Weekly Perspective

  On Thursday, I traveled to Stanford University to talk about disinformation and the role we can all play in combating threats against democracy.   I’m convinced that one of the biggest reasons we’ve seen democracy increasingly under attack, in the United States and globally, is changes in how we communicate and consume information. The same technologies that make it possible to connect with nearly anyone in the world in real-time are increasingly being used to create alternate realities that fan the flames of ethnic violence, promote authoritarianism, and spread conspiracy theories. The result has been a gradual erosion of trust in the public officials, media organizations, and political institutions that are necessary for democracy to function. Disinformation is nothing new. Inflammatory rhetoric that contributes to divisions in our society did not start with tech or media companies. And some of what we’re seeing now is an inevitable consequence of new technology. But it’s also the

Our team pulled together a reminder about the challenges we have to feed the planet and a reminder about the UN Development Goals--We will continue to be focused on it as we truly have a finite planet:   By 2050, we’ll have 10 billion mouths to feed - on a finite planet. https://t.co/V2yPnDdp2T pic.twitter.com/BTXFfApX3D — Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) December 11, 2021 Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More Read More

As the World was witness to the brutality of Russian aggression in Ukraine and as political challenges hover around President Biden,  please enjoy the following #RandomThoughts courtesy Matt Wuercker of Politico, Simon Rosenberg, Epicurus Today, and Heather Cox Richardson:   Josip Broz Tito and Josef Stalin, 1948 Posted by  rhanrott  on  26 October 2018, 7:19 am The letter that terrified the most terrifying leader of modern times. When a schism grew between the Communist allies, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, Soviet leader Stalin expected the smaller country to bow before his power. Instead, the Yugoslavian President Marshal Tito defied Stalin. The latter was incensed, and despatched successive assassins to murder Tito. Finally, the Yugoslavian sent the following message to Stalin: “Stop sending people to kill me! We’ve already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle… If you don’t stop sending killers, I’ll send a very fast-working one to Moscow and I