Why Abolish War

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 19, 2022

Remarks on September 19, 2022 for online event at https://peaceweek.org
Powerpoint here.

Thank you for including us. After I speak, World BEYOND War Education Director Phill Gittins will discuss the educational work that can move us away from war, and World BEYOND War Canada Organizer Maya Garfinkel will discuss the nonviolent activism that can do the same. This way, I can talk just about the easy part, which is why we should abolish war.

It’s read more

Tomgram: John Feffer, The Future of Autocracy

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

At the dawn of America’s forever wars, President George W. Bush and his speechwriter David Frum teamed up to create a meaningless, hyperbolic phrase that lumped together Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, setting the stage for two decades of foreign policy fallout.

“States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world,” read more

As U.S. Ships Immigrants Around, Ken Burns Claims He’s Going to Tell the Truth About the Holocaust

Is this moment, when the United States is shipping immigrants about like they’re nuclear waste, the ideal time for Ken Burns and PBS to claim they’re going to tell the truth about the U.S. and the Holocaust? They claimed that about Vietnam too. (Here’s my very mixed review.)

Of course, I hope to learn some new things from Burns and company, and do not claim to know everything, but of what I know, this is what I would make his latest film include if I had the power (but will be shocked if read more

In This Disaster We Are All, Ultimately, Guilty

One of my favorite blogs is that of Caitlin Johnstone. Why have I never written about how great it is? I’m not sure. I am too busy to write about most things. I have invited her on my radio show and had no reply. I do know that one of my favorite things to do is also one of hers: correct the mistakes of others. I like to correct my own mistakes too, of course, but it’s not as much fun, and only seems useful to write about when my mistake is shared read more

Tomgram: Hartung and Gledhill, How the Arms Industry Scams the Taxpayer

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

Yep, you’ve read this before, haven’t you? Once again, heat records were set over Labor Day weekend from California to Colorado as the West, in a historic megadrought, continues to burn, with fierce fires bursting out and some areas experiencing temperatures 20 degrees above the norm for this season. Yawn…

And ho-hum as well: With Covid officially more or less over, read more