The Problem with U.S. Culture Summed Up in a New York Times Article About Birds

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 3, 2024

A New York Times article from November 26, 2024, kept showing up on my computer screen, and I kept avoiding it in disgust. Finally, I gave in and read it. It began like this:

“Hummingbirds zooming around the garden from flower to flower and sipping nectar probably don’t appear at first glance to be models for instruments of war.”

Probably? Probably? Beautiful things of wonder that appear out of nowhere and can vanish again at any read more

Tomgram: Engelhardt, Donald Trump’s Last Bankruptcy (Us)

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Trumped
Going to Hell in a “Drill, Baby, Drill” Handbasket

By

Give him credit. As a start, for that first surprise victory in 2016.

No, I didn’t fully get it at the time, but I kind of get it now (since, like the rest of us, I’ve lived through it all, including his close loss in 2020). Still, twice? Him? A read more

Canada Has Become an Innovator in Stripping Citizens of Basic Rights

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 2, 2024

As a resident of the most flamboyantly hypocritical and war-crazed nation on Earth, the United States of Armaments, I find it weirdly encouraging when one of the U.S. military’s many vassals and sidekicks goes above and beyond, trying out new forms of abuse that I haven’t encountered here.  Of course, I find such actions awful and often horrific — particularly if we’re talking about new forms of surveillance and torture read more

Thousands Send Elon an Idea No Billionaire Will Ever Find Unaided

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 2, 2024

Thousands of civic-minded people have been voluntarily helping out the not-yet-extant pseudo-government agency named after the ruler of not-yet-sunk Venice: the DOGE.

On a convenient webpage they are signing a petition and sending tweets to billionaire efficiency-creator Elon Musk. The petition reads:

To: Elon Musk at the Department of Government Efficiency

Here’s how to improve government efficiency and cut spending: Audit the Pentagon, stop read more

Speaking Trith to Empire

On Speaking Truth to Empire on KFCF 88.1 FM independently owned and locally operated since 1975 in Fresno, Dan Yaseen interviews

Ramzy Baroud, a US-Palestinian journalist, media consultant, an author, internationally-syndicated columnist, and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books and a contributor to many others; his latest volume , co-edited with Ilan Pappe is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out”. read more

The International Criminal Court Becomes Slightly International

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 25, 2024

Netanyahu-free zones (ICC members) in blue. Source.

The International Criminal Court has taken an enormously important small step toward respectability and real internationalism by issuing arrest warrants for the very first time for war allies of the United States and Western militaries.

It took many, many inexcusable months for the prosecutor of the ICC to request the arrest warrants, and six more months for the court to issue them. The delays read more