Miles Schneiderman – Maintaining Real Relationships in the Digital World

I use Facebook every day, multiple times a day. It’s such an automatic activity at this point that I couldn’t even guess at an exact count. With the app for my phone, I can check Facebook as easily as I check the time. When I log in, my eyes dart to the small red number in the upper right-hand corner …

Ted Rall – Do Not Be Impressed by Mark Zuckerberg’s Phony Generosity

CEO Mark Zuckerberg promises to give 99% of his Facebook shares to charity — eventually. Exact phrasing: the stock, currently worth $45 billion, will be donated “during [he and his wife’s] lives.” He’s 31 and she’s 30, so actuarial tables being what they are, by approximately the year 2065. If Facebook or the Internet or the earth still exist. Whoop de doo. …

Emily Schwartz Greco – A Big Fat Radioactive Lie

Not long ago, no billionaire worth his cufflinks would be caught dead without hurling bales of money at our nation’s educational system. They bankrolled charter schools, high-stakes testing, and the splintering of big high schools into smaller academies. Their failure to make American kids learn more scuffed the luster on this enduring philanthropic fad. Billionaires have landed, therefore, on a …

Sarah Lazare – Zuckerberg’s Facebook Giveaway: ‘Charity’ or Tax-Dodging Scheme?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, attracted attention and praise when they announced Tuesday they plan to “give” 99 percent of their Facebook shares—worth roughly $45 billion—to the causes of “advancing human potential and promoting equality.” However, there is a key problem with the declaration, unrolled in a public letter to the couple’s newborn child. The couple …

Steven Rosenfeld – 6 Noxious Facts About America’s Billionaires

When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that he will give away 99 percent of his personal fortune—now estimated at $44 billion—during his lifetime, he was lauded in newspapers and TV broadcasts from coast to coast. But few people noted [3] that giving away his billions will still leave Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan and newborn daughter Max, with at …

Black Agenda Radio – 11.30.15

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective.

– A bill is moving through the U.S. House and Senate that would retroactively shorten sentences for crack cocaine possession and, its backers claim, substantially roll back mandatory minimum sentences for other crimes. The Sentencing Act is supported by the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union. However, the National Urban League and Families Against Mandatory Minimums have refused to sign off on the legislation, which actually expands the list of crimes subject to mandatory minimum sentencing, including gun possession and crimes of domestic violence. Listen to Julie Stewart, who is President of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

– Funds are being raised for a new documentary film on the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, with a focus on the late Panther leader, Huey P. Newton, and other Party founders, in Oakland, California. The project is headed up by David Hilliard, a former Panther chief of staff. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Dante James will direct the movie. Both James and Hilliard have been critical of the film “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” directed by Stanley Nelson Jr. and distributed by PBS. Dante talked to us about the difference between the two films.

– Trial has begun for the first of six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, last April, a homicide that set off a rebellion in the majority Black city. Baltimore is also the headquarters for the Real News Network, which held a fascinating discussion of the legal ramifications of the trial. Real News host Stephen Janis interviewed former Baltimore homicide detective Stephen Tabeling, who has a history of investigating cases of police use of deadly force, and Maryland Delegate Jill Carter, the most radical member of the state legislature, who hails from a civil rights family, and is also a defense attorney. Carter told the Real News why she’s worried about getting justice for Freddie Gray.

Love Lust And Laughter – 11.17.15

Mali Apple and Joe Dunn are relationship coaches, lovers, best friends, and authors of award-winning books The Soulmate Experience: A Practical Guide to Creating Extraordinary Relationships – and the newly released sequel The Soulmate Lover: A Guide to Passionate and Lasting Love, Sex and Intimacy. Dr. Diana and this dynamic couple discussed sexual healing…how couples can transform sexual concerns and challenges into deeper intimacy. Lingering issues from the past can impact the ability for vulnerability and reciprocity. For more, visit www.thesoulmateexperience.com where you can see Joe and Mali interacting on videos and get information about their books. They will return for Part 2 December 8th.

Vandana Shiva – West’s ‘fail-anthropy’

In 2008, before the climate summit in Copenhagen, I wrote the book Soil Not Oil. It was a time when the intimate connections between climate and agriculture, air and soil were not being recognised in any forum, neither in the negotiations on climate change nor in the climate movement. As we head into the Conference of the Parties (COP) 21 …

Christy Rodgers – The Browning of the World: Blame the Greed of the Rich

There are a lot of seemingly disparate things happening at various levels of scale in the world outside my window these days. But there is one color that describes them more than any other. My world is browning. As deserts grow and forests shrink, as smog, soot and dust clouds fill the skies horizon to horizon, as average heat levels …