Tomgram: Nick Turse, No Need to Whisper, AFRICOM Isn’t Listening In

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What is it about the U.S. military and TomDispatch? Last August, I discovered (thanks to a correspondent in that military) that the Pentagon’s computer networks had blocked this website. (The message you received if you tried to get to it: “You have attempted to access a blocked website. Access to this website has been blocked for operational reasons by the DOD read more

Pentagon Claims 1,100 High Schools Bar Recruiters; Peace Activists Offer $1,000 Award If Any Such School Can Be Found

By David Swanson and Pat Elder

According to statements in February by the Secretary of the Army, various U.S. high schools are barring military recruiters from access to students. The Secretary of the Navy this past December said that public school boards are keeping military recruiters out of 1,100 high schools.

The two of us are offering a $1,000 prize (details below) to any public U.S. high school that can identify itself as fitting this description.

Peace activists who struggle to gain admittance read more

Speaking Truth to Empire

“Speaking Truth to Empire” on KFCF 88.1 FM independently owned and locally operated since 1975 in Fresno, Dan Yaseen interviews Mike Whitney. Mike lives in Washington State; he is a freelance writer, interested in geopolitics and economics. Topics of discussion include Russophobia, Russiagate and Mueller Report. His columns appear at www.unz.com and www.counterpunch.org.

Tomgram: Belle Chesler, Defunding Children, A National Crisis of the Soul

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Who even remembers? After all, it happened in ancient times. November 9, 2016, to be exact, at newly elected president Donald Trump’s victory rally, when he so memorably said, “We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports. We’re read more

Tomgram: Engelhardt, A “Ridiculous” War

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American War Is Off the Charts
How the U.S. Military Feeds at the Terror Trough
By Tom Engelhardt

Here’s a statement it might be hard to disagree with: American war is off the charts.

Still, I’d like to explain — but I’m nervous about doing so. I know perfectly well that the next word I plan to write will send most of you tumbling elsewhere in a universe in which “news” read more

Testimony for the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service

Submitted by David Swanson, April 16, 2019

I was more surprised that your commission contacted me with a kind-of, sort-of invitation to speak than that you ultimately decided not to include me. I thank you for inviting me to submit testimony.

You had read my article, “Draft Registration Will Be Either Ended or Imposed on Women.” I’ve included it below.

I understand that you had already booked these four speakers and then managed to add a fifth: Edward Hasbrouck, Diane Randall, Jude Eden, Mark read more

Exporting Dictators

The U.S. government gets little credit for it, doesn’t even like to brag about it, but as of 2017 provided military “aid” to 73% of the world’s dictatorships. Ocassionally, the U.S. turns against one of its dictators and chooses that moment to tell everyone about him: Hussein, Noriega, Gadaffi, Assad. Sometimes it loses a dictator for other reasons: the Shah of Iran, Hosni Mubarak.

Sometimes the U.S. imposes a U.S. dictator on a foreign colony: as historically in the Philippines, or Haiti, read more