For the past few years, I’ve been leading a team that is building out an educational model that will change the country. Big statement, big goal, and timing are now. We are at a pivotal inflection point in history, a Gutenberg moment. In a similar time and occurrence to the pre-Renaissance dark ages, information availability...

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This is a tale of how two people said essentially the same thing about the mass shooting plague beseeched on America and how society reacted.  Oprah is at the top of the heap in American entertainment while Gov. Abbott of Texas is an unapologetic Christian politician. Notice the double standard in coverage. Oprah Winfrey Speaks...

I stumbled on an interview with Fr. Richard Rohr while he was out promoting one of his many books. His message resonated with me. This latest interview encapsulates Fr. Rohr’s life’s work around wounds men have to overcome to become full leaders in their families and communities. I see broken men every day around me...

I highly recommend the documentary Newman. It came out in 2015 and covers an idea that is too good to be true. In the end, the story that had so much promise ends in tragedy. The story is about laser focus, commitment to a goal, fighting for what you know is right and overcoming your...

(From the74) Charter moratoriums have also picked up momentum over the past few years as teachers unions have turned to increased political activism, she said. While the #RedForEd movement began as an appeal for increased public school funding, particularly to augment teacher salaries, organizing energy has long since turned toward charters, which ...

I’m a weekly listener to Russ Roberts and Econo Talk. He is one of the most detailed interviewers that I’ve ever come across. His ability to dig in and hang with experts on so many different topics is amazing to me. Here Russ interviews an economist on the economics of global warming. From polar bears...

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I stumbled across the acceptance speech from Kenyon College (2005) From his ‘What Has Meaning’ speech: Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan...

The more I dig into this man’s ideas the more conflicted I am of his importance. Like anyone’s work, there is good and bad. His ideas made an impact. His ideas were controversial. His ideas were misinterpreted. His ideas were put forth at a time in the world where science and reason were challenging old...

Every great idea has a spark, a moment where it smacks you over the head and you can’t believe you missed the forest through the trees. For me, that moment had to do with the role of schools and what education is supposed to achieve. One of our Directors started an informal discussion about what...

While we argue about issues like federal intrusion and Common Core, not enough attention is being paid to steps that could bring real improvement to our schools. DECEMBER 4, 2014 AT 9:00 AM By Joe Semsar  |  Contributor Joe Semsar, a former Teach for America corps member and staff member, is an organization-transformation consultant in DeloitteR...

I’ve covered schools in the media for 7 years. I’ve interviewed a string of Superintendents that ran our big, local, bureaucratic school district of 50,000 students. I’ve watched as their average tenure, lasting less than 2 years has produced no clear direction, declining enrollment, and perpetuation of the cycle of poverty and mi...

I found this list fascinating. Think of how many times in a day we reference these sayings. Now you know the root of everyday comments. (from UnlockingTheBible.com) Bite the Dust from Psalms 72:9, “They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.” (KJV) The Blind Leading the Blind Matthew...

I’ve spent the past five years embedded in the education field. I am a founder and the prior CEO of a group that manages a charter school network with 4500 students and a staff of 400+. What I’ve learned, from an insiders vantage point, is that TEACHERS are the most important part of educating your...

Nelson Mandela Victor Frankl Marcus Aurelius...

Wide Moats From Mauldin – HERE My colleague John Mauldin recently reviewed an interesting new book, The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition, by Jonathan Tepper and Denise Hearn. John talked about how one or two companies now dominate many economic sectors.  Those are exactly the kind of companies that made Warren Buffe...

How to Use Gratitude to Build Culture GettingSmart.com Schools looking to start the work of using gratitude to build their culture can draw upon a variety of resources. These resources include specific practices, lessons, and tools to help provide access and coherence to the implementation. Practices Greater Good Science Center – Gratitude Practice...

Give a listen to this interview on NPR’s Hidden Brain. The sociological science behind neighborhoods, families, race, economics, and success in American schools is telling. Hidden Brain – NPRZip Code is Destiny – HERE Zip Code Is Destiny – HERE Reminds me of the Waiting For Superman documentary and the cause and effect argum...

In an effort to identify educational strategies that can help improve American schools following is an interview with Daniel Goleman on his break out bestseller, Emotional Intelligence. I remember reading his book and putting the theories in the book into practice. In this 35 minute interview, Goleman talks about teaching Emotional Intelligence in ...

New Atlas – The new system, which the team calls Thermal Energy Grid Storage-Multi-Junction Photovoltaics (TEGS-MPV), is based on the molten salt batteries that sit at the heart of grid-scale energy storage systems like concentrated solar. But there are a few problems with salt as a storage medium – for one, it becomes quite corrosive when th...

Spend a couple of hours on this podcast and you won’t be disappointed. The banter and ability for Brand and Owen to articulate their belief systems individual impressively. Note the pace, the quickness of the back and forth and the use of logical fallacies in their back and forth. What is Utopia? Is it Brands...

Check out this four-part discussion on the philosophy and ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche. Famous for his God Is Dead quote, learn what was behind the statement and how we as a society are worse off because of it.  Stephen West – from Philosophize This! – For anyone interested in an educational podcast about philosophy where...

Business, like the great planes of Africa, you better be faster and more aware than the next guy or you’re going to be eaten. Love this CNBC story…love it so much I live it in my organizations.  I love this; It doesn’t matter if you’re at the top or the bottom of the food chain,...

When you see a movie, listen to a podcast or read an article that you think about weeks or months later, the message was impactful.  The interview with Russ Roberts from EconoTalk and Michael Munger about the economy of the future is one of those impactful interviews.  Listen – HERE Economist and author Michael Munger...

Doshin Nelson Roshi describes himself as poet, troublemaker, and teacher. He is the head abbot of Integral Zen – an expert in both the tradition of Zen and the Integral philosophy of Ken Wilber. https://integralzen.org/about/teachers/ Victimhood – Personal Responsibility – HERE Self vs Ego – HEREZen Mind, Integral Theory and...

I enjoy Victor Davis Hanson‘s historical perspective on modern day events. He makes the stories of ancient Rome and Greece come alive and his lectures on WW2 are detailed and much different than we hear from textbooks. Hanson is an American classicist, military historian, columnist, and farmer. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient ...

Abstract – J Higgins 2018 Numerous studies have pointed to teacher quality as a major predictor of student outcomes. To define quality teaching, this paper will focus on evidence-based strategies that can be implemented in a school network that will translate into student achievement.  The leadership skills needed to implement these strategie...

My process is that when I find something I like or that speaks to me I save it. Like the old days of clipping newspaper articles, I’ll typically email the content to myself,  then clear through my articles/podcasts and then edit down the nuggets. Life and been crazy and these past few months have gone by...

Love this interview…this 8-minute clip from Jordan Peterson and Russ Roberts succinctly show the power of story and why classical literature connects so deeply with our emotions.  ...

Thanks to The Psychology Podcast by Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman (interviewing Jonathan Haidt) for this definition of WISDOM Dierdra Kramer; The most influential factor in the development of wisdom appears to be an openness to experience and different modes of representing experience. Wisdom appears to stem from a capacity to reflect on and grapple with...

My twelve arguments on the Decline of America. Demographics is destiny Japan style. According to the UN’s most recent projections, the share of the Japanese population that was age 65 and older in 2015 was 26 percent. That compares to 14.6 percent in the U.S., 18.9 percent in France, 21.1 percent in Germany, and 22.4 percent in...

Do things make us happy? This documentary looks at our human desire for more and how it makes sense in today’s world. Greed.        ...

I’m a John Mauldin reader. His analysis is always deep, grounded in facts/data and he’s been in the financial world long enough to add a historical perspective to modern events. His series on the Great Reset (link below) is long but worth a read. His recent article in Forbes explains where I think we are...

This is a bit long, but it’s a good debate between the Republican Establishment and the Republican-Populist movement.  The sides have ratcheted up and this is a debate within just one side of the two party system. Similar debates are happening in the Democratic party between the Bernie Sanders wing and the Hilary Clinton wing of...

Interesting read on the purpose of education. Wisdom to understand the parts and know how they come together Wisdom to know when to pull out the cards and what response to use at what times Ability to get across your ideas How are we doing as a society achieving these lofty goals? Should education be...

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The difference between a depression and a recession; Depressions happen in real markets with honest currencies. Prices deflate relative to the currency which causes a downward spiral of unemployment and asset devaluation. The currency remains stable, so the depreciation of other assets is more obvious. Recessions are depressions in floating fiat sy...

The Federal deficit (what we put on the credit card) was $1.1 Trillion (HERE) The INTEREST payment on the debt we already have ($21 trillion) was $316 billion. We collected, in the form of taxes and fees, $3.7 trillion. So about 10% of what we collect goes to debt service....

C.S Lewis Explains the Best Way to Handle Change Veronica Baugh | October 1, 2018 It is this change that English author C.S. Lewis so beautifully explains in his short story, The Great Divorce. In the story, the hero explores heaven, purgatory, and hell, and meets a few of their respective occupants. During these wanderings, the hero...

See if you can identify the pattern…. First 1987     Then 1991 (HERE and HERE     and Now ‘When you see Sotomeyer and Kagan tell them Lindsay said hello, because I voted for them…. this is the most unethical sham I’ve ever gone through.’      ...

HERE   https://youtu.be/gkBmxkDp2BY    ...

I hope you’ve stumbled upon the podcast series – Slow Burn.  It’s a series put out from Slate that digs deeply into historic events in a 7 0r 8 part long-form interview. The production and research value is impeccable. The first series was on Nixon and Watergate and the latest series is on Bill Clinton...

Farming is in my blood.  I grew up in a farming community in Wisconsin just outside of Minneapolis.  My grandparents ran a beef farm and butcher shop about 3 miles outside of town. Back in the days before the mega grocery store, it was customary to travel to your local butcher shop to stock up...

An American Cardinal rises through the ranks of the clergy, admits to visiting seminaries for homosexual sex, gets removed from all powers by Pope Benedict, ends up in good favor under Pope Francis and gets his power restored.  An American Bishop Vigano writes a manifesto that names high ranking bishops involved in the conspiracy publicly...

I spent 7 years in the medical industry and according to the Malcolm Gladwell, 10,000 Hour Theory, that makes me someone who can weigh in on the complexity and politics of the healthcare industry.  As an entrepreneur, I entered the industry looking for edges, opportunities, and ways to make money in one of America’s largest...

I saw this one coming when Elon Musk tried to grab the world’s attention during the cave rescue in Thailand.  I remember watching the twitter war with one of the rescue teams and thinking, ‘why doesn’t this guy just focus on delivering his cars?’.  Forbes nails the core of the Musk and Tesla issue. As...

Give a listen to George Friedman founder and president of Geopolitical Futures a private intelligence service. He breaks down Turkey, Iran, Russia, and China. Things may not be as bleak as we are hearing.  ...

One of the chapters on my 12 Arguments For The Decline of America, is the decline of religion.  In the work, I put forth a dozen arguments that point to a disappointing trend in America. I started working on the thesis in 2012 after five years of the daily analysis from my perch as a...

Just when you think everything is figured out, a technological breakthrough has the ability to disrupt everything. From KMart to Amazon, to energy generation and storage (which I cover a lot in this blog), the impact of technological breakthroughs on our daily lives is constant. Being able to read trends and adapt to the changes is what...

Liquid battery could lead to flexible energy storage – Phys.org August 14, 2018, University of Glasgow In a new paper published today in the journal Nature Chemistry, chemists from the University of Glasgow discuss how they developed a flow battery system using a nano-molecule that can store electric power or hydrogen gas giving a new type of...

Former Massachusetts prosecutor, 63, dies after a crowbar crashes through his windshield and strikes him in the head John F. Madaio, a 63-year-old attorney from Paxton, died at Harrington Hospital after the piercing object ‘was kicked up or fell from another vehicle’ on Route 9    As I run across these types of stories it’s...

Take a trip down memory lane of America and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) cinema. Clearly, times have changed and along the way, our storytelling has evolved, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.  Dave Kehr taps into something about our culture.     Toy Story tapped into this shift in culture with the move from...

Instilling purpose in my organization has been the game changer in our success. This interview with Gerry Anderson puts the power of purpose into focus.  Follow this up with a repeat of an interview with Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi on vision and culture being the drivers for big companies too and you will start getting...

I found this interview with Lance Armstrong fascinating. Freakonomics did a great job of telling his story, his aftermath and what he learned.  In the end, the Lance Armstrong story is about redemption. I found his story of tenacity and grit appealing but his ‘everyone is doing it’ excuse was a bit disheartening.  Clearly, he lied,...

What realm are you playing in?  We slide from time to time but be aware of what motivates you and how you are responding. This ties in with my 7 Deadly Sins Theory perfectly.  Thanks to the blog Swiss-Miss, one of my favorites for this one....

I’ve weighed in before on game-changing technologies that can change the global economic and social fabric.  Battery storage is one area, power generation is another. Here’s an update from Forbes about Lockheed Martin’s secret Skunk Works lab. Try to get your mind around the potential changes that technology has brought to the wor...

The further I get in my business life, the more clear it is to me that the biggest part of my job is to grow others and develop people.  Hat tip to one of our Principals (Jason Edwards – Parker Colorado) for this theory which I’ve adopted;   Basically, all areas of your life demand...

A new rinkle from my prior posts…Fusion GPS and DOJ…husband and wife connection.   Boston Globe –  FISA Documents Reveal FBI Collusion In other words, the FBI used oppo research paid for by the Democrats as justification for government spying on a political opponent and other Americans. But there’s more. In another incredible...

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There are so many areas of Carl Jung’s work that I’m drawn to. You’ve heard the name but I encourage you to dig into the man and his work.  His life’s work was about the inner psyche of each of us and how it shows up, what happens when it’s broken and towards the end...

If you thought you know about Watergate, I can’t recommend enough the Slate podcast series about Watergate, Slow Burn.  Neyfakh goes into deep rabbit holes around the Watergate story. This seven-part retelling helps those of us that didn’t understand the nuances of the story to fully immerse ourselves into the blow by blow of probably o...

Art of Manliness  1. Every Man Has a Primary Battle “Life is warfare . . . Then what can guide us? Only philosophy.” As David Brooks noted in his fantastic podcast with Brett, every man has a primary battle or two in life. Dwight Eisenhower could be viciously angry, but found ways to deal with it. Jack...

John Mauldin is one of the economist/traders I follow. His analysis is well researched and his experience in the markets lends credibility to his predictions.  I find his ability to explain difficult subjects in common terms. His recent series on Train Crash Preview, details how we’ve moved from business cycles of expansion and contraction (r...

On a 10 hour trip back from vacation, I dug into deep and obscure Jordan Peterson interviews.  This one sums up his 5 main points of his books and message. Jump past the analysis of his Channel 4 Interview and you’ll hear the interviewer summarize Peterson’s 5 repeated theories. Here’s an 8-minute clip of the 2-hour...

Baby Boomers have wrecked politics, society and left massive financial destruction in its wake.  Individually, the Grandparent Generation will do anything for their grandkids.  Collectively, once their financial decisions are covered by the layers of government programs like Social Security and Medicare the Baby Boomer generatio...

The archetypal story about the fight for good through order an chaos shows up in stories throughout history. Jonah and Jobe in the Bible to Star Wars, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter are all stories with an arch about mothers/fathers and good/evil and order/chaos.  Smooth sailing life doesn’t always happen, when the first roadblock...

May 28, 2018 The Rules for a Long and Happy Life By Robert A. Hall The most important ingredient of a long, happy, and successful life is self-discipline. You also need to develop resilience and tenacity Discipline yourself to maintain a normal weight.  Obesity is the second largest cause of premature death. Discipline yourself to get regular...

Worth a listen. I particularly enjoy the chaos and order discussions found at:   20-minute mark and at the 50-minute mark.   Love his book list; – HERE Literature/Philosophy Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway: A Farewell To Arms Ernest Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls Stendhal: The Red and the Black...

I first saw the Huka done by the University of Arizona Wildcats Football team. The UofA has always had a number of Samoan players and the tradition started. In 2015, based on some sort of complaint the program stopped doing the haka, only to have it come back in 2016. For me, it’s primal. It’s...

One of my arguments of the 12 Reasons America is in decline is that Demographics is Destiny.  A recent report is showing that the American birth rate is at a 30 year low. This trend has some long term consequences that won’t be pretty.  Europe is racing the US to the bottom (Forbes). The American economy...

Who doesn’t know Billy Graham? I, of course, have heard of him but didn’t really know his impact until watching the Netflix series The Crown.  In the series, there is one episode that features Billy Graham and his interaction with the young Queen Elizabeth.  The Queen is the head of the Church of England and a...

8 signs pointing to a counterintelligence operation deployed against Trump’s campaign BY SHARYL ATTKISSON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 05/23/18  It may be true that President Trump illegally conspired with Russia and was so good at covering it up he’s managed to outwit our best intel and media minds who’ve searched for irrefutable evidence fo...

Worth a watch. Website here – or watch it with your Amazon Prime membership. As the British Empire declined post WW2, London moved to create secrecy laws in 7 of it’s remaining colony remnant regions.  With banking secrecy laws in place, a series of trust, shell companies and other offshore entities, there are hundreds of unreported...

How long can an empire last? What brings down once mighty civilizations? The idea has intrigued me for years because by studying the historic decline of great civilizations, perhaps we can see patterns in our current world that may or may not exist.  I have been working on the Decline of America in 12 arguments...

Young, good-looking, small kids, Navy Seal, out of the blue Governor of a solid midwestern state….what’s not to love about Eric Greitens?  I learned about Greitens from a podcast I listen to, The Art of Manliness.  Episode #355, Leadership and Public Service with Gov. Eric Greitens had me hooked.  Greitens was Classically educated, stud...

USA Today  – May 16, 2018 Michigan State University has settled hundreds of lawsuits filed against it by the survivors of Larry Nassar’s sexual assaults, according to multiple sources with knowledge. The settlement will cost the school at least $500 million. Attorney Jamie White, who represented dozens of women who sued the university, ...

‘Americans are Being Held Hostage and Terrorized by the Fringes’ An exit interview with the American Enterprise Institute’s Arthur Brooks. By TIM ALBERTA 05/13/2018 07:00 AM EDT Politico ……PM: But isn’t the problem more that the fringe used to be called “the fringe” for a reason—and today the fringe represents a broader chunk of both po...

What did he know and when did he know it? Real Clear Investigations In a March 5, 2018, letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, Adm. Rogers informed the committee that a two-page summary of the dossier — described as “the Christopher Steele information” — was “added” as an “appendix to the ICA draft,”...

“To be a philosopher,” said Thoreau, “is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live, according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.” “Seek ye first the good things of the mind,” Bacon admonishes us, “and the rest w...

With regards to the 7 Deadly Sins and my ongoing series of identifying the manifestation of the sins in the news, nothing is more intriguing to me (for the moment) than the Denny Hastert story. Hastert started out as a high school teacher and wrestling coach and rose to become one of the longest serving speakers of...

Government for sale. Trading power and influence for money is one a sign of a rotting system.  It’s commonplace. It’s happening on both sides of the aisle and we aren’t better off because of it.   Forbes – The media’s focus on Trump’s Russian connections ignores the much more extensive and lucrative business relationshi...

I covered this story as it rolled out while I was on the air.  I remember drawing parallels to the Watergate scandal that took down the Nixon Presidency. Here were the parallels I drew: Nixon hired ex-government ‘plumbers’ to spy on his Democratic opponent – The FBI/NSA tapped into Trump headquarters communications prior to the...

Worth A Listen EconoTalk by Russ Roberts is one of my go-to podcasts. In this interview with Jonah Goldberg, the two cover Goldberg’s new book, Suicide of the West.  Goldberg’s arguments put forth in the book discuss the slide of politics from policy to entertainment, the tribalism that is inherent in human beings and the...

I’m keeping an eye on nuclear power and stumbled on a story from Scientific America about Bill Gates efforts to solve energy demand with nuclear technology. What’s not to like about Bill Gates, he’s uber rich, he’s using his wealth to better mankind and he’s a big thinker.  I’ve watched his work in the charter...

The FBI Is in Crisis. It’s Worse Than You Think Time Magazine The Justice Department’s Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, will soon release a much-anticipated assessment of Democratic and Republican charges that officials at the FBI interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign. That year-long probe, sources familiar with it tell TIME, is ex...

Nuclear power is the energy source that we should be looking at to power our homes and our electric vehicles.  I’ve blogged about this before, and highly recommend you watch the documentary, Pandoras Promise.  I’ve written about Thorium nuclear reactors as a technology that is coming back into favor. Other countries have successfully im...

Aeon – Put that way, it would seem that biology does indeed do away with any idea of human nature: whatever characteristics our species possesses are the result of a continuous process of evolutionary differentiation from other species of primates, and there is no reason to believe that such process is over, or will be any...

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present” – Marcus Aurelius “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius “No wandering. In every impulse, give what...

I spent a lot of years in the healthcare sector. I ran a high complexity lab, a small medical practice that I helped grow to a mid-size group with 14 providers. I drafted and lobbied legislation dealing with Direct Medical Care.  I started up a couple offshoot businesses that could be added to a medical...

YouTube – HERE This forum, hosted by Bloomberg, is from the World Economic Forum at Davos. This forum is the GLOBALIST crowd which is in contrast to Trumps, Make America Great Again movement. 4:37 – What did we learn from the 2008 crash? 6:42 – We don’t have even a Plan A? 8:44 – Monetary Policy...

I grew up with Bill Cosby. I remember listening to his Wonderfulness album over and over. I knew each of the skits.  He came into our houses adn Dr. Huckstable on the super hit sitcom, The Cosby Show. After more women come forward to accuse Cosby of sexual assault, TV Land pulls its “Cosby Show” reruns. This is not the...

So my theory on the 7 Deadly Sins and how they creep into peoples lives is an ongoing set of ideas and examples that make my case.  Today’s installment that sharing ks a person of authority displaying one or more of the 7 Deadly Sins in their full glory.  Here’s a former Clinton Ethics official...

There is a part of me that I haven’t quite realized until just recently,  that part of me that needs to create.  A friend referenced a trait among people with dyslexia that involves the person overcompensating because of having to adapt their learning to assimilate. That overcompensation caused by dyslexia, allows a different part of the brai...

The Art of Improvement Published on Jan 21, 2018 At 17, Marcus Aurelius was adopted. It made him heir to the throne of Rome. Born into a wealthy family, Aurelius was primarily raised in the household of his grandfather. Both his parents passed away relatively early in his life. From the start, his defining characteristic...

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Where’s the source of all this political correctness?  (Language warning)...

Sent from a friend…..if you’re watching Homeland on Showtime, the storyline is strangely familiar. Two or more sides disagree on who runs the country. And they can’t settle the question through elections because they don’t even agree that elections are how you decide who’s in charge. That’s the basic issue here. Who decides who runs...

(From Mike Rowe’s Facebook) Returning the Favor A couple years ago, when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were getting divorced, Jolie was quoted as saying, “It never even crossed my mind that my son would need a father.” I was struck by her comment, and I remember wondering how many other Americans might share her...