A Collection Of Previous Posts: Key Events

Here are links to previous posts referencing what I consider to be significant, history-changing events. This list is just a beginning; I'll expand on it if I have the time and inclination.

Palin's speech at the 2008 Republican Convention (video clip): It was an impressive and well-delivered speech, and it established Palin as an important, though malign, public figure.

Obama's Speech On Race, 17 March 2008 (video clip): The Reverend Wright controversy was in full bloom, threatening to derail Obama's bid for the presidency. This masterful speech went a long way toward settling that controversy and cementing Obama's reputation as a brilliant orator.

The PATCO strike, 3 August 1981: The beginning of what is now the 30-year decline of the American labor movement and resulting social decay. And Martin Luther King on the American labor movement: excerpts from a speech delivered to the AFL-CIO convention in 1961.

Newton Minow's "vast wasteland" speech: 50 years ago, Minow presented a bleak prophesy of what television has since become. It could have been so much more.

Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner, 2006 (video clip): Colbert's stinging rebuke, with the man himself glaring from 20 feet away, helped to foster a developing healthy disrespect for the Bush administration.

Citigroup: Oct 16, 2005 Plutonomy Report, Part I: Rising tide lifting yachts. A disturbing message from Citigroup to its wealthiest investors, intended to remain confidential: "The world is dividing into two blocs - the Plutonomy and the rest." (Again, I apologize for the formatting of this post; it's a mess. I didn't know what I was doing.) And Bill Moyers' lecture on "plutonomy," Boston University, 29 October 2010:

The Powell Memo: Founding Document For Corporate Dominance: On August 23, 1971, Lewis F. Powell wrote this memorandum to the Chamber of Commerce, laying out a framework for corporate and conservative dominance of the U.S. political scene.

March 25, 1911: The Day The New Deal Began: The 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, a major impetus in establishing the U.S. union movement.

Eisenhower's farewell speech -- the military/industrial complex.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States cooperations -- corporations.

Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.

This is the entire 46-minute speech:


And this is a four-minute excerpt, including the "military/industrial complex" money shot:



Click here for a transcript.