US jingoism promotes mindless support for war with Iran: It’s Our Own Leader, Donald Trump, Who Is ‘Blood-Thirsty’ and ‘Blood-Soaked’

This is not an article intended to praise Qassem Suleimani, the Commander of Iran’s military who was whacked by President Trump with several Hellfire Missiles fired from a US drone at his vehicle outside the Baghdad Airport.

What I do decry, however, is the almost universal characterization of Suleimani as “the baddest of the bad,” or as the NY Times labeled him in Sunday editorial condemning read more

A Historian Reflects on the Rise of Fascism

Back in 1941, the year of my birth, fascism stood on the brink of conquering the world.  During the preceding decades, movements of the Radical Right―mobilized by demagogues into a cult of virulent nationalism, racial and religious hatred, and militarism―had made great strides in nations around the globe.  By the end of 1941, fascist Germany, Italy, and Japan, having launched massive military invasions of other lands, where they were assisted by local rightwing collaborators, had conquered read more

Opening Pandora’s Box in Iraq: Trump Hit on Iranian Commander Puts a Target on His Own and Top US Generals’ Backs

By Dave Lindorff

As far back as at least the American Revolution, there was an unwritten rule among combatants that you don’t kill the commander in the field of battle. That’s why generals could be seen directing their troops while sitting astride a horse behind the front lines —easy targets for anyone equipped with a rifled barrel on their long gun to pick off.  The reason they felt relatively safe doing so was that it was that both sides understood that if commanding officers were read more

No ‘Happy New Year’ this holiday: Hard Times are Coming in 2020 and in the Decade Ahead

By Dave Lindorff

Gentle reader, I am afraid cannot bring myself to offer you the expected “Happy New Year” greeting at the start of this decade.

The traditional phrase for today sticks in my craw. It just seems too ridiculous and inappropriate to our reality to be uttered with any sincerity.

2020 and the decade that it is ushering in is not going to be a “happy” time for the vast majority of us humans on this planet or even to those of us living in this most fortunate of nations, geographically read more

Talk Nation Radio: Nukes, Space Force, and War Pigs in Space

Alice Slater serves on the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War and is the UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. She is on the Board of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, the Global Council of Abolition 2000, and the Advisory Board of Nuclear Ban-US, supporting the mission of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

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

Download from LetsTryDemocracy, read more

Blinded by impeachment mania: Giuliani’s a Slimeball but Bribing Maduro to Quit Office was Less Evil than Bolton’s Efforts to Spark a Coup or Civil War

By Dave Lindorff

The latest Trump administration news is a Washington Post article reporting that Trump’s “personal lawyer” Rudy Giuliani, was working a private “back channel” negotiation this past year with embattled Venezuelan President  Nicolás Maduro in a failed effort to persuade Maduro to quit his office and leave the country.

The Post, and some of the congressional Democrats who are always salivating at opportunities to raise further impeachment issues with which read more