PROGRESSIVE INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM: “James Cromwell: Capitalism is a Cancer” / Democracy Now! / Amy Goodman ☮

Watch our extended interview with Oscar-nominated actor James Cromwell before he reports to jail at 4 p.m. Friday in upstate New York for taking part in a nonviolent protest against a natural gas-fired power plant. Cromwell says he’ll also launch a hunger strike. He was one of six activists arrested for blocking traffic at the sit-in outside the construction site of the 650-megawatt plant in Wawayanda, New York, in December of 2015. The activists say the plant would promote natural gas fracking in neighboring states and contribute to climate change.

NEROSCIENCE – COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: “The Biology of Our Best and Worst Selves” / TED Talk / Robert Sapolsky ☮

How can humans be so compassionate and altruistic — and also so brutal and violent? To understand why we do what we do, neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky looks at extreme context, examining actions on timescales from seconds to millions of years before they occurred. In this fascinating talk, he shares his cutting edge research into the biology that drives our worst and best behaviors.

RATIONALISM: “Isaac Asimov Talks About Superstition, Religion, and Why He Teaches Rationality” ☮

This was recorded in 1988. He also explains why some people who think that we should abandon science are wrong and how scientific worldview is the best.

DOMESTIC ECONOMICS: “Trump’s Infrastructure Scam” / Robert Reich, and MoveOn.org ☮

Trump vows to privatize the nation’s air traffic control system and spur $1 trillion in new investment in roads, waterways and other infrastructure. How? By charging us DOUBLE: Once for giving tax breaks to private investors in infrastructure, and then for paying the tolls and fees they’ll charge. It’s another of Trump’s giant scams. Don’t fall for it.

LOGICAL SYLLOGISMS: “The Beautiful and Ugly ‘Truth’ About Logical Arguments” / Atheist Debates Patreon Project / Matt Dillahunty ☮

The value of logical syllogisms are in their utility – tied to what we ‘accept’ rather than merely what is ‘true’.