Oleaginous Kakistocracy: A Good Time to Abolish Pipelines

A moment in which U.S. politicians are openly talking about the need to sacrifice lives to a disease in the name of profit may be a good moment for recognizing the evil motivations of the same politicians when it comes to foreign policy.

Congress members did not, no matter what Joe Biden says, vote for war on Iraq in order to avoid war on Iraq. Nor did they make a mistake or a miscalculation. Nor does it make the slightest difference how successful they read more

Talk Nation Radio: Branko Marcetic on Joe Biden and Other Disasters

This week on Talk Nation Radio, we’re talking about Joe Biden, whether he can be found, and why anyone would want to find him anyway. Our guest is Branko Marcetic, author of Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden, and of numerous articles for Jacobin at JacobinMag.com.

Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.

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Pacifica stations can also download from Audioport.

Syndicated by Pacifica read more

Do You Support the Health Workers?

U.S. politics has for three-quarters of a century been shaped by the question “Do you support the troops?” The understood meaning of the question has been “Do you want members of the military to live or do you wish them dead?” The effective meaning of the question has been “Do you want unlimited unaccountable spending on weaponry and endless wars or are you an evil traitor?”

Such a question cannot be answered or undone, but it can be replaced with a different question.

What if we were read more

50 Oppressive Governments Supported by the U.S. Government

Excerpted from 20 Dictators Currently Supported by the U.S. by David Swanson, March 19, 2020

A dictator is a single individual who possesses such extreme power over a government that some people refer to it as “absolute power.” There are degrees of dictatorship, or — if you prefer — individuals who are partially dictators or somewhat dictatorial. Oppressive governments that restrict liberties, deny participation, and abuse human rights overlap considerably, but not entirely, with dictatorships. read more

Talk Nation Radio: Dean Baker on Coronavirus and Corporate Greed

This Week on Talk Nation Radio, we discuss Coronavirus, corporate greed, and other topics with Dean Baker. Dean Baker is Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which he co-founded in 1999. His areas of research include housing and macroeconomics, intellectual property, Social Security, Medicare, and European labor markets. He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern read more

Top 10 Reasons the U.S. Government Is Blowing This

10. Recognizing that a problem that has grown severe in other countries could grow severe in the United States would require thinking of the United States as existing in the same world, susceptible to the same forces, as everyone else. A willingness to recognize that would have led to earlier action and wiser action more coordinated with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the United States is supposed to be exceptional.

9. Recognizing that there are crises that can’t be addressed by shooting read more

Talk Nation Radio: Norman Solomon on Bernie v Biden

Norman Solomon is cofounder and coordinator of RootsAction.org as well as founder and director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of a dozen books including War Made Easy and Made Love, Got War. He has written op-ed pieces for almost every large daily U.S. newspaper and appears often on a wide range of radio and TV outlets. We discuss the U.S. presidential election.

Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.

Download from LetsTryDemocracy, read more

Ban Parades Now

As I proposed before the CPAC meeting and will again now, there is a danger in large gatherings and a precedent of ignoring that danger to great detriment.

The steps China has taken against the coronavirus (rapidly building new hospitals, testing huge numbers of people, quarantining people swiftly and effectively) are clearly things that the U.S. government will never do as longs as issuing a press release is seen as preferable.

Plans for St. Patrick’s Day parades and other large gatherings should read more

When a Weapons Show Is Canceled By Coronavirus

Imagine a weapons show canceled because of coronavirus. It may already have happened. It’s certainly imaginable. But now try to imagine a coronavirus show canceled by a bomb threat.

Can you picture a fossil fuel lobbyists’ retreat canceled by coronavirus? Of course you can. It may have happened already. But try to summon up an image of a coronavirus lobbyists’ retreat canceled by wildfires and hurricanes. Can’t do it, can you?

Imagine the NRA telling everyone to work from home because of read more

Ode to That Thing By Joe Biden

Why why why why why you’re getting nervous man.

Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.

And cornpop was a bad dude and he ran a bunch of bad boys.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: all men and women are created by the ko you know the you know the thing.

You’re a lying dogfaced pony soldier.

I’m not sedentary I get up and let let let let them go let them go look the reason I’m running is because I’ve been around a long time.

And I said hey Ester off the board read more