Be A Friend By Edgar A. Guest
#poetry #friendship
Be a friend. You don't need money:
Just a disposition sunny;
Just the wish to help another
Get along some way or other;
Just a kindly hand extended
Out to one who's unbefriended;
Just the will to give or lend,
This will make you someone's friend.
Be a friend. You don't need glory.
Friendship is a simple story.
Pass by trifling errors blindly,
Gaze on honest effort kindly,
Cheer the youth who's bravely trying,
Pity him who's sadly sighing;
Just a little labor spend
On the duties of a friend.
Be a friend. The pay is bigger
(Though not written by a figure)
Than is earned by people clever
In what's merely self-endeavor.
You'll have friends instead of neighbors
For the profits of your labors;
You'll be richer in the end
Than a prince, if you're a friend.
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Becoming a Dad, written by Edgar A. Guest
Full Video: https://youtu.be/kygP9nXw4TY
This poem is called "Becoming A Dad" by a poet named Edgar A. Guest. Many fathers can relate to this poem.
#poetry #fatherhood
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Becoming a Dad, written by Edgar A. Guest
This poem is called "Becoming A Dad" by a poet named Edgar A. Guest. Many fathers can relate to this poem.
#poetry #fatherhood
1
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War is a Racket Chapter 5: To Hell With War!
This is War is a Racket, written in 1935 by Major General Smedley Butler, a recipient of two Medals of Honor who realized later on that his entire military career was in service to corporate interests and not to the people of his country. This is a small but powerful book that is more relevant today than it was even in Butlers day.
Outro song is "Changin' hands" by Phil Ochs
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War is a Racket Chapter 4: How To Smash This Racket!
This is War is a Racket, written in 1935 by Major General Smedley Butler, a recipient of two Medals of Honor who realized later on that his entire military career was in service to corporate interests and not to the people of his country. This is a small but powerful book that is more relevant today than it was even in Butlers day.
Outro song is "Bring our brothers home" by The Covered Wagon Musicians
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War is a Racket Chapter 3: Who Pays The Bills?
This is War is a Racket, written in 1935 by Major General Smedley Butler, a recipient of two Medals of Honor who realized later on that his entire military career was in service to corporate interests and not to the people of his country. This is a small but powerful book that is more relevant today than it was even in Butlers day.
Outro song is "Masters of war" by The Staple Singers
2
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War is a Racket Chapter 1: War is a Racket
This is War is a Racket, written in 1935 by Major General Smedley Butler, a recipient of two Medals of Honor who realized later on that his entire military career was in service to corporate interests and not to the people of his country. This is a small but powerful book that is more relevant today than it was even in Butlers day.
Outro song is "What are you fighting for" by Phil Ochs
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Cry of the people by John G. Neihardt
Tremble before your chattels,
Lords of the scheme of things!
Fighters of all earth's battles,
Ours is the might of kings!
Guided by seers and sages,
The world's heart-beat for a drum,
Snapping the chains of ages,
Out of the night we come!
Lend us no ear that pities!
Offer no almoner's hand!
Alms for the builders of cities!
When will you understand?
Down with your pride of birth
And your golden gods of trade!
A man is worth to his mother, Earth,
All that a man has made!
We are the workers and makers!
We are no longer dumb!
Tremble, O Shirkers and Takers!
Sweeping the earth—we come!
Ranked in the world-wide dawn,
Marching into the day!
The night is gone and the sword is drawn
And the scabbard is thrown away!
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The Long War: UFOs, False Flags, and The Secret Government
This is far from a comprehensive dive into the subject, but I feel it is a good primer for people who were indifferent to the UFO subject and are suddenly wondering why UFOs are all over the media.
I decided to experiment with a mini-doc style mainly to test out my production skills.
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Let America be America again, Langston Hughes
Link to full poem here: https://youtu.be/Mt7DBrrgYp0
The song in the background is called Stackolee by Mississippi John Hurt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8S-Pu6T0Q0&list=PLw9LHJQG82Hnv_kzvBoPTV1-hA7c8X6UF&index=2
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
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Let America be America again, Langston Hughes
The song in the background is called Stackolee by Mississippi John Hurt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8S-Pu6T0Q0&list=PLw9LHJQG82Hnv_kzvBoPTV1-hA7c8X6UF&index=2
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
37
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Lenin, written by Langston Hughes
Lenin walks around the world.
Frontiers cannot bar him.
Neither barracks nor barricades impede.
Nor does barbed wire scar him.
Lenin walks around the world.
Black, brown, and white receive him.
Language is no barrier.
The strangest tongues believe him.
Lenin walks around the world.
The sun sets like a scar.
Between the darkness and the dawn
There rises a red star.
#poetry #socialism #langstonhughes #lenin
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Eight Pieces of Empire Part 7: Revolution, Reindeer, and Radiation
This is Part 7 of Lawrence Scott Sheets Eight Pieces of Empire: A 20 Year Journey through The Soviet Collapse.
All paintings in slideshow are from a Soviet Art group on Vkontakte with administrator permission.
Timestamps:
00:00 intro
04:55 The flaming recliner
20:37 Last song of the Ultas
32:46 Home, sweet Chernobyl
48:02 The road to the schoolhouse
01:03:48 Outro
Outro music is Afghani folk music.
For the previous parts of this book:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgqG1badRMDd6fu9WEhHI3q8zO1RxmRRd
8
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Eight Pieces of Empire Part 6: Central Asia, rise of the red sultans
This is Part 6 of Lawrence Scott Sheets Eight Pieces of Empire: A 20 Year Journey through The Soviet Collapse.
All paintings in slideshow are from a Soviet Art group on Vkontakte with administrator permission.
Timestamps:
00:00 intro
03:19 Uzbekistan: I cannot answer that question
21:47 An Afghan interlude
52:58 The island of Dr. Moreau
01:02:58 Outro
Outro music is Afghani folk music.
For the previous parts of this book:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgqG1badRMDd6fu9WEhHI3q8zO1RxmRRd
7
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World News Update February 9, 2023
Todays News:
-Quake death toll surpasses 17,000 in Turkey and Syria
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Quake-Death-Toll-Surpasses-17000-in-Turkiye-and-Syria-20230209-0004.html
-China demands end to US sanctions on Syria after deadly quakes
https://www.rt.com/news/571204-china-syria-sanctions-earthquakes/
-UK has "No fucking jets to spare"
https://sputniknews.com/20230209/uk-has-no-fing-jets-to-spare-to-meet-zelenskys-thanks-in-advance-demand-1107107614.html
6
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Eight Pieces of Empire Part 3: Azerbaijan and Armenia at War
This is Part 3 of Lawrence Scott Sheets Eight Pieces of Empire: A 20 Year Journey through The Soviet Collapse.
All paintings in slideshow are from a Soviet Art group on Vkontakte with administrator permission.
Timestamps:
00:00 intro
18:24 Armenia: A faded tintype of Mount Ararat
43:29 Azerbaijan: The shish kebab war
58:13 Outro
Outro music is an Azerbaijani folk song.
2
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World News Update January 31, 2023
Todays News:
-Lula won't send arms to Ukraine
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Lula-Wont-Send-Arms-to-Ukraine-Brazil-Is-a-Country-of-Peace-20230130-0027.html
-Former Indo-Pacific command head arrives in Taiwan(which is part of China)
https://sputniknews.com/20230131/former-head-of-us-indo-pacific-command-arrives-in-taiwan-report-1106860185.html
-Winter rains revive Iraq's famed marshlands
https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/4129001/winter-rains-revive-iraqs-famed-marshlands
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Eight Pieces of Empire Part 2B: Georgia, Anarchy in Paradise
This is Part 2B of Lawrence Scott Sheets Eight Pieces of Empire: A 20 Year Journey through The Soviet Collapse. I have split Part 2 into two videos. Part 2A is here https://youtu.be/6hoA2Ht7xZU
All paintings in slideshow are from a Soviet Art group on Vkontakte with administrator permission.
Timestamps:
00:00 intro
00:25 Buried Five Times
37:12 A Word About War
39:20 Outro
Outro music is a Georgian Tushetian funeral song.
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Eight Pieces of Empire Part 2A: Georgia, Anarchy in Paradise
This is Part 2A of Lawrence Scott Sheets Eight Pieces of Empire: A 20 Year Journey through The Soviet Collapse. I have split Part 2 into two videos. All paintings in slideshow are from a Soviet Art group on Vkontakte with administrator permission.
Timestamps:
00:00 intro
03:35 Nobody started this war
23:58 Exodus
01:03:26 Outro
Outro music is a Georgian folk song called Gelano, Bride. Thank you for listening!
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Eight Pieces of Empire, Part 1: Farewell Leningrad, Farewell Empire
Welcome to The Workers Reading Room. This reading is Eight Pieces of Empire by Lawrence Scott Sheets, Part 1: Farewell Leningrad, Farewell Empire.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:18 A civil war outside my door
15:59 Our Communal
26:14 Tears of a KGB man
50:20 A Bigamist bandit and a button maker
1:31:25 Sickle and hammer down, an empires last hours
1:39:21 Outro
All art in the slideshow comes from a Soviet art group on Vkontakte with admin permission.
1. Fedosov Nikita Petrovych (1939-1992) Before the storm 1985
2.Filimonov Anatoly Georgievich (1949-2002) Guests from the series Petishism 1979
3.Gagarina Lidia Ivanovna (1902-1984) Circus 1957
4.Kobelev Vasily Alekseevich (1895-1946) Evening 1940
5.Myasnikov Fyodor Isaakovich (1913-1979) Sverdlov Square 1960
6.Reikhet Petr Viktorovich (1953-2013) Until the next navigation 1980s
7.Samusev Fedor Afanasevich (Panasovich) (1913-1985) Reflections, searches 1969
8.Saykina Alexandra Vasilievna (1925-2017) Mushroom season
9.Semakov Gennady Anatolyevich (1926-2015) In new conditions 1957
10.Sharyga Vladimir Mikhailovich (1935-2013) On the road 1975
11.Sidorov Valentin Mikhailovich (1928) Morning in the Cellar 1954
12.Tikhomirov Leonid Petrovich (1926-2016) Snowy Moscow 1950s
13.Vaks Boris (Bentzion) Iosifovich (1912-1989) On the whole 1961
14.Vasiliev Valentin Mykhailovych (1940-1986) High-rise installers 1977
15.Vedernikov Yuliy Anatolyevich (1943-2015) Our Grandfathers Frost
16.Vitkovsky Lev Ivanovich (1931-2008) Before the shift 1957
17.Yablonskaya Tatyana Nilovna (1917-2005) Done 1977
18.Yakupov Kharis Abdrakhmanovich (1919-2010) Chelnin beauties 1975
19.Zaitsev Nikolai Egorovich (1942) Noon. Harvest 1971
20.Zyryanov Alexander Petrovich (1928) Perm, cafe Cosmos 1962
Outro music is Soviet revolutionary song - Wondrous Future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oWqXudgWJc&list=PL6Y5DvXWEvxo0hFg81vOVSGi7NI32lhs_&index=53
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World News Update January 18, 2023
Todays News
-Ex-Russian President blasts Davos Forum
https://www.rt.com/russia/570013-medvedev-davos-duda-tanks/
-My thoughts on the WEF and the people of all political hues in Canada who support them.
-Plus an update on the next book reading and why this isn't a theory channel.
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Welcome to the Workers Reading Room 2023!
Because I have made a minor equipment upgrade, coupled with expanding the video platforms I am uploading to, I have decided to make a new channel intro video for new listeners. Thank you everyone who has been with me so far and welcome to everyone new!
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World News Update January 13, 2023
Todays News
Russian MoD announces liberation of Soledar
https://sputniknews.com/20230113/russian-mod-announces-soledar-liberation-1106279108.html
China, AU vow to build a China-Africa community with a shared future
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-01-11/China-AU-vow-to-build-a-China-Africa-community-with-a-shared-future--1gvMSq0Uppe/index.html
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World News Update January 11, 2023
Todays News
Zelensky strips ex-opposition leader of Ukrainian citizenship
https://www.rt.com/russia/569678-zelensky-medvedchuk-ukrainian-citizenship/
China has sealed BRI agreements with all central Asian countries
https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2023/01/11/china-has-sealed-bri-agreements-with-all-central-asian-countries-while-the-new-international-land-sea-trade-corridor-is-a-success-china-ministry-of-foreign-affairs/
Hotpot festival spices up Chongqings consumer market
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202301/11/WS63be2639a31057c47eba8f62_2.html
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