Charlottesville City Council Refuses to Oppose Genocide for Disturbing Reasons

Monday night (video here), three of five City Council Members in Charlottesville, Virginia, voted No on a resolution (in agenda packet here) in support of a ceasefire in Gaza.

Council Members Michael Payne and Natalie Oschrin put the resolution on the agenda and spoke well in support of it.

But Council Members Lloyd Snook, Brian Pinkston, and Juandiego Wade voted No.

Snook claimed to have no competence in foreign policy, spreading what is a pernicious idea in a supposedly self-governing land, namely read more

Tomgram: Rebecca Gordon, My “Children” Say They Won’t Vote for Biden

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

Let me start with my own news. At almost 80, I’ve decided not to run for president. I know it’s a shock and, if the presidency were largely a morning or even an afternoon job, I might actually consider it. But 24 hours a day, with crises endlessly multiplying in a world truly on edge (and seemingly read more

Corporate Media Can’t Undertand Biden’s Unpopularity

A New York Times columnist on Saturday expressed bewilderment as to Biden’s unpopularity, finally concluding that it must be because borrowing money for homes or cars is expensive.

I’m not saying that’s entirely wrong, but here are some additional possibilities.

There’s the ever-worsening inequality, but also the ever-worsening healthcare system, and the ever-worsening climate collapse. In the absence of radical change, many crises will go on getting worse, and each new occupant of the White read more

The Soundbyte That Abolishes War

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, March 7, 2024

It’s been a long and ciruitous search to find the handful of words that can end all warfare on Earth.

Living in the United States I was long tripped up by the “Excuse me, but WHAT ABOUT HITLER?” question.

I tried pointing out that the U.S. and British governments refused to rescue Nazis’ victims because they simply didn’t want them as immigrants, that the war could have been avoided, that Nazism could have been avoided, that the U.S. didn’t read more

Telling the Truth About Peace

Some acts of truth-telling about war and peace are easy, and some involve extreme risk. Some are simple, and some require great strategic planning. Some involve facts, some analysis, and some storytelling.

Yes, storytelling. I don’t believe war could go on existing long if major communications systems told large numbers of people the detailed sympathetic stories of war victims on all sides of all wars, similar to the way U.S. corporate media outlets “humanize” Ukrainian or Israeli war victims read more

Why Sign a Declaration of Peace

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, March 6, 2024

At World BEYOND War and other groups that I work for and work with we often flood elected officials with emails or phone calls — or bodies in their offices — with very urgent and specific demands to stop killing particular populations. At the same time, at the height of crises and otherwise, we find it valuable to press in a different direction. We don’t want one nation saved and some other nation bombed. We don’t want the read more