Letting a Russian firm owned by Putin's Son Dimitri handle security at our Embassy in Moskow?

Rachel makes a litany of good points starting at the 19:50 to 20 minute mark.

Around 21:20 ...

It's not just what they did back then. It's happening right now.

A good friend of mine sat me down and spoke with me for 2 hours this weekend and helped me understand how my own personal bullshit affects and hurts my overall effectiveness sometimes. He told me "You do it with Love" and I realize that much of what I do is often throw rhetorical darts under the misguided notion that this will shock others into realization, when all it really does is hurt their feelings. So this week I am just sleep walking, stunned by the truth of what my friend was trying to help me understand. I would call it an epiphany, but it's not something that is instantaneous. It's more like a slowly moving crescendo, where every day brings a new realization. Suddenly I have a better grasp of how the issues in my past are guiding and directing my responses to certain situations in a very non beneficial manner.

At the same time I am overwhelmed by the love. A true friend is willing to sit down with you for 2 hours and help you understand. It makes me appreciate the people who are good in my life.

Greg Popovich is the long time head coach of the San Antonio Spurs since 1998. He is very intelligent and has a way of being convincing when he speaks, in addition to being an easy add to the NBA Hall of Fame after having an incredible run over the last 20 years in San Antonio.

"It's beyond egregious to think about, first of all, how many Americans are in jail in the first place; mostly drug-related, more than anybody in the world. Far more than anybody in the world as far as civilized countries. So that's both unacceptable and embarrassing as a nation. We think that we're exceptional, and in many ways we are. But that's one that we're exceptional in the wrong way. Beyond that, a lot of that incarceration happens to people of color. So it's just an egregious situation. To be there for 15 or 20 or 25 years, being wrongly accused of whatever it might be – rape or murder or whatever the offense – that's mind-boggling. I can't even put my head around that. I don't know how the guys that I've met, I don't know how they've kept their patience and kept their emotions in check, and how they didn't go absolutely crazy knowing that they were innocent and sitting there. So the project is an unbelievable benefit to the people in this country, and everyone should understand what the Innocence Project does, and how some people have been treated. Because it's just beyond the pale, it's just inconceivable."

[SOURCE: Michael C. Wright  | ESPN | 23 October 2017]

I love people who are direct and honest, in your face, telling you straight up how they feel and what they think. Mainly because I am the same way myself. But alas we live in a world of fucked up people carrying baggage in their psyche for years, or still suffering from some disruption in either the level of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human psychological needs or (probably more relevant) Erik Erikson's Pychosocial stages of development

So when you are lacking in one of these levels, or when you have issues with any of the pyscho-social issues, this continues into your life as you age, and affects the way you perceive and interact with other human beings.

Every now and then you have to experience negative and irrational human behavior that you might feel is disrespectful or antagonistic towards your person. In the short term this might make you upset or angry, but in the long term, the best way to handle these matters is to rise above and try to better understand where the other person is coming from. Maybe they are correct in their assessment, and it is you that needs to realize the errors of your ways. Maybe not. But never let someone else's issues scar your consciousness over the long term. If you are fair and sure that whatever happened is largely not a result of what you did, if you remove the areas in which you could have handled the situation better, than the rest of your approach should immediately understand that the other human being is just having issues that they cannot resolve except by acting the way they do. Meditate and ponder on this understanding for as long as necessary. Holding grudges, pursuing blame, or demeaning other people behind their back is completely ineffective and merely reduces your capacity to evolve by distracting you with irreconcilable attempts at salvaging your wounded ego. Almost all of the time it's just better to move on and accept both you and the other person's imperfections.

Lee Camp tells it like it is. The corporate media always focuses on the benevolent corner of the dysfunctional cancer that is financial corporatocracy.

The truth is that Puerto Rico became a colonial possession of the financiers and large corporations when it was taken in the Spanish American War of 1898 ... because ... well you know, freedom of course. That's why Puerto Rico is still not a state, has no representation in Congress, has been a tax haven for decades, and actually has a law passed by Congress from 1984 that makes bankruptcy illegal. Unlike Hawaii -- which was incidentally the first colonial possession of the United States that did not arise from war or treaty with another foreign power.

Hawaii was possessed in 1893 by a rump group of Americans who asked the United States to protect them because other foreign powers were going to corrupt the government of Queen Lili'uokalani and they were all about her safety and protection. Or so claimed the newspapers and the official proclamations.

After her brother's death on January 20, 1891, Liliʻuokalani ascended to the throne and assumed the title on January 29. During her reign, she attempted to draft a new constitution which would restore the power of the monarchy and the voting rights of the economically disenfranchised. Threatened by her attempts to abrogate the Bayonet Constitution, pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrew the monarchy on January 17, 1893. The overthrow was bolstered by the landing of U.S. Marines under John L. Stevens to protect American interests, which rendered the monarchy unable to protect itself.

Because American merchants and financial interests always pre-empt Democracy and national autonomy. These very same people engineered the McKinley campaign, and then orchestrated the Spanish-American War in 1898. You are a fool if you think it really had anything to do with an explosion on the Battleship Maine that was anchored in Havana.

One hundred and 3 years later ....

[SOURCE: Wikipedia]