Talking iPINIONS

Episode 68: Long Before Ukraine, Fratricidal Conflict Raged in Ethiopia

Trust me, I appreciate what it takes to avert your gaze from the war in Ukraine to pay a little attention to the one in Ethiopia. But, given our shared humanity, I hope you find this episode was worth the diversion.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 18 min 15 sec 

Episode 67: Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Like me, you’ve probably heard the aphorism “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” a million times. Well, beware, because never before in our lifetime has that failure portended more dire consequences than a redux of World War II now playing out before our eyes.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 23 min 56 sec 

Episode 66: Happy Presidents’ Day

A day to get the best deal on cars and mattresses - ever?
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 6 min 48 sec 

Episode 65: Happy Valentine’s Day…

However, if you have to wait for this day to read on social media about how much you’re loved, you might want to find a new lover.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 8 min 10 sec 

Episode 64: NFL Playoffs Featured Retiring Brady, Lying Rodgers, Suing Flores…

Everyone is saying this post-season featured the most exciting playoff games in NFL history. But it also featured some of the most vexing controversies, including one highlighted by the racism that stems from America’s original sin – slavery.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 22 min 57 sec 

Episode 63: COVID Cancellations Portend End for Davos World Economic Forum…

Rich folks have been gathering annually for 50 years for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Their mission has been to continually shape the global political and economic agenda – purportedly for the general welfare.
But, unless you’re a white, rich man, their agenda probably has not served you all that well… 
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 20 min 57 sec 

Episode 62: MLK Has His Day. But Frederick Douglass Is the Greatest American Ever…

Southerners triggered the Civil War (1.0) because they wanted to own Blacks as slaves. Now Republicans seem hell-bent on triggering a civil war 2.0 because they want to deny Blacks the unfettered right to vote.
So forget civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr, because it’s abolitionists like Frederick Douglass who must be really rolling over in their graves…
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 25 min 54 sec 

Episode 61: Racism and Rigging Canceled The Golden Globes…

Members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association vote on the annual Golden Globes. But after reports exposed them as little more than a cabal of venal white supremacists, Hollywood A-listers rushed to disassociate from their awards show. This previewed its doom.
Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences vote on the annual Oscars. But the problem is that their association makes the Hollywood Foreign Press Association look diverse and progressive by comparison. So are virtue-signaling Hollywood A-listers going to disassociate from the Oscars too…?  Ha!
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 10 min 32 sec 

Episode 60: The Death of Desmond Tutu. (I Spare a Thought for Sidney Poitier too)

Is it just me, or are famous people dying in droves these days? Because not so long ago, their deaths came in such intermittent and limited number that I used to play the morbid game about the deaths of famous people coming in threes.
More to the point, social-media networks have turned the expression of condolences on these occasions into little more than a trite and often narcissistic ritual. That’s why, to disassociate from the maddening crowds who participate, I paid tribute to only four of the scores who died in 2021.
Fatefully, though, as I was preparing to record my tribute to Desmond Tutu, news broke that Sidney Poitier had died. And, if you’ll pardon the expression, I felt a divine inspiration to kill two birds with one stone.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 17 min 30 sec 

Episode 59: Happy Festivus

May the comfort and joy of just being with loved ones have far greater meaning than any gift you could possibly bring to them...
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 6 min 17 sec 

Episode 58: Lewis Hamilton Robbed of F1 Glory…

It seems the parents of every Black I know have instilled the adage that we have to be twice as good to be considered half as good as our white counterparts in every field of human endeavor. And so it’s very disheartening when Blacks find that systemic unfairness persists even after abiding by that adage.
This came to mind as I watched the Formula 1 season come to a very controversial end on Sunday. Because it was self-evident that organizers decided to pervert another adage, namely that if their white driver could not beat Black Lewis Hamilton, then they would simply rob him.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 15 min 52 sec 

Episode 57: Adele Was Music’s Saving Grace. Now Dead Artists Are…?

Adele is back, and sounding better than ever. But the increasing popularity of dead artists might explain why her album sales are down by nearly 75%.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 16 min 13 sec 

Episode 56: Rupert Murdoch, His Fox News, and the Poisoning of America

Tucker Carlson is the new face of Fox News. But, like Donald Trump, he’s just a performing monkey. Feed him a few headlines, which are like ripe bananas, and he goes off. For example, picture that fake look of shock and disbelief he puts on so readily as he reads to the camera: “People are telling me Kamala Harris is the first transgender VP.” Because, on Fox News, anything goes.
More to the point, though, Carlson and Trump are just useful idiots for Rupert Murdoch. And this Aussie interloper seems more hell-bent on destroying America from the inside than Vladimir Putin is on doing so from the outside. This is why I am so stupefied that everyone – from fellow CEOs to political leaders – still treat him like a respectable member of the American establishment.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 31 min 07 sec 

Episode 55: A Nobel Rant … Worthy of a Prize?

I know, you’re never supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth. But some of the most celebrated recipients of the world’s most prestigious award should have done just that. On the other hand, some of the people most deserving of this award never received it.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 25 min 20 sec 

Episode 54: Observing Veterans Day

Search Veterans Day and the top results will be all about holiday shopping deals. But Congress intended this day to honor those who served in the Armed Forces, especially the ones who paid the ultimate sacrifice. This episode is a forlorn reminder of that original intent.
Contact:
ipinionsj@gmail.com
Length: 6 min 36 sec