Author: David Swanson

West Point Professor Tim Bakken’s new book The Cost of Loyalty: Dishonesty, Hubris, and Failure in the U.S. Military traces a path of corruption, barbarism, violence, and unaccountability that makes its way from the United States’ military academies (West Point, Annapolis, Colorado Springs) to the top ranks of the U.S. military and U.S. governmental policy, and from there into a broader U.S. culture that, in turn, supports the subculture of the military and its leaders.

The U.S. Congress and read more

David Gibbs is a Professor of History at the University of Arizona and has published widely on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and NATO. His publications have appeared in both academic and popular venues, such as the London Guardian, Los Angeles Times, and Le Monde Diplomatique. He also recently debated the topic of humanitarian intervention at the Oxford Union Society in the UK. Professor Gibbs is currently finishing his third read more

The death penalty’s slow death is accelerating. At least 140 nations no longer use it. No nation in Europe uses the death penalty. No nation in the Western Hemisphere uses it, except the United States.

Twenty-nine U.S. states have banned capital punishment or imposed a moratorium, and most of the rest have effectively stopped using it.

Virginia, the northernmost east-coast state with the death penalty, has not sentenced anyone to death in over 8 years. Virginia’s death row holds only three men, read more

The weaknesses of Ukrainegate are on display in a new book by Neal Katyal (“with Sam Koppelman”) making the case for Ukrainegate, but titled “Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump.”

It’s not, of course, the case against Donald Trump. This is the case against Donald Trump: The man is intentionally and openly exacerbating climate collapse. He’s threatened at least two countries with nuclear war. He’s illegally sought to share nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia. He’s escalated several read more

This week on Talk Nation Radio: a rant on impeachment, in favor of doing it right or not doing it at all.

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

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Past Talk Nation Radio shows read more

Misagh Parsa is a Professor of Sociology who has taught at Dartmouth since 1989. A specialist on revolutions, he is the author of States, Ideologies, and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of Iran, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, as well as Social Origins of the Iranian Revolution. His most recent book which we discuss here, is called Democracy in Iran: Why it Failed and how it Might Succeed.

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

Download read more

Misneach (mish-nyuhkh) is an Irish word meaning something like bravery, courage, spirit.

The Irish could use more misneach, as we all could. Ireland is failing to stand up to the U.S. military and its use of Ireland. And when a couple of people from the U.S. stand up in Ireland, they’re forbidden to leave the country — as if their misneach can’t be spared, as the stuff is in such low supply. For a recent conference in Limerick, I noted in limericks:

Green Ireland has a peaceful blue sky.
read more

I don’t know if somebody dumped a bottle of sanity solution into Rhode Island Sound or what the reason is, but Brown University, which has military contracts just like everywhere else, is the headquarters of a group of dozens of scholars and experts working to educate read more

If the purpose of the current Trump impeachment hearings were simply to fulfill Congress Members’ oaths of office and do their jobs, it would be difficult to explain the past many years. Jerrold Nadler, Chair of the Judiciary Committee for the past 11 months, has known since inauguration day that Trump was in egregious violation of the emoluments clauses, and has since declared other Trump actions impeachable without moving to impeach him. Impeachable offenses by Trump, Obama, Bush, and on back read more

Elizabeth Murray served as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East in the National Intelligence Council (NIC), before retiring in 2010 after a 27-year career with the Central Intelligence Agency. She was a political analyst focusing on various Middle Eastern countries and also served as an editor and media analyst for the U.S. Government’s Open Source Center, OSC, now known as the Open Source Enterprise. She is conversant in German, Arabic, and Spanish. A member of Veteran Intelligence read more