For someone of my age who grew up at a time when America was viewed by the world as a society to be emulated, the last 30 years have been very painful. So painful, I think, that rather than face the truth we tell ourselves lies. Politicians, from the President on down engage in systematic lying about the truth of American society today. Here's some truth.

Can You Guess the 10 Best Countries For Women? Hint: the U.S. Isn't One of Them
JODIE GUMMOW – AlterNet (U.S.)

The report, which ranks 136 countries, determines its findings across four primary areas including economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival, ranking the United States 23 rd on the list for 2013, HuffPost reported.

We are metaphorically eating our young. This report about homeless students is the kind of thing one expects to read about a third world country.

The Number Of Homeless Students In The United States Hits A Record
SCOTT KEYES – Think Progress

During the 2011-12 school year, there were 1,168,354 homeless students enrolled in preschool or K-12, a 10 percent increase over the previous year. A total of 55.5 million students were enrolled in preschool or K-12 that year, meaning nearly 2 percent of all students were homeless.

This brain drain trend started about 18 months ago and, as this report describes, is gaining momentum. This is the other end that begins with homeless students.

Brain Drain: Funding and Industry Leave America, Followed by Top Minds
PATRICK HENNINGSEN, Investigative Journalist – RT (Russia)

Two fundamental building blocks for any modern technological, progressive economy are discovery research and scientific investigation. By their nature, these two pursuits carry a much slower return on the investment. In the past, the US could afford to be patient because its thriving industrial sector was a magnet for the word’s talent and investment – which is why successive governments have routinely placed their dollars there. That engine which used to power the US juggernaut has been disassembled and shipped overseas.

I have more and more readers writing me to tell me about poverty that they are observing or, sometimes, experiencing.

Billionaires’ Row and Welfare Lines
CHARLES M. BLOW – The New York Times

This disconnecting is particularly acute among young people. Measure of America, a project of the Social Science Research Council, recently released a study finding that a staggering 5.8 million young people nationwide – one in seven of those ages 16 to 24 – are disconnected, meaning not employed or in school, ‘adrift at society’s margins,” as the group put it.