The United States has a long history of intervening in the internal affairs of Latin American and Caribbean countries. From Cuba to Chile, from Grenada to Panama, the U.S. has invaded, occupied, staged coups, carried out assassinations, and imposed sanctions. Today, Washington has oil-rich Venezuela in its gunsights. It has deployed an armada of warships, including the world’s biggest aircraft carrier, near Venezuela. It’s blowing boats out of the water, which legal experts call extra-judicial killings. It’s threatening Caracas with regime change. The White House justifies its saber-rattling rhetoric and aggressive military actions by calling Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro a “narco-trafficker.” As Noam Chomsky has often said, to best understand U.S. foreign policy, use the mafia model. Very simply, if you obey the master, you’re safe. Step out of line? Look out.

The media like to present themselves as objective, balanced, and free from any bias or agenda. Reality suggests something quite different. The media function as weapons of mass distraction. Much of what passes as news is, sometimes subtle, sometimes crude, propaganda. The media are large conglomerates that serve to mobilize support for the special interests that dominate state and corporate power. In democratic societies, populations are not controlled by force. Rather, they are subject to more refined forms of ideological manipulation. Emotionally potent oversimplifications and necessary illusions are created and repeated endlessly. Embedded ideas, such as Washington’s right to intervene anywhere in the world, go unexamined and unchallenged. Consent is manufactured. The public, reduced to being spectators, is marginalized.

In a world increasingly shaped by far-right policies, corporate greed, and growing authoritarianism, it makes sense to feel afraid about what the future may hold. Building strong relationships with our friends, families, and neighbors provides a foundation for mutual aid and collective strength. It’s through these connections that we can counter the isolating and exploitative systems imposed by predatory capitalism. When we build communities, we aren’t just reacting to oppression; we are actively creating the world we wish to live in. Community-building undermines the atomization demanded by autocratic regimes. It is both a shield against harm and a seed for a better tomorrow. Community is resistance. We see the forms it takes in Florida and elsewhere.

We are at a dangerous moment in human history. Philosopher and thinker David Korten says, “We stand at a crossroads between two possible futures. In one future, we continue on the path of separation and likely bring the human chapter of creation’s journey to an untimely end. In the other future, we find our rightful place as responsible, loving members of the Earth community in an ecological civilization, helping to guide creation’s journey into a future of harmony and new possibilities.” The choice could not be more profound. It is, in a real sense, a test of what it truly means to be human.

The United States today has the dubious distinction of being the only major country not to guarantee health care for its population. Some 85 million Americans are uninsured, half a million go bankrupt every year because of medically related debt and we have one of the lowest life expectancy rates of any rich country. One out of four patients are unable to afford the medicine their doctors prescribe because we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Bernie Sanders says Medicare for All would save $650 billion a year and provide quality health care for everyone. There’s plenty of money for the Pentagon but little for ordinary people. We need accessible and affordable health care. Now.

Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, is a historic Armenian area located in the Caucasus Mountains. In 2023, Azerbaijan invaded and ethnically cleansed the millennial-old Armenian population. The so-called civilized West looked the other way. Looking away has been harder to do in Gaza because of the enormity of the Israeli attack and the sheer scale of death and destruction. The Israeli goal in Gaza and the Azerbaijani goal in Artsakh is cultural and physical erasure. Both Artsakh and Gaza are reported as though they are just happening in a vacuum. By not providing context and background, journalists are guilty of media malpractice. The recording was taken from a National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)/ Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lecture Series on Contemporary Armenian Issues webinar, co-hosted and co-moderated by Marc A. Mamigonian, Director of Academic Affairs at NAASR, and Henry Theriault, PhD, Associate Provost at Worcester State University.

The right-wing war on education is well-documented. The battleground extends from elementary and middle school all the way up to Harvard and Columbia. Books have been cut from curricula and pulled from school library shelves. Teachers have been fired. Schools that teach critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion are being threatened with defunding. The radical right wants to control what is being taught. They want to turn the educational system into an indoctrination machine. Their goal includes plans to abolish the Department of Education. Students who peacefully protest and exercise their First Amendment rights have been, in some cases, suspended, expelled, and even denied their diplomas. Some international students have had their visas cancelled and may face deportation. Jesse Hagopian says what’s at stake is the freedom to expose injustice and to tell the truth.

The U.S. is an imperial power. After World War II, it emerged as the global hegemon. The right turn accelerates under Reagan and continues today. Its salient features are a massive transfer of resources from the poor to the rich, an increase in state power and an aggressive interventionist foreign policy enabled by a huge military apparatus with bases all over the world. The empire’s activities are hidden under layers of deceit and subterfuge. A sophisticated propaganda system keeps the public basically unaware. No one has done more to expose actual U.S. domestic and foreign policy than Noam Chomsky. Recorded at the University of Colorado.

2024 was the hottest year ever recorded. 2025 will probably be even worse. Our planet is heating up. If present trends continue, a UN panel of scientists says it would be “disastrous for humankind.” Fossil fuels, including coal, are major contributors to global warming. So, what is the regime in Washington doing about it? It’s promoting fossil fuels with its mantra-like chants “Clean, Beautiful Coal” and “Drill Baby, Drill.” However, energy from the sun and wind is cheaper, more reliable, and better for the climate. And it’s growing faster than any energy source in history. Bill McKibben says, “Our liberation and our destruction are arriving at precisely the same time. Everything is going wrong, except this one big thing. Our species, at what feels like a dark moment, can take a giant leap into the light. Of the sun.”

Official U.S. policy in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is one of being the great enabler for Israel. A new study from the Cost of War Project at Brown University finds that the Biden and Trump regimes in the last two years have given Israel $21.7 billion in military aid. In addition, Washington extends crucial diplomatic and political support to Israel. Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch says, "When you talk about double standards in international law and human rights, the United States is at the top of the list.” There’s one set of rules for the master and his allies, in this case, Israel, and another for everyone else. The Israeli genocidal assault on Gaza has turned it into a slaughterhouse. The likelihood of a viable Palestinian state seems distant.