New York City Prepares Nuclear Option

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, January 15, 2020

There really only is one option when it comes to nuclear weapons, and that is to do everything we can to abolish them before they abolish us. New York City Council will be voting on January 28, 2020, to do its part by voting on two measures that already have enough sponsors to give them veto-proof majorities.

One is read more

Why We Need Decolonization in 2020

South Korea cannot choose to make peace with North Korea without the consent of a foreign power that keeps thirty thousand troops in South Korea, makes South Korea pay much of the cost of housing them, commands the South Korean military in war, holds veto power at the United Nations, and is not accountable to the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice.

The same foreign power has troops in almost every nation on earth, significant bases in about half the nations on earth, read more

Why Is Trump the Only Candidate With a Budget Proposal?

An important job of any U.S. president is to propose an annual budget to Congress. Shouldn’t it be a basic job of every presidential candidate to propose one to the public? Isn’t a budget a critical moral and political document outlining what chunk of our public treasury should go to education or environmental protection or war?

The basic outline of such a budget could consist of a list or a pie chart communicating — in dollar amounts and/or percentages — how much government spending ought read more

Tomgram: Allegra Harpootlian, Droning the World

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

“Be assured of one thing: whichever candidate you choose at the polls in November, you aren’t just electing a president of the United States; you are also electing an assassin-in-chief… In previous eras… presidents either stayed above the assassination fray or practiced a kind of plausible deniability about the acts. We are surely at a new stage in the history read more

Talk Nation Radio: Roger Hallam on Extinction Rebellion

Roger Hallam is a PhD researcher on civil disobedience at King’s College London and an organic vegetable farmer. He has been a vegan for 34 years. In 2018 he co-founded Extinction Rebellion. He has also just authored a terrific short book called Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown and Social Collapse. His website is rogerhallam.com

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

Download from read more

Rogue president, rogue nation: Trump Tells Iraq Order US Troops Out and I’ll Freeze Your Central Bank’s Account at the Fed

By Dave Lindorff

President Trump’s actions in the Middle East are becoming increasingly unhinged.

A week ago, he nearly triggered a catastrophic war between Iran and the US when, acting seemingly on a whim or in response to the advice of two of his nuttier advisors, fundamentalist Christian “Rapture” believers Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo, he ordered the assassination by drone of the commander of Iran’s military, Qassem Suleimani.

Fortunately for American troops, sailors and pilots, and for read more

The reality we must face: Our Country, the United States, is a Rogue Nation and Our Leaders are Criminals

By Dave Lindorff

For as long as I’ve been alive, my country has been a rogue state.

Actually, the US became a rogue state four years before my birth in 1949 when, in 1945, Washington decided to bomb two militarily insignificant cities in Japan with its new super weapon, the atomic bomb, instantly incinerating several hundred thousand Japanese civilians, including many, many children, and condemning at least that many more to slow agonizing deaths from resulting cancers and birth defects.

From read more

Forty-Five Felons With Their Own Holiday: The U.S. Presidency

I suppose you have to actually be convicted of a felony to be a felon, but I also think we should make an exception for U.S. presidents. Take the current one, for example. Donald Trump just murdered Iranian and Iraqi military officials at an airport in Baghdad. His staff later “briefed” Congress members on why these murders were “legal.” Congress members denounced the briefing as utter nonsense, and yet labeled read more

Petition Asks U.S. Presidential Candidates for Their Budgets

A petition supported by World BEYOND War, RootsAction.org, and Daily Kos, has thus far gathered over 12,000 signatures from people asking presidential candidates to propose federal budgets.

An important job of any U.S. president is to propose an annual budget to Congress. The basic outline of such a budget can consist of a list or a pie chart communicating — in dollar amounts and/or percentages — how much government spending ought to go where.

As far as we know, no non-incumbent candidate for read more