Chris Hedges’ Commencement Address: Integrity Forged in Cages

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

Nigrotime on May 21, 2019

On May 10, 2019, Chris Hedges gave this talk to 27 graduating students who were formerly incarcerated—several of whom he taught in prison—and their families at Rutgers University on Friday. The ceremony was held by the Mountainview Program at Rutgers, which helps students complete their degrees at Rutgers after they take college courses inside prisons through the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons Consortium (NJ-STEP) program.

Memorial Day Myths by David Swanson

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
Originally published May 30, 2018
May 27, 2019

“Memorial Day is a time to remember, appreciate, and honor the selfless patriots who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to freedom. At a time when our country seems so divided, we must not forget that it is because of their service and sacrifice that we live in the most free and prosperous nation on Earth.” —Congressman Tom Garrett

Who Among the Contented Classes Will Unfurl the Flag of Rebellion Against the Plutocrats and the Autocrats? by Ralph Nader

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Dandelion Salad

Updated: May 22, 2019

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page, May 9, 2019
May 21, 2019

For all the rhetoric and all the charities regarding America’s children, the U.S. stands at the very bottom of western nations and some other countries as well, in terms of youth well-being. The U.S.’s exceptionalism is clearest in its cruelty to children. The U.S. has the highest infant mortality rate of comparable OECD countries. Not only that, but 2.5 million American children are homeless and 16.2 million children “lack the means to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis.”

Abby Martin and Peter Phillips: Corporations Rule the World

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Dandelion Salad

with Abby Martin and Peter Phillips

Empire Files on Apr 13, 2019

Abby Martin sits down with Peter Phillips, former director of Project Censored and professor of Political Sociology at Sonoma State University. His new book, Giants: The Global Power Elite details the 17 transnational investment firms which control over $50 trillion in wealth—and how they are kept in power by their activists, facilitators and protectors.

Thirty-One Actual National Emergencies by Paul Street

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by Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Official Website of Paul Street
February 18, 2019

A Wannabe Strongman’s Brown Menace Straw Man

Everyone with five functioning gray cells knows that the aspiring fascist strongman Donald Trump’s Declaration of a National Emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border is absurd.

There is no “national security crisis” of illegal immigration on the southern United States border.

Caleb Maupin: MLK Day Challenge to Right-Wing Anti-Socialists + Martin Luther King Was A Socialist!

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with Caleb Maupin
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Caleb Maupin (website)
Caleb Maupin (Facebook Page)
January 17, 2019

Caleb Maupin on Jan 15, 2019

“Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., May, 1965

Will Griffin: Michael Parenti’s The Face of Imperialism

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With Will Griffin
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Peace Report
January 14, 2019

Many content creators on YouTube produce collaborative content. Finally, I’m producing my first collaborative piece. For the past 2 weeks I’ve worked with the YouTuber Radical Reviewer (RR) who reviews leftist literature. I find his YouTube channel very important. If you can’t read an entire book, the least we can do is watch a video on the topic. Although reading a book is the best option for learning, watching videos helps save time and money. Also, if the video review is done well it could prompt someone to actually read the book!

Chris Hedges and Charlie LeDuff: Shitshow: The Country’s Collapsing and the Ratings Are Great

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Jan 12, 2019

Societies are held together by a web of social bonds that give individuals a sense of being part of a collective and engaged in a project larger than the self. The shattering of these bonds plunges individuals into deep psychological distress that leads ultimately to acts of self-annihilation, according to sociologist Emile Durkheim. Few reporters have examined this anomie better than Charlie LeDuff, first in his book Detroit, and now in his latest book Shitshow: The Country’s Collapsing and the Ratings Are Great. LeDuff joins Chris Hedges in the studio.

Happy New Year! The Radical MLK by The Anti-Social Socialist

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Happy New Year!

“I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic. And yet I am not so opposed to capitalism that I have failed to see its relative merits. It started out with a noble and high motive, viz, to block the trade monopolies of nobles, but like most human systems it fell victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.” — Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter to Coretta Scott, 1952

Rev. Chris Hedges: Christmas, Charity, Anti-Empire and the Revolutionary Jesus

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Dandelion Salad

Originally published Dec. 24, 2014

with Chris Hedges

TheRealNews on Dec 24, 2014

Rev. Chris Hedges and Rev. David Bullock discuss the real meaning of Christmas with Paul Jay.

MFTN: Shopping as an Act of Resistance

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The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published December 1, 2013
December 6, 2018

The holidays are at hand. Boycott Season is in effect. As the snow starts to fall, the commercial war of the season asserts its dominance. Our identities as citizens are quickly buried in a blizzard of advertising that defines us as consumers.

The USA: A Vast Sea of Fable, Deception, Ideological Selection and Flat-Out Propagandistic Falsification by Paul Street

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by Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Official Website of Paul Street
October 28, 2018

Four days ago [Aug. 1, 2018], The Washington Post reported that the epic pathological liar Donald Trump made 4,229 false statements during his first 558 days as United States president. Trump spoke or tweeted falsely, on average, an astonishing 7.6 times per day during that time.

To the US Churches: Be Moved With Compassion Like Christ by Shawn S. Grandstaff

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by Shawn S. Grandstaff
Writer, Dandelion Salad
October 9, 2018

This is me on my soap box to people who want to Christianize government. I’m all about calling down the darkness and rolling over it with the kingdom of God. How did Christ defeat the kingdoms of this world? It’s very powerful and deep when you understand it. He built his kingdom by laying his life down for us instead of taking it up. He was showing us what his kingdom looks like and how it’s different than this world. It was upside down to them but in the Book of Acts the church was starting to turn it right side up. That doesn’t mean we’re sitting idly by just letting the world walk on us. What I believe it means we take a stand for life calling out that which is taking it. Showing people our love for what’s created in God’s image and likeness. We will win their souls in the process.

Chris Hedges: Digital Monitoring Of The Poor

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Oct 6, 2018

Author, Virginia Eubanks, explains to Chris Hedges how the goals of Victorian-era poorhouses have evolved with 21st Century high-tech to exert control and surveillance of needy, poor and homeless people. Eubanks is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University Albany, SUNY. She is the author of Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor.

Meet the One Percent: Peter Phillips’ Giants: The Global Power Elite by Marc Eliot Stein

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Dandelion Salad

Republished with permission from David Swanson at World Beyond War

by Marc Eliot Stein
World Beyond War, Aug. 25, 2018
August 26, 2018

Peter Phillips, professor of Political Sociology at Sonoma State University and media researcher for Project Censored and Media Freedom Foundation, presented a summary of his groundbreaking new book Giants: The Global Power Elite last week at Fordham University’s campus in Manhattan. This was an information-packed session that explained the unique purpose of this new book: exposing to public view the private workings of the influential investment partnerships, global councils, think tanks, consortiums and other non-governmental organizations that translate the agenda of the wealthy one-percent into policy plans and proposals that the most powerful governments in the world can act on.