web on an array of international outlets, the Biden administration has bluntly (and apparently lacking self-awareness) boasted that the pipeline bombings present an “opportunity”. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Friday joint press briefing with Canada's top diplomat that the damage and disruption to the pipelines are being seen in Washington as a “tremendous opportunity” to greatly reduce European energy imports on Russia. In addressing the ‘mystery' sabotage incidents, Blinken began, “I think first it's important to make clear that these pipelines – that is, Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 – were not pumping gas into Europe at this time. Nord Stream 2 never became operational, as is well known. Nord Stream 1 has been shut down for weeks because of Russia's weaponization of energy.” A mere few sentences later, he followed by saying “ultimately this is also a tremendous opportunity. It's a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs.” He at the same time touted that the Untied States has now become “the leading supplier of LNG [liquefied natural gas] to Europe,” stressing too that the Biden administration is helping to enable European leaders to “decrease demand” and “speed up the transition to renewables.” Tellingly, in that single section of comments while speaking alongside his Canadian counterpart, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, Blinken had repeated the word “opportunity” while highlighting the European energy crisis no less than three times. Canada's Joly for her part pointed the finger at Russia for sabotaging its own pipeline during a panel discussion the same day, telling an Atlantic Council conference that the world is “not naïve” about who is responsible for the acts of “sabotage”. She's the latest top official of a NATO government to do so. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

TONIGHT I'm talking with Stephanie Ruhle, on MSNBC's 11th Hour, about the biggest difference between Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema — the so-called “carried interest loophole” that rewards big bucks to private equity managers. This week, the spotlight once again will be on Manchin and Sinema (dubbed “Manchinema” by the Washington press corps as the two blocked much of Biden's agenda) because it's the Democrats' last chance for a large package — Manchin has agreed to $790 billion — on the climate and healthcare, financed by a tax increase on the rich and big corporations. But will Sinema go along?It has been said that the word “politics” is derived from the Latin “poli,” meaning “many,” and “tics,” small blood-sucking insects. I don't hold such a cynical view. But I do know, from fifty year's experience in and around Washington, that most of the people who serve in our nation's capital have very, very large — shall we say? — ego's. Yesterday, Manchin made the rounds of every Sunday talk show — doing what's known as a “full Ginsburg” (named after William Ginsburg, the lawyer for Monica Lewinsky, who first appeared on all five Sunday morning talk shows on February 1, 1998). Record-keepers note that Manchin is only the 31st newsmaker to have accomplished this feat, but purists dispute his accomplishment because Manchin appeared remotely. Manchin treated it as a victory lap. He took credit for his newly-named “Inflation Reduction Act” (he refused to allow it to be named “Build Back Better” because he's still smarting over what he viewed as the Biden administration's criticism of him for blocking the original BBB). One interesting sidebar: When Manchin was asked by “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd whether he wanted Democrats to keep control of the House and Senate after the midterms, Manchin declined to answer. (Does he want to hold out the possibility of becoming a Republican kingmaker if the Dems lose?) Tellingly, Manchin wouldn't even use the pronoun “we” when talking about the Democrats. I've always made it a point to listen to the pronouns politicians use. The use of pronouns tells you a lot about where a politician's loyalties lie. Manchin almost never uses “we” when he refers to Democrats. Sometimes, it's “they.” When Trump was president, he used “we” to refer to the people who voted for him, and “they” for everyone else. Which brings me to Kristyn Sinema — who uses the pronoun “I” perhaps more frequently than any other contemporary politician. (“I'm always surprised when people say, ‘Oh, she's an enigma,'” said Sinema in an interview with the Washington Post. “I'm, like, not at all, actually. I'm very straightforward about what I believe in and why I'm doing what I do.”)“What good would politics be,” Thomas Mann wrote in The Magic Mountain, “if it didn't give everyone the opportunity to make moral compromises?” Sinema seems to relish that opportunity. Although not up for reelection until 2024, she is one of the senate's major recipients of Wall Street cash (the finance industry has donated $2.2 million to her since she took office in 2017). She has obliged by, among other things, refusing to close the so-called “carried interest” tax loophole that mostly benefits private-equity investors and hedge fund managers by treating their pay as capital gains (at a tax rate of 20 percent) rather than as ordinary income (36 percent) — even though their pay is ordinary income, since they risk none of their own capital. By contrast, Manchin wants to close the loophole — or nearly so. (Manchin's bill would lengthen the amount of time private-equity and hedge-fund managers must hold their investments to qualify them for capital gains.) "The only thing I was adamant about was the carried interest," he told reporters last Thursday. Manchin's aversion to the loophole isn't new. Last year he joined two other Senate Democrats in sponsoring a bill to close it. Closing the carried-interest loophole is the only tax increase on rich individuals in Manchin's compromise bill. The rest of the tax hikes are on corporations. The carried-interest loophole is a blatant giveaway to the super-rich. It has no redeeming social value. Even Trump promised to eliminate it. So did Barack Obama. So has Joe Biden. Yet it's still there, in the tax code. Why? Because lobbyists for the private-equity and hedge fund industries care about little else, and pour lots of money into the campaigns of both Democratic and Republican members of Congress to maintain it. (Democratic House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal is a powerful supporter of the loophole. I don't believe it a coincidence that the private equity industry is one of Neal's biggest donors.)Sinema's office says she's still reviewing Manchin's bill. How long will Democrats have to wait until she breaks her silence on it? If there's one thing Sinema loves more than Wall Street dollars, it's national media attention. So it could be a while. Please consider a paid or gift subscription to help sustain this work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe

New Zealand have surged back from adversity on the opening day of the first test against England at Lord's.The visitors were dismissed for 132 and looked to have conceded first innings honours to the hosts who reached 59 without loss and kept the momentum going to 92 for two.Then, in the space of 28 balls, the world champions took five wickets for eight runs to reshape the balance of the match.England were 116 for seven at stumps with Ben Foakes and Stuart Broad the not-out batsmen.The attack of Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme and Kyle Jamieson shared the spoils by bowling in attacking partnerships.Initially, the value of a first-class diet leading into the test series made a robust case.The host XI featured 10 players – with Jonny Bairstow the Indian Premier League returning exception – who have toiled in white through the English autumn.The visitors had two – Will Young for Northamptonshire and Colin de Grandhomme for Surrey – slotting into that category.De Grandhomme top-scoring with 42 not out felt like no accident. The Black Caps' anaemic effort was riddled with tentativeness and indecision, which saw the top four each offer spoils to the slip cordon to reduce them to 12 for four.Captain Kane Williamson won the toss and made what appeared a logical decision to bat. The taupe pitch looked ripe for runs, on the proviso the first session could be negotiated.England's pace bowler custodians James Anderson and Broad, along with debutant Matthew Potts, ensured it couldn't. Youngster Matthew Potts took four wickets on debut for England. Photo / PhotosportSmarting from recent dubious handling by the selectors, the rhythm of Anderson and tenacity of Broad unleashed contagion on the New Zealand dressing room before Potts brought unbridled bustle.The instruction from the new coach-captain combination of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes to play with freedom helped release any pent-up tactical confusion - although the same policy had limits with the bat.Bairstow contributed to the domination with three catches at third slip as part of a cordon which eventually peaked at five slips and a gully. A leg slip also cameoed at one point as the attacking umbrella bloomed.One can only imagine the rustling of gear bags, crackling of velcro and the clattering of spikes down the home and visitors' stairwells in the pavilion across the day with 17 wickets falling and players turning the bacon-and-egg tie clad Long Room into a revolving door.Tellingly in the Black Caps innings, 59 of the first 66 balls leading to the first drinks were dots or wickets. New Zealand's batting was guilty of hesitancy outside off stump, but England executed their bowling and fielding with precision.The Black Caps top order formed what resembled a Fibonacci sequence – Will Young 1, Tom Latham 1, Kane Williamson 2, Devon Conway 3. Oh, the relief when Daryl Mitchell moved from five to nine with a rare boundary.That joy was brief.The knowledgeable Lord's crowd had just finished a round of applause as New Zealand moved to 27 for four – past their own world record lowest score of 26 from 1955 - when Mitchell chopped on to Potts for 13.The right-armer also had Williamson caught behind by Ben Foakes. The captain's soft hands failed him once too often.Potts also seared through Tom Blundell's stumps for 14 and pouched two catches at long leg off Anderson before an adoring Mound Stand.He took four for 13 from 9.2 overs before suffering cramp. Anderson finished with four for 66 from 16 overs.New Zealand had already endured what they hoped was a cosmetic blemish, slipping to 19 for six against the First-Class Counties XI at Chelmsford, so this presented a further blow to their batting credibility.The argument that McCullum's appointment might have spooked the visitors is also too simplistic.In a global cricketing village anyone could gather intellectual property which might prove parlous to the New Zealand cause. Such analysis would see...

https://time.com/6160337/hard-to-care-about-anything/ https://time.com/6165501/pandemic-changed-identity-research/ "The space between caring about stuff and taking care of people is a small one. Without caring in the first sense, it's hard to engage in what Richard Weissbourd, a psychologist who serves as faculty director of the Making Caring Common project at Harvard, calls “the harder forms of caring”—that is, action. Tellingly, happy people, rather than being complacent, are generally the ones engaged with the world. Sad people, generally, are busy with self-consciousness, self-awareness, self-focus. Research suggests that experiencing “negative affect”—a state that encompasses a range of bad feelings—makes people less likely to get up and do something. Even the motivation that comes from a negative feeling like righteous anger often only works if a basically happy person is hit with it, says Kostadin Kushlev, who leads the Digital Health and Happiness Lab at Georgetown. “Being happy and feeling more energized can actually have benefits for how people conduct themselves, being concerned with other people,” Kushlev says. In surveys, “those who experienced more positive affect in the past month were actually more likely to be concerned with a variety of issues and, most importantly, they were more likely to take action to do something about it.” So what manifests as a lack of engagement with the world may well be a symptom of an underlying unhappiness. And why might people have been unhappy at the dawn of the year 2022? Choose your own “duh.”" Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSFVD7Xfhn7sJY8LAIQmH8Q/join https://odysee.com/@LukeFordLive, https://lbry.tv/@LukeFord, https://rumble.com/lukeford https://dlive.tv/lukefordlivestreams Listener Call In #: 1-310-997-4596 Superchat: https://entropystream.live/app/lukefordlive Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/lukeford/ Soundcloud MP3s: https://soundcloud.com/luke-ford-666431593 Code of Conduct: https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=125692 https://www.patreon.com/lukeford http://lukeford.net Email me: lukeisback@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter.com/lukeford Support the show | https://www.streamlabs.com/lukeford, https://patreon.com/lukeford, https://PayPal.Me/lukeisback Facebook: http://facebook.com/lukecford Feel free to clip my videos. It's nice when you link back to the original.

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the fourth study session on Essie Mae Washington-Williams' Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond. Having read three chapters of the book and conducted a smidgen of research, it seems equally incredible or embarrassing for a White college professor like J. Russell Hawkins to be ignorant about Strom Thurmond raping and impregnating a teenage black female. #WhitePeopleLieALot From the time Thurmond died in 2003, countless news reports acknowledged that Carrie Butler was a child at the time Thurmond raped her. Last week, Ms. Essie Mae provided another round of details about the rampant squalor black people lived in because of White Supremacy. Interestingly, she also detailed the widespread White Supremacist medical practices targeting black people in New York: "blacks in Harlem couldn't get decent medical care. Harlem Hospital, if it treated blacks at all, did so in a similar way to Coatesville Hospital, putting them in the poverty ward, or, far worse, using them as medical guinea pigs, testing medicines and therapies on them without their knowledge or consent." #HenriettaLacks She describes White senators successful efforts to block anti-lynching legislation and more and more heaps of unemployed, down and out, no count, black males. Essie Mae briefly meets with her blue-eyed, White father, Strom Thurmond, for the second time and ponders if this strange White man had a "romance" with or was just sexually "using" her mother. Tellingly, Essie Mae says she "followed" heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis. But her "heart belonged to the adorable Frank Sinatra." This White entertainer has much in common with her White dad. Sinatra was 50 when he married 21-year-old Mia Farrow, who later married Woody Allen. Sinatra was also known as "old blue eyes." #DeadBeatWhiteDad INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE: 564943#

Thursday, April 7th 8:00PM Eastern / 5:00PM Pacific The Context of White Supremacy hosts the fourth study session on Essie Mae Washington-Williams' Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond. Having read three chapters of the book and conducted a smidgen of research, it seems equally incredible or embarrassing for a White college professor like J. Russell Hawkins to be ignorant about Strom Thurmond raping and impregnating a teenage black female. #WhitePeopleLieALot From the time Thurmond died in 2003, countless news reports acknowledged that Carrie Butler was a child at the time Thurmond raped her. Last week, Ms. Essie Mae provided another round of details about the rampant squalor black people lived in because of White Supremacy. Interestingly, she also detailed the widespread White Supremacist medical practices targeting black people in New York: "blacks in Harlem couldn't get decent medical care. Harlem Hospital, if it treated blacks at all, did so in a similar way to Coatesville Hospital, putting them in the poverty ward, or, far worse, using them as medical guinea pigs, testing medicines and therapies on them without their knowledge or consent." #HenriettaLacks She describes White senators successful efforts to block anti-lynching legislation and more and more heaps of unemployed, down and out, no count, black males. Essie Mae briefly meets with her blue-eyed, White father, Strom Thurmond, for the second time and ponders if this strange White man had a "romance" with or was just sexually "using" her mother. Tellingly, Essie Mae says she "followed" heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis. But her "heart belonged to the adorable Frank Sinatra." This White entertainer has much in common with her White dad. Sinatra was 50 when he married 21-year-old Mia Farrow, who later married Woody Allen. Sinatra was also known as "old blue eyes." #InterracialRelationshipsAreSADD #ChildRape INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Invest in The C.O.W.S. - https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. Radio Program is specifically engineered for black & non-white listeners - Victims of White Supremacy. The purpose of this program is to provide Victims of White Supremacy with constructive information and suggestions on how to counter Racist Woman & Racist Man. Phone: 1-720-716-7300 - Access Code 564943# Hit star *6 & 1 to enter caller cue

In the second of two Watercooler conversations centred around Australia Day and the need for stronger foundational narrative that accurately describes our country and that values that unite us. It is hard to have serious discussion about the meaning of European Settlement unless we can first agree on the facts. Yet fewer than four out of ten Australians know which event they are supposed to be celebrating or mourning, according a recent survey by Compass Polling. Only 39 per cent correctly identified it as the date of the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove. A new account of the founding of modern Australia by Margaret Cameron-Ash exposes how little we have known up to now about the British government's decision to establish a colony in NSW and how much of our understanding has been clouded by prejudice. Tellingly, Cameron-Ash trained as a lawyer, rather than a historian. Her book Beating France to Botany Bay: The Race to Found Australia debunks the myth that Australia was purely a dumping ground for Britain's criminal class, the explanation for settlement that was considered unquestionably true by Manning Clark, one of Australia's most influential historians. In his seminal four-volume A History of Australia, Clark makes no mention whatsoever of the French voyager Captain Jean Laperouse who's expedition to the Pacific stirred the British into action. Yet as Cameron-Ash documents, intelligence that Laperouse was on course for Australia with two vessels laden with trees, plants and seeds, manufactured goods, tools and unwrought iron convinced prime minister William Pitt the Younger that French settlement was imminent. Margaret Cameron Ash joins Nick Cater to describe the photo-finish to the race to Botany Bay and its consequences. Nick Cater is Executive Director of the Menzies Research Centre. Beating France to Botany Bay: The Race to Found Australia by Margaret Cameron-Ash is published by Quadrant Books. Order online here: https://quadrant.org.au/product/beating-france-to-botany-bay-the-race-to-found-australia/ Email Nick Cater: watercooler@menziesrc.org Support these podcasts by subscribing to the Menzies Research Centre from $10 a month: subscriptions@menziesrc.org

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 9th and final study session on Woody Allen's 2020 autobiography, Apropos of Nothing. One of the most critically revered movie-makers of all time, Woody Allen is a New York City and entertainment icon. In addition to his flicks, he's an acclaimed comedian, a concert-playing musician, and bestselling author - Apropos of Nothing being his most recent text. Published in 2020, the book recounts his life, entertainment career, and "romance" with Soon-Yi Previn. In addition to being non-white, adopted/abducted from Korea, Previn is thirty-five years younger than Allen. Despite a damning Child Protective Services investigation and years of allegations of child rape and sexual abuse of children, Allen remains beloved my hoards of Whites. We'll examine this work for what it reveals about White culture. During our last reading, Allen explains how he hired a black male, the late Geoffrey Holder. Allen explained that his film required an "exotic" element, and Holder fit the bill. Tellingly, this 1972 film is: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex, But Were Afraid To Ask. When not making films, Allen describes going on a musical tour, where he "steals" from the same black New Orleans jazz legends he previously branded as "primitive" When not making films for Whites, Allen confesses one of his top enjoyments was being home to "fondle" Soon-Yi. He later refers to an article that describes Soon-Yi as a "dominatrix" in their relationship, but there are no quotes or citations confirm. #ChildRape INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE: 564943#

Hi,I had my first surfing lesson this month. I wasn’t very good.It started off okay: I was pretty good at paddling, and smashing through some (tiny) waves to get out. I managed to keep by surf board straight, and I could up sit up and turn around pretty quickly. I could even paddle and catch a wave. The problem was standing up. How in God’s name are you meant to stand up? What, you’re meant to go from this wonderful lying down position to magically standing and balancing while a wave threatens to smash down around you? In other news I had a great time and got a very chafed pink belly. It was some escapism from a month that seemed doomed. The Delta variant has been making its presence known. US hospitals are stretched. Nine Inch Nails cancelled all their shows that I was looking forward to seeing (wise), and New Zealand has gone into a nationwide lockdown (also wise).And in the midst of this, the UN’s “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” released a new report that felt like a swift punch to the face. Their reports are usually sobering reading, but this one was horrifying. A “code red for humanity” is how UN Secretary-General António Guterres put it.The climate right now is warmer than it has been in about 125,000 years. And it’s just going to keep getting worse with more droughts, wildfires and floods. We aren’t on target to stop something that now seems all but inevitable. All this was running through my head as I walked to the beach, preparing to be pummelled on my board. The sun was unrelenting, and the literal cliff to my left was a fitting metaphor for humanity’s approach to the crisis we all face. And the question running through all of our heads? “What the fuck can we do about it?” When it comes to talk of the environment, many of us are trying to do out bit. We throw our recycling in the right bin, we use those re-usable bags at the supermarkets, and maybe we try and walk to the shops instead of drive.All the things we’ve being told will help save the planet. But we’re not making a lick of difference. It’s futile, apart from making us feel good about ourselves. We are — as today’s guest Joshua Drummond writes — being denied climate agency. Because we’re trapped in a system that makes it utterly impossible to make a difference. Josh has written for Webworm before, about what QAnon has in common with Evangelical Christianity. That piece seems relevant again this week, as City Impact Church held a “special meeting” for the pastor to spread anti-vaxx messaging in New Zealand.But today, Josh writes about our total lack climate agency and how that makes us feel utterly unhinged. He also offers some ideas about what we can do. It’s a great essay, and I’m so glad to leave it with you for weekend reading. Or listening, in its podcast form. David.If you want more Webworm and to support the work I do here, you can become a monthly or yearly paying member. Only consider doing this if it doesn’t cause you any financial hardship! Imprisoned in a System That Won’t Let Us Act Sanely.an essay by Joshua DrummondI jumped off a cliff once. Everyone else was doing it.It was at Northland waterfall, and I was about 17. The place was a popular swimming hole and there were quite a few spots my mates and I would jump off and do bombs, but there’s one particular bit where — if you get enough of a run-up — you can clear the cliffside and plummet a height even greater than the falls.My mates and I worked up to it. I didn’t go first; I’ve never been great with heights, but I wanted to prove myself. Plus, I have an innate practical streak that wants to see if someone else is going to get impaled before I jump into murky water myself.They jumped, they didn’t die, it was my turn. I jumped too.I didn’t regret it immediately; that came about a tenth of a second in, when gravity grabbed my guts in an unclenching fist and squeezed and twisted and pulled down. It was a visceral lesson; the laws of physics are a pantheon of terrible gods. They’re the authority by which cause and effect abide, and they don’t care about you. I’d fucked with the great god gravity, and this was the “finding out” phase.This month started with a similar set of sensations. A lurch in my stomach, a sudden, dizzying rush of anxiety. The same sense of inevitability, of being at the mercy of a caused effect. I know the feeling well, now. I get it every time a new major climate change report is released.The IPCC has just released their Sixth Assessment Report, which draws a conclusion that will leave few surprised; climate change is real, it’s happening now, it’s getting worse, and it will get much worse if it’s not stopped. Importantly, the report takes pains to underscore the fact that there is much we can and should do to stop warming, but that ray of hope is not what brings the feeling of falling off a cliff, the sensation as inevitability sets in and gravity grabs at your guts, pulling and twisting.The problem isn’t the fall: it’s that we’re currently doing very little to break it. It’s as if (to work the cliff-jump metaphor some more) we’re in free fall and the pool’s dry, but if we’re really quick we can fill it so the fall won’t kill us or even hurt too much — but the controls for the emergency sluice-gates are kept by a very small and very rich group of people who are all saying “nah, saving you would cost us too much. We’re opting for splat.”We know exactly what’s wrong with the climate: there’s an excess of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and it’s causing the planet to heat up. We’re clear on the cause: human activity has done nearly all of it. We know the solution: swap out carbon-emitting technology, and work to draw down the excess carbon we’ve emitted.So, with the problems and solutions clear for decades, what’s being done by the engines of the economy, the leaders, and the gatekeepers: business and the government? Not nearly enough.This isn’t a sane response to an emergency. It’s inhuman. Humans are, for the most part, practical and altruistic. We are brilliant, astonishing creatures. We might be bound by gravity, but we can still fly. The essence of humanity is bound up in working together to solve problems.That’s what makes climate change so maddening. When I say to myself, as any sane person would, “what are we doing?” and “how can I help?” the answers keep coming back, “not enough” and “you can’t.” That’s not how humans work. Being shown a problem and not being able to fix it drives us mad.Anyone who understands the reality of climate change — of the necessity of action — is burning to act. Everyone wants to help, to work, to do. But we’re imprisoned in a system that won’t let us act sanely. We are being denied climate agency.We’re stuck in a system we didn’t opt for, a system built for us without due care by those that benefit from pillaging the future, a system that we are frequently told is “too expensive” to change. In the media, articles about climate change mitigation measures frequently come — absurdly — with a cost-benefit analysis. “Not contributing to cooking an entire planet” is seldom listed as a benefit.Often, taking the individual actions we are told will help ease the crisis is too expensive. Unless you’re rich, in the global scheme of things — you can’t afford an EV. Unless you’re wealthy, in terms of either time or money, you can’t afford to go waste-free, or turn your backyard into a garden, or even buy food that’s free of exploitative farming practices. Ethical behaviour has been monetised: if you want a clear conscience, you’ll have to pay for it. Even the term “carbon footprint,” now ubiquitous and synonymous with taking individual action on climate change, is compromised: it was created and propagated by (wait for it) BP, in one of the most cynical (and effective) marketing campaigns of all time. Unable even to take the drop-in-a-bucket actions that might soothe our consciences — if not actually make a meaningful contribution — the vast majority of us have to live madly, amongst madness. To drive madness, to eat and drink madness. Many simple acts of daily life are poisoned with guilt over the knowledge that not only are you not helping, you are making things worse. An omnipresent, invisible chorus of judgement screams at you for decisions you can’t help making, because our systems don’t allow any other choice. Driving? Guilty! Eating meat? Guilty! Got milk? Guilty! Got plant milk in a plastic bottle? Guilty! No wonder people embrace climate change denial, clutching it like a lifesaver. They’re just trying to stay sane.In a sane world, we’d be pivoting hard — or have pivoted long ago — having never debated whether having a liveable biosphere is good for business. Government and business alike would have switched priorities, poured their all into doing the needful. There would be jobs, endless jobs, available to do work that matters.But it’s not a sane system, and there are few such jobs available. Searching on a hellsite like LinkedIn for “climate change” or “sustainability” is an exercise in futility. Many of the jobs available are in niche positions, or start-ups, or don’t pay well enough for someone without independent means to take them. Tellingly, many climate jobs are at insurance companies — insurance being one of the few sectors that does not have the luxury of choosing not to include climate change in its business model. What we’ve ended up with is a crisis everyone knows about but is powerless to work on fixing, because it’s hard to make rent or pay the mortgage with jobs that should exist but don’t. And the great Invisible Hand of the market isn’t interested in helping out, because saving the world for future generations doesn’t pay now. The Hand would rather sell stuff. Everyone loves stuff. Absent of the ability to live sanely and purposefully in a world that’s on fire, many of us privileged enough to live out of the danger zones live muted, blunted lives.Videogames are a welcome retreat, an opportunity to save the world, albeit a virtual one. Even doomscrolling is a balm on the open sore of “what can we do?” It feels like taking action. But it’s not.This forced nihilism poisons living. Faced with making choices about the future, a lot of my peers throw up their hands. What’s the point in trying to own a house when the housing market’s been cornered and whipped into a frenzy and the government has just kind of given up on doing anything meaningful about it? Why have kids, when they’ll likely have difficult, impoverished lives? Why risk saving for a future when the financial markets are rigged casinos and you can watch your future disappearing, live-streaming, one climate-change-fuelled fire/flood/storm/heatwave at a time?Looking around, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the future is being stolen from us. Governments and businesses should be creating ways to create good futures, to live within planetary boundaries, to live sanely. But we have been deliberately, systematically conned: by fossil-fuel and fossil-fuelled businesses who have worked tirelessly to promote the status quo and remove barriers to reaping the planet for endless profit, and by governments who have eagerly acquiesced to their demands in order to promote the fairy-tale of endless economic growth.There are a few hundred companies responsible for the majority of climate change, aided and abetted by either actively denialist or intactivist governments. The people who did this knew exactly what the effects would be, and they did it anyway. Stop feeling guilty. They did this. It is their fault. Not yours. Theirs. The actions of fossil fuel companies and their enablers have murdered tens of thousands of people in the present and hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions, perhaps many more — in the future; those not yet born will bear the brunt. So will those just born, like my baby boy.And this is just the human cost; the cost to the rest of nature is literally incalculable. But it’s easy to list some of the impacts. Under business-as-usual, millions of species face endangerment or extinction. Coral reefs will die. Forests will burn and become savannah. Sea level rise will inundate cities and shorelines. Maybe this one will hit home for you, because it does for me: in the business-as-usual future, climate change will kill the beaches.“Almost half of the world’s sandy beaches will have retreated significantly by the end of the century as a result of climate-driven coastal flooding and human interference, according to new research,” writes The Guardian.Usually, when humanity faces murder and destruction on this sort of scale, we react in disgust and fury. Tribunals are formed and justice is meted out. And yet, nothing. It seems we simply don’t have laws for those that kill with commerce. When will the climate criminals and their enablers, their paid shills and useful idiots, face justice? Will they ever?Like many, I am angry about this — very angry — but it’s hard to know what to do with this fury. It runs too deep, like a hidden current in a river. Occasionally, it rises, and it’s terrible to see. To feel. And being angry, like being earnest, is not cool. It’s not done. The correct attitude is a sort of supercilious, post-ironic detachment, an “oh well, we’re all fucked, so let’s just enjoy the ride, lmao.”I’m tired of even trying to be cool about all this. The effort it takes to sustain protective detachment isn’t worth it. I am desperate to channel my fury at a stolen, broken world into something useful, something that helps, something that isn’t shouting at the wind, or just being testy on Twitter. And I worry that, deprived of justice, the collective anger and dispossession of millions will spill over into something vengeful and terrible. A quote from one of those goofy Marvel films comes to mind: “If we can't protect the earth, you can be damn sure we'll avenge it.” Such great escapism, to watch the world being saved by powerful people who, in a marked break with reality, actually do the right thing. You can see why the films make so much money for one of the largest corporations on the planet.I don’t want violence. Most people don’t, or there’d be a lot more dead fossil fuel executives. But I’m not prepared to watch business-as-usual turn our only home into hell. Because there is still time — to blunt climate change’s worst impacts, to save what can be saved, to make a better world. Denied agency, activism is the last sane position left. Leading climate scientist Michael Mann writes about the futility of “doomism” in his book, The New Climate War. He warns that the supercilious “we’re all fucked, who cares” attitude plays directly into the hands of warmist interests, those who are desperate for business-as-usual to continue so they can make and keep their billions.“This is the greatest threat and greatest challenge we’ve ever faced as a civilization,” Mann says. “If you’re not out there fighting for climate action, you’re giving up on the human race.”To disrupt business-as-usual, climate scientist and activist Peter Kalmus says “we need a billion climate activists.” And the work of activism begins with imagining a better world. It’s not even that hard; others have already done this work, and there are many good futures to choose from.Some of it is table stakes. Commonsense, good ideas. Cities would be made walkable, accessible to active transport. Public transport would be fast and free, and special accommodation would be made for those less able. Electricity would be generated renewably — we’ve got plenty of wind, ocean, and sunshine. Distributed grids and batteries would create resilient infrastructure. Farming would be made much more sustainable, becoming a carbon sink instead of a net polluter.My own personal good future has some specifics. In the near term — ideally today — the media would pledge not to run climate change denial in either news or opinion, and would refuse to take advertising or sponsorship money from fossil fuel interests. They’d abandon the senseless culture war they’re encouraging for clicks, stirring up audiences against fundamentally benign concepts like cycleways. They’d treat climate change as the epoch-defining issue it is, and cover it widely and fairly, instead of sporadically and half-heartedly. They’d stop platforming politicians and other people that lie and prevaricate about the climate crisis.The media also need to stop stirring up fear about how much this stuff costs, because the cost of not doing it is almost too much to comprehend: one estimate puts global GDP losses at $610 trillion in cumulative damages to 2100, the equivalent of at least one Covid-sized economic shock per year.This stupendous figure doubles once you factor in sea-level rise. Instead of asking “how much will this cost?” we need to ask “how much work will this be?” To paraphrase Kim Stanley Robinson in his cli-fi book The Ministry For The Future: Money isn’t real. Work is real. People are real. Governments need to assess what needs to be done in terms of climate change mitigation, and then just pay people to do it. Sure, it’s hard work, but when work is meaningful, people actually want to do it.But there’s no need to dispense with the collective fiction of money as long as we can make it work for all of us, instead of a vanishingly small minority of fixers and gate-keepers. For instance, we can take the money back from the fossil fuel companies who’ve stolen it from our future. We can set a hard limit on wealth, so the value of everything the world does can stop being hoarded by 0.1 percent of the population. The billionaire-stans may screech, but it’s the best form of justice fossil-fuel executives and their shills can hope for.And I can hear the economists stirring already, so let’s upset them some more. We need to stop treating free-market, orthodox economics like it’s the immutable law of nature. In fact, by ignoring the biosphere, by treating the environment as just an externality, orthodox economics has done more damage than perhaps any other ideology. A new economics is needed, and a new popular understanding. One that doesn’t treat economics like it’s a capricious god beyond human control. “The economy” is just a representation of humans at work, economists are fundamentally useless at predicting the future, and it’s time we stopped pretending they can.Physics, on the other hand, can predict the future. We know what’s coming, but we can do something about it. Jumping off the climate cliff wasn’t a good idea, but we can still break the fall.“There is no simple formula, no fact sheet or checklist, for figuring out our roles in the vital work to forge a just, liveable future,” says All We Can Save author Dr Katharine Wilkinson. “But I have found a series of reflections can help us arrive at some clarity and uncover ways to be of use.”When it comes to reflections, I like this one very much:So: Stop worrying and speak up. Talk about climate change with everyone you can. Join the school climate strikes. Join the general strikes that are coming. Be an activist. Organize. Become unignorable. It’s the only thing that will force the powers that be into action, that will help break the dissonance of living the way we do now, and allow us to live sanely.Words and illustrations by Joshua Drummond, August 2021.If you want to listen to this essay, check Spotify or Apple podcasts — it’ll pop up there soon. And if you haven’t already, sign up for Webworm so that any new podcast episodes get delivered direct to your inbox before they appear anywhere else.David here again. Maybe technically I was wrong: as individuals, we can do something. Something bigger than emptying the recycling bin. We can come together, and we can speak up. We can force those giant entities to create change. We can apply pressure.I don’t know what that looks like, exactly. I am not an activist. I write this newsletter to you. I feel utterly useless looking over the cliff. I feel utterly trapped in this catastrophe, forced to do things I know are wrong to kill an environment I know is wrecked. I drive a car, I drink from plastic bottles. It’s impossibly hard for people to look beyond their own timeline: their own 85 years or so. But we have the data, we have the science, and something has to give. It has to.I’m throwing this back over to Josh again. He has some thoughts on what to do.What can we do? Some more thoughts from JoshI’m aware I still haven’t entirely addressed the “how” of all this, and for that, I’ll point to others who can probably answer better than I can. If we want to play a useful role in this crisis, we should find out where our existing skills are applicable. As a writer, one of the areas I feel less uncomfortable talking about is the news media, and I’m pretty bloody angry at still seeing climate change denial being given a consistent platform in our media with the excuse of “but it’s just opinion!” The first thing I’m personally keen to do is see if with a bit of collective action we can have the news media (starting with New Zealand, and hopefully elsewhere) adopt a climate change reporting pledge, in which they’d promise not to air or print climate change denial, or give climate change deniers and fossil fuel lobbyists a platform. Perhaps we’d even see an admission of responsibility or an apology about the media’s hefty role about promulgating climate change information to date.I don’t pitch this idea with high hopes of all New Zealand media happily signing on, but I think even choosing not to take a pledge would be telling. To those that’d start banging on about freedom of speech, I’d say: “No.” This is about the media choosing to act ethically and responsibly, not about governments choosing what you can and can’t say. Most media don’t give a lot of space to praising fascism anymore, and it’s time the lying liars of climate change denial got the same treatment. Let’s see what we can do about it. I’m particularly keen to hear from climate activists, climate scientists, and media people. I would love to get media people’s true feelings on what it’s like to see their publications, editors and owners continually giving climate change denial a platform. I'm happy to keep correspondence anonymous or off-the-record where necessary. Hit me up at josh@joshuadrummond.com if you want to talk, or let’s have a yarn in the comments below.David here again. What a ping pong match this newsletter has been!I find Josh pretty incredible in the various creative ways he finds to help. During Australia’s raging bushfires, he painted a kookaburra to raise money in the firefighting efforts.I think Josh is bang on about the media’s role in platforming misinformation (and sometimes blatant disinformation) about the climate crisis.In New Zealand, climate change denier Peter Williams has been given a platform by Mediaworks (the same company caught up in allegations of sexual harassment, racism and bullying from its top dogs) to, well, spread his bullshit. I won’t link to it, but he wrote this in June about the last climate change report:Peter Williams: Why you should be sceptical about the Climate Change Commission ReportOPINION: So now we know what the Climate Change Commission is recommending what the government does to stop the planet warming. It is gross interference in the way we are expected to live our lives, the way we will travel around, the way we will keep ourselves warm and the way we will earn our living as an exporter of food. To me — this kind of rhetoric is just so fucking dumb. Our future generations are literally destined to doom. This has to stop.Sound off in the comment below. Let’s talk this out. I hope you enjoyed Josh’s essay — I loved it and glad he’s here. If you listened to it instead on the podcast, I hope my droning voice didn’t put you to sleep.Talk below. Try and have a safe weekend. David. Get full access to Webworm with David Farrier at www.webworm.co/subscribe

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the third study session on Woody Allen's Apropos of Nothing. One of the most critically acclaimed directors of all time, Woody Allen is a New York City and entertainment icon. In addition to his flicks, he's performed comedy, played packed concert halls, and written books - Apropos of Nothing being his most recent. Published in 2020, the text examines his life, celebrated career, and "romance" with Soon-Yi Previn. In addition to being non-white and decades younger than Allen, Previn was Allen's adopted stepchild. Despite a damning Child Protective Services investigation and years of allegations of child rape and sexual abuse of children, Allen remains beloved my hoards of Whites. We'll examine this work for what it reveals about White culture. Last week's session saw Allen details his obsession/fetish with black male musicians. Allen describes swooning over the "primitive"musical sounds of New Orleans artists like Louis Armstrong. While holding tight to his allegation that decades ago, he was at least an average baseball player, Allen divulges that he's a technological cluts who needs his wife to do everything from changing the time on the clocks to operating the buttons on the television. In fact, his hand-eye-coordination is so deficient he testifies to bashing a number of cars and fleeing the scene of an accident. Tellingly, Allen describes his so-called love life as: "The Theater of the Absurd." He rattles off a number of romantic dates from his youth, where females concocted all manner of excuse and made haste departing his company. #AntiAsianViolence INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE: 564943#

Thursday, August 19th 8:00PM Eastern/ 5:00PM Pacific The Context of White Supremacy hosts the third study session on Woody Allen's Apropos of Nothing. One of the most critically acclaimed directors of all time, Woody Allen is a New York City and entertainment icon. In addition to his flicks, he's performed comedy, played packed concert halls, and written books - Apropos of Nothing being his most recent. Published in 2020, the text examines his life, celebrated career, and "romance" with Soon-Yi Previn. In addition to being non-white and decades younger than Allen, Previn was Allen's adopted stepchild. Despite a damning Child Protective Services investigation and years of allegations of child rape and sexual abuse of children, Allen remains beloved my hoards of Whites. We'll examine this work for what it reveals about White culture. Last week's session saw Allen details his obsession/fetish with black male musicians. Allen describes swooning over the "primitive"musical sounds of New Orleans artists like Louis Armstrong. While holding tight to his allegation that decades ago, he was at least an average baseball player, Allen divulges that he's a technological cluts who needs his wife to do everything from changing the time on the clocks to operating the buttons on the television. In fact, his hand-eye-coordination is so deficient he testifies to bashing a number of cars and fleeing the scene of an accident. Tellingly, Allen describes his so-called love life as: "The Theater of the Absurd." He rattles off a number of romantic dates from his youth, where females concocted all manner of excuse and made haste departing his company. #AntiAsianViolence INVEST in The COWS – paypal.me/TheCOWS The C.O.W.S. Cash App: http://Cash.App/$TheCOWS   The C.O.W.S. Radio Program is specifically engineered for black & non-white listeners - Victims of White Supremacy. The purpose of this program is to provide Victims of White Supremacy with constructive information and suggestions on how to counter Racist Woman & Racist Man.    TUNE IN! Phone: 1-720-716-7300 - Access Code 564943# Hit star *6 & 1 to enter caller cue

Thursday, August 19th 8:00PM Eastern/ 5:00PM Pacific The Context of White Supremacy hosts the third study session on Woody Allen's Apropos of Nothing. One of the most critically acclaimed directors of all time, Woody Allen is a New York City and entertainment icon. In addition to his flicks, he's performed comedy, played packed concert halls, and written books - Apropos of Nothing being his most recent. Published in 2020, the text examines his life, celebrated career, and "romance" with Soon-Yi Previn. In addition to being non-white and decades younger than Allen, Previn was Allen's adopted stepchild. Despite a damning Child Protective Services investigation and years of allegations of child rape and sexual abuse of children, Allen remains beloved my hoards of Whites. We'll examine this work for what it reveals about White culture. Last week's session saw Allen details his obsession/fetish with black male musicians. Allen describes swooning over the "primitive"musical sounds of New Orleans artists like Louis Armstrong. While holding tight to his allegation that decades ago, he was at least an average baseball player, Allen divulges that he's a technological cluts who needs his wife to do everything from changing the time on the clocks to operating the buttons on the television. In fact, his hand-eye-coordination is so deficient he testifies to bashing a number of cars and fleeing the scene of an accident. Tellingly, Allen describes his so-called love life as: "The Theater of the Absurd." He rattles off a number of romantic dates from his youth, where females concocted all manner of excuse and made haste departing his company. #AntiAsianViolence INVEST in The COWS – paypal.me/TheCOWS The C.O.W.S. Cash App: http://Cash.App/$TheCOWS   The C.O.W.S. Radio Program is specifically engineered for black & non-white listeners - Victims of White Supremacy. The purpose of this program is to provide Victims of White Supremacy with constructive information and suggestions on ho

Manchester Central, formerly GMEX, has been home to, among many other things, festivals, standalone concerts, consumer shows, trade shows and conferences, not least those by the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. Tellingly, CEO Shaun Hinds, who is also director/vice chair of the Association of Event Venues, featured on the EIN podcast pre-pandemic, in October 2019. This episode, in a wholly different world, sees Hinds talking about Manchester Central events before, during and after lockdown. How staff and suppliers to the venue worked right through the installation of NHS Nightingale North West at the site, how the event industry was “absolutely fundamental” in establishing the chain of those facilities across the country and the lack of understanding in the corridors of power about the planning and delivery that goes into live events nevertheless. Hinds also discusses the resurgent appetite for the live model and how that will stimulate new event genres, making better use of outdoor spaces, vaccine passports, mitigation measures and personal responsibility. To keep up to date with all the news, subscribe for free here. If you would like to take part in a podcast, then please complete our submission form.

For those tuned into more recent developments within the field of ufology, there is a clear recognition that the conversation has moved in some surprising directions. What began as an assumption that we were witnessing the presence of spacecraft being piloted by extraterrestrials has evolved into a much broader consideration that involves interdimensionality, potential cryptoterrestrials and ultraterrestrials, consciousness-control, the manipulation of space-time, and much more. In many ways one could argue that what began as a conversation singularly about the potential visitation of visitors from some far-flung star system has evolved into a discussion about the nature of reality itself. The implications that arise from the so-called UFO Phenomenon really are that far-reaching and paradigm-stretching. Interestingly though, this kind of deep-seated soul searching is not unique to the field of ufology. As it turns out, other fields of inquiry are experiencing similar upheavals. While the often categorized “soft” sciences of sociology and psychology are facing these challenges, the so-called “hard” sciences are certainly not immune either. While the outer reaches of psychology, often termed parapsychology for that very reason, are trying to make sense of human capacities that apparently violate our notions of space-time altogether – here I speak of various categories of so-called ESP: telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis, etc., physics is grappling with equally baffling notions such as retro-causation – where the future seemingly causes the past, or at least, where the arrow of time seems to operate equally well in both directions, contrary to everything we've understood about the nature of reality up until recently. Tellingly, several astute observers, including pioneering researchers like Dean Radin of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, have noticed striking parallels emerging between these various fields of inquiry. Specifically, Radin and others have noted that the interconnected fabric of information that underlies the field of quantum mechanics bears remarkable similarity to the kind of fundamental structure that seemingly gives rise to phenomena plotted along the Psi spectrum. The essential question that arises from these fascinating observations is this: what does this apparent crossover tell us about the nature of ultimate reality? Clearly what we're seeing here is evidence of a level of reality that is more informational and symbolic in nature. And it is this substrate of reality that ultimately gives rise to what we consider the physical world: the realm of matter and energy. In what way are human beings operating – usually unknowingly – at this informational layer, one that apparently exists beyond the constraints of space and time as as we have traditionally understood them, when we send messages to each other telepathically, or when CIA intelligence analysts employ the protocols of remote viewing to see into underground bases in the former Soviet Union? Furthermore, in what way does this understanding of reality help to explain some of the more bizarre elements of the UFO Phenomenon? Here we speak of events such as when people are passed through solid objects, or when alien intelligences are apparently able to read the minds of abductees/contactees, and even see into their futures, or how an alien species is able to traverse the immense distances involved in interstellar travel with relative ease. The convergence of the fields we've just identified: namely ufology, parapsychology and quantum physics, and the implications regarding the fundamental nature of reality that are arising as a result, is the subject matter of this, the 31st episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.

DescriptionMaybe you've heard of the famed violins by Stradivarius. But why are these violins so coveted? Take a minute to get the scoop!Fun FactWhat about the best-preserved Stradivarius? Tellingly nicknamed “the Messiah,” it sits in a climate-controlled case in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, receiving the kind of curatorial attention and care reserved for precious works of art.About StevenSteven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.A Note To Music Students et al.All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.Got a topic? Pop me off an email at: TCMMPodcast@Gmail.com 

The Dennis Prager Show -Cuba Libre and Get Married and have Children.     Dennis Prager podcasts The Dennis Prager Show -Cuba Libre https://omny.fm/shows/dennis-prager-podcasts Bob Frantz guest hosts for Dennis… Protests erupted across Cuba over the weekend. The Cuban people want to be free. Tellingly, they waved American flags. The Biden Administration were slow to show support. But they finally have. Will the leftist Dems in Congress fall in line? Nothing from Bernie Sanders yet.   The Dennis Prager Show Making a Better World https://omny.fm/shows/dennis-prager-podcasts The best thing a young person can do to make the world better is to get married and have children… A shocking triple murder has shaken a town outside of Atlanta… It seems that only white killers matter to the media. --------------------------------------------------------------------  Visit Pragertopia  https://pragertopia.com/member/signup.php  The first month is 99 cents. After the first month the cost is $7.50 per month. If you can afford to pay for only one podcast, this is the one we recommend. It is the best conservative radio show out there, period. ACU strongly recommends ALL ACU students and alumni subscribe to Pragertopia. Do it today!  You can listen to Dennis from 9 a.m. to Noon (Pacific) Monday thru Friday, live on the Internet  http://www.dennisprager.com/pages/listen  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ For a great archive of Prager University videos visit- https://www.youtube.com/user/PragerUniversity/featured   Donate today to PragerU! http://l.prageru.com/2eB2p0h Get PragerU bonus content for free! https://www.prageru.com/bonus-content Download Pragerpedia on your iPhone or Android! Thousands of sources and facts at your fingertips. iPhone: http://l.prageru.com/2dlsnbG Android: http://l.prageru.com/2dlsS5e Join Prager United to get new swag every quarter, exclusive early access to our videos, and an annual TownHall phone call with Dennis Prager! http://l.prageru.com/2c9n6ys Join PragerU's text list to have these videos, free merchandise giveaways and breaking announcements sent directly to your phone! https://optin.mobiniti.com/prageru Do you shop on Amazon? Click https://smile.amazon.com and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be donated to PragerU. Same great products. Same low price. Shopping made meaningful. VISIT PragerU! https://www.prageru.com FOLLOW us! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prageru Twitter: https://twitter.com/prageru Instagram: https://instagram.com/prageru/ PragerU is on Snapchat! JOIN PragerFORCE! For Students: http://l.prageru.com/2aozfkP JOIN our Educators Network! http://l.prageru.com/2aoz2y9   -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Rational Bible: Exodus by Dennis Prager   NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Dennis Prager has put together one of the most stunning commentaries in modern times on the most profound document in human history. It's a must-read that every person, religious and non-religious, should buy and peruse every night before bed. It'll make you think harder, pray more ardently, and understand your civilization better." — Ben Shapiro, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show" "Dennis Prager's commentary on Exodus will rank among the greatest modern Torah commentaries. That is how important I think it is. And I am clearly not alone... It might well be on its way to becoming the most widely read Torah commentary of our time—and by non-Jews as well as by Jews." — Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, bestselling author of Jewish Literacy Why do so many people think the Bible, the most influential book in world history, is outdated? Why do our friends and neighbors – and sometimes we ourselves – dismiss the Bible as irrelevant, irrational, immoral, or all of these things? This explanation of the Book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, will demonstrate that the Bible is not only powerfully relevant to today's issues, but completely consistent with rational thought. Do you think the Bible permitted the trans-Atlantic slave trade? You won't after reading this book. Do you struggle to love your parents? If you do, you need this book. Do you doubt the existence of God because belief in God is “irrational?” This book will give you reason after reason to rethink your doubts. The title of this commentary is, “The Rational Bible” because its approach is entirely reason-based. The reader is never asked to accept anything on faith alone. As Prager says, “If something I write does not make rational sense, I have not done my job.” The Rational Bible is the fruit of Dennis Prager's forty years of teaching the Bible to people of every faith, and no faith. On virtually every page, you will discover how the text relates to the contemporary world and to your life. His goal: to change your mind – and then change your life.   Highly Recommended by ACU. Purchase his book at- https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Bible-Exodus-Dennis-Prager/dp/1621577724     The Rational Bible: Genesis by Dennis Prager  USA Today bestseller Publishers Weekly bestseller Wall Street Journal bestseller Many people today think the Bible, the most influential book in world history, is not only outdated but irrelevant, irrational, and even immoral. This explanation of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, demonstrates clearly and powerfully that the opposite is true. The Bible remains profoundly relevant—both to the great issues of our day and to each individual life. It is the greatest moral guide and source of wisdom ever written. Do you doubt the existence of God because you think believing in God is irrational? This book will give you many reasons to rethink your doubts. Do you think faith and science are in conflict? You won't after reading this commentary on Genesis. Do you come from a dysfunctional family? It may comfort you to know that every family discussed in Genesis was highly dysfunctional! The title of this commentary is “The Rational Bible” because its approach is entirely reason-based. The reader is never asked to accept anything on faith alone. In Dennis Prager's words, “If something I write is not rational, I have not done my job.” The Rational Bible is the fruit of Dennis Prager's forty years of teaching the Bible—whose Hebrew grammar and vocabulary he has mastered—to people of every faith and no faith at all. On virtually every page, you will discover how the text relates to the contemporary world in general and to you personally. His goal: to change your mind—and, as a result, to change your life.   Highly Recommended by ACU. Purchase his book at- https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Bible-Genesis-Dennis-Prager/dp/1621578984

The Dennis Prager Show -Cuba Libre and Get Married and have Children.     Dennis Prager podcasts The Dennis Prager Show -Cuba Libre https://omny.fm/shows/dennis-prager-podcasts Bob Frantz guest hosts for Dennis… Protests erupted across Cuba over the weekend. The Cuban people want to be free. Tellingly, they waved American flags. The Biden Administration were slow to show support. But they finally have. Will the leftist Dems in Congress fall in line? Nothing from Bernie Sanders yet.   The Dennis Prager Show Making a Better World https://omny.fm/shows/dennis-prager-podcasts The best thing a young person can do to make the world better is to get married and have children… A shocking triple murder has shaken a town outside of Atlanta… It seems that only white killers matter to the media. --------------------------------------------------------------------  Visit Pragertopia  https://pragertopia.com/member/signup.php  The first month is 99 cents. After the first month the cost is $7.50 per month. If you can afford to pay for only one podcast, this is the one we recommend. It is the best conservative radio show out there, period. ACU strongly recommends ALL ACU students and alumni subscribe to Pragertopia. Do it today!  You can listen to Dennis from 9 a.m. to Noon (Pacific) Monday thru Friday, live on the Internet  http://www.dennisprager.com/pages/listen  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ For a great archive of Prager University videos visit- https://www.youtube.com/user/PragerUniversity/featured   Donate today to PragerU! http://l.prageru.com/2eB2p0h Get PragerU bonus content for free! https://www.prageru.com/bonus-content Download Pragerpedia on your iPhone or Android! Thousands of sources and facts at your fingertips. iPhone: http://l.prageru.com/2dlsnbG Android: http://l.prageru.com/2dlsS5e Join Prager United to get new swag every quarter, exclusive early access to our videos, and an annual TownHall phone call with Dennis Prager! http://l.prageru.com/2c9n6ys Join PragerU's text list to have these videos, free merchandise giveaways and breaking announcements sent directly to your phone! https://optin.mobiniti.com/prageru Do you shop on Amazon? Click https://smile.amazon.com and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be donated to PragerU. Same great products. Same low price. Shopping made meaningful. VISIT PragerU! https://www.prageru.com FOLLOW us! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prageru Twitter: https://twitter.com/prageru Instagram: https://instagram.com/prageru/ PragerU is on Snapchat! JOIN PragerFORCE! For Students: http://l.prageru.com/2aozfkP JOIN our Educators Network! http://l.prageru.com/2aoz2y9   -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Rational Bible: Exodus by Dennis Prager   NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Dennis Prager has put together one of the most stunning commentaries in modern times on the most profound document in human history. It's a must-read that every person, religious and non-religious, should buy and peruse every night before bed. It'll make you think harder, pray more ardently, and understand your civilization better." — Ben Shapiro, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show" "Dennis Prager's commentary on Exodus will rank among the greatest modern Torah commentaries. That is how important I think it is. And I am clearly not alone... It might well be on its way to becoming the most widely read Torah commentary of our time—and by non-Jews as well as by Jews." — Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, bestselling author of Jewish Literacy Why do so many people think the Bible, the most influential book in world history, is outdated? Why do our friends and neighbors – and sometimes we ourselves – dismiss the Bible as irrelevant, irrational, immoral, or all of these things? This explanation of the Book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, will demonstrate that the Bible is not only powerfully relevant to today's issues, but completely consistent with rational thought. Do you think the Bible permitted the trans-Atlantic slave trade? You won't after reading this book. Do you struggle to love your parents? If you do, you need this book. Do you doubt the existence of God because belief in God is “irrational?” This book will give you reason after reason to rethink your doubts. The title of this commentary is, “The Rational Bible” because its approach is entirely reason-based. The reader is never asked to accept anything on faith alone. As Prager says, “If something I write does not make rational sense, I have not done my job.” The Rational Bible is the fruit of Dennis Prager's forty years of teaching the Bible to people of every faith, and no faith. On virtually every page, you will discover how the text relates to the contemporary world and to your life. His goal: to change your mind – and then change your life.   Highly Recommended by ACU. Purchase his book at- https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Bible-Exodus-Dennis-Prager/dp/1621577724     The Rational Bible: Genesis by Dennis Prager  USA Today bestseller Publishers Weekly bestseller Wall Street Journal bestseller Many people today think the Bible, the most influential book in world history, is not only outdated but irrelevant, irrational, and even immoral. This explanation of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, demonstrates clearly and powerfully that the opposite is true. The Bible remains profoundly relevant—both to the great issues of our day and to each individual life. It is the greatest moral guide and source of wisdom ever written. Do you doubt the existence of God because you think believing in God is irrational? This book will give you many reasons to rethink your doubts. Do you think faith and science are in conflict? You won't after reading this commentary on Genesis. Do you come from a dysfunctional family? It may comfort you to know that every family discussed in Genesis was highly dysfunctional! The title of this commentary is “The Rational Bible” because its approach is entirely reason-based. The reader is never asked to accept anything on faith alone. In Dennis Prager's words, “If something I write is not rational, I have not done my job.” The Rational Bible is the fruit of Dennis Prager's forty years of teaching the Bible—whose Hebrew grammar and vocabulary he has mastered—to people of every faith and no faith at all. On virtually every page, you will discover how the text relates to the contemporary world in general and to you personally. His goal: to change your mind—and, as a result, to change your life.   Highly Recommended by ACU. Purchase his book at- https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Bible-Genesis-Dennis-Prager/dp/1621578984

Bob Frantz guest hosts for Dennis… Protests erupted across Cuba over the weekend. The Cuban people want to be free. Tellingly, they waved American flags. The Biden Administration were slow to show support. But they finally have. Will the leftist Dems in Congress fall in line? Nothing from Bernie Sanders yet.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

F1 2021, this season's official Formula 1 game, has been revealed by EA and Codemasters and there is plenty to talk about – not least of which the title releasing on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and PC.The lead feature seems to be Braking Point, a brand-new story mode featuring the return of Devon Butler who first appeared in F1 2019. That game was the first attempt by the F1 games to introduce a story, and while it was fun, it was over in a flash.Tellingly, the trailer focuses purely on this element of the game. No gameplay or in-game screens have been revealed at this point, and the video is a snazzy CGI affair that hints at intense rivalries which will be against fictional racers Devon Butler, Aiden Jackson, and Casper Akkerman.Last season's game introduced the superb My Team mode where you could create your own team and rise through the ranks. There's very little information in the way of any improvements to that for 2021, although its return is confirmed.What is new, however, is a two-player career. Assuming this is online, you and a friend can play this either co-operatively or competitively. To us, that indicates being able to race through a career, but perhaps not My Team, on either the same or opposing teams.The Algarve, Imola and Jeddah circuits are to be included, but as a free update post-launch. Speaking of free, there will be a free next-gen upgrade for those who purchase on either PS4 or Xbox One, further details on any exclusions are to follow.Last of the ‘big ticket' items is the ‘Real-Season Start' which allows players to jump into a season that reflects the current live standings of the real-world F1 year. How that works if some of the tracks are being added later though, remains to be seen.There are plenty of other smaller details, though, which you may see on the pre-order landing pages.Alongside the standard edition, a Deluxe Edition will be available which provides three days early access and a suite of cosmetic bonuses. Of which victory radio calls are included and seven iconic drivers to “enhance you're my Team game experience”. Both are very intriguing to us, and we hope to find out how these work closer to the release date.Likewise, assist options, driver stats and multiplayer are said to be “refined”, but little is known about exactly how at this date. Split-screen, shorter seasons and F2 all return from the last game, but again, there's no confirmation which F1 season is included at launch.The game launches on all platforms on the 16th July 2021 – unless you order the Deluxe Edition for $15/£15 extra – and stay tuned as we'll have lots of F1 2021 information and opinions coming very soon.

Over the last few years NATO has been called many things, from obsolete, to brain-dead, to warmongering. So we must be doing something right. In truth, built on the common values of individual liberty, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, NATO is an unparalleled defensive Alliance which has kept the Euro-Atlantic region and beyond safe for more than seventy years. It has played a crucial role in bringing security and stability to Europe and its neighborhood, as its role in the Balkans showed. The importance of this can't be underestimated in this seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War. NATO continues to act as a platform for shared values and interests, now with partnerships across the world. The world is growing more dangerous. Technological advances have the potential to transform warfare as significantly as nuclear weapons did after WW2. We need to be clear with our publics what NATO does now and needs to do in the future. Tellingly, a lot of Russian energy still goes into trying to undermine the North Atlantic Alliance every day. NATO is fit for the challenges of today. But it will only remain successful over the next seventy years if it continues to modernize its capabilities and its message.     Key Takeaways: - 0:00 Intro - 1:48 Dame talks about who NATO's audiences are nowadays, what should be the message and how to modernize it - 3:40 Dame talks of the importance of improving the message and if NATO has kept the message side up - 5:31 Dame also talks about the importance of avoiding the use of acronyms while laying out your message - 6:16 Dame talks about NATO's biggest threat Russia and the impact it would make if they worked together to uphold what the Security Council decides - 8:52 Dame speaks of how the Security Council decisions are being less respected around the world due to the Russian and Chinese behavior  - 11:57 Dame suggests that if only the Alliance could hasten the consensus process that would be very important - 14:51 Dame talks about the importance of NATO allies to keep their systems safe and secure and why Huawei was not able to go through with 5g network - 17:39 Dame talks about NATO's list of challenges and if China could be a military threat and if they should be worried - 20:11 Dame shares the reasons why the UK felt it need to present a renewed commitment to NATO and looking at its capabilities and resources - 20:47 Dame also shares reasons why a lot of NATO allies are modernizing their defense forces - 22:57 Dame gives recommendations on what NATO should do in order for it to shine again in terms of its image to the world   Shows Mentioned: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/nato20-2020/modernize-the-kit-and-the-message/  https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/  https://twitter.com/hashtag/strongerwithallies?lang=en    Quotes Mentioned: “There's always scope for a simpler message.” “We have a big problem, because of Russia's desire to undermine international unity.” “You could say consensus is just another word for unanimity.” “One of the things we must all do after COVID is making sure when we don't fall behind in the technological race.” “Even if NATO doesn't view China as a military threat now, it's obviously something to watch.” “You adapt to survive.”   Guests Social Media Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-pierce-99805490/  https://twitter.com/KarenPierceUK?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor 

'Personal brand' is an overused, increasingly meaningless term. What it should stand for is clarity in who you are, and what you stand for. But it has been co-opted by the get-rich-quick-self-help crowd, and devolved into little more than superficialities - what you wear and who you hang out with.  So it was with a cynical eye that I opened an email from my friend Mark Busse, asking me to take a look at his personal brand document. The document floored me. It was an intensely personal exploration into every facet of Mark's personality, both intimate and bold.  I jumped on the phone immediately with Mark, who revealed it was an exercise he had conducted with a personal coach. Not only had it helped him gain clarity into what really mattered to him, but it provided a compass for decisions - both personal and professional - he might make in the future.  In fact, Mark recounted that he had shown the document to a prospective employer. The employer was floored, and offered Busse a job on the spot. Tellingly, Busse refused the post, insisting the employer meet Busse's wife and, together, they should dig deeper into personal fit before proceeding.  That's when I knew I had to share Mark's story. Over the course of two recordings, Mark and I explored his journey with the personal brand exercise.  The first recording was done before Busse and his wife had met the prospective employer. The second, after. I'm not going to spoil the podcast by telling the outcome. Enjoy!

[Listen to the audio version, or read on … Up to you!]In this week's Payneful Truth, a slight divergence from my normal practice, which is to avoid writing about anything newsworthy or topical. Some recent sad accusations against a prominent Christian leader caught my eye this past week, and prompted the following reflections. Conspicuous sinsIt's happened again. A much-loved, high-profile evangelical leader is being accused of sexual impropriety. I won't mention his name, not only because I have no way of knowing whether the accusations are true or not, but because his particular name and his particular case is not the reason for this week's Payneful Truth.I'm writing because I wonder whether you get the same sick feeling in your guts as I do when you hear about these things. Is there no-one with integrity, not even one? Can't these people just keep their pants on? And where on earth do they find the time?Why is it that these high profile Christian leaders—the mega-church pastors, the denominational head honchos, the international speaker-circuit guys—seem so regularly to have their feet of clay exposed and smashed?At one level, I suppose it is because of their very prominence. The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgement (says Paul); but the sins of others appear later (1 Tim 5:24). The sins of famous pastors are news. The sins of ordinary pastors are known only by a very few. But although the sins themselves might be different in character and appearance, they are sins nevertheless. Like loving God, sin is a single, unitary phenomenon, with one object and one goal. Sin is the proud rejection of God and his ways, and the exalting of ourselves and our purposes above all others. And just as the love of God manifests itself in multiple virtues, so sin reveals itself in multiple vices. What, for example, would we say are the common but less conspicuous vices of the ordinary pastor—say, the pastor of a smallish, just-viable church of 80 adults that potters along and makes do from year to year? Despair perhaps, or laziness? Self-pity or blame-shifting or resentment of others' success? A persecution complex? Comfort-gluttony or alcohol abuse? An unwillingness to take a risk in case it fails (again) and my battered self-image takes another blow? A lack of outward success hurts our pride, and wounded pride looks for relief wherever it can find it. The mega-church leader, by contrast, has a surfeit of outward success, and faces a different set of temptations. I was chatting not long ago with a prominent US-based Christian author, and he asked me what I thought was the besetting problem of the mega-church. I fumbled around and said something about a lack of personal relationship among the members. “No”, he said. “It's corruption.”The truth of this observation hit home immediately.Imagine how difficult it must be to become a beloved and powerful leader within such a massive group of people without it inflating your pride and corrupting your integrity. The high profile church leader begins to believe that he must indeed be worthy of all the admiration and acclaim he so regularly receives; that he has a special place in the church and in God's purposes; that the little embellishments and exaggerations he starts to make to burnish his image are helpful for the church, because they provide an inspiring example; that his sins and weaknesses are understandable and forgivable, given the extraordinary pressure he is under, and how lonely and hunted he often feels; that he deserves the expensive toys he indulges himself with; that any problems that do emerge are less important than the continued growth and success of the ministry, and so can be rationalised away; that his poor (even abusive) treatment of church employees is the cracking of a few eggs in order to make God's omelette.He begins genuinely to believe, in other words, that he really is the most important person in the room, which is the essence of pride, which (according to Augustine) is the essence of sin. And so a double-life develops, with a public church persona on one side and the various compromises and sins of a private existence on the other. It all comes out eventually, and we shake our heads. But it leaves us wondering: how would our integrity hold up, if we were the leader of a 10,000-strong church? Would we also be very capable of compartmentalizing the dysfunctional and sinful habits that were emerging in our lives, and maintaining (and even believing in) the image that everyone else saw, of the godly, inspiring pastor? Personally, I wouldn't like to find out. None of this is to say that large churches are a bad idea because their leadership can breed corruption, any more than it is to say that small churches are a bad idea because their leadership can breed complacency or inwardness. It does say, however, that in each case, godly character is more important in a leader than gifting or results. We should know this anyway from how the Pastoral Epistles describe what's important in an elder or overseer. Certain gifts are necessary (e.g., ability to teach, ability to manage a household), but these are lodged within a list of character traits dominated by a faithfulness to the true deposit of the gospel, and a life of godliness, self-control and sobriety that has been shaped by that gospel. Tellingly, in 1 Tim 4—just after the discussion of what makes for a good overseer or deacon—Timothy is urged to persist and grow in this gospel-shaped character. “Keep a close watch on yourself, and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Tim 4:15-16). After this latest apparent failure by one of the Great Ones, we might allow ourselves a few moments of sadness and head-shaking. But let it remind us to renew a close watch on ourselves, and on the teaching. Whatever our circumstances—small church or large—let us discipline our bodies and keep them under control, lest after preaching to others we ourselves should be disqualified (1 Cor 9:27). New to The Payneful Truth and want to get it regularly in your inbox? PSThanks for the encouraging comments and feedback about last week's ‘Book Talk' episode. I've got some more in the pipeline. This week's cover image is a blast from the past. The very first edition of The Briefing in 1988 featured an article about ministerial sin, called ‘The Sins of Jimmy Swaggart'—about a US televangelist who had spectacularly fallen from grace not long before. Astonishingly, Jimmy is still on TV doing his thing (so I noticed the other day). Here's the iconic picture of Jimmy Swaggart tearfully confessing his sin to his televised congregation back in the late 80s. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.twoways.news/subscribe

MD Richard Belcher joined First Sight Media in 2006 when the company was primarily focused on producing DVDs and VHS tapes of graduation ceremonies. Richard helped spearhead First Sight’s subsequent step into the corporate sector; conferences, exhibitions – not least Event Tech Live - and general video production, which in turn led to streaming live events, FSM’s “niche” as Richard puts it. Tellingly, the last shoot before lockdown was for a hybrid event.   In this episode, hear how First Sight has adapted its experience to fit the new environment since March 2020, fitting with the speed people/clients want to work in delivering their virtual and hybrid pivots.   As well as discussing some of the common misconceptions, Richard highlights how investment in terms of production value of the content is vital if you want to present a brand properly – especially if you’re charging people to watch.   On the flipside of that, he mentions the monetisation around ‘eyeball’ marketing via an example of an event that attracted 36,000 visitors on Facebook and its value to a sponsor that just wants to be in front of an audience.

There are a lot of ways Rita Tucker Williams could define herself. Tellingly, she chose to kick off today’s conversation defining herself as “someone who thinks that her life belongs to the community.” Professionally, Rita is an attorney and CEO and CFO of the Law Firm of Williams & Associates, PC, based in downtown Decatur, Georgia. Rita graduated cum laude from Spelman College with a BA. She additionally holds an MA from University of Michigan, and a Juris Doctorate from Emory University School of Law. Attorney Williams was Selected as One of the Top Lawyers in America in 2019, by the world renown biographers, Marquis Who’s Who. She recently earned a Lifetime Achievement Award for her Contribution to Society and was featured in the Wall Street Journal on November 27, 2019, for this honor.    Rita is on a mission of creating a world of grace, justice, and power for all people.In today’s stimulating conversation, Dr. Fred and Rita discuss:Why Rita says her life belongs to the communityThe legacy and influence of the late US Representative John LewisReflection on Lewis’ statement that we are one people from one family living in the same houseThe value of viewing ourselves as Planetary Human BeingsHow we are all related...and related to everythingWhy Rita believes the phrase Black Lives Matter actually includes everyoneRita’s banner: One Race, the Human Race. No subtitles, please.The effects of colonialism and how it gave birth to racial classificationWhat Mitochondrial Eve has to say about all of usBonus: Rita shares a spoken word selection from Rumi’s “A Great Wagon” Episode Length: 0:55:31 CONTACT RITA > rtwilliams at williamsandassoc dot com Also Mentioned On this Episode >Read the full text of Rumi’s ‘A Great Wagon’ > https://onbeing.org/poetry/a-great-wagon/American Association of Physical Anthropologist's (AAPA) Statement on Race and Racism (source for the statement that humans share 99.9% of our DNA in common) > https://physanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa-statement-race-and-racism-2019/ WELCOME TO HUMANITY RESOURCES Podcast Website >  www.welcometohumanity.net/podcast PURCHASE THE BOOK (paperback or Kindle) > Creative 8: Healing Through Creativity & Self-Expression by Dr. Fred Moss www.amazon.com/Creative-Healing-Through-Creativity-Self-Expression/dp/B088N7YVMGFEEDBACK  > welcometohumanity.net/contact

For Beyond 50's "Business" talks, listen to an interview with Darron Spencer. In his three years with a busy sheriff's office, he covered an enormous number of cases and arrested many individuals for a variety of crimes. Tellingly, 90% of those he arrested thanked him. He offers life-changing tools for his fellow law enforcement colleagues called "Humane Policing" that can better serve their communities. His apprach has the potential to improve relations between officers and the general public, plus induce cooperation between them, ultimately improving public's image of law enforcement on a national scale. Tune in to Beyond 50: America's Variety Talk Radio Show on the natural, holistic, green and sustainable lifestyle. Visit Beyond 50 Radio (https://www.Beyond50Radio.com) and sign up for our Exclusive Updates.

The dropping of the FBI case against Michael Flynn reveals what so many of us have long believed: ‘Russiagate’ was a crude and sloppy invention to undermine the outcome of a presidential election. Irrespective of how you feel about the current occupant of the White House, this was an attempted coup. Tellingly, the corporate liberal media have sided with the conspirators. CrossTalking with Melik Abdul and Lionel.

Many in the industry are now at the stage where more of them are directly being hit by the physical effects of the coronavirus, either personally or their family members and friends.The global death rate remains, thankfully, extremely low but the anxiety and physical impact of the virus is clear to anyone that has lived - or is living - through it.PhocusWire spoke to Doug Lansky, a Sweden-based destination management expert, last September during our theme month on that subject.After learning that he'd contracted the coronavirus and subsequently got through the symptoms, we asked if he would be happy to give us an account of his own experience with it and, secondly, share his perspective on the current climate for destinations and what could (or should) happen next. Tellingly, he believes destinations have an opportunity at the moment to massively rethink how they use technology and tourism modelling to understand how to manage their cities and attractions in a better way, once the pandemic is over and some semblance of order resumes.The full interview is included in the latest episode of InPhocus, hosted by PhocusWire's Kevin May and Charuta Fadnis, Phocuswright's head of research.

Over the next few weeks, we're bringing you bonus episodes of the Glossy Podcast. Glossy Trend Watch: Influencer Edition features interviews with some of the most prominent fashion influencers on how they've used their success and social media followings to launch major brands. Our guests made the leap from interacting with existing brands online to creating some of their own. For our second episode, Glossy senior technology reporter Katie Richards sits down with Moti Ankari, a menswear blogger who co-founded footwear brand Ankari Floruss with fellow blogger Marcel Floruss. "I was actually one of the first wave of male influencers," Ankari said. "Nine years ago, there were like five of us out there." Tellingly, the word "influencer" didn't exist to describe someone making a living off of their social media connections -- the word got its own entry on Dictionary.com in 2016. Ankari talks about learning the ins and outs of designing footwear and how to leverage his social following to drive sales.

I wondered yesterday after Winston fired that missive to the leaker in his party that he was going to get the Police involved, how it was possible he was back in the news grabbing headlines.Then I realised, it's because he's Winston Peters.A seasoned player in the game of getting attention.A seasoned player in how to grab headlines in an election year.But the attention he was to garner later that day turned out to be not so beneficial to his profile and reputation.The electoral commission announcing it was referring NZ First Foundation donations to Police, who in turn referred it to the Serious fraud Office.Oh dear.Not ideal.Tellingly, NZ First quickly said it will be 'reviewing' the way it takes donations.So amidst this familiar scandal, I say familiar because, let's not forget the SFO investigating NZ First back in 2008 over donations and the 100 thousand dollar cheque from businessman Owen Glenn. The question must be asked, what's the PM doing about it?Well, nothing.She won't stand him down while the party is investigated by the SFO, yet Helen Clark did back in 2008.Not only did Clark stand him down at the time but she also referred to his "belligerent attitude" as perhaps being part of the problem.Has anything changed?Well the leader has.Jacinda Ardern does not stand people down, nor sack or censure people.She would not however go so far as to profess any trust in him, so why sit on the fence?"I am awaiting the outcome of the SFO," she said.The other thing she and NZ First will be eagerly awaiting is the outcome of the next poll.The most recent one had NZ First down to 3.6 percent, below the critical 5 percent needed to be in government.So a fresh swirling SFO controversy, a party leak, and poor poll ratings, not a good week so far for NZ First, and it's only Tuesday.So are we witnessing the death throes of a party on the ropes, flailing below the 5 percent threshold, running out of options, getting gassed by National, being investigated by the SFO?Well it wouldn't be the first time all those questions have been asked.Political commentators talk about the campaign bump NZ First will potentially experience.I’m not so sure.Despite the party’s phoenix like qualities, they may just be at the end of the road.We’ll know in a handful of months, if they have indeed finally done their chips.

As much as I'd love to come on here first day back and NOT say 'I told you so...'I have to say, I said at the time (and to much criticism and hate mail, I might add) that I didn't trust Meghan Markle.That I thought she had agenda, that she seemed about ambition and fame, and not in it for the right reasons.She was certainly no Kate Middleton 2.0.Both Prince Charles and William saw that, and allegedly tried to warn Harry. He didn't listen.I said at the time I thought the decision to marry was too rushed, that it didn't seem a mutually equal relationship. But an infatuated Prince was obsessed with an American actress, who was herself obsessed with notoriety and appeared to think "being royal" was some kind of game she could play.But she didn't know enough about them, their traditions, their way of life, their history, British culture and what it means to be royal.She didn't respect what it meant, nor was she prepared to hang around long enough to learn.She clearly didn't heed any advice either. Tellingly, in that documentary, she talked about her friends asking her whether she knew what she was getting herself into. So it's not like she wasn't warned.But if she felt she could power play her way out of it, then what does that say about her original motive?It's not her I'm disappointed with the most, to be honest. Her behaviour and game plan's entirely predictable - bag a prince, court the press, get some victim clout on board with claims of people being racist or sexist or toxic against you and then pull the pin.This whole thing, from the get go, has been about control, and when she didn't get it - as we've seen with her Dad, the media, the royal family - she walks. Cuts and runs. It's petulant and it's short sighted.She's quoted as saying she didn't want her son growing up in "that toxic environment", but here's the rub: He's Harry's son too.Britain is his home country, his family's there, his cousins, grandparents, he was born into a royal family, it's his birthright.She's chosen to cut both Archie and Harry away from that, and Harry's agreed to it.More fool him.This is a woman who doesn't value family.And what might Archie have to say about all this when he's old enough? This decision she's made on his behalf?So she gets the Duchess title (albeit with anagreement not to use it), the Prince, the royal baby, the public's sympathy, an ability to earn and control great wealth. But at what cost?And what happens when Harry gets fed up with this new Hollywood lifestyle and being away from his family, his friends, his homeland?What an enormous amount of pressure she's now put herself under to make this work.I have no doubt everything we're seeing unfold has been pre-calculated, workshopped, and finessed by Meghan's "team".The question now though is, how long will Harry be prepared to play ball on Team Meghan? 

Tim and Ben like jobs where you can drink at work.  This week they get to do just that during their interview with Jimmy McKeown in the ‘Black Room' of Whipper Snapper Distillery.  Whipper Snapper is fast becoming a well-known brand amongst whiskey lovers and the go-to drink for many, and in this episode, Jimmy talks us through its amazing origins – and his equally amazing personal story.  From an illegal moonshine still run by a World War II bomber pilot to being recognised as a certified ‘Icon of Whiskey', the Whipper Snapper story is a cracker. Jimmy discusses his attitude towards risk and regret, both of which served as catalytic elements in starting the distillery, before taking us through the ingredients and distilling process.  He then talks about their range of spirits, from their flagship 'Upshot' to more experimental lines including quinoa whiskey, the soon-to-be released red corn whiskey and – of course – their 'Crazy Uncle Moonshine'. If you don't know who your crazy uncle is ... then it's you! Tellingly, one thing that Jimmy doesn't talk about is the fact that he had – just the week prior to the interview – been named as Master Distiller of the Year in the Icons of Whisky 2020 Australian awards. Truly humble, a truly great bloke and a truly tasty drop of whiskey – enjoy!   Intelligence Summary (INTSUM) 02:00 – Jimmy's early years 06:45 – Vic's story – Lancaster bombers and illegal moonshine 09:15 – Ben makes up some statistics about WWII Bomber Command attrition rates 10:25 – Jimmy on risk and avoiding regret 13:45 – What is an Australian whiskey? Jimmy talks grain and flavour profiles and the dream of making an Australian whiskey at scale 16:30 – “Full disclosure” 17:10- On the ‘microfactors' that help make Whipper Snapper different to mass produced whiskey 18:30 – What goes into Whipper Snapper's whiskey? 21:20 – Red Corn whiskey (coming soon!) – a crazy idea which highlights Whipper Snapper's close relationship with its grain growers XX:XX - Does anyone actually read the timeline in the Show Notes?! 23:20 – How to make whiskey 33:20 – The story behind the Whipper Snapper's logo – and its name! 39:40 – Quinoa whiskey – superfood! 45:10 – The whiskey environment in Australia 51:20- Signature Whipper Snapper cocktails 53:50 – Marketing Whipper Snapper 56:30- The Special Operations relationship 1:02:00- How many stories could be tyold over a glass of Upshot 1:03:00:– Quick Questions / Quick Answers! 1:08:00- Jimmy's favourite quote: From CS Lewis. 1:09:23 – Jimmy's toast to the entire world!   About Whipper Snapper https://whippersnapperdistillery.com/   Music As always music by The Externals. Hear more of The Externals on Spotify.

Mike feared it might be the most tasteless film ever made. José doesn't look forward to Quentin Tarantino films. But we both came away from this fantastical reimagining of a near-mythological era of Hollywood history having had a great time. Tellingly, for a film that exceeds two and a half hours, we both felt the time fly by. Tarantino's love for and expert knowledge of Hollywood and cinema informs all of his work, and arguably not that consequentially - he cribs shots, pastiches genres, and evokes styles and tones specific to cinema, but to debatable significant effect beyond the superficial. But in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (OUATIH for brevity's sake), the decision to bring this passion to the surface and tell a story directly about Hollywood results in Tarantino's most meaningful and personal film. What he values is brazenly displayed here, and, Mike suggests, isn't entirely pleasant to examine. He finds OUATIH initially troubling in this regard - with a day's reflection on it, he comes to see it as deeply conservative and protective of privilege. In digging this up, we discuss its sexual politics, the way it uses race, and the clash it represents between the old and the new in a rapidly changing 1969 Hollywood. Mike argues that, as in 2009's Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino's revisionism revealingly reflects his fantasy of what an ideal world would look like and contain, and in this case it's a little uneasy to stomach. He also takes issue with the way the Manson family are used, but not, as he feared, for reasons of taste - Charles Manson wasn't in Hollywood by chance, he wanted stardom, and for a film in which the desire for and loss of stardom are interests, to show no interest in drawing a thematic link here, instead only wanting to use the Manson family to rag on hippies, is more evidence of Tarantino's retrograde attitude. The flip side to this coin is that the things Tarantino loves are wonderfully, warmly depicted. OUATIH is as much about television as it is cinema, if not more so, and Tarantino offers imagined and reimagined TV shows of many types in evoking in detail the time and place in which he grew up. To José, about the same age as Tarantino, there abound countless nostalgic pleasures; to Mike, disgustingly born 30 years too late, the film's enthusiasm and obvious knowledge about its setting rubs off easily. The film easily convinces you to love what it loves, be it silly, overblown action movies; cheesy, overblown TV acting; or Brad Pitt's Hawaiian shirt, which in one scene blows off. Speaking of Pitt, José considers this his best performance, one in which he switches from evoking coolness and control to dumb and tripping balls. But for all the little touches and tone he brings to his character, Leonardo DiCaprio brings entirely different registers. His performance is a tour de force, his Rick, a declining Western star, constantly performing, even only to himself at times, and at every moment his emotions and thoughts are crystal clear, even under layer upon layer of performance. DiCaprio practically shapeshifts in sketches depicting Rick's old movies and television appearances, and offers a sympathetic portrait of a star unable to adapt to his changing environment. It's a rich, demanding role, and DiCaprio is spellbinding in meeting its challenge. You'd be doing yourself a disservice missing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the cinema. It's an excited, passionate trip through a Hollywood fantasy, hilarious, light, and thoroughly enjoyable - though, like so many fantasies, its underbelly is dark. Recorded on 18th and 19th August 2019.

Paul Hawken describes Damon Gameau as an ‘extraordinary artist, visionary, storyteller, and craftsman of the future.' Damon is the creator of That Sugar Film - the record-breaking, award-winning documentary that, through its extraordinary success, became That Sugar Movement. Damon's now turned his attention to climate change, with his next film '2040' coming out next year. He met up with Anthony a few weeks ago just after 2040 had been completed. 2040 is described as an aspirational film about the possibility to make changes that will shift the course for future generations. It is a positive vision for the future, structured as an open letter to his young daughter, and again it is gearing up to be so much more than just a film. As with ‘Sugar', this was a very personal journey - as someone who himself was shutting down on news about climate change. And also like ‘Sugar', Damon found the appetite for this film was enormous. The money was raised for 2040 in just days. And millions more was raised for the outreach program, in mere minutes. Damon talks with Anthony about the film, how he's found story-telling can reach people with these sorts of issues, and what that means for the possibility of positive change. He also talks about how his own life has changed, and what he's learned in the process of creating these documentaries, and subsequently trying to keep up with the response. Tellingly, in creating what was nominally to be a film about climate change, he found that emissions reductions are ‘just the bonus, the icing on the cake'. Through years of research and consultation with some of the leading figures and communities grappling with these issues, he found a much richer, promising and universal focus. Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra Due to licencing restrictions, our guest's nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon. Get more: 2040 the film - http://www.madmanproduction.com.au/releases/2040-2/ That Sugar Film & Movement - https://thatsugarmovement.com The Mai Wiru Sugar Challenge Foundation - http://www.maiwirufoundation.org Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going! And thanks for listening.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Mark Sleboda, an international affairs and security analyst, and Mazda Majidi, an Iranian specialist, author, journalist, and educator.Iran has deployed 50 small naval vessels to the Strait of Hormuz, the very narrow and very strategic waterway where the Persian Gulf flows into the Arabian Sea. Twenty percent of the world’s oil flows through the Strait, so any disruption would be highly problematic for the world economy. What happens if Iran closes the Strait? How would Israel respond? What about the US or Saudi Arabia? And what would happen in Syria? The hosts look at the hypotheticals possible in a new conflict in the Middle East. On today’s regular Friday segment covering the upcoming midterm elections, the hosts talk about the Democrats’ strategy going into the midterms as a nationwide party. Jacqueline and Abdus Luqman, the co-editors-in-chief of Luqman Nation, and the co-host of the Facebook livestream “Coffee, Current Events & Politics” Thursdays at 9 p.m., join the show from Netroots Nation, an annual progressive Democratic conference. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said yesterday that Russia is still trying to interfere in US elections. Donald Trump, however, said three times yesterday that the Russia investigation is a “witch hunt.” Tellingly, though, Coats also said that he had no idea why the President didn’t condemn this alleged Russian meddling during his meeting in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, mainstream media is writing hit pieces on Maria Butina’s character, saying she has an “overly flirtatious approach.” Brian and John speak with Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump donor Franklin Haney apparently agreed to pay Trump attorney Michael Cohen a $10 million finders fee if Cohen could successfully lobby for the building of an unfinished nuclear power plant in Alabama. The new information is part of a federal investigation into Cohen’s unregistered lobbying activities. And, breaking today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering yet another route though waterways and population centers for highly radioactive waste. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, joins the show. With all ten provinces counted, Zimbabweans have elected Emmerson Mnangagwa president with 50.8 percent of the vote. Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa was second with 44.3 percent. Outside observers say the election was free and fair. But Chamisa is disputing this and refuses to concede. Dr. Gerald Horne, a professor of history at the University of Houston and author of many books, including “Blows Against the Empire: U.S. Imperialism in Crisis,” joins Brian and John. The Chinese government said today that it would impose as much as $60 billion in new tariffs if the US goes forward with its own threatened tariffs against China. The Chinese tariffs would cut across all sectors and would be a 25 percent duty on meat, coffee, nuts, alcohol, minerals, chemicals, leather and wood, machinery, furniture, and auto parts. Steve Keen, the author of “Debunking Economics” and the world’s first crowdfunded economist whose work is at patreon.com/ProfSteveKeen, joins the show.The hosts continue the regular segment of the worst and most misleading headlines. Brian and John speak with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his blog Left I on the News, where you can find more ridiculous headlines from the week, and his Twitter account @leftiblog, and Loud & Clear producer Nicole Roussell.

Humor lays the groundwork for a hard truth and, for poet Tommy Pico, that hard truth is about living as an indigenous person in occupied America. "Alien invasion overlord movies / r cute in a Monet way,” he writes. “I survive seven generations into a post-apocalyptic America / that started 1492. Maybe / you'll live too?" There are, he says, just a few images of Native Americans that have filtered into mainstream culture: the noble savage, the squaw, the horseback warrior, and the sad Indian, “whose religion and spirituality and land and resources and livelihood have been taken away from them. I want to write in defiance of the sad Indian.” Pico's poetry builds a contemporary Native American persona, one that occupies multiple spaces simultaneously: New York City, the internet, pop music, and Grindr. It's an identity that's determined to be heard by the culture at large. Tellingly, Pico's first book, IRL, is both in the form of a single epic text — maybe even a sext — and inspired by Kumeyaay “bird songs,” some of the last surviving remnants of the Kumeyaay tribe's long-form poetry tradition. In this episode, you'll also hear Organist fan fiction from Jimmy Chen, performed by the legendary Edgar Oliver, as well as a series of “verbal selfies” from artist Robyn O'Neil. Feature image of Tommy Pico by Eugene Smith for Poets & Writers Magazine. Robyn O'Neil, "The Everywhere Citadel", 2016. Graphite on paper 60 1/4 x 38 1/4 inches Robyn O'Neil, "Ascension", 2016. Graphite on paper 22 3/4 x 30 inches Robyn O'Neil, "Suffocation Bed", 2013. Graphite on paper 23 x 30 inches Robyn O'Neil, "Inflation Drill (after Guston)", 2016. Graphite on paper 22 3/4 x 30 inches Robyn O'Neil, "The Husband Cathedral", 2016. Graphite on paper 34 1/8 x 60 1/4 inches Robyn O'Neil, "The Mercy Quartet", 2016. Graphite on paper 34 1/8 x 60 inches Robyn O'Neil, "Studies in Suffocation I", 2016. Graphite on paper 60 1/4 x 66 inches Robyn O'Neil, "Studies in Suffocation II", 2016. Graphite on paper 60 1/4 x 66 3/16 inches Robyn O'Neil, "Government Bureau (after Tooker)", 2016. Graphite on paper 22 3/4 x 30 inches Robyn O'Neil, "These Moments", 2016. Graphite on paper 10 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches Robyn O'Neil, "The Five Echoes", 2016. Graphite on paper 15" x 12 1/8 inches Robyn O'Neil, "Ultralight Beam Terzetto", 2016. Graphite on paper 41 1⁄2 x 63 inches

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 6th and final study session on Gwen Ifill's 2009 bestseller, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. A pioneering journalist and anchor at PBS, Ifill, 61, died from cancer in November of 2016. Ifill was one of the lone black female mainstream journalists, and she consistently highlighted Racism during her journalism career. In fact, White Supremacy likely contributed to her passing at such a young age. During last week's session, Ifill analyzed Obama's 2008 tightrope navigation of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's fiery sermon. Tellingly, the president used the jargon of racial "progress" to rebuke Rev. Wright as someone who failed to concede how much things have "improved" for Victims of Racism. Peddling the "racial progress" of the country has been a staple talking point during Obama's tenure in the White House. Ifill also detailed former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. She discussed an incident where Patrick was racially attacked by a group of Whites. Ifill failed to include Patrick's commentary on the incident: "The worst that happened was that someone, a couple people, threw their cigarette butts at me. Nobody actually hit me, but you still feel wounded. And if you're not real careful, you can feel ashamed too... . You feel ashamed of who you are -- and what you are -- which is a disaster." Listeners should contrast Ifill's presentation of Racism with the pending Trump Administration. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943#

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the weekly Compensatory Call-In. We encourage non-white listeners to dial in with their codified concepts, new terms, observations, research findings, workplace problems or triumphs, and/or suggestions on how best to Replace White Supremacy With Justice ASAP. We'll use these sessions to hone our use of words as tools to reveal truth, neutralize White people. We'll examine news reports from the past seven days and - hopefully - promote a constructive dialog. #ANTIBLACKNESS A week after capturing the White House, President-elect Donald J. Trump began constructing his cabinet and staff members. Breitbart.com executive Stephen Bannon was named chief White House strategist. Senator Harry Reid, among many, lambasted the choice, denouncing Bannon as a "champion of white supremacists." A Washington Post report attempted to convince readers that Bannon is not a resurrection of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbells. The global ramifications of Trump's victory are still being determined, but Canadians report a spike in Americans seeking political asylum as well as a rise in violent Racist attacks in Canada. Black children in Michael Brown Jr.'s Missouri publicized allegations of numerous Racist attacks and organized a classroom walkout to protest conditions. NBA champion LeBron James accused New York Knicks general manager Phil Jackson of racially disparaging his childhood friends and business partners because they are black. Jackson branded James' comrades a "posse." Tellingly, In his 2004 book, Jackson used the same term to describe James' black colleagues. #AnswersForMiriamCarey INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the weekly Compensatory Call-In. We encourage non-white listeners to dial in with their codified concepts, new terms, observations, research findings, workplace problems or triumphs, and/or suggestions on how best to Replace White Supremacy With Justice ASAP. We'll use these sessions to hone our use of words as tools to reveal truth, neutralize White people. We'll examine news reports from the past seven days and - hopefully - promote a constructive dialog. #ANTIBLACKNESS The 2016 vice presidential debate was held in Prince Edward County, Virginia. Tellingly, this is the same town where Whites intentionally closed their schools for five years to keep black children away from White kids. Continuing the pattern, Sunday's pending debate between Hillary R. Clinton and Donald J. Trump will take place in St. Louis, Missouri; the candidates will spar down the road from where Michael Brown Jr. was killed by Ferguson police. The drama won't be restricted to politics, as Nate Parker and Ava DuVernay each have new films addressing Racism premiering this week. Parker's The Birth Of A Nation hits the silver screen after months spent thrashing the actor and filmmaker for rape accusations nearly two decades old. DuVernay's acclaimed film, 13th, deconstructs how slavery has been refined, not abolished. Her film makes known how decades of deliberately Racist laws have caged generations of black people. The political performances, box office debuts and the launch of Luke Cage obscured the destruction Hurricane Matthew delivered in Haiti. More than 200 have been reported dead on the island still being punished by the global White minority for Haitian Revolution. #RacismIsNotAPrivilege INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the 4th study session on Sam Greenlee's 1969 timeless novel, The Spook Who Sat By The Door. The bestseller was modified into a major motion picture in 1973 and remains an acclaimed critique of Racism. Greenlee died in 2014. The main character, Dan Freeman, becomes the first black agent at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Freeman acquires as much knowledge as possible in order to transfer that intelligence to terrorized black people so that they can organize a counter-violence offensive against White Supremacy. Last week's session stressed how members of the Cobras, a black Chicago gang, became motivated scholars. Freeman articulates his rage about the waste of black genius that White Supremacy guarantees. Freeman also demands that the Cobras follow logic and knowledge as opposed to worshiping an individual; his reasoning sounds identical to Mr. Neely Fuller's concept of "united, independent" codification. Tellingly, Greenlee's band of counter-racists camafloug their militant intentions by adhering to commonly held Racist notions - that black people are drug fiends ands morons. We'll remain mindful of how anti-blackness is reflected in the text and we'll identify differences between the book and the film. #RacismIsNotAPrivilege INVEST in The COWS - http://paypal.me/GusTRenegade CALL IN NUMBER: 641.715.3640 CODE 564943# The C.O.W.S. archives: http://tiny.cc/76f6p

20 years ago, four dying people were able to access the Northern Territory’s world-first law to help them die more mercifully, before the law itself was extinguished. By the end of 2016, over 100 million people on three continents will be able to access such laws – the most recent places to adopt them being America’s most populous state, California, and Canada. Since that Northern Territory law was overturned in 1997, nearly 30 attempts to create a new one here in Australia have failed. But as the tide of history turns in favour of assisted dying, how much longer can our politicians continue to ignore the call for change? Bob Hawke, left, and Heather Bell — Photo credits: Bob Hawke by Eva Rinaldi (CC-BY-SA); Heather Bell, supplied The old arguments that have held such sway – about the elderly and the vulnerable being unsafe under these laws – no longer hold. Over a decade of experience in Europe, and nearly two decades in America, have shown us that the safeguards do work: that good laws can be created to help the few, and protect the many. In this final episode, drawing on what has worked best overseas, I’m going to tell you what I think that law for assisted dying in Australia should look like. Plus, we’ll hear from two significant stakeholders who both support a change in our law. One, a former Prime Minister. The other, the one major medical body that does officially support assisted dying. Tellingly, they’re the ones who see the suffering of patients every day and up close – the nurses.   'I think it is absurd that euthanasia is not legal within this country. It doesn't meet any requirements of morality or good sense.' Former Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke Please note: this podcast is not about suicide. If you are interested in increasing your understanding of suicide and how to support someone experiencing suicidal ideation, visit the Conversations Matter or beyondblue websites.If you (or someone you know) require immediate assistance, contact one of the following 24/7 crisis support services: Lifeline (13 11 14), Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), MensLine (1300 78 99 78), beyondblue (1300 22 4636), Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800) or eheadspace (1800 650 890). Hear more Embed player Listen Better Off Dead: Interview with Richard Di Natale In March 2016, Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale put forward a bill, co-sponsored by representatives from all the major parties, aimed at restoring the right of the Northern Territory, ACT and Norfolk Island to legislate for voluntary euthanasia. Here, he discusses the reasoning behind the bill – and the tactics required to create political change on this issue in Australia. Know more Video: 'Q&A: Facing Death' – Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 9 November 2015 Article: 'Bob Hawke calls for euthanasia to be made legal in Australia', by Calla Wahlquist – Guardian, 12 April 2016 Podcast episode: 'Andrew Denton asks, can Australia legislate for better death?' – Conversations with Richard Fidler, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 23 February 2016 Research paper: 'How should Australia regulate voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide?', by Ben White and Lindy Willmott – Australia21, November 2012 Essay: 'The right to die or the right to kill?: The argument against euthanasia', by Karen Hitchcock – The Monthly, December 2015–January 2016 Letter: In response to Karen Hitchcock's article (above), by Ian Maddocks – The Monthly, February 2016 Opinion: 'Assisted dying: the difficult conversation we need to have', by Ian McPhee – Age, 2 February 2016 Video: 'Andrew Denton has a new lease on death' – from Sunrise, Yahoo!7, 22 February 2016 Article: 'Medically assisted death weeks away in Canada', by Susan Delacourt – ABC News, 2 March 2016 Article: 'Push to restore voluntary euthanasia in NT, ACT and Norfolk Island', by Helen Davidson – Guardian, 1 March 2016 Speech: 'Voluntary Euthanasia', by Andrew Leigh MP – as spoken in House of Representatives, Parliament of Australia, 17 August 2015 In this episode Bob Hawke Doctors: Cathy, Vic, Andrew, Sarah and Paul Coral Levett Karen Hitchcock Heather Bell Richard Chye Leigh Dolin Michael Williams Marshall Perron Nancy Elliott Paul Russell Liz Our theme music was composed by Zig Zag Lane for Zapruder's Other Films, and edited by Jon Tjhia. Music used in this episode includes 'Hope There's Someone' (Antony and the Johnsons), 'Death Don't Have No Mercy' (Reverend Gary Davis), 'Further On (Up the Road)' (Johnny Cash), 'Into My Arms' (Nick Cave), 'Underneath the Stars' (Kate Rusby), 'The Parting Glass' (The Wailin' Jennys) and 'Forty-Eight Angels' (Paul Kelly). Your stories If you're suffering, or someone you love has died badly – in a hospital, in palliative care, in a nursing home, or at home – add your voice and tell your story here. Further information Better Off Dead is produced by Thought Fox and the Wheeler Centre. Executive producers Andrew Denton and Michael Williams. Producer and researcher Bronwen Reid. For Better Off Dead, the Wheeler Centre team includes Director Michael Williams, Head of Programming Emily Sexton, Head of Marketing and Communications Emily Harms, Projects Producer Amita Kirpalani and Digital Manager Jon Tjhia. Editing and mix on this episode is by Martin Peralta. Additional editing by Bec Fary and Jon Tjhia. Thank you Thanks to Paul Kelly and Sony ATV for the use of his song ‘Forty Eight Angels’. The series Subscribe in iTunes, or your favourite podcast app. #betteroffdeadpod Better Off Dead is produced by Thought Fox in partnership with the Wheeler Centre. It is written and created by Andrew Denton for Thought Fox.

There are lots of criticisms of free trade agreements, especially the fact that they go far beyond "free trade" — but the Trans-Pacific Partnership truly takes the cake. This week, we're joined by Maira Sutton, the EFF's Global Policy Analyst, to discuss the many problems with the TPP. Tellingly, this episode is nearly twice as long as usual.

Every day, we experience thoughts and impulses that bring about a sense of joy, creativity, and inspiration.    We want to move in the direction of these desires, be guided by them, because these are the soul's expression. This is the emergence of your higher vision.   But then you're stopped short by fear.   Yes, there is healthy, protective fear: the kind that makes you pull off the road when you sense dangerous driving conditions ahead.   But the kind of fear that stops you from coming into alignment with your higher self, stops you from saying "yes" to your Yes ...this fear prevents you from moving the edge of your own self-concept.   Fear and its cousins: struggle, anxiety - even frustration and anger - come upon you like an electric fence. The more energy you put into moving in the direction of your desires in the "greener pastures" beyond the fenceline of your current state, the more energy you'll have to put into protecting yourself from this terrifying, painful threshold.    Until you break down.   Tellingly, this is just when most of our breakthroughs occur, and the reason is that those limits must be broken through in order to grow into our fuller selves.   So, how do we live in a world in which fear is a regular occurrence that's never going away?   The end of fear comes at beginning of our understanding what fear is.   Every poker player has something called a "tell." This is the twitch or quirk, change in body language or tone of voice or focus of the eyes, some signal that lets other players have an idea what you've got in your hand.   Fear is your ego's "tell." It's your personal twitch or quirk that signals you are coming up against your ego's limited self-concept. Your old, limited way of being is cracking open, breaking down, and giving way to something much bigger, bolder, and better.   Listen to "The End of Fear" now to recognize what your fear is really signalling, to end your fear of fear, and to transmute your fear into excitement about what is about to emerge in your new life of unstoppable courage and confidence!

A recent government survey shows that in 2003 13% of those who wed were age 45 and older.  Tellingly, Newsweek retracted its much touted claim about women over 40 having a better chance of being killed by a terrorist than getting married. I am waaay over 45 and I’m getting married this week!  Here’s our story…

“God is everywhere; in the lampshade and in the worn, brown carpet.” Phillip RosenbergIn Memories, Dreams, Reflections, C.G. Jung describes his decision to discover the myth that he was living. Tellingly, the title of the chapter is “Confrontation with the Unconscious” and Jung explains that he didn’t even know how to approach the question. He writes, “I said to myself, since I know nothing at all, I shall simply do whatever occurs to me.”In Jung’s case, this meant tending his dreams, painting, and working with stone, but many forms of creative work, like writing poetry, invite a meaningful dialogue with the mythic dimension.In honor of National Poetry month, I asked local songwriter and poet Phillip Rosenberg to talk about the experience of writing his book Raised in the Shadow.In this program we use Phillip’s experience and poetry to explore these questions:How is writing poetry a way of knowing self and world?How does/can writing poetry lead to the creation (or discovery) of personally meaningful images?For more information about the songs and poetry of Phillip Rosenberg (aka Rags and Bones) visit: http://www.ragsandbonesmusic.com/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/mythmatterspodcast)

No matter its shifting place in the wider world, the United States is still the only home of "The American Dream." That's why millions of legal and illegal immigrants flock to its shores, the latter gambling against increasingly longer odds to reach a new home fraught with risks.  It's that reality that prompted filmmaker Diego Quemada-Díez to title his award-winning debut feature film"La Jaula De Oro”—“The Golden Cage." The Spanish-born Mexican director garnered three awards at the Cannes Film Festival for his tale of four Latin American teenagers struggling to come to America. Through his film, Quemada-Díez raises powerful and timely issues dealing including the plight of child migrants, such as those which flooded the U.S. last year and sparked a political storm. The film is critical of U.S. government policy, particularly the circumstances created by its economic and political interventions in Latin America. It also examines the impact of prohibitive immigration  and drug laws. It is the most awarded film in Mexican history, winning more than 60 different accolades from around the world.  "The Golden Cage" will debut for American audiences this summer on HBO. Tellingly, Hollywood has rebranded it as "The Golden Dream."   

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actor, Damian Lewis. As part of the wave of British talent that's crashed onto America's shores in recent years his impact has made a deep impression on the creative landscape. His role as Sergeant Brodie in Homeland saw him win both an Emmy and Golden Globe and along with Band of Brothers, The Forsyte Saga and a long list of other credits, he now ranks as one of our most well recognised and highly regarded performers. Things didn't always look so peachy: aged 11, and in the school production of Princess Ida, he forgot the entire third act and stood mute in front of a packed auditorium. Tellingly, rather than scuttling into the wings with shame he soldiered on and by 16 he knew performing was, more than anything, what he wanted to do. He says, "I am a person who is ambitious. I'm ambitious to get the very best from every moment and even if that's just taking my children to the zoo ... I want it to be the best it can be.".

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actor, Damian Lewis. As part of the wave of British talent that's crashed onto America's shores in recent years his impact has made a deep impression on the creative landscape. His role as Sergeant Brodie in Homeland saw him win both an Emmy and Golden Globe and along with Band of Brothers, The Forsyte Saga and a long list of other credits, he now ranks as one of our most well recognised and highly regarded performers. Things didn't always look so peachy: aged 11, and in the school production of Princess Ida, he forgot the entire third act and stood mute in front of a packed auditorium. Tellingly, rather than scuttling into the wings with shame he soldiered on and by 16 he knew performing was, more than anything, what he wanted to do. He says, "I am a person who is ambitious. I'm ambitious to get the very best from every moment and even if that's just taking my children to the zoo ... I want it to be the best it can be.".

Matt Sergiou is a researcher who looks into evidence of the Hidden Hand in the entertainment industry, and particularly in the world of music, through his blog site Conspiro Media. He rejoins Mark Devlin for a second conversation which starts by questioning many of the esoteric elements of Pink Floyd and their music over the decades, including the strange business of frontman Syd Barrett's apparent descent into madness.We move on to the California hippie commune of Laurel Canyon, the creative breeding ground for a staggering number of artists who came to shape the late 60s 'counter culture' scene. Tellingly, almost all come from family backgrounds linked to the CIA, or the US military industrial complex, and there are some sinister links with the grisly Manson Family murders of 1969.This is the first of a two-part conversation. Come back soon for part two, focusing on a couple of notable contemporary artists.In the meantime, Matt has penned an article specifically to accompany this podcast, going further into the apparent madness (or not) of Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett. Catch that here:http://conspirarextra.weebly.com/syd-barrett---ultra-diamond.html

Matt Sergiou is a researcher who looks into evidence of the Hidden Hand in the entertainment industry, and particularly in the world of music, through his blog site Conspiro Media. He rejoins Mark Devlin for a second conversation which starts by questioning many of the esoteric elements of Pink Floyd and their music over the decades, including the strange business of frontman Syd Barrett's apparent descent into madness.We move on to the California hippie commune of Laurel Canyon, the creative breeding ground for a staggering number of artists who came to shape the late 60s 'counter culture' scene. Tellingly, almost all come from family backgrounds linked to the CIA, or the US military industrial complex, and there are some sinister links with the grisly Manson Family murders of 1969.This is the first of a two-part conversation. Come back soon for part two, focusing on a couple of notable contemporary artists.In the meantime, Matt has penned an article specifically to accompany this podcast, going further into the apparent madness (or not) of Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett. Catch that here:http://conspirarextra.weebly.com/syd-barrett---ultra-diamond.html

TRANSCRIPT As we get closer and closer to the midterm elections, the long knives are coming out on the Left, looking for any way to paint conservatives as nutjobs. It's been going on for awhile already, with painting concerned parents as "domestic terrorists" for caring about their childrens' classroom instruction. Likewise, labeling anyone in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 as "insurrectionists" keeps the narrative of "crazy" going. Hate illegal immigration? You're a xenophobe or racist. Popping off about gas prices? You're too unsophisticated to realize it's Donald Trump's fault. Inflation and supply chain shortages? You're too stupid to realize it's only temporary and not really that big a deal. The only response the Left can muster in the face of things collapsing is, "You're crazy." That is why, in the past couple weeks, we've started to see attacks on religion starting to take center stage — specifically, focus pieces in The New York Times and The Washington Post zeroing in on the increasing involvement of Christians in the political process. The "Jesus movement" is what The New York Times sneeringly labels it. But while insulting political conservatives over their economic policy preferences (and what could loosely be called "America first" worldview) is uncalled for, the label of crazy Christian might get some traction. Why? Inevitably, when the leftist media strike out at Christianity, it's fundamentalism or conservative evangelicalism they are shining the spotlight on. The stories or articles always seem to revolve around the emotion-driven version of Protestantism and, truth be told, it is whacky. Protestants have always gotten Scripture wrong. Claims that Donald Trump is messianic or approaching some kind of savior status might be well intentioned, but they are poorly reasoned. And, at least partially, they find their roots in a faulty understanding of Sacred Scripture — something that has fueled the Protestant heresy since the revolution back in the 16th century. Fundamentalists are convinced that Israel must be allied to the United States so that the Temple can be rebuilt and Christ can return. They incorrectly associate modern Israel with Old Testament Israel. They have absolutely nothing to do with each other — other than their geographical location. Likewise, the Temple does not need to be rebuilt in order for Christ to return. Protestants, because of the heresy, have always gotten Scripture wrong overall and here too, again. What their notions about Israel and America's role in the world do is feed the Left's narrative that Christians really are crazy. Most journalists know nothing about religion because they are, almost to a man, atheist, gay or communist (or pick your poison). So they look at the "Jesus movement" and think, incorrectly, that that is Christianity when, in reality, they couldn't be more wrong. That is, at best, flawed or incomplete or insufficient Christianity and, in some cases, not Christianity at all. The fact that some moral teachings happen to align with authentic Christianity does not make it Christian. And (being very clear) authentic Christianity is Catholicism and only Catholicism. And, here, we are talking about Catholicism and Protestantism, not, repeat, not, individual Catholics (some of whom are rotten to the core) and individual Protestants (some of whom are wonderful, caring people). But the media delights in taking a caricature of Christianity and proposing it is the real deal and then, ascribing a high degree of insanity to it. With that firmly in place, the media then go on to smear all conservative politicos as nutty because their followers are nutty. What's interesting in all this is that almost nowhere in the ongoing narrative are liberal Protestants brought into the picture. Tellingly, Catholics are also never brought up. The reason, of course, is that all visible high-profile Catholics (most of whom don't know bupkes about the Faith) and liberal Protestants share what amounts to the same values as the media — or close enough. They wouldn't know morality, in most cases, if it smacked them in the face. Fundamentalist Protestantism is crazy and can provide zero for defending the country. The sad reality is that, when America was reshaping itself immediately in the aftermath of the Second World War, Catholics had a chance, a small window, to step into the forefront and lead the country to a place of righteousness. But the American hierarchy was, in many ways, already on the way to selling out — exchanging the Faith to become "Americans." So when America changed for the worse, so too did the Church, whose leaders had previously thrown their lot in with prevailing culture. What would have been a somewhat-easy fight to save the nation has now become a fight to the death, and the odds don't look all that good. Nevertheless, today's generation of faithful Catholics — what few young there are among them — must now stand up and be counted. As is usual when it is dark and there seems little hope left, if there is to be salvation, it always comes from the least-anticipated quarters. Praise and worship nonsense, rightly mocked by the Left, will not provide the necessary refuge or intellectual firepower. It must be Catholic — with no exception. The Left is unhinged. Fundamentalist Protestantism is crazy and can provide zero in terms of defending whatever actually remains of the country. For those counting themselves or styling themselves as America first, that's only true naturally. It's actually faith first, supernaturally. Take care of the supernatural, and everything else falls into place. This is easily understandable, and the opposite is also true. Fail at the supernatural and your country falls apart. Faith comes first, and that means the Catholic Faith.