Program for Sunday, December 15, 2024

The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee

Organized by Fred Whitehead.

Nationwide prisoner’s network

Speakers:

Carl Greer
Briana Dobbs

The local chapter’s page^[1] says:

The Kansas City Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee supports prisoners’ efforts to build their own labor union and organize for their own self-defense against inhumane treatment. We function as a liaison, building bridges between the inside and outside to support prisoners organizing their local chapters. …

MEET US at the UMKC meeting hall, as this is an in-person meeting (but will also have feed on Zoom as usual).

[1] Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee chapter of Kansas City: https://incarceratedworkers.org/branches/kansas-city.

[2] IWOC^[1] main web page: https://incarceratedworkers.org/ . Image attribution: cropped portion from the IWOC web page, fair use assertion.

[2] IWOC^[1] main web page: https://incarceratedworkers.org/ . Image attribution: cropped portion from the IWOC web page, fair use assertion.Program for Sunday, October 27, 2024

The Navalnaya Interview

(Putin, Trump, and Fascism)

MSNBC’s Rachael Maddow interviewed Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader and political prisoner Alexei Navalny.^[1] The program of October 21, 2024 details relationships between Russia’s Vladimir Putin, presidential candidate Donald Trump, and the issue of rising fascism.

After watching the extended interview with Navalnaya^[2], we will discuss issues of fascism, and this important interview. Navalnaya discusses Alexei Navalny’s new memoir, Patriot^[3], just published in October with the assistance of Yulia Navalnaya after Navalny’s death in a Russian prison. “Probably the secret is to be honest with people, to be close to people, to love people, and top believe in what you are doing”–Yulia Navalnaya, on how the Russian dissident maintained his influence, such a contrast to the fascism of Putin and those who wish to be like or follow him.

Then some related passages from Bob Woodward’s latest book War^[4] will be read.

[1] Show, extended interview, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow interviews Yulia Navalnaya, https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/watch-the-full-video-rachel-maddow-interviews-yulia-navalnaya-222333509745.

[2] Video: MSNBC, Rachel Maddow interviews Yulia Navalnaya, YouTube^[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuiVpoM-tmU.

[3] Book: Patriot: A Memoir, Alexei Navalny, 2024, Penguin Random House. Penguin: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/689896/patriot-by-alexei-navalny/. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Memoir-Alexei-Navalny/dp/0593320964.

[4] Book: War, Bob Woodward, October 15, 2024, Simon and Shuster. Simon and Shuster: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/War/Bob-Woodward/9781668052273, Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/War-Bob-Woodward/dp/166805227X.

[5] Image attribution: Extract (crop) from frame from MSNBC, Rachel Maddow interviews Yulia Navalnaya^[2], fair use assertion.

Early voting has started in Kansas and Missouri.

From prior programs: Missouri Constitutional Amendment 7 will prevent local and state elections from using Ranked Choice Voting. A vote of NO will help preserve the ability of local and state elections to use Ranked Choice Voting. A vote of YES, if the amendment passes, will effectively prevent any use of Ranked Choice Voting.^[1] St. Louis presently successfully uses Ranked Choice Voting as an important part of their election process. Our viewers need to understand what their voting choices would mean.

The amendment opens with language supposedly preventing non-citizens from voting:

“Critics painted the proposal as nothing more than ‘ballot candy’ designed to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment and trick voters into signing off on the amendment’s other provision — a ban on ranked-choice voting.

“Marilyn McLeod, president of the League of Women Voters of Missouri, called the proposal a ‘red herring’ at a legislative hearing last month.

“‘It’s already against the law,’ she said.”^[2]

To find information on Kansas City Missouri elections, see KCEB^[3], and for Kansas side see Johnson County Election board^[4] and Wyandotte County Kansas election information^[5].

(Presented for educational purposes.)

[1] Kansas City Star on Missouri Amendment 7: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article294185379.html.

[2] Missouri Independent on Missouri Ammendment 7: https://missouriindependent.com/2024/06/04/already-outlawed-in-missouri-noncitizen-voting-ban-will-appear-on-statewide-ballot/.

[3] Kansas City Election Board, KCEB: https://www.kceb.org/.

[4] Johnson County Kansas Election Board: https://www.jocoelection.org/.

[5] Wyandotte Kansas Voter Information: https://wycovoteskck.gov/.

Program for Sunday, September 22, 2024

OOps! Tarot cards probably weren’t what Ken had in mind^[1]

Card Games and Probability

Presented by Dr. Ken Schmitz.

Randomness in a deck of cards is the basis of structure and play of all card games. In games that take tricks, such as bridge and euchre, local non-random distributions are introduced when the cards are collected for the next play. Discussed are the importance of “careful” card shuffling (7 methods are given). The beauty of the mathematics of card games gives a (very) simple way to accurately determine the distribution of all “hidden” cards around the table. Card games to be discussed are bridge, euchre, and casino blackjack.

[1] Image Credit: Wikipedia: The game of French Tarot is a trick-taking strategy tarot card game played by three to five players, from the 16th century^[2].

By World Web Playing Card Museum – http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks/d00055/d00055.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26020196.

[2] Wikipedia – French Tarrot (a trick taking card game, and you thought “Tarot Cards” were some sort of occult usage): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Tarot. (Oh, there are novelty occult card decks available in America, not suitable for trick taking games.)

Program for Sunday, September 15, 2024

Oppenheimer

An open discussion about the movie

Last week several of us watched “Oppenheimer” movie at Ken’s birthday party (rather than a meeting). (Apologies that we were not able to set up a Zoom meeting at Ken’s party last week. Those of us who attended in person enjoyed the party and most of us stayed to watch the movie in its entirety.)

This week we can discuss the movie, the effects of those events on the world. And our future. Hopefully others in our group have independently seen the movie.

Fair topics for discussion (not an exhaustive list–suggestions only):

The movie itself, does it accurately reflect the events and the modern world.
The dark and foreboding conclusion. Options for peace to circumvent that.
Current state of disarmament talks that “Oppie” worked for.
Our sense of dread in the modern world. How do we deal with that to improve our chances.
Our sense of guilt, in constructing self-destructive high technology environments.
How did the computer and all its ramifications (like “AI”) have roots in these events.

We will be moderating the discussion but feel free to bring your own ideas that relate. Interesting references in^[2], ^[3] footnotes.

[1] Image Credit: Oppenheimer movie, promotional materials. Fair use assertion.

[2] An interesting review of the historical accuracy: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/fact-fiction-and-the-father-of-the-bomb-on-christopher-nolans-oppenheimer/.

[3] Oppenheimer – Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer.

Program for Sunday, September 8, 2024

(No CoR Program — BUT AT 2:00 PM…)

You are invited to Ken Schmitz’ BIRTHDAY and Pizza PARTY–his house (Please RSVP)

(And Ken is playing the movie Oppenheimer, all three hours.)

No official Community of Reason program this Sunday — instead you are invited to Dr. Ken Schmitz’s birthday party!!! Location is east of Raytown, Missouri. Anyone who wants to watch the movie with Ken is welcome, or just party. We will probably have some running commentary, and a bunch of paper cranes.

Theo wanted to honor our long time member and oft presenter Dr. Kenneth Schmitz, and it happens to be his birthday week. Of course the honoree (victim?) is doing some work to make this fun, and also an opportunity for some of his friends to see the movie together, which we can discuss at a later meeting. Special feature of this party is hand made pizzas each person helps assemble. Ken has arranged a large number of ingredients, and Gordon will bring some special diet ingredients (as discussed in his diet talk).

Each of you will prepare your own pizza for the oven, materials will be supplied. Ken has arranged pork sausage, hamburger, bacon, Canadian bacon, olives, jalapenos, anchovies, spinach/kale, diced tomatoes, sauerkraut, two cheeses, two toppings, different types of crusts, and a couple other “standard” ingredients. Gordon and Peggy are arranging ingredients for their new specialty, “Pickle Pizza”, and a small number of handmade cauliflower crusts with no grains for special diets. If you want to bring specific pizza topping ingredients feel welcome, this is part of the experience! (Or bring another dish, but nothing is required except you show up!) Guests may arrive as early as 1 PM, but the movie will play from 2 to 5, it is 3 hours 2 minutes long. We will also prepare pizzas during the movie so feel free to arrive by 2 PM.

Please RSVP to Secretary where you get your meeting announcement, and we will send you an invitation to Ken’s birthday party with specific address and driving directions. (Not putting addresses on the Internet.) Or leave a message at the phone number at the bottom of this page and someone will call you back with information.

Party starts at 2:00 PM (same as the regular CoR meeting time).

Zoom meeting will be running, starting normal time, but just for talking to party guests.

[1] Image Credit: Wikipedia, Birthday Candles: By Ed g2s – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=303792.

Program for Sunday, September 1, 2024

Ranked Choice Voting

“Vote No on Missouri Amendment 7 in the November 2024 Election”

Larry Bradley and Greg Swartz defend ranked choice voting in Missouri.

Larry has previously spoken to Community of Reason about the benefits of ranked choice voting. Greg has been past president of Community of Reason, and is treasurer of their new group, “Preserve Local Elections”.

Larry is a retired U.S. Army Infantry Officer and a resident of Kansas City. He is an advocate of Election Reform, particularly Ranked Choice Voting. He is also an opponent of Missouri Amendment 7 that will be on the Missouri ballot this November because it prevents local governments from using ranked choice voting. He is here today to give his opinion why we should be opponents, too. (Documents supporting his case can be found at ^[2],[3],[4] footnotes. Editor added a presentation given to the Kansas legislature showing broad support across parties for ranked choice voting^[5])

[1] Image Credit: Ranked Choice Voting flyer as promoted by “Preserve Local Elections”. https://vote-no-ranking-ban.org/.

[2] Larry Bradly opinion, Kansas City Star (PDF document): http://www.communityofreasonkc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Jul-26-Opinion-A08.pdf.

[3] Selected Missouri Election Results (PDF document): http://www.communityofreasonkc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Selected-Results-of-MO-Primary-Election-Aug-6-2024.pdf

[4] Alaska 2022 Election Results (PDF document): http://www.communityofreasonkc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Alaska-2022-Election-Results.pdf.

[5] (Editor’s addition) Ranked Choice Voting research presented to the Kansas legislature by Connie Schmidt, former Johnson County Kansas election commissioner (PDF document): Documents Testimony.pdf, and Ranked Source Voting resource center, video, featuring: https://www.rcvresources.org/abcs-of-rcv. This demonstrates the support that this issue has had in the past years by both parties. The PDF above contains a great deal of technical information on RCV, as well as discussions from various state’s usage of RCV.

Program for Sunday, August 25, 2024

Diet: new research on diet and the gut

We have come a long way since the 1945 USDA poster above.

We will challenge your beliefs about diet — no matter what your current thinking, there is always another way. Surprising new research will even challenge your view of “who am I?”

Presented by Gordon Elliott.

Disclaimers: I am a researcher on complexity, not biology, medicine, or even diet science. My consulting in the food processing industry sees me at USDA offices periodically. To save my own skin, however, I had to launch into understanding diet, and my last two neurologists proclaimed me “unique”, the last because I am controlling my own symptoms while most of their patients fight loosing battles.

[1] Image Credit: USDA, “Basic 7”, 1945. By U.S. Department of Agriculture – 20111110-OC-AMW-0012\, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17794846.

Program for Sunday, August 18, 2024

Rita Norton at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Forum.^[1]

Remembering Rita Joyce Norton

A celebration of life through pictures and videos of Community of Reason member Rita Norton’s experiences and activities. The main sections are: Education, Teaching, and Learning; Rita and Music; The UUForum; Golf; Energy Conservation and the Environment; Activism; Industrial Farming and CAFOs; The Land Institute; Adventures in St Louis. Arranged by Ken Schmitz.

[1] Image Credit: Rita Norton at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Forum, supplied by Ken Schmitz.

Program for Sunday, August 11, 2024

Mike Caddell holding “Fightin’ Cock Flyer” issue.^[2]

Remembering Mike Caddell

Mike Caddell was producer of the daily Radio Free Kansas and the Fightin’ Cock Flyer news blog. Mike often featured a rebroadcast or livecast of Community of Reason meeting on his show.

Family members will be joining in person and by Zoom to help tell his story.

[1] Michael D. Caddell obituary, Many Signals Communications news: https://www.mscnews.net/announcements/view.cfm?ak=23243.

[2] Image Credit: Mike Caddell holding “Fightin’ Cock Flyer” issue, from obituary.^[1] We believe that image was supplied by the family and they have given us implicit permission to use because they are involved in this program.

Program for Sunday, August 4, 2024

Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir

(Due to mishap, this program was not able to be presented on Zoom last week July 28^‘th for the many viewers who cannot come in person. So we have rescheduled for this week and shuffled the future programs.)

Ken Schmitz: Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir. This book^[1] was written by Leonard Bird – a first hand account of the “military experiment” using about 18,000 soldiers to see how solders would react on actual situation of a nuclear war.

Ken will also have a tribute to Rita and announcement of remembrance on August 18 Community of Reason, as she was helping him on this talk.

(We can do some more origami paper cranes if others come in person.)

[1] Book: Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir, by Leonard Bird, University of Utah Press, 2005. Utah Press: https://uofupress.com/books/folding-paper-cranes/. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Folding-Paper-Cranes-Atomic-Memoir/dp/0874808243.

[2] Image Attribution: Folding Paper Cranes^[1], promotional materials Amazon, fair use assertion.

[3] Tony West, author of “The Safe Side of the Fence” documentary, joined us for the program and we sent him a paper crane which approximated the one on the book cover.

Program for Sunday, July 21, 2024

Flannery O’Connor

Fred Whitehead and Kim Howard Myers present the life and writings of Flannery O’Connor, the distinguished Southern author.^[1]

O’Connor’s first novel, Wise Blood, was made into a feature film directed by John Huston.^[2] Some additional references in the footnotes.^[3]

[1] Flannery O’Connor, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery_O%27Connor.

[2] A feature film of her first novel Wise Blood, directed by John Huston: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PCtiam0pS8.

[3] Another documentary on O’Connor your ad hoc secretary has noticed: https://www.youtube.com/live/wnBWbCEZiNI and you will find a riches of resource if you Google Flannery O’Connor. (Your Secretary also apologizes to O’Connor for having read her last book for English class 50 years ago and only now discovering she was a woman. My teacher at a Catholic college was once a member of the Communist party, would have thought would have been sensitive enough to have told us that.)

[4] Image Attribution: Wikimedia, By Charles Cameron Macauley – I (Cmacauley (talk) 22:41, 28 February 2010 (UTC)) created this work entirely by myself., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12886228.

Program for Sunday, July 14, 2024

Noam Chomsky (est. 2021 to ’23, as he approaches 95 years old).^[7]

Noam Chomsky: Media and Mass Manipulation

This video^[1] Professor Hans-Georg Moeller^[6] presents Noam Chomsky^[3] and his ideas on media. Portions of speeches by Chomsky, his 1988 book Manufacturing Consent^[4] and the 1992 documentary of the same name^[5], and a discussion of how Chomsky developed his political ideas and even relating to his linguistic research.

Whether you agree with Professor Chomsky, or even with the views of Professor Hans-Georg Moeller reviewing Chomsky’s life and works, this is an excellent introduction to Chomsky’s lifelong work as relates to media with a great many references and interviews.

[1] Noam Chomsky: Media and Mass Manipulation, “Carefree Wandering” podcast series (Professor Hans-Georg Moeller). YouTube video to be watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kCyL_6WnVI. Part of Moeller’s “Media Theory” lecture series.^[2]

[2] Moeller’s video lecture series on Media Theory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9hRJ88BqmM&list=PLM0AijAXbZKmRJLOHdzlHZQzoB5K_Gvos&index=2.

[3] Noam Chomsky, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky.

[4] Book: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. By Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, 2002 edition, Penguin Random House–Pantheon Books, New York. Penguin: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/78912/manufacturing-consent-by-edward-s-herman-and-noam-chomsky/, Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-Consent-Political-Economy-Media/dp/0375714499. (Originally published 1988.)

[5] Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, Documentary, 1992. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHF7ZkSf7M0, full video 2 Hr. 40 Min. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent_(film).

[6] Professor Hans-Georg Moeller, University of Macau , https://fah.um.edu.mo/hans-georg-moeller/. “My research focuses on Chinese and Comparative Philosophy (specifically Daoism) and on Social and Political Thought (specifically Social Systems Theory).”

[7] Image Credit: Chomsky image at approximately age 93 (from approximately 2022), from the video^[1], fair use assertion.

Program for Sunday, July 7, 2024

Maria Ressa at Nobel Prize Summit, 2023.^[6]

Nobel winners Ressa, Matviichuk:
The Future of Democracy

Social media and Journalism as relates to democracy and authoritarianism — a discussion lead by Luis Flores.

Video: Hope has a Plan | Maria Ressa | Nobel Prize Summit, 2023.^[1] Maria Ressa is a journalist of 38 years, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and champion for independent journalism as an antidote for tyranny. She is cofounder of Rappler.com, an independent Internet news outlet. She discusses the rise of disinformation through advances in information technology and ways of dealing with the injuries inflicted on democracy.

Ressa is author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future,^[2] and the subject of the 2000 Frontline documentary: A Thousand Cuts.^[3]

Video portion from: Defending democracy | Fact & Fiction | The Future of Democracy | Nobel Prize Brussels 2024.^[4] Featuring Oleksandra Matviichuk, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Oleksandra Matviichuk heads the human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties. She fights for democratic reforms in Ukraine and the OSCE region (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe)^[5].

[1] Hope has a Plan | Maria Ressa | Nobel Prize Summit, 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j1T1PfApZga. AI generated transcript: https://otter.ai/u/tzYGAT_MPAgkxAM8wl7oOgfwugs?utm_source=copy_url.

[2] Book How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future, By Maria Ressa, Harper Collins 2022 and 2023. Harper Collins: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/how-to-stand-up-to-a-dictator-maria-ressa?variant=41038093352994, Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/How-Stand-Up-Dictator-Future/dp/0063257513/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0.

[3] PBS Frontline A Thousand Cuts, 2021, also at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Award-winning filmmaker Ramona Diaz tells the story of President Duterte’s crackdown on the press, his pursuit of Maria Ressa and her colleagues, the role of online disinformation, and the implications for democracy. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQpjfWV_p6E.

[4] Defending democracy | Fact & Fiction | The Future of Democracy | Nobel Prize Brussels 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY4tidsWun4. This video starts with Maria Ressa^[1], but we will start at 14:30 segment with Oleksandra Matviichuk, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. AI generated transcript: https://otter.ai/u/VXj2EPx7dbjsKtlLoDPMiUWqd8Y?utm_source=copy_url.

[5] Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_for_Security_and_Co-operation_in_Europe.

[6] Maria Ressa at Nobel Prize Summit, 2023, frame from Hope has a Plan^[1]. Fair use assertion.

Program for Sunday, May 26, 2024

Remembering long-time member Rita Norton

Special Program – no in-person at UMKC

UU Forum Sunday Morning at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, with special breakfast starting 9:00 AM, includes remembering long time CoR member Rita Norton: https://allsoulskc.org/allsoulsweekly/uu-forum-weekly/ (scroll down until you find it).

No regular program this Sunday:

Don’t have internet this weekend at UMKC due to technical difficulties, no in-person meeting.
People attending Rita Norton remembrance events.

Probably starting 2:30 PM, will open Zoom session for CoR, and replay a version of Ken Schmitz’ remembrance of Rita Norton from previous events.

Program for Sunday, May 19, 2024

“Israel’s Self-Destruction”

Two segments from Amanpour and Company:

The number of Gazans that have been killed can barely be counted.^[6] The United States is warning Israel not to send ground troops into an offensive in war ravaged Rafah. In Early February, Aluf Benn, the editor-in-chief at Haaretz, a liberal Israeli national daily daily newspaper in Tel Aviv, Israel^[7], wrote an essay for Foreign Affairs Magazine called “Israel’s Self-Destruction: Netanyahu, the Palestinians, and the Price of Neglect.”^[3] And he’s joining Walter Isaacson to talk about it.^[2]

Amanpour and Company video segment with Aluf Benn: Haaretz EIC on Netanyahu & “Israel’s Self-Destruction”^[2] (17 minutes), with discussion to follow.

World-wide protests of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, including college campus protests, are testing the distinction between being anti-Semitic and opposition to the current actions of the Israeli government. The crisis across America’s campuses is making some wrestle with the commonly used definition of antisemitism, as was written by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, a definition which has been adopted by countries across the globe.^[5] Amanpour’s Michel Martin speaks to the author Kenneth Stern^[8], who led the drafting of that document and who now warns it’s being used to chill free speech.^[4]

Stern is author of The Conflict over the Conflict^[9] (2020) further developing this free speech topic. (This is not intended to be a discussion of definitions but of the politics of free speech, though In December 2020 Stern urged the incoming Biden administration not to adopt the IHRA Working Definition that he himself had authored^[8].)

Amanpour and Company video segment with Kenneth Stern: He Wrote a Definition of Antisemitism; Now He Says It’s Being Weaponized^[4] (18 minutes), with discussion to follow.

[1] Image attribution: Montage of Frames from Amanpour and Company episodes^[2][4], fair use assertion.

[2] Amanpour and Company 02.20.2024 – Haaretz EIC on Netanyahu & “Israel’s Self-Destruction”: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/haaretz-eic-on-netanyahu-israels-self-destruction/.

[3] Foreign Affairs, Israel’s Self-Destruction: Netanyahu, the Palestinians, and the Price of Neglect, By Aluf Benn, March/April 2024: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/israels-netanyahu-self-destruction. An abridged version may be found in The Business Standard: https://www.tbsnews.net/features/panorama/israels-self-destruction-netanyahu-palestinians-and-price-neglect-793206.

[4] Amanpour and Company 05.01.2024 – He Wrote a Definition of Antisemitism; Now He Says It’s Being Weaponized: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/he-wrote-a-definition-of-antisemitism-now-he-says-its-being-weaponized/.

[5] International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance – Working definition of antisemitism: https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism, US Department of State: https://www.state.gov/defining-antisemitism/.

[6] Vox, The controversy over Gaza’s death toll, explained: https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2024/5/17/24159263/gaza-deaths-israel-hamas-hospital-ministry-health.

[7] Aluf Benn, journalist, on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluf_Benn.

[8] Kenneth S Stern, attorney and an author, on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_S._Stern.

[9] Book, The Conflict over the Conflict: The Israel/Palestine Campus Debate, 2020, By Kenneth S. Stern, New Jewish Press, University of Toronto Press: https://utorontopress.com/9781487507367/the-conflict-over-the-conflict/. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Stern-Conflict-over-Kenneth-S/dp/1487507364.

Program for Sunday, May 12, 2024

Gucciardo in Rafa hospital: “Without a doubt if the Israeli army occupies this space, every one of those babies will die.”^[1][3]

Gaza – “No Incursion”!!? / “System of Domination”

Two segments from Democracy Now episode, 2024-05-09^[2][3][5]:

Aid Worker Dorotea Gucciardo at Kuwait Hospital in Rafah, Gaza Strip: “To Say There’s Not an Incursion in Rafah Right Now Is Patently False”^[3] According to Glia, for which Gucciardo is Director of Development, the Israeli army destroyed medical buildings, kidnapped and killed healthcare workers, and rendered all of the hospitals in Gaza [almost] unusable.^[4]

Biden discusses pause in weapons shipments, and Pulitzer Prize author Nathan Thrall on the “System of Domination” in Gaza.^[5] Thrall is author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy^[6], winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Economist, Time, The New Republic, and the Financial Times.

[1] Image attribution: Frame from introduction in Democracy Now episode^[2], fair use assertion.

[2] Democracy Now episode, 2024-05-09: https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2024/5/9.

[3] Segment from Democracy Now episode, 2024-05-09^[2]: “Aid Worker [Dorotea Gucciardo^[4] at Kuwait Hospital in Rafah,] Gaza [Strip]: ‘To Say There’s Not an Incursion in Rafah Right Now Is Patently False'”, https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/9/dorotea_gucciardo_glia_gaza_healthcare.

[4] Gaza Medical Support Initiative, Glia: https://glia.org/blogs/news, https://glia.org/pages/meet-the-team, Dorotea Gucciardo, PhD, Director of Development. Glia is a small research group that designs and manufactures open source medical equipment, and many of the products can be manufactured on 3-D printing equipment at very low cost. Glia has medical support initiatives in Gaza and Ukraine since 2022, https://glia.org/, https://glia.org/blogs/news?page=2. In response to this ongoing crisis, Glia is working with the World Health Organization to bring in healthcare workers and medical supplies to Gaza.

[5] Segment from Democracy Now episode, 2024-05-09^[2]: “Pulitzer Winner Nathan Thrall on Israel’s ‘System of Domination’ and Biden Pausing Bomb Shipment”, https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/9/nathan_thrall_west_bank_violence.

[6] Book: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy, Nathan Thrall, Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2023. Metropolitan: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250854971. (Note Metropolitan Books is a publishing label, and Henry Holt is a division of Macmillan Publishers, https://us.macmillan.com/about.) Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Day-Life-Abed-Salama-Jerusalem/dp/1250854970. Winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Economist, Time, The New Republic, and the Financial Times. Metropolitan promotional image, and Pulitzer Prize label image, fair use assertion.

Programs on Saturday May 4, AND Sunday, May 5, 2024

“The cycle of violence” (2-day series)

This weekend a series of programs sponsored by Friends of Community Media, PeaceWorks Kansas City, The FORUM at All Souls, Peace Action (peaceaction.org), and Citizens for Justice in the Middle East (cjme.org) will focus on various views on stopping the cycle of violence in Israel/Palestine. The Sunday Community of Reason meeting studies the same subject matter with a Democracy Now episode followed by discussion.

(Saturday May 4, 2:00 – 4:00 PM at All Souls UU Church, 4501 Walnut St., KCMO 64111, workshop lead by Mubarak Awad and Spencer Graves on “Ending the cycle of violence in Israel/Palestine”, sponsored by the list of organizations shown above. Reception with baklava generously donated by Jerusalem Café of Kansas City.)
Sunday May 5, 9:30 – 10:30 AM, All Souls UU Church Forum with Mubarak Awad, “Ending the cycle of violence in Israel/Palestine”. Mubarak Awad will outline his plan to address the Israel/Palestine conflict and what we can do.
Sunday May 5, 2:00 – 4:00 PM, Community of Reason program with Democracy Now segment: Hala Rharrit just resigned from the State Department (after 18 years), “This militaristic Approach Has Been a Failure”. Then two American doctors, Dr. Ismail Mehr is past President of the Islamic Medical Association, and Dr. Azeem Elahi, pulmonary and critical care in Charlotte, NC, make the case that current US policy is counter productive regarding violence in Israel/Palestine.

Saturday Afternoon and Sunday Morning program series:

Saturday workshop [at All Souls UU Church, 4501 Walnut St., KCMO. Edited to reflect what actually occurred:

Mubarak Awad, introduced by Spencer Graves, laid the groundwork for a discussion of nonviolent action to stop the Israel/Palestine cycle of violence. Telling a story of his childhood in Palestine which mirrored so many other children, Awad outlined a lifelong commitment and struggle to nonviolent resistance. Reception and social period followed the talk, with baklava generously donated by Jerusalem Café of Kansas City.]

Sunday Mubarak Awad will speak to the Forum at All Souls UU Church at 9:30 AM on Gaza cease-fire resolutions and nonviolent action to get attention for stopping the Israel/Palestine cycle of violence. See below, also can be watched online if you can’t attend in person.

Mubarak Awad^[1] is Palestinian, born in Jerusalem in 1943. He has a PhD in psychology and US citizenship. In 1983 he founded the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence in Jerusalem. Expelled by Israel in 1988 for organizing nonviolent civil disobedience in the First Intifada, he founded Nonviolence International, which “advocates for active nonviolence and supports creative constructive nonviolent campaigns worldwide.”
Spencer Graves, Kansas farm boy turned Captain in the Air Force during the Vietnam War has a PhD in statistics and does literature research in many fields. His article Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government^[2] concludes that progress on every issue studied is blocked because every countermeasure threatens someone with substantive control over the media.

PDF fliers for the workshop found in references ^[3] ^[4] below.

For those who whish to, but cannot attend Saturday afternoon workshop or Sunday morning Forum in person, one can click the image to the left or use your phone to follow the QR code link to All Souls UU Church FORUM channel online on YouTube, live during both events.^[5] Events should be recorded for future access there a well.

While Community of Reason is not specifically a sponsor of this series, the information is presented to our members as a public service consistent with this weeks subject.

Sunday afternoon Community of Reason meeting:

Democracy Now episode of 5-3-2024^[6] followed by discussion:

“This militaristic Approach Has Been a Failure” with Hala Rharrit, who served in State Department for 18 years, was Arab language voice of US in Middle East, resigned in protest over US policy in the current conflict. Her view is that the current US policy benefits neither Israel nor Palestine and the US has not used its leverage.

The second segment of the program, “Dead on arrival” is presented by two American doctors who were recently working in the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis, one of the few hospital facilities still operating in Gaza. Dr. Ismail Mehr is past President of the Islamic Medical Association. He is an anesthesiologist. Dr. Azeem Elahi, doing pulmonary and critical care in Charlotte, NC. Both these presentations make the case that current US policy is counter productive.

[1] Mubarak Awad, Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mubarak_Awad.

[2] Wikiversity article Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government by Spencer Graves, PhD, https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Information_is_a_public_good:_Designing_experiments_to_improve_government.

[3] Workshop: Ending the cycle of violence in Israel/Palestine, PDF of flyer at http://www.communityofreasonkc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Awad2024-05-04-7.pdf.

[4] Workshop follow up action PDF flyer at http://www.communityofreasonkc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Awad-follow-up2024-05-04a.pdf.

[5] All Souls UU Forum YouTube channel link for Saturday Afternoon and Sunday Morning events: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIoASyxWDu-DqHJZh-2gcjQ. (For Community of Reason Zoom link on Sunday Afternoon, see below or top of this page.)

[6] Democracy Now episode, 2024-05-03, “This Militaristic Approach Has Been a Failure”: Meet Hala Rharrit, First U.S. Diplomat to Quit over Gaza. And “Dead on Arrival”: Doctors Back from Gaza Describe Horrific Hospital Scenes, Decimated Health System. https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2024/5/3.

[7] Image attribution: Students creating a protest banner, edited from Democracy Now episode video^[6], fair use assertion.

Program for Sunday, April 14, 2024

A Gaza Strip hospital (Democracy Now 2024-04-09)^[1]

“A Sea of Misery”: Gaza

(Democracy Now 04/09/2024^[2])

“A Sea of Misery”: Gaza Is Unlike Anything I’ve Ever Seen, and other segments, Democracy Now 04/09/2024^[3].

Award-winning journalist Arwa Damon, just returned from a humanitarian trip to Gaza in her capacity as the founder of INARA^[6], describes the overwhelming need for aid under Israel’s siege of the territory^[3]. Damon is former CNN Senior International Correspondent with over a decade of experience in war zones.

“Empty Words”: Kenneth Roth on Biden’s Criticism of Israel While U.S. Keeps Weapons Flowing^[4], and 30 Years Later, Rwanda Genocide Shows Consequences of U.S. Refusal to Prevent Mass Killing^[5] segments will follow.

Kenneth Roth, visiting professor at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, served for nearly 30 years as the executive director of Human Rights Watch^[7]. Though “the United States would have been the ideal target,” Nicaragua has asked the U.N.’s top court for emergency measures ordering the German government to halt its support to Israel. Roth details Nicaragua’s case against Germany, as well as the U.S. government’s stance toward Israel.

[1] Image attribution: Gaza hospital scene, Democracy Now 04/09/2024^[2], fair use assertion.

[2] Democracy Now 04/09/2024 show, https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2024/4/9.

[3] “A Sea of Misery”: Gaza Is Unlike Anything I’ve Ever Seen, Says NGO Head/Ex-CNN Journalist Arwa Damon, Democracy Now 04/09/2024 with transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/9/arwa_damon_gaza#transcript.

[4] “Empty Words”: Kenneth Roth on Biden’s Criticism of Israel While U.S. Keeps Weapons Flowing, Democracy Now 04/09/2024 with transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/9/ken_roth_gaza_genocide_icj#transcript.

[5] 30 Years Later, Rwanda Genocide Shows Consequences of U.S. Refusal to Prevent Mass Killing, Democracy Now 04/09/2024 with transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/9/rwanda_genocide_30th_anniversary_commemorations#transcript.

[6] Award-winning journalist Arwa Damon is founder of INARA, the International Network for Aid Relief and Assistance, a nonprofit currently providing medical and mental healthcare to children. https://inara.org/arwa/.

Arwa Damon is a former CNN Senior International Correspondent currently working on independent documentaries and other forms of storytelling through her company Scrappy Goat Media. Arwa has over a decade of experience in war zones across the MENA region and has often focused her work on humanitarian stories. Arwa has received extensive recognition for her work including TV and News Emmys, Peabodys, the Investigative Reporters and Editors award, and the International Women’s Media Foundation “Courage in Journalism” award. The concept behind INARA is a by-product of her first hand experience on the ground.

[7] Kenneth Roth is the Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor at the Princeton School for Public and International Affairs. Until August 2022, he served for nearly three decades as the executive director of Human Rights Watch, one of the world’s leading international human rights organizations, which operates in some 100 countries. Before that, Roth was a federal prosecutor in New York and for the Iran-Contra investigation in Washington. Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/about/people/kenneth-roth.

Program for Sunday, April 7, 2024

David Cay Johnston on Trump (Democracy Now)^[1]

David Cay Johnston on Trump, Corbyn on Assange

(Segments from Democracy Now^[4])

CoR favorite David Cay Johnston “Trump ‘Finally Being Held to Account’ After Half-Century of Criminality” (Democracy Now segment 3/26/2024^[2]).

David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, co-founder of DCReport^[5], Professor of Law at Syracuse University College of Law, has covered Donald Trump since the ’80s. His books include The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family^[6]. His latest piece for The New Republic is “Today Is the Day That 50 Years of Grifting Finally Comes to an End.”^[7]

British MP Jeremy Corbyn at U.K. Court as Assange Extradition Delayed (Democracy Now segment^[3]).

[1] Image attribution: Johnston on Democracy Now 3/26/2024^[2], fair use assertion.

[2] Democracy Now 3/26/2024 segment with David Cay Johnston, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DCH0VGOA-g&list=PLneypbodq-jYq9a6Y8BjobC6KJOIBLCZB&index=38. Segment page with transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/3/26/trump_legal_cases.

[3] Democracy Now 3/26/2024 segment with British MP Jeremy Corbyn, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MGcFM8exfs&list=PLneypbodq-jYq9a6Y8BjobC6KJOIBLCZB&index=36. Segment page with transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/3/26/julian_assange_extradition.

[4] Democracy Now full show page and video, 3/26/2024: https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2024/3/26.

[5] DCReport: https://www.dcreport.org/author/dcreport/.

[6] The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family, Simon and Schuster, 2022. Simon and Schuster: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Big-Cheat/David-Cay-Johnston/9781982178048, Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Cheat-Fleeced-America-Enriched/dp/1982178035. (Image: Promotional materials, Simon and Schuster.)

[7] New Republic, “Today Is the Day That 50 Years of Grifting Finally Comes to an End.”, https://newrepublic.com/article/180078/trump-50-years-grifting-ends.

NO Program for Sunday, March 31, 2024

NO Program

(Have a happy Easter Sunday)

[1] Image attribution: A five-part Russian Orthodox icon depicting the Easter story. Wikipedia, By Anonimous – Solovetsk closter. Cоловецкий монастырь. Ризница, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3200390.

Program for Sunday, March 24, 2024

“Humanitarian Violence” in Gaza

Architect Eyal Weizman on Mapping Israel’s “Genocidal Campaign” (Democracy Now)

A new report by the research group Forensic Architecture counters Israel’s argument at the International Court of Justice that it followed humanitarian policies to safeguard civilian life in Gaza. The report argues that what Israel says are humanitarian evacuations in Gaza actually amount to the forced displacement of Palestinians, which is a war crime.

Democracy Now segment with architect Eyal Weizman on Mapping Israel’s “Genocidal Campaign”.^[2] Discussion will follow.

Eyal Weizman^[5] is a British Israeli architect born in Haifa. He’s founder and director of Forensic Architecture, a professor of spatial and visual cultures at Goldsmiths College at the University of London. He’s the author of several books, including Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation^[3] and The Least of All Possible Evils: A Short History of Humanitarian Violence^[4]. He’s also a member of the Technology Advisory Board of the International Criminal Court and of the Center for Investigative Journalism.

[1] Image Credit: Eyal Weizman and a Gaza Map image, from Democracy Now eipsode.^[2] Fair use assertion.

[2] Democracy Now, episode March 21, 2024, segment with Eyal Weizman: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/3/21/forensic_architecture_gaza_israel. Full episode: https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2024/3/21. Part 2 of discussion with Weizman, a full 40 minutes beyond the portion of the interview in the March 21 episode: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/3/22/eyal_weizman_part_2.

[3] Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation, Eyal Weizman, Verso, 2012 and 2017. Verso: https://www.versobooks.com/products/2007-hollow-land, Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hollow-Land-Israels-Architecture-Occupation/dp/1844671259. (Image: Promotional materials Verso.)

[4] The Least of All Possible Evils: A Short History of Humanitarian Violence, Verso, 2012 and 2017. Verso: https://www.versobooks.com/products/2244-the-least-of-all-possible-evils, Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Least-All-Possible-Evils-Humanitarian/dp/1844676471. (Image: Promotional materials Verso.)

[5] Eyal Weizman, Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths College, University of London. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyal_Weizman, university page, Goldsmiths College: https://www.gold.ac.uk/visual-cultures/w-eizman/, in Forensic Architecture group: https://forensic-architecture.org/about/team/member/eyal-weizman, a critical review of “Forensic Architecture” in Art in America: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/forensic-architecture-fake-news-1234661013/, interesting interview about Weizman’s forensic process, “Truth is not a noun”, at Walker Museum in Minneapolis: https://walkerart.org/magazine/truth-is-not-a-noun-interview-with-eyal-weizman/.

NO Program for Sunday, March 17, 2024

No Program this Sunday

(Enjoy St. Patrick’s Day)

[1] Image Credit: Wikipedia — Postcard: “St. Patrick’s Day Souvenir” postmarked 1912 in the United States. On postcard: “OLD WEIR BRIDGE” Description: “1912 POSTCARD ST. PATRICK’S DAY SOUVENIR; POSTALLY USED and CANCELLED MARCH 1912” Pictured: The painting depicted is of the “Old Weir Bridge” located Dinis Cottage, in Killarney National Park, Ireland. By Artist for original postcard not credited – Postcard described above via, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9778509.

Program for Sunday, March 10, 2024

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

A Metaphor for Our Universe

What does the general public know about the Universe in which we live? Our experiences are limited to a “Goldilocks Universe” in which the Parameters of Nature are “Just right” for Newtonian physics. There are, however, two other philosophical views of how our Universe works. These three philosophies are represented by the Three Bears. An interesting feature of the “other two philosophies” is that their “bizarre properties” have direct consequences in our everyday activities. These behaviors are already known by the general public through movies and television programs, such as the Star Trek family. This presentation examines the relationships between the “three Universes”.

Ken Schmitz, Professor of Physical Chemistry, UMKC.

[1] Image Credit: Image from uncopyrighted booklet, Interpreting the Goldilocks Effect, NOAA, (https://gml.noaa.gov/outreach/info_activities/pdfs/CTA_goldilocks_effect.pdf). Student handout from Earth Systems Science layer (must click) of NOAA Education and Outreach, created and compiled by Louise Belnay, former science teacher and curriculum developer at NOAA: https://gml.noaa.gov/outreach/info_activities/. Fair use assertion.

[2] Image Credit: ibid, Goldilocks and three bears is used in NOAA booklet, but found 100’s locations on internet without attribution. Fair use assertion, converted from high resolution source.

Program for Sunday, March 3, 2024

Exploring Cuba

Lewis Diuguid, Author and former KC Star Editor, co-author of Exploring Cuba: Erasing Fears Through Multicultural Education^[2] will discuss his recent trip to Cuba and most certainly his 2024 book on the subject.

Lewis W. Diuguid is also a certified diversity facilitator, news media consultant, author, freelance writer and lecturer. He is a founding member, newsletter editor and treasurer of the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists.^[2]

[1] Image Credit: Book cover Kindle edition Exploring Cuba^[2] promotional materials, fair use assertion.

[2] Book Exploring Cuba: Erasing Fears Through Multicultural Education, Bette Tate-Beaver, Lewis W. Diuguid, Routledge, 2024. Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Exploring-Cuba-Erasing-Fears-through-Multicultural-Education/Tate-Beaver-Diuguid/p/book/9781032548937. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Cuba-Erasing-Multicultural-Education-ebook/dp/B0CKFJNBDJ.

Program for Sunday, February 25, 2024

Book of interest–*The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America*, Carol Anderson^[1]

The Second Amendment and Gun control

The US as a Special Case

Some of us are heartbroken because we knew the latest victim^[5]. Some of us were just 50 feet away. We think “will this be the event that wakes people up?”

The US is the most murderous of the world’s economically advanced countries. Constitutional issues and empirical facts help us to understand the uniquely horrible policies driving these outcomes. Presented by Dr. James Webb, economist, activist, retired UMKC Faculty.

Books of interest:

The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America^[2], Carol Anderson. (This book illuminates the history and impact of the Second Amendment, how it was designed, and how it has consistently been constructed to keep African Americans powerless and vulnerable.)

Original Intent and the Framers’ Constitution^[3], Leonard W. Levy. (To understand and change US policies we must understand the rulings of the Supreme Court, with a current majority professing an “originalist” approach^[4] to the US Constitution.)

[1] Image Credit: The Second, Google Books promotional image^[2], fair use assertion. Converted to Jpeg.

[2] Book The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America, Carol Anderson, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021. Bloomsbury: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/second-9781635574258/, Google Books: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Second/SugPEAAAQBAJ, Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Second-Race-Fatally-Unequal-America/dp/1635574250.

[3] Book Original Intent and the Framers’ Constitution, Leonard W. Levy, Rowman and Littlefield, 2000. Distinguished constitutional scholar Leonard Levy cuts through the Gordian Knot of claim and counterclaim with an argument that is clear, logical, and compelling, rejecting the views of both left and right. Rowman: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781461730286/Original-Intent-and-the-Framers-Constitution, Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Original-Intent-Framers-Constitution-Leonard/dp/1566633125. (Fair use assertion, book thumbnail image.)

[4] The Conversation, “The Supreme Court’s originalists have taken over − here’s how they interpret the Constitution”: https://theconversation.com/the-supreme-courts-originalists-have-taken-over-heres-how-they-interpret-the-constitution-212241.

[5] KKFI FM Radio, “Taste of Tejano: A Tribute to the Life of Lisa Lopez-Galvan”: https://kkfi.org/program-episodes/tribute-to-lisa-lopez-galvan/. KSHB, “Kansas City radio station remembers beloved KKFI DJ Lisa Lopez-Galvan”: https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/parade-shooting/kansas-city-radio-station-remembers-beloved-kkfi-dj-lisa-lopez-galvan.

(NO) Program for Sunday, February 11, 2024

(No Program — Super Bowl Sunday)

Super Bowl Sunday! OK, so maybe not every member will be watching even though the Kansas City Chiefs are back for the second year in a row. But not enough left to have a meeting.

Enjoy the parties!

[1] Image credit: Wikepedia, “The logo” may be obtained from Super Bowl, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38439082. Converted to Jpeg from vector file.

Program for Sunday, February 4, 2024

Democracy Now – Gaza Conflict Continues

The violence in Gaza is continuing and conflict is spreading to other areas. Viewing the Democracy Now episode^[1] from December 29, 2023, we note that an entire month has passed since the airing of this episode, yet the subjects are as relevant today as at the end of the year.

Subjects:

U.S. Complicit in “On-Air Genocide”: Palestinian Amb. Husam Zomlot Slams 12-Week Gaza Assault
“Utterly Illegal”: U.N. Special Rapporteur Slams Netanyahu’s “Voluntary Migration” Plan for Gazans
(“Maine Joins Colorado Barring Trump from Ballot for Violating Constitution’s Insurrection Clause” will be skipped or summarized in a few seconds.)

The relevant portion is 52 minutes so we will start the video about five minutes after the hour to leave time for discussion.

[1] Democracy Now, December 29, 2023, https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2023/12/29.

[2] Image credit: Location of district Gaza Strip in Palestine, Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:West_Bank_and_Gaza_Strip_location_map.svg, By TUBS – This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this file:, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16738445. Converted to Jpeg from vector file.

Program for Sunday, January 28, 2024

How We Lost World War II:

A Parable and some Facts about U.S. Monetary Institutions.

Dr. James Webb, economist, activist, retired UMKC Faculty.

“I would hope everyone knows who won WW II. But it could have been different.“

Had popular misconceptions (and deceptions) about current U.S. monetary institutions governed our response, it could have been much more difficult and costly; measured in lives of American soldiers and hardships for American civilians. Ironically ignorance about how monetary institutions actually function creates severe problems unnecessarily.

[1] Image citation: Montage by G.E., Graph Spending, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2020/february/war-highest-defense-spending-measured, with background USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, “the USS Arizona was a total loss in the Japanese surprise air attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Sunday 7 December 1941″, WikiMedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_USS_Arizona_(BB-39)burning_after_the_Japanese_attack_on_Pearl_Harbor–NARA-_195617.jpg.

Program for Sunday, January 21, 2024

Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository, Pilot Cave^[1]

The Race for Nuclear Waste Disposal:

Why is Finland About to Cross the Finish Line While the Rest of the Nuclear World is Not Even at the Starting Gate?

Ken Schmitz, Professor of Physical Chemistry, UMKC.

[1] Image citation: By kallerna – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32382738.

MEETING RESCHEDULED – WEATHER
(Program for Sunday, January 14, 2024)

Reschedule due to extreme weather!

Below zero Fahrenheit temperatures, potential snow/ice, and aging in-person participants suggest the prudent course is to reschedule this Sunday’s meeting. (National Weather Service forecasts the wind chill index during our meeting hours of -15F.)

Normal Zoom session will open at 2:00 for short time for people who miss the notice or just want to check in.

[1] By Jason Hollinger – Feathery Snow Crystals, Uploaded by Amad

MEETING RESCHEDULED – ILLNESS
(Program for Sunday, January 7, 2024)

NO Program for Sunday(s), December 24, 31, 2023 – (normally 2:00 to 4:00pm)

Holiday Break

Taking a break for family and holidays. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Program for Sunday, December 17, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Otto Dix (Part 2)

Otto Dix (1891-1969) was a German artist who experienced the horrors of World War I, bitterly depicting life and death in the trenches. His first style was Expressionism, with sharp angularities and intense explosive emotion. By the mid-1920s he and others began a new movement called Neue Sachlichkeit (“New Objectivity”), focusing on the chaotic scene of Weimar Germany. His work was banned by the Nazis as “degenerate.” He moved to a remote part of Germany in “internal exile,” though he continued to paint.

Fred Whitehead, freethought historian, author, poet,

Program for Sunday, December 10, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Otto Dix (Part 1)

German artist Otto Dix (1891-1969) experienced the horrors of World War I, bitterly depicting life and death in the trenches. We watched video “Explore the Controversial Life of German Artist Otto Dix” by Art History School^[1], followed by discussion.

Fred Whitehead, freethought historian, author, poet, grassroots activist.

(Due to combined technical issues meeting was shortened to video^[1] and discussion. Part 2 next week.)

[1] Explore the Controversial Life of German Artist Otto Dix – Generalized Version, Art History School: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6_ojc2yCjQ.

Program for Sunday, December 3, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Open Discussion

Bring your own topic, or continue a previous one.

NO Program for Sunday, November 26, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm Holiday Break

The Christmas Party, Robert David Wilkie. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Holiday Break

No meeting this Sunday with so many on holiday break and visiting family.

Have and continue a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Thought for the day:

“We should be thankful for what did not happen this past year.”
“We should be thankful for what did not happen this past year.”
War gamer and occasional CoR presenter Doug Samuelson

Program for Sunday, November 19, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Gaza, War Crimes, Human Rights, Ceasefire?

We will watch Democracy Now video from November 16, 2023, on the Gaza Strip^[1]. (At 47 or optionally 59 minutes, we will start the video sharply at 2:00 PM, discussion to follow.)

Philosophy of ethics teaches the idea of “lesser of evils”. International law attempts to codify this notion relating to acts of war. Both sides in the conflict in Gaza have been accused of war crimes, but these have not been prosecuted.

In this program, Katherine Gallagher, senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, discusses suit targeting President Biden, accusing him of failing to prevent genocide.

Chantal Meloni is an international criminal lawyer, international criminal law professor at the University of Milan in Italy, senior legal adviser for international crimes accountability with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin, and consults with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and represents victims in Palestine before the International Criminal Court. She is co-author of Is There a Court for Gaza?^[2], and of blog post in Justice in Conflict, The War in Gaza: International Law is Nothing if it is not Applied^[3]. Meloni argues that each crime listed in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court^[4] is occurring.

Reed Brody is longtime human rights attorney and war crimes prosecutor. Brody has been involved in several major war crimes cases, including against Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet, Haiti’s Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier and the former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré. And he’s the son of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor. Author of The Nation article Gaza–Where Is the Law^[5], arguing violations of international law have been happening for decades. He is also author of To Catch a Dictator: The Pursuit and Trial of Hissène Habré^[6].

Ruth Ben-Artzi, the niece of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and professor of political science at Providence College, calls for the Netanyahu government to focus efforts on releasing Israeli hostages and to stop the bombing.

Discussion of this difficult topic will follow the video.

[1] Democracy Now, November 16, 2023, https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2023/11/16.

[2] Book, Is There a Court for Gaza, 2012, Chantal Meloni, Gianni Tognoni Editors: https://www.asser.nl/asserpress/books/?rId=4422#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThis%20volume%20asks%3A%20’Is,answer%20is%20a%20resounding%20yes. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/There-Court-Gaza-International-Justice/dp/9067048194.

[3] Blog post: Justice in Conflict: The War in Gaza: International Law is Nothing if it is not Applied, https://justiceinconflict.org/2023/11/03/the-war-in-gaza-international-law-is-nothing-if-it-is-not-applied/.

[4] The Nation: Gaza–Where Is the Law, Reed Brody: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/gaza-israel-hamas-war/.

[5] Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3a84.html.

[6] Book, To Catch a Dictator: The Pursuit and Trial of Hissène Habré, Columbia University Press, 2023, https://cup.columbia.edu/book/to-catch-a-dictator/9780231202589. Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Catch-Dictator-Pursuit-Trial-Hiss%C3%A8ne/dp/023120258X.

[7] Image credit: Location of district Gaza Strip in Palestine, Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:West_Bank_and_Gaza_Strip_location_map.svg, By TUBS – This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this file:, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16738445. Converted to Jpeg from vector file.

Program for Sunday, November 12, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Open Discussion

Bring your own topic, or continue a previous one.

Program for Sunday, November 5, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Gaza, Hamas, and Violence

A discussion of the Gaza Strip, Hamas, and violence after the recent Hamas attack on Israel.

Video: Violence Is Bred by Occupation — Historian Rashid Khalidi on Israel-Gaza, Amanpour and Company (18 min)^[1], and Historian Tareq Baconi on the Origins, Goals and Future of Hamas, Amanpour and Company (17 min)^[2].

To set up the subject, we will watch two very short videos on the current fighting in the Gaza Strip,^[3] and Hamas officials’ statements^[4].

An interesting CIA book on the history of Gaza and Israel can be found below^[6].

[1] Violence Is Bred by Occupation — Historian Rashid Khalidi on Israel-Gaza, Amanpour and Company (18 min), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv-JYxRPo7c.

[2] Historian Tareq Baconi on the Origins, Goals and Future of Hamas, Amanpour and Company (17 min), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwckjA_DJW0.

[3] Israel’s Gaza Invasion Continues Destruction On The Ground (only watch 3 min.), CNN-News18 from India: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFVWwpXIHzA.

[4] How Hamas is attempting to control the narrative, CNN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCwNGCpjfrs.

[5] Image Credit: Montage by G Elliott of maps of the Gaza Strip and surrounding area in context and over time. Hereby licensed CC BY-SA.

Upper left, the Gaza Strip in 2008^[5a].
Upper right: ranging for rockets fired into Israel from Gaza Strip^[5b].
Lower left: “Modern Palestine” of 1881^[5c]. Gaza is also spelled “Ghezzzeh” is shown as a city would be in more norther part of the Gaza Strip. See ^[6] for more on evolution of Israel.
Lower right: Syria map from 1851^[5d], showing Gaza region south of Acre and Tripoli. Later Israel would be carved out of this area, and Gaza Strip would be a small part of the Gaza area. See ^[6] for more on evolution of Israel.
Middle right: Egyptian stamp 1957, celebrating the Gaza Strip as part of Palestine.
Background image: Explosion from Israel’s Gaza Invasion Continues Destruction^[3]. (Fair use assertion.)

[5a] By Lencer – own work, used:UNOSAT, Situation Map-Gaza CrisisUN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Gaza-Strip Overview MapSpiegel Online, Bastionen Israels im GazastreifenMinimap made with Israel location map.svg by User:NordNordWest, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5656468.

[5b] Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rokets_from_Gaza_eng.png.

[5c] Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_pictorial_commentary_on_the_Gospel_according_to_Mark_-with_the_text_of_the_Authorized_and_Revised_versions(1881)_(14759752026).jpg.

[5d] Wikipedia (Itallian): https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Martin,R.M.;_Tallis,_J.%26_F.Turkey_in_Asia._1851(F).jpg. Di Martin, R.M. (Martin, R. Montgomery (Robert Montgomery), 1803?-1868 ); Tallis, J. & F. (John Tallis, 1815/6–1876) – Da questo file è stata ricavata un’immagine ritagliata: Martin, R.M.; Tallis, J. & F. Turkey in Asia. 1851.jpg.Original from: www.davidrumsey.com, Pubblico dominio, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11266514.

[6] Gaza and Israel over time (LOC): https://tile.loc.gov/image-services/iiif/service:gmd:gmd8m:g8302m:g8302gm:gct00264:ca000006/full/pct:12.5/0/default.jpg, from Gaza Strip & West Bank, by CIA: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g8302gm.gct00264, https://lccn.loc.gov/2011591411.

Program for Sunday, October 29, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Media reform in France, with Un Bout des Médias

Romary Daval will discuss media reform in France. Daval is General Secretary of Un Bout des Médias^[1] (“a purpose for the media”), and a member of the Society of Friends of Mediacités, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization. Un Bout des Médias is involved in lobbying French political organizations (parliament, senate, ministry of culture).

Un Bout des Médias was founded by Julia Cagé, an expert on the impact of the media on political economy in France and worldwide. Cagé is an associate professor of economics at Sciences Po, a leading political science university in France. In 2015 she published a book “Saving the Media”^[2] in French, which proposes “Nonprofit Media Organizations” which put journalists rather than investors in charge of editorial policies.

This meeting will be co-sponsored by Friends of Community Media^[3].

[1] Un Bout des Médias, https://www.unboutdesmedias.org/.

[2] Book, Saving the Media: Capitalism, Crowdfunding, and Democracy, Julia Cagé. Harvard University Press (English) https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674659759, Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Media-Capitalism-Crowdfunding-Democracy/dp/0674659759.

[3] Friends of Community Media: https://ourfcm.org/. (A historical note, Friends of Community Media was formed as a merger of “Friends of Community Radio”–formed to preserve control of KKFI radio station as community media status, and “Citizens for Media Reform”– interested in problems of media in the United States, both from greater Kansas City area.)

Program for Sunday, October 22, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Nuclear Energy from A to Z

A dance through the alphabet from the discovery of nuclear energy to the consequences of nuclear power.

Ken Schmitz, Professor of Physical Chemistry, UMKC.

[1] Image credit: Wikimedia, Part of CNO cycle diagram, made just to be illustrative for nuclear reactions in general. By Kjerish – This file has been extracted from another file, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54378478. Then converted to jpg.

Program for Sunday, October 15, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Is America Likely to Become a Fascist Country?

Fred Whitehead, freethought historian, author, poet, grassroots activist.

[1] Image credit: Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler during Mussolini’s visit in Munich, scaled from Wikimedia – By Unidentified photographer – http://img.audiovis.nac.gov.pl/PIC/PIC_2-12512.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41283482

Program for Sunday, October 8, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Technology And Education: Effects of AI Driven Work on Math and Reading Achievement

Argun Saatcioglu, Professor of Education and Sociology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Program for Sunday, October 1, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Alzheimer’s Disease

Dr. Russell Swerdlow is a leading medical researcher at University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Much of current research on Alzheimer’s is focused amyloid plaque and tau (tangles). Dr. Swerdlow has focused on the role of mitochondria in Alzheimer’s disease and other factors in brain health, including diet and exercise.

Dr.Swerdlow has spoken to us before. He will provide a lucid understanding.

[1] Image Credit: Though this Sunday’s talk will be in person, Dr. Swerdlow does many YouTube video talks. This image is cropped from one such talk: WEEKLY WEBINAR: Ask the Expert -08/31/2023 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqi-gf0ushQ. Fair use assertion.

Program for Sunday, September 24, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Depiction of A robot using weak AI to “think”^[1]

Artificial Intelligence (continued)

Nicole English and Gordon Elliott will continue the discussion of Artificial Intelligence issues, as some groups work on possible regulation of artificial intelligence research, and others fret about extreme long term possibilities.

Both of us will do presentations, also embedding a very short video of Rodney Brooks^[2].

[1] Image Credit: Scaled from Wikimedia: By mikemacmarketing – https://www.flickr.com/photos/152824664@N07/30212411048/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95608113.

Editor’s opinion on the image: I used the image to convey the spirit of the subject, the image is a misrepresentation of what any current AI algorithm can do.

[2] Prof. Rodney Brooks, MIT Robotics, “Rodney Brooks on the Singularity: Neither Heaven nor Hell”: YouTube 3.5 minute talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiOFMg3cnn0.

Program for Sunday, September 17, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Palace (Palacio de La Moneda), Chile, 9-11-1973^[1]

The Other September 11’th

September 11, 2023 is the 50th anniversary of Allende’s death in the coup supported by US in Chile.

The discussion will center on the coup in Chile in 1973, and aspects of US involvement in that right-wing coup.

Two Democracy Now videos: “The Other 9/11”: Ariel Dorfman on 50th Anniversary of U.S.-Backed Coup in Chile That Ousted Allende^[2], and 50 Years After Coup in Chile: Peter Kornbluh on How U.S. Continues to Hide Role of Nixon & Kissinger^[3].

Videos will start promptly at 2:00 PM. Additional remarks and discussion to follow.

(NOTE — Prof. Saatcioglu has been rescheduled for Oct. 8.)

[1] Image Credit: Democracy Now, 9/11/2023, image from video^[2], Palacio de La Moneda (Chile) 9/11/1973 as the Chilean Air Force strafed the palace with unguided rockets and automatic cannon fire, Fair Use assertion. (Wikipedia on the palace itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_de_La_Moneda_(Chile).)

[2] Democracy Now, 9/11/2023, “The Other 9/11”: Ariel Dorfman on 50th Anniversary of U.S.-Backed Coup in Chile That Ousted Allende, https://www.democracynow.org/2023/9/11/chile_coup_50th_anniversary.

[3] Democracy Now, 9/12/2023, 50 Years After Coup in Chile: Peter Kornbluh on How U.S. Continues to Hide Role of Nixon & Kissinger, https://www.democracynow.org/2023/9/12/1973_chile_coup_us_secret_files.

Program for Sunday, September 10, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Artificial Intelligence

Three videos on future, dangers, and focus on regulation of AI. (Hint — they don’t agree!)

Amanpour and Company’s Hari Sreenivasan interviewing “Godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton, warning of the “Existential Threat” of AI^[2]. Ian Bremmer and Mustafa Suleyman on the Race to Regulate AI^[3]. And Mhairi Aitken on What We’re Getting Wrong About the Real Threats of AI^[4]. Hinton warns of “existential threat” while the other speakers put the focus on more current dangers from AI Algorithms in use today and the near future, rather than distractions of a possible distant future. Aitken goes on to suggest that the focus on a far distant existential threat, whether intentional or a matter making exciting news, avoids discussing the current dangers and distracts the focus just when regulators are examining issues of immediate concern worldwide.

Video will start promptly at 2:00, please join early.

[1] Image Credit: Scaled from Wikimedia: By mikemacmarketing – https://www.flickr.com/photos/152824664@N07/30212411048/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95608113.

Editor’s opinion on the image: I used the image to convey the spirit of the subject, the image is a misrepresentation of what any modern AI algorithm can do.

[2] Amanpour and Company’s Hari Sreenivasan interviewing “Godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton, who Warns of the “Existential Threat” of AI, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Sgp7y178k. Considered the godfather of Artificial Intelligence, Hinton made headlines with his recent departure from Google.

[3] Amanpour and Company, Ian Bremmer and Mustafa Suleyman on the Race to Regulate AI, YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vo8_SE9qDA&t=60s. Believing international cooperation is the key to managing artificial intelligence, Bremmer and Suleyman analyzed the AI power paradox for Foreign Affairs Magazine^[5].

[4] Mhairi Aitken on What We’re Getting Wrong About the Real Threats of AI, YouTube Thinking Digital Conference channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eov0wWti3OE. Aitken is an Ethics Fellow in the Public Policy Program at The Alan Turing Institute, London, and an Honorary Senior Fellow at Australian Centre for Health Engagement. Named in 2023 as one of the world’s “100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics”, Aitken sets out to debunk what she considers sci-fi and redirect our attention to the real and present dangers that AI presents to the future of humanity.

[5] The AI Power Paradox: Can States Learn to Govern Artificial Intelligence—Before It’s Too Late?, By Ian Bremmer and Mustafa Suleyman, Foreign Affairs Magazine, September/October 2023: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/artificial-intelligence-power-paradox (requires subscription).

Program for Sunday, September 3, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Aristotle’s Contested Legacy

Fred Whitehead, freethought historian, author, poet, grassroots activist.

Aristotle detailed six types of governments in their best form. History contradicts his categories with numerous examples. We will review his schema, followed by a history of confounding examples.

[1] Image Credit: Bust of Aristotle. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek bronze original by Lysippos from 330 BC; the alabaster mantle is a modern addition.. By After Lysippos – Jastrow (2006), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1359807. Resized.

Program for Sunday, August 27, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

The Common Good

A discussion of Robert Reich’s book The Common Good.^[2]

“Rooting his argument in common sense and everyday reality, [Robert Reich] demonstrates that a common good constitutes the very essence of any society or nation. Societies, he says, undergo virtuous cycles that reinforce the common good as well as vicious cycles that undermine it, one of which America has been experiencing for the past five decades. This process can and must be reversed. But first we need to weigh the moral obligations of citizenship and carefully consider how we relate to honor, shame, patriotism, truth, and the meaning of leadership.”^[3]

We will watch the YouTube video, “Robert Reich: Why the Common Good Disappeared and How We Get It Back”, followed by discussion.^[4]

[1] Image Credit: Publisher promotional book cover^[2], sized and converted to jpeg.

[2] Book, The Common Good, Robert Reich. Penguin Random House (Vintage), reprint 2019, https://penguinrandomhousesecondaryeducation.com/book/?isbn=9780525436379. On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Common-Good-Robert-B-Reich/dp/0525436375.

[3] From Penguin Random House publisher’s description^[2].

[4] YouTube Video: Robert Reich: Why the Common Good Disappeared and How We Get It Back, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNLOdRMgaDY

Program for Sunday, August 20, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Insurrection, Indictment, Intimidation and Fascism

Three video segments from Tuesday’s Democracy Now^[2] will introduce current activities trending towards fascism in the United States, but courageous members of state and federal justice departments are fighting back. A former American president and numerous advisers and members from his administration were indicted on racketeering charges in Georgia. Nevertheless, a pattern of threats towards government officials in the justice system continues, especially towards minorities.

Once presidential candidate Ralph Nader discusses Jack Smith’s (Special council for the US Department of Justice’s) indictments on multiple levels. But also how the lack of a charge of insurrection would still allow the former president to run for election and possibly win, with a minority of votes, even while in jail.

Black Voters Matter Co-Founder LaTosha Brown emphasizes intimidation of voters and election officials in Georgia, but also how a multi-racial political coalition can help. This is an important idea when so much of the intimidation tactics are racially based, as often occurs in fascist movements.

Investigative reporter Michael Isikoff explains the irony of the Rico form Statutes in Georgia being used in the indictment including Rudy Giuliani, who pioneered Rico statutes in New York against many mobsters.

Please bring others with you to the discussion or Zoom session, and try to arrive on time. Its a lot easier to maintain the democracy we have than to try to reclaim a lost democracy. How can we work towards this goal?

[1] Image Credit: Democracy Now video frame of Jan. 6’th insurrection, cropped from the third segment.^[2] Fair Use assertion.

[2] Democracy Now, August 15, 2023, first three video segments from that date: https://www.youtube.com/democracynow/videos. Individual videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlhkVK1Qi0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XrHMFd6CTE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCJnPgEEf9U respectively.

Program for Sunday, August 13, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

The Big Cheat

Discussion of David Cay Johnston’s book; The Big Cheat.^[2] Trump’s career as a grifter, before and during his term as president will be covered.

The Introduction is particularly enlightening about the question of just who Trump’s supporters are. Trump is skilled and effective in what he does best: grifting, cheating and lying to his target population. Otherwise he is a one trick pony and is amazingly ignorant and misinformed. The book covers the various forms that his grifting took during his White House stay.

Discussion will follow the book introduction by Dr. James Webb. (We had previously watched the Commonwealth Club presentation by Johnston himself last October.^[3] This session we hope to discuss issues that were not covered in that talk, in part because the current politically charged environment is due to factors discussed in that book.)

[1] Image Credit: Book Cover promotional image, Simon & Schuster^[2].

[2] Book, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family, Simon & Schuster: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Big-Cheat/David-Cay-Johnston/9781982178048. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Cheat-Fleeced-America-Enriched/dp/1982178035.

[3] Previously watched Commonwealth Club YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM9Xndn5Gro.

Program for Sunday, August 6, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Why We Must End the Drug War

Jack Cole “Why We Must End the War on Drugs” (on video^[2]). Jack Cole is founder of LEAP which stands for Law Enforcement Action Partnership (formerly Law Enforcement Against Prohibition).^[3] LEAP of 15000 policemen, judges, prison officials, etc., who oppose drug prohibition. Cole was previously an undercover police officer in Kansas and New Jersey.^[4] Cole has spoken in person to Community of Reason in the past.

[1] Image Credit: Jack Cole, edited frame from video^[2] (crop). Fair Use assertion.

[2] YouTube video — LEAP Founder Jack Cole: Why We Must End the War on Drugs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws99K7EQn4Y.

[3] Law Enforcement Action Partnership. Organization website: https://lawenforcementactionpartnership.org/about-us/who-we-are/, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_Enforcement_Action_Partnership.

[4] Jack A Cole, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_A._Cole.

Program for Sunday, July 30, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

THE CIA: Red Scare, Blackmail, and the Blue Suite

Go behind the scenes with “The History of the CIA: Red Scare, Blackmail and the Blue Suite”. YouTube video by blogger “Eyes Wide Open”^[[2]], created by this young man for his YouTube channel. The video seeks to present the role that blackmail may have played in shaping policies in the U.S. both foreign and domestic, in ways that continue into today. An extensive set of references for the video are given^{[[3]] [[4]]}.

We start at 2:00 PM Sharp, be early.

[[1]] Image Credit: Montage by G. Elliott from YouTube video: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA: Red Scare, Blackmail, and the Blue Suite [pt. 5.2].^[[2]] Fair Use assertion. Resulting image is hereby placed in the public domain.

[[2]] YouTube video: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA: Red Scare, Blackmail, and the Blue Suite [pt. 5.2] by video blogger “Eyes Wide Open”. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnxXlTSDP6M.

[[3]] Books referenced in the video:

Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover – Anthony Summers. Open Road Media: https://openroadmedia.com/ebook/official-and-confidential/9781453241189. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Official-Confidential-Secret-Edgar-Hoover/dp/1480435201/.

Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance Between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia – Paul L. Williams, Prometheus Books http://prometheusbooks.com/books/9781633884786. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Operation-Gladio-Alliance-between-Vatican/dp/1616149744.

The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government – David Talbot, Harper Collins: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-devils-chessboard-david-talbot?variant=32207669559330. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Chessboard-Dulles-Americas-Government/dp/0062276174.

One Nation Under Blackmail Volume 1 – Whitney Webb, TrineDay Books: https://www.trineday.com/products/one-nation-under-blackmail-vol-one. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/One-Nation-Under-Blackmail-Intelligence/dp/1634243013. Note there is a Volume 2: https://www.trineday.com/products/one-nation-under-blackmail.

Deep Politics and the Death of JFK – Peter Dale Scott, University of California Press: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520205192/deep-politics-and-the-death-of-jfk. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Politics-Death-Peter-Scott/dp/0520205197.

(Image Credits book covers: Each promotional image by respective publisher as given, except last is Amazon promotional image.)

[[4]] A reference list with notes, page numbers, etc., is given by YouTube blogger “Eyes Wide Open”^[[2]], with linking tags shown in the video. The list is visible by expanding the remarks at top of the listing by clicking the “more…” indication.^[[2]]

Program for Sunday, July 23, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America

Michael Waldman, President of the Brennan Center for Justice, has written Supermajority: How the Supreme Divided America^[2][4] which discusses how recent Supreme Court decisions have usurped the democratic processes and what can be done to reverse the process.

We will start the video interview from Politics and Prose bookstore^[3] at 2:00 PM sharp. Please join us early.

[1] Image Credit: The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America By Michael Waldman, Simon and Schuster, promotional image https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Supermajority/Michael-Waldman/9781668006061

[2] The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America By Michael Waldman, Simon and Schuster: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Supermajority/Michael-Waldman/9781668006061. At Politics and Prose bookstore, Washington DC: https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781668006061.

[3] YouTube Video, titled “Michael Waldman — The Supermajority: The Year the Supreme Court Divided America,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_TwytuN4Dg. From Politics and Prose bookstore, Washington DC: https://www.politics-prose.com/. The Politics and Prose Bookstore YouTube channel: (See “The Supreme Court” series) https://www.youtube.com/@politicsprose.

[4] Book listing at Brennan center for Justice: https://www.brennancenter.org/supermajority-how-supreme-court-divided-america.

Program for Sunday, July 16, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Wikimedia Trends in atmospheric CO2 and global temperature change and climate policies^[1]

Climate Crisis, Fossil Fuel Double Agents

Two short videos from Democracy Now:

Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, discusses the Climate Crisis and what we should be doing. The Guardian’s environmental reporter Oliver Milman discusses “Double Agents” who lobby for both environmental groups and friendly businesses, then also lobby for the fossil fuel industry. (Gordon will moderate, James is out of town this week. Discussion will follow short videos.)

[1] Image Credit: Wikimedia Trends in atmospheric CO2 and global temperature change and climate policies, by @MuellerTadzio, @wiebkemarie, @MariusHasenheit, @sustentioEU [PG] (on Twitter); see right side of image for more authors/sources – https://sustentio.com/2022/climateinactionstripes-virale-klimakommunikation, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=123342625

[2] Climate Crisis on Democracy Now (July 7, 2023), “Bill McKibben: Climate Crisis Needs Urgent Action as Earth Records Hottest Temps Ever”

Democracy Now: https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/7/bill_mckibben_climate_crisis_degrowth
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-PNlUkgfMs

[3] Fossil Fuel Lobbyists “Double Agents” (July 7, 2023), “‘Double Agents’: Lobbyists for Big Tech, Universities & Eco Groups Also Work For Fossil Fuel Industry”

Democracy Now: https://www.democracynow.org/2023/7/7/guardian_investigation_fossil_fuel_lobbyists
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd08rqVjAxE

Program for Sunday, July 9, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Orthographic projection of Iran in world context^[1]

Economic and Social Policies in Iran from the 1960’s through the 1980’s

Hossein Bahaime is an economist with dual citizenship (US and Iranian) retired economics professor. Bahaime will emphasize the effects of population growth and the related public policies in the period before and after the Islamic Revolution in Iran^[2].

[1] Image Credit: Modified by generating PNG from Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iran_(orthographic_projection).svg, by P30Carl, license CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

[2] Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran, Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/event/Iranian-Revolution, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution.

Program for Sunday, July 2, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

The Death of Socrates, Jacques Louis David^[1]

General Meeting

Dr. James Webb will open the meeting with a discussion of future programs in the works and the organizational status of Community of Reason which has just been updated with the Missouri Secretary of State.

Open Discussion will follow. Possible topics of interest:

Continuing Discussion of AI and society.
Juneteenth holiday was just last June 19th, what is the origin and significance.
Private equity–how we can more closely match the needs of society rather than just the few.
Bring Your Own topic!

[1] Image Credit: The Death of Socrates, Jacques Louis David (French, Paris 1748–1825 Brussels), 1787. European Paintings Collection of The Met Museum, public domain open access image: http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436105, Jacques-Louis David, Public domain, and also via Wikimedia Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/David_-_The_Death_of_Socrates.jpg

Program for Sunday, June 25, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

*These Are the Plunderers*, Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner^[1]

These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs―and Wrecks―America

Video^[2], Pulitzer Prize winner Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner‘s new book These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs―and Wrecks―America^[3]. Morgenson and Rosner show how companies absorbed by private equity have worse outcomes for everyone but the financiers: patients at private equity-owned nursing homes are more likely to die; companies owned by private equity are more likely to go bankrupt; healthcare costs are higher at private equity-owned operations; workers at private equity-owned companies across the nation are more likely to have their benefits and pensions slashed or lose their jobs; retirees from private industry as well as school teachers, firefighters, medical technicians, and other public workers have lower returns on their pensions because of the fees private equity extracts from their investments^[2].

[1] Image Credit: Promotional book cover, Simon and Schuster^[3].

[2] Video, These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs―and Wrecks―America, from Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington DC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH54wH4JfXU

[3] These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs―and Wrecks―America, by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner, Simon and Schuster, April 25, 2023: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/These-Are-the-Plunderers/Gretchen-Morgenson/9781982191283, and on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/These-Are-Plunderers-Runs_and-Wrecks_America/dp/1982191287/.

Program for Sunday, June 18, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

President John F. Kennedy’s “Peace Speech”

Video, President John F. Kenedy, “Peace Speech”^[2], Remarks of the President at graduation ceremonies of the American University, in the John M. Reeves Athletic Center on campus of American University in Washington DC, June 10, 1963. (See the link below to watch in advance.)

A week ago Saturday was the 60th anniversary of this powerful speech, occurring little more than six months after the Cuban Missile Crisis and a prelude to the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. “Widely considered one of the most powerful speeches Kennedy delivered, he not only outlined a plan to curb nuclear arms, but also ‘laid out a hopeful, yet realistic route for world peace at a time when the U.S. and Soviet Union faced the potential for an escalating nuclear arms race.'”^[3]

According to Wikipedia article^[3] (with multiple supporting references), Kennedy asked Ted Sorensen to construct the initial draft with input from several members of Kennedy’s staff. The speech was reviewed and edited by Kennedy and Sorensen on a flight home from Honolulu days before the address and not in conjunction with the State Department as might be common with a statement with as much international import at this. The State Department and Republican leaders were opposed to the idea of a test ban. The entire speech was printed unmodified in the Soviet press.^[3]

[1] Image Credit: From the JFK library video^[2], 2:16, public domain.

[2] Video (presented dur the CoR meeting): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fkKnfk4k40

Full transcript: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/commencement-address-american-university-washington.

A shorter video edited with images, from JFK Library: https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/USG/USG-01-07/USG-01-07 (seems to have substantial propaganda elements).

[3] Wikipedia on Kenedy’s “American University speech” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_University_speech.

Program for Sunday, June 11, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Increasing Global Population: A Bane to Sustainability?

Ken Schmitz, Professor of Physical Chemistry, UMKC.

A presentation of background information, followed by an informal discussion on the increasing global population and environmental sustainability.

[1] Image credit: US Population graph through this April, by G. Elliott, from FRED Economic Research Data (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/POPTHM . (License: hereby declared public domain, email secretary@ for raw data and Excel spreadsheet if you desire.)

Program for Sunday, June 4, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

“Teddy bears working on new AI research underwater with 1990s technology” (AI generated)^[1]

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has been in the news a lot recently. Capabilities that have been in research for years have recently become available to the public. Some people are afraid, others see bright future.

We will view video interviews of Eric Schmidt and Sal Kahn on these subjects from various viewpoints. Followed by discussion.

Eric Schmidt is former CEO of Google and comments on dangers as well as promise of AI^[2]. Sal Kahn, founder and CEO of Kahn Academy, has set up an AI tutor for young students^[3].

[1] Image credit: “Teddy bears working on new AI research underwater with 1990s technology” By Created with DALL-E 2 – https://cdn.openai.com/dall-e-2/demos/text2im/teddy_bears/ai_research/underwater/4.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120317263

[2] Eric Schmidt, Former CEO of Google: https://www.forbes.com/profile/eric-schmidt/?sh=456f4b07138e (Forbes), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt (Wikipedia). On Amanpour & Co. PBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg3EchbCcA0 (first video).

[3] Sal Kahn: Kahn Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/about/the-team, about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sal_Khan (Wikipedia). On Amanpour & Co. PBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EfEoSP7oYQ (second video).

Program for Sunday, May 28, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Informal Holiday Meeting

Welcome back to our UMKC meeting room for an informal discussion this Sunday, and enjoy the three-day Memorial Day weekend. (See directions below.)

We are quite happy about our new meeting space, but also have real work to do making the combination of Zoom and room space work together. We will also be happy to have visitors on Zoom this Sunday not only for conversation, but also as we try out some variations on how we set up the equipment for several scenarios. These include speaker at UMKC location, speaker remote by Zoom, Video, and room discussion with a full room that needs to be visible with Zoom participation.

[1] The Death of Socrates, Jacques Louis David (French, Paris 1748–1825 Brussels), 1787. European Paintings Collection of The Met Museum, public domain open access image: http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436105, Jacques-Louis David, Public domain, and also via Wikimedia Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/David_-_The_Death_of_Socrates.jpg

Program for Sunday, May 21, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

A Journey: Certainty and Uncertainty

By Don Bell. Don was a Presbyterian minister for 30 years and has been a free thinker for many years. He is very well read and a insightful observer of the human condition.

(Also welcome back to UMKC space for our in-person meeting–see map below.)

NO Program for Sunday, May 13, 2023 – (Usually 2:00 to 4:00pm)

No Meeting — Next Sunday Meet at UMKC

No program this Sunday, as we prepare our move to new regular meeting space at UMKC.

(By the way — the testing of Zoom methods at UMKC went well. There was a very light echo detectable by the few that checked out our experimenting in the room, and that should get better with a few people present. Parking is just as excellent as it was in the past, and we are closer to the door but in the same building as several years ago.)

Program for Sunday, May 7, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

The Debt Ceiling Explained, J.K. Galbraith^[3]

The Debt Ceiling, Once More with Feeling (video)

James K. Galbraith, economist^[1], on the debt ceiling (video). Galbraith is author of a recent article in The Nation.^[2]

It is in the nature of articles about the debt ceiling that no matter how often one tries to set the record straight, nothing ever gets through. Noting this after reading my most recent effort, a physicist friend chided me for using “facts and logic” against “what everyone knows.” This states the problem precisely. So here I go again, once more, with feeling.
^[2]

As has happened many times in the past, a political battle over the “debt ceiling” is occurring between parties in Congress and the White House. Explore the consequences.

[1] Economist James K. Galbraith is chair in Government/Business Relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and is a former executive director of the congressional Joint Economic Committee and an economist for the House Banking Committee. https://lbj.utexas.edu/galbraith-james-k and Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_K._Galbraith

[2] “The Debt Ceililng Explained. Once More, With Feeling…” The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/debt-ceiling-congress/

[3] Image credit: Fair use partial image of Democracy Now interview^[4] (1:15) using a fair use partial image of The Nation article from above^[2].

[4] Democracy Now interview, J. K. Galbraith: Debt Ceiling: Economist James K. Galbraith Warns GOP Proposal Would Gut Social Safety Net. Galbraith interview only https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYZyB9Yyc40, and the full length Democracy Now April 3, 2023 episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th_vK3i_m4c. Democracy Now website https://www.democracynow.org/.

[5] Books by J. K. kGalbraith (Wikipedia^[1]):

Galbraith, James Kenneth (2016), Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0300-22044-5.
Galbraith, James Kenneth (2014), The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 978-1451644920.
Galbraith, James Kenneth (2012), Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-985565-0.
Galbraith, John Kenneth (2010), Galbraith, James K (ed.), The Affluent Society and Other Writings 1952–1967, New York: The Library of America, ISBN 978-1-59853-077-3.
Galbraith, James Kenneth (2008), The Predator State.
Galbraith, James Kenneth; Berner, Maureen, eds. (2001), Inequality and Industrial Change: A Global View, Cambridge University Press
Galbraith, James Kenneth (1998), Created Unequal: The Crisis in American Pay
Galbraith, James Kenneth; Heilbroner, Robert L, The Economic Problem.
Galbraith, James Kenneth; Darity, William, Jr., Macroeconomics.
Galbraith, James Kenneth (1989), Balancing Acts: Technology, Finance and the American Future.

Program for Sunday, April 30, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

The Deficit Myth Stephanie Kelton (video)

Video presentation^[3] David Cay Johnston interviewing Professor Stephanie Kelton on subject of her book The Deficit Myth.^[1][2]

Vice-president Dick Cheney famously boasted, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” He was wrong.

Deficits do matter, but not the way we’ve been taught to believe. We’ve been told that China is our banker and that Social Security and Medicare are pushing us into crisis. We’re told the U.S. could end up like Greece and that deficits will burden future generations. These are all myths.

Deficits can be used for good or evil. They can enrich a small segment of the population, driving income and wealth inequality to new heights, while leaving millions behind. They can fund unjust wars that destabilize the world and cost millions their lives. Or they can be used to sustain life and build a more just economy that works for the many and not just the few.

Stephanie Kelton is a professor of public policy and economics at Stony Brook University and was formerly the chair of the economics department at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. She was previously a research scholar at the UMKC Center for Full Employment and Price Stability and the Levy Economics Institute in upstate New York. Kelton is editor-in-chief of the New Economic Perspectives blog. In 2014, Kelton was designated Chief Economist for the Democratic Minority Staff of the Senate Budget Committee, and in 2016 economic advisor to Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.^[4]

David Cay Johnston received a Pulitzer Prize for New York Times articles displaying “exquisite command” of tax law. He is the bestselling author of Perfectly Legal, Free Lunch, and The Fine Print and two international bestsellers books about Donald Trump. Johnston is now editor-in-chief at DCReport.org and in his 10th year as a Syracuse University law school lecturer teaching the business, property and tax law of the ancient world and legal theory.^[5]

[1] The Deficit Myth, Stephanie Kelton website https://stephaniekelton.com/book/

[2] The Deficit Myth, Stephanie Kelton, Public Affairs Books https://stephaniekelton.com/book/

[3] Stephanie Kelton: The Deficit Myth (with David Cay Johnston), YouTube interview of Professor Stephanie Kelton by David Cay Johnston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzZHQEv1By4

[4] Wikipedia on Professor Stephanie Kelton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Kelton#Employment

[5] David Cay Johnston (interviewer), from the YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzZHQEv1By4

[6] Image credit: Promotional book cover image, The Deficit Myth, Stephanie Kelton, Public Affairs Books https://stephaniekelton.com/book/

Program for Sunday, April 23, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

NOAA U.S. 2021 Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters^[1]

Climate Change Is Real–What Will Be Your Legacy?

A view on climate change and environmental action from someone who is not a climate scientist, rather a background in local engineering companies.

Charles “Chick” Keller worked for 15 years each at Sprint and Black and Veatch, rising to the level of Vice President at both companies. In 2000 Keller became a professor in the Master of Engineering Management program at the University of Kansas. He has a both a mechanical engineering degree and an MBA from KU and remains a registered engineer. For several years, Chick has been giving talks on climate change.

Chick’s message itself is a bit frightening, but the discussion should help open possibilities. There are a lot of things going on that most of us don’t know about.

This talk will develop the following themes:

Climate change is real; it is a bigger problem than the general public realizes.
There will be over $100 trillion dollars of economic construction and destruction.
We have a good plan to slow climate change down; but we are behind schedule.
There are massive programs underway to substantially reduce CO2.
Solution = New Technology + Adaption + New Regulation
Americans, while aware of climate change, are generally unwilling to change their lifestyle.
What contribution can you make? What will be your legacy.

[1] Image credit: From Smith, A., 2022: 2021 U.S. Billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in historical context and new hazard and socioeconomic risk mapping. April 2022, AMS Washington Forum, Washington, DC., p. 5, accessed 2023-04-17 from “NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters”, (2023).
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/, DOI: 10.25921/stkw-7w73

Program for Sunday, April 16, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One

What modern bank robberies are having the most impact on our ordinary citizens, on the economy as a whole? Able to cause financial crises?

Professor William K Black, by video on the subject of his book The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One^[1]. Updated in 2013, this analyzes the fraud that is at the base of the 2008 financial crisis and many other finance problems involving bank failures over the years. If you think that just one political party is the cause of these problems, you may think differently after watching Black.

We will watch Bill Black’s Ted Talk^[2] “How to rob a bank (from the inside, that is)” on this subject. Also a short segment from “Understanding Recent Bank Failures” from UMKC Economics club^[3].

Dr. James Webb will give some introduction on terminology to help prepare, and comments to tie these together.

Bill Black is an associate professor of economics and law at the UMKC Law School^[5]. He was the executive director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007. He previously taught at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and at Santa Clara University, where he was also the distinguished scholar in residence for insurance law and a visiting scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

Professor Black was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the FSLIC, SVP and general counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and senior deputy chief counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He was deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement.

[1] The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One, University of Texas Press, 2013. ISBN 9780292754188: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292754188/

[2] TEDx Talk (UMKC): How to rob a bank (from the inside, that is): https://www.ted.com/talks/william_black_how_to_rob_a_bank_from_the_inside_that_is also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClfBxWPkBKU

[3] Understanding Recent Bank Failures with Dr. Bill Black, Presented by the Economic Democracy Initiative (OSUN, Bard College) and the Economics Club, University of Missouri – Kansas City: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4axBfNjnZQ

[4] Image credit: UT Press book promotional image The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One, University of Texas Press: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292754188/

[5] Professor William K Black, UMKC: https://law.umkc.edu/profiles/faculty-directory/william-k-black.html

Program for Sunday, April 9, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

*Taking Juvenile Justice Seriously*, Christopher J. Sullivan^[3]

Reducing Crime by Improving Juvenile Justice

Video interview of Professor Christopher Sullivan discussing his recommendations for reducing crime by improving juvenile justice. Sullivan is a co-editor of Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and author of three books and roughly 100 technical publications in this area.

His two most recent books are:

(2021) Juvenile Risk and Needs Assessment: Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice^[1]
(2019) Taking Juvenile Justice Seriously: Developmental Insights and System Challenges^[2]

Professor Sullivan is also author number 65 of an article with 67 authors on, “A consensus-based transparency checklist“, which appeared in Nature Human Behavior, 4:4-6 (2020).^[4] This article attempts to improve the quality of scientific research by making it easier for others to understand published work, access the data to do their own analyses, and attempt to replicate previous work while developing extensions.

We will watch the Radio Active Magazine video interview of Professor Christopher Sullivan by Spencer Graves.^[5] Followed by discussion.

[1] (2021) Juvenile Risk and Needs Assessment: Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice, Christopher J. Sullivan, Kristina K. Childs (Routledge). https://www.routledge.com/Juvenile-Risk-and-Needs-Assessment-Theory-Research-Policy-and-Practice/Sullivan-Childs/p/book/9780367422776

[2] (2019) Taking Juvenile Justice Seriously: Developmental Insights and System Challenges, Christopher J. Sullivan (Temple University Press). https://tupress.temple.edu/books/taking-juvenile-justice-seriously

[3] Image credit: Amazon book promotional image Taking Juvenile Justice Seriously: Developmental Insights and System Challenges: https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Juvenile-Justice-Seriously-Developmental/dp/1439915792

[4] “A consensus-based transparency checklist“, Nature Human Behavior, 4:4-6 (2020): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0772-6

[5] KKFI, Radio Active Magazine, episode “Reducing crime by improving the management of juveniles”, length 29.13 minutes: https://kkfi.org/program-episodes/reducing-crime-by-improving-the-management-of-juveniles/

Program for Sunday, April 2, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate by Susan Haack^[3]

Reason vs Religion: The method of science

“Puzzling out Science” by Susan B. Haack

Intelligence in looking at public and other issues.

Dr. James Webb, presenting. “Puzzling out Science”^[1] is found in the book Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate: Unfashionable Essays^[2] by Susan Haack.

(Readers may also be interested in her new book Defending Science-Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism^[4].)

[1] Article “Puzzling out Science” by Susan Haack is available in possibly modified form in PDF at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225154498_Puzzling_out_science_1995, from June 1995, Academic Questions 8(2):20-31 DOI:10.1007/BF02683186.

[2] Book Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate: Unfashionable Essays by Susan Haack, University of Chicago Press, 1998; https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3614193.html

[3] Image Credit: University of Chicago Press promotional image for the book at: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3614193.html

[4] Defending Science-Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism, by Susan Haack: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781591021179/Defending-Science-Within-Reason-Between-Scientism-and-Cynicism

Program for Sunday, March 26, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Rank Choice Voting for Kansas and Missouri

Elaine Stephen and Larry Bradley describe Rank Choice Voting and efforts to bring that to parts or all of Kansas and Missouri. Stephen is co-leader of Rank the Vote Kansas.^[1] Bradley is Founder of The Center Strikes Back, where he works to bring “Instant Runoff Voting and other voting reforms to elections in all fifty states.”^[2]

[1] Rank the Vote Kansas

[2] The Center Strikes Back

[3] Image Credit: Modified (crop) from Wikimedia image, By Tom Arthur from Orange, CA, United States – vote for better tape, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5131677

Program for Sunday, March 19, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

OCEAN HEAT CONTENT CHANGES SINCE 1955 (NOAA)^[1]

Climate Change: A Little Discussed Product of Burning Fossil Fuels

Presented by Dr. Ken Schmitz.

A petition was passed around at the World Fest Rally in Washington D.C. to ban a substance that is the product of burning fossil fuels. This talk will discuss the properties and history of warnings, where it has been detected, its uses in industry and animal research, and effects on humans and the environment, and the lack of discussion on the topic. Other things will be discussed relative to the chemical industry and relevant protests.

[1] Image attribution: NASA “Vital Signs”, https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/ocean-warming/.

Program for Sunday, March 12, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm Daylight Savings

The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets

Professor Matthew Connelly‘s new book, just released a month ago on Valentine’s Day, is entitled The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets^[1]. Professor Connelly is also the founder and principal investigator of History Lab at Columbia University. They’ve been using text mining and artificial intelligence tools to analyze the corpus of all the declassified US government documents they can find.

Connelly notes that much has been done in secret to provoke a foreign power to do something that can be denounced as unprovoked to stampede the US Congress and the public into supporting counterproductive military actions on fraudulent grounds. Worse, he says that the secrets of the Manhattan Project were already known to the Soviets and the Germans. The primary effect of the secrecy of the Manhattan Project, according to Leo Szilard, whose letter with Einstein convinced Frankin Roosevelt to fund it, was to delay its completion by about 18 months — and delay the end of the war by close to that amount. The Hiroshima bombing was 1945-08-06. Eighteen months earlier was 1944-02-06, four months before D Day.

Spencer Graves and Dr. Doug Samuelson interview Professor Mathew Connelly^[2] in a longer video interview, which will be edited for Radio Active Magazine show on KKFI.^[3] Samuelson^[4] has a doctorate in Operations Research, numerous publications in professional journals in that field and decades of experience in classified research for the Department of Defense and other organizations.

We will start the video (just at one hour) right at 2:00 PM so as to get through in time for questions. Dr. Samuelson will also join the meeting by Zoom.

[1] The Declassification Engine: WHAT HISTORY REVEALS ABOUT AMERICA’S TOP SECRETS, By Matthew Connelly. Penguin Random House, Feb 14, 2023 | ISBN 9781101871577. Book cover image credit: promotional cover image Penguin Random House.

[2] Professor Mathew Connelly — Wikipedia.

[3] Radio Active Magazine, KKFI. Episode March 14: Does US government secrecy threaten national security?

[4] Dr. Douglas A. Samuelson, bio on U.S. Presidential Scholars Foundation.

NO Program for Sunday, March 5, 2023 – (Normally 2:00 to 4:00pm)

No Program This Sunday

Due to lack of either available location or preplanned program, there shall be no meeting this Sunday. Meetings will resume next Sunday at the normal location and time.

Possible events of interest this Sunday, as members may suggest:

PeaceWorks KC Annual Meeting: March 5, 2-4 pm (Link here)

Members may suggest other events of interest this Sunday by emailing secretary.

Program for Sunday, February 26, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Ad Hoc Board Meeting for Community of Reason

The in-person and Zoom meeting this Sunday will be an ad hoc board meeting of the Community of Reason KC.

Agenda:

(1) begin to collect dues sufficient to pay web, Zoom, and associated expenses

(2) set date for election of CoR officers.

All members and Community of Reason participants are invited to attend this meeting in person or by Zoom, but it will run as a Board Meeting not as a committee of the whole.

[1] Image Attribution: Areyn, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Board-Meeting.png.

Program for Sunday, February 19, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

The Revenge of the Ocean: Global Warming and the Fate of Humanity

Presented by Dr. Ken Schmitz.

Over the period of 800,000 years, the interconnected natural cycles on Earth achieved the condition of synchronized harmony. Then humans delved deep in the bowels of the Earth for crude oil as a source of energy to serve them. Unaccustomed to the intruding carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, the harmony between the natural cycles became entangled systems of chaos. The Oceans have been hit with a double whammy: warming and acidification. The changes in the Ocean affect humanity in many ways, including the weather, loss of deep Ocean currents, the seafood industry, and the loss of land due to a rise in sea level from the melting of glaciers on Greenland and Antarctica. These and other consequences affecting humanity will be presented.

[1] Image attribution: NASA “Vital Signs”, https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/ocean-warming/.

Program for Sunday, February 12, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Anderson on the Lincoln Memorial steps ^[1]

Marian Anderson Performs on the Steps of the Lincoln Memorial

On April 9, 1939, Marian Anderson performed an Easter Sunday open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the capital. Ms. Anderson was a somewhat unwilling participant in events that were seminal moments in the beginning of the American civil rights movement. Years later, Dr. Martin Luther King would give his most famous remarks from the exact same square on those steps.

For those who wish a much more in depth examination of this story, the PBS American Experience documentary Voice of Freedom (1 hour 40 minutes, aired 12/21/2021) gives much of the back story and the continuation of the civil rights movement as well as her personal story, from this historic event. This documentary tells aspects that I certainly have not read in history books.

The 2022 PBS documentary Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands (1 hour 53 minutes) gives yet another view of her life, including more audio and personal details of her later life, but not quite as much context of the civil rights movement.

We will listen to the entire US National Archives recording of the event (about 30 minutes), followed by discussion.^[4]

Introductions and discussion will be lead by Dr. James Webb and Dr. Barbara Johnson.

Department of Interior Artwork. “An Incident in Contemporary American Life,” by Mitchell Jamieson. Date: 1943 Dimensions: 148″ x 82″ Oil Painting. ^[2]

Portrait, Marian Anderson at Lincoln Memorial ^[3]

[1] Image attribution: By U.S. Information Agency – NARA image 306-NT-965B-4 / ARC 595378 (direct image URL [1]), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2517831.

[2] Image attribution: By Carol M. Highsmith – Library of Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80207415.

[3] Image attribution: By Betsy Graves Reyneau, 1888-1964, Artist (NARA record: 4772241) – U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17079791.

[4] Marian Anderson Performs on the Steps of the Lincoln Memorial: With an Introduction by Harold Ickes (29 minutes 43 seconds, audio only just black image), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xodhypFAFJw.

4/9/1939
Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior
National Archives Identifier: 1729137

This sound recording captures African – American contralto Marian Anderson’s performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The free open – air Easter Sunday concert was organized after Anderson was denied permission to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The recording also features an introductory speech by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, in which he decried prejudice in the United States.

Program for Sunday, February 5, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Modeling COVID and Assessing the Effects of Misinformation About Epidemics

Presenters: Eva Lee and Doug Samuelson

The spread of COVID-19 has been increased dramatically by the spread of misinformation about the epidemic. The confusing outpouring of conflicting messages, many undermining public health recommendations, has many sources but is at least partly consistent with other, well-documented efforts by Russian propagandists to undermine political and economic processes in western democracies. Widespread confusion and lack of collaboration about public health directives was identified as a major potential threat in a sweeping expert review of public health readiness, 2019, and largely predicted by a classic work on pandemic spread in 1994.

References:

Center for Strategic and international Studies (CSIS) and Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) (Bulgaria) “”The Kremlin Playbook,” 2016

CSIS and CSD, “The Kremlin Playbook: Volume II,” 2020

CSIS, “The Kremlin Playbook: Volume III,” 2022

Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Pubic Service, Texas A&M University, “Community Resilience, Centralized Leadership and Multi-Sectoral Collaboration in Pandemic Preparation and Response,” May 2019

Laurie Garrett, “The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance,” 1994

Eva K Lee is a distinguished professor in the Health System Institute at Georgia Tech and Emory University. She has been a special advisor to Homeland Security and a collaborator with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on defenses against pandemic and biological weapons. She holds a PhD in computational and applied mathematics from Rice. (See Wikipedia link.)

Douglas A. Samuelson is the founder and chief scientist of Infologix, Inc., in Annandale, Virginia, and first vice chair of the advisory board for the Health Services Agencies of Northern Virginia. He specializes in quantitative policy analysis for both government and private sector clients. He holds a Doctorate in Operations Research from The George Washington University. (See US Presidential Scholars link.)

Program for Sunday, January 29, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Critique of Julia Galef and “Scout Mindset”^[2][3]— a better alternative for effective inquiry from the work of D. Kahneman, C. S. Peirce, and John Dewey.

Presented by Dr. James Webb

Effective inquiry into Social Problems (or any other objective) is better served by insights from these minds in establishing the basis for rational solutions to problems.

References:
Charles S. Peirce “How to Make Our Ideas Clear”
Charles S. Peirce “The Fixation of Belief”
John Dewey The Quest for Certainty 1929
Susan B. Haack Defending Science Within Reason, Revised Edition

[1] Image attribution, edited from 3 images, from: Kahneman (1) By nrkbeta – IMG_4330, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=104292544; Peirce (2) Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128147; Dewey (3) By Underwood & Underwood – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3a51565. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons: Licensing for more information., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43191685

[2] YouTube Video “Soldiers and Scouts: Why our minds weren’t built for truth, and how we can change that”: https://longnow.org/seminars/02018/sep/12/soldiers-and-scouts-why-our-minds-werent-built-truth-and-how-we-can-change/ .

[3] The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t on Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555240/the-scout-mindset-by-julia-galef/

On Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Scout-Mindset-Perils-Defensive-Thinking/dp/0735217556.

Program for Sunday, January 15, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

(Edited from: By ICAN-Australia – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49971091)

Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons (TPNW)

Spencer Graves, presenter.

Sunday, January 22, is the second anniversary of the Entry Into Force (EIF) of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).^[1] This is the product of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN, icanw.org).^[2] It was inspired by the observation that the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)^[3] has NOT stopped nuclear proliferation: The five signatories to the NPT (the US, USSR / Russia, UK, France, and China) have contributed, whether accidentally or intentionally, to the addition of four other countries to the list of countries with nuclear weapons: India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea.^[4] Further nuclear proliferation seems likely without aggressive action to reverse this trend. ICAN was founded in 2007. The TPNW was officially adopted by the United Nations 2017-07-07, and ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize that year for their contribution to that effort. The TPNW was scheduled to take effect 90 days after the 50th country officially became a state party. That happened 2020-10-24 when Honduras officially became the 50th state party. The TPNW Entered Into Force (EIF) 90 days later, 2020-01-22. However, the TPNW by itself may not be enough to push nuclear-weapon states to relinquish those weapons without strong action by countries without nuclear weapons. This could happen if, for example, enough countries imposed strong national security tariffs on trade involving products or intellectual property from nuclear-weapon states.^[5]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferation_of_Nuclear_Weapons

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Campaign_to_Abolish_Nuclear_Weapons

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferation_of_Nuclear_Weapons

[4] https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Forecasting_nuclear_proliferation

[5] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vnu-UtKtxc5DhHuQPWhqnoIu7pmm7yJ0_D1F6LgzARM/edit?usp=sharing

Program for Sunday, January 15, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Just Talk, continued

This week we have no presenter, and still at least one member with Covid-19 (doing well and will join us by Zoom). But no in-person meeting this week. So join us by Zoom this Sunday.

Besides discussion of future programs, cooperation with other organizations, and raising membership, Luis suggests a topic relating to how well democracy is fairing. There was some discussion of prior programs with continuing interest.

Program for Sunday, January 8, 2023 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Just Talk

We have at least one member with Covid-19 (doing well and will join us by Zoom). But no in-person meeting this week. So join us by Zoom this Sunday.

We can talk about our Christmas and new year’s experiences, discuss the previous meeting about psychology, and talk about the future of Community of Reason.

Joint Party and Potluck
Friends of Community Media and Community of Reason KC
SATURDAY !!!
December 17, 2022 – 1:00 to 5:00 PM
Potluck 2-4 PM

Friends of Community Media
and
Community of Reason KC

SATURDAY
Holiday Party and Potluck

Doors open: 1 PM. (Saturday, December 17, 2022.)
Potluck: Start eating around 2, finish potluck by 4 PM but party until at least 5 PM.
Location: Oak Room at Oak Hall, 4550 Warwick Blvd, Kansas City, Missouri 64111 (Map: https://goo.gl/maps/FNiNCiTGVrT25ye8A ) Spaces for guest parking are available at north end of building, as you drive in from Warwick street, then to the right. Sign in with the guard, then head down to the “Oak Room”.
Zoom: ( https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84206282809 , Zoom meeting connection will be open from 1 to 5 PM for friends to drop in whenever they feel.)

We will be telling stories, showing history of the two organizations, talking about lost friends, pictures from the past, events and programs we have sponsored.

Friends will be dropping by by Zoom and in person. Invite a friend, we are recruiting for the two organizations!

If you can’t come in person, feel free to drop in via Zoom at any time, share stories, questions, get to know others, … . (If you aren’t feeling well or suspect you could communicate a contagious disease, we would love to see you on Zoom. Several of us have “at risk” family members to go home to, and need to be careful even though we are thankful to be able to socialize in person.)

At some points we will bring up the subjects of ideas for future programs and topics of interest to the two organizations, including …

Community of Reason wishes to recruit 20 "members" of the official non-profit organization, early next year, with paid membership of approximately $25 each. You certainly don't need to become a "member" to participate in our meetings, but we do have to cover yearly expenses. And to sustain the organization, people have to be involved in its operation.

Friends of Community Media, along with other organizations including CoR, is discussing a possible "Kansas City Local News Conference", tentatively to be held around August, 2023. Join us for a good time and share your ideas about what you think might make such a conference worthwhile.
A formal planning meeting for the conference is scheduled for next January 21 (Saturday) 2 PM, Tom Crane's home, 3707 Pennsylvania Ave, Kansas City, MO 64111-2822.
A few slides with brainstormed ideas are available in Google slides at
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Q0dWxv25u5nzmeQU59zZ1Z9OrFVUFLDk3spZGePwoZA/edit?usp=sharing

Program for Sunday, December 11, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Why our minds weren’t built for truth

Julia Galef’s “Soldiers and Scouts: Why our minds weren’t built for truth, and how we can change that,” is both a video^[1] and book^[2]. Steward Brand of The Long Now Foundation^[3] and the Whole Earth Catalog^[4] introduces Julia Galef in the video, which we will follow by discussion. Very short added notes will be presented on related positions by James Webb, and some book recommendations by James and others^[7].

Galef’s book is The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t.^[2]

“Julia Galef is the host of the popular Rationally Speaking podcast^[5], where she has interviewed thinkers such as Tyler Cowen, Sean Carroll, Phil Tetlock, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. She is an advisor to OpenAI, works with the Open Philanthropy Project, and cofounded the Center for Applied Rationality. Her 2016 TED Talk ‘Why You Think You’re Right–Even If You’re Wrong’^[6] has been viewed over 4 million times.”^[2]

[1] YouTube Video “Soldiers and Scouts: Why our minds weren’t built for truth, and how we can change that”: https://longnow.org/seminars/02018/sep/12/soldiers-and-scouts-why-our-minds-werent-built-truth-and-how-we-can-change/ .

[2] The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t on Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555240/the-scout-mindset-by-julia-galef/

On Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Scout-Mindset-Perils-Defensive-Thinking/dp/0735217556, quote is from end of description.

[3] The Long Now Foundation: https://longnow.org

[4] The Whole Earth Catalog, by Stewart Brand. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog .

[5] Rationally Speaking Podcast: http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/ .

[6] TED Talk, Why You Think You’re Right–Even If You’re Wrong: https://www.ted.com/talks/julia_galef_why_you_think_you_re_right_even_if_you_re_wrong . Now over 7.5 million views.

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4RLfVxTGH4

[7] Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman. On Amazon.

Program for Sunday, December 4, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Participatory Defense

Described as “a community organizing model for people facing charges, their families, and communities to impact the outcomes of cases and transform the landscape of power in the court system”.

The participatorydefense.org website claims the associated movement has reduced incarcerations in numerous cases totaling at least 1,862 fewer years in prison.^[1] The founder of this project, Raj Jadayev, was selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 2018.^[2] There are now Participatory Defense hubs in 30 cities in the US, helping accused better manage their criminal defense.^[3]

Gordon Elliott will moderate and Spencer Graves will speak based upon his personal experience, along with short videos and a Ted Talk from the movement.^[4] Spencer’s wife was a an intellectual leader in this movement.

[1] https://www.participatorydefense.org/about

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raj_Jayadev

[3] https://www.participatorydefense.org/hubs

[4] Relevant Links and Videos (not all videos will be watched during the talk):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI5-h-SJLkM Community-powered criminal justice reform | Raj Jayadev | TEDxBinghamtomUniversity

https://acjusticeproject.org “Mothers in Charge” (and other articles and videos)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R4ZUx_V0TU&t=4s Meet the People Fighting for True Justice for All

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ir6_0a6P7M How community transforms the courts | Raj Jayadev | TEDxBinghamtonUniversity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSG7fyrsezM Ashoka Fellow Raj Jayadev on participatory defense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGtPYwC_B9 I Community Organizer Raj Jayadev | 2018 MacArthur Fellow

Program for Sunday, November 27, 2022 – 1:00 to 4:00pm

After Thanksgiving Potluck (and special guest)

Doors open at 1:00 to get ready for potluck (probably start eating around 1:45). We will still be eating throughout the discussion period which starts at 2:00 as normal, but the Zoom meeting will be opened early.

(We expect at least two members with special medical needs, so we intend to mask and then distance while eating.)

Ryan Sorrell, founder of The Kansas City Defender news organization, has promised to join us in person. (The Kansas City Defender is an award winning “nonprofit digital startup producing news, digital tools and public services for Black people across the Midwest.” Mr. Sorrell was featured in the interview program last Sunday.)

Program for Sunday, November 20, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

The Kansas City Defender

Ryan Sorrell, founder of The Kansas City Defender news organization, will join us in a recorded interview by Spencer Graves for the upcoming Radioactive Magazine on KKFI. Ryan was not able to make the Sunday schedule, but may be invited back for in-person discussion some other Sunday. Meanwhile we can discuss the work his organization is doing, and put together a list of questions to further the discussion with Mr. Sorrell and his group.

The Kansas City Defender is an award winning “nonprofit digital startup producing news, digital tools and public services for Black people across the Midwest.”

Program for Sunday, November 13, 2022 – 1:00 to 4:00pm

(Excerpted from Wikimedia Commons, By Nehrams2020, CC BY-SA 3.0 )

Potluck! (and a discussion of the election)

Join us at the Oak Room for a potluck of Community of Reason participants, and commiserate or rejoice (whichever is your feeling) about the recent election.

Note doors open at 1:00 PM, and we will start the Zoom meeting as soon as we can get it going so those who can’t join us in person can still talk and nibble from home. The “official” commiserating starts at 2:00 as normal, but we will probably still be eating and a few latecomers might even arrive with new food to enjoy.

We may also continue the discussion of the future of Community of Reason.

(There is a small but complete kitchen off the Oak Room, so very limited steps could be done on site if arrive early, and we can wash up some dishes at least well enough to take home if necessary.)

Program for Sunday, November 6, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

The Future of COR

This is an important meeting, because we need to discuss the future of the Community of Reason KC.

For the Community of Reason to continue to produce programs, we need volunteers, because the duties of the organization need to be shared.

For the weeks of November 6, 13, and 20, we have reserved the Oak Room at Oak Hall in Missouri, which should be central for many who have not been able to come in person from the Missouri side. (And of course the Zoom connections will be open as well.)

In addition we are considering having a potluck before (and during) the program the week after on the 13th.

Program for Sunday, October 30, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Wikipedia: The Most Democratic Force on Earth

Spencer Graves of Friends of Community Media claims that Wikipedia is the most democratic force on earth. Almost anyone can change almost anything on Wikipedia. What stays tends to be written from a neutral point of view citing credible sources. Registered users can ‘watch’ Wikipedia articles, and if they all like changes, they stay. If one does not like a change, it can be “undone” or modified to hopefully make it better. Controversies are usually resolved by discussion on the “Talk” page associated with each article.

The presentation will have live demonstrations and tutorials. Be ready by picking articles on Wikipedia you might think can be improved.

There is much more to “Wikimedia” than just the encyclopedia pages. Wikipedia is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, which sponsors other projects including Wikimedia Commons (for photos, videos and other material that might be used in multiple Wikimedia Foundation projects), Wikiversity (for tutorials and original research not permitted on Wikipedia), Wikiquote (for familiar quotations, citing sources), and Wikidata (for data like names and dates that can be easily shared between multiple Wikimedia Foundation projects). We can also discuss vandalism, paid editing, censorship, and other questions about Wikipedia, depending on the interests of the participants.

The presenter, Spencer Graves, has logged almost 25,000 edits to Wikimedia Foundation projects since 2010, especially on Wikidata and the English Wikipedia, Wikiversity, and Wikiquote, but also to Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia in Spanish, French and German.

Program for Sunday, October 23, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

David Cay Johnston: The Big Cheat

We will watch a video of David Cay Johnston discussing his new book The Big Cheat, followed by discussion.

¹“Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and dean of Trumpologists David Cay Johnston reveals years of eye-popping financial misdeeds by Donald Trump and his family.”

We are starting the video at 2:00 PM so we get all the introductions, but you won’t miss much joining a few minutes late. Video link here on YouTube. From The Commonwealth Club of California, “the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum”, in conversation with Mitch Jeserich, Host “Letters and Politics,” on KPFA community radio in Berkley and Fresno.

²“‘Few people are as well positioned to write an exposé of the former president as Johnston’ (The Washington Post), and The Big Cheat offers a guided tour of how money flowed in and out of Trump’s hundreds of enterprises, showing in simple terms how a corrupt president used our government for his benefit, even putting national security at risk. Johnston details the four most recent years of the corruption that has defined the Trump family since 1885 and reveals the costs of Trump’s extravagant lifestyle for American taxpayers.”

³David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter and bestselling author of The Making of Donald Trump and It’s Even Worse Than You Think. He has lectured on economics, journalism, and tax policy on every continent except Antarctica and is a former president of Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE). Johnston has been a frequent guest on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC, ABC World News Tonight, Democracy Now!, and NPR’s Morning Edition, among other shows, and was a consultant for the Netflix series House of Cards.

^1,2,3 Simon & Schuster: The Big Cheat.

Program for Sunday, October 16, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

The Kansas City Police Department and
Missouri Amendment 4

Our guest speaker, Lora McDonald of More2.org (MORE “Squared”, MORE²), will discuss the complex history of home rule for the Kansas City Missouri Police Department, and address Amendment 4 which is on the ballot across Missouri.

Amendment 4 will allow the Missouri legislature to force Kansas City to increase its direct funding of the police department–and bills already passed would change the requirement from 20% to 25% of general revenue to the City. (Mayor Quinton Lucas and some civil rights organizations oppose the amendment, and rather support letting Kansas City return to local control. But all this will be the subject of the discussion…..)

McDonald has been organizing since 2008. She worked for the KC Crime Commission from 2008-2012, serving as the architect of the Second Chance Program and establishing the KC Reentry Coalition, to address public policies and systemic issues that created barriers to successful reentry. Since then she has been the Executive Director of MORE², Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, “the leading force for criminal justice and police reform in the Kansas City metro region.”

Program for Sunday, October 9, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Friends of Community Media

Spencer Graves and Greg Swartz of Friends of Community Media will join us to talk about their organization and subjects we have in common.

FCM took on the mission to “promote non-commercial, community-based media of all types; to educate citizens on the nature of the media; and to encourage all media to be responsive to the public in coverage.”

Our current environment includes large groups of people who believe contradictory basic facts about physical reality with the combined effects of the new media technology landscape and divisive politics. The Nichols and McChesney proposals from a previous meeting, and last week’s focus on local non-profit media cooperation, lead to a continuing conversation of what can be done to improve the relationship of media and community.

Program for Sunday, October 2, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

KC Media Collective

Chris Lester, Managing Editor, Kansas City PBS, and also the lead contact for PBS/Flatland with the Kansas City Media Collective. Chris will join us to talk about the Kansas City Media Collective (follow link for the link for more information on the Media Collective). (Chris Lester bio.)

Previous programs have concentrated on issues of improving local news coverage (both nationwide and local KC area). The KC Media Collective has been doing just that, for example the Collective members support each other as in this Community Conversation on Reproductive Rights.

In our discussions we have tried to understand the changes in media over time, including the dwindling role of newspapers in the community, with severe cutbacks in local reporting. Chris’s background is not just in public broadcasting and the related media, but his experience includes 24 years at the Kansas City Star as both columnist and editor. I think we will have more interesting subjects to cover than time!

Program for Sunday, September 25, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Open Meeting

General discussion this week. Topics: All subjects in recent programs, suggestions for new programs (especially speakers).

Program for Sunday, September 18, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

Working Meeting: Improving Local News Media

Spencer Graves (President of Friends of Community Media) will join us to continue the discussion of how to improve local news media, including the Nichols and McChesney proposal. We have an opportunity to share a table with FCM at the PeaceWorksKC Local Art Fair next weekend, September 24-25, to build momentum for improving local media and promoting our organizations to the public. Spencer will share his flyer Reducing Conflict and Corruption by Improving Local News, we will examine local initiatives in the area, and discuss other ideas for working together and with other organizations on local news media issues.

Program for Sunday, September 11, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00pm

9/11 Legacy

Gordon Elliott and Michael Hoey, (facilitators). We will play the 26 minute Democracy Now video “Turning Point”: Legacy of the U.S. Response to 9/11 Is Terror, Domestic Surveillance & Drones. This is a summary and interview about the creation of the 5-part Netflix documentary Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror and opens a long list of discussion points. Then a short French video What the CIA did not tell about its War on Terror. Following Michael will highlight a list of Internet resources that show the history of the Arab region over the last century, showing alliances and actions by the West–which should give some background for understanding the Arab responses and how we got to today.

References:

“Turning Point”: Legacy of the U.S. Response to 9/11 Is Terror, Domestic Surveillance & Drones (YouTube)

What the CIA did not tell about its War on Terror (YouTube)

Two Decades Later, the Enduring Legacy of 9/11 (Pew Research Center)

Program for Sunday, September 4, 2022 – 2:00 to 3:45pm

DISCUSSION: “The US journalism crisis is a democracy crisis,”

(An Interview with Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols on the Marc Steiner show)

Gordon Elliott and Michael Hoey, (facilitators) The discussion will focus on local media and how local media can be used to promote democracy. (Link to interview: https://therealnews.com/the-us-journalism-crisis-is-a-democracy-crisis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcGOT0_Y35o )

References:

Their paper To Protect and Extend Democracy, Recreate Local news Media (PDF)

Free Press fights to save Net Neutrality, achieve affordable internet access for all, uplift the voices of people of color in the media, challenge old and new media gatekeepers to serve the public interest, end unwarranted surveillance, defend press freedom and reimagine local journalism.

____________________________________________________________________________________________`

Announcements:

There will be an organizational meeting before the scheduled program

Where: Neighborhood Café, 7531 Wornall Rd., Kansas City, MO. 64114
You can purchase and have lunch during the meeting. Check the website for their menu (neighborhoodcafe.com). Choose the Waldo branch location.
Meeting time: 1:00 to 2:00 pm., promptly followed by the scheduled program at 2:00 pm. If you are late, you will miss the first part of the video.

The scheduled program will end at 3:45 pm instead of at 4:00 pm

Program for Sunday, August 28, 2022 – 2:00 to 4:00 pm

Critical Reason: Insights from Charles Peirce on Science — Relevance for Democracy

Dr. James Webb will discuss the relevance to democracy from Charles Peirce’s methods of establishing belief and other insights.

Program for Sunday, August 21, 2022, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

Political polarization: what can we do about it?

Political polarization has been growing and threatening democracy in many countries in recent years. This is not just a perception, a growing body of research supports this conclusion.

Spencer Graves from Friends of Community Media has been working on this subject for several years. We are privileged to be his guinea pigs for the debut presentation–at a time when the importance could not be greater. Proposals include changes to internet law, and increasing funding for local news in ways that strengthen democracy and resist polarization.

Spencer is not just PhD statistician, professional engineer, and president of Friends of Community Media. He is also founder of EffectiveDefense.org, devoted to researching the long-term impact of alternative approaches to conflict, and a program associate with KKFI (90.1 FM), associated with Radio Active Magazine.

Program for Sunday, August 7, 2022, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

What is Democracy IV? Jesus and John Wayne: Evangelicals and Politics

James Webb, UMKC, Ph.D., Economics https://books.google.com/books/about/Jesus_and_John_Wayne_How_White_Evangelic.html?id=nau6DwAAQBAJ

Program for Sunday, July 17th, 2022, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

What is Democracy I? A Brief History of Democracy in Political Philosophy

Majid Shahbazkhani, political activist for liberal democracy in Iran

Program for Sunday, July 24th, 2022, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

**What is Democracy II? The Demos of Democracy: An Abstract Paradigm**

Greg Hodes, Ph.D., Philosophy

Program for Sunday, July 31st, 2022, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

What is Democracy III? The Rise of Fascism in the U.S. and Europe

Gordon Elliott, physicist, electrical engineer, mathematician; and, James Webb, UMKC, Ph.D. Economics. https://www.google.com/books/edition/How_Fascism_Works/NARIDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Program for Sunday, July 10th, 2022, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

DiEM25 – A “Radical” European Group’s Take on the Current Economic Crisis

The European political group DiEM25 had a video conference titled “The cost of living crisis – what’s causing it, how bad will it get, and how do we fix it?”. An edited version (less than 45 minutes) will be viewed, followed by discussion, led by Michael Hoey and Gordon Elliott. (This illuminates how the EU is going through very similar inflationary crisis, but with even greater difficulties than the US–G.E.)

Link to whole video for those who would like to watch it in advance (1 hour 15 minutes) Link to video

The group DiEM25 “A progressive movement for Europe” promotes a green new deal. (See link.)

Moderator: Mehran Khalili, Activist organizer, political consultant, Chania, Greece.

Yanis Varoufakis, Economist and politician, former finance minister of Greece, Professor of Economics at the University of Athens..

Julijana Zita, co-founder of MERA25 movement in Germany.

Judith Meyer, Author in language learning and political organizer from Germany.

Dusan Pajovic, Psychology of Intercultural Relations, Animal rights activist, Green New Deal for Europe Campaign Coordinator at DiEM25, from Lisbon, Portugal.

Johannes Fehr, Organizer, specialist Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency, Germany.

Erik Edman, Organizer, subject Political Sociology. Was project manager, CSR Europe, The European business network for Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility. Brussels Belgium.

Amir Kiyaei, Policy Coordinator DiEM25, specialist Technology and Security Risk Services, and in sustainable development, peace building and environmental affairs, Hague Netherlands.

An interesting presentation by Yanis Varoufakis in 2919 about the DiEM25 group’s mission. (The Youtube video shows links to other presentations.)

(The presenters confirm the complexity of the causes of the inflation occurring in both Europe and the US, with their political take of course. For another view on the subject of recent inflation:)

Everything You’re Hearing About Gas Prices is Wrong (Time Magazine)

Program for Sunday, July 3rd, 2022, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

Information Technology Education: past and present

Wading or Rowing in Deep Water: the abortion issue

Continued spirited discussion

Program for Sunday, June 26, 2022, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

First hour: Information Technology Education: past and present

Majid Shahbazkhani, software engineering and application development (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada)

Second hour: Wading or Rowing in Deep Water: The abortion issue

Greg Hodes, Ph.D. Philosophy

Program for Sunday, June 19, 2022, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

A freethought writer from Girard, Kansas: E. Haldeman-Julius (1889-2021)

Fred Whitehead, freethought historian, author, poet, grassroots activist

Fred will give a brief history of E. Haldeman-Julius and his work (see E. Haldeman-Julius on Wikipedia). E. Haldeman’s books are available for purchase (contact Fred Whitehead at P.O. Box 5224, KCK, 66119, or via email, fredwh@swbell.net, or call (913) 342-6379.

Program for Sunday, June 12

Raoul Peck’s “Exterminate All the Brutes”

(a documentary, Episode 4)

Luis Flores, facilitator

In this final episode, … “Peck links the resurgence of white nationalism with the global history of fascism, slavery, colonization and Nazism.”

__________________________________________________________________

Program for June 5, 2022

2:00 to 4:00 pm

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN LABOR MARKETS AND INEQUALITY IN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Argun Saatcioglu, Professor of Education and Sociology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence

“The solution has to start with the real story” Raoul Peck

Program for May 29, 2022

Some Short Films

Fred Whitehead, author, poet, freethought historian.
Dr. Whitehead will show some short films he directed and produced.

Program for May 22, 2022

Where is Turkey Today?

Dr. Eyyup Esen, Ph.D., (Higher Education), University of Kansas, author of Global Warming of Hearts! and I am not color blind” (2020).

Dr. Esen will speak about his views of Turkey and his experience as an asylee. One of his major goals is to depolarize the world.

Program for May 15, 2022

**Raoul Peck’s “Exterminate All the Brutes,”**

(a documentary, episode 1)

Barbara Johnson, facilitator

Program for May 8, 2022

The Process Party (continued) and Gerrymandering in Missouri

Greg Hodes, Ph. D. Philosophy and Dr. Barbara J. K. Johnson, community activist

Program for May 1, 2022

The Process Party: Political Reform in Desperate Times

Greg Hodes, Ph. D. Philosophy

__________________________________________________________________

Program for April 24, 2022

In-person meeting this Sunday as well as via Zoom

Where: Central Resource Library. 9875 W 87th St. , Overland Park, Kansas 66212, Room 20

Fred Whitehead will briefly present something interesting to see how it all works out

__________________________________________________________________

Join in-person at the Central Resource Library (RSVP: gelliott@csisc.cc) or join us on Zoom

2:00 to 4:00 pm Sunday, April 24, 2022

Program for April 10, 2022

Continued CoR KC Planning for the rest of the year.

Program for April 3, 2022

CoR KC Planning for the rest of the year.

Program for March 20, 2022

“Killing of Political Prisoners in Iran in 1988″

Majid Shahbazkhani, an Iranian independent liberal democrat and human rights activist involved in the Justice for 1988 campaign (https://www.justicefor1988.com)

Majid will speak about the mass killing of political prisoners in Iran in 1988, why it is ignored in the U.S. and the free world. According to Amnesty international, Iran ambassador to UN in 1988 is accused of a crime against humanity because he aided in hiding the massacre of 5000 political prisoners. However, the ambassador is head of the religion department at Oberlin College and is known as “peace professor” there.

Program for March 13, 2022

“Chaos and Reductionism”

(Lecture 13 from Robert Sapolsky’s Stanford Human Behavioral Biology Course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_njf8jwEGRo)

Facilitators: Robert Gaines, flâneur, retired Systems Technologist; and Luis Flores, social scientist.

“Professor Robert Sapolsky gives what he calls ‘one of the most difficult lectures of the course.’ His lecture focuses on reduction science and breaking things down to their component parts in order to best understand them.”

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Everyone is welcome

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The link is posted on our website www.communityofreasonkc.org.

YOU ARE INVITED TO LIVE ZOOM PRESENTATIONS FROM 2:00 TO 4:00 PM SUNDAY AFTERNOONS

The link to join our ZOOM meeting is

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84206282809

For future programs, please check out our Monthly schedules page.

Announcement

Mary Lindsay
League of Women Voters of Kansas City/Jackson, Clay & Platte Counties
P. O. Box 10416
Kansas City, MO 64171-0416
816-885-9996 Voice / Text / Voicemail

Program for March 6, 2022

Sociobiology: “The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst,” by Robert Sapolsky

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRYcSuyLiJk)

Facilitators: Robert Gaines, Technical Instructor, Research Technician, Engineer, Programmer, Analyst, manager and consultant in electronics, computer networks and systems; and Luis Flores, social scientist.

We will show a video of a talk given by Robert Sapolsky about the neurological and biological underpinnings of social cognition and behavior. His talk is part of “…A joint project with the Laboratory for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology at Stanford University Medical School and the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies.”

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Everyone is welcome

Program for February 27, 2022

IRAN: Secularism versus Theocracy

Majid Shahbazkhani, an Iranian independent liberal democrat and human rights activist, who experienced the “Islamic Revolution” and the establishment of a theocracy in his home country.

Majid will take a sociopolitical view of the “Islamic Revolution” in Iran for about 20 minutes followed by questions, comments and discussion.

Program for February 20, 2022

“A compelling contemporary development,” discussion

Participants will choose an issue of importance

Program for February 13, 2022

“Brave New World,” Original 2018 painting series by Ian Young

Ian Young, Kansas artist, https://ianyoungfineart.com/

Ian will display and discuss his visual interpretation of Aldous Huxley’s famous 1932 science fiction novel.

Program for February 6, 2022

CGELI KORZHEV (1935-2012): Soviet artist in the “Severe School”

Fred Whitehead, author, poet, freethought historian

Geli Korzhev acerbically depicted the transition from socialism to capitalism. Slides of his work will be featured.

Geli Korzhev (1935-2012), Soviet artist in the “Severe School.” who acerbically depicted the transition from socialism to capitalism

Program for January 30, 2022

CONTINUATION: “In the Age of AI,” (a Frontline documentary)

Robert Gaines, Technical Instructor, Research Technician, Engineer, Programmer, Analyst, manager and consultant in electronics, computer networks and systems

Robert will facilitate discussion of the documentary (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/in-the-age-of-ai/). The documentary “investigates the promise and perils of artificial intelligence, from fears about work and privacy to rivalry between the U.S. and China. The documentary traces a new industrial revolution that will reshape and disrupt our lives, our jobs and our world, and allow the emergence of the surveillance society.” It is a good starting point for discussion of the subject.

See also: The Past Decade and Future of AI’s Impact on Society by Joanna J. Bryson – University of Bath, UK https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/articles/the-past-decade-and-future-of-ais-impact-on-society/

Program for January 16, 2022

Overview of Artificial Intelligence: “In the Age of AI,” (a Frontline documentary)

Robert Gaines, technical instructor, research technician, engineer, programmer, analyst, manager and consultant in electronics, computer networks and systems

Robert will facilitate discussion of the documentary. The documentary “investigates the promise and perils of artificial intelligence, from fears about work and privacy to rivalry between the U.S. and China. The documentary traces a new industrial revolution that will reshape and disrupt our lives, our jobs and our world, and allow for the emergence of the surveillance society.” It is a good starting point for discussion of the subject

Program for January 9, 2022

Is Common Sense Common?

Kenneth A Schmitz, Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry and Environmental Studies, UMKC.

Typical trivia contests are about knowledge that one knows about a variety of topics. In contrast, problems that are directed to common sense involves reasoning. Those present will be given 22 puzzles that are solved by the application of common sense (as defined on the Internet). Solutions, along with a discussion and the reasoning, follow.

Program for January 2, 2022

Heading into 2022: What does the New Year bring?

Program for December 19, 2021

“The Safe Side of the Fence” a documentary about our nuclear legacy

Tony West, filmmaker/television videographer, editor

Tony will discuss the documentary about how massive number of workers were exposed to lethal amounts of radiation brought about by the need for uranium, https://vimeo.com/136970024 (pw: thesafeside15)

Program for December 12, 2021

Discussion: What the Hell is Going On?

Program for November 14, 2021

The November Mystery Celebration

Kenneth A Schmitz, Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry and Environmental Studies, UMKC.

What November is dedicated to but not generally celebrated.

Program for November 7, 2021

More about China and Other Concerns?

Open discussion

Program for October 31, 2021

Where are we with China?

Ian Munro, Professor emeritus at William Jewell College. He was among the first group of Americans to teach in China after the Cultural Revolution, from 1979-1981 at Wuhan University. He returned to China from 2010-2011, for a reunion with his students.

Dr. Munro will talk about how attitudes towards China have changed from the 18th century, but mainly over the last 50 years. Dr. Munro will address how the media has manipulated “popular opinion” in the U.S. about China. Dr. Munro’s talk is based on a paper, “American Attitudes Towards China,” and on a talk given at Wuhan University in 2011.

Program for October 24, 2021

Remembering Harlan Bonar (1950-2021), â€œThe Michelangelo of Missouriâ€

Fred Whitehead, freethought historian, poet, writer

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Program for October 17, 2021

Random Distributions and Probabilities: Visualizing Solutions to Problems with Constraints by Means of Images and Diagrams

Dr. Kenneth S Schmitz, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry and Environmental Studies, UMKC

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This presentation was inspired by the 3-Couple Seating Problem presented by Quintin Welsh. Also included are casino games, the three-door Monte Hall Problem, the distribution of siblings of the Smith and Jones families; and, also bar seating, and competition of oxygen and carbon monoxide to hemoglobin sites (a popular method of writers is the closed garage door with a running car engine)

Program for October 10, 2021

“Economics as Scientific Inquiry: An Antidote and Alternative to Neo-Liberalism,” (continuing discussion of September 5, 2021)

James Webb, UMKC Economist

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There is a tradition of institutional economics going back to the late nineteenth century which critiques neoliberalism and provides an alternative analysis that incorporates C. S. Peirce”s views on scientific method and includes T. Veblen, John R Commons, J. M. Keynes, J. Robinson, Lester C. Thurow, J. Stiglitz, Randy Wray, Stephanie Kelton as examples of institutional economists

Program for October 3, 2021

Book Review: Phobias (2021) by Michael Young

Michael Young, renown Kansas Artist, notably known for â€œBrown vs. the Board of Education, that hangs in the Capitol Building at Topeka. Go to www.michaelyoungfineart.com for more of his work. Fred Whitehead, freethought historian, will interview Michael about his life and work.

Program for September 26, 2021

Can U.S. Foreign Policy Ever Get It Right? What Afghanistan Teaches Us About Honduras

Judy Ancel, Cross Border Network, (www.crossbordernetwork.org)

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Program for September 19, 2021

Redistricting: The Most Influential — Yet Overlooked — Undertaking in Missouri Politics

Mary Lindsay, League of Women Voters of Kansas City, Redistricting Committee (lwvkc.org)

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Program for August 29, 2021

Golf is a Four-Letter Word

An Informative and Entertaining Discourse on Golf-Play

Dr. Kenneth S Schmitz, Ph. D., Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry and Environmental Studies, UMKC.

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Program for July 11, 2021

*This presentation will focus on people-to-people interactions including the present audience.*

Program for July 4, 2021

Program for June 27, 2021

Dr. King will discuss what biases are, how they can cause harm even when we donâ€™t intend it, how we develop biases over our lives, how they lead to microaggressions, and of course how to mitigate their harmful impact.

Program for May 23, 2021

Speaker: Dr. Barbara J. K. Johnson

Program for May 16, 2021

Kindergarten Through Twelfth Grade: A Curriculum for the Future

HOST: Quintin Welch

Program for March 28, 2021

In 2019 the Cross Border Network organized a delegation of solidarity activists from across the U.S. and Canada to tour Honduras and inquire why thousands of Hondurans were leaving either alone or joining with others in â€œcaravans.â€ What they found was published in a report released just before COVID shut us all down. Even during COVID, caravans attempted to make it to the US border, but, of course, Trumpâ€™s â€œSafe Third Countryâ€ and â€œRemain in Mexicoâ€ policies made it very difficult to enter the US. Now that Trump is gone and Biden has announced the end to those two policies, Hondurans are coming again, with two hurricanes and COVID pushing them out as new reasons to flee. Why does the Cross Border Network take the position that the surge in Hondurans seeking asylum in the U.S. will not stop until the U.S. changes its foreign policy?

SPEAKER: Judy Ancel, Cross Border Network | Click here for the Zoom link

Program for March 21, 2021

*Communards and supporters at a barricade in the rue de Charonne, Paris. Photo: Photo 12/UIG via Getty Images*

SPEAKER: Fred Whitehead, freethought historian | Click here for the Zoom link See Vive la Commune? The working-class insurrection that shook the world

PAST PROGRAMS:

Program for March 14, 2021

SPEAKER: Dr. Barbara Johnson | Click here for the Zoom link

Program for March 7, 2021

To purchase an autographed copy, please email: wtammeus@gmail.com

Bill Tammeus, Columnist (The Presbyterian Outlook, Flatlandkc.org), Former columnist (National Catholic Reporter), KC Star Faith Matters blog: http://billtammeus.typepad.com , http://billtammeus.typepad.com/my_weblog/my-flatlandkc-columns.html , Twitter: @BillTammeus, Latest book: https://amzn.to/3ltRBn5 , My Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/billtammeusames

Program for February 14, 2021

SPEAKER: Quintin Welch

Program for February 7, 2021

(Part 2 of Jan 24 Program) SPEAKER: Greg Hodes, Ph.D., Philosophy

Program for January 31, 2021

SPEAKER: Darnell Hunt

Program for January 24, 2021

SPEAKER: Greg Hodes, Ph.D., Philosophy

Program for January 3 and 10, 2021

Please read this book in advance.

Program for December 20, 2020

Program for December 6, 2020

Everyone is welcome. Join us with passion and reason

Program for November 1, 2020

The choice of words and organization of phrases can sway opinions and beliefs. Discussed in this presentation is how science deniers in politics use the little lie to mask the big lie on two important issues in the forthcoming election: climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.

Program for October 18, 2020

**Time: 02:00 PM Central Time** (US and Canada)

Program for October 11, 2020

SPEAKER: Max J Skidmore, Ph.D., University of Missouri: Curatorsâ€™ Professor of Political Science and Thomas Jefferson Fellow

Program for Sept 27, 2020

CorKC is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
**Time: 02:00 PM Central Time** (US and Canada)

Program for Sept 20, 2020

Program for Sept 13, 2020

SPEAKER: **Gordon Elliott** (physicist, electrical engineer, mathematician)
CorKC is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
**Time: Sep 13, 2020, 02:00 PM Central Time** (US and Canada)

Program for Sept 6, 2020

SPEAKER:
Mike Hoey, (grassroots activist), will discuss the book and show a video interview with the author about his book

Program for Aug 30, 2020

**You are invited to a live ZOOM planning/organizational meeting.**
We hope to discuss and decide our meetings for the next 4 to 8 weeks.
Please come, help and participate.

Program for Aug 23, 2020

**Modeling the coronavirus spread in a community** (a very short preview of my August 30 presentation)
**Gordon Elliott**, physicist, electrical engineer, mathematician

**How the suppression of scientific information and an audience lacking scientific understanding has led to the politicization and subsequent spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States**
**Kenneth S. Schmitz**, Emeritus professor of physical chemistry and environmental studies

**How capitalism, globalism, and climate change are responsible for humansâ€™ contracting novel viruses, and what we can do to reverse this trend** (summary of a presentation by Dr. Shiva can be found here.
**Darnell Hunt**, retired Navy Nurse Corps officer, community activist/organizer, and occasional political candidate.

**An open discussion will follow the above presentations â€“ everyone is encouraged to join**

Program for Aug 16, 2020

**Greetings friends of Community of Reason KC.**
You are invited to a live informal virtual gathering to visit, reconnect, and just talk
amongst ourselves (formal dress optional). How have we been? What do we want?
Where do we wish to go? If you canâ€™t join us and even if you can please let us know
what you think COR ought and could do.
Please email these ideas to Commofreasonkc@gmail.com

For more detailed instructions on how to join the zoom virtual meeting, click here.

Program for March 22, 2020

**Karen True,** Deputy Chief, Kansas City Police Department

Program for March 15, 2020

**Donna Maize,** Fire Chief, Kansas City, Missouri

Program for March 8, 2020

**a film about Hypatia of Alexandria during 4th Century Eygpt**
**Cristian Wade** (discussant), member of the *Greater Kansas City Industrial Workers of the World* (IWW)

Program for March 1, 2020

**SPEAKER:**
**Alissia Canady**, Managing Attorney, Canady Law Firm, (former Kansas City councilwoman)

Program for Feb 23, 2020

SPEAKER:
Kenneth S. Schmitz, (discussant), Emeritus professor of physical chemistry and environmental studies

This documentary is relevant at a time when treaties are meaningless and rollbacks on environmental protections are not slowing down by an administration that believes human-induced climate change is a hoax.

Program for Feb 16, 2020

**SPEAKER:**
**Jamie Jackson,** an activist for Palestinian human rights with â€œCitizens for Justice in the Middle Eastâ€ (CJME). CJME and CoR KC are co-sponsors of this event.

This documentary follows the story of four young Palestinians who have been detained and imprisoned in the military system, providing us a lens into a key structure of oppression in the occupied territories. On average 500 Palestinian children are detained every year.

Program for Feb 9, 2020

SPEAKER:
David Burnham, Paleontologist, University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, returning from celebrated recent discoveries (e.g., New Yorker Magazine, CBS Morning Television, KC Star newspaper)

Program for Feb 2, 2020

SPEAKER:
Rick Randolph, M.D. retired U.S. Army Colonel, Chief Medical Officer, Heart to Heart International (hearttoheart.org), worked with WHO (World Health organization), tracked epidemics: cholera and Ebola in Africa (Liberia)

Program for Jan 19, 2020

**Joyce McGautha,** President of SANKOFA and former director of Urban Community Leadership Academy

Program for Jan 26, 2020

**Robert Stewart,** editor of *â€œNew Lettersâ€* magazine; poet, essayist
*Robert will read selections from his latest book of poems, Working Class (2018, Stephen Austin State University Press)â€*

Program for December 1

**Kenneth S Schmitz,** (discussant)
Emeritus professor of physical chemistry and environmental studies.
*It is suggested the audience take notes on the material in the documentary*

Program for December 8

Program for December 15

**Cecilia Belser-Patton,** organizer with Missouri Jobs With Justice (mojwj.org)
*Using art and activism as tools for teaching self-actualization, Cecilia uses artivism to create the just and open world in which she wishes to live in.*
DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER THIS PROGRAM IS CANCELLED FOR TODAY AND MOVED TO JANUARY

Program for December 22

**Kenneth S Schmitz,**(discussant)
Emeritus professor of physical chemistry and environmental studies.
After 30 years of crystal-clear science on global heating, the general public seems unconcerned about the real consequences, positive as well as negative, of the failure to act. Confusion is not only fed by climate deniers and special interest groups, but also by the focus of scientists solving the problems associated with effects rather than causes.

Program for December 29

SPEAKER: Fred Whitehead (convener), poet, author, and freethought historian
What are the lessons of the recent past; and, prospects for 2020. All are welcome to participate

Program for November 22

SPEAKER: Harvey Williams, KC Melting Pot founder and executive director (kcmeltingpot.com)

Program for November 10

SPEAKER: Michael Caddell, Radio Free Kansas
(call-in talk show, noon to 2 pm daily, CST: 6:45 &:16 8652)

Program for November 17: A documentary film showing

**Kenneth S Schmitz,** (discussant)
Emeritus professor of physical chemistry and environmental studies

Program for November 24

**SPEAKER:**
**Max J Skidmore,** Ph.D., University of Missouri: Curatorsâ€™ Professor of Political Science and
Thomas Jefferson Fellow

Program for October 27

**SPEAKER:**
**James Webb,** Economist
*Kuhn’s theory of scientific change has been very influential. What can we say about scientific inquiry in*
*light of the tectonic revolution in geology (and other episodes)?*

Program for October 20

**SPEAKER:**
**Jim Haas, Ed.D**., is a retired public school teacher, principal, and university director, a Milken Family Foundation National Educator, and a National Scholar in the Humanities.

*Weâ€™ll take a trip back in time that paints our cultureâ€™s roots in the European Middle Ages using*
*a humanities palette and a broad brush helpful in understanding contemporary issues*
*from the Middle East to Constitutional government*.

Program for October 13: Film Showing

*The film will explore the two most important questions of the Trump era:*
**How did we get here and how do we get out?**
**Open discussion:** everyone is invited to participate

Program for October 6

**SPEAKER:**
**Layla**, BADIL Worker and **Jaime Jackson**, member of
Citizens for Justice in the Middle East
(KC group advocating for peace and justice for Israel and Palestine)
BADIL’s Vimeo Page: https://vimeo.com/badilresourcecenter
**Here are links to the two films:**
“The Sun is Due to Rise”: https://vimeo.com/231350633 [duration 16:43]
“Forcible Transfer in the Old City of Hebron”: https://vimeo.com/193368711 [duration 5:48]

Program for September 29

**SPEAKER:**
**Fred Whitehead**, poet, author, grassroots historian.

Program for September 22: Film Showing (Documentary)

**SPEAKER:**
**Kenneth S. Schmitz,** Emeritus professor of physical chemistry and environmental studies

That art and science are manifestations of the same thing is the theme of the documentary in which four prominent scientists explore their views from their scientific fields of expertise on the â€œCircus de Soleilâ€ production of â€œMystere.â€ A discussion follows the documentary.

Program for September 15

**SPEAKERS:**
**Lewis Diuguid**, Author, Journalist, Editor, formerly with Kansas City Star, Harvard Universityâ€™s
Lois M. Lyons award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism; and,
**Bette Tate-Beaver,** Executive Director National Association for Multicultural Education ( **www.nameorg.org** ), a 100% Volunteer Driven Organization

*This paper was presented at Seoul National University at the Korean Association for*
*Multicultural Education Conference (see NAME website for details)*

Program for September 8

**SPEAKER:**
**Judy Ancel**, President of crossbordernetwork.org
and other delegation members
This summer, a delegation of Americans sponsored by â€œCross Border Networkâ€ visited Honduras to investigate why so many families with children were leaving and making the long trek to Trumpâ€™s border.
*Weâ€™ll discuss the results of this investigation.*

Program for September 1

**Discussants:**
**Luis Flores**, Cognitive Psychologist,
**Ken Schmidt**, UMKC Professor Emeritus of Biophysical Chemistry
and Environmental Studies Faculty,
**James Webb**, Economist

Program for Aug 4:

Click on our Essays section to view a copy of Barbara’s presentation which includes a bibliography

Program for Aug 11:

The historical fiction film â€œThe Imitation Gameâ€ about Alan Turing won an academy award. But, nothing in the film actually happened. This history lesson focuses on the forces that shaped the invention of the computer and the intellectual and mathematical effort that was hidden from the public for decades, but almost certainly won World War II, and ending with a discussion of the origins of â€œArtificial Intelligence.

Program for Aug 18:

**SPEAKER:**
**Gordon Elliott,** Consultant
(background in Physics, Engineering and Computer Science)

Program for Aug 25: Film Showing

**Jamie Jackson (Discussant),** a local activist with Citizens for Justice in the Middle East (CJME).
CJME and CoR KC are co-sponsors of this event.

This documentary was the last chance for many Israelis and Palestinians who lived the event to share their riveting and moving personal recollections. The film reveals the shocking events surrounding the creation of one state and the expulsion of a nation. (go to www.1948movie.com/guide.html for a discussion guide)

July 7:

July 14:

July 21:

There are two main parts that comprise the presentation. The first part is a Trivia section on the history of Bridge. Participation is optional. The second part deals with Audrey Grants “Bridge at a Glance” which summarizes the criteria for opening bids at designated levels. It is shown that all of the elements can be faithfully generated by a natural system based on the understanding of two general concepts: 1) the distribution of cards, and 2) the philosophical view that “above average quantities” play a central role in Bridge.

July 28:

SPEAKERS:
**Fred Whitehead,** Writer, Freethought Historian
**Mike Hoey,** Grassroots Historian

June 2:

SPEAKER: **Don Bell**, former Presbyterian Minister, Biblical scholar

June 9: Film Series

**Open discussion:** Everybody is welcome to participate

June 16:

The Problem is False: Religion is the Issue

SPEAKER: Don Bell, former Presbyterian Minister, Biblical scholar

June 23: Open discussion

Mike Hoey, (Discussant)

June 30: Open discussion

*For the video of the talk, click* *here*
*For the description about the book, click here*

Mike Hoey, (Discussant)

May 2019

May 5: “Heading For Extinction and What To Do About It”

Lee Gum, Local Facilitator for Extinction Rebellion

May 12: “Pets Helping Those in Need: Pet Therapy”

Sharon Woodrum, Program Director, Pets for Life.

May 19: “Cooperatives: Democracy At Work”

Darnell Hunt, community activist/ organizer

Comparing cooperatives to the current capitol-driven workplace.

May 26: “American Educational Reform: Ill Effects of High-Stakes Testing”

Argun Saatcioglu, Associate Professor of Education and Sociology, K.U.

April 2019

April 7: â€œA Look at the Green New Deal â€“ It’s Beginning and Futureâ€

SPEAKER: Mehdi Shariati, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Sociology, and Geography

April 14: â€œMedical Marijuana/Hemp and Tilapia â€“ What Ties Them Together? â€¦ Dre Taylorâ€

SPEAKER: Dre Taylor, Sustainable Agriculture

April 21: â€œOrganizing for Housing Justice: Eviction, Homelessness and Public Policy in Kansas City â€“ A Community Discussionâ€

DISCUSSANTS: Tara Raghuveer (www.evictionkc.org), organizer of KC Tenants, a grass roots group dedicated to empowering renters: Tiana Caldwell is a leader in KC Tenants Union: Jordan Young, is health director of MO Jobs with Justice – a panel discussion led by Ian Munro, William Jewell College emeritus professor of English

Taraâ€™s research on eviction and poverty in Kansas City was featured in the New York Times, New Yorker, Guardian, among others, and was cited in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Evicted by Mathew Desmond, (Penguin Random House, N.Y., 2016). In November 2017, she spoke on eviction before the City Council of Kansas City, MO (https://vimeo.com/244567154).

April 28: â€œIn Conjunction with the Greater Kansas City IWW Labor Film Series: Norma Rae (1987)â€

DISCUSSANT: Christian Wade, member of the Greater Kansas City Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee

The Navalnaya Interview

(Putin, Trump, and Fascism)

Early voting has started in Kansas and Missouri.

Card Games and Probability

Oppenheimer

An open discussion about the movie

(No CoR Program — BUT AT 2:00 PM…)

You are invited to Ken Schmitz’ BIRTHDAY and Pizza PARTY–his house (Please RSVP)

(And Ken is playing the movie Oppenheimer, all three hours.)

Ranked Choice Voting

“Vote No on Missouri Amendment 7 in the November 2024 Election”

Diet: new research on diet and the gut

Remembering Rita Joyce Norton

Remembering Mike Caddell

Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir

Flannery O’Connor

Noam Chomsky: Media and Mass Manipulation

Nobel winners Ressa, Matviichuk: The Future of Democracy

Special Program – no in-person at UMKC

“Israel’s Self-Destruction”

Gaza – “No Incursion”!!? / “System of Domination”

“The cycle of violence” (2-day series)

Saturday Afternoon and Sunday Morning program series:

Sunday afternoon Community of Reason meeting:

“A Sea of Misery”: Gaza

(Democracy Now 04/09/2024[2])

David Cay Johnston on Trump, Corbyn on Assange

(Segments from Democracy Now[4])

NO Program

(Have a happy Easter Sunday)

“Humanitarian Violence” in Gaza

Architect Eyal Weizman on Mapping Israel’s “Genocidal Campaign” (Democracy Now)

No Program this Sunday

(Enjoy St. Patrick’s Day)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

A Metaphor for Our Universe

Exploring Cuba

The Second Amendment and Gun control

The US as a Special Case

(No Program — Super Bowl Sunday)

Democracy Now – Gaza Conflict Continues

How We Lost World War II:

A Parable and some Facts about U.S. Monetary Institutions.

The Race for Nuclear Waste Disposal:

Why is Finland About to Cross the Finish Line While the Rest of the Nuclear World is Not Even at the Starting Gate?

Reschedule due to extreme weather!

Holiday Break

Otto Dix (Part 2)

Otto Dix (Part 1)

Open Discussion

Holiday Break

Gaza, War Crimes, Human Rights, Ceasefire?

Open Discussion

Gaza, Hamas, and Violence

Media reform in France, with Un Bout des Médias

Nuclear Energy from A to Z

Is America Likely to Become a Fascist Country?

Technology And Education: Effects of AI Driven Work on Math and Reading Achievement

Alzheimer’s Disease

Artificial Intelligence (continued)

The Other September 11’th

Artificial Intelligence

Aristotle’s Contested Legacy

The Common Good

Insurrection, Indictment, Intimidation and Fascism

The Big Cheat

Why We Must End the Drug War

THE CIA: Red Scare, Blackmail, and the Blue Suite

The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America

Climate Crisis, Fossil Fuel Double Agents

Economic and Social Policies in Iran from the 1960’s through the 1980’s

General Meeting

These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs―and Wrecks―America

President John F. Kennedy’s “Peace Speech”

Increasing Global Population: A Bane to Sustainability?

Artificial Intelligence

Informal Holiday Meeting

A Journey: Certainty and Uncertainty

No Meeting — Next Sunday Meet at UMKC

Nobel winners Ressa, Matviichuk:
The Future of Democracy

(Democracy Now 04/09/2024^[2])

(Segments from Democracy Now^[4])

Critique of Julia Galef and “Scout Mindset”^[2][3]— a better alternative for effective inquiry from the work of D. Kahneman, C. S. Peirce, and John Dewey.

Friends of Community Media
and
Community of Reason KC

SATURDAY
Holiday Party and Potluck

The Kansas City Police Department and
Missouri Amendment 4

**What is Democracy II? The Demos of Democracy: An Abstract Paradigm**

**Raoul Peck’s “Exterminate All the Brutes,”**