Tomgram: Robert Lipsyte, The Athlete of the Century?

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

I’ve always had a complicated relationship with tennis and here’s why. In the late 1950s, when I was in my early teens, my father insisted that I get a pass to the New York City public tennis courts and learn how to play. Let’s just say that it was not my game. I’m no speed demon and serving into the sun… well, I thought it was hell. I just wasn’t (and it was clear read more

An Online Course on War and The Environment: Spreading Knowledge Builds Power

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 26, 2021

Here’s a video from one of the facilitators lined up for World BEYOND War’s online course on War and the Environment which begins on June 7th, 2021:

This course could not be more important. A culture of extraction and destruction is closely tied to a culture of war. Questioning that ethos of destruction and consumption is challenging, but it has belatedly begun. Challenging a culture of militarism is even harder.

In the United States, for read more

Tomgram: William Hartung, Selling Death

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

Think about this: on Saturday, May 12th, with barely an hour’s notice, Israel took out the al-Jalaa Tower, a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed the Associated Press, al-Jazeera, and other media outlets. That act of destruction, among so many others, caused shock globally and protests not just by read more

Talk World Radio: Nora Barrows-Friedman on Palestine and Activism

Talk World Radio is recorded as audio and video on Riverside.fm. Here is this week’s video and all the videos on Youtube.

This week on Talk World Radio we’re talking about activism on behalf of the basic human rights of Palestinians. Our guest is Nora Barrows-Friedman. Nora Barrows-Friedman is an associate editor at The Electronic Intifada and the author of In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine. She is also the co-host of The Electronic Intifada Podcast, read more

What The New Acceptability of the Lab Leak Origin Tells Us About Media Outlets

Have you noticed that a lot of science writers have lately been saying that they were perfectly right a year ago to mock and condemn even considering a lab leak origin for Coronavirus but that now it’s perfectly proper to admit that Coronavirus may very well have come from a lab? It seems to be largely a question of fashion. One doesn’t wear the wrong outfit too early in the season, or explore the wrong epidemiological idea when the White House is claimed by one Party or the other.

In March read more

Roof Knocking in Gaza and the Myth of the Benevolent Drone

May 20, 2021

In its deadly attacks in densely populated Gaza, the Israeli Defense Force is employing a technique they call “roof knocking.” First drones fire small missiles without warheads on a residential building, intended only to shake the building before armed missiles destroy it minutes later. The IDF calls these “warning shots” and they are often preceded by telephone calls to some residents telling them to flee from the impending obliteration of their homes.

The Jerusalem Post read more

60 Thousand Pentagon Spies Tripping Over Their Fake Clown Shoes

Of course there are 60,000 Pentagon super (duper!) spies prancing around the globe with tracking devices in their shoes, goofy wigs on their heads, collections of comical sunglasses, and — for the employee of the month! — silicon handsleeves and silicon faces to fool the airport cops, or maybe it’s the Vaccine Nazis, or perhaps it’s the Marxist conspiracy and election stealers denounced by the head of the Space Command who was fired last week for straying from his designated delusions.

After read more

Can You Hold These 12 Guns? Don’t Shoot Any Palestinians. Wink. Wink.

Scene 1: A Padded Cell

Congress: B. B. Bee. Bee. Bibi, Bibi, Bibi, are you there? Yes, just hold this rocket launcher, and this one, and this one, and, I’m just going to hang these grenades from each of your fingers, and, no don’t bend over, here, I’ll just put this strap over your shoulders, and can this gun fit in your back pocket, how about a few knives to strap on your legs, here, ooh, yes, here, have a seat in this F-16, THERE you go, and don’t go murdering any children — I say that read more